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© West 8

Continuing our coverage of Xi’an Horticultural Exposition, a new garden exhibition by Dutch firm West 8 with DYJG Beijing has recently opened at the expo. Entitled Garden of 10,000 Bridges, the project features gently curving red bridges that are speckled across a wild landscape.  According to the designers, “As both a distinct sense of enclosure and vantage points are provided, the Garden plays with the sensation of surprise. In the design advantage is taken of the strategic, central position of the plot, and views to other parts of the exhibition are integrated with those to the features of the park and surrounding landscape.”

More about the project after the break. read more »

Freedom Tower as of May 13. Photo: A. Cilento

Each week, progress is being made on Manhattan’s Freedom Tower as it slowly rises to meet its 1,776 ft mark.   In addition to the skyscraper, we’ve shared Calatrava’s Transit Hub design with you and we are excited to see the completed complex.    Although the new project will offer dynamic architecture in conjunction with a spiritual environment to remember the victims of the attacks, many wonder what companies will occupy the 2.6 million sqf of office space.   A few days ago, media company Conde Nast (a publishing company responsible for the likes of Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New Yorker, among others) announced their plan to lease 1 million sqf, giving the Tower its first high-profile anchor.  Christopher O. Ward, executive director of the Port Authority, told the Times, “We built a new reality at the World Trade Center, and this transaction will be the exclamation point on that turnaround.”    This deal has appeased rising concerns that the Tower would be solely occupied with government offices; with such a progressive company slated to move in, hopefully others will follow suit.   Governor Andrew M. Cuomo told the Times, “[Conde Nast's lease] sends a message to the global business community that Lower Manhattan is alive, growing and open for business.”

In the past, we’ve shared several TED Talks videos with you as the speakers offer interesting commentary on a variety of issues within the creative realm.   In this presentation, Thomas Heatherwick of Heatherwick Studio shares five projects ranging from a new bus to a moving bridge to a biomass power station.  Each project illustrates the architect’s inherent interest in bio-inspired designs focusing on materiality and the relationship between human interaction and the scale of the built object.     The talk shows a diverse body of work where the architecture is infused with a type of ”soulfulness” as the result of re-examining form, function, aesthetics and materiality.  Plus, Heatherwick’s personality adds to its charm.  Enjoy the video!

via the AIA

Keeping with our coverage of the Architecture Billings Index,  while the past index saw a slight decrease from 58.7 to 55.0 in March, the AIA has just announced that the  index has dropped quite a bit to 47.6 for April.   This billing marks the first point since October to register below 50.   As the AIA explained,“It remains unclear if this month’s downturn is a bump in the road to recovery, or indicative of a longer-term reversal in the two-quarter recovery in design activity. Firms reported that the threatened federal government shutdown, tornadoes though the Southeast, and the winding down of federal stimulus funds for building activity all were impediments to design activity in April.”

Regionally, the South and West regions are still struggling to break 50, with the South reporting 48.3 and the West 47.7.   Yet, as the AIA reports, some Southern firms may see a possible increase in work activity to rebuild from the recent storms and flooding.   The Northeast and Midwest reported 51.2 and 51.1, respectively, and the multi-family residential sector holds strong at 53.9; followed by commercial / industrial at 49.9, institutional at 45.9 and finally, mixed practice at 45.2.

UNStudio

Last summer, we had the opportunity to discuss Ben van Berkel’s design ideas behind his New Amsterdam Pavilion for New York (see our past coverage here).  At that time, while the pavilion’s sleek sculptural form was complete, the interior the pavilion was still under construction.   Now, with the interior and landscape complete, the pavilion has opened for public use.  Situated outside the South Ferry terminal in Peter Minuit Plaza, the pavilion will serve as a new cultural hub in the middle of an intersection crossed by more than 150,000 residents each day.    Conceived as a contemporary “outdoor living room”, the project will provide visitor information, locally grown gourmet food, and a space for spontaneous and schedule activities.  Plus, at 12:00, the pavilion will glow with an array of colors in tribute to Peter Minuit whose name translates to ‘midnight.’

More about the pavilion after the break. read more »

© Michael Moran

Surrounded by the Museum of Modern Art, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien’s Folk Art Museum has created a strong aesthetic identity with its stoic tombasil metal exterior.  Upon its completion, the museum was named the ”Best New Building in the World in 2001” and has attracted art lovers to experience galleries filled with a wide variety of American Folk Art as well as the architecture itself [check out our AD Classics coverage of the museum].  However, the museum has been financially struggling in recent years as efforts to balance the budget have made little progress.   After a thorough review of the situation, the board has decided to sell the museum to the Museum of Modern Art.

More information after the break. read more »

RVA. Photographed by Brad Feinknopf

Rafael Viñoly Architects [RVA] has just shared the opening of their Translational Research Center at Penn in Philadelphia with us.   The project, which is part of a larger master plan for Penn Medicine, accommodates research facilities and clinical functions allowing the practices of scientific investigation and patient care to inform one another through close proximity.  Building upon an existing structure, RVA’s addition contributes a functionally organized facility while respecting the spirit and urban character of the Perelman Center.

More about the project and more images after the break. read more »

ARUP. Ding He Tower

Arup, the engineering firm behind dozens of architectural masterpieces [check out our coverage of ARUP here], has opened three new architecture offices, officially known as Arup Associates.  Stretching to Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzehen, the overseas expansion marks the first of its kind for the 65 year old practice. These offices will employ about 15 architects and 12 engineers.  While Arup’s London office has faced declined in the recent years, the Chinese offices are already thriving with the design of a campus for Nokia and an insurance building for Ding He in Shenzhen.  Declan O’Carroll, Arup’s head of global architecture, told the British publication Building Design,  “The traditional model of the Western international practice has been to have a shop window in developing countries but with the work executed back at home.  We are looking at a much more fluid, unorthodox model.”

Source ArchRecord

Via The Local

We received this tragic news from reader, Johan Nordstedt, concerning Stockholm’s School of Architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology.    Early Wednesday morning, the roof of the lecture hall situated on Östermalmsgatan quickly filled with smoke.   From 7.10 in the morning until 7.30 in the evening, fire fighters worked to contain the flames and prevent the building from collapse.   More than 80 fire fighters were on call to put out the flames, yet due to the building’s old construction, the fire spread quickly.

The Architecture School, which measures approximately 600 students and 130 staff members, was evacuated from the affected buildings.  “I am very pleased that no students or staff were hurt in the fire. We will now do our utmost to minimise the effect on the school’s activity,” the principal Peter Gudmundson said in a statement on Thursday. Meetings have been held to discuss how to proceed if a student’s work was lost in the fire. “That we have to discuss, there are a few months remaining. But we follow all the examination work and the events of today have to be taken into account. Our goal is that students should not be affected,” explained Leif Brodersen.   Luckily, the university has reported that all servers are functional and all data has been backed up.

The fire damaged the lower part of the building and the upper stories have suffered damaged due to smoke and, to some extent, water.  KTH has not yet been allowed access into the building, so there is no information regarding interior damage.  The building has been voted as one of Stockholm’s ugliest buildings, so it will be interesting to see how the public reacts if it must be torn down with a new building taking its place.  “If the building is heavily damaged the chances are it will be removed completely and the discussion is bound to crop up as it always makes the top of the list of Stockholm’s most hated buildings,” Martin Rörby of the Council for the Protection of Stockholm’s Beauty.

We are relieved no one was injured in the fire and wish the students luck with finishing their semesters.

Sources: The Local and KTH

Get your architecturally inclined taste buds ready for this!  Coolhaus – a creative gourmet ice cream sandwich line served from a vintage mail truck – is currently roaming the streets of Manhattan.  After beginning in LA and moving to Austin, the truck is now on the East Coast satisfying architecture lovers with their delicious all-natural creations such as the Mies Vanilla Rohe (Vanilla ice cream + Chocolate Chip Cookie) and the Frank Berry (Strawberry ice cream + Snickerdoodle cookie).  The brain child of two women who share a love of architecture and of course, ice cream, this funky business is a triple entendre and a play on three factors: the Bauhaus as an influential modernist design movement of the 1920′s and 30′s, Rem Koolhaas who challenged the mantra “Form follows function”, and “Cool house” – an ice cream sandwich deconstructed into a cookie roof and floor slab with ice cream walls.

Video interview conducted by Alissa Walker. More after the break. read more »

Photo by Gaston Bergeret

Check out this beautiful restoration project by Pascale Guédot and Michel Corajoud which transforms an industrial factory into a Multimedia Center. Situated in Oloron Saint Marie, the site is part of a larger urban renewal project intended to reconnect the abandoned site to the center of the city and infuse a new spirit into the building while reclaiming the site’s natural setting.

More images and more about the project after the break. read more »

The Three Little Pigs: An Architectural Tale / Steven Guarnaccia

Check out this charming twist we spotted on childhood classics such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs.  This new take, by Steven Guarnaccia, modifies the beloved tales into a new architecture-infused storyline complete with new protagonists [Philip Johnson, Frank Gehry and Frank Lloyd Wrighth] and the Big Bad Wolf “huffing and puffing” to blow down Fallingwater.   We enjoyed the humorous graphics and hope you do too!   Guarnaccia is the chair of the illustration department at Parsons the New School for Design in New York City.

More graphics after the break. read more »

CCPP. Photo by Per Lundström

Butong, originally a Swedish-based firm, specializes in a unique concrete moulding process which offers a wider range of freedom to designers.  We’ve featured Butong previously on ArchDaily as their product was used for Visiondivison’s Cancer City resulting in an amazing lightweight slightly-transparent concrete landscape.  The company has just shared their latest collaborative work – an installation between the Collectifs Cochenko and Quatorze as part of the drug awareness campaign commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture and MILDT.   The project, translated to “Space, light, sound and drugs,” creates a sensory environment combined with a personal experience due to the visitor’s movement and mindset.

More images and more about the project after the break. read more »

© UNStudio. Photographed by Ronald Tilleman

In recent years, UNStudio – which has been internationally recognized for its approach to developing dynamic forms – has also grown to focus on sustainability with the intent to decrease C02 emissions. With this in mind, the firm, with consortium DUO², has realized one of the most sustainable large office buildings in Europe for two governmental offices, the Education Executive Agency and the Tax Offices. “The design contains numerous new innovations related to the reduction of materials, lower energy costs and more sustainable working environments. It presents a fully integrated, intelligent design approach towards sustainability,” explained Ben van Berkel.

More images and more about the project after the break. read more »

Proscenium Trondheim

Last year, we shared the results of Europan 10 with you - a biennial competition asking architects for innovative housing solutions for European sites.  For 2011, the competition’s objective is to promote awareness about the environment and how we occupy the natural world.  We’ve been covering the 2011 proposals, such as Europan Norway 2011, and today, we share an update on the progress of the Europan Norway 2010 winning scheme.   After winning the Europan for Trondheim Norway, Point Supreme Architects, Alexandros Gerousis and Beth Hughes, have recently completed the second phase of the concept design and are preparing for the project to be realized.     Recently,  the project was identified as a pilot project for the Norwegian government’s ‘Cities of the Future’ program – currently one of only 6 in Norway and the second in Trondheim.  The project will serve as an example of environmentally sustainable design strategies combined with innovative architecture – reflecting the ambitions and principles of Svartlamoen which has also been regulated as an eco-urban testing ground.

More about the winning project after the break. read more »

Aarhus School of Architecture

This year, undergraduate students from the Aarhus School of Architecture [check out previously featured student works from Aarhus] will be collaborating with Northern Europe’s largest cultural and music festival, the Roskilde.  125 students were involved in this two-month long project which ultimately resulted in a experimentation of light, materiality and space.  Entitled Vintergatan [Swedish for Milky Way], the installation is a modular exercise as different sized triangles are combined to create varied spaces.  The name refers to the installation’s main motif: a ribbon of light that surrounds the square in front of the Pavilion’s stage, where a series of upcoming bands will perform during the festival.

More images and more about the project after the break. read more »

Visiondivision

At the end of this summer, our friends from Visiondivision will complete their latest commission, a waiting room for a private athletic clinic in Stockholm.  By separating the clinic from the larger hospital, the architects were able to create a peaceful haven within the institution.  This new section boasts a more refreshing environment that is brightly illuminated and designed for comfort.

More about the clinic and more images after the break. read more »

Plasma Studio.

With only 16 days until opening day, the city of Xi’an, China is preparing for one of the largest international horticultural events of the year. Unified under the exhibition’s theme of “Eternal Peace and Harmony between Nature and Mankind,” the 418 hectares of well crafted landscape and landmark architecture are rooted in cultural symbolism and designed to illustrate the city’s promising future. Twelve million guests are expected to visit Xi’an and experience the exposition’s new perspective about the harmonious coexistence between human and nature, city and nature.

More about the architecture of the exposition after the break. read more »

© Albert Vecerka/Esto

We are happy to share that our friends from New York-based Weiss Manfredi will be recognized at the 2011 AIA Honor Awards Ceremony in New Orleans this May.   The firm’s Diana Center for Barnard College has infused the urban campus with a new sense of vitality as the vertically organized quad unites landscape and architecture with interior and exterior spaces.   While the building contains 98,000 sqf of mixed use functions, the project also strongly emphasizes the constant connection between urban user and nature as a  grand diagonal slash through the building creates a double-height glass atria to provide inward, as well as outward views.   The slipped atria and an unfolded glazed staircase bring in natural light and eliminate visual boundaries between the College and the city, while providing spaces for informal interaction to encourage collaboration and dialogue across disciplines.   The building has achieved a LEED Gold certification and Debora L. Spar, president of Barnard College explained, “The Diana Center has not only transformed the way our community interacts, but through its environmentally responsible design and function, has inspired us to become active participants in sustainability efforts.    The project was also named a winner of ArchDaily’s Building of the Year Award for 2010 [be sure to view our full coverage of the Diana Center previously on AD].