Karissa Rosenfield
CAD SP / PAX.ARQ + Vazquez Junqueira Arquitetura
PAX.ARQ, in collaboration with Vazquez Junqueira Arquitetura, designed this concept for the CAD SP (Digital Arts Center of São Paulo) as a study for São Paulo’s secretary of culture. The transparent, prismatic cube arises from the concepts of inter-connectivity, transparency and respect to pre-existing architectural surroundings. Learn more after the break.
Foster + Partners to design Manhattan’s next ‘Iconic’ Building
Foster + Partners is about to break the mold of New York’s static Park Avenue skyline, as they have been announced as winner of the highly publicized competition to replace the aging tower of 425 Park Avenue with a new world-class, sustainable office tower.
Lord Foster said: “I have a personal connection with New York, which has been a source of inspiration since my time at Yale, when the new towers on Park Avenue and its neighborhoods were a magnet for every young architect. Seeing first-hand the works of Mies van der Rohe, Gordon Bunshaft, Eero Saarinen and Philip Johnson was tremendously exciting then – I am delighted to have this very special opportunity to design a contemporary tower to stand alongside them. Our aim is to create an exceptional building, both of its time and timeless, as well as being respectful of this context – a tower that is for the City and for the people that will work in it, setting a new standard for office design and providing an enduring landmark that befits its world-famous location.”
Continue after the break to learn more about Foster’s winning proposal and to review the existing condition of 425 Park Ave.
City OKs design of Amazon’s Seattle Headquarters
With a 3-2 vote, Seattle’s Downtown Design Review Board has voted in favor of Amazon’s plans for a three-block, high-rise complex in the Denny Triangle. The board voted after conducting five, comprehensive meetings over the last six months to review Amazon’s evolving NBBJ-designed proposal. Although this design review approval is simply a recommendation to the city’s Department of Planning and Development, it is still a milestone for the ambitious project.
The five acre site, roughly located between Sixth Avenue, Blanchard Street and Westlake Avenue, is currently occupied by expansive parking lots, the Sixth Avenue Inn and the King Cat Theater. Continue after the break to learn more.
Venice Biennale 2012: VOID / Rintala Eggertsson Architects
In Western thinking the notion of void, or emptiness is a usually considered a negative state of affairs, absence or lack of something. As an existential term emptiness, coupled with our contemporary condition with unforeseen wealth, is associated with the sensation of uneasiness and alienation in the midst of our plenty. This spiritual emptiness may be filled on its surface with busyness and entertainment, cultural hipness and formal styles. This obsessive behavior or fear of emptiness, well exploited by commercial interests, is a trap that enforces us to produce, to consume and to fill the seemingly meaningless gaps, rather than allowing things to evolve in a natural and sustainable way.
Gehry and Mirvish unveil Toronto ‘Sculptures’
David Mirvish, founder of Mirvish Productions, and Toronto-born starchitect Frank Gehry have officially unveiled a massive, mixed-use project that will transform Toronto’s downtown arts and entertainment district. The multi-phase project will significantly alter the city’s skyline with three, “sculptural” residential towers perched atop two, six story podiums.
Mirvish describes, “I am not building three towers, I am building three sculptures that people can live in.”
Continue reading to learn more.
TYIN tegnestue wins 2012 European Prize for Architecture
Andreas G. Gjertsen and Yashar Hanstad, principals of the architecture cooperative TYIN tegnestue Architects in Trondheim, Norway, have been named as this year’s winners of The European Prize for Architecture. The young Norwegian architects were honored for their humanitarian work designing and building with community participation in poor and underdeveloped areas in Africa and Asia.
Annually presented by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, the prize is awarded to influential European architects “who have demonstrated a significant contribution to humanity and to the built environment through the art of architecture”.
Continue reading for more information and a sample of TYIN tegnestue Architects’ work.
Dror’s Radical Vision for a Net-Positive Island Community
The government of Turkey is considering the possibility of constructing a second canal in Istanbul that would result in carving out one billion cubic meters of soil from Turkey’s main land. In response, Turkish developer Serdar Inan has commissioned New York designer Dror Benshetrit to design a proposal that would reconstitute the soil into an innovative, net-positive community for 300,000 residents off the shore of Istanbul. Inan’s only wish is that the proposal blends “innovative design ideas, state of the art technology and cultural legacy with inspirations from the work of chief Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan”.
After six months of exploratory, interdisciplinary discourse with a team of experts – such as the Buckminster Fuller Institute, Buro Happold, Shoji Sadao from Fuller, Sadao & Zung Architects – Dror has unveiled his radical vision this weekend at Istanbul Design Week. Check it out after the break.
Foster + Partners break ground on Shanghai mixed-use centre
Foster + Partners has broke ground on the Hongqiao Vantone SunnyWorld Centre, new dynamic mixed-use community centered on a four-hectare public park in the heart of Shanghai Hongqiao CBD. The large-scale urban plan that extends from Shanghai’s main station and brings together highly efficient, flexible office buildings, animated at ground level by shops, restaurants and a range of new civic spaces.
Continue after the break to learn more.
Feilden Clegg Bradley selected to renew Southbank Centre
Today, the Southbank Centre announced its appointment of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBS) as lead architect to refurbish and renew the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery complex. The UK-practice beat OMA, Heneghan Peng, Allies & Morrison, Eric Parry, van Heyningen & Haward and Grimshaw Architects to the job (see shortlist here). A formal appointment will be made after the statutory 10-day standstill period in accordance with EU regulations.
Rick Mather, Southbank Centre’s Masterplan Architect and a member of the selection panel, said: “We heard a huge amount of high quality and serious thinking demonstrating six quite different approaches to this part of the site. Feilden Clegg Bradley Studio’s proposals won because they best understood the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery complex and how it can be enjoyed and used more effectively. I look forward to seeing their designs develop over the coming months.”
Learn more after the break.
AIA Small Project Awards 2013 – Call for Entires
The Small Project Practitioners (SPP) Knowledge Community presents the ninth annual Small Project Award Program to recognize the work of small project practitioners and to promote excellence in small project design. This Award Program strives to raise public awareness of the value and design excellence that architects bring to all project types, including renovations and additions, no matter the limits of size and budget.
Award winning projects will be recognized in AIA publications and electronic media, including the SPP Journal and website. Projects will also be displayed at the 2013 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition. Select residential award winning projects will be included in Fine Homebuidling magazine’s annual awds issue, HOUSES, and on finehomebuilding.com.
Judging Criteria
Each entry will be judged for the success with which the project meets its individual program intent and requirements. Entries will be weighed individually, not in competition with each other. Criteria for judging will include the following:
- The submission complies with all submission requirements
- The project demonstrates exemplary skill in meeting program intent and requirements
- The project achieves excellence in design
Award Categories
There are three built categories and one unbuilt category:
- Category 1: A small project construction, object, work of environmental art or architectural design element up to $150,000.
- Category 2: A small project construction, up to $1,500,000.
- Category 3: A small project construction, object, work of environmental art, or architectural design under 5,000 SF constructed by the architect. The architect must have had a significant role in the construction, fabrication and/or installation of the work, in addition to being the designer.
- Category 4: Unbuilt architectural designs under 5,000 SF for which there is no current intent to build, of all project types including purely theoretical, visionary projects, with or without a client.
Applicants may enter the same project in more than one category. The entry fee is on a per category basis (e.g. the same project entered in two categories will be charged two entry fees).
The Small Project Practitioners Knowledge Community encourages submissions of projects in all building types: commercial, retail, industrial, educational, public and private, as well as residential. In addition, projects may include fully completed new and renovations or elements of built projects. There is no limitation other than the quality of the final work. We invite the submission of projects accessible to people of all abilities. New construction and renovations are equally welcome.
Finally, the Small Project Practitioners Knowledge Community strongly encourages submissions from the many diverse Small Project Practitioner (SPP) members of the AIA and the profession.
Eligibility
- Open to architects licensed in the United States.
- Built projects completed after January 1, 2009.
- Entry photography by the submitting architect is welcomed, but there is no restriction on professional photography.
- Maximum of four entries per firm – (a single project may be entered in two different categories with applicable fees for each entry). Maximum of two unbuilt entries per firm.
- No projects are permitted that have previously received a national AIA award.
Submissions
2013 Entries must be submitted before 4:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time on November 12, 2012.
The submission deadline date will be strictly observed; no exceptions will be made. No entry fee will be refunded for entries that are disqualified, late, or not completed. Payments and submissions will only be accepted online.
Notifications will be made to Award Recipients mid to late February 2013.
Please review the 2013 AIA Small Project Awards Walk Through and Concealed ID Forms before beginning your submission. When you are ready to submit, go to the Submission Website.
Fees
Built Projects (Categories 1, 2 and 3):
- AIA members – $150 for each entry
- Nonmembers – $300 for each entry
Unbuilt Designs (Category 4):
- AIA members – $75 for each entry
- Nonmembers – $150 for each entry
All entry fees are nonrefundable.
2013 Jury
- Leonard Kady, AIA (Chair) – Leonard Kady Architecture + Design – New York, NY
- Julie Beckman – KBAS – Philadelphia, PA
- Christopher Herr, AIA – Studio H:T – Boulder, CO
- Laura Kraft, AIA – Laura Kraft Architect – Seattle, WA
- Rob Yagid – Fine Homebuilding magazine – Newtown, CT
Check out the recipients of the 2012 Small Project Awards here!
Video: The Junk King
The Junk King – Vince Hannemann - has spent much of his life constructing the Cathedral of Junk in Austin, TX. In 2010, the City of Austin requested a building permit and Vince was forced to tear down nearly half of his creation. Despite this traumatic event and with the help of many supporters, Vince was still able to keep the Cathedral alive and continue its legacy.
Directed: Evan Burns
Cinematography: Garyle Morgan & Mitzi Morrow
Produced: Eduardo Tobias
World Habitat Awards 2013
The Building and Social Housing Foundation is now accepting entries for the 2013 edition of the World Habitat Awards!
The World Habitat Awards were established in 1985 by the Building and Social Housing Foundation as part of its contribution to the United Nations International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. Two awards are given annually to projects from the global North as well as the South that provide practical and innovative solutions to current housing needs and problems. An award of £10,000 is presented to each of the two winners at the annual United Nations global celebration of World Habitat Day.
The deadline for submission is 1st November 2012.
Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979
What is the connection between sex, architecture and design? Opening tomorrow, September 29, Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979 explores the role of architecture in the famous men’s magazine Playboy. Colomina, along with the curators of NAiM/Bureau-Europa in Maastricht, The Netherlands, centers the exhibition around the research of Beatriz Colomina, a professor at the Princeton University School of Architecture and founder of their Media and Modernity program, who has been studying the connection for the past three years.
Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979 illustrates how cities, buildings, interiors, furniture and products have always played an important role in the fantasy world of Playboy. Ever since Hugh Hefner launched Playboy in 1952, its erotic spreads have featured the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Buckminster Fuller, Moshe Safdie, and Paolo Soleri. As Colomina’s program argues, “sexual revolution and architectural revolution are inseparable.” The exhibition reveals how Playboy reshaped masculinity with the influence of architecture and design.
Grace Farms unveils SANAA-designed ‘River’ Building
Grace Farms Foundation, a not-for‐profit charitable organization in New Canaan, Connecticut, has submitted a proposal to the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission for a SANAA-designed, meandering structure dubbed the “River”. The project prioritizes the needs of the community by preserving the 75-acre Grace Farms property as a permanent offering of open space and providing an array of public amenities, such as a library, gymnasium and church.
“We are thrilled to be sharing SANAA’s wonderfully sensitive design with the members of the Planning and Zoning Commission and with the community we serve,” stated Sharon Prince, President of the Grace Farms Foundation. “Grace Farms is a place where people can walk their dog, read a book by the lake or simply relax in a beautiful natural setting. By blending so seamlessly into the landscape, the River enhances this experience, almost erasing the barrier between the spaces sheltered within and the natural world outside.”
If approved, the River will be SANAA’s first United States commission since receiving the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2010. Continue reading for the architects’ description.
Peter Zumthor awarded RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2013
Today, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) honored Swiss architect Peter Zumthor for his significant influence on the advancement of architecture by naming him the recipient of the 2013 Royal Gold Medal.
It all started in Switzerland, in 1979, when Zumthor founded his “small yet powerful and uncompromising practice”. Since, he has built a prestigious, international reputation for creating “highly atmospheric spaces through the mastery of light and choice of materials”. From his small rural chapels to the Thermal Baths at Vals, the Zumthor experience ignites the senses, with “every detail reinforcing the essence of the building and its surroundings.”
RIBA President Angela Brady, stated: “Peter Zumthor’s work renews the link with a tradition of modern architecture that emphasizes place, community and material practice. His writings dwell upon the experience of designing, building and inhabitation while his buildings are engaged in a rich dialogue with architectural history. I will be delighted to present him with the Royal Gold Medal.”
Continue to learn more.
The Emirates Glass LEAF Awards 2012
The results of the 9th Annual Emirates Glass LEAF Awards have been announced, honoring the architects designing the buildings and solutions that are setting the benchmark for the international architectural community.
The winners were selected from an impressive shortlist by an international jury of architects that included Irving Brauer (chairman, principal of Brauer Associates), Phil Holden (managing director of Pascall+Watson architects), Lucy Bullivant (architectural curator, critic, author), Paolo Brescia (partner of Open Building Research), and Kasia Fiutowska (founding partner of Sketch Design).
The 2012 award winners are:
Duggan Morris to Design the New Floating Cinema
UP Projects and The Architecture Foundation has announced Duggan Morris Architects as winner of the Open Architecture Challenge to design the next phase of the acclaimed Floating Cinema project. This project has been commissioned by the Legacy List with corporate partner Bloomberg as part of the Bloomberg East series of artist-led programs to animate the waterways in East London working in partnership with the Canal and River Trust.
Continue after the break to learn more.
Chipperfield criticizes the impotence of contemporary practice
With a world plagued by the current economic crisis, David Chipperfield fears that the architects’ role is shrinking and the professions ability to influence the shape of our cities is diminishing.
Since the inauguration of this year’s Venice Biennale, Chipperfield has been amidst of a few heated debates, most notably debunking the harsh criticism of Coop Himmelb(lau)’s Wolf Prix – who claimed the “hollow” event was “no longer about lively discussion and criticism of topics in contemporary architecture” – by affirming Prix “hadn’t even visited Venice”.
Interestingly, Chipperfield has now initiated a debate, using similar rhetoric as Prix, that calls attention to the dwindling role of the architect and the impotence of contemporary architecture. The catch? He blames politicians.
Continue after the break for more.
AIA Commits to Make Design a Catalyst for Public Health
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced a ten-year commitment to develop design and technology solutions for cities that address challenges faced on public health, sustainability, and resiliency to natural disasters. AIA EVP and Chief Executive Officer Robert Ivy, FAIA, announced the Commitment to Action at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting, where more than 1,000 global leaders are gathering to address the theme, “Designing for Impact.”
“This commitment by the AIA represents an all-out effort to demonstrate the link between building design and the health of building occupants,” said Ivy. “And it will enable us to bring the force of design to bear in the public health arena and debate.”
Top Firms shortlisted to design Canadian Art Center
The Winnipeg Art Gallery has selected six architectural teams to be shortlisted for the design of its new Inuit Art and Learning Center (IALC). The Center will house the WAG’s celebrated collection of contemporary Inuit art, the largest of its kind in the world, and the Studio Art and Learning programs.
Selected from 64 international submissions, the six shortlisted teams are:
Datagrove / Future Cities Lab
Design: Jason Kelly Johnson & Nataly Gattegno at Future Cities Lab
Team: Ripon DeLeon (lead), Osma Dossani, Jonathan Izen, assisted by David Spittler
Client: ZERO1, San Jose Public Art Program, National Endowment for the Arts
Consultant: Elliot Larson created the Twitter trends [xml link]
Technology: Text to Speech Module by TextSpeak, Arduino Mega and Uno, WiFly Shield by Sparkfun, Verizon Mifi, LCD panels by Sparkfun, LEDS by superbrightleds.com, IR sensors by Sharp
Photography: Peter Prato
