ArchDaily

Probably, the first place outside our homes where we spend a large time of the day. So to finish this week’s Round Up, we bring you our second part of previously featured Kindergardens. See the first part here.

Arreletes Day Care Centre / Xavier Vilalta Studio
Els Alamús, a small village of seven hundred inhabitants, is situated on a hill in the middle of the plain of Lleida, surrounded by a landscape where are predominant agricultural fields and fruit trees, a geometric landscape, planned and designed, result of the work of men’s hands and the engineering (read more…)

Kindergarten Dandelion Clock / Ecker Architekten
The kindergarten ‘Dandelion Clock’ educates children with physical or developmental handicaps. Four similar modules form the building, three of which contain two classrooms and a therapy room. Overhangs shade façades and permit outdoor play in poor weather. The units are radially distributed about an atrium (read more…)

Kindergarten Sighartstein / Kadawittfeldarchitektur
Situated on the periphery of the site of green meadows and felds, the first impression of the construction site provided the idea for the sculptural facade by way of an elevated grass turf. The oversized “grass blades” communicate the building’s unique identity and provides an orientation marker for the kindergarten (read more…)

Day care centre de kleine Kikker / Drost + van Veen architecten
The new building is a playful design, joyful and with a lot of colour. It overlooks the grazing sheep in the meadow. Next to the building, to the left, there is a characteristic old farm, a monument, with a thatch roof, on the right, a wooden cowshed. The new building is conceived as a contemporary type of farm (read more…)

Children’s Recreation Centre / AIR Architecture
The children’s recreation centre is located in a small rural town in the midst of agricultural warehouses. The plan takes into account the particular layout of the site: the building can be accessed only through a narrow path that stretches into it. The main structure follows and reinforces this urban pattern, thereby becoming an articulation (read more…)

© rasmussen | brunke | sauer

German office rasmussen | brunke | sauer shared with us their design of the new administrative building for BSU in Hamburg, Germany. It was an invited competition and they won the first prize ex aequo with three other offices (Sauerbruch Hutton, Behnisch Architects and GAP). More images and architect’s description after the break. read more »

© Provast

Yesterday the mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb and city councilor Hamit Karakus officially started the construction of the new Rotterdam Market Hall (previously featured here). The arched building located in the centre of Rotterdam, developed by Provast and designed by MVRDV is a hybrid of public market and apartment building.

The project with a total of 100.000 m2 is set to be completed in 2014 and part of the current regeneration of Rotterdam’s post war centre. Project developer Provast realizes the building, Unibail Rodamco invested in the shops and restaurants whilst Housing Corporation Vesteda will manage the rental apartments, making the building a socially integrated part of the city.

More images after the break. read more »

Twenty years after the Romanian government was overthrown and its dictator, Nicolae Ceauşescu executed, Anca Trandafirescu erected a “monument ” to that dark chapter in the otherwise peaceful events of Central and Eastern Europe ’s 1989 revolutions. Trandafirescu, an architect and assistant professor in architecture at the University of Michigan, designed and constructed the large inflatable, inhabitable structure ―in the iconic shape of the head of a toppled statue ―that was displayed on the Piata Victoriei (Victory Plaza) in Timişoara from November 3 -7, 2009.

This location was the site of the first large demonstrations in the country and that led to the subsequent fall of the Ceauşescu dictatorship. The head itself is without specific identity and is meant to signify, rather than a particular hero, a toppled everyman who has in the course of twenty years following the revolution continued to await a government free from rulers of the past regime.

The name HOT AIR refers to both the unusually warm temperatures in Romania during that special week in December 1989, which helped to bring citizens out into the streets to rally against the government; and also to the large amount of rhetoric surrounding the events that ensued.

The inflatable monument was erected in association with the city ’s Young Artists/Young Democracy expo and the American-Romanian Music Festival and was a venue for visitation,conversation,and a bit of recreation by the public.It kicked off a series of planned celebrations commemorating the events of December 1989 in Timisoara.

More images and a video after the break. read more »

Sometimes, designing a renovation or repair of a project may be more difficult than designing something from scratch. So to start this week’s Round Up, we bring you our first selection of previoulsy featured Refurbishment projects.

Los Heroes Building / Murtinho y Asociados Arquitectos
The challenge was the rehabilitation of a ‘70s building for a new purpose: The General Offices of Caja de Compensación Los Heroes. The corporation is privet, independent and non profit institution. Its role is to administrate social security funds for economic help for retired persons and workmen through small and soft loans (read more…)

White Apartment / Parasite Studio
The apartment is located on the first floor of a building raised in the last century in the central area of Timisoara, within an area of protected buildings. From the first design sketches we tried to get distance from the interventions that have become „standard procedures” in the local scene of designing within old buildings (read more…)

Performers’ House / SHL Architects
The project – centred on a 19th-century paper mill – was commended for the simplicity of the design, characterised by the choice of materials as well as the successful transformation of an existing historic boiler house. The new building is linked to the refurbished boiler house by a new square where many folk high school activities take place (read more…)

Council Sport Complex / Vora Arquitectura
The Council Sport Complex is a building situated in a zone with a number of important developments in recent years with others pending. The complex is important for the revitalisation of the neighbourhood, which is historically a run-down area and also has to contribute to the integration of all social strata (read more…)

Pionen – White mountain / Albert France-Lanord Architects
The project takes place in a former 1200 square meter anti-atomic shelter. An amazing location 30 meters down under the granite rocks of the Vita Berg Park in Stockholm. The client is an internet provider and the rock shelter hosts server halls and offices. The starting point of the project was to consider the rock as a living organism (read more…)

Deegan Day Design, an architectural installation at the SCI-Arc Gallery in Los Angeles started on October 23 and will be available to everyone till December 13 with changing visual media throughout and public discussions with artists, architects and critics, including: An Te Liu, Bettina Korek, Andrea Fraser, Rhea Anastas, Bennett Simpson, Josh Melnick, Lauri Firstenberg, Sarah Morris Richard Massey, Eric Owen Moss, and Joe Day.

You can learn more at the exhibition’s official website. Watch a video after the break. read more »

What can rest stops, information centers, and observation decks tell visitors about a culture? The School of Constructed Environments at Parsons The New School for Design will explore this question when it presents Detour, a traveling exhibition documenting notable architecture and design along 18 Norwegian National Tourist Rout. In ArchDaily we’ve been featuring Pushak’s projects on the Norwegian Rout, which you can see right here.

The exhibition, which is sponsored by the Royal Norwegian Consulate General and presented in collaboration with the Architectural League of New York and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, will be on view December 4 through January 19 at the Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons.

More info after the break. read more »

Taipei 101, famous for being one of the world’s tallest buildings, is set to get some major eco-upgrades in an effort to save money, reduce its impact, and gain the much coveted title of “World’s Tallest Green Building.” In 2007, the Burj Dubai surpassed Taipei 101 in terms of height, but the Taiwanese building won’t give up the fight, throwing down $1.8 million in energy efficiency upgrades, which are expected to yield $20 million annually in savings and make it the Earth’s greenest and tallest building.

Over the next 18 months, the skyscraper will undergo significant energy efficiency upgrades and will also seek LEED Gold certification for existing buildings. The certification will largely depend on the building performance after the upgrades and renovations take place. The owners of Taipei 101 are teaming up with SL+A International Asia Inc., Siemens and EcoTech International Inc. to complete the eco-upgrades. Seen at Inhabitat. More images after the break. read more »

A panel discussion including American and Danish architects will analyze the benefits, compromises, and challenges in creating and designing sustainable buildings and communities in the U.S. and Denmark.

The panel, which includes architects Stephen Kieran of the well-known Philadelphia firm Kieran Timberlake and Bjarke Ingels, head of the architectural practice Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), will explore the differences and similarities in the energy-saving measures used by architects in each country.

Since the U.S. and Denmark vary greatly in size, climatic conditions, and commonly-used building materials and energy-saving features, the discussion will examine how each country can learn from the other. The moderator of the discussion is Suzanne Stephens, deputy editor of Architectural Record.

The discussion will take place next Monday, November 16 at 6:30 pm at the Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue at 38th street, New York.

Copyright© wojtek gurak - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wojtekgurak/

Each month the selection of best picture from our Flickr Pool becomes more and more difficult. With more than 7,000 pictures submitted by our readers, you can find many amazing places photographed by people from all over the world. In case you’ve missed them, check Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV of our selections. And as always, remember you can also submit yours right here, and also follow us through Twitter and our Facebook Fan Page.

The picture of the Vitra Haus, in the Vitra Campus, Weil am Rhein, Germany, was taken by wojtek gurak. Check the other four after the break. read more »

The Finnish pavilion at Shanghai World Expo 2010 is called “Kirnu” (“Giant’s Kettle”). Designed by a team from Helsinki-based architect’s office JKMM, Kirnu won first prize among 104 entries in the design competition, which was announced in May 2008.

The results were made public in October 2008 in Helsinki. The planning started immediately, and construction began in April 2009, with the pavilion due to be completed in December 2009. The head designer of the pavilion is architect Teemu Kurkela. Below is a description of the Kirnu concept as seen by the architect.

More images, video and architect’s description after the break. read more »

© The Berg

German architect Jakob Tigges has projected a new and visionary landmark in Berlin. He plans to build a mountain of 1,000 meters high called “The Berg”, which would become a never-before-seen tourist destination in the German capital city. Seen at Plataforma Arquitectura. More images and description after the break. read more »

Our Facebook Fan Page has been growing a lot lately, and your feedback has been amazing. So to celebrate our 25,000 fans, we decided to launch a special competition, in which anybody can win. We are looking for the best architecture animation that you can show us! What makes this competition so special? Not only will the winners be featured in ArchDaily.com, but the best one will receive a brand new Ipod Touch. Who will win? That’s up to you to decide…

The competition will have two parts. First, you’ll upload the video to our Facebook Fan Page. You will have until November 22 to do so. Then, on November 23 the 10 videos with more “likes” will make the shortlist. From November 25 till December 6 you’ll be able to vote your favorite video in ArchDaily.com. So in December 7 we’ll announce the winner of the Ipod Touch, and two honorable mentions in our website.

The rules are simple:

1. You will have to upload the video to Youtube, and then post the link of your video in our Facebook Fan Page. To do this simply attach the Youtube link into the share section of our facebook wall.
2. Only ONE submission will be allowed per person.
3. Any doubt, disclaimer, suggestion, etc., will be decided by the ArchDaily editorial team.

So remember, you have till November 22 to upload your video, but the sooner you upload it, more people can start “liking” your video! If you want to help us promote the competition, you can download the poster and pass it through! Good luck everyone!

Following the first part of institutional architecture we featured earlier this year, today’s Round Up is the second part of previously published institutional projects. Enjoy!

KP Alazraki Corporate Building / AD11
The project for the advertising agency Alazraki KP consists of two buildings constructed at different stages. The first one was conceived as a radical intervention of an existing building by transforming its use and image, while respecting the existing structure. The building is located facing a high speed road (read more…)

Loducca Agency / Triptyque
Located in the neighborhood of “Jardins” – which presently experiences radical changes – and in an avenue with busy traffic, the building faced north emerges as a strong and organic ‘incarnation’ of this tropical city and takes form by absorbing these aggressions. Though it is imponent, the construction isn’t autonomous (read more…)

Basque Health Department Headquarters  / Coll-Barreu Arquitectos
The lot locates in the crossroad of the two most important streets of the Ensanche (1862) in Bilbao. The restrictive city zoning rules force to repeat the existing building typology, reducing penthousing, chamfering corners and rising a tower. The building groups together vertical communications and general services within a bone (read more…)

Paykar Bonyan Panel Factory / ARAD
The project is a factory that contains a prefabricated building system production plant plus an office & ancillary building. The site location is an industrial city for non-pollution factories, 35 kilometer away from Tehran/ Iran. The Client Goal is to change the traditional construction system to an industrial building system (read more…)

Los Heroes Building / Murtinho y Asociados Arquitectos
The challenge was the rehabilitation of a ‘70s building for a new purpose: The General Offices of Caja de Compensación Los Heroes. The corporation is privet, independent and non profit institution. Its role is to administrate social security funds for economic help for retired persons and workmen through small and soft loans (read more…)

With the debut of the international Blue Award, the Department of Spatial and Sustainable Design, from the Institute of Architecture and Design, is announcing an award for the best student works in the topic of sustainable architecture and building culture. The opening presentation of the Blue Award will take place on November 10, 2009 at the TU Vienna. From that point on, works from Bachelor, Master or Diploma studies can be submitted. The competition is open worldwide to students of architecture, regional planning and urbanism. Prizes totaling 15,000 Euros will be awarded.

The competition was initiated by the architect Univ. Prof. Mag. Arch. Françoise-Hélène Jourda, director of the Department of Spatial and Sustainable Design, and functions under the patronage of the International Union of Architects (UIA).

The award’s main purpose is to encourage the topic of sustainability in architecture, regional planning an urbanism. Concurrently, it shall recognize and award students and teachers dedicated in pursuing the topic in their studies. The Blue Award aims at the helping standardize the exchange between various architecture schools and faculties. For more information, visit the competition’s official website.

The transformation of the urban landscape within the last decades has increasingly been dominated by the demands of capitalist utilization. Due to the current crisis, however, which goes far beyond a mere crisis of the real estate and financial market, these neoliberal politics and attendant forms of production of space have been subject to a loss of legitimation. For this reason, not only do the dominance and promises of the privatization model, the free market and private property have to be questioned, but also the conventions of the space-producing professions that follow and materialize these policies.

In this context the event “Ten Days for Oppositional Architecture” takes up the task of exploring possibilities and conditions of a socially committed architectural practice. Therefore the narrow boundaries of the profession have to be left behind. We hence invite activists, geographers, architects, planners, and economists representing different critical approaches to discuss and develop concepts and practices that not only try to oppose and challenge the capitalist mode of production of space, but also try to go beyond it – strategies of de-commodification, re-appropriation and alternative production of space. We will look at already existing spatial actions of resistance as well as search for possibilities to further theorize them: How can these strategies and alternative practices be turned into social and political forces towards post-capitalist spaces?

From November 12 to November 21, New York City. For more information, click here.

An urban design debate and a book launch will take place next monday November 9 at 6:30PM at the Wood Auditorium in Columbia Unviersity. “After BIGness” is the debate in which Alan Berger, Associate Professor at MIT, Kenneth Frampton, Professor at GSAPP, and Mahadev Raman, Principal at ARUP will discuse the designing for post crisis cities.

After the debate, at 8:30PM, the book “Emerging Urban Futures in Land Water Infrastructure” will be launched. The book documents the partnership between Columbia University and the University of Queensland that produced four years of student work in architecture, urban design, and urban planning in Brisbane and the surrounding areas.

This book is an archive of the resulting site research, design proposals, and relevant case studies, which is designed to serve as a comparative study of different teaching methods for post-professional studies in architecture and urban design.

For more information, click here.

Another “Part II” Round Up to finish this week. This time, we bring back previously featured mixed use projects. And if you didn’t catch our first part, it’s never to late, check it out right here.

Z Towers / NRJA
This project by young Latvian architects NRJA (previously featured on AD) is currently under construction. The complex, in Riga, Latvia, includes 2 towers (29 and 30 stories each), connected by a floor bridge. It also includes a 4-stories podium. Completion is expected durin 1st quarter 2010 (read more…)

Dorobanti Tower, Bucharest / Zaha Hadid Architects
Dorobanti tower, a new project by Zaha Hadid Architects in Bucharest moves away from the works we have been seen lately, with a very expressive structure. The 200m tall iconic tower will be located in the heart of the capital city of Romania, at junction of Calea Dorobanti and St. Mihail Eminescu (read more…)

Sugar Cube / KPMB
This mixed-use development project introduces a new strategy for making contemporary architecture within Denver’s historic Lower Downtown Heritage District (LoDo). The design responds to the precise urban design guidelines for LoDo, while helping the local Review Board to expand its guidelines to include contemporary buildings (read more…)

Højblokka_PULS / MAPT + DARK
We looked for a reinterpretation of the urban block typology in combination with vertical multiplication and urban density. The site is situated next to Oslo Central Station and had been formerly occupied by the postal headquarters. Due to its proximity to a variety of infrastructural layers in a dense urban and commercial area (read more…)

Market Hall in Rotterdam / MVRDV
Dutch architects MVRDV strike another one with a new mixed use project in the new inner city heart for the Laurens Quarter, the pre-war centre of Rotterdam. The project, comissioned by Provast, includes an open air market, that due to new hygienic constraints of dutch laws has to be covered. It also includes 246 residences (read more…)

© 3XN

Danish architects 3XN has won an Architectural Competition to transform the former freight train halls in Aarhus, Denmark into a new and dynamic cultural center. The new cultural hub for scenography, visual arts and literature will soon be constructed within a historical framework in Denmark’s second largest city, Aarhus.

The new cultural center is meant to be an inspiring setting that stimulates production of the arts and facilitates the interaction amongst the various artistic metiers, business and education.

3XNs proposal adds elements of nature, with green spaces injecting a natural raw quality which plays up to the historic nature of the existing halls which were used for rail freight in the past. More images and description after the break. read more »

The Architecture Society at the University of Cambridge (ArcSoc) will host several talk series starting November 11th till February 16th. All talks will be held at 7pm in Lecture Room 1, Architecture Dept., 1-5 Scroope Terrace, Cambridge, UK. The schedule is:

November 11th – Sam McElhinney
November 17th – Tarek Merlin
November 24th – Richard Roberts and Ruairi Glynn

January 27th – Janek Schaefer
February 9th – Adrian Forty
February 16th – Alex de Rijke