Luma Park / Frank O. Gehry
Photographer Patricia Parinejad sent us great pictures of Frank O. Gehry’s building for LUMA at the Parc des Ateliers, which was presented by The Luma Foundation at the Venice Biennale. The project will be located in the centre of Arles, France. See many more images after the break. (more…)
100 Eleventh Avenue / Jean Nouvel
Peaking above some contemporary New York favorites – such as Gehry’s IAC Building and Field Operations + DS+R’s High Line – Jean Nouvel’s 100 Eleventh Avenue adds yet another touch of character to Manhattan’s West Side. ArchRecord‘s great pieces on curtains walls gave us a better look at Nouvel’s textured glass curtain wall.
More about the curtain wall after the break. (more…)
Update: 12th International Architecture Exhibition Venice
Continuing our coverage of Kazuyo Sejima’s exciting 2010 Venice Biennale, the International Jury of the exhibition has recently awarded a Golden Lion for the best project of the ‘People Meet in Architecture’ Exhibit to Junya Ishigami+ Associates, a Golden Lion for the best National Participation to the Kingdom of Bahrain, and a Silver Lion for a promising young participant to OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen + Bas Princen. We’ve featured Ishigami + Associates’ work previously on AD, and his Venice exhibit explores similar ideas about transparency and structure evident in his elegantly simplistic Kanagawa Institute of Technology.
More about the project, including a video from Domus about Ishigami’s project and beliefs. (more…)
Autodesk AutoCAD for Mac OSX in October, iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch versions announced
It all began last year when Autodesk sent a survey to its customers asking how they imagined AutoCAD for Mac OSX. Then, back in May, we saw an early preview of the software running on Mac. This was a leaked version, and Autodesk didn’t say anything (we asked!) about it.
But today, Autodesk issued a press release confirming it: Autodesk AutoCAD for Mac OSX will be available to the public in October, at a MSRP of $3,995 (same as the PC version – Autodesk Education Community version available for free).
The announcement also included a free mobile version of AutoCAD for mobile devices, specifically for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.
And this announcements clarifies some things. Back in May we sat down with Phil Bernstein, VP of Industry Relations & Strategy at Autodesk, and talked about AEC software, social networks and the cloud.
Phil said something very interesting in regards to integration of Autodesk software: “3 screens: computer, cloud and mobile”. More than new, standalone versions for mobile devices, Autodesk is pushing forward the integration of workflow and collaboration across their software (not only Autocad), a move in which the cloud will play a key role. A hint of this was seen earlier in Autodesk Butterfly (part of Project Bluestreak), a technology developed by Autodesk Labs.
This move will sure change a lot of things. Collaboration, SaaS (Software as a Service), and eventually lower costs, among others.
You can pre-order a AutoCAD for Mac starting tomorrow.
Revit for Mac? Let the rumors begin.
Structural Steel Design Awards 2010 / Zaha Hadid
In addition to being asked to design Baghdad’s newest banking headquarters as we reported previously, Zaha Hadid has also been recognized at the Structural Steel Design Awards. The awards, which are in their 42nd year, are bestowed upon those who attain excellence in both architectural and structural design with the use of steel. Hadid’s Legacy Roof (alongside Audi West London, the Infinity Footbridge in Stockton-on-Tees, and Dublin Airport Terminal 2) was awarded for its “heroic engineering achievement”. Working with Arup, Rowecord Engineering Ltd and Balfour Beatty Group Ltd, the team has designed an amazing structure to house the Aquatic Center for the Olympic Games in London. When we first introduced Hadid’s Legacy Roof, we were shocked by the fluidity the 160 m long and 3,000 ton roof could convey. Its dynamic curvaceous form is definitely a feat of engineering. The judges noted the project’s successful use of steel commenting that the roof ”has overcome severe program and constructional problems. A necessarily complex structure delivers the form and shape at the heart of what will become the emblematic and beautiful icon of the London 2012 Olympics.”
Central Bank / Zaha Hadid
In what will be her first project for her native country, Zaha Hadid will design the new headquarters for the Central Bank in Baghdad. Earlier in the summer, Hadid prepared a conceptual presentation with a feasibility study, and this past month, Hadid travelled to Istanbul to discuss initial details with the bank’s governor, Sinan al-Shabibi. The bank, which is one of the first central banks in the Arab world, has the sole right to issue the Iraq’s national currency – the dinar. (more…)
Q / Oscar Niemeyer
Check out this delicious design by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. The edible curvaceous chocolate is part of Q – the recently launched company by Samantha Aquim, chef and head of the chocolate division at her family’s restaurant business. As chef, Aquim has developed a process to extract only the purest and richest flavors from the cocoa beans, and choosing Niemeyer’s design creates an instantly recognizable form for her work. Perhaps, Niemeyer found inspiration in his Auditório Ibirapuera? Now, imagine if that were chocolate?
Compare the chocolate to the Audiotório after the break. (more…)
Virginia Tech Student Wins Yéle Haiti Competition
Christopher Morgan, architecture student from Virginia Tech won an international competition to design Yéle Music Studio in the Cité Soleil area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The competition was launched before the terrible earthquake of January 12, and architecture students from all over the world were invited to participate. The Royal Institute of British Architects, along with architecture firm John McAslan + Partners and developer Allied London, sponsored the competition on behalf of Yéle Haiti, a nonprofit organization founded in 2005 by Haiti-born musician Wyclef Jean.
The brief asked entrants to design a 1,000-square-foot music studio that would contain recording and radio-production facilities, while also offering space for vocational training for at-risk youth in Cité Soleil, a poor and crime-ridden district. You can see more images of the winning design after the break. Seen at Architectural Record. (more…)
Update: Battle of Midtown’s Skyline
Yesterday, we shared news about the raging debate over Manhattan’s skyline. The City Council meeting on Wednesday was the deciding factor in whether the Pelli Clarke Pelli tower would move forward. According to yesterday’s meeting, as Charles V. Bagli reported for the New York Times, the City Council has approved the plans 47-1 and so, the new tower will rise to within 34 feet in height of its iconic neighbor. (more…)
Croatian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
Based on the idea of Mirage, described at the wikipedia as a naturally occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky, the team that designed the Croatian Pavilion for the Venice Biennale decided to create a floating pavilion to present arts and architecture of Croatia at the Venice Biennale.
Following the same principles of a Fata Morgana, which is an unusual and very complex form of Mirage that can be seen in a narrow band right above the horizon, the Floating Pavilion is constructed on an existing barge with dimensions of 10m x 20m x 3m. It is designed by a group of 14 leading Croatian architects, who have made the recent Croatian architecture visible on the global scene. Instead of working in the usual formats of their practices and presenting speculative projects, they decided to work together on a single proposal and to have it constructed and towed toward its final destination in Venice right away. The pavilion structure is the barge’ cargo, welded from 30 tons of Q385 wire mesh in more than 40 layers of varying contours. The cargo presented here maps the process of intense interaction between architects working on the common project, their collaboration with the Croatian maritime industry, and the extraordinary act of architecture it produced. Please follow the pavilion’s maiden voyage across the Adriatic over here
Battle over Midtown’s Skyline
New York City’s Empire State Building has dominated its portion of Manhattan’s skyline ever since it was constructed back in 1931. Now, as Charles V. Bagli reported for the New York Times, a proposed tower just two avenues west on 34th Street across from Pennsylvania Station will be infringing on the Empire State Building as it is slated to rise 1,216 ft – almost reaching the Empire State Building’s 1,250 ft (with its antenna, the ESB measures 1,453 ft). So, it has become the battle of the skyscrapers as the new building claims it will benefit Manhattan by providing jobs and improve the quality of life for New Yorkers and the Empire State Building is worried about losing its iconic presence in the skyline.
PARA-SITE Call for Entries
In the constraints of today ’s urbanity,architects have striven to construct new spaces upon existing ones.Such parasitic architecture has paved new trends in developing and reshaping the way we play,live and work;transforming communities within urban habitats.
By generating symbiotic relationships between host buildings and its parasite attachments,an interdependence emerges through overlapping resources and space with both parties feeding off each other ’s attributes.
In an upcoming publication,international art and design book publisher Page One intends to showcase the most mind-blowingly innovative, even bewildering,built and conceptual parasitic architecture.Send us your projects and challenge perspectives of architecture for sustainable and urban living. For more information, download the Call For Entries PDF.
Greenway Self-Park / HOK
HOK has infused green strategies into Chicago’s Greenway Self-Park facility – a not so typical place to find sustainable ideas. While the 11 story energy efficient parking garage features a naturally ventilated exterior wall, a cistern rain water collection system, a green roof, and electric car plug-in stations, we can’t get over the dozen wind turbines made by Helix Wind that attach to the external structure.
More about the self-park and more images after the break.
Update: Broad Museum / DS + R
Back in May, when American philanthropist, Eli Broad, announced his plans to build a new museum in downtown Los Angeles, six invited top architects competed for the commission ( Rem Koolhaas, Herzog and de Meuron, Christian de Portzamparc, Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Foreign Office Architects). Yesterday, Broad confirmed that Diller Scofidio + Renfro (one of just two invited firms who have not been awarded the Pritzker) will design the 120,000 sqf downtown museum. (more…)
Citizen Architect Airs Tonight
This evening at 10 PM ET/9 PM CT, PBS will be broadcasting a 60 minute documentary of the late architect, Samuel Mockbee, and his design/build education program, Rural Studio. Deep in the heart of one of Alabama’s poorest areas, Mockbee’s students choose specific families as clients and work together to create their dream residences, community centers or prayer spaces. The students physically construct these spaces from simple materials, yet their innovative strategies and pure passion for design results in striking pieces of architecture. This inspiring documentary makes a strong statement about architects and the profession – showing a new perspective on who we should be designing for and how we should be designing. As our world is experiencing hardship after hardship, from earthquakes to monsoon floods, the video brings to light our responsibilities to use our talents to help each other. Be sure to check it out tonight – it won’t disappoint.
Source: ArchRecord
Towards an Architecture of Open and Flexible Systems / Emilio Marin
The current need for housing in Chile after the earthquake is a unique opportunity to re-think architecture. It has generated an exceptional scenario that demands for new proposals and solutions.
Architecture usually responds to definite problems with specific, unique and unrepeatable responses. Projects are configured as rigid and closed systems that can hardly be replicated with success anywhere else. At the same time, these architectonic solutions are linked with an ‘elite’, they are luxurious commodities that are specific-individual-crafted, normally at a very high cost.
After the break you can see Emilio Marin’s proposal regarding this issue, including diagrams, renders and the complete text description.
Architecture project from students wins a citation from the AIA, East Bay
Five Academy of Art University Architecture students built more than confidence when they won a citation from the American Institute of Architects, East Bay (AIAEB). Students Justin Ackerman, Mary Telling, Justin Hanan, Shaum Mehra and Shanay Moghbel put their design skills and ingenuity to work creating a free-standing office space for a client.
More images and information after the break. (more…)
Straddling Bus / Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment
There are few things that are more annoying than sitting in bummer to bummer traffic. Yet, as cities are expanding at rapid rates, our infrastructure simply cannot support the number of people, and so congestion becomes an every day obstacle we have to face. As Bettina Wassener reported for the New York Times, for one China-based company, Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment, the vicious cycle of a growing population which leads to more vehicles – and hence, more traffic – needed to be addressed. And, along came their super functional, extra-wide (20 ft) and extra-tall ‘Straddling Bus’. The vehicle runs along fixed tracks and its main compartment is elevated to leave the street clear for cars driving underneath. Plus, the vehicle is partially powered by the sun via panels on the roof and at bus stops.
More about the Straddling Bus after the break. (more…)
OFIS arhitekti need local offices in Belarus and Russia
Slovenia-based OFIS arhitekti (see their projects here) are looking for a local office around Minsk, Belarus and Sochi, Russia to work with two sports projects (a football stadium and a building for Winter Olympics).
If you’re interested in working with OFIS arhitekti please send a mail to ofis@ofis.si.
Update: Elbe Philharmonic Hall / Herzog and de Meuron
Continuing our coverage of Herzog and de Meuron’s Elbe Philharmonic Hall, we just found some interesting news regarding the construction site. Currently around 80 meters high, the music hall still has a few years of construction left. As huge cranes rise high above the building, Michael Batz, a scenographer, has taken advantage of the cranes and turned an ordinary construction site into a tourist attraction. Usually, people come to see a finished building – yet Batz’s idea of covering the cranes with blue LEDs creates a new kind of attraction.
Check out more images of the blue cranes, and a close up shot of the skin after the break.
Slight Increase for Architecture Billings Index
Following our recent updates about the Architecture Billings Index, the most recent news from the AIA shows a slight increase for the month of July. The American Institute of Architects reported the July ABI score was 47.9, up from a reading of 46.0 the previous month.
Although the score has increased, it still reflects a continued decline in demand for design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The South region measured the highest with an average of 47.9, followed by the Northeast with 47.2, the Midwest with 46.7 and the West with 45.2.
“Business conditions at design firms remain quite volatile,” said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “While this recent uptick is encouraging, this state of the industry is likely to persist for a while as we continue to receive a mixed bag of feedback on the condition of the design market from improving to flat to being paralyzed by uncertainty.”
Time are still hard for our profession, but we’re hoping the ABI will continue to rise, no matter how sightly, each month.
