Schmidt hammer lassen architects to design largest public library in Scandinavia
Our friends from SHL architects just sent us their new project. They won an international competition to design “Urban Mediaspace”, the largest public library in Scandinavia. The € 228 million scheme, located in Aarhus, Denmark, will become a new visual and cultural focal point for the city whilst pioneering the next generation of library design.
SHL Architects’ innovative, 30.000 m2 scheme reassesses traditional concepts of library design. Instead of a building focused around books, “Urban Mediaspace” is a hub of social interaction, incorporating interior and exterior recreational spaces for studying, socialising, and relaxing. The building will also have the capacity to host multi-media and cultural events.
The building’s distinctive heptagonal-shape design will be a landmark in Aarhus. The library’s offices will have impressive panoramic views over the harbour with steps leading out on to the waterfront. SHL Architects’ design connects the library to the Aarhus River by creating an external recreational area that will run along the south side of the “Urban Mediaspace”. The building’s glazed façade will create light, well-ventilated interior spaces whilst also making the inside of the library visible to passersby, inviting the community inside.
Images after the break. (more…)
Archi5 wins “Nya Årstafältet” Master Plan Competition for Stockholm
French firm archi5 has been announced winner of the International Master Plan Competition for Stockholm’s Nya Årstafältet neighborhood. Archi5′s winning proposal ‘Arkipelag’ has been a collaboration with landscape architect Michel Desvigne.
The master plan covers 260 acres of which 2,260,000 sf will be used for office space and 4,300,000 sf for residential.
Seen at Bustler. For more information, click here.
More images after the break. (more…)
3XN wins architecture competition for the Randers Museum of Art
3XN just shared with us their winning entry for the Randers Museum of Art, a “sculpture sitting in a sculpture garden” according to the architects, a sinuous building both open to both the town and the landscape. The red-tile façade of the exterior becomes the roof, and similarly on the inside, the floor becomes a wall, and then the wall a ceiling.
From the architects:
Oil Rig Eco Resort by Morris Architects
Our green friends from Inhabitat just shared this with us: Morris Architects, a Houston-based architecture and design firm, recently took top honors for two of their submissions in the Radical Innovation in Hospitality design competition. The grand prize winner, the Oil Rig Platform Resort and Spa makes use of one of 4,000 oil rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico and transforms it into a luxurious eco-resort and spa.
More details on the project, here.
More images after the break. (more…)
“Headquarter of China Insurance Group”, first prize won by Coop Himmelb(l)au
International architectural firm Coop Himmelb(l)au have received the first prize in the competition to design the new ‘Headquarter of China Insurance Group’ in Shenzen, China. It will be part of a lively business quarter in the heart of the central district of Shenzhen made up of a carefully composed ensemble of individual towers creating a landmark silhouette.
Seen at designboom, here.
More images after the break. (more…)
New Park Station / Felix Heidgen, Thomas Nagy
The partnership of AIA Newark and Suburban and the Young Architects Forum invited international designers to find innovative, visionary and compelling proposals for container constructed multi-family mixed-use project. The idea was to reuse the thousand of unwanted shipping containers clogging ports -and the land around them- as the primary unit of an urban multi-family mixed use project. The competition was called Live The Box.
The selected site is adjacent to a major train station and walking distance to the downtown major cultural centers of Newark, New Jersey. Standard height shipping containers 8′-6″ exterior height, in either 20′-0″ or 40′-0″ nominal lengths were the units to be used as the main building block of the structure.
This competition was won by Felix Heidgen and Thomas Nagy, associates at RMJM in Princeton, with their entry NewPark Station described here:
Schmidt Hammer Lassen architects wins competition for a mixed-use masterplan in Denmark
The masterplan will transform a site of a former slaughterhouse in the city of Horsens, Western Denmark into a mixed-use commercial, office and cultural complex that will include residential areas. Shla’s masterplan received particular praise for its dynamic design which will create a sense of cohesion between the city’s existing urban identity and the new retail and recreational areas.
More details, after the break. (more…)
eVolo 2009 Skyscraper Competition Winners
The results of the 2009 Skyscraper Competition have just been announced by eVolo. The winners are, in first place, Kyu Ho Chun, Kenta Fukunishi, and Jae Young Lee. In second place, Nicola Marchi and Adelaide Marchi. And in third place, Eric Vergne. They were also 15 special mentions. 40 projects will be published in eVolo Magazine.
For the complete information, go to the official website of eVolo.
MOS Architects wins the P.S.1 competition
We just got the news that MOS Architects won the competition to build a temporary installation at MoMA´s P.S.1 during this summer.
For this competition the P.S.1 invites each year a group of emerging architects to experiment with new shapes and materials, as Work AC did last year with their PF1 project.
MOS project is entitled Afterparty, a design that Micheal Meredith and Hilary Sample (MOS partners) say is meant to honor and reflect current economic realities, by using basic materials. The main structure is a lightweight aluminum frame using recyclable parts which require minimal assembly, which will become a landmark for the neigborhood – all this on a USD$70,000 budget.
I spoke with Michael a few minutes ago and he refered to the name of the project: One thing about the “Afterparty,” as we’re calling it, is the need to look for new promiscuities after the party of a sort of high-formalism which has dominated academic discourse, and in our case it’s with the basic structural arch geometries, rough almost singular materiality and the production and interaction of “environment,” (literally cooling down the courtyard through stack effect) looking towards a more primitive state of architecture. – (See afterparty definition on Wikipedia).
The project is still under development, and we´ll keep you posted on further updates. We´ll try to do a good coverage on this as we did last year.
You can see other works from MOS previously featured on AD: Floating House and their ORDOS 100 villa.
More images of Afterparty after the break.
OMA wins competition for the Taipei Performing Arts Centre
After a two-phase international competition (with offices such as Morphosis, Abalos+Sentkiewicz, MVRDV and Zaha Hadid), OMA has been awarded the first prize in the design competition to build the new Taipei Performing Arts Centre.
The project, led by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren, is based on 3 theaters (1 x 1,500 seats – the round one, 2 x 800 seats – cubes) which are plugged into a central cube cladded with corrugated glass. This scheme puts all the stage accommodations of the 3 theaters into the central cube, allowing for more flexibility as theaters can be used independently or combined, expanding the possibilities for experimental performances – an art which is very strong on the country. This new arrangement of stage and seatings includes a public circulation that exposes parts of the backstage to the public.
And now, my comments on the form.
FARO wins sustainable design competition with residencial tower
FARO architecten bv just shared with us their latest project, the winning entry for a sustainable residential tower design competition.
Text from the architects and more images after the break.
Student apartment studios in Paris / OFIS
The guys from OFIS sent us the their latest won competition in Paris, France.
Architect: OFIS arhitekti
Location: Paris, France
Project Year: 2008
Project leaders: Rok Oman & Špela Videčnik
Design Team: Rok Oman, Spela Videcnik, Robert Janez, katja aljaz, Andrej Gregoric, Javier Carrera
Structural Engineering: Matjaz Filic – Elea IC
Mechanical, Electrical engineering & sustainability: Menerga d.o.o.
Project description and more images after the break.
International Criminal Court in The Hague / SHL Architects
Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects has been named as one of three winning architectural practices in the competition to design the International Criminal Court’s new headquarters in The Hague.
Location: The Hague, Netherlands
Competition type: Restricted anonymous project competition
Client: The International Criminal Court
Subconsultants: Royal Haskoning, Bosch & Fjord
Project Year: 2008
Construction Year: 2011-2014
Constructed Area: 46,000 sqm
Images: SHL
More images and text from the architects after the break.
World Trade Center Iguala / b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos
b720 architects won the competition for the World Trade Center at Igualada, Spain. The complex will articulate the existing industrial city with the residential zone, completing a new zone of infrastructure for this developing city.
The complex consist of 4 buildings with a total area of 53.000 sqm, including 530 underground parking spaces. This project will hold offices, retail spaces.
Retail space is located on the lower and first level of the first 3 buildings, as a base to the office space above it as you can see on the rendering. The upper levels are wider than this retail base, creating a covered space for pedestrians. Between the volumes, several spaces will allow for future occupation. Galleries on the upper floors will allow an exterior-interior continuity, integrating the mid-rise volumes with the exterior that starts to become more as a neighborhood than with this new relations, thus answering to the city council requirement to turn this project in not just office space, but a new urban centrality.
There’s only a few more images available (after the break), but we will keep in touch with b720 to bring you more on this project as it develops.
Denmark Pavillion for Shanghai Expo 2010 / BIG
In my opinion Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG, is one of the best architects when it comes to give shape to the interests of an “unspoken” client on public buildings,either representing the values of a country or a culture. All with exceptional syntax and presentation skills.
And BIG‘s latest project (in collaboration with Arup and 2+1), the Danish Pavilion for the Shanghai 2010 Expo, does it again, by taking the best of living in Copenhagen and placing it on China for visitors to experience.
Basically, the pavilion is a big loop on which visitors ride around on one of the 1,500 bikes available at the entrance, a chance to experience the Danish urban way. At the center of the pavilion there’s a big pool with fresh water from Copenhagen’s harbor, on which visitors can even swim.
Oslo Central Station / Space Group
Norwegian architects Space Group won the competition for Oslo´s new Central Station. The project consists on demolishing a big part of the existing station, to build a 4 stories tall structure that will unify the station. It will include 2 floors for offices hanging over the station. Also, an adjacent U-shaped building will be occupied by the biggest conference hotel in Norway.
Currently, the Central Station receive 150,000 travellers every day, number expected to double in the next few years, rendering the current structure obsolete. Space Group´s project will be able to grow in stages. Construction will start on 2013, during 5 to 10 years. Quite a lot, but since the project will be done in stages it will be able to be in use during all the time.
Below, more renders by Luxigon sent to us by Space Group.
Winner announced for the Tour La Signal at La Defense, Paris: Ateliers Jean Nouvel
The La Defense is a 160 ha business district in the west of Paris, currently under a renewal plan to strengthen its place among the great international business districts. The plan is managed by the EPAD (The Public Establishment for Installation of La Défense), an organization formed by local authorities, government and neighbors focused on developing the La Defense for the best interests of its 20.000 residents and 150.000 inhabitants in floating population.
The renewal includes several high rise sustainable towers. One of this towers, the Tour Signal, entered an international closed competition for teams of architects/investors/developers, on which EPAD didn’t impose a site. The candidates were thus able to choose their sites either from among the entrances to the business district (South Gate and West Gate), either from sites subject to demolition operations. The Tour Signal will thus endow the business district with a new landmark in 2013.
The finalists for this project were Jacques Ferrier Architectures, Foster + Partners Ltd, Studio Libeskind Architect, Ateliers Jean Nouvel and Wilmotte et Associes SA.
And a few days ago, the winner was announced: Ateliers Jean Nouvel, project shown on the video above.
More pictures of the Jean Nouvel proposal, and the rest of the candidates/finalists after the jump.
b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos unveils design for new market in Barcelona
b720 just informed us that they won the ideas competition for the new Market dels Encants in Barcelona, Spain, commissioned by the city.
Near the iconic Agbar Tower, the project develops as a continuous platform that deals with the topography of the site, covered with a big roof that unifies all the activities on this platform. The roof varies its inclination in order to reflect different views and daylight changes.
Sadly, this is the only picture available. More information soon, as b720 is developing the executive project.
b720 is a spanish studio lead by Fermín Vázquez. They have worked with Jean Nouvel (Agbar Tower, MNCARS) and David Chipperfield (America´s Cup Building, Justice City Complex, AV Campus, among others) as local architects.
PS1 Young Architects Program 2008 / Work Architecture Company
UPDATE: See a video on the construction and photos of the project finished on this article.
Every year the PS1 Gallery at the Museum of Modern Art in New York invites young emerging architects to propose a temporary structure for their Warm-up Music festival, and unless you´ve been living under a rock for the last few months, you already know that Work AC won this years edition with their PF1 (Public Farm One) proposal.
PF1 (Public Farm One) is an urban farm concept built with inexpensive and sustainable materials recyclable after its use at P.S.1, such as cardboard tubes that form a continuous surface creating multiple zones of activity including swings, fans, sound effects, innovative seating areas, and a refreshing pool at its center, as an Urban Beach.
We visited Work AC (interview coming this Sunday) and they told us how this project allowed them to get in touch with non architects for the technique for growing plants on the cardboard tube structure, which enriched the development of the project. They also worked with LERA structural engineers.
Installation opens June 20th, hosting the 2008 Warm Up summer music series at the PS1. You can follow the construction progress at the Public Farm 1 website.
Iconic Incineration Line in Denmark by Erick van Egeraat
Erick van Egeraat has won the international competition for the design of a new incineration line in Roskilde, Denmark for Kara/Noveren, a local waste management company. Due to its large scale, the incinerator is destined to become an outstanding structure in the wide and open landscape of the Roskilde area. After its completion in 2013, the facility will produce both electricity and heating for the Roskilde district.
3LHD wins the Zamet Centre competition
3LHD is a croatian office that has developed some interesting houses, sports facilities and urban projects. And now they just won the private competition for the Zamet sports and community centre in Rijeka, Croatia. Rijeka is an industrial harbour city on the Adriatic Sea and the new complex will provide it with a new civic hub for both business people and the general public.
From their press release:
