Location: Dallas, USA
Architects: Foster + Partners
Team: Norman Foster, Spencer de Grey, Stefan Behling, Michael Jones, James McGrath, Bjørn Polzin, Laszlo Pallagi, Morgan Fleming, Leonhard Weil, John Small, Ingrid Sölken, Hugh Whitehead, Francis Aish
Client: AT+T Performing Arts Center
Collaborating Architect: Kendall Heaton Associates
Main Contractor: Linbeck Construction
Acoustician: Sound Space Design
Theatre Consultant: Theatre Projects Consultants
Structural Engineers: Buro Happold, Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers
Services Engineers: Battle McCarthy, CHP & Associates
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Browsing: Cultural
Architects: Randić & Turato / Saša Randić and Idis Turato
Location: Rijeka, Croatia
Project team: Sinisa Glusica, Gordan Resan, Iva Cuzela-Bilac, Ana Stanicic (Technical Architects)
Contractor: Aljosa Travas
Client: Franciscan monastery Trsat
Total built surface: 1,048 sqm
Design year: 2003
Construction date: 2008
Photographs: Robert Leš
Architects: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
Location: Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA
Project Area: 2,044 sqm
Year: 2007
Photographs: BCJ
Architects: Randić & Turato / Saša Randić and Idis Turato
Location: Novigrad, Croatia
Client: Town Novigrad
Collaborator: Leora Drazul (Technical Architect)
Construction: Dragan Ribaric
Commission type: Invited Competition
Project Area: 780 sqm
Project year: 2003
Construction year: 2006
Photographs: Randić & Turato
PATTERNS has designed a new three story cultural center for West Hollywood, California. The center, known as Prism, will become a cornerstone of artistic experimentation, carving a new niche for the arts in Southern California. The facade will be the first in the nation to be constructed entirely out of a resin based composite polycarbonate. Inspired by automotive design supple forms, streamlined detailing and plastic finishes; the façade has a dual aesthetic performance associated to its plastic materiality and responsive to the lively energy of its context: it behaves as a reflectively glossy surface during daylight and as a translucent skin at night.
More about Prism after the break. read more »
Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects, a renowned practice with expertise in public/cultural buildings, just unveiled the details for the new Reva and David Logan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Chicago.
This new building will offer 170,000sqf for studios, rehearsal space, director’s cut screening rooms, state–of–the art acoustical theaters, lecture rooms and set–building shops, that will be shared by many departments including visual arts, theater, music, as well as cinema and media studies.
The project includes a 11-story tall tower, which will become a new landmark at the south of the campus. At the top of this tower we find the Performance Penthouse, a tall space for performances and rehearsals with an amazing view over the city (see render below).
The rest of the complex is distributed on smaller buildings, with an interesting set of skylights to naturally lit the interiors.
As usual in Tod Williams Billie Tsien works, such as the American Folk Art Museum in New York, the Phoenix Art Museum and the East Asian Library at Berkeley, the simplicity of the materials (stone and glass) give the building a contemporary yet ageless look, a building that will stand over time, not just a fad.
More renderings after the break.
Ginseng Chicken Architecture P.C. has proposed a renewed identity for the St. Paul Church and Vadabus Square in Rakvere, Estonia by attempting to integrate three disparate elements of the site into a cohesive design strategy for a main concert hall. With Arvo Pärt’s musical legacy and contribution to the genre of minimal music in mind, non-organization and non-sequentiality became the main driving force behind the design of the annex and were then translated into an architectural language.
More images and further project description after the break. read more »
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 »
Site: Vitoria, Spain
Architect: Francisco José Mangado Beloqui
Work direction: Francisco José Mangado Beloqui
Collaborators:
Architecture: José Mª Gastaldo, Richard Král’ovič, Eduardo Pérez de Arenaza.
Structural engineering: NB 35 SL (Jesús Jiménez Cañas / Alberto López) Ingenieros.
Installations engineering: Iturralde y Sagüés ingenieros / César Martín Gómez.
Acoustic engineering: Higini Arau. Estudi Acustic.
Lighting: ALS Lighting arquitectos consultores de iluminación (Antón Amann).
Quantity surveyor: Laura Montoya López de Heredia.
Contractor: UTE Arqueología (Dragados SA, Lagunketa SA).
Total area: 6.000 m2
Total cost: $9.000.000 €
Competition: 2000. First Prize Project Contest
Project: 2002-2003
Construction: 2004-2009
Client: Diputación Foral de Álava.
Photos: Courtesy of Francisco Mangado
Architect: Chiasmus Partners
Location: Beijing, China
Principal Architect: James Wei Ke, Hyunho Lee
Project Team: Oscar Ko, Gu Yun Duan, Feng Bo
Client: Beijing Modern Dance Company
Program: Performance Hall, Practice Hall, Saloon
Project years: 2008-2009
Photographer: Chiasmus, Jenny Hung
Visiondivision’s latest entry for the Taiwan Pop Music Center competition aims to “transcend its visitors into a total escapism of pop.” With different districts that use the effect of the main tower and specific angles of light, the whole building expands dramatically in appearance, from a rather low key building in the distance to a spectacular body of light once approached.
More about the project including images and a further project description after the break. read more »
Architects: KARO Architecten / Antje Heuer, Stefan Rettich, Bert Hafermalz, Leipzig Architektur+Netzwerk, Sabine Eling-Saalmann, Magdeburg
Location: Magdeburg, Germany
Collaborators: Christian Burkhardt, Gregor Schneider, Mandy Neuenfeld
Project Partners: Bürgerverein Salbke, Fermersleben, Westerhüsen e.V.
Structural Engineer: Michael Kurt, Leipzig
Light Conception: Jürgen Meier, architektur&medien, Leipzig
Consultant: Ruth Gierhake, Köln
Commissioner: City of Magdeburg
Funding: Ministry of infrastructure, building and city development
Project Area: 488 sqm
Budget: $325,000 Euro
Project year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Anja Schlamann
Architects: ACXT
Location: Derio, Bizkaia, Spain
Project Architect: Gonzalo Carro
Collaborators: Carlos Miguel Guimaraes & Javier Pérez Uribarri
Project Development: Gonzalo Carro & ATHOS (Pedro Berroya, Aitziber Goikoetxea)
Structure: Javier Eskubi, Amaia Oyón, Ángel Gómez
Project Area: 2,600 sqm
Budget: 2,600 sqm
Design year: 2006–2007
Construction year: 2007–2009
Photographer: Aitor Ortiz
We have received an update on the design of the Baton Rouge Downtown Library by Trahan Architects, which clarifies several aspects of the circulations, the relation with the surroundings and details of the facade.
The facade looks very interesting, and on the diagrams you can see how the exterior envelope varies along the elevation to achieve the folded paper like look. A detail of the section reveals further information about this.
All the diagrams/drawings, courtesy of Trahan Architects, after the break.
Architect: 3XN
Location: Piet Heinkade 1, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Client: Geemente Amsterdam
Structural engineers: ABT BV, Netherlands
Year of enchargement: 1997
Year of completion: 2005
Constructed area: 15,000 sqm
Photographs: Andrea Giannotti
Antoine Damery, sent us his design for the Peddle Thorp Architects submission for the international competition for the thematic pavilion of the Expo 2012 in Yeosu, Korea.
The pavilion is prototypical architecture, drawing from the multidisciplinary source of product design- urban planning-architecture and naval design. The pavilion is resolved as a vessel – a floating exhibition space that can be sailed to other cities. It’s an evolution of architecture- a futuristic adaptable living building that can adapt to suit an unknowable future. Its ingenuity will encourage multidisciplinary problem solving through sustainable solutions.
More images and architect’s description after the break. read more »
Architects: REX | OMA
Location: Dallas, USA
Key Personnel: Joshua Prince-Ramus (Partner-in-Charge) and Rem Koolhaas, with Erez Ella, Vincent Bandy, Vanessa Kassabian, Tim Archambault
Executive Architect: Kendall/Heaton Associates
Client: The AT&T Performing Arts Center
Consultants: Cosentini, DHV, Donnell, Front, HKA, Magnusson Klemencic, McCarthy, McGuire, Pielow Fair, Plus Group, Quinze & Milan, Theatre Projects, Tillotson Design, Transsolar, 2×4
MEP/FP Design Engineer: Transsolar Energietechnik, Germany
MEP/FP Engineer of Record: Cosentini Associates, New York
Structural Engineer of Record: Magnusson Klemencic Associates, Seattle
Theatre Design: Theatre Projects Consultants, Connecticut
Acoustics: Dorsserblesgraaf, Netherlands
ADA: McGuire Associates, Massachusetts
Construction Management: McCarthy Construction
Cost: Donnell Consultants, Florida
Facades: Front, New York
Furniture: Quinze & Milan, Kortrijk Belgium
Graphics/Wayfinding: 2 x 4, New York
Life Safety: Pielow Fair, Seattle
Lighting: Tillotson Design Associates, New York
Vertical Transport: HKA, California
Project Area: 7,700 sqm
Project year: 2006-2009
Photographs: Iwan Baan, Tim Hursley, Jeffrey Buehner
Architects: Drost + van Veen architecten
Location: Alemere, The Netherlands
Project Architects: Evelien van Veen, Simone Drost
Collaborators: Onno Groen, Kees de Wit, Jos Lafeber, Bernhard Jaarsma, Perry Klootwijk
Client: Gemeente Almere
Contractor: Reimert Bouw
Structural Engineer: ABT Delft
Project year: 2009
Photographs: John Lewis Marshall, Ben te Raa & Roos Aldershoff
Architects:DnA
Location:Songzhuang town,Tongzhou distant,Beijing, China
Architect in Charge:Tiantian Xu
Program:Cultural Center
Client:Xiaopu village government
Project year:2006-2007
Site area:1,600 sqm
Building area:2,000 sqm
Photographs:Savoye/Ruogu Zhou
Our friend Xavier Vilalta from Barcelona-based xvstudio sent us his new project: the Melaku Center. The Melaku Center will be new center of learning, working and projection for the inhabitants of Mek’ele, capital of the Tigray, a region of the north of Ethiopia.
The Melaku Center will be a reference model of sustainable development in Africa, from the design of the buildings to the program itself. The whole project will be a ecosystem of knowlegde, development and natural resources.
A common parameter in the traditional African architecture is the use of the fractal scale: small parts of the structure tend to be similar to the bigger ones, for example, the circular villages are made of circular houses. More description and images after the break. read more »





















































































