Architects: Architects Collective
Location: Tadten, Austria
Project Team: Andreas Frauscher, Patrick Herold, Richard Klinger, Kurt Sattler
Client: Erich Sattler Winery
Contractor: Gartner Schienerbau GmbH
Site Area: 300 sqm
Constructed Area: 450 sqm
Project Year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Courtesy of Architects Collective

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© Cristián Barahona

Architects: GH+A / Guillermo Hevia
Location: Graneros, Chile
Collaborators: Tomás Villalón, Francisco Carrión, Guillermo Hevia García, Marcela Suazo
Client: Nestlé Chile S.A.
Contractor: Precon S.A.
Bioclimatic Consultant: Biotech
Lighting: Opendark
Project Area: 2,800 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Cristián Barahona, Guillermo Hevia H. & Guillermo Hevia García

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© Aitor Ortiz

Architects: ACXT
Location: Boroa, Amorebieta-Etxano, Biscay, Spain
Project Architects: Javier Pérez Uribarri, Xabier Aparicio Ortega
Client: AIC Fundation
Project Team: Jose Cavallero, Nuno Lobo, Roberto Fdez De Gamboa, Roberto Aparicio, Cristina Lamikiz, Oscar Costa, Marc Rips, Jose Cavallero, Nuno Lobo, Fernado Ortega, Marina Duran, Oscar Malo, Arrate Achalandobaso, Ziortza Bardeci, Francisco García, Angel Gómez
Engineering: Amaia Lastra, Oscar Malo, Rafael Pérez, Francisco García, Angel Gómez, Ibai Ormaza, Igor Udaondo
Site Supervisors: Javier Pérez Uribarri, Xabier Aparicio Ortega, Oscar Malo, Rafael Pérez, Amaia Lastra, Mikel Presilla
Contractor: Balzola
Total Floor Area: 19,006 sqm (Phase I)
Project Year: 2006-2007
Construction Year: 2007-2008
Photographs: Aitor Ortiz

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Iwan Baan has always amazed us with his photos, capturing the essence of several projects around the world. But Iwan has also been exploring with virtual panoramas (I remember some OMA buildings at Domus, included on a CD).

Via @vitra I found that Iwan used this technique on the VitraHaus building by Herzog & de Meuron, which you can now explore from your computer to  get a better idea about the spatial relations between these stacked volumes.

Follow this link to take the virtual tour.

Architects: tFPS
Location: Santiago, Chile
Project team: Eduardo Fam Mancilla, Diego Pinochet Puentes, Leonardo Suárez Molina
Structural engineer: José Manuel Morales
Site area: 3,128 sqm
Constructed area: 1,670 sqm
Project year: 2006-2009
Photographs: Nicolas Saieh & tFPS

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© Francisco Berreteaga

Architects: ACXT
Location: Alava Technology Park, Miñano, Vitoria – Gasteiz, Spain
Project Architect: Javier Pérez Uribarri
Client: Epsilon Euskadi and Alava Technology Park
Project Team: Oscar Ferreira Da Costa, Beatriz Pagoaga, Marc Rips, Daniela Bustamante, Ricardo Moutinho, Xabier Aparicio, Ana Esteruelas, Juan Dávila
Engineering: (Idom) Gorka Viguri Roa, Natalia Sagasti, Elena Guezuraga, Camino López, Francisco Javier Sánchez, Beatriz Lorenzo.
Site Supervisors: Javier Pérez Uribarri, Gorka Viguri Roa (Idom) Y Fernando Tobalina (Sainsa)
Contractor: Ferrovial
Total Floor Area: 15,748.38 Sqm
Project Year: 2007
Construction Year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Francisco Berreteaga

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View from Consular plaza (rendering by Studio amd)

KieranTimberlake has been announced as the winner of the design competition for the new US Embassy in London.

According to a statement by the US Embassador in the UK, KieranTimberlake´s design “meets the goal of creating a modern, welcoming, timeless, safe and energy efficient embassy for the 21st century.”

Regarding the “safety” issues, KT’s design shows an interesting solution away from embassies from the early 90s surrounded by large walls with no urban considerations, using a park with a pond instead. The Embassy is no only an icon, but an urban piece “honoring the English tradition of urban parks and gardens as the context for many civic buildings”, connecting the Thames embankment to the new pedestrian way to the south.

view from Embassy park (rendering by Studio amd)

“Viewed from the north at the proposed plaza, the embassy grounds will provide the prospect of an open park, a landscape of grasses rising gracefully to the new embassy colonnade, with the required secure boundaries incised into the hillside and out of view. Instead of a perimeter-walled precinct, the site to the north and south is a welcoming urban amenity, a park for the city that fuses the new embassy to the city of London. Alternatives to perimeter walls and fences are achieved through landscape design.”

The pure geometry of the cube is fragmented by a highly specialized ETFE (ethylene-tetrafluroethylene, used in several recent buildings) facade optimized to shade interiors from east, west and south sun while admitting daylight and framing large open view portals to the outside. If you take a closer look to the renderings from the inside you will notice that the ETFE foils include thin photovoltaic film that intercepts unwanted solar gain in certain angles. The scrim also renders the largely transparent façades visible to migratory birds to discourage bird-strikes.

More information and renderings about the Embassy after the break. I also recommend to read our interview with Stephan Kieran.

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The Rolex Learning Center at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland will open its doors on Feb 22th.

The building, designed by the acclaimed Japanese firm SANAA, features one of the most impressive concrete surfaces I have ever seen, creating a fluid space for students to enjoy. Interesting comments by Ryue Nishizawa on the relation between organic forms in architecture and human life. While the building is a perfect rectangle when seen in a plan view, the curves and slopes which define the interior space give the building a totally organic look.

More photos after the break.

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Spanish architects Mateo Arquitectura have shared with us their project for the official residence of the Spanish Embassy in Canberra, Australia.

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

Architects: Tabanlıoğlu Mimarlık / Melkan Gürsel & Murat Tabanlıoğlu
Location: Ankara, Turkey
Project Team: Murat Cengiz , Çağrı Akay, Ozan Öztepe, Ali Eray
Interior Design: Tabanlıoğlu Architects
Client: Ortadoğu Otomotiv ve Tic.A.Ş
Structural Engineering: Altıneller
Mechanical Engineering: Elmak
Electrical Engineering: Öneren Proje Mühendislik
Facade: Emmer Pfenninger Partner AG
Architectural Lighting: Studio Dinnebier
Main Contractor: D – Yapı / Ataman İnşaat
Landscape Consultant: Esin Kılınç
Site Area: 4,299 sqm
Construction Area: 11,475 sqm
Project Year: 2006–2007
Construction Year: 2007–2008
Photographs: Thomas Mayer, Cemal Emden

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© Iwan Baan

The 22@ is an experimental district in Barcelona, Spain, with a mayor energetic load (District Climate), where the new values of the companies are intangible: they are not based in having natural resources of water, soil, gas, they don’t have real-estate values, retransmission rights (media Pro), they have patents (Indra), they have intelligence, programming and interaction (like the Reactable of Sergi Jorda from the Pompeu), a district, the way Artur Serra from I2CAT and the people form the 22@ say, an urban Lab.

Is here where Spanish architect Enric Ruiz Geli designed this innovative building with a net-like steel structure, avoiding pillars on the ground floor, introducing the public spaces to the building.

Check the photos Iwan Baan took for Abitare and some drawings after the break.

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© Aleix Bagué

Architects: Coll-Barreu Arquitectos – Juan Coll-Barreu & Daniel Gutiérrez Zarza
Location: Derio, Spain
Structure: Mintegia y Bilbao
Mechanical & Electrical: Indotec
Client: Parque Tecnológico S.A.
Constructed area: 15,584.63 sqm
Budget: 15,840,071.43 €
Project year: 2005-2006
Construction year: 2005-2009
Photographs: Aleix Bagué

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© Jimmy Cohrssen

Architects: Carbondale
Location: Munich, Germany
Project Team: Eric Carlson / Director, Pierre Tortrat / Associate, Valérie Vaudoyer / Project Architect
Local Architect: Jan Hehenberger, Munich, Germany
Building contractor: Gerhard P. Wirth, Nürnberg, Germany
Contractors: Franck Franjou, Paris / Lighting consultant – Abisz, Velen Germany / Furniture Contractor – Films Hors Ecran, Paris / Audio Video Consultant – Thalweg, Montreuil / Landscape Consultant, Pur-Metall, Hohenbrunn Germany / Metal
Project Area: 2,000 sqm
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: Jimmy Cohrssen

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© Hertha Hurnaus

Architects: AllesWirdGut Architektur
Location: Innichen, San Candido, Austria
Client: Gemeinde Innichen / Comune di San Candido
Project Area: 2,670 sqm
Outdoor Space Area: 8,400 sqm
Construction Year: 2007
Photographs: Hertha Hurnaus

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© Terje Løchen, Løchen Media Web

Architects: A-Lab
Location: Fornebu, Norway
Partners in Charge: Odd Klev, Geir Haaversen, Adnan Harambasic
Design team: Jan Petter Seim, Tonje Løvdahl, Tor Inge Hjemdal, Jarand Midtgaard, Inger Totland
Client: IT-Fornebu Eiendom
Landscape design: Asplan Viak
Structural engineer: Rambøll Norge AS (competition phase: Arup)
Electro: Føyn Consult
Ventilation: Norconsult
Project Area: 28,000 sqm
Budget: 500 mill NOK
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Luis Fonseca

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Architects: KOW
Location: Lange Kleiweg, Rijswijk, The Netherlands
Project Team: Hans Kuiper, John Chan, Kasper Hauschultz Hansen
Client: Visser & Smit Bouw, Modulus Projectontwikkeling
Contractor: Visser & Smit Bouw
User: Shell International
Project Area: 41,210 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Courtesy of KOW

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© Morphosis

Morphosis Architects is currently completing a massive project in Shanghai: The Headquarters and offices for Giant Group, including residence for the chairman & all Giant Group employees, hotel, training center and clubhouse, with a total of 258,300 sqf (23,996 sqm).

Thom Mayne’s architecture has pushed building techniques in order to take his organics form to reality, and I think that the best way to understand his projects is not through renders or even drawings, but by watching the structure and the construction progress.

© Morphosis

After the break drawings and several photos during the construction phase of this almost completed project in China:

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Architects: Bebin & Saxton – Daniel Bebin y Tomás Saxton
Location: Punta Arenas, XII Región, Chile
Structural Engineer: Samuel Marín
Concept Consultant: Pablo Prieto
Client: Patagonia Mineral S.A. – Agua Mineral Aonni
Materials: Steel, Glass, Corrugated Aluminium, Timber
Site Area: 5,000 sqm
Constructed Area: 640 sqm
Project Year: 2007‐2008
Construction Year: 2008
Photographs: Franklin Pardon & Daniel Bebin

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Architects: KOW
Location: Maasvlakte, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Project Team: Hans Kuiper, John Chan
Client: Euromax
Contractor: Cordeel, Zwijndrecht
Project Area: 10,000 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Courtesy of KOW

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Architects: Jarosch Architektur
Location: Frankfurt, Germany
Project Team: Herbert Jarosch, Nikola Jarosch
Client: Christian Eichenberger, Partyrent Frankfurt am Main
Site Area: 12,000 sqm
Project Area: 3,154 sqm
Project Year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Jarosch Architektur

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