Browsing: Landscape

Technology company Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD) new “Lone Star” campus – located at 7171 Southwest Parkway in Austin – has been awarded LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, making it the largest LEED-certified corporate campus in Texas. The $190 million, 870,000-square-foot campus opened in January 2008 on a 59-acre tract in south Austin. Project elements include four four-story office buildings, three recessed parking garages and the Lone Star building, which features an employee fitness center, cafeteria, gourmet coffee bar, casual meeting space, outdoor decks and a gaming center with table tennis, billiards tables and video game consoles.

Austin-based Graeber, Simmons & Cowan served as the lead architect; Texas-based TBG Partners provided programming, site planning and landscape architecture services; Austin-based Paul Koehler Brown and Austin-based Jaster-Quintanilla served as the structural engineers; Austin-based Michael E. James &Associates served as the civil engineer; and Dallas-based Austin Commercial served as the general contractor.

read more »

The Jerde Partnership’s Namba Parks, in Osaka, Japan, was just named one of the winners of the Urban Land Institute’s 2009 Awards of Excellence: Asia Pacific competition.  When asked to create a gateway to redefine Osaka’s identity, the architects responded with this project that would become a natural intervention in Osaka’s dense and harsh urban condition.  The rooftop park offers a sloping park plane that is “bifurcated by a sinuous, open-air ‘canyon’ path that reinforces the connection with nature while forming the primary circulation pattern.”

More about the park after the break. read more »

Architects: Bjørbekk & Lindheim
Location: Oslo, Norway
Client: Statsbygg and the city of Oslo
Water artist and consultant: Atelier Dreiseitl
Technical consultant: Norconsult
Constructed Area: 200,000 sqm
Project year: 2008
Photographs: Bjørbekk & Lindheim

read more »

Photo by Mauricio Pezo

Project: Field
Location: Arts Quad, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
Client: AAP, Escuela de Arquitectura, Cornell University
Architects: Mauricio Pezo, Sofia von Ellrichshausen, Yehre Suh
Collaborators: Sae-Jun Ahn, Laura Amaya, Jesica Bello, John Best, Irina Chernyakova, Constanza Cortes, Karen Drummund, Monica Alexandra Freundt, Thea von Geldern, Lisa Hollywood, Amanda Lee Huang, Soyoung Jung, Kyle Keene, Jina Kim, Viola Diane Kosseda, Weonyoung Joy Lee, Chris Leonberg, Timothy Liddell, Jacqueline Liu, Hana Ovcina, Mia Ovcina, Mansi Ajit Pandey, Anna Pelavin, Hilary Pinnington, Mitchell W. Pride, Lorena Quintana, Ashley Reed, Samuel J. Reilly, Landon Gary Robinson, Hira Sabuhi, Johann Schweig, Courtney Song, Jerome Soustra, Rachel Tan, Margarita Urquiza, Mauricio Vieto, Zhiqiang Wang, Christopher Werner, Sonny Meng Qi Xu, Soo Jung Yoo, Milena Zindovic
Photography: Karen Brummund, Mauricio Pezo, Irina Chernyakova, Jesica Bello
Project year: 2009
Construction Year: 2009
Surface: 30.000 m2
Budget: 3000 USD

This installation establishes an optical exercise extended into a landscape format. Field is a continuous and homogenous installation of 2800 red sacks filled with straw (21” wide x 32” high) that covered the entire Arts Quad of the Cornell University Campus, in Ithaca (NY). The sacks were distributed in a 10 feet by 10 feet regular grid that followed the natural slope of the ground surface.

read more »

Photo by Javier Vergara Petrescu

Yesterday we featured Iwan Baan’s photo set for the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009 by SANAA.

Now, we bring you a photo set from today, at the opening of the pavilion by Javier Vergara Petrescu, on which we can see more of the spatial relations at the park and the effect of the reflective material.  See how the height varies creating different spaces, from a tall open space for a crowd, to a low intimate space at the end.

More photos after the break:

read more »

© Iwan Baan

Architecture photographer Iwan Baan has been documenting the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, a series of temporary structures commissioned to renowned architects that sits on the Gallery’s lawn for three months, hosting a series of public talks and events at the park.  And now he just shared with us his photo set for this years pavilion, which opens to the public tomorrow July 12th, and will stay open until October 18.

For this year, the pavilion was commissioned to Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA.

An undulating aluminum structure sits on top of a delicate column system, providing a series of connected spaces while keeping a continuous view through the park. The aluminum reflects the trees, the ground and the sky, for a dramatic blending effect as you can see of the photos.

You can see Iwan’s photo sets for previous versions of the pavilion: Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond with ARUP (2006), Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen (2007) and Frank Ghery (2008).

More pictures after the break.

read more »

Photo by Karen Cilento

The New York Highline, a project by James Corner Field Operations with the collaboration of Diller Scofidio + Renfro has been open to the public for a few weeks (as we reported previously on AD) and as a New Yorker who has waited patiently for the project to finish, I was anxious to stroll along the latest addition in Manhattan.  The visit was a completely new way to experience the city.  Just the idea of observing Manhattan by walking above (and through) it, rather than being an actual part of it, made the Highline a project one must encounter to feel what the space can offer.

More about some impressions after a visit to the Highline and more pictures after the break.   read more »

Shenzhen Crystal Island @ OMA / Ole Scheeren

Shenzhen is one of the most active cities in China, and was recently appointed “City of Design” by the UNESCO (2008).  A recent competition for Crystal Island, located in the center of the city, envisions the envisions the Shenzhen Creative Center, an iconic project in front of the city hall.

The project, won by OMA in collaboration with chinese firm Urbanus, includes  a major new cultural center, transport hub, and public landmark. The Shenzhen Creative Center takes advantage of such a central location, and disaggregate the program over a 20-hectare landscape of parks and gardens, on which clusters of pavilions and small buildings form “Design Villages” creating a micro urban system which includes buildings for Design Administration, Tourism Center, buildings for design retail and expo and a design campus. It also includes a big open space, the Ceremonial Plaza.

All these buildings and open spaces are connected by an elevated pedestrian system, the “Ring Connector”, which also connects to existing and future train and subway stations.

At the center of this circular project, a spherical void becomes a landmark for the city: the Shenzhen Eye.

The disaggregation of the program on such an active area has the potential to mix the creative industry with the rest of the city’s activities, potentiating  multiplicity, permeability, and openness towards creative activity.

The project collaboration between OMA and Urbanus includes the young Ole Scheeren and Rem Koolhaas, and Urbanus partner Meng Yan, with a team lead by OMA Associates Dongmei Yao and Anu Leinonen.

After the break, a schematic model of the program relations and another rendering.

read more »

Following an international design competition, Imperial War Museum North (IWMN) selected Topotek 1 as the preferred design team to develop the external spaces of the museum in Trafford.  The selection panel felt that Topotek 1’s scheme, Camouflage Strategy, best addressed the need for zones of contemplation, creativity and play which would complement the Daniel Libeskind building.

Further project description after the break. read more »

Our green friends from Inhabitat had the chance to visit the recently opened High Line project in New York, and interviewed the lead design architect James Corner from Field Operations and Ricardo Scofidio from DS+R at the new elevated park.

This project is a remarkable example of infrastructure renovation, and in my opinion will be a case study for future urbanists and architects, not only in terms of design but also on how the community got involved in the process.

Also, props to Jill for making this video.

Photos © Iwan Baan

In May 2003, James Corner Field Operations with Diller Scofidio + Renfro competed against 720 teams from 36 countries to win the infrastructure conversion project of the New York City High Line.  More than half a decade later, the High Line’s transition to a public park is almost complete.  On June 8th, architects, elected officials, and advocates watched as Mayor Michael Bloomberg cut the ceremonial red ribbon, officially announcing the opening of the first of three sections.  The new park offers an alluring break from the chaotic city streets as users have an opportunity to experience an elevated space with uninterrupted views of the Hudson River and the city skyline.

More info about the park, including an incredible set of photos by architecture photographer Iwan Baan and a video by Brooklyn Foundry after the break.

UPDATE: We corrected some credits of this project. You can see the full list here.

read more »

© Sungpil Won

Architects: Mass Studies - Minsuk Cho + Kisu Park
Location: City Park, Denver, Colorado, USA
Design team: Joungwon Lee,Bumhyun Chun, Kyungmin Kwon, Sungpil Won
Structure: Pneumatic
Construction: ABR
Finishing: Nylon fabric with silver dot printing
Gross floor Area: 673 sqm
Design year: 2004-2008
Construction year: 2008
Photographs: Sungpil Won / Mass Studies

http://www.vimeo.com/4750414
© Mass Studies

read more »

Our friends from L.E.FT (previously featured on AD Futures) just shared with us an interesting vertical landscape project, a joint work with norwegian architects STUDIO hp AS.

The project is located in Holmestrand, Norway, and consists on a public elevator that connects the old lower part of the town across and 85m high cliff to the newer part of it. The infrastructure acts as an articulator of multiple activities/programs that make this intervention a unique urban piece.

It is being presented to the city next month.

read more »

Aquatic Complex for Panamerican Games, Competition 1st prize, under construction

After a 2 week break, AD Futures is back to bring you the best young practices from around the world.

This time, I choose a practice based in Medellin, Colombia. Why did I choose them? Paisajes Emergentes (Emerging Landscapes) has a very unique approach to landscape architecture, which has made them win several competitions. Most of those competitions  weren´t even landscape specific projects, yet the result is always a built environment which becomes a new landscape – not just limited to small interventions but as the base for the whole project: sports centers, parks, public facilities, libraries, etc.

Also, they have a very good representation technique, that in my opinion is able to transmit the proposed atmosphere the landscape will create over time, not as a brand new shiny project  but as an evolving project becoming one with its location.

Enough of my words, and lets see the projects speak by themselves:

read more »

In June 2008, Transportation Alternatives launched the competition 21st Century Street. Partecipants to the competition should redesign the intersection between 9th Street and 4th Avenue in Brooklyn, in order to allow more space for pedestrians, cyclists and public transports.

On December 9, 2008, the results of the competition have been announced, and you can see the winners after the break.

read more »

Location: Houston, Texas, USA
Architect: Thomas Phifer & Partners
Landscape Architect: The Office of James Burnett
Civil Engineering: Walter P. Moore
Lighting Design: Fisher Marantz Stone
Client: Rice University
Project Year: 2006-2007
Construction Year: 2007-2008
Constructed Area: 557.5 sqm
Photographs: OJB, Paul Hester & Scott Frances

read more »

Peak oil is approaching. In the next future, most of the oil-dependent suburbs in which we live now will be abandoned and decay, turning into ruins, inhabited only by the few ones who where too fat and too car-dependent to escape back to the city. Little by little, nature will take over suburbs, but this process will be extremely slowly.

In order to give Mother Nature a hand, Andrew Maynard Architects have designed CV08, the suburb-eating robot.

read more »

Architects: The Office of James Burnett
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Master Planning: Skidmore Owings and Merrill
Design Landscape Architect: Tha Office of James Burnett
Landscape Architect of Record: Site Design Group Limited
Engineering Services: Epstein
Client: Magellan Group Limited / Loewenberg and Associates
Project Year: 2002-2003
Construction Year: 2004-2005
Constructed Area: 5.2 Acres
Photographs: OJB & David Seide

read more »