Cambodian Sustainable Housing Proposal / Architetto Matteo Ascani
Designed by Architetto Matteo Ascani (AMA), the main driving force behind the their Cambonian Sustainable Housing project was to somehow recreate the sensation of living in a typical Cambodian house, where people have to maintain their own traditions, but in healthy and safe living conditions. Combined with a type of spatial experience that allows flexibility and the simple method of construction, this environmentally conscious design is able to respond to the needs of this society. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Great Fen Visiting Center Competition Entry / Alexandros Avlonitis + Aggeliki Anagnostopoulou
Designed by Alexandros Avlonitis + Aggeliki Anagnostopoulou, their proposal for the Great Fen Visiting Center is derived by the observation of the natural environment of the site and its manipulation by he human factor. The concept is based on an attempt to mimic a very common phenomenon of agricultural terrains: the stacking of blocks of hay, and their impulsive installation in the middle of endless fields. Therefore, the new Great Fen Visitor Center becomes not a building, but a stack of volumes placed in the landscape. More images and architects’ description after the break.
2018 Pyeongchang Speedskating Arena Proposal / Idea Image Institute of Architects
As the main ice sports facility for the 2018 Pyeongchang winter olympic games, the master plan proposal by Idea Image Institute of Architects (IIIA) has expressed local natural specific characteristics which is very beautiful and clean based on the New horizons, which is the vision of 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic games. Their design concept for the speed skating arena has beautiful shapes inspired by dynamic movement of speed skaters. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport VIP Terminal Winning Proposal / CPG Consultants
CPG Consultants recently won the Hanoi Noi Bai International Airport VIP terminal design competition, which was organized by the Airports Corporation of Vietnam. Expected to be completed in late 2014, the lotus flower-inspired design with its iconic petal-shaped pavilion roof will extend a ceremonious welcome to Heads of State and dignitaries as they arrive or depart from Hanoi. The new VIP Terminal will feature an octagonal geometry in plan, with the reception hall, state lounge and president lounges forming the centerpiece while the VIP lounges and function rooms form the angled part of the perimeter. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Ashgabat Olympic Complex Proposal / Arup
Developed by Arup and built to international sports federation standards, the Ashgabat Olympic Complex in the heart of Turkmenistan will be one of the largest building projects on which Arup has delivered the ‘total’ design and includes 750,000 square meters of sports and social buildings. Having just signed the contract for phase two of the project, which will add an aquatics center, indoor athletics arena, and a tennis center, the venues also include a velodrome, training halls, hotels, offices, a medical center and media facilities. More images and their description after the break.
BBC Radio 4 Competition: Design the Listening Project’s Pod
BBC Radio 4, in collaboration with RIBA, just launched a competition for the design of a portable ‘pod’ to enable their conversations, which have become essential listening, valued moments in their hectic broadcasting schedules, to take place in different venues around the UK such as shopping centers, libraries and festivals. For some people it might be the chance to capture memories, to relive shared moments, to put down for posterity how we feel about each other – or to have the one conversation they have always wanted to have. The Listening Project enables more of the general public the opportunity to record a conversation. The deadline to register is April 18 and the submission deadline is April 23. More information on the competition after the break.
UK’s Young Architect of the Year Awards Invites European Entries
European architects can now compete in the UK’s prestigious Young Architect of the Year Award (YAYA). Now in its 16th year, YAYA is the only prize that recognizes the UK’s most promising new architectural practice and is a crucial means of allowing new practices to emerge.
Speaking at MIPIM, the international property fair in Cannes last week, BD Editor-in-Chief Amanda Baillieu said: “Over time, YAYA has proved itself as a consistently strong means of identifying the most promising young architects of each generation. But, since the prize was launched, the world has changed and the best architects in the UK now have to compete with their counterparts abroad. More than any other, this is a global profession so it makes sense to extend YAYA’s helping hand to the rest of Europe.”
Living on Kunstcampus Winning Proposal / Léon Wohlhage Wernik Architekten
Léon Wohlhage Wernik Architekten was recently announced as the first prize winner for their proposal in the Living on Kunstcampus competition. Situated in the heart of Berlin, on the estate of the Hamburger Bahnhof, a new quarter will be created there, including the dominant urban planning element called the “Kunstkubus”. A lengthy building with a faceted surface gives the residential area its own urban planning presence. All apartments radiate spaciousness, and can be freely partitioned and enter into a relationship with the city through large loggias, or so-called “green rooms”. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Urban Edge Symposium
Curated by Michael Manfredi and Marion Weiss of Weiss/Manfredi, the biennial Urban Edge Award Symposium titled ‘Evolutionary Infrastructure / Evolving Practices’ will be hosted by the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Taking place April 5th at 10:00am, the event focuses on expanding the definition of ‘infrastructure’ to address an escalating set of design challenges that are at once cultural, architectural, and environmental. The symposium, which is free and open to the public, will host a series of cross-disciplinary talks and discussions between innovative architects, artists, ecologists, engineers, and theoreticians. For more information, please visit here.
‘Richard Meier – Architecture and Design’ Retrospective Exhibition
In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Richard Meier’s architecture career, Richard Meier & Partners Architects, in collaboration with the Fondazione Bisazza from Italy, are presenting the first Richard Meier Retrospective in Europe, titled ‘Richard Meier – Architecture and Design’. Taking place May 8-July 28, the new exhibition will be a retrospective of the American architect’s iconic work and the unveiling of a site-specific installation for the Foundation’s permanent collection. Meier’s oeuvre is a reflection of the continuous search and analysis of concepts perfected over more than half a century of constant work in the field of architecture and design. More images and information on the exhibition after the break.
Collider Activity Center Competition Entry / Gojko Radić + Nataša Stefanović
Inspired to create a landmark in Sofia for the Collider Activity Center, the form of this building volume emerges from the striking rock columns, which are planted underneath the layer of earth and extend up into the open landscape. Instead of literally being rocks, this design by Gojko Radić and Nataša Stefanović metaphorically has an analogy in this natural Bulgarian setting around its stunning cliffs. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Emerging Voices 2013: PRODUCTORA
Selected for this year’s Emerging Voices of the Architectural League of New York, PRODUCTORA of Mexico City will be delivering a lecture this Thursday, March 28th, at 7:00pm at the Scholastic Auditorium. PRODUCTORA was selected for their distinct design voice and their potential to influence architecture on a global scale. Being named an Emerging Voice is one of the most coveted awards in North American architecture, and the program has an excellent thirty year track record of identifying and nurturing firms that go on to have influential practices.
Other winning firms included in this year’s selection are Cao-Perrot Studio of Los Angeles and Paris, DIGSAU of Philadelphia, dlandstudio of Brooklyn, Gracia Studio of Tijuana and San Diego, MASS Design Group of Boston and Kigali, Rwanda, Ogrydziak Prillinger Architects of San Francisco, and SO-IL of New York City. For more information on the event, please visit here.
Patrick Vale: City Lines Exhibition
Patrick Vale, a name you might recognize due to his well-known time-lapse film, ‘Empire State of Pen’, that went viral last summer, will be opening up ‘City Lines’, his very first solo exhibition at the Coningsby Gallery in London from April 4-12. Vale, a London-based illustrator, artist and animator is a great example of how you can take your passion and talents and turn it into something that can be shared around the world. Capturing the public’s imagination with his film by clocking up to 700,000 plays in a few weeks, his intricate portraits of cities will now be on display. The large and highly detailed freehand drawings render the history and drama of our cities and invite us to peer into the fabric of the place. More images and information after the break.
The Drift House Proposal / The Open Workshop
With shelters and settlements in northern Canada currently undergoing a housing crisis due to decadent construction and energy costs, the corresponding ramifications on overcrowding and deprivation have resulted. What the Drift House aims to do is hybridize the intelligence of tradition and technology of both housing systems to offer direction on future constructions in the Arctic. Designed by Neeraj Bhatia of The Open Workshop, this housing prototype for northern climates proposes a series of snow fences that passively utilize snowdrift to form a new dwelling type by calibrating the snow fences with differential mesh openings and height. More images and architect’s description after the break.
Parallel Nippon: Contemporary Japanese Architecture 1996-2006
Taking place at the Japan Foundation Gallery in Sydney from April 2-May 1, Parallel Nippon, a world-class exhibition, will feature Japan’s most influential architects including 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Toyo Ito, Kengo Kuma, Tadao Ando, Kenzo Tange, SANAA, and many more. Containing over 100 large-scale photo panels of landmark designs, architectural models and video footage, the exhibition is divided into four thematic sections: Urban, Life, Culture and Living, a cross-sectional view of Japanese society. These areas represent the revolutionary, innovative and progressive architectural achievements realized not only in Japan but across the world as projects of Japanese architects. More information after the break.
With a specific focus on the decade of 1996 – 2006, Parallel Nippon is a collection of creative architectural solutions that reflect the social and cultural context of contemporary Japan. During the mid-1990s, Japan faced an economic recession. There was an escalation in urban migration, birth-rate was on the decline and an aging population was on the rise, transforming the standard family structure.
This period became commonly known as Japan’s transition from the ‘bubble’ to ‘post bubble’ period. Faced with the rapidly changing landscape, a new generation of architects were forced to re-evaluate their approach to design from an ‘expanding city’ model to a ‘continuous city’ outlook. Their quest led to radical results and creative possibilities for the new era and beyond.
Due to the large scale of the exhibition, it will be divided and presented into two parts: Urban & Life from April 2-13 and Culture & Living from April 17-May 1.
For more information, please visit here.
2013 Sally Walsh Lecture: Moving House / Jeanne Gang
On March 26th, architect Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects will discuss how housing can evolve in multiple ways to address contemporary challenges in “Moving House,” delivered as the Rice Design Alliance’s 2013 Sally Walsh Lecture at the The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Dedicated to “honoring Walsh’s groundbreaking foray into modern design by bringing cutting edge designers to Houston,” the lecture is sponsored in collaboration with the Rice School of Architecture, the AIA Houston Chapter, and the Architecture Center Houston Foundation. (more…)
Park 1 Proposal / White
Designed by White arkitekter their Park 1 project is intended to house a traffic and emergency management center, a new fire station and a total of 1,200 new workplaces in which effective coordination will be created on an everyday basis. Located in Stockholm, the building complex inclines back from Lindhagensgatan in a generous gesture which marks the entrance while also boldly cantilevering slightly into space towards the Essingeleden highway and above all of the movement and communication at the site. More images and architects’ description after the break.
‘Wallcano’: Collider Activity Center Competition Entry / Zohar Architects
Walltopia, a global leader in the design and manufacturing of artificial climbing walls and grips, organized the Collider Activity Center competition located in Sofia, near the foothills of Mount Vitosha – one of Bulgaria’s most popular tourist destinations. The proposal by Zohar Architects is a 100% climbable structure: a donut-shaped courtyard building informed by the diversity of context. Its volume is extruded using ‘grafts’ of the world’s most famous mountains as formwork to create a patchwork of alpine geo-diversity, with a perfect cast of Abraham Lincoln’s nose from Mount Rushmore prominently positioned to satisfy curious climber fantasies. More images and architects’ description after the break.
University of Ulster’s Belfast City Campus Proposal / Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
Designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, their proposal for the University of Ulster’s Belfast City Campus has recently received planning permission upon winning the competition in January 2012. The campus is part of a £250m higher education project to provide 70,000 sqm of central teaching, faculty and social learning accommodation across three linked sites in the Cathedral Quarter of Belfast city center. This high density urban university campus blurs the boundaries between the University environments and the city by providing publicly accessible thoroughfares and facilities across the lower three floors. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Wyckoff House Museum / nARCHITECTS
nARCHITECTS is designing a cultural education complex for the Wyckoff House Museum in Brooklyn on the site of New York‘s oldest house. The Wyckoff House has an immense history as it was the first landmark designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1968. nARCHITECTS’s educational complex will act as a portal between its present day environment and historical site. Due to its exceptional spatial and temporal intervention, the design was recently awarded an AIA New York Design Merit Award.
Millennium Point Visibility Winning Proposal / Daniel Madeiros + Jonathan Schwinge
Daniel Madeiros and Jonathan Schwinge were recently announced as the winners of the ideas competition organized by Millennium Point and the RIBA to enhance the visibility and image of Millennium Point in Birmingham from the Jennens Road approach. The jury panel was struck by the beauty and grace of their winning idea which was underpinned by craft and technology, convincing the jury that the dramatic form could be constructed. Also demonstrating complexity and sensitivity to the site, Millennium Point will benefit greatly from this competition and the opportunities it now has for its next phase of architectural evolution. More images and architects’ description after the break.
