Courtesy of Ruud Sies

De Rotterdam is a unique multifunctional building on the shores of the river Maas on the Wilhelminapier in Rotterdam designed by Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) of Rem Koolhaas. Its remarkable mix of functions makes this building a true vertical city.

By following the construction for 4 years (January 2010 – end of 2013), Ruud Sies presents a photographic report on a very special project in the development of Rotterdam, one that also forms a link to the Wilhelminapier as a historic spot. The full report can be viewed here. More images after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Shenzhen Municipal Government

From December 8th to February 12th at the OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, the cities of Shenzhen and Hong Kong are hosting the 7th Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture and this year, Finland will be participating in the biennale for the first time. Participants in the biennale include the Museum of Finnish Architecture, Design Forum Finland and the Newly Drawn project, which represents young Finnish architects.

The event takes a stand on modern phenomena in China, which is urbanising at an ever increasing pace. Running from December 2011 until February 2012, the biennale examines different aspects of urbanisation, including case studies of cities less than 60 years old, an exhibition on the development of urban public transport and current construction projects in Shenzhen. More information on the event after the break. read more »

Issue #9: New Knowledge - New Practices?

What is the function of gossip in architecture? Let’s face it, architects don’t openly criticize or debate each other’s work in public; they prefer to gossip within their chosen networks, aiding social bonding through subtle passive aggression. Gossip has always been around in architecture as one of the oldest ways of sharing, maneuvering and convincing. But how does it manifest itself today within the instant culture of internet and social media?

These are the questions Conditions Magazine is hoping you will be able to answer through an abstract design for their new, upcoming issue. More information on the call for submissions after the break. read more »

Courtesy of OODA

For their competition proposal, OODA believes that in the process of generating architecture, they cannot have success without imagination because that is the most efficient tool or possibility to generate scenarios, predict spaces and reinvent ambiances. For this unique equipment, their approach tries to merge the most efficient program articulation with a strong concept which intends to suggest the overall theme integrated with Istanbul’s context. The main program components require a specific connectivity overlap that generates directly a crossed axis of piled interrelated spaces. Then, as a conceptual driven figuration, this formal arrangement suffers the effect of a natural disaster – earthquake – and falls down until achieving its structural stability on the ground creating as well the landscape topography with the same principle. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Brusselssprout recently launched their new book, Dubai Graphic Encyclopedia Volumen 1. To consider compiling an encyclopedia (of any kind) in post-Wikipedia times is an exercise in emotional withdrawal. From a position of bewilderment and confusion, they choose to act by producing and employing another tool from the land of the naive and outdated, represented by encyclopedic work, devoid of all logic and meaning considering current cultural conditions and speed. What the first edition Dubai graphic and visual encyclopedia presents is a reality that acts as a counterpoint to all the excess of attempts to decipher and understand Dubai. Attempts that are mostly unable to uncover items that shed light on the question ‘What’s it all about’?

Taking place on January 15th, the Symposium Metropoles du sud 2012 is  a cultural event organized by a hundred students in the master’s program in ENSAM. The day will consist of discussions and meetings on a contemporary problematic issue. For its 4th edition, the Symposium Métropoles du sud will focus on the theme: Territory and new densities. More information on the event after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Dimos Moysiadis and Xaris Tsitsikas

Young Greek architects Dimos Moysiadis and Xaris Tsitsikas, have shared with us their latest project, an architecture competition entry for the redesign of the old GSP area in Nicosia, Cyprus. More images and brief project description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of GVNM Arquitetos

The construction of the Istanbul Disaster Prevention and Education Center in the Bakırköy district offers the possibility of redefining the territory in this area of the city. It is the perspective of GVNM Arquitetos that they should not extend the logic of the surroundings, with high independent buildings that do not establish relations between each other and do not create an urban fabric. Therefore, with the intent of consolidating the existing fabric and to depart from the image of the nearby constructions, their aim is to create a space and a building truly unique and singular, closer to a natural construction than of an urban structure. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Ryszard Swarabowicz, Marek Golec, Anna Liput, Milena Klecha, Dagmara Olejniczak

The main idea of the urban and architectural plan for this proposal by Ryszard Swarabowicz, Marek Golec, Anna Liput, Milena Klecha and Dagmara Olejniczak was to create a space that will offer visitors a huge advantage of permanent experience and opportunity of being “in the middle of the experiment”. Additionally, the exposed feature of the experience was its unpredictability. This idea was born during the study themes of the center, it is the unpredictability, which is most often associated with the forces of nature. To achieve this goal – ceaseless experience – the building was designed as a dynamic form, equipped with modern glass technology, which allows to set the limits of transparency of the object. More images and project description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Capella Garcia Arquitectura

The proposal by Capella Garcia Arquitectura is designed for a music-themed upscale Hotel Competition in Jurmala. The resort town, located on the Latvian coast of the Baltic Sea, in the Gulf of Riga, can be described as a polycentric, linear city between the Gulf of Riga and river Lielupe, formed of several historical fishing villages. From the 19th century onwards, the city has transformed into seaside resorts, but Jurmala is also well known for its musical heritage, so they believed the surrounding environment must not be ignored.

Jurmala’s main focus nowadays is on leisure and its related programs and the greatest environmental advantage is the proximity to the Baltic sea. What do music and the sea have in common? How can it be related to architecture? How can the new building fit in Jurmala’s cityscape? Their concept was guided by these questions. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of CollectiveArchitects

CollectiveArchitects shared with us their proposal for the Istanbul Disaster Prevention and Education Center. Their building design is articulated according to the four natural elements – earth, fire, air and water. A main atrium is dedicated to each element. These atriums are also orientation points, which makes going around the building easier and more clear. Furthermore, well illuminated by natural light, the atriums provide visitors places where they can relax after what they have experienced in the adjoining rooms. There are no particular actions pre-determined in those spaces. There can be projections on the walls, exhibition of drawings and sculptures or light and sound experiences. These can be changed periodically and attract also the people that have already visited the center. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Design Initiatives

The intention of Design Initiatives in the ThyssenKrupp Elevator Istanbul Disaster Prevention and Education Center Competition is to organize a joyful, integral space where man reconciles with nature. In addition to animate forms, they have manipulated the movement in order to induce the production of new urban opportunities. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Ondrej Lipensky and Andrea Kubna

Floating Baths, designed by Ondrej Lipensky and Andrea Kubna, on the Vltava River in Prague is conceived as a closed rounded space, floating on the water surface. Since the waterfront of the river is a problematic issue here in the city, the architects thought about a function that would get local people into the center again. The floating object is accessible by boat and is not connected to the banks of the river. It is an island and in close distance to Strelecky and Slovansky Island, many small harbors with boats and treadles, but also streets overloaded with cars, is a place to take a rest during the busy day for meeting friends. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

1st prize 01

The Asia Pacific winners of the Holcim Awards for sustainable construction were recently announced in Singapore. The Holcim Awards is an international competition that recognizes innovative projects and future-oriented concepts on regional and global levels. The competition is designed to encourage architects, planners, engineers and project owners to go beyond conventional notions of sustainable construction in their work and to harmonize ecological, social and economic concerns. Projects and concepts in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, civil engineering, mechanical engineering and related fields are eligible for entry in the competition. More images and information on the winning competition proposals after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Hetedik Műterem Ltd.

Along with Moszkva square, Móricz Zsigmond circus is a very busy public transportation junction, located in south Buda. With a round art relic in its middle – the Gomba (meaning mushroom because of its form) is a popular public space for people to meet, with several trams and buses intersecting, along with the Budapest Metro – subway line 4, presently under construction. The concept by Hetedik Műterem Ltd. was to treat the art relic of József Schall (from 1942) with proper respect but determined courage. At the same time, they redefined the currently closed space structure, to put forward and intensify the presence of the urban public space. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Triple O Studio

In consonance with the spirit of this competition, Triple O Studio’s design concept, titled, ‘A Learning Curve’, was to respond with a multi-pronged approach that assimilates, on the one hand, the local ethos of the city; and on the other, answers the design program with a solution that is literally a learning curve. Their design is a building that effectively portrays the face of a vibrant country and provides education on an aspect of modern life – disaster prevention – that many prone countries have still not addressed. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Frederico Valsassina Arquitectos

The present proposal for the Accra Twin Towers by Frederico Valsassina Arquitectos occupies a central position in relation to the urban design of the city of Accra. It has a place in a regular small sized plot, located on Liberia Road, near the British Council. The scale of the urban mesh on which it is inserted stands from the density of the suburban construction that surrounds this central area of the city which underlines a privileged treatment of the spaces. In this sense, as a major action, with an ambitious program, it was understood that the planned object should take advantage of all these constraints in order to be able to assume an emblematic role in the urban and architectonic context of the city. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Una Architects

Located on the floodplain of Rio Tamanduateí, one of the most important rivers of the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Park D. Pedro II is a symbolic public space, with important historic buildings with its connection between the center of town (the historical hill) and the east zone. The transformation by Una Architects, H+F Architects, Metrópole Architects and Lume of the Park D. Pedro II, beyond its internal limits, has as premise of an urban redevelopment that could radiate qualities to the surrounding neighborhoods. Briefly, the plan provides three axes of intervention. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of kit

After a fire destroyed the foyer of the gymnasium in Oberglatt, Switzerland, the city council asked for a new extension to the remaining parts of the building. The proposal by kit architects, which took the second prize in the competition, seamlessly connects to the existing structure, through program, space and form. Old and new dissolve into one, giving the building from the 70ties a distinct new identity. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of 1+1=1

The new extension designed by 1+1=1 Claudio Silvestrin Giuliana Salmaso architects and planners for laRinascente in Piazza della Repubblica, Florence, is conceived as a symbol of strength through the square, yet of lightness, in the detail of the Archangel’s wing in Filippo Lippi’s painting of the Annunciation. Visually, the new extension is floating above Palazzo del Trianon while preserving its authentic architectural structure. More images and project description after the break. read more »