Solar Towers Proposal / AAIMM
Designed by AAIMM, the project of the Solar Towers is based on the analysis of the urban fabric of the city Sabadell, Barcelona. A medium-scale, self-sufficient and productive infrastructure promoting energy production from renewable and clean sources, the project also intends to promote the enhancement of healthy mobility through electric bicycles and electric cars, and to generate productive urban farming spaces and social community spaces for elderly, temporarily unemployed, or displaced inhabitans; all in one single infrastructure. More images and architects’ description after the break. (more…)
Bjarke Ingels in Sydney for HASSELL and AIA
Bjarke Ingels, who heads up the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), was in Sydney recently and did a talk at the Australian Institute of Architects, which was sponsored and organized by HASSELL. With the common design values and easy fit between BIG and HASSELL, they make a powerful team. So BIG, whose projects we have published here, visited Sydney to explore the potential for future project collaborations. More information and a video after the break. (more…)
Helsinki Central Library Competition Entry / PRAUD
PRAUD shared with us their concept proposal, titled ‘The Heart of the Metropolis’ for the Helsinki Central Library competition. With the intent for a building that serves a larger civic function by creating a space for congregation at an urban scale, their library design aims at becoming a ‘Living Room’ for the city. The result is a true metropolitan building that not only creates a dialogue with the city, but one within the architectural language, making it timeless and essential for Helsinki. More images and architects’ description after the break. (more…)
Active Cranes Research Proposal / JAPA
An industrial and harbor city divided in the north and south by the river Göta, Gothenburg is currently lacking a coherent relationship between the city and the river. The great differences between the north and south sides of the Göta River are in scale, function, and density. The project, proposed by JAPA, Javier Ponce Architects, re-introduces the Göta river to the citizens by means of a urban re-generation; the river seen as a green system connected with the existing landscape. More images and architects’ description after the break. (more…)
2013 Folly Competition
The Architectural League and Socrates Sculpture Park is currently inviting architects to submit proposals for the 2013 Folly Competition, a design/build studio residency, and chance to build an installation at Socrates Sculpture Park, a unique urban waterfront park in Queens, NY. Socrates and the League welcome proposals from all emerging architects and designers for large-scale projects and installations that explore contemporary interpretations of the architectural folly. The deadline for submissions is January 7. For more information, please visit here.
George Square Redevelopment: Six Firms Shortlisted
Six firms, Agence Ter (France), Burns + Nice (UK), Gustafson Porter (UK), James Corner Field Operations (USA), jmarchitects (UK), and John McAslan & Partners (UK), were recently shortlisted in the project for a major redevelopment of George Square in the heart of Glasgow, Scotland. The 13 statues and monuments that stand in the square are to be moved to other sites in the city while the area is given a makeover ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Planned to submit their plans by the new year, the six designs submitted to Glasgow City Council will be put on public display at the Lighthouse in early January. The design competition winner will then have the prestigious task of redeveloping the square to further enhance Glasgow’s reputation as an international city.
‘Phantom. Mies as Rendered Society’ Installation / Andrés Jaque
The “Phantom. Mies as Rendered Society” installation by architect Andrés Jaque will be on display from December 13th until February 28th at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona. Presented by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation and the Banco Sabadell Foundation, the installation hopes to bring the figure of the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the most important icons of the modernist movement, back into the public eye by using objects, elements and materials that will rebuild and bring recognition to Mies’ historical importance. More information after the break. (more…)
Tube Tank – TRIWA Pop-Up Store / mode:lina architekci
Located at the Poznań Plaza mall in Poland, mode:lina architekci accepted a challenge to create a temporary store for Swedish watch brand TRIWA. Their goals included using renewable materials, low cost, speed of constructing, and most importantly, to further increase global brand awareness. More images and architects’ description after the break. (more…)
Flux Cocoon for Lausanne Lumieres (Urban Light Festival) / Allegory
Designed for Lausanne Lumieres (Urban Light Festival), Flux Cocoon was selected as one of the winning projects of the the city’s first Light Festival, which inaugurated on November 23rd and will run until early January. Designed by Allegory, the project was installed in the heart of the city and was inspired by its location at the crossing between vertical and horizontal pedestrian movements (flux). The project is also an abstraction of the knot created by the crossing of each pedestrian’s path at this precise point in the Flon area, which is city’s major transportation hub. More images and architects’ description after the break. (more…)
modeLab Applied Data Trees in Grasshopper
Moving from concept sketch to parametric model, this webinar by modeLab, which takes place this Friday at 2:00pm-4:30pmEST, will cover the ins and outs of working with and managing data trees in Grasshopper for real world design applications. Through a series of short presentations and “live” case studies, learn to streamline your parametric workflows using complex data structures. With two instructors offering guided curriculum and continuous support, their goal is to provide you with an in-depth and personal learning experience. A video of the webinar as well as instructor files will be uploaded after the broadcast. To register and for more information, please visit here.
UNBUILT HELSINKI at the Museum of Finnish Architecture
Opening at 6:00pm tomorrow at the Museum of Finnish Architecture, UNBUILT HELSINKI is an exhibition about the Unbuilt City and its inhabitants as part of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 program. Drawn from the museum’s archive and beyond, unrealized projects in Helsinki are studied by a team of researchers who generate new relationships with local resources in order to translate the projects into architectural models. Their findings and the narratives behind the buildings are displayed in an exhibition at the museum. The event is curated by Åbäke and Nene Tsuboi and will be up until February 24. For more information, please visit here.
Swiss Embassy Competition Entry / Personeni Raffaele Schärer Architects
Located in the Seodaemu-gu district of Seoul, the Swiss Embassy proposal by Personeni Raffaele Schärer Architects stands as a pavilion sitting on four mushroom columns. Reaching the maximum authorized height, the project becomes part of the makeover that the neighborhood is about to undergo with its global and drastic transformations. The end result is a tree house like structure floating over a canopy of dense trees in an extremely urban context. More images and architects’ description after the break. (more…)
Your Street Live Challenge
Inspired by Design Indaba, the Your Street Live Challenge aims to transform space and improve life at the street level in Africa through creative thought, one street at a time. Want to be part of something big? This is an opportunity to participate in a global movement that is working to ensure a better world through creativity. Your Street Live is open to anyone living anywhere in the world. Simply send your proposal for how the area where you live, work or play can be improved by harnessing the transformative power of creativity, design and innovation. The deadline for entries is January 28. In total, R1 million (Approx. $115,000 USD) will be awarded to the best ideas. For more information, please visit here.
Sustainable Temporal Theatre Design Competition
The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and World Stage Design 2013 are currently seeking proposals for the competition to design a sustainable temporal theatre. The winning design will be built in Cardiff and house performances and events as part of the World Stage Design 2013 festival. Open to students and professionals from across all related disciplines, the structure must be weather and sound-proof and be designed using either existing and readily available building components or alternative sustainable elements. The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2013. More information after the break. (more…)
Helsinki Central Library Competition Entry / PAR + Arup
In contrast to the other buildings in the Töölönlahti District of Helsinki, an essential component of the design by PAR and Arup for the Central Library involved creating a public space at the top of the library—visually connecting Töölönlahti to Senate Square and the city at large. The library is organized by six intersecting axes that afford spectacular vistas while creating a variety of spatial configurations for the library’s program. With it’s six floor levels each pointing toward a celebrated landmark, the Central Library becomes a symbolic center for city. More images and architects’ description after the break. (more…)
Helsinki Central Library Competition Entry / OODA
The proposal for the Helsinki Central Library by OODA tries to merge the most efficient program articulation with a strong concept which intends to suggest the overall theme integrated with Helsinki’s context. Their building acts as a shifting point between the two demarked city urban networks – ancient and modern – merging both, creating a public path that connects to the park while it simultaneously generates the formal composition. The new central library will be much more than a traditional library. It will be a dynamic entity, fully equipped, comprised of the physical spaces themselves as well as technology, library collections, staff, tourists in an all-age designed forefront building. More images and architects’ description after the break. (more…)
Golden State Warriors Stadium / Snøhetta + AECOM
The Golden State Warriors recently announced that Snøhetta and AECOM have been selected as the architecture team to design the Warriors’ new sports and entertainment complex on the San Francisco waterfront. Currently in the final stages of the agreement, the new stadium will be a true centerpiece in hosting the Bay Area’s NBA basketball team, as well as provide a great venue concerts, cultural events and conventions, which are all prominent events the city currently cannot accommodate. More images of the architects’ design can be viewed after the break. (more…)
Sustainable Market Square Third Prize Winning Proposal / Various Architects
In their ‘Flying Market’ concept for the sustainable market square proposal in Casablanca, which won the third prize, the architects began with a simple exercise, utilizing associative words, gathering inspirations and ideas to define the project and its aim. Designed by Florent Chagny, Soufia Louzir, Thomas Sponti, and Florian Chazeau, they decided to propose a ‘magic’ cover, a transformative cap to the utilitarian every-day market. The design, a structural network, levitates over the market utilizing a suspension system of twenty-three colorful Helium balloons. More images and architects’ description after the break. (more…)
Architectural Icons and Landmarks on the Rise
With China’s ‘Ring of Fire’ being one of the latest pieces of landmark architecture to hit the media, one must begin to wonder how many of these so called ‘landmarks’ will be constructed until they become an everyday sight in their major cities. With the rapid rise of the construction of these icons, it almost seems as though new cities of the rapid urbanization process think they need to build landmarks in order to be complete. As a consequence of this drive toward an urban identity, what may their impact be in a world where these icons are turning into generic structures? Let us know your thoughts!
Helsinki Central Library Competition Entry / Djuric Tardio Architectes
Djuric Tardio Architectes shared with us their concept,’The Storytelling Tree’, for the Helsinki Central Library competition. The starting point for their design begins with the book, a never ending memory, which can tell us stories and tales from here and elsewhere, like a hundred-year-old tree. As the roots of the tree are anchored firmly to the ground, the culture is firmly anchored to books, made with paper obtained from the tree itself. More images and architects’ description after the break. (more…)
Architecture Honor Awared to Pink Floyd Drummer
Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason was recently awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the Westminster University architecture faculty alongside architect Brian Waters. A former student at the university, Mason was forced to abandon his architecture degree a year before completion due to band commitments.
“Not only did studying architecture teach us some useful stuff, but it also gave us an opportunity to develop and put us in touch with some fantastic mentors,” said Mason.
