A3+ Architects recently finished an urban renovation project in Marsala, Italy for an international competition. The project is situated in Porta Nuova, where the historical center of the city is connected to the sea by an urban road and an archeological park.
More images and more about the project after the break. read more »
Jesus Robles, Dale Rush and Cade Hayes from DUST design build have designed a mountain retreat for a small family of three in Arizona. The home attempts to preserve as much of the land as possible as a way to hold on to the “history and mysteries of the Sonoran Desert.” Users must walk through a dense forest of saguaros, ocotillo and Paloverde trees before seeing the house unfold in the landscape and ultimately arriving at the sculptural entry stairs.
More about the home after the break. read more »
Cornell University
Every year, the Greenway Group led by James Cramer (chief executive of the AIA from 1988 to 1994) assembles the architecture-schools rankings. The rankings include the top 10 undergraduate architecture schools and the top 10 graduate schools.
Also, there are different skills rankings, like “analysis and planning”, “communication”, “computer applications”, “construction methods and materials”, “design”, “research and theory” and “sustainable design practices and principles”. This may be a great tool for architecture students when looking for a school and useful also for architecture firms when deciding on who to employ.
Read the complete rankings after the break. Seen at Architectural Record. read more »
Visiondivision’s latest entry for the Taiwan Pop Music Center competition aims to “transcend its visitors into a total escapism of pop.” With different districts that use the effect of the main tower and specific angles of light, the whole building expands dramatically in appearance, from a rather low key building in the distance to a spectacular body of light once approached.
More about the project including images and a further project description after the break. read more »
LAN Architecture’s Mirror Tower contains more than 30,000 identical facets that reflect 14 of the city’s monuments and are orientated to produce smooth transitions between these panoramic viewpoints. “The starting point of the project was to imagine Beirut in all its complexity. We have imagined the city as an ‘un-finished’ superposition of histories, contexts, architectures and situations; Our project was conceived as an interface, an algorithm that generates new connections and that creates new view axis, ways of observing the history, the present and the future,” explained LAN architects. The building’s complex envelope reflects changes in surroundings, the seasons and light. The reflective façade works by globally defining the orientation of each facet of the cylinder’s surface to create the desired reflection. With the help of specialists, LAN Architecture produced an automated 3D tool that allowed the team to visualize different instances of the facade by changing viewpoints at will, both the reflective area and the position of the reflected images on the tower.
More about the tower and more images after the break. read more »
The foundation of the Nepal Pavilion was completed this week. With the theme “Tales of Kathmandu City,” the pavilion will capture important historic moments of the city. The pavilion will put on display the luster of Katmandu, the capital city of Nepal and an architectural, artistic and cultural center that has developed over 2,000 years.
The theme touches upon the soul of a city by exploring its past and future. Another highlight of the pavilion will be Nepal’s efforts in environmental protection and developing renewable energies. The pavilion is in the form of an ancient Buddhist temple in Kathmandu, surrounded by traditional Nepalese houses.
A car or motorcycle rally will run from Lumbini to the Expo site. The rally will bring the “eternal flame of peace” to Shanghai from Nepal. More images after the break. read more »
© Coop Himmelb(l)au
Coop Himmelb(l)au’s House of Music in Aalborg, Denmark is a shared hybrid space that becomes a center of inspiration, “both of the shared-synergetic behavior and of the form and expression of the architecture..” Cultural and educational functions are interspersed between shared public and performance spaces, creating a network of interaction among the public, artists, students and educators. Situated in a dynamic urban grid, the House of Music becomes a full extension of the city, linking the character of the city with the new opportunities the Music Hall provides.
URBANUS was awarded with the 1st prize on the competition for the new integrated teaching building at the Chinese University in Hong Kong. Entitled “Windows on Community,” the building strives the link the two parts of the campus together, while also providing a visual connection with those who approach. Through the implementation of a Moebius Strip, the design mixes the inner circulation of the building with the exterior circulation of the streets. “This loop of circulation and urban internal street for us is not only a vertical linkage but more the heart of the college-a lively community space at the center of it all,” explained the architects.
More about the University after the break.
© José Miguel Hernández Hernández
The RIBA Stirling prize is given each year to one selected building. And this year’s prize went to the Maggie Center by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.
http://www.vimeo.com/7120744
Richard Rogers on the Maggie’s Center building, by The Architects’ Journal
This small buildings has a great inside/outside integration, given by the combination of several transparent planes and the independent roof, as you can see on the photos.
After the break, more photos by architectural photographer José Miguel Hernández Hernández, and a short video by AJ.
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 »
Construction has already began on the Venezuela Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo site. The 3,000-square-meter Venezuela Pavilion will look like a figure 8 – a symbolic number in both China and Venezuela – and depict many traditional aspects of the country’s history and culture with the theme “A Better Life, Better City.”
The Yanomami tribe that has thrived in the rainforests of South America for thousands of years will perform in the pavilion. Another highlight of the pavilion will be a Venezuelan children’s orchestra, which will perform in a 286-seat theater on July 5, Venezuela’s National Day, said Temir Ponceleon, the country’s commissioner general of the Expo.
The pavilion will be in the geometric shape of a “Mobius strip,” or an inverted cylinder. The exhibition area will feature two-way audiovisual transmissions via satellite between Shanghai and Venezuela. More images and a video after the break. read more »
The city council of Weilburg, Germany, a dense medieval city, organized a design competition upon the demolition of an existing parking structure. ACME’s terrace design is a contemporary spin on the Baroque terraced-landscape building typology found nearby in the Weilburg Castle Gardens. The form becomes an integrated part of the landscape, allowing the project to blend into the surrounding context while inviting inhabitation and managing to create “specific urban character towards some if its city context”.
This project won the first prize from the voting public and the second prize from the professional jury.
More images and more about the project after the break.
A young firm from São Paulo, Brazil received an Honorable Mention for their Paineiras Hotel Complex design in Rio de Janeiro. The architects, Alexandre Hepner, Denis Cossia, João Paulo Payar, Rafael Brych, Ricardo Gonçalves, and environmental design consultant Ricardo Messano, designed a complex that would be functional and “allow perfect fruition of the beautiful panoramic view and the close contact with nature.” The strategy reflects “the intention of harmonizing the intervention with the existing context, thought without denying the contemporary character of such intervention nor hiding its presence among the surrounding forest and the old hotel building.”
More about the hotel after the break. read more »
The flexible mixed use design of KLab architecture’s Emerging Landscapes allows the project’s function to change as the seasons progress. The project is a small convention center for the winter months, and switches to become a summer camp for children during the second half of the year.
More about the project after the break.
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BIG is looking for a Project Leader to head up the BIG team responsible for developing the new Presidential Library in Astana, Kazakhstan, which we previoulsy featured in ArchDaily and got many comments from our readers.
The new library, named after the first President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, encompasses an estimated 33.000m2. Being one of the future cornerstones of Kazakh nation-building, and a leading institution that will represent the Kazakh national identity, the library goes beyond a mere architectural challenge.
The new Presidential Library in Astana, Kazakhstan’s new capital since 1997, shall not only accumulate history but also provide a foundation for new futures. It will serve as an intellectual, multifunctional and cultural center with the primary goal to reflect the establishment and development of Kazakhstan, its political history, and the Head of the State’s activities and roles in the development of the country.
Requirements after the break. read more »
© Koichi Torimura
Designed for an 80 year old woman, EASTERN Design Office’s Slit House, a reinforced concrete residential project, “presents her both a life space with a soft light and an interesting experience of scale unlikely in a house.” Situated in an old Japanese city on a site 50 meters by 7.5 meters, the home has long slits that run along a 22 centimeter thick wall, making the interior space open, while providing enough privacy.
More about the home and more images after the break. read more »
Graft Lab’s latest addition to Dubai, entitled Vertical Village, is a cluster of mix-use buildings that emphasize reducing solar gain and maximizing solar production. The buildings are self-shaded on the northern side and on the east-west axis to reduce long-angle sun penetration. Solar collectors on the south end automatically pivot to maximize solar-energy aggregation. The multi-use building, which is expected to earn a LEED Gold Certificate, offers an appealing aesthetic which will easily make its mark 0n Dubai’s dynamic skyline. The “futuristic” angular forms create a shared central space with large pools, while the compositional assemblage of the individual buildings form a cohesive whole.
More images after the break. read more »
© ACME
London-based architecture firm ACME was awarded third prize in a recent competition to design a United Nations memorial. Initiated by the city of Chungju in South Korea, the selected memorial will rest in the city’s UN Peace Park. ACME’s proposal is comprised of a 1,500 seating assembly, two conference halls, a theater and exhibition spaces. The organization of the memorial is metaphorically modeled similarly to the United Nations, where many parts make up the whole.
More about the memorial after the break.
Chinese jade culture through its 8,000-year history will take center stage at the Taiwan-based Aurora Group’s Expo 2010 Pavilion. Jade symbolizes the national character such as gentleness, perseverance and the pursuit of peace, and the Expo will provide a platform to help promote such hopes, Tan Baijuan, deputy director of the pavilion, said yesterday while unveiling the design.
The pavilion will feature rare exhibits such as a piece of 2.5-ton jade and Beijing Olympic medals made of fine jade from the Kunlun Mountains in Northwest China’s Qinghai Province.
The theatre inside the pavilion will show Chinese myths and about 30 rare jade relics from the Aurora Museum will also be exhibited. The biggest challenge now is to squeeze the soul of jade’s history spanning thousands of years into a short journey of 20 minutes, said Tan. More images after the break. read more »
Greeen! Architects have been awarded an honorable mention for their Eco Towers, an office building in Hamburg, Germany for the Building and Environment Authorities. The office will accommodate 1400 people and will include several public areas as well as green gardens to “give room to nature and a create a green ambiance to all workers and visitors.”
More about the Eco Towers after the break. read more »
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