¿Remember GreenPix, the 2,200 sqm LED media wall powered by solar panels we featured some months ago? Alexandra Lerman published a  documentary about the GreenPix on which Simon Giostra, founder of Simone Giostra & Partners. Giostra explains the challenge to design and build this gigantic media wall, with the help of engineering experts ARUP.

Actually Giostra  is trying to convince the chinese goverment to display user generated content on the media wall, which is currently under the curatory of the authorities. This will make if fully interactive.

You can also download a software -available for Mac and PC- to simulate the media wall on your computer using Quicktime videos.

Reminds me of the display on the stage where Beck played at the Oulands Festival in San Francisco last week.

Some love this building, and some hate it. I´m impressed.

The Burj Dubai (set to be the tallest tower in the world, while the tallest structure as of now), is almost finished. Located in Dubai, it´s the centerpise of a mixed-use development that will include 30,000 homes, 9 hotels, 3 ha of parks, 19 residential towers, a man and a 12ha artificial lake.

I decided to Google about the Burj Dubai a little, and i found an interesting interview at Wired with SOM´s structural engineer Bill Baker, telling the story behind the design, the structure and construction. The foundations were overengineered just in case the client wanted to rise the height of the building during construction… which he did!. Now the final height won´t be disclosed until the construction is finished.

For now, enjoy this pictures the air on an helicopter by David Hobcote, seen at Gizmodo:

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Architects: 70ºN Arkitektur
Location: No defined location
Client: 70ºN Arkitektur
Constructed Area: 36 sqm
Type: Experimental Prefab
Builder: Senja Elementer AS
Project year: 2004
Photographs: BR - Bent Raanes and Sarah Cameron Sørensen, RSB - Rune Stoltz Bertinussen, 70N - 70°N arkitektur

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Architect: nArchitects
Location: Lacoste, France
Project Completion Year: July 2006
Design Team: Eric Bunge, Mimi Hoang (Partners); Daniela Zimmer (Project Architect), Kazuya Katagiri, Takuya Shinoda, Shuji Suzumori / Fabrication by nARCHITECTS and SCAD (Jim Bischoff, Michael Gunter, Cindy Hartness, Michael Porten, Ryan Townsend, Troy Wandzel, with Natalie Bray and Sarah Walko)
Client: Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)
Program: Ephemeral pavilions
Photographs: Daniela Zimmer & nArchitects

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Various Architects is a collaborative design office based in Norway, and they shared with us a very innovative project: a Mobile Performance Venue. Designed to host the performance “ID - Identity of the soul” (touring worldwide in 2009), the client requested a unique and iconic structure. Also, this venue needs to be mobile, so volume/weight were key on this design developed as a flexible ellipse structured with aluminium frames and an inflatable hexagonal skin.

Once built, it will be the world´s largest mobile performance venue, fitting on 30 standard containers for shipping.

Can´t wait till 2009 to see it? Be sure to check the test inflation of a  full scale mock-up, a preview of how it will look like when finished. Below, project description, plans and renderings. Thanks to Jim Dodson from VA for sending this in.

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Norwegian architects Space Group won the competition for Oslo´s new Central Station. The project consists on demolishing a big part of the existing station, to build a 4 stories tall structure that will unify the station. It will include 2 floors for offices hanging over the station. Also, an adjacent U-shaped building will be occupied by the biggest conference hotel in Norway.

Currently, the Central Station receive 150,000 travellers every day, number expected to double in the next few years, rendering the current structure obsolete. Space Group´s project will be able to grow in stages. Construction will start on 2013, during 5 to 10 years. Quite a lot, but since the project will be done in stages it will be able to be in use during all the time.

Below, more renders by Luxigon sent to us by Space Group.

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Public Farm 1, Work AC’s installation for the PS1 opened on June 16th. The above video shows the construction process that took a month to be finished (May 15th to June 18th).

You can check the list of the DJs and artists that will playing at the PS1 this summer on the 10th version of the Warm Up Sessions (including LCD Soundsystem and Au Revoir Simone) here.

I still remember when i saw the cardboard tubes on their office,  and now they are part of this innovative green canopy. Below, pictures sent by photographer Elizabeth Felicella of the completed structure. She has more pictures available for editorials.

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Foster + Partners just finished the first tower in Amsterdam, at the Vivaldi-park area of the new Zuidas district, south of the city.

The 24-storey building is divided into two twelve metre-wide column free towers with open, flexible floor plates. The blocks are staggered in plan to admit as much natural light as possible, helping this tower to be ten per cent more efficient than the target Dutch environmental standards. Plus, it has a very nice looking lobby.
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Architect: Alberto Mozo
Collaborators: Francisca Cifuentes, Mauricio Leal, Luis Fernandez
Location: Suecia & Bilbao, Providencia, Santiago, Chile
Client: Nicolas Moens de Hase
Site Area: 1654 sqm
Constructed Area: 623 sqm
Project Year: 2006
Construction Year: 2007
Structure Ingeneer: Juan Lopez Ingeneers
Electric project: Gaston Villarroel
Services: Jaime Uribe
Structure: Arauco & Constructora Las Torcazas
Finishing: Constructora Cuatro Vientos
Materials: Laminated Wood, Pino Radiata, Glass
Photographs: Cristobal Palma

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In Beijing is not all about Olympics. The National Grand Theater, by Paul Andreu is a magnificent and gigantic project finished a few months ago, complementing all the infrastructure been built for the big sports event.

The project description after the break.

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Architects: Plan B - Felipe Mesa, Alejandro Bernal + JPRCR - Camilo Restrepo, J. Paul Restrepo
Collaborators: Viviana Peña, Catalina Patiño, Carolina Gutiérrez, Lina Gil, Jorge Buitrago
Location: Botanical Garden, Medellín, Colombia
Client: Medellin Botanical Garden
Builder: Ménsula S.A.
Project start: 2005
Completion: 2006
Budget: 523 US$ / m2
Constructed Area: 4.200 sqm
Materials: Wood, Steel
Photographers: Sergio Gómez (SG), Camilo Orozco (CO), Felipe Mesa (FM), Izaskun Chinchilla (IC), Carlos Mario Rodriguez (CMR)

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Every year the PS1 Gallery at the Museum of Modern Art in New York invites young emerging architects to propose a temporary structure for their Warm-up Music festival, and unless you´ve been living under a rock for the last few months, you already know that Work AC won this years edition with their PF1 (Public Farm One) proposal.

PF1 (Public Farm One) is an urban farm concept built with inexpensive and sustainable materials recyclable after its use at P.S.1, such as cardboard tubes that form a continuous surface creating multiple zones of activity including swings, fans, sound effects, innovative seating areas, and a refreshing pool at its center, as an Urban Beach.

We visited Work AC (interview coming this Sunday) and they told us how this project allowed them to get in touch with non architects for the technique for growing plants on the cardboard tube structure, which enriched the development of the project. They also worked with LERA structural engineers.

Installation opens June 20th, hosting the 2008 Warm Up summer music series at the PS1. You can follow the construction progress at the Public Farm 1 website.

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