Courtesy of LRA

Located in the Finnish city of Turku, the Calamari Union project by LRA (Lapo Ruffi Architetto) is designed around the theme, “European urbanity | Resonance between territories and ways of life. What architectures for sustainable cities?”. The project responds to a new demand of making a city outside of the city. How must we design places to live in contexts not yet settled? Limen in Latin means limit, but also threshold, entrance. It is therefore in the etymology of this word that the premises are found for what can become a place of boundary, not to be intended as a barrier, but as an opportunity of connection. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Inga Saffron, the architecture critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, challenges cities to look beyond their “skyscraper fantasies and dreams of increased tourism”, suggesting they work to improve and build amenities that will make urban areas better places to live for the existing dwellers. She believes public spaces should be the priority and that cities should focus on upgrading transit systems, adding bike lanes to all major roadways, increasing walkability, creating and maintaining great parks and public plazas. Cities need a range of densities, this would allow for greater flexibility.

Inga Saffron has written about urban design issues for more than a decade. As an architecture critic, she has reviewed many of the most memorable new projects of the era, however her primary interest is centered on the less-heralded places that people encounter in their daily lives. As a 2011-12 Leob Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design, Saffron is exploring how cities can retain their district identities in a globalized, interconnected world, while remaining viable places to work and live.

Reference: TEDx, DI

the open field

In their Europan 11 Proposal, titled ‘Nudge City’, RIO Agency’s main goal was to build on a critical vision of sustainability as it is often promoted today. In their approach, the urban project cannot be a goal in itself. It has to be a frame of incentives, building on the territory’s ability to attract energies, leaning on individual aspirations to create a sustainable city. Nudges are sparks: public interventions which, designing one use, open way for a tree of possibilities. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

street view 01

The first prize proposal in the Europan 11 competition in Hungary, Szeged by AMK+ Studio is before a functional transformation and with the cooperation of the city and the site owner, the integration of the site into the urban tissue is the main goal. Their design suggests a kind of framing building line – an ‘intelligent wall’ – which is formed by many aspects. These aspects manage all the mutual reactions between the mainly residential environment and the rehabilited industrial – new ‘city center’ – block. A ‘bridge’ connects the place formally, in scale, by material use and with functionality. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

view of garden side

Loïc Brenterc’h (A.B.A agency) + Ewan Marin (COT agency) shared with us their Europan 11 Proposal in Toulouse, France which won the second prize. Titled ‘META – Block: A Toulouse Urban Model’, the purpose of their design is to extend and redefine the historical city way of life. The inhabitant’s habits and living visions have changed but they still need to feel the Toulouse cultural vibes. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of JAJA Architects

JAJA Architects makes it to the top with their project proposal ”Sundbyen” in the competition for a new harbor front in Ålesund, Norway. ”Sundbyen” was a proposal amongst many in the open international competition that attracted proposals from 10 different countries. JAJA based their project in the Ålesund’s existing identity and closeness to water. The project enhances the city’s existing qualitites, interprets it and creates a natural coherence between place, history and future development. More images and project description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of CUAC Arquitectura, Serrano + Baquero Arquitectos, Luis Miguel Ruiz Aviles

The Europan 11 winning proposal by CUAC Arquitectura, Serrano + Baquero Arquitectos, and Luis Miguel Ruiz Aviles arises Niwu Water Garden by the ensounter of three main materials: water, city and farmland. In a scenic enclave of particular importance to the city of Leeuwarden an appropriate balance between these materials allows to think about a hybrid landscape which establishs a transition between rural and urban. The result is a new environment in which elements of the city (the traditional and the present) establish a proper dialogue with the existing agricultural plot and its associated infrastructure. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

The Lens © Michael Maltzan Architecture

The Lens, designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture, has been selected as winner of the international competition to redesign the St. Petersburg Pier in Florida. After over a month of debate, a jury of three architects and two elected officials selected the proposal, believing it to be the most practical and cost-effective design. The jury’s decision was consistent with the public’s opinion, as 68% of the public comments supported The Lens, 42% liked The Wave, while only 17% backed the Eye. Next, the St. Petersburg City Council will vote on February 2nd to decide whether or not they will approve the design. If the concept is accepted, the next year will be dedicated to involve the public in the creation of the final design.

Follow this link to watch the pier jury ranking. Find more information on the final proposal here.

Reference: WTSP 10 News, City of St. Petersburg

Courtesy of Triple O Studio

The best way to preserve and develop the Kiev Islands in keeping with the aim of the project would be to improve the way people access the islands. Being sensitive to the existing conditions, the proposal by Triple O Studio is not to build new bridges, but to enhance the existing ones; make them more comfortable for all means of transport but more importantly for the pedestrians, cyclists and public transit users. Through the existing access systems of elevated bridges allowing for experiencing the site from an elevated promenade, its majesty can be fully discovered. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

© Alessandro Bu

Since the beginning, it has been very interesting to discover how, despite the fact that we have reached such an advanced state of urbanity (meaning the way we produce our more or less shared space), it is still possible to scrape the bottom of the barrel and find residual urban spaces, with enormous, unexpressed potentials. In a world where design contaminates every possible field of technical knowledge and theoretical thinking, landfills still represent and exceptional void of intentions. The strategy of the Active Edge by 2A+B embodies Grønmo’s landfill as an urban organism able to constantly re-produce its own components (soil, landscapes, trash) and the relative network of socioeconomic processes behind it. More images and architects’ description after the break.

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Courtesy of NAP

Through a range of strategies and carefully selected interventions the porcelain-city of Selb in the Fichtelgebirge region in Germany will be elevated to a regional center for art, trade, tourism, and culture. The winning Europan 11 proposal, titled Dornröschen – Reinitializing Selb or ‘Kissing awake the sleeping beauty’, by NAP (Network of Architects & Planners) will act as the nucleus for future development. In juxtaposition to the well-established and intact city center around the church and market square, the porcelain factory will be a second center of gravity creating a new and desired field of tension in between both. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of CUAC Arquitectura, Serrano y Baquero Arquitectos, Luis Miguel Ruiz Avilés

In the island of Lanzarote two ways of volcanic landscape transformation converge: the rhythm of the earth and the rhythm of human life. The project, by CUAC Arquitectura, Serrano y Baquero Arquitectos, and Luis Miguel Ruiz Avilés which was a winning entry in the Europan 11 competition, takes the idea of accumulation and overlapping of layers in the landscape construction. We take the reference of a geological section from a site adjacent to our sector for the development of the proposal, planning a ‘perforated basement’ and an architecture that has the ability of recognizing the strata in which it is inserted. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Guillaume Sardin

Africa is currently building its urban culture, in a global context of clusterized cities, of insularized space. Urbanism shouldn’t be just about numbers. Although Africa is currently strongly lacking infrastructure, its needs cannot always be quantified. Urbanism should reflect culture, history and create a sense of belonging. Guillaume Sardin‘s Bumbogo Project in Kigali, Rwanda, which won second place in a competition, will be a manifest, a pragmatic utopia. By using the meaning of Rwanda and Kigali as a matrix, this project generates an ultra site-specific master plan setting an example of fair urbanism. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Ojanen_Chiou Architects + SWA Group

Designed by SWA Group with Ojanen Chiou Architects LLP, the 157 hectare Dongtan Central Business Master Plan is at the heart of Dongtan City: a new urban center located just 30 km south of Seoul in South Korea. The development zone is situated on a former agricultural plain that had been taken over by various industrial uses. Bounded by a river to the west and mountainous terrain to the east, this zone is bisected by a major transportation corridor connecting Seoul with the southern reaches of the country. At the core of the development is a transit center that will accommodate high-speed and metropolitan rail stations connecting with a bi-modal (bus + tram) transit system, and long-distance and city buses, establishing Dongtan City as a major regional transit hub. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of White Architects

White Architects was recently named the winner of the competition for the Forumtorget project in Uppsala, Sweden. The proposal, with its subdued paving, expressive sofa and generous plateau, is powerful, substantive and empathetic. Here, the people of Uppsala have a natural meeting place and an open breathing space within the built-up business district. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

© MISS3

The proposal for the Wimmer Medien Business Center and Urban Development in Linz, Austria by Atelier Thomas Pucher recently won the third prize in the international invited competition. Their main concept is the creation of a 33,600 m2 gross floor area central public space that recovers the mystical feeling of the Italian piazzas, offering flexibility to host the most variety of events and activities, like ice-skating, Christmas market or outdoors cinema. This piazza is also a central point for the social life of the building, providing outdoors spaces for the offices, significant synergies for the commercial area and a feeling of the life of the city to the apartments. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of PUPA

The ‘Multitalented City’ by PUPA (Public Urbanism Personal Architecture) is a winning proposal for the Europan 11 which creates a new identity for an old university campus at the periphery of Reims, France. The campus is transformed into a flexible and self sustaining district which is able to adapt to changes – environmental, societal, and economic. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

bird's eye view

The proposal by ferrarifrongia for the Deventer dock is to create a community pervaded by artistic spirit, a desire to build, house atmosphere, and play. The first intent of the project is to release the dock surface to become a beating heart of the new activity of the district. To follow this aim, a new building is conceived, suspended from the ground at a height of 6 meters. With its stereometric silhouette, the new building is a connection between the historic heritage (black silo, high silo, elevator), without brutalizing their facades, letting them breathe and respecting their historical value. The whole complex is pervaded by an artistic atmosphere with colored goedetic structures, which com-penetrate together with existing and new building, working as showcases in spreading color in the dock. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Vacant land is a looming problem for many cities, especially when it remains undeveloped for years or is transformed into garbage dumps and parking lots. But when designers begin to notice these voids within the activity of a city they are able to unlock the inherent potential in the land. That is precisely what “Not a Vacant Lot”, as part of DesignPhiladephia, did this October. Philadelphia’s 40,000 vacant lots are both a challenge and an opportunity for young designers, artists and architects to tranform these under-utilized spaces into experiences within the fabric of the urban environment. The focal point of the design intervention was at the University of the Arts lot on 313 S. Broad Street, just a few blocks from Philadelphia’s center. It featured a reinterpreted map of Philadelphia by PennDesign students and Marianne Bernstein’s Play House, an 8′x8′ aluminum cube which, in its simplicity, could unlock the potential of this particular lot. But this engagement of vacant land was just one such intervention in a series artist installations throughout Philadelphia.  Another such intervention, GroundPaper, was designed by two collaborating artists, Mike Ski and KT Butterfield.  The site of their choosing was along the banks of the Delaware River in Fishtown, a neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Read on to see what artists can accomplish with no budget, a vacant lot and an inspired idea.

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© anthimeria - http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthimeria/

The quaint and picturesque suburbs have insulated themselves against the urban environment with miles of highways, strip malls and the traffic between endless sprawl. To get to the artificial nature of surburban streets and parks you must first make an exodus out of the city, arriving in an area that is usually unwalkable: no sidewalks, large streets impossible to cross and large distances between destinations. Kaid Benfield looks at Montgomery County, Maryland’s streetscape initiative to address some of these issues in his article “Fixing Suburbs with Green Streets that Accommodate Everyone”.

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