In Progress: Film Theatre of Catalonia / Mateo Arquitectura

Currently under construction, the Film Theatre of Catalonia is a new building for the Cinematheque of Catalunya in the , Barcelona. won first prize in 2004 for their design proposal and they were kind enough to share their construction photographs with us.  Follow the break for more photographs and an extract of the meeting between Josep Lluís Mateo and José Luis Guerín about the district in Barcelona.

Architects: Mateo Arquitectura
Location: Raval, Barcelona
Client: Generalitat de Catalunya
Project Area: 7,515 sqm
Photographs: Adrià Goula
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COR / Oppenheim Architecture + Design

© Dbox

Miami’s Design District will soon be home to not just another building, but to COR.  The ambitious project to design the first sustainable mixed-use condominium in Miami has been getting a lot of buzz and rightfully so.  At 400′ tall it represents a dynamic synergy between architecture, structural engineering, and ecology.  Extracting power from its environment utilizing the latest advancements in wind turbines, photovoltaics, and solar hot water generation COR upon completion will be seeking a certification.  The polka dotted hyper-efficient exoskeleton shell simultaneously provides building structure, thermal mass for insulation, shading for natural cooling, enclosure for terraces, armatures for turbines, and loggias for congregating on the ground.  Comprising commercial, office, fitness, live/work, and pure residential spaces (113 residences from studios to penthouses)—COR provides a uniquely flexible platform for­ lifestyle enhancement.

Last week on ArchDaily we featured our interview with Chad Oppenheim founding partner of Oppenheim Architecture + Design.  Below is a portion of the interview regarding the design of COR, and the full interview can be found here.

Follow the break for drawings and renderings of COR, along with a list of environmental design techniques incorporated into the design.

Architects: Oppenheim Architecture + Design
Location: Miami, Florida,
Project Team: Chad Oppenheim, Carlos Ramos, Juan López, Carolina Jaimes, Juan Calvo, Hugo Mijares, Jessica Santaniello Barrera, Rodrigo Londoño and Camilo Orozco
Client: Nexus Development Group
Project Area: 480,000 sqf
Project Year: Estimated 2011
Renderings: Dbox

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AD Interviews: Chad Oppenheim

While in for the 2010 AIA Convention we had the chance to visit Chad Oppenheim, founder of Oppenheim Architecture + Design.

The firm specializes in world class hospitality, residential and mixed-use design, with a focus on sustainability. Some of these works include a villa in Dellis Cay for Mandarin Oriental, Villa Allegra, the COR Tower (featured next in AD), Starwood’s DC 1 Hotel in Washington, the Campus Center, the Enea Headquarters and smaller projects suchas the Simpson Park Hammock Pavilion, among several others. Oppenheim’s designs in the Miami area stand out in a developer-driven market.

In the next few days we are going to feature several of his recent projects so you can have a better idea about the firm. Please find the rest of the interview below:

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Star House / AGi

This video by architecture photographer Nelson Garrido provides an up close view of Star House.  Interviews of the architects of describe the approach to this thoughtfully designed weekend getaway house.  An exploration of local construction techniques, rather than typical international standards, led to create a design for Star House that would reinterpret the traditional arabic house.  This modern beach house for a prominent Kuwait family weaves together culture and modernism through materials and traditions incorporating elements of desert and water.  The house is for entertaining and relaxation, therefore it had to accommodate plenty of guests, while maintaining the families privacy.  One way this was accomplished was by utilizing the vertical circulation of the house to separate public, private, and service spaces.  Follow the break for photographs and further description about this beach house in Kuwait.

Architects: AGi
Location: , Kuwait
Design Team: Dr. Nasser B. Abulhasan, Joaquin Perez-Goicoechea, Georg Thesing, Bruno Martins Alfonso Gomes, Daniel Muñoz Medranda, Robert A. Varghese, Abdul Hafiz Mohammed, Moyra Montoya Moyano
Project Area: 5,000 sqm
Project Year: 2007/2009
Photographs: Nelson Garrido

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AD Interviews: Michael Graves

While in Chicago earlier this year I had the chance to interview  an amazing architect: Michael Graves.

has played an influential role in architecture, often credited as moving the profession in America from abstract modernism to post-modernism. His designs communicate a clear point of view reflecting a sense of playfulness with sophistication. The balance of traditional elements (typically through arches, columns, and pediments) and exploration with color convey the lessons of modern architecture while referring to historical details.

Michael Graves’s most notable accomplishment may be in his success as a high profile architect and a household name. He teamed up with companies such as Target, Disney, Phillips Electronics, and Black and Decker developing a wide range of products reaching a larger public. In doing so he has required us to evaluate our design sensibility and responsibility, serving both large-scale design and intricate details such as bathroom fixtures, teapots, and dinnerware.

Michael Graves has served as a Professor of Architecture at Princeton University, founder and principal of Michael Graves & Associates, and has been awarded some of the most prestigious awards including the 2001 Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, and the 2010 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education.

Please find the rest of the interview below, including questions on American Architecture and the obsession of chasing green design:
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AD Interviews: SO-IL, Solid Objectives Idenburg Liu

During this summer SO-IL (Solid Objectives Idenburg Liu) took the stage.

First, the Brooklyn based firm won the P.S.1 Competition for this summer with Pole Dance, an interactive performing installation. Then a few weeks after we presented you Flockr, the main pavilion for the Get It Louder festival in Beijing.

We had the chance to meet and interview principals Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu at P.S.1 while Pole Dance was open. The interview went great. I highly recommend that you check out their response to our question regarding their experience starting and running a firm, just during the financial crisis.

The firm is currently involved in interesting projects abroad, which we look forward in featuring here at ArchDaily in the future.

Please find the rest of the interview below:
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AD Interviews: Steve Dumez / Eskew+Dumez+Ripple

During the AIA convention in Miami we had the chance to interview Steve Dumez, Design Director at Nola-based firm Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, who received his FAIA during the event.

Steve is the “design guru” at EDR, overseeing the design of all projects from concept to construction documents, and according to the firm “his hand sketches in the early phases of design are invaluable”.

Steve, along side partners Allen  Eskew (FAIA) and Mark Ripple (AIA, LEED AP) have been focused their efforts in the NOLA area, not only with their buildings, but also taking part on the initiatives  to rebuild NOLA. Steve is also a Past-President of AIA Louisiana and AIA New Orleans.

EDR’s work portfolio includes projects in varies scales, such as the Prospect.1 Welcome Center (AIA Small Project Award 2010)  or 930 Poydras Residential Tower, a 462,000 sqf project. On the videos below we discuss with Steve about their experience working on such different scales.

Other works by previously featured at AD:

… and more coming soon!

Enjoy the rest of the interview:
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Video: Rem Koolhaas, Architecture’s Man of the Year

CNN interview mentioned by Karen on her previous article “Is China Architect’s New Dubai?”.

Shanghai Expo 2010 Draws to a Close

Sadly,  Shanghai’s Expo 2010 ended yesterday after 184 exciting days.  Throughout the course of the exhibition, over 73 million people experienced great pavilions from countries across the world and we’ve brought you coverage of projects ranging from videos to project descriptions to photographs.  In these past months, we’ve shared a few of our reader Seppe’s videos with you (check out his German Pavilion, UK Pavilion, and Denmark Pavilion clips, previously featured on AD) and today we’re sharing his latest bit on the Swiss Pavilion.

The Expo, which opened on May 1st, allowed visitors to experience a taste of different cultures all arranged within the Expo’s 5.28-square-kilometer site.  From the beginning, the Expo was a hit.  Thousands flocked to the site on a daily basis, with the largest daily attendance hitting more than 1.03 million visitors on October 16th – breaking the record attendance set at the Osaka Expo back in 1970 for 844,000 on a single day.   As Yang Jian reported for the Expo, “Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said the Expo has made China and the world come closer together, and that a more open, inclusive and culturally advanced China that steadily moves forward will join other countries to usher in an ever brighter future for all.”

Only five structures will remain (the China Pavilion, the Culture Center, the Expo Center, the Theme Pavilions and Expo Boulevard) and with all the dazzling lights, amazing forms, and elaborate material skins dismantled, the site will now become a cultural, business and commercial center.

Video: The Brochstein Pavilion at Rice University

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Last year we featured the Brochstein Pavilion designed by Thomas Phifer & Partners and The Office of James Burnett. Since then, the pavilion has received a National AIA Award, a National ASLA Honor Award and the ASU Architectural Citation. Today, we’d like to share with you a video that made about the pavilion. Enjoy!

Video: “A Necessary Ruin: The Story of Buckminster Fuller and the Union Tank Car Dome”

Upon its completion in October 1958, the Union Tank Car Dome, located north of Baton Rouge, , was the largest clear-span structure in the world. Based on the engineering principles of the visionary design scientist and philosopher Buckminster Fuller, this geodesic dome was, at 384 feet in diameter, the first large scale example of this building type.

“A Necessary Ruin” tells the history of the Union Tank Car Dome via interviews with architects, engineers, preservationists, media, and artists; animated sequences demonstrating the operation of the facility; and hundreds of rare photographs and video segments taken during the dome’s construction, decline, and demolition.

Visit handcraftedfilms.com for more information and to purchase the DVD.

AD Interviews: Philip Enquist, SOM

When I visited Chicago, I had to visit one of the key actors on shaping a city that breaths architecture, from big part of the skyline to the Millenium Park: SOM.

I have visited before, to interview Craig Hartman at the San Francisco office, but Chicago was were it all started back in 1936 with Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings, and John O. Merrill who joined in 1939.

This time I interviewed (FAIA), the partner in charge of urban design and planning. Philip has been involved in development and redevelopment initiatives for college campuses, existing city neighborhoods, new cities, rural districts, downtown commercial centers, port areas and even in a master-plan for the entire nation of Bahrain.

It was amazing to hear from him on different processes that have been shaping the most important cities in the world, such as Beijing’s Central Business District or the master plan for the Millenium Park. But I was also surprised about a project we presented to you earlier, the vision for the Great Lakes area, a project that shows a lot of responsibility  as an architect and an example that we still have a very important role in our society.

After the break, the usual questions a bonus with what’s a good city, and some photos of the office.

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Vision for the Great Lakes at TEDxTalks by Philip Enquist of SOM

This past July of SOM spoke to the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota as a part of TEDxTalks Mill City series.  His focus was to raise awareness and also challenge the Great Lake and St. Lawrence watershed residents to “imagine there are no borders”.  This video hits close to home, as I grew up in the Great Lakes watershed region.  His lecture is informative and revealing of the responsibility there is to utilize and protect this great resource of the United States.

At the end of the video you find yourself wondering why haven’t we already created a plan for the Great Lakes region.  Possibly the size of this region or the international boarder running through it has failed to put it on many people’s radar screens.  Either way Enquist lays out an achievable ten point plan (overview after the break) to focus on where this 100 year vision could be a global example of human balance with nature, beyond two nations.

Courtesy of

Following Enquist’s lecture the mayors of the Great Lake and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative voted to approve a regional sustainability program.

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Video: King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) / Zaha Hadid Architects

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Here is a video about one of Zaha Hadid‘s latest project, King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSRC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  This project has a holistic approach unifying architecture and engineering, landscape and building artist expression and environmental responsive design.  It is intended to not only be a leading research facility, but also a certified building upon its completion.

We recently featured Zaha Hadid, as she won this years esteemed RIBA Stirling Prize for the design of the MAXXI National Museum in Rome. Full coverage of the along with photographs of the MAXXI can be found here.

Also you can check our previous coverage of Saudi Arabai – in particular last year ArchDaily personally visited Saudi Arabia for the opening of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, an international graduate-level research institution.  Photographs and a write up on KAUST here.

YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video / Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright

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This video is just a sneak peak of the exterior projections to be expected on the facade of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York this evening.  It will be a full live streamed event 8pm ET where 25 videos selected by the jury for YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video will be featured.  This is the inaugural event held by YouTube Play: Live from the Guggenheim.

Earlier this week we featured Vimeo’s Festival+Awards which featured a projection mapping performance on ’s in NYC.  You can check that video out here.

Did you know that ArchDaily has it’s own Vimeo site?  Be sure to take a look.

What time will the live stream happen in your city: 1am (Oct 22) London, 2am CET – Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Berlin, Rome, 4am Moscow, 9am Tokyo, 11am Sydney.

Video: Congress Centre / Paredes Pedrosa

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In front of the Mediterranean Sea and with close proximity to the Peñíscola Castle, a National Heritage Monument and a park, architects Paredes Pedrosa decided to focus on providing visual connectivity between all inner spaces to both the park and sea in front of it.  The result is a building that displays an open front face towards the park, allowing views of the sea from the upper level.  Meanwhile, the rest of the perimeter isolates the building from its surroundings.

Video: Studio Banana TV

Video: Jardin El Porvenir / Giancarlo Mazzanti by Cristobal Palma

Architecture photographer Cristobal Palma shared with us another of his high quality video productions.

This time he presents us the new Jardin El Porvenir in Bogota, Colombia by Giancarlo Mazzanti.

You can see our previous features on Mazzanti’s work, and also other projects photographed by Cristobal Palma.

Soon more info on this project.

Video: Casa del Condestable / Tabuenca & Leache Arquitectos

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The “Casa del Condestable” is a building listed as an Asset of Cultural Interest. It was built from 1548 by Luis de Beaumont, 4th Count of Lerín and Constable of the Kingdom of Navarre. In the year 2000, in a state of ruin, it was acquired by the City Hall to prevent it being demolished and it was then decided to refurbish it for use as a civic centre in the Old Town of .

Tabuenca & Leache chose to recover as much as possible of the character of the mansion palace in its foundational state, without having to give up the necessary installations to allow it to function. The new elements, though easily recognisable, do not seek contrast but continuity from what was built before, with the natural appearance with which interventions on buildings have historically succeeded each other. The project limits itself to assigning uses to the most suitable available spaces, in the conviction that the new functions will merely represent another episode in its history.

Video: Studio Banana TV

Video: Bjarke Ingels at ETSAM: Yes is More

(BIG) conference at ETSAM in Madrid, which took place on Oct 6th.

Video by Jorge from mstrpln blog.

Recent BIG projects featured at AD:

Video: Auditorium and Convention Center of Aragon / Nieto Sobejano

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The Auditorium and Convention Centre in Expo 2008 located in , Spain was designed by architects Nieto Sobejano.  A fractional and varied profile – ascending and descending – the building’s exterior expressed the different spaces housed in its interior and introduced a large amount of natural light into the exhibition areas.  Three main blocks house an auditorium, a multi-purpose pavilion, and modular halls will be connected to each other via a large common vestibule which links the different areas.

Video: Studio Banana TV

Video: Santa Caterina Market / EMBT Associated Architects

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The Santa Caterina Market is ’s oldest market, built in 1848.  Nearly the entire market was recently renovated by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue of EMBT Associated Architects.  The very expressive arc roof, mosaic tiled designed by artist Toni Comella, displays vivid colors and figures that represent vegetables and fruit.

Video: Studio Banana TV