ArchDaily

With the debut of the international Blue Award, the Department of Spatial and Sustainable Design, from the Institute of Architecture and Design, is announcing an award for the best student works in the topic of sustainable architecture and building culture. The opening presentation of the Blue Award will take place on November 10, 2009 at the TU Vienna. From that point on, works from Bachelor, Master or Diploma studies can be submitted. The competition is open worldwide to students of architecture, regional planning and urbanism. Prizes totaling 15,000 Euros will be awarded.

The competition was initiated by the architect Univ. Prof. Mag. Arch. Françoise-Hélène Jourda, director of the Department of Spatial and Sustainable Design, and functions under the patronage of the International Union of Architects (UIA).

The award’s main purpose is to encourage the topic of sustainability in architecture, regional planning an urbanism. Concurrently, it shall recognize and award students and teachers dedicated in pursuing the topic in their studies. The Blue Award aims at the helping standardize the exchange between various architecture schools and faculties. For more information, visit the competition’s official website.

© Ansis Starks

Architects: Substance
Location: Jurmala, Latvia
Type of Project: Reconstruction of Forest Park
Project Architects: Arnis Dimins, Brigita Barbale
Design Team: Guna Priede, Krisjanis Leitis, Ieva Dimante, Rihards Vietrins
Client: Jurmala City Council
Main contractor: TADERS
Park area: 131,108 sqm (13,1 ha)
Gross internal floor area: 541 sqm
Total cost: 4,1 M €
Project year: 2003-2005
Construction year: 2007-2009
Photographs: Ansis Starks

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Architects: John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects
Location: Santa Monica, CA, USA
Contractor: Anthony Bonomo
Project Area: 316 sqm
Photographs: Benny Chan, Fotoworks

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Architects: Anttinen Oiva Architects
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Project Manager: Vesa Oiva
Collaborators: Jussi Kalliopuska, Selina Anttinen, Antti Lehto
Building services consultant: Aila Puusaari, DI, Pˆyry Building Services Oy
Construction-engineering consultant: Sami Lampinen, DI, WSP Finland Oy
Library consultants: Irma Pasanen, office chief, Library of Helsinki University of Technology / Risto Maijala, library amanuense, Library of Helsinki University of Technology
Client: University of Helsinki
Project Area: 32,000 sqm
Design year: 2008-2010
Construction year: 2010-2012
Images: Courtesy Anttinen Oiva Architects

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The transformation of the urban landscape within the last decades has increasingly been dominated by the demands of capitalist utilization. Due to the current crisis, however, which goes far beyond a mere crisis of the real estate and financial market, these neoliberal politics and attendant forms of production of space have been subject to a loss of legitimation. For this reason, not only do the dominance and promises of the privatization model, the free market and private property have to be questioned, but also the conventions of the space-producing professions that follow and materialize these policies.

In this context the event “Ten Days for Oppositional Architecture” takes up the task of exploring possibilities and conditions of a socially committed architectural practice. Therefore the narrow boundaries of the profession have to be left behind. We hence invite activists, geographers, architects, planners, and economists representing different critical approaches to discuss and develop concepts and practices that not only try to oppose and challenge the capitalist mode of production of space, but also try to go beyond it – strategies of de-commodification, re-appropriation and alternative production of space. We will look at already existing spatial actions of resistance as well as search for possibilities to further theorize them: How can these strategies and alternative practices be turned into social and political forces towards post-capitalist spaces?

From November 12 to November 21, New York City. For more information, click here.

Architect: Studio Pietropoli
Location: Bassano del Grappa, Italy
Architects in charge: Guido&Martino Pietropoli
Collaborators: Alberto Franchini
Client: Private
Constructed Area: 280 sqm
Project years: 2001-2009
Photographs: Martino Pietropoli

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Studio Nicoletti Associati’s design for an oceanic pavilion placed third in the Yeosu Expo.  The pavilion, which was conceived as a Great Blue Whale hurling itself out of the port, intends to represent the Expo’s theme: The Living Ocean and Coast. The pavilion draws attention to the fundamental influence of the planet’s oceans and coasts resources, and how dangerous it is for such a fragile ecosystem, to ignore them. The jury added that the pavilion has “a strong and powerful form that would become instantly recognizable. The theme of the Expo is symbolically represented with a shape drawn from marine life. The image of the pavilion is consistent with the theme of the ocean. Its fluid shape celebrates the nature of water and the marine life that has adapted to it. It makes a very simple but powerful metaphorical relationship. The exhibition space is very practical for post-use.”

More images of the pavilion after the break. read more »

Architect: Zecc Architecten
Location: Soest, The Netherlands
Project Architects: Marnix van der Meer, Rolf Bruggink
Collaborators: Tara Steenvoorden, Niek Wagemans
Contractor: Aannemingsbedrijf R. Middelkoop
Project year: 2004
Photographs: Zecc Architecten

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An urban design debate and a book launch will take place next monday November 9 at 6:30PM at the Wood Auditorium in Columbia Unviersity. “After BIGness” is the debate in which Alan Berger, Associate Professor at MIT, Kenneth Frampton, Professor at GSAPP, and Mahadev Raman, Principal at ARUP will discuse the designing for post crisis cities.

After the debate, at 8:30PM, the book “Emerging Urban Futures in Land Water Infrastructure” will be launched. The book documents the partnership between Columbia University and the University of Queensland that produced four years of student work in architecture, urban design, and urban planning in Brisbane and the surrounding areas.

This book is an archive of the resulting site research, design proposals, and relevant case studies, which is designed to serve as a comparative study of different teaching methods for post-professional studies in architecture and urban design.

For more information, click here.

© Marko Zoranovič

Architects: Arhitektura d.o.o.
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Project Team: Peter Gabrijelčič , Boštjan Gabrijelčič, Tomaž Budkovič
Investor: private
Construction year: 2008-2009
Photographer: Marko Zoranovič

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© JongOh Kim

Architect : HyoMan Kim – IROJE KHM Architects
Location: Youngin, Gyeounggi-do, Korea
Design team : KyeongJin Jung, JiWon Ym, EunHae Park
Structure designer : MOA. SungYeong Oh
Contractor : JEHYO
Site area : 554 sqm
Bldg. area :  110.28 sqm
Gross floor area : 290.88 sqm
Photographer : JongOh Kim

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Another “Part II” Round Up to finish this week. This time, we bring back previously featured mixed use projects. And if you didn’t catch our first part, it’s never to late, check it out right here.

Z Towers / NRJA
This project by young Latvian architects NRJA (previously featured on AD) is currently under construction. The complex, in Riga, Latvia, includes 2 towers (29 and 30 stories each), connected by a floor bridge. It also includes a 4-stories podium. Completion is expected durin 1st quarter 2010 (read more…)

Dorobanti Tower, Bucharest / Zaha Hadid Architects
Dorobanti tower, a new project by Zaha Hadid Architects in Bucharest moves away from the works we have been seen lately, with a very expressive structure. The 200m tall iconic tower will be located in the heart of the capital city of Romania, at junction of Calea Dorobanti and St. Mihail Eminescu (read more…)

Sugar Cube / KPMB
This mixed-use development project introduces a new strategy for making contemporary architecture within Denver’s historic Lower Downtown Heritage District (LoDo). The design responds to the precise urban design guidelines for LoDo, while helping the local Review Board to expand its guidelines to include contemporary buildings (read more…)

Højblokka_PULS / MAPT + DARK
We looked for a reinterpretation of the urban block typology in combination with vertical multiplication and urban density. The site is situated next to Oslo Central Station and had been formerly occupied by the postal headquarters. Due to its proximity to a variety of infrastructural layers in a dense urban and commercial area (read more…)

Market Hall in Rotterdam / MVRDV
Dutch architects MVRDV strike another one with a new mixed use project in the new inner city heart for the Laurens Quarter, the pre-war centre of Rotterdam. The project, comissioned by Provast, includes an open air market, that due to new hygienic constraints of dutch laws has to be covered. It also includes 246 residences (read more…)

© David Wakely Photography

Location: Sebastopol, California, USA
Architect: Turnbull Griffin Haesloop – Eric Haesloop, FAIA and Mary Griffin, FAIA, Jerome Christensen, Juliet Hsu
Landscape Architect: Jennifer Brooke, Landscape Office, Ltd.
Engineer: Mike Forbes, Fratessa Forbes Wong
Interiors: John and Loreta Hornall
General Contractor: Ken Sawyer and Micah Sawyer, Sawyer Construction
Year: 2008
Photographer: David Wakely, David Wakely Photography

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© Daniel Nicolas

Architect: Tjep
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Client: Private
Project year: 2006
Photographs: Daniel Nicolas

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© 3XN

Danish architects 3XN has won an Architectural Competition to transform the former freight train halls in Aarhus, Denmark into a new and dynamic cultural center. The new cultural hub for scenography, visual arts and literature will soon be constructed within a historical framework in Denmark’s second largest city, Aarhus.

The new cultural center is meant to be an inspiring setting that stimulates production of the arts and facilitates the interaction amongst the various artistic metiers, business and education.

3XNs proposal adds elements of nature, with green spaces injecting a natural raw quality which plays up to the historic nature of the existing halls which were used for rail freight in the past. More images and description after the break. read more »

Architect: Beton / Marta Rowińska & Lech Rowiński
Location: Tarnów, Poland
Building Team: Local Semi-Professional Builders
Investor: Well-known Polish Writer
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Beton

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© Jean-Pierre Duplan

Architects: TANK Architectes / Olivier Camus & Lydéric Veauvy
Location: Roubaix, 59, France
Architect in Charge: Lucie Vandenbunder
Client: M. Rouar
Site area:1,972 sqm
Constructed area:4,900 sqm
Budget:$3,409,800 Euro
Project year:2008
Photographs: Jean-Pierre Duplan photograph

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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 »

John Hill from Archidose is writing his new book: “A Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture”, including a comprehensive list of buildings in NY completed between 2000-2010, and those planned for completion after 2010.

And in order to have a complete list, he has asked for the help of ArchDaily’s readers to find “diamonds in the rough” in NY, and I´m pretty sure you can do it:

Projects in the book will fall into two broad categories:

1. Those completed between 2000-2010
2. Those planned for completion after 2010

I’m interested in both, but primarily the first, as they will make up the bulk of the book. Those in the second category, which I will include in an “On the Horizon” appendix, should be actual projects that have a good chance of realization, not hypothetical or speculative ones never to go beyond renderings. Given that my research to date has yielded a lot more buildings than can fit in the book, it is not necessary to send me obvious choices, like 40 Bond by Herzog & de Meuron, IAC HQ by Frank Gehry, the Cooper Union Academic Building by Morphosis, or any other NYC building on the Archi-Tourist, for that matter. I’m looking for “under the radar” buildings, quality architecture that has not clogged the airways of the architectural media. That said, here is my criteria for what is included in the book.

- John Hill

So leave your suggestions on the comments to see if you can spot those unique buildings!

© William Zbaren

Architects: Krueck & Sexton Architects
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Associate architect: VOA Architects
Client: Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies
Commissioning agent: U.S. Equities Development
Interior designer: Krueck & Sexton Architects
Engineers: Tylk, Gustafson, Reckers, Wilson, Andrews (Structural), Environmental Systems Design (MEP/Fire Protection/Life Safety)
Landscape consultant: Daniel Weinbach & Partners
Environmental consultant: Atelier Ten
Lighting: ISP Design Inc., Schuler & Shook (Atrium Lighting)
Acoustical: Kirkegaard Associates
General contractor: W.E. O’Neil
Project Area: 13,471 sqm
Budget: US $40,000,000
Project year: 2007
Photographs: William Zbaren

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