The Indicator: Keep Off the Grass
PREFACE
Since 2002, the U.S. Department of Energy has been running the Solar Decathlon to promote innovation in sustainable building technologies. The program places twenty collegiate teams from around the world in competition to produce prototype homes capable of producing more energy than they consume and powered exclusively by the sun. This year, the teams received the surprise news that their “sites” have been changed from the Mall to an as yet undecided alternate location. Even though one of the conditions of participation in the contest is to provide for the replacement of damaged lawn areas, the Department of the Interior and the National Parks Service are worried about the grass. Judging from the current state of the lawn, it would probably be in better shape after the Decathlon teams have removed their houses and fixed it.
Here is a link to a heart-wrenching video produced by the SCI-arc/Cal Tech Team. They ask you to contact members of Congress and The White House. Please support the Decathletes by calling, emailing, tweeting, facebooking, and writing.
More after the break.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Spring 2011 Lecture Series
The School of Architecture Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute shared with us their Spring Lecture Series. Lectures are held at EMPAC beginning at 6pm with free admission.
March 23rd
Peter Bohlin
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
April 5th
Henry N. Cobb
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
April 26th
Paola Antonelli
Curator for Architecture and Design, MoMA
San Pedro Apóstol Rural Sports Center / blaanc borderless architecture
Portuguese office blaanc borderless architecture, in collaboration with Mexican-based architects CaeiroCapurso, have been awarded a $25,000 USD funding by the international competition Gamechangers for their Project dedicated to building a Rural Sports Center in San Pedro Apóstol in Oaxaca, México for its underprivileged community. The competition was promoted and financed by Architecture for Humanity in partnership with Nike Inc. in another initiative to increase social cohesion through sports. The project is scheduled for construction in 2011.
More on the project after the break.
Brent Knoll / March Studio
Architects: March Studio
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Principal architects and team: Rodney Eggleston, Anne-Laure Cavigneaux, Lauren Steller, Joseph Reyes, Ben Waters, Geoffrey Binder, Dave Henderson, Mark Raggatt
Engineer: Tim Hall and Associates
Project area: 230 sqm
Photographs: March Studio Pty. Ltd and John Gollings Photography
Elm / Randy Brown Architects
The architects were challenged to design an affordable, modern, eco-friendly home that would sell at the same price point as a homebuilder house with comparable square footage. The result was a modular designed bar that sits on a poured-in-place concrete foundation situated within a 2 acre lot in suburban Omaha. More photographs and drawings of Elm, designed by Randy Brown Architects, following the break.
Architects: Randy Brown Architects
Location: Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Project Year: 2006
Photographs: Courtesy of Randy Brown Architects
Student Dormitory / Nickl & Partner Architekten
Architects: Nickl & Partner Architekten
Location: Im Neuenheimer Feld 136, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Client: Studentenwerk Heidelberg
Project area: 3,800 sqm
Project year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Stefan Müller-Naumann
Lecture: Bjarke Ingels at NSAD
Bjarke Ingels, award winning Danish architect and author and recently winner of our Building of the Year Award in the Cultural category, will deliver a lecture to NewSchool of Architecture and Design (NSAD) students on his architecture and how the evolution of political, economic, and social issues in today’s society is manifested in architecture designs.
The insightful and at times humorous presentation, “YES is More”, will highlight the evening presentation, Friday, February 25 at 6 p.m. at the Museum of Natural History in Balboa Park. For more information on this lecture, please click here.
Phoenix Health Sciences Education Building / CO Architects & Ayers Saint Gross
CO Architects, specialists in architecture for education and healthcare, along with the office of Ayers Saint Gross, associate and master plan architect, shared with us their award-winning design that exemplifies new, interdisciplinary teaching and research.
The physical manifestation of a new, interdisciplinary approach to health sciences education and research is rising from the flat pans of downtown Phoenix, AZ in the form of an architecturally expressive, world-class, sustainable educational facility. Currently under construction, the project recently won a 2010 NEXT LA Citation Award given to “on-the-boards” projects by the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). More images and project description after the break.
University Of Alberta Triffo Hall / Group2
Architects: Group2 Architecture Engineering Ltd. {Predecessor Firm: Barry Johns (Architecture) Limited}
Location: Edmonton, Canada
Client: University of Alberta
Project Team: Barry Johns, Laura Plosz, Troy Smith, Eugene Gyorfi, Graeme Johns, Katrina Szekely, Christie Grayson, Chad Oberg, Steve Londry
Structural Engineering: Reed Jones Christofferson Consulting Engineers
Mechanical Engineering: Hemisphere Engineering Inc.
Electrical Engineering: Washea Mah Engineering Ltd.
LEED Consultant: Group2 Architecture Engineering Ltd
Commissioning Agent: Independent Commissioning Solutions Inc.
Contractor: Binder Construction
Cost Consultant: Cuthbert Smith Consulting Partnership
Project area: 2,368 sqm
Project year: 2008
Photographs: Robert Lemermeyer Photography/Group2
In Progress: The Hepworth Wakefield Gallery / David Chipperfield
Wojtek Gurak recently shared these photographs of The Hepworth Wakefield Gallery designed by David Chipperfield. Still under construction the new art gallery will open May 21, 2011. Situated next to the River Calder, the state-of the-art facility has ten gallery spaces displaying historic and modern art as well as temporary exhibitions of contemporary art making it one of the largest purpose-built galleries outside of London. The program also includes an auditorium, learning studios, garden, cafe and shop.
Ferreries Cultural Centre / [ARQUITECTURIA]
Architects: [ARQUITECTURIA] Olga Felip + Josep Camps
Location: Tortosa, Spain
Collaborators: Mariel·la Agudo, Aitor Horta, Jaume Farrés, Irene Solà
Client: Ajuntament de Tortosa
Project area: 2,495 sqm
Project year: 2009 – 2010
Photographs: Pedro Pegenaute
House of Tapes / Emmett McNamara
Emmett McNamara, a student of the Edinburgh College Of Art, has shared his House of Tapes with us. The project is an exercise in re-use as emphasis was placed on developing a new function for an abundant waste material. McNamara gathered over 7,000 tapes from charity shops, friends, and tape dealers in the local vicinity to construct the structure.
More about the project after the break.
Atelier K / Kensaku Tohmoto
Architects: Kensaku Tohmoto
Location: Kyoto, Japan
Contractor: Sanwa Koumuten Co. Ltd.
Project area: 86 sqm
Project year: 2010
Photographs: Yoshiyuki Hirai
MARU MARU Office / RSP Architects
Architects: Chia Tien San, Clarence – RSP Architects
Location: Beijing, China
Client: White Peak Real Estate Investment
Photographs: Alexander Ford
Vetreria Airoldi / Buratti+Battiston Architects
Architects: Buratti+Battiston Architects - Gabriele Buratti, Oscar Buratti, Ivano Battiston
Location: Milan, Italy
Collaborators: Roberta Numi, Marco Viganò
Project area: 240 sqm
Photographs: Marcello Mariana
AD Classics: Santa Maria Church de Canaveses / Alvaro Siza
As is true with most old churches in Portugal, retaining walls, flights of stairs and large forecourts are designed around a building to help maintain it’s distance from its surroundings. This general strategy is at play in Santa Maria Church in Marco de Canaveses, where Alvaro Siza makes use of the sloping site and lifting the building on a 4m high plateau.
More on Alvaro Siza and this classic church after the break.
New Student Quarters For Boston University / Tony Owen Partners & Silvester Fuller
We recieved the new student quarters for Boston University by Tony Owen Partners and Silvester Fuller at 15-25 Regent Street, Chippendale. It is a unique design using fissures to provide maximum solar access to bedrooms as well as natural ventilation throughout the building.
More information and photos of this project after the break.
L-Stack House / Marlon Blackwell Architect
The L-Stack House responds to a site anomaly set within a dense inner-city neighborhood near a city park. The 10,000 sqf trapezoid-shaped lot is traversed diagonally by a dry-bed creek. The urban grid and the modest scale of existing houses in the neighborhood is enhanced through a strategy of bridging and stacking of forms.
In effect a new order is superimposed upon a in-fill tract of land that has been undeveloped since the 19th century origins of the city of Fayetteville. The resulting scheme is an ‘L’ configuration that subdivides the interior program and the site into private and public entities. A carefully positioned glass-enclosed stairway hinges together the two 18 -foot wide boxes that form the house structure.
Architects: Marlon Blackwell Architect
Location: Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA
Project Manager: Meryati Blackwell, Assoc. AIA
Project Team: Marlon Blackwell, AIA, Chris Baribeau, AIA, Matt Griffith, Assoc. AIA, Scott Scales, Assoc. AIA, Michael Pope
Landscape Designer: Stuart Fulbright
Structural Engineering: Joe Looney, P.E.
Lighting Design: John Rogers
General Contractor: Marlon Blackwell Architect and Benchmark Framing, Inc.
Project Year: 2006
Photographs: Timothy Hursley
sTARTT “WHATAMI” winner of the 2011 Young Architects Program at the MAXXI
As we told you weeks ago, the MoMA and PS1 have partnered with the MAXXI (the National Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Rome) on their Young Architects Program. This partnership will result in a summer installation in the exteriors of the italian museum (a Zaha Hadid building completed last year). This installation will happen at the same time as the one at the P.S.1, designed by Interboro Partners.
The winning propostal WHATAMI by Italian architects stARTT is based on the manufacturing of an artificial archipelago-hill, generating smaller green areas in the garden and potentially outside the museum. The hill works as a garden, injecting “green” into the concrete plateau of the museum’s outdoor space, allowing it to serve as a stage and/or parterre for concerts and other events, or as a space to rest and look at the museum itself.
The artificial landscape will be punctuated by large “flowers” providing light, shadow, water, and sound. The materials proposed for the installation involve a two-fold recycling process, the supplying of the materials for the construction (straw, geo-textile, plastic) and the dismantling of the “hill” (turf, lighting).
Lantern Pavilion / AWP / Atelier Oslo
Architects: AWP/ Atelier Oslo
Location: Langgata, Sandnes, Norway
Project area: 140 sqm
Project year: 2006 – 2010
Photographs: Jonas Adolfsen
Interboro Partners “Holding Pattern” winner of the 2011 Young Architects Program at the P.S.1
As we reported weeks ago, three New York firms, one Boston firm and one British firm were competing for the 2011 summer installation of the Young Architects Program at the MoMA P.s.1.
Today, Interboro Partners was announced as the winner with their entry Holding Pattern.
The NY firm, formed by Tobias Armborst, Daniel D’Oca, and Georgeen Theodore, not only managed to meet the YAP’s budget and programatic requirements, but also established a dialogue with the neighbors, which resulted in a scheme that doesn’t so much redesign the courtyard as reveal it.
A series of meetings with a nearby taxi company, and also with senior and day care centers, high schools, settlement houses, and the local YMCA, library, and greenmarket (among others) led to a design that includes a series of eclectic objects (benches, mirrors, ping-pong tables, and floodlights) under a very elegant and taut canopy of rope strung from MoMA PS1’s wall to the parapet across the courtyard. These objects will be recycled and given to these groups, further extending the reach of the project to the neighborhood.
More details about Holding Pattern after the break.
Expect a complete coverage of the finalists and the built installation as we have done in previous years: WORK ac‘s P.F.1. Public Farm 1 in 2008, MOS‘ Afterparty in 2009, and SO-IL‘s Pole Dance in 2010.
