This Monday, October 19th, young architects working and living in France will present their recent projects in a debate taking place at Columbia University (Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall, 6:30pm). Architects participating will be:
Dan Dorell + Lina Ghotmeh, DORELL.GHOTMEH.TANE / ARCHITECTS
Adelaide Marchi + Nicola Marchi, Marchi Architectes
Pascal Riffaud + Denis Brillet, BLOCK Architectes
Moderated by Rafael Magrou, Curator, Paris.
Architects: Fitzsimmons Architects
Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
Architect in Charge: Brian Fitzsimmons AIA
Collaborators: Larry Pickering, Stan Lingo P.E.
Project Size: 223 sqm conditioned space, 395 sqm total floor area
Budget: $290,500
Project year: 2007
Photographs: Joseph Mills Photography
Architects: Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands
Location: Milan, Italy
Food and restaurant consultant: Ford McDonald Consultancy
Lighting consultant: Equation Lighting Design
Cost consultant: Davis Langdon
Mechanical engineer: BRE Enginnering s.r.l.
Electrical engineer: CS Progetti
Main contractor: Impresa Minotti s.r.l.
Feature ceiling sub-contractor: Camagni Arredamenti s.r.l.
Project Area: 1,900 sqm
Project year: 2007
Photographs: Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands
The city council of Weilburg, Germany, a dense medieval city, organized a design competition upon the demolition of an existing parking structure. ACME’s terrace design is a contemporary spin on the Baroque terraced-landscape building typology found nearby in the Weilburg Castle Gardens. The form becomes an integrated part of the landscape, allowing the project to blend into the surrounding context while inviting inhabitation and managing to create “specific urban character towards some if its city context”.
This project won the first prize from the voting public and the second prize from the professional jury.
More images and more about the project after the break.
Copyright© wojtek gurak - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wojtekgurak/
With over 6,000 pictures from our Flickr pool, we are constantly receiving some amazing photos provided by our readers. Each month, we’ll show you our selection of best pictures. You can check Part I, Part II and Part III. And of course remember you can submit yours right here, and also follow us through Twitter and our Facebook Fan Page.
The picture of the Nottingham Science Park in the UK was taken by wojtek gurak. Check the other four after the break. read more »
© Paul Clemence
Photographer Paul Clemence shared with us some photos of 100 11th Ave, a residential tower in Chelsea by Jean Nouvel.
This building is almost complete, and it has a strong presence from across the river, or when seen from the High Line. I remember that a month ago, I was looking at it from the High Line and a lady next to me said “how old is that building?”. Despite the fact of its high tech curtain wall, using 1647 different window panels, the building looks ancient, almost like a left over from the old waterfront.
The variation of the windows is not only on their size, but also the inclination and the glass tint, giving this building a unique facade.
More photos after the break:
© Paul Crosby
Architects: VJAA
Location: Collegeville, Minnesota, USA
Client: Saint John’s Abbey
Constructed area: 17.4 sqm
Project year: 2008
Photographs: © Paul Crosby
OLIAROS, a young property development company, called architects up to 35 years old to submit proposals for the construction of an affordable student housing complex in Kerameikos and Metaxourgeio (KM), an area in the historic centre of Athens, Greece.
Parasite Studio have shared with us their proposal for the competition. Their project, “Agora”, consists in complex living modules. Each module comprises a common space for six students and three bedrooms. Full architect’s description and more images after the break. read more »
After 9 days and 10 contests, Team Germany from the Technische Universität Darmstadt won the 2009 Solar Decathlon with their surPLUShome project.
© Jim Tetro, U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.
The surPLUShome is based on a single room concept. The interior design is characterized by a multi functional body as its central element. This body contains primary functions like the kitchen, stairs and the bath and defines the possible use of close-by space. Besides it takes over functions of furniture and the building services.
But the most interesting aspect of this house is its shingle inspired ventilated skin, using photovoltaic modules.
You can learn more about the house at Team Germany’s official website.
A young firm from São Paulo, Brazil received an Honorable Mention for their Paineiras Hotel Complex design in Rio de Janeiro. The architects, Alexandre Hepner, Denis Cossia, João Paulo Payar, Rafael Brych, Ricardo Gonçalves, and environmental design consultant Ricardo Messano, designed a complex that would be functional and “allow perfect fruition of the beautiful panoramic view and the close contact with nature.” The strategy reflects “the intention of harmonizing the intervention with the existing context, thought without denying the contemporary character of such intervention nor hiding its presence among the surrounding forest and the old hotel building.”
More about the hotel after the break. read more »
Architect: Alliance arkitekter AS
Location: Stavanger, Norway
Project manager: Harald Martin Gjøvaag
Project team: Kristoffer Johan Gulbrandsen, Tue Kappel, Tonje Løvdahl
Structural Engineering: Procon AS
Client: Svithun Invest AS
Contractor: Genfer Construction AS
Building area: 3,007 sqm
Project Year: 2007
Budget: 4,110,000 Euro
Photographs: Stian Robberstad
Architects: Arhitektid Muru & Pere
Location: Rannamõisa near Tallinn,Estonia
Project team: Urmas Muru, Peeter Pere, Janek Maat ,Katrin Kaevats
Structure designer: Ago Kuddu
Design year: 2005-2007
Construction year: 2007-2008
Project area: 266 sqm
Photographs: Tarvo Varres
© Brigida Gonzalez
Architects: Students of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, led by Professor Frank Flury
Local architect: Ecker Architekten
Location: Boedigheim, Germany
Client: Protestant Church of Bödigheim
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Robert Piotrowski, Dea Ecker, Klaus Hilger & John Ruffalo, Brigida Gonzalez
Website: Flurkapelle Buchen/Bödigheim
The Solar Decathlon 2009 competition ends tomorrow, and 7 out of 10 contests have been already completed, with Team California on the lead with the Refract House.
The results so far are:
The Solar Decathlon is open to the public starting today, until Oct 18th.
After the break, videos with the houses by Virginia Tech, Team Alberta, Team Germany and Team Puerto Rico.
Sadar Vuga Architects have shared with us their design for the air traffic control centre for the Brnik Airport in Slovenia. The centre is conceived so as to provide security and enable high operativeness, 24-hour work comfort as well as comfort for the employees and visitors to the Centre. Furthermore, the Centre is designed according to all strict requirements of safety, operation and efficient functioning, but it is also envisaged as a special, memorable and symbolic building of the arrival in Slovenia.
The Centre is designed as a compact shell that uncloses where natural lighting is needed in the interior. The compact building with a pentagonal ‘head’ of the Centre, which is tied to two administration ‘wings’ by the vertical hall in the central area of the Centre, is situated, for safety reasons, in the centre of a plot along the central boulevard of the future Airport City. The Centre is separated from the edge of the plot in the north by a parking platform and in the south by the tall greenery of the Centre’s garden. The Centre’s interior is organized into zones of various safety degrees. The more we move from the perimeter with administration offices and resting areas towards the free centre of the building, the higher the safety level.
More images after the break. read more »
Architects: Bureau Ira Koers
Location: Bungalowpark Lanka, Anholt 11, Ruinen, The Netherlands
Client: Stichting Arthouses
Program: Rentable holiday home on the Dutch heath
Contractor: Bouwbedrijf Geerts
Engineers: Kr8 architecten
Constructed area: 55 sqm
Budget: $100,000 Euro
Project year: 2005-2009
Photographs: Bureau Ira Koers
© Cristobal Palma
Architects: Adamo-Faiden
Location: La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Project team: Sebastián Adamo, Marcelo Faiden, Luciano Intile, Hans Rinshofer, Federique Paillard, Giuliana Nieva
Constructor: Administradora Club de Campo La Candida SA
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Cristóbal Palma
The recent release of Google Sketchup 7.1 gave us powerful tools to easily create accurate models of urban contexts, with the integration of Street View for textures and better geo location of models.
And yersterday, Google released World Builder, a web based tool that enables users to easily model the buildings of 50 cities.
As you can see on the video it is very simple: you choose a regular volume to start with, and you adjust the width and height in views of the terrain from different angles, and voilá! you just modeled a part of the city, available for everyone at Google Earth and 3D Warehouse.
You can see the latest buildings modeled by users at 3D Warehouse… and if you refresh the page you will see how fast this is being populated.
Thank you Google :)
Dupont sent us an iPod Touch to try their mySurface app (available as a free download at the iTunes Store). Basically, the application is a catalog of the colors and finishes available for Corian and Zodiaq, two of their products for surfaces.
I already knew Corian, as it is one of the best surface solutions for countertops and furniture. Zodiaq is a product with more resistance, as it incorporates pure quartz crystal, making it more durable and scratch resistant.
What I like about this is that you no longer have to carry the big physical samples, and it becomes very useful when you are on site with the client discussing the finishes.
As you can see on the screenshots below, you can easily navigate through the color/finishes palette, and save your favorites for easy access. For a more accurate comparison, you can see the texture at full screen and place the iPhone/iPod over the desired surface. It also includes some sample images of projects using these products.
What do you think?
More screenshots and my vision on how this app could be improved after the break:
The flexible mixed use design of KLab architecture’s Emerging Landscapes allows the project’s function to change as the seasons progress. The project is a small convention center for the winter months, and switches to become a summer camp for children during the second half of the year.
More about the project after the break.
read more »
Support 
on the 
-- 
