Guru Bar / Klab architecture
Architects: Klab architecture
Location: Plateia Theatrou, Psiri, Athens, Greece
Design team: Konstantinos Labrinopoulos, Miltos Farmakis
Area: 150m2
Completion date: 2007
photos: Babis Louizidis
How architecture helped music evolve / David Byrne
We love listening to TED talks as the speakers offer fresh perspectives and challenge us with thought provoking ideas. Today, we share David Byrne’s talk about music and architecture. Byrne chronologically moves through different architectural periods, noting the difference musical composition experiences as the years progress. For instance, the airy and flowing music that filled cathedrals became more textural with frequent changes in key as the size and shape shifted to become something like Carnegie Hall.
More about Byrne after the break.
Herzog & de Meuron’s VitraHaus Video
Earlier this year we featured Herzog & de Meuron’s VitraHaus in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Now, we share with you this amazing video by Pedro Kok, a brazilian architectural photographer whose incredible photos can be seen in our Flickr pool.
Nursery School “La Rambleta”, Moncada / Antonio Altarriba Comes – Miguel Noguera Mayén
Architects:Antonio Altarriba Comes – Miguel Noguera Mayén
Location: Moncada, Spain
Collaborators: David López Mateo, Jose Luis Mazuecos, María Salinas Molto
Constructor: Construcciones francés s.l.
Client: Moncada’s city Council
Constructed area: 921,00 m2
Budget: 712.696,91 euro
Date of construction: January 2008 – January 2009
Photos: Courtesy of Antonio Altarriba Comes – Miguel Noguera Mayén
Norwegian Mountaineering Center / Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter
Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter, whose National Tourist Route was a finalist for the 2009 Building of the Year Awards, has recently been awarded first prize for an invited competition to design a mountaineering center. Situated in Norway, the center possesses an expressive geometry that is an artificial interpretation of the site’s mountainous backdrop. Covered in a uniform surface, the angularity of the form breaks the large mass into a more contextual and scalable entity. The design intends to give the “existing house a special character that conveys the content with a unique and existing expression” giving the center of Åndalsnes a “one of a kind building.”
More images after the break.
CAC’s Mine the Gap Competition Winners Announced
MINE THE GAP, a single-stage international design ideas competition dedicated to examining one of the most visible scars left after the collapse of the real estate market in Chicago: the massive hole along the Lake Michigan remaining from the cancellation of Calatrava’s Spiral Tower, have recently announced it’s winners. See them after the break.
Canstruction Toronto Competition
It starts with one can. To feed the hungry. To lift the spirit. To change the world. Canstruction, an event committed to ending hunger, is using ‘one can’ as a catalyst for change.
Canstruction® is the most unique food charity in the world! The 12th annual Toronto event hosted annually at the Toronto Dominion Centre. So far, Toronto has raised almost 500,000 lbs of food for the Daily Bread Food Bank.
Think you have what it takes to design and build a structure made of nothing more than canned food, ingenuity, and luck? Enter today and download the call for entries at http://www.canstructiontoronto.org. Seen at Bustler.
The Peak Series / Visiondivision
Just in time for the summer, Visiondivison‘s new pre-fab housing series is geared toward accommodating summer time guests in a flexible, yet compact space. Pyramidal in shape, the house features a playful facade that is climbable, affording each guest his own entrance hatch that can be reached from the outside.
More images and more about the houses after the break.
Birkenhead Library and Civic Centre / Archoffice
Architect: Archoffice
Location: 205 Hinemoa Street, Birkenhead, North Shore City, New Zealand
Client: North Shore City Council
Project design team: Brendan Rawson (director in charge); Leon Bieldt (Project Architect); John Ingham; Henri Sayes; Tane Pratt; Rose McShane; Anna Fraser
Project management: RDT Pacific
Structural engineer: Brown and Thompson
Mechanical / Services engineer: S.K.M (Sinclair Knight Mertz)
Quantity surveyor: Maltbys
Planner: Burton Consultants
Traffic planner: McCormack Rankin Cagney
Construction Company: Mainzeal Property and Construction
Date of Practical Completion: 2 December 2009
Photos: Courtesy of Archoffice
AD Classics: Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort / Michael Graves
In a world where anything in your imagination can become a reality, Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida stayed true to their word and hired architect Michael Graves to design a resort consisting of two hotels that would become part of Disney’s famous collection of “entertainment architecture.” Graves’ postmodern, colorful style was the perfect choice for the playful themepark resort, and his whimsical design decisions and statues of grandeur contribute to the famous Disney kingdom. The theme for the design of the hotels sprung right from its early conceptual stages, where Graves developed an entire story to create characters for both the Swan and the Dolphin in a magical tale that he thought could potentially become Disney characters.
More images and information after the break.
Alpha Project / XVSTUDIO
XVSTUDIO (Xavier Vilalta Studio) shared with us their Alpha Project, which won an international competition for a mixed-used development in Doha, Qatar.
More images and architect’s description after the break.
Baton Rouge International School / Trahan Architects
Using their award-winning campus master plan as a guide, the new international school in Baton Rouge, LA designed by Trahan Architects has just entered into the schematic design phase. The facility will be comprised of a gymnasium, stage, classrooms and an administrative suite. After interviewing Trey Trahan and being introduced to several of his projects, it is evident that the firm’s emphasis on understanding the context, in terms of both built form and culture, continually provides the backbone for their design process.
More images and more about the project after the break.
Rincon | Bates House / Studio 27 Architecture
Architects: Studio 27 Architecture – John K. Burke
Location: 1600 K Street NW, Washington, DC, USA
Design Team: Chris DeHenzel, Hans Kuhn
Contractor: Stalheber Construction Inc.
Age of Structure: 1906
Square footage of job: 1,550 sf
Completion Date: January 2010
Photographer: Anice Hoachlander / Allan Russ
Kaohsiung Maritime Competition
A few weeks ago, we shared our opinion on the benefits of the open architecture competition. Whether you believe entering competitions degrades architects because ideas are shared without monetary compensation, or whether you find that competitions inspire your creative edge, how about this scenario: a competition canceled one day after the submission deadline.
More about the canceled competition after the break.
Video: Sports Facilities / Giancarlo Mazzanti + Plan B by Cristobal Palma
Since its beginnings, photography quickly became the principal architectural media tool. Now, with all the possibilities given by the new technology, specially new media, it seemed that video was supposed to be the natural evolution. However, only a few have been able to evolve from a fixed frame into a video proposal that can transmit the qualities of a building in motion, with most being just a slideshow with background music or a collage of different shots, which can’t tell more than a fixed photo.
But this is changing, and a few photographers have been able to embrace this new format and make a contribution to how buildings are presented, avoiding the use of a single good framing. This has been the case of the first video shot by photographer Cristobal Palma, a commission from our friends at Abitare.
This video shows the new sports facilities designed by Giancarlo Mazzanti with Plan B (Felipe Mesa) for the ODESUR Games in Medellin, Colombia.
For more, you can visit the projects photographed by Cristobal Palma at ArchDaily.
Trapezoid / buildingstudio
Architects: buildingstudio
Location: Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Design Team: Coleman Coker, Jonathan Tate, David Dieckhoff, Carl Batton Kennon, Collette Reid
Structural Engineers: Logan Patri Engineering
Civil Engineering: ETI Corporation
Mechanical/Electrical Engineer: V.T. Gala Engineering
Consultant: Antonio Bologna, Architect
Landscape: Harriet McGeorge Landscape Design
General contractor: Patton & Taylor Enterprises
Project Area: 19,000 sq ft
Budget: US $1,780,000.00
Project Year: 2006
Photographs: Anastasia Laurenzi
Wurzburg Retreat / archimania
Architects: archimania
Location: Savannah, TN, USA
Owner/Client: Warren Wurzburg
Construction Cost: $1.6 million
Building Area: 4,829 sf
Date of Completion: April 2009
Cost per Square Foot: $330.00
General Contractor: McNairy County Construction, LLC
Photos: Brian Laskaris
The Easter Seals’ Sketch-A-Space Competition
Easter Seals and Google SketchUp have teamed up to launch this first-of-its-kind online competition. The Easter Seals’ Sketch-A-Space competition offers people with autism—and those interested in learning more about autism or who have someone in their life that lives with autism—an opportunity to design their ideal, dream space using Google SketchUp’s free 3-D modeling software.
Design the room or space of your dreams—for a chance to win $2,000 to make that dream space come true. Join them in helping to make spaces more accessible to people living with autism! More information at the competition’s official website. Seen at Bustler.
Min House / Pop-Arq
Architects: Pop-Arq
Location: Palermo Neighborhood, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Budget: us$ 42,000
Construction company: 1° Plano SRL
Metal carpentry: Miguel Cabaña
Foldable window: Daniel Méndez
Wood carpentry: Ricardo Juárez
Painting: Juan Pujol
Estructural engineer: Diego Vizzón
Project & direction: Max Zolkwer
Team: Stephane Damsin, Florencia Bernal, Florencia Medina
Photos: Albano Garcia
ARCHIP, New School of Architecture in Prague
The first Czech private school of architecture, Architectural Institute in Prague (ARCHIP), opens its doors in Veletržní palác. It is currently accepting applications from prospective local and international students for its baccalaureate study programme in Architecture, with instruction in English. Tuition starts in autumn 2010; the applications can be filed online, at the school’s website and the application deadline is 21 June. For more information, click here.
Cedeira / MYCC
For this small residence situated deep into the hillside, MYCC designed a strong frame that outlines the overall house form, which is then sandwiched with rusted steel panels. The perforated panels are printed with different shades to represent a fragmented piece of the forest. These holes filter natural light during the day and conversely, filter artificial light during the night. The interior’s lofted condition overlooks a grand living space.
More images after the break.
