Autodesk Autocad for Mac, Sledgehammer Beta 1
Almost a year ago we told you of a survey Autodesk was conducting regarding the UI and printing capabilities of Autocad with Mac users, the first confirmation of Autodesk finally working on a version for this platform.
Federico Viticci from Macstories posted several screen shoots of Sledgehammer, the first Beta of Autocad for Mac OSX, running on a 64-bit machine. The UI presents several changes from what we were used to on the Windows version, and I´m happy to see mouse gestures (supported by Macbook’s touchpad and the Magic Mouse).
Not much details out there, but we do have a meeting with an Autodesk rep in the following weeks, when we will try to get you more details.
In the meanwhile, take a look at the following screen shoots and tell us what you think: Is Autodesk going in a good direction with this new version (more than an adaptation) of Autocad for Mac? Does the UI seem usable for you? What would you add?
Urban SOS: Transformations
In the second year of AECOM’s Design + Planning online ideas competition, Urban SOS: Transformations calls for responses to sites in one of seven cities that are undergoing transformations. The open student ideas competition for 2010 seeks to engage students in the design, planning, architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, engineering, environmental and related fields, with the urban conditions that are now facing the majority of the world’s population.
This year, they are exploring the topic of ‘Transformations,’ looking at seven cities in particular that are in the midst of a change or collection of changes that represent both challenges and opportunities to the shared futures of each city. Entrants must submit a site redevelopment plan that addresses specific issues in one of the seven cities (Beijing, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Istanbul, Phoenix, Port au Prince, Sao Paulo).
Four finalists (individuals or teams) will travel to Barcelona in November to present their submissions to our jury at the World Architecture Festival. Seen at Death by Architecture. More information on the competition’s official website.
Pantone Hotel / Michel Penneman + Oliver Hannaert
Pantone Inc’s claim to fame began 45 years ago with its revolutionary color matching system that allowed designers to reproduce accurate color anywhere in the world. Currently, the company is branching out and moving into lifestyle- oriented industries using the same color numbering system to guarantee an exactness of hue. As the company began expanding, Pantone decided to construct a hotel as part of the new “Pantone Universe” campaign. Designed by Michel Penneman and Oliver Hannaert, the hotel fully embodies the company, as “the hotel of colors… showcases the color of emotion with a distinctive hue on each colorous guest floor.”
More about the design of the hotel after the break.
School of Information Technologies / FJMT
Architects: Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp
Location: Sydney, Australia
Landscape: FJMT
Cost Consultant: Davis Langdon Australia
Structural & Civil Consultant: Taylor Thomson Whitting
Mechanical & Electrical Consultant: Lincolne Scott
Hydraulic Consultant: ThomsonKane
Environmental consultant: Advanced Environmental Concepts
Acoustic consultant: Arup Acoustics
Facade Engineer: Connell Mott MacDonald
Builder: AW Edwards Pty Ltd
Project Manager: Capital Insight
Project Area: 14,480 sqm
Project Year: 2006
Photographs: Andrew Chung courtesy by FJMT
The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History / G.Lab*
G.Lab* by Gansam Architects and Partners sent us their proposal for the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in Seoul, using a mix of reinforced concrete and steel structure to create two interesting volumes to house 5,000 years of history.
Images, drawings and the project statement after the break.
A House in Luanda Competition finalists announced
The International Competition A HOUSE IN LUANDA: PATIO AND PAVILION, promoted by the Lisbon Architecture Triennale together with Luanda Triennale, with the goal of selecting the best proposal for the conception of a family unit house in Luanda, was the most participated International Competition of Ideas ever to take place in Portugal.
They received 599 proposals, 588 of which were accepted to the competition. Architects from 44 countries applied their proposals, coming from all the 5 continents.
Complete list of 30 finalists with some photos after the break.
AD Round Up: Wineries Part I
Designing a winery may be a very difficult task. Usually, they are located in such beautiful landscapes that their design has to step up for the challenge. What this five amazing wineries? Check them all after the break.
14 Viñas Winery / S.M.A.O.
The winery arises as a free standing building with an accentuated singular character. Dueto its industrial use as much as to its location in an emblematic environment. It raises a respectful solution towards the landscape of low environmental impact which is suitable for the scale as much as for the dominating colours of the landscape (read more…)
Architects in Mission Competition
Architects in Mission (AIM) Competition is organized by Zeybekoglu Nayman Associates (ZNA), and its goal is to promote high quality design among architecture students and young professionals, and to provide a stage for them to demonstrate their design gifts and abilities.
Cable 8 was a factory complex in Beijing, China, producing electrical cables, and has recently evolved into a re-vitalized incubator for art and design. The low rise Cable 8 buildings, with their ivy-covered brick walls, form a sharp contrast to the high rise structures that have sprung up around it.
Participants are asked to come up with strategies and mechanisms that will improve Cable 8, making it more susceptible to the rapidly changing urban landscape, and perform better as a cultural carrier that helps to diversify the otherwise homogeneous nature of the CBD area. Participants can either improve the existing buildings in Cable 8 or introduce new architecture.
For more information, visit the competition’s official website.
Greenwich Street Project / Archi-tectonics
Completed in 2004, the Greenwich Street Project by Archi-tectonics is a 64,000 square foot multi-unit residential building in New York just a few blocks from where the Hudson River meets the city. With the West Village to its north, SoHo, the heart of style to its West, and TriBeCa, where entrenpreneurship has transformed industry into lofts to its south, the Greenwich Street Project is the meeting point of three of downtown’s major cultural districts. Ironically enough, its design also involved the merging of an old renovated warehouse with a completely new structure, combining both to create appropriate live-work spaces that served its context.
More on Archi-tectonics Greenwich Street Project after the break.
Elementary School Complex at Techum / Zerodegree Architecture
Architects: Yushi Uehara / Zerodegree Architecture
Location: Techum, De Zuidlanden, The Netherlands
Client: City of Leeuwarden
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Christian Richters
Second International Bauhaus Summer School
The second international Summer School run by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation invites young students from various disciplines to take part in an idea contest held in Dessau from 21 to 30 July 2010. The format has been established successfully last summer, and will continue this year under the heading ‘Home is Everywhere’.
Based on Martin Wagner’s vision of a flexible living in the ‘Growing House’, the title of an exhibition held in 1932, the participants shall develop fantasies for a multi-local living in Dessau-Roßlau, they will work of the following themes: ‘Garden shead XXL’, ‘Home comforts on the move’, Boarding house’, and ‘Global home Platte’. The Summer School is aimed at students of architecture and town planning, but also of other disci-plines such as the humanities, mathematics, and art.
The Summer School fee of 300 Euro includes accommodation. For further information and en-rolment please visit summerschool@bauhaus-dessau.de or www.bauhaus-dessau.de.
Vashon Cabin / Vandeventer + Carlander Architects
Architects: Vandeventer + Carlander Architects
Location: Vashon Island, Washington, USA
Structural Engineer: Swenson Say Faget
Landscape Architects: David Berleth Landscape Architect
Contractor: McIntyre Construction Services Inc.
Floor Area: 1,848 sq ft
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Ben Benschneider
Green Products Innovation Institute, Inc / Cradle to Cradle
Yesterday, architect William McDonough and chemist Dr. Michael Braungart launched their Green Products Innovation Institute, Inc. , an addition to their Cradle to Cradle Movement® (C2C). This new non-profit organization is focused on being a valuable resource for all consumers, and ultimately, will help people achieve a higher level of environmentally safe and healthy products. The driving force behind the movement is that through the innovation of “redesigning products and ingredients to become nutrients, and enabling old products to become the raw material for new goods and services” a cycle of reusing elements will eliminate waste.
Gehry vs LEED
Note: The original title for article was “Gehry vs Sustainability” and it was changed to “Gehry vs LEED” on May 22nd for accuracy.
Frank Gehry can usually spice things up. And, his recent comments about sustainability prove that the 81 year old starchitect still remains as provocative and shocking as he always was. In an interview with Blair Kamin from the Chicago Tribune, Gehry basically dismissed LEED and its efforts to make our built environment more eco-friendly. While his opposition may be targeted predominately toward LEED’s point system, rather than the overall green movement, his comments, like usual, stirred up some controversy.
Check out the interview and some responses after the break.
New Market in Celje / Arhitektura Krušec
Architects: Arhitektura Krušec
Location: Celje, Slovenia
Project Team: Lena Krušec, Tomaž Krušec and Vid Kurinčič
Colaborators: Tina Mikulič, Vanja Milosavljevič, Jurij Nemec, Matej Nolda, Jan Šavli and Miha Žargi
Investor: Municipality of Celje, CMC Celje
Client: Municipality of Celje and CMC Celje
Project Area: 410 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Miran Kambič
Wa Sun Jai / IROJE KHM Architects
Architect: IROJE KHM Architects / HyoMan Kim
Location: GungNaeDong, BunDangGu, SeongNam, GyeongGiDo, Korea
Design Team: SuMi Jung, MiYeong Park
Structure designer: Guang Min Jeon
Contractor: Yeong Kim
Structure: Concrete Rahmen
Exterior finishing: Cor-Ten steel, Dryvit
Interior finishing: Exposed concrete, Lacquer on gypsum board, Wood flooring
Site Area: 515 sqm
Building Area: 200.66 sqm
Gross floor area: 275 sqm
Photographs: JongOh Kim
RIBA 2010 Award winners
The Royal Institute of British Architects just announced 102 buildings that were awarded for the 2010 Awards. These buildings, 93 sprawled across the UK and 9 in the rest of the EU, include 6 which were nominated for the Stirling Prize.
More about the winners and more images after the break.
Architects for Health Student Design Award 2010
Architects for Health invite architectural students to submit projects to be considered for the third annual Student Healthcare Design Award 2010. As in previous years any project relating to the design of a healthcare building can be submitted, however the 2010 competition introduces a greater emphasis on the sample brief – Designing for Death: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise and a specific prize will be awarded for the most successful response to the sample brief we have prepared.
For more details and registration, go to the competition’s official website. Seen at Death by Architecture.
Iceberg / CEBRA + JDS + SeARCH + Louis Paillard
One of our favorites, CEBRA, (and their collaboraters JDS, SeARCH and Louis Paillard) shared their latest winning competition entry. Situated in Aarhus, Denmark, right in front of the harbor, the 21.500 m2 project features mixed dwellings types and commercial space. The project receives its jagged heights to allow better views toward the ocean and better daylight conditions, and the tops and bottoms are shifted so that views between the volumes become possible. This breakdown of the mass creates the potential for an “iconic” building for the harbor area, and one that, due to its form, creates its own skyline within itself. There’s just something about the Danes’ approaches, like BIG + Cebra, where they tackle simple realities, such as light and views, and allow their whole building to respond them in an unconventional and dynamic way.
More images, diagrams and more information about the winning design after the break.
KIPPING / GRID Architektur
KIPPING is a shoe shop situated in a 17th century house in the city‐center of Bregenz, Austria. Kipping, besides making and selling shoes, also produces individual orthopedic inlays. GRID’s concept was to present the handmade shoes, the orthopedic procedure, and the offers on sale as one coherent product.
More images and complete architect’s description after the break.
Danilovskiy Fort / Sergey Skuratov Architects
Architects: Sergey Skuratov Architects
Location: Moscow, Russia
Project Team: Skuratov S.A., Romanov A., Kuznetsova E.
Client & Partners: Biznes Stroy Ltd \ Tehnologija Ltd of MR-group
Structural Engineering: Tehnologija Ltd of TSN group of companies
Site Area: 7,987 sqm
Project Area: 40,000 sqm
Project Year: 2005-2008
Photographs: Yuri Palmin
