Happy Birthday Oscar Niemeyer!
Oscar Niemeyer turned 102 today… and as you can see he is still rocking.
You can see the second part of this interview on our previous article.
Digital Media City / SOM

SOM recently unveiled the design for the Digital Media City Landmark Tower in Seoul, Korea. The 2,100 foot (640m) tall tower will be the tallest tower in East Asia when completed in 2014.
The iconic building is located in the north of the Han River, which crosses the city, and will dominate the skyline becoming a important icon for Seoul… which is what you will expect if you commission a tower this tall.
Levitt Goodman Architects selected to design new “Learning Commons”
York University has selected Levitt Goodman Architects to develop detailed designs for its competition-winning design for a 26,390 ft2 renovation of York University’s main library on its Keele campus. The “Learning Commons” will provide users with a mix of group study areas that will shift York University’s 40-year old Scott Library into a progressive learning environment.
The $2M renovation will be the first initiative on the campus specifically designed to reflect York’s pedagogical shift from a teacher-centered approach to active and collaborative learning. More images and description after the break.
Green Lighthouse, Carbon Neutral Faculty building / Christensen & Co Arkitekter

Architect: Christensen & Co Arkitekter
Client: Danish University and Property Agency
Users: Faculty of Science (30 staff / 50 daily users)
Area: 950 m² (site 3000m²)
Project: May 2008
Construction: October 2008
Completion: November 2009
Collaborators:
Hellerup Byg (contractors)
Cowi (engineering)
CCO staff MC, MC, TN, MS, TB, AM
Misc Partners behind project: Danish University and Property Agency, Copenhagen University, Municipality of Copenhagen, Velux, Velfac
Landlines / Urban Art Projects

The international studio Urban Art Projects (UAP) transformed a standard parking garage into a large scale “art-come-architecture project” on Albert Street in Brisbane. The art project entitled ’Landlines’ is a contour map of the area that wraps itself around three faces of the 9 floor parking garage.
More about Landlines and more images after the break.
Multi-Level Parking voestalpine / x Architekten

Architects: x Architekten (Linz and Vienna)
Location: Linz, Austria
Architects in Charge: David Birgmann, Bettina Brunner, Rainer Kasik, Max Nirnberger, Lorenz Prommegger
Client: voestalpine Stahl GmbH
Constructed Area: 20,700 sqm
Project Year: 2007-2008
Photographs: David Schreyer
AIA Facebook Young Designers Challenge
The AIA is hosting its first ever design competition on Facebook—the AIA Facebook Young Designers Challenge. The competition is targeting emerging professionals, and is open to all AIAS members, all Assoc. AIA members, and all AIA young architect members. (The AIA defines young architects as being licensed 10 years or less.)
The AIA is asking designers to submit new, unbuilt building projects that address America’s most pressing design needs for the 21st century. This can include, but is not limited to: sustainability, public infrastructure, affordable housing, retrofitting suburbs and other resource-intensive built environments, urban farming, and rehabilitating dilapidated urban cores. This requirement is intentionally flexible. The most important factor is that each design offers an innovative solution to a concrete and unsolved problem. The winning designer will be announced in AIArchitect with a feature article on their design in January.
For more information, go to the competition’s website in Facebook.
Apartment Fandl / Schlosser + Partner

Architects: Schlosser + Partner
Location: Graz, Austria
Client: Mag. Elisabeth Fandl
Project Area: 109 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Croce&Wir
3.1 Phillip Lim / Leong Leong Architecture

Leong Leong Architecture designed a 550 square meter store for 3.1 Phillip Lim in Cheongdam-Dong, Seoul’s premiere fashion district. The store is characterized by the simultaneous need for sameness and difference. “Typically, the consistent repetition of brand traits is necessary to reinforce an identity, while novelty can refresh the aura and desire for the brand,” explained the architects.
More photos by architectural photographer Iwan Baan, and more about the store after the break.
The Docks Dombasles / Hamonic + Masson architects

Architects: Hamonic + Masson architects
Location: Le Havre, France
Project Team: Gaëlle Hamonic, Jean-Christophe Masson, Marie-Agnès de Bailliencourt, Cédric Brégeot
Client: Investir Immobilier
Hydraulic Engineer: EGCL
Structural Engineer: Peyronnel
Quantity Surveyor: Kabock
Project Area: 3,024 sqm
Budget: 3,20 M€
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Hervé Abbadie & Jean-Christophe Masson
Competition for the Sustainable Development of Gadeokdo
The purpose of the competition is establish a schematic design for developing the Gadeokdo region in Busan Metropolitan city, Republic of Korea, as an international compound zone by obtaining the broad ideas of experts at home and abroad.
Landscape architects, architects, and urban planners and designers are invited to suggest feasible ideas and designs to develop the Gadeokdo sustainable environment.
Registration deadline is December 31. Submission deadline is February 18, 2010. Seen at deathbyarchitecture. More information on the competition’s official website.
The Wright / Andre Kikoski

Andre Kikoski has designed a new restaurant, The Wright, for the Guggenheim Museum in New York that transforms Wright’s familiar geometries into a new dining experience. “It was both an incredible honor and an exhilarating challenge to work within Wright’s iconic building,” says Kikoski. “Every time we visit, we see a new subtlety in it that deepens our appreciation of its sophistication. We sought to create a work that is both contemporary and complementary.”
More about the restaurant after the break.
St. Albans School / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

In 2006, with its centennial approaching, St. Albans School, a private boys’ school founded in 1909, decided to embark upon its first new construction project in nearly 30 years. The institution hired Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) to complete a 25,000-square-foot expansion and 30,00-square-foot of renovations to provide a student center, new classrooms, faculty offices, library and auditorium. The school, which had developed slowly over the years and did not follow a rational plan, also hoped that the architects could create a cohesive linkage between four of its existing buildings.
Treehouse / RPA

Architects: RPA
Location: Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Project Area: 16 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Eric Staudenmaier
RCA Sackler Building / Haworth Tompkins

Architects: Haworth Tompkins Limited
Location: London, England
Project Team: Graham Haworth, Chris Fellner, Roger Watts and David Lyndon
Client: The Royal College of Art
Main Contractor: LIFE Build Solutions Limited
Structural Engineer: Price and Myers LLP
Quantity Surveyor: Gardiner & Theobald
M&E Consultant & Lighting: Max Fordham Consulting Engineers
Project Area: 1,280 sqm
Budget: £2,963,138
Project Year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Philip Vile, Helene Binet, Katsuhisa Kida Foteca
Zagreb Pavilion by njiric + arhitekti for sale on eBay
Designed for the “44th Zagreb Salon”, an architecture show in Croatia, the pavilion designed by njiric + arhitekti (featured on ArchDaily) is currently on sale on eBay.
The Pavilion is approximately 24ft across and 38ft high, and is built using steel framing, with acrylic sidings and interior and aluminum siding. Inside is the dome is placeholder for video projection equipment so this can be used for multimedia exhibitions. The starting bid is US$ 100.000 and there’s a little less than a month to bid.
To bid or find more information, click here.
Bosque Esmeralda / ROW Studio

With a shopping center already under construction, ROW Studiowas asked to design the facade for the center in Zona Esmeralda, in Mexico City. The clients asked for an interesting, and almost contradictory mix of requirements: the façade must be both dynamic and eye-catching, while still blending into the surrounding forest line.
More images and more about the facade after the break.
Atoms are the new bits, and its relation with architecture

Last weekend I had the chance to spend the afternoon with a group of entrepreneurs and Chris Anderson, editor for Wired magazine and author of The Long Tail and Free, two books that define the new economies of the Internet (highly recommended if you haven´t read them yet, specially Free)
Chris did a little speech on his new research, which immediately made sense to me from an architect’s point of view. At this point, it is more than clear that the bit revolution turned our world in 360º, and thanks to the connected world it seems that the technology development curve is more steep than ever. And now, many rules of the online world are being adopted by the physical world, and according to Anderson “atoms are the new bits”.
First, it was the media revolution. Information became democratic, collaborative, the tools became free, and everyone is part of it. But how do we take this to the World (World 2.0?)? Actually… it´s happening and very close to our profession:
AD Interviews: Paint and Architectural History, Natasha Loeblich

Architectural paint analyst Natasha Loeblich traces the histories of structures from such as the Revolutionary War-era buildings at Colonial Williamsburg, by studying what’s on their walls. I spoke to her about her work and the field.






























