Adris Group Building / Randić & Turato
Randić & Turato shared their competition entry for the new Adris Group headquarters in Zagreb. The architects investigated corporate office typology and its ability to generate public space when designing the proposal. ”Instead of building a structure on the perimeter of the block, that creates a characteristic configuration with public street on the outside and enclosed private court on the inside, the concept raises the program in a structure that hovers over the existing block,” explained the architects. In this way, the ground floor is completely accessible to the public creating a covered square below the new office building. The structure is supported by our sets of large steel columns that hold the building’s independent geometries. Each of these “legs” are programmed with ground level activities while the offices are organized within a horizontal framing structure.
More about the design after the break.
AD Round Up: Interviews Part III
Since we started, we’ve interviewed many great architects worlwide. Check our third part of our previously featured interviews Round Up, and don’t forget to see our first part and second part also!
Phil Bernstein
We had the chance to talk with Phil Bernstein, faculty at Yale and currently the Vice President of AEC Industry and Relations for Autodesk. Given his background and current position, I immediately scheduled an interview with him as I wanted an architect on the industry to tell us more on how BIM is helping out architects (read more…)
Craig Hartman / SOM
Anyone who has taken an Architecture History class already knows SOM: Skidmore & Owings & Merrill. This practice played a key role during the so-called “International Style”, in a time where the modernism was being consolidated around the world. The practice, which opened in 1936, is behind the centers (read more…)
Whitney Sander
During Postopolis! LA we invited a group of architects from Los Angeles to be interviewed by us, in front of a live audience. This turned out to be very interesting, as the attendants got the chance to do their own questions. One of these architects was Whitney Sander, principal at Sander Architects (read more…)
Sharon Johnston & Mark Lee
We invited Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee (principals at Johnston MarkLee), mostly because I wanted to know more about the practice behind some interesting projects we featured prior to the event: The Hill House, the Sale House, the Mameg + Maison Martin Margiela store and their Ordos 100 villa, along with the View House (read more…)
Alexis Rocha, I/O Platform
At the beginning of the summer we visited SYNTHe, a urban rooftop garden designed and built by professor Alexis Rocha (I/O Platform founder) with SCI-Arc students. The SYNTHe project is a 3,000sqf structure located on the top of The Flat, a mid rise residential building in downtown Los Angeles, and its the first green garden (read more…)
Konya Residence / Superpool
A few weeks ago Superpool surprised me with one of the best library designs I have seen in a while: the Open Library in Istanbul. A small area, a rich public space.
But the office has also been working on two large scale residential projects in Turkey: Konya Residence and Dagos Tower (will be featured on a future article). Both projects propose innovative strategies in terms of dense housing. I´m eager to see how this projects develop and materialize in the future.
About the Konya Residence:
Kiltro House / Supersudaka
Architects: Supersudaka / Juan Pablo Corvalán
& Gabriel Vergara
Location: Talca, Chile
Project Team: Pablo Sepúlveda, Miguel Angel Reyes
Engineering: Cesar Moreira / Sigma Ingenieros
Project Area: 104 sqm
Budget: U$80,000
Project Year: 2006–2008
Photographs: Supersudaka
AD Interviews: Nader Tehrani, Office dA
During the 2009 AIA Convention I had the chance to attend a lecture by Nader Tehrani, after which I conducted this interview. He is one of the founders of the Boston based practice Office dA, with Monica Ponce de Leon.
Nader, who is also a professor at the MIT School of Architecture + Planning, has done an interesting research on the logic of materials, producing contemporary forms that are the result of new interpretations and building techniques, rather than just simple formal explorations.
I really like the “thinking” behind Office dA, which has allowed them to move from furniture up to the urban scale, resolving the specific issues of each scale with a similar logic.
I think that good examples of this are the Helios House for BP and the MacAllen building recently featured at AD.
From what I saw on Nader’s presentation, it looks like we are going to see more from Office dA in the near future.
Interview available in High Definition at Vimeo.
KOW wins competition for the World Sustainability Centre
The Sustainability Centre Foundation, the Delft University of Technology and the Cartesius Institute initiated the international public ideas competition for the World Sustainability Centre Afsluitdijk. The findings of this competition will lead to recommendations on the future of the Afsluitdijk that will be presented to the Vice Minister in the spring of 2010.
The prize giving ceremony took place on November 27th. After a short program Margreeth de Boer, chairwoman of the jury, presented the assessment of the jury and unveiled the winning designs. A total of 80 parties submitted for this competition. KOW is one of the two first prize winners with their design ‘BiLinear’.
More images and project description after the break.
University Library of the University of Amsterdam / Roelof Mulder & Ira Koers
Architects: Studio Roelof Mulder & bureau Ira Koers
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Project Area: 2,300 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Courtesy Roelof Mulder & Ira Koers
Circa Gallery / studioMAS
Architects: studioMAS architects + urban design
Location: Rosebank, Johannesburg, South Africa
Structural Engineers: Vela VKE Consulting
Main Contractor: Murray-Dickson
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Tristan McLaren, John Hodgkiss & studioMAS
Eden Falls / Visiondivision
Visiondivision shared their Eden Falls entry for a vertical zoo competition organized by Arquitectum with us. The design features a thunderous water curtain facade that offers a dramatic entry condition as visitors pass over a moat of crocodiles and into a free setting where monkeys and birds freely roam about the building, and a pool with fresh water dolphins rests on the roof.
More images and more about the zoo after the break.
AD Interviews: Hrvoje Njiric / njiric+ arhitekti
During my visit to Croatia for CIP Talks, everyone kept recommending me to meet Hrvoje Njiric. Partner of njiric+ arhitekti, his recent works are very good examples on residential and educational architecture. He won -among other awards- the 2006 Zagreb Salon Grand Prix, which resulted on the Zagreb 09 Pavilion we featured last week.
In parallel to his remarkable architectural production, Hrvoje is also very related to architectural education, being a visiting critic at the HAB Weimar, the ETSAB Barcelona, the TU Wien, the AA School of Architecture London, the ETH Zuerich, the Strathclyde University of Glasgow, Politecnico di Milano and the Southeast University of Nanjing, ETSAM Madrid and the William Lyon Somerville Visiting Lectureship at the University of Calgary. He has alsodirected international workshops in Zagreb, Merano, Maribor, Gorizia, Barcelona, Brescia, Unije, Santiago de Chile, La Coruna, Aarhus, Trieste, Kriva Palanka, Rijeka and Calgary.
I had the chance to briefly meet him on a sunny day in Zagreb, and we talked under his pavilion about the usual things we ask. But I feel that the interview doesn´t reflect his passion for architecture, and also for teaching, something you could feel just by talking with him.
On the next days we are bringing more projects and built works by him, so stay tuned.
Interview available in High Definition at Vimeo.
Twin extentions of 2 elementay schools in Courbevoie / BP Architectures
Architects: BP Architectures (member of PLAN01)
Location: Courbevoie, France
Contracting Authority: City of Courbevoie
Contracting Companies: CERP, Roger Renard, Lebrun, ALMA
Project Area: 2,200 sqm
Budget: €3.1 Million
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Frédéric Delangle & Kozlowski
Vote ArchDaily for Best Online Magazine
First, I have to thank all of you!!!
Thanks to your support we made it to the shortlist for Best Online Magazine at the Open Web Awards.
Now we have to ask you again for your help: we need you to vote for us, either with your Twitter or Facebook account. You can vote for us once per day at the following link.
We are competing against big names on the web… hopefully architecture will stand out this time.
Help us spread the word, tell all your friends!
Romania Pavillion for Shanghai World Expo 2010
The concept design competition for the Romania Pavilion, “Exchange of Ideas”, was won by SC M&C Strategy Development who designed Greenopolis, “The green mega polis”. Name of the pavilion is term with universal meaning, metamorphosed in a fruit, the apple, which means health, knowledge, freshness, temptation, eternity. The surrounding Greenopolis landscape recreates principal elements of the nature (the lawn from the hills, rivers, grass).
The apple is divided in two parts: the main body from which is detached a slice, the secondary body. The inside architectural design has generous and multifunctional spaces, disposed on 5 floors and the access in Greenopolis follows a natural line which allows visiting all the modules without passing over any zone. Seen at Big Creative Industries. More images after the break.
Fiscavaig / Rural Design
Architects: Rural Design
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland
Client: Nick and Kate Middleton
Structural Engineering: AF Cruden Associates, Inverness
Main Contrator: James MacQueen Builidng Contractors Ltd, Borneskitaig, Isle of Skye
Project Area: 70 sqm
Budget: £123,000
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Rural Design
Het Kasteel / HVDN
Architects: HVDN
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Design Team: Arie van Der Neut, Albert Herder, Vincent van Der Klei
Project Team: Arie van Der Neut, Albert Herder, Vincent van Der Klei, Monika Pieroth, Pascal Bemelmans
Structural Engineering: Jean-Marc Saurer, Vincent van Der Klei
Client: Hopman Interheem Groep Gouda
Contractor: Heddes Bouw
Project Year: 2004-2008
Budget: € 17.000.000
Photographs: John Lewis Marshall, Luuk Kramer & Jean-Pierre Jans
MVRDV exhibits “China Hills: A vision of future cities”
Saturday 28th of November the Beijing Centre for the Arts opened the exhibition “Green Projects II, Three Dimensional City: Future China” featuring work of Paolo Soleri and MVRDV. The centre piece is an installation by MVRDV, “China Hills”: a scale model of a future Chinese city which offers alternatives to the current urbanization in China.
On a hypothetical site of 1x1x0.5 km the plan offers space to accommodate up to 100,000 inhabitants and a well balanced mix of urban program and nature, agriculture and energy production; all in the shape of a Chinese mountain landscape: realizable with today’s technologies. The exhibition is open until February 28th 2010.
More information at the Beijing Center for the Arts official website.
Voest Alpine Office Center / Dietmar Feichtinger Architectes
Architects: Dietmar Feichtinger Architectes
Location: Linz, Austria
Project Leader: Gerhard Pfeiler
Competition Team: Claire Bodénez, Benni Eder, Simone Breitkopf, Barbara Feichtinger-Felber, Vicentiu Sopterean, Silviu Aldea, Markus Himmel, Ruth Pofahl, Rupert Siller
Project Team: Philipp Hugo Urabl, Dorit Böhme, Roland Basista, Albert Moosbrugger, Ulli Gabriel, Andreas Trampe-Kieslich, Ralitsa Kafova, Camille Duperche, Katharina Düsing, Nemanja Kordic
Site Area: 36,700 sqm
Project Area: 23,160 sqm
Competition Year: 2006
Project Year: 2006-2009
Photographs: Josef Pausch, Jo Feichtinger & Barbara Feichtinger-Felber
Waterfall House / Andres Remy Arquitectos
Architects: Andres Remy Arquitectos
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Project Team: Andres Remy, Flavia Bellani, Marcos Pozzo, Paula Mancini, Laura Rodriguez Segat, Leandra Rodriguez Llebana
Construction Management: Andres Remy & Laura Rodriguez Segat
Structural Engineering: Carlos Dolhare
Project Area: 340 sqm
Project Year: 2005
Photographs: Alejandro Peral & Juan Raña
Elizabeth Diller and Jürgen Mayer H., next week at Columbia
Two events will take place next week at Columbia University. On Monday, ‘Pointless’, a lecture by Elizabeth Diller. Then on Wednesday, ‘Re:Activators’, a lecture by Jürgen Mayer H. Both events will take place at 6:30 PM in Avery Hall, Wood Auditorium, Columbia University.
Elizabeth Diller is a founding member of DS+R, New York. Born in Lodz, Poland; she attended The Cooper Union School of Art and received a Bachelor of Architecture from the Cooper Union School of Architecture. Ms. Diller is Professor of Architecture at Princeton University.
Jürgen Mayer H. is the founder and principal of the cross disciplinary studio, J. MAYER H. Architects, founded in 1996 in Berlin, Germany. He studied at Stuttgart University, The Cooper Union and Princeton University. National and international awards include the Mies-van-der-Rohe-Award-Emerging-Architect-Special-Mention-2003 and Winner Holcim Award Bronze 2005. Jürgen Mayer H. has taught at Princeton University, University of the Arts Berlin, Harvard University, Kunsthochschule Berlin, the Architectural Association in London, the Columbia University, New York and at the University of Toronto, Canada.
Observatory House
Architectural photographer Iwan Baan recently shot the Observatory House, designed by Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco and built by architect Tatiana Bilbao in Roca Blanca, Mexico.
The house is inspired on the Jantar Mantar Astronomical Observatory, built in Delhi in 1724.
Stefano Boeri from Abitare interviewed Gabriel Orozco about this project, where you can read more about his vision.
More photos of the house with one of the best pools I have ever seen, after the break.
Soria / Vaillo + Irigaray
Architects: Vaillo + Irigaray / Antonio Vaillo + Juan Luis Irigaray
Location: Tajonar, Navarra, Spain
Project manager: Oscar Góngora, architect
Rigger: Daniel Bartolomé
Structure: Javier Arregui
Facilities: Andrés Bustince – INARQ.ingenieros
Lighting: Anton Amann – ALS LIGHTING
Contractor: MRSA
Project year: 2006
Photographs: Pedro Pegenaute
