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
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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
Haus im Haus / Behnisch Architekten

Architects: Behnisch Architekten
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Client: Handelskammer Hamburg
Lighting: Nimbus Design
Project Area: 1,000 sqm
Competition year: 2003
Project year: 2004–2007
Photographs: Hans Jürgen Landes
Mexico Pavillion for Shanghai World Expo 2010
Mexican architects SLOT won an international competition to design the Mexican Pavilion for the World Expo Shanghai 2010. The pavilion’s design is born from the idea of representing Mexico through its traditional elements which haven’t been exploited in these kinds of fairs. The proposal scheme is centered around the idea of creating a green space within the expo which at the same time represents our preoccupation to offer a better life standard for cities through the recovery of green areas rather than creating a protagonist building.
The Mexican pavilion is a volume defined by a talud (slope) which transforms itself into a plaza privileging public space as an urban gesture within the expo. Space is divided in three levels which represent three different moments of urban life in our country. The past is represented on the plinth, present time Mexico at the entrance level, and future on the platform.
The pavilion’s main feature lies within the design of the papalotes (kites), a word that comes from the Nahuatl papalotl which means butterfly, used as a cultural meeting point between mexican and chinese cultures. Our proposal is to look into a future with areas which are thought, destined and planned specifically for leisure, the recovery of parks and green areas, where new generations might meet in a city with a “better living”. More images and a video after the break.
Kuchl Grammar School / kadawittfeldarchitektur

Architect: Kadawittfeldarchitektur
Location: Kuchl, Austria
Project manager: Dipl.-Ing. Oliver Venghaus
Client: municipality of Kuchl KEG
Project Area: 2,110 sqm
Project year: 2006-2007
Photographs: Angelo Kaunat
Medo Brundo Kindergarten / njiric+ arhitekti

Architects: njiric+ arhitekti doo
Location: Zagreb, Croatia
Architects in Charge: Hrvoje Njirić, Davor Busnja
Structure: G&F – Eugen Gajsak, Zagreb
Services: SM Inzenjering – Slavko Mamic / HIT Projekt – Slavko Simunovic / ELAG – Zvonimir Gajsak
Client: Grad Zagreb
Contractor: Jelacic d.o.o.
Project Area: 2,300 sqm
Budget: 900 €/sqm
Project Year: 2005
Construction Year: 2006-2008
Photographs: Domagoj Blazevic & njiric+ arhitekti
Orchid House / Andres Remy Arquitectos
Architects: Andres Remy Arquitectos
Location: Pilar, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Project Team: Andrés Remy, Hernán Pardillos, Paula Mancini, Lucila Lopez, Julieta Rafel, Lilian Kandus, Coral Banegas
Site Area: 3,640 sqm
Project Area: 465 sqm
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: Alejandro Peral
Punggol Waterfront Master Plan & Housing Design Program
Argentinian architects B4FS shared with us their proposal in the Punggol Waterfront International Housing Design competition in Singapore, which was shortlisted and awarded a Merit Prize (second prize ex aequo).
The two-stage design competition was launched in December 2008 to generate fresh, innovative and new design ideas for high-rise public housing along the waterway. Participating firms were required to incorporate new sustainable development concepts and features to realise the theme “Green Living by the Waters”.
The first stage required participating firms to propose urban and new architectural concepts for the housing district. The top five firms were then short-listed for Stage Two, where they further developed their design concepts proposed in Stage One into a more thorough and implementable architectural design that included landscaping and other detailing.
More images and architect’s description after the break.
3XN wins competition for new Frederiksberg Courthouse in Denmark

Danish office 3XN is “on fire” this year: they won the competition for the Randers Museum of Art, the competition for a new cultural center in Aarhus, the Saxo Bank won the RIBA International Award, and Kim Herforth Nielsen (partner and founder) received Denmark’s highest Architectural Honour, the C.F. Hansen Medal.
And now, they won the competition for the Frederiksberg Courthouse in Denmark, an extension to a neo-classical building. The new building follows the line of the neighborhood’s architecture, reinterpreted in a contemporary style, following the horizontal lines, materials and roof.
From the public square right next to the building, the heavy volume looks lighter as the opening in the corner give a sense of cantilevering.
More images and the architect’s description after the break:
Santander-Totta University Bank Agency / LGLS Architects

Architects: LGLS Arquitectos / Antonio Santos, Pedro Gaspar and Nuno Gaspar
Location: Setúbal, Portugal
Collaborators: André Rodrigues, Joana Lousada, Sara Oliveira
Enginnering: PTV Ltd (Structure, Lighting, HVAC, Fluids, Communication)
Promotor: SANTANDER-TOTTA BANK
Built Area: 120 sqm (65 sqm enclosed)
Project year: 2008
Photographs: FG + SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra
Lofts @ Cherokee Studios / Pugh + Scarpa

Architects: Pugh + Scarpa
Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA
Client: REthink Development Corp.
MEP Engineers: Cobalt Engineering
Structural Engineers: BPA Group
Builders: JT Builders
Landscape: FormLA Landscape
Project Area: 1,905 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Tara Wujcik


















































