Studio O+A, principals Verda Alexander and Primo Orpilla, were named this week by Contract magazine as the 2011 Designers of the Year. Known for designs such as the Facebook Offices in Palo Alto, the award is recognition of Studio O+A’s consistency of bringing creative quality design to start-ups and venture firms in Silicon Valley.
Complete press release following the break.
University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design is putting on their Bulthaup Spring 2011 Lecture Series which will feature several well-renowned architects beginning at 6:30pm on February 3rd and ending on March 22nd. The lectures will be held at the University’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design in room 103 at 230 College Street, Toronto ON M5T 1R2. Below are the dates of the lectures:
Immersive Kinematics, a new research group at the University of Pennsylvania, shared with us their newly launch website. The research agenda expands the roles of architecture and engineering focusing on integrating robotics, interaction, and embedded intelligence in our buildings, cities, and cultures.
Earlier today it was announced that OMA teamed with AMO have been commissioned to develop a new vision, Railway Vision 2020, for Hong Kong’s MTR, urban transit authority. Together they will produce new branding and identity, site analysis, sustainability research, and usage patterns studies. OMA will also be designing two prototype stations that will eventually span the entire transit network in Hong Kong. The prototype stations are expected to open before 2014.
The 20 collegiate teams chosen for the 2011 Solar Decathlon headed to Orlando, Florida last week for the International Builders’ Show where they met with media, exhibited scaled models of their current designs, and had their Design Drawings reviewed – the last stages of preparation, feedback, and red-flags prior to the September assembly at the National Mall in Washington DC.
In a strange turn of events, the National Park Service and Department of Energy decided to simultaneously announce last week that the Solar Decathlon would not be hosted at the National Mall. Contestants were blindsided by the announcement to relocate this years U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 competition. The launching pad for the largest solar competition in the world, where contestants are educating the general public about sustainable living and further are held fiscally responsible under competition rules for maintaining and restoring their respective sites to their natural state following the exhibition, is apparently not good for sustainability.
More following the break
In recognition of his contributions to architecture in both theory and practice Fumihiko Maki was recently named the 2011 AIA Gold Medal Winner. Maki, arguably one of Japan’s most distinguished living architects, will be honored with the award in New Orleans at the AIA National Convention.
Straight on the heels of being named the Best Architectural Monograph of 2010 by the DAM Museum, Taschen republishes YES IS MORE as the World’s 1st Architectural Monograph in an eBook edition tailored to the Apple iPad.
If you are a regular ArchDaily reader you know that we have been providing ongoing coverage of Eli Broad’s Broad Museum in Los Angeles. Nearly 120,000 sqf and $130 million dollars, invitations were given to six top architects to submit designs for the new museum. Rem Koolhaas, Herzog and de Meuron, Christian de Portzamparc, Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Foreign Office Architects competed and in August we informed you that Diller Scofidio + Renfro garnered the commission.
Today, the design for the Broad Museum has been released. Situated adjacent to Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall and Arata Isozaki’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the museum has become a key part of the Grand Avenue redevelopment project that has been losing steam.
Yesterday, we received an overwhelming number of reader responses to David’s post regarding how much architects make per hour. To follow up, we found a list, via @casinclair on Twitter, of the top jobs for 2011. The list places an architect at spot 108, just under a vending machine repairer (107), a cashier (105) and an insurance agent (103). On the survey’s measure of stress, how’s this: a surgeon (spot 101) received a score of 30.580 for stress, while an architect received a score of 39.930! Yet, we were surprised to see that an architectural drafter places at spot 66 on the list (with a stress measure of 17.410). By the way, in case you were wondering, the list rated a software engineer as the best job for 2011 (stress measure=10.400), followed by a mathematician and an actuary.
This prototype system, Homeostatic Facade, is the latest in green building design. The line maze like facade consists of material that flexes and bends as an artificial muscle fighting solar heat gain by changing shape on its own. No computer programing or physical adjustments required. The system regulates a buildings climate by auto responding to environmental conditions and has an advantage over other systems because of its low power consumption and localized control.
Check out the video of the moving Homeostatic Facade following the break.
Back in 2009, over 150 firms across the world entered the Glasgow School of Art competition which was seeking an architect-led team to create a building opposite Mackintosh’s masterpiece. Steven Holl, in collaboration with Glasgow-based JM Architects, proposed a submission that capitalized on the changing quality of light throughout the spaces. Holl’s vision responds to Mackintosh’s sectional emphasis by implementing large voids of light – the “circuit of connection ” – that slice through the spaces to “encourage the creative contact central to the workings of the school.”
When we visited Holl’s office, we talked Senior Partner Chris McVoy about the importance of the section for this particular project (we also chatted about their latest Shan-Shui master plan). One hundred years have passed since Mackintosh’s building opened for the School of Art, yet, as McVoy explains, although the structures represent completely different times, their attention to architectural elements, such as light, materiality and proportion, will create a relationship between the two.
Enjoy the video! Credits after the break.
Today OMA announced the appointment of Iyad Alsaka and David Gianotten as new partners in the company. Architectural and research projects in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia have been increasing for OMA and this recent appointment signifies their investment to grow and develop projects within these regions.
The Mies van der Rohe Society recently released their newly designed website. Some of the features we like are the detailed building biographies, sketches, models, 3D renderings, and photographs that showcase the buildings Mies designed.
As we shared in September, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) reported an ever so slight increase with the index shifting from 47.9 to 48.2 in August. Now, the index shows a 52.0 – a 3 point increase from last month. This is great news for our profession as this billings marks the strongest point we’ve reached since December of 2007. As the New Year approaches, we’re hoping that this trend can steadily climb higher and bring prosperity for 2011; especially since firms across the country – from the Northeast to the West – reported increases. However, the New Year will bring mixed feelings to firms as Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, AIA Chief Economist stated in his report of the ABI. “Both residential and commercial/industrial firms are more optimistic about business conditions over the coming year. Half of the firms in each group are expecting revenue increases in 2011…In contrast, almost half of institutional firms are expecting revenue declines over the coming year, with only 38 percent expecting growth,” stated Baker.
More information about the recent ABI after the break.
Athens based Point Supreme Architects were recently awarded an honorary mention for their Theater Square proposal. The competition asked participants to rethink the idea of an urban square, as the site is surrounded by buildings which makes the small space seemingly negligible in the broad sense of the context. For their proposal, the architects dedicated the square to the magic of nature by making an urban room realized as a ‘secret garden’.
More about the proposal after the break.
PBS has released their sixteen finalists under consideration for piloting. Making their short-list is Cool Spaces, a show focused on featuring modern architecture, hosted by architect Stephen Chung. The show is slated to be a 13-part series focused on buildings in North America. The public spaces Chung would visit include libraries, restaurants, hotels, etc. with approximately two or three buildings featured per half hour episode.
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund just awarded $816,472 to Architecture for Humanity for the Haiti Rebuilding Center to support reconstruction and livelihoods in Port-au-Prince, a town that was catastrophically affected by an earthquake at the beginning of the year. As a result, many large buildings were either severely damaged or destroyed. This fund will not only aid in the rebuilding process, but will benefit thousands of who were suffering since the natural disaster. Additionally, this grant will enable small and growing Haitin businesses to participate in post-earthquake reconstruction and ensure rebuilding incorporates better design and engineering. More information after the break.
Office disputes happen all the time, it’s in our architect’s DNA.
