Crossing NOW Exhibition in Beijing by Pasi Aalto
Architectural photographer Pasi Aalto sent us a good photo report on the Crossing Now “Dialogues for Emergency” Exhibition. This exhibition was organized after the Sichuan earthquake (May 12, 2008), which devastated the Chinese nation, with over 69,000 lives lost and over 15 million people affected, needing temporary homes. Crossin Now looks to help these people through architecture, on an exhibition that will bring talented architects from around the world to discuss the issues of environment and emergency architecture from a global perspective.
This exhibition featured works by architects such as: Sou Fujimoto, Rintala Eggertsson, Teddy Cruz, OBRA, PRODUCTORA, Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter, CAFA, Song Xiewei+Han Tao+Xi Xiaojing, Smiljan Radic + Gonzalo Puga, A4设计组, CAL-Earth, ECAL_Martino d‘Esposito, EH+GS, IK studio, Jia Kun Architecture, KUB and ML. + SJU & leondelima
Steven Holl talks with Charlie Rose
American architect Steven Holl discusses contemporary architecture in Beijing with acclaimed interviewer Charlie Rose.
Mandarin Hotel in Beijing by OMA on fire [UPDATED]
The Mandarin Hotel, adjacent to the CCTV building and part of the project, just got on fire today. The project, designed by OMA with facade studies by FRONT, looks to be completly affected as you can see on the above video. This supossedly started after fireworks during the last day of Chinese new year.
Mandarin Hotel on the left, CCTV at the right. Photo by Iwan Baan.
The hotel was used during the Olympics, but wasn´t officially opened yet, but was supossed to during 2009. This will definetely push dates back, as it seems like a complete loss to me.
Photos of the fire by Reuters here (very impressive, but can´t put them here because of copyright). More videos after the break.
UPDATE 5: Added 4 more videos
UPDATE 4: Statement from the Mandarin Hotel Group after the break
UPDATE 3: I replaced the first video with actual footage of the hotel starting to burn after the fireworks
UPDATE 2: Wonitata and other chinese blogs have impressive photos of the fire. See some more after the break.
UPDATE 1: Beijing police says the building could collapse
UPDATE: We just got the following statement from OMA:
Inside Herzog & de Meuron Bird’s Nest
We´ve seen tons of pictures of both the exterior and the inner court of Herzog & de Meuron’s bird nest in Beijing during the Olympics. But what we haven’t seen is the intermediate space inside the nest fibers, a space which looked amazing on the early renderings.
But thanks to Edgar Gonzalez, we can see the colorful inners of the Bird’s Nest through Manuel Ocaña‘s Flickr.
Pictures after the break.
GreenPix Documentary
¿Remember GreenPix, the 2,200 sqm LED media wall powered by solar panels we featured some months ago? Alexandra Lerman published a documentary about the GreenPix on which Simon Giostra, founder of Simone Giostra & Partners. Giostra explains the challenge to design and build this gigantic media wall, with the help of engineering experts ARUP.
Actually Giostra is trying to convince the chinese goverment to display user generated content on the media wall, which is currently under the curatory of the authorities. This will make if fully interactive.
You can also download a software -available for Mac and PC- to simulate the media wall on your computer using Quicktime videos.
Reminds me of the display on the stage where Beck played at the Oulands Festival in San Francisco last week.
OMA´s CCTV facade completed
It’s not a rendering but an actual photo of the completed facade of the CCTV Building by OMA in Beijing. The visible face of this iconic building was finished just in time for the olympics, after 6 years of hard work between OMA, ARUP and chinese partners ECADI.
Quite impressive, isn’t it? Hopefully the next pictures we publish with the CCTV finished will be taken by me.
Hong Luo Club House / MAD
Architects: MAD Office
Location: Beijing, China
Construction year: 2006
Constructed Area: 487.2 sqm
Interior Area: 189.7 sqm
Project Directors: Yansong Ma, Yosuke Hayano
Project Architect: Florian Pucher
Design team: Shen Jun, Christian Taubert, Marco Zuttioni, Yu Kui
Associate Architects & Engineers: IDEA Design Studio
Photographs: Shu He
Beijing Airport / Foster + Partners
After 4 years the Beijing Airport -currently the biggest one in the world- is finished, just in time for the 2008 Olympics. The airport, designed by Foster + Partners, turned out to be a very efficient building in terms of in terms of operational efficiency, passenger comfort, sustainability and access to natural light.
As an interpretation of traditional chinese culture the roof of the airport has a dragon-like form. According to Norman Foster [...] this is a building borne of its context. It communicates a uniquely Chinese sense of place and will be a true gateway to the nation. This is expressed in its dragon-like form and the drama of the soaring roof that is a blaze of ‘traditional’ Chinese colours – imperial reds merge into golden yellows. As you proceed along the central axis, view of the red columns stretching ahead into the far distance evokes images of a Chinese temple.
National Grand Theater of China / Paul Andreu
In Beijing is not all about Olympics. The National Grand Theater, by Paul Andreu is a magnificent and gigantic project finished a few months ago, complementing all the infrastructure been built for the big sports event.
The project description after the break.
GreenPix: Zero Energy Media Wall
The 2008 Olympic Games aren´t just a gathering of athletes, it´s also a showcase of the most innovative buildings and technologies like GreenPIX, the Zero Energy Media Wall by Simone Giostra & Partners and ARUP, pictured above.
This curtain wall covers the front of the Xicui entertainment complex in Beijing, near the site of the 2008 Olympic Games. It features the worlds largest color LED display, powered by a photovoltaic system integrated into the glass curtain wall.
This Media Wall will showcase a selection of specially commissioned video installations and live performances by artists from China, Europe and the US, starting in May. Pictures, construction progress, diagrams and videos after the break.
