Cultural: The Latest Architecture and News

A few weeks ago, we featured a competition won by 3XN to transform the former freight train halls in Aarhus, Denmark into a new and dynamic cultural center. After the break, several more images and diagrams about this new cultural hub for scenography, visual arts and literature.

Rryuichi Ashizawa Architects designed a series of temporary wooden buildings for the Aqua Metropolis Osaka Event. While visitors can meander through the delicate wooden open structures, other wooden pods provide more shelter for varying activities. Extending past the small island, a geometric, almost folding, form provides the perfect setting to take in the panoramic view of the city.

Our AD Futures #1, ICE, an international office based in Hong Kong shared with us their proposal for the Taipei Pop Music Center competition.

Pop culture is the culture of change. Pop architecture is the space of change. Rather than a building, the TPMC provides a platform for spontaneous activities: a street, a park, a network of pedestrian circulation, which are embedded into an architectural framework. The design strategy for the TPMC defines the site through 3 different elements.

Full architect’s description and more images after the break.

From England, Norway, Netherlands and China. Some great Cultural Centers have been featured in ArchDaily. In case you missed the first part, check it our right here.

Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects, a renowned practice with expertise in public/cultural buildings, just unveiled the details for the new Reva and David Logan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Chicago.

This new building will offer 170,000sqf for studios, rehearsal space, director’s cut screening rooms, state–of–the art acoustical theaters, lecture rooms and set–building shops, that will be shared by many departments including visual arts, theater, music, as well as cinema and media studies.

The project includes a 11-story tall tower, which will become a new landmark at the south of the campus. At the top of this tower we find the Performance Penthouse, a tall space for performances and rehearsals with an amazing view over the city (see render below).

The rest of the complex is distributed on smaller buildings, with an interesting set of skylights to naturally lit the interiors.

As usual in Tod Williams Billie Tsien works, such as the American Folk Art Museum in New York, the Phoenix Art Museum and the East Asian Library at Berkeley, the simplicity of the materials (stone and glass) give the building a contemporary yet ageless look, a building that will stand over time, not just a fad.

More renderings after the break.