© Philip Vile

Check out this project by London based firm, Haworth Tompkins.  The firm renovated a dilapidated old building situated on the Dovecote Studio campus – an internationally renowned music campus at Snape Maltings, founded by Benjamin Britten which is currently undergoing an expansion. Nestleed within the shell of an abandoned building, the firm responded to the existing conditions with a touch of sensitivity, uniting the old structure with the new aesthetic.

More about the project, including more images after the break. read more »

One New Change designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel and Sidell Gibson Architects

One New Change, Jean Nouvel and Sidell Gibson Architects’ mixed use facility, has just opened in Cheapside, London.  The project includes over 340,000 ft of office space and an additional 220,000 sqf for commercial use.  It is set to become London’s newest shopping destination and bring life to the area, “all set overlooking London’s most famous landmark, St. Paul’s Cathedral.”  The project has sparked controversy as Sian Disson shared, “…staunch traditionalist Prince Charles made his feelings towards the glass and steel hulk clear from an early stage, attempting to have Nouvel thrown off the project when he learnt of the architect’s appointment.” Contrastly, as we reported earlier this year, the project was awarded by the MIPIM with the jury noting that the project will transform the area bringing a refreshing contrast.  While the public voiced their opinion about the color selection, Nouvel’s use of glass provides blurred reflections of the Cathedral to be seen in its facade, gently referencing the historic landmark within its contemporary presence.  Which side are you on?

More images after the break. read more »

© Tim Soar

Architect: Fourfoursixsix
Location: Holland Park Road, London
Client: Private
Project Value: £300,000
Structural Engineer: Elemental Structures
Project Year: 2007-2008
Project Area: 185 sqm
Photography: Tim Soar

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© Edmund Sumner

Architect: MVRDV
Location: Suffolk, England
Design Team: Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries, Frans de Witte, Gijs Rikken
Co-Architect: Mole Architects
Landscape Architects: The Landscape Partnership
Client: Living Architecture
Project Area: 210 sqm
Project Year: 2010
Photography: Edmund Sumner

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© BC Hydro

To promote their Power Smart month of October, BC Hydro has launched an interesting public campaign for energy efficiency by converting two shipping containers into live experimental spaces in Vancouver.  For fours day, actors will live in the 3×6 meter containers “to showcase how – and how not – to live and work in an energy-efficient manner.”   The two containers are meant to depict the extreme opposites of energy consumption and show the simple steps people can take to increase their efficiency.   As the containers are fully glazed on one side, passersby can see how the actors go about their daily routines – one completely wasteful with a constantly blasting television and all the lights on, while the other actor uses natural daylight for illumination and adds extra layers of clothing for warmth.  Displays are fixed to the exterior of each container to provide simulated consumption readings, allowing the public to see the difference in the energy use when comparing energy-efficient living to inefficient and wasteful behavior.

More about the experiment after the break. read more »

Libeskind's Denver Art Museum © Bitter Bredt

Yesterday, it was announced that Daniel Libeskind will design a landmark building for the UK that will house the new Institute for Democracy and Conflict Resolution.  As part of the University of Essex, the UK’s highest ranked university for social science research, this new building seeks to become an “international beacon for democracy” as it will build upon the university’s 40 years of practical and academic expertise in the field of human rights, justice and governance.  Libeskind commented, “I consider it an honor to be involved in a project with such visionary humanitarian objectives. I have always believed that democratic openness and conflict resolution is critical not only in the political sphere but in the making of architectural space.”

More about the project after the break. read more »

Photo by Valerie Bennett, Rem Koolhaas Symposium

‘Concrete Geometries – Spatial Form in Social and Aesthetic Processes’ will take place at the Architectural Association on 15th October 2010. 20 international artists and architects will discuss the potential of spatial form as a socially engaged and experientially relevant tool.

Concrete Geometries is a work-in-progress term derived from the synthesis of ‘concrete’, registering an existing reality or actual experience, and the abbreviation ‘geometries’, denoting spatial form. Set up as a research cluster at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, and directed by Marianne Mueller and Olaf Kneer, Concrete Geometries is devoted to the intimate relationship between spatial form and human processes – be they social or aesthetic – and the variety of new material entities this relationship might provoke. The symposium is one of a series of events organized by the cluster.

For more information, visit the symposium’s official website.

Courtesy of LGT Office

Architects Christo Logan, Chris Gee, and Gayle Tsern (LGT Office), shared with us their proposal for the Stratford Station Olympic Kiosk Competition, in London, England. More images and architect’s description after the break. read more »

The Victoria and Albert Museum wishes to create a major new gallery with the capacity to deliver its high-profile programme of temporary exhibitions, a new museum entrance and a courtyard to create an informal and inviting relationship with Exhibition Road.

The gallery, providing approximately 1500m2 of relatively uninterrupted (column-free) exhibition space, will be formed below street level, on the only undeveloped site in the Museum. Above the gallery there will be a new external courtyard-style space, linking the V&A to Exhibition Road through Sir Aston Webb’s historic arched stone screen and creating a new entrance into the museum. The new courtyard will need to be flexible so that the space could be used for installations, performances, for events or a cafe.

For more information, submissions and registration please go to the competition’s official website.

© Marco Zanta

This autumn, the London Design Museum is presenting a major exhibition on John Pawson. Often labelled a ‘minimalist’, he is known for his rigorous process of design. By reducing and editing he creates architecture and product designs of visual clarity, simplicity and grace.

Marco Zanta shared with us some photographs of the exhibition you can visit until January 30, 2011.

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© Louis Porter

Designer: Mark Merer
Location: Welham, Somerton, Somerset, England
Consultant Architect: Art Peterson
Engineering: John Beverage
Budget: £350,000
Project Year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Louis Porter

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Courtesy of NOVAE Architecture

Italy-based NOVAE Architecture shared with us their project “0°01’ W Network in [e]motion”, their proposal for a competition to design an adaptable floating gallery in London, UK. More images and architect’s description after the break. read more »

Metropolitan Works is pleased to present this forum for the building design community to gather and share ideas and experiences around exploiting new technologies to enable the built environment to dynamically respond to people in or around it.

This conference promises, with the help of a fantastic line-up of speakers, to draw out ground-breaking ideas in the realm of interactivity in architecture.

Chaired by Fiddian Warman of Soda Creative, the organisation behind the Interactive Arts BAFTA Award-winning Sodaplay, this full-day event will provide a platform for industry leaders to explore key themes emerging in interactives. Each theme will be exemplified, examined and critiqued by a multidisciplinary panel in the context of their own work. For more information on themes and speakers, please click here.

Flickr user © Nicnac1000

Renzo Piano’s Shard is quickly climbing up London’s skyline.  The 1,016 ft high skyscraper will provide the mixed use density the city needs, as it incorporates apartments, office space, a spa, hotel and restaurants within its sleek pyramidal form.  Inspired by perhaps a ship’s mast from the Pool of London, or a modern take on the church spire, the Shard will become a prominent fixture in the skyline as it nears it completion.  Check out these images  illustrating the Shard’s progress – the crisp aesthetic commonly found in Piano’s projects is becoming evident as the low-iron glazing is applied to the structure.

More images after the break. read more »

© Francesca Yorke

London-based architects and interior designers SHH have created a new fascia and interior design treatment for Apostrophe at the operator’s latest outlet in London’s High Holborn – the 16th in the group to date. See more images and architect’s description after the break. read more »

© Zaha Hadid Architects

In addition to being asked to design  Baghdad’s newest banking headquarters as we reported previously, Zaha Hadid has also been recognized at the Structural Steel Design Awards.  The awards, which are in their 42^nd year, are bestowed upon those who attain excellence in both architectural and structural design with the use of steel.  Hadid’s Legacy Roof (alongside Audi West London, the Infinity Footbridge in Stockton-on-Tees, and Dublin Airport Terminal 2) was awarded for its “heroic engineering achievement”.   Working with Arup, Rowecord Engineering Ltd and Balfour Beatty Group Ltd, the team has designed an amazing structure to house the Aquatic Center for the Olympic Games in London.   When we first introduced Hadid’s Legacy Roof, we were shocked by the fluidity the 160 m long and 3,000 ton roof could convey.  Its dynamic curvaceous form is definitely a feat of engineering.     The judges noted the project’s successful use of steel commenting that the roof  ”has overcome severe program and constructional problems. A necessarily complex structure delivers the form and shape at the heart of what will become the emblematic and beautiful icon of the London 2012 Olympics.”

© Andy Spain

On holiday in Dorset last month, I happened to drive past Poundbury in Dorset, UK. Poundbury is Prince Charles’s attempt to create his architectural and planning masterpiece next to Dorchester. I used the excuse of being up with my new baby at 7am to go and take some photos of it to show you here.

What can I say, it’s not great (I’ve changed that sentence so many times to try and balance the architectural lack of ambition versus the worthy aims of such a project). It’s a mish mash of styles from different centuries, all added together. It’s a toy town, a museum of a mythical past. There is no soul, no heart, a perfect example of the need for difference, for organic spaces created over time.

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© Jim Stephenson / clickclickjim

Architects: Conran & Partners
Location: East Sussex, United Kingdom
Project Area: 425 sqm
Budget: £1.8million
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Jim Stephenson

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Courtesy of Sjölander da Cruz Architects

Birmingham-based Sjölander da Cruz Architects shared with us their latest project, a dynamic shelter for the young people of Amington near Tamworth, UK. You can see more images and architect’s description after the break. read more »

PICT® by FRED&FRED® - © Morgan Le Guen

For the 10th anniversary of the pavilion programme and the 40th anniversary of the famous London gallery, the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, Jean Nouvel has created a temporary building that is entirely red. This ephemeral architecture plays with light by filtering, shifting, reflecting it…

In this choice of complimentary contrast between the red and the green of the garden PICT® participates in this wish to see natural movement through 16 photographic red tinted lenses. Red PICT® is a real wall, sensitive to variations of light and movement created by man and nature. Following the request from Jean Nouvel’s Workshop FRED & FRED® developed a procedure to colour the PICT® module red by enamelling the internal surface of module thus rendering it bright, deep and eternal. A red PICT® wall measuring 2m x 3m has been placed in the entrance to the pavilion opposite one of the biggest trees in the park

A limited series of 100 red PICT® will be signed by Jean Nouvel and sold by the Serpentine Gallery. The pavilion will be open to the public from 10th July to 17th October in Kensington Gardens in London. More images after the break. read more »