To a Great City by Arvo Pärt and Snøhetta, http://stillspotting.guggenheim.org

The second iteration of stillspotting nyc–a two-year multidisciplinary project that takes the Guggenheim’s programming into the streets of New York City–features Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and U.S. and Norway–based architecture firm Snøhetta in collaboration on urban soundscapes around Lower Manhattan. To a Great City, the Manhattan edition of stillspotting nyc, will be open to the public for two extended weekends on September 15–18 and 22–25, 2011. The installations explore the relationship between space and sound.

The architects have selected, and sometimes altered, urban spaces embodying the concept of a central tone, extending the perception of sound in the realm of space. Visitors will experience the confluence of music and architecture at five locations that quietly celebrate the city, ten years after September 11th. Around the periphery of Ground Zero, “participants may encounter a green labyrinth created by The Battery Conservancy, reflect in an underground chamber at Governors Island National Monument, and enter otherwise inaccessible spaces in landmark skyscrapers.” Participants can visit spaces multiple times at their leisure to understand how their perception changes based on circumstances such as time, stress, appetite, and sleep.

Exhibition: stillspotting nyc: manhattan (To a Great City by Arvo Pärt and Snøhetta)

Venue: Five locations, starting at Castle Clinton National Monument in Battery Park, across from 17 Battery Place, New York, NY

Dates: September 15–18 and 22–25, 2011

Read the press release here: http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/press-room/releases/4219-stillspottingmanhattan

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum was the last major project designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright between 1943 until it opened to the public in 1959, six months after his death, making it one of his longest works in creation along with one of his most popular projects. Completely contrasting the strict Manhattan city grid, the organic curves of the museum are a familiar landmark for both art lovers, visitors, and pedestrians alike.

The Guggenheim Museum has created this video along with an interactive time line documenting the design and construction of this monumental building. Keeping Faith with an Idea: A Time Line of the Guggenheim Museum, covers the years of 1943-59 and includes stories, audio, and video.

© Peter Knaup

Vanity Fair asked 52 of the world’s leading architects, critics, and deans of architecture schools for their five most important buildings constructed since 1980, and for the greatest work of architecture thus far in the 21st century. With 28 votes, the most voted building since 1980 was Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

You can see the complete answers of the 52 respondents here. Seen at About.com.

bad architects group winning collage

A few months ago, the Guggenheim Museum exhibited Contemplating the Void in honor of the museum’s 50th anniversary.  After receiving 200 submissions, curators from the museum selected five winners.  We’ve shared different proposals with you previously on AD, and today, we bring you Bad Architects Group’s winning Void Codition[ed].  In German, void or “Luftraum“, literally translates to “air-space“. By conditioning the given air, which is already present in the void, the architects create the possibility to access the space as is without interrupting how it currently exists.  The proposal “adds another dimension or layer to the existing experience in form of a vertical wind tunnel.”

Julie Mehretu

The Guggenheim Musuem’s newest exhibit features the work of Julie Mehretu, an abstract painter best known for her densely-layered paintings.  Her work expresses an obsession with architecture, in particular, densely populated urban environments.  In her pieces, Mehretu takes recognizable architectural components, such as the column, façade, and elevation, which are then compressed and combined to capture different perspectives. “Her paintings present a tornado of visual incident where gridded cities become fluid and flattened, like many layers of urban graffiti.” read more »

Artwork by 24H Architecture

During 2009 the Guggenheim Museum celebrated its 50th anniversary. The museum commissioned nearly 200 artists, architects and designers to imagine their dream interventions on the most significative space of Frank Lloyd Wright’s building, the central void.

The artwork for every design is now available through a charity auction. You can bid for your favorite one right here. “Contemplating the void” (check some of the designs in ArchDaily here) will be on exhibit at the Museum until Apr 28th.

© Iwamoto Scott Architecture

As promised, more projects for the Guggenheim’s Contemplating the Void.

This time we feature Iwamoto Scott‘s proposal.

LIGHTCONE uses fiber-optic lines to turn the void into a light channel with different purposes:
read more »

© MAD

Another proposal for “Contemplating the void” (all the proposals featured at ArchDaily here).

Entitled “State Fair Guggenheim”, the proposal by Chinese firm MAD uses a floating habitable balloon, located at the top of the void, to mediate between interior/exterior:

“As the core of the museum, the spiraling rotunda inherits the classic relationship between human and the divine. The delicately glazed domed roof transforms the natural light into distilled radiance, allowing the visitors to feel the distance from the mystical, and reverence to the sublime. Wright designed the continuous ramp encouraging visitors to ascend, becoming closer to the light with each step; however, one would find himself bounded by the glass ceiling at the top of the ramp. The anti-climactic ending to this experience seems to hint at advancement to the future of this rotunda. ”

read more »

© JDS

During 2009 the Guggenheim Museum celebrated its 50th anniversary. And now, the museum commissioned nearly 200 artists, architects and designers to imagine their dream interventions on the most significative space of Frank Lloyd Wright’s building, the central void. “Contemplating the void” will be on exhibit at the Museum from Feb 12th until Apr 28th.

We are going to present you some of the interventions proposed by the architects, starting with “Experience the void” by danish practice JDS.

JDS/Julien De Smedt Architects proposal is architecture turned into enjoyment and participation. Instead of contemplating the void we propose to experience it by letting a trampoline net spiral down the rotunda space.  The experience plays with Wright’s original scenography for the Guggenheim: to visit the exhibition downwards.

The below image corresponds to the project featured on the new book by JDS “Agenda: Can We Sustain Our Ability to Crisis?“, published by ACTAR. Expect a review soon.
read more »

Over the course of the summer, Design It: Shelter Competition received submissions from people in 68 countries for a total of nearly 600 entries that met competition requirements. On the occasion of the Guggenheim Museum‘s 50th Anniversary, they are pleased to announce the two winning entries.

David Mares’s CBS – Cork Block Shelter, won the People’s Prize after receiving 64,875 votes out of more than 100,000 votes submitted online by voters around the world; and David Eltang’s SeaShelter, which was selected by a jury of architecture and design experts for the Juried Prize. Prizes include airfare and two nights accommodation for two in New York City, behind-the-scenes tours of the Guggenheim Museum and Google offices, and Google SketchUp Pro licenses.

Images of the two winners and videos from the competition after the break. read more »

On the occasion of the exhibitions Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward and Learning By Doing, the Guggenheim and Google SketchUp invited amateur and professional designers from around the world to submit a 3-D shelter for any location in the world using Google SketchUp and Google Earth. Over the course of the summer, nearly 600 contestants from 68 different countries submitted designs that met the competition requirements. Current Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture students then selected ten finalists for the People’s Prize award.

Public voting is now open! Vote now for your favorite shelter design among the ten finalists. Don’t forget to check back on October 21, when the People’s Prize winner will be announced along with a special Juried Prize chosen by a panel of experts.

It seems fitting that since the Guggenheim is currently featuring the works of its designer, Frank Lloyd Wright, we should feature some of the process work of the iconic museum.  Well known for its white curving form, it is important to note that the current rendition of the museum is vastly different from Wright’s original ideas. The struggle between the architect and the client (in this case Solomon R. Guggenheim, a wealthy mining entrepreneur) to see eye-to-eye is not something new, however it is interesting to consider whether the renowned museum would still have its status if it were as Wright had originally envisioned: a polygonal structure, partly in blue or perhaps a red-marble structure with long-slim pottery red bricks.

More about the Guggenheim after the break. read more »

This year we not only celebrate the 142nd birthday of Frank Lloyd Wright, but also the 50 years of the Guggenheim, one of his master pieces (completed the year he passed away). These dates are not only commemorated with Lego Kits and exhibitions, but also with a very interesting competition held by the Guggenheim Museum and Google Sketchup.

The interesting part of the Design It: Shelter Competition is that it invites people from around the world to do pretty much what Wright made his apprentices at Taliesin: If you wanted to study to be an architect with Wright, you had to design and build a shelter in the desert outside of Phoenix, Arizona. Then you had to live and study in it, as it have been for the past 7 decades (you can see more of this at the Learn by Doing exhibition).

So, the competition invites people to design a small structure where someone might sleep and work. Your shelter should be created for a specific site anywhere in the world and geo-located in Google Earth. It also should conform to size constraints and must not include running water, gas or electricity. Then it must be submitted to Google 3D Warehouse, as described on the video (more details on how to enter here).

You can submit your shelter until August 23. After that, Taliesin students will pick 10 shelters for the People´s Choice Prize, and a jury will pick a shelter for the Juried Prize. You can read more about the prize and the jury here.

I like that this competition is not aimed to architects only, but to anyone who has a good idea for a shelter. As Frank Lloyd Wright, you don´t need formal architectural training, just a good idea and a pen. Or in this case, a 3d modeling tool easy and powerful as a pen.

Bonus: Architecture for Humanity decided to “hack” the competition, by adding a social component to it: The Purpose Prize. Instead of designing your shelter anywhere, do it for a specific community that can use your design to improve their living standard. So after submitting your entry to Google 3D Warehouse, submit it to the Open Architecture Network following these guidelines and you will be running for the Purpose Prize (US$500 + 10th Anniversary AFH Moleskine Folio). But the most important, you will be helping a community with your design skills, even if you don´t get awarded.