© David Wakely
Architects: HMC Architects
Location: California, USA
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: David Wakely
Courtesy of HMC Architects
The design for the First People’s Hospital by HMC Architects aims to create a sustainable healthcare architecture, an idea new to the practice of the region. The project, which was the winner of the national AIA Academy of Architecture for Health 2011 Unbuilt award, features green design elements which optimize building performance. In addition, these elements create a healing environment, further its mission for community outreach, and evolve with cultural uniqueness. Its iconic architecture engages the local historical values and building industry/material. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »
© Joe Pugliese
Architect Magazine‘s third-annual ranking of American architecture firms takes a look at three factors: profitability, sustainability, and design quality. This whole picture approach provides an opportunity for small and large firms to go head to head, with a result of the best architecture firms, not necessarily the biggest.
Some of these practices have been featured on ArchDaily like Perkins + Will, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, Cannon Design, and Frank Harmon Architect.
Take a look at the complete rankings after the break.
Courtesy of HMC Architects
In 2010, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) held a design competition for a flexible solution to replace portable buildings across the district, and HMC Architects accepted the challenge. The district asked them to ignore their standards and put an emphasis on an ideas-based approach. They wanted creative, progressive responses to their problem, not dressed-up modular buildings. They challenged the traditional box shape of the classroom by looking at how the room is used and how it is currently under utilized. Although their design solution, which they named Flex, did not win the competition, their end product is a portable classroom solution that can be used at any school, with hope that their design can inspire other school districts to think differently when it comes to portable classrooms. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »
Courtesy of HMC Architects
Los Angeles-based HMC Architects shared with us their proposal for the Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Service Terminal Competition in Taiwan. They were selected as one of the five finalists. More images and press release after the break. read more »
The Frontier Project, located in Cucamonga, Southern California, is a 14,000 square foot demonstration building that will educate all in the community about the latest information, technologies and approaches regarding environmental friendliness. The project will make resident consumers, commercial builders, and sustainable advocates aware and informed of the alternative building methods to encourage sustainability. HMC Architects’ building will not just be something for visitors to look at and admire; rather, the building will become more of a learning experience as visitors are welcomed into its spaces and sustainable strategies are pointed out with their importance explained. “Everything from material and plant selection, the layout of space, and the maintenance regime will have a purpose, demonstrating the principle of green design for home owners, consumers, contractors, design professionals, sustainability advocates and the general public,” explained the Frontier Project founders.
More about the demonstration building, including a video and images, after the break.
Urban Interventions / Vallo Sadovsky Architects
Vallo Sadovsky Architects recently sent us their latest book, Urban Interventions. We have featured one of Vallo Sadovsky Architects’ projects before, BA_LIK. That project gets to the heart of what this book is about. Small urban interventions can completely transform and…
Construction Manual for Polymers + Membranes / Knippers, Cremers, Gabler, Lienhard
From the history of plastics and membranes in architecture to their material properties and requirements in construction and design, the Construction Manual for Polymers + Membranes cuts to the chase, providing the kind of solid and comprehensive overview of…
“‘After Crisis’ concentrates around the new conditions for architectural practice and around the new epistemologies that may inform it in the next future. That is, in the period after the financial bubble has collapsed and living and working conditions…
