Design Teams Announced to create New Public Spaces for London’s Olympic Park
Olympic Park Legacy Company has announced the winners of two competitions that will transform the north park and south plaza at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. New York-based James Corner Field Operations’ proposal for a 50 acre urban landscape consisting of a tree-lined promenade connecting flexible event and cultural spaces was selected as the winning entry for the south plaza.
The north park winning proposal by London-based firm erect architecture consists of an imaginative community hub building that is integrated within the parkland and river valley. Along with community hub, the design proposes an interactive playground that inspires children to “climb trees, build dens and have everyday adventures in nature.”
Continue reading for the complete team list and their design proposal boards.
Aloft London Excel / Jestico + Whiles
Architects: Jestico + Whiles
Location: London, England
Project Manager: GVA Second London Wall
Client: Excel London (part of Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company)
Contractor:McAleer&Rushe
Photographs: Tim Crocker
Rothschild Bank Headquarters / OMA
OMA recently completed their first building in London. The new 21,000sqm building is located in the narrow medieval alley of St Swithin’s Lane, in the heart of the City, a dense context where OMA’s precise intervention is able to blend and become an active urban piece.
The building, thanks to its structural steel design, is lifted from the ground exposing new situations, connections and views, detonator of a new streetscape where the public realm is as important as the office space above.
You can see Rem Koolhaas and Ellen van Loon discussing this project on a video posted earlier at ArchDaily.
More information courtesy of OMA after the break:
Project: Rothschild Bank Headquarters
Year: 2011
Client: NM Rothschild & Sons
Location: St Swithin’s Lane, City of London
Site: New Court, enclosed in cluster of buildings, adjacent to the 17th century St. Stephen Walbrook church; with main entrance on the narrow St. Swithin’s Lane
Program: Office headquarters: 13,000m2
Partners in charge: Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon
Video: Rothschild Bank headquarters / OMA
Rem Koolhaas and Ellen van Loon discuss their design of the Rothschild Bank headquarters in London. Viewing the bank as a “dynamic system”, the main task was to create an “always efficient and always pleasant” machine that will accommodate all of the Bank’s London staff and reunite its connections with the city, including the St. Stephen’s Walbrook. OMA’s design for the New Court is the fourth iteration of NM Rothschild & Sons’ headquarters, all of which have been built on the dense and narrow medieval alley of St. Swithin’s Lane.
The film was created by Miguel Santa Clara.
ARCHIZINES Exhibition
From photo-copied and print-on-demand newsletters such as Another Pamphlet, Scapegoat and Preston is My Paris, to magazines such as Mark, Spam and PIN-UP – ARCHIZINES is a new exhibition curated by Elias Redstone for the Architectural Association School of Architecture that celebrates and promotes the recent resurgence of alternative and independent architectural publishing from around the world. The exhibition runs until 14 December 2011 at the AA School, 36 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3ES. More information on the exhibition after the break.
Ropemaker / Clive Wilkinson Architects
Architect: Clive Wilkinson Architects
Location: Ropemaker Place, London
Client: Macquarie Group Ltd
Executive Architect: Pringle Brandon
Area: 217,500 SF (20,207 SM)
Inception: March 2010
Completion: March 2011
Photograph: Courtesy of Clive Wilkinson Architects
New Campus for University of the Arts London / Stanton Williams
Architects: Stanton Williams
Location: London, England
Project Year: 2011
Project Area: 40,000 sqm
Architectural lighting: Spiers and Major
Landscape Architect: Townsend Landscape Architects
Facade consultant: Arup Facades Engineering
CDM coordinator: Scott Wilson
Photographs: Hufton+Crow, John Sturrock
BDP Architects Completes Russian Masterplan in Samara
BDP has completed a masterplan study in Samara, the sixth largest city in Russia, won against strong international competition earlier this year. BDP was masterplanner, architect, landscape architect and sustainability consultant supported by WSP highways and Davis Langdon cost consultant for client Samara-Center, reuniting the same core masterplan team as the Stirling Prize shortlisted Liverpool One Masterplan.
Timber Fin House / Neil Dusheiko Architects
Architect: Neil Dusheiko Architects
Location: Walthamstow, London, England
Project Year: 2010
Contractor: RK Construction
Engineer: Momentum
Photography: Neil Dusheiko Architects
New UAL Campus / Stanton Williams
Architects: Stanton Williams
Location: Granary Building, 1 Granary Square, London, N1C 4AA
Tenant: University of the ArtsLondon
Completion Date: April 2011
Project Value: £200M (based on cost of land, building, fit-out and expansion incl. third floor)
Photographs: Hufton + Crow, John Sturrock
In Progress: Tate Modern Expansion / Herzog & de Meuron
Currently under construction, it has been announced that the Herzog & de Meuron designed first phase of the new development of Tate Modern will open in the summer of 2012. The launch will be part of the London 2012 Festival which will be the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad.
Phase 1 of the development includes the opening of the former power station’s spectacular Oil Tanks – enormous circular spaces over thirty metres across and seven metres high. These massive industrial chambers have lain unused since the power station was decommissioned. They are now being transformed into what promise to be some of the most exciting new spaces for art in the world. A further series of neighbouring galleries will provide a range of new spaces for works from the Tate Collection, including two raw concrete galleries and a unique steel-lined gallery. The Oil Tanks will also act as innovative social and learning spaces, as well as being equipped for a diverse programme of live performances and events, including a crush bar and full back of house facilities.
ROCA London Gallery / Zaha Hadid Architects
Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects
Location: Station Court Imperial Wharf, London, England
Client: ROCA
Project Area: 1,100 sqm
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Courtesy of ROCA
P.E.A.R. (Paper for Emerging Architectural Research) Event
For one night only on October 26th from 7:00-8:30pm, P.E.A.R. (Paper for Emerging Architectural Research) will be performing live for an evening of readings, discussions and performances at The Architecture Foundation in London.
P.E.A.R. is an exciting new architectural fanzine, presenting work from a variety of contemporary architectural practices, researchers and individuals working in Europe. P.E.A.R. aims to re-establish the fanzine as a primary medium for the dissemination of architectural ideas, musings, research and works. Through its presentation of a wide range of architectural discourses, P.E.A.R. seeks to present the complexity and variety of contemporary architectural practices
inmidtown Habitats New Design Competition
The Architecture Foundation is pleased to be running a new open and international competition that calls on design teams to submit proposals for urban beehives, bird/bat-boxes and planters.
The competition is being organized by The AF on behalf of inmidtown, the business improvement district for the central London areas of Holborn, Bloomsbury and St. Giles. The competition calls for submissions that offer distinctive yet functional designs that help enhance biodiversity in this urban context. It is envisaged that the winning proposals will be mass-produced and installed in a variety of sites across the inmidtown area. More information on the competition after the break.
AD Classics: Balfron Tower / Erno Goldfinger
The Balfron Tower by architect Erno Goldfinger is an iconic Brutalist residential high rise located in London’s eastside Poplar borough. Designed in 1963 for the London County Council and completed in 1967 by the Greater London Council, this social housing estate broke the traditions of typical residential architecture. Conceived as a solution to sprawling suburbia, Goldfinger embraced verticality as the cure. More details after the break.
TAG Farnborough Airport / 3DReid Architects
Architect: 3DReid Architects
Project Year: 2006 (Phase 1) – 2010 (Phase 2)
Engineer: Buro Happold
Contractor: TAG Construction Management
Quantity Surveyor: Cyril Sweett
Landscape Architect: Lovejoy
Structural Steelwork: Rowecord Engineering
External Cladding: Mero
Glazing: Compass Glass
Photography: 3DReid Architects
The Emirates Glass LEAF Awards 2011
The 9th Annual Emirates Glass LEAF Awards recently announced the winning projects and proved to be a huge success attracting a whole host of recognizable faces from the architectural community. This spectacular evening took place in the stunning surroundings of the Landmark hotel which was admired by the many guests that attended. The 2011 shortlist included some of the world’s most iconic buildings and designs. More information on the lucky winners of the evening after the break.
‘Just the Flip Side of the Wall: Post Works at the AF’ Exhibition
For their inaugural show, Just the Flip Side of the Wall, Melissa Appleton and Matthew Butcher (Post Works) will create a new environment within The Architecture Foundation’s Project Space that will act as a frame for a series of events that explore the relationship between architecture, the city and performance.
The exhibition, which takes place from September 30th to October 29th, will be an extension of Post Works’ recent works Stage City (part of The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition) and No Stop Statue Machine, a film that presents a world where buildings weep, infrastructures conduct people’s thoughts and staircases become machines for endless exercise, recently shown at the ICA, London. More information on the exhibition after the break.
“São Paulo – South America Super Nexus” at Cities of Tomorrow Talks
The Brazilian architecture offices based in São Paulo, Estúdio ARKIZ and MMBB, were invited by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the Brazilian embassy in London to represent South America in the Cities of Tomorrow Talks event, that will take place in October at 6:30pm the RIBA Headquarters in London, UK. More information on the event after the break.
LOFT London Farm Tower Competition Awards
AWR recently announced the winners of the LOFT London Farm Tower Competition. Population growth and urban centralization lead to increased demand for real estate market and for food. One possible solution is vertical farming. AWR therefore proposed the design of a new kind of skyscraper on the Thames waterfront, inserted into the new city skyline.
The goals to achieve were to meet the requirements of the World Green Building Council, determine which materials are best suited for the construction of a vertical farm, identify resistant, light, transparent and long-term materials and experiment with innovative materials. Information on the competition winners after the break.
