Ever likened SANAA’s New Museum to Lady Gaga?  We didn’t think so!  So, check out this video by Great Spaces and prepare to see the museum in a new light.   Toward the end of the video, it was mentioned that only after SANAA won the Pritzker, did some people truly take notice of the museum.  Have you visited the New Museum on the Bowery prior to the Pritzker, or have you been influenced to see if after SANAA’s won?   And, for more info on the museum, be sure to reference our previous articles.

Metropol Parasol © Javier Orive

This article, recently seen on The New York Times, was kindly shared with us by the author Sarah Williams Goldhagen.

A REVOLUTION in cognitive neuroscience is changing the kinds of experiments that scientists conduct, the kinds of questions economists ask and, increasingly, the ways that architects, landscape architects and urban designers shape our built environment.

This revolution reveals that thought is less transparent to the thinker than it appears and that the mind is less rational than we believe and more associative than we know. Many of the associations we make emerge from the fact that we live inside bodies, in a concrete world, and we tend to think in metaphors grounded in that embodiment. read more »

Courtesy of Johann Watzke, Anne-Fanny Cotting & Aurélie Mindel of EPFL

Johann Watzke, Anne-Fanny Cotting & Aurélie Mindel of EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) in Switzerland shared with us their photographic project on the Rolex Learning Center from SANAA which is the campus hub and state-of-the-art library. More images and a brief description after the break. read more »

We recently got to preview the newest addition to In DETAIL’s typological series, Work Environments: Spatial concepts, Usage strategies, Communications. It will be available next month (August 2011), and it is great for anyone who is interested in improving a user’s working conditions beyond the basic ergonomic and safety requirements. The first third of this volume deals with spatial organization, acoustics, lighting, and user satisfaction. The rest of the volume features projects from which the various concepts developed in the first third can be used to analyze them. I, personally, enjoyed the section on user satisfaction and how to measure it. After reading this section I speculated how researchers would control for the various confounding factors that exist in the uniqueness of each building presented in the rest of the book. This would not be an easy task by any means, but the necessity of such research is made clear throughout this volume.

Read more after the break.

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Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa founded their Tokyo-based architecture firm SANAA in 1995. The firm is known for an innovative collaborative design process that results in such groundbreaking buildings as the Toledo Museum of Art’s Glass Pavilion in Toldeo, Ohio; the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York; the Serpentine Pavilion in London; and the Rolex Learning Center in Switzerland. In 2010, SANAA was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize for work that the jury described as “simultaneously delicate and powerful, precise and fluid, ingenious but not overly or overtly clever.”

The lecture will take place at the Art Institute of Chicago on Wednesday, June 29 at 6:30 p.m. Their talk, organized by the museum’s Architecture & Design Society, will be given in the museum’s Rubloff Auditorium. The cost is $15 for the general public, $10 for society members, and $5 for students with a valid ID. For more information, please click here.

© SANAA

2010 Pritzker Prize winning SANAA has released renderings to convert La Samaritaine department store in Paris into a mixed-use development. Commissioned by LVMH (client/developer) the architectural concept for the project expresses above all the ambition to restore the La Samaritaine, recognizing the significance of the building and the role the restoration will play in the revitalization of the neighborhood as a whole.  The project is schedule to begin July of next year.

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This short video by architectural photographer Pedro Kok, features the Rolex Learning Center at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. Designed by SANAA, the building features impressive concrete lines that create a fluidity between the interior spaces.

Courtesy of Serpentine Gallery Pavilion

Pritzker Prize winning architect Peter Zumthor’s design for the 11th Serpentine Gallery Pavilion was revealed today. A design that ‘aims to help its audience take the time to relax, to observe and then, perhaps, start to talk again – maybe not’, the materials are significant in aiding the design which emphasizes the role the senses and emotions play in our experience of architecture. The Pavilion will be Zumthor’s first completed building in the UK

Zumthor shared that ‘the concept for this year’s Pavilion is the hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. The building acts as a stage, a backdrop for the interior garden of flowers and light. Through blackness and shadow one enters the building from the lawn and begins the transition into the central garden, a place abstracted from the world of noise and traffic and the smells of London – an interior space within which to sit, to walk, to observe the flowers. This experience will be intense and memorable, as will the materials themselves – full of memory and time.’

Stay tuned to ArchDaily for more images and news on Zumthor’s design for the Pavilion.  Our previous coverage of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion can be found here, including  Jean Nouvel’s Serpentine Gallery of 2010, and SANAA’s 2009 Serpentine Gallery.

Courtesy of Serpentine Gallery Pavilion

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© flickr: nickmilleruk

The Architecture City Guide series is back, this week featuring New York City.  Grab a scarf and hat and hit the streets to check out some of the great architecture that NYC has to offer.  Think we left something out?  Add your can’t miss NYC buildings to our comments below.

Follow the break for our New York City list and a corresponding map!

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© Iwan Baan

Architect: SANAA
Location: 235 Bowery, New York, NY 10002
Client: New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City; Zubatkin Owner Representation
Project Leadership: Saul Dennison, Chairman, Board of Trustees, New Museum; Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis Director, New Museum; Lisa Roumell, Deputy Director, New Museum
Architect of record: Gensler Architects
Project Management: Plaza Construction Corporation, New York City

Structural engineers: Guy Nordenson Associates, Simpson Gumperts & Heger Inc., New York City
Lights and illumination: Arup
Constructed area: 58,700 sq ft
Year of enchargement: 2002
Year of completion: 2007
Photographs: Iwan Baan, Dean Kaufman, Benoit Pailley

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When we received a copy of EPFL’s Rolex Learning Center, we could not wait to flip through the sleek white book. Similar to SANAA’s building, the book’s crisp design and elegant composition is a beautiful compilation outlining the entire process of creating the Center, from the competition through construction. read more »

Photo from the New York Times. From left, Markus Dochantschi, Kulapat Yantrasast, and Florian Idenburg.

There’s something to be said about learning from our elders.  At least that’s the case for a select  group of younger architects who have been working behind the scenes with some of the biggest names in the profession: Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando and SANAA.  Markus Dochantschi, Kulapat Yantrasast, and Florian Idenburg, have taken what they have learned in the almost decade working for their Pritzker Prize winning mentors and have branched to form their own practices in the United States.

More about the protégés after the break. read more »

ArchDaily had the privilege of attending the Pritzker Prize ceremony last night on historic Ellis Island as Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa were honored.  Regarded as the highest honor bestowed upon an architect, the Pritzker Prize’s newest laureates were continually praised throughout the evening for their keen ability to teach us that what is not present can be as important as what is present.

As past laureates, such as Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne, Richard Meier, Jean Nouvel, and Rafael Moneo looked on, Lord Palumbo, chairman of the jury, discussed Sejima’s and Nishizawa’s work style; an intensively collaborative design process which is so balanced between the two minds that it is impossible to say which one of the pair is responsible for which architectural decision within a given project.

Although the two share similar philosophies when it comes to light, form and space, their differences create “all the possibilities”.  Sejima explained that within SANAA, there are actually three firms:  each has his/her own individual practice, yet come together to discuss and critique their work under the international firm SANAA.  While some criticize this process as inefficient and confusing, Sejima replied, with a laugh, that the organization is simply how they like to work.

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Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima, Photo by Takashi Okamoto, Courtesy of SANAA

Today, the Pritzker Prize laureate has been announced: Japanese practice SANAA formed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.

SANAA was following Steven Holl on the polls (my favorite for next year), a name that was very strong for the award since last year.

The awarded duo will receive the prize at a formal ceremony May 17 at Ellis Island, New York.

Works by SANAA at ArchDaily:

• Rolex Learning Center
• Rolex Learning Center photos by Iwan Baan
• Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009
• Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art
• Zollverein School of Management and Design

© Iwan Baan

Architects: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA
Client: Zollverein School
Location: Essen, Germany
Construction start: March 2005
Completed: July 2006
Project architect: Nicole Berganski
Associate architects: Böll & Krabel
Built area: 5.000sqm
Masterplan: Rem Koolhaas, OMA
Landscape: Agence Ter
Photos: Iwan Baan

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© Iwan Baan

Location: Toledo, Ohio, USA
Client: Toledo Museum of Art
Architect: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA
Team: Toshi Oki, Takayuki Hasegawa, Keiko Uchiyama, Mizuki Imamura, Tetsuo Kondo, Junya Ishigami
Built area: 7,000sqm
Site area: 20,000sqm
Opening: 2006
Structure: Guy Nordenson & Associates / SAPS
Glass consultant: Front Inc
Lighting: Arup / Kilt Planning
Photos: Iwan Baan

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© Iwan Baan

About a month ago the Rolex Learning Center designed by SANAA opened its doors and we feature it with a great video and some images they shared with us.

Now, Iwan Baan shows on his website this great photoset he made for March’s issue of Domus magazine, where we can see much more of the sloped interiors and some amazing images of the perforated curved concrete+glass volume that gives form to the building.

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The Rolex Learning Center at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland will open its doors on Feb 22th.

The building, designed by the acclaimed Japanese firm SANAA, features one of the most impressive concrete surfaces I have ever seen, creating a fluid space for students to enjoy. Interesting comments by Ryue Nishizawa on the relation between organic forms in architecture and human life. While the building is a perfect rectangle when seen in a plan view, the curves and slopes which define the interior space give the building a totally organic look.

More photos after the break.

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Photo by Javier Vergara Petrescu

Yesterday we featured Iwan Baan’s photo set for the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009 by SANAA.

Now, we bring you a photo set from today, at the opening of the pavilion by Javier Vergara Petrescu, on which we can see more of the spatial relations at the park and the effect of the reflective material.  See how the height varies creating different spaces, from a tall open space for a crowd, to a low intimate space at the end.

More photos after the break:

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© Iwan Baan

Architecture photographer Iwan Baan has been documenting the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, a series of temporary structures commissioned to renowned architects that sits on the Gallery’s lawn for three months, hosting a series of public talks and events at the park.  And now he just shared with us his photo set for this years pavilion, which opens to the public tomorrow July 12th, and will stay open until October 18.

For this year, the pavilion was commissioned to Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA.

An undulating aluminum structure sits on top of a delicate column system, providing a series of connected spaces while keeping a continuous view through the park. The aluminum reflects the trees, the ground and the sky, for a dramatic blending effect as you can see of the photos.

You can see Iwan’s photo sets for previous versions of the pavilion: Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond with ARUP (2006), Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen (2007) and Frank Ghery (2008).

More pictures after the break.

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