The Architecture Society at the University of Cambridge (ArcSoc) will host several talk series starting November 11th till February 16th. All talks will be held at 7pm in Lecture Room 1, Architecture Dept., 1-5 Scroope Terrace, Cambridge, UK. The schedule is:
November 11th – Sam McElhinney
November 17th – Tarek Merlin
November 24th – Richard Roberts and Ruairi Glynn
January 27th – Janek Schaefer
February 9th – Adrian Forty
February 16th – Alex de Rijke
Populous, commissioned by North Lanarkshire Council, sportscotland and Ravenscraig Ltd. to design a new regional sport facility, recently announced that work on the new recreation centre has reached the half way stage.
The iconic building, due to open to the public in autumn 2010, will provide central Scotland with a world class sporting facility that includes a full size football hall, athletics hall, gym and dance studios, sport hall and outdoor pitches. The internal layout has been designed with the paramount goal of enhancing the interaction between users and visitors.
Architect’s description and more images after the break. read more »
One of the latest projects by Foster and Partners, a 5-star hotel and conference center near the Heathrow airport in the UK, just got the city Mayor´s approval.
The project, developed by Riva Properties, has 60,000sqm aprox distributed among 13 stories. Some of these are sunken, resulting on an exterior height of only 25m.
The rooms are contained within six pavilions above the ground, linked by bridges and wrapped in a unifying glass envelope, which not only acts as a barrier to aircraft noise but also to flood the public spaces with daylight, contributing to a highly efficient energy strategy.
The entrance lobby has a floating glass deck with views down to the sunken restaurant level, shallow pool and waterfall. This restaurant floor is accessed via a timber walkway and incorporates a business centre, as well as a variety of venues to eat and drink. The double-height conference facilities, which have their own reception to allow separate access from street-level, encircle a top-lit atrium that brings natural light deep into the building and down to the lower levels.
More images after the break.
Sometimes photos aren´t enough to describe a project. Wallpaper* featured a cool video showing how the Sliding House works. By british architects dRMM:
The brief was simple: to build a house to retire to in order to grow food, entertain and enjoy the East Anglia landscape. The outcome was as unconventional as they come. A structure that has the ability to vary or connect the overall building’s composition and character according to season, weather or simply a desire to delight. Wallpaper* took a trip to the site to capture the physical phenomenon in the only medium that serves it justice – film.
Director: Dan Lowe Producer Mags Milan
Camera: Dan Lowe, Oly Durey, Jamie Durand Editor: Matt Dollings Music courtesy of: Talvihorros Productions company: Partizan/Darkroom Special thanks to: Jordan McGarry, Lauren Hedges, Ross & Sally Russell, Alex De Rijke
Alison Brooks Architects (ABA, previously featured in AD with their award winning Herringbone Houses) designed three buildings for Tribeca, a new development in Liverpool, UK. This three buildings are located on the corner of Great George Street and St James Street.
This buildings will provide 93 apartments and commercial space at street level. The design follows the Liverpool’s gothic architectural tradition, blending with the existing Wedding Shop. I like this new approach to tall buildings, away from the glazed and lightweight looking contemporary towers.
The stone-clad facades stretch up toward the sky, gradually becoming lighter and more glazed as
they increase in height. Within the windows are vertical strips of coloured glass, totally relating to old cathedrals.
By the way, “Tribeca” is a development by Urban Splash that will create over 700 homes. Four practices were invited to design the buildings: Alison Brooks Architects (London, UK), Shedkm (Liverpool, UK), Riches Hawley Mikhail (London, UK) and Querkraft (Vienna, Austria). The site for the project is formed by three triangles, so Urban Splash put the phrase “Triangles Beneath the Cathedral”, then Tribeca. It echoes from the Tribeca area in Manhattan, which consists on a series of triangular sites beneath Canal Street.
More pictures below.
Support 
on the 
-- 
