In 2009, the Uptown Tenderloin Historic District was created in an attempt to preserve the rich history of the buildings, neighborhoods and communities that lay north of San Francisco’s Market Street. It has not only kept developers from modifying or even eradicating key buildings that have shaped the city of San Francisco, but has also helped to prevent the process of gentrification, enabling middle and lower-class inhabitants to continue living in the city at reasonable rates. Although building projects north of Market Street are now heavily restricted, not all of San Francisco is off limits.
MITarh Architecture Studio shared with us their proposal in the Competition for a preliminary architectural and urban design for a housing complex in New Belgrade, Serbia. Before the process of defining the architectural concept and some usual analysis of urban parameters, their team debated about a given specific environment. Awareness of character of ’certain place’, as a fine sample of New Belgrade – intact, as it looked in 1948, made enthusiasm and opportunity to find their own interpretation of a model ’housing complex’. More images and architects’ description after the break.
On September 1st LEGO® Architecture series will now include Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House. The 10th addition to the popular series, which also includes Wright’s Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, the Robie House was one of the first properties to be declared a National Historic Landmark because of its architectural merit. The American Institute of Architects also listed the Chicago home as one of the 10 most significant structures of the 20th century.
Stay tuned to ArchDaily as we are going to have an exclusive surprise about the LEGO® Architecture Robie House just for our readers. More images of LEGO® Architecture’s Robie House, designed by architectural artist Adam Reed Tucker, following the break.
Gia Wolff’s latest architectural installation features a 25 ft diameter portal suspended above 2 Avenue between 36 and 35 Street in Industry City, Brooklyn. As part of Superfront Public Summer, the site specific piece is a reaction to the existing typological conditions and explores potential scenarios for the future of Industry City. Finnish for ‘portal’, Portaali refers to the Scandinavian dock workers who used to occupy the buildings in the late 1900s.
More about the installation, including a video, after the break.
We reported last month that community pressure swayed the owners of Richard Neutra’s Kronish House to temporarily postpone plans to flatten the iconic home. However the looming October demolition date is quickly approaching. With the slogan ‘A Solution may be at Hand’ the Neutra Institute has started a National Fund Raising Campaign in hopes of converting the Kronish House into the Neutra Library.
As one of the winners for an open competition, the concept of the Put Vejini concert stage, by Jevgenijs Busins, Anton Gonda, and Ivo Dzenis, is based on the acoustic possibilities of building. The goal was to achieve maximum acoustic potential using a minimal amount of materials and to get an aesthetically appealing image of a concert hall. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The proposal for the New Taipei City Museum of Art by OTA+ challenges the traditional definition of a museum and the conventional relationship between building and site. By freeing the ground plane of enclosed semi-public space, the interface between the museum and the site offers a new experience of a museum; one that is open, friendly, and welcoming. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The 2011 Architecture and the City Festival, being held from September 1st to September 30th, is a month long celebration featuring over 40 behind the scenes tours, workshops, exhibitions, lectures, dining adventures, films and more that explore the best of San Francisco architecture and design.
Hosted by AIA San Francisco, the 2011 festival theme is ‘Architecture of Consequence.’ By selecting this theme, the festival hopes to demonstrate how progressive design and creative problem solving can address society’s current challenges and lead to a more sustainable future. More information on the event after the break.
Gensler has been named lead architect, in collaboration with Groupe-6, of this new multipurpose arena in Villeurbanne, France. The Villeurbanne-Lyon Arena project includes a 12,000 seat arena that incorporates Tony Parker Academy, a training academy for talented young basketball players. This mixed-use project is a large public plaza which fluidly transitions from arena, to public hall, to public transit facilities.
More on the Villeurbanne-Lyon Arena after the break.
Forrest Jessee has recently unveiled his Sleep Suit inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s practice of Dymaxion Sleeping – 30-minute naps over 24 hours – while simultaneously exploring the materiality requirements to accommodate such a function. Interaction between the human body and the suit is the form generator as well as the threshold medium between the internalized occupant and their immediate surroundings.
This week, with the help of our readers, our Architecture City Guide is headed to Shanghai. Shanghai is noted for having more Art Deco buildings than any other city, including László Hudec’s Park Hotel, which is not on our list but will be added in a future guide. Like many cities in China, Shanghai’s rapid growth has meant a boon in contemporary architecture styles. We put together a list of 12 modern/contemporary buildings that we feel provides a good starting point. It is far from complete. There are dozens of other great buildings that are not our list, and we are looking to add to the list in the near future. Please add your favorites in the comment section below so we can add them on the second go around. Again thank you to all our readers who sent in their suggestions and photographs. The city guides would not be possible without your help.
To check out other cities visit our world map or our Architecture City Guide page. The Architecture City Guide: Shanghai list and corresponding map after the break.
https://www.archdaily.com/164792/architecture-city-guide-shanghaiChristopher Henry
Architectural Digest has compiled a list of college campuses throughout the United States which have the most remarkable architectural traditions, which broadcast their innovative philosophy through design. A number of colleges have fully incorporated modern architecture into their campus schemes, for example MIT; while others have preserved their historical edifices through the course of the years, like the University of Virginia. The list involves some prestigious institutions, in addition to some surprises, all possessing their individual architectural languages.
See the 10 College Campuses with the Best Architecture after the break.
Richard Meier & Partners Architects has been awarded the American Architecture Award 2011 for Coffee Plaza in Hamburg, Germany. The American Architectural Awards is one of the most prestigious building awards program in the United States that honors “new and cutting-edge design”. This annual program is organized by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Center for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies to promote the best of new architecture and urban design.
The Coffee Plaza in Hamburg’s HafenCity is planned as a unique center for international coffee commerce and related lines of business. The project encompasses the design of the headquarters for one of the largest coffee trading companies worldwide and two office buildings with rentable areas as well as a public plaza and underground parking. The site is part of the ambitious new Master plan to redevelop Hamburg’s post-industrial port into a viable business, commercial and cultural center and is currently the largest urban development project in Europe. More after the break.
The goal of ISA and NEAR Design for the Kaohsiung Port Station, serving the largest harbor in Taiwan, is to revitalize the Port station area into a Transitional Park (Trans-Park) where daily life and events, past and future, landscape and city, land and water coexists. With the city’s cultural production and tourism in mind, the site will become an icon of Kaohsiung. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The proposal for the New Taipei Museum of Art, by Meter architects, is predicated on exploring and celebrating the interrelationship between commerce and the display of art. This approach involved distributing the museum and commercial programs so as to heighten the drama of the encounter between them. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Busan Opera House proposal, by Pelletier de Fontenay, echoes a unique island condition. Here, they imagined an island experience where everything, from water to building, is in contrast with the usual city landscape. It resembles more abstract matter carved from underneath than a building. It stands there, anchored to the shore, like a century old wreckage, darkened by time, creating complex and unexpected relationships with the water, the island, the city and it’s inhabitants. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Greenland Zhengzhou Towers are unbuilt towers designed by Brininstool, Kerwin and Lynch in 2010. According to the architect description, the unique forms are “rooted in cultural influence, in which the massing is identifiable with the mountain formations found outside of Zhengzhou. The expression is balanced between historical symbolism and contemporary innovation.”
With an area that exceeds 6.5million square feet, this massive mixed-development was proposed to house a variety of programs, including office space and a five-star boutique hotel that occupies the top floors of the shorter tower on the south site. BKL was involved with the design of the complex on all scales, from the site considerations the lighting design of the hotel units. In addition to the typical hotel amenities afforded by luxury hotels (ballrooms, lap pools, spa, fitness center, etc.), the complex is decidedly Eastern, with meditation gardens and outdoor terraces. More after the break.
Yemen is a country rich with history. Its cities are full of architectural monuments that are constructed with a craft that often goes overlooked. These cities merge seamlessly with the surrounding landscape, contextually complementing each other.
Al Hajjara is one such village that warrants a closer look. Built on the precipice of a mountain, the architecture clings to the sides of the cliffs. Multi-story buildings rise up out of the ground and step their way to the top. It is quite amazing given the fact that these buildings were constructed hundreds of years ago, and are still standing.
After selling the previous Repsol tower, designed by Norman Foster to Caja Madrid, Spanish architect, Rafael de la Hoz was commissioned to design the company’s new headquarters. In an extensive area in southern Madrid, he designed a set of four buildings, which are intended to reflect the image of a campus.
A minor transatlantic controversy erupted last month after UK “architecture minister” aka Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport with responsibility for architecture and the built environment John Penrose apparently compared architects with other negatively-stereotyped groups, noting architects are “just one of those groups people love to mock.” The comments were part of a longer blog post about Rowan Atkinson, Dreamland, and VisitEngland’s new Smartphone-based marketing campaign.
The recession that began in 2007 technically ended in 2009, but you wouldn’t know it from visiting Detroit. The capital of U.S. auto manufacturing has been hit particularly hard, and stories of its plight during the economic downturn abound. Less reported, though, are the ideas and proposals put forth to return this city to its former glory. The urban renewal projects proposed are some of the latest in a long line of design projects that attempt to bring renewed prosperity and well being to the downtrodden sections of cities throughout the world. More on urban renewal and Detroit after the break.
Trahan Architects, among several elite design firms to contend, was selected to design “one of the most significant ecclesiastical commissions in the nation,” also known as the First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs. The proposed 1,750 seat sanctuary, along with a master plan comprises this project, which sits in the heart of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. The structure is relatively independent of overt signs of a church; its design aspires to revive the church’s identity through an architecture which articulates convergence.
More on the First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs after the break.
Inspired by varied and complex geographical environment of Taipei city and in order to fit to playful topography and landscape of the provided site, the design by Pikasch Architecture Studio proposes a land form architecture where the building with its striking form not only blends into the existing landscape and paths, but also works as an attractive centre point and organizes the site with optimal consideration of given parameters. More images and architects’ description after the break.
