A house, a library, an art gallery, a housing project and Gehry. All part of our new Flickr Round Up. As always, remember you can submit your own photo here, and don’t forget to follow us through Twitter and our Facebook Fan Page to find many more features.
The photo above was taken by Anna Mayrah Gregorczyk in Auroville, India. Check the other four after the break.
BDOnline’s recent report Foster & Partners sees profits soars reveals that the firm has “posted a major rise in profits for the year ended April 30, 2011, with pre-tax profits of £10.9 million, up from £1.6 million.” Most of the firms work is said to come from Asia and China, as turnover at the practice is up to £159 million from £134 million.
Zaha Hadid joined H.E. Dr Sinan Al-Shabibi, Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), at a ceremony to sign the agreement between CBI and Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) for the design stages of the new CBI Headquarters building. The ceremony was hosted at the Victoria & Albert Museum by H.E. Dr Muhielddin Hussein Abdullah, Charges d’Affaires of the Iraqi Embassy.
ZHA have already completed the client’s Brief Development and will immediately begin the design process that will focus on developing a national symbol for the new spirit of Iraq on the shores of the Tigris River in Baghdad. ZHA will lead the international team of specialist consultants including: Adams Kara Taylor, Max Fordham, Newtecnic, DEGW, Gross Max, Davis Langdon, Arup, Warringtonfire, Winton Nightingale and A2 Project Managers.
Dr Sinan Al-Shabibi said: “The new building shall be a symbol of the Bank’s role in the economic development of Iraq and a reflection of the determination to rebuild the country.”
Zaha Hadid said: “I am deeply touched that I have been asked to design the new headquarters for the Central Bank of Iraq. I was born in Iraq and I still feel very close to it. I feel very privileged to be working in Iraq on a design of such national importance.”
Continue after the break for more images of the ceremony.
Architects: PLAN Associated Architects Location: Meia Praia, Lagos, Algarve, Portugal Project: Yellow Hotel Meia Praia – 5 star hotel Building Area: 22 298,28 sqm Design Team: Armando Daniel Dos Reis (Principal Architect), Jenny da Costa Marcos, Ricardo Galego Silva, Quirio Ramalhinho, Liliana de Sousa, Luis Caetano, Hugo Fonseca, Joana Fernandes, Inês Martins, José Martins, Ana Paula Costa, Filipa Monteiro, Matias dos Reis Client: Iberotel Group Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Alexandre da Luz Mendes, Ricardo Cabeços, Hugo Fonseca
Active City Transformation (ACT) recently designed a public space using flooding as a productive phenomenon, both as an active and attractive element. The intent of Shifting Fields is to create a more experience-rich site, which underlines the relationships to the adjacent functions and characteristics. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the leading cultural institution of the region, has recently selected Steven Holl Architects to design a new museum building to support its collections, exhibitions, and various educational programs. After a comprehensive international competition, MFAH asked Steven Holl, Snøhetta, and Morphosis to develop site-specific concepts for the planned expansion. The jury unanimously chose Holl as his strong portfolio of built museums, such as the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the recently finished Cité de l’Océan et du Surf, display a sense of elegance and clarity much desired by the MFAH.
More about the museum after the break.
Located in the Finnish city of Turku, the Calamari Union project by LRA (Lapo Ruffi Architetto) is designed around the theme, “European urbanity | Resonance between territories and ways of life. What architectures for sustainable cities?”. The project responds to a new demand of making a city outside of the city. How must we design places to live in contexts not yet settled? Limen in Latin means limit, but also threshold, entrance. It is therefore in the etymology of this word that the premises are found for what can become a place of boundary, not to be intended as a barrier, but as an opportunity of connection. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Andrew Burns Architect recently won the competition for a gallery-atelier in rural Japan – Australia House. The competition was judged by Tadao Ando and open internationally. Their design is scheduled to be completed in July 2012 and will be a key part of the Echigo Tsumari Art Trienale 2012. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Paulo David has been announced as the eleventh recipient of the Alvar Aalto Medal – a prestigious honor awarded to an architect or architectural firm that has provided significant contributions to the field of architecture. “In an era where the profession is obsessed with computer-generated patterns, ‘design’ in many practices has become greatly interested in manipulating forms rather than place making and the making of architecture.” The jury honors David for his ability to create timeless architecture that plays a significant role in his hometown island of Madeira. David’s respect for history, time, place, culture and technology has allowed him to stand out from the current trend of “desperately interesting architecture” and create a new, meaningful layer within the historic volcanic landscapes of Madeira.
Continue reading to learn more.
The Van Alen Institute, a non-profit architectural organization in New York City, is hosting a Q&A between Aaron Levy of Slought Foundation and William Menking of the The Architects’ Newspaper, with editor Thomas Weaver on February 3rd at 7:oo pm. Located at Van Alen Books, 30 W. 22nd Street, on the ground floor between 5th and 6th Avenues in Manhattan, you can “grab a seat on their yellow steps and join the conversation”.
Read on for more information on this event!
With the Holidays upon us, many of us gather together, drinks in hands, and celebrate together. Except the architects. We tend to be the sullen looking ones at the party, clustered together, over in the corner. Granted, architects aren’t the easiest group to approach, but it is possible, IF you know a few simple conversation starters:
So you’ve seen them standing over there in the corner. Morose and bi-speckled, sipping a cosmo and looking out the window towards a distance church steeple. They seem pensive and dapper at the same time. They’re an architect, but no one’s talking to them? It’s too much pressure? I mean, what do you say to the most interesting person in the room?
Well, here are some possible conversation starters for approaching the Architect, each one sure to start a fascinating and intellectual chat. Go ahead, give it a try:
The Architectural League recently announced the winners of its 30th annual Emerging Voices awards. Each year the League selects eight emerging practitioners through a juried portfolio competition. The award spotlights individuals and firms based in the United States, Canada, or Mexico with distinct design voices and the potential to influence the disciplines of architecture, landscape design, and urbanism. The jury reviews significant bodies of realized work that represent the best of their kind, and address larger issues of architecture, landscape, and the built environment. This year’s jury included Henry Cobb, Geoff Manaugh, Paul Lewis, Jamie Maslyn Larson, Annabelle Selldorf, Claire Weisz, and Dan Wood. More images and information on the awards after the break.
Earlier this week, we shared a great clip of a comparison video betwen Lady Gaga and SANAA’s new Museum – if the comparison has you scratching your head, be sure to check out the video! Great Spaces has also made a short video of UNStudio’s Amsterdam Pavilion. Upon its opening back in the summer of 2009, we had the opportunity to interview van Berkel about his inspiration for the design. Since then, the landscape and hardscape around the pavilion have been completed, giving it a stronger presence in front of the Staten Island Ferry terminal as it seems more integrated into the swirls of the bike and pedestrian paths. Thanks to Delaine Isaac for sharing the clip.
Collective Architects shared with us their proposal for the Uşak Intercity Bus Terminal Complex Architectural Design Competition which won the second prize. Their design aims to bring in a terminal building to the city, which is designed with a well topographic analysis of the competition site. Their approach also involves combining the space left from the terminal building with the recreational area. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Architects: Anna & Eugeni Bach Location: Pälölä farm, Nummi Pusula, Finland Collaborators: Uma and Rufus Bach Project Dates: July 20 - July 21, 2011 Work Site Dates: August 10 – August 24, 2011 Built Surface: 13,50 m2 Budget: 800 € Promoter/Owner: Uma and Rufus Bach Constructor: Self built (Anna & Eugeni Bach) Photographs: Tiia Ettala
Last summer, architects Anna & Eugeni Bach found themselves in a situation that many parents who are architects with children might be able to relate. Their children, after realizing their parents were architects, wondered why they hadn’t made a house for them. So they promised them they would build a house for them on their grandparents farm in Finland. And, of course, at the kids insistence, they fulfilled their promise. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Tesseract Collective‘s shared with us the results of their recent competition “Almost Home”, which asked designers to consider how it is possible to rehabilitate homeless people. They hold regular design competitions around humanitarian topics, with the intention of opening discussion over how architecture can be used powerfully to alleviate suffering and social deprivation around the world. “Almost Home” was the second homeless themed competition they have held. The brief called for a holistic and thoughtful strategy, which would integrate well with the urban environment and have a more long-term approach than immediate survival and comfort. More images and information on the winning entries after the break.
The Preservation Green Lab at the National Trust for Historic Preservation has recently published their study The Greenest Building: Quantifying the Environmental Value of Building Reuse. Resolving many conflicted arguments, this study confirms that reusing and retrofitting existing buildings with an average level of energy performance almost always offers environmental savings over demolition and more energy-efficient new construction. The research provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the potential environmental impact reductions associated with building reuse. The Preservation Green Lab utilizes Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) methodology to compare reuse and renovations with new construction over the course of a 75-year life span. Continue reading for more.
I am, admittedly, a big fan of UCLA. At least in the U.S., college loyalty begins and ends as an undergraduate and if you happen to receive your graduate degrees at the same school, well, the deal is sealed, as it were. But we’re not discussing the basketball team, here. We’re actually talking about academic programs and research.
And it just so happens that because UCLA is a research university, there is a lot of interesting research going on there. For example, at UCLA’s Department of Architecture and Urban Design, there is a program that was begun back in 2002. It’s goal? To help everyone improve the energy efficiency of their homes. For free. It’s called HEED, or Home Energy Efficient Design.
What is it? Basically, it’s a set of tools that help people re-design housing to be more energy efficient. That goes for both new and existing structures. And even better, while it was initially developed for California homeowners who were identified by their utility providers—the project began in 2005—the software was restructured to serve professionals in the building industry. That means it was re-made to serve architects, contractors, engineers, and of course, the homeowner to restructure efficiency for both new and existing structures.
In this video, Brookings expert Robert Puentes discusses the importance of construction projects and infrastructure investments that provide real and lasting value to the American economy. Puentes warns against thinly spreading around smaller infrastructure projects that only provide a short-term, seasonal boost in “shovel ready projects” that temporarily help job creation. Infrastructure investments can and must play a key role in the next American economy. Puentes urges that these smaller infrastructure projects must be connected to a larger infrastructure strategy that focuses on exports and globalization, technological innovation and clean energy. This will not only immediately create jobs and boost the economy, but also provide a framework that will sustain the American economy for the long term.
Plywood: Material, Process, Form is an ongoing exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City that will be open to the public starting tomorrow, February 2, 2012. We have seen many architectural projects that take advantage of the flexibility this “layer cake of lumber and glue”, as described by Popular Science in 1948, has to offer. Plywood has given 20th-century designers a material embodying “formal and aesthetic” qualities on an industrial scale.
More on the exhibit after the break.
The challenging task of designing for the Eurovision Song Contest this year was undertaken by combining the efforts of gmp Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner, Alpine Bau Deutschland AG, and Nüssli International AG. Taking place in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku at Crystal Hall, the aim was to create and implement a multipurpose event-venue that is meant to accommodate 25,000 spectators.The characteristic crystalline shape of the building and its illuminated façade is the response to Azerbaijan’s special request for the creation of a widely visible and visually effective landmark as a bridge between Asia and Europe that will be noticed in an international context. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Architects: Ensamble Studio Location: Mexico D.F, Mexico Architect in Charge: Antón García- Abril Associate Architect: Elena Pérez Construction manager architect: Alba Cortés Project Team: Débora Mesa, Joaquín Gallegos, Alba Beroiz, Jaime Alcayde, Cristina Moya, Juan Ruiz Antón, Tomaso Boano, Federico Letizia Developer: SGAE – GRUPO CARSO Project Management: INPROS Construction Company: GRUPO PC Structural Engineering: COLINAS DE BUEN Project Area: 11,500 sqm Photographs: Roland Halbe, Ensamble Studio
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