Architecture News

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Library Association (ALA) have selected seven projects to receive the 2016 AIA/ALA Library Building Awards. This awards program was developed to encourage and recognize excellence in the architectural design of libraries, reflecting the evolving role of the library as a community space.

The seven recipients of the AIA/ALA Library Building Awards are:

Following the death of Zaha Hadid on March 31st of this year Section D, Monocle 24's weekly review of design, architecture and craft, hones in on the role of women in architecture and design. They discuss why, despite an almost 50:50 gender split in undergraduate architecture courses, women are still grossly underrepresented at senior levels within the profession by featuring conversations with two leading female architects, Angela Brady OBE and Amanda Levete. The episode also looks back over the lives of some of architecture's overlooked heroines.

OMA's first building in Manhattan will be a condo project at 122 East 23rd Street, built in collaboration with Toll Brothers City Living. Designed by OMA's New York principal Shohei Shigematsu, the residential tower culminates a decade leading the office and several previous attempts to realize a project in the region.

Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, DesignInc, and Lacoste + Stevenson have won an international competition for the design of a civic and community building in the Australian city of Parramatta. The six-story, 12,000 square meter building, a mixture of rectilinear sharpness and parabolic curves, extends back from the city’s Victorian Free Classical style town hall. The new structure will include a variety of spaces, including: council chambers and offices, a library, public roof gardens, a customer care center and visitor experience center, community meeting rooms, a technology hub, and an innovation space.

The Venice Biennale has released a list of 19 Collateral Events that will take place alongside the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, Reporting from the Front, curated by Alejandro Aravena and chaired by Paolo Baratta. Previews of the main event begin May 26th and 27th, and it is open to the public from May 28th to November 27th 2016.

The collateral events, each selected by Alejandro Aravena and promoted by a non-profit sponsor, take place around Venice, and, in the words of Paolo Baratta, "[they] contribute, along with a good number of participating countries that do not have a pavilion in the Giardini or in the Arsenale, to spread the 15th International Architecture Exhibition by turning it into an urban phenomenon, that would engage every corner of the city."

The complete list of events can be found below, and make sure to follow ArchDaily's complete coverage of the Venice Biennale.

The St. Petersburg City Council has approved the schematic design for the new St. Pete Pier. First awarded in a competition in 2015, the new site was designed by a team composed of three firms: Rogers Partners Architects+Urban Designers (lead designer); ASD (executive architect); and WORKSHOP: Ken Smith Landscape Architect (landscape architect). Although the final design was updated based on city and public requests, the core programming of the original scheme was maintained.

Pier 55, the floating park designed by Heatherwick Studio and landscape architecture firm, Signe Nielsen, received a green-light from the New York Supreme Court this past Friday, April 8, according to a report by the Architect’s Newspaper. Floating above the Hudson River on the Lower West Side of Manhattan, the park is anchored by an aggregation of enormous petal-like stilts that are submerged in the water below. The park is being funded by the philanthropy of Diane von Furstenberg and her husband Barry Diller.

Pier 55’s legal troubles began last spring when the non-profit, City Club of New York filed a lawsuit against Pier55 Inc. and Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) to stop the project.

Herzog & de Meuron have released new images of their design for National Library of Israel. Located on a prominent site in West Jerusalem, the National Library is at the base of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) and adjacent to the Israel Museum, Science Museum and Hebrew University.

+ 5

Rafael Moneo has unveiled the design of his first Miami project, a luxury high-rise at the north end of the city. Known as Apeiron at The Jockey Club, or simply Apeiron, the condo project features a pair of towers to be completed in separate stages and will include 240 serviced residential units, a 90-key boutique hotel, a deep-water marina, health and wellness facilities, and outdoor pools. With Apeiron, The Jockey Club hopes to hearken back to its 1970s heydey, when it was a center of Miami’s vibrant social and nightlife scenes. Apeiron, a Greek work meaning ‘limitless’, is at 11111 Biscayne Boulevard, a location with expansive views of the water and surrounding landscape.

LEAF International (Leading European Architecture Forum) has announced Santiago Calatrava as the recipient of its 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award. Recognized by a panel of industry experts around the world, he has been selected for his “unique vision and ability to transform cities through impactful design" as well as the breadth of his work, which includes projects like the World Trade Center Transportation Hub (New York City), Milwaukee Art Museum (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), Museum of Tomorrow (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Florida Polytechnic Building (Lakeland, Florida) and the Turning Torso Tower (Malmö, Sweden).

Few have ever considered what the Giardini—the park of national pavilions for the Art and Architecture Biennales in Venice—is like during the winter months. In light of the fact that, during their "off-season," the gardens are often left in a state of disrepair, RAAAF—a Dutch multidisciplinary studio based in Amsterdam, alongside architect Marcel Moonen—have proposed a series of installations in an attempt to "reclaim valuable public space" which sits at the heart of an often overcrowded city.

Next month, the AIA National Convention is heading to Philadelphia! As the premier architecture and design conference of the year, this is a can’t-miss event for those involved with the industry. If you haven’t yet purchased your pass, we’re offering a chance to attend free of charge!

reThink Wood is offering a full pre-paid pass to the 2016 AIA National Convention ($1,050 value) to one lucky ArchDaily reader. The winner will have the chance to meet with architects, engineers, academics and developers that are passionate about innovative design with wood.

To win, just answer the following question in the comments section before Friday, April 22 at 12:00 p.m. ET: Which mass timber building in the U.S. has most inspired you? 

OMA has revealed the design for its first skyscraper in Tokyo. A tower with a torqued front-facade, the building incorporates an elevated park and access to a new Hibiya Line subway station in a project that mixes hotel, office, and retail components.

Videos

Photographer Laurian Ghinitoiu has captured the collaboration of the Swedish fashion retailer COS and Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto for this year's Salone del Mobile in Milan.

"In this installation for COS, I envisage to make a forest of light," said Fujimoto. "A forest which consists of countless light cones made from spotlights above. These lights pulsate and constantly undergo transience of state and flow. People meander through this forest, as if lured by the charm of the light. Light and people interact with one another, its existence defining the transition of the other."

+ 26

The curators of the Spanish Pavilion have revealed the selected material which will be exhibited at the 2016 Venice Biennale. The content is a response to Alejandro Aravena's thematic directive for the Biennale, entitled "Reporting from the Front," in which he invites each country to share experiences and moments of crisis that architecture has experienced in recent years.

Under the title "Unfinished," the projects selected by Iñaqui Carnicero and Carlos Quintans reveal the architects’ response to the economic and construction crisis in Spain over recent years, through virtues that can either become strategies or creative speculations, capable of "subverting the past condition into a positive contemporary action."

Created for the 2016 Milan Design Week, MAD Architects’ “Invisible Borders” installation is part of the “Open Borders” exhibition curated by Italian magazine Interni. Taking place in the traditional Cortile d’Onore courtyard of Università degli Studi di Milano, the installation is a canopy made from ribbons of ETFE in gradient colors, which has a lightness and flexibility that allows it to rustle in the wind and generate a subtle whistling sound. According to MAD, “The installation reflects the hues of the sky during the day, leaving glimpses of the columns and loggias. In the evening it becomes a luminous surface that brings the courtyard to live with new colors.”

+ 7