Harvard Graduate School of Design recently announced the launch of the Wheelwright Prize, a $100,000 traveling fellowship awarded annually to talented early-career architects worldwide proposing exceptional itineraries for research and discovery. With an open application process, the Wheelwright Prize recognizes the importance of field research to professional development, and reinforces Harvard GSD’s dedication to fostering investigative approaches to contemporary design. Online applications will be accepted starting January 10; deadline for submissions is February 28, 2013. For more information, please visit here.
Practitioner, author and celebrated educator Robert Greenstreet, Intl. Assoc. AIA, has been awarded the 2013 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education. Greentstreet – one of the longest-serving architecture deans in North America – has influenced countless students and architects throughout his 35-year career. He has taught a five schools of architecture in the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as spent 20 years as dean at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).
In March, Greenstreet will be awarded the medallion at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) annual meeting in San Francisco. The AIA will also recognize him at the 2013 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition in Denver in June.
The photo above is the unique Guggenheim Museum in New York City designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and was taken by Chimay Bleue. Check the other four after the break.
After months of an “arduous” public reviewing process, BIG’s eye-catching West 57th apartment building in Manhattan has been approved by the City Planning Commission. The atypical design quickly gained international attention with its abruptly sloped, tetrahedral shape that rises from three stories to thirty-eight stories on an awkwardly sized single block site. Cleverly titled W57, the unique project was “born of logic”, as New York Magazine’s Justin Davidson would describe. It features a massive, football-sized courtyard with stunning Hudson River views and outdoor terraces for all 753 residents, along with a vibrant street life and close proximity to the Hudson River Park.
“Our approval will facilitate development of a significant new building with a distinctive pyramid-like shaped design and thoughtful site plan that integrates the full block site into the evolving residential, institutional, and commercial neighborhood surrounding it,” stated City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden before voting in favor of the project.
Find out what it took to get W57 passed, after the break…
The winning proposal for the multi-sports complex in the city of Antony, France responds to the strong political will of a new urban ambition for the neighborhood. The context is heterogeneous linear collective housing on one side and unique botanical heritage of the Park on the other. Designed by Archi5 + Tecnova Architecture, this project includes a theme for each function including gathering, meeting, sports activities, and events. This becomes evident in all aspects of the building at all levels. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by Sparano + Mooney Architecture, they embraced the idea as light as a mediator for the central organizing principle for their proposal. The new Cathedral, a delicate dance between old and new, each contributes to its role in the creation of the new. The act of covering the precious ruins with a diaphanous, copper material creates the new space and form of the Cathedral which emerges as a dialogue between existing remains and new veil. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Hyuntek Yoon and Soobum You of Team Atelier Why shared with us their first prize winning proposal in the Detroit Riverfront competition. Their ‘Forest’ concept, which aims at being a fairy tale between the city and the forest by ‘filling’, is the focus of the urban development. Currently, the site is filled with voids, such as trees and the knoll, but the forest creates rich stories with the city. Providing spaces that are more secure and for smaller activities, people will have the chance to experience nature. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Located in an area of Lviv, Ukraine with unfinished buildings, the proposal for the Green Walking Mall is conceived as an inclusions program for the existing Bazar Quarter into the surrounding urban structures. Designed by Unika Architecture & Urbanism, this is accomplished through the new planning structure that installs broken links with neighboring quarters. Their design adds clarity to complicated pedestrian links and chaotic planning including program for the existing area into the surrounding urban structures. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Watch this video tour of the Bacardi Building in Miami, Florida, by the grandson of the original founder. The building, built in 1962, became the headquarters of the company for fifty years and has become an iconic modernist symbol in the city with an additional building added to the property in 1970. The building is designed by Enrique Guitierrez. The unique facade of the building was designed by ceramic artist Francisco Brennand using 20,000 tiles. The building resonates with Miami’s culture and has become a landmark for nearby residents. Tito Bacardi, who is the tour guide in the video, explains with pride how its the company’s legacy has become intertwined with the architecture – a building that represented Bacardi’s relocation from Cuba to America.
In Bangladesh, where rising sea levels are having profound effects on the landscape, one nonprofit organization called Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha run by architect Mohammed Rezwan is fighting back by adapting, a true quality of resilience. Rising water levels and the tumultuous climate is displacing people by the thousands; a projected 20% of Bangladesh is expected to be covered in water within twenty years. For a country that is one of the densest populated state on the planet, this figure has disastrous consequences for a population that has limited access to fresh water, food, and medicine. In response to these conditions, Shidhulai has focused on providing education, training and care against the odds of climate change by adapting to the altered landscape: moving schools and community centers onto the water – on boats.
To join in on all the holiday cheer, we decided to share with you this architectural funny that depicts the architectural history of the christmas tree. We found the clever illustration by Subtle Design on deviantART – “the world’s largest online art community”. Enjoy!
Installed in Sony Square in Tokyo and on display until January 14, the ‘Crystal Aqua Trees’ is a crystal work of art inspired by the concept of a fountain that can be seen as a spray of water as well as a Christmas tree. Designed by Torafu Architects, the project was inspired by the Trevi fountain in Rome, the “Ai no Izumi” (Fountain of Love) charity drive, which has been held by Sony every year since 1968. For this edition, the architects proposed a new embodiment as an interactive installation. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The competition for the ‘Ito Jakuchu Inspire’ pavilion is focused on the great celebration throughout the world of Ito Jakuchu’s work, a milestone in Japanese art history. Taking on a symbolic meaning, the competition effectively corresponds to a cultural phase of our existence. Designed by architects Đordje Alfirević and Sanja Simonović, this second prize winning proposal creates a dematerialization of boundaries between Ito Jakuchu’s perception of the reality in which he lived and the appearance of our modern world. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Open to all young creative minds from all parts of the world from the ages of 18-33, the Fenn Young Designers Award competition recently announced the judges and winners. Organized by Fenn Designers, based on interpreting “Organic”, they received a total of 280 participants, from 59 countries. The main question was, ‘How do you interpret “Organic” if you are designing a building, a piece of furniture, a fabric, a dress, a painting or any other form of art?’ More images and a complete list of the judges and the winners after the break.
Including well-known speakers such as Peter Eisenman, Reinhold Martin, Joan Ockman, and Bernard Tschumi, the “Ruins of Modernity: The Failure of Revolutionary Architecture in the 20th Century” event will be taking place in New York City February 7th from 7:00pm-10:00pm. Free and open to the public, the event is part of a larger series of panels and events centered around the theme of the death of art that will take place during the month of February 2013 in NYC. The modernists’ project consisted in giving shape to an inseparable duality, wherein the role of architecture was deduced as simultaneously a reflection of modern society as well as an attempt to transform it. The event highlights and debates the thoughts proposed by architectural theorists such as Victor Hugo, Colin Rowe, and Reyner Banham while looking at how the the last century influences architecture today. For more information, please visit here.
Located on the corner of 84th Street NW and Jasper Avenue, on the northern bank of the North Saskatchewan River and just east of Edmonton’s downtown core, the W12 – Real Time Control Building building, playing a crucial role in punctuating open public space along the river’s edge. Designed by gh3, the building will be highly visible from the north, south and east, seen from a series of vantage points ranging from distant to near. The project is an opportunity to invest in the design of the plant enclosure while celebrating the importance of municipal infrastructure and recognizing the role infrastructure buildings have in shaping the built fabric of the city. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Construction has exploded along the High Line ever since it opened: condos hover over the rehabilitated track and look out onto the Hudson, while the new location of the Whitney Museum is making headway on the southern end of the park as Google moves into its NYC headquarters to a building just a few short blows away. Now, the historic Chelsea Market may be looking at a facelift following approval from the New York City Council for increasing density in the building by developers, Jamestown Properties. The proposed vertical extension, which has made a brief appearance on a few architecture blogs, will provide the additional in demand office and retail space in the Chelsea neighborhood.
