Articles

The Architectural League and Socrates Sculpture Park is currently inviting architects to submit proposals for the 2013 Folly Competition, a design/build studio residency, and chance to build an installation at Socrates Sculpture Park, a unique urban waterfront park in Queens, NY. Socrates and the League welcome proposals from all emerging architects and designers for large-scale projects and installations that explore contemporary interpretations of the architectural folly. The deadline for submissions is January 7. For more information, please visit here.

Architects: Hauser Ziblat Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina Design Team: German Hauser, Daniela Ziblat Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Courtesy of Hauser Ziblat

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Architects: Roberto Burneo Arquitectos Location: Balcon de Valle, Quito Canton, Ecuador Project Year: 2012 Project Area: 904 sqm Photographs: Sebastián Crespo Camacho

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Shipping container architecture has gained a lot of ground over the past few years for its simplicity, affordability and flexibility. Yes the very same containers that make transatlantic voyages and are carted around hitched to trucks have become a tool for architects to design restaurants, to serve as retail or pavilions and even homes. According to an article by Matt Chaban on the New York Observer, NYC plans to prepare for the next disaster with apartments built out of shipping containers to be used as disaster relief shelters.

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Architects: ESTUDI2A2 + M. Riera Location: Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park, Catalonia, Spain Design Team: Cristina Capel, Ma Teresa Solà Project Year: 2011 Photographs: Marc Torra

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The University of California Davis (UCD) has selected three pairings of architects and contractors to compete to design a $30-million art museum, expected to be completed in 2016. The university has decided against a traditional competition in favor of a design-build competition, requesting that each of the prospective architects - WorkAC, SO-IL (working with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, of Apple store fame), and Henning Larsen Architects - work with specific contractors in order to develop holistically conceived museum schemes. More information after the break.

Six firms, Agence Ter (France), Burns + Nice (UK), Gustafson Porter (UK), James Corner Field Operations (USA), jmarchitects (UK), and John McAslan & Partners (UK), were recently shortlisted in the project for a major redevelopment of George Square in the heart of Glasgow, Scotland. The 13 statues and monuments that stand in the square are to be moved to other sites in the city while the area is given a makeover ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Planned to submit their plans by the new year, the six designs submitted to Glasgow City Council will be put on public display at the Lighthouse in early January. The design competition winner will then have the prestigious task of redeveloping the square to further enhance Glasgow’s reputation as an international city.

Architects: R79 Location: Mérida, Yucatán, México Architect In Charge: Roberto Ramírez Pizarro Project Year: 2012 Photographs: David Cervera Castro

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The “Phantom. Mies as Rendered Society” installation by architect Andrés Jaque will be on display from December 13th until February 28th at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona. Presented by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation and the Banco Sabadell Foundation, the installation hopes to bring the figure of the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the most important icons of the modernist movement, back into the public eye by using objects, elements and materials that will rebuild and bring recognition to Mies’ historical importance. More information after the break.

Located at the Poznań Plaza mall in Poland, mode:lina architekci accepted a challenge to create a temporary store for Swedish watch brand TRIWA. Their goals included using renewable materials, low cost, speed of constructing, and most importantly, to further increase global brand awareness. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The main purpose of the design for the Istanbul Camlica Mosque, which won the second prize in the architectural competition, was to create the largest worship place that has ever been designed, and cover it with one single roof. SN Architects successfully did this by using the load bearing properties of one of the traditional systems that often used “vault systems” and using contemporary architectural and engineering facilities. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Just this past Monday, gmp Architekten was awarded the contract to design the new Kunsthalle Mannheim, a decision made by the Kunsthalle‘s jury. Their winning design portrays a symbolic identity, both on the outside and on the inside. The idea was to create a place that is easily remembered, and which appeals with its functional and urban quality. Analogous to the chess board type layout of Mannheim’s inner city, the design is a composition of several cubes, the regularity of which is however broken by an offset arrangement in terms of height and width, and also by the arrangement of squares within the development. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Architects: Altamirano Armanet Arquitectos Location: Vitacura, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Courtesy of Altamirano Armanet Arquitectos

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Michael Maltzan, an award winning American architect and founder and principal of Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc., was recently selected to design the Inuit Art and Learning Centre at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The selection committee was unanimous in choosing Michael Maltzan as the winning architect from 65 prospective teams from 15 countries. This recommendation subsequently received overwhelming approval from the WAG Board of Governors. The Centre houses one of the largest and most celebrated collection of contemporary Inuit art in the world; it’s also home to Studio Art and Learning programs. More information after the break.

Complications could be on the rise for Snøhetta and AECOM, who were recently announced as the Golden State Warriors’ architects of choice to design their new sports and entertainment complex on the San Francisco waterfront. Despite the complications, however, the architects still have time to execute the hoped-for ‘slam dunk’. More information after the break.