Articles

Architects: Jordi Farrando Location: Sant Esteve Sesrovires, Cataluña, Spain Architect: Jordi Farrando Project Year: 2007 Photographs: Adrià Goula

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Architects: Archi5 Location: Belfort, France Project Year: 2012 Photographs: Fabien Terreaux and Amoor Maadi

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MVRDV, in collaboration with The Jerde Partnership, ARUP, and developer Wijaya Karya – Benhil Property, have unveiled plans to create a new landmark in Jakarta, Indonesia. Dubbed Peruri 88, the 400 meter tall vertical city integrates retail, offices, housing, a luxury hotel, four levels of parking, a wedding house, a mosque, an imax theater and an outdoor amphitheater, with an extensive amount of green space.

The team presented the plans to city and site owner, Peruri, as part of a developer’s bid competition for the prominent site.

All the details after the break…

Results from the Transforming the Bridge Competition for Cleveland, Ohio, are in. The competition called for an innovative solution for the redevelopment and repurposing of the abandoned Detroit-Superior Bridge. The brief called for a variety of uses, dedicated pedestrian and bike paths, performance spaces, and landscaping solutions. Nine projects made the cut…

Architects: Metropolis Location: Lima, Peru Project Year: 2012 Project Area: 17,000 sqm Photographs: Juan Solano

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Beijing-based Büro Ole Scheeren has released plans for a mixed-use, high-rise development in the modern metropolis of Singapore. Titled ‘DUO’, the twin towers are not intended to be conceived as autonomous objects, but defined by the spaces they create around them. Their curved facades engages the city and frames a “new civic nucleus” at its base, while featuring premium offices, a five-star hotel, 660 high-end residential units and signature retail space.

DUO is lead by German-born architect Ole Scheeren, whose best known for his work with OMA on Beijing’s CCTV headquarters and has recently turned heads with the popular floating Archipelago Cinemas. The project is expected for completion by 2017, with construction planned to break ground next year.

More images and the architects’ description after the break.

As part of the new Tongji Science and Technology Park in Jiading, Shanghai, the aim for the design by Damian Donze of Tongji Architectural Design and Research Institute was to create a high level office complex with a commercial street on the ground floor. The irregular form of the building is not just to make an impression, but creates high end office spaces with access to exterior space. The building stretches along Huang Du Lü Yuan Road and extends the commercial street coming from the North. More images and architects’ description after the break.

What if your house, neighbourhood, even your city were part of a TV set? This is the fake world - a kind of suburban utopia - where Truman Burbanks lives, tricked by loops of spaces and stuck in routines. The film questions the idea of a “perfect” reality, and troubles the predictable scenarios of suburban life. From the perspective of urban planning and architecture, the film makes you wonder: to what extent should we have control over our environments? To what extent should we design out choice, or randomness, or disorder, in the name of “perfection”? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Commissioned through a design competition, the Office Complex for Delhi Pollution Control Committee proposal by M:OFA Studios houses about 200 officials , scientists and a devoted work force responsible for making and implementing policies, research and formulating norms for keeping India’s capital Pollution free. The significance of this office in the larger context is an affirmation of this purpose itself contributing towards a higher standard of living for the populace of Delhi State. It was the understanding of this purpose and sustainability in the Indian context that became the core design parameters for the DPCC head office building. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Studioninedots, in collaboration with Atelier 115 Architectes, recently won the limited competition for the design of a 9200m2 office building for Kaufman & Broad in Paris. Their highly legible, iconic office building, called Ya, holds its own among the high-rise structures on the park-side of Avenue Pierre Lefaucheux. The application of horizontal articulation also connects the project to the more small-scale residential developments in the vicinity. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Just a couple months ago, we featured a video by Prompt for the new flea market for the IMMB Institut Municipal de Mercats de Barcelona. The project will play a key role in the economy and urban identity of the city. Featured in this post are two more videos which highlight its progress as it goes up in the city. More information and the next video can be viewed after the break.

Kent State University has selected four national teams to compete in the final round of an international competition to design a new College of Architecture and Environmental Design building on the university’s new esplanade. The planned facility is part of the university’s campus transformation, called “Foundations of Excellence: Building the Future,” which involves the construction of new buildings, facility upgrades and establishment of dynamic, new spaces. The goal of this initiative is to create a modern campus that offers an outstanding academic experience and enriches the greater community of Kent, Ohio.

The shortlisted teams have been challenged to design a $40 million sustainable exemplar, possibly capable of achieving net-zero energy, that unites Kent State’s architecture program under one roof, while inspiring interdisciplinary collaboration within flexible learning spaces.

More details and the complete shortlist after the break…

Architect: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky + Partner Location: Lyon, France Client: Département du Rhône / Represented by SERL Landscape Design: EGIS aménagement Site Area: 20,975 m² Net Floor Area: 26,700 m² Gross Floor Area: 46,476 m² Building Costs: EUR 150 Mio Scheduled Completion: 2014

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HHF and AWP shared with us their proposal for the EPFL Campus in Lausanne, Switzerland. The three pavilions, with a surface area of over 3’000 m2, or about one third of place Cosandey, which is the main open space, have very different potentials of interaction with their surroundings. A vertical organization of the three programs not only minimizes the use of the limited campus surface, but makes use of the specific way that each pavilion interacts with the campus. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Dutch Pavilion, built in 1954 by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, is used by curator Ole Bouman (Director of the NAI) and designer Petra Blaisse (Insise Outside) to question how existing buildings can be reanimated, and how our profession can inject a new boost of imagination to give new value to ever growing number of vacant structures sitting dormant around the world.

“We are not going to hang Objets d’Art, exhibit works or stage events. We are responding to the vacant architecture itself. One single mobile object occupies the space for three months and emphasizes the building’s unique qualities. This object will flow through the interior, re-configure its organization and create new rooms along the way. Through relatively simple interventions the experience of light, sound and space will be manipulated so that new perspectives emerge.”

- Petra Blaisse

Text fromt the curator after the break:

Taking place at RIBA in London November 23rd, the What’s Next in Workspaces? Designing with Change event includes a round table discussion by leading voices in the field of workspace design who will present and discuss their ideas on the future of work environments. Without a doubt, now is a time when organizations, companies and firms from all over the globe are radically reconsidering the way they will work in the future, trying to adapt to the new situations and challenges that they are facing and will face in the new millennium. The event takes place from 3pm-6pm and is being put on by the IE School of Architecture and Design. More information after the break.