Architects: Broissin Architects Location: Coyoacán México DF, Mexico Design Team: Gerardo Broissin, David Suárez, Alejandro Rocha, Rodrigo Jiménez, Mauricio Cristóbal Project Year: 2012 Photographs: Courtesy of Broissin Architetcs, Alejandro Rocha, Paul Rivera
In architecture we talk about space and form. We talk about experience and meaning. All of these qualities are inextricably the sensory experience of light, touch, smell and sound. Sound expert Julian Treasure asks architects to consider designing for our ears, citing that the quality of the acoustics of a space affect us physiologically, socially, psychologically and behaviorally.
More after the break.
Architects: Grupo Aranea Location: Cehegín, Murcia, Spain Design Team: Francisco Leiva Ivorra, Martín López Robles Technical Architect: Antonio Martínez Sánchez Project Year: 2011 Photographs: Jesus Granada BIS Images
What is the connection between sex, architecture and design? Opening tomorrow, September 29, Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979 explores the role of architecture in the famous men’s magazine Playboy. Colomina, along with the curators of NAiM/Bureau-Europa in Maastricht, The Netherlands, centers the exhibition around the research of Beatriz Colomina, a professor at the Princeton University School of Architecture and founder of their Media and Modernity program, who has been studying the connection for the past three years.
Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979 illustrates how cities, buildings, interiors, furniture and products have always played an important role in the fantasy world of Playboy. Ever since Hugh Hefner launched Playboy in 1952, its erotic spreads have featured the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Buckminster Fuller, Moshe Safdie, and Paolo Soleri. As Colomina’s program argues, “sexual revolution and architectural revolution are inseparable.” The exhibition reveals how Playboy reshaped masculinity with the influence of architecture and design.
Grace Farms Foundation, a not-for‐profit charitable organization in New Canaan, Connecticut, has submitted a proposal to the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission for a SANAA-designed, meandering structure dubbed the “River”. The project prioritizes the needs of the community by preserving the 75-acre Grace Farms property as a permanent offering of open space and providing an array of public amenities, such as a library, gymnasium and church.
“We are thrilled to be sharing SANAA’s wonderfully sensitive design with the members of the Planning and Zoning Commission and with the community we serve,” stated Sharon Prince, President of the Grace Farms Foundation. “Grace Farms is a place where people can walk their dog, read a book by the lake or simply relax in a beautiful natural setting. By blending so seamlessly into the landscape, the River enhances this experience, almost erasing the barrier between the spaces sheltered within and the natural world outside.”
If approved, the River will be SANAA’s first United States commission since receiving the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2010. Continue reading for the architects’ description.
Architects: monovolume architecture + design Location: Planeiler Alm, South Tyrol, Italy Project Year: 2011 Photographs: Courtesy of monovolume architecture + design
Designed by Frei+ Saarinen Architekten, the aim of the Lignum Pavilion is to inform the public about the possibilities of wood applications in the construction field. Conceived as a training and information center, the project embodies the expressive potential of wood in very modern key. The fully digitalized production process made it possible to optimize both the quantity of material used and the assembly system, resulting in a considerable reduction of costs and making the most of the strength characteristics of wood. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Starting today, September 28, and running until October 5, ArchiNATI 2012 is week-long festival celebrating Cincinnati’s built environment, partners with institutions city wide to organize and highlight events that showcase Cincinnati’s architecture. Hosted by the Young Architects and Interns Forum (YAiF), a committee of the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the events will give everyone the opportunity to experience the built environment in a new way where their interests intersect with architecture and design. Films, talks and tours will take place in the greater Cincinnati area, which kick off with an exhibition of Miami University and University of Cincinnati student design work and open house at the Miami University Center for Community Engagement. For more information and details about the event, please visit here.
Architects: Budapesti Műhely Location: Sóskút, Hungary Architect In Charge: Tamás Dévényi, Budapesti Műhely Associate Architects: István Kovács, Eszter Mihály, Orsolya Takács, Viktor Vadász Project Year: 2011 Photographs: Tamas Bujnovszky
Architects: Noll & Tam Architects Location: Los Gatos, California, United States Project Team: Christopher Noll, AIA, PIC Project Designer : Matthew Wadlund Project Architect : Tad Costerison, AIA Signage Designer: Matthew Williams Design Interiors Architect: Trina Goodwin Lighting: Illuminosa Lighting Design Project Year: 2012 Photographs: David Wakely
We interviewed Winnipeg- based 5468796 Architecture (Johanna Hurme + Sasa Radulovic) and Jae-Sung Chon (Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba), the team that curated the “Migrating Landscapes” exhibit at the Canadian Pavilion for the 13th Venice Biennale. The Migrating Landscapes Oganizer (MLO) invited, through a national competition, young Canadian architects and designers from a wide range of cultural and educational backgrounds to create scale models of ‘dwellings’ and accompanying videos that draw on cultural memories.
Today, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) honored Swiss architect Peter Zumthor for his significant influence on the advancement of architecture by naming him the recipient of the 2013 Royal Gold Medal.
It all started in Switzerland, in 1979, when Zumthor founded his “small yet powerful and uncompromising practice”. Since, he has built a prestigious, international reputation for creating “highly atmospheric spaces through the mastery of light and choice of materials”. From his small rural chapels to the Thermal Baths at Vals, the Zumthor experience ignites the senses, with “every detail reinforcing the essence of the building and its surroundings.”
RIBA President Angela Brady, stated: “Peter Zumthor’s work renews the link with a tradition of modern architecture that emphasizes place, community and material practice. His writings dwell upon the experience of designing, building and inhabitation while his buildings are engaged in a rich dialogue with architectural history. I will be delighted to present him with the Royal Gold Medal.”
Continue to learn more.
Architects: at103 Location: Tecamachalco, Mexico Architect In Charge: Julio Amezcua, Francisco Pardo Design Team: Tiberio Wallentin, Yareni Rebolledo, Hanni Paz, Aida Hurtado Project Year: 2012 Project Area: 1,170 sqm Photographs: Rafael Gamo
Architects: JSª Location: Mexico City, Mexico Architect In Charge: Javier Sánchez Design Team: Arquitectura 911 sc, Jose Castillo, Saidee Springall Juan Manuel Soler, Juvencio Nuñez, Pablo Zamudio, Edgar González, Gabriela Delgado, Gustavo Rojas, Domingo Granados, Mariana Paz, Jimena Antillón, Edith Razo Project Year: 2012 Photographs: Rafael Gamo , Pedro Hiriat
The results of the 9th Annual Emirates Glass LEAF Awards have been announced, honoring the architects designing the buildings and solutions that are setting the benchmark for the international architectural community.
The winners were selected from an impressive shortlist by an international jury of architects that included Irving Brauer (chairman, principal of Brauer Associates), Phil Holden (managing director of Pascall+Watson architects), Lucy Bullivant (architectural curator, critic, author), Paolo Brescia (partner of Open Building Research), and Kasia Fiutowska (founding partner of Sketch Design).
The 2012 award winners are:
The 2012 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting, which ran from Sunday, September 23 to Tuesday, September 25 in New York, was, on the face of it, one of those positive seminar-type experiences, with croissant breakfasts, plenary sessions, break-out groups, closing remarks, and all that. But there is a difference between a CGI meeting and the usual convention dynamic: At CGI there is a shared mission of achieving real and positive outcomes by leveraging the power of relationships. People and organizations across different sectors are brought together to realize what CGI calls “Commitments to Action”.
One of the best things about CGI is that it helps bring resources to bear on ideas in need of support. Sounds too good to be true and sort of like a love-fest of pie-in-the-sky, fairy dust optimism? It might sound like this at first, but the meeting is made up of people who have dedicated their lives and careers (same thing) to solving real-world problems. If Greenpeace’s slogan is Think Globally, Act Locally, then CGI’s is something like “If you can think it, you can do it.” Bill Clinton says he started CGI to “help turn good intentions into real action and results.” Toward this end, they basically help funnel money into good ideas that can change lives. They do this not by handing out cash, but by networking financing sources like foundations, philanthropists, and corporations with individuals and organizations who need backing to get their projects off the ground.
