Articles

MASS Design Group was announced as winner of the Zumtobel Group Award for their innovative and cost-efficient Butaro Hosptial in Rwanda. They triumphed over the 230 projects from 30 different countries that competed in the “Built Environment” award category. Additionally, Atelier d’architecture autogérée (France) was selected as winner of the “Research & Initiative” category for developing a strategy of urban resilience known as the R-URBAN project in Paris.

“Through their decision this year, the jury have underlined the fact that it takes a holistic approach to make truly sustainable improvements in the built environment,” said Zumtobel Group CEO Harald Sommerer, who was also a member of the 8-strong jury. “We are particularly pleased to see that, this year, young and dedicated architectural practices have won the award with approaches to resolving social and ecological issues, both in the industrialized world and in developing countries.”

Continue after the break to learn more.

Today, July 8th, is Philip Johnson‘s Birthday! (1906-2005)

The New York office of Grimshaw and LA based Gruen Associates were officially awarded the Los Angeles Union Station master plan last Thursday. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Board of Directors, chaired by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, approved a nomination that sets in motion a two year master plan creation process to generate a new vision for Union Station, in conjunction with the general revitalization and growth of downtown Los Angeles as the city and metro look to the future. More architects’ description after the break.

The building of the Municipal Library and Archives Grândola by ER Studio aims to be a timeless reference, an icon that represents not only the past and present of the town of Grândola, but also their future ambitions. Their idea of the Monolith reminds us of the past buildings that have withstood the time, a library and an archive are nothing more than a large repository of knowledge that makes the bridge between past and present. More images and architects’ description after the break.

MoederscheimMoonen Architects recently won the competition for a new community center, ‘Het Anker’, in Zwolle, The Netherlands. The new building will include a multi-purpose sports hall for diverse sport activities and educational purposes, a community center, and diverse multifunctional areas. The design for the competition expresses the first ideas and intentions for a sustainable, transparent and green ‘landscaped’ building. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The participants should take into consideration the advances in technology, the exploration of sustainable systems, and the establishment of new urban and architectural methods to solve economic, social, and cultural problems of the contemporary city including the scarcity of natural resources and infrastructure and the exponential increase of inhabitants, pollution, economic division, and unplanned urban sprawl. More information on the competition’s official website.

The 10 winners of the fifth VMZINC® Archizinc Trophy awards program, sponsored by the Umicore Group, were unveiled this month at the Terrass Kardinal in Paris. The bi-annual competition for architects requires that the submitted designs use VMZINC solutions in original projects. VMZINC is the international rolled zinc products brand manufactured and marketed by Umicore Building Products USA, headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. Winners included six projects in the categories “Private Housing,” “Commercial Buildings,” and “Public Buildings”. More information on the winners after the break.

Architects love LEGOs, this is a well-known fact. So what could be better than a real-life bridge made out of the colorful toys themselves?

Unfortunately, of course, the LEGOs are actually an optical illusion designed by street artist Martin Heuwold of MEGX - but that doesn’t make the project look any less awesome. The bridge, painted last fall, is part of an Urban renewal project in the city of Wuppertal meant “to reinvigorate the city and increase residents’ quality of life.” The High Line-style bridge is actually part of a larger 10-mile cycle path being built on what was once the city’s Northern Railway.

More pics of the LEGO Bridge, as well as a LEGO forest & a real-life Monopoly board on the streets of Chicago, after the break…

Story via A/N Blog and Colossal

The design for a new 7,500 sqm Deinze Town Hall & Administrative Center, designed by Tony Fretton Architects, sets the administrative accommodation in a 5-storey reconfigurable loft building and the council chamber as a projecting double height room, with the public entrance foyer below. Commissioned by the City of Deinze following an international competition held in 2009, the building accommodates Deinze’s municipal departments, offices for the mayor and aldermen together with a new council chamber. The project is set to begin construction in early 2013. More images and architects’ description after the break.

World Monuments Fund (WMF) is inviting nominations for the 2012 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize. The prize will be awarded to a design professional or firm in recognition of innovative design solutions that preserved or saved a modern landmark at risk. Established in 2008, the goal is to raise public awareness of the contribution modernism makes to contemporary life and the important and influential role that architects and designers play in preserving modern heritage. Nominated projects should have enhanced a site’s architectural, functional, economic, and environmental sustainability while benefiting the community, and must have been completed in 2007 or after. Nominations must be submitted by July 31, 2012. More information on the competition after the break.

The various feelings of enjoyment or of displeasure rest not so much upon the nature of the external things that arouse them as upon each person’s own disposition to be moved by these to pleasure or pain.

Immanuel Kant, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (1764)

Levitated Mass, Michael Heizer’s new installation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is a complicated piece for being what it is: a rock. It’s a very large rock. A megalith, to be precise.

To me, “megalith” conjures something prehistoric, the specter of dinosaurs and the great extinction event that swept them off the Earth. Flowing lava. Desolate pre-human landscapes. Those opening scenes from Stanley Kubric’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. These are things Mr. Heizer, the darling artist of the architecture world, is master of with his land art.

But, there is something wrong with this rock.

The UK’s largest arts centre, occupying an 21-acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames, has announced the shortlist of architects competing to head the refurbishment and renewal of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery complex. According to a statement released by the Southbank Centre, the project plans to bring the performance spaces and galleries in the complex up to the standard of the recently transformed Royal Festival Hall and will address current urgent problems including poor access to and the upgrading of the stages and galleries; sub-standard back stage areas; and worn out services.

The eight shortlisted practices are:

“Welcome to the Vertical Village” is a new exhibition now open until October 7th at Total Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul Korea. The show is orchestrated by MVRDV and The Why Factory and is on its second run since opening in Taipei. Each city has experience a different design of the exhibit, which allows visitors to walk through a giant model of a possible Vertical Village and experience the spatial richness and three dimensionality. The exhibit explores “a city under rapid transformation” and the alternative to the “block attack” to find the ideal built environment. The show features films, outdoor sculpture and a giant vertical village composed of more than 700 objects.

More on the exhibition after the break.

The architectural scene in Kerala, India is in its volatile best and hence the right time to breed path breaking design concepts in new age residential design. In this directionless period, the ‘residence NEXT’ workshop, put on by Indian Institute of Architects, Thrissur Center and The Architects Club, Thrissur, aims to spawn a few design thoughts that could be the guiding force for the future. Taking place September 27-29 at KT Muhammed Memorial Regional Theatre, students and young architects will be selected from all over the world based on their portfolios. For more information and how to apply, please visit their website here.

After WWII, the East End of Long Island played host to a variety of architectural styles. From modernism, through post-modernism, and deconstructionism, architects experimented with social ideas and aesthetic expressions which culminated in “small” houses scattered about the Island’s natural backdrop. Now, with the advent of the mega-mansion and the desire for “bigger”, it is becoming increasingly difficult to preserve such iconic and progressive architectural projects.

More about the film after the break. 

This post features time lapses of the construction of various venues that will be hosting the 2012 London Olympics. With the opening ceremony Friday, July 27, these construction time lapses give you an inside look to all of the effort put into the games. If you get a chance to watch the games, you will now have a new found appreciation for the amount of work it takes to hold a major event such as this. More videos after the break.