Articles

The Hong Kong Alternative Car Park Tower, designed by Chris Y. H. Chan + Stephanie M. L. Tan, is an alternative building typology that could fit for a city with very limited land resources. At the same time, they are critiquing the current developments of most metropolitan cities: growing rapidly without vision and preparation for our human future. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Mjölk Architects shared with us their winning entry, titled ‘Polar Hen’, to an international arts and architecture competition in Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Their design consists of a pump with a sprinkler connected to a compressor and a generator creating a very fearsome creature which lays ‘ice eggs’. The Warming Huts v.2012 was an open competition endorsed by the Manitoba Association of Architects. More images and brief architects’ description after the break.

One of the greatest Mediterranean Ports is about to be transformed. Work has begun on the Old Port of Marseille as part of a series of regeneration projects to be completed in time for the city’s inauguration as European Capital of Culture in 2013. Based on French landscape architect Michel Desvigne’s and London-based architects Foster + Partners’ competition-winning master plan, the project will reclaim the quaysides as a civic space, creating new informal venues for performances and events, while traffic is relocating traffic to a safe, semi-pedestrianised public realm.

Lord Foster stated, “I know the harbor at Marseille well and it is a truly grand space. This project is a great opportunity to enhance it using very simple means, to improve it with small, discreet pavilions for events, for markets, for special occasions. Our approach has been to work with the climate, to create shade, but at the same time to respect the space of the harbor – just making it better.”

Beijing-born architect Ma Yansong has become an important, emerging voice to a new generation of architects. Shortly after establishing MAD architects in 2004, his practice earned worldwide attention (2006) by winning an international competition to design a residential tower near Toronto, expected to be completed in the summer of 2012. In this interview with Studio Banana TV, Yansong discusses a few of his latest works, including MAD’s first museum completed last year in Ordos, Inner Mongolia. Continue reading for more information.

“this open, ‘collaborative’ environment, where worker drones so nicely sit in poise out in the open while click-clacking on their computers, creates an atmosphere where people become desensitized to being on display. Sitting and thinking is actually frowned upon as being a waste of productivity. Why are you just sitting there? Why are you not talking, or typing, or writing, or drawing, or multitasking?”

– Mark Genest, comment on “In Defense of Introverts” [1]

Consider the contemporary office. White floors, minimalist style, no pesky walls getting in the way – just pure, unadulterated openness.

From our assembly-line past has emerged an increasingly consumer-oriented world, in which collaboration and gregariousness are valuable commodities. As a result, offices that resemble art galleries – with the employees on display – have become the norm, and while this sociable environment is energizing for the extrovert, for the introvert, it’s crippling.

In my last article, “In Defense of Introverts,” I posited that learning modalities, which better incorporate our introverted brethren, could revolutionize classroom design. In this one, I expand the concept to that of working modalities: an answer for office design that would engender an office culture sensitive to introverted rhythms and – at last – expand the way we conceive of creativity and innovation as a purely extroverted enterprise.

Considered one of Paul Rudolph’s greatest achievements, the 1970’s Orange County Government Center is an icon of the late modernist era. Poor maintenance has lead to deterioration and in September a large flood caused extensive damage to the structure, forcing county officials to close the center. Since then, the county government has been calling for the building to be demolished. Last week, Orange County Executive Ed Diana proposed to replace the cultural icon with a $75 million, 175,000 square-foot mediocre building, offering only 22,000 square-feet of space more than the existing building. With renovation estimates around $67.2 million, or $40.9 million for a “less extensive upgrade”, the architectural and preservationist communities are outraged. Continue reading for more.

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They say great architecture has meaning. That buildings, when well designed, can speak to us. But, what are they trying to say? What if we could really hear them?

Jody from Coffee with an Architect translates some of the buildings thoughts after the break.

Last night, ArchDaily joined the community of Chelsea and Friends of the High Line in the crowded auditorium of PS 11: The William T Harris School eager to see James Corner and Rick Scofidio’s latest ideas for the third installment of the High Line. This last segment of the amazing elevated park project is the designers’ most crucial intervention as it culminates the strategies introduced in Phases 1 and 2 and must adaptively respond to new contextual relationships between 34th and 30th Streets. Corner and Scofidio’s eloquent and coherent presentation very much responded to the community’s input from the last public meeting held in December, as the design addressed the need for a child’s play area with an idea for a section with rubberized beams, a place for spontaneous and planned performances, and more seating. Scofidio kidded, “There are some things we could do better, and that’s exactly why we get to do the third phase.”

More about Phase 3 after the break.

Gathering was a pavilion designed by Gathering (Ginna Nguyen, So Sugita, Dale Suttle) selected out of more than 600 international entries to be built in a “visionary village” in Union Square Park in September 2010. The distinguished jury included Thom Mayne, Paul Goldberger and Geoff Manaugh, among others. Gathering was then purchased by the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue and exhibited in Washington, D.C. through October 2010. Sukkah City New York was a competition that sought to re-imagine the sukkah, a temporary shelter erected each year to remember the biblical exodus from Egypt. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Located in close proximity to the regional Hospital in Næstved, Denmark, the new Oasis Cancer Care Center, designed by WE Architecture, will help anyone affected by cancer through professional help in exceptional buildings specifically designed for this. In order to create a building inspired by the model of healing architecture, the Cancer Care Center was designed as an introvert building, opening up towards two inner courtyards. More images and architects’ description after the break.

If you are an Apple fanatic and architecture lover you should pick up this book. CLOG publication is filling a niche that has been created by the hyperspeed of digital media. “In the deluge, excellent projects receive the same fleeting attention as mediocre ones.” CLOG slows things down by exploring a single subject from multiple viewpoints, and “on paper, away from the distractions and imperatives of the screen.” This book offers an in-depth look at the development of Apple’s brand of architecture. Mixed into the in-depth look is an amusing four page collection of one sentence quotes from architects and critics about the new Apple Headquarters. Here are a couple: Eric Owen Moss says, “Internal courtyard could be magic, a new world for adventurous kids only, like going out the back of the CS Lewis/Narnia closet.” Mark Goulthorpe asks, “Sphincter?” Jacob van Rijs says, “I love the garden miss the bite…” and J. Mayer H. laments, “So disappointing…”

Commissioned by the Housing and Development Board as an exploration of the future of affordable public housing, WOHA‘s public housing design for Skyville @ Dawson consists of 960 homes in Singapore. As a response to the enthusiasm received by the public, their project is currently under construction and is estimated to be completed February 2015. The design focuses on 3 themes – community, variety and sustainability. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Grimshaw Architects, in association with local project partners Konrath & Wennemar and FSWLA were recently selected to deliver their visionary masterplan strategy for the city center area of Mönchengladbach, Germany. Through close collaborative working with the citizens of Mönchengladbach, the aim is to produce a strategy to optimise the quality of life, improve the economy and the appearance of the inner-city areas. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Last May, Portugal became the third country within the 17-country eurozone in need of a financial rescue to avoid bankruptcy, following Greece and Ireland. Unemployment within the country has climbed up to 14.8 percent as the recession has brought harsh conditions to architects and architecture students alike. Now, the prestigious Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Lisbon (UTL), one that has fostered many great architects such as João Luis Carrilho da Graça and Manuel Aires Mateus, may be forced to close its doors.

Continue reading for more details.

Reena Jana of SmartPlanet recently interviewed the award-winning, Japanese architect Hitoshi Abe on the lessons he has learned from the March 11, 2011 earthquake that destroyed his hometown in Sendai, Japan. Abe believes that the memory of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that hit the coast of northeaster Japan, triggering a tsunami that sent waves as far as six miles inland must remain fresh in our minds. His goal is to educate everyday citizens around the globe, as well as future generations, on how to better cope with large-scale natural disasters. Currently, he is serving as a guest-curator for a travel exhibition entitled Moving Forward: Life After the Great East Japan Earthquake. This exhibit brings to life the haunting reality of the devastation through a series of large-scale photographs and photographic essays that reveal individual stories of survival immediately following the disaster. The exhibit commemorates the victims and struggles of the survivors, while highlighting the reconstruction and recovery efforts.

Continue reading for more.

Troldtekt, the well-known Danish manufacturer of wood wool acoustic ceiling and wall tiles, is inviting students of architecture and design to submit creative and original concepts for new uses of the wood wool product. Proposals do not have to be just about acoustics but rather innovative and unusual ideas.