Aimed at being a city for kids, the Prinsessegade Kindergarten and Youth Club Winning Proposal by COBE + NORD Architects, in collaboration with PK3 and Grontmij, will be the largest daycare center in all of Denmark. It also presents a big challenge – how to avoid creating a daycare factory when building an institution for so many users. Their design is not just one huge building, but rather a cluster of many small and varied buildings, grouped around two central streets that connect to the surrounding city structure. Like Copenhagen, it has different neighborhoods, different houses, different public spaces, squares and parks. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Our friends from CEBRA just shared the news of their next endeavor for designing a skidome in Randers, Denmark. Serving as more than a series of complex slopes for those to enjoy, the project will become the largest skidome in the world. When viewed in isolation, the massing’s gentle curves and minimalistic exterior treatment read as a subtle strategy to incorporate the slopes; yet, only when seen at the city scale does the project’s 1,000,000+ sqf (including a hotel, restaurant and shops) allow the viewer to understand the project’s potential urban presence.
Panavision, the Uruguay exhibit for the 13th Venice Biennale, features the works of the new generation of Uruguayan architects, using their Pavilions as a common ground, a place rather than an exhibit, where the focuses, approaches, tools, worries, emphasis and strategies of these practices converge. More details from the curators after the break:
Holm Architecture Office (HAO) and AI have been invited to create a proposal for the city of Daqiuzhuang in northern China. Sited in a newly developed part of the city, the new cultural building takes its form from the traditional Chinese courtyard square. By lifting the square in the diagonal corners, dual entry points to the building are created which leads visitors and locals through the building’s ground level public programs to the mid- and upper- level exhibition spaces while extending the existing North- South axis of the surrounding city. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Wiel Arets: Autobiographical References (Birkhaüser, 2012), the new book edited by Robert McCarter and designed by Irma Boom, will be presented at a book launch event November 13th. ‘do you read me?!’, the renowned Berlin bookshop, will host the first presentation and signing of the publication in their ‘Reading Room’ located in Berlin-Tiergarten. The evening will begin at 7:00pm with a discussion on the topic of ‘A Wonderful World’, Arets’ optimistic outlook towards the future our of continuously ‘shrinking’ world, followed by a book signing session with Wiel Arets.
You could argue that architectural education is pretty good the way it is. In fact, it is most likely the best that it has ever been. But it’s not good enough. Just as architects and designers need to deliver more value in the future, the education that supports and gives birth to the future of the profession needs to prove its relevance.
It is the profession’s responsibility to support the evolution of higher education. Human capital is in jeopardy. We have a talent supply problem as we look to the horizon.
There is a changing nature in the work of design. In this context many educators acknowledge that higher education has not kept up with the big changes taking place in the design professions. Who has? Change and uncertainty face all of us. Finger pointing is not going to advance us to a higher place. It is time for architects and educators to adopt a learning, non-blaming approach to change.
Find out the 12 steps that will help provide design students, educators and professionals the best opportunities for success today, after the break...
Hyunjoon Yoo Architects shared with us their proposal for the Green Square Library & Plaza Design in Australia. By locating the building on the west side of the park, this gave them the opportunity to integrate the library and the transport corridor together. The architects believe that a good library is the one that allows people to read books with nature. Therefore, they folded the park on the site to make a terrace garden on each floor of the library. People can read the book facing the garden, and sometimes they can get out and enjoy the fresh air. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Architects: TALLER Mauricio Rocha+Gabriela Carrillo Location: Coyoacán, México Architects: Mauricio Rocha, Gabriela Carrillo, Carlos Facio Project Manager: Carlos Facio Collaborators: Adrian Iturriaga, Israel Espín, Guillermo Peregrina, Alma Caballero, María Suter, Francisco Ortiz, Andrés Velázquez, Antonio Aguilar, Sebastián Ayala, Juan Santillán, Joel Cruz, Pedro Lechuga Project Year: 2012 Photographs: Courtesy of TALLER Mauricio Rocha+Gabriela Carrillo
Only a few weeks after Oscar Niemeyer’s hospitalization, the renowned architect has been admitted, once again for dehydration, to the Samaritan’s Hospital of Rio de Janeiro.
It’s rare to find someone willing to pay for opinions these days, and rarer still to be known for them. Yet, Paul Goldberger has crafted a career by objectively navigating the subjective. As an arbiter of quality in architecture and design for nearly four decades, he spends a few moments with me to reminisce about the “short break” he took from journalism that led to, among many accolades, the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and, more recently, the Scully Prize.
Andrew Caruso: You’re being recognized this year by the National Building Museum with the Vincent Scully prize. Given your relationship with Scully began when you were a student at Yale, this must be a very meaningful award.
Paul Goldberger: Scully was very much a teacher and mentor to me. Actually my first exposure to him was a high school visit to Yale. I observed one of his classes and was blown away. He was one of the reasons I wanted to go to Yale in the first place and I was lucky to work with him through college and as my thesis adviser.
Titled ‘Standing Shelves’, the design concept for the Daegu Gosan Public Library agrees that people are in need of finding places to sit and get relaxed for getting information from books, magazines, articles, etc. Thus, the expanded program for the local community by providing classrooms, an exhibition area, lecture room, semi‐private reading areas, digital data corner, etc. will be another major change in the current library system. TheeAe LTD believes not in a dramatic way, but strongly, the new design of a space that should convey this change in a way to enhance and motivate the public to come and enjoy the use of a library. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Rain Room is an art installation by rAndom presented at the Barbican in London composed of a hundred square metre field of falling water through which it is possible to walk, trusting that a path can be navigated, without being drenched in the process. As you progress through The Curve, the sound of water and a suggestion of moisture fill the air, before you are confronted by this carefully choreographed downpour that responds to your movements and presence. The installation was made possible through the generous support of the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation for Art. The video was done by Gramafilm, with music by Max Richter. More images can be viewed after the break.
Located in the heart of Andenne, near the town square, the project by Frédéric Haesevoets Architecture + Art and Build focuses on the revitalization of the city center, to assure for the future a coherent urbanization. These future blocks will complete the existing urban fabric of the neighborhood which is booming. Carefully integrated, these blocks will fit into the urban fabric without attacking the city, on the contrary, they weave links with the surrounding streets by a sensitive treatment of the spaces. More images and architects’ description after the break.
3LHD Architects shared with us their video for one of their recent projects, Hotel Lone, the first design hotel in Croatia. The hotel’s identity is recognized through the external design of the building, with a facade that is defined by dominant horizontal lines – terrace guards designed to evoke the image of slanted boat decks. The site’s complex terrain with dramatic altitude changes determined the locations of internal facility spaces through a dynamic interweaving of public areas and guest suites at all levels. More information on their project can be viewed here.
The bold, yet seemingly simplistic geometric structures designed by architects Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen of Pezo von Ellrichshausen are turning heads internationally, as the Chilean firm has been announced as the recipient of the fourth annual Spotlight Award. Presented by the Houston-based non-profit Rice Design Alliance (RDA), the international award spotlights “exceptionally gifted” architects during the early phase of their professional careers.
Millennium Partners and Argent Ventures are moving forward with their plan to transform 4.47 acres of vacant parking lots surrounding Hollywood’s iconic, mid-century Capitol Records Building into a transit-oriented, mixed-use development. Located on the famous intersection of Hollywood and Vine, the Millennium Hollywood Project will feature two residential buildings reaching heights up to 585 feet, designed by Handel Architects, that are grounded by a High Line-inspired public space by James Corner Field Operations.
With the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) currently on public review, the New York-based developers are hoping to get city approvals underway in early 2013.
Research plays an integral role in the evolution of architecture. To celebrate it’s importance and acknowledge outstanding research currently happening within the field of architecture throughout the UK, The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the winners of the RIBA President’s Awards for Research.
RIBA President Angela Brady said: “The RIBA President’s Awards for Research highlight and reward the outstanding research in architecture that is taking place across the country. Congratulations to all of this year’s winners, your research is hugely appreciated and highly valued across the profession. Research into architecture provides a lasting legacy to all in the profession and reminds us of the importance of innovation and strategic thinking in our everyday work.”
The RIBA President’s Awards for Research, presented in four categories, were awarded to:
