Ground will be broken today, Tuesday, May 15, 2012, for Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM)’s newest supertall building. The 96-story-tall CTF Tianjin Tower uses undulating curves to subtly express its three programmatic elements while presenting a bold monolithic expression on the TEDA district skyline outside Tianjin, China. The 1,740-feet (530-meter) tall tower houses offices, 300 service apartments and a 350-room, 5-star hotel beneath its boldly arched top. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN), with Crosby Schlessinger Smallridge (CSS) of Boston, were recently announced as the recipients of the biennial Tucker Design Award for 2012 for their North End Parks in Boston, MA. First presented in 1977, the award is a nationally recognized architectural design award in both the building and landscape industries and honors those whose work demonstrates excellence in concept, design, construction and use of natural stone. More information on the awards after the break.

Today, Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) broke ground on yet another supertall building in China. The 96-story-tall CTF Tianjin Tower is subtly defined by undulating curves that shape its three programmatic elements while presenting a bold monolithic presence on the TEDA district skyline outside Tianjin. The 1,740-feet (530-meter) tall tower houses offices, 300 service apartments and a 350-room, 5-star hotel beneath its boldly arched top.

According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), the CTF Tianjin Tower will be the fourteenth tallest skyscraper built by 2020. Continue reading for more.

Australian architect Andrew Maynard, co-director of Andrew Maynard Architects, has shared with us his article “Work/life/work balance”, published first on Parlour. “Many women leave the profession due to the difficult combination of poor work cultures, long hours and low pay. But these conditions affect everyone – women and men – as well as the viability of the profession as a whole. Andrew Maynard sets out the issues and challenges the profession to end exploitative and exclusionary working practices.”

It is time for architectural work practices to grow up. We must stop deluding ourselves that architectural employees are anything other than a contemporary exploited labor force.

Epicurus argued that humans needed only three things in life to be happy – friends, freedom and an analyzed life. All evidence indicates that Epicurus had a rather good time while he was around. Now he is dead. I wonder if Epicurus became a senior associate at Philosopher & Associates Pty Ltd before he died? Surely this was a priority. Does contemporary architectural employment deny us our happiness; our friends, freedom and the opportunity for an analyzed life? Many would argue that being employed in architecture and the pursuit of happiness are irreconcilable. It can reasonably be argued that most architects, and almost all recent graduates, are working in conditions that are unhealthy, unsustainable and exploitative.

Continue reading after the break.

With the forthcoming release of Rhino 5.0, RhinoScript will be moving to a new syntax: Python.  The new, more intuitive interface for manipulating Rhino from the inside gives us the opportunity to quickly and easily create a wide variety of complex systems based on simple rules that are easily implemented with no prior programming experience.

We introduce RhinoScript for absolute beginners, including the basics of programming techniques (variables, flow control, etc.) as well as the working knowledge of how Rhino represents geometrical objects such as points, curves, surfaces and even text. We then move quickly into techniques for automation and generative design which address the specific ways in which each participant can use Rhino.Python.

Taking place today, May 15th from 6:30-8:00pm is the last event hosted as part of the Vertical Urban Factory: East Asia exhibition at New York University. The exhibition focuses on the impact of global economies on the physical space of industries and aims to stimulate ideas for reintegrating the vertical factory and places of production into the urban fabric both programmatically and economically. This last event features a conversation with LA-based German architect Sebastian Knorr, whose innovative work is featured as part of the exhibition. Some of the works featued on ArchDaily include Inotera Headquarters & Production Facility and Casa Son Vida. With an enviable portfolio of projects in Taiwan, Singapore, and China, Knorr has been building vertical in Asia for the last two decades.

According to Spillman Farmer Architects‘ blog “Speaking of Architecture“, Lynette Jackson aka Flickr user Page67_Lynette Jackson uses her iphone to document, design and publish images of the built environment around her through Instagram. Taking a series of images that zoom deeper and deeper into the nuances of architectural form and space, Jackson’s use of pop-art imagery and graphic tools bring out details that otherwise go unnoticed and creates a narrative about each individual work of architecture that she documents.

Follow us after the break for a selection of images from her work.

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This next Wednesday 16th, the book “Resilience”, number 32 from the Pamphlet Architecture series will be launch at the Architectural Association Bookshop.

The competition for Pamphlet Architecture 32 centred on the theme of resilience. By addressing the capacity to cope, the ability to bounce back, and the mitigation and management of risk, participants were asked to showcase a fresh understanding of the architectural opportunities found in resilience. James A Craig and Matt Ozga-Lawn’s winning entry successfully takes on the topic through an investigation of the ravaged city of Warsaw. By identifying, interrogating and ultimately reinforcing both the physical and immaterial conditions of the landscape, the project allows the space to become something new and yet hold on to what it is, truly exhibiting resilience.

Following with the films we will recommend every week, this time we want to introduce “Blade Runner”. Another classic from the ’80 that shows a future Los Angeles with an atmosphere that intents to shape the urban space within which we will move in the current century. The soundtrack, composed by Vangelis deserves to be mentioned as it plays a fundamental role in the comprehension of this futuristic American city.

More info after the break.

Concept Stadium by DCA (Design Crew for Architecture) is an exercise of reflection willing to propose an unconstrained answer, free from whether economic or programmatic concerns, in order to provide a prospective vision of what could be, in their opinion, the ideal rugby stadium. Today, stadiums are iconic shapes answering to the representation stake, as they are bearing the image of a club, a city, a region. But paradoxically, these formal thoughts are concerning the shell and therefore establish the singular stadium status as autonomous object, disconnected from its environment. Their designs aims to become a useful object with urban concerns. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The overall campus planning strategy for the Baidu Science and Technology Campyus by ZNA Architects consists of the ecological park and circular main street. By consolidating the green space, they try to achieve the maximized building boundary, to benefit from the surrounding park view while creating a grand gesture for the park. Additionally, to create a highly efficient and flexible office space, they designed a unique but diverse circular main street, to connect different work spaces, such as study, meeting, leisure, recreation and F&B area to form a community center. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Superbow Project, designed by Supermachine Studio, is a proposal for a sustainable city of its own. Using Nakornsawan, Thailand as a location to implement their vision of a giant hydraulic tool in the network, they place a new ‘Water’ city in between the two rivers to slowly generate a new way of living for Nakornsawan’s people. The city, located by 2 rivers Ping and Nan, is usually flooded every year, but in 2011 the water broke the protecting levee into the city’s center. The whole town of Nakornsawan sank into one meter plus deep water. Therefore, this project aims to build a massive hydraulic tool that is habitable as an extension of the city or as a new city itself that all of people in the old city can move into. More images and architects’ description after the break.

XTEN Architecture is planning a new, 65,000-square-foot hotel in downtown Los Angeles, California. The monolithic concrete structure will be carved by a system of slots and slices that bring light, air and views deep into the building. Equipped with a performance-based lobby, two subterranean bars, restaurant and a rooftop terrace featuring an infinity edge pool, this mid-rise hotel will surely attract some attention.

Continue after the break to learn more!

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Dominique Perrault has been selected to build a tower within the future Yongsan International Business Center in Seoul, whose master plan was designed by Daniel Libeskind. The tower, called The Blade, will reach 300 meters high. More images and architect’s description after the break.

For 25 years, George Lucas has had a problem. He’s been the Darth Vader of an evil developing empire.

Or so say his wealthy California neighbors. Since 1978, when he set up his corporate headquarters, Skywalker Ranch, on his property in Lucas Valley, Lucas has been attempting to get plans approved for a 300,000 square foot movie studio (which, while massive, would preserve 95% of the acreage and include plans to restore the topography). He’s been blocked by his anti-business, NIMBY neighbors every step of the way.

But far more interesting than Lucas’ defeat, is his plan for revenge.

Read More on how George Lucas is striking back on his NIMBY neighbors, after the break…

The workshop Filmare l’architettura, just concluded in Florence. It took place in the home-studio by Leonardo Savioli and was aimed at educating videomakers in documenting the architectural space. The results of this experience, promoted by the Region of Tuscany, produced by Festival dei Popoli and led by Filippo Macelloni, will be presented to the public on May 15 at the Faculty of Architecture in Florence.

Last month we shared with you Jimenez Lai’s vision to transform the Architecture Foundation’s Project Space in London with a cartoonish architectural installation of Super Furniture inspired by the exhibitionism of Hugh Hefner with the live-art of Joseph Beuys. As his first solo exhibition outside of North America, the Chicago-based architect plans to inhabit the Hefner/Beuys House for a few weeks, acting as a 1:1 comic book that people can literally become a part of. You may remember his past projects of the Super-Furniture Series, including the Briefcase House, which he has continued to live in for the past three years, and White Elephant (Privately Soft).

LEGO has unveiled their latest model in the Architecture Landmark series: the Gate of Exalted Ceremonies in Seoul, better known as the Sungnyemun.

Sungnyemun is the series first Asian landmark and one of the most complete examples of Joseon Dynasty architecture. Standing in the heart of Seoul since 1398, Sungnyemun was once one of three major gateways through Seoul’s historic city walls. It is listed first among the National Treasure of South Korea.

Sungnyemun is the fifteenth model in the LEGO® Architecture series, which uses the LEGO brick to interpret the designs of iconic architecture around the world.

Studio Mode / modeLab is putting on the Scripted Design Workshop June 9-10, which will introduce participants to the fundamental concepts for designing with programs in Python for Rhinoceros. As the next installment in the coLab Series, they are welcoming Skylar Tibbits | SJET to modeLab as the lead instructor for this workshop. In a fast-paced and hands-on learning environment, participants will be introduced to concepts such as syntax, data types, and variables as well as the creation and manipulation of computational geometry through the Rhinoscript/RhinoCommon libraries. Workshop curriculum will additionally cover techniques for storing and retrieving multi-dimensional data, as well as controlling the flow of scripts via functions, conditional statements, iteration, and recursion. For more information, please visit here.

With over a million visitors annually, Stockholmsmässan in Älvsjö is one of the world’s leading organisers of exhibitions, conferences and public fairs. The new entrance, designed by Rosenbergs Arkitekter, starts construction this month and is expected to be completed by fall 2013. Their design features a high, smooth cantilevered roof floating on tall glass sections and is marked by a prominent new building. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Greek firm, KLab Architecture, has designed a series of suites for Mykonos, one of the most popular summertime destinations (the island’s population rises from 10,000 to 50,000 seasonally). As is typical of KLab’s work (check out their Urban Cubes project previously featured), their hotel project looks to the vernacular language of island’s vocabulary and capitalizes on the environment’s relationship between the landscape and the sea, to formulate a modern interpretation of the cycladic architecture that has evolved over centuries.

More about the hotel room design after the break. 

In honor of One World Trade Center becoming the tallest building in New York, EarthCam has released an exciting time-lapse movie showcasing the construction progress from 2004-2012. In just a couple minutes, you can witness years of construction. Not only is the process a moving one on an emotional level, but also sheds hope on a site that holds such strong meaning in the U.S. for a time in history that will never be forgotten.