The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Board of Directors has awarded Steven Holl, FAIA with the annual AIA Gold Medal. The Gold Medal represents the highest award an architect may receive, honoring their “humanist approach to formal experimentation.” The world renowned architect and Columbia University professor continues to inspire and influence the practice and theory of architecture.

A new not-for-profit art and architecture organization called ASAP (Archive of Spatial Aesthetics and Praxis), founded by former MoMA Curator Tina di Carlo, launches Monday, December 12 at the top of The Standard, New York with Bjarke Ingels, Alex Schweder La and Jerszy Seymour. More information on the event after the break.

The proposal for the new Sculpture Museum of Leganés by MACA is the result of setting a few specific objectives to accomplish. Their main objectives include the importance of providing appropriate exhibition spaces, adapting the new building to the urban surroundings and gardens nearby, and demonstrating flexibility while creating an iconic design for visitors. More images and architects’ description after the break.

On a site almost without context because of its vast scale and open development plans, the Istanbul Disaster Prevention and Education Centre (DPEC), designed by Superunion Architects, represents a new beginning for the Expo area adjacent to the Atatürk International Airport. Today, the area is a typical example of a generic, market driven development without a common goal. It consists of tall isolated buildings trying to express their individuality rather than performing as a coherent whole. Situated in a void between city and airport, where public space is nonexistent, isolated buildings are surrounded by their own private sea of parking. The new Istanbul DPEC reverses current planning standards, making the ground surface completely public by elevating the building and letting the park flow freely below. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Woodbury School of Architecture and the Woodbury Hollywood Gallery (WUHO) are pleased to announce the opening of The Infrastructural Monument by Anna Neimark. The opening is on Thursday, December 8, 7 p.m. and runs until December 18th. Anna Neimark’s installation, constructed out of fifty-four three-foot cubes of EPS white foam, re-imagines a piece of infrastructure as a monument of a complex history when a canal from Moscow to St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) was built during the second Five Year Plan, under Josef Stalin. More information on the installation after the break.

Let’s face it, finding that perfect gift for an architect can be a difficult task. We are a unique breed with particular taste. This is why ArchDaily has put together a series of three holiday gift guides for architects. We have included the gifts we use, love, and hope to find under our Christmas tree. What’s on your holiday wish list this year?

Continue reading for product details. 

Istanbul Technical University Faculty Of Architecture Connected Tower, 24-30 March 2012

The second edition of AA Istanbul Visiting School 2012, “Connected Tower”, in collaboration with Istanbul Technical University (ITU), will act as a continuation and augmentation of its first version, “Crafted Tower”. The school will amplify the concept of verticality in a city which is continuously being populated by towers, altering its skyline and urban fabric.

“Connected Tower” will tackle the challenge of radically decomposing the tower in order to liberate it from its current fixed typology dominated by the repetition and segmentation. Istanbul presents itself as a crucial model in this challenge, due to the increasing high-rise construction during recent years in specific parts of the city. Therefore, taking the existing architectural characteristics of the high-rise buildings and their urban implications in Istanbul, “Connected Tower” aims to set the tower free from its existing binary axioms – building and city, circulation and habitation, structure and skin.  The tower here becomes an extreme testing ground where it can evolve from being a solitary type to a novel vertical system described with the qualities of adaptation, integration, and fluidity. The design process highlights learning from the integrated nature of biological systems in order to infuse vertical systems with adaptive, multi-functional qualities. The generation of differentiated verticality is carried out by algorithmic design processes in various computation platforms. The creations in the digital world are tested and realized with digital fabrication processes involving various CNC methods, leading to the production of physical prototypes of various scales. In relation with the agenda, a series of lectures by leading academics and professionals will be organized as part of the public events of the School.

In the Spring of 2011, the Design|Build studio at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) began researching the various influences impacting the design and construction of transitional shelters used in disaster relief. The research included a review of conditions in Haiti, where a portion of the class travelled to Port-Au-Prince over their Spring Break to check out some of the shelter types being constructed in response to the earthquake that devastated the area back in January of 2010.

Several case studies were investigated, including the Haiti Earthquake. The research was comprehensive. However, the impact of this survey on the outcome of transitional shelter was debatable – there were no “universal solutions”, and there was no panacea that could solve every scenario.

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This post is sponsored by Chevrolet – It’s more car than electric.

Note: The 2012 Chevy Volt has an EPA-estimated 94 MPGe ; 35 city, 40 MPG highway . Actual range varies with conditions.

The Chevy Volt* is unique among electric cars because it runs on two sources of energy. You have an electric source – a battery – that allows you to drive gas-free for an EPA–estimated 35 miles. And there’s also an onboard gas generator that produces electricity so you can go farther. So if you want to drive using only electricity, you can. If you want to drive using electricity and gas, you can do that, too. Hear what one proud Volt owner had to say about how the electric car has reinvented his driving experience.

Rem Koolhaas and Ellen van Loon discuss their design of the Rothschild Bank headquarters in London. Viewing the bank as a “dynamic system”, the main task was to create an “always efficient and always pleasant” machine that will accommodate all of the Bank’s London staff and reunite its connections with the city, including the St. Stephen’s Walbrook. OMA’s design for the New Court is the fourth iteration of NM Rothschild & Sons’ headquarters, all of which have been built on the dense and narrow medieval alley of St. Swithin’s Lane.

The Centre for Central European Architecture is organizing an international project focused on the situation of contemporary Central European suburbia. They have just launched an open call which invites architects, artists and other individuals to send their proposals of interventions. During the next year in 2012, 30 interventions will be realized in 6 different Central European municipalities. In each locality, five acupunctures will be realized. By acupuncture treatment, actions will have a long term impact created with minimal means. Actions may be physical or immaterial, temporary or permanent and should be addressed to local residents. All required materials must be submitted no later than January 31st. For more information, visit their official website here.

The musical theme is present in the project proposal by ARQX Arquitectos, therefore in a very metaphorical way, avoiding a mimetic decoration or spatial-appropriation to music reported items. They try not to just show musical objects, but to compose as a musician, to flow in nature and in space, contemplating and feeling. This idea of contemplation is seen in the rhythm of the volumes, as well as the allowance to go to the exterior, to feel weather contingency, to hear the sound of the sea and of the the wind in the trees constitutes the basic experience they feel a guest should have while staying at Liesma. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Starting today, you can now watch Urbanized online while it’s still in theaters! If you’ve got iTunes and you’re in the US or Canada, you can watch it via iTunes as a premium rental. If you’re not in those countries, you can rent it directly from Urbanized website via Distrify. You can also embed the film in your website or blog and share it with folks you know.

The AIA Chicago chapter has awarded the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) the 2011 Firm of the Year Award for 75 years of global design excellence. The chapter recognized the outstanding achievements and excellence in the firm’s body of work and their contribution to the advancement of the architectural profession in areas of design, research, planning, technology and architectural practice. This is the highest AIA award a firm can receive.

The University of Melbourne together with partners including the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development have just announced CMA+U and Team winners of the Sustainability Award ʻFuture Proofing Schools Competitionʼ Australia. The competition explores design ideas for next generation relocatable 21st century learning spaces as part of Australia’s research program for Building the Education Revolution. More images and information on the awarded project after the break.

Imagine meeting with a client and writing down only their limitations and dislikes. Now, return to your office and base your design on that criterion alone. How can any architect create an inspiring and meaningful design out of that? Yet, this is how many architects design for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The focus is on what individuals with autism cannot do rather than what they can. Such a negative approach seems misguided and unnecessary. Architects should make people more able not less disabled. It is a subtle distinction, but an important one.

For the first time in history, the TED Prize winner is not an individual, but an idea that greatly impacts the future of planet Earth… and the winner is The City 2.0. The City 2.0 is the city of the future, a future in which more than ten billion people are dependent on. The idea is not a “sterile utopian dream” but rather a “real-world upgrade tapping into humanity’s collective wisdom.” More urban living space will be constructed over the next 90 years than all prior centuries combined, so it is time to get it right.

Continue reading for more information on The City 2.0 and details on how you can participate.

On the first of December, President Obama announced his appointment of Philip G. Freelon, FAIA to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. The Commission is composed of seven fine art experts and is obligated to give “expert advice to the President, Congress and the heads of departments and agencies of the Federal and District of Columbia governments on matters of design and aesthetics, as they affect the Federal interest and preserve the dignity of the nation’s capital.” The Commission is also responsible to advise the U.S. Mint on the design of coins and medals, and approves the location and design of national memorials, both within the U.S. and around the World.

Australian based practice Lacoste+Stevenson and DJRD have been shortlisted for the new Marrickville library competition. Their entry is blending building and landscape and strongly refers to australian scenery. More images and architect’s description after the break.

‘Inhabiting the sky’, a project proposal for the Istanbul Disaster and Prevention Center by LEON11, aims both, to provoke a radical impression over the visitants and to take care of nature. In doing so, their design creates an awareness about sustainability through the understanding that nature is not something that we have to fear, but just to respect and love. To get the main point across of understanding nature by being surrounded by it, they are reaching out to show visitors. Once they get in the center, visitors get the feeling of being surrounded by clouds. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The City of Sebastopol, California, together with the Redwood Empire Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and a group of local business sponsors, is hosting an international design competition to generate innovative ideas for renewing the city center. The overarching intent is to explore how the physical presence of the city can become a more economically thriving and aesthetically vibrant place reflective of the natural beauty of the region, and the character of the community. Submissions, which are due February 3rd, will explore the ways a small, northern California city can transition from its agricultural past to a lively and sustainable future. For more information, please visit the competition website here.

The Masters of International Cooperation Sustainable Emergency Architecture at the ESARQ-UIC in Barcelona is excited to present this year’s open conference on December 12th titled, Rebuilding Japan: Lessons in architectural response, featuring talks and a roundtable discussion with Japanese architects involved in the reconstruction of Japan during its recent history of devastating earthquakes. How can architects respond in the aftermath of a natural disaster? What lessons can be learned from the last three major earthquakes in Japan? How does the context of a natural disaster affect the role of the architect and the reconstruction process? More information on the conference after the break.

Along with ArtefactoryLab, OLGGA Architects put together this creative video presentation for a social housing competition in Caen, France. The mixed-use building includes 100 affordable housing units, ground floor retail units and community spaces. The residential units gradually stack up to six stories, maximizing the potential of the site while remaining sensitive to the surrounding context. Stepped terraces provide private outdoor spaces for each dwelling unit while simultaneously allowing for optimal daylighting and natural ventilation.

Continue reading for more information and images. 

London-based architect David Adjaye was selected for the 2011 Designer of the Year Award by Design Miami – a global forum for design that highlights influential collectors, gallerists, designers, curators and critics from around the world, presenting annual fairs in Miami, USA and Basel, Switzerland. Design Miami praised Adjaye for his “ingenious use of materials and unique ability to showcase light coupled with his democratized approach to the architectural process.”

Continue reading for more information.

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