It seems that the billings index has bounced back a bit from its sharp drop in September. A month ago, the ABI measured 46.9 – a score nearly 5 points lower than August – yet, this month, the AIA has reported the October ABI at 49.4 While the score shows a positive leap forward since September, any billings index below 50 still reflects a negative showing. However, the new projects inquiry index seems to be this month’s silver lining as it jumped to 57.3 for October.
Ferley Sergey, who currently works with Zotov & Co, shared with us his design for the revitalization of the industrial areas in the Kyiv city center, a former factory “Radar” and the surrounding areas. Currently, these areas are in terrible condition. The main task is to transform the useless territory in the central part of Kiev into a “cultural cluster” in its scientific, cultural and educational functions and imbued with a single public park. More images and project description after the break.
Jaeger and Partners Architects’ design for the Shenzhen Archive Towers recently received a Design Excellence Award in the AIA Chicago 2011 Design Awards program. This competition scheme was acknowledged in the Unbuilt Design Award category. Shenzhen’s Meiling District resides between City Center and new north railway station, forming an urban center with the Archive site at its heart. Creating an authentic urban space, the design unifies four parcels (city blocks) by removing dividing streets. Circulation is re-organized, thereby harnessed, by introducing a perimeter one-way street system. The enlarged spatial boundary establishes an appropriate scale and symbolic relationship with the City Plaza. More images and project description after the break.
Just recently, the author of architectural videos blog shared with us a video on OMA’s founding partner Rem Koolhaas‘ lecture which he gave at Cornell University on October 20th. His lecture was given on the occasion of opening Milstein Hall, the new extension to the faculty of Architecture, Art and Planning designed by OMA.
Michael Bell presents Visible Weather’s vision for the future of Temple Terrace, Florida, rethinking how the cities edge connects to the larger, adjacent city of Tampa. Visible Weather is one of five interdisciplinary teams participating in “MoMA’s Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream.” Each team is challenged to re-imagine struggling American cities and suburbs, seeing the current economic crisis as an opportunity to evolve.
Deputy Mayor Laura Hay announced last Wednesday that Adept and Luplau & Poulsen was the winning team for the residential complex to be developed at Aarhus Harbour. The Brabrand Housing Association’s new residential complex calls for a deisgn in Aarhus Habour that will break the massive scale of the harbour is as it currently exists. Adept and Luplau & Poulsen’s design - The City in the Building – Housing for All at Harbour North – will provide 238 public dwellings of which 83 are apartments for families and seniors, and 155 student-housing units.
10 Design architects has recently been awarded a 93 ha Masterplan for a CBD in Pingtan, a New Cross-Strait District for China and It’s Trading Partner, Taiwan. Pingtan is planned as a new commercial hub to drive communication and commercial trade between China and Taiwan. Part of the competition included the design of a new Cross Straits Forum including theatre, convention, exhibition and auxiliary commercial and cultural facilities. More images and project description after the break.
The new Indore School design by STL Architects aims to radically rethink both the traditional classroom learning environment as well as the physical arrangement of those spaces. With a prototype designed for mid, mass and premium markets, the Indore School educational experience will never differ, only the materials used to build each school. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Located in the Xiaguan District in Nanjing, China, W2Y2L was required to design a high rise complex which included entertaining, sport, commercial and official parts. Hence the major concern of the design was how to merge this “huge complex” into the existing circumstances and get a brilliantly transitional connection with the landscape there. The distribution of architectural volumes in this design follows the idea of traditional Chinese Gardens, which transforms the elements of water, stones, hills, bridges and flowers into significant urban shapes animating and vitalizing the daily life of the entire district. More images and architects’ description after the break.
How can you condense more than ten thousand years of civilization into a single project that faithfully tells the story of a great nation? The answer is in the winning design of a prestigious architectural competition, to design the new compound for the General Secretariat for the Council of Ministers in Baghdad. Zaha Hadid and more than 30 other international architects participated in this competition, won by the architecture firm CAP.
Controversial artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude – known for making large-scale architectural interventions in urban and rural environments – have finally gotten approval from the Bureau of Land Management to construct their most recent project “Over the River”, which will stretch along 5.9 miles along the Arkansas River in Southern Colorado.
Read on for details of the project and more images!
Open to architects, designers, engineers and students from November 22-27, this workshop put on my LaN (Live Architecture Network), in collaboration with SOLIDO, is intended to suit a range of levels- those with no Rhinoceros modeling or CNC machining experience will gain experience working with between modeled geometries and designing tool-paths for production. Those with previous experience will have hands-on access to taking their understanding further. Sessions are co-instructed by Solido Founder Filippo Moroni & LaN Co-director Monika Wittig.
The SEED Network recently launched the 2nd Annual SEED Awards for excellence in Public Interest Design to showcase and promote projects that help create socially, economically, and environmentally healthy communities. The projects will be judged using “SEED”: Social Economic Environmental Design”® a standard evaluation to measure the positive impact of design projects.
Sixwinners will be announced January 27, 2012. Each winner will receive an all-expense paid trip to present at Structures for Inclusion conference at the University of Austin in Austin, Texas March 24-25, and a $1,000 cash prize. Each winning project will also be included in a documentary series by The UpTake. More competition information after the break.
The detailed master plan for the Jordan Development Zones Company (JDZ) by Sasaki Associates encompasses 40 square kilometers of land along the north and east coast of the historic Dead Sea. Over the past 15 years, the Kingdom of Jordan has focused on a balanced approach towards development and preservation in order to capitalize on increased tourism and to provide improvements to local existing communities. In 2008, a development authority was created to establish a detailed master plan as a sustainable framework for existing committed lands, future development parcels, infrastructure provisions, and natural resources protection. The resulting master plan establishes a comprehensive and site specific approach to the social, economic and environmental sustainability issues facing this stunning setting. More images and project description after the break.
Photo by artinberlin - http://www.flickr.com/photos/artinberlin/. Used under Creative Commons
British architect, David Chipperfield, will curate the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale. Chipperfield will have only eight months to decide on a theme and prepare to curate the world’s largest architecture exhibition. He will become the first British architect to curate the event.
We recently received KieranTimberlake’s newest book, Inquiry. Instead of listing one project after the next, as in most monographs, this book is organized around ten gerunds: bending, coupling, filtering, inserting, offsetting, outlining, overlapping, puncturing, reflecting, and tuning. This is a lovely and informative way to view their work. The reason behind the book’s organized is explained by Karl Wallick in the preface. Wallick writes, “Architecture is not exactly whole: we remember instances, elements, and details, but rarely are the experiences and sensations in architectural experience comprehensive. The context of what we do as architects is also fragmentary, even as it seeks to be resolved comprehensively. Rather than insisting on the totality of complete works, architecture might be better understood as an infinite matrix of detailed moments.”
https://www.archdaily.com/184345/kierantimberlake-inquiryChristopher Henry
BIG + Paris-based architects OFF, engineers Buro Happold, consultants Michel Forgue and environmental engineer Franck Boutte is the winning team to design the new 15.000 m2 research centre for Sorbonne’s Scientific university University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. More images and complete press release after the break.
The computerization and urbanization of the 21st century is creating new lifestyles and forms of public space. Architectural Environments for Tomorrow presents the spatial experiments of 23 architects and artists from around the world responding to the transformation of their surroundings. “The metaphors of the world-views suggested by the artists resonate with the practical proposals of the architects, presenting images of future humanity from a variety of different angles.” Architects featured include Toyo Ito, Frank O. Gehry, Sou Fujimoto and many more.
Continue reading for a complete list of the participants and more information on the exhibit.
Andrew Zago presentsZago Architecture’s transformation of Rialto, California “defaulted” subdivisions, suggesting a new species of urbanism that grows from the existing American suburb. Zago Architecture is one of five interdisciplinary teams participating in “MoMA’s Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream.” Each team is challenged to re-imagine struggling American cities and suburbs, seeing the current economic crisis as an opportunity to evolve.
The first prize winning proposal for the Nursing & Retiree Home, designed by Firma d.o.o., was directly influenced by the characteristics of the immediate surroundings of the plot. Through detailed site analysis, they concluded that the most important aspects of the context are the landscape and the extreme impact of the rural environment. Therefore, the proposed residence for the elderly, apart from fulfilling all functional prerequisites, must be consistent with those surrounding features. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The winning proposal for the new Panama City Hospital, designed by TASH, is based on the design of ecological protections and passive bioclimatic strategies. The project is configured as a city, it is in no way a single building but a complex, keeping the capacity of total intercommunication between different buildings in a way that benefits from the different synergies, general systems, logistics, production systems, waste disposal, etc, avoiding element duplicities and improving the general performance of the complex, thus giving sense to the concept of a hospital city that is at the core of the project. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Visual Workshop shared with us their proposal for the Hotel Liesma competition. The aim of their concept is to make a new landmark of the surrounding neighborhood as a contemporary, sustainable and functional hotel. More images and brief description after the break.
