On October 18th, starting at 7pm, Storefront for Art and Architecture presents Kissing vs Komplex, a Productive Disagreement Series Event with Sylvia Lavin and Hal Foster on conversation about contemporary relations between art and architecture, and the forces that bring them together.

Check out this interview we spotted over on DutchDesign - a research program from the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. This interview with Jan Gehl, a Danish architect and urban consultant for Copenhagen, is part of the program’s research to understand how cities function on a larger scale. Within just the first few minutes of the interview – when Gehl explains the importance of the “people scale” of the city and studying human behavior – we were interested and wanted hear more of his thoughts on planning. Further into the interview, Gehl notes that a successful piece of architecture is not merely creating a form, but rather a project that encourages some kind of interaction with the form. As Gehl explains, “ Form is center of attention, and life has been almost forgotten, and the interaction is something we don’t talk about much….” This interview touches upon large issues of planning such as redefining the streetscape to widen the sidewalks for pedestrian and cyclists access, and the notion of “parachuting the little scale into the big scale” to infuse small structures in bigger spaces to make them more relatable…all within the underlying concept of making the city for the people.

’1K house’ was a design studio in the Department of Architecture, MIT in 2009 co-taught by Professor Yung Ho Chang, Chairman of Department of Architecture, MIT, Professor Tony Ciochetti, Chairman of Center for Real Estate, MIT, and Professor Dennis Shelden, Department of Architecture, MIT. It is a project designed for the rural poor in the earthquake area, Sichuan, China who lost their home during the seismic disaster in 2008. The Pinwheel house is the selected project to be built in China and it became the first built project, by architect, Ying chee Chui, an MArch’11 student at MIT, in summer 2010.

As MIT’s first low cost housing prototype, this project set the stage for the importance of low-cost developments for locations around the globe that have had natural disasters that are beyond society’s control. By reaching out, architects everywhere can take advantage of opportunities such as theses to help a society recover and rebuild. More information on the project after the break.

Architecture, in its most idealistic sense, is always geared towards the construction of the public good. Thus, the notion of architecture pro bono appears as a redundant affirmation. However, the real meaning lying behind the beautiful latinism of pro bono, is the contemporary capitalist counterpart and less exotic “for free” and more precisely, for free for those who are unable to afford it.

Highlight Gallery recently announced that they will be featuring two artists whose bodies of work are influenced by architecture, Filip Dujardin and Renato Nicolodi. Their work, which will be up from November 3rd to December 12th, reflects the passion and interest which Highlight Gallery founder and curator Amir Mortazavi cultivates for architecture. With these two artists, the answer to the eternal question, ‘Is architecture art?’ is easy to find. More information on the event and their work after the break.

Now he is sitting in his hotel room in Beijing and the world seems far away. He flew coach and there is a pain in his neck that won’t go away. The room is small and smells a little mildewy despite being new and relatively upscale. The window is not operable. The air-conditioner purrs. The TV is on constantly. He leaves it on. The bed is the desk. Laptop and papers spread out. He doesn’t move them when he sleeps. He hasn’t changed his clothes. He has one small bag.

Every few hours he takes the elevator down, walks past the lobby fountains, the bar, the tired tourists in their shorts and caps, fanning themselves, young women standing around, pouting, waiting, looking bored, men in dark suits on cell phones. Lots of black leather shoes with metal buckles.

Today Lord Norman Foster issued a tribute to Steve Jobs (1955-2011), who passed away yesterday at the age of 56. Foster + Partners is working on the new Apple Campus in Cupertino, scheduled to be completed in 2015.

Today marks the Swiss-born French architect Le Corbusier’s birthday. Noted as one of the pioneers of modern architecture, Le Corbusier’s architecture career spanned some five decades. Born in 1887, which would make him 124 today, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret adopted the pseudonym Le Corbusier in the 1920s. Known for both his architecture and furniture design you can visit the Galerie Anton Meier where some of Le Corbusier & Pierre Jeanneret furniture is currently on a special exhibit. More of ArchDaily’s coverage on Le Corbusier, books, buildings, and articles can be found here.

A few months ago I had the chance to meet Steven Holl, whose work I admire. I think that he has been able to innovate and challenge programs as we used to know them, and experiment with materials and structures, while sticking to what really matters in architecture: space, context and light.

We introduced BOFFO’s fashion + architecture collaborative project, and began the week with the first installment by Nicola Formichetti + Gage/Clemenceau Architects. As each pair of fashion designer and architect shows their project for two short weeks, the second team of Irene Neuwrith and Marc Fornes is now in place. Neuwirth, a leading US jewelry designer, has transformed the 1800 sqf space at 57 Walker Street into a crazy biomorphic playground to display her designs with the hep of Marc Fornes, one of the leading figures in the development of computational protocols applied to the field of design and fabrication.

More about the temporary gallery after the break. 

A few hours ago one of the most influential figures in computing, product design, and in a way architecture, passed away.

Back in the 70s and 80s Steve Jobs played a key role in personal computing as the founder of Apple, bringing technology to the masses. I won’t go into details here, as I think that this ad featured on the Wall Street Journal back in 1981 pretty much explains it: “Putting real computer power in the hands of the individual is already improving the way people work, think, learn and communicate and spend their leisure hours”. I knew about his death via a notification on my iPhone, and I’m writing this on my iPad. None of these devices are what we define as “computers”, none of them are wired to what we call a “local network”.

As for product design, the “i” factor is pretty well known, and has been recognized by design masters such as Dieter Rams. In this field, his legacy will last forever.

“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service. When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.” — Steve Jobs

But back to our field, Steve Jobs was a patron of architecture. Jobs worked with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, one of the most renowned US architecture firms, to develop state of the art retail stores across the world. In these iconic projects they took glass, one of the most essential materials in architecture, to the next level.

HAO (Holm Architecture Office), along with five other New York design offices, have been invited to participate in the re-design of the Coleman Oval Skate Park and the master planning of the Coleman Oval Park. The competition is sponsored by Architecture for Humanity.

The Coleman Oval Park, situated partly under the Manhattan Bridge, has long suffered from lack of exposure, little upkeep, and the “off the beaten path” factor. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Serie Architects has been awarded first prize by the competition Technical Committee for the Wuxi Xishan Civic Centre in China. Serie saw off strong competition from a high-powered international shortlist which included NihonSekkei, GMP Architekten, AS Architecture-Studio, and Arte Charpentier.

The scheme is oriented around a large public plaza which is intended to form the centre of public life and expression within the Civic Centre. This unadorned open space hosts public gatherings and events, government displays and temporary exhibitions. The importance of symmetry within the composition of the plan is expressed in the strong axial relationship to the main entrance. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Taiwan Tower, designed by STL Architects, will act as a monumental building that will frame the new center and provide the entire city with a renewed and iconic identity, such as Eiffel Tower in Paris or The Sydney Opera House. Iconography achieved by challenging the forces of nature, designing an urban symbol, to strengthen people’s feeling of identity towards their city. Twisting the conventional idea of a tower and tilting the complex structure to contextualize the building in a technological era. The importance of symbols to civilization and architecture for people to feel identified with a place by means of an icon. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Five great projects from 2009 for our 8th selection of previously featured public facilities, including a winner of our Building of the Year Award from 2009! Check them all after the break.

Community centre Herstedlund / Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter Community Centre Herstedlund provides the framework for joint activities for a new residential area, housing approximately 600 families. The site plan, designed by Juul & Frost, is based on the idea of “the forest and the glades”. We elaborated on this theme as we designed the building as a large stylized tree at the edge of a glade (read more…)

Today’s selection includes a neighborhood information tower in California, a Lithuanian passenger terminal, a creatively glazed education center, and an unconventional vernacular day care centre in the Netherlands.  We hope you enjoy taking a look at these projects that deserve a revisit!

A preview of the interview we did with Steven Holl. In this part he describes the recently opened Museum of Ocean and Surf in Biarritz, France.

1. Architects are not leaders

In fact, we wait to follow. Architecture is a service profession. Clients hire us to help implement their vision, if we’re lucky. Or, they hire us because of a legal obligation to have a licensed professional seal a set of drawings, when we aren’t lucky. We don’t define the needs of the community; in fact, we usually don’t even recognize them on our own. We need a patron to guide us. Until then, we wait, for instructions.

2. Architects are not relevant

We are losing (or have already lost) our position in the public conscience. Don’t believe me? Just ask a stranger what an Architect does. They’ll have no idea, or worse, they’ll think Architecture is for someone else; someone with more disposable income; someone with more elite taste; someone more urbane; someone with different priorities; someone else; but not them. We have systematically put ourselves and our profession into the margins of society.

This en-route experience, a three city touring seminar on digital fabrication, draws a diverse group of design participants from afar for a full schedule of exchanges with leading practitioners, practices, fabrication labs… all while exposed to European transit infrastructure: trains planes & even a few mountain roads.

On June 26 of this year, Steven Holl’s Museum of Ocean and Surf opened in Biarritz, France, and we recently learned that the building has been named the Public Building of the Year by the 2011 Emirates Glass LEAF Awards. Designed in collaboration with Solange Fabião, the museum has a strong connection between the sea and the built environment both on the programmatic level as the museum serves as a “teaching tool” to educate people about the health of the ocean, and on a formal level as the massing was conceptually influenced by “ under the sky and under the sea.” Yesterday, we shared an amazing clip from our interview with Steven Holl about the museum – check it out and tell us your thoughts on the project.

 More about the project after the break.

People have been communicating through storytelling since they lived in caves and sat around campfires. Today, businesses use narrative to convey their companies’ messages and stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace. So how does storytelling apply to design firms? What distinguishes one firm from another is not only its portfolio, but messages conveyed through creative and compelling stories. These speakers will demonstrate how design firms can use multimedia tools and different platforms to create effective stories that boost marketing, communications, and public relations programs.

The Museum of Art at Washington State University is organizing ‘Architecture for Art,’ the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to the career of Jim Olson, one of the Northwest’s most significant architects and founder of the internationally recognized Seattle-based firm, Olson Kundig Architects.

The exhibit, which is open from now until December 10th, will serve as a retrospective for Olson’s 45-year career, highlighting his residential legacy, including his own homes-an apartment in downtown Seattly and his cabin on Puget Sound-as well as his public design work, which encompasses the Lightcatcher Museum in Bellingham, Washingtom, St. Mark’s Cathedral and the Pike and Virginia Building in Seattle, and the Noah’s Art Exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.  More information on the event after the break.

Winners of the Cityscape Awards for Architecture in Emerging Markets were recently announced at a glamorous gala dinner held at the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai.

The Awards rewarded excellence in architecture and design from the emerging regions of the Gulf States, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia (excluding Japan, New Zealand and Australia) and recognized architects and their projects that have shown outstanding designs, performance, vision and achievement in key areas of architecture. More information on the winners after the break.