Charles and Ray Eames inspired us to appreciate the world by honoring “the uncommon beauty of common things.”

Back in late 2009 Arch Group shared with us their proposal for an urban relaxation pod – SLEEPBOX. Their concept has been realized, with production of the modular 2.5×1.6m x 2.5-3m high unit high moving ahead.

The informal city is a problem that could not be solved by the twentieth-century urbanism. It is necessary to produce a set of tools that will allow us to perform with solvency and responsibility in this area. Some of the tools of traditional architecture and urbanism can be successfully applied; others are yet to be elaborated. With this in mind, Drucker Arquitetura designed the winning proposal for the Sáo Paulo competition to rebuild the city’s slum-areas.

The design of the new Jeju Cultural Heritage Centre started from an attempt to interpret the cultural value of the traditional artifacts that are to be exhibited here with contemporary view. poly.m.ur was intrigued by the fact that these artifacts are exemplary in showing the influence of regional material on the life of early settlers, and they wanted their proposal to be seen as an object which can symbolize the local characteristics shaped by the abundant availability of basalt as raw material and the indigenous techniques of tool making.

David Bainbridge, founder of the Passive Solar Institute, recently sent us his book Passive Solar Architecture. The book is a great introduction for anyone interested in passive solar architecture. The content is kept simple and straightforward. It allows any novice to become familiar with the main concepts and techniques used in the field. The authors, Bainbridge and Ken Haggard, have also provided a free-downloadable lab manual that students can use to learn concepts and techniques through a hands-on approach.

This snapshot of a new documentary about mid-century modern architecture in Arkansas illuminates classic post-war designs. Simple, clean lines were often the elements that delineated the aesthetics of these buildings. While many lay in disrepair, they still exude an aura of a time when optimism was reflected in the country’s desire to build a new future. Some of the architectural icons that are featured include the University of Arkansas’s Fine Arts Center by state native Edward Durell Stone, the Tower Building in Little Rock, the Fulbright Library in Fayetteville, and the abandoned Hotel Mountainaire. Check out the short clip of what will air in November on AETN. Also, see the highlights of the current affairs and award winning architecture that is taking place within the state of Arkansas here.

After winning the 2007 New York New Housing Legacy Competition, Jonathan Rose and Phipps Houses Group teamed with Grimshaw Architects and Dattner Architects to make “green” architecture for where it matters most. Via Verde, the South Bronx’s newest affordable housing development, goes beyond the hype of creating a sustainable building for marketing purposes, and allows design to inform a healthy building for its occupants. So, what constituents a “healthy” building? Well, in the minds of those from the South Bronx, that means a place that can address growing asthma rates, obesity, and the need for fresh produce. In the 290,000 sqf project at Brook Avenue and East 156th Street, Via Verde is connecting to its neighborhood’s needs while not shying away from giving a community in the process of urban renewal an iconic piece of architecture.

 More about the project after the break. 

CHYBIK+KRISTOF Associated Architects won an international architectural and urbanistic competition on 33 apartment buildings close to Bratislava. The project aims to create quality housing with direct contact with water surface. It also sets a considerable part of the house into the riparian forest in the river-bed of the Danube. They have designed for each object a group of four materials which create together a common atrium as well as a scenic jetty near the water. The resulting combination of two- or three-floored buildings makes ideal conditions for social life inside each villa house whilst at the same time it provides enough privacy in each apartment. They did not design an ensemble of anonymous apartments, but a place with a bountiful view on water surface and with sojourning areas in the semi-private space. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The project’s site is located within the boundaries of the southern part of Zagreb which is divided by the national railway. In many ways, this site was thought as part of the new Zagreb city urban concept. There are two important facts: the position on the margins of the traditional lower City and the structural composition and reference within the future new City. Both in this case determine the composition and character of the project, designed by SANGRAD Architects & AVP_Arhitekti. By raising or lowering the railway, several possibilities are opened in terms of linking the site with the central and northern part of the City. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The HA tower, designed by Frontoffice + François Blanciak Architect, proposes a hybrid model for urban life that embraces the city, pulling it in the heart of the units, while still offering large open spaces that otherwise are only available on the urban fringe. Located in Higashi-Azabu, within walking distance of a cluster of rail lines, Shiba Park, and the iconic Tokyo Tower, the corner site is small, covering only 130 square meters and is constrained by a floor area ratio that limits construction to 8 floors. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Designed by Brininstool, Kerwin, and Lynch, the Beijing Core Area Master Plan is a massive civic proposal of over 27 million square feet of building area and an additional 1.5 million square feet of public space design for the Central Business District of Beijing, China. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Kyiv City State Administration, Kyiv Central Agency for Urban Planning, Architecture and Urban Design with the support of National Union of Architects of Ukraine are pleased to announce the open international architectural competition, ‘Concept of Reservation and Development of Kyiv Islands’. Contestants are requested to submit the best concept of preservation and development of Kyiv islands.

Two young artists Ryan and Trevor Oakes have introduced a unique way for drawing using a 3D drawing machine that assists in re-presenting the view in front of one’s eyes. The machine was developed as an exploration of the nature of vision with a goal to recreate realism in the correct proportions and perspective. The artists explain how the machine works; by limiting vision of the scene to one eye and the other to plot the image on concave paper, an illusion occurs where the paper becomes transparent, rendering an effect that you are simply tracing the scene in front of you. It is an interesting take on creating artwork with amazingly accurate results. Check out the video for their presentation.

Richard Meier & Partners have released their final design submission for the new Royal Alberta Museum in Canada. Considered as one of the four finalists the firm, although not chosen as the winning entry, proposed “a timeless work of architecture that would engage the ongoing discourse of civility and urban place making while establishing a forward-looking museum destination and technologically advanced educational facility. While we are disappointed we won’t be working in Edmont this year, we are continuing to expand or work overseas. We thank the jury for their consideration,” commented design partner-in-charge Bernhard Karpf.

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WTC: Street Installation and Exhibition is a 4×28 foot montage comprised of closeups of the facades of the former Twin Towers- located on East 4th Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue. There will also be nine accompanying prints exhibited in the FAB Cafe across the street.

The Young Architects Forum of Atlanta invites emerging architects, landscape architects, urban designers, industrial designers and students to participate in the fourth annual 48HRS design competition.

Intended to showcase the abilities of emerging designers and the value of good design to the greater public, the competition requires quick responses and fast, innovative thinking. The project brief, which will pose a design problem located in the city of Atlanta, remains confidential until the start of the competition. Once the brief is announced, participants have 48 hours to design and submit their entries.

Also, all entries will be exhibited in a show at the Museum of Design Atlanta in January 2012. More information on the competition after the break.

Sofia Municipality and Sofia Architecture Week invites all architects to participate in a competition for preliminary architectural design of Metro station 20 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The project should be a proposal for a comprehensive sustainable architectural concept for the metro station and the public space above it. It should be designed according to the specific requirements of the underground rail transport system as well as the contemporary principals of urbanism.

The authors of the project that wins first prize will enter into an agreement with Sofia Municipality and Metropolitan EAD for commissioning the working documentation for this project. More information on the competition after the break.

They walked down the sidewalk and stood at the bottom of the steep asphalt drive leading up to the little garage at the side of the house. The place looked lifeless. The yard had long ago gone to dirt. Neighborhood dogs—and their shameful owners—had left behind little cairns of shit in various states of petrifaction, by which time could be measured. The dogs had respectfully not disturbed one another’s offerings such that they were scattered in some sort of strange canine-logic grid. They looked like ancient religious shrines or deities. Some of those could be as old as you, said Dean. Maybe you could use them in your art, James replied. For some reason, a tire was sitting on the roof. It seemed to be a necessary component of the satellite dish.

There was a car in the drive. A nice and completely non-ironic and spotless black Land Rover with dealer plates. It was too nice for the house and seemed to already be making the house disappear. Such spaces of disappearance were familiar in Los Angeles and could be considered a Mike Davis sort of phenomenon: crap house + luxury car = eventual tear-down of said house and re-development of lot into massively obnoxious mansion-like house by, in all likelihood, transplant from another state who came to California to be rich by doing nothing of true significance yet getting paid very well to do whatever it was he/she did. There were two of those irritatingly- and egotistically-proud university stickers on the real window: Cornell and Harvard. One got the sense that the driver had indeed attended those schools. It was the sort of car one had the urge to smash or at least throw pebbles at.

In 1922 the Philadelphia Toboggan Company made a classic 3-row carousel with 48 carved horses and 2 chariots accompanied by wood carvings that are said to be among the finest of their kind. This historic carousel, the first to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places, re-opened to the public on September 16th. Jane’s Carousel, entirely restored including original scenery panels, rounding boards, crests, center pole and platform is nestled between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges within a Jean Nouvel designed acrylic pavilion in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Nouvel’s steel framed clear box can be opened on two sides providing an open-aired experience. At night white shades can be drawn and the shadows of the 48 horses dance across the walls.

Paul Clemence shared with us his photographs of Jean Nouvel’s pavilion and Jane’s Carousel.

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Held in Pacific Grove at the historic Asilomar Conference Center, this conference has been praised as one of the most prestigious architectural design conference in the United States. Come watch, interact, learn and recharge your creative energies with hundreds of California’s best-known architects.

International architecture, urbanism and design practice Broadway Malyan has delivered the concept master plan for the GCD Media Village in Medini, Malaysia, which will support the new Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios, a circa $130 million film and television production facility project which is expected to create over 3,000 jobs. More images and complete press release after the break.

In recent architecture news, Architecture for Humanity has acquired Worldchanging, a nonprofit media organization dedicated to solutions-based journalism about the planetary future. Worldchanging will merge its assets with the Open Architecture Network of Architecture for Humanity and two TED Prizes are also to be merged resulting in an unparalleled center of applied innovation, offering both ideas and tools for building a better world.

Cameron Sinclair, Executive Director of Architecture for Humanity, shared, “We are thrilled to connect with the Worldchanging community in order to expand the ways we can continue to make a difference across the world. Each project we do requires innovative solutions, resourcefulness, and passion. It’s a perfect fit.”

Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion now exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through March 25th, highlights the architects product design within a unique atmosphere. Creating for the first time in the states her own setting for an exhibit, the first female Pritzker Prize winning architect developed an ‘undulating structure of finished polystyrene with vinyl graphics’ to display furniture, footwear, and her Z-Car I.

“Hadid envisions the gallery as an active element in the display of her own designs, and will create an immersive three-dimensional environment,” said Kathryn Bloom Hiesinger, Curator of European Decorative Arts after 1700. “She is interested in the interface between architecture, landscape, and geology, and explores the intersection of these elements with a spatial composition that ebbs and flows in wave-like movements, manipulating the viewer’s understanding of space with constantly shifting perspectives.”

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Architects: Rojkind Arquitectos / Michel Rojkind , Gerardo Salinas Location: Mexico DF, Mexico Project Team: Joe R. Tarr Djurdja Milutinovic Rodrigo Medina Philipp Schlauch Birgit Hammer Jose Carlos Lombana Abhirabika Agrawal Rosalba Rojas Chávez Dolores Robles – Martínez Gómez Andrea León Cruz Landscape Consultant: Thomas Balsley Associates Structural Engineer: EMRSA Client: Liverpool Project Area: 30,000 sqm Renderings: Axel Fridman