Located in Ljubljana, Slovenia on a corner site at the western entrance to the city, the composition of the West Gate office building, designed by Studio Kalamar, is defined by two office towers. The southern tower rises over the intersection, accentuating the direction towards the city with its sharp projecting corner while the lower northern wing serves as a background to the principal motive as its composition approaches the dynamic of railway traffic behind it. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Vienna Design Week 2011, now in its fifth year, is Austria’s most important international design festival. From September 30 — October 9th, 2011, it will bring some of the best designers of our time to the Austrian capital while simultaneously fostering the talents of tomorrow. The festival is diversified in content — comprising positions of product design, industrial design, and furniture design. For more information, please click here.
Courtesy of Meisel Spottswood Marina Management Co.
In late August, the Key West Truman Waterfront Advisory Board heard from three firms vying to design a future park on the Truman Water Front. The seven-person board ranked the three presenting firms as follows: Atkins (formerly Post Buckley Schuh and Jernigan), Bermello Ajamil & Partners Inc., and Parker/Mudgett/Smith Architects Inc.
For more information on the firms come back after the break.
Hong Kong based architect Ted Givens of 10 Design has recently unveiled designs for tornado proof and hurricane proof housing. With the recent earthquake and hurricane events that have hit the eastern seaboard of the United States, it seems a fitting proposal for urban clustering on a residential scale.
USA Today has put together a list of city neighborhoods which are satiated with activity, areas which offer a “great slice of urban life.” These districts trend from the urban vicinity to its very core, each in itself exemplifying the revitalization of the American city. The list includes regions which have been influenced by deliberate urban revitalization projects, such as High Line Park in Chelsea; while other neighborhoods have experienced an influx of a younger populace which has contributed to its growth, such as Lawrenceville in Pittsburgh.
See the 10 Up and Coming Urban Neighborhoods after the break.
One the first things you must consider when starting your new architectural firm, is what to name it. The choices are varied and the ramifications staggering. If the personality of the firm is going to be projected by the name, you had better take it seriously – every one else will. That’s where Life of an Architect can help (not really) - because I am a creative and critical thinker and somebody has to think about these things.
Originally, before architects were licensed professionals and to add some credibility to the profession to help distinguish themselves from the other trade crafts (like carpenters and contractors), architecture firms turned to law firms as an example and starting stringing together the last names of the founding individuals or partners (i.e. McKim, Mead & White) . This method is still wildly used simply because it is the easiest albeit least creative method. It doesn’t take much to recognize that some of the older more established firms have chosen this method:
Studio Mode/modeLab is pleased to announce the next installment of the coLab workshop series: Hybrid Prototypes. As a follow-up workshop to the coLab workshop held in January 2011, Hybrid Prototypes is a two-day intensive design and prototyping workshop to be held in New York City during the weekend of September 24-25, 2011.
There’s a new Trump in town — and it’s ten feet tall! Chicago’s Trump International Hotel and Tower has been given the LEGO treatment, thanks to designer Sean Kenney. The LEGO expert has been creating sculptures from the children’s toy, and paying tribute to the country’s finest buildings over the last few years, choosing Trump’s Apprentice headquarters as his latest project and using 65,000 pieces to complete it! More images and project description after the break.
Columbia University’s School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation recently shared with us their event schedule for Fall 2011. The event series will run from September 9th to November 29th and start at 6:30pm in Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall, unless otherwise noted. The events are free and open to the public. More information on the events after the break.
Ten architecture students from Columbia University GSAPP have recently completed Polymorphic, a kinetic installation utilizing an innovative design and engineering solution inspired by the kinetic action of a see-saw and the reverberating motion of a slinky.
Project Team: Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University / Charlie Able, Alexis Burson, Ivy Chan, Jennifer Chang, Aaron Harris, Trevor Hollyn-Taub, Brian Lee, Eliza Montgomery, Vernon Roether, and David Zhai. Location: New York, New York, USA Photographs: Courtesy of Jennifer Chang
Pritzker Prize-winner Kevin Roche is one of America’s most influential and prolific architects, acclaimed for his skillful integration of man-made and natural environments. Drawing on material originally presented at the Yale School of Architecture, Kevin Roche: Architecture as Environment, which runs from September 27nd-January 22nd, has been expanded to highlight Roche’s contributions to the fabric of New York City, including the Ford Foundation building and more than four decades of master planning, design, renovations, and new additions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibition features original drawings, models, photographs, and ephemera documenting Roche’s career, along with extensive video presentations of projects and interviews with the architect.
Didn’t check ArchDaily last week? Don’t worry, we have the best from 7 days for you. Check them all after the break.
In Progress: Phoenix International Media Center / BIAD UFo Phoenix International Media Center locates in the southwest corner of Chaoyang Park; the site area is 1.8 hectares. The total floor area of the building is 65,000m2 with a height of 55m. Apart from the media office, the broadcasting studios and the production offices, the building provides abundant of open spaces for the public to get interactive experiences, which expresses the unique operation concept of Phoenix Media (read more…)
Wacom’s new Inkling Digital Pen is bridging the gap between sketching by hand and drawing on the computer. The technology allows you to sketch anywhere on paper with a pressure sensitive pens, that can pick up 1024 levels of sensitivity and an electronic receiver that clips onto the drawing medium. The information is stored onto the device, which has room for up to 50 projects and can then be transferred via a USB connection as digital media to a computer.
Italian architect Ernesto Rogers once famously stated that he wanted to design everything from “a spoon to a city”. Pritzker Prize winning architect Richard Meier has done nearly that with his newly designed wristwatch, which becomes part of the prolific collection of objects designed by the architect. In collaboration with the Markuse Corporation the Meier designed Ana Watch adheres to a modernist vocabulary, focusing on proportion, human scale and the manipulation of a strong geometry. “Working on various designs of objects used in daily life, such as watches, I am conscious of participating in a tradition of architects that worked in a variety of scales such as Joseph Hoffmann and Frank Lloyd Wright. In my case, the theoretical point of departure is consistently related to function and beauty,” said Richard Meier.
We want to know your opinion about architects and product design. For you, what is the importance of the architect’s ideals provided in a compact form? Leave us your answer in the comments below, and among all the registered users who comment, thanks to Markuse and Richard Meier Architects, one of our readers can win this exclusive watch.
You can become a registered user right here, and make sure to share with us your comment by Sunday, September 18th. More information about the Richard Meier designed Ana Watch along with official rules can be found after the break.
Employees contribute to the culture and reputation of the SVEHN JØSSANG ATELJE in the way they present themselves. An Architectural appearance is essential to a favorable impression with clients, and company shareholders (ie. Svehn). Good grooming and appropriate dress should reflect an employee’s confidence in his/her aesthetic convictions and inspire others to realize that they are dressed unimaginatively. An Architect’s attire should be minimal yet condescending at the same time.
https://www.archdaily.com/168236/an-architects-dress-codeJody Brown
Architect Joshua Prince Ramus (REX architects), just awarded as one of the five greatest architects under 50 in the world, will hold a main lecture at the MAXXI at 6:00pm on September 16th during the event Y1 – Independent Architecture Stuff organized by Cityvision Mag and curated by Francesco Lipari and Vanessa Todaro. More information on the event after the break.
Black Spectacles, who has teamed up with the Chicago Architectural Club, has recently created The Un-Competition Project. Invent a project, design it, and post your design on our Facebook page, with a 60 second video. They want to hear how you came up with your project, what your design is, and how you are going to get it built.
So, no, there is no competition brief, and no, they’re not going to get your project built. You make the project up yourself, big or small- you sell it, and you figure out how to get it built. Then document it in a video, and they’ll show it to the world. More information on the competition after the break.
Ten years since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the National September 11 Memorial was dedicated in a private ceremony with the victims’ families. It was officially opened to the public as of today, September 12th. The opening of the 9/11 Memorial is a first step towards the closing of a long chapter of construction at the World Trade Center site.
AWR recently announced the winners of the LOFT London Farm Tower Competition. Population growth and urban centralization lead to increased demand for real estate market and for food. One possible solution is vertical farming. AWR therefore proposed the design of a new kind of skyscraper on the Thames waterfront, inserted into the new city skyline.
The goals to achieve were to meet the requirements of the World Green Building Council, determine which materials are best suited for the construction of a vertical farm, identify resistant, light, transparent and long-term materials and experiment with innovative materials. Information on the competition winners after the break.
The Barcelona Ecological Center (BEC) is a proposal of Vilalta Architects about the future of the Bullfight Plaza ‘Monumental’ in Barcelona, Spain. The concept is radical: Transforming the bullring into a center of research and leisure regarding to environmentally friendly activities, especially the ones that respect and take care of animals. In other words, to use all the elements that already exist now in the ring to be reused in the opposite way. More images and architects’ description after the break.
On August 22, 2011 a live map that charts members of interior design, architecture, and related consultants on Twitter was released into the wild. In only three days it had already surpassed 8000 views, and added 120 professionals to the map.
Architecture photographer Paul Clemence shared with us a recent photo set of the current status of the One World Trade Center building by SOM.
I was downtown today, checking out the commotion by Ground Zero and snapped these images of the Freedom Tower. Is for sure going up and we can already glance at its connection to neighborhood buildings, its presence on the skyline and some interesting architectural nuances.
The Institute for Urban Design (IfUD) has organized New York City’s very first Urban Design Week. In mid September, IfUD will engage the city with a series of public events. Through lectures, tours, and a competition, IfUD hopes to analyze the city’s collective urbanity and imagine possibilities for the future.
