Coinciding with the start of the Venice Biennale, OMA and Prada open an exhibition surveying recent collaborative works. The exhibition appears at Ca’ Corner della Regina, a former palazzo, alongside highlights from the Prada Fondazione collection. More images and information after the break.
Intended as a catalyst and model for the ongoing redevelopment of Cairo, Egypt, ZELLNERPLUS, OLIN, PACER, MR+E, and Nelson Nygaard proposed a scheme that seeks to bridge the gap between the medieval, or Islamic, and the axial, or European Cairene cities. They would do so through the evacuation of the competition zone of its current disconnected fabrics. In their place, they proposed a green urban archipelago made up of a new connective tissue that will weld together the competition site’s disparate functions, flows and neighboring fabrics. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Last night we had the honor of attending the 2011 Pritzker Prize Ceremony in Washington D.C., where Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura received this important recognition.
This was the third time we attended the event (after 2009 in Buenos Aires and 2010 in New York) and it was a special evening, not only because of the renowned architects attending the event, but also for the presenting speech by President Barack Obama. Obama, a friend of the Pritzker family, delivered a short but interesting speech to Souto de Moura and the architects. Obama’s interest in architecture goes way back as we’ve heard him state that he thought he could be an architect, but as he said at the speech “I expected to be more creative than I turned out, so I had to go into politics instead”.
It’s worth mentioning that Obama referred to the Pritzker Prize as the Nobel of architecture, a common comparison that puts the importance of this recognition in context.
After several mentions to architecture, his hometown Chicago, Mies (his campaign HQ was in a Mies building), Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Jefferson’s Monticello, he mentioned that architecture is about “creating buildings and spaces that inspire us, that help us do our jobs, that bring us together, and that become, at their best, works of art that we can move through and live in. And in the end, that’s why architecture can be considered the most democratic of art forms“.
About Souto de Moura’s work he mentioned that it was “effortless and beautiful”, and he highlighted the fact that the Braga Stadium was a democratic building, as he not only served the audience but people on the outside.
After Obama and Lord Palumbo (chairman of the Pritzker jury) Eduardo Souto de Moura accepted his recognition, and said something very interesting that made me understand contemporary Portuguese architecture. He developed his work during the 1974 revolution in Portugal, after which the country required to give housing to millions of people. At that time post modernism was starting strong in the country, but that wasn´t the way to do housing (with columns and arches), which led to a late modernism that we see on his works, which in my opinion became a legacy to the new generation of Portuguese architects. More photos after the break:
kit architects recently finished the design for an apartment building in Brünnen, the city of Bern in Switzerland with a very unique master plan scheme resembling a honeycomb structure.
Photographer Franck Bohbot recently shared his photos of Anish Kapoor’s Leviathan-Monumenta with ArchDaily. Organized by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, MONUMENTA annually invites an internationally renowned artist to transform the 13,5000 sqm of the Grand Palais Nave with an artwork especially created for the event. Leviathan-Monumenta will be on display until June 23rd.
Follow the break for additional photographs.
A whole variety of insdustrial projects for our seventh selection of previously featured posts. Check them all after the break.
Kangan Batman Institute / Lyons The new Automotive Centre of Excellence (ACE) in Melbourne’s Docklands accommodates a dedicated training and showcase facility for Australia’s automotive trades and manufacturing. It consists of high-bay workshop spaces, specialist workrooms, classrooms and office accommodation (read more…)
Mexico-based Rojkind Arquitectos shared with us their project ‘High Park’, a 13,000 sqm mixed use building in Monterrey, Mexico. More images, a video, and the architect’s description after the break.
This winning project for the Master Plan of Juzne Centrum in Brno, Czech Republic comes from CHYBIK+KRISTOF ASSOCIATED ARCHITECTS selected for the Southern Moravian Region Award 2010. The alternative master plan of “Juzne Centrum” is located in a big brownfield and is driven by local activists groups and the academic institution of Faculty of Architecture at University of Technology in Brno. The project incorporates the principles of ecology and economy towards common good and creates a new economic urban design.
More from this project after the break.
Atelier Raum Architects shared this video of one of their recent projects, an installation for a contemporary art exhibition in France. Accompanied by original music from the french band Mansfield Tya, La Ville Molle was co-produced by the Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Art de Bourges, the FRAC Centre and implemented with the collaboration of the city of Bourges and the Council district downtown. Follow the break for drawings, photographs, and a video showing the installation of the exhibition.
DesignByMany is a challenge based design technology community sponsored by HP and ArchDaily. Users post challenges to the community along with their design source files. The community can then post responses with their own source files to solve the challenge. They can also comment on the challenge and interact with other designers throughout the process.
As designers we not only need to think about how we can originate buildings, we need to think about how we can use existing structures to accommodate new types of building programs. This challenge is to design a pedestrian bridge between to two existing buildings.
More information after the break.
IT Incubators, designed by Symbiosis Designs ltd. is a proposed addition to an existing structure in King Hussein Park in Amman, Jordan. As an addition it is a liberated open-ended space, reclaiming an intuitive space within rational offices and conference rooms’ layout, hence impelling distinctive innovation and conception; hence incubating.
More on this project after the break.
HL Architecture, in collaboration with the narrative designer Nadia Troeman and DGMR, with their Antillean partner Madeco Project Vision, has won the competition for the design of a new multi-discipline school in the town of North Saliña, on the island of Bonaire. The jury, chaired by Professor Carlos Weeber and including Glenn Thodé, Governor of Bonaire and Enigma Giskus, Director of the Reina Beatrix School, awarded the HL Architecture team first prize. The competition was initiated by the Bonaire Office of Public Works and the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Shown under construction last month, the project is a memorial for the 91 victims of the 17th-century witch trials in Vardo, Norway. Illuminated windows, 91 in total dedicated to each victim, are incorporated within Zumthor’s information centre design which measures over 400′ long with a connective thread of tautly stretched silk sheets.
Do you think maybe it’s people that respect and admire these architects, and it’s reflected on their fan pages?
As the economy staggers through the pre-dawn streets of a slow and agonizing “recovery” – some economists including Robert Reich argue we are not in a recovery – it is important to remember what has been learned.
As far as architecture is concerned, the lessons learned were the same ones as in prior recessions. Maybe this time architects will not suffer from amnesia or lapse into denial when billings tick up once again. It is easy to forget how difficult things have been. People tend to just want to move on and not dwell on the past. Psychologically, people seem to just want the economy to be in a recovery – even if there is evidence to support that it is not necessarily at that stage yet. Recession this, recession that. Everybody is tired of hearing about it. I’m tired of writing about it! But it is still a reality that affects the ranks of our chosen profession. No one has been immune. Professionals at all levels of experience, whether licensed or un-licensed, domestic or international, healthcare or commercial have been impacted.
More after the break.
The French design team, Olgga Architects, recently placed second in the competition to design the International Graphic Design Center in Chaumont, France. Images of their proposal in addition to a press release narrative from the architects can be viewed after the jump.
Architects: Boczkó Architects Location: Vác, Hungary Project Team: Zoltán Gábor Szepesi & Zsuzsanna Mohai Landscaping: Hajlék Tervező Bt., Vácduka Structural Engineering: Kerek és Pintér Kft, Budapest Electrical Engineering: Dinamic Kft, Gödöllő Building Services: Mopemedia Kft, Vác Fire Services: Brolex Kft, Budapest Project area: 360 sqm Project year: 2010-2011 Photographs: Ákos Boczkó
René van Zuuk Architekten shared with us their proposal for a competition to design a visitors centre in Niederwalddankmals, Germany. More images and architect’s description after the break.
Chilean architects, dRN Architects has submitted to ArchDaily their recent submission for the Beton Hala Waterfront project in central Belgrade, Serbia. Additional images of the proposal as well as a lengthy description of the work can be found after the break.
Earlier this week, we shared the news of Steven Holl + BCWH recent commission for the Institute for Contemporary Art in Virginia. It seems Holl will also be busy working on a conceptual design for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston as the museum recently announced their short list from ten international architects to three. In addition to Holl, the museum has selected Morphosis and Snohetta to submit design proposals for the expansion project. “This decision marks an important step forward for the future MFAH,” said Richard D. Kinder, chair of the museum’s long-range planning committee. “Even before Rafael Moneo’s Audrey Jones Beck Building opened, in 2000, MFAH director Peter Marzio and the board recognized that it would not be the final step in expanding the MFAH.”
In the Netherlands, Meissen porcelain is often regarded as ‘high-class kitsch’. Its sumptuous, often narrative style of decoration puts it at odds with the minimalistic and conceptual traditions of Modernism. Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu (SO – IL) was commissioned by Kunsthal KAdE to design an ideal contemporary three-dimensional setting in which to present the porcelain such that it would challenge this prejudice and focus attention on the great sculptural, artistic and technical strengths of Meissen. In response, SO – IL has designed 32 modern, geometrically shaped showcases in bright colors and with ‘pointed tops’. These showcases not only serve the Meissen objects also autonomous in character.
More images by Iwan Baan and information after the break.
Architects Amit Gupta and Britta Knobel Gupta of the India based design firm, Studio Symbiosis, have shared with us their recent proposal, Athletic Ripples, for the Rajiv Gandhi Sports Complex. Additional images and a description from the architects can be found after the break.
This project is one piece of the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) new headquarters facility, originally awarded through a competition to a team that included the LA office of DMJM/Design (now part of AECOM), Denver-based Roth+Sheppard, Studio 0.10, and John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects (JFAK).
Architect: John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects Location: Los Angeles, California, USA Project Area: 300,000 sqf Project Year: 2009 Photographs: Fotoworks
This week our Architecture City Guide is headed to Columbus; Indiana that is. We have already made the trip to Columbus, Ohio. This lesser known Columbus only has a population of 44,000 people, but for what it lacks in size it makes up in architecture. Columbus, perhaps, has more notable modern architecture buildings per capita than any city in the United States. In fact, it was much harder narrowing the list down to 12 projects than finding enough for the city guide. With the buildings not on the list, it will be impossible to please everyone. Notably our list doesn’t even include Romaldo Giurgola’s Columbus East High School, Cesar Pelli’s Commons Centre and Mall, and SOM’s Republic Newspaper Building. Take a look at the 12 on our list and add your favorites in the comment section below.
The Architecture City Guide: Columbus list and corresponding map after the break.
But you can browse the last one: 417
