Albert M. McDonald, an associate architect from PBC+L Architecture, just shared his winning entry for the AIA 2009 COD Competition, Listening to the Past, Looking to the Future: A House for Today. The sketch competition asked participants to design a sustainable home to replace the demolished Rachel Raymond House designed by her sister Eleanor Raymond, FAIA. The new 2,500 sq ft home would be placed on the original site using the same program brief as the original, yet it would be a contemporary interpretation and implement sustainable strategies.
The jury noted that McDonald’s proposal was ”the most thoughtful and sophisticated text considering the history of the site and the original Raymond House. This submission had the best integrated sustainable strategies in terms of the Living Building Challenge and was very thoughtfully done with the site in mind. This project created a sense of place and a place that could be enjoyed for both communal and individual experiences.”
UNStudio’s design has won a competition to build a 21,000 square meter dance theatre in the historic centre of St. Petersburg, Russia. The new complex houses the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg, headed by choreographer Boris Eifman.
From the four projects presented (Jean Nouvel, UNStudio, Snøhetta & Zao), UNStudio’s design was yesterday unanimously chosen by the jury for realisation.
Seen at designboom. Architect’s description and more images after the break.
Architects: Rojkind Arquitectos Project Principal: Michel Rojkind Project leader: Agustin Pereyra Location: Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China Project team: Juan Carlos Vidals (3D massing) Alejandro Biguria, Moritz Melchert, Mónica Orozco, Phillip Jung, José Moreno, Laura Rodriguez , Roberto Gil Will, Tere Levy, Alan Rahmane Structural Engineer: Juan Felipe Heredia Design year: 2008 Construction year: 2009-2010 Curator: Ai Weiwei, Beijing, China Client: Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd, Inner Mongolia, China Constructed Area: 1,000 sqm aprox
J. Mayer H. Architects and Art + Com Berlin were commissioned to design a permanent exhibition to highlight the topic of sustainability for the Autostadt in Wolfsburg, Germany. The 1,000 m² exhibit design, entitled Level Green, creates a complex webbed form that slowly reveals information to users. The exhibition material argues for scientific research and the use of latest technological development as necessities for survival in the future.
More about the exhibit and more images after the break.
Our friends from 100 Planos Arquitectura, a Portuguese firm, shared with us their latest project, Flower Power. Here’s the architect’s description:
The objective of this project was to create a structure model, multipliable, capable of creating ephemeral spaces or buildings. The need for a small pavilion at the Vila do Conde’s museum’s garden, where children and adults can have a rest and stop for some time during a visit to the museum, was the ideal starting point for exploring this idea of multiplication.
The basic module is a “flower” of 1.00 m diameter and 0.50 m high, with four petals, constructed of polycarbonate with plates of 5mm and pvc pipe ø 0,10 m. Assembling several modules with different heights we designed a waving horizontal surface, which suspended, creates a covered area.
Here and there the “flowers” go down to the ground and become a pillars, walls or partitions. We decided to call it “flower power”. It is a pavilion / building / structure, shading, under which you may rest, dance, read, sleep, or simply admire the sky cut by translucent flowers.
KSP Engel und Zimmermann Architekten was awarded first prize for their Tianjin Art Gallery proposal. The Chinese government has been investing in new cultural buildings in an effort to battle the economic crisis by creating this new form of investment plan. The 33,000m2 art gallery will be one component in the city’s 90 ha cultural and leisure quarter, which will also include an opera house and other recreational centers.
We shared Aboutblank‘s honorable mention housing project for the Istanbul Kayabasi Housing Design Competition earlier, yet the firm was also awarded first prize for their second design scheme. Aboutblank created “a non-centralized rhizomatic urban tissue” that promotes interaction between users by providing large green areas running the length of the building complex.
BAA is looking to appoint a team to produce a ‘comprehensive masterplan to examine the potential expansion of Heathrow Airport’ – including a third runway and a new sixth terminal.
With the countless number of ridiculously tall skyscrapers planned for around the world, it is remarkable the controversy an 82-story skyscraper for Midtown Manhattan can create. Three years ago, MoMa completed an $858 million expansion, yet the museum is still in need of additional room to house its growing collections. The Modern sold their Midtown lot to Hines, an international real estate developer, for$125 million. Hines, in turn, asked Pritzker Prize Laureate French architect Jean Nouvel to design two possible solutions for the site. “A decade ago anyone who was about to invest hundreds of millions on a building would inevitably have chosen the more conservative of the two. But times have changed. Architecture is a form of marketing now, and Hines made the bolder choice,” reported Nicolai Ouroussoff for The New York Times.
“Bolder” is certainly fitting to describe Nouvel’s Torre de Verre which is planned for 53 West 53rd Street. The 1,250 foot tower will offer approximately 40,000 sq feet of new gallery space for the MoMa, in addition to 150 residential apartments and 100 hotels rooms. The tower’s unique silhouette will dominate the Midtown block, rising higher than the iconic Chrysler Building. Its irregular structural pattern has been called “out of scale” on numerous occasions by opponents of the project. Some complain that the tower will “violate the area’s integrity” noting that its height will obscure views and light. Shadow studies show that the building may plunge apartments in the area and the ice-skating rink at Central Park into darkness.
The aesthetic is definitely foreign to Midtown and, yet, while most are quick to reject change, the tower will sit in an area surrounded by highly revolutionary buildings. Its new neighbors include Philip Johnson’s “Lipstick Building” at Third Avenue; Hugh Stubbins’ Citicorp Building at Lexington Avenue, Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building and SOM’s Lever House at Park Avenue. At some point in time, each of those buildings exemplified a change in style, and yet now, they are staples in the area’s heritage.
With controversy still surrounding Nouvel’s design as it moves through the city’s review process (ULURP), John Beckmann and his firm, Axis Mundi decided to do something about it. A few short days ago, Axis Mundi unveiled a conceptual alternative design for 53 West 53rd Street. The alternative features a 600 foot, 50 story mixed use building that ”rethinks the tall buildings that have become synonymous with New York City’s identity.” Beckmann explained, ”Historically, the skyscraper was a unitary, homogeneous form that reflected the generic, flexible office space it contained…The Vertical Neighborhood is more organic and more flexible–an assemblage of disparate architectural languages. It reflects an emerging reality for tall buildings as collections of domestic elements: dwellings, neighborhoods, streets.”
More images and more about Axis Mundi’s alternative after the break.
Architects identify “sustainability” as the most important change in the future of their profession. Sustainable Design: Ecology, Architecture, and Planning is a practical, comprehensive guide to design and plan a built environment compatible with the region’s economic, social, and ecological patterns.
A few months ago we had the chance to enjoy the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles for Postopolis! LA. The renovation of an old building was very well done, very good work in terms of details.
And for the Standard Hotel in New York, André Balazs repeats the formula of good design and details, but on a brand new building by Polshek Partnership Architects. The concrete building reminds of Le Corbusier works, standing over The Highline. The integration at the public space level turns this building into more than just another addition to the NY skyline, becoming an urban piece of the Meat Packing district, a detonator of the current renovation of the area.
The 20-story tall building includes 337 rooms, a restaurant (The Standard Grill) and a bar (The Living Room). Interiors were designed by NY based architects Roman and Williams.
Photos of the construction at Plataforma. More photos of the building by Jeff Goldberg at Esto after the break, interiors to come on a future article.
Our friends from FARO Architecten sent us their latest project, a new building school completed in Netherlands. The Koningin Beatrix- en Prinses Marijke school in The Hague was officially opened by a member of the cabinet minister Rouvoet.
In the heart of the Schilderswijk in The Hague, a new school has arisen at the site of the previous school building that had to be demolished. The new building houses two elementary schools, each with 16 classrooms, nursery schools and gymnasiums.
Architect’s description and more images after the break.
Critically acclaimed international practice Rafael Vinoly Architects recently announced their addition to the Cleveland Musuem of Art (CMA) in Ohio. The museum is currently undergoing a multi-phase renovation and expansion project. RVA’s 139,200 sq foot East Wing addition, which unites the historic 1916 Beaux-Arts building and the 1971 Marcel Breuer addition, is the first of three planned wings.
Our friend Donaldas Trainauskas sent us his latest project, Pašilaičiai Parish Church inthe city of Vilnius, Lithuania. Trainauskas worked with architect Darius Baliukevicius in the design of the church.
Modern Vilnius presents itself as the city of two contrasting parts standing for two different worlds: a famous historical part, the Old Town protected by UNESCO, with its exceptional aura of dozens of churches and various cultural sights, created through centuries, and the other – residential/sleeping districts, mainly built during the Soviet years. The latter was deprived of any sacred spaces thus formed a huge urban area of emptiness.
Full architect’s description and more images, after the break.
Case Study Houses was a residential experiment sponsored by the Arts & Architecture magazine, introducing the modern movement ideas for affordable and efficient housing during the post-war years in the US.
The result? Amazing houses by Richard Neutra, Raphael Soriano, Craig Ellwood, Charles and Ray Eames, Pierre Koenig and Eero Saarinen, built between 1945-1966 mostly in LA.
Most of you already know about this… mostly due to the incredible photos that registered this houses, reflecting more than just pure architecture, a lifestyle. And the man (genius) behind the lens was Julius Shulman, who passed away yesterday July 16th, 2009.
Starting today, every month we will feature a selection of the best pictures from our Flickr pool. You can also add yours! Just click here and learn how. Remember you can also follow us on Twitter, and throught our Facebook page!
This picture of the Audiotório do Ibirapuera, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was taken by pedro kok. Check the other four after the break.
When driving between SFO Airport and San Francisco on the edge of the Bay Area, I have always wondered what would happen when the sea level starts to rise.
Recently, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) organized an ideas competition (open to any professionals, not just architects) to address the sea level rise in the Bay Area, looking for innovative and creative solutions to bring forward a vision of a future estuarine shoreline applicable to the San Francisco Bay and beyond. 130 entries from 18 countries were submitted.
Six teams were announced as the winners, splitting a cash prize of $25,000. Among these entries we find interesting ideas, such as Faulders Studio’s laser light barrier that measures the sea level, powered by tidal energy, Kuth Ranieri Architects’s ventilated levee to balance the sea/bay water levels, or SOM’s smart membrane under the golden gate bridge.
But, as usual in some competitions, the honorable mentions bring more disruptive ideas, embracing a vision on a post-flood city instead of preventing it. There’s also humor among the honorable mentions, “Failure: Bring your boots” or “About Rising Tides: It´s the Delta, you stupid”.
Our friend Rob Ley sent us info on their latest installation, Reef, which we’ll be checking out next week. Reef, an installation by Los Angeles Designers Rob Ley (Urbana) and Joshua G. Stein (Radical Craft) is currently on view at Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City. This kinetic sculptural installation takes advantage of new Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) technology to create a responsive environment.
Dubai based X-Architects recently unveiled the Urban Oasis, their latest sustainable master plan for Al Ain. The 12-hectare urban development was conceived as a “micro-specific, compact, and passive sustainable urban oasis.” Inspired by the existing natural environment and the traditional dense urban fabric of Islamic cities, the master plan develops an “environmental synergy between landscape and urbanity.” More about the master plan after the break.
ECDM Architects recently designed another housing project (we just shared their Student Housing Project earlier on AD) in the Issy les moulineaux, France. Entitled ZAC bords de seine the project features retail and mixed service areas in addition to several gardens that create “an intelligent living space that turns to its surrounding environment and weather elements for assistance.”
Bert from Moving Cities (a blog focused on contemporary architecture in China) just told us about a new project by Zaha Hadid in Beijing: Chaoyangmen Soho.
The announcement was made by Pan Shiyi, a real estate mogul chairman of SOHO China. Pan has been working on huge developments, such as the Commune by the Great Wall and several commercial projects in central Beijing.
What’s interesting on SOHO’s developments, is that they invite renowned architects to participate, under heavy budgets restrictions in order to delivery quality projects for the “stylish middle class”. They also have a great corporative culture as you can see on their website.
But back to this project, Bert points us out to a recent interview with Pan Shiyi:
Q: Which development project is your favourite? A: Chaoyangmen SOHO. It is our latest development. I asked British architect Zaha Hadid to design a creative project, and she did. The project is unique, like the Beijing bird´s nest .
Read more about this project at Pan Shiyi’s blog. More images after the break.
The editors at suckerPUNCH are sponsoring an open international design competition. Perfectly situated but notoriously maligned, the Gowanus Canal borders the vibrant Brooklyn neighborhoods of Red Hook, Park Slope, and Carroll Gardens. As a result of heavy industrial pollution, the canal took on an iridescent purple sheen gaining it the nickname “Lavender Lake.”
