MATT Construction is utilizing an innovative new slab technology called BubbleDeck, which replaces a significant percentage of a slab’s concrete mass with hollow or foam-filled plastic balls, made from recycled plastic material. The Teaching and Learning Building at Harvey Mudd College (HMC), designed by Boora Architects with structural engineering provided by kpff, will be the first above-ground building in the United States to employ the technology. HMC has enthusiastically embraced this project on their campus. More images and project description after the break.
The American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles Chapter recently announced their 10th Annual 2×8 Student Exhibition which features a display of 16 of the major architectural school programs in California. Although based in LA, they have extended their invitations to the region and are opening the door to more schools. Taking place at the A+D Museum, each of the participating academic programs selects two projects that exemplify its core vision. The students’ design work will be judged by a noteworthy panel of architects and designers. The panel will then announce the winners at the exhibition opening and convene in a forum to discuss the award-winning projects. The exhibition will be on view from June 5 till June 30. For more information, please visit here. More images of past exhibitions can be viewed after the break.
The 2012 RIBANorman Foster Travelling Scholarship has been awarded to Thomas Aquilina of Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, part of the University of Edinburgh. He will be granted £6,000 to develop his proposal, ‘Material Economies: recycling practices in informal settlements along African longitude 30ºE’ , which takes the scholarship’s theme of resources and addresses recycling in informal African settlements. More information on the award after the break.
Located in Polk County, Florida, on a 16,000 acre property between Orlando and Tampa, the Streamsong Resort and Conference Center, designed by Alfonso Architects, is a celebration of reclamation, of both land and spirit. The site is formerly mined phosphate land owned and developed by The Mosaic Company, the world’s leading producer and marketer of phosphate-based crop nutrients. The 300,000 sq. ft resort includes 216 rooms in the main lodge, 12 rooms in the golf clubhouse, a full service spa , three restaurants, and 18,500 sq. ft of conference center space. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by Arata Isozaki and Andrea Maffei, the Citylife Tower represents the future business and shopping district of CityLife in Milan (a subsidiary company of the Generali Group and in which Allianz has a shareholding), which is progressing quickly. By 2015 it will reach a height of 207 meters, with 50 floors of offices, and will be the tallest skyscraper in Italy. The foundation bed, which has just been built, is formed of a continuous block of concrete covering a total of 4,260 cubic meters and required 42 hours of continuous work. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The HA Tower, designed by Frontoffice + Francois Blanciak, 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.
The idea of light and nature showing through a building was the fundamental concept of redesigning the headquarter of Bank of Georgia. Designed by Architectural Group & Partners, a great and extraordinary office building was created: Incorporating nature in the whole interior design in forms of light. The architects also realized a special highlight by using illuminated translucent concrete. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The first prize design by AGM for a new residential and business complex in Budva, Montenegro complements the urban tissue of the very center of the city by adding content and shape to improve the existing quality. The present surrounding is the framework for the creation of an architectural morphology which is to upgrade the input of the location. Thus the fusion of heritage and modernity is the answer to the needs of time and its value system. More images and architects’ description after the break.
RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) recently announced Michael Lee Architects as the winner of the Cronton Colliery Competition at a private event held on Thursday 19 April. The challenge to design a pioneering new visitor destination on a former colliery inspired creative teams across the world to push the boundaries of landscape and architecture. The Land Trust’s international design competition attracted 50 entries from all over the world, including innovative projects designed by teams in South Korea, Japan and Italy. More images and information on the winner and finalists after the break.
Twenty projects have been recognized in the 2012 New Zealand Architecture Awards. Proving that design quality is not governed by the size of buildings or type of work, winners in the country’s leading architectural awards program ranged from the Auckland Art Gallery to a Napier artist’s studio, from a chapel in an inner-city church to a café on the side of a mountain, and from an airport hotel to a lakeside school. The jury will select one project from among the New Zealand Architecture Award winners to receive the 2012 New Zealand Architecture Medal, the top award given in any year by the New Zealand Institute of Architects. That decision will be announced at the Awards function in Wellington on 25 May. More images and information on the winners after the break.
With the aim of the Green Architecture competition to stimulate and collect innovative proposals on how architecture, urban design & planning, and landscape architecture could contribute to maintain and improve our biodiversity, Lijbers Architect looked at the decline of natural biodiversity from the perspective of complex human dynamics. By investigating the organized but fundamentally unpredictable behavior of human systems and its consequences for the natural environment, they find that the highly dynamic reallocation and changing of the earth’s habitat by human action falls short in providing vulnerable species of plants and animals with sufficient time to recover. More images and architects’ description after the break.
With the support of Habitat for Humanity and the YMCA, Building Trust International seeks to find well designed homes for the elderly or homeless within some of the World’s richest countries though their ‘HOME’ competition. The growing rate in single occupancy households has led to increased numbers of young and elderly people affected by poverty being forced to live in substandard living conditions and in the worst cases sleeping rough. They are asking designers, engineers, architects and house builders to provide a solution to the housing crisis by offering sustainable, affordable small homes that give those that are alienated or marginalized within society a safe place to live. ask contestants to site their proposals in an urban area of a developed country, develop single occupant designs that are sensitive to the local context and keep to a budget of £20,000 ($30,000). Proposals are due no later than July 31. For more details on the competition and how to register, please visit here.
The Architectural League just announced the winners of No Precedent, the thirty-first annual Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers (formerly known as the Young Architects Forum). The League Prize is one of North America’s most prestigious awards for young architects. The program exemplifies the League’s longstanding commitment to identifying and nurturing the development of talented young architects and designers. This year’s winners are: Jorge Arvizu, Ignacio del Rio, Emmanuel Ramirez, and Diego Ricalde, MMX Studio, Mexico City; Jimenez Lai, Bureau Spectacular, Chicago; Sean Lally, WEATHERS / Sean Lally, Chicago; Seung Teak Lee and Mi Jung Lim, STPMJ, Brooklyn; Michael Szivos, SOFTlab, New York; and Koji Tsutsui, Koji Tsutsui & Associates, San Francisco and Tokyo. More information on the awards, including exhibition and lectures, after the break.
At this year’s 19th annual Canstruction: Exhibition, a Food Drive and Design Contest at the World Financial Center in New York City, 26 design and architecture firms have built gigantic, gravity-defying sculptures from thousands of cans of food. Over 100,000 cans were turned into works of art to help City Harvest feed hungry New Yorkers. The exhibition, free to the public, is up now until November 21, and encourages visitors to donate high-quality non-perishable foods, such as tuna, beans, and canned vegetables. More information on the exhibition can be found here. More images after the break.
Dominique Perrault Architecture shared with us their winning proposal in the international architecture competition launched by General Electric Capital Real Estate for the requalification of the Pont de Sèvres Towers. Their design response, which could at first appear minimalist, proposes a luminous landmark for one of the most ambitious programs in the service sector of the Western Paris area. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Presented by the Department of Architecture at Portland State University, the MeasuringUP symposium is dedicated to advancing regional knowledge and efforts for environmentally responsive architecture. Taking place May 10-11 on the Portland State University campus, the event sets out to discuss the following questions: Are green buildings in use measuring up to their targets? What role do building occupants play in the discussion of performance? How can research in buildings inform and improve design practice? And how can successful strategies be replicated at a larger scale? More information on the event after the break.
The design proposal for the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (MMAW) by Camilio Rebelo results from the fusion of two themes always present in the history of Art expression: nature’s figurative and abstract representation. The museum demonstrates an amalgam of distinct realities, diverse cultures, and simultaneously a neutral setting as well as hold a unique and magnetic identity: Mutant Nature. More images and architects’ description after the break.
A collaborative work by Studio Zec + ahA + Filter, The Siege of Sarajevo Museum – The Art of Living 1992-1996 project is launching a new way of interacting and learning about the phenomenon of the Siege of Sarajevo. Regarding urban survival, Sarajevo has become a powerful symbol and a lesson for current and future generations. The museum will be a unique depository of human knowledge – where human ingenuity, creativity and intelligence will be captured amidst the urban post-cataclysmic realm. It is a heritage snap-shot of faces and voices that have shaped the longest siege in the modern history of mankind. More images and architects’ description after the break.
