JA+U presents this brief interview with Japanese Architect Kumiko Inui of the Office of Kumiko Inui. The interview gives an inside look at to how architects choose to design. In Inui’s case, she explains how drawing and sketching is a way for her to explore her ideas in concepts, schematics and tectonics. Sometimes these ideas are not fully formed and Inui uses sketching as a strategy to let her mind wander and unfold her various thoughts on the architectural problems before her. Through iteration and reinterpretation, Inui explains how an idea from the depths of her subconscious, eventually surfaces.

All Hale, a new film written by Anita Banerji, follows the story of college student Alice Walker who finds herself in a small town in Hale County, Alabama building a home for a family that is going through personal and financial hardship. The movie is filmed on location, with a variety of unique Hale County architecture serving as the backdrop for a story that rekindles a love for “home-grown architecture”. At a time when so much emphasis is focused on “starchitects” and the “Bilbao effect”, the story of this movie has a social agenda that highlights the backlash to this phenomena: the rising trend of design/build architecture.

Join us after the break for more on the underlying social inspiration of this film and a sneak peek at the trailer.

In architecture we talk about space and form. We talk about experience and meaning. All of these qualities are inextricably the sensory experience of light, touch, smell and sound. Sound expert Julian Treasure asks architects to consider designing for our ears, citing that the quality of the acoustics of a space affect us physiologically, socially, psychologically and behaviorally.

More after the break.

Architect: Wendell Burnette Architects Location: Ellington, Wisconsin Project Size: 5,000 square feet Photography: Bill Timmerman

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A wood-based nanomaterial composed of cellulose nanocrystals and cellulose nanofibrils is being evaluated at the Forest Products Laboratory, in support of a project at the Army Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Maryland. The material, presumably stronger than Kevlar, is being produced to create clear composites as reinforced glass for clear applications. US Forest Services has opened a $1.7 million pilot plant in Wisconsin to develop the wood-based nanomaterial, whose future applications may include windshield and high performance glass.

With last year’s opening of the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero and the near-completion of the World Trade Center One, Daniel Libeskind’s vision for the World Trade Center site is close to presenting the future of NYC’s downtown financial center, 11 years after the attacks. Studio Daniel Libeskind was selected to develop the master plan for the site in 2003, and since has been coordinating with NYC’s numerous agencies and individual architects to rebuild the site. The project, in Libeskind’s words, is a “healing of New York”, a “site of memory” and “a space to witness the resilience of America”.

Follow us after the break for more on the elements and progress of the master plan.

3-D Printing technology is developing at quickening pace as both engineers and architects experiment with its technological and social potential. Consider Enrico Dini’s D-Shape printer that prints large scale stone structures out of sand and an inorganic binder or Neri Oxman’s research at MIT which involves a 3-D printing arm and nozzles that can print with a variety of different materials, from concrete to recycled plastic.

Dutch firm DUS Architects, in collaboration with Ultimaker Ltd, Fablab Protospace, and Open Coop, have added another 3-D printing machine to the list known as KamerMaker, the room builder. KamerMaker is the world’s first mobile 3d printer and has the ability to print “rooms” that are up to 11 feet high and 7 feet wide. The machine was unveiled at OFF PICNIC, a precursor to Amsterdam’s annual PICNIC technology festival.

Join us after the break for more.

HelloWood - a creative, professional and social program with a message that mobilizes more and more young people – was organized for the 3rd year by MOMEline – designworks, together with its new partner Reflekt social architecture studio. The week-long creative camp included 200 Hungarian and international students who worked together to realize social and cultural spaces for eight north-eastern Hungarian communities. The social mission of the project was showcased at Sziget, Europe’s Best Major Festival. Cameron Sinclair, the co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, commended HelloWood’s inspirational initiative for aspiring to social change with thoughtful design for marginalized communities.

Join us after the break for details on some of the projects.

ArchDaily is proud to present images from the 2012 Venice Biennale featuring the reconstruction of Anupama Kundoo’s Wall House. The installation is an opportunity for the architect to reassess intial strategies and continue to explore the experiments of the original construction in Auroville, India. The replica was built by Indian craftspeople and Italian builders. The original design for the house aimed to respond to the environment and culture in which it is situated, taking into consideration construction techniques, material applications, and site strategies. The reconstruction, though absent from a landscape, displays spatial innovation and a collaborative use of materials that evokes an excitement about the integration of culture and structural techniques.

Join us after the break for images from the 2012 Venice Biennale.

The winners of d3′s annual Natural Systems International Architectural Design Competition for 2012 have been revealed! With three top prizes and ten special mentions, the results of the competition includes a variety of proposals in response to the prompt which promotes investigation of natural systems from microscopic to universal toward determining new architectonic strategies. The competitions invites architects, designers, engineers, and students to explore the potential of nature-based analysis and documentation in architectural and design applications in urbanism, architecture, interiors and designed objects. The jury included a panel of architects and designers engaged in sustainable practices and computational explorations.

Join us after the break to view the winning projects.

Construction for the Summer International Shopping Mall in Zhuhai, China has begun. The project is a mixed-use, 360,000 sqm development is designed by 10 Design and led by partner Gordon Affleck. The client challenged the design to move beyond the “black box” retail model, resulting in the diverse arrangement of forms and spaces of the final design. Follow us after the break for more on this project.

The Austrian Pavilion for the 2012 Venice Biennale is a collaboration of Wolfgang Tschapeller, Rens Veltman and Martin Perktold, a team that consists of interdisciplinary fields of study, thought and action from architecture and art. The contribution, entitled “Hands have no tears to flow. Reports from / without Architecture” invites visitors to comprehend architecture as a social and cultural phenomenon and to experience it from different perspectives and views. It explores this year’s theme, Common Ground, with a discourse on the sociopolitical function of architecture. The exhibit will be on view at the Biennale until November 25th.

The Luxembourg Pavilion for the 2012 Venice Biennale, entitled Futura Bold? Post-City: Considering the Luxembourg case, is a speculative exploration of the future issues that cities of the 21st century will be facing. Using Luxembourg as a case study, Post-City seeks an attitude toward the forces of the urban environment instead of concluding with an urban proposal. Post-City poses pertinent questions that arise from Luxembourg’s urban conditions today. Posed as a platform for discussion, the pavilion will be on view at the Ca’ del Duca as part of the 2012 Venice Biennale until November 25th.

Join us after the break for more on this project.

MoMA‘s new installation 9 + 1 Ways of Being Political will exhibit works from the museum’s collection that offer fresh perspectives on the last 50 years of architecture that is a signature of the evolving conditions of our political context. The exhibit is in response to the general perspectives of today that consider architecture as having been overwhelmed by our economic realities. Through a range of media, including a performance piece by Andrés Jaque Arquitectos (at MoMA PS1 on September 16 and 23), 9 + 1 Ways of Being Political argues that architecture maintains its political influence with a variety of critiques that span decades. The exhibit is divided into nine sections and examines the blurs between social, political and public space in which architecture resides. 9 + 1 Ways of Being Political: 50 Years of Political Stances in Architecture and Urban Design opens tomorrow, September 12th, and will run through March 25, 2013.

Designer: Morag Myerscough of Studio Myerscough Customized ice cream bicycle: Luke Morgan Furniture: Morag Myerscough and Luke Morgan Location: Waller Way, Greenwich, London Se10 8JA, UK Project Year: 2012 Project Area: 140 sqm Client: Cathedral Group

NBBJ’s design for the Amazon’s new headquarters in downtown Seattle, Washington, promises to consolidate the companies currently scattered buildings into a 3-block development that includes high-rise towers, a variety of open spaces, and landscaped plazas. The 3.3 million square foot design was presented to the city’s Design Review Board (DRB) in great detail outlining the division of the each of the buildings, their integration into the downtown urban fabric and the synthesis of the currently underdeveloped Denny’s Triangle.

Architects: Cook + Fox Architects Location: Brooklyn, NY Project Name: The Hegeman Client: Common Ground Comunities Completion: 2012 Size: 64,469 SF

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