Videos

BIG’s first foray into North America, the West 57th Street (W57) Building in New York is approaching completion. After initial releases of renderings, and photographs taken two months after topping out, a new video has surfaced, exhibiting the gradual realization of the firm’s vision. This 32-story tower with 709 apartment units combines a courtyard block and a skyscraper, affectionately dubbed a “courtscraper” by its designer. Reacting to an unorthodox, thin plot of land, the building generates its geometry from a combination of providing natural light, views to the Hudson River and maximizing living space for residents. From one angle, its almost pyramidal structure is clear, and from another, it appears to be glass spire. See the most recent developments in this new video.

A soaring contemporary space for the divine, The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels opened to the public in 2002. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, the Roman Catholic cathedral is a monument to the successes of postmodernism deep in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. The cathedral features modernist decoration, from angular wooden pews to steel chandeliers complete with blown glass orbs, and can host up to 3,000 visitors in its sunlight spaces with ample outdoor space in the adjacent gardens and plaza.

“What makes a livable city is the place where the resident—the occupant—feels in charge. So, for a child, a neighborhood that’s child-friendly. Or for citizens, a place that is physically beautiful, and handsome, and nourishing, and inspirational—a place where there is [a] substantial [amount] of public realm.”

On September 10, the Flight 93 National Memorial opened the doors to its new visitor center complex. Designed by Paul Murdoch Architects, the memorial honors the victims of United Airlines Flight 93, which was one of the four hijacked planes during the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In partnership with EarthCam, the National Park Service, the National Park Foundation, and Friends of Flight 93, a time-lapse video has been produced to document over 1,800 days of construction in under two minutes.

Watching the sunrise over Louis Kahn's Salk Institute for Biological Sciences is arguably one of architecture's most transformative experiences. The famous building has become an emblem of tranquility in architecture thanks to its tremendous location in San Diego, California, a quality enhanced by the carefully planned symmetrical vistas overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Built in 1962 and declared a national historic landmark in 1991, Kahn designed the complex to express an underlying sense of spiritualism, fusing influences from both the International Style and Brutalism anchored by a gently flowing river through the center of the design. Filmmaker-photographer Chang Kim explored the Salk Institute as a part of his series on influential Californian architecture, providing an opportunity to virtually experience the iconic institute.

“I think that [sustainability education] is a massive responsibility of ours: to go beyond what we’re being asked to do, and to teach our clients what a good building is, and to get them to look at buildings in different ways, and get them to do […] the right thing.”

"We're not only invested in building on water. It's not about 'floating architecture,' that's really not what my practice is focused on. It's really the relationship between water and the city, between water and humans."

In this intriguing interview produced by Louisiana Channel, founder of NLÉ Architects Kunlé Adeyemi discusses the relationship of his work to water through projects such as Chicoco Radio, their proposal for the Chicago Lakefront Kiosk contest, and of course the Makoko Floating School project. Reflecting on the role of water in human settlement, Adeyemi explains how designing with in the context of water introduces both challenges and opportunities, adding that around the world he believes "we are just starting to brace ourselves and learn to live with water as opposed to fighting it."

Overlapped with commentary by the late Steve Jobs, a new video update by drone pilot Duncan Sinfield has captured Apple Campus 2 taking shape. According to the report on MacRumors, work is still being done on the main building's multi-level underground parking structure, while the west campus parking structure is nearly complete. The auditorium now has interior walls and progress is being made on the Tantau development housing research facilities.

On October 3 the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, The State of the Art of Architecture will commence. The “largest international survey of contemporary architecture in North America," the exhibition is designed to be a multiplatform event that will host an array of radical ideas, projects and spatial experiments from more than 100 international architects that "demonstrate how creativity and innovation can radically transform our lived experience."

PA#51 - Immeuble Home, Paris 13 por Pavillon-Arsenal

Our friends at the Pavillion de l'Arsenal have shared a collection of videos from their "Paris Architectures" series. Dive into these short films that document remarkable architecture around France's capital city. 

This week we get a glimpse of Hamonic + Masson & Associés' Bâtiment Home.

“These are methods to actually create the optimum amount of freedom for the occupant themselves to figure out how they want to use the space and live with the least […] architectural impediments, and the least […] predetermined idea of where things should go and what should happen where.”

In this interview with DDG | DM Development, Stanley Saitowitz discusses the latest Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects project, a residential building called 8 Octavia in San Francisco. Find out more about Saitowitz’s design principles and methods by watching the video above.

On the Louisiana Channel's latest installment, Burkinabé architect Diébédo Francis Kéré discusses his "Canopy" installation, currently on view at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark, and shares thoughts on the impact of architecture. Designed with a sense of freedom that encourages users to interact with the installation as they wish, Kere's Canopy serves as a flexible gathering space within the museum that is reminiscent of "AFRICA."

“They’re free to use the space like they behave, like they feel," says Kere. "Architecture is about people."

For the past century or so, the key to turning around the fortunes of a community was thought to be simple: large scale, infrastructural overhaul was capable of rethinking a place from the ground up, fixing any problems. The deficiencies with this sort of thinking are now well known, and in recent years small, surgical interventions which preserve the existing qualities of a town have gained traction. But how do you create large-scale change with such small-scale proposals?

The town of Rainham, at the far Eastern reaches of London, might hold an answer. Having preserved its village-like atmosphere despite being part of London's industrial hinterlands, since the turn of the millennium Rainham has been the subject of a series of small developments that have made a big overall change. Projects by Alison Brooks Architects, Maccreanor Lavington, Peter Beard LANDROOM, Studio Weave, Civic, and East have improved key spaces within Rainham while connecting it to the Thames and the nearby marshes - all by being respectful of the town's existing qualities and responsive to each others' interventions.

Videos

Walt Disney has unveiled the company's largest single theme land expansion ever: Star Wars Land. An extraterrestrial land of humanoids, aliens, and droids, the 14-acre development is expected to be built at Orlando, Florida's Disney World and Anaheim, California's Disneyland by 2020.

Nearby in Los Angeles, rumors are saying Star Wars director George Lucas may consider building his self-titled museum there, rather than in Chicago where Lucas is facing fierce opposition over his MAD museum design (more on that here).

Read on to see more images of Star Wars Land and to watch the unveiling of the project.

PA#46 - Student and public housing, Paris 19 por Pavillon-Arsenal

The Pavillion de l'Arsenal have shared a collection of videos from their "Paris Architectures" series. Dive into these short films that document remarkable architecture around France's capital city. 

This week we get a glimpse of Lacaton & Vassal Architectes' Ourcq Jaures Student & Social Housing.

Videos

Designed and developed by Pilosio Building Peace, RE:BUILD is a construction system for building refugee camps and facilities for emergency assistance. The temporary modular structures can be used as houses, schools, clinics, dining areas or any other space that is urgently needed.

A community of 750 units interconnected on, below and above ground, Steven Holl Architects "Linked Hybrid" was an intentional shift away from the monolithic, monofuctional skyscraper. The entire complex was designed to be a "three-dimensional urban space" that encouraged chance encounters beyond the ground floor.

In this video architect Steven Holl talks about the building's design and how it has performed, seven years after the building's completion.

PA# 39 - Bureaux ZAC Claude Bernard, Paris 19 por Pavillon-Arsenal

Our friends at the Pavillion de l'Arsenal have shared a collection of videos from their "Paris Architectures" series. Dive into these short films that document remarkable architecture around France's capital city.

This week we get a glimpse of Sauerbruch Hutton's Bureaux ZAC Claude Bernard.