In an effort to revitalize an old pumping station in Pila, Poland, this first prize winning proposal by mode:lina successfully combines green thinking with eco-technology to turns a space into a place where you can learn, practice, and get accustomed to one of the best ways to help your environment - growing your own food. These three aspects: nature+mineral water+education are the base of their concept. By combining them with each other, they hope to once again promote the city and give back a pumping function to an old building. More images and architects' description after the break.
The Woolworth Building @ 100 Exhibtion, taking place at the Skyscraper Museum in New York City until July 14, 2013, celebrates its centennial year in the process of conversion, with office space remaining below and luxury residences planned for the upper tower. Still radiant on the lower Manhattan skyline, the landmark heralds both the past and future of New York as it became the preeminent silhouette on the New York skyline and took the title of world's tallest office building in 1913 when eighty thousand incandescent bulbs illuminated the New York night. The brilliant spectacle was a career-crowning achievement for the tower's owner, the five-and-dime store king Frank W. Woolworth, who paid for the skyscraper with his personal fortune and took a hands-on role in every decision of its design. For more information on the event, please visit here.
As an update to last year's post on WOHA's 'Breathing Architecture' exhibition, their work has seen great success in Frankfurt and Taichung. Now on its last leg, it will travel to Taipei and be on display from March 22-May 10 at the "Mobile Museum - SEED project". Reminding us of bold visions of the future, in which plants reclaim nature for themselves, the architects realize the permeation of buildings and landscape, and of interiors and exteriors in projects. WOHA’s tropical architecture is permeable, leafy and interspersed with community spaces, which truly capture the essence of how architecture is breathing. For more information, please visit here. More images can be viewed after the break.
Designed by the collaborative team composed of Harry C. Bougadellis & Associate Architects, Georges Batzios, andMartha Schwartz Partners, their proposal for the Re-Think Athens competition, which was named as the 2nd runner up, is an urban landscape element which will characterize the entire center of Athens. Titled 'Belvederes of Athens ', their design concept creates a high velocity urban corridor void of anchors or rest by structuring the street space into a series of terraces, expressive belvederes define individual urban spaces along this perpetual slope. More images and architects' description after the break.
The architecture student team collaboration of Dagmara Sietko- Sierkiewicz and David Weclawowicz of the Wroclaw University of Technology shared with us their first prize winning proposal in the AIV Schinkel- Wettbewerb 2013 competition. With this year’s topic of "TXL transformation", their challenge was to develop a quarter made from a new typology of hybrid-buildings, containing a manufacture (production hall), flats and retail services after closing the airport Berlin Tegel in the year 2014. This winning concept focuses on using the production facilities after hours as a leisure destination. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Studio BANG shared with us their winning proposal for the IBA Basel competition to design a settlement for commuters in Rheinweiler, Germany. With a strong focus on the last part of the commuters daily way back home, this new settlement is composed of 3 different row-housing units with 28 of them forming a structure that is slightly denser than the surrounding single-family house units. Thus, lower building costs and a closer community is enabled. More images and architects' description after the break.
Designed by UGO Architecture, their 'Culture Island' project is a model of a public library meant for small towns up to 15,000 inhabitants. The starting point for creating their concept was the research carried out in 2010 by the Office for Readership Research of the National Library and the Public Opinion Research Centre TNS OBOP. The research shows that 56% of Poles did not read a single book during the year. Thus, they started to think about how to make the citizens and the authorities of the municipality (the latter will finance the project) interested in the idea of model public libraries in spite of the poor readership. More images and architects' description after the break.
Setting new standards of sustainability through the design of the Passive House "Bruck", Peter Ruge Architekten’s project is a model apartment complex, consisting of 36 one room staff flats, 6 two room executive suites and 4 three-bedroom model apartments currently being built in southern China. With a 95% energy savings over that of a conventional Chinese residential building, the project is the first housing of its kind to be realized in the countries damp, warm, southern climate. Construction just began last month and is expected to be completed within the upcoming months. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Curatorial practice as it emerged during the twentieth century is being extensively recast. The tremendous change in the status of the object, culture, the various disciplines, information and education, implies an inevitable transformation of the curator’s role and competences. A renewed interest for curatorial practice has recently emerged within the field of architecture. For the third year, the CCA (Canadian Center for Architecture) offers two curatorial opportunities with the generous support of the Power Corporation of Canada: the Young Curator Program and the Curatorial Internships Program. More information after the break.
The New York office of The Trust for Public Land recently issued an RFP for a feasibility study, framework plan, and conceptual design for the QueensWay--a potentially transformative 3.5-mile project which will enhance quality of life in central and southern Queens, New York by reclaiming the abandoned Rockaway Rail Line, a largely elevated rail corridor. The project, which includes a pedestrian and bicycle pathway connecting the communities of Rego Park, Forest Hills, Richmond Hill, and Ozone Park, will provide a new public green space, celebrating the cultural diversity of Queens with art, sculpture, and food from around the world. There is a mandatory Pre-Submittal Meeting March 28, and the proposal submittal deadline is April 23. For more information, please visit here.
Striving to provide the nation’s children with a healthy place to learn is not a new concept. As long as there have been school buildings, there have been advocates for architectural improvements to ensure that students had proper lighting, heating, and fresh air. But with the real problems of overcrowding, age, and budget crises, many green visions have fallen short. With that being said, the Green Schools exhibition at the National Building Museum, which began this month and will run until January 4, 2014, will look at several examples of what is possible—at the future that, in some places, is already here—and provide resources for all of us to consider as we look toward constructing the next generation of school buildings. For more information, please visit here.
Celebrating one of the great master builders of the twentieth century, the Louis Kahn exhibition is taking place now until November 8, 2013. The 'Power of Architecture’, presented by the Vitra Design Museum is the first major retrospective of Kahn’s work in two decades. The exhibition encompasses an unprecedented and diverse range of architectural models, original drawings, photographs and films. All of Kahn’s important projects are extensively documented — from his early urban planning concepts and single-family houses to monumental late works. More information after the break.
The Architecture & Design Society at the Art Institute of Chicago is presenting the Butler-VanderLinden Lecture on Architecture featuring Wang Shu: 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate and co-founder of Amateur Architecture Studio, founded by him and his wife, Lu Wenyu, in 1997 in Hangzhou, China. They are known for a keen dedication to handicraft, a penchant for sustainable building methods, and thoughtful projects that are contextualized within Chinese culture and history. The firm’s work has been described by the Pritzker Prize jury as “timeless, deeply rooted in its context, and yet universal. The event will be held in the Rubloff Auditorium on March 28th from 6:30pm-7:30pm. For more information, please visit here.
Aires Mateus Architectes will be delivering a lecture on March 28th at 7:00pm at the Pavillon de l'Arsenal. Manuel Aires Mateus will be presenting one of their well-known projects, the Alcacer do Sal Residence, located in Alcacer do Sal, Portugal. Based on an attentive reading of the life of a very specific kind of community, this beautiful project is a sort of micro-society designed with its own rules. The reduct mobility of those who will live in the building suggests that any displacement should be an emotive and variable experience. For more information, please visit here.
Adopted by the City of Green Bay in 2003, the Smart Growth Plan 2022 relied heavily on the participation of the citizens of Green Bay and provides city leaders with a guide to use while assessing policy and development proposals. The city of Green Bay Planning Commission is now accepting proposals for the Downtown Green Bay Master Plan Update. The selected firm must have a deep portfolio in results-proven city planning and design projects with an understanding of the urban redevelopment process. In demonstrating competence in developing and translating context-minded plans into actionable implementation strategies, the firm must be capable of creating an exciting and supportable vision for downtown that is grounded in local opportunities and realities.The deadline for submissions is March 25. To download the full RFP and for more information, please visit here.
As part of AIA San Francisco's continuous effort to highlight women in architecture and better understand the imbalance of gender in the profession, they are hosting two great women for a conversation on firm culture, leadership and mentorship which will take place March 19th from 6:00pm-8:00pm PST. Carole Wedge, FAIA - Shepley Bulfinch's first female President in its 130 year history- will talk with emerging designer Jessica Lane of EHDD to discuss Carole's start at Shepley Bulfinch, in 1986, working in the mailroom as a co-op architecture student at the Boston Architectural Center, as well as her appointment, in 2004, as president. For more information, please visit here.
The only design fair in the Middle East and South Asia, Design Days Dubai is the most diverse design fair globally presenting galleries from six continents. On view March 18-21, R 20th Century will be presenting iconic works by Wendell Castle, Oscar Niemeyer and Joaquim Tenreiro, and new pieces by The Haas Brothers, kelly behun | STUDIO, David Wiseman, Thaddeus Wolfe, and Jeff Zimmerman. More information on the event after the break.
The National Building Museum, in partnership with the Environmental Film Festival will be showing two films related to both the natural and built environment. Taking place Sunday, March 17 from 11:30am to 12:45pm, 'Mother Nature's Child' focuses on nature’s powerful role in children’s health and development is explored through the experience of toddlers, children in middle childhood and adolescents, from Vermont to Washington, D.C. Then, on Thursday, March 21 from 6:30pm-7:30pm, 'Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line' film includes a discussion of their projects and interviews with New York City planning commissioner Amanda Burden and other civic figures. For more information on the events, please visit here.
