The 361° Conference, an initiative by Indian Architect & Builder to create a relevant platform for dialogue on architecture in India, will take place on February 19th to the 21st in Mumbai. This year's edition, based on the theme of "Architecture and Identity," will include renowned speakers, including Steven Holl and Dr. B V Doshi. More details, after the break...
For the second year in a row, Indexnewspaper will organize ‘Porto Academy’ at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) in Portugal from the 21st to the 28th of July 2014.
The academy will consist of a weeklong workshop in which students will have the chance to work closely with: Antón Garcia-Abril, Cecilia Puga, Diogo Seixas Lopes (Barbas Lopes), Emilio Marin, Jan De Vylder (Vylder Van Vinck Tallieu), José Paulo dos Santos, Nuno Valentim, Paulo Providência, Smiljan Radic and Tetsuo Kondo. Participants will attend twelve lectures from those architects as well as three master classes from Valerio Olgiati (and two more architects soon to be revealed).
Porto Academy will take place in the FAUP's famous building, designed by Álvaro Siza. More details, after the break...
What would happen if a structure could transform in real‐time? AA Athens Visiting School embarks on its’ third cycle to address issues of change, adaptation and interaction in the design of an enclosed volume. In this time of social, economic, and environmental uncertainty, it's a quality for the built environment to regard transformation as a way of practice.
Revolutions have occurred through architectural history and vary widely in terms of design methods and fabrication techniques. Focusing on inspiring natural form‐finding techniques, AA Athens VS works towards producing a large‐scale interactive prototype that alters in real‐time the perception of interior space.
Opened to a full house, last year, at the Design Exchange in downtown Toronto, Considering the Quake: Seismic Design on the Edge, explores the elegant, and oftentimes, elusive intersection between the aesthetics of architectural form and the technicality of structural design, through the lens of earthquake engineering. Curated by Professor Ghyslaine McClure, P.Eng and founded/curated by Dr. Effie Bouras, of the McGill University Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, this exhibit emerged from their research on the resiliency of emergency shelters and civil protection buildings, such as schools and hospitals, in earthquake zones throughout the world.
Envisioned as a "science center" for design, the exhibition, which is tailored not only for the architecture and engineering communities, but an invested public as well, will feature full-sized seismic technology utilized in buildings, architectural and structural models, seismic testing videos, including clips from Tomas Koolhaas’ new documentary titled REM, and a 500N shake table from North American Wave Spectrum Science and Trade Inc.
Building upon its 15 years of experience, the Arquine Conference presents MEXTRÓPOLI, a festival that will position Mexico City as an epicenter of architecture and a leader in creative transformation.
MEXTRÓPOLI is a critical project that will encourage and promote culture, urban regeneration, and the artistic heritage of Mexico city.
MEXTRÓPOLI will host over 30 academic, cultural and tourist activities, held principally in the historic center of the city.
MEXTRÓPOLI invites the public to connect to the city in six different ways:
Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter has won a competition to design a landmark urban sculpture in Aarhus Harbour, a new district in Denmark's second largest city. The tower, shaped like a "sharp origami cut," is designed to "celebrating vision and social encounters at the edge of the water." Made of welded steel plates, the structure will be manufactured in a shipyard before being sailed to site.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) welcomes six Los Angeles-based creatives whose work embraces cross-fertilization, collaboration, and adaptation—thus creating new methodologies for research and implementation in the fields of architecture and beyond.
FXFOWLE and CO Architects (CO|FXFOWLE) have teamed up to design a seven-story School of Nursing building for the Columbia University Medical Center campus in upper Manhattan. The result of an invited design competition, the design will provide 65% more space than the school's current location and will be designed to achieve LEED Silver certification.
The King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) is a new 55-million-square-foot mixed-use urban community in Riyadh. Among its public buildings under construction is FXFOWLE Architects’ Museum of the Built Environment (MOBE), which explores the role of social, economic, and environmental issues in the development of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the larger region. The museum will exhibit works related to the history of the arts and architecture on the Arabian peninsula, as well as document trends in sustainable thinking and their role in the future of the built environment. The museum puts the traditionally private culture of Saudi Arabia on display, creating a building for residents and visitors.
London's King's Cross has seen a surge of redevelopment in recent years, the most iconic of which - John McAslan + Partner's new concourse for King's Cross Station - was completed last year. The area has also been defined by the new Central Saint Martin's campus, designed by Stirling Prize winner Stanton Williams, and Google's new London headquarters. Plans have now been unveiled for Gridiron (One St. Pancras Square), a 50,000 square foot office building nestled between St. Pancras International and King's Cross Stations, designed by David Chipperfield Architects and set for completion in the first half of 2014.
New designs of the six-story, 34,000 square foot building on the intersection of Broadway and Spring Street in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District in New York City led Commissioner Fred Bland to proclaim it as the most exciting building proposed during his tenure.
The proposal, designed by BKSK Architects, sits on a $147.9 million site purchased in December of 2012 by prominent developers, setting a per-buildable-square-foot record for SoHo retail. Their early intent of demolishing the existing building and constructing a new one garnered significant opposition. That is, till they revealed what was to replace it.
After fifty years of neglect the Empire Stores, located next to the Brooklyn Bridge, are now the most coveted waterfront property in New York. Midtown Equity has partnered with Studio V Architecture to adaptively reuse the 19th-century coffee warehouse into 380,000 square-feet of office, restaurant and commercial space, highlighted by a Brooklyn-centric cultural museum. "After the Brooklyn Bridge," says Joe Cayre, Chairman of Midtown Equities, "the Civil War era Empire Stores are the most iconic structures on the Brooklyn waterfront. As a Brooklyn native who raised my family in the borough, it is an honor for my firm to be chosen for the redevelopment of the Empire Stores."
Learn more after the break...
In 2003, BOLLES + WILSON won a national competition that gained them commission of the new Luxemburg National Library (BnL Bibliothèque Nationale de Luxembourg). After years of hibernation, the 39,000 square meter library will break ground in 2014.
Follow us after the break for more analysis on the library...
CAADRIA 2014: The 19th International Conference of the Association of Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia is set to take place May 14-17 in Kyoto, Japan. Hosted by Kyoto Institute of Technology, keynote speakers include Paul Richens (Professor, University of Bath), Joichi "Joi" Ito (Director of the MIT Media Lab), and Hitoshi Abe (Chair, Professor, UCLA & Architect).
With the theme, 'Rethinking Comprehensive Design: Speculative Counterculture,' the conference is influenced by Buckminster Fuller’s holistic worldview as the concept of Comprehensive Design was proliferated by the publication of the Whole Earth Catalog, an American counterculture publication, by Stewart Brand in the late 1960s and early 1970s. 45 years have passed since then, and now the concept of Comprehensive Design has evolved from a utopian idea to an actualized design tool. More information after the break.
On schedule to be China’s tallest and the world’s second tallest skyscraper, the Gensler -designed Shanghai Tower has topped out at 632 meters (2,074 feet). Upon completion in 2014, the spiraling megastructure will complete a trio of towers - including the adjacent Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center - to become the centerpiece of the city’s Lujiazui commercial district - one of Asia’s leading financial centers which developed from farmland in just over 20 years.
Defined by series of distinctive sky gardens, the state-of-the-art tower will house Class-A office and retail space, along with a luxury hotel and cultural venues.
Continue reading to learn how the Shanghai Tower’s structure saved millions and why it will achieve LEED Gold.
