Shohei Shigematsu, the Director of OMA New York, has been selected to lead the design of the exhibition space for the Costume Institute’s Spring 2016 Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Titled manus x machina: fashion in an age of technology, the exhibition will focus on the intersection of technology and fashion and “how designers are reconciling the handmade and the machine-made in the creation of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear.” Organized by Andrew Bolton, the Curator of The Costume Institute, the exhibition will feature over 100 samples of “haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear, dating from an 1880s Worth gown to a 2015 Chanel suit.”
This design/build competition, sponsored by the Washington Architectural Foundation, features amazing structures made entirely of canned goods by local architecture and construction teams. Canstruction benefits the Capital Area Food Bank. See entries on display in the Great Hall from November 22–29 and watch De-Canstruction on November 30 as the teams disassemble their entries to donate the canned food used in their projects. Visit go.nbm.org/canstruction for more information.
India Under Construction (IUC) is a dialogue confluence of how smart management and planning have made some cites and rural basins, the benchmarks for habitat development. Now in its third year, the India Under Construction conference has tackled critical urban issues such as “Informal Cities” on inclusive development and “Design as Social Capital” on the key role of design in the creation of the urban fabric. This year’s theme is Smart SoCIeTY and it aims to veer the conversation more to ‘society’ and less to ‘smart’; or at least the popular definition of smart. It aims to give voice to practices and professionals who are intensely engaged in making the urban experience meaningful, responsible, sustainable and inclusive.
Main entrance and Silo, Dacheng Flour Factory, Shekou, Shenzhen; Image Courtesy of 2015 UABB
The 2015 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (2015 UABB), the world’s only biennale dedicated to the themes of urbanism and architecture, announced its highlight exhibits. Based in Shenzhen, one of China’s first Special Economic Zones, 2015 UABB will feature presentations from over 72 exhibitors from six continents who will all explore the theme “Re-Living The City”. Opening to the public on 4 December this year, 2015 UABB will take over the former Dacheng Flour Factory in Shekou, a declining factory complex built in 1980s that will be transformed into a multifaceted exhibition venue especially for the biennale.
From 22 to 25 of Octobre, the Gracia District will host the ninth international Architecture festival, Eme3. The aim of the festival is to discover, understand and share new forms of architecture and planning relating to the realities of today's societies, through the reflection and exchange between professionals involved and the audience.
Colourful fantasy worlds full of speech bubbles and motion lines. Buildings with human characteristics, and invisible architecture. Since the early years of the 20th century, architects have shown an enduring interest in the comic strip as a means to explore their field of activity. What is it about comics that architects find so liberating and interesting?
The winning designs from the inaugural winter stations competition in Toronto
Winter Stations is once again calling on the international design community to submit their visions for Toronto's winter waterfront as registration opens for the 2016 competition. Submissions are due on November 12, 2015 with winners announced in early January 2016.
This coming October, the international month of architecture, BABEL is launching a new project: Macau Architecture Promenade. MAP opening is schedule for 10/10 at 6.30 at the Creative Albergue and it will last until 1/11.
Bill Pedersen is a renowned architect and founding design partner of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, which is currently leading New York City's Hudson Yards Project. Less known, but equally important, is Pedersen's design versatility. He holds multiple design patents and recently created a new line of furniture, Loop de Loop, that is beautiful, comfortable, and technically innovative. Join Pedersen and Donald Albrecht, the City Museum's Curator of Architecture and Design, for a conversation exploring not only the new furniture and its influences, but also the history of architect-designed furnishings. This event is part of the Museum’s ongoing Design Talks series examining the today's leading trends in design, architecture, graphics, and multimedia.
On Thursday October 15, 2015, in conjunction with Archtober and New York Archives Week, the Guggenheim will host its third Wikipedia edit-a-thon - to enhance articles related to women in architecture on Wikipedia. The Guggenheim aims to further the goals of Ada Lovelace Day for STEM, and Art+Feminism for art, in a field that, by its nature combines both. The Guggenheim will work alongside ArchiteXX, the founders of WikiD: Women Wikipedia Design #wikiD, the international education and advocacy program working to increase the number of Wikipedia articles on women in architecture and the built environment.
Last year, Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century took the world of economics by storm. His historical analysis and critique of the capitalist system fed perfectly into the wider narrative being constructed in the wake of the global financial crisis. But what lessons does Piketty hold for architects? In an article for The Architect's Newspaper, OMA partner Reinier de Graaf examines the way that the development of architecture in the 21st century mirrored that of economics, as the design of buildings became simultaneously a symptom and a cause of trends in capital. Read the full article - including de Graaf's question for the architects of the 21st century - here.
The 3rd “Earth God Temple” Student Design Competition
The Earth God (Tu Di Gong / 土地公) Temple, the symbol of humans' respect for Nature, exists in harmony and as one with the land and environment. However, current urban development practices have caused the gradual shrinking of this civic and religious center, as the property has been frequently ceded to the city under expropriation regulations. In response to this issue, Tai Square Arts and Aesthetics Association has organized the "Earth God Temple Student Design Competition", inviting young students with creativity and ideas to evaluate and provide a solution that will improve the situation of the temple and its surrounding landscape in a new location, ultimately granting the Earth God and the residents of the neighborhood a better environment.
Videos
Sergio Sebastian Architects, Archeological Space in Daroca, Spain
The Prize conceived and promoted by the Department of Architecture at Ferrara University and Fassa Bortolo company gives visibility to contemporary restoration and recovery projects (in this fifth edition of the competition only for professionals) of interest with a total prize money of 13.000 euros.
We enjoy looking at historic interiors, but there’s more to them than meets the eye. Behind the walls, below the floors, and underneath the painted surfaces are the back-stories few people have heard about the city’s known and not-so-known landmarks. The authors of Interior Landmarks: Treasures of New York (The Monacelli Press; September 29, 2015) will take us behind the scenes of some of the City’s most interesting spaces. They will tell little-known and fascinating stories about places like City Hall and the Tweed Courthouse, Loew’s Paradise Theater, the Four Seasons Restaurant, the Dime Savings, and Manufacturers Trust bank buildings. They will share stories of the political wrangling, financial skullduggery, design competitions, preservation challenges, and restoration problems that designers and builders dealt with to provide insight into why these venues are so special and how even being a landmark doesn’t guarantee that a great space will remain safe from damage, or change. This program delves into the themes of our exhibition Saving Place: 50 Years of New York City Landmarks, on view through January 3.
The Irish Architecture Foundation has opened a new competition to design a play and skate park in Dublin, Ireland in collaboration with The Matheson Foundation and Dublin City Council. Located on “The Lawns” in Le Fanu Park of Ballyfermot, the project is a unique opportunity for inter-disciplinary design work. A wide range of creative practitioners are invited to apply – designers, architects, play therapists, skate/BMX professionals, wild-life experts, musicians or anyone else with a passion for working in community contexts.
Irish Architecture Foundation in collaboration with The Matheson Foundation and Dublin City Council are launching a competition to design a play and skate park for ‘The Lawns’ in Le Fanu Park, Dublin 10. The competition is now open. The 'Play Park: Ballyfermot' project is a unique opportunity for an innovative inter-disciplinary design collective, with a passion for working in community contexts to develop a world class play and skate space for young people in Dublin.
Tile of Spain presents: Ceramic Solutions - Innovations Pushing Boundaries of Design
Join Tile of Spain for a panel discussion on the state of the art of ceramics. Presenters include: Dr. Martin Bechthold, Professor, Harvard GSD Ryan Fasan, Tile of Spain Consultant
Nka Foundation is issuing a challenge to designers, architects and builders to use their creativity to come up with innovative designs for modest, affordable houses that can be built locally to replace the rural mud house type. The challenge is to design a mud house type of about 2400 sq feet that sleeps 8 to 10 persons to be built on a plot size of 80 x 100 feet. The construction site will be Abetenim Arts Village, near Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The building should be designed for use by either musicians, theatre artists, potters, sculptors, painters, textile artists, designers, writers, or media arts practitioners. Total costs of constructing the design entry must not exceed $7,000 (USD) for materials and labor; land value is excluded from this price point.