Located at the threshold of one of New South Wales’ most beautiful cities, Wollongong, the Bass and Flinders Gateway Project marks the first project in Australia by Spark Architects. The project consists of a 300 unit residential development supported by a modicum of commercial space. The project currently is going through the planning process and is scheduled to start construction in 2015. More images and architects' description after the break.
One of the selected entries in the MOMA PS1 Rockaway Call for Ideas, the 'Occupy Infrastructure' proposal by Barkow Leibinger Architects is three-fold. The main idea is to construct a network of retaining berms based on priority and need with local materials and by the communities that they protect. These berms are not continuous (like a wall) but overlap to allow beach access, gateways, and to maintain visual and spatial openness and continuity between beaches and neighborhoods. More images and architects' description after the break.
Designed by HYHW Architects and Planners, the local development strategy and strategic focus of the Madong Masterplan is aimed at building upon history, automotive culture, sports culture, encouraging advances in manufacturing and modern services, with cultural charmand continual innovation in a technologically advanced green city. Serviced by a highway to the North and with Jiading Forest to the South-West, it benefits from convenient transport connections and the close proximity to the ecological landscape. More images and architects’ description after the break.
On July 9th, The Building Centre will debut "We Made 2012", an exhibition that looks back at the venues, landscape and legacy that made up the London 2012 Olympic Games and the individuals and organizations that made it possible. The exhibition celebrates the UK construction industry composed of architects, engineers, manufacturers, suppliers, and contractors. This exhibition was made possible partially because the on January 27, 2013 the British Olympic Association launched the ‘Suppliers Recognition Scheme' which allowed members of the construction industry to apply for a free license, which, once issued, allowed participants to talk freely about their contributions.
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Taking its name from the elevation above which the city is safe from floods, The '28+' proposal by Michael Sorkin Studio for the MOMA PS1 Rockaway Call for Ideas is a habitable levee. Not simply does it allow the protection – and selective replacement – of buildings otherwise at risk, it actually increases the stock of waterfront residences and commercial spaces and improves public transit connections to the rest of the city. More images and architects' description after the break.
Located in Toender, a city in southern Denmark, close to the Danish and German border, the new City hall extension by HAO (Holm Architecture Office) + Sebastian Misiurek is designed to optimize interior flexible space while taking full advantage of the beautiful landscape that surrounds it. Integrating a high degree of spatial flexibility, this enables the building to programmatically change over time, and incorporates a number of informal work and meeting spaces. More images and architects’ description after the break.
YAC just launched their latest competition, titled 'Post-Quake Visions,' which aims to find out innovative ways to overcome the effects of a seismic catastrophe over a medieval Mediterranean town. Participants are encouraged to rethink and redesign the quake-inflicted gaps left inside ancient urban tissues. This endeavour hopes to revamp such scarred ecosystem under cultural and economical keys, with the goal of finding out urban perspectives and social possibilities once undisclosed or unconceivable. 'Early bird' registration ends September 1, and the deadline for submissions is November 11. More information after the break.
As a continuation to their in-depth review on the render, CLOG has selected 60 images from an international group of architects and design studios - including Zaha Hadid Architects, BIG, Mansilla+Tuñón Architects, and visualhouse - to serve as case studies in the exhibition New Views: The Rendered Image in Architecture. Now on view at the Art Institute of Chicago through January 5th, 2014, New Views will explore the diversity of rendering types being produced today and their effect on contemporary architecture. More information can be found here.
On Wednesday Peter Clegg, senior partner at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Chair of the RIBA Awards jury, announced that the Institute is currently holding discussions about introducing a 'test of time' award, reports the Architects' Journal.
Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas will design a new project for the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. RIA Novosti and The Calvert Journal report that the new building will be “located in the museum's storage facility in Staraya Derevnya in the north of the city” and that it “will house the Hermitage Library, the Costume Museum, the gallery's publishing arm, and a public event space.” This projects marks Koolhaas’ continued presence in Russia; he has been collaborating and teaching at the Strelka Institute and is currently working on the Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture in Moscow's Gorky Park.
In a few weeks the Senate will likely vote on an amendment that would remove the 2030 sustainability targets for federal buildings that many architects and US citizens fought to put into motion six years ago. The AIA has requested for your help to prevent this and coordinate visits with Senators while they are back home during the Independence holiday recess next week. Please visit the AIA website here to see how you can help protect federal sustainability targets.
Designed by PINKCLOUD, their 'Pop-Up Hotel' proposal was recently selected as the winning entry in the 2013 Radical Innovation in Hospitality competition. Their concept focuses on the transformation of empty Class A office spaces into hospitality spaces through a simple setup. They intend to partner with various owner/leasing agencies around Midtown in Manhattan to identify buildings in need of revitalization. A uniquely urban experience, the Pop-Up hotel will feature a variety of amenities and rooms catering to a wide diversity of clientele. More images and architects' description after the break.
Open to all architects and designers nation-wide, Constructed Realities is a biennial awards program established at the behest of the Small Firms Committee of AIA San Francisco. Recognizing exemplary performance in a broad range of architectural work, the program aims to inform the public of the diversity, value, and the social power of architecture. Entrants need not be AIASF members, and firms of all sizes are encouraged to enter with projects of varied scale and scope. The deadline for submissions is July 18. For more information, please visit here.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reports that it has elected Elizabeth Richter Chu, the CEO of Richter Architects in Corpus Christi, Texas, to serve as the 2014 AIA first vice president/president-elect and 2015 AIA president. James Easton Rains, Jr., FAIA, and Thomas V. Vonier, FAIA, will each serve as vice president from 2014 through 2015; James P. Grounds, AIA, will be the Institute’s Treasurer.
Frank Gehry recently sat down with Foreign Policy’s Benjamin Pauker for a candid interview covering everything from his distaste for Dubai (it’s “on steroids [...] like every cruddy city in the world”), his dislike for cold, minimalist architecture (“I need a place where I can come home and take my shoes off”); and, oddly enough, his approval of benevolent dictators - albeit with taste, of course. As Gehry put it: “It's really hard to get consensus, to have a tastemaker. There is no Robert Moses anymore. Michael Bloomberg wants to be one. In fact, he promised he would build 10 more of my buildings in New York, but, you know, he hasn't yet. Architecture's difficult … [sigh].” Read the full interview here.
Inspired by Chris Marker's 'photo-roman' La Jetée, this selected entry for the MOMA PS1 Rockaway Call for Ideas by Matter Architecture Practice is is a fictional story of a real place. The Narrator speaks a remembrance presented as being that of her daughter (now growing up in New York) in the year 2096, when she will be 90 years old. The image of this daughter as an old woman is one taken by the Narrator of her grandmother - or the daughter's great-grandmother -on a boat, in New York, when she was 90 years old. More architects' description after the break.
Every year, students at Yale design and build a single-family home in a low-income neighborhood. Called the Vlock Building Project, it’s one of the longest-standing and most admired public-interest design-build programs in the US. Unfortunately, it’s under threat. A/N reports professor Paul Brouard was assaulted and robbed on-site in Mid-May (he has since recovered). Despite the desires of dept. head Robert A.M. Stern, Yale University demanded the project be abandoned and re-located to an approved neighborhood. Did Yale make the right decision? Let us know what you think after the break.