By creating a space which is open onto the city and welcoming for visitors, the proposal for the Collider Activity Center by SO-AP Architects intends to be a place of importance in the city of Sofia. The objective is to propose a building designed to meet the expectations of a wide audience motivated by the challenge and keen on using a place offering multiple combinations of sports and rest, while being able to enjoy views on the city and its surroundings. More images and architects' description after the break.
Pier was part of the "lift 11" urban installations festival (www.lift11.ee). The aim of the installation was to encourage temporary uses and bring out beauty of decaying place.
Currently taking place at the Art Tower Mito's Contemporary Art Gallery and Plaza until May 12, the 'Shigeru Ban – Architecture and Humanitarian Activities' exhibition is the architect's largest exhibition and encourages visitors to think about the architect's role in society. From his early works and a pioneering new architectural material to an ongoing disaster project, the exhibition explores the diverse activities and achievements of the architect as well as his vision and spirit to challenge social issues and disasters. Featuring architectural models, mock-ups, photographs, videos of his major and important works, and furniture, Ban is known for his innovative work constructed by developing or applying building materials from objects already existing in our everyday lives. For more information, please visit here.
The proposed Great Fen Visitor Center by Arrigoni Architetti consists of three barns arranged on the edge between land and water in a clear orthogonal layout. Gathered around an open space, the buildings will represent the welcoming meeting point for single visitors and groups as well as the ideal setting for outdoor activities and events. The goal is to find a balance between architecture and landscape, loosening the boundaries between inside and outside, allowing different views and encouraging the curiosity for an individual, non preset experience. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Organized by ORLI (Operation Resilient Long Island), a student-led grassroots committee of architecture, interior design, and construction management students from New York Institute of Technology, the 3C Comprehensive Coastal Communities Competition aims to catalyze the discussion of rezoning towns that are vulnerable to coastal storms. The post-Sandy rebuilding process has already begun, yet there are no strategies on how rebuilding communities can accommodate transforming coastal housing typologies. In effort to help local communities preserve the value of their neighborhoods, the challenge is to create a vision for a specific northeastern coastal community. Participants should design a resilient housing typology and integrate it into the community master plan. Submissions are due no later than July 25. To register, and for more information, please visit here.
Designed by da architecture, their first prize winning proposal in the IBA Basel 2020 competition, Das Band meiner Stadt (The band of my city), is a new dynamic that is brought to the Eastern railway station district of Quartier du Lys, which becomes the new landmark of the city of Saint-Louis. The development of this new district on the western side of the station area is characterized by a well-mixed, multi-use business district with offices, commercial and residential programs. This will benefit Saint-Louis train station and help the stream of travellers to further increase. More images and architects‘ description after the break.
Organized by New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (nycobaNOMA), lighting designer Abhay Wadhwa, founder and design principal of AWA Lighting Designers, will speak about Contextualizing Light: The Impact of Culture and Climate on Lighting Design at the 2013 Design Talk. AWA Lighting Designers are known for their architectural lighting designs nationally and internationally and were just featured in the Index Furniture Journal's January-February 2013 issue. The event will take place at the Mohawk Showroom in New York City on April 18th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. For more information, please visit here.
Organized by Manifesto Architecture, in collaboration with Modern Atlanta (MA), the third annual MA Prize competition entries will be carefully selected to be displayed at this year's MA13 “Design in Human Week”. The event will be held from the June 1-9 in Atlanta, Georgia. This year, MA Prize highlights bold and innovative design projects that allow us a fresh perspective on the idea of 'SHARE', or ‘SHIFT’ the way we perceive ‘SHARE’. We commonly understand the idea of share as a fairly simple concept: when two different parts interact with each other to produce a new outcome. But, what does sharing mean to design; or what can design provide to sharing? Submissions are due no later than May 7. For more information, please visit here.
Striving for a diverse and international response, Storefront for Art and Architecture recently launched the Competition of Competitions. The intent of the competition is to provide and deliver new and relevant forms of engagement and content to the economic, politic and social systems that currently act as the voice of authority for the development of our cities. They are asking architects, artists, economists, philosophers, writers, and citizens at large to create interdisciplinary teams to formulate the questions of our time and define the agents that should pursue the task to ask and commission the visions for the future in the form of a competition brief. The deadline to register is May 22 and submissions are due by June 22. For more information, please visit here.
On April 9, Steven Holl Architects is preparing to open the installation INVERSION, presented as part of Interni's Hybrid Architecture exhibition event organized on occasion of the FuoriSalone 2013, during Design Week in Milan.
Whole Foods has teamed up with New York’s local organic grower, Gotham Greens, to build the first commercial-scale greenhouse attached to a supermarket in Brooklyn. The 20,000-square-foot greenhouse, expected to open this Fall, will provide locally grown produce year-round to nine Whole Foods stores in New York City area.
Young Architects Competitions (YAC) recently launched their latest challenge, 'Smart Harbor', which calls all architects, students, and designers 35 years and younger to create an urban transformation of dismissed shipyards. Deep and controversial economical transformations have been hitting Europe. On one side they show a highly destructive potential; on the other side they are the key to undiscovered scenarios once unimaginable. Beneath the remains of ancient systems often lays the opportunity to write new cultures. YAC aims to promote a field of research focusing on such contemporary living axioms: in synthesis it shall be smart. Modern technologies can provide users quick information and discretional points of view like never before. The deadline for submissions is June 24. To register, and for more information, please visit here.
The winners of CAPITheticAL, the international competition to design a hypothetical Australian capital city, were announced just last month in Canberra at the Gallery of Australian Design. A hundred years after the original call for design entries for Australia’s capital city, CAPITheticAL asked professional designers and students to imagine how an Australian national capital might look if created today. Western Australian landscape architecture firm Ecoscape won the $70,000 first prize for its submission, The Northern Capital. More images and information on the winning entries after the break.
Designed by STRATO, the project proposal for the Collider Activity Center has two primary objectives: visual identity and vitality. Conceived as a sort of natural formation, the entire building is emphasized by the folding panels of the walls, the placement of the volumes and the power that this arrangement represents. Since it is placed in a context of ongoing evolution, their version of the activity center aims to be the driving force of the transformation of the whole district of Sofia, Bulgaria by becoming a symbol for the entire city. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Best Shopping Center Award: Marmara Park by ECE Projektmanagement
Each year, the prestigious MIPIM Awards recognizes excellence and innovation in the international real estate sector.After a record number of submissions (over 175 projects from 46 countries!), 36 finalists were selected by the jury to compete in an onsite vote during MIPIM. The 23rd MIPIM Awards took place on March 14th where the final results were announced at a ceremony held in the main auditorium of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. More images and information on the winning entries after the break.
On May 2, Russia’s preeminent Mariinsky Theatre will celebrate the grand opening of a new, 851,575 square foot addition on a neighboring site, just west of the company’s original 1860 theatre and 2006 concert hall, in the heart St. Petersburg. Designed by Toronto-based Diamond Schmitt Architects, Mariinsky II will be one of the largest theatre and concert venues in the world, providing a 2000-seat auditorium, state-of-the-art production facilities, and naturally lit rehearsal rooms, along with a rooftop amphitheatre and terrace.
The renowned Montpellier architecture firm A+ Architecture has been entrusted with the project of building a new site at the domaine d’O, the Jean-Claude Carrière theatre. A unique and environmentally friendly project, the project is based on a global environmental approach aiming for general energy efficiency and for environmental quality standards. Other than the slab that supports it, the entire structure could be dismantled and rebuilt on a different site. The unique design is enhanced by a light wooden lozenge structure recovering the entire building. More images and architects' description after the break.
