Henning Larsen Architects has won a competition to design the new Forum Medicum, an addition to the Medical faculty at Lund University in Sweden. The 25,000 square meter space will be the “new gathering space for employees, students, researchers, and visitors,” bundling several educational fields under the larger umbrella of medical research.
The project will include a Forum that seamlessly connects the inside and outside with accessible public space, a café, restaurant, space for exhibitions, and informal learning spaces.
Jakarta Architecture Triennale (JAT) is a tri-annual architecture festival since 2009, organized by Indonesian Institute of Architect Jakarta Chapter (Ikatan Arsitek Indonesia Jakarta).
This International event consists of exhibition, talk show, workshop, movie screening and other architectural activities. By the spirit of Locality, Playful and Innovation, this year’s festival focuses on digging the potency of wisdom, culture, design, the richness of local material and technology in Indonesia, which potentially to be developed and even became the influence of future architecture development in Asia.
Striping away the unnecessary to reveal the soul of architecture's greatest works is the latest challenge Federico Babina has taken on. With 18 paintings, Babina has revisited the notorious works of Le Corbusier, Tadao Ando, MVRDV, Rem Koolhaas and many others to summarize in just "a few lines" their true essence.
"The intent is to display the volumes, shapes, and even style of iconic architecture through simple lines and geometry," says Babina. "The project is part of a study on the simplification and the identification of the basic elements for the recognition of buildings. The idea is to archive an almost abstract representation without losing the essence of the figurative representation."
When you consider the practical properties of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - durability, versatility and low price - it is easy to understand how it has become such a common construction material, with applications as roofing membranes, siding, pipes and plumbing, conduit, window frames, window blinds, molding and trim, and fencing. But perhaps it’s time to be more cautious about its use. According to a new whitepaper report by Perkins+Will, "What’s New (and What’s Not) With PVC," in spite of recent advances in plastic chemistry PVC is still responsible for a range of environmental and human health hazards created in multiple stages of its manufacturing process.
A smart city isn’t necessarily a city brimming with technology. This crucial (and, thankfully, growingly accepted) clarification was strongly emphasized by a panel of experts during the Smart City Expo in Barcelona. However, the piloted driving—which, in layman's terms means cars that drive themselves—that Audi has been testing and implementing is as high-tech, impressive and brimming with technology as one might expect. Beyond the “ooh and aah” factor of a car that needs no human driver, the spatial implications for our cities are undeniable, and the sooner architects can learn to work with and appreciate this technology, the better. In a city equipped with smart mobility solutions, we can expect technology to drive positive changes to social behavior and the affordability of the cities. But for this, we need visionary leaders.
Last week Audi showed their commitment to finding these visionary leaders in the field of architecture by announcing the implementation of three Urban Future Partnerships in Somerville/Boston and Mexico City. In the words of Audi CEO Rupert Stadler, the three pilot projects represent a key move for the car manufacturer: “The development of an investment logic for mobility infrastructure in cities will be an integral part of our company strategy.”
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The new Watches of Switzerland store in London designed by Callison. Image Courtesy of Callison
With the rise of the internet, old-fashioned brick-and-mortar stores have struggled, as online ordering services have increasingly made it unnecessary to actually go to a store. The answer for the physical stores of the future? Make spaces not for purchasing the things people need, but experiencing the things people want, as explored in this article by Matt Alderton originally published on Autodesk's Redshift publication as "How Technology and Big Data in Retail Are Shaping Store Designs of the Future." Alderton looks at how forward-looking stores are being designed to appeal to customers, finding that the same technology revolution that threatened to make stores obsolete might also play a key role in saving them, too.
Shopping used to be stimulating. Although its end was sales, its means was a mix of status and spectacle. It was social commerce in which partakers transacted not just cash, but also cachet.
Nowhere was this more evident than in the earliest department stores, whose architects designed them to be destinations. In London, for instance, Harrods boasts the motto “Omnia, Omnibus, Ubique”—Latin for “All Things for All People, Everywhere.” Established in 1849, it has seven floors, comprising more than 1 million square feet across more than 330 departments. The store installed one of the world’s first escalators in 1898, opened a world-famous food hall in 1902, and sold exotic pets such as lion cubs until the 1970s.
Rotterdam-based Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) have been announced by the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer as the winning team in the competition to design the city of Manchester's high-profile Factory art space. Following the announcement of the shortlist earlier this year, featuring practices including Rafael Viñoly, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Zaha Hadid and Mecanoo, it has since been reported by The Guardian that the British government's original pledge of £78million ($117million) to the cost of the building will be raised by a further £9million per year from around 2018.
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.jpg?1448462729 "Owen Launch by Tacklebox Architecture. Image © Juliana Sohn for OWEN")
