UNStudio has been selected as the winners of an international competition to design a new mixed-use development on the site of the former Deutsche Bank offices in Frankfurt, Germany. Selected to complete the urban strategy for the district last March, UNStudio has now been unanimously selected to carry out the architectural redevelopment of the site, beating out third prize proposals from the teams of Dudler / Jahn and MSW / Snøhetta, and an honorable mention from Christoph Mäckler / CoopHimmelblau.
The new mixed-use development will consist of four high-rise towers ascending from a multi-story plinth in the heart of the city. The project includes space for retail, restaurants and hotels, as well as a full range of residential accommodation. The four towers, rising up to 228 meters (748 feet) high, will serve as a new landmark on the Frankfurt skyline.
The 2015 Milan Expo required the input of more than 145 countries and 50 international organizations resulting in over 70 temporary pavilions; a combined effort totaling more than €13 billion. Norman Foster’s rippling pavilion for the United Arab Emirates ended up at €60 million. The massive slab of concrete, laid out over the previously green agricultural land to act as the Expo’s foundation cost a whopping €224 million. Even Vietnam’s “low cost” pavilion came in at $2.09 million.
Compare that with, for example, IKEA’s proposal for a temporary refugee shelter that can house 5, costing just $1000, and one can see the absurdity of spending gargantuan sums on buildings that will perhaps be sold to be used later as a clubhouse, or to a museum as another temporary cultural center. Where is the architectural action behind an architectural event that boasts “Energy for Life” or “Better City, Better Life” - the slogan of the Shanghai 2010 Expo - yet spends extraordinary amounts of resources on structures that provide little sustainable development to parts of the world that are actually in dire need of it?
A year since the passing of David Bowie, one of music and pop culture’s greatest icons, fans have launched a fundraising campaign to support the erection of a permanent memorial statue in London, in honor of the late musician.
“We’re taking the lightning flash from the cover of Aladdin Sane, and turning it into a three-storey tall sculpture,” explains Charlie Waterhouse of This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll, one of the organizations behind the campaign, working in conjunction with David Bowie’s team.
https://www.archdaily.com/805983/this-campaign-envisions-a-three-storey-lightning-bolt-in-honour-of-david-bowieOsman Bari
It's common knowledge that China has "at least 10 White Houses, four Arcs de Triomphe, a couple of Great Sphinxes and at least one Eiffel Tower," report the New York Times. But now photographs of a copy of London’s famous Tower Bridge (a Victorian riparian gateway to the city) in the Chinese city of Suzhou have emerged – and it's been adapted to suit a five-lane highway. Almost identical—from a distance, at least—to its British counterpart the new structure, which was completed in 2012, has been doubled – a feat which has also required some spectacular architectural additions.
https://www.archdaily.com/806431/twice-as-nice-suzhou-china-architectural-homage-copies-copy-london-tower-bridgeAD Editorial Team
Flexible studios to aid Dundee's thriving digital creative sector. Image Courtesy of Studioshaw
London-based firm Studioshaw has won a competition to design a hub facility for children and young people in Dundee, Scotland. The Interactive Hub will be located on the site of a former railway depot at the Seabraes Yards Digital Media Park. The competition, hosted by the Dundee Institute of Architects (DIA) and Scottish Enterprise, was one of 400 events taking place across Scotland as part of the RIAS 2016 Festival of Architecture.
Today, Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta were named the laureates of the 2017 Pritzker Prize, becoming the first trio of architects to be bestowed the profession’s highest accolade. Working together since 1988 as RCR Arquitectes, the team has tackled a wide range of project types, from libraries to wineries to park designs – many of which are located in their home region of Catalonia, Spain. Continue to see 20 images from their work that exemplify the firm’s outstanding attention to detail and considered use of materiality.
Picture of the Chaktomuk Conference Hall taken by Japanese expert Masao Ishihara (ca. 1964). Image Courtesy of Masaaki Iwamoto
"New Khmer Architecture and Japan" is the first show in Cambodian History to focus on the architectural drawings of its modern movement. Cambodia is a country with mature architectural culture, not only of the great Angkorian heritage and vernacular timber temples, but also of modern buildings from the 1950s and 60s known as New Khmer Architecture. Since the 1990s, in the context of the post-war redefinition of the national identity as well as the recent expansion of environmental consciousness, this Cambodian modern movement, with their sensibility to the traditional culture and tropical climate, is being re-evaluated; though the drawings and documents of the movement were believed to be destroyed and lost in the turmoil of the Civil War.
New images of BIG and Heatherwick Studio’s proposed Google campus in Mountain View California have been revealed in planning documents presented to the city last month. Initially announced in 2015, the project has seen several revisions after first running into difficulty with the city planning board, and then after swapping sites with fellow tech giant LinkedIn. The latest iteration, the 18.6-acre Charleston East campus, features a 2-story, 595,000-square-foot building topped with a flowing, tent-like canopy.
