The award winning sustainable German architecture firm, Ingenhoven Architects, has been hired by Google Inc to design their new headquarters in Mountain View, California. Expected to begin construction in 2012, Ingenhoven approached the design with the idea that ‘the architecture should be an expression of the corporate culture and at the same time a model for sustainable architecture in the broadest sense surpassing the LEED-Platinum-Standards with its holistic concept’. Jordan Newman, a Google spokesman shared about Ingenhoven, “we’ve asked them to build the most green, sustainable building possible.”
Google’s offices in Milan, previously featured on ArchDaily can be viewed here. More about this exciting news from the architects following the break.
Los Angeles is the personification of our suburban nation, and this archetype is both celebrated and condemned for how it has shaped our society. It is now 55 years after the Federal Highway Act changed our national landscape, and 50 years after the dismantling of Pacific Electric Railway changed our metropolis. Once deemed the city of the future, LA is on the precipice of a new epoch. A sea change in demographics, cultural allegiances, and lifestyles are beginning to shift our collective decisions in terms of the way we will live, work, play and travel. Like our predecessors, what grand decisions can we make right now to construct our shared future?
Join A+D Museum and Moore Rubble Yudell Architects and Planners for a children’s workshop exploring the world of staircases. Children will work alongside professional architects to plan, design and build a staircase. Whether their models are sweeping and grand or sky-high and wild, ARkidECTs will gain hands-on experience in the world of a professional architect… stepping up to the design of their imaginations. Parents are welcome to join the fun!
Each fall High Desert Test Sites invites artists to create experimental projects adjacent to California’s Joshua Tree National Park. This year HDTS invited Ball Nogues Studio to create a structure in a remote region of the Mojave Desert. This presents a unique opportunity to draw upon an unfettered landscape at a grand scale. Expanding on theories developed by earthwork artists Yucca Crater will re-imagine these concepts through new methods of production linked to their cross-disciplinary artistic, architectural, design and fabrication practice.
Network_LA Transit is a conceptual design response by GenslerLos Angeles to an open invitation by Sci-Arc, The Architect’s Newspaper and LA Metro to shift people from their cars to public transit.
More after the break.
https://www.archdaily.com/146802/video-network_la-transitChristopher Henry
The Academy of Art University, the nation’s largest private accredited art and design university, continues to grow their Landscape Architecture program. Earlier this year the University announced the addition of the School of Landscape Architecture with an accredited Associate’s (AA) and Bachelor’s (BFA) degree programs as well as continuing art education courses. Now the Academy of Art will additionally launch both a 3-year and 4-year MFA degree program. For more information about the new MFA program click here.
Last week the Internet and architecture blogs went crazy after Steve Jobs presented the new Apple Campus to the city of Cupertino, California.
Rumors about Foster + Partners (an office with a high expertise on work environments) working with Apple on this new campus appeared on December last year on a Spanish newspaper, but there was never an official confirmation (or denial). But given that the actual project fits with the information we received from an anonymous tipster last December, it seems it could be right:
“I recently got a tour of Norman Foster’s office in London and saw some images of the Apple Campus design. I believe the main building will be a large donut shaped building with all the offices and labs surrounding a large garden. It was a very pure form which connects to some of the recent Apple stores, but I was surprised that it didn’t really scream Apple to me. Of course it could have been a very preliminary design that wasn’t fully resolved yet. Anyway, I just thought I would pass on some info.”
During Steve Job’s presentation to the city of Cupertino we could see this round building, and Jobs outlined several facts on how this new campus for 12,000 people will improve the 98-acre site, such as taking parking underground to reduce the footprint, increasing landscaping from 20% to 80%, and planting more trees (3,700 now, 6,000 in the future). It even includes its own natural gas based energy generation plant (as seen on the drawings) with the electrical grid as backup.
“It’s a pretty amazing building. It’s a little like a spaceship landed. It’s got this gorgeous courtyard in the middle… It’s a circle. It’s curved all the way around. If you build things, this is not the cheapest way to build something. There is not a straight piece of glass in this building. It’s all curved. We’ve used our experience making retail buildings all over the world now, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use. And, we want to make the glass specifically for this building here. We can make it curve all the way around the building… It’s pretty cool.”
We reached Steve Jobs over the past weekend to get more details about the project and he said that he wasn´t interested in presenting the project on ArchDaily at this time, possibly because the project still needs to be approved by the city. We hope to bring you more details later on, so you can have an informed opinion.
More images from the presentation after the break.
This project is one piece of the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) new headquarters facility, originally awarded through a competition to a team that included the LA office of DMJM/Design (now part of AECOM), Denver-based Roth+Sheppard, Studio 0.10, and John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects (JFAK).
These two 3-story mixed-use buildings, side-by-side reflecting each other, sit on a narrow thirty-foot lot along Ocean Front walk on world famous Venice Beach. This culturally diverse urban community is a busy commercial pedestrian area, popular with tourists and locals alike.
In 2010, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) held a design competition for a flexible solution to replace portable buildings across the district, and HMC Architects accepted the challenge. The district asked them to ignore their standards and put an emphasis on an ideas-based approach. They wanted creative, progressive responses to their problem, not dressed-up modular buildings. They challenged the traditional box shape of the classroom by looking at how the room is used and how it is currently under utilized. Although their design solution, which they named Flex, did not win the competition, their end product is a portable classroom solution that can be used at any school, with hope that their design can inspire other school districts to think differently when it comes to portable classrooms. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The cocktail is a distinctly American tradition. Once the centerpiece of a thriving “cocktail culture,” it has faded since the 1950s but is now being embraced by a new generation of makers and mixologists who value quality and craft. The Spirits Pavilion, by Min | Day, presents this rejuvenation as part of Slow Food Nation 2008, an event in Fort Mason, San Francisco dedicated to creating a framework for deeper environmental connection to our food aiming to inspire and empower Americans to build a food system that is sustainable, healthy and delicious. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by Team CLS, headed by award winning UK Architect Darren Chan, other members including Emily Lau (Architecture Graduate) and Jonas Sin (Netherlands Architect), their project, Helios Rehab Sanctuary, innovates in the application of sustainable technologies to create a new and exciting typology. More on this project after the break.
This 26,800 sqf home, designed by Shubin+Donaldson Architects, not only merges with its remarkable environment, but virtually disappears. Except for a few deft lines and angles – such as the ordered rows of the surrounding vineyard – there is very little perceivable ‘built’ presence. The entrance is marked by a single low wall, delicately cut into the land while sheltering a stairway that immediately begins the descent into the home.
Project description, images, and drawings after the break. Architect: Shubin+Donaldson Architects Location: Los Angeles, California, USA Partners in Charge: Russell Shubin and Robin Donaldson Project Designer: Bradford Kelley Project Area: 26,800 sqf Project Year: In development Renderings: Mike Amaya
https://www.archdaily.com/117610/linda-flora-residence-shubindonaldson-architectsChristopher Henry
“Material beyond Materials: A Composite Tectonics Conference on Advanced Materials and Digital Manufacturing” combines progressive presentations in the fields of architecture, the arts, engineering and materials research. The conference participants will present and discuss their most innovative ideas, projects and positions concerning materials, technology and the impact on the architecture and construction disciplines and professions.
Between February 14th and April 14th the Architecture and Design Museum of Los Angeles will be exhibiting work from several designers that challenge the ubiquitous approach to environmentally conscious architecture and the normative application of technology to achieve sustainability. SOUPERgreen is a collection of five architectural propositions that explore technology as a means to promote the engagement between architecture and environment.
More on this exhibition and the proposals after the break.
Headed for Palm Springs, California, BOOM Community is a new master-planned community costing $250 million and will provide an exciting new design for the desert that surrounds it. Collaborating to create this pedestrian friendly, neighborhood development are ten architecture firms, including Diller Scofidio + Renfro of New York. Envisioned for the gay community BOOM aims to provide an urban lifestyle promoting healthy living. Included within the masterplan: a boutique hotel, gym and spa, BOOM health and wellness center, and entertainment complex.
A+D, The Architecture and Design Museum of Los Angeles, presents Souper Green, an exhibition of new architectural work that offers a compelling alternative to the conventional idea of “being green” starting February 12th from 6pm-9pm to April 14th.
Highlighting the fact that technology is a key factor in the environmental crisis—to some a main cause, to others the best answer—this work questions the corresponding ways “green technology” is normally cast as a form of penance, and asked to “solve the problem” (as in “please-make-it-go-away-I-don’t-want-to-hear-about-it”). Instead, these five projects promote an attitude that looks at technology as a uniquely human means of expression, through which the “natural”—in its broadest sense—can be engaged and made more visible. More event description after the break.
