Cultural Center: The Latest Architecture and News

Curated by Apostolis Artinos, the exhibit "The Minimum Structure" features a design for an urban hut by deltarchi | dragonas christopoulou architects. Citing the mid-19th century desire to escape the city, manifest in examples such as Martin Heidegger's hütte, Le Corbusier's cabanon and Michelangelo Antonioni’s “L’avventura,” the firm has designed a structure to provide a spare space for meditation and peace among Athenian rooftops.

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Allied Works Architecture has released designs for the Ohio Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus. Set to complete by 2016, the billowing museum will be constructed on the banks of the Scioto River, directly across from downtown, as part of Scioto Peninsula’s 56-acre redevelopment masterplan. It will host a variety of galleries, education and interpretive spaces that will house exhibitions and artifacts that serve as a testimonial to the 250 years of military service of Ohio Veterans.

“The Ohio Veterans Memorial and Museum is conceived as an architecture of two acts. The first is an act of landscape, where the surrounding parkland is cut, carved and lifted into the sky, creating a processional path to the sanctuary, a place of ceremony, celebration and reflection - a civic room for the city of Columbus,” explains Allied Works. Continue reading to learn more.

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Text description provided by the architects. This holiday season, wedged between two New York City icons - the Flatiron and Empire State building - stands the #NewYorkLight public art installation by Brooklyn-based INABA. A magnificent place to experience the Manhattan grid, the installation frames a unique and uninterrupted view of the skyline due to the clearing of Madison Square Park.

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• Architects

  OMA

• Location

  Discovery Pavilion of the Plains of Abraham, 835 Avenue Wilfrid-Laurier, Québec, QC G1R 5H8, Canada

• Architect in Charge

  Shohei Shigematsu

• Project Year

  2016

• Photographs

  MNBAQ, Idra Labrie, OMA / Luxigon, Provencher-Roy, Courtesy of OMA

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Azerbaijan has recently unveiled the design of “Treasure of Biodiversity,” its dedicated pavilion for Expo Milano 2015, marking the first time the country has participated at a Universal Exposition. Designed by Italian firm Simmetrico Network, the pavilion aims to reflect the unique cultures and landscapes of Azerbaijan while acting as a model of sustainable design. Complete with biospheres and undulating walls, the pavilion’s unique form takes cues from the central Expo theme of “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life,” and hopes to engage visitors with the values of protected biodiversity.

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OMA has won a competition to design the Lujiazui Exhibition Centre, a 1,500 square meter space in Shanghai Pudong on the site of the former "Shanghai Shipyard." The design aims to create a concentrated culture and event space within the surrounding financial district, on the edge of the Huangpu River, one of the most photographed waterfronts in the world.

More on the design after the break

REX has shared with us their competition proposal for Calgary’s New Central Library (NCL). Though Snøhetta and DIALOG ultimately won the competition, REX was shortlisted as a finalist with an unconventional scheme that was based on adaptability, serendipity and treating the librarians as curators. By literally stacking the library’s program according to the client’s desired sequence, REX formulated six typological clusters hoisted on top an illuminated plinth.

Check out the complete proposal, after the break. 

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• Architects

  Philippe Brulé Architectes

• Location

  32 Rue de Stang Bihan, 29000 Quimper, France

• Area

  5908.0 sqm

• Project Year

  2015

• Photographs

  Pascal Léopold

• Location

  32 Rue de Stang Bihan, 29000 Quimper, France

• Project Year

  2015

• Photographs

  Pascal Leopold

• Area

  5908.0 m2

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