Cultural: The Latest Architecture and News

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designcamp moonpark dmp has won a competition to design the new cultural arts center in Asan, South Korea. The winning proposal, inspired by an "Echoing Sculpture," balances mass and void with two theaters and a cultural arts building that frames a garden and civic waterfront plaza.

More on the winning design, after the break.

Mikolai Adamus has shared with us his proposal for a “New Aquarium” to activate the Southern Pier in Gdynia, Poland. Using the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence to guide the design, the rectangular structure burrows into the pier, becoming secondary to the surrounding landscape. As Adamus describes, the aquarium is designed to transparent and “a place where architecture is subordinated to function, devoid of unnecessary detail.” More details, after the break.

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Nearly a year-and-a-half since the announcement of their selection, BIG has unveiled plans for a massive, 20-year-long overhaul for the Smithsonian’s southern campus in the center of Washington DC. With an overarching goal to unite the site by dissolving the notable impediments and discontinuous pathways that plague the area, BIG plans to also expand visitor, education and gallery spaces, while updating aging and inefficient building systems.

"Where today each museum is almost like a separate entity, in the future, it’s going to be a much more open, intuitive and inviting campus to meander around," Bjarke Ingels explained.

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The city of Esbjerg has selected Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter through a competition to extend and refurbish the Wadden Sea Center in Vester Vedsted. A UNESCO World Heritage area, the Wadden Sea is Denmark’s largest National park. The new center aims to “create awareness and understanding for the marshland and the Wadden Sea,” as jury member and leader of the center Klaus Melbye explains. “The architecture is sustainable, visionary and bold and brings forth the Centre as an didactic information centre of the future.”

More about Dorte Mandrup’s winning design, after the break.

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Studio Gang has broke ground on the new home for Chicago’s beloved Writers’ Theatre. Situated on the sloped Tudor Court site of the Glencoe Woman’s Library Club, the glass encased timber structure will be a theatrical spectacle, as the main performance space's second story catwalk is designed to peer through the transparent facade.

“Our process has been built around the creative team dialogue with Writers Theatre, its audiences, and the community, and we could not be more excited to celebrate this milestone today while looking forward to the ideas that will soon become a built reality in 2016,” said Jeanne Gang. “The design of Writers Theatre’s first purpose-built theatre reinforces their important mission and vision to maximize the feeling of intimacy between actors and audience within the park-like setting of downtown Glencoe.”

New renderings and more information from the architect, after the break.

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