Cultural: The Latest Architecture and News

On the waterfront of Flekkefjord, a town on Norway’s south coast, Helen & Hard incorporates a theater hall, cinema, library, gallery, youth club and cultural school for their design of the Flekkefjord Cultural Center. Designed for their client, Flekkefjord Kommune, it has recently been approved for construction. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The purpose of this architecture contest is to “equip the city of Trois-Rivières with an open-air amphitheater capable of seating 10,000.” Trois-Rivières is a small Canadian city (population 130,407) once known as the pulp and paper industry capital of the world. Located halfway between Montreal and Quebec City, Trois-Rivières was looking to build its own venue for hosting high-volume summer festivals and internationally renowned bands, and housing its symphony orchestra during the summer. “In the early 2000s, the city of Trois-Rivières began work on a re-qualification project. The site in question (a former paper mill) is situated along the St. Lawrence River, adjacent to the harbourfront park, the city centre, the St. Lawrence River and St. Quentin Island (for outdoor activities). Such a location calls for an extraordinary construction,” explains Philippe Drolet, architect, in an excerpt from the contest catalogue. For the first phase of the contest, Sid Lee Architecture and Régis Côté et Associés banked on the project’s historical roots and awed the jury with a vision that reflects the site’s industrial past. Their competition entry was awarded as a finalist.

Mikolai Adamus shared with us his design for the Quarter Cultural Center located in Gdansk, Poland. The main idea was to supplement the empty square with tissue which surrounds the site for a more intimate and open expression. More images on the project after the break.

Providing the winning design for the Parc des Expositions (PEX) in the innovation zone of Toulouse, in southern France, OMA conceived PEX to be a new gateway to the city hosting exhibitions, conferences, and concerts. The 338,000 sqm project is designed to be a compact mini-city – an antidote to the sprawl of a standard exposition park, and a means to preserve the surrounding French countryside.

Surpassing three submissions by internationally-renowned competitors, the project, led by OMA’s director of French projects Clément Blanchet, will be completed by 2016. Blanchet commented: “This project is not only about architecture, but rather infrastructure. It’s a condenser for diversity, a machine that can promote an infinite amount of possibilities.”

Architects: OMA Location: Toulouse, France Designers: Rem Koolhaas and Clément Blanchet Client: Société Publique Locale d’Améngement (SPLA) Project Area: 338,000 sqm Project Year: 2016 Renderings: Courtesy of OMA

Atelier Thomas Pucher has won the international competition for the new seat of the world renowned Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra in Warsaw. The 20,000m² cultural centre is housed on the site of a former Veterinary Institute with existing – yet dormant – buildings and a fairy-tale like park. The area occupies a 1,800 seat symphonic hall with first class acoustic properties, large rehearsal areas, merchandise facilities, musical workshops and a small hotel for artists in residence and music lovers on vacation.

The task of the competition for the Serlachius Museum Gösta was to design an extension containing five times the area of the existing museum. The current museum is a solitaire exposed on the top of a hill at a lake in a dramatic landscape. magma architecture proposes to preserve the beauty of the natural surroundings and integrate them into the visitor experience of the museum.

The project presented here – Green Building: Madan Technology Center – was planned by the Forward architectural firm following a commission by the Association of the Almada / Setúbal Science and Technology Park – Madan Parque. The site is located in Portugal, on a site near the Faculty of Sciences and Technology – Nova University and is designed to host the Company Innovation program and a Data Centre serving the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region. Given its characteristics, the infrastructure shall serve as a pole of attraction for high technology companies in the context of an architectural proposal that is moving towards innovative solutions to the environmental issues of today.

More details on this project after the break.

Architects: Rojkind Arquitectos / Michel Rojkind, Gerardo Salinas Location: México D.F., México Project Area: 20,188 sqm Renders: Rojkind Arquitectos, render by Axel Fridman

Construction of Schweger Associated Architects‘ Dubai Pearl is continuing. The groundwork, foundations, basements and lower grounds floors of the four towers which form the central section of Phase 1 of the development is now complete. A total of 3.5 million man hours have so far been spent since work started on site and over 60,000 cubic meter of concrete has been poured on one of the largest construction projects still being developed in the UAE.