England: The Latest Architecture and News

The Bankside Bikeshed proposal is a prototype for a lightweight bicycle storage shelter that can be installed through London’s South Bank. The project is by James Khamsi, whose goal was to design a new “MICRON” for London, a ubiquitous and interwoven aspect of the city.

More on this project after the break.

David Kohn Architects and artist Fiona Banner have been selected to design A Room for London, a temporary installation that will sit on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at Southbank Centre, London and be part of the London 2012 Festival. ArchDaily has been showcasing selected entries to the competition for months now and can be seen here. For more information pertaining to David Kohn Architects and Fiona Banner‘s winning entry please follow after the break.

Moderated by Joseph Grima (Domus), all are invited to the free Critical Futures event starting at 6:30pm on January 13th, which will focus on a debate on the future of architecture criticism followed by complimentary drinks and further discussion after the talk. Participants include Charles Holland (author, Fantastic Journal), Peter Kelly (Blueprint), Kieran Long (architecture critic, Evening Standard), Geoff Manaugh (author, BLDGBLOG), and Beatrice Galilee (writer, curator, DomusWeb, The Gopher Hole). The event is located at The Gopher Hole, 350-354 Old Street, London, EC1V 9NQ. More event description after the break.

Bangkok-based architect Nontawat Jittrong (LMTS Design), shared with us his proposal for the competition A Room for London, for the 2012 London Olympics. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Design Initiatives, an innovative, award-winning architecture practice based in Los Angeles, California and Sofia, Bulgaria, shared with us their proposal for A Room for London, a competition for a temporary demountable hotel room for up to two guests on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London during the Olympic year of 2012. Designed as a boundary structure floating in space between ground and sky, their proposal employs the dialectical contrast of active OR passive. More images and architect’s description after the break.

The English design team, Arctic Associates has shared their proposal for 2012 Room for London, situated on the banks of the River Thames in London. A short narrative from the architects and additional images after the break.

Following a resounding success at Aedes Gallery in Berlin, international design practice Austin-Smith:Lord is bringing the Informal City of Century XXI and Measure of Man/Measure of Architecture exhibitions to London, England starting with an invitation only conference on January 19th followed by their public exhibition open from January 20th to the 25th. The event will take place at The German Gymnasium, 26 Pancras Road, London N1C 4TB More images and event description after the break.

Egyptian architect, Ahmed Zayed has shared his design proposal for the 2012 London Olympic Games, a interactive installation along one of the iconic structures of London. Additional images and a brief description after the break.

A few days ago, we shared Visiondivision’s Nature’s Choice – a series of vacation homes that attempt to blend into their unique site placement. The firm just shared their latest competition entry for a hotel room atop a cloud. Presented in a comic strip, the proposal delivers a temporary hotel room to accommodate visitors of the 2012 London Olympic games.

More about the hotel room after the break.

The areas for expansion are either through the current high density processes, which begin to populate flood plains, or to move eastwards denseifying east London breaking through the green belt towards the Thames estuary, where a new second generation London could rise from the waves. The idea is not new, the Thames estuary has been the topic of intense debate through the possibility of building a floating island airport off the coast of Kent, and a nature reserve with a flood gate connecting Essex and Kent in its core via a high speed monorail. These radical approaches cannot be discarded without intense exploration, could the next east London generation be a floating one?

To promote their Power Smart month of October, BC Hydro has launched an interesting public campaign for energy efficiency by converting two shipping containers into live experimental spaces in Vancouver. For fours day, actors will live in the 3×6 meter containers “to showcase how – and how not – to live and work in an energy-efficient manner.” The two containers are meant to depict the extreme opposites of energy consumption and show the simple steps people can take to increase their efficiency. As the containers are fully glazed on one side, passersby can see how the actors go about their daily routines – one completely wasteful with a constantly blasting television and all the lights on, while the other actor uses natural daylight for illumination and adds extra layers of clothing for warmth. Displays are fixed to the exterior of each container to provide simulated consumption readings, allowing the public to see the difference in the energy use when comparing energy-efficient living to inefficient and wasteful behavior.

More about the experiment after the break.

The Victoria and Albert Museum wishes to create a major new gallery with the capacity to deliver its high-profile programme of temporary exhibitions, a new museum entrance and a courtyard to create an informal and inviting relationship with Exhibition Road.

This autumn, the London Design Museum is presenting a major exhibition on John Pawson. Often labelled a ‘minimalist’, he is known for his rigorous process of design. By reducing and editing he creates architecture and product designs of visual clarity, simplicity and grace.

Marco Zanta shared with us some photographs of the exhibition you can visit until January 30, 2011.

Italy-based NOVAE Architecture shared with us their project “0°01’ W Network in motion”, their proposal for a competition to design an adaptable floating gallery in London, UK. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Renzo Piano’s Shard is quickly climbing up London’s skyline. The 1,016 ft high skyscraper will provide the mixed use density the city needs, as it incorporates apartments, office space, a spa, hotel and restaurants within its sleek pyramidal form. Inspired by perhaps a ship’s mast from the Pool of London, or a modern take on the church spire, the Shard will become a prominent fixture in the skyline as it nears it completion. Check out these images illustrating the Shard’s progress – the crisp aesthetic commonly found in Piano’s projects is becoming evident as the low-iron glazing is applied to the structure.

More images after the break.

Birmingham-based Sjölander da Cruz Architects shared with us their latest project, a dynamic shelter for the young people of Amington near Tamworth, UK. You can see more images and architect’s description after the break.

This summer, the V&A has commissioned seven architects at the forefront of experimental design to create their first built structures in the UK (see Rintala Eggertsson Architects’ structure here). The structures are installed in a number of locations across the landscape of the Museum and are designed as immersive spaces – places both of encounter and reflection – where visitors can escape the chaos of everyday life and directly experience the architecture first hand. 19 architects were originally invited to submit proposals, the designs and models of which are on display in the V&A+RIBA Architecture Gallery.

A space for theatre and performance that fragments the stage into six micro-stages, Vazio S/A created a series of inter-connected booths set around a central spiral staircase in the V&A’s Porter Gallery. The structure takes as its inspiration elevated dwelling spaces in high-density areas in Brazil. A number of practitioners from London working across theatre, dance and music were commissioned to devise new pieces of work in response to the structure, to be performed in the six booths at various points during the exhibition.

See more images after the break.