England: The Latest Architecture and News

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.

Britain’s Energy Coast Cumbria and Magnus Homes invite submissions to a two-stage, International Open Design Competition for a circa GBP £10m mixed-use development on a prominent site overlooking Whitehaven Harbour. The 2,600m2 site occupies a fantastic setting adjacent to Whitehaven Harbour and represents one of the most impressive current development opportunities in Cumbria.

The Architecture Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of an open international competition to design a permanent yet flexible, free standing group of kiosks in Meridian Square, Stratford, London, for use before, during and after the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Charlotte Wilson, recently graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University, shared with us her Final Major Project, which tells the story of ‘Women at War’, whilst dealing with the re-modelling and re-animation of a 1960s underground cold war bunker.

Situated within a unique cliff side location in Bempton lies the RAF Bempton bunker. Disintegrating and of great historical interest, it is proposed the site will be sensitively renovated and reclaimed.

Architectural Team: Fletcher Crane Architects / Toby Fletcher, Ian Crane and Sam Stevens Structural Engineer: Elliott Wood/Gary Elliott, George Georgiou Building Environment and Services Engineer: Skelly and Couch/Mark Skelly, Matthew Chantzidakis Quantity Surveyor: Quantem Consulting/Dan Watson Landscape Architects: Whitelaw Turkington/Ian Turkington

Austin-Smith: Lord recently came runner up in a high profile bus station competition in Stoke-on-Trent, winning the public vote but not selected by the client.

The Austin Smith Lord team, consisting of JMP Transport Engineers, Curtins Structural Engineers and Hilson Moran on Environmental and M&E were supported in the provision of costs by Gleeds and Project Management input from RLB ,worked closely in the 4 week design period to develop an exciting and innovative scheme which found favor with both the public and their peers.

3dCom have shared with us an animation of a new bridge that, if built, will become the UK’s tallest structure.