Landscape Architecture: The Latest Architecture and News

Announced in Washington DC the ARC jury of internationally-respected professionals with expertise in design, ecology, and engineering selected entry ‘hypar-nature’ led by HNTB with Michael Van Valkenburgh & Associates as the winner of the ARC International Design Competition.

The ARC Wildlife Crossing Competition challenged interdisciplinary design teams to create the next generation of wildlife crossing structures for North America’s roadways. The four inter-related objectives for the competition included:

• Provide an avenue for international teams of design professionals to address new design challenges in the coalescent issues of road transportation safety, structural engineering, wildlife conservation and landscape ecology;
• Explore creative new approaches, materials, and designs that address the fundamentals of transportation engineering and ecology;
• Increase the number of potential solutions for cost efficient, innovative crossing designs that can be adapted for widespread use in other locations; and,
• Engage design professionals and students in the interdisciplinary nature of road ecology with a real-time, in-situ application.

HNTB + MVVA Team Members: HNTB Engineering, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc. Landscape Architects PC, Applied Ecological Services Competition Timeline: September 2010 – January 2011 Renderings and Drawings: HNTB and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc.

Department of Unusual Certainties [DoUC] recently completed a submission to the Network Reset, Rethinking the Chicago Emerald Necklace, competition hosted by Mas Studio and the Chicago Architectural Club. Participants were asked to look at the urban scale and propose a framework for the entire boulevard system as well as provide answers and visualize the interventions at a smaller scale that can directly impact its potential users. Through images, diagrams and drawings the work should express what are the soft or hard, big or small, temporary or permanent interventions that can reactivate and reset the Boulevard System of Chicago. DoUC’s proposal focused on filling Chicago’s Emerald Necklace with a framework of posts, beams, ropes and counterweights - to produce a pick-and-choose- method of program management. Images of their entry and a description can be seen after the jump.

Sturgess Architecture has designed the winning competition entry for Brewster’s newest tourist attraction in Alberta, Canada, the Discovery Walk. The design is expected to be built by the end of 2011. More renderings after the break.

Architects de bartolo + rimanic design studio in conjunction with McCullough Landscape Architecture have released their design for a new football stadium in San Diego California. Images with embedded descriptions after the break.

Songdo International Business District (IBD) occupies over 1,500 acres of reclaimed land on the West Coast of Incheon, Korea. This waterfront master plan includes a diverse array of programmatic elements and is designed to be a pedestrian friendly city with walkable streets and an urban density that allows for an active street life. Signature features include, the New Songdo City First World Towers, Northeast Asia Trade Tower, the 100-arce Songdo Central Park, and the Songdo City International School.

Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox Location: Incheon, Korea Photographs: H.G. Esch, KPF, Jaesung

In 2005, an invited international competition was announced for a design of the reclaimed area above a tunnel holding a section of the M30 ring motorway immediately adjacent to the old city centre.  The team proposed to resolve the urban situation exclusively by means of landscape architecture, and were the winning submission. The design is founded on the idea »3 + 30« – a concept which proposes dividing the 80 hectare urban development into a trilogy of initial strategic projects that establish a basic structure which then serves as a solid foundation for a number of further projects, initiated in part by the municipality as well as by private investors and residents.

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Project Team: Burgos & Garrido / Porras La Casta / Rubio & Álvarez-Sala / West 8 Location: Madrid, Spain Project Management: Ginés Garrido Colomero Client: Madrid City Government Project Area: 80 hectares Project Year: 2006–2011 Renderings: Courtesy of West 8 Photographs: Jeroen Musch

Rotterdam-based office for urban design and landscape architecture West 8, in collaboration with Sener & Gestec, have designed this entry for the Valencia Central Park Competition. Their proposal achieved a place on the competition shortlist. The design presented here is a concept for Parque Central inspired by the Valencian tradition of solid narrative and poetry.

More images and description of the project after the break.

Woods Bagot Architecture and HOK Planning have worked together to generate the master plan for Langfang Eco-Smart City and shared its announcement with us here at ArchDaily. Additional renderings, watercolors and the official press release after the break.

Lappset Group Oy has awarded the first prize of their international design competition for 3 Generations to Tengiz Alaverdashvili’s proposal “Green Hill”. His simplistic approach to a multi-generational, universal park space created a design that relies solely on its users for program, allowing for a inviting, relaxing atmosphere. Additional images and the architects description after the break.