Serving as a backstage area for artists who perform at the Olympic Hall in Munich, the business area can be booked for conferences, meetings, seminars and other events. In order to meet established requirements calling for variable use of the business area, pfarré lighting design created a system which is as effective when the area has no partitions as when it is subdivided into separate areas. More images and their description after the break.
The HARDWARE SOFTCORE Installation, designed by Gabriele Falconi, is directed to the interaction of the viewer, to his involvement, even physical, as an actor aware of choices and paths. Of monumental size, its modular installation was born from the idea of using the standard scaffolding system, which is made of shiny galvanized steel, repeating and assembling in vertical and horizontal direction.“The use of construction element, the simplest, declined to unusual, different, ambiguous shapes. For a skeleton of a large lizard, a cathedral with many naves, an interstellar starship. All that is involved here is multiple and transforms itself, starting from temporary basis to monumental forms, contradicting its premises. And finding its attractive side in construction hardware.” – Falconi. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The initiative by h2o Architectes for the renovation of the first cinema for art house film follows the tradition of innovation and evolution that have been a part of this establishment’s history. The main project for the Studio des Ursulines in Paris was concentrated on the lobby, as the existing theatre has been simply refurbished. Founded in 1925, by the actors Armand Tallier and Laurence Myrga, this theater continues it’s tradition today by catering to the younger Parisian public by providing a locale to discover cinema in it’s many facets. The small theater offers selective programming as well as the opportunity to meet those who make films. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The proposal for a Jinzhou New Area Medical Center by Design Initiatives is located as closest as possible to the existing wing of the hospital in order to shorten the routes and form one integrated complex with that existing wing. The architects believe that the everyday experience of the users is critically important for the hospital typology. They shifted and offset the four different wings so every room that needs it has an access to natural light and ventilation – something so rear in medical buildings and hard to get organized with an area of 185,000 m2. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Whether you’re looking to design a beautiful new kitchen or elevate your next dinner party, you’ll enjoy the Jenn-Air® Master Class Series of videos from Jenn-Air®. Featuring a panel of esteemed experts, including two designers and one chef, the series aims to give viewers who love to entertain or who are contemplating a kitchen renovation an in-depth look at some of the latest culinary, design and entertaining trends.
The architecture firms of Kunckel Associates and Stefan Gzyl joined forces under the Glocalstudio platform to develop their entry to the recently completed ideas competition for La Carlota park in Caracas, Venezuela. They propose that the new park is an opportunity for a lot more than supplying a quantifiable amount of park space: they understand it as an opportunity for the (re)foundation of the city. The park will become the city’s new vital nucleus, a space from which to (re)conquest and (re)claim a preexisting and often hostile territory. In a city in which nature is in constant decline and hardly available as public space, the 100 hectare military airfield site constitutes a unique chance for a metropolitan-scale park in the very heart of the city. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Our friends at Design Observer’s Places Journal have shared with us two fascinating articles, written by architects Jonathan Massey and Brett Snyder, that explore the physical and virtual evolution of Occupy Wall Street (#OWS) as it transformed from the privately owned public space of Zuccotti Park into the bustling micro-city of Liberty Plaza sustained by online media.
To learn how OWS has influenced architecture and urbanism, Massey and Snyder asks the following questions: What’s the layout of this place? What are its rules, and who owns it? How does its design shape possibilities for individual and collective action?
Created by media artist group : J o n p a s a n g, the Hyper-Matrix is an exhibition pavilion gathering which plays with the walls of the structure to create three-dimensional effects to the viewers. Designed to showcase Hyundai Motor Group, this represents how there are various applications of mechatronic solutions. Comprised of thousands of 30x30cm cubes that make up the facade of the structure, the blocks extrude from the surface of the walls to create a variety of patterns and configurations. Also entertaining are the viewers’ reactions which reveal the excitement surrounding the pavilion.
Created by Carniolus, the video above very elegantly gives you a pretty good description of the Baroque Court Apartments, designed by OFIS Architects. A residential block in the historic city center of Ljubljana, Slovenia, the project is positioned to feature an internal courtyard and open-air contemporary glass light well. The inward-facing transparent enclosure was revitalized to create opportunities for communication between apartments at different levels.
The City of York Council recently launched a competition seeking nationally and internationally renowned architects to submit their design proposals which clearly demonstrate potential future uses for York’s historic Guildhall and riverside complex. Registered architects are invited to develop their ideas for the Guildhall, the associated office accommodation, river frontage and boat yard, as part of an ‘Open Ideas’ competition, run by The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Entries will be sought from architects putting forward innovative ideas on how the potential of the Guildhall site and riverside could be maximized for the benefit of the city and its residents. The competition submission deadline is November 6th and the results will be announced early December. For more information, please visit here.
“Spain used to be a sexy, fit and energetic country. Envy, inferiority complexes, greed, arrogance and pride soaked it in fat. It is currently suffering from moral obesity.” That was Architect Manuel Ocaña’s incendiary take on the current state of his home country, one of the hardest hit by the Recession due to its extraordinary pre-Crisis construction boom (a.k.a “the mother of all housing bubbles”).
For this week’s edition of our Recessionary Interviews series – in which we talk to Architects across the globe surviving the Recession - we decided to get one final perspective from the Iberian Peninsula. We chatted with Spain’s Josep Ferrando, of Josep Ferrando Bramona Architecture, who told us how the economic bust has shifted focus from public works towards an architecture of “re”: rehabilitating, re-structuring, re-inhabiting.
Get Ferrando’s take on the state of Architecture in Spain today, after the break…
The International New Town Institute is organizing the ‘New Towns New Territories: New Players in Urban Planning’ conference taking place September 27th from 9am-7pm. The event, which will be held at the NAi in Rotterdam, will explore the latest innovations in global urbanization, privatization and new organizational models of urban development as well as the impact and challenges for professional practice. Global urbanization is moving at a faster pace than ever before and it is showing a fundamental shift in its structure and organization. Hundreds of economic, eco and satellite cities are being developed by private companies. Not only in Asia, but also in Europe. Who are the new players in the field of urban development? What visions, ambitions and strategies do they have? What innovations and financial models make these cities possible? These are just a few of the questions that will be answered and discussed. For more information, please visit here.
The Research and Documentation Centre in Technology, Architecture and City in Developing Countries (CRD-PVS) at the Politecnico di Torino (Italy) has launched an international Student Design Competition tur(i)ntogreen – Farms in A Town. Sponsored by the UN-HABITAT within the “I’m a City Changer” campaign, participants are invited to apply their creative talents in developing new multidisciplinary solutions for a sustainable and inclusive city reflecting new forms of urban management and regeneration through agro-housing and urban-farming models.
With a capacity of 3600 places, and an alternative to its ‘grand sister’, the small olympic hall, is embedded carefully in the protected Olympic Park ensemble as it almost disappears. With pfarré lighting design working closely with the architects, the attic has been detailed to house a linear, dimmable lighting system. The huge notch, cut into the hill, which covers the building, was underlined with light on both sides. More images and their description after the break.
In continuation of their exhibition program on architectural photography taking place in New Delhi, Photoink is currently presenting Chandigarh: Portrait of a City by French photographer, Manuel Bougot until October 27th. Bougot’s interest in Le Corbusier’s architecture began in the 1980s when he worked on Caroline Maniaque’s thesis in architecture–on the Jaoul Houses built in 1954 in Neuilly, France. Since 2006, Bougot renewed his interest in Le Corbusier, attending talks on Chandigarh and photographed the only building the architect ever built for himself – a cabanon (a summer cabin) in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. Photographing Chandigarh was therefore necessary to further any understanding of Le Corbusier, the urban designer and his philosophy about architecture and modernism. More images and information on the exhibition after the break.
This year’s Portland State Department of Architecture lecture series, which starts October 4 and runs until May 2, focuses on the theme of ‘Placing’. Six internationally renowned leaders from the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, art, planning, and anthropology will tackle this once-controversial idea and discuss the ways in which the active processes of siting, locating, positioning and placing things and people in the world are conceived and embodied in their work. Dan Wood of WORKac will start off the lecture series, followed by Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey of O’Donnell+Tuomey Architects, Kevin Daly of Daly Genik Architects, Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano of Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, Tim Ingold of the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen, and Julie Bargmann of D.I.R.T. Studio. For more information, please visit here.
Located on the Yangzi River to the north-east of Nanjing in Jiangsu Province, the proposal for the Nanjing ecological and technological island, by AAUPC Agence Patrick Chavannes + G.C.A. Design Consulting, consists of a development strategy for the Yangzi delta and Jiangsu province. The aim is to define a new image for the city of Nanjing, transforming it into an open economy, developing eco-technological industries and modern services, innovating with existing mechanisms and putting in place the local development strategy of ‘crossing the Yangzi River’. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Santa Fe University of Art and Design and the Santa Fe Art Institute recently announced the Ricardo Legorreta Tribute event, a weekend of activities across the city honoring Legorreta’s influence on Santa Fe design. Taking place October 19-20, the event will include a series of lectures, films and tours that will honor the legacy of the late Mexican architect whose inspired designs have helped shape the landscape of many residential, academic and corporate buildings in Santa Fe. More information on the event after the break.