Videos: The Latest Architecture and News

Starting today, you can now watch Urbanized online while it’s still in theaters! If you’ve got iTunes and you’re in the US or Canada, you can watch it via iTunes as a premium rental. If you’re not in those countries, you can rent it directly from Urbanized website via Distrify. You can also embed the film in your website or blog and share it with folks you know.

One Millionth Tower

More after the break.

Zaha Hadid discusses the challenges she has faced throughout her life and career. She talks about the criticism that comes along with being an Arabic woman architect with “unconventional” designs and the unconditional support from her family. Hadid describes architecture as an exciting but painfully demanding field, stating, “All the arts are not respected enough.”

Museum of Architecture and Design has published the first film from the series of six Small and Smart – Expressions of Contemporary Slovenian Architecture in Film: Biotechnical Faculty, ARK arhitektura Krušec (Ljubljana, 2009-2010). Small and Smart consists of six short films, one of each of six built architectural projects. Each employs a simple story – a development, an exchange – to move through and relate the experience of the architecture. As the films move through and document the spaces and exchanges, certain key features of the architectures are revealed and emphasized. All architectures here are recent builds (2006 and later) and are of varied types, programs and scales: private house, row house, industrial facility, sacred, educational/institutional, public/sports. Together they reflect representative currents, developments and practices in the best of Slovenian architecture today.

Prefabricated concrete shells become emergency shelters for flood-ravaged communities in Pathum Thani. The concrete forms are intended to be used for the construction of Bangkok’s elevated skyway. The company that owns the shells has given the temporary residents permission to stay and access to electricity. Residents have expressed preference of the makeshift community over government shelters due to “familiar faces” and more space.

On October 19th Charlie Rose interviewed OMA founding partner Rem Koolhaas (his fifth appearance on the show). The discussion ranges from Koolhaas’ current interest in the countryside, rather than the city, his firm’s newly completed Milestein Hall project at Cornell University, and the launch of the book Project Japan: Metabolism Talks written with Hans Ulrich Obrist and edited by Kayoko Ota. Watch the interview here.

Opening in 2013, the Library of Birmingham will be a major new cultural destination, rewriting the book for 21st century public libraries. Designed by international architects Mecanoo, the Library of Birmingham will be located in the city’s Centenary Square. Recently, the author of the architectural videos blog shared with us his time lapse video of the building.

The husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames are widely regarded as America’s most important designers. Perhaps best remembered for their mid-century plywood and fiberglass furniture, the Eames Office also created a mind-bending variety of other products, from splints for wounded military during World War II, to photography, interiors, multi-media exhibits, graphics, games, films and toys. But their personal lives and influence on significant events in American life — from the development of modernism, to the rise of the computer age — has been less widely understood. Narrated by James Franco, Eames: The Architect and the Painter is the first film dedicated to these creative geniuses and their work opening November 18th at the IFC Center in New York City.

Shinkenchiku brings you an exclusive inside tour of the contemporary House NA, designed by Sou Fujimoto Architects. Thin, steel poles delicately support the transparent “pile of boxes” at varying heights. In an interview conducted by F.W. Monocle, Sou Fujimoto explains, “In one way the house is like a single space, but each room is also a tiny space of its own. The clients said they wanted to live like nomads within the house – they didn’t have specific plans for each room. The house looks radical but for the clients it seemed quite natural.”

Check out this trailer for what promises to be an awesome documentary on the Eames. This painter and architect duo carved their niche into the history of design, beginning with their famed lounge chair and ottoman, continuing with graphic design, photography, architecture, and visionary ideas for companies such as Westinghouse, Boeing and Polaroid. Directed by Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey, the documentary will run in New York at the IFC Center on November 18, and will have its broadcast premiere December 19 as part of the PBS American Masters series. Narrated by James Franco, Eames: The Architect and the Painter is the first film dedicated to these creative geniuses and their work. As the clip explains, ”They were introducing people to look at the world differently.” Enjoy!

Suprastudio Greg Lynn from UCLA Architecture & Urban De on Vimeo.

On October 20, The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO) and Richard Meier & Partners Architects launched Latin America’s first retrospective exhibition celebrating the forty-eight years of Richard Meier’s career. The show reveals an in-depth overview of many significant projects, showcasing a large collection of models, original sketches, photographs, renderings and an exclusive gallery dedicated to Meier’s product design.

This exclusive video of OMA’s Maggie’s Centre by BD online features OMA partner Ellen van Loon discussing the design for the cancer care center. Led by OMA Partners Rem Koolhaas and Ellen van Loon with Associate-in-charge Richard Hollington the Maggie Gartnaval center located in Glasgow opened today.

Gensler, architects of SanFrancisco International Airport’s Terminal2(SFO T2) and Virgin America, the terminal’s anchor tenant, announce the release of A Day in the Life of SFO T2, a video by filmmakers Spirit of Space. A Day in the Life of SFO T2 is a key element in Virgin America’s fall promotion “VX Deals on the Fly,” launching today via Loopt, the geo-social network. The promotion will offer travelers mobile check-in rewards at various locations throughout SFO T2. More information after the break.

The well established and nationally recognized architecture firm Brooks + Scarpa (2010 AIA National Firm of the Year) recently decided to shake things up a bit. “Our office has turned more into a conventional office over the years, and I was just really looking for something that could become a glorified cabinet shop where we could actually work and make things, have the space to do that, and have some outdoor space to build bigger things,” shares Larry Scarpa.

Chris Burden’s massive kinetic sculpture, Metropolis II, will debut at at LACMA this fall. The project took Burden and his chief engineer Zak Cook four years to complete.

The Vienna Design Week 2011, now in its fifth year, is Austria’s most important international design festival. From September 30 — October 9th, 2011, it will bring some of the best designers of our time to the Austrian capital while simultaneously fostering the talents of tomorrow. The festival is diversified in content — comprising positions of product design, industrial design, and furniture design. For more information, please click here.

This video, produced by Maike Acosta and Javier Cuevas of Florida International University (FIU), was awarded the Grand prize for the AIA Florida Committee on the Environment’s (COTE) 2011 Video-Arch Competition. The competition asked for short video clips that emphasize the architect’s primary role in designing sustainable and energy resourceful environments, leading the state of Florida and the nation their sustainable potentials. The theme of Architecture Controlling the Future of Sustainability was required to carry through to the video, intending to be a public service announcement touching on the subjects of the entrants’ choice: energy, water, public health, economics, or land use.