Originally constructed for the 1939 World’s Fair, the resilient structure of New York’s Queens Museum of Art has been undergoing its fourth and most ambitious renovation since April 2011. This $68 million renovation, designed by Grimshaw Architects, will double the institution’s size, expanding the museum to a total of 105,000 square feet upon its completion in October 2013.
The proposal for the Industrial Arts Center by Stefano Corbo Studio pursues a double challenge: from one hand, to re-activate and reconvert the existing building through new functions and a contemporary language; from the other hand, to focus attention on the public character of the intervention, in order to allow citizens to gather and share the activities of the Art Center during the day, according to the prescriptions of the Brewery District. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by MA2, the office tower and exhibition hall concept design proposal is for Hong Kong’s Kai Tak development, an airport landing strip that will be reclaimed into the city as a new cultural, business, and residential district. The tower is an expression of fluid movement that manifests into a series of folds, creases, and a bifurcation of massing creating a dual tower. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The collaborative team of architects Khvil Anastasia, Ivanova Elena, Fadeeva Alina, Rudikov Aleksei, and Spiridon Mellos chose simplicity as their main strategy in the Piraeus Museum for Underwater Antiquities Competition. Without creating enormous change, their design aims to use only what is already there, emphasizing simplicity and industrial nature of the building and beauty of the place to create a complex travel route. More images and architects' description after the break.
Science and technology evolve at an astounding rate. They are in constant motion and change, with such fierce speed that both surprises and excites. The non-stop evolution is boundless, and it gets faster and more dynamic every day.
Designed by Andrea Vattovani Architecture, their ‘Back2rots’ research center proposal consists of a new working environment for young people. Upon developing the program to determine their target and who they wanted to reach, the architects decided to develop a big creative block in which young talented people could find everything. This project would be able to give them everything they need to be creative and to make their dreams a reality by having all the necessary tools. More images and architects’ description after the break.
OKRA, in collaboration with Mixst urbanism and Wageningen University, was recently announced as the winning team of the prestigious competition ReThink Athens towards a new city centre. Changing the heart of Athens into a true contemporary metropolitan city centre requires transformation of the city triangle into a lively part of the city. The project aims to strongly contribute to the change of Athens and improve the environment of the city plus activating the area economically. The team is supported by the Greek Architects of Studio 75 and Werner Sobek Green Technologies. More images and architects’ description after the break.
ESS Description
The European Spallation Source (ESS) will become the world’s largest and most advanced research facility for neutron-based research. ESS is located in the university city of Lund in southern Sweden.
This dynamic cultural center in Grottammare, Italy, will be Bernard Tschumi Architects’ first commission in Italy. Inspired by the city's small medieval center, the roughly 7,000 square meter structure will house a variety of exhibitions, conferences and workshops in an effort to “strengthen people’s ties to the territory with which they identify” by exchanging information about the existing city and envision its possibilities for the future.
The architect's description after the break...
Casson Mann and Snohetta were recently announced as the winners of the prestigious Lascaux IV: International Cave Painting Center competition. With a budget of €50million, Lascaux IV has been initiated to conserve the integrity of the original cave complex, while ensuring that the public can still appreciate the remarkable Paleolithic paintings within. The winning concept includes a low profile exterior that reflects the contours of the limestone topography and a dramatic interior designed to transport the visitor into a cave complex complete with tunnels, cavernous spaces and chambers lit by shafts of broken sunlight. More images and architects' description after the break.
The design for the Bratislava Culenova New City Center by Zaha Hadid Architects is based on a dynamic field strategy which aims to organize the city's new city center program along a gradient of circular and elliptical patterns. In a series of larger tower extrusions, a fluid field emerges from its underlying matrix to activate the ground throughout the whole site and provide public spaces of the highest quality. More images and architects' description after the break.
With the goal to inspire new visions for the future development of the central part of Floda, Mandaworks and Hosper Sweden’s proposal was recently selected as the the winner of the architectural competition for the future planning of Floda’s city center. Their ‘Down by the River’ concept focuses on and develops Floda’s strongest qualities: water, nature and Garveriet. The public spaces along Säveån refine and develop Floda’s existing character and identity as a community around the water. The proposal’s hook is the Blue Square - an innovative reinterpretation of the square as a public space where the rushing river creates a natural spectacle all year round. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Located in one of the most vibrant yet blighted neighborhoods in Southwest Chicago, HDR Architecture's proposal for the Focal Point Community Campus represents how hospitals can no longer be hermitically sealed from their surroundings; rather, they must embrace the communities in which they reside. Offering a supreme opportunity for this type of change, their concept follows a breakthrough model, which will make it a financially self-sustaining community campus. The vision for the project was developed by Chicago's Saint Anthony Hospital and will be brought to life under The Chicago Southwest Development Corporation, the not-for-profit organization established to develop and maintain the Focal Point property. More images and architects' description after the break.
Designed by d-code Architects, the proposal for the Museumof Underwater Antiquities is a synthesis of a building characterized by orthometrical simplicity with incorporated high-tech components and a surrounding area of curved and parabolic shaped paths, installations and water parks. Given the importance of the two subjects of the museum building and its surroundings, the overall effect is presented as arythmological dialogue between linear building solidity and environmental curving fluidity. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The idea of establishing Operalab – a mobile think tank - in the urban environment is the evidence of the transformation taking place in the structure of the Grand Theatre - National Opera, representing the openness and modernity of this elite cultural institution. Designed by exexe Studio, the main idea behind their proposal is the separation of part of the urban fabric, provoking creative use and generating more space rather than just designing the building. This time, it's not the audience coming to the theater, but a theater coming to the audience. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by Vo Trong Nghia Architects the Trees Building, a branch bank of ABBANK, aims to create a co-existence of the rapid development and abundant nature of the seaside city. Located in Danang, Vietnam, the office building uses a classical style with two-storey-height columns dating back to Alberti, which has been typically used for bank buildings all over the world to symbolize their authority and stability. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Orizzontale was recently invited by GATR to take part in the 2012 edition of the architectural festival Festarch.lab with a project which imagines and builds upon an architectural installation for the main square of Terni, a town in the center of Italy. With the challenge to design a multifunctional stage, the result was ‘Gondwana’, a mobile archipelago of wooden platforms, which comes in different shapes, dimensions and colors, and invades the square with endless configurations. More images and architects’ description after the break.
With the main challenge of providing an environment for the prosperous IT business incubator in Kharkov city, the design by ZA Architects creates favorable conditions for the creation and development of the new ideas in the multi-component environment. The design backbone is the provocation of communication between people, casual acquaintances, experience sharing, receiving of new knowledge and social events of all kinds. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by Söhne & Partner Architects + BET Architects, their proposal for the
ETAT Architects + Spridd Architects recently won the first prize in an invited competition for a mixed-use building of housing and commercial space. Located in the centre of Norrköping, on the fringe of the historic 19th century textile industry area of Sweden, the exterior architecture interprets certain characteristic themes in the historic industrial area. These include elements such as large windows, local towers, repetitive and rationally organised fenestration, an emphasis on vertical elements in the façade, and exposed building material of stone. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The proposal for the future Cultural Laboratory of Cambrai, designed by CAAU (Coldefy & Associés Architectes Urbanistes) aims to provide as much as possible, the addition of a contemporary building on the ground floor, allowing the laboratory to develop principally on one level. This strategic connection will also allow, in a second phase, a link with the future extension of the museum. More images and architects’ description after the break.
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Filament Mind is a human information-driven installation by E/B Office which is designed to visualize the collective curiosities and questions of Wyoming’s Teton County Library visitors through a dynamic and interactive spatial sculpture. The project is inspired by the concept that our civic spaces should be intelligent and responsive, communicating as much to us as we do to each other, enabling a form of intra-environmental social interaction between our thoughts and the material of our built environments. More images and architects’ description after the break.
