Selected for this year's Emerging Voices of the Architectural League of New York, PRODUCTORA of Mexico City will be delivering a lecture this Thursday, March 28th, at 7:00pm at the Scholastic Auditorium. PRODUCTORA was selected for their distinct design voice and their potential to influence architecture on a global scale. Being named an Emerging Voice is one of the most coveted awards in North American architecture, and the program has an excellent thirty year track record of identifying and nurturing firms that go on to have influential practices.
Other winning firms included in this year's selection are Cao-Perrot Studio of Los Angeles and Paris, DIGSAU of Philadelphia, dlandstudio of Brooklyn, Gracia Studio of Tijuana and San Diego, MASS Design Group of Boston and Kigali, Rwanda, Ogrydziak Prillinger Architects of San Francisco, and SO-IL of New York City. For more information on the event, please visit here.
Walltopia, a global leader in the design and manufacturing of artificial climbing walls and grips, organized the Collider Activity Center competition located in Sofia, near the foothills of Mount Vitosha - one of Bulgaria’s most popular tourist destinations. The proposal by Zohar Architects is a 100% climbable structure: a donut-shaped courtyard building informed by the diversity of context. Its volume is extruded using ‘grafts’ of the world’s most famous mountains as formwork to create a patchwork of alpine geo-diversity, with a perfect cast of Abraham Lincoln’s nose from Mount Rushmore prominently positioned to satisfy curious climber fantasies. More images and architects' description after the break.
On March 26th, architect Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects will discuss how housing can evolve in multiple ways to address contemporary challenges in "Moving House," delivered as the Rice Design Alliance's 2013 Sally Walsh Lecture at the The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Dedicated to "honoring Walsh’s groundbreaking foray into modern design by bringing cutting edge designers to Houston," the lecture is sponsored in collaboration with the Rice School of Architecture, the AIA Houston Chapter, and the Architecture Center Houston Foundation.
With everything today changing and the fishing architecture gone, the village of Sancti Petri owes its importance to the past tuna industry and seafarers. This first prize winning proposal in the competition for the urban and architectural design of the Península of Sancti-Petri aims to give back the original meaning to the peninsula by reinterpreting architectural and spatial values of the past. Designed by BAKPAK Architects, this "new town" is divided into 13 themed compact-use sets, and each of them are made up of modules. More images and architects' description after the break.
Taking place at the Japan Foundation Gallery in Sydney from April 2-May 1, Parallel Nippon, a world-class exhibition, will feature Japan’s most influential architects including 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Toyo Ito, Kengo Kuma, Tadao Ando, Kenzo Tange, SANAA, and many more. Containing over 100 large-scale photo panels of landmark designs, architectural models and video footage, the exhibition is divided into four thematic sections: Urban, Life, Culture and Living, a cross-sectional view of Japanese society. These areas represent the revolutionary, innovative and progressive architectural achievements realized not only in Japan but across the world as projects of Japanese architects. More information after the break.
Designed by LYCS Architecture, their newly completed proposal for the Tian Tai County ChiCheng No.2 Primary School focuses on the relationship between architecture and site, site and city, form and function. Striving for a unique design to serve as a model school, their concept provides a beautiful environment for the cultivation of knowledge, culture, physical fitness, art and ethics for elementary school children. More images and architects' description after the break.
Daniel Madeiros and Jonathan Schwinge were recently announced as the winners of the ideas competition organized by Millennium Point and the RIBA to enhance the visibility and image of Millennium Point in Birmingham from the Jennens Road approach. The jury panel was struck by the beauty and grace of their winning idea which was underpinned by craft and technology, convincing the jury that the dramatic form could be constructed. Also demonstrating complexity and sensitivity to the site, Millennium Point will benefit greatly from this competition and the opportunities it now has for its next phase of architectural evolution. More images and architects' description after the break.
With the city of Be’er Sheba standing out in the areas of education, architecture and environment, this proposal for the day care center, which won an honorable mention, is an opportunity for innovative thinking in social services and integration with the community. Designed by Uri Cohen Architects their plan suggests selective exposure to city life for the users, while keeping their privacy and giving the city areas for activities. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Launching Tuesday, March 26, Council of the City of Gold Coast is calling participants to compete for the opportunity to design a landmark cultural ‘heart and soul’ on 11 hectares of the stunning Evandale site on Australia’s Gold Coast. The Council’s vision for the site includes a Living Arts Centre, for performing arts and cinema; a New Arts Museum for media, art and design; a stunning outdoor garden Artscape and a green bridge to adjacent Chevron Island. Concepts will need to be distinctive and innovative and will have to respond to a comprehensive design brief. The winning design will evolve into the city’s creative commons, a place loved by residents and a must-see visitor destination. For more information, please visit here.
Free and open to the public, the PhD program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design is pleased to invite you to the 7th annual Cambridge Talks conference, which will take place on Friday, March 29, from 9:00am to 4:30pm. This year's conference seeks to bring fresh historical themes and tools to bear on the problem of 'Architecture and the Street'. New research promises to enrich and challenge perspectives pioneered by Spiro Kostof, Jane Jacobs, and William H. Whyte. You will be challenged to critically think about questions such as 'How might we theorize and historicize modern streets as sites of cultural memory and nostalgia? And above all, what are the effects of such social, political, and technological forces on architectural form? For more information, please visit here.
The Klassik Stiftung Weimar will present the exhibition “Passion, Function and Beauty. Henry van de Velde and his Contribution to European Modernism” on March 24, 2013 at 11:00am. The press conference will be held at the Neues Museum Weimar in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Belgian architect and designer Henry van de Velde.
Courtesy of Povilas Zakauskas, Tomas Vaiciulis, Kristijonas Skirmantas
Designed by architects Povilas Zakauskas,Tomas Vaiciulis, and Kristijonas Skirmantas their 'Buoy Prison' proposal for the Pacific Ocean Platform Prison competition consists of 3 main parts: bearing column, structural ring and regular rectangular modules, containing all prison areas defined in a design program, hanging under structural ring. Separate parts (modules) could be easily replaced by the others or new extensions could be added if needed. This makes the whole prison system flexible and adjustable to always changing requirements. More images and architects' description after the break.
Tent London recently launched their call for entries for their 2013 Project Spaces where they will be offering 4 spaces in the show to architects and designers who have a design or concept they would like to present to their 20,000 visitors. Project Spaces should be about anything but products. Their goal is to punctuate the halls at Tent London with engaging, three-dimensional installations of all descriptions which challenge their design hungry visitors and offer a break from the furniture, lighting and interiors products found within the rest of the show. The deadline for applications is April 26. For more information, please visit here.
Woolworth Building at Night, April 24, 1913. Library of Congress
The Woolworth Building @ 100 Exhibtion, taking place at the Skyscraper Museum in New York City until July 14, 2013, celebrates its centennial year in the process of conversion, with office space remaining below and luxury residences planned for the upper tower. Still radiant on the lower Manhattan skyline, the landmark heralds both the past and future of New York as it became the preeminent silhouette on the New York skyline and took the title of world's tallest office building in 1913 when eighty thousand incandescent bulbs illuminated the New York night. The brilliant spectacle was a career-crowning achievement for the tower's owner, the five-and-dime store king Frank W. Woolworth, who paid for the skyscraper with his personal fortune and took a hands-on role in every decision of its design. For more information on the event, please visit here.
As an update to last year's post on WOHA's 'Breathing Architecture' exhibition, their work has seen great success in Frankfurt and Taichung. Now on its last leg, it will travel to Taipei and be on display from March 22-May 10 at the "Mobile Museum - SEED project". Reminding us of bold visions of the future, in which plants reclaim nature for themselves, the architects realize the permeation of buildings and landscape, and of interiors and exteriors in projects. WOHA’s tropical architecture is permeable, leafy and interspersed with community spaces, which truly capture the essence of how architecture is breathing. For more information, please visit here. More images can be viewed after the break.
