London/Paris-based practice Matteo Cainer Architects Ltd has sent us its competition entry for the new Swiss embassy building in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon, West Africa. The design is a play on the precision of Swiss clockwork mechanism and traditional Cameroon Musgum housing.

Project Description from the Architects:

The design of the new Swiss Embassy in Yaoundé pays tribute to its renewed presence in the Cameroon and a respect for the uniqueness of the site. The resulting proposal is an elegant ensemble that encapsulates the identity and self-image of the Swiss people and their values. As a result the core concepts that guide this proposal are an expression of Swiss traditional know-how, and an understanding of what the Embassy can represent and achieve.

The qualities of a Swiss timepiece offer an interesting metaphor for a building with a complex and symbolic role. Not only does the mechanism and synchronised movement resolve the complexity and secure requirements of the Embassy itself, but it can also represent the underlying beauty of a pragmatic and essential artefact.

The three principal components that make up the Embassy complex, the Chancellery, the Ambassador’s residence and the staff quarters, are conceived as separate elements, and as the components of a timepiece each is expressed at its own scale. These principal elements are each informed and enriched by their own language and references. The Ambassador’s residence takes its form from the traditional Cameroon ‘Musgum’ house with living spaces arranged around a central space, in this case a circular court.  This arrangement provides visual and physical protection from the outside, retaining privacy for the Ambassador and his family, with a controlled environment within.  This carefully structured interior landscape and private garden becomes the conceptual heart of the residence and a tranquil oasis for informal social gatherings. The spatial and programmatic organization of the project is conceived so that the Embassy’s public entrance and interior space present an ambience of calm and assurance, with a functional arrangement that exudes precision in detail and movement. Public and private functions within the building are set apart from each other, with public services located on the ground floor and private Embassy functions on the floor above. The Ambassador’s office has been strategically placed at the centre of the proposal, as its symbolic beating heart.

Achieving a sustainable design was key to the process, from an innovative selection of engineered building components to the building’s orientation. Digitally controlled external sunshades manufactured in Switzerland respond to and protect the interiors from the intense heat/solar gain and the resulting energy savings to provide cooling.  The exposed concrete structure provides the thermal mass to reduce peak-period cooling demands and highly efficient lighting systems and a strongly insulated building skin reduce the overall energy consumption. A low maintenance “sedum” green roof over the Chancellery provides considerable energy savings, while the roof-mounted solar panels generate green electricity to reduce energy requirements for the heating of water. The installation of photovoltaic panels contributes to the Embassy’s annual power requirement. Internal heating and cooling will be effectively achieved by boreholes/earth tubes or crypt cooling, allowing air to circulate through large diameter underground pipes, with internal heat build-up by circulating air and discharging via a stack. The proposal makes efficient use of the intense rainfall and humidity in this region. The roof over the Residency is suspended over a ventilated void to keep the roof dry. The rainwater collected from the Chancery roof is stored and used for irrigation and grey water purposes. Rainwater collected from the garden is naturally purified and stored as potable water for the entire complex.

The calm external simplicity of the proposal conceals an inner complexity. The layered and interconnecting spaces are developed from the concept diagrams of the time-piece mechanism. The passing of time is represented by the constantly changing patterns of shadows that are cast across the internal wall and floor surfaces. The interconnecting internal spaces, clad in natural materials, retain the complex fascination that lies within the casing of a timepiece. Constructed according to Swiss “Minergie Standards,” the new Embassy will be an exemplar of efficient and sustainable energy, learning from and integrating the qualities of the Cameroonian and Swiss people and their cultures.

Project Details:

Location: Yaoundé, Cameroon
Use: Swiss Embassy, Ambassador Residence and Staff quarters
Client: Swiss Confederation, OFCL
Design: Matteo Cainer Architects Ltd

A jury of internationally recognized design professionals and Seattle civic leaders have declared a winner among three semi-finalists in Urban Intervention: The Howard S. Wright Design Ideas Competition for Public Space. The winner is ABF, of Paris, France, for its design, In-Closure, which envisions an interactive wall around a forested landscape that is both flexible and dynamic, embracing social life in the city at multiple scales.

[IN]CLOSURE by ABF from abflab on Vimeo.

About In-Closure, the six-member jury said: "50 years ago, the spirit of Seattle Center was about the future. A common assumption was that the future, and all advancement, is positive. Today, we challenge that assumption. The only guarantee of the future is change. In-Closure addressed the state of constant change by proposing a replicable and organic system that can grow and evolve, that doesn’t equate innovation with solely technology,  and recognizes that ecological resilience at its heart comes from the community itself."

In addition, the jury found exceptional merit in several aspects of the ABF proposal:    

• The proposed design demonstrated an understanding that the future of sustainable public spaces, and cities, depends on a sustainable social ecology of human interactions, as much if not more than technology-based solutions.  
• The design works at a human scale that is critical to successful public spaces and the future of Seattle Center, envisioning how users will effectively create their own public spaces within a larger campus framework.  
• The jury saw In-Closure as highly adaptive, developing over time and to changes in site and program, positively influencing public space and the broader ecology of the entire city.

The ABF team consists of Etienne Feher, architect; Paul Azzopardi, urban engineer; and Noé Basch, climate engineer. The exchange between ABF and the jury generated an engaging dialogue about the future of the center and the future of the city and public space (full jury statement upon request).

The jury decision follows semi-finalist presentations over the weekend to both the public and jury and concludes a year-long process that sought compelling design ideas for how to conceive a fresh vision of the future of public space, via a nine-acre site at the heart of Seattle Center. The competition received 107 proposals from 24 countries. From this entrant pool, the jury chose three semi-finalists and granted seven commendations at the end of phase-one in early March. The semi-finalists were invited to Seattle at the beginning of April for a learning visit, and they returned with their final proposals last week. The winner was selected for most effectively responding to the five major themes of the competition.

The six-member jury included August de los Reyes, designer, writer, and educator (Palo Alto, CA); Gene Duvernoy, president of Forterra, formerly Cascade Land Conservancy (Seattle, WA); Tom Leader, principal of award winning landscape architecture firm Tom Leader Studio (Berkeley, CA); Mia Lehrer, founder of landscape architecture firm Mia Lehrer+Associates (Los Angeles, CA); Rick Lowe, celebrated public artist (Houston, TX); and Patricia Patkau, founding partner in the firm of Patkau Architects (Vancouver, B.C., Canada).

Seattle Center Director Robert Nellams in speaking at the public presentation said: “The competition honors long-term civic leader Howard S. Wright. Urban Intervention aligns with the legacy he left. We hope the ideas that emerge from it will spur larger conversations about the potential for creating vital community spaces that truly will serve future generations.”

Other semi-finalists are: KoningEizenberg Architecture + ARUP (Los Angeles, CA) for their design, Park. The design organizes the disparate elements of the Seattle Center site and program into a sustainable and coherent landscape. It offers a mastery of the immediate and physical and programmatic challenges facing Seattle Center; and  PRAUD (Boston, MA ) for their design, Seattle Jelly Bean. The design is highly imaginative - and suggests a new kind of icon for the 21st century, an atmospheric and interactive cloud that is tethered both literally and figuratively to the site below.

Urban Intervention, a partnership between Seattle Center and AIA Seattle, was funded by a grant from the Grousemount Foundation for The Next Fifty. The public may view an exhibit of the semi- finalist and commendation award winners and other inspiring entries. The exhibit will run through June 30 in the lobby of the Intiman Playhouse.  For information on the Competition, exhibit  and Next 50, visit www.thenextfifty.org/urbanintervention and www.seattlecenter.com or call 206 684-7200.

For the second consecutive year, Portuguese design office AND-RÉ has won the Iberian Urban Equipment Prize - Larus/Architectures, this year in the category Urban Furniture with "PACMAN", a captivating design that sets out to change the mindset of citizens in their relation with recycling. In 2011, the office won the award in the Lighting Design category with the "Verso" lighting system.

The Award, that aims to publicly recognize the best projects and pieces of urban infrastructure developed over the past five years, is organized by the Journal Architectures in partnership with Larus - Urban Design, with institutional support from the Portuguese Design Centre and DIMAD - Designers Association of Madrid.

Project Description from the Architects:

You woke up in a bland day, apparently just the same as others, with the morning sun slowly following the awakening. You came to the street, still slightly disoriented, and there was something different. You felt peculiar presences around you, but strangely you did not felt threatened.

Already awake, you realized that they had invaded the city. Perfectly round white skin creatures, distinguished from each other by the color of their mouths, were multiplying, rolling down the hills, scattered in groups and joining at strategic points. Then, they opened their blue, yellow, green and black mouths, and began eating all the garbage, in a careful manner, with amazing criteria. Now you were certain that these little funny soldiers had come in peace. You knew that they wouldn't attack and that they came with the purpose to protect you. You and your habitat. At this point, one of them came up to you smiling and said “one can resist an invading army, but one cannot resist the invasion of ideas”. (Victor Hugo)

Project Details:

Type: urban furniture / recycle bins / commissioned  
Prizes: Iberian Urban Equipment Prize - Larus/Arquitecturas 2012  
Status: implemented  
Location: Vilamoura, Portugal  
Date: 2008/10  
Promoter: Inframoura, Em  
Material: stainless steel structure and composite skin  
Team: Bruno André / Francisco Salgado Ré  
Mechanical development: alto

Design Week NYC is almost here, and the plethora of events going on around New York City can be quite overwhelming. But worry not, the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum has launched a new tool that will come in very handy: a mobile-ready website, designweeknyc.org, highlighting design-related events around the city during ICFF, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, May 19-22.

Design Week NYC is a grassroots initiative convened to celebrate design at ICFF and the satellite fairs and events being held around the city, including American Design Club’s exhibition at Heller Gallery, Model Citizen, Noho Design District and WantedDesign.

The site provides a central location for information regarding the many design events hosted by numerous organizations around the city. The website uses the Ushahidi platform, which was featured in the Map Kibera project in Cooper-Hewitt’s 2011 exhibition “Design with the Other 90%: CITIES.” The platform enabled the community of Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, Kenya, to map local resources and publish news. 

“Designers, architects, city officials and media have all worked together to build Design Week NYC and raise awareness of the inspiring projects and events taking place all around the city,” said Caroline Baumann, associate director of the museum. “We’re already looking forward to 2013 and working with the design community, Speaker Christine Quinn and NYC & Company to reinforce New York City’s position as one of the premier design capitals of the world.”

“The website is a key online destination for finding, promoting and interacting with the best of design happening in New York,” said Odile Hainaut of WantedDesign.

Features of the new site include:

• Locations plotted by an interactive map
• Events organized by date and category for ease of identification and sorting 
• Geo-location for mobile search on the go
• Event profiles with space for integration of social media through comments, encouraging community interaction
• Real-time user contributions such as attendance “check in” and commenting on the event profile via smart phone 
• A designated hash tag, #designweeknyc, for users to connect to a unified conversation about design events taking place citywide 
• SMS text messages to be published on the site about specific events 
• Latest design news from a variety of online sources, including metropolismag.com and core77.com

Cooper-Hewitt will be presenting two installations at WantedDesign, (269 11th Avenue, between 27th and 28th streets) with content from recent exhibitions. On view will be images of 60 design solutions from Cooper-Hewitt’s groundbreaking “Design with the Other 90%: CITIES” exhibition, which was on view at the United Nations in fall 2011. The museum will also be previewing works from the exhibition “Graphic Design—Now in Production,” which opens May 26 on Governors Island.

On May 20, Cara McCarty, curatorial director of Cooper-Hewitt, will moderate a 12 p.m. panel at WantedDesign on “Material Glass: from craft to industry, from product to architecture.” Panelists will include architect Jamie Carpenter; glass and video artist Andrew Erdos; Tina Oldknow, Corning Museum of Glass; Josh Owen, Rochester Institute of Technology; and Andrew Page, editor, Glass Quarterly.

The Shop at Cooper-Hewitt will also have an outpost at WantedDesign featuring limited edition, out-of-print and rare books on art, photography and design, Maison Martin Margiela lamps, a selection of Siwa and Postalco products, Field Notes and Cartotechnica vintage colored pencils.

NL Architects has sent us images of their recent project: a pretty rad mash-up pavilion for a bicycle club in the Hainan Province in southern China. The proposal is part of a big resort for developer VANKEN, and NL Architects told us that they've just received green light from the client! Looks like this will actually get build soon.

Project Description from the Architects:

Housing Corporation VANKE has asked us to make a proposal for a Bike Club as part of a big resort in Southern China that we are currently involved in.

The Bike pavilion should accommodate bike rental and a cafe.

A protruding roof could be very welcome in this tropical climate.

The oversized top perhaps could house an additional function. What about a velodrome?

The elegant curvature of the steeply banked oval bike track creates an optimistic gesture; eaves curled upward: a surprisingly functional pagoda.

Copenhagen-based firm COBE, represented by architect Dan Stubbergaard, is the 2012 winner of Scandinavia's prestigious architecture prize, Nykredit's Architecture Prize of DKK 500,000 (USD 86,000).

Dan Stubbergaard won Nykredit's Motivation Prize in 2007. At that time, the architectural practice had not completed any projects but has since then seen an impressive professional development, leading to a number of prize-winning national and international projects.

In its choice the jury emphasized the fact that COBE spans the full professional spectrum from minor construction and urban space design to strategic planning and research. Currently, COBE is most renowned for the design and realization of the new Nørreport Train Station and is currently detailing the development of the Nordhavn harbor area – one of Scandinavia's largest and most ambitious metropolitan development projects, says the chairman of the prize jury, Mette Kynne Frandsen, Architect and CEO.

The second part of this year's Architecture Prize, Nykredit's Motivation Prize of DKK 100,000 (USD 17,000), goes to Powerhouse Company – a global-Danish practice established in 2005 by Nanne de Ru and Charles Bessard in Rotterdam and Copenhagen, respectively.

The two partners are an example of one of the new global-Danish architectural practices starting to mark its presence on the Danish architectural scene. Powerhouse Company has published and exhibited work internationally, boasting an impressive research portfolio. Powerhouse Company distinguishes itself by paying great attention to every detail, viewing it from all possible aspects of the construction project. Among the most innovative players, these architects are absolutely among the most talented, explains Mette Kynne Frandsen.

In connection with this year's prizes, the Nykredit Foundation has decided to give a special merit award of DKK 50,000 (USD 8,500) to Kent Martinussen, Architect – a Danish architect who has succeeded in putting architecture on the political agenda and been of vital importance to the development of Nordic architectural traditions over the last decade. He has moreover given young architects an opportunity for exposure on the national and international stage.

Through his work as CEO of Danish Architecture Centre, Kent Martinussen has positioned Danish architects internationally, brought focus on architecture as an obvious growth potential for the economy in general and contributed solutions and answers to the multiple challenges of globalization, says Peter Engberg Jensen, Group Chief Executive.

The Danish Minister for Culture, Uffe Elbæk, will present the prizes at a ceremony to be held at Nykredit's headquarters on May 29, at 5 pm.

Previous recipients of Nykredit's Architecture Prize are Cubo Arkitekter (2011), Arkitektkontoret SLA (2010), Tegnestuen Entasis (2009), Arkitektfirmaet CEBRA (2008), and Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter (2007).

Over the weekend, OMA’s design for the stage set at the historic Greek Theater in Syracuse, Sicily, was inaugurated with the performance of Aeschylus’s Prometheus Unbound, directed by Claudio Longhi. The scenography features three temporary architectural devices that reinterpret the spaces of the theater, which dates from the 5th century BCE.

Project Description from the Architects:

OMA’s interventions will be dramatically exploited and adapted at strategic moments within this summer’s cycle of plays staged by the Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico, which also includes Euripides’ Bacchae (dir. Antonio Calenda) and Aristophane’s The Birds (dir. RobertaTorre). 

The first intervention, the Ring, is a suspended walkway that completes the semi-circle of the terraced seating, encompassing the stage and the backstage, and giving actors an alternative way of entering the scene.

The Machine is a fully adaptable backdrop for the plays: a sloping circular platform, seven metres high, mirroring the amphitheatre. The backdrop can rotate, symbolizing the passage of 13 centuries during Prometheus’s torture; split down the middle, it can also be opened, allowing the entrance of the actors, and symbolizing dramatic events like the Prometheus being swallowed in the bowels of the earth.

The Raft, a circular stage for the actors and dancers, reimagines the orchestra space as a modern thymele, the altar that in ancient times was dedicated to Dionysian rites.

The Greek Theatre scenography – executed by AMO, the unit within OMA dedicated to non-architectural and transient projects – is part of the office’s long history of designinginnovative performance spaces, from the Netherlands Dance Theatre (1987) and the Wyly Theatre in Dallas (with Rex, 2009), to the Taipei Performing Arts Centre – three adaptable theatres plugged into a central cube, now under construction in Taiwan. AMO has also designed scenography for ephemeral events such as Prada catwalk shows and Francesco Vezzoli’s 24-Hour Museum in Paris earlier this year.

Project Details:

Location: Teatro Greco, Syracuse, Italy
Project: Scenography for the 48th cycle of classic drama at the ancient Greek theatre of Syracuse
Status: Completed
Client: Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico (INDA)
Program: Adaptable stage set for three classic dramas

Materials:

Structure: aluminum scaffolding
Cladding: ultilayer marine plywood

Project Credits:

Partner-in-Charge: Rem Koolhaas
Associate-in-Charge: Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli
Team: Francesco Moncada, Miguel Taborda, Barbara Materia

Seattle landscape architecture firm Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN), together with Crosby Schlessinger Smallridge (CSS) of Boston, are the recipients of the biennial Tucker Design Award for 2012. GGN and CSS have been recognized for North End Parks, the three-acre park that was part of the “Big Dig” development in Boston, MA.

First presented in 1977, the Tucker Design Award is a nationally recognized architectural design award in both the building and landscape industries. The award program honors those whose work demonstrates excellence in concept, design, construction and use of natural stone.

“It is an honor for GGN and CSS to receive this award for work that was a joy for us to do. We fell in love with the North End neighborhood while designing the Parks, and I like to think that this emotion came through in the careful detailing of the stone” said Shannon Nichol, Director of GGN. “Our interest in the beautiful layers of hand-crafted materials in the nearby streets influenced the stone details in the Parks. The colorful, passionate personalities in the neighborhood also inspired our selection of dramatic, marble-like granite and the overall design for social interactions at every scale”.

North End Parks are built on the land of the I-93 tunnel roof, at the prime entry to one of Boston’s densest and most historic neighborhoods. The Parks are designed as a system of varied spaces that serve the finely scaled residential neighborhood, while forming together as one, a unified threshold piece at a grander civic scale.

This year’s juror’s for the Tucker Design Awards were Ripley Rasmus, Senior Vice President and Director of HOK St. Louis; Rae Price, FASLA, Peridian International, Newport Beach, CA; and Peter MacKeith, Associate Dean, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University St. Louis.

The 2012 awards are being presented today, May 11, in the Shoenberg Auditorium of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, MO.

Other distinguished projects receiving Tucker Design Awards in 2012 include: Nelson Byrd Woltz, Citygarden, St. Louis, MO; Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, The Center for the Advancement of Public Action, Bennington College, Bennington VT; HOLT Architects, P.C. Southworth Library, Lincoln Center Addition, Dryden, NY; Hartman-Cox Architects, LLP, Duke Divinity School Addition, Duke University, Durham, NC and others.

Danish HAO / Holm Architecture Office together with Archiland Beijing has won the competition to design a master plan within the city of Qingdao, China.

In addition to its famous Tsingtao beer, the city of Qingdao has long been a key tourist and film production destination in northern China. A rich mix of historic buildings makes it a sought after movie shoot location, while its proximity to some of the best beaches in northern China attracts millions of tourists every year and helped its successful bid to host the Olympic Sailing competitions in 2008.

Project Description from the Architects:

The design for the Qingdao Master Plan seeks to further develop and expand the existing elements of the city; the site is situated within the city of Qingdao and is conveniently located five minutes drive from the airport.

The site is divided into three main areas separated by existing roads. Site A is defined as a new cultural center with sites B & C comprising of mixed use residential program.

To link the three areas together, the design takes its starting point around a sunken cultural path that leads visitors through the entire programmatic experience of the new master plan. The main access to the new Culture Path is situated at the North West corner of the site and is anchored by a new five-star hotel development. Several additional entry points to the cultural path are established throughout the site are demarcated by key landmark buildings that define the experience the nearby surroundings.

The Culture Path contains three courtyards creating possibilities for flexible outdoor venues, assuring a constantly changing experience for the visitor. From the individual courtyards, there is direct access to a rich blend of high-end retail, grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters and museums.

Sites B&C create a diverse urban mix of high, medium and low-income housing set in a lush landscape. Within the residential area, community and recreational programs such as kindergartens and sports facilities are placed throughout to activate the area as a whole and create unique neighborhood experiences.

Each of the residential units in sites B&C are situated to maximize use of sunlight and natural ventilation, helping to guarantee comfortable living conditions for the future inhabitants.

“With the Qingdao Master Plan we propose a plan with a rich mix of typologies. The goal is to create a large variety of different experiences for all income groups, all benefitting directly from access to the new Cultural Path," says Jens Holm, Founder HAO / Holm Architecture Office.

Project Details:

Name: Qingdao Master Plan
Program: Movie Studios & Theaters, Office, Residential, Commercial, and Museum
Type: Invited Competition
Size: 7,500,000 SF / 689,000 m2
Client: Withheld

Collaborators: Archiland Beijing, Krag & Berglund, Cowi Beijing
Location: Qingdao, China
Status: Ongoing

HAO / Holm Architecture Office Team: Jens Holm

Archiland Team: Morten Holm, Tian Kun, Chen Pu, Adam Chapulski, Camilla Bundgaard, Yuxiaomin, Liulingling

Kragh & Berglund Team: Jonas Berglung, Hans Kragh

Cowi Beijing

See also for more diagrams in the image gallery below.

Chicago-based firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture just released its design for Dancing Dragons, a pair of landmark supertall mixed-use towers for the new Yongsan International Business District in Seoul, South Korea. The buildings, which include residential, “officetel” and retail elements, consist of slender, sharply angled mini-towers cantilevered around a central core.

Project Description from the Architects:

The mini-towers feature a dramatic series of diagonal massing cuts that create living spaces that float beyond the structure.This recalls the eaves of traditional Korean temples—a design theme echoed both in the geometry of the building skin and the jutting canopies at the towers’ base. The theme is extended in the building skin, which suggests the scales of Korean mythical dragons, which seem to dance around the core—hence the project’s name. (Yongsan, the name of the overall development, means “Dragon Hill” in Korean.)

Dancing Dragons’ scale-like skin is also a performative element. Gaps between its overlapping panels feature operable 600-mm vents through which air can circulate, making the skin “breathable” like that of certain animals.

Towers 1 and 2—about 450 meters and 390 meters tall, respectively—share an architectural language and, therefore, a close family resemblance, but are not identical. In the taller structure, the 88-level Tower 1, the massing cuts at the top and bottom of the mini-towers are V-shaped. In the 77-level Tower 2, the cuts move diagonally in a single unbroken line; they are also arranged in a radial pattern around the core that is perceptible as viewers move around the tower.

“There’s a sympathetic and complementary relationship between the two masses at the level of the cuts, almost as though they were dancing,” says Adrian Smith, FAIA, RIBA. “It’s always important for our designs to reflect and interpret the cultures they serve, and the Dancing Dragons complex certainly does that, although in an abstract and highly technological manner. We try to design in a way that is at once beautiful and focused on performance.”

In both buildings, the mini-tower cuts are clad in glass at the top and bottom, making for dramatic skylights above the units at the highest levels and a transparent floor beneath the units at the lowest levels. This offers the opportunity for special high-value penthouse duplex units with spectacular 360-degree views of downtown Seoul and the adjacent Han River, along with an abundance of natural light.

“The abstract recall of the historic structures gives the towers a unique perspective from the ground and the sky while creating unique interior experiences,” says Gordon Gill, AIA. “The shingled texture of the skin is developed with integrated breathable mullions and self-shading cantilevers. It’s a great honor to be joining several other top international architecture firms designing buildings for this remarkable master plan by Studio Daniel Libeskind.”

AS+GG partner Robert Forest, AIA, notes that Dancing Dragons represents AS+GG’s second major project in downtown Seoul. The other is the Head Office of the Federation of Korean Industries, an innovative and highly sustainable office building now under construction and scheduled to be completed next year. “We’re very excited to be making a sustainable contribution to the built environment of Seoul, one of the world’s great cities, in a manner that addresses the need for sustainable high density development while respecting Korean culture,” Forest says. “YIBD, which promises to become one of Seoul’s most dynamic and vital neighborhoods, will be an example of high-quality high-density design, and we’re proud to be a part of that.”

The design team also includes PositivEnergy Practice, a Chicago-based engineering and energy consulting firm that is designing a series of innovative building systems for the project. Sustainable features of the building system design include triple-glazed window units, which minimize heat loss; an overlapping exterior wall system, which creates a self-shading effect; and natural ventilation in all units through operable mullions. Other systems include radiant heating; fuel-cell cogeneration units at the basement level; photovoltaic arrays on the roof surfaces; daylight-linked lighting controls; and heat recovery via electric centrifugal chillers.

The structural scheme for Dancing Dragons, developed by AS+GG in collaboration with the international structural engineering firm Werner Sobek, features eight mega-columns that traverse the vertical length of both cores. The mini-towers are hung off the cruciform cores in a balanced fashion by means of a belt truss system, stabilizing the structure.

The design of the 23,000-square-meter site—part of the larger Yongsan master plan —reinforces the angular geometry of the building massing and skin.  Landscape features, designed in collaboration with Martha Schwartz Partners, include sloped berms that echo that geometry. The site also includes a retail podium with a crystalline sculptural form and sunken garden that provide access to a large below-grade retail complex.

The Thematic Pavilion “ONE OCEAN“ for the 2012 EXPO in Yeosu, South Korea (previously on Bustler) is scheduled to open later this week, May 12. The pavilion, a permanent building and one of the major facilities for the Yeosu EXPO, was designed by Austrian firm soma who won the international competition for the assignment back in 2009.

The pavilion's exhibitions will give the visitors overview and introduction to the EXPO’s theme, The Living Ocean and Coast. The aim of soma’s design was to create an iconic landmark that embodies the theme of the EXPO with architectural means, including a sustainable climate concept and a bionic kinetic facade which - in the truest EXPO spirit - points the way to the future.

Kinetic Facade following a bionic principle - Thematic Pavilion for EXPO 2012 Yeosu South Korea by soma

Following are first photos of the completed pavilion (click here for construction photos and a detailed project description).

Project Details:

Project: “One Ocean“, Thematic Pavilion EXPO 2012 Yeosu, South-Korea
Client: The Organizing Committee of Expo 2012 Yeosu
Location: Yeosu, South Korea
Area: 6,900 square meter
Construction: September 2010 - February 2012
Architect: soma, Austria
Local partner: dmp, Seoul
Local representative: Ralf Zabel

Consultants:

Kinetic facade: Knippers Helbig, Stuttgart
Climate design: Transsolar, Stuttgart München New York
Structural engineer: Brandstätter ZT GmbH, Salzburg
Structural engineer CD Phase: Yeon and Partners
Light design: podpod, Vienna
Landscape: Soltos
Climate design (competition): Jan Cremers, Stuttgart

Germany-based Egyptian architect Ahmed Al.Badawy has shared with us images of the fascinating project "Al.Mualla Cemetery Mural / A Matter of Life and Death" which won the First Prize at the First Islamic Competition for Ornamenting Makkah Al.Mukarramah (Mecca, Saudi Arabia). Next to Al.Badawy, the design team also included Ahmed Enab and Yasser Mehanna.

Project Description from the Designers:

While reviewing the various suggested sites of this competition - to choose one to work on. The one that caught much of our attention was Al-Mualla mural. This site holds some great features; besides its simple urban context. The first feature was its inspiring rock formation, naturally ascending to one clear visual climax, and then gently descending to blend in with the plane of the ground. But most important, was its proximity to the holy cemetery of Al-Mualla. This second feature gave us a good opportunity to express our point of view about one the most intimidating concepts known to mankind; death.

‬In the case of Al-Mualla, an interpretation of the concept of physical death will be naive. Because, this holy cemetery holds in its earth the remains of some of the greatest people who ever walked this earth, and who were defenders of humanistic values that humanity strives for now. This holy cemetery is crowned by the remains of our blessed mother Khadija. And this holy cemetery, literally, holds the remains of the founders of the first Muslim society.

So,‭ ‬given this site,‭ ‬we are dealing with a much more dangerous type of death‭; ‬death of values and principles,‭ ‬death of a cultural movement.‭ ‬A death that’s been going around for a hundred years or so.‮ ‭

‬Indeed this proposed design doesn’t try to capture an interpretation of death.‭ ‬On the contrary it tries to capture an interpretation of the inevitable life after death.‭

And what better interpretation can one find than that of the‭ ‬Holy Quran‭…

"Know that god gives life to the earth after its death! Indeed we have made clear the signs for you, if you but understand" (Holy Quran 057-017)

We’ve done nothing but try to give the meaning of this verse a visual form. And to be fair, half of the job was already done for us by the magnificent natural rock formation with its apparent lifelessness, which we chose to represent death. All we had to do next is crack it, and show some life springing out of it…and so, there was light and green.

Girih Tiles

Before stepping into the details of our design process we would like to introduce you to Girih tiles. Though there and mathematical theories where discovered in the 1960’s, and though unknown to the modern world until 2007, Girih tiles where developed and used by Muslims 800 years ago…

Girih tiles are a set of five tiles, which were used in the creation of tiling patterns for decoration of buildings in Islamic architecture.

They were used throughout most of the Islamic architectural styles.

The shapes of the tiles are:

1. A regular decagon.
2. An elongated (irregular convex) hexagon.
3. A bow tie (non-convex hexagon).
4. A rhombus.
5. A regular pentagon.

In 2007, peter j. Lu of Harvard University published a paper suggesting that Girih tiling possessed properties consistent with self-similar fractal quasi crystalline tiling. This finding was supported by examination of the topkapi scroll.

For these reasons we chose Girih tiles as a representative genuinely of the Islamic thought, and as a main element in our design proposal.

Design and Scripting Process

Construction Method

Proposed constructional procedure:

1. The pattern is cut via an in situ CNC machine; the machine is provided with a detailed prototype of the rock formation and the pattern.
2. Groves for light fixtures are made; manually or by a CNC machine.
3. Structural membranes are installed to hold the vertical plantation system.
4. Infrastructure for lighting and plantation systems are installed.
5. Finally, lighting fixtures and plantation systems are installed and tested in place.

The image below shows the main components of the proposed constructional system.

CNC stone cutting

CNC (computer numerical control) cutters have been used in large scale projects such as Princess Diana’s memorial fountain. The usual procedure was to cut the stone in a workshop then install it after that in the desired site.  But here we propose that the cutting is to be done in situ.
This will sharply reduce the construction cost and time, and will provide more accuracy and simplicity through the entire construction process.

Vertical plantation

Vertical plantation here will be used in a small scale, so the known methods and systems will be simplified and made more delicate to handle the small living surface.

All images courtesy of Ahmed Albadawy, Ahmed Enab and Yasser Mehanna.

Spanish architect Rafael Moneo has been declared the 2012 laureate of the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts. The announcement was made today in Oviedo, the capital city of the Principality of Asturias, Spain, on Moneo's 75th birthday. The prestigious awards program aims “to reward the scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanistic work performed at an international level by individuals, institutions or groups of individuals or institutions”.

Considered one of the leading avant-garde architects, Rafael Moneo was born in Tudela, Navarra, in 1937. He graduated from the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Madrid in 1961, working during his student years with Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza, 1993 Prince of Asturias Laureate for the Arts, and the Danish architect Jorn Utzon.

He lectured at the Higher Technical Schools of Architecture of Madrid and Barcelona, combining architectural design with teaching. He worked in New York from 1976 on, at the Institute of Architecture and Urban Studies, while also teaching at the Cooper Union School of Architecture. He likewise lectured at the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne (Switzerland) and at the American universities of Princeton and Harvard. He was Dean of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University between 1985 and 1990, where he currently lectures in addition to being the first Josep Lluis Sert Professor in Architecture.

In Spain, Moneo has designed, among other buildings, the Bankinter Building in Madrid (1976), the Museum of Roman Art in Mérida (1986), the Atocha railway station in Madrid (1992), San Pablo Airport in Seville (1992), Murcia City Hall (1998), the Barcelona Auditorium (1999), the Kursaal in San Sebastian (1999), the Royal and General Archives of Navarra in Pamplona (2003), the Huesca Centre for Art and Nature (2006), the expansion of the Prado Museum in Madrid (2006) and the New Museum of the Roman Theatre of Cartagena (2008). His international projects include, among others, the Davis Art Museum at Wellesley College in Massachusetts (1993), the Museum of Modern Art and Architecture in Stockholm (1998), the hotel and office building in Potsdamer Platz in Berlin (1993-1998), the Cathedral of Our Lady in Los Angeles (USA, 1996), the Library of the University of Louvain (Belgium, 1998), the expansion of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2000), the official residence of the Spanish Ambassador in Washington (2004) and the Chace Center, a building forming part of the Rhode Island School of Design (USA, 2008). In 2010, he published Apuntes sobre 21 obras (Notes on 21 works), which includes a selection of his work over the past four decades. His latest projects include the design of the future Museum of the University of Navarra.

He has won the most prestigious international awards in architecture, such as the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize (1993) from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Schock Prize in Visual Arts (1993) awarded in Stockholm, the Pritzker Prize (1996), the Antonio Feltrinelli Prize (1998) awarded by the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome and the Mies van der Rohe Award (2001) conferred in Barcelona. He holds gold medals from the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts (1992), the France Academy of Architecture (1996), the International Union of Architects (1996), the Royal Institute of British Architects (2003) and the Higher Council of Architects’ Colleges of Spain (2006). Holder of honorary doctorates from the University of Louvain, the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne and the University of Navarra, he is a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Saint Luke in Rome and the Swedish Academy of Fine Arts.

This year, a total of 39 candidatures from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Sweeden, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and Spain ran for the award.

This is the first of eight Prince of Asturias Awards, which are being bestowed this year for the thirty-second time. The rest of awards will be announced in the coming weeks, such as Social Sciences, Communication and Humanities, Technical and Scientific Research, Letters and International Cooperation, with the Sports and Concord awards being announced in September.

Each of the Prince of Asturias Awards, which date back to 1981, is endowed with 50,000 Euros, a commissioned sculpture donated by Joan Miró, a diploma and an insignia.

Cornell University announced today that Thom Mayne and Morphosis have been chosen to design the first academic building for the planned CornellNYC Tech campus on New York City's Roosevelt Island. Other finalists were Rem Koolhaas/OMA, Steven Holl Architects, Diller Scofidio & Renfro, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the firm that is also designing the campus master plan.

From the Cornell University Press Statement:

The building -- which Cornell plans to open in fall 2017 -- will serve as the flagship academic structure for the new CornellNYC Tech campus. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg awarded the Roosevelt Island campus project to Cornell Dec. 19, 2011, and with this first building, Cornell is striving to create a net-zero energy structure, featuring geothermal and solar power.

"Our goal is to design an iconic, landmark building that will resonate with the mission and spirit of the new campus," Delgado [Gilbert Delgado, Cornell's University Architect] said. "And we are excited that Thom Mayne and Morphosis will be leading our effort."

Delgado said the 150,000-square-foot academic building, which will be home to the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute, will have teaching and faculty office space, and also will likely have space to facilitate interactions and to enhance the "opportunities of chance encounters between people to exchange ideas."

Mayne, Morphosis founder and design director and winner of the 2005 Pritzker Prize, will be the lead architect. Morphosis, based in New York and Los Angeles, is expected to deliver the first design drafts in November 2012 with a schematic design in March 2013. The architects will team with Arup, a New York- and Los Angeles-based engineering firm, to help develop this complex building.

"This project represents an extraordinary opportunity to explore the intersection of three territories: environmental performance, rethinking the academic workspace and the unique urban condition of Roosevelt Island," Mayne said. "This nexus offers tremendous opportunities not only for CornellNYC Tech, but also for New York City."

"The CornellNYC Tech project is about accelerating innovation in the technology sector, particularly in New York City, by connecting leading-edge academic research across a broad range of disciplines, by deep working relationships with companies from startups to large corporations, and by engagement with cultural institutions and the school system. It's about weaving together people from different research areas and from different areas where technology can make a difference in the world," said Dan Huttenlocher, Cornell vice provost and dean of the new campus. "This first building will reflect that in design, as the space will encourage interaction, creativity and innovation, balancing the values of quiet reflection with those of unplanned interactions."

Kent Kleinman, dean of Cornell's College of Architecture, Art and Planning, explained the complex nature of this building: "The challenges that accompany the first phase of the campus are dauntingly multi-faceted: Design one of the largest net-zero energy academic buildings in the country; devise a creative architectural statement commensurate with the highest levels of innovation; accommodate programs that are changing with unprecedented rapidity; and, perhaps most critically, offer a compelling vision for a vibrant urbanity to inform future developments. And do it all within a very tight timeframe and modest budget. Simply put: No firm is better at turning constraints into creative solutions of astonishing power than Thom Mayne and Morphosis. It is a great choice for Cornell and for New York."

Cornell has other buildings on its Ithaca, N.Y., campus designed by Pritzker Prize winners. The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art was designed by I.M. Pei; Milstein Hall by Rem Koolhaas; Weill Hall by Richard Meier ('56, B.Arch. '57); and Gates Hall, currently under construction, by Thom Mayne.

Mayne has created several iconic buildings, including the Cooper Union's 41 Cooper Square in 2009, the Caltrans District 7 headquarters in Los Angeles and the University of Cincinnati's Campus Recreation Center in 2005. Morphosis also designed the San Francisco Federal Building, a 600,000-square-foot structure, of which 70 percent is naturally ventilated, setting a new standard for sustainability.

Rotterdam-based landscape architects West 8, together with local practice IROJE architects & partners, have recently won the international competition for the master plan of Yongsan Park, Korea. The park will be the first national park inside a South Korean city. More importantly, it will give ultra-dense Seoul some badly-needed green space and will be similar in size to New York’s Central Park.

Project Description from the Architects:

The project site is a large area in the centre of Seoul with a total area of circa 243 ha that has been in use as a military base for an extensive period both during the Japanese occupation and under post-War American protection. The vision of the competition, as described in the brief, is to create a park in which nature, culture, history and the future are in harmony. It will be a park which restores, sublimates, and expands upon the history and local characteristics of the area. This park shall regain the respect for nature and reclaims the lost and damaged ecological system. It will eventually become a park of new urban culture for the preservation of green spaces and a sustainable future.

The new Master Plan for Yongsan National Park proposed by West 8 + IROJE has been developed through an iterative process that has consistently returned to the fundamental concept of healing. The act of healing is a process that transforms the existing site through an awareness of its history into a world-class park that inspires illusions of nature, ecological restoration and a wide ranging urban park culture.

The act of healing is developed on three fundamental levels in the transformation of the site:

HEALING NATURE – "SAM CHEON LI GEUM SU GANG SAN"

In Korean culture, the Korean peninsula is described with the phrase "Sam Cheon Li Geum Su Gang San"; which means ‘1,200 km of mountain and river linked all together is embroidered in gold’. This has been the way Korean people see, meet, and interact with beautiful mountains and rivers. It is part of the collective perception towards the physical world. It describes the Korean mental DNA. As such, we not only recover the forgotten landscape in the military base but also recover the illusion of Korean landscape mentally, visually and ecologically.

This central part of the site will be excavated for a lake. The spoils will be used to create a more dramatic topography, to build an illusion of naturalistic Korean landscape.

From this topography a new restructured water system with streams, ponds, marchland and lotus basins will be introduced. Natural woodland and undulating meadows will be organized around the lake.

HEALING HISTORY – CONFRONTATION AND EXPOSURE

The location of Yongsan Park symbolizes an extremely turbulent history of war and occupation. However sad and sorrowful this history may be, it is still part of Korea’s history. The approach for the park design on the site is to uncover the traces and layers of the history by reusing many of the existing buildings and roadways. The architectural approach is respectful towards the military buildings on the site and ranges from 100% restoration (such as the Japanese Garrison) to the construction of new buildings on the footprint of demolished ones. Also, new additions are added to existing buildings to make them fit for their new use.

Where buildings disappear, their footprint re-emerges as a trace of history. These places, we named 'Madang'. The Madang is the ancient Korean word describing an open plaza that can hold various programs. The Madangs are simple granite stone platforms in the undulating park landscape. They are considered new, informal meeting point for social activity.

HEALING CULTURE – "PARK-METROPOLIS INTERFACE"

For over 100 years the Yongsan site has been cut off from the city by a secured wall. The departure of the US army gives the city a unique opportunity to reclaim the excavation and to colonize it. The new Yongsan Park will transform the adjacent urban fabric and works as a magnetic field for urban growth. The interface between the park and the city is diverse and versatile. Within and around the park at least 10 different types of relationships are identified: walled gardens, river links, night life districts, new residential neighborhood etc.

Heavy traffic corridors appear to obstruct the connection to the city. Therefore a dozen of pedestrian bridges will create iconic gateways to the park. These ritualize the entering to the park. North-South a robust green-blue ecological Spine will restore the connection between Nam San and the River Han. Programmatic diversity, food, bicycle culture and social media are prominent in the master plan strategy.

For the realization of the park public participation and soil remediation is the key. This will be an open process of healing, seeding and growing.

Landscape architect WEST 8 in Rotterdam, together with local architect IROJE architects & partners, Prof. Kim, Nam-choon, botanist and professor of Dankook University, Prof. Kim, Bong-ryol, Professor of Korean Architectural History at National University of Arts, and DONG IL Engineering Consultants Co., Ltd. are now given the chance to lead the design development of the Master Plan for the creation and structuring of the park. The construction of the park is scheduled to start in 2017 after the evacuation of the American military base from the project site.

“The jury believes that this project can evolve and adapt in response to the expertise of the local community and deeper cultural values,” Christophe Girot, the selection jury chairman, said in a statement.

An award ceremony will take place at the National Museum of Korea on the 25^thof May, 2012.

Project Details:

Project: Yongsan Park
Location: Seoul, Korea
Design: 2012
Realization: from 2017
Size: 243 ha
Budget: $770 mio USD in conversion rate dated 24 April 2012
Client: Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs of the Republic of Korea

In association with: IROJE architects & planners, DONG IL Engineering Consultants, Prof. Kim, Bong-ryol (Korea National University of Arts) and Prof. Kim, Nam-choon (botanist and professor of Dankook University)

Design Team West 8: Adriaan Geuze, Martin Biewenga, Edzo Bindels, Karsten Buchholz, Hyeyoung Choi, Juan Figueroa Calero, Maria Castrillo, Kenya Endo, Gaspard Estourgie, Shane Fagan, Pieter Hoen, Perry Maas, Winnie Poon, Eva Recio, Mart Reiling, Matthew Skjonsberg, Daniel Vasini, Joris Weijts, Marco Medrano, Igor Saitov

Jury committee: Ki-Ho Kim (Deputy Juror), Julia Czerniak, Christophe Girot, Jie Hu, Sung-Hong Kim, Young-Dae Kim, Yeong-Te Ohn, Ho-Keun Song, Charles Waldheim, Richard Weller.

Find more images and plans of the master plan project in the image gallery below.

London's Serpentine Gallery just released plans for the 2012 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei. This summer's pavilion, the twelfth commission in the gallery’s annual series, will be open to the public from June 1 to October 14, 2012.

The design team responsible for the celebrated Beijing National Stadium, which was built for the 2008 Olympic Games, comes together again in London in 2012 for the Serpentine’s acclaimed annual commission, being presented as part of the London 2012 Festival, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad. The Pavilion is Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei’s first collaborative built structure in the UK.

This year’s Pavilion will take visitors beneath the Serpentine’s lawn to explore the hidden history of its previous Pavilions. Eleven columns characterizing each past Pavilion and a twelfth column representing the current structure will support a floating platform roof 1.4 metres above ground. The Pavilion’s interior will be clad in cork, a sustainable building material chosen for its unique qualities and to echo the excavated earth. Taking an archaeological approach, the architects have created a design that will inspire visitors to look beneath the surface of the park as well as back in time across the ghosts of the earlier structures.

Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, Serpentine Gallery, said: “It is a great honor to be working with Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei, the design team behind Beijing’s superb Bird’s Nest Stadium. In this exciting year for London we are proud to be creating a connection between the Beijing 2008 and the London 2012 Games. We are enormously grateful for the help of everyone involved, especially Usha and Lakshmi N. Mittal, whose incredible support has made this project possible.”

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion will operate as a public space and as a venue for Park Nights, the Gallery’s high-profile program of public talks and events. Connecting to the archaeological focus of the Pavilion design, Park Nights will culminate in October with the Serpentine Gallery Memory Marathon, the latest edition of the annual Serpentine Marathon series conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist, now in its seventh year. The Marathon series began in 2006 with the 24-hour Serpentine Gallery Interview Marathon; followed by the Experiment Marathon in 2007; the Manifesto Marathon in 2008; the Poetry Marathon in 2009, the Map Marathon in 2010 and the Garden Marathon in 2011.

The 2012 Pavilion has been purchased by Usha and Lakshmi N. Mittal and will enter their private collection after it closes to the public in October 2012.

Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei said:

“Every year since 2000, a different architect has been responsible for creating the Serpentine Gallery’s summer Pavilion for Kensington Gardens. That makes eleven Pavilions so far, our contribution will be the twelfth. So many Pavilions in so many different shapes and out of so many different materials have been conceived and built that we tried instinctively to sidestep the unavoidable problem of creating an object, a concrete shape.

“Our path to an alternative solution involves digging down some five feet into the soil of the park until we reach the groundwater. There we dig a waterhole, a kind of well, to collect all of the London rain that falls in the area of the Pavilion. In that way we incorporate an otherwise invisible aspect of reality in the park – the water under the ground – into our Pavilion. As we dig down into the earth we encounter a diversity of constructed realities such as telephone cables and former foundations. Like a team of archaeologists, we identify these physical fragments as remains of the eleven Pavilions built between 2000 and 2011. Their shape varies: circular, long and narrow, dots and also large, constructed hollows that have been filled in. These remains testify to the existence of the former Pavilions and their greater or lesser intervention in the natural environment of the park.

“All of these foundations will now be uncovered and reconstructed. The old foundations form a jumble of convoluted lines, like a sewing pattern. A distinctive landscape emerges out of the reconstructed foundations which is unlike anything we could have invented; its form and shape is actually a serendipitous gift. The three-dimensional reality of this landscape is astonishing and it is also the perfect place to sit, stand, lie down or just look and be amazed. In other words, the ideal environment for continuing to do what visitors have been doing in the Serpentine Gallery Pavilions over the past eleven years – and a discovery for the many new visitors anticipated for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

“On the foundations of each single Pavilion, we extrude a new structure (supports, walls) as load-bearing elements for the roof of our Pavilion – eleven supports all told, plus our own column that we can place at will, like a wild card. The roof resembles that of an archaeological site. It floats a few feet above the grass of the park, so that everyone visiting can see the water on it, its surface reflecting the infinitely varied, atmospheric skies of London. For special events, the water can be drained off the roof as from a bathtub, from whence it flows back into the waterhole, the deepest point in the Pavilion landscape. The dry roof can then be used as a dance floor or simply as a platform suspended above the park.”

Referring to the extensive use of cork in the design, Herzog & de Meuron said: "Cork is a natural material with wonderful haptic and olfactory qualities with the versatility to be carved, cut, shaped and formed, as demonstrated in many historical examples of cork architectural models."

Usha and Lakshmi N. Mittal "We are pleased and excited in this Olympic Year to be able to support the Serpentine Gallery's unique Pavilion series. After the triumph of the Beijing 2008 Bird's Nest, there could be no more appropriate collaboration for this year's pavilion than Herzog & De Meuron and Ai Weiwei.”

Robert Hiscox, Chairman of Hiscox said: “Hiscox is very proud to be associated with Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei, two icons in their fields. Both are leaders in contemporary creativity, and Ai Weiwei has been courageous in standing by his artistic integrity. We are also very happy to be able to support the Serpentine Gallery again as it is a beacon of education and display of fascinating and always stimulating art.”

Antonio Rios de Amorim, Chairman & CEO, Corticeira Amorim said: “This partnership embodies Amorim’s incessant drive to make the unbeatable technical and sustainability credentials of natural cork known worldwide. Seeing cork so beautifully and prominently featured, not only makes us very proud, it also provides a great opportunity for consumers and professionals to understand better that cork is truly nature’s own high-tech, 21st Century material.”

Sue Harmsworth, CEO, ESPA said: “We’re proud to partner with The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in 2012. The concept of the Pavilion - celebrating innovative and creative architecture in Great Britain - paired with the inspiration of Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei to encourage visitors to look beneath the surface, perfectly reflects ESPA’s rich spa design heritage and core brand values."

Engineering firm Arup will collaborate with Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei to realize the 2012 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. The Arup team, led by Stuart Smith, will provide all engineering and specialist technical advice for the project. Director Stuart Smith said “This year’s Serpentine Pavilion has allowed us as a design team to build on the strong working relationship we originally forged designing the National Stadium for the Beijing Olympics. With London as the center of the Cultural Olympiad, it has been a pleasure and privilege working together on creative design and engineering innovation to literally delve deep into the history of past Pavilions creating an exciting living experience for visitors to enjoy.”

Rise will be working with Herzog de Meuron and Ai Weiwei to deliver the 2012 Pavilion. Gareth Stapleton, Director of Rise, will donate his expertise to all aspects of delivering the project. He said: "The Pavilion, being a temporary structure, gives freedom to the designers to maximize innovation. We are excited at the opportunity of maximizing this potential whilst delivering a functional project."

The Pavilion architects to date are: Peter Zumthor, 2011; Jean Nouvel, 2010; Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA, 2009; Frank Gehry, 2008; Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen, 2007; Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond, with Arup, 2006; Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura with Cecil Balmond, Arup, 2005; MVRDV with Arup, 2004 (un-realised); Oscar Niemeyer, 2003; Toyo Ito and Cecil Balmond - with Arup, 2002; Daniel Libeskind with Arup, 2001; and Zaha Hadid, 2000.

The Serpentine’s Pavilion commission, conceived in 2000 by the Gallery’s Director Julia Peyton-Jones, has become an international site for architectural experimentation and has presented projects by some of the world’s greatest architects. Each Pavilion is sited on the Gallery’s lawn for three months and the immediacy of the commission – a maximum of six months from invitation to completion – provides a unique model worldwide.

Sixteen finalists have been announced in the Pinup 2012: Student Competition. The international contest was assembled by professors and students for students as a means to publically promote the research, exploration and investigation currently happening in academia.

The final competition winner will be selected by public “EyeTime” as the most viewed collection on May 30, 2012. To view the finalists and contribute your “EyeTime” for your favorite entrant, you need to download the Morpholio competition app here (iOS only so far). The result will be announced on June 4.

Following is a quick preview of the sixteen finalist student projects.

All images courtesy of Pinup 2012.

The Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Riverside Museum in Glasgow, Scotland has been named the most innovative museum in the fields of technology, labor and social history by the European Museum Academy. Riverside competed against museums in 12 other European countries to win the 17th annual Micheletti Award.

Other shortlisted museums for this year's Micheletti Award were:

• Préhistosite de Ramioul – Musée de la Préhistoire en Wallonie, Flémalle, Belgium
• Brede Works – Museum of Industrial Culture, Lyngby, Denmark
• Science Centre Delft, The Netherlands
• Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments and Museum Bitola, Bitola, ‘the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’
• Santralistanbul Museum of Energy, Istanbul, Turkey

In their citation, the judges noted that: "The careful planning of the museum included involving visitors and volunteers at every stage of the development."

The judges concluded: "The museum has put its budget and its large workforce to excellent use, it is completely publicly oriented, flexible and always on the outlook. It is making a change to a rundown neighborhood, as well as being a showcase of past, present and future transport industries of Glasgow."

Lawrence Fitzgerald, Riverside Museum Manager said: "The judges were particularly impressed by the relationships the museum had built up with people before, during and after opening and by the range of stories told at Riverside." 

Riverside Museum has already attracted more than 1.4million visitors since opening in June.

Berlin's J. MAYER H. is currently designing a series of twenty rest areas along a new highway in the Caucasus Republic of Georgia, connecting Azerbaijan and Turkey. Two rest areas have already been completed, and a third one is currently under construction with completion scheduled for this year.

Here are some photos of the two stations, Gori and Lochini.

Project Description from the Architects:

In 2009 Head of Roads Department of Georgia commissioned J. MAYER H. to design a system of 20 Rest Stops for the new highway which will run through Georgia and connect the Republic of Azerbaijan with the Republic of Turkey. Two Rest Stops have been completed while a third one is under construction. The new Rest Stops are located on selected scenic viewpoints and serve as activators for their area and neighbouring cities, including not only gas station and supermarket, but also a farmers market and a cultural space for local arts and crafts.

Project Details - Gori Rest Area:

Location: Gori, Georgia

Architect: J. MAYER H. Architects
Team: Jürgen Mayer H., Paul Angelier, Jesko Malkolm Johnsson-Zahn, Marcus Blum, Guy Levy

Preliminary Design: 2009
Completion: 2011
Function: Rest Stop
Clients: JSC Wissol Petroleum Georgia / Socar Georgia Petroleum
Architects on Site: Kobulieli and Partners / Ltd.”Alioni 99”

Project Details - Lochini Rest Area:

Location: Lochini, Georgia

Architect: J. MAYER H. Architects
Team: Jürgen Mayer H., Paul Angelier, Danny te Kloese

Project Design: 2011
Expected Completion: 2012
Function: Rest Stop
Client: PM Motors Ltd.

Find more photos in the image gallery below.

Today the Trust for the National Mall announced the three winning teams of the National Mall Design Competition. The National Mall in Washington, D.C. is the country’s most visited park and attracts more than 25 million visitors annually. Earlier in April, twelve finalist concepts were chosen that had redesigned three prominent National Mall locations: Union Square, Sylvan Theater on the Washington Monument Grounds, and Constitution Gardens.

The competition winners are:

• Union Square: Gustafson Guthrie Nichol + Davis Brody Bond
• Sylvan Theater on the Washington Monument Grounds: OLIN + Weiss/Manfredi
• Constitution Gardens: Rogers Marvel Architects + Peter Walker and Partners

Find images of the selected entries below.

All images courtesy of the National Mall Design Competition.

The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York will celebrate outstanding achievement in design this fall with its 13th annual National Design Awards program. Today, CooperHewitt Director Bill Moggridge announced the winners of the 2012 National Design Awards, which recognize excellence across a variety of disciplines. The award recipients will be honored at a gala dinner in mid-October in New York.

First launched at the White House in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium  Council, the National Design Awards were established to promote excellence and innovation in design. The awards are accompanied each year by a variety of public education programs, including  special events, panel discussions and workshops. First Lady Michelle Obama serves as the Honorary Patron for this year’s National Design Awards.

Following are the 2012 award recipients.

Lifetime Achievement: Richard Saul Wurman

Richard Saul Wurman, FAIA, seeks ways to make the complex clear. Described by Fortune magazine as an “intellectual hedonist” with a “hummingbird mind,” he has written, designed and published 83 books on topics from health care to cartography and the 1984 Olympics. Wurman received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and is the creator of the term “information architecture.” His career has been especially wide-ranging, from working for Louis Kahn and Charles Eames to reinventing guidebooks. In 1962, he published the first comparative plans of the 50 major cities in the world, and in 1967 he published his first comparative statistical atlas of major American cities. He created and chaired the conferences TED (1984-2002), TEDMED (1995-2010) and eg (2006) and is currently developing the WWW conferences, celebrating improvised conversations. Under his direction of TED, innovations that were premiered include the first Mac in 1984, Illustrator and Photoshop by Adobe, the Segway and iBot by DEKA, OnStar by GM, Frank Gehry’s earliest sketches of Bilbao and even the first announcement of Google. Wurman also continues to work on his global cartographic initiative, 19.20.21.—an endeavor to standardize a methodology for understanding comparative urban data.

Architecture Design: Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects

Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam have worked together in architecture for more than 40 years. Founded in 1984, their Atlanta-based firm, Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, has won international acclaim for work that ranges from a sleek factory for Herman Miller to the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center for Wellesley College and commercial office space for Tishman Speyer Properties. It has been recognized with numerous awards and publications and has been shown at museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Walker Art Center.

Interior Design: Clive Wilkinson Architects

Clive Wilkinson Architects is a distinguished architecture and design practice based in Los Angeles, which collaborates with clients to design and build creative communities. The practice has completed creative projects across the globe for clients such as Google, Nokia, 20th Century Fox and Disney, winning more than 75 awards in the process. In its work, the firm strives to connect people, shape relationships and empower organizations to produce invigorating forms of community. Wilkinson has been inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame, named a Master of Design by Fast Company magazine and a Pioneer of Design by the IIDA.

Landscape Architecture: Stoss Landscape Urbanism

Stoss Landscape Urbanism is a Boston-based collaborative design and planning studio that operates at the juncture of landscape architecture, urban design and planning. The firm was established in 2000 by founding principal Chris Reed; Scott Bishop joined as associate principal in 2005. Stoss has distinguished itself for a hybridized approach rooted in infrastructure, functionality and ecology. The firm’s projects include The CityDeck in Green Bay, Wis.; Erie Street Plaza in Milwaukee; The Plaza at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.; and Bass River Park on Cape Cod, Mass. In 2010, Stoss became the first North American firm to win the Topos Landscape Award.

Corporate and Institutional Achievement: Design that Matters

Conceived by graduate students at the MIT Media Lab in 2001, Design that Matters is a nonprofit design company that partners with social entrepreneurs to design products that address basic needs in developing countries. Led by cofounder Timothy Prestero, more than 850 academic and professional collaborators have worked together to create dozens of product concepts, including a projector for nighttime adult literacy education in Africa, a low-cost neonatal incubator using spare car parts and, most recently, a phototherapy device for treating newborn jaundice in Vietnam. Design that Matters’ award-winning creations have captured the public’s attention through its innovative, human-centered approach to product design.

Product Design: Scott Wilson

Scott Wilson is the founder and principal designer of the Chicago-based studio Minimal. A former design leader at Nike, Thomson Consumer Electronics, IDEO, Fortune Brands and Motorola, he has created some of the world’s most recognized consumer design icons, including the Kinect for Xbox 360 and TikTok and LunaTik watches for the iPod Nano. Equal parts visionary and entrepreneur, Wilson delivers disruptive yet thoughtful solutions to markets across a range of industries. His work has been recognized with more than 50 international design awards and has been exhibited at Cooper-Hewitt, the Museum of Modern Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Fashion Design: Thom Browne

Thom Browne’s meticulous aesthetic is rooted in an American sensibility evocative of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Browne opened his doors in the fall of 2001, offering bespoke tailored clothing; he introduced ready-to-wear menswear in 2004 and womenswear in 2010. He designs the Black Fleece by Brooks Brothers collection for men and women as well as a line of men’s jewelry for Harry Winston. In 2009, Browne introduced the Moncler Gamme Bleu collection. He was named Menswear Designer of the Year in 2006 by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Designer of the Year in 2008 by GQ magazine, and Most Influential Designer by WGSN.

Communication Design: Rebeca Méndez

In a career spanning almost 30 years as a designer, creative director, artist and educator, Rebeca Méndez has focused on critical reflection of visual communication practices around issues of organization, culture and identity. Méndez is a professor in the Design Media Arts department at University of California, Los Angeles. Since 1996, she has run a multidisciplinary studio based in Los Angeles, focused on design for art and architecture clients, including Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne and Bill Viola. Her work has been exhibited in venues such as the Centre Pompidou, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Cooper-Hewitt. The recipient of numerous awards, Méndez lectures widely around the world, including a TEDx Talk in 2011.

Interaction Design: Evan Roth

Evan Roth is an interaction designer who visualizes, records and subverts transient, often unseen moments in public spaces, in popular culture and on the Internet. His approach takes inspiration from the free software movement and hacker ethos, leading to such notable pieces as Laser Tag, White Glove Tracking, a collaboration with Jay-Z on the first open-source rap video, and the Eye Writer a low-cost eye-tracking system originally designed for paralyzed graffiti artist Tempt1. Roth is cofounder of the Graffiti Research Lab and the Web-based, open-source Free Art & Technology Lab. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and has received numerous awards, including the Design Museum London’s Design of the Year.

Design Mind: Janine Benyus

Janine Benyus is a biologist, innovation consultant and author of six books, including Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. In 1998, Benyus cofounded Biomimicry Guild, the world’s first bio-inspired consultancy, bringing nature’s sustainable designs to more than 250 clients, including Boeing, Nike, General Electric, Herman Miller, HOK, IDEO, Interface and Procter and Gamble. In 2006, Benyus cofounded Biomimicry Institute, home of AskNature, an online library of life’s best ideas. In 2011, she launched Biomimicry 3.8 to certify and nurture the growing network of biomimicry professionals. Benyus has received numerous awards, including the 2011 Heinz Award and was Time’s International 2007 Hero of the Environment.

The 2012 National Design Awards Jury was composed of a diverse group of designers and educators from around the nation, including:

• John C. Jay/Jury Chair, global executive creative director and partner, Wieden+Kennedy
• Michelle Berryman, principal and CEO, Echo Visualization
• Jeanne Gang, principal and founder, Studio Gang Architects
• Lee F. Mindel, FAIA, founding partner, Shelton, Mindel & Associates
• Melody Roberts, senior director, concept & design, McDonald’s Corp.
• Eric Rodenbeck, founder, CEO and creative director, Stamen Design
• Behnaz Sarafpour, president and designer, Behnaz Sarafpour
• Alice Twemlow, chair, MFA Design Criticism, School of Visual Arts
• Charles Waldheim, John E. Irving Professor and Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design

The Arch, a new cultural center in the small southern Norwegian town Mandal has officially opened to the public this April. Designed by Danish practice 3XN, construction had commenced in December 2009 and was completed in December 2011.

Project Description from the Architects:

A House of the People 

The cultural center, called “The Arch”, is about creating a common base for the cultural institutions of Mandal. Thus, The Arch contains theater, cinema, concert hall, library, gallery and café, offering activities for all ages of the town's 15,000 inhabitants. “The Arch is a house of the people, so we designed a building that in an elegant and soft motion gathers the town's cultural life, while the modern expression bears witness to a town in development", explains Jan Ammundsen, Partner and Head of Design at 3XN.

The modern expression is created with a deep respect for the history of the town and the surrounding landscape. The arched shape refers partly to the soft hills, located around Mandal, and partly to the industrial center, which previously was located on the site. It is planned that the building will have a green roof, which will contribute to giving the building an organic expression, and will increase integration with the surrounding nature, when looking at the Arch from one of Mandal’s popular vantage points. The white color corresponds with the old white wooden houses, which Mandal is known for and which gives the town its character.

"A Dream" 

The wish for optimal use of daylight, and a building that seems open and attractive to visitors, resulted in a facade characterized by panoramic windows facing the river and city. "It is important that the building’s activities are visible, and that the building connects to all the residents. Therefore, we have also emphasized designing the south-facing outdoor areas, so they are attractive sunny, recreational spaces with views to the river. In this way the building brings value to everyone in Mandal," says Jan Ammundsen.  

According to the manager of the cultural center, Alfred Solgaard, The Arch has had no difficulties in attracting visitors: "In just the first two and a half months after we took the building into use 25,000 people visited, and that was even before the official opening”, says Alfred Solgaard, and adds, "the Arch is a dream come true for our entire community".

Besides the design of the architecture for the cultural center 3XN have delivered the graphic design for the Arch, the area's master plan and a bridge that will go from the cultural center and over the river. The bridge, which is under construction will, in line with the cultural center, has curved organic shapes and pitches from which the view of Norway's southernmost town can be enjoyed in full.

Project Details:

Team: Architect: 3XN Architects, Denmark
Client: Halse Property, Norway
Engineer: Rambøll, Norway
Landscape: Asplan Viak, Norway
Theatre Technique: AIX architects, Sweden
Art Decorations: Marianne Bratteli "Chaos and Gaia", Norway

Address: Havnegt. 2, 4515 Mandal, Norway
Price: approx. 33 million euros
Size: approx. 4,500 m2
Floors: 2
Construction: Concrete
Façade: Aluminum and glass
Timeline: Construction Start: December 2009
Completion: December 2011
Official opening: April 2012

One of the world’s biggest floating openair swimming pools will open on the Eilandje in Antwerp, Belgium at the Kattendijkdok in mid-August. The pool, with a total length of 120 meters (394 feet), can accommodate 600 people and consists of a swim basin, two event venues, several floors and a restaurant with a lounge terrace. 'Badboot' was designed by architect Pieter Peerlings and Silvia Mertens of Sculp(IT) Architecten, known for the narrowest house in Antwerp (remember this incredibly popular Showcase Feature on Archinect?).

Project Description from the Architects:

Outdoor swimming pools that float on the city’s canals or rivers are familiar to us from Berlin and Copenhagen. But the Badboot cannot be compared with these two European predecessors in any sense. The Badboot is much bigger, can be moved to another site and will be open throughout the year. Every summer for the next ten years, the platform will be able to welcome bathers in Antwerp’s docks and the swimming pool will be an ice rink in winter. You will also be able to enjoy winter barbecues and winter sports activities (such as curling) on the Badboot.

It also has a restaurant with a lounge deck that will be run by top chefs of Fiskebar, the popular restaurant at Antwerp Zuid. Events can be organised every day of the year in the two event rooms and there is plenty of parking space.

This makes the Badboot the perfect location for organising product launches, office parties, seminars and private events throughout the year.

The deck is open to everybody: for barely 4 euros a swim, Antwerpers can enjoy the revolutionary outdoor swimming pool on water. ‘The Badboot is a perfect complement to the existing urban outdoor pools in Antwerp’, thinks Maarten Dieryck of the City of Antwerp. ‘Having no more than two outdoor swimming pools in the city, we have a dire shortage of opportunities to enjoy water sports in the open air. This project will provide the axis of the development of Antwerp Docklands. That’s why we believe this is a brilliant project.’

It should be clear that the Badboot is a full-fledged leisure platform for the city and not a push barge that happened to be converted to a swimming pool, like elsewhere in Europe. The platform is unique in the world as regards both size and facilities and its potential to use it in all seasons. This is a scoop for the Scheldt port, which again proves its reputation as a cool metropolis.

Facts & Figures:

• 120 m: the entire length of the Badboot. With several levels and a capacity to accommodate 600 people, this gigantic project makes it one of the biggest outdoor swimming pools with leisure facilities in the world. A total terrace area of no less than 750 m2, ensures that swimmers can enjoy an après-swim drink with a magnificent view over the MAS, the port and the new projects at Antwerp Docklands. In 2013, the Red Star Line Museum will open opposite the Badboot.
• Nearly the same length as an Olympic size swimming pool: including the paddling pool, the Badboot pool is 40 metres in length and therefore offers exceptional swimming facilities to visitors. Swimmers seem to dive into the dock of Antwerp Dockland’s Kattendijkdok, providing a unique experience.
• A feat of 6 months: ‘Building such a gigantic project in half a year is quite a challenge’, says Martin Seine of shipbuilders HSS. ‘This project is by far the most extraordinary project we have ever worked on.’ The construction of the boat started on 1 February 2012. Everything has to be completed at the start of August. At the moment we are right on schedule.
• 100% Antwerp Steel: all the steel is supplied by ASS, the Antwerp Steel Services nv. The vessel is built as an integrated structure in Maasbracht in the Netherlands by the HSS yard and on completion will return to Belgium.
• The original ferry - which will connect the brand new Badboot to the quayside - was built in 1964. ‘We wanted to emphasise the authentic maritime character of the ferry’, says architect Pieter Peerlings. ‘For example, right now, the original wheelhouse or bridge is being converted into a cocktail bar. By the way, we found a coin from 1964 on the MV Antoon van Dijck, so we are planning to conceal a coin anno 2012 in the Badboot. Traditions are there to be honoured’, he laughs”

The people behind Badboot

Co-owner Philip De Prest is managing director of V-Zit bvba, the organisation that will launch the Badboot jointly with the City of Antwerp. De Prest has been a consultant to Richard Branson’s Virgin Group since 2000 and was the global managing director of Virgin Drinks until last year. In the past he stood at the cradle of the Kidibul concept for Stassen and also conceived the Kriek Primeur fruit beers for Interbrew at the relaunch of the Belle-Vue brand. In the late nineties he was also the driving force behind the successful turnaround of mineral water and soft drinks brand Chaudfontaine. In 2005, he founded V-Zit, the company behind successful cruising projects such as Festina Lente, a market-leading luxury vessel, for hire in Antwerp. Sailing in Mechelen is also possible on the Binnen-Dijle or to Planckendael with the V-Zit Malinska boats.

Architect Pieter Peerlings of Sculp(IT) Architects, known for the narrowest house in Antwerp, designed the entire construction of the Badboot together with his business partner Silvia Mertens. ‘Philip De Prest of V-Zit and I immediately clicked’, says Peerlings about the collaboration. ‘The City of Antwerp commissioned a ship with the only condition that it covered an area of 120 by 25 metres and incorporate a swimming pool. For the rest we had carte blanche. We won the pitch and from then on we had to turn our plans into reality. The starting point was the existing ferryboat which Philip De Prest absolutely wanted to use for the project. I have always been fascinated by the maritime world and Sculp(IT) wanted to create a modern, minimalist vessel that was ecologically sound and appeared to integrate seamlessly with the surrounding docks. In addition it had to have extra facilities for the public to enjoy. The result from all this is the Badboot.’

The HSS shipyard in the Netherlands, led by Martin Seine, met Philip De Prest three years ago when they built MV Likamboté for V-Zit. The time to construct a gigantic and high quality vessel such as the Badboot was pretty tight, but HSS took on the challenge with success.

Leisure pool specialist S&R, run by Jan de Wit, is the leading expert in building and running swimming pools in Belgium. The company acted as a consultant during the entire construction process of the Badboot.

Badboot Vastgoed bvba is a group of private investors who believe in this unique concept and looks after the financing of this million euro project.

The timeline to the opening in August:

• February: start of construction.
• April: completion of the first 60 metres of the boat.
• June: completion of the second section followed by welding the two sections together and launch into the water.
• July: laying the floors and fitting out the interior.
• August: arrival of the Badboot in the Port of Antwerp, ready for the opening

Sustainable luxury: the ecological Badboot

A large scale luxury project such as the Badboot proves that luxury need not damage the environment. On the contrary, the Badboot combines comfort with ecology and utilises the latest technologies to this effect:

• Reedbed water purification: the Badboot has an on-board reedbed that purifies water – to begin with, this is the first actively ventilated outdoor purification bed on the European continent. But here too, care for the environment goes hand in hand with an attractive appearance: the entire reedbed has been equipped with designer lighting which provides a spectacular panoramic view from the restaurant.
• Thermal insulation concept: Storing water in the pool utilises the same concept as a thermos flask. There is a large buffering hold below the pool which is empty by day but fills up in the evening with the water from the swimming pool. This stops the water from evaporating while it stays warm in the buffer, resulting in huge saving in terms of water and energy.
• Re-use: the complete restoration of an existing ferry gives added value to part of the coolest project in Antwerp.
• LED lighting: almost all areas are illuminated by LED lights which use up to less than half the energy.

International architectural practice 10 Design has shared with us their concept of a headquarter park for pharmaceutical company Yabao in Shenzhen, China. Construction of this massive project already commenced last October and is well underway.

Project Description from the Architects:

The project is an examination of the relationship between a pristine rural landscape and the advancing forces of a rapidly growing city. Galaxy Yabao Hi-Tech Enterprises Headquarter Park is close to the central zone of Futian District, Shenzhen, China. The Gross site area is about 65 ha; and the GFA is over 1,050,000 sqm, consisting of 18 high-rise towers ranging from 100-300 meters tall, a 5 star hotel, 3 service apartment towers, 3 residential towers, a shopping mall and a 32 ha park.

Tony Huang of the privately owned real estate Shenzhen based developer, Galaxy Group, says, “The vision for the project is to cultivate a hi-tech headquarter park where people can lead a well-balanced life, working and living in a tranquil yet innovative environment . This mix-used complex is designed for a multifaceted community, which includes living, working, shopping recreation, and tourism. The site is very unique with superb first world infrastructure in a beautiful parkland setting around two natural lakes.”

The main design concept was to try and integrate the complex into the natural landscape. The buildings define a strong urban edge on the southwestern edge of the site and begin to dissolve into nature as they move northeast across the site towards the lake. A series of balconies pulls off the tower facades to allow for vegetation to grow up the sides of the buildings. A series of algae tubes mounted on the western facades also brings a natural diffuse green texture into the complex. External linear screens further diffuse the edge of the towers and shelter the buildings from the heat of the summer sun. Each tower has a rooftop garden to help reduce heat island effect.

The architecture is defined by two landmark towers. The first is a 300 meter tower that sits at the edge of a small stream running across the site. The tower twists up out of the stream taking inspiration from the fluidity of the water running across the site. A second iconic element is the shopping mall, which is located at the intersection of two freeways. To react to the freeway edge, a 220 meter tower is pulled laterally along the freeway, melding the tower and shopping mall into an iconic element that reaches 400 meters in length. The internal edge of the shopping mall terraces into a series of green garden spaces.

Beyond the formal inspirations that try to blur or bridge the architecture back into a natural context, a series of sustainable ideas is embedded into the project that activates the buildings. The design is an examination of the concept of moving “beyond neutrality” on a large scale.

The buildings are designed with façades that neutralize air pollution 24 hours a day, an algae system that produces oxygen, organic fertilizer, and cleans grey water, and a series of subterranean chambers that naturally cools outside air and pushes it into a series of outdoor courtyards. The buildings take full advantage of technologies that help shape the temperature and air quality of their micro-climate. The project has already started construction in October 2011.

Project Details:

Design Partner: Ted Givens
Managing Partner: David Pringle

Architectural Team: Maciej Setniewski, Peby Pratama, Tatsu Hayashi, Abraham Fung, Emre Icdem, Jon Martin, Ru Chen, Shane Dale

Landscape Team: Ewa Koter, Ting Fung Chan

Masterplan Area: 62 ha
GFA: 1,050,000 sqm
Function: Retail, Office, Serviced Apartments, 5-Star Hotel, a Park
Construction commencement: October 2011

Find also plans, diagrams and model photos in the image gallery below.

The Jury of the European Prize for Urban Public Space 2012, chaired by Spanish architect Josep Llinàs, has announced two joint First Prize winners, as well as three Special Mentions and one Special Category winner. The top entries were selected from 347 projects from 36 European countries.

The members of the Jury, presided over by the architect Josep Llinàs on behalf of the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), are: Dietmar Steiner, director of the Architekturzentrum Wien (Vienna); Ole Bouman, director of the Nederlands Architectuurinstituut (Rotterdam); Sarah Mineko Ichioka, director of The Architecture Foundation (London); Francis Rambert, director of the Institut Français d’Architecture (Paris); Juulia Kauste, director of the Suomen Rakennustaiteen Museo (Helsinki), and Peter Cachola Schmal, director of the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, acting as board members, and David Bravo, architect, acting as secretary.

The European Prize for Urban Public Space is an award created by the CCCB in 2000 to acknowledge and encourage the creation and recovery of public spaces in European cities, and to highlight urbanistic interventions that promote the public dimension of urban space and its role in social integration. The biennial prize is awarded not only to the professionals responsible for the urban intervention, but also to the institutions that develop it.

JOINT WINNER: RENOVATION OF THE RIVER LJUBLJANICA
Ljubljana (Slovenia), 2011

Authors: Boris Podrecca, ATELIER arhitekti, URBI, BB ARHITEKTI, ATELJE VOZLIČ, DANS arhitekti, TRIJE arhitekti and MEDPROSTOR

Renovation of the banks of the River Ljubljanica in the section flowing through the old city centre, a collective effort that concentrates resources in a range of specific interventions.

JOINT WINNER: LANDSCAPING OF THE PEAKS OF THE TURÓ DE LA ROVIRA
Barcelona (Spain), 2011

Authors: JANSANA, DE LA VILLA, DE PAAUW, ARQUITECTES SLP and AAUP. Jordi Romero i associats SLP

Landscaping and improved accessibility to a lookout where the remains of an anti-aircraft gun emplacement combine with those of a shanty village that was later constructed there.

SPECIAL MENTION: EXHIBITION ROAD
London (United Kingdom), 2011

Author: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

A main road in one of London’s cultural districts has been repaved and rid of architectural barriers, while vehicular traffic has been regulated by means of a “shared surface” system that achieves a balance of consensus between traffic and pedestrians.

SPECIAL MENTION: ANNORSTÄDES / ELSEWHERE / AILLEURS
Malmö (Sweden), 2010

Author: Tania Ruiz

A permanent installation projects moving images on to the platforms of an underground railway station, thus making the waiting period more enjoyable for passengers.

SPECIAL MENTION: MEMORIAL TO THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
Nantes (France), 2011

Authors: Krzysztof Wodiczko & Julian Bonder, Wodiczko+Bonder, Architecture, Art & Design

A wharf on the Loire River where slave ships once docked has been renovated with a new riverside walk that replaces a car park, while a memorial space commemorates the slave trade.

SPECIAL CATEGORY: OCCUPY PUERTA DEL SOL
Madrid (Spain), 2011

A large-scale demonstration by citizens demanding improvements in the democratic system by means of a temporary occupation of one of Madrid’s most representative squares.

The American Academy in Rome recently announced the winners of the 116th annual Rome Prize Competition. Recipients of the 2012-2013 prizes are provided with a fellowship that includes a stipend, a study or studio, and room and board for a period of six months to two years in Rome, Italy.

The 2012-2013 Rome Prize winners are:

• Erik Adigard, Design
• Ross Benjamin Altheimer, Landscape Architecture
• Polly Apfelbaum, Visual Arts
• Patrick Baker, Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
• Peter Jonathan Bell, Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
• Joshua Colin Birk, Medieval Studies
• Emma Blake, Ancient Studies
• Nicholas Blechman, Design
• Pablo Castro Estévez, Architecture
• Anthony Cheung, Musical Composition
• Lucy Corin, Literature
• Carl D'Alvia, Visual Arts
• Steven J.R. Ellis, Ancient Studies
• Jessica Fisher, Literature
• Mari Yoko Hara, Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
• Thomas Hendrickson, Ancient Studies
• Jesse Jones, Musical Composition
• Brenda Longfellow, Ancient Studies
• Randall Mason, Historic Preservation and Conservation
• Camille S. Mathieu, Modern Italian Studies
• Karen M'Closkey, Landscape Architecture
• Glendalys Medina, Visual Arts
• Claudia Moser, Ancient Studies
• William O'Brien Jr., Architecture
• Dominique Kirchner Reill, Modern Italian Studies
• Irene San Pietro, Ancient Studies
• Beth Saunders, Modern Italian Studies
• Elizabeth Kaiser Schulte, Historic Preservation and Conservation
• Denton Alexander Walthall, Ancient Studies
• Nari Ward, Visual Arts

Each year, through a national competition, the Rome Prize is awarded to approximately thirty individuals who represent the highest standard of excellence in the arts and humanities. Prize recipients are invited to Rome for six months to two years to immerse themselves in the Academy community where they will enjoy a once in a lifetime opportunity to expand their own professional, artistic, or scholarly pursuits, drawing on their colleagues' erudition and experience and on the inestimable resources that Italy, Europe, and the Academy have to offer.

Among many other fields, these are the 2012-13 Rome Prize winners in the fields of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Design:

PABLO CASTRO ESTÉVEZ (Architecture, James R. Lamantia, Jr., Rome Prize)
Principal, OBRA Architects, New York, NY
Seeking a New Poetic of Dwelling: The Lessons of Modern Social Housing in Europe in the Early Twentieth Century

WILLIAM O’BRIEN, JR. (Architecture, Founders Rome Prize)
Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Principal, William O'Brien, Jr., LLC, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Anachronous Formalisms: The Renewed Novelty of Architectures of Rome

ROSS BENJAMIN ALTHEIMER (Landscape Architecture, Prince Charitable Trusts Rome Prize)
Landscape Architecture Studio Leader, Hammel Green and Abrahamson, Minneapolis, MN
Welds and Quips in Subterranean Rome

KAREN M’CLOSKEY (Landscape Architecture, Garden Club of America Rome Prize)
Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Pennsylvania
Principal, PEG office of landscape + architecture, Philadelphia, PA
A Field Guide to Rome: Baedeker and Beyond

ERIK ADIGARD (Design, Katherine Edwards Gordon Rome Prize)
Founder and Designer, M-A-D
Lecturer, California College of the Arts
From Stones to Cloud: the entropy of image

NICHOLAS BLECHMAN (Design, Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize)
Art Director, The New York Times, New York, NY
Nozone XI: Indigestion (The Food Issue)

The proposal 'Swimming Pool Feng Shui' by Paris-based Mikou Design Studio has been named winning entry in a competition for a swimming pool in the city of Issy les Moulineaux, France.

Project Description from the Architects:

Piscine du Fort was conceived as a praxis of lucidity, transparency and architectonic fluidity, where natural light defines the spatial experience.

Programmatic elements are organised as sweeping curvilinear forms immersed within the spatial continuum of the project. The composition of elements simultaneously creates a porosity, allowing light to flood the interior, whilst delineatingseperate functions within the structure with strong individual identities.The façades, fabricated from undulating golden timber, express the circular motions of water, making reference to energy circulation and centrepetal flux.

The building envelope has been worked and molded tosoften the linear effect of the volume, and introduces variation in the perception of the form.

Project Details:

Architect: Mikou Design Studio

Design team: Salwa Mikou, Selma Mikou, Cécile Jalby, Iskra Pencheva, Carlotta Mazzi, Michela Romanó, Martha Thumiger, Felicia Vocke, Martin Tubiana, Alfredo Huertas, Henry Beech-Mole)

Location: Issy les Moulineaux, France
Client: City of Issy-les-Moulineaux Spl Seine Ouest
Program: Swimming Pool Feng Shui
Area: 4 000 m2
Date: Competition 2012 Winning Proposal

Find also plans, sections and diagrams of the swimming pool in the image gallery below.

Ben van Berkel of UNStudio, along with Jonathan Cohn of EE&K a Perkins Eastman company, presented their 'Vision Board' -  a conceptual rendering in the year 2050, showing Los Angeles Union Station as a multi-modal transit hub with a mix of uses, new development and outdoor spaces. The intent of the Vision Board was to explore visionary possibilities for Union Station and surrounding areas. The vision submitted does not portray the final design issues that will be examined in the Master Plan, however it does show a hint of the possibilities for the city and the regional transit hub of the future.

The Master Plan will be developed by an integrated team with UNStudio leading on architecture, EE&K leading on large scale design, and Jacobs Engineering leading on rail and infrastructure engineering.

One of the six teams to finalize for this submission will be selected at the end of June to undertake a 24-month Master Plan.

The conceptual launch pad for the design of the 'vision' for the L.A. Union Station Master Plan was focused on integrating the transit experience with new outdoor park spaces, providing a much sought after amenity in downtown L.A.. At a large scale, the vision creates a 'green loop that includes plans for the revitalization of the L.A. river and possible park extensions connecting Union Station across the 101.

Key to the future architectural development of the site is the maximum preservation of the historic Union Station building and gardens. City and regional transit will be given the stage, with a focus on increased ridership and transit connections, as well as considerations for the introduction of high-speed rail.

A uniquely programmed urban park with large-scale open spaces, extending the ideas of the existing historic courtyards, is envisioned as being integrated into the transit experience. The introduction of a vertical, layered strategy for the transit program shows the possibility of an open-air station that takes advantage of city's light and climate, creating a distinctly L.A. response to the future of this important transit hub.

Ben van Berkel: "With our vision for the LA Union Station area we envision not simply a train station, but a new, flexible and lively transit location, catering for bikes, bus, train, cars and taxis for a wide variety of users. The mixed use programme would ensure a 24 hours cycle of activity and liveliness for residents, tourists, students and business people alike. Along with the preservation of the existing station, the extension of its open air courtyards into a large public landscape would guide and orientate all the various user groups by means of one large gesture."

Project Details:

Project title: Los Angeles Union Station Master Plan, Los Angeles, USA, 2012
Client: Metro
Location: 800 North Alameda Street, Los Angeles, CA
Building surface: n/a
Building volume: n/a
Building site: 40 hectares
Programme:  train station, bus station, mixed use, parking, park
Status: RFP submission

Project Credits:

UNStudio: Ben van Berkel, Caroline Bos, Wouter de Jonge, and Imola Berczi, Aurélie Hsiao with Martin Zangerl, Stefano Rocchetti, Elisabeth Brauner, Qiyao Li

Primary Team Composition
EE&K a Perkins Eastman company: Large Scale Design
UNStudio: Architecture, Iconic Places
Jacobs: Rail and Infrastructure Engineering, Constructability
Buro Happold: Facility Engineering, Energy, Sustainability, Performance Modeling

Extended Team Composition
EE&K a Perkins Eastman company: Large Scale Design
UNStudio: Architecture, Iconic Places
RAW International: Local and Existing Architecture and Planning
Jacobs: Rail and Infrastructure Engineering, Constructability
Buro Happold: Facility Engineering, Energy, Sustainability, Performance Modeling
Fuscoe: Civil Engineering
WORKSHOP: Ken Smith Landscape Architect: Landscape Design
Patricia Smith: Landscape Architecture
The Robert Group: Public Outreach
HR&A Advisors, Inc.: Financial Planning
Kosmont Companies: Land Use & Entitlements
Pentagram: Wayfinding and Identity Branding
Historic Resources Group: Historic Preservation
KOA: Transportation Engineering
Ducibella Venter & Santore: Security
Lenax: Cost Estimating
Zuma Pacifica: Surveyor

Henning Larsen Architects and a team consisting of Signal Architects and SLA Landscape Architects have won the competition for Nordea Bank’s new office building of 40,000 m2 in Ørestad North, Copenhagen, next to the premises of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation and the Concert Hall – Koncerthuset. The building will comprise Scandinavia’s largest trading floor of 5,500 m2 with a view of the green area of Amager Fælled.

Project Description from the Architects:

Nordea’s new office building in Ørestad North, Copenhagen, will house 1,800-2,200 employees and be ready for inauguration in 2016. The new building of Nordea will border on the Danish Broadcasting Corporation and the Concert Hall – Koncerthuset.

To the south, the building is characterised by a sophisticated, sloping park landscape and to the north by an open ground floor and tile facades on the lower floors. Nordea’s new building introduces a new medium scale in Ørestad – a street level connecting buildings and landscape.

Stage one covering a total of 40,000 m2 consists of two light, sculptural buildings placed on a base. The architectural concept reflects the functionality of the buildings. Thus, the effective office floors are all placed on top of the base, while the shared, outward functions are placed in the base.

The building is organised as a city – offering quiet, more intimate places as well as squares and streets full of life and activity. The individual departments all offer both a quiet and active section.

This functional layout promotes collaboration, innovation and knowledge sharing across departments and professional fields. The interaction between effective open plan offices and meeting places allows the individual employee to find the optimal working situation.

The building interacts with the city, opens up and invites for activity at different levels. It will be a place in the city that offers activity inside as well as outside. The building provides the employees with the best opportunities to produce results in an inspiring work environment in which sustainable solutions contribute positively to the everyday-life of each employee. At the same time, the new office building will be an architectural and functional landmark in Ørestad North.

Sustainability

The new Nordea office building should achieve the highest score in the international certification system in green building, LEED. LEED evaluates the building as a whole – from programme through effective treatment of water, energy, materials, indoor climate to design process.

Henning Larsen Architects applies a unique, holistic design method, developed by the company itself. Focus is on minimising the energy consumption of the building. This is achieved by reducing the energy consumption, then optimising the technical solutions and finally integrating solutions for energy production in the buildings. 

The energy consumption of the new building has continuously been simulated through studies of volumes, materials, room heights, light and shadow, noise, wind and feasibility of indoor and outdoor spaces. Subsequently, the energy consumption has been further reduced by intelligent selection and use of efficient technologies.

With the applied methodology, the building will achieve a LEED Platinum certification, while at the same time offering an energy consumption of 41 kWh/m2/year without use of energy-producing installations. Adding the solar cell system required according to LEED, the total energy consumption will be minimised to 18.8 kWh/m2/year, which is far below the new 2020 energy requirements according to Danish building regulations. This makes Nordea’s new building a sustainable role model.

About the competition

In December 2011, Nordea Ejendomme invited three architecture competitions to participate in the competition for a new Nordea office building in Ørestad. In addition to Henning Larsen Architects, Dissing + Weitling and Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects participated in the competition.

Extract from the citation: ”HLA’s proposal relates to the urban context and in all ways constitutes a beautifully designed and convincing office building. The proposal is innovative and challenges the surroundings and Nordea, but also to a certain degree represents a both recognisable and robust architecture.”

”Trading Floor has been elegantly integrated in the building and offers ample daylight at all workstations. The building has a clear layout, which provides close contact between the functions in the individual departments. At the same time, the layout allows for beautiful views from the office spaces and surroundings directly into the Trading Floor, which is one of Nordea’s most visible and significant functions.”

Project Details:

Project: Nordea
Location: Ørestad North, Copenhagen, Denmark
Client: Nordea Ejendomme
Gross floor area: 40,000 m2 (stage 0ne – with opportunity for additionally 30,000 m2 in a later stage)
Construction period: 2013-2016
Type of assignment: 1st prize in invited competition

Architect: Henning Larsen Architects
Workspace design: Signal Architects
Landscape architect: SLA
Consulting engineer: COWI

Team at Henning Larsen Architects:

Design: Louis Becker (responsible partner), Kostas Poulopoulos (architectural design manager), Søren Øllgaard (architectural design manager), Julian Chen, Brandon Hall, Anders Park (project manager), Blanca Ulzurrun, Ingela Larsson, Marie Hildebrand Frederiksen, Morten Krog and Per Ebbe Hansson

Sustainability concept: Signe Kongebro, Jakob Strømann-Andersen, Erik Folke Holm-Hansson, Philip Johansen and Lise Manfeldt Faurbjerg

Illustrations: Christian Schjøll, Wesam Asali and Hung-Kai Liao

Find also plans and sketches in the image gallery below.

If you're in Berlin this weekend, you might wanna check out this exhibition as part of Gallery Weekend Berlin: JOH3 - J. MAYER H.'s newly-opened residential building in Berlin's Mitte district - will open its gallery space with carpets and furniture from J. MAYER H.'s 2011 exhibition "Rapport" at Berlinische Galerie. The exhibition was organized as a collaboration between the Berlinische Galerie, Euroboden and Vorwerk. A model of the building will also be on view.

Project Description from the Architects:

Property development group Euroboden has realized J. MAYER H. architects' unique building on Johannisstraße, which neighbors both Museum Island and Friedrichstrasse. With its multi-unit structure and green interior courtyard, the building is an extraordinary reinterpretation of the classic Berliner apartment house. The sculptural design of the suspended slat facade draws on the notion of landscape in the city, a quality visible in the graduated courtyard garden and the building's silhouette and layout. The integrated design concept, which incorporates everything from façade to stairwells, elevators to apartment interiors, promises a unique spatial and living experience with an eye to high design.

Project/Event Details:

Exhibiton: April 28th - 29th 2012, 11am - 6pm
Location: JOH3, Johannisstrasse 3, Berlin Mitte, Germany
Architects: J. MAYER H. Architects
Realized by: Euroboden, Berlinische Galerie, Vorwerk

Today marks the official start of construction of the new building for Onze Droomschool in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, designed by Mecanoo architecten. The new 5,322 m² school brings together education, child care and medical care.

The Vlij ‘Mytyl’ school, the Blije Gaarde school and the Dordtse Buitenschool collaborate in their new premises with the care support body Gemiva-SVG Group and the Rijndam revalidation center. In addition to classrooms, the building will house practical training studios, a mediatheque, music studio, sports center and an outdoor Johan Cruijff court for soccer and basketball.

Project Description from the Architects:

‘Human scale and security’ – this is the key concept in Mecanoo’s design for Onze Droomschool. By splitting the building up into a family of little brick houses it reflects the typical saddleback roofs found in the vicinity of the school.

The ‘Onderbouwhuis’ [junior classes], ‘Bovenbouwhuis’ [senior classes], ‘Sporthuis’ and ‘Kinderrevalidatiehuis’ [children’s revalidation house] have their own individual colour of brick such as brown, orange and pale yellow making them easily recognizable for the children. The pupils feel safe and at home in their ‘own houses’.

Transparent glass zones with the canteen, mediatheque and covered play area link up the different houses.  To give the children a warm and comfortable home, all of the walls, floors and ceilings of the school are made of wood. This layered wood is not only extremely sustainable and CO2-neutral, but also has a damp-regulating function and good insulating properties. It is so beautiful that it also acts as the interior finish.

Reception areas, stairs, banisters, cupboards and open shelving, shutters and doors are all implemented in this solid wood.

The 'Stadium of Tomorrow' design competition, sponsored by global stadium architecture specialist Populous to mark the completion of the design of its first major sports stadium in Korea, attracted more than 250 teams from all over Korea.

The competition provided an opportunity for Korean student architects and designers to envision a stadium which responded to the world’s diverse environmental and climatic conditions, from Antarctica to Saudi Arabia or even the Amazon Jungle. The stadium had to be transformable/moveable/demountable.

Populous senior principal Andrew James said the caliber of entries was extremely high. “Populous is on a quest for quality and committed to investing in the education of young talented architects of the future. [...] Our recent completion of the design for the Main Stadium for the Incheon 2014 Asian Games, coupled with our commitment to developing our presence in Korea, has created the opportunity to invest further in talented Korean designers, through the ‘Stadium of Tomorrow’ Design Competition,” he said.

Populous Associate and market leader in Korea, Kim Joo Young, said the Judges were looking for the importance of “legacy” and “sustainability” in the concept, as well as functionality, uniqueness of the concept, and the project’s impact on the environment. “We want our designs to harmonize with the environment, responding to climate, culture and the community. We place great importance on sustainability and ensure that each of our designs can help to minimize their carbon footprint from the initial design, through to project completion. We are also committed to ensuring our stadia are flexible and multifunctional so that they are well used by their communities every day, all year round, not just during big events,” he said.

The competition winner was awarded $3,000 as well as a paid internship in Populous Asian headquarters in Brisbane, Australia including flights and accommodation.

First Prize: Athletic Horizon
Seondong Kim, Jongwoo Jun and Kwangyeon Cho

The First prize was awarded to Seondong Kim, Jongwoo Jun and Kwangyeon Cho with the winning entry ‘Athletic Horizon’.

The Judges were unanimous in their agreement that the entry applied an outstanding solution to the ‘Stadium of Tomorrow’. It also demonstrated how the stadium draws people and the communities together creating unforgettable experiences. The Judges concluded the scheme was so well thought out it could be applied to a real project.

Second Prize: NaCloud

The Judges panel chose ‘NaCloud’ in second place. This concept looked at a stadium comprised of modular elements. The idea was used by a number of the competition entrants, but ‘NaCloud’ was better resolved than others, and quite unique. The Judges felt the concepts explored could be applied to some parts of a contemporary stadium design, rather than the whole design. They agreed that a modular system would reduce the impact on the environment and cut costs. The concept was also appealing because it could be dismantled and used in different places by different users both before and after major events.

Third Prize: Moving Bowl

The Judges liked ‘Moving Bowl’ because it was an imaginative solution to minimize land use for a stadium, which is particularly relevant in the quest to keep the building’s footprint as compact as possible. A contemporary stadium has always separated the seating bowl from other parts of the building. This concept however proposed combining different building components to form a one large modular shape, so reducing the impact on the surrounding environment.

Honorable Mention: ASWP (Airship Stadium of World Peace)

The Judges believed ‘ASWP (Airship Stadium of World Peace)’ deserved a special mention. Perhaps it did not quite follow the context given for the competition or provide a perfect solution, but it made people think, and explored the boundaries of imagination.

The concept of this entry was of a stadium ‘visiting’ the country hosting a major sporting event, rather than the host country designing its own venues. It offered a new look at “temporary stadia” and provided a unique solution, rather like a traditional touring circus traveling around a country.

A floating and flying stadium may not be built in the near future, but the idea considers a new concept or form that a major event organizing committee such as the International Olympic Committee could suggest to host cities in the future.

All images courtesy of Populous.

The Art Directors Club in New York recently announced the international winners of the prestigious ADC 91st Annual Awards.

In a break from past years, the top ADC Gold Cube winner was not a traditional advertising or design agency: Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Los Angeles landed four Golds and two Silvers in Advertising, Interactive and Motion categories for Chipotle’s “Back to the Start”. The spot also garnered a Gold in sound design for Duotone Audio Group, New York. “The Bear” television commercial for CANAL+ was also highly recognized, winning three Advertising Golds and a Silver for BETC Euro RSCG, Paris and a Silver for MJZ, Los Angeles.

Advertising & Motion Awards: Creative Artists Agency (Advertising, Broadcast Craft, Animation), Los Angeles, CA and Duotone Audio Group (Advertising, Broadcast Craft, Television Music/Sound Design), New York, NY, USA, for Chipotle, "Back to the Start"

Other significant overall winners included School of Visual Arts with nine ADC Cubes, The New York Times Magazine with six (including a pair of Golds, one each in Design and Photography), Heimat Berlin with five (three Silver and two Bronze in Interactive and Integrated), BBDO New York with four, and Google Creative Labs, Leo Burnett Toronto, Leo Burnett Sydney and Pentagram Design with three Cubes each. This year’s winners represented 24 countries, reflecting the program’s global stature.

Advertising Awards: BETC Euro RSCG, Paris, France, for CANAL+, "The Bear", Advertising, TV/Film Television Commercial & Advertising, TV/Film Cinema Commercial & Advertising, Broadcast Craft, Direction

The awards will be celebrated during Creative Week at the ADC 91st Annual Awards Gala on May 8, 2012 at Espace in New York. At the awards gala, the club will announce the winner of its second-annual ADC Designism Award honoring work for a nonprofit that drives social or political change. In addition, recipients of this year’s Agency of the Year, Network of the Year, Design Team of the Year and School of the Year honors, based upon a cumulative points system, will be revealed. The exhibition of winning work opens May 9 at the ADC Gallery with a happy hour cocktail reception, 4:00-7:00 pm, and runs through May 24.

ADC Gold Cube winners in all categories are listed below.

Advertising: 37 ADC Cubes (10 Gold, 12 Silver, 15 Bronze, 14 Merit)

• BBH New York/Google Creative Labs, New York, NY, USA, for Google, “The Web Is What You Make Of It”, Advertising, TV/Film Television Commercial
• BETC Euro RSCG, Paris, France, for CANAL+, “The Bear”, Advertising, TV/Film Television Commercial
• BETC Euro RSCG, Paris, France, for CANAL+, “The Bear”, Advertising, TV/Film Cinema Commercial
• BETC Euro RSCG, Paris, France for CANAL+, “The Bear”, Advertising, Broadcast Craft, Direction
• Creative Artists Agency, Los Angeles, CA, USA, for Chipotle, “Back to the Start “, Advertising, Broadcast Craft, Animation
• Duotone Audio Group, New York, NY, USA, for Chipotle, “Back to the Start “, Advertising, Broadcast Craft, Television Music/Sound Design
• Jung von Matt AG, Hamburg, Germany, for Anders Sundt Jensen, Damir Maric, “The Invisible Drive”, Advertising, Ambient/Environmental Stunts/Guerrilla
• JWT Shanghai, Shanghai, China, for Samsonite, “Heaven and Hell”, Advertising, Press Craft, Art Direction
• LOWE/SSP3, Bogota, Colombia, for Ministry of Defense, “Operation Christmas”, Advertising, Ambient/Environmental Stunts/Guerrilla
• Young & Rubicam, New York, NY, USA, for Land Rover, “Pathological Liar “, Advertising, Broadcast Craft, Copywriting

Interactive: 26 ADC Cubes (6 Gold, 12 Silver, 8 Bronze, 4 Merit)

• BBDO Germany GmbH, Düsseldorf, Germany, for Daimler AG, “smart eball”, Interactive, Physical Innovation
• Creative Artists Agency, Los Angeles, CA, USA, for Chipotle, “Back to the Start“, Interactive, Online Content Original Web Commercials
• DDB Paris, Paris, France, for MINI France, “MINI Maps “, Interactive, Social Online Game
• kempertrautmann gmbh, Hamburg, Germany for edding International GmbH, “Wall of Fame”, Interactive, Website Campaign Site
• Mirada, Los Angeles, CA, USA, for IBM, “Think”, Interactive, Physical Installation
• MUH·TAY·ZIK | HOF·FER, San Francisco, CA, USA, for Call and Response, “Slavery Footprint”, Interactive, Website Campaign Site (micro-site)

Integrated: 12 ADC Cubes (2 Gold, 5 Silver, 5 Bronze, 3 Merit)

• Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, CA, USA, for Sprint, “All Together Now”, Integrated
• Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners, New York, NY, USA, for BMW North America, “BMW ActiveE - A Social Experiment Shaping the Future of Mobility”, Integrated

Design: 47 ADC Cubes (6 Gold, 11 Silver, 30 Bronze, 15 Merit)

• ART+COM, Berlin, Germany, for Deutsche Bank AG, “Anamorphic Mirror”, Design, Environmental Design, Retail/Restaurant/Office/Outdoor or Vehicle
• ayrcreative, Tokyo, Japan, for Daichinomi, “Handmade 2011 Calendar” Design, Corporate/Promotional Design Calendar or Appointment Book
• Happy F&B, Gothenburg, Sweden, for Göteborgstryckeriet, “Lost & Found”, Design, Corporate/Promotional Design, Booklet/Brochure
• Iyama Design, Inc., Tokyo, Japan, for Kamoi Kakoshi Co., Ltd., “mt train, mt expo, mt ex Hiroshima”, Design, Environmental Design, Retail/Restaurant/Office/Outdoor or Vehicle
• The New York Times Magazine, New York, NY, USA, in-house, “What Happened to Air France Flight 447?”, Design, Editorial Design: Magazine Cover
• Serviceplan Gruppe fur Innovative Kommunikation, gmbh & co. kg, Munich, Germany, for Austria Solar, “The Solar Annual Report”, Corporate/Promotional Design, Annual Report

Motion: 15 ADC Cubes (3 Gold, 5 Silver, 7 Bronze, 2 Merit)

• Creative Artists Agency, Los Angeles, CA, USA, for Chipotle, “Back to the Start “, Design, Motion Animation
• Creative Artists Agency, Los Angeles, CA, USA, for Chipotle, “Back to the Start “, Design, Motion Direction
• Psyop, Los Angeles, CA, USA for Fage, “Plain”, Design, Motion Cinematography

Photography: 18 ADC Cubes (4 Gold, 7 Silver, 7 Bronze, 6 Merit)

• EDG, Condé Nast, New York, NY, USA for Abstract Partners, “POWER Platon”, Photography, Magazine Editorial Miscellaneous
• Harper’s Bazaar, New York, NY, USA, in-house, “The Real Lady Gaga”, Photography, Magazine Editorial Fashion
• The New York Times Magazine, New York, NY, USA, in-house, “On Earth As It Is In Heaven”, Photography, Magazine Editorial Miscellaneous
• TIME Magazine, New York, NY, USA, in-house, “Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience “, Photography, Magazine Editorial Miscellaneous

Illustration: 9 ADC Cubes (1 Gold, 4 Silver, 4 Bronze, 8 Merit)

• Laurence King Publishing, London, UK, in-house, “Let’s Make Some Great Art”, Illustration, General Book (Commercially Published)

Student: 19 ADC Cubes (6 Gold, 7 Silver, 6 Bronze, 7 Merit)

• Art College of Design, Pasadena, CA, USA, drug abuse PSA, "Get the Message", Design, Motion Motion Graphics
• Filmacademy Baden-Württemberg, Ludwigsburg, Germany, for Dirt Devil, “Exorcist”, Advertising, Broadcast Craft, Art Direction
• Miami Ad School, San Francisco, CA, USA, for Homeless Youth Alliance, “Keep the Meter Running”, Advertising, Ambient/Environmental Stunts/Guerrilla
• School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, USA, in-house, “SVA Portfolio Screening 2011”, Design, Motion/TV Identities/Openings/Teasers
• University of the Arts, Bremen, Germany, for Das Magazin, “Der Schöne Mann”, Design,  Editorial Design/Magazine/Full Issue
• University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA, for Pandora Radio, “Poster Series”, Advertising, Poster or Billboard Promotional

Los Angeles architect Donovan Ballantyne has shared with us his thesis project project (a) Ball, a rather unique take on the geodesic dome concept. Along with the SCI-Arc Selected Thesis Award, this project has been selected as an Exhibit Finalist to have a portion of it fabricated for suckerPUNCH's Land of Tomorrow exhibition, and it was also nominated as a Co-Finalist for HD Magazine's Annual Design Awards.

Project Description from the Architect:

By amplifying the tessellation and porosity if the geodesic dome, I am giving the geodesic dome a face-lift.

This thesis looks to deconstruct the face of the geodesic dome by amplifying its unintentional, yet inherent aesthetic and monumental qualities. I am proposing to bring depth and discontinuity to a typology that has been about continuity and surface. A face with no ears, no eyes, and no nose is not a face. Similarly, a building with no face is not architecture.

The dome has been the most celebrated forms in architecture since its genesis, while the geodesic dome has been adored by scientists and structural engineers. Buckminster Fuller’s interests were only in structural efficiency, not in monumentality or surface effects which were the driving forces of historic domes such as the Pantheon.

This is a 1,700 seat rock star arena sits weightlessly in Los Angeles’s Pershing Square, and acts both as an urban speaker screaming sound outward through its ears, and acts as a sponge absorbing the voice of the city.

Browsing the Work Status Updates on our sister site Archinect, we recently came across an image of the intriguing structure CMYplay, a proposal of A\V Studio, originally designed for the 3Dimensional Front competition. A\V Studio is an on-going design collaboration between Adam Hostetler of New York City and Virginia Melnyk of Beijing, China.

Here's CMYplay in more detail.

Project Description from the Architects:

CMYplay is a playground for children and adults alike packed into the thickness of The Cooper Union’s New Academic Building.  Composed entirely out of three interweaving networks at a density befitting Manhattan, this tangle of tubes is rooted in the spirit of homo ludens, emphasizing the importance of play in a city which sometimes takes itself a little too seriously.  Typically the facade is merely a transition space, lacking in any sort of program or activity. The New Academic Building thickens that façade to create a semi-sheltered zone of interaction.  CMYplay capitalizes on that extra depth, filling it with activity and bringing life to an traditionally purely functional space. The translucent, brightly colored tubes seem to grow around the existing exposed columns of the Milavec Hakimi Gallery entrance, engulfing them.  Colored light filters through while silhouettes race within.  Three simple, modules combine to create a grid-work of three-dimensional movement, forming traditional playground staples like slides and ladders, slipping out to become benches, and thinning within to allow for pockets of gathering and relief.  At the end of the installation, tubes will be distributed to local schools and parks, allowing for virtually no waste and continuing the concepts of fun, movement, and activity for the foreseeable future. 

Project Details:

Project: CMYPlay entry for 3dimensional face competition
Client: Anonymous.d
Architects: A\V Studio
Gross area: 50 M2
Year: 2012

The collaborative proposal of Danish firm Henning Larsen Architects with Dutch architects Van den Berg Groep has won first prize in an international competition for a 16,000 m2 theater building that will also comprise the entrance to the zoological park in Emmen, the Netherlands.

Project Description from the Architects:

Emmen Theatre and Zoo is an unusual cultural building that brings together culture and nature. The building will constitute the entrance to a large zoological park of 10 hectares and comprises two main stages with a capacity of 1,150 people in total, an additional stage, exhibition and conference facilities. The building in itself covers 16,000 m2.

The contrast between city and nature are united in the building design where the rectangular frame structure and the organic, curved roof merge into each other. The roof arouses associations of an animal’s back. It creates a distinctive entrance to the zoo and stands out as part of the city skyline.

The building will be a large theatre in itself. Viewed from the city, it opens up as a magic window towards the natural wildlife in the zoo – while the city is staged as a large urban universe viewed from the zoo.

Emmen Theatre and Zoo incorporates the surrounding outdoor spaces in a unifying scenography: The large new urban square; the landscape element, introducing the zoological park; the roof landscape, providing visitors with the opportunity to take a break from the noise and activity of the city.

The building design as a large stage structure allows the theatre to stage many different activities. The walls can be moved, and it is possible to open up the small stages and thus create new outdoor stages. In addition, the main passage area of the building situated in connection with the foyer balconies constitutes a magnificent stage opening up to city life.

Sustainability

Sustainability has been an important design parameter in the development of the new theatre in Emmen.

The integration of daylight, geometry and flexibility in the building reduces the energy consumption without use of technology. The design is energy-efficient in itself and forms an important part of the sustainability concept of the building.

The design ensures a good indoor climate and a comfortable outdoor climate on the urban square under the roof. The large overhangs of the east and west facades protect the square from the sun and rain. Forming part of the frame structure, the remaining facades are solid and feature large windows to the north and small openings to the south. Plenty of overhead lights in the roof provide the various foyers and halls with ample daylight.

Emmen Theatre is a compact volume. The flexible design allows for the sizes of the various rooms to be adjusted as needed and reduces the energy consumption for heating or cooling. The large foyer and meeting space serves as a buffer for natural ventilation.

The roof landscape of the theatre plays an important role in terms of reducing energy costs. The collection of rainwater cools down the entire structure through the concrete. At the same time, the roof collects water for watering the roof garden and for filling up the small canals and lakes, which – as small water falls – fall from the roof into the fountain in front of the building.

About the competition

A total of five teams participated in the competition. Among these were the well-known Dutch architecture studios MVRDV and Mecanoo.

All teams were assessed on the basis of aesthetics, functionality, sustainability, cost-efficiency and collaboration strategy. The team of Henning Larsen Architects and Van den Berg Groep achieved maximum points in all five categories.

Extracts from the jury citation:

”The project proposal has an intelligent design. The straight lines in combination with the organic shape make a strong architectural statement.”

“The proposal demonstrates a good appreciation of the wished balance between culture and nature, shopping and theatre and offers innovative visions for different aspects of the project.”

”The sustainable visions of the proposal are more than satisfactory and well meet the client’s ambitions.”

Emmen

With its approx. 60,000 inhabitants, Emmen is a mid-size province in the northeastern part of the Netherlands. The city is well-known for its zoo, Dierenpark Emmen, which opened in 1935. Each year, the zoo attracts around 1.5 million visitors.

A new zoo of 10 hectares will be built as part of an urban development plan for Emmen city centre. The zoo is expected to open in 2015 just as the theatre, which will constitute the entrance to the zoo.

Project Details:

Project: Emmen, the Netherlands
Client: City of Emmen
Architects: Henning Larsen Architects and Van den Berg Groep
Gross floor area: 16,000 m2
Construction period: 2012-2015
Type of assignment: 1st prize in international competition
Team from Henning Larsen Architects: Troels Troelsen (creative manager), Martin Stenberg, Thomas Ponds, Mohammad Wesam Al Asali, Adam Ciuk and Joakim Allerth
Team from Van den Berg Groep: Dick van de Merwe and André Lageweg

Check the image gallery below for concept sketches of the project.

If you're in Los Angeles this Thursday, make sure to stop by and say hi at our joint party with Woodbury School of Architecture. Details below, and hope to see you all there!

Archinect and Woodbury School of Architecture are proud to present:

Publish Or... bracket [GOES SOFT]
Thursday, April 19
6:00 p.m.

Sonic landscape by Health and Beauty.

WUHO Gallery
6518 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90028 (map)

Come say hello, mingle, and check out selected entries from bracket [goes soft]. Including work by Woodbury School of Architecture faculty member Ewan Branda.

Limited edition zine-syle [goes-soft] take-aways. First come, first serve.

Bracket [goes soft] examines the use and implications of soft today—from the scale of material innovation to territorial networks. While the projects in Bracket 2 are diverse in deployment and issues they engage, they share several key characteristics—proposing systems, networks and technologies that are responsive, adaptable, scalable, non-linear, and multivalent. Certain projects reveal how soft systems rely on engagement with their larger environment, collecting and sensingenvironmental atmospheric information, and through feedback, adapting the system to augment performance. Other projects examine how soft systems can function as interfaces with the environment—whether mitigating or harnessing it—operating at the scale of a wall, a building, or a landscape.Moreover, a particular strand of projects presented in Bracket 2 are tactical and strategic in nature, enabling them to operate, often covertly, within existing organizational structures, subverting rules and limitations for opportunism, to support new ecologies—whether natural, economic or political. Intelligence in other work lies in the organization and format of the system, accommodating transformation by rejigging components of the system itself. Adapting to extrinsic as well as intrinsic factors, enabling them to anticipate, recover and transform in unexpected situations, renders other speculations resilient to disturbances. Instead of mitigation, contingency in these soft systems is typically opportunistic. Lastly, select projects expose how the networking of smaller units or interventions, diffused across a larger territory, can generate, collect, or respond at a vast scale. Agile, these tentacular networks can diffuse or retract as resources or needs change.

The editorial board and jury for Bracket 2 includes Benjamin Bratton, Julia Czerniak, Jeffrey Inaba, Geoff Manaugh, Philippe Rahm, Charles Renfro, as well as co-editors Lola Sheppard and Neeraj Bhatia.

Bracket 2 is published by Actar and designed by Thumb.

Copenhagen darlings BIG have unveiled their design for the 490-foot-tall Beach and Howe tower in Vancouver, a collaboration with Westbank, Dialog, Cobalt, PFS, Buro Happold, Glotman Simpson and local architect James Cheng. The new mixed-use tower marks the entry point to downtown Vancouver, forming a welcoming gateway to the city, while adding another unique structure to the city's skyline.

Project Description from the Architects:

BIG’s proposal, named after its location on the corner of Howe & Beach next to the Granville Street Bridge in downtown Vancouver, calls for 600 residential units occupying the 49-story tower, which would become one of the city’s fourth tallest buildings. The tower is situated on a nine-story podium base offering market-rental housing with a mix of commercial and retail space. BIG was commissioned by Canada’s premier real estate developer Westbank, established in 1992, with over $10 billion of projects completed or under development, including the Shangri-La luxury hotels in Vancouver and Toronto.

“We have brought together the best talent available in Vancouver and Europe to create a truly world class project that will enrich not only the particular neighborhood, but also the city and its quest to become creative, sustainable and affordable city. Architecturally, the Beach and Howe tower will introduce a new building typology to the Vancouver skyline and will create a dramatic gateway to downtown Vancouver that speaks to the emerging creative economy in the city”, Ian Gillespie, President, Westbank.

The tower takes its shape after the site’s complex urban conditions aiming to optimize the conditions for its future inhabitants in the air as well as on the street level. At its base, the footprint of the tower is conditioned by concerns for two significant neighboring elements, including a 30-meter setback from the Granville bridge which ensures that no residents will have windows and balconies in the middle of heavy traffic as well as concerns for sunlight to an adjacent park which limits how far south the building can be constructed. As a result the footprint is restricted to a small triangle.

“The Beach and Howe tower is a contemporary descendant of the Flatiron Building in New York City – reclaiming the lost spaces for living as the tower escapes the noise and traffic at its base. In the tradition of Flatiron, Beach and Howe’s architecture is not the result of formal excess or architectural idiosyncrasies, but rather a child of its circumstances: the trisected site and the concerns for neighboring buildings and park spaces.” Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG.

As the tower ascends, it clears the noise, exhaust, and visual invasion of the Granville Bridge. BIG’s design reclaims the lost area as the tower clears the zone of influence of the bridge, gradually cantilevering over the site. This movement turns the inefficient triangle into an optimal rectangular floor plate, increasing the desirable spaces for living at its top, while freeing up a generous public space at its base. The resultant silhouette has a unique appearance that changes from every angle and resembles a curtain being drawn aside, welcoming people as they enter the city from the bridge.

“The tower and base are a reinvention of the local typology, known as “Vancouverism.” In this typology, slender towers are grouped with mixed-use podiums and street walls that define human-scale urban environments. The aim is to preserve view cones through the city while activating the pedestrian street,” Thomas Christoffersen, Partner-in-Charge, BIG.

The tower’s podium is a mixed-use urban village with three triangular blocks that are composed of intimately-scaled spaces for working, shopping, and leisure which face onto public plazas and pathways. The additional public space adds to the existing streets, giving the neighborhood a variety of open and covered outdoor spaces of various scales which transform the site under the Granville Bridge into a dynamic and iconic mixed-use neighborhood hub.

“Vancouver has already embarked upon an urban experiment in creating a super dense residential downtown – to increase pedestrian activity and street life. With this project we attempt to continue this process of densification by reclaiming a site beneath the bridges that would otherwise be lost as a lifeless “black hole” in the urban fabric. The diagonal canopies of the vehicular flows above create a new form of weather protected urban space, turning the large infrastructure in to a niche for social life.” Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG.

The courtyards created by the building volumes, roofs and terraces are all designed to enhance views from the Granville Bridge and the residential units above. The canted, triangular clusters of green roofs create a highly graphic and iconic gateway to and from the downtown core, reinforcing the City of Vancouver’s focus on sustainable cities. The exterior façades respond to the various solar exposures which is integral to the overall sustainability concept. The building will strive for LEED Gold Certification.

Project Details:

Name: Beach and Howe St.
Client: Westbank Projects Corp.
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Size: 653,890 sf / 60,670 m2
Collaborators: Dialog, Cobalt Engineering, Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg Urban Design, Buro Happold, Glotman Simpson, James KM Cheng Architects
Partners-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Thomas Christoffersen
Project Leader: Agustin Perez-Torres
Team: Julianne Gola, Marcella Martinez, Chris Malcolm, Karol Borkowski, Michael Taylor, Alina Tamosiunaite, David Brown, Tobias Hjortdal, Alexandra Gustafson

BIG's concept diagrams coming up below.

Check the image gallery below for tons of plans, sections and elevations.

In the international design competition for Yenikapı Transfer Point and Archaeo-Park Area in Istanbul, Turkey, three First Prizes have been announced this week. The jury selected the top project teams Eisenmann Architects/Aytaç Architects, Atelye 70/Francesco Cellini/Insula Architettura E Ingegneria, and Cafer Bozkurt Architects/Mecanoo Architects from nine shortlisted teams, including MVRDV and other international firms.

In the coming months, the three winning teams will work out the final design in monthly workshops and meetings with Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

The project is one of Istanbul's most ambitious urban planning projects with Yenikapı becoming the city's major public transportation hub.

"Once having arrived in Yenikapi, one will able to reach every point of our city by rail and public transportation systems," says Kadir Topbaş, Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. "The new centralization brought on by an increase of accessibility in Yenikapi has the potential of influencing the seaway, airway and highway dynamics of the metropolis as well as urban development and renewal at a metropolitan scale."

Following are the three winning proposals.

EISENMAN ARCHITECTS & AYTAÇ ARCHITECTS

Architecture: EISENMAN ARCH. (Peter EISENMAN, Sandra HEMINGWAY), AYTAC Mim. (Alper AYTAC)
Landscape Architecture: JENCKS (Charles JENCKS, Lily JENCKS), ÇEVSA PEYZAJ (Prof. Dr. Ahmet Cengiz YILDIZCI, Asst. Prof. Dr. Gulsen GULER)
Transportation Planning: ARUP
Structural Engineering: ARUP
Mechanical Engineering: ARUP
Electrical Engineering: ARUP
Mechanical Engineering: TRANSSOLAR (Erik OLSEN)
Process Engineering: TRANSSOLAR (Thomas AUER)

Consultants:

Art History: Prof. Ayla ODEKAN
Conservation Specialist: Prof. Nur AKIN
Urban Conservation Specialist: Prof. Nuran ZEREN GULERSOY
Archaeology: Prof. Mehmet OZDOGAN
Transportation Engineering: Prof. Mustafa ILICALI
Economics: Mesut PEKTAS
Civil Engineering & Mining Engineering: Prof. Mahir VARDAR
Seismic Engineer: Niyazi PARLAR

ATELYE 70 & FRANCESCO CELLINI & INSULA ARCHITETTURA E INGEGNERIA  

Architecture: CELLINI FRANCESCO (Prof. Francesco CELLINI)
Architecture & Urban Planning: ATELYE 70 (Prof. Hüseyin KAPTAN)
Architecture & Landscape: INSULA ARCHITETTURA E INGEGNERIA

Consultants:

Structural & Earthquake Engineering, Sustainability & Building Performance: BOLLIGER+GROHMAN INGENIEURE (Prof. Klaus BOLLINGER, Prof. Manfred GROHMAN, Ulrich STORCK)
Traffic & Transportation Planning: Dr. H. Murat CELIK
Architecture History: Prof. Maria Margarita SEGARRA LAGUNES
Museology: Prof. Giovanni LONGOBARDI
Achaeology: Prof. Grazia SEMERARO

CAFER BOZKURT ARCHITECTS & MECANOO ARCHITECTS  

Architecture: CAFER BOZKURT ARCHITECTURE (Cafer BOZKURT, Hasan YIRMIBESOGLU, Defne BOZKURT), MECANOO Arch. (Francine HOUBEN, Francesco VEENSTRA, Nuno GONÇALVEZ FONTARRA, Kerem MASARACI)
Urban Planning: Dr. Emre AYSU, MECANOO Arch.(Magnus WEIGHTMAN)
Landscape Architecture: MECANOO Arch. (Joost VERLAAN, Reem SAOUMA)
Architecture & Archaeology: Assoc. Prof. Sevket DONMEZ
Art History-Byzantologist: Assoc. Prof. Ferudun OZGUMUS

Consultants:

Civil Engineering & Transportation: ARUP
Urban Design & Planning: ARUP
Lighting Designer: ARUP
Architecture, Sustainability: ARUP
Electrical Engineering: ARUP
Mechanical Engineering: ARUP

All images courtesy of Yenikapı Transfer Point and Archaeo-Park Area competition.

The good folks at SmartGeometry have sent us some impressive images and videos of the installation "Manta," the result of a workshop at the recent SmartGeometry 2012 conference in Troy, New York.

Project Description from the Designers:

Manta is an interdisciplinary project that required expertise in architecture, fabrication, interactive technology, and acoustics. This combination drove the assembly of the design team, who came together for the first time from disparate careers and backgrounds. The result could only be achieved with a holistic design approach: all team members worked together on all aspects of Manta. Drawing from a strong group of cluster participants, and with the support of Smartgeometry, Grimshaw Architects, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Manta represents the potential of multidisciplinary design.

Manta is a surface that changes its form - and therefore acoustic character - in response to multimodal input including sound, stereoscopic vision, multi-touch, and brainwaves. While adaptable acoustics are common, Manta explores new levels of continuity and responsiveness, advancing acoustic systems beyond individual elements and corrective treatment.

Manta is comprised of CNC machined panels and connectors of two thicknesses of high-density polyethylene, and curved forms result from a combination of triangulation and bending stiffness: geometry and material in concert. The result is a controlled morphing that is suspended at a minimum of points.

Manta was designed and fabricated as part of the SmartGeometry 2012 Conference to utilize the rigging infrastructure and acoustically inert environment of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center.

sg2012 cluster: reactive acoustic environments from Marc Webb on Vimeo.

The Raising and Tuning of Manta from Reactive Acoustic on Vimeo.

Manta: First Tests from Reactive Acoustic on Vimeo.

Project Credits:

Cluster Champions:

Zackery Belanger
Guillermo Bernal
Eric  Ameres
Seth Edwards

Cluster Participants:

Olia Fomina
Frederico Fialho
Daniel Hambleton
Christoffer Marsvik
Ana Garcia Puyol
Varvara Toulkeridou
Ben Schneiderman
Sarah Goldfarb
James Wisniewski

Photography: Michael Villardi, Smartgeometry, EMPAC, Grimshaw Architects

Find many more photos of Manta's fabrication process in the image gallery below.

This week, the Trust for the National Mall opened the exhibition featuring the twelve final design concepts of the National Mall Design Competition in Washington, D.C. The concepts are displayed for public viewing and comment at the Smithsonian Castle and the National Museum of American History.

The submissions, created by ten of the country’s design heavy hitters, re-envision three prominent National Mall locations: Union Square, Sylvan Theater on the Washington Monument Grounds, and Constitution Gardens. The exhibition runs through Sunday, April 15, and the winning designs will be announced in May.

The finalists, chosen by a jury of design experts based on their design portfolios, team qualifications and Stage II interviews, are:

Union Square:

• Diller Scofidio Renfro & Hood Design - design board
• Gustafson Guthrie Nichol & Davis Brody Bond - design board
• Pei Cobb Freed & Partners & Workshop: Ken Smith Landscape Architect - design board
• Snøhetta & AECOM - design board

Sylvan Theater on the Washington Monument Grounds:

• Balmori Associates & Work Architecture Company - design board
• Diller Scofidio Renfro & Hood Design - design board
• Michael Maltzan Architecture & Tom Leader Studio - design board
• OLIN & Weiss/Manfredi - design board

Constitution Gardens:

• Andropogon & Bohlin Cywinski Jackson - design board
• Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architect & Paul Murdoch Architects - design board
• OLIN & Weiss/Manfredi - design board
• Rogers Marvel Architects & Peter Walker and Partners - design board

See below for selected images of the twelve finalist entries.

All images courtesy of the National Mall Design Competition.

Chicago architecture firm Goettsch Partners has designed the signature building that will be the new home of Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music and provide additional space for the School of Communication on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. The university is planning to break ground and begin construction in May of this year. The project is slated to be completed and ready for move-in in fall 2015.

The building is located just south of the school’s Pick-Staiger Concert Hall on the southeastern edge of campus. Connecting with the Regenstein Hall of Music, the building enables the Bienen School to consolidate its programs for the first time in more than 35 years.

“The building symbolizes many things—the excellence of the Bienen School of Music and its students, faculty and alumni, and the university’s significant investment in the arts,” said Toni-Marie Montgomery, dean of the Bienen School of Music. “We look forward to moving into the Bienen School’s new home.”

Project Description from the Architects:

The new 152,000-square-foot building features a 400-seat recital hall, a 150-seat opera rehearsal room/black box theater, and a 2,400-square-foot choral rehearsal room and library. The project also includes classrooms; teaching labs; academic faculty offices; teaching studios for choral, opera, piano and voice faculty; practice rooms; student lounges; and administrative offices. The building design emphasizes a sustainable approach throughout, with a minimum of achieving LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The five-story structure will be directly east of the Theatre and Interpretation Center, fronting a new Music and Arts Green on one side and Lake Michigan on the other. The dynamic, Z-shaped plan of the main building mass runs along the eastern edge of the new arts green, then jogs to continue along the western edge of the lake. A large atrium defines the main entry, creating a feature space for public events, connecting the academic and performance functions, and offering clear views that slice through the building. The showcase facility is the recital hall, an intimate, two-level space with undulating walls of wood that provide optimal acoustics and lead to the stage, as well as a 50-foot-high wall of cable-supported, double-skin glass.  During performances, this backdrop features dramatic views of the lake and the Chicago skyline.

An integral part of the project is the new Music and Arts Green.  Connecting the Block Museum, Theatre and Interpretation Center, and Pick-Staiger Concert Hall with the new music building, this landscape centerpiece helps create a cohesive arts complex. The 120-foot-wide, pedestrian-friendly green provides the new gateway for the complex while also defining a setting for special events and passive recreation. Spectacular views of the lake and Chicago from the area are also preserved and enhanced.

In addition to serving the School of Music, the new building will provide a home on the fifth floor for the School of Communication administration, including the dean’s office and additional offices for faculty members. Space in the new building will enable the school to bring faculty from different departments together to promote further opportunities for collaboration in the performing arts.

Back in February 2010, we had the chance to publish first renderings and plans of the, then under construction, ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks, a performing arts, media, and cultural center located on the landmark Bethlehem Steel site in eastern Pennsylvania. Now, with the center finally completed, the American Institute of Architects Pennsylvania has awarded a Silver Medal, the organization's highest honor, to the building's designers, Spillman Farmer Architects.

The Center lies at the foot of the abandoned Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces, 200-foot industrial ruins that tower above the country's largest privately-owned brownfield. The project represents a new type of hybrid building for the arts: it is part performance space, exhibition venue and art cinema. The building is an anchor for the revitalization effort in the City of Bethlehem, transforming a once-abandoned historic industrial core into a dynamic, sustainable, and livable mixed-use community.

AIA jurors praised the project saying, "The design captures the energy and utilitarian beauty that the best of the industrial revolution once offered. At the same time it demonstrates the power that a truly successful marriage of architecture and program can exert in bringing new purpose and hope to the most abandoned parts of our community."

Spillman Farmer Design Principal Joseph N. Biondo responded, saying, "The architecture of the ArtsQuest Center is influenced by its industrial site. It embraces our region and its culture, recognizing the material and human spirit that fueled the industry of this country. It is an honor to be recognized by the AIA for our dedication to craft and human-centered design," Biondo continued, "As a firm, we see this project as an expression of structure, material, and site."

The Center continues to be home to over 300 live performances yearly. With such a vibrant performance schedule and a continued community presence, the ArtsQuest Center has become the cultural incubator of a region that is reinventing itself for the post-industrial age.

Project Description from the Architects:

The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was one of the most iconic companies of the Industrial Revolution. At its height, Bethlehem Steel was the second-largest steel producer in the United States and one of the largest shipbuilding companies in the world. The company occupied nearly 2000 acres in the heart of Bethlehem (PA) and employed thousands of people over many generations. While the plant ceased operations in 1995, its iconic 285-foot blast furnaces still stand as civic markers amongst the remaining industrial architecture found on the site. Today, these historic ruins tower over the largest privately owned brownfield in the United States. In recent years, the site has undergone a major revitalization effort which is transforming this once-abandoned area into a dynamic, sustainable, and livable mixed-use community.

At the foot of the majestic ruins lies the ArtsQuest Center. The 68,000 SF Center is a hybrid building which houses flexible performance space, exhibition venues, art cinemas, educational space, food venues, retail, and a community commons. The building plays a critical role in the creation of a vibrant public space in Bethlehem’s urban core, hosting over 300 live performances yearly. The ArtsQuest Center has become the cultural incubator of a region that is reinventing itself for the post-industrial age.

The architecture of the ArtsQuest Center is influenced by both the principles of Critical Regionalism and its former industrial site. The project embraces material and craft over abstract concept, recognizing the raw material and human spirit that fueled the Industrial Revolution. The building takes its cues from the site’s larger context, with authentic materials that speak to the history of the place and embracing an economy and function consistent with the industrial typology of Bethlehem Steel.

The building is wrapped with locally manufactured pre-cast concrete panels, which are mounted with their rough, handscreed surface facing outward. The panels celebrate both the process and the people that produced them by revealing the marks of their production. Their mottled color and uneven surface, reminiscent of the scale and texture of the steelmaking process, will be transformed through the passage of the sun and seasons. The rough, textural concrete panels contrast with the building’s exterior corners. Corners are functionally and elegantly articulated with inset steel that protects the panel and recalls a prominent detail of the site’s industrial buildings.

The primary building envelope serves not only as skin, but also as a load-bearing element which participates in a hybrid structural system. The mass of the panel system organizes the parti, allowing for the highly public performance and gathering space to be acoustically isolated from the service core that houses the cinemas, kitchen, mechanical, and back-of-house spaces. Inserted within this structural concrete strong box is a robust skeletal steel frame that completes the hybrid system and honors the site’s steelmaking history. This skeleton is finished in International Orange, an iconic color borrowed from the structures fabricated by Bethlehem, most notably the Golden Gate Bridge.

The building’s glass and concrete exterior is oriented along an east-west axis to stand toe-to-toe with the now-silent blast furnaces. The message of the project is carried forward by its interior architecture. Visitors are brought into intimate connection with the iconic blast furnaces, which stand proudly as a permanent and ever-present backdrop for the building’s activities.

In an attempt to convey the powerful emotion and reverence of this industrial heritage, particular attention was paid to the human experience of moving through space. Each major threshold is marked by a shroud, a vernacular doorway form found in many of the site’s industrial buildings. Visitors enter through the shroud and experience successively increasing ceiling heights until a soaring two-story volume is revealed. In this way, a visitor’s passage through the building becomes a journey of discovery enriched by spatial and tactile experiences.

Programmatic elements are articulated as objects placed within the factory-like volumes of the building. These wood objects are clad in native Pennsylvania Ash stained dark on one side and left naturally light on the other. The overall effect of this surface treatment evokes the dark steel furnaces whose interiors are lined with lightcolored firebrick. The natural ash warms the building’s interiors and heightens users’ experience of circulation. Much like the exterior, the interior wood details are woven, revealing the material’s thickness.

The grand stair acts as a conveyance system, similar to those found throughout the plant. The stair starts as a plinth rising up from the earth and becomes structurally and visually lighter at each turn. At the second level, the stair takes on a circular shape, a detail drawn from the steel stairs that circle the nearby blast furnaces.

The design team worked to create a humancentered experience that allows visitors to interact with and connect to the rough, weathered physicality of the brownfield as both a historical place and a contemporary site. The result is a building that honors its history and contributes to the unique and profoundly meaningful spirit of the region.

Project Details & Credits:

Project: Artsquest Center at SteelStacks
Location: Bethlehem, PA
Client/Owner: Artsquest

Architect: Spillman Farmer Architects
Project Team: Barry Pell, AIA, Managing Principal, Joseph N. Biondo, AIA, Design Principal,  Michael Metzger, AIA, Project Architect, William Deegan, Senior Designer, Wayne Stitt, AIA, Christa Kraftician, AIA, Charles Shoemaker, AIA, Salvatore Verrastro, AIA, Joanne Titcomb, Deirdre Kwiatek, Randy Galiotto, Patrick Ruggiero, Sierra Krause, Joseph Balsamo, Clint Newton, Deborah Innis, Mark Piell, Elliot Nolter, Brian Brandis, AIA, Chris Connors, Mike Savage

MEP Engineer: Brinjac Engineering
Structural Engineer: Barry Isett & Associates
Acoustic Consultant: Acoustic Dimensions
Landscape Architect: Wallace Roberts & Todd
Civil Engineer: French & Parrello Associates
Food Service Consultant: Porter Khouw Consulting
Commissioning Consultant: The Stone House Group
Specifications Consultant: Conspectus
Construction Manager: Alvin H. Butz

Photography: Paul Warchol

Owners Consultant (Audio/Visual): AVI-SPL
Owner Consultant (Cinema): Full Aperture Systems
Owners Consultant (Planning & Fundraising Counsel): The North Group
Owners Consultant (Branding & Environmental Graphics): Westlake, Reed, Leskosky
Owners Consultant (Food Service): Singer Equipment Company
Owners Consultant (Sculpture): Stephen Antonakos Studio
Owners Consultant (Sculpture): The Glass Studio at the Banana Factory
Owners Consultant (Communications): Convergent Communications
Owners Consultant (Furniture): Corporate Environments
Owners Consultant (Furniture): Corporate Facilities

SteelStacks Plaza Design Team: Wallace Roberts & Todd / Artefact / L’Observatoire
Klein and Hoffman, Inc / Keystone Consulting / Lehigh Valley Engineering
HDR Engineering / Metropolitan Acoustics / Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
Plaza Fire Sculpture: Colombo Construction Corp. - Elena Columbo

Size in Square Feet: 68,000 SF
Construction Cost: $17.3 M

Find more plans of the center in the image gallery below.

Back in March, three finalist entries were announced at Urban Intervention: The Howard S. Wright Design Ideas Competition for Public Space. The competition challenged architects to re-envision a nine-acre site in central Seattle and use it to explore innovation in public space in the coming century. We had already published PRAUD's "Seattle Jelly Bean" proposal, and here's now also the finalist entry "Park" by Southern Californian practice Koning Eizenberg Architecture in collaboration with ARUP.

All three finalist submissions are currently in the process of design phase two.

Project Description from the Architects:

Overview

Public space is not solely a collection of activities, but an experience. This design proposes a park that organizes the disparate elements of the Seattle Center site and program into a sustainable and coherent setting.  It draws on the picturesque landscape tradition casting the groomed playing field as a meadow within a wild rolling landscape featuring regionally indigenous plants. In this contemporary interpretation topography is twisted and landscape is borrowed by a forest-capped hybrid building.

Bike and walking paths weave through the landscape alongside swales that pick up water run-off. To the east along Fifth Avenue North, the Ridge – part stadium, part landscape, part building – houses indoor recreational uses and shelters a multimodal mobility hub devised to strengthen city connections and re-balance local and tourist use. This reinvented natural world celebrates nature and creates an experience with roots in the past and a vision of an ecologically resilient city.

Fountain

A large public plaza anchors the west end of the Park with connections to cultural facilities and the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood and provides a venue for a Farmers Market or other smaller neighborhood based activities.

Forest

A varied topography, planted with native trees and shrubs, integrates bicycle, pedestrian paths and catchment swails.  The Forest offers a natural encounter and underpins the educational mission of the adjacent Children’s Museum

Hill

A loose series of terraces overlooking the field provide picnic opportunities and informal grandstands as well as a location for a temporary stage.

Field

Laid out for organized sports, the Field can also sustain informal gatherings and cultural events. A perimeter storm water system collects water for treatment, storage, and re-use.  To the north is a lightweight band shell over a permanent stage which acts as a balance to the space needle at the far south end of the field. Behind the band shell, Republican Street is transformed with cafes and concessions to serve the existing theater district, events and the neighborhood at large.

Ridge

This hybrid stadium building has two distinct faces – one oriented to the field and forest band to the west and one to Fifth Avenue North to the east. The building program includes a forest-capped grandstand that expands seating capacity to more than 20,000 (including informal seating on the wooded crest and sloping lawns below) and street-facing public recreation facilities and mobility hub. The indoor public recreation facility faces Fifth Avenue North and the undercroft provides passage between street and park.

Avenue

On Fifth Avenue, the Ridge creates an urban edge and shelters a mobility hub and pedestrian bridges that connect to an expanded monorail line. The mobility hub is a civic place with kiosks and seating areas, bicycle share stations, and electric vehicle charging center for a shared EV car program. Sub-grade robotic parking supplements existing public parking across the street.

Bay to Lake

The Seattle Center sits at the crest of two significant watersheds that collect into Lake Union and the Bay. They are connected by Broad Street and marked at their shorelines by public parks. Being at the top of the watershed offers an opportunity to create a connecting link between these parks and their shoreline ecologies.  

From Patchwork to Fabric

The Park design reorients the landscape into north-south strands that reframe the Seattle Center patchwork of existing institutions and features in a unified setting. The strands – Fountain, Forest, Hill, Field, Ridge, and Street – are keyed and described in the section on Board 1.

Connections

• The north-south strands orient paths that connect the Mercer Street Theater District to the arena and cultural institutions to the south.
• The Ridge program (stadium, mobility hub, and recreation center) encourages balanced use year-round by locals and tourists.
• The monorail extension expands public transportation infrastructure.
• The proposed design links Olympic Scuplture and Lake Union shoreline parks to create a new network of public space in the city.
• A low-carbon combined heat and power (CHP) plant will be located at the Ridge, with a biomass-fueled generator to produce heat for seasonal heating demands, electricity for the EV charging stations, and electrical loads in the Ridge and concessions building.
• The EV charging station taps off-peak nightime capacity at the existing electrical substation located at Taylor and Broad.

Team Members / Design Credits:

Koning Eizenberg Architecture (Nathan Bishop, Architecture; Julie Eizenberg, Architecture; Troy Fosler, Architecture; Rachel Bagan, Architecture; Annie Danis, Research and Communications);

ARUP (Roberto Ammendola, Structures, Visualization and Simulation; Bruce Danziger, Structures; Russell Fortmeyer, Sustainability, Energy Infrastructure; Laura Klein, Structures; Trevor Mino, Civil; Elizabeth Valmont, Acoustics);

Nancy Goslee Power and Associates (Nancy Goslee Power, Landscape Architecture Consultant; Joe Sturges, Landscape Architecture Consultant; Dan Sturges, Transportation/Mobility, Wheel Change: Consultant)

Shenzhen-based firm WAU Design has shared with us their proposal "Twisted Link" that recently won the team a Commendation in the Design Ideas Competition for Liantang / Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point Passenger Terminal Building, a new structure between the New Territories of Hong Kong and Luohu in Shenzhen, China.

Project Description from the Architects:

HKSARG (Hong Kong's Civil Engineering and Development Department) and SMPG (Shenzhen Municipality's Bureau of Public Works) jointly planed to create a new boundary control point passager at Liantang / Heung Yuen Wai in the north-eastern New Territories of Hong Kong and Luohu in Shenzhen to serve the cross-boundary goods vehicles and passengers travelling between HK and SZ East.

Sympolization: A complementary and mutual beneficial partnership, Hong Kong and Shenzhen will join the globalization as an integrated image and get benefit. With intimate collaboration, Hong Kong-Shenzhen boundary control point will be a symbolization of close communication. The scheme concept comes from “link”: many single units can be twisted into a solid and integrated form. This scheme, a twisted link, indicates multi-level and deep cooperation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen on the economical , cultural and more levels.

Twisted Link: Based on a basis shape——a cuboid , a dynamic building shape will be created from twisting one end 90 degrees clockwise. This building shape can weaken the boundary between building envelopment. After deformation, the roof turns into wall, or wall into floor. This deformation also indicates the multi-level combination as life-style and political formation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. It also brings a new experience about building internal space.

Separate-Location, Same Schema: On the traditional clearance schema, the exit and entry halls are located on the same floor which causes dull and vapid spatial behavior. Moreover, the exit hall from Hong Kong and the exit hall from Shenzhen are located on different floors which can make some cross-boundary passengers confused.

Taking “people-oriented” principle, the building shape is adjusted according to human’s need, two clearance streamlines are combined into one, two departure halls are both set on the 2nd floor. A low-scope path leads passengers to the arrival hall and avoid too much dependence on vertical transportation. Meanwhile, the people from different directions can have a visual intersection and get a full of abundance and enrichment image of passenger terminal building.

A simple action “twist” can handle the streamline, structure and building design reasonable and provide building user with a new space experience.

Environmental Friendliness: The middle part of building shape will be compressed to achieve the internal space need of new streamline and optimized the landscape superiority of Shenzhen river, avoid compressive feeling and a city vision separation from huge building volume.

Project Details:

Project Name: Liantang / Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point Passenger Terminal Building (Commendation Entry)
Location: Shenzhen / Hong Kong, China
Function: Infrastructure
Design Period: 2011
Site Area: 22.6 ha.
Project Area: 24,000 m2
Architect: WAU Design (Shenzhen, China)

Find more plans and diagrams of Twisted Link in the image gallery below.

499.SUMMIT is a conceptual proposal for a futuristic high-rise urban penitentiary in Jersey City which seeks to challenge the conventions of traditional prison design. The project, a collaborative effort by grad students Andreas Tjeldflaat and Gregory Knobloch, was part of the PennDesign studio FUTURE PRISON DESIGN.

499.summit - skytropolis studio from Andreas Tjeldflaat + Greg Knobloch on Vimeo.

Project Description from the Architects:

Our prison system has failed to see advancements throughout the past century and desperately requires innovation and re-imagination.  While recent literature begins to question the sociological status of prisons, there has be little exploration of the physical apparatus in which inmates are housed. We as designers must take a critical look at these static institutions, and question how we can play a significant role in the design and function of future prisons.

499.SUMMIT carefully challenges all preconceived notions of the word “prison”, and proposes simple yet powerful ideas that re-imagine the high-rise as an urban penitentiary.  The massing consists of three towers in the shape of an arch.  The inherent linear and formal qualities of the ‘arch’ allowed us to establish our key circulatory concept: UP, OVER, DOWN.  Each arch has three primary phases, Incarceration (up), Transformation (over), and Integration (down).  The arches begin isolated during the incarceration phase and merge together both physically and programmatically during the integration phase.  As the inmates graduate through the facility, they are being exposed to an increasing degree of social interaction, in order to make the transition back into society as soft as possible.  To catalyst this process, public program and residential housing units are introduced in the integration phase downwards.

Find more diagrams and plans in the image gallery below.

A few days ago, we posted a video of the gallery installation White, the thesis book show by the 20 fifth-year architecture students of Professor Karen Lange at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo College of Architecture and Environmental Design. Now we have also received plenty of exhibition photos from the students, as well as images of the construction process.

Quote from one of the team members: "We wanted to create a continuous surface that would bring spatial interest and social interaction to the gallery. The woven installation is a solution to providing students and faculty a setting to not only read about our projects, but also to enjoy the space."

Project Description from the Students:

"White" was a gallery installation produced by the 20 students of Studio 400, a fifth-year architectural design studio at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The installation, which served to present each of the student's research books, was designed, developed, fabricated, and installed by the studio in a collaborative effort. The students developed the design over a period of about a month, with fabrication and installation occurring over a five day period.  80,000 square feet of plastic sheeting was sliced, loomed, woven, stapled, taped and tied to provide a climbable and malleable surface in the 4,500 square foot gallery.  "White" supported a variety of interactive experiences above and below this dynamic surface, opening and exploring the relationships between book, user, material, space, and collective group.

Design Intent

The installation design began with a brainstorming session that involved direct participation by each of the studio's 20 students. After proposals were presented, it was decided that a climbable surface would divide the space, providing seating for the comfortable reading of the books.  An exploration of materials looked at rope, tape, and plastic to create the surface; sheet plastic was ultimately chosen for its flexibility and strength, economic viability given the large space, and its abilities to be easily modified and reused. Once the material was chosen and acquired, studies of traditional weaving methods and full scale mock-ups helped determine the characteristics of the surface. This resulted in a woven surface that could hang in the gallery as well as support the weight of users on it. It was determined that a flexible system of pre-fabricated hanging columns and infill panels would allow the surface to form to specific constraints of the gallery site.

Fabrication and Installation

Students participated in a collaborative, two-day effort to construct the components for the piece. Circular and straight weaving looms (assembled from re-used materials) allowed for the quick and precise weaving of the columns and panels. Round steel rod was hand-bent into five foot diameter rings that provided a transitional structure between the gallery space and the woven vertical columns. The foresight of using of pre-fabricated elements allowed the piece to be custom-fitted to the gallery space within a three-day time period.

Installation began with placing the vertical columns where the existing structure of the gallery could support them, creating a staggered plan. A sheet of plastic was then hung from the ceiling, the first piece of several that would entirely wrap the gallery space, effectively separating the piece from the distinct characteristics of the Brutalist-style gallery. The pre-constructed infill panels were then woven between the vertical columns, fitted to provide the desired tension and surface form. When the surface was finally installed, the remaining walls and floors of the gallery were covered in sheet plastic. Videos of student work could also be projected onto one of these walls and extra plastic sheeting was woven into various shapes and sizes of pillows that were used as seating under the surface and beneath the vertical columns.

Fabrication of the book's slipcases also occurred during the installation period. Laser-cut, clear acrylic panels served as the faces of these hanging elements that would be the interface between the installation and the user. The front of each case was laser-etched with a wave-like parametric pattern that complemented the compound curves of the woven plastic surface. The clear front allowed the identity of each student's book to reveal itself, while the chartreuse back cover served as a unifying element that subtly distinguished the books from their white surroundings.

Book Show Opening

The opening of "White" was a great success. Students and faculty were introduced to the studio's research books in an interactive and novel environment. As one faculty member stated, "[White] effectively separates the book show from the gallery. Where other shows seem to be installations occurring within the distinctive gallery, this one seems like a totally different space." Users were encouraged to crouch or crawl under the surface, rising into the vertical columns where the books were located. They could then engage the books in the intimate space under the surface, or take the books to the more socially interactive space created above the surface.

Project Credits:

Advisor: Professor Karen Lange

Studio 400 Team (in no particular order): Annie Bui, Ben Hait-Campbell, Ian Carney, Hanya Chen, Dion Dekker, Christina Hackett, Nathan Kiatkulpiboone, Mariko Kobayashi, Emily Kirwan, Mike Loree, Ross Majewski, Isshin Morimoto, Ryan Nevius, Nick Pappas, Alma Padilla-Iriarte, Farnoosh Rafaie, Pablo Sandoval, Shanna Sullivan, Joe Varholick, Cory Walker­

In our last post, we published the winning designs of the [AC-CA]-hosted Amsterdam Iconic Pedestrian Bridge competition. Here's another proposal that didn't quite make the cut with the jurors, but we are happy to publish it. The author is Yaohua Wang, who – in past articles – managed to polarize the opinions like nobody else.

Let us know what you think in the comment section below!

Project Description from the Architect:

Amsterdam bridge V is aware of the simple functionality and sculpture of a bridge. Therefore, every part of this design contributes to the unique aesthetic as seen in the spiral steel structure. The design includes two independent pathways, specifically for pedestrians and bicyclists, that run parallel to each other through the bridge.  These pathways meet at the center of bridge, which behaves as the functional hub.  This central location provides a sheltered space in which a slower pace can be obtained contrary to the fast movement surrounding the bridge.  Inside this hub, the elegant form of this bridge can be appreciated.

F117 jet fighter plane is an very interesting example about the relationship between performance and aesthetics. The unique form of F117 jet fighter plane came directly from the need of hiding from radar wave, rather than from air dynamic aesthetics. The Amsterdam bridge also tries to achieve this relationship. In this case, the idea is the relationship between structural performance and aesthetic. The spiral structure provides an unique structural ability, allows the bridge to span across the river, also allowing the tectonics of several layers of spiral surfaces to interlock with each other. Meanwhile, these interlocked surfaces and structures wrap around the function hub, provide shelter with openings.

The solar and wind power plants are constantly feeding energy into the program for the bridge. They reduce the bridge’s carbon footprint, also, they create a noise in its profile line.

Project Details:

Architect: Yaohua Wang Architecture 
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands 
Structural Engineer: Organization Group 
Program: Pedestrian Bridge, Cafe, Office 
Size: 200 m² 
Note: Design proposal

Find more renderings and diagrams in the project gallery below.

Three outstanding bridge designs have recently been selected as winners in the Amsterdam Iconic Pedestrian Bridge competition. Hosted by [AC-CA], this open international competition called for proposals that would reflect contemporary design tendencies and also take into consideration the "urban insertion and impact geared towards creating a new architectural symbol for an European capital city." The program for the 90m long pedestrian bridge also included a 100 m2-cafe, a 50 m2-bicycle repair space, restrooms, facility rooms, as well as 30 bicycle racks.

At the moment, there are however no plans for this Iconic Pedestrian Bridge to be actually built.

Proposals were evaluated based on five main criteria: intelligent and appropriate use of all design principles; use of space and perceive traffic flow within the space; the design’s aesthetics and originality; the use of sustainable material; and clarity and comprehensibility of the design.

The jury, including Tutard Laetitia (Architect, France), Castillo Desiree (Artist / Photographer, Ecuador), and Yusta Garcia Ferran (Engineer / Architect / Lecturer, Spain), convened over a total of 324 proposals from around the world, and selected the following three winners and seven honorable mentions.

1st Place: Nicolas Montesano, Victor Vila & Boris Hoppek, Spain

From the jury report: "The winning project was able to combine an iconic proposal with a real urban solution. A circuit bringing us to the heights or depths, a partially submerged Ring on an extraordinary equilibrium. It swims and at the same time threatens to fly.

It is a solution that engages the user to ponder on the decision of which path to choose: the underwater for a romantic and exploring passage or aerial for a bright and direct path - Ring of pedestrian and environmental activity.

This project suggested and boldly developed an architectural concept of passage in a unique location - creating and directing the passage above and below with such fluidity. This project can be summarized with the words "passage" and "discovery". Brilliantly!"

Second Place: 2:pm architectures (Paul Rolland, Hans Lefevre & Matthieu Bergeret), France

From the jury report: "This is a very poetic and minimalist proposal, which in itself could be iconic for that very reason. The drama created by the scene of people walking over the canal elevated this project, reminiscence of the “Moses Bridge”, however a different kind of proposition. The floating principle of the bridge allows for very low impact, with a very high urban effect.

It is an audacious and a fresh take on the phrase “Bridge over water”. The elements of program become concrete anchor points on banks, which gives the lightness of the proposal weight. It challenges the image of the classic bridge in favor of basically walking over water. Projecting itself as an extension of walkway or sidewalks ‐ disappearance of the transition."

Third Place: Velorose + Heyne Tillett Steel (David Rosenberg, Tom Steel, Dominic Weil & Olivia Pearson), United Kingdom

From the jury report: "This project was executed cleverly with light-hearted humor and a rather risky approach. The Jury could not help but appreciated such a fresh and simple proposition capturing all the elements with an undertone of good and responsible citizenship.

The proposal is a rather organic and flexible bridge that grows and shrinks with time, need, weather or specific event. It is the activity over the water that creates the passage - a slow-living organic passage. The bridge lives and exists, thanks to the way the users approach and use the space, through the identity or activity that is going on around it.

This is not just a bridge but, in itself, constitutes a neighbourhood, a place or space constantly changing to meet the needs of daily life in the city.

A cleverly executed, graphically presented and dynamic piece of work that essentially found a different way to push beyond the simple idea of "to cross". Bravo!"

Check the image gallery below for images of the seven honorable mentions. All images with kind courtesy of [AC-CA].

Two top entries have been announced in the 2011 edition of the annual short film competition hosted by SMIBE, The Society for Moving Images about the Built Environment. Under the theme "Building Revolution," the contest had invited moving image stories that investigate, explore, and entertain our communities about social, environmental, political, technological, and economic issues that designers of the built world should be discussing.

The jury met in March at the Neutra VDL House in Los Angeles and selected Pieces from Georges Perec’s Species of Spaces by James C. Cameron Silva (United Kingdom) as the grand prize winner, and Exotic Matter by Isaac Zambra, Carolina Saenz, David Sosa (Mexico) as the runner up.

Grand Prize Winner: SMIBE - Pieces from Georges Perec's Species of Spaces from James Silva on Vimeo.

Runner Up: SMIBE- EXOTIC MATTER from territorial on Vimeo.

"On the whole, the SMIBE board had high hopes for the theme "Building Revolution" but it became apparent that making a short moving image story about building AND revolution proved challenging," reads the jury report. "It was difficult for the jury to align the theme with most of the finalist's entries and ultimately, they decided those projects with a higher level of craft and storytelling would find places at the top."

Bustler's sister site Archinect was the media sponsor of the competition, and our very own Paul Petrunia, founder and publisher or Archinect and Bustler, was invited to act on the panel of jurors.

Click here to watch all submitted short films.

Texas A&M University has recently awarded the winning commission for the new Memorial Student Center 12th Man Hall to Memory Cloud, a collaborative project by RE:Site (Norman Lee and Shane Allbritton, Artists) and METALAB (Andrew Vrana, Joe Meppelink and Michael Gonzales, Architecture + Fabrication).

Through a competition and short-list interview process, the team demonstrated the ability to harness the potential of programmable LEDs, remote sensing, parametric design and digital fabrication to create an open ended narrative of the story of the University through animated silhouette imagery of past and real-time present student life on the campus.

Animation of the competition-winning installation Memory Cloud by RE:site + Metalab

Project Description from the Designers:

Memory Cloud explores the embodiment of tradition, as patterns of movements handed down within a community of learning and practice. An ethereal constellation of light points in a sculptural cloud form expresses the dynamic pulse of Texas A&M campus life, and connects the past with the absolute present. Within each elegant strand, LED nodes flicker on and off to create three-dimensional silhouettes that float across a matrix of light. These silhouettes are drawn from archived footage of time-honored traditions: the Corp of Cadets, the Texas Aggie Marching Band, Kyle Field traditions, and past graduations. Memory Cloud juxtaposes and interlaces this footage with a real-time feed of everyday student life, portraying the moving silhouettes of students in the MSC. In this manner, students become both viewer and subject within the context of the work of art.

Memory Cloud connects the past with the absolute present. This living sculpture uses multimedia technology to collapse time and space, to celebrate the daily renewal of tradition in the lives of Texas A&M students. Memory Cloud expresses this dynamic pulse of community through the real-time silhouettes that constantly change throughout the day. Past and present are united for the viewer, who cannot tell if these silhouettes were created minutes, hours, days, months, or decades before. Traditions unite past and present through shared patterns of movement, passed down through a community.

Tradition is embodied in daily campus life, yet it has an ethereal, transcendent quality that lifts students above the everyday. This transcendent quality is best expressed in the medium of pure light, a medium made possible by LED technology. Memory Cloud features 4,000 networked LED nodes integrated within transparent tubes of various lengths suspended from a diagrid framework, creating a vibrant, illuminated pointillist sculpture.

Memory Cloud invites viewers into a rewarding experience of discovery as they move around the sculpture. The sculpture’s dynamic, undulating form creates dramatic vistas for viewers as they travel up and down the stairways surrounding the work. Memory Cloud becomes part of the daily social life of the MSC. As viewers move through 12th Man Hall, the silhouettes seem to appear, then disappear. From certain angles, viewers see abstract patterns of pulsating lights; from other angles, they discover moving, three-dimensional silhouettes, blurring the boundaries between figuration and abstraction.

Points of Light

Four thousand points of individually controlled light are housed in 256 acrylic tubes and suspended from an ethereal floating canopy in 12 rows. Each layer can be programmed with a unique video from the real time feed or from archival video of past iconic events in any combination. While the sculpture is static, the animations create a work that is never the same twice and always refreshed by the participation of the student body. The lights are visible from all vantage points in the space and from outside in the newly renovated Rudder Plaza through the monumental glass wall of the new 12th Man Hall.

Suspended Luminaires

Custom fabricated acrylic disks are made directly from the artist’s digital model and are dimensionally tuned to find the form of the surface of the Memory Cloud. They will be illuminated via “fiber optic” effect by the lowest LED nodes in the tubes and convey the sense that the animated bodies in the video are passing though a glowing veil enveloping the space of the Memorial Student Center and 12th Man Hall in a fluid field of light.

A secondary school project in Gando, Burkina Faso, a community center project in São Paulo, Brazil, and an urban renewal plan in Berlin, Germany are the winners of the Global Holcim Awards for 2012. These leading sustainable construction projects were selected from 15 finalist submissions by a jury of independent experts led by Enrique Norten. The finalists were the regional Holcim Awards 2011 winning projects that had been selected from more than 6,000 entries in 146 countries (previously on Bustler).

All 53 prize-winning projects at the regional level also competed for further prizes based on their contributions to sustainable construction through innovative building materials and construction technologies. The Global Holcim Innovation prizes conferred by a jury of materials and industry experts led by Harry Gugger went to projects in Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom.

A school project in Burkina Faso that integrates social and environmental performance won the top prize of USD 200,000. The design for the school in the village of Gando was created by Diébédo Francis Kéré of Kéré Architecture in Berlin. Passive cooling during oppressive summer heat creates an indoor climate conducive to learning by routing air through subterranean tubes, planting vegetation, stack-effect air currents, and using double-skin roofs and façades. The project also improves social conditions by providing jobs and training, and restores the environment through reforestation.

Principal and Founder of TEN Arquitectos (Mexico/USA) and head of the jury, Enrique Norten, applauded the Global Holcim Awards Gold 2012 winning project for its successful approach to community development, climatic mitigation and aesthetics. “This beautiful school is not only an elegant design solution, but it also delivers training and employment, uses local building materials, and – with simple means – creates an outstanding environment from a social viewpoint and also in constructive terms,” he said.

The Global Holcim Awards Silver was awarded to a project that transforms an eroded landscape into a productive zone and dynamic public space. With about 100,000 inhabitants, the Paraisópolis favela in São Paulo is one of the world’s largest informal communities. The project led by architects Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner of Urban Think Tank, Brazil, includes a terraced public space with areas for urban agriculture, a water management system, a public amphitheater, a music school, a small concert hall, sports facilities, public spaces and transport infrastructure. It prevents further erosion and dangerous mudslides on the steep slopes and provides social and cultural infrastructure.

Enrique Norten praised the project for its unifying concept, premium cultural facilities, architectural quality, and integrated involvement of the local community in a socially-inclusive planning and management approach. “This important intervention has the capacity to provide satisfaction and opportunities for the local community that creates both connectivity and the construction in a viable way,” he said.

An urban plan for transforming an under-utilized arm of the River Spree in Berlin into a natural 745m-long “swimming pool” won the Global Holcim Awards Bronze 2012. The Flussbad project in the heart of the historic city creates a swimming zone equivalent to 17 Olympic-sized pools, and provides a public urban recreation space for both residents and tourists adjacent to the Museuminsel. The project which includes a 1.8ha reed bed natural reserve with sub-surface sand bed filters to purify the water was developed by a team led by architects Jan and Tim Edler of realities united, Germany.

Enrique Norten explained that the project creates a direct and strong impact on the quality of urban life and positive ecological contribution through remediation of the city’s waterways. “The project celebrates urban living in one of the world’s greatest cities, and also honors the city’s connection to its waterways,” he said.

Global Holcim Innovation prizes of USD 150,000 in total were allocated by a separate jury and conferred for the first time. These prizes focus upon contributions to innovative building materials and construction technologies in the context of sustainable construction. This additional recognition of projects submitted in the Holcim Awards reflects the increasing emphasis on driving and fostering innovative new solutions by Holcim, the sponsor of the competition.

The Holcim Innovation 1st prize 2012 went to Gramazio & Kohler, Architektur und Digitale Fabrikation at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), for a construction technology using molds that combine existing processes and materials in a new way to fabricate cast-on-site concrete structures with reusable and digitally-fabricated wax formwork. This approach saves material and energy compared to traditional molds, such as expanded polystyrene blocks for single-use applications or flexed sheets of material which are limited to low curvatures. Principal of Harry Gugger Studio (Switzerland) and head of the Innovation prize jury, Harry Gugger, acclaimed the project as an advance in the use of molding for complex forms. “Until now, complex concrete forms have required molds that are difficult to build and created a great deal of waste – but this approach eliminates both of these challenges,” he said.

The Holcim Innovation 2nd prize was presented to a collaborative project by German Barkow Leibinger Architects, Schlaich Bergermann und Partner, Technische Hochschule Berlin (TU Berlin), and Transsolar Energietechnik. Their low-cost apartments project in Hamburg uses innovative techniques and materials including prefabricated lightweight-concrete elements with recycled foamed glass as an internal aggregate. The monolithic structures are simple and lightweight, but remain formally complex and ambitious in delivering aesthetic impact.

A team of four students from the AA School of Architecture in London, UK, won the Holcim Innovation 3rd prize for their research project on an efficient cast concrete fabrication system for geometrically complex building elements. This approach considers simultaneously the design of free and ambitious shapes, as well as the material efficiency and economic performance of the construction process.

The Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction competition seeks innovative, future-oriented and tangible construction projects to promote sustainable responses to the technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues affecting building and construction on a local, regional and global level. To compare the diverse submissions, the juries use the “target issues” for sustainable construction which address the triple bottom line of environmental performance, social responsibility and economic efficiency and also cover architectural quality and the suitability for broad-scale application and multiplication of the project’s features. The competition has been run by the Swiss-based Holcim Foundation since 2004, offers USD 2 million in prize money per three-year cycle, and is supported by Holcim Ltd and its Group companies in more than 70 countries.

One winner and one Finalist have recently been announced at Tap City, a competition around a drinking fountain. The contest asked undergraduate and graduate students to create a structure, installation, or experience around a forgotten fountain, the Duncan Dunbar Memorial Fountain in Greenwich Village, NYC, to devise a radically innovative proposal for the most particular of urban design sites.

The two finalist entries, submitted by students from Spain, Australia, and the United States, were selected from an international field of seventy-nine applicants.

Winner: xSpecies Fountain
Fran Gallardo (Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Seville, Spain) and Susie Pratt (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia)

Fran Gallardo was born in Zafra, Spain.  He attended Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura in Seville, Spain and is a Master’s candidate in Urban Planning and Structure Restoration.  He is currently a visiting scholar at the Environmental Health Clinic, a lab that prescribes various art, design and participatory projects in order to understand the intersection of individual and environmental health, at New York University.  His past work includes Zoohaus and Inteligencia Colectiva. 

Susie Pratt was born in Johannesburg, South Africa.  She is an artist and designer investigating the intersection of environmental health, public action and digital storytelling. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales, Australia. She completed her Masters of Fine Arts through Elam School of Fine Arts, The University of Auckland, New Zealand in 2007. Her work has been exhibited internationally, most recently at the PaperMill Gallery in Sydney.

See the full proposal for xSpecies Fountain (PDF).

Finalist: Urban Plinko
Shima Miabadi and Kieran Martin (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York)

Shima Miabadi graduated from Ithaca College in 2007 with a BA in Art History and a concentration in Architecture.  She attended the Los Angeles Institute of Architecture and Design, and is currently a M.Arch candidate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  She is a designer and editor in the RPI SoA Publications Department. 

Kieran Martin graduated from Humboldt State University in 2007 with a BS in Business Economics and International Studies.  He worked as a management consultant with Mercer before interning at iCrave.  Currently a M.Arch candidate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he spent a year there as a teaching assistant for a first-year design studio while pursuing his own curriculum.

See the full proposal for Urban Plinko (PDF).

The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge Celebration was the debut of Dallas’ newest architectural icon connecting Downtown Dallas to West Dallas over the Trinity River. More than 40,000 people attended the opening celebrations from Friday through Sunday, March 2-4, when it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to walk, run and party on the bridge and toast the best new view in town.

The bridge, Santiago Calatrava’s first vehicular bridge in the United States, will officially be opened to traffic this evening. Rain fall had pushed construction back along the access ramps and delayed the opening from March 5 until today.

Santiago Calatrava said, “The Bridge is built not only with steel, concrete, and pure materials, it is also built with other materials. It is built with courage, it is built with faith, and it is built also with love. It is built with the courage of those who have promoted this project. It is built with the faith of those who believe in the future of this city, and it is built with the love of those who genuinely love the city of Dallas and the people of Dallas – and I am one of them.”

The first master plan had been implemented in the late 1990s. Halff & Associates had been involved in this plan and suggested Santiago Calatrava because they had seen his work and his bridges in Spain. In the late 1990s (1999) Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk had asked Margaret McDermott if she could make a donation to hire Calatrava to design a bridge, and she agreed. Construction began on June 14, 2007 and was completed in March 2012.

The construction contract for the signature span and approaches inside the levees was awarded for $69.7 million, the contract for the approach spans outside the levee was awarded for $50 million.

The six lane, cable-stayed bridge is .366 miles long and spans 1,870 ft in its entirety from levee to levee. The center arch measures 400 ft (about 40 stories) tall from the deck to the top.

The bridge that is closest to the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Continental Avenue Bridge, will be closed soon and transformed into a pedestrian bridge and plaza for the community, further connecting West Dallas and the Design District.

The students of Professor Karen Lange at California's Cal Poly San Luis Obispo College of Architecture and Environmental Design have shared with us a video of their recent thesis book show installaton, White.

Project Description from the Students:

White is the Studio 400 thesis book show installaton. This surface was designed, developed, and installed by Professor Karen Lange’s students as a showcase for the first drafts of the studio’s thesis books. Working in a collaborative manner, we obtained enough material to design an affective environment that will fill our gallery - in this case 80,000 square feet of plastic sheeting. Then the material must be worked by all 40 hands in order to build the environment - in this case loomed into a malleable surface. And then the installation - 4 days of building, looming, crocheting, stapling, bending, and tying. The result was a plastic surface to be experienced above and below, a comfortable net in which to read.

Project Details:

Project: Studio 400 Book Show Installation 2011-12 at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Professor: Karen Lange

Studio: Joe Varholick, Michael R. Loree, Shanna M. Sullivan, Isshin Morimoto, Huangyuan Chen, Cory L. Walker,Nathan W. Kiatkulpiboone, Pablo A. Sandoval, Farnoosh F. Rafaie, Nicolas C. Pappas,Alma D. Padilla-Iriarte, Ross G. Majewski, Christina Beatriz Hackett, Ian Archer Carney, Annie N. Bui, Dion J. Dekker, Emily Kirwan, Ben Hait-Campbell, Mariko Kobayashi, Dion J. Dekker, Ryan S. Nevius

Film Editing: Pablo Sandoval, Farnoosh Rafaie, Mariko Kobayashi

Cinematography: Pablo Sandoval, Mariko Kobayashi, Farnoosh Rafaie, Nathan Kiatkulpiboone, Ben Hait-Campbell

Equipment: Nikon d7000, Canon 20D, Canon Rebel XS, Canon 40D, GoPro

Earlier this March, d3 officially announced the winners of the international Housing Tomorrow architectural design competition, and Bustler published the top submissions. This past Monday now, the d3 Housing Tomorrow exhibition also opened at the Mississippi State University School of Architecture featuring the winning entries and selected projects from the 2012 competition. The exhibition will run through April 20 at the school's Giles Hall Gallery.

d3 Housing Tomorrow invited architects, landscape architects, urban designers, engineers, and students worldwide to envision alternative residential design solutions. The annual competition called for proposals that collectively explore, document, analyze, transform, and deploy innovative approaches to residential urbanism, architecture, interiors, and designed objects.

Concurrent with sustainable thought, the d3 Housing Tomorrow competition assumes that architecture does not simply form, but rather, perform various functions beyond those conventionally associated with residential buildings. The competition allows designers freedom to approach their creative process in a scale-appropriate manner, from large-scale master planning endeavors, to individual building concepts, to notions of the interior realm and industrial design. Although there are no restrictions on site, scale, program, or residential building typology, proposals should carefully address their selected context.  

The MSU exhibit was co-curated by Alexis Gregory, Assistant Professor at the Mississippi State University School of Architecture; and Gregory Marinic, Director of Interior Architecture and Assistant Professor at the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture/University of Houston.

LAN Architecture recently completed 70° Sud, an apartment building in Boulogne-Billancourt, a western suburb of Paris. The project emerged as the winner of a competition back in 2008.

Project Description from the Architects:

In a framework where the ability of the architect is knowingly limited and in a context where economic conditions are uncertain, how to imagine an architecture capable of resisting a state of crisis?

Architecture of the crisis.

This project, for which the competition occurred in 2008, is the result of a complex transformation process in the city along with a precise economic context.

Located on the former site of the Renault factories in Boulogne- Billancourt, the concerned project is part of the Trapèze Ouest, one of the sector of the operation Ile Seguin-Rives de Seine, amongst the most important emerging centres in Ile-de-France.

It consists of a new mixed use neighbourhood, residential and dynamic altogether, at the cutting edge in sustainable development. Each block of the Trapèze is the object of an architectural amalgam of high level. The harmony between open-market and social housing, offices, green spaces, commercial premises and public facilities, along with the ambitious cultural vocation of the Ile Seguin, are all elements that contribute to creating an exceptionnel living space on the immediate west side of Paris.

In this territory, public and private interests are evidently bound to cross.

The segregation of disciplines omnipresent in the french system is antagonistic to this approach and it is manifested in the clear separation between the practices of urban planning and design, architecture, landscaping and project management. Certainly, collaboration is existent, but the large number and diversity of participants causes a normalized rarity in the points of intersection between the many different visions.

A programme and volumes rigorously defined, diminished costs of construction, the hit of an economic crisis, a private real estate system that isolates the site designer, strict certification labels... this abruptly depicted a reality, that any idea, vision or architecture is one day bound to face.

Imagining an object of resistance.

The first step of our work consisted in drawing from this hostile context a fruitful questioning: « In a framework where the ability of the architect is knowingly limited and in a context where economic conditions are uncertain, how to imagine an architecture capable of resisting disruptive change? That can reassure in moments of instability? And face situations of crisis? An architecture that can justify itself by itself and in any moment? What would then be the cardinal values on which to base our intervention? ».

In difficult moments, one must return to fundamentals and choices are narrowed: it is simply survival instinct. With this projects we decided to face the most challenging scenarios from the very first sketch.

In this operation we have let aside exhaustive studies on urbanity and potential grabbing –costly and previously explored methods at the agency–, to pivot back around an essential postulate : a space exists only if it is built.

Simplification, substraction and timeless values drew the three guidelines for 70° Sud, whose name was chosen by the client’s Marketing team.

Simplification : from a technical point of view, a way to reduce cost. A single detail drives the wholeness of the project : window–corridor-–railing. Within this ensemble, we can also include solar protections and openings.

Substraction : the structure becomes façade, exposed concrete, no superfluous elements, no gratuitous ornement.

Timeless values : to attract people, the strategy put into place is found upon incontestable building qualities: light, orientation, views and organization.

If each individual is allowed to act upon his dwelling in regards to his own taste and needs, the fundamentals that make for quality are, in this building, unchangingly insured.

Extracts from the memoire of the competition

The project suggests a built form that is simple and readable. The South and East façades are punctuated by multiple larges openings, extending the interior of the dwellings to exterior corridors running along the building. Larger balconies are inserted at intervals in the line of the terraces, projecting out. The juxtaposition of protruding, punctual and linear elements give the impression of a slender and lighter building onto Yves Kermen and Emile Zola streets.

The building fulfills its role as a corner element and provides a clear distinction from the surrounding buildings. Plays with solids and voids, horizontals and verticals, light and shadow, glass and curtains, give the façade both sobriety and animation.

To the simplicity of the drawing is added the richness of the material. We have sought for a finish that is clean, shaven and refined but rich enough to reflect light, and communicate with the colours of its environment.

Project Details:

Program: 58 housing units
Client: NACARAT
Project Ownership Assistance: SAEM Val de Seine
Location: 3 Allée Robert Doisneau, 92100 Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Cost: € 7.2 M Excl. VAT
Built up area: 4639 m²
Competition: 2008
Completion: 2011
Team: LAN Architecture (lead architect), COTEC (all-trades engineers)
Certification: QUALITEL and H&E in BBC Effinergie

Find a few more photos of the building in the image gallery below.

Kathryn Gustafson, director of Seattle landscape architecture practice Gustafson Guthrie Nichol and partner of London design firm Gustafson Porter, is the recipient of the annual Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This honor is given to a preeminent architect from any country who has made a significant contribution to architecture as an art. Gustafson is only the third landscape architect in 57 years to be awarded the prize.

In 1991, The Academy began giving Arts and Letters Awards (formerly called Academy Awards) to honor American Architects whose work is characterized by strong personal  direction. The winners are chosen from a group of 40 individuals and practices nominated by members of the Academy.

In addition to the Brunner Prize, the Academy presents annual Arts and Letters Awards to American architects whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction, and to individuals from any field who explore  ideas in architecture through any medium of expression. This year's winners, which were  chosen rom 40 nominees, are Hilary Ballon, Marlon Blackwell, Elizabeth Gray and Alan Organschi, and Michael Maltzan.

"I am honored and humbled to be awarded the 2012 Arnold A. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture and to be included among the list of the Academy’s distinguished past award  recipients. Bestowing the award on another Landscape Architect will elevate the discourse  and give prominence to external space as places, ensuring the significance of these spaces to be of quality and integral to people’s lives," said Kathryn Gustafson.

Gustafson has practiced landscape architecture for over 30 years from her offices in Seattle and London, and has built work in Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. “Two projects in particular,” said James Polshek, a member of the awarding jury, “best exemplify her quietly spectacular work: the poetic and sublime Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in London and her Lunar Garden (Arthur Ross Terrace) that  frames the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History. The power of her imagination and the precision of her execution have enriched the many natural and man-made places she has touched with her magic.”

Other notable projects include the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard in Washington D.C.; the Lurie Garden in  Chicago; Towards Paradise installation at the Venice Biennale; Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam; and Valencia Parque Central in Valencia Spain. “She is an artist of space,” said Polshek, “who has moved far beyond the boundaries of landscape architecture or environmental design.”

The members of this year’s selection committee were: Henry N. Cobb, Michael Graves, Hugh Hardy, Steven Holl, Ada Louise Huxtable, Richard Meier (chairman), James Polshek, Billie Tsien, and Tod Williams.

The awards will be presented in New York City in May at the Academy’s galleries on Audubon Terrace.

The Mecanoo / Royal Haskoning joint design team is the winner for the realization of the new The Hague headquarters of Eurojust, an agency of the European Union handling the judicial co-operation of cross-border criminal matters. The jury, consisting of representatives of the Dutch Ministry of Safety and Justice, Eurojust, the Municipality of The Hague and the Government Buildings Agency, chaired by the Dutch Government Architect, announced the winner this week.

According to the jury, the design vision of Mecanoo-Haskoning is most in keeping with the new location of Eurojust to aspects of architectural quality, urban integration and landscape, functionality and program of requirements, maintenance and sustainability, and integrated design processin relation. The next step is elaborating the design vision into a final design that is expected to be finished at the end of 2013. Two years later, the new building is scheduled to be completed.

The new Eurojust accommodation is planned on the Jan Willem Frisolaan, in the central area of the International Zone in The Hague. Offering a suitable office location for organizations like Eurojust is part of cabinet policy and fits in with the development of The Hague as International City of Peace and Justice.

Project Description from the Architects:

world forum

Mecanoo, in collaboration with Royal Haskoning and DS Landsacpe Architects have teamed up to design the new Eurojust premises. The new complex will form a part of The Hague World Forum area of Peace, Safety and Justice. The concept of the dune landscape designed for the World Forum area will be continued across the Johan de Wittlaan. This design concept illustrates a strong connection with Eurojust’s neighboring organizations, the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) and Europol. The atmosphere of soft slopes and grassy vegetation is designed to sit within the lush surroundings of The Hague’s ‘Green Heart’.

inviting and safe

The Eurojust building feels elegant, modern and spacious, while respecting the contextual urban history of the area. The building is in alignment with the orientations of the original buildings on this side of Johan de Wittlaan which simultaneously creates a landscaped public square. The square is inviting and offers views onto the main entrance of Eurojust. The tower is focused on this entrance area, the World Forum area and The Hague. The low-rise stays close to the scale of the neighboring villas and apartment buildings. The careful integration of the building into the site is made possible by placing two levels underground where the conference facility is located. The adjacent sloping garden brings daylight into the basement levels and strengthens the identity of the green district. The landscape design incorporates the highest standards for Eurojust in a natural way by including dunes and water features.

elegant

The building architecture represents the core values of Eurojust. The light façade is composed of an alternating rhythm of open and closed composite elements which give the building a modern but timeless appearance. Glass panels alternate tilting forwards or backwards and turned left or right so that the sky as well as the surrounding dune landscape is reflected in the glass and depth is created in the façade. Inside the building, visitors are welcomed in a spacious, double height lobby with views out onto the dune garden. The foyer space has several zones which range from open and public to more private. A wide staircase with views out onto the surrounding landscape and descends to the lower floors. The water of the pond in the dune landscape is reflected in the ceiling of the lobby.

Design: until end of 2013
Realization: 2014-2015

In our last post, we published the awarded entries of the international competition for the New Bauhaus Museum in Weimar, Germany. One of the three Honorable Mentions was the entry by Rome/Paris-based MenoMenoPiu Architects. The design team included Alessandro Balducci, Gilberto Bonelli, Mario Emanuele Salini, and Rocco Valantines.

From the Jury Report:

"The transparency makes the continuity between inside and outside, the outside comes inside and vice-versa. An eclectic conquest of the space makes the building not a barrier but a dynamic urban link, crossed by a linear flexible path across Bauhaus history. The idea of creating a new unity by the marriage of many arts and movements".

Project Description from the Architects:

"I'm interested in the idea of overlapping images over several layers of transparent surfaces" - Moholy-Nagy's "Light Space Modulator"

The building is conceived as an open square at the crossing point of the three main city forces, old and new city and the park, a flexible "object" that allows different  activities inside and around it.

A covered square as a multifunctional space that may or may not  interact with the upper exhibition floor, depending on opening hours, a multitask space opened to the city in a natural relation with the park.

The "clever cover", as a key element designed to be flexible to accommodate contemporary technologies to full filled the future needs of the building. The game of light and shadows made by the pattern of the cover evokes the drawings of Josef Albers.

50% of the roof (1250m²) are covered with photovoltaic panels which provide up to 250kw/day, satisfying the 60% of the museum energy consumption.

Sliding shaders manage the seasonal solar interior contributions, satisfying programmatic needs of the different boxes .

The system "box in the box", in synergy with the technological roof , guarantees the best climatic control through the different seasons.

Project Credits:

Design Team: MenoMenoPiu Architects (Alessandro Balducci-Gilberto Bonelli-Mario Emanuele Salini-Rocco Valantines)
Collaborators: Francois Zab-Marco Lavit Nicora-Marco Conti Sikic-David Yahn-Drahi-Luca Stortoni
Landscape: Bassinet Turquin Paysage
Engineering: Marc Hammon- Giulia Fatarella

Find more plans and diagrams in the image gallery below.

In the open architectural design competition for the New Bauhaus Museum in Weimar, Germany, the international jury awarded two second-place and two third-place prizes. The jury also conferred three honorable mentions. The announcement of the winners officially concludes the architectural design competition, in which 536 architectural offices around the world participated.

The focus and unique feature of the New Bauhaus Museum will be the historic Bauhaus collections of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar. The museum’s activities will highlight all aspects of the State Bauhaus, the events which led to its establishment in Weimar in 1919, its colorful history and lasting influence. Since 1990, the collection has grown enormously with purchases and donations. The Gropius Collection, owned by the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, is the world’s oldest collection of original Bauhaus works.

These are the winning entries:

Shared 2nd Prize (40,000 Euros each): Johann Bierkandt
Landau, Germany

Jury report: "The second-place design proposal by Johann Bierkandt (Landau) develops the figuration of a small-scale, urban museum ensemble, distinctly separate from the large-scale Weimarhalle and the Thuringian State and Administrative Office nearby, as well as the adjacent residential buildings. The proposal doesn’t aim to present a compact museum, but rather includes additive structural elements which play on the differentiated educational concept of the Bauhaus. The jury expresses its admiration for how the proposal integrated the museum with the Weimarhallenpark."

Shared 2nd Prize (40,000 Euros each): Architekten HKR (Klaus Krauss and Rolf Kursawe)
Cologne, Germany

Jury report: "The other second-place proposal by the Architekten HRK (Klaus Krauss and Rolf Kursawe, Cologne) provides excellent access to the park. The distinctive form of the museum makes an even stronger impression in the urban setting and is characterised by the cleverly staggered arrangement of the elongated structures. The proposal is also impressive in terms of its interior design qualities. The central interior space creates a distinctive, independent and attractive flair for the New Bauhaus Museum."

Shared 3rd Prize (30,000 Euros each): Prof. Heike Hanada with Benedikt Tonnon
Berlin, Germany

Jury report: "The third-place design proposal by Prof. Heike Hanada with Benedikt Tonnon (Berlin) positions a compact minimalistic cube on the park slope, a geometrically elementary architectural form, which would offer enormous potential for the interior corridors and room arrangement."

Shared 3rd Prize (30,000 Euros each): Bube/ Daniela Bergmann
Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Jury report: "The museum design proposed by the second third-place winner Bube/ Daniela Bergmann (Rotterdam) features a composition of three translucent structures which lie somewhat removed in a newly won park environment. This concept also consciously sets itself apart from the dominating habitus of the large former Gauforum and the neighboring Weimarhalle."

Honorable Mentions (9,666 Euros each): Karl Hufnagel Architekten, hks Hestermann Rommel Architektenn, menomenopiu architectures/Alessandro Balducci

Jury report: "The three honorable mentions distinguish proposals which offer outstanding individual aspects and valuable contributions for the construction of the museum in this difficult urban-planning environment. Viewed in their entirety, however, their implementation is not possible."

With the conclusion of the competition process, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar can now begin negotiating with the four prize winners according to VOF procedure (Contracting Regulations for the Awarding of Professional Services) as put forth in the call for proposals. The jury, chaired by Prof. Jörg Friedrich (Hamburg), provided the winners with recommendations for optimizing their proposals in preparation for the VOF procedure. The Klassik Stiftung Weimar intends to quickly begin negotiations in order to proceed with the concrete construction planning without delay. The New Bauhaus Museum will officially open in 2015.

All entries of the competition's 2nd phase are currently on view at the New Museum Weimar until Monday, April 9, 2012. The exhibition is free of charge.

All images courtesy of Klassik Stiftung Weimar.

The team led by James Corner Field Operations has been selected as the winner in the international Navy Pier Redesign Competition. The Pierscape concept is part of the larger vision for Chicago's famous Navy Pier called The Centennial Vision, which seeks to make the "People’s Pier a truly iconic and world-class destination as it approaches its 100th anniversary in 2016."

The JCFO Team also included Terry Guen Design Associates, nArchitects, Leo Villareal, L’Observatoire International, Ed Marszewski, Fluidity, Patrick Blanc, John Greenlee & Associates, Chris Wangro, Billings Jackson, Buro Happold, Primera, HR&A Advisors, ETM Associates, Bruce Mau Design, and d’Escoto, Inc.

The winning proposal beat out stiff competition from the other four finalist teams, AECOM/Bjarke Ingels Group, Aedas Architects/Davis Brody Bond/Martha Schwartz Partners, !melk/HOK/Urban Lab, and Xavier Vendrell Studio/Grimshaw Architects.

 

The Pierscape portion of the Centennial Vision plan calls for reimagining the Pier’s public spaces including Gateway Park at the west entrance of the Pier, Crystal Garden, Pier Park, East End Park, the South Dock as well as the smaller public spaces that dot the length of the Pier. This work will include enhancements to the Pier’s landscaping and streetscape along with the addition of water features, public art and lighting.

“Public spaces do not only help define a city – they are the heart and soul of a city. We have a remarkable opportunity to make Navy Pier one of those unique public spaces,” said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “Having an internationally renowned design firm like James Corner Field Operations working with one of our city’s greatest icons demonstrates that Chicago has the energy and vision to continue to lead on the world stage.”

“More families visit Navy Pier every year than any other site in Illinois, and, for many, it is one of their first impressions of our state,” Governor Pat Quinn said. “We have a responsibility to make Navy Pier a modern, appealing and sustainable attraction that takes advantage of one of our state’s most valuable natural resources  - Lake Michigan. When they visit, they should see a vision that highlights the best Illinois has to offer and the best yet to come.”

Find more plans and diagrams of the winning Pierscape design in the image gallery below. See the design booklet in its entirety here.

The Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris today announced Ball-Nogues Studio from Los Angeles as the winner of the 2012 edition of the “Pavillon Spéciale” competition. Now in its 2nd edition, the Pavillon Spéciale consolidates its role as an annual spring architectural series that gives young emerging international architects the opportunity to build with students a temporary project in the heart of Paris.

Our very own Paul Petrunia, founder and publisher of Bustler and Archinect.com, had the great honor to serve on the International Expert Committee for this year's pavilion competition.

Curated and conceived by Matteo Cainer in the summer of 2010, the series is an ongoing program of innovative temporary structures built by emerging international architects under the age of 45. The uniqueness of the “Pavillon Spéciale” is that it establishes a bridge between the architectural profession and academia, becoming therefore an integral part of the educational program of the school. 

Once a year, students of the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture have the opportunity to build, along side the selected architect, a new experimental pavilion for the large rectangular outdoor garden that is an essential part of the School. The short timescale, 3 months from design to construction, provides a unique model that presents a strong synergy between architecture and education and with talks before during and after construction, it becomes a contemporary platform for architectural experimentation inviting as a result, the wider public to interact with students, professionals and the city itself.

Ball Nogues Studio, this year’s winner, drawn among 8 finalists, will design with students an installation that will create a sense of place while providing a respite from the sun and rain. ‘The Pavilion is a unique structure, in architecture terminology; the phrase that describes a system whose form is derived from the deformation of its materials under force is “form active.” This type of structure is difficult to study using software. It often requires architects to explore their designs by testing full-scale mock-ups, and using that empirical information to help inform the process of digital modeling, which is studied in the studio rather than in the field. Students will therefore engage in this iterative design process with Ball Nogues.

The structure is comprised of approximately 200 “cells”, each made from locally sourced plastic tubing that will be bent and curled in custom jigs designed and constructed by students.  To provide shade, each cell will have a locally sourced sheet material spanning between the tubes within it. The cell module is a very effective way of constructing a temporary structure: each can be transported as a flat unit and rapidly assembled on site; when it is time for the structure to come down, dismantling and transportation to a new site is easy’. The Pavilion is due to open at the beginning of June at the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture at 254 Boulevard Raspail in the 14th district of Paris.

The International jury was composed of:

• Iñaki Abalos(Ábalos+Sentkiewicz Arquitectos, Spain)
• Jean-Max Collard (Architectural Journalist Les Inrocks, France)
• Massimiliano Fuksas(Studio Fuksas, Italy)
• David Keuning (MARK magazine, Netherlands)
• Claude Parent (Architect, teacher and writer, France) together with Odile Decq (Director of The Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture)
• Marie-Hélène Fabre (Academic Head of the Ecole Spéciale )

The jury, and a student from the school, found that the winning entry had the most potential since it presented various qualities, from being very interesting architecturally, to economically feasible and at the same time ecologically strong. “More and more in construction, we see the use of plastic and in this sense it is a very contemporary material therefore to see it used in this way is very interesting”. The jury felt that it was an especially manual project that could actively involve the students. Furthermore, the jury found that this proposal had the most potential in offering a real possibility of design involvement and a genuine pedagogic challenge for the students. In addition it is conceived as a pavilion and as a real protected gathering space with a Jacques Tati feel.

For the selection process, the Ecole Spéciale invited an external committee of international experts in the field of architecture, including curators, architects, critics, academics, and magazine editors. Each expert nominated 8 candidates among emerging practices who are experimenting with new styles or techniques and are under 45. These groups were then asked to submit portfolios of their work for review by an international jury. After assessing the candidates, the jury selected 8 finalists who were then invited to draw up a preliminary proposal for the designated site. 

The International Expert Committee for the 2012 Pavillon Spéciale comprised:

• Hitoshi Abe (Chair of Department of Architecture & Urban Design UCLA, USA)
• Stefano Boeri (Founder and Director Stefano Boeri Architects, IT)
• Cynthia Davidson (Head of Any Corp, Chief Editor of Log, USA)
• Eva Franch (Director Storefront for Art and Architecture NY, USA)
• Pedro Gadanho (Architect and Curator of the Department of Architecture & Design MOMA, USA)
• Shinichi Kawakatsu (Founder and Director RAD Architects, Japan)
• Paul Petrunia (Founder/publisher of Archinect.com, Bustler.net, USA)
• Hans Ulrich Obrist (Co-Director Serpentine Gallery London, UK)
• Ecole Speciale (Studio Professors, INT).

The “Pavillon Speciale” Commission included Odile Decq (General Director, École Spéciale d’Architecture), Matteo Cainer (Curator Pavillon Spéciale), and Marie-Hélène Fabre (Academic Head).

The other finalists for this year’s edition were: DUS Architects from Amsterdam (NL), Fantastic Norway from Oslo (NO), MOS from New York (USA), OSMD from Lisbon (PT), Polaris Architects from Luxembourg (LU), Softlab from New York (USA), and Sou Fujimoto Architects from Tokyo (JP).

An exhibition of the 8 finalists’ proposed projects will open the day of the inauguration of the project in June at the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture.

All images by Ball Nogues Studio, courtesy of Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture / Pavillon Spéciale competition.

HENN StudioB, the design and research studio of Berlin-based Henn Architekten, has won the first prize in the invited international competition to design a new sports center in the southeast Jiangsu Province of China. The Nantong Sports Center establishes a hybrid of landscape, public space and athletic functions. Among the competition participants were also Hopkins Architects, Wuhan Architectural Design Institute, CCDI Shenzhen, Zhejiang University, and Tongji University.

Project Description from the Architects:

The Nantong Sports Center is located in the city of Nantong in close proximity to Shanghai. The ancient roots of the city emphasize harmony between its people, their activities, and nature.

Located next to the government building and the new Nantong Urban Planning Museum, the sports center integrates smoothly with its local urban fabric. Assimilation is achieved by reinterpreting the city grid to maximize interaction with the existing East- West green axis. Extension of the central axis also promotes circulation between the ancient temple and neighboring commercial facilities.

The sports center establishes a hybrid of landscape, public space and athletic functions. Its diverse program comprises numerous recreational facilities in a wide range of scales. Smaller independent sports halls surround the central stadium, interconnected by a diagrid path network. This circulatory system seamlessly links all functions throughout the site, thereby providing athletes and spectators efficient circulation between all recreational amenitites.

Base modules for all buildings consist of unified diamond-shaped cells of various functions and pre-defined scales: Small (S), Medium (M), Large (L), and Extra Large (XL). Cells proliferate outward from the stadium cell, transforming in scale according to unique functional requirements (i.e. basketball courts, tennis courts, martial arts facilities, medical center).

As the epicenter of the complex, the stadium occupies an XL diamond cell, featuring a 400 M track and seating for 15,000 spectators. Structural components of the stadium include a ribbed framework and external translucent membrane. The intelligent night lighting scheme for the membrane illuminates the roof in a variety of color combinations.

Project Details:

Client: City of Nantong
Location: Nantong, China
Program: Sports + Leisure
Area: GFA sports stadium 50,000sqm; arena 13,690sqm; swimming hall 11,872sqm; badminton hall 11,037sqm; table tennis hall 10,955sqm
Status: International Competition First Prize
Local Partner: Tshinghua University Architecture Design Institute
Consultants: Schlaich Bergermann & Partner, Wabe-Plan
Design Team: Leander Adrian, Daniel da Rocha, Martin Henn, Anthony Hu, Alan Kim, Agata Kycia, Paul Langley, Jeewon Paek, Emil Pira, Klaus Ransmayr, Wei Sun, Mu Xingyu

Copenhagen-based firm WE Architecture has shared with us their entry "Skyscape" to the open competition for a new church building in Våler, Norway.

Project Description from the Architects:

The beautiful Vaaler church from 1805 burnt down in the spring of 2009. We have designed a new church as a symbolic landmark to succeed the old building. The new Vaaler church is placed further east from the placement of the old church, marking the historic axis with its tower. The new building is designed as a simple box where one corner is lifted up in order to point out the church room and the tower. 

The functions are organized in such way that the church is highly flexible regarding alternative use of the building. The entrance hall and the church room are placed alongside each other so that the two spaces can be joined and create one large room for events such as Christmas market or concerts. Inside the church room, the ceiling is composed of a stepping grid construction in wood like an inverted skyscape, letting light into the room.

Representative for the important forestry industry in the municipality of Vaaler, the new monument is to be made of massive timber elements, defining the church as an innovative and ambitious establishment in the local community.

Project Details:

Name: Skyscape
Asssignment: Open competition
Type: Church
Client: Vaaler Municipality
Place: Vaaler, Norway
Year: 2011
Team: Marc Jay, Julie Schmidt-Nielsen, Nora Fossum, Krystian Dziopek, Karolina Kierner, Mette B. G. Steffensen, Kristian Hindsberg & Casper Berntsen

In our last post, we published the finalist entries to Urban Intervention: The Howard S. Wright Design Ideas Competition for Public Space which invited designers to re-envision a nine-acre site in the heart of Seattle Center and use it to explore innovation in public space in the coming century. With their entry Seattle Jelly Bean, Boston architects PRAUD (Dongwoo Yim & Rafael Luna) were one of the three finalist teams which have now been invited to compete in the second phase of the competition through April until the final presentation in May.

Project Description from the Architects:

Because of its previous use, the site creates a discontinuity in scale from the surrounding blocks. In order to scale it down to a more human scale, similar to the general grid of Seattle, we introduced a new pattern onto the site. The logic of the pattern connects different access points from around the site. The pattern for pedestrian passage is not only down-scaling the site, but also improving accessibility to the site.

As an outcome of the new patterning, new courtyards are designed as inversion of passage pattern; courts become voids while passage remain as solid. Each solid and void creates its own topography, and thus the topography of the solid provides different experiences for pedestrians and joggers, while topography of the voids provide different types of functions and landscape fields.

To extend the logic of the surrounding fabric, not only multiple access points are introduced, but a dialect of South Fountain Lawn and International Fountain are repeated and manipulated in the proposed park. This is a way for the park to absorb the existing features and strengthen them.

Lastly, the Jelly Bean is proposed as  a new way of creating a dialog between the park and the city, park visitors, public at the Center Core, and communities in distance. It is a device that can control micro level climate, and thus, depends on the weather or public demand. It can create fog, cloud, rain and sunshine effects. Also, the bean will function as reflecting object during the day, reflecting other parts of the city from the park, while it can be used as a projection screen at night for new urban activities.

Check the image gallery below for more concept diagrams of the Seattle Jelly Bean.

From 107 design ideas submitted from around the world, Urban Intervention: The Howard S. Wright Design Ideas Competition for Public Space has selected 3 finalists and 7 commendations. In the spirit of the 1962 World’s Fair, Seattle Center and AIA Seattle invited multidisciplinary design teams to compete in an international design ideas competition to re-envision a nine-acre site in the heart of Seattle Center and use it to explore innovation in public space in the coming century.

In 1962, the Seattle World’s Fair reached into the future to imagine a region of innovation. It offered a vision of progress led by the limitless possibilities of science and technology. The Fair had a profound impact on Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, helping shape the focus on invention and opportunity that moved the region onto the world stage. The Fair’s legacy was a 74-acre cultural campus and urban park, Seattle Center, which continues to serve the region 50 years later. Similarly, we hold great ambition for the work of the finalist teams identified by the jury for their unique and innovative visions.

The three finalists are:

ABF (France) for their design, In-Closure. The design envisions an interactive wall around a forested landscape that is both flexible and dynamic, embracing social life in the city at multiple scales.

Team Members / Design Credits: ABF (Paul Azzopardi, Urban Engineer; Noé Basch, Climate Engineer; Etienne Feher, Architect)

KoningEizenberg Architecture + ARUP (United States) for their design, Park. The design organizes the disparate elements of the Seattle Center site and program into a sustainable and coherent landscape. It offers a mastery of the immediate and physical and programmatic challenges facing Seattle Center.

Team Members / Design Credits: KoningEizenberg Architecture (Nathan Bishop, Architecture; Julie Eizenberg, Architecture; Troy Fosler, Architecture; Rachel Bagan, Architecture; Annie Danis, Research and Communications); ARUP (Roberto Ammendola, Structures, Visualization and Simulation; Bruce Danziger, Structures; Russell Fortmeyer, Sustainability, Energy Infrastructure; Laura Klein, Structures; Trevor Mino, Civil; Elizabeth Valmont, Acoustics); Nancy Goslee Power and Associates (Nancy Goslee Power, Landscape Architecture Consultant; Joe Sturges, Landscape Architecture Consultant; Dan Sturges, Transportation/Mobility, Wheel Change: Consultant)

PRAUD (United States) for their design, Seattle Jelly Bean. The design is highly imaginative, and suggests a new kind of icon for the 21st century, an atmospheric and interactive cloud that is tethered both literally and figuratively to the site below.

Team Members / Design Credits:  PRAUD (Rafael Luna, architect; Dongwoo Yim, architect); Machado & Silvetti Assoc. (Cheng-Yang Lee, architect)

The finalists will visit Seattle in April to further develop their ideas informed by a series of public engagement activities and will make a final presentation on May 11, 2012, 6:30pm, at Intiman Playhouse.

Seven ideas received commendations from the jury, and teams that conceived them will each receive $1,000 in recognition for their ideas. Commendations went to:

• A Convertible Public Space by Nicolas Laisne (France)
• Flipped Park by Julien Combes Architecture (France)
• Living Laboratory by SABArchitects (United States)
• Seattle Center HUB (Hybrid Urban Bioscape) by Influx Studio (France)
• STEM by ELLUMUS (United States)
• The New Playfield by One Design (China)
• URBflow by AMa (Mexico)

The six-member jury included August de los Reyes, designer, writer, and educator (Palo Alto, CA); Gene Duvernoy, president of Forterra, formerly Cascade Land Conservancy (Seattle, WA); Tom Leader, principal of award winning landscape architecture firm Tom Leader Studio (Berkeley, CA); Mia Lehrer, founder of landscape architecture firm Mia Lehrer+Associates (Los Angeles, CA); Rick Lowe, celebrated public artist (Houston, TX); and Patricia Patkau, founding partner in the firm of Patkau Architects (Vancouver, B.C., Canada).

See images of the seven commendations in the image gallery below.

The pavilion concept SEAT by New York and Portland-based collaboration E/B Office has won the commission for this year's Freedom Park Project at Atlanta. SEAT is a garden pavilion composed of approximately 400 simple wooden chairs arrayed and stacked in a 3-dimensional sine wave surface rising above the ground.

In speaking about the project, E/B Office partner Yong Ju Lee commented, “I hope visitors to SEAT can see and enjoy how furniture, which they use every day, can be employed radically and orderly to make a complex architectural system that's ultimately artful and fun in nature.”

Brian Brush, fellow partner at E/B Office, added, “This project is about pushing/interrogating the content of domestic objects through spatial sculpture. With SEAT, we're looking beyond the symbol and function of the chair to its component parts as compositional and structural elements capable of generating unpredictable and whimsical architecture as art (or vice versa).”

Anne Dennington, executive director of Flux Projects, explained, “Our goal when submitting the call was to find a project that could engage the park and its audience for at least a month, have high visibility, and can be experienced by pedestrian, bike, and vehicular traffic. In addition, the Freedom Park Conservancy was interested in a project that could encourage people to come into and use the park. SEAT does all of this, and we are excited to see its impact on park visitors.”

This call for proposals was issued jointly by Flux Projects and the Freedom Park Conservancy, and members from both organizations sat on the selection committee.

Project Description from the Architects:

Sitting is perhaps the most common condition from which we experience architecture. Whether we work, relax, watch, eat, sleep, or talk to each other, sitting is at the core of our relationship to buildings. Sitting enables the detached observation of our lives in space and time, whether it’s to look upon the buildings we inhabit, or look out from them, towards the cultural milieu that surrounds. Sitting enables a perception of the other and beyond opposite the inclusivity and interiority of our personal spaces that we carry with us. It conditions a cosmological covenant between one’s body and one’s place in architecture. It produces a body space continuum. Sitting structures our habitable spaces from within to without, determining the proportions of useable objects, forms, spaces, dimensions, and relationships in an unfolding sequence of architectonic layers.

Despite the importance of sitting in the use and experience of architecture, the objects we use to sit aren’t considered architecture at all. They are relegated to the domains of industrial design or furniture as mere players in a larger architectural scene. Why the disconnect? Why the disassociation of sitting in a designed object with architecture itself? Our proposal attempts to address this question through the exploration of the architectural Folly not in terms of a mused edifice of boundaries, i.e. walls, floors, and roofs rendered picturesque; but rather that which gives rise to architecture as observed and contemplative: the chair. We’ve turned the Folly inside out, creating a playful object of ornamental repose celebrating the act of repose itself as a fundamental architectural event.

SEAT is composed of approximately 400 simple wooden chairs arrayed and stacked in a sine wave surface drawn into an agitated vortex rising from the ground. It formalizes the transformation of chairs from detached useable objects into structural and spatial components of an ambiguously occupiable edifice. It’s intended to be legible and readable as a collection of individual seats, but when approached, visitors realize that sitting down in any one of them amounts to a deliberate act of occupation one can’t take for granted as usual; a temporary social contract to redefine their perception of sitting embodied as architecture. The structure is zoned by rotational differentiation in groups. Chairs around the immediate periphery are rotated for outward observation of the city and the surrounding neighborhood. At the base of the vortex, chairs turn inward to create an intimate, compressive space for visitors to converse and regard the upward flow of chairs transcending their function. Chairs suspended above ground between these zones re-constitute the role of the seated object as one that can also play as structure, decoration, and enclosure.

The chairs are additively assembled through a modified “corbelling” process achieved by sequentially attaching chairs beginning at the edges and corners working towards the center. At times, the result playfully resembles Persian Muqarnas. The chairs are esiliently connected to each other via simple lag bolts, clamps, and screws that are hidden from view. Parametric detailing manages tolerances and connection pecifics of this hardware. Moment and shear forces are transferred through the entire structure as a continuous diaphragm ultimately loading at the vortex center and the seated periphery on the ground. A number of base connections, platforms, or struts may also augment structural stability and anchorage. Some cantilevered extensions exist to create overhanging enclosure, but are minor in actual weight aloft. Redundancy in aterial and connection will allow for stability, flexibility, and safety overall.

In our previous post, we just published the winners of eVolo's 2012 Skyscraper Competition. This entry here, Coal Power Plant Mutation by Romanian architect Bogdan Chipara, was one of the Honorable Mentions and suggests a radically new design approach towards fossil fuel power plants.

Project Description from the Architect:

1.SITUATION

TODAY THERE ARE MORE THAN 50.000 ACTIVE COAL PLANTS IN THE WORLD AND POWER DEMANDS ARE STILL RISING. BY 2030 FOSSIL FUEL POWER STATIONS WILL ACCOUNT FOR 85% OF THE GLOBAL ENERGY MARKET.

POWER PLANTS ARE NO BETTER THAN 50% EFFICIENT. THAT MEANS THAT THE POWER DELIVERED AS ELECTRICITY IS EQUAL TO THE POWER RELEASED INTO THE ENVIRONMENT AS HEAT. FOSSIL FUEL FIRED POWER PLANTS USE LARGE COOLING CHIMNEYS TO RELEASE THIS WASTE HEAT TO THE AMBIENT ATMOSPHERE BY THE EVAPORATION OF WATER. THE HEAT ENERGY ABSORBED BY WATER AS IT TURNS INTO VAPOUR IS LATER RELEASED INTO ATMOSPHERE WHENEVER CONDENSATION OCCURS.

BUT THE MAIN REASON CONCERNING THE COAL PLANTS IS THE FLUE GAS EXHAUSTION. BY BURNING COAL, THE PLANT IS PRODUCING CARBON DIOXIDE, NITROGEN OXIDE AND SULFUR OXIDE. THESE POLLUTANTS ARE RELEASED INTO THE ENVIRONMENT THROUGH THE THIN CHIMNEYS KNOWN AS FLUE-GAS STACKS. LATER THEY REACT WITH THE ATMOSPHERE CREATING SULFUROUS, NITRIC AND SULFURIC ACIDS WHICH FALL AS RAIN.

IT IS KNOWN THAT BOTH FLUE GASSES AND WATER VAPOURS RELEASED BY POWER PLANTS HAVE A BIG IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT.

2. SCENARIO

COAL POWER PLANT MUTATION

WE HEAVILY DEPEND ON THESE ENERGY PRODUCERS AND UNTIL ALTERNATIVE AND GREEN ENERGY TECH WILL EVOLVE ENOUGH TO SUPPORT OUR DEMANDS, THE COAL POWER PLANTS WILL BE ACTIVE.
INSTEAD OF PROPOSING NEW WAYS OF PRODUCING GREEN ENERGY, THE SUBMITTED PROJECT DESCRIBES A MUTATION AND A HYBRIDIZATION OF THE COAL POWER PLANT.

TO REDUCE THE IMPACT OF THE PLANTS THEIR EXHAUSTIONS MUST BE ISOLATED AND FILTERED BEFORE RELEASING THEM INTO THE ATMOSPHERE. BUT TO COPE WITH SUCH A LARGE VOLUME OF GASSES AND VAPOURS HUGE CONTAINERS MUST BE DESIGNED.

THE CARBON & VAPOUTR CAPTURE AND FILTER DEVICES PLACED ON TOP OF THE CHIMNEYS MEASURE 1000M HEIGHT AND HAVE A VOLUME OF ALMOST 10 MILLION CUBIC METERS. TO SUSTAIN SUCH A LARGE STRUCTURE, THE DESIGN RELIES ON THE WASTE HEAT PRODUCED BY THE POWER PLANT. SOME OF THE UNUSED AND LIGHT HOT AIR WILL FILL THE, THUS MAKING THE STRUCTURE FLOAT 1000 METERS IN THE AIR, WHERE THE AIR CURRENTS ARE STEADY.

THE STRUCTURE IS MADE OUT OF MULTIPLE CARBON-FIBER STEEL PROPS HELD TOGETHER BY A CARBON-FIBER STEEL MESH. THE PROPS ARE ANCHORED IN THE EXISTING FOUNDATION OF THE POWER PLANT.

THE MESH IS THEN COVERED BY A LIGHT WEIGHT SKIN, A WATERPROOF ELASTOMER THAT ISOLATES THE GASSES AND VAPOURS FROM THE ENVIRONMENT. THE GASSES AND VAPOURS DO NOT MIX, THUS THE RISK OF ACID CLOUDS FORMATION IS ELIMINATED. THE SKIN HAS AN AREA OF 300000 SQUARE METERS AND IS EQUIPPED WITH PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS LEDs AND AIR QUALITY MONITORING SENSORS.

POWER PLANTS ARE PLACED NEAR THE CITIES, MOST OF THE URBAN INHABITANTS ARE NOT AWARE OF THEIR EXISTENCE AND IMPACT. THE MAIN ROLE OF THE LEDs THAT SHINE VERTICAL PATTERNS IS TO MAKE PEOPLE AWARE OF THEIR POWER DEMANDS AND WHAT THESE IMPLY. THE PATTERNS WILL CHANGE ACCORDING TO THE INNER AND OUTER AIR QUALITY, MONITORED BY SENSORS.

INSIDE THESE 1000 METER TUBES VARIOUS TYPES OF AIR FILTERS WITH VARIOUS DENSITIES ARE PLACED AT DIFFERENT HEIGHTS. THE LOWER FILTERS FOR CO2 EXHAUSTIONS USE SYNTHETIC CARBON FIXATION TECHNIQUES WHILE THE UPPER ONES ARE BIO-FILTERS.  THE FILTERS PLACED ON TOP OF THE COOLING CHIMNEYS PREVENT THE VAPOURS FROM REACHING THE ATMOSPHERE. THEY ARE MADE OF HORIZONTAL AIR PIPES CONNECTED ONLY TO THE EXTERIOR. THE VAPOURS CONDENSATE ON THEM AND THE RESULTING WATER IS GATHERED AND DISTRIBUTED BACK AT THE BASE.

Check out also the full competition boards for Coal Power Plant Mutation in the image gallery below.

eVolo Magazine has announced the winners of the 2012 Skyscraper Competition. The annual contest—now in its sixth year—honors visionary ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the use of new technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution.

The competition received 714 projects from 95 different countries from which the jury selected 3 winners and 22 honorable mentions.

First Place: Himalaya Water Tower
Zhi Zheng, Hongchuan Zhao, Dongbai Song (China)

"The first place was awarded to Zhi Zheng, Hongchuan Zhao and Dongbai Song from China for their project “Himalaya Water Tower”. The proposal is a skyscraper located high in the Himalayan mountain range that stores water and helps regulate its dispersal to the land below as the mountains’ natural supplies dry up. The skyscraper, which can be replicated en masse, will collect water in the rainy season, purify it, freeze it into ice and store it for future use." (from the eVolo announcement)

Second Place: Mountain Band-Aid
Yiting Shen, Nanjue Wang, Ji Xia, Zihan Wang (China)

"The second place was awarded to Yiting Shen, Nanjue Wang, Ji Xia, and Zihan Wang from China for their project “Mountain Band-Aid”, a design that seeks to simultaneously return the displaced Hmong mountain people to their homes and work as it restores the ecology of the Yunnan mountain range." (from the eVolo announcement)

Third Place: Monument to Civilization: Vertical Landfill for Metropolises
Lin Yu-Ta, Anne Schmidt (Taiwan)

"The recipient of the third place is Lin Yu-Ta from the Taiwan for a “Vertical Landfill” to be located in the largest cities around the globe, both as a reminder of the outrageous amount of garbage that we produce and as a power plant that harvests energy from waste decomposition." (from the eVolo announcement)

The 2012 panel of judges included Maria Aiolova (principal Terreform One), Chris Bosse (principal LAVA – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture), Gaël Brulé (principal Atelier CMJN, winner 2011 Skyscraper Competition), Julien Combes (principal Atelier CMJN, winner 2011 Skyscraper Competition), Marc Fornes (principal THEVERYMANY), Florian Idenburg (principal SO-IL  Solid Objectives – Indenburg Liu), Minnie Jan (principal MisoSoupDesign), Mitchell Joachim (principal Terreform One, professor at New York University), Jing Liu (principal SO-IL  Solid Objectives – Indenburg Liu), Daisuke Nagatomo (principal MisoSoupDesign), Alexander Rieck (principal LAVA – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture), Michel Rojkind (principal Rojkind Arquitectos), Michael Szivos (principal Softlab, professor at Pratt Institute), Tobias Wallisser (principal LAVA – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture), and Ma Yansong (principal MAD Architects).

Check out images of the honorable mentions in the image gallery below and visit eVolo for detailed project descriptions of all awarded entries.

Austrian firm soma is updating us on the latest construction status of their “One Ocean“ Thematic Pavilion for the EXPO 2012 in Yeosu, South Korea. The pavilion is a major and permanent building for the Expo and is scheduled for official opening on May 12, 2012.

In 2009, soma’s design proposal was selected as the first prize winner in an open international architecture competition (previously on Bustler), and the office was commissioned to plan the entire building. The building will house two kinds of exhibitions that will give the visitors an introduction to the EXPO’s theme, The living Ocean and Coast.

Project Description from the Architects:

MAIN CONCEPT

As a major and permanent facility the Thematic Pavilion embodies the Expo’s theme “The Living Ocean and Coast” in manifold ways. We experience the Ocean mainly in two ways, as an endless surface and in an immersed perspective as depth. This plain/profound duality of the Ocean motivates the building’s spatial and organisational concept. Continuous surfaces twist from vertical to horizontal orientation and define all significant interior spaces. The vertical cones induce the visitor to immerse into the Thematic Exhibition. They evolve into horizontal levels that cover the foyer and become a flexible stage for the „Best Practice Area“.

Continuous transitions between contrasting experiences also form the outer appearance of the Pavilion. Towards the sea the conglomeration of solid vertical cones define a new meandering coast line, a soft edge that is in constant negotiation between water and land. Opposite side the pavilion develops out of the ground into an artificial roof–landscape with gardens and scenic paths. The topographic lines of the roof turn into lamellas of the kinetic media façade that faces the Expo’s entrance and the “Digital Gallery”.

URBAN CONTEXT

The building will be erected in a former industrial harbour along a new promenade embracing the “Big O”. Bridges will connect the pavilion to the EXPO site. After the Expo and the aspired improvement of water quality the promenade will be transformed into an “urban beach” offering leisure activities to the public.

PROGRAM AND CIRCULATION

The main entrance is situated on Ocean Plaza, which is partly covered by the pavilion to achieve a shaded outdoor waiting area. The space boundaries of the open foyer are defined by the twisting surfaces of the cones. The interstitial spaces between them frame the view onto the Ocean and create niches for the visitors to take a pause from the exhibition. The sequence of pre-show, main show and post show is spatially modulated: Lingering through the first two small cones with a ceiling height of 8m people arrive at the main show, an breath-taking 20 meter high space of 1000sqm. After the show people arrive again at the lower and more intimate post-show that leads to the café and a swimming island in the open water, where they can relax and experience the movement of the Ocean. Visitors with a deeper interest can take the escalator to the second level, where the Best Practice Area, an open, flexible day-lit space is located. Here institutions will present their research in fields like renewable energies or marine technology. From the foyer or the Best Practice Area visitors can take stairs or lifts up to the roof top garden. The roof-landscape functions as a third exhibition area, which invites people to relax and enjoy a 360-degree view over the Expo site. Roof gardens will be covered with plants of the local coast. To leave the pavilion people stroll down a meandering ramp with panoramic views onto the surrounding Ocean and the islands. Service functions, like offices, technical and storage areas are located underneath the landscape part of the building. After the period of the EXPO the building will house public and educational facilities.

CLIMATE CONCEPT

The foyer and the Best Practice Area are naturally ventilated. Therefore the interstitial spaces between the cones were orientated towards the prevailing wind direction to create air nozzles. In the large vertical exhibitions, air will be infused through the floor, to reduce the amount of conditioned volume. During daytime the kinetic lamellas are used to control solar input. They will be operated by energy gained through solar panels on the roof. The building’s performance was analysed by detailed simulations to reduce energy consumption and increase efficiency.

BIONIC KINETIC FACADE ANALOGUE EFFECTS

As a counter part to the virtual multi-media shows of the Thematic Exhibition, the kinetic façade like the overall architecture of the pavilion evoke sensuous experiences through analogue means. Beside their function to control light conditions in the foyer and the Best Practice Area the moving the lamellas will create animated patterns on the façade. The choreography will span from subtle local movements to overall waves effecting the whole length of the building. After sunset the analogue visual effect of the moving lamellas is intensified by linear LED bars, which are located at the inner side of the front edge of the lamella. In opened position the LED can light the neighboring lamella depending on the opening angle. The bionic principle of the lamellas produce a consistent effect: Geometry, material, movement and light are seamlessly interrelated. The longer the single lamella - the wider the opening angle - the bigger the area which is lit. As a moving, emotional experience the kinetic façade combines the sensation with the sensational while communicating the EXPO’s theme in an innovative and investigative way.

Project Details:

Project: “One Ocean“, Thematic Pavilion EXPO 2012 Yeosu, South-Korea
Client: The Organizing Committee of Expo 2012 Yeosu
Location: Yeosu, South Korea
Area: 6,900 square meter
Construction: September 2010 - February 2012
Architect: soma, Austria
Local partner: dmp, Seoul
Local representative: Ralf Zabl

Consultants:

Kinetic facade: Knippers Helbig, Stuttgart
Climate design: Transsolar, Stuttgart München New York
Structural engineer: Brandstätter ZT GmbH, Salzburg
Structural engineer CD Phase: Yeon and Partners
Light design: podpod, Vienna
Landscape: Soltos
Climate design (competition): Jan Cremers, Stuttgart

Find more plans and concept diagrams in the image gallery below.

Berlin-based Barkow Leibinger Architects have shared with us "Loom-Hyperbolic," the architects' installation at the 2012 Marrakech Biennale "Higher Atlas" in Morocco which commenced earlier this week (the installation however is still on view until June 3rd at the ruins of the Koutoubia Mosque). This year's Moroccan biennale of contemporary international culture was curated by Carson Chan and Nadim Samman. 

Project Description from the Architects:

Marrakech is a city that offers an indigenous, a madly inventive, and vivid handcraft culture oscillating between ad-hoc kitsch and the archaic sublime. It is apparent that these techniques are readily available and could be appropriated for a proposal for this Biennale. The question for us became: what techniques, which form of knowledge, can be brought to this situation that could start to mediate those that we find on-site and as-found? What effects can we produce by considering geometrical form as found in the architecture of Marrakech and as constructed by using current algorithm software programming (Grasshopper, Rhino for example) and then begin to speculate how these forms might be rendered (made physical) by local craft techniques and materials? In this way the work reflects aspects, which will be familiar as local and other aspects, which can be understood as universal. This is not a totally lineal process and there is a lot of back and forth, trial and error, and testing of different models but with a similar goal.

One of the local techniques that became compelling is traditional Moroccan weaving on a wood frame loom a craft which involves organizing wool or cotton yarn into an array of (typically colored) lineal lines of yarn warped through a loom weaving and tying in order to produce a woven fabric surface. The frame of the loom is a rigid structural frame which holds yarn in place as a series of parallel lines forming surfaces a technique we reapplied at an architectural scale with the ambition of producing not 2-dimentional surfaces but rather 3 –dimensional volumes stretched over a series of fixed wooden frames.

The ultimate site for our work, the ruin at the Mosque Koutoubia, informs and locates the proposed project and establishes a scale for the work. In this way the work becomes site-specific to this places and it’s restraints and opportunities. The broken-off columns establish a grid of 5x5 meters that the installation is adjusted to by halving it to a 2.5 x 2.5 meter grid, which in the logic of a hyperbolic surface established a 2.5 height in relationship to viewers who can walk around it or through it. The repetitive column grid of the ruin also establishes the repetitive cellular grid of the loom-hyperbolic which is inserted into an open, slightly depressed, platform surrounded by the grid of the ruin on three sides. Beyond the serial/ cellular spatial matrix formed by it, of course, is it affected by the strong local daylight and will cast shadows of itself on the ancient surfaces around it. The roughly 1 to 2 cm spacing of the yarn defines hyperbolic volumes 18 times. The spacing is such that it generates enough surface to define these forms while allowing the forms to appear transparent, ephemeral, and layered when viewing them from different angles in contrast to the opaque and beautiful masonry surfaces around it.

We chose a simple local construction of light hand-peeled pine poles attached to steel plates and tubes (which establish and fix the geometry) then pull yarn over the frames which alternate in their positions and tie them off as if they were laid over a giant loom spaced closely together. The irregular slightly bent forms of the wood poles softens the hard geometry of our digital computer drawings sympathetically. The lines of the yarn generate a lineal “ruled-geometry” which forms the hyperbolic surfaces.

The installation can be viewed from above the ruin or can be moved around or through directly as it is at the scale of a series of tents. The very public nature of the site insures that the project can be seen by day or night and will be both familiar and foreign in this beautiful place.

Project Details:

Architects: Barkow Leibinger Architects, Berlin
Team members: Regine Leibinger, Frank Barkow
Project architect: Gustav Düsing
Project title: Loom-Hyperbolic
Year: 2012
Materials: 3-4mm Cotton yarn, 100mm Hand cut, Wood (Pine) Poles, Welded steel joints of plate and tubing (all materials and fabrication are on-site or local)

Find more plans and model photos in the image gallery below.

The results of the Pfff Inflatable Architecture competition, organized by CityVision and FARM, have recently been announced at MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome. Competition winner is the concept 'Grenade' by Emmanuel Sitbon and Selma Feriani of Paris-based SITBON ARCHITECTES.

The international panel of judges, comprising Italo Rota, President of the Jury (Studio Italo Rota, Milano), Benjamin Ball (Ball + Noguès, Los Angeles), Marco Canevacci (Plastique Fantastique, Berlin), Vanessa Todaro (OFL Architecture, Rome), and Andrea Bartoli (FARM), selected Grenade to be realized.

Project Description from the Architects:

Grenade aims to create a relation with its environment. Unplugged, the pavilion will be easily transported from town to town. 
It represents the identity of Farm: avant-gardist, anarchist and contemporary sponsor. As a mad plastic ovni, it promotes art exhibitions and presentation. A new way to spread art and culture in an original way.

Its volume is voluntarily attractive. It is also high to be easily located in the city. Some of the seeds are also scattered to create a route leading to the pavilion. Special for reading and presentation, the internal space gives a different perception of the outside. Each grain has a specific view and the skylight connect us to the sky. It shows a vision of the future city that dispatches 3D dimensions as grenades exploded.

The plastic allows great creative freedom. The choice of this material constitutes the envelope of the inflatable structure and has considerable influence on the behavior of Grenade. The complexity lies in the main forces acting on a structure like the air pressure inside the inflation and expenses (aerodynamic) wind.

The assembly time is remarkably lower than conventional stands then, the volume of transport is much lower. In addition, during its rapid rise, the state of surprised by the originality of the format is complete. Its weight allows it to be exposed anywhere with a low price. Mounting up the system can be done without any difficulty by anyone while remaining portable. All this without affecting the image of Farm. On the contrary. All is about having an original approach of the inflatable form, to show its best face.


The air pressure required to maintain position in an inflatable structure is low, a static pressure of about 1 inch of water, or 0036 psi is sufficient. Practically, the pressure will depend on the prevailing wind speed detected in the city where Grenade will be installed. In general, the minimum pressure of inflation of the inflatable structure is 50% of the dynamic wind pressure, which already allows it to withstand winds of 60 to 70 m / h. The ground is secured by the entire perimeter of the pavilion, so that it resists to the total effect of lift due to air pressure and wind. The anchoring ballast is a satisfactory method of fixation for the type of inflatable chosen. And sand, filling the lower seeds, are used at the base to make weight.

The Pavilion did not even need to name Farm because we recognized it directly. As the Happiness flag. It is the identity of Farm. A door open to horizons.
Inspire a breath of pomegranate to the city and gives a break in today’s world which is rather hyperspeed than low. Grenade promotes mobility by Farm and is like a buffer that absorbs the various cities imaginations where he settled and rebroadcasts them to its next stop. Moreover, the trace of light moving on the membrane suggests that art will always be a universal language.

Foster + Partners announced today that Hermitage Plaza, the ambitious high-rise project in Paris, France, has been approved and was granted the Permis de Construire. The twisted twin towers – at 320 meters aiming to be Western Europe's tallest mixed-use towers – promise to create a new community to the east of La Défense, bringing the life of central Paris to the business district with a riverside park lined with cafes and restaurants.

Press Announcement from the Architects:

Hermitage Plaza will create a new community to the east of La Défense, in Courbevoie, that extends down to the river Seine with cafés, shops and a public plaza at its heart. The project incorporates two 320-metre-high buildings – the tallest mixed-use towers in Western Europe – which will establish a distinctive symbol for this new urban destination on the Paris skyline.

The result of a close collaboration with EPAD, the City of Courbevoie, Atelier de Paysage Urbain and Département de Hauts-de-Seine, the project is intended to inject life into the area east of La Défense by creating a sustainable, high-density community. The two towers accommodate a hotel, spa, panoramic apartments, offices and serviced apartments, as well as shops at the base.

The buildings face one another at ground level. Open and permeable to encourage people to walk through the site, the towers enclose a public piazza which establishes the social focus. As they rise from an interlocking diamond-shaped plan, the towers turn outward to address views across Paris. The angle of the façade panels promotes self-shading and vents can be opened to draw fresh air inside, contributing to an environmental strategy that targets a BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating. The highly efficient diagrid structure uses less steel and emphasises the elegant proportions of the towers.

A crystal-shaped podium building contains office space, with two detached satellite buildings housing a gallery and auditorium that further extend the public realm. The piazza – created by burying the existing busy road beneath a landscaped deck – slopes gently downward to the water’s edge, which is lined with new cafés and restaurants. Connected to the existing Courbevoie and EPAD masterplans, the project will reinforce the regeneration of the riverfront.

Grant Brooker, a senior partner at Foster + Partners: “Our ambition was to create a project that would inject new life into La Défense by bringing a new type of occupation and creating a new public focus on the edge of the Seine. This announcement represents a very important stage in the project’s development and is thanks to the passion of our client, Emin Iskenderov, and the support we have had from EPAD, the City of Courbevoie and the Département de Hauts-de-Seine – we could not have reached this milestone without them.”

The winners of the 2012 Housing Tomorrow competition were just announced. The annual competition promotes the exploration of contextual, cultural, and life cycle flows that offer new housing strategies for living in the future.

Sponsored by New York-based d3, the competition invites architects, designers, engineers, and students to collectively explore innovative approaches to residential urbanism, architecture, interiors, and designed objects.

d3 Housing Tomorrow recognizes innovative strategies that challenge conventional housing typologies with emerging planning strategies, advanced technologies, and alternative materials. Competition submissions for 2012 reflect forces of globalization and adaptation, as well as the changing nature of visualization in academia and professional design practice.

The 2012 jury was composed of leaders of the academic and professional architecture and design community including: Jonus Ademovic, Principal of Archipelagos; Illya Azaroff, principal of plusLAB, Assistant Professor/CUNY, Adjunct Faculty School of Visual Arts; Sandra McKee, principal of Yoshihara McKee, Adjunct Assistant Professor/Columbia University & Fordham University; Marc Manack, principal of siloARD and Lecturer/Ohio State University; Ji Young Kim; member of J-SEArC/Columbia University; and Jorg Sieweke, Assistant Professor/University of Virginia. The competition was co-directed by Laura Garofalo, Assistant Profesor/SUNY Buffalo and winner of previous d3 Housing Tomorrow/d3 Natural Systems competitions; and Gregory Marinic, Director of Interior Architecture and Assistant Professor/University of Houston. The jury selected three winners and twelve honorable mentions.

First Place: Woolopolis
Hannes Frykholm and Henry Stephens (Sweden/New Zealand)

First Prize was awarded to Hannes Frykholm and Henry Stephens, a team from Sweden and New Zealand, for their project ‘Woolopolis’. The project rethinks various aspects of New Zealan’s wool economy and combines processing facilities, lofted housing units, and a market functioning as the communal center of a networked live-work community.

Second Place: Honeycombed Transformation
Chih-Wei Hsu (Taiwan)

Second Prize was awarded to Chih-Wei Hsu from Taiwan for ‘Honeycombed Transformation’. The project addresses integrated housing communities that lessen the carbon footprint by establishing a high-density living environment minimizing impact on surrounding natural territories.

Third Plcae: Invertec House
Danielle Apap, Lishi Li, Miguel Silva Santisteban (Australia)

Third Prize was award to Danielle Apap, Lishi Li, and Miguel Silva Santisteban, a team from Australia, for their project ‘Invertec House’. The project reconsiders privacy thresholds, providing opportunities for the house to mediate between public and communal realms.

Twelve Special Mentions were selected in various typology-specific categories including:

• Sustainable New York Award: ‘Hobo Corp.’, Jodi McLeod, Natasha Gershfield, William Allen, Rongxiao Han (UK/China);
• High-Density Housing: ‘Noah Tower’, Pei Ru Li, Kaining Peng, Chen Liang (China);
• Medium-Density Housing: ‘Mountain Band-Aid’, Yiting Shen, Nanjue Wang, Ji Xia, Zihan Wang (China);
• Low-Density Housing: ‘Urban Green House’, Rebecca Ryan Wall (USA);
• Suburban Intervention: ‘High-Density Tucson’, Mohammad Askarzadeh, Parisa Mansourian (Iran);
• Master Planning: ‘unBuffer Zone’, Natalia Christodoulou, Miranda Savva, Fatmagul Oge, Lei Bao (Cyprus/China);
• Adaptive Reuse: ‘Boom Blox’ Andrea Giordano, Alim Saleh, Kieran Bruce, William Garforth-Bles, Danae Razou (UK);
• Interior Architecture: ‘Factory Reconstruction’ Qi Zhang, Shuo Li, Zihe Deng (China);
• Single-Family/Modular: ‘Furtive Hut’, Gonzalo del Val (Spain);
• Alternative Typology: ‘Symbiotic City’, J.Y. Chan, S.L. Chau, H.W. Cheung, M.T. Chow (Hong Kong);
• Director’s Choice: ‘Metabolic Renewal’, Majid Behboudi, Arash Nourkeyhani, Mark Ross, Paul Harrison (Canada);
• Director’s Choice: Moving Dove Wu Hao, Shen Shuangzhi, Zhu Xiaozhi (China).

Check the image gallery below to see the Honorable Mentions in detail.

A publication of winning projects and selected competition submissions will be published by d3 in Spring 2012.

Graduate-level student teams representing the University of California-Berkeley, Columbia University, the University of Michigan, and a joint team from the University of Colorado and Harvard University have been selected as finalists for the tenth annual Urban Land Institute (ULI) Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. This year’s finalists were charged with proposing a long-term vision for creating a distinct identity for a new downtown Houston district.

Participating interdisciplinary teams were challenged with creating a practical and workable scheme for the best use of approximately 16.3 acres owned by the United States Postal Service (USPS). The competition focuses on the USPS property since it is considered by many stakeholders to be a key site to reconnect the Theater District, the Historic District, and the greater downtown to the Buffalo Bayou. The downtown post office was one of several hundred USPS properties put up for sale nation-wide in 2009 to offset the federal agency’s financial losses. Since that time, land planners and real estate experts have suggested numerous possibilities for the property, which have included converting the land into public open space, mixed-use development that includes residential housing, as well entertainment venues.

The competition is based on a hypothetical proposal in which a fictional entity, the Central Houston Foundation (CHF), has acquired the option to purchase the site and establish redevelopment goals and connections to the surrounding areas. According to the scenario, the CHF has committed a large endowment to both community development and the sustainable growth of Houston’s downtown in hopes of generating a revenue stream for its endowment, while giving shape to a new downtown district. In order to meet the owners’ demands, the student teams are acting as a master developer by proposing a master land use plan for the development site as well as supplying financial projections needed to support the master development plan.

While based on a hypothetical situation, the 2012 Hines competition addresses local groups’ desire to connect downtown redevelopment to incorporate connections to Houston’s neighborhoods. Houston’s downtown is the center of the city’s transit network, providing downtown workers with a variety of commuting options that include light rail, buses, vanpools, and carpools.

The development schemes from the finalist teams are:

University of California - Berkeley: “The Grand”

Students: Deepak Sohane (Master of Urban Design), Brian Chambers (Master of Urban Design), Carlos Emilio Sandoval Olascoaga (Master of Architecture), Jim Farris (MBA), Momin Mahammad (Master of Urban Design)
Faculty Adviser: Peter Bosselmann

“The Grand” proposes an elaborate network of public space fronting on the Buffalo Bayou, including community gardens, open space, and a kayak/canoe launch area that connects to the already-built open space across the water – creating an important new node along the Bayou. Washington Street is brought into the site as a primary corridor, linking with both downtown and the redevelopment to the west. The proposal aims to introduce high residential and commercial densities to the north of Washington Street with easy access to a potential commuter rail/Amtrak station onsite. - Competiton Board (PDF)

University of Colorado/Harvard University (joint team): “Downtown Bayou”

Students: Chad Murphy (MBA Real Estate), Alex Atherton (MBA Real Estate), Michael Albert (Master of Landscape Architecture), Anna Cawrse (Master of Landscape Architecture), Victor Perez Amado (Master of Architecture)
Faculty Adviser: Anita Berrizbeitia
Professional Advisor: Todd Johnson

“Downtown Bayou” creates a residential neighborhood in downtown Houston with a distinct focus on connecting residents and workers to the Bayou and the rest of downtown. A pedestrian corridor that cuts through the site links the Cultural District with new restaurants, offices, condos/apartments along with an open green space to the north of the rail yard. A walkable scale is created by the introduction of new blocks, along with shifting Franklin Street north while maintaining its overall capacity. - Competiton Board (PDF)

Columbia University: “The Post”

Students: Jennifer Chung (Master of Real Estate Development), Wendy Hoffman (Master of Real Estate Development), Jose Franco Soberano (Master of Real Estate Development), Zachary Craun (Master of Architecture and Urban Design), Farzin Lotfi-Jam (Master of Advanced Architectural Design)
Faculty Adviser: Jesse Keenan

By maintaining the existing USPS office building and converting it into a center for artists, workshops, and incubator office space, “The Post” creates a cultural center within the site to complement the adjacent cultural district. It also introduces roof-top entertainment such as cinemas and eateries to capitalize on the site’s views of downtown and beyond. Residential development maintains a human scale while providing housing for over 2500 people at all income levels. A portion of the USPS distribution facility is also retained, and will be renovated to house a small-vendor produce market. - Competiton Board (PDF)

University of Michigan: “The Hill”

Students: Jessica Hester (Master of Science in Design Research), Laura Reading (Master in Urban Planning), Reid Fellenbaum (Master in Architecture), Anne Fennema (Master in Urban Planning), Sylvia Harris (Master in Urban Planning)
Faculty Adviser: Suzanne Lanyi Charles

“The Hill” envisions a new livable downtown district in Houston through connections to the University of Houston’s Downtown and the Buffalo Bayou through the creation of diverse housing stock and unique parks. The “Houston Highline” park connects from the bayou into the heart of the site, linking Houston’s Historic and Cultural Districts with this live-work-play community. Buildings gradually decrease in height towards the bayou, giving the project a distinctive architectural identity while connectivity is enhanced by a new network of walkable blocks and a transit center. - Competiton Board (PDF)

According to competition jury chairman and longtime ULI leader James Chaffin, the four finalists took a holistic approach to how the site was connected to and affected by the area around it. “These students were very aware of who they were designing these places for, whether it was for a younger generation looking for a different type of experience, or an older generation looking not for assisted living, but easy living that is not committed to an automobile,” said Chaffin, chairman of Chaffin/Light Associates, LLC in Okatie, S.C. “This generation of students is very committed to transit-oriented development. The way it [public transit] was incorporated into the site so that it is an easy and celebrated part of the solution is an expression of how this generation does not want to be dependent on the automobile.”

The competition jury consists of renowned experts in urban planning, design and development. In addition to Chaffin, other jury members are: Gerdo Aquino, president/principal, SWA Group, Los Angeles, Calif.; Mimi Burns, principal, Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, Albuquerque, N.M; Anyeley Hallova, partner, Project Ecological Development, Portland, Ore.; Richard Heapes, principal, Street Works, White Plains, N.Y.; Sandra Kulli, president, Kulli Marketing, Malibu, Calif.; Michael Lander, president and owner, The Lander Group, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.; Alan Mountjoy, principal, Chan Krieger/NBBJ, Cambridge, Mass.; Greg Shannon, President, Sedona Pacific Corporation, San Diego, Calif.; and Tim Van Meter, partner, Van Meter, Williams Pollack, LLP, Denver, Colo.

Nine teams were also selected for honorable mention.  The jury commended the University of Houston with “Houston’s Urban Bayou Neighborhood” for superior financials; Harvard University with “Tread Lightly, Texas!” for superior site planning; the University of Virginia with “Green Tech Corridor” for superior focus on job creation; the University of Texas at Austin with “Global Ideas:  Grown in Texas” for superior focus on demographics; the University of Pennsylvania with “Infiltrate” for superior focus on water treatment; and Ball State University with “EcoEdge” for superior presentation graphics.  Three honorable mentions for overall merit were awarded to the University of Oklahoma with “The Foundry;” the Georgia Institute of Technology with “Artesano;” and the University of Oklahoma with “The Veranda.”

In the final phase of the 2012 competition, which concludes on April 6, each of the final four teams will be given the opportunity to expand their original schemes and respond in more detail. On April 5-6, finalist team members will present their schemes to the competition jury during a public forum in Houston. The event will culminate with the announcement of the winning team. The competition is designed as an exercise; there is no intention that the students’ plans will be implemented as part of any development of the site.

For images of some of the selected Honorable Mentions, please see the image gallery below.

Viennese architectural firm Wolfgang Tschapeller ZT GmbH has won the First Prize in an international competition that seeks to overhaul the campus of the Angewandte, a group of buildings that house the University of Applied Arts, as well as the Museum for Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria.

Tschapeller's winning entry, together with fourteen finalist submissions, will be on view in an exhibition at the Museum for Applied Arts from March 9 through 25. The opening reception is on Thursday, March 8 at 7:30 pm.

Project Description from the Architects:

Between 1st and 3rd district in Vienna on the Ringstrasse a few buildings of different authors and times are collected on a block. Heinrich von Ferstel, Schwanzer-Wörle and Noever-Müller are the architects of the group of fine buildings. Some of them serve the purposes of the Museum for Applied Arts and some of them serve the University of Applied Arts. The original urban intent for this group of buildings follows a very fine, subtle and precise idea. Although being part of a block, or standing on a block, they were always meant to keep their independency and autonomy by simultaneously allowing for a visibility of the space in between them.

In late 2011 an international 2 stage competition was announced. Wolfgang Tschapeller ZT GmbH proposed 6 POINTS FOR A “NEUE ANGEWANDTE”

ERASE - RESTORE
The LINK BUILDING by Schwanzer/Wörle was an unfortunate move. It does not only work strongly against the original urban intent of a loose and open grouping of buildings on a block. It works also against the character of Schwanzer/Wörle´s own design. Ferstel Bau as well as the Schwanzer/Wörle Bau are in their essence autonomous objects standing in critical and productive distance to each other. Such a reading is re-proposed in our project. Consequently the following steps are proposed:

• Demolition link building,
• Reconstruction of those parts of the Ferstel Bau and the Schwanzer-Wörle Bau which were destroyed by the insertion of the LINK BUILDING,
• Activation of the now very well lit areas of the Schwanzer/Wörle Bau

DISLOCATE
We are fascinated by seriality of the Schwanzer/Wörle Bau. The building consists in essence of a series of columns and slabs. By taking out stairs and elevator cores and by repositioning them in front of the serial structure of the Schwanzer/Wörle Bau two essential targets are achieved:

• Full flexibility on the entire floor slab
• Remarkable gain of usable floor area
• Improvement of circulation (in economic and spatial terms)

PURE STRUCTURE – AN ENTIRELY EMTPY SHELF
The removal of stair and elevator cores displays a pure serial structure. What remains are solely columns and slabs, ready for multiple functional readings. The shelf like structure will house the Studios.

COMMON BASE
Ferstel Bau and Schwanzer/Wörle Bau are connected by a common functional base, containing lecture halls, workshops, storage spaces, technical installations as well as supply lines and waste management.

CAMPUS - WHERE 17 DIFFERENT STUDIOS MEET
In essence we propose 3 main connecting elements to “make” the new Campus of the Angewandte.

• The INTERIOR SQUARE connects Ferstel Bau with Schwanzer/Wörle Bau,
• The GARDEN connects the buildings of the University with those of the Museum
• The BROADWAY, a large stair which runs diagonally across the elevation of the Schwanzer/Wörle Bau. The BROADWAY is not only a means of circulation; it is the platform where members and knowledge of the 17 different studios meet. It is the informal marketplace for cross disciplinary projects.

TEMPORARY STRUCTURES
On the roof of the University two optional, temporary structures are proposed. Two pneumatic balloons indicate and signal special occasions at the Angewandte to the surrounding City. Raised transparent balloons means a special day, like flags on a building.

Project Details:

Project: University of Applied Arts Vienna  
Location: Vienna, Austria 
Project status: competition, 1st prize 
Planning period: 2012 

Architect: Wolfgang Tschapeller ZT GmbH

Collaborators: Jesper Bork, Simon Oberhammer, Mark Balzar, Franz Kropatschek, Gonzalo Vaillo Martinez, Daniel Ehrl

Consultants: Werkraum Wien (structural engineering), Planungsgruppe Grünpichler GmbH (BSE), Dr. Jochen Käferhaus (energy climate control), Brandrat (fire safety), Klaus Pokorny (lighting design), ISOCHROM, Armin Hess (renderings)

Find more diagrams of the proposal in the image gallery below.

Last December, the 2012 TED Prize winner was officially announced, and for the first time in the history of the prize, not just a single person but a collaborative idea was being awarded: the City 2.0. This week, with the TED2012: Full Spectrum conference happening right now in Long Beach, California, the TED Prize Wish - "One Wish to Change the World" - has now also been revealed.

THE WISH:

I am the crucible of the future.
I am where humanity will either flourish or fade.
I am being built and rebuilt every day.
I am inevitable. But I am not yet determined.
I wish to be inclusive, innovative, healthy, soulful, thriving. But my potential can only be reached through you.

You can forge a new urban outlook. Begin by connecting. Imagine a platform that brings you together, locally and globally. Combine the reach of the cloud with the power of the crowd. Connect leaders, experts, companies, organizations and citizens. Share your tools, data, designs, successes, and ideas. Turn them into action.

Together you can:

• Bridge the gap between poor and rich communities.
• Spectacularly reduce your carbon footprint.
• Make nature part of daily life.
• Empower entrepreneurship.
• Re-imagine education.
• Nurture health.

I am the City 2.0. Dream me. Build me. Make me real.

THE PLAN:

The TED Prize will create a unique platform to allow citizens anywhere to participate in the creation of their City 2.0. The platform will excite, connect and empower individuals and communities around the world through editorial content (video and text), a shareable project database, tools for local connection, and resources for executing ideas. The result will be an ever-expanding network of citizen-led experiments, with the ability to scale successes and learn lessons from failures.

For phase I, the website (www.thecity2.org) will focus on helping individuals in forming cross-disciplinary groups to:

1. determine the issue they want to tackle (i.e. traffic, lack of trees);
2. determine a solution;
3. develop an action plan;
4. work to implement the solution;
5. share the story of their success or failure with others.

Companies and organizations will be able to offer their tools to site users for use in executing their action plans. Ten micro grants of $10,000, coming out of the $100,000 TED Prize money, will be awarded in July 2012 to ten local projects that have the best hope of spurring the creation of their City 2.0.

As the site continues to grow and the overall platform grows we expect to:

1. expand the functionality for individuals to connect and act;
2. develop and design templates for knowledge sharing between new ideas formulated on the site and preexisting projects;
3. build out our resource section with new local and global partners;
4. introduce technology solutions for non-web based communities;
5. expand our financial incentive program with larger grant offerings for active projects
6. establish local and/or global gatherings on the City 2.0.

THE NEEDS:

• Local individuals to form groups and begin activating around their city
• Editor(s)/researcher(s) to seek out great examples of what is working and tell those stories
• Photographers and videographers
• Companies and organizations willing to offer empowering resources
• Financial support
• Links/connections to local organizations working on cities
• Media campaign
• Media space
• Connections to governments and data sets
• Technology partners

QUESTIONS:

1. How do we turn a set of individual, local projects into the ultimate blueprint for The City 2.0?
2. What functionality and resources would best enable citizens to get active?
3. How do we best tell the stories of successful projects?
4. What is an innovative way to share knowledge to help activate local groups?

Join the initiative and register now at thecity2.org, and also watch videos of the TED2012 presenters on the TED blog.

Global design firm Fentress Architects recently announced the winning designs for the 2011 Fentress Global Challenge, an international competition launched last fall for architecture and engineering students to present their visions for the Airport of the Future. Expert jury members narrowed the 200 submittals to 16 finalists, and then to the top three with two honorable mentions. Designs were evaluated on creative approach, response to site, sustainability, and functionality.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER: LDN Delta Airport
Student: Oliver Andrew, London South Bank University, London

Project Description: "The LDN Delta Airport is designed as prefabricated, mass-produced islands situated in the Thames Estuary, upstream from London. The airport would ease the overcrowding of the surrounding airports as there are no cars, runways, nor check-in desks, but is served solely via public transportation. Flight information is connected through passengers’ cell phones, providing the departure time and assigned gate. The airport supports vertical takeoff with hypersonic jets capable of flying at the edge of space, lifting off from purpose-built landing pads and uses the tidal currents to run on total sustainable power."

2nd Place: The Airport of the Future
Student: Martin Sztyk, University College London, London

Project Description: "In the Airport of the Future, algae farms produce biofuel for aircrafts and the airport facility, which can be processed by neighboring oil refineries."

3rd Place: Pocket Airports
Student: Alexander Nevarez, Art Center College of Design, United States

Project Description:"Pocket airports created a new aircraft, integrating quiet electric propulsion, supersonic speeds, and vertical takeoff/landing capability."

Honorable Mention: Aero-Loop
Student: Thor Yi Chun, University of Science of Malaysia

Honorable Mention: New Arcticity
Student: Daniel Kang, National Taiwan University of Science

The competition jury included G. Hardy Acree, Airport Director, Sacramento International Airport; Marvin Malecha, FAIA, Dean of the College of Design, North Carolina State University; Helen Norman, Editor, Passenger Terminal World; Tibbie Dunbar, Executive Director, Architecture + Design Museum; James P. Cramer, Hon AIA, Hon IIDA, Cofounder & Chairman, Design Futures Council; and Curtis Fentress, FAIA, RIBA, Principal-in-Charge of Design, Fentress Architects.

The designer of the winning entry, Oliver Andrew, will be awarded the top prize valued at $10,000, including $3,000 cash and a paid internship at Fentress Architects this summer. The runner-up and third place winner will receive cash awards of $1,000 and $500 respectively.

The top 16 finalist designs will also gain international exposure in the traveling exhibition Now Boarding: Fentress Airports + The Architecture of Flight, which provides a multi-media journey through the past, present and future of airport design. The exhibit debuts on July 15, 2012 at the Denver Art Museum.

The Interior Design Department at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) has announced Diller Scofidio + Renfro as this year’s recipient of the Lawrence Israel Prize. Endowed by architect Lawrence J. Israel, the prize has been given annually since 1998 to an individual or firm whose ideas and work enrich FIT Interior Design students’ course of study.

Each year, the award recipient is invited to give a public talk on their work. Diller Scofidio + Renfro's talk will take place on Thursday, March 15 at 6 pm at FIT in the John E. Reeves Great Hall, Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center, Seventh Avenue at 28th Street. This event is free and open to the public, with no reservations required.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the firm known for the High Line and the renovation of Lincoln Center, is a 75-person interdisciplinary studio based in New York City. For three decades, the firm has been involved with all fields of design, including graphics, installations, experimental dance and theater productions. Past and current projects include museums, restaurants, civic buildings, entertainment complexes, houses, high-rise residential mixed-use developments, and theater and performance pieces. Prominent among these are The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston; The Brasserie in the Seagram Building; the Blur Building, Switzerland; and Moving Target, a dance work made in collaboration with Charleroi/Danses, Belgium and loosely based on Nijinsky's uncensored diaries. Diller and Scofidio are the first architects to have been honored with a MacArther Prize.

The Lawrence Israel Prize committee noted, “Diller Scofidio + Renfro stands as a keen role model for all students of design, particularly for our students at FIT. Whether it is exterior or interior, written or spoken, their work inspires thought. One never simply inhabits a work by DS+R; instead they provoke us with new perspectives both literally and metaphorically. They’ve proven to New York how unnecessary it is to pull down the house when smart surgical insertions can upturn a foundation. More than architects, they are the alchemists and choreographers of a new mode of dwelling.”

Chinese architect Wang Shu is the 2012 laureate of the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s highest honor. The 48 year old architect whose practice Amateur Architecture Studio is based in Hangzhou, The People’s Republic of China, was announced today by Thomas J. Pritzker, chairman of The Hyatt Foundation which sponsors the prize. The formal award ceremony will be held in Beijing on May 25.

In announcing the jury’s choice, Pritzker elaborated, “The fact that an architect from China has been selected by the jury, represents a significant step in acknowledging the role that China will play in the development of architectural ideals. In addition, over the coming decades China’s success at urbanization will be important to China and to the world. This urbanization, like urbanization around the world, needs to be in harmony with local needs and culture. China’s unprecedented opportunities for urban planning and design will want to be in harmony with both its long and unique traditions of the past and with its future needs for sustainable development.”

Upon learning that he was being honored, Wang Shu had this reaction: “This is really a big surprise. I am tremendously honored to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize. I suddenly realized that I’ve done many things over the last decade. It proves that earnest hard work and persistence lead to positive outcomes.”

Following is a small selection of Wang Shu's work.

The distinguished jury that selected the 2012 Pritzker Laureate consists of its chairman, The Lord Palumbo, internationally known architectural patron of London, chairman of the trustees, Serpentine Gallery, former chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain, former chairman of the Tate Gallery Foundation, and former trustee of the Mies van der Rohe Archive at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and alphabetically: Alejandro Aravena, architect and executive director of Elemental in Santiago, Chile; Stephen Breyer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Washington, D.C.; Yung Ho Chang, architect and educator, Beijing, The People’s Republic of China; Zaha Hadid, architect and 2004 Pritzker Laureate; Glenn Murcutt, architect and 2002 Pritzker Laureate of Sydney, Australia; Juhani Pallasmaa, architect, professor and author of Helsinki, Finland; and Karen Stein, writer, editor and architectural consultant in New York. Martha Thorne, associate dean for external relations, IE School of Architecture, Madrid, Spain, is the executive director of the prize.

The list of past Pritzker Prize laureates also includes big names like Eduardo Souto de Moura (2011), Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA (2010), Peter Zumthor (2009), Thom Mayne (2005), Zaha Hadid (2004), Rem Koolhaas (2000), Norman Foster (1999), Tadao Ando (1995), Alvaro Siza (1992), Luis Barragán (1980) and - winner of the first Pritzker Prize ever - Philip Johnson in 1979.

We just published the winners of the design ideas competition, The Harlem Edge / Cultivating Connections, organized by Emerging New York Architects (ENYA). One of the finalist entries was the proposal Greenhouse Transformer by Dongwoo Yim and Rafael Luna of Boston firm PRAUD. The concept received an Honorable Mention.

Project Description from the Architects:

The Greenhouse Transformer is a typology for urban farming with the purpose of creating environments for learning year round within the community of West Harlem. The main goal is to integrate life cycle components of food production into a building that is also a catalyst for activity in the area and allows visitors to engage in the program in a more efficient way.
To achieve this goal, we introduced a transforming system that can provide various environments as nature. One of the things that restricts farming in a city the most is climate condition. Unlike in a farm land where developed irrigation systems are, urban farming should stricktly depend on natural climate conditions. Together with mechanical means, the system allows different types of climate so that climate conditions for urban farming can be more controlled.

Food Production:
The building allows for year round farming through hydroponics, greenhouse transformation, and exterior farming.

Education:
The building provides spaces for teaching and learning about urban farming in a direct matter, where people interested can see the process first hand.

Processing and distribution:
Goods grown in the farms can be collected and sold to raise funds for the Learning program.

Consumption:
During summer months, the open deck plaza allows for farmer’s markets, where the products can be sold, and used by local food vendors.

Entertainment:
The building itself provides new settings that demonstrate different environments and settings for social mixing, and creates new recreational activities for the community.

Project Details:

Project: Emerging New York Architects Competition 2012 (The Harlem Edge; Cultivating Connetions)
Result: Honorable Mention
Year: 2012
Team: PRAUD (Rafael Luna, Dongwoo Yim)
Area: 2,475 m2

Find more plans, sections and elevations of Greenhouse Transformer in the image gallery below.

The Emerging New York Architects (ENYA) Committee of the AIA NY Chapter has announced the winners of its fifth biennial design ideas competition, The Harlem Edge / Cultivating Connections. One hundred seventy-eight teams and individuals registered for the competition and more than ninety-eight entries from sixteen countries were submitted for judging.

The competition explored the redevelopment of the decommissioned Department of Sanitation marine transfer station located on the Hudson River at 135th Street. The site offers the opportunity to engage the local Harlem community with the waterfront, and echoes recent efforts by NYC to reclaim the waterfront for non-industrial use, as included Department of City Planning in its Vision 2020, the Comprehensive Waterfront Action Plan for New York City.

ENYA Prize, $5000: Sym'bio'pia
Ting Chin and Yan Wang, Linearscape Architecture, New York, NY, USA

2nd Prize, $2500: The Hudson Exchange
Eliza Higgins, Cyrus Patell, Chris Starkey, and Andrea Vittadini, Brooklyn, NY, USA

3rd Prize, $1000: Harlem Harvest
Ryan Doyle, Guido Elgueta, and Tyler Caine, Brooklyn, NY, USA

Student Prize, $1000: Stairway to Harlem
Daniel Mowery, Student of Architecture, University of Virginia, USA

Five Honorable Mentions were also given to:

• Continuum, by Nasiq Khan, and Scott Brandi, Bayside, NY, USA
• Subaqueous Promenade, by Doyoung Oh, and Jaemin Ha, London, United Kingdom/Boston, MA, USA
• New Marine Transfer Station, by Yashar Ghasemkhani, Arash Mesbah, and Pooneh Sadrimanesh, New York, NY, USA
• Land Over Water Agro-Pavilion, by Michael C. Kilroy, and Jonathan Sampson, Students of Architecture, University of New Mexico, USA
• Greenhouse Transformer, by Dongwoo Yim, and Rafael Luna, PRAUD, Boston, MA, USA

This year's jury was comprised of Emily Abruzzo, AIA, LEED AP, Partner, Abruzzo Bodziak Architects LLC, and Winner of 2012 New Practices New York; Meta Brunzema, Principal, Meta Brunzema Architect PC; Dr. Dickson D. Despommier, Emeritus Professor of Public Health, Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University; Louise Harpman, Clinical Associate Professor | Architecture, Urban Design, Sustainability, NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study; Michael Marrella, Director of Waterfront and Open Space Planning, New York City Department of City Planning; Jesse Reiser, Principal, Reiser + Umemoto RUR Architecture PC; and Keith VanDerSys, Principal, PEG office of landscape + architecture, and Winner of the 2010 ENYA Prize.

The winning entries will be exhibited at the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, New York, NY, this July and be published in a competition catalog. In coordination with the exhibition, ENYA will be hosting a symposium to discuss design issues related to the winning entries and possibilities for the future development of the site and its neighboring community. The Harlem Edge is presented as part of Future Now, the 2012 AIA New York Chapter Presidential Theme.

Young Chinese firm FangCheng Architects has sent us their proposal Bridge Urban Life Typology, a city-wide network of bridge buildings which won the team the Second Prize at the 1.100.10000 Ideas Competition. The contest sought for innovative ideas to rapidly add 240,000 affordable housing units for more than 800,000 people in China's mega-boomtown Shenzhen.

Project Description from the Architects:

China's current 12th Five-Year-Plan has mandated the construction of 36 million units
of affordable housing planned to house billions of people during the years of 2011-2015.
According to this planning, Shenzhen government's assignment is to construct 240,000 units to house more than 800,000 people. This abrupt top-down task of rapid mass housing construction raises a series of problems such as planning, program, needs, policy, land resources, finance, design, construction, distribution and management. A critical question for the architectural profession has arisen: What can DESIGN do within this situation?

Commissioned by the Urban Planning, Land and Resources Commission of Shenzhen Municipality, the Shenzhen Design Center initiates a series of events and programs to encourage innovation in the design of affordable housing.
Expanding the Center's preliminary research, the 1.100.10000 Ideas Competition aims to generate discussion, debates and inventive proposals for affordable housing in China.

'1- unit' category focuses on the design solutions of maximum spatial efficiency of a single habitation unit.
'100- families' category encourages radical strategies to distribute affordable housing throughout the city with neighborhood pockets housing hundreds of families each.
'10000- residents' category explores alternatives to China's typical large residential communities by encouraging the incorporation of mixed use and low-cost living environments.

Shenzhen government plans to raise funds to build 240.000 affordable housing units with an 15.36 million square meters construction area. However, in the current strategy, most of the affordable housing is planned to be built outside the urban center, and many are even in the urban fringe. In this case, due to travelling time, cost and sense of isolation from the urban center, residents adopt a negative attitude to the policy even though the housing price is low.

The entire landmass of Shenzhen is 1953 sq. kilometer, this includes 395.81 sq. kilometer special economic zone (SEZ). After thirty years of development, the utilization of land becomes more and more intensified, so how do we manage to build 15.36 million sq. meters for affordable housing under the land-contraction policy? And how to bring practical benefits to low-income groups who persistently make contributions to the city?

Apartments need to be bought outside the urban core, and rented inside. Our concept is to build as many affordable houses as possible in the urban center, this can decrease residents travelling time and increase usage and sharing of urban facilities.  This strategy has as goal to improve social housing integration in the urban core which is done through building 6200 affordable housing units in the urban center.

In which manner can this goal be achieved? Through analyzing the built distribution map what becomes obvious is that 20% is occupied by municipal roads. These municipal roads are wide with a beautiful artificial landscape along the sides which lend for future development and construction of urban space.

According to the analysis there are several primary distributor roads, such as Shennan, Beihuan and Binhai road, whom are wider than 50 meters, and wider than 100 meters including the greenbelts on either side. To some extent these roads increase efficiency, but from the sustainable utilization of land view, they divide the city into pieces with a single function. This causes the city to loose its comfortable human scale.

The city is divided into various regions that operate like isolated islands due to the increasing traffic flow on highways. Therefore, the city lacks a pedestrian system, which is currently not sustainable. We need to promote pedestrian and public traffic in order to enhance the connectivity to each region, the question will be: Is it possible to use affordable housing as a means to reach this goal and modify the city?

The design proposal for affordable housing comes forth out of the city function typology study, which asked for several prototypes for a building. Our design of a "bridge building" encourages low-income habitants to live inside the urban-center and rebuilds the pedestrian traffic system for the whole city.

The proposal is neither the 10 thousand residents community nor the low-cost rental housing, but a city wide network which can increase the utilization of facilities, enhance the pedestrian system and provide a chance for residents to decrease travelling time to work. According to the land-use analysis, road-width, function distribution, urban density and height of  the buildings running along the main traffic arteries we have come to 4 types of "bridge buildings": single bridge, mega bridge, platform bridge and cascading bridge.

This typology can be built in an area that needs flow separation, in this case Beihuan road is selected as testing site, and provides an opportunity to replace the pedestrian bridges that are situated every 200 meters. The first floor holds free rental space for peddlers which sell life necessities. Inside the building, there is a wide staircase linking the upper residential floors, which on it self are again connected through several atria which serve as semi-public space. As a whole this typology works like a micro-city.

Along densely build Shennan road the mega bridge is located between the vast number of high-rise buildings. The area brings about a large group of workers, mega bridge unites this area by creating a single platform which link not only all the shared public facilities but also transportation, metro and bus, and weaves seamlessly into the existing structure and poses a mixed and differentiated architecture. The bridge will hold a diverse program including bookstore, cafe, restaurant, in order to attract, blend in and become a platform where people can enjoy a panoramic view of the urban landscape and become the living room of the city.

During rush hour, between the modern high-rise of Chegongmiao and Xiasha Urban village along Binhai road, the current footbridge cannot satisfy the intensity of urban flow, therefore the platform bridge is placed in-between, as to provide a multiple linking connection. To prevent hinder to car traffic because of shade the bridge is punctured on key locations, this will at the same time make for an interesting view from the platform. Low income habitants can utilize the open space of the platform and share facilities with the densely populated urban village. Since housing prices will be low they will form a direct competition with the village and cause prices to drop.

The cascading bridge overlooks the Shenzhen coast along Binhai road and allows for amazing panoramic views, at the same time it makes for an easy access to the mangrove from the north and dismisses the need for parking. The bridge provides expect a view, a vast variety of outdoor activities like a basketball and tennis court, swimming pool and restaurant.

The resident can choose according to his/her needs and conditions a unit composed of the standard module of 3*3*6m. Each bridge holds each kind combination of units to increase the diversity of habitants.

To inform the future resident of the possibilities, software is created that can run on windows, mac and android. By filling in a form the app sees if you are eligible for an apartment, what kind of unit you can choose from, the level of the rent and which bridge is closer to your job. Our goal with this system is to make society aware of the possibilities, and encourage them to explore.

Find many more plans, diagrams and renderings in the image gallery below.

Danish firm 3XN has won the architecture competition for a university building in Uppsala, Sweden. The new structure unites the past and the future by extending the lines from the historical surroundings into an innovative building pointing towards future study and work life.

Project Description from the Architects:

UADM is designed with particular attention to Uppsala University’s historical location and legacy combined with today’s modern and transparent working environments, which invite social interaction in a multi-disciplinary forum. The building will house the University management, administration, restaurant, and a small study hall. 

The building concept is a simple construction of overlapping office wings placed on top of each other. In doing so, the result is an open atrium which unites the building. The atrium is serves as the backdrop for the staircase which not only connects the floors, but also provides mezzanine areas in connection with the atrium. The building’s entrance and lower floor has a sense for the human scale, while the higher floors open up and grant a treetop view over to the Uppsala Castle, the botanical garden and the university campus area.

The design of the floorplate gives a dynamic and variation to the whole building. The open spaces increase the experience of being a part of the same environment, while the small and large plazas create the feelings of intimacy and community.

UADM is a multi-purpose building within a unified structure. It respectfully integrates the landscape and lines from the surrounding buildings, most importantly the 16th century Uppsala Castle. With flexible design and integrated environments, UADM lives up to the University’s ambition of creating new ways of working, studying and interacting.

Project Details:

Address: Dag Hammerskjölds Väg, Uppsala, Sweden
Client: Akademiska Hus and Uppsala Universitet
Area: 25,000 m2
Competition Proposal: 2011
3XN Team: Kim Herforth Nielsen, Jan Ammundsen, Christian Wamberg, Olaf Kunert, Tobias Gagner, Stig Vesterager Gothelf, Majbritt Lerche, Rasmus Hjortshøj, Eva Hviid-Nielsen.

Tina Uznanski, a student in the interior design program at the Pratt Institute, has recently been announced as winner of the 2012 Gensler Brinkmann Scholarship competition. Along with this award, Tina will receive an academic scholarship and a summer 2012 internship with Gensler’s London office.

Tina’s submission, a renovation of the Clinton Hill community library in Brooklyn, New York, was chosen from a large number of applications received from top colleges and universities across the nation. Her vision was to create a flexible space that inspires patrons to immerse themselves into the book experience.

“I am thrilled to be recognized by Gensler” said Uznanski. “Winning the Brinkmann scholarship will challenge me to apply what I’ve learned at Pratt to practical use. I am so appreciative for the opportunity to learn firsthand from some of the world’s greatest design thinkers.”

“Gensler is committed to supporting the professional development of the industry’s young  talent,” said Robin Klehr Avia, managing principal for Gensler’s Northeast region. “Our mission is  to partner with our clients to deliver design innovations that transform their organizations, and Tina’s winning concept captured that spirit.”

The Gensler Brinkmann Scholarship Fund was established in 1999 as a memorial to Donald G.  Brinkmann, a gifted interior designer, inspirational leader and former partner at Gensler. The scholarship fund celebrates Brinkmann’s career-long commitment to nurturing new design talent  by presenting outstanding interior design students with an internship and a financial award  to be applied to their final year of school. Candidates for the scholarship must attend a CIDAaccredited school and are evaluated based upon their analysis and problem solving skills, design development, graphic presentation, communication skills and passion.

All images by Tina Uznanski, courtesy of Gensler.

Got a brilliant design idea in the live/work realm that is ready to take the world by storm? Well, now is your time to shine: Our friends at Dwell teamed up with Design Within Reach and launched the Live/Work Design Contest, which challenges designers to create a workspace “classic of tomorrow” – a new home-office solution that DWR could potentially manufacture and sell. Dwell will host the DWR-sponsored contest through the end of June, and the grand prize winner will be announced in Los Angeles in June at Dwell on Design, the West Coast’s largest design fair. 

“We’re looking for a product or furniture idea that is destined to be a future live/work staple,” says Dwell’s Editor-in-Chief Amanda Dameron. “This is an amazing opportunity for an under-the-radar or established designer to see a project realized.”

“Design Within Reach is focused on making modern design accessible, which includes supporting emerging designers and educating consumers about their work. For us, the Live/Work Contest represents an exciting opportunity to partner with Dwell to discover new talent and simultaneously provide our customers with a workspace solution that improves productivity and helps them tackle everyday challenges,” said DWR CEO John Edelman. 

Dwell will accept online only submissions through March 31, 2012. In April, a panel of judges will select up to 10 finalists based on evaluations of both overall design and manufacturing potential. The jury will be made up of editors and executives from Dwell, DWR and WantedDesign. In May, finalists’ entries will be published on dwell.com, and the public will be encouraged to vote for their favorite live/work solution. Additionally, live voting will occur at WantedDesign in New York, May 18–21, 2012, where finalists’ entries will be on display. During the week around Dwell on Design, five finalists’ designs will be on view at DWR Beverly Boulevard Studio. The grand-prize winner will be unveiled on June 22, 2012, at Dwell on Design in Los Angeles.

Best of luck everyone!

Earlier this month, we published the winners in the competition for a new cultural venue in Montreal's Verdun Borough with Les Architectes FABG taking home the First Prize. One of the four outstanding finalist entries was submitted by Montreal-based Saucier + Perrotte, Architectes which we present here in detail.

Project Description from the Architects:

Located in a large forested park along the edge of the St-Lawrence River, the project offers the City of Verdun a center dedicated to the performing arts. The design takes advantage of the bucolic character of the surroundings by creating an architectural work whose unique presence is felt strongly throughout the landscape.

The strategy unites the disparate elements of the program by covering them with a unique material that reinforces the monumental character of the building. The ephemeral nature of the design emphasizes the pavilion aesthetics of the ensemble while its overall size relates to the grand scale of the extraordinary site.

Project Details:

Location : Verdun, Québec, Canada
Program:
Studio A – Circus school: studios, lockers, cafeteria, administrative offices
Studio B: theatre (400 seats), exhibition space, mediation space, administrative offices
Site area: 19 865 ㎡
Bldg. area: 3 238 ㎡
Gross floor area: 4 400 ㎡
Design year: 2011

Saucier + Perrotte Team: Gilles Saucier (Lead Design Architect), André Perrotte (Principal-in-Charge), Trevor Davies, Lia Ruccolo, Patrice Bégin, Charles-Alexandre Dubois, Leslie Lok, Vedanta Balbahadur.

Find more plans and concept sketches in the image gallery below.

In an international design competiton for the rapid development of satellite cities along Chinese high speed rail corridors, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's Beijing Bohai Innovation City master plan has just been named the winning submission.

Project Description from the Architects:

The winning SOM plan leverages the economic and lifestyle assets of the Beijing-Tianjin corridor by centering the new environmentally friendly district along the high-speed-rail line linking the national capital to the port city of Tianjin. The city expansion will host 17.6 million square meters of mixed-use development, with a focus on providing a premier headquarters location for advanced industries in the dynamically growing Bohai Rim, a region that already accounts for more than a quarter of China’s GDP.

With half the 1,473-hectare site allocated to open space and nature, Beijing Bohai Innovation City builds upon SOM’s more than seven years of sustainable, high-performance city design throughout the region – from its award-winning green Beijing CBD expansion master plan to numerous projects in Tianjin, including the rapidly rising Yujiapu Financial District.

“Beijing Bohai Innovation City establishes a new model of transit-oriented development at an unprecedented scale,” said project chief designer Thomas Hussey of SOM’s Chicago urban planning studio. “The new district will leverage the high-speed rail to bridge two major metropolitan areas and create a sustainable urban environment that concentrates walkable, compact densities around transit stations, while still preserving existing agriculture and green space.”

The client commented on the winning design scheme in a written statement, “SOM has designed a human and family-oriented mixed-use urban community within an environmentally friendly framework to attract talented people and forward-thinking Chinese and international firms that want to position themselves in the same way.”

In addition to setting specific and aggressive goals for water, energy, waste, renewable energy and building design efficiency, the winning design scheme builds upon landscape design firm Turenscape’s proposed central wetland park by calling for functional environmental systems to filter and clean storm water before returning it to adjoining rivers.

“This project underlines China’s commitment to transit-based and environmentally sensitive planning. There is tremendous potential here, and we would like to work with the District Government, Development Company and other stakeholdersto further define the character of the city and tailor it to meet the needs and desires of the people and industries that will make Beijing Bohai Innovation City a national model for the country’s next generation of satellite city development,” said SOM global planning partner Philip J. Enquist.

The master plan is designed with a central business district organized around a high speed train station and five distinct neighborhoods offering diverse housing, education, shopping and work destinations. It modifies the street grid to incorporate existing road alignments while enhancing connectivity to the high speed rail station and creating special view corridors to landmark developments.

SOM’s Beijing Bohai Innovation City concept emerged from the competition for “Beijing Bohai Rim Advanced Business Park” held jointly by Beijing Tongzhou District Taihu High End Headquarters Construction Management Committee and Beijing Xinghu Investment and Development Co. Ltd.

The plan also provides an advanced multi-modal transportation network highlighted by the city’s close proximity to the existing capital airport and a potential new international airport south of Beijing. By uniting high-speed rail with metro lines, bus rapid transit, local streetcar and a state-of-the-art electric car fleet, the plan enables 80 percent of the city’s personal transportation to be by transit, walking and bicycling. Combined with pedestrian and bicycle friendly street design, this network conveniently connects residents to neighboring workplaces, schools and cultural amenities along green streets and corridors.

A few days ago, we published BudCud's finalist entry to the Kiev Islands Master Plan Competition. Here is now also the winner of the First Prize, the concept THE BLUE LINE by Romanian team Wolf House Productions and Gabriel Pascariu.

Project Description from the Architects:

Aimed at preservation and sustainable development of eleven major islands on the Dnieper River and in the center of Kiev city, the competition was promoted by Kiev Municipal Investment Agency, the City of Kiev and Ukrainian Architects Union. It called for the best proposals in promoting natural heritage awareness and providing clear regulation for tourism, sports and recreational activities within the natural environment of the Dnieper Bay. The main objectives of the project are to preserve and develop the Dnieper islands in a sustainable manner and to set Kiev as an attractive European metropolis and touristic destination.

Today, Kiev feels and functions as a divided city by the Dnieper’s Bay running from north to south. In the middle of this growing metropolis, Kiev’s islands with their natural reserves and endangered species, have to bear most of the collateral damage done by urban/infrastructural development. Being the largest economy in Ukraine and given the geographical opportunity to lie between Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia, Kiev will soon become a strong regional economic hub. In order to attract foreign and local investments the city needs to market a clear and tangible urban vision.

THE BLUE LINE (short, TBL) aims at providing a sustainable development framework for the Kiev islands as well as an infrastructural backbone for the future urban development of the entire metropolis. We suggest a paradigm shift: from large scale urban and infrastructure projects (specific to Ukrainian urban planning) to a more fluid and efficient place-making driven urbanism. Many of the islands’ masterplan features are already in place, the city just needs to discreetly enhance their value and connect them efficiently. Ultimately, TBL will provide solutions for three of Kiev’s main issues: north-south connectivity, need of a coherent urban strategy and sustainable development of the city’s most important natural symbol, the islands complex.

The project is drafted considering five key aspects:

• sustainable infrastructure and improved connectivity of the islands
• tourism and economic development
• natural conservation planning
• governance
• city branding and city promotion

The general development concept of the islands encourages mixed-use and recreational activities in the three islands near city center (Venetsianski-Truhaniv-Dolobetskyi) and is gradually restricting human presence on the northern and southern reservation islands (Muromets-Lapuhovatyi and Kozachyi-Zhukiv-Olzhyn). The north half of Venetsianskyi, southern tips of Truhaniv and Dolobetskyi islands have great potential for becoming an attractive city wide services and entertainment hub set in a natural environment. The north and south edges of the islands complex are important natural conservation areas where the landscape gradually changes from leisure activities into a valuable wildlife reserve. Here, human presence is occasional and discreet. Access on these islands can only be done through TBL stations and regulated by the local administration and the Center of Ecological Monitoring in Kiev. Also, the stations will be used for implementing community educational programs that encourage locals to protect the unique ecosystem. Rather than enforcing fence-like restrictive policies, that ban it in the reserve, we support human presence and think that it is needed here. To inhibit past activities like illegal fishing and garbage disposal, access has to be responsibly regulated by a bio-research center run by the prestigious M. Gryshko National Botanic Garden. The main focus of this center is aimed towards research and education on ecosystem protection and sustainability issues.

The main points for access on the islands are TBL stations, on the water. The flexible modular system allows for the stations to be easily built and with relatively low costs of fabrication. Also maintenance and rapid changing of station configuration is facile when necessary. The TBL stations are more than just stops on a route. They provide various services as well as info points about the city and Kiev Islands. Locals and tourists alike will have the chance to be better informed on the character, history and conservation status of every island. The module assemblage is defined by the main functional character for each island. Where the public access is limited the water stations meet limited functions such as mooring, ship boarding and disembarkation. For the islands where urban development is encouraged the water stations become more complex and the module assemblage generates mixed-use areas with cultural and leisure characters.

TBL’s feasibility is easy to predict as it ensures mass transportation with little building costs and requires no infrastructural development on the islands. This new transport system will become the main north-south transit system of the city as it will connect both Dnieper’s banks and the city’s landmarks. Building it is very cost effective since there are no tunnels or land expropriations to be done. Also implementing THE BLUE LINE can be achieved in a much shorter period than other time effective transit systems such as a metro line. Kiev will enrich itself and greet tourists with a scenic and iconic public transportation route which can be used as a city branding strategy similar to major cities around the world such as London’s Double decker Bus or San Francisco’s Cable Car.

Because of its mass appeal for the tourists and locals, the water transit system is not only an efficient public transportation system, but also a great city branding and communication platform. Thus Kiev city has the chance to present itself in its true colors and promote the image of a “green-blue” metropolis for the future. THE BLUE LINE project can function as a catalyst for the modernization of Kiev.

Project Details:

Project: Kiev Islands Master Plan
Year: 2012
Client: Kiev City State Administration
Location: Kiev, Ukraine
Program: Urban Planning
Area: 1,840 ha
Status: Competition, Winner
Team Wolf House Productions (Iulian Canov, Cristina Zlota, Vlad Stoica, Alexandru Tudose, Rozina Dragomir),
Gabriel Pascariu

Find more plans and diagrams in the image gallery below.

Winners have been announced at the Bab Al Bahrain Open Ideas Competition with the proposal "Pearl Dive" by Swiss architect Lukas Lenherr taking home the $15,000 First Prize. Awards for the Second and Third Place were given to teams from Italy and the Netherlands.

The competition invited ideas from urban planners, architects, designers, students and creative thinkers to redesign Bab al Bahrain square, one of the few existing public squares in Bahrain. Significance was added to this competition by the recent political events that have taken place across the region, encouraging questions about social representation, public identity, urban integration, sense of place, and historic importance.

The jury was comprised of Italian Domus magazine editor-in-chief Joseph Grima, Lebanese architect Bernard Khoury, Dutch architect Bjarne Mastenbroek, Emirate architect Ahmad Al Ali, Bahraini urban planner Ma'moun Almoayed and the Culture Minister of Bahrain Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa.

1st Prize: Pearl Dive

by Lukas Lenherr, Switzerland

From the jury report: "This project was awarded the first prize because it went beyond the limitations of the Bab al Bahrain site and explored new frontiers for an urban proposal.
While it completely disregards the conventions on public water accessibility, it offers a convincing urban attractor through a very simple and radical gesture of inversion. The collage of ordinary programs, through their careful assembly, create a powerful urban device. The jury appreciated the simplicity and power of the proposal, supported by a very precise architectural expression which was reduced to its strict intentions."

2nd Prize: Two Rooms

by Baukuh and Guido Tesio, Italy

From the jury report: "Members of the jury were intrigued by the architect's decision to break down the site into two smaller components - one responding to the context of Bab al Bahrain and the other to the larger open space. Working within the existing urban pattern, the project creates a sense of curiosity with elements of surprise introduced at an urban level, creating an introverted version of a public plaza. Once more, the jury was impressed by the clarity of the proposal and its conciseness. Although it is a very architectural proposal it creates a new typology for public space within the city."

3rd Prize: New Times Square

by Partizan Publik- Dus Architects, the Netherlands

From the jury report: "Through a very pragmatic approach to what citizens expect from a public space, this proposal did not exclude any element of public life and instead embraced all those elements with a particular focus on the automobile. It allows for a self-programming of the space through its undetermined state and offers through very little means an immediate and feasible response to the site and acknowledges the importance within the city of the immaterial means of communication."

All images courtesy of Bab Al Bahrain Competition.

The Buckminster Fuller Institute has published 103 entries to this year's Buckminster Fuller Challenge in the IDEA INDEX— BFI's ever growing repository of whole systems solutions to the world's most pressing problems. Entries were submitted from all parts of the world— the US, the UK, India, China, the Sahel, the Arctic, South Africa, Rwanda, Barbados, Haiti, and Afghanistan, among others.

"IDEA INDEX 1.0 is a searchable database of incredible ideas submitted by design pioneers and social innovators from all over the world", commented Elizabeth Thompson, BFI's Executive Director. "What you'll find is a collection of practitioners meaningfully engaged in systems change, all worthy of attention and support."

The 2012 Challenge review process is underway by BFI's internal team. A distinguished jury, including Kenny Ausubel + Nina Simons, Dr. Lola Dare, John Fullerton, Saul Griffith, Alasdair Harris, Helen + Newton Harrison, Janice Perlman, and Alice Rawsthorn, will begin their deliberation process soon to select a solution that best meets the rigorous criteria. Semi-Finalists will be announced in March 2012, Finalists will be announced in May 2012, and the winner will be revealed at a ceremony in New York City on June 6, 2012.

Following are a few selected entries we found especially interesting. For the complete list of this year's published entries, click here.

The Welikia Project

by Dr. Eric W. Sanderson

"Cities want to be sustainable but by and large don’t know how. We seek to map the original, historic ecological landscape of New York City, the place where 8 million people live, and provide the best model of sustainability we can think of: ecosystems in nature." - learn more

The Living Building Challenge

by Jason F. McLennan, Eden Brukman

"Living Building Challenge defines the highest possible level of environmental performance, envisioning a built environment that is fully integrated with its ecosystem. It pushes the building industry to re-imagine business as usual, and it transforms building occupants from passive consumers into active stewards of increasingly scarce resources." - learn more

The Low Line

by James Ramsey, Dan Barasch

"The Low Line proposes using an innovative solar technology to create an underground park in an unused former trolley terminal. It will be a unique community space in an under-served NYC neighborhood with little access to green space." - learn more

Museo Aero Solar: A Community Do-It-Together Project

by MAS collective

"Initiate multiple landings of Museo Aero Solar in communities that, to date, could not support it. A landing stimulates and awakens communities while building a large container (from local and recycled materials) that is then inhabited as a form of temporary architecture and conditions permitting, takes flight as a solar balloon." - learn more

New York City (Steady) State

by Terreform Inc.

"New York City (Steady) State is an alternative plan for New York City based on a single predicate: it is possible for the city to become entirely self-sufficient within its political boundaries. Our ten areas of study include energy, building, movement, social economics, water, food, air, waste, climate, and manufacturing." - learn more

Arctic Food Network

by Mason White, Lola Sheppard

"Arctic Food Network is a series of strategically distributed shelters in Baffin Island, Nunavut (Canada). The network addresses food security, biological and wildlife species management, and provides a safe navigation system across the region. AFN is developed in partnership with the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth in Nunavut." - learn more

Earth Roofs in the Sahel

by Thomas Granier, Seri Youlou

"In the Sahel ecoregion of Africa, 70% of rural families lack decent housing. The Nubian Vault [NV] is an affordable, tested and economically self-sustaining building system shaped by three concepts: a Roof, a Skill, a Market. An opportunity exists to transform the provision of shelter across this vast region." - learn more

+ POOL

by Dong-Ping Wong, Archie Lee Coates IV, Jeffrey Franklin

"Like a giant strainer dropped in the river, + Pool is a floating pool for the East River that filters river water through filtration membranes integrated into the walls of the pool itself, enabling direct public interaction and appreciation of New York City’s greatest natural resource." - learn more

Chalo! Let's Go! A design initiative to reduce textile waste in the fashion industry

by Karina Michel

"Chalo is a design initiative that encourages systematic change in textile waste recycling by building an innovative business model with economic, social, and environmental implications in both large and small-scale garment production. The approach is holistic with a three-pronged strategy; business collaboration, design mentorship, and storytelling." - learn more

Wello: delivering clean water to a thirsty world

by Cynthia Koenig, Parvati Patil, Colm Fay

"Wello is a social venture with a bold mission: to deliver clean water to a thirsty world. We have developed an innovative business model that empowers individuals to use our WaterWheel, a water transport tool that alleviates the burden of water collection and aids in lifting families out of poverty." - learn more

Click here for the complete list of this year's published entries.

Krakow-based architects BudCud have shared with us their finalist entry for the international Kiev Islands Master Plan Competition. The proposal suggests the development of a network of existing islands and artificial mirco islands along the Dnieper river, right outside of Kiev, Ukraine, for recreation and nature exploration.

Project Description from the Architects:

Kiev Islands on Dnieper River serve now and should serve in the further future as spaces of active recreation, leisure, flora and fauna exploration. The challenge is to develop the missing infrastructure in a sustainable and technologically advanced manner.

Character of our design responds to the 'genius loci' - in the wild area it is humble and almost invisible, but where the islands make visual connection to the city, our project gets an urban manner.  The areas of different nature preservation status were distinguished with implementation of loops, stripes, paths and objects - micro islands, that create networks.  We propose three main elements that will bring together development of 'the Dnieper Pearls'.

These elements are:

1. the loop that surrounds the natural conservation area on Muromets Island which then acts as a single wildlife reserve devoted to nature exploration.
2. the stripe that is laid on the Truhanov, Dolobetskyi and Venetsianskyi islands and acts like a baroque garden axis. This strip is a new sustainable park, which is surrounded by areas of natural preservation and regulated recreation.
3. network of water paths connects the Galernyi, artificial, Vodnikov, Zhukiv, Kozachyi and Olzhin islands and therefore creates a singular small archipelago of islands-objects.

The complexity of our masterplan requires its phasing.

First step is to establish simple and direct ways to connect and organize the archipelago.

Second step is to preserve natural state of the archipelago (its ecosystem) and connections that were established before.

Third step is to establish clear zoning.

Fourth step is to program those new connections according to newly established zones.

Then, on top layer of the archipelago we propose to establish a matrix of micro islands devoted to different functions that will provide all the needed infrastructure on the islands. We see that as a continuous process starting from the first phase of the development.

The “new” implementations on Kiev Islands should lead us, in the next 40-50 years, to the situation of these islands being space of national importance. Kiev Islands should become a complex landscape, where the latest technology meets the magnificent scenery of perfectly preserved natural landscape with crystal clear water and vast variety of protected plants and species. On other hand it should be place where you can simply have fun!

Project Details:

Project: Kiev Islands Master Plan
Year: 2012
Client: Kiev City State Administration
Location: Kiev, Ukraine
Program: Urban Planning
Area: 1,840 ha
Status: Competition, Finalist
Team BudCud (Agata Woźniczka, Mateusz Adamczyk), Marcelina Kolasińska

Find more plans and diagrams in the image gallery below.

We are happy to also present the second prize winner of the 2012 Design to Zero competition: Project Zero, a collaborative effort by graduate students Daniel Kim and Caitlin Ranson from Clemson University School of Architecture (previously on Bustler: the competition's first and third prize winners). Project Zero seeks to redefine the "unit," focusing on the tight relationship between material unit, family unit, and living unit. The site chosen for the proposal is in a historic residential district not far from downtown Grennville, South Carolina.

Project Description from the Architects:

Concrete masonry units were the primary material choice for Project Zero. With this most basic modular material, the team was able to create dynamic and efficient spaces. Environmentally, CMU is durable, low maintenance, fire resistant, has high thermal mass, and can be locally sourced and constructed. CMU is affordable, yet available in a wide range of textured patterns.

The design rethinks the program to create spaces that accommodate the lifestyle patterns of the family unit. Each unit houses a unique family situation. Privacy is afforded to each family, but interaction amongst the families is also encouraged through public circulation and shared outdoor spaces. Rooms work efficiently and reflect the fast tempo of contemporary living. The design does not include hallways, corridors, dining rooms, or other formal areas that do not respond to the occupants' lifestyles.

The team redefined the living unit by decreasing size, cost and energy footprint without diminishing design or sacrificing detail. The building maintains a level of simplicity through form, particularly in plan, but affords spatial complexity through experience, particularly in section, where forms interlock and layer to generate zones, increase ventilation, and provide overhangs/adjacencies. The design incorporates planned ambiguity that blurs the boundary between interior and exterior spaces, creates moments of pause and framed views, and plays with light for both, aesthetic and environmental purposes.

The success of the overall project is based on the sum of its units. The team redefined these three essential units by reacting to the family unit, utilizing rich material unit, and rethinking the living unit to create a dynamic unified space that responds to the challenges of the competition.

Find more plans, sections and details in the image gallery below.

Just a few days ago, we published the winning entry of the 2011 DOW Design to Zero competition. Here is now also the third prize winner, the entry Oil Silo Home, by architects Leon Lai and Eric Tan of pinkcloud.dk. The proposal recycles existing oil silos by transforming them into affordable housing for families worldwide.

Project Description from the Architects:

PEAK OIL IS NEAR…

An oil silo, or LPG Vessel, is a storage container for compressed liquefied petroleum gas.  Oil silos are fully pressurized, waterproof, and built to meet industrial standards.  There are approximately 49,000 oil silos in over 660 oil refineries worldwide!

As the human population increases at an exponential rate, oil discovery is decreasing at an exponential rate.  Natural gas is becoming scarce and oil silos are now becoming abandoned as storage containers.  As Earth rapidly approaches Peak Oil, non-renewable fossil fuel resources are diminishing fast.  Soon humans can no longer depend on natural gas as an energy source.  At this point, humans cannot use the existing 49,000 oil silos as fuel storage containers.  Oil Silos will all be emptied and abandoned.

OIL SILO HOME

Ecological Sustainability + Economical Sustainability = Revitalization!

The Oil Silo Home recycles existing empty oil silos by transforming them into affordable housing for families worldwide.  It’s a 100% self-supporting housing solution for the post-oil world.  As an adaptive-reuse design, the Oil Silo Home incurs extraordinarily low costs.  It’s highly structurally stable, efficient to assemble and disassemble, and has the capacity for pre-fabrication and mass production.  Waste and embodied energy are dramatically reduced by the Oil Silo Home.  By recycling existing abandoned silos for housing, we can revitalize former oil refineries and industrial zones into healthy, thriving communities.  As a carbon-positive design, the Oil Silo Home can actually contribute energy back into the grid.

SPHERICAL ADVANTAGE

The spherical geometry of oil silos provides optimal orientation for harvesting sunlight year-round.  Simultaneously, surface exposure is maximized for the installation of solar devices.  Sunlight is collected by photovoltaic panels and solar hot water heaters installed along the silo periphery.  The oil silo’s spherical shape resists the negative effects of global warming with strong structural rigidity, flexible suspension, waterproof shell, and aerodynamic geometry which effectively decreases uplift due to pressure from airflows.  Energy efficiency is a priority; the spherical silo provides efficient circular passive ventilation and even heat distribution.

(RE)CONSTRUCTION

Contaminated oil silos are first detoxified with In Situ oil bioremediation.  In this process, soil microbes which eat harmful pollutants clean up toxic chemicals, leaving only harmless byproducts such as CO2 gas.  Existing oil silos are then retrofitted on-site.   Large-scale components for the Oil Silo Home are pre-fabricated offsite.  Modular assembly reduces construction cost and manufacturing time, thereby enabling consistent quality and efficient mass production of silo home components.

BEYOND CARBON NEUTRAL

The Oil Silo Home is designed to generate energy while simultaneously reducing energy use.  Our design comprises an integrated set of passive sustainable installations augmented by the silo’s inherent spherical shape.  The Oil Silo Home exceeds a carbon-neutral classification and ultimately strives to achieve a carbon-positive rating, thereby benefitting the environment by producing more energy than it consumes.  The 700 existing oil refineries have great potential for redevelopment.  Refineries can actually be converted into thriving green communities which generate clean energy.  Oil Silo Home communities have the capacity to effectively transform existing refineries into mega solar plants which produce clean energy.

1 SILO HOME/3 UNITS /12 RESIDENTS

The Oil Silo Home is divided into three separate units accessible by a central pneumatic elevator and exterior walkway leading to the roof garden.  Living and sleeping spaces circumnavigate the circular plan to provide copious natural lighting.  The multi-generational home encompasses one full floor plate while the smaller two and four-person family homes are divided into two levels.  All units feature large openings equipped with prefabricated balcony units for generous open-air ventilation.  Interaction between neighbors is facilitated by situating the main entrance of each unit along the exterior walkway, thereby maintaining communal connection while providing private terrace space for each family. 

UNIT 1
2-Person Young Family
Area: approx. 90 m2

UNIT 2
4-Person Nuclear Family
Area: approx. 180 m2

UNIT 3
6-Person Multi-Generational Family
Area: approx. 225 m2

SHARED RESOURCES

The Silo Home Community is interconnected with a shared resource infrastructure.  While resources are produced by individual mechanisms throughout the community, all resources are pooled and shared to maintain sufficient levels of energy, water, and clean air.  This unified system of resource allocation meets the needs of all citizens of the community while conserving resources and minimizing waste.  For example, windmill-derived energy and surplus energy generated by solar PV cells in silo homes are transferred to electric charging stations and community buildings throughout the local district.

COST ANALYSIS

The pre-existence of almost 50,000 oil silos worldwide eliminates the standard costs of new construction, relying solely on the costs of converting existing silos for human habitation.  Oil silos are built to extremely high industrial standards, ensuring a high degree of structural integrity without extra costs.  Modular retrofitting allows for easy maintenance and decreases costs incurred by damages.  Each Oil Silo Home has a zero net-energy cost with a potential government payback by transferring extra energy back into the city grid.  Renewable energy is the primary power source for the Oil Silo Home, virtually eliminating all energy costs and creating an affordable housing solution for many middle-class American families.

Read more about the proposal at le-pc.org.

Here's a hot event for you New Yorkers this week: CLOG is officially launching its anticipated second issue, titled CLOG : APPLE, at Van Alen Books this Friday, February 17, 7pm. For a list of local vendors or to order online, visit www.clog-online.com.

CLOG : APPLE showcases over 50 international contributors, including architects, designers, cartoonists, comedians, engineers and other industry leaders. Highlights include an examination of Steve Jobs's Eichler-designed childhood home; the evolution of Apple's store designs; its leading role in innovative glass engineering; the symbolism and urban implications of the new Cupertino headquarters design; reactions to Apple Campus 2 by notable architects and critics; and an interview with one of Apple Computer's original three founders, Ronald Wayne.

Contributors include Michael Abrahamson, Paul Adamson, Gary Allen, Collin Anderson, Haik Avanian, Rachel Berger, Freek Bos, Gabrielle Brainard, Tom Brooksbank, Keith Burns, Marcus Carter, Haiko Cornelissen, Philippine d'Avout D'Auerstaedt, Erandi de Silva, Kevin Erickson, Matthew J. Giordano, Hanny Hindi, Julia van den Hout, Allyn Hughes, Alex Kilian, Klaus, Austin Kotting, Michael Kubo, Jimenez Lai, Nicholas Leahy, Christopher Lee, Frank Lesser, Michael Ludvik, Luis Miguel Lus-Arana, Kyle May, Adam Nathaniel Mayer, Nicholas McDermott, Mark McKenna, Samuel Medina, Louise A. Mozingo, Rob Nijsse, The Office of PlayLab, Inc., Glenn Phillips, Graffitilab, Nina Rappaport, Jacob Reidel, Erin M. Routson, Mika Savela, Chris Shelley, Noam Shoked, Mike Treff, Kazys Varnelis, Ronald Wayne, and Human Wu.

The young and energetic collaborative MASS Design Group has just recently been named Contract magazines’ 2012 Designer of the Year. The founding partners of MASS Design Group—MASS is an acronym for Model of Architecture Serving Society—had been students in the Harvard Graduate School 
of Design (GSD) just a few years ago. Contract praised MASS' philosophy, "designing for dignity, to improve people’s lives through design, and to be a primary example for how designers can rethink their role in a world of increasingly global impact."

See below for a small selection of MASS Design Group's projects in Rwanda, Haiti, and New York, some completed, others currently under construction or finalist competition entries.

For an in-depth Showcase feature of their most prominent project yet, the 140-room Butaro hospital in the Rwandan countryside, head over to Bustler's sister site Archinect.

If you're in Los Angeles this month, don't miss to check out the exhibition Go Figure by LA-based architect Ramiro Diaz-Granados/Amorphis that is currently on view at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Diaz-Granados will discuss the installation with SCI-Arc director Eric Owen Moss on Friday, February 10, at 7pm.

Seeking to shift the role of the figure from a metaphorical device to a subliminal one, Go Figure promotes simultaneity in the evolution of the delineated figure by distributing cartoon and visceral features across a three-dimensional, spline based form.

Project Description from the Designer:

Problematic

The contemporary architectural figure has evolved into two coherent strains of formal expression: the paedomorphic (simple, juvenile) and the peramorphic (complex, evolved). Borrowed from the field of evolutionary biology, these terms refer to how an individual organism and a species evolve in relation to their ancestors. The paedomorphic variety privileges simple, child-like features, and alludes to the ‘cartoon’ figure while the peramorphic privileges complicated, visceral features, and alludes to bio-morphism.

Go Figure promotes heterochrony in the evolution of the delineated figure by distributing paedomorphic and peramorphic features across a three-dimensional, spline based form. Also borrowed from evolutionary biology, heterochrony has to do with the displacement in time of a particular set of features in an organism. For example, the homo sapien head is heterochronous in terms of the evolution of skull and jaw from its primate ancestors.  The skull is peramorphic in that it has grown larger and more complex while the jaw has become smaller and simpler. In Go Figure, the concept of heterochrony is employed to produce simultaneity with respect to a range of binary attributes (i.e legible vs. sensate, singular vs. multiple, iconic vs. indexical, 2D vs 3D, part vs. whole, graphic vs. material etc.) in the evolution of an iconic figure: the Savoy vase by Alvar Aalto.

The sinuous and undulating top profile of the vase has been associated with the lakes of Finland, thereby granting it an authentic and meaningful status by connecting it to some regional condition. Here, the figure has been scaled up, draped, repeated, and materially reconstituted in order to dislodge it from its previous associations in order to produce novel spatial and affective qualities while retaining its specific attributes as a figure. This project seeks to shift the role of the figure from a metaphorical device to a subliminal one. The figure is legible through its strong profile, contour, and shape, yet is not interested in any pictorial representation. It’s more interested in the use of profile, color, scale, texture, and assembly to produce a physiological response. Its visuality is intended to grab ones attention and lure them into a world of optical and haptic pleasure.

Description

The Savoy figure is scaled up and repeated four times into two symmetrical pairs. Each pair is situated in the gallery according to different transversal regulating lines stemming from the relationship between the ground and the ceiling. One pair is centered within the space, the other is centered under one of the structural bays. Together they fill the space in a composition that confounds the legibility of each figure in favor of more sensate qualities with allusions to calligraphy and graffiti. The figures are made out of powder-coated aluminum sheet, laser cut, and friction-fit. An assembly method has been devised so as to challenge the conventional reliance on hardware. The color palette consists of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. As cmyk is a subtractive color model, this palette is intended to subtract whiteness from the space and produce secondary and tertiary chromas which shift as one moves around and through the installation. Each figure is a unique combination of three of the four colors with a progression from one to the next allowing each color to be used three times.

Project Details:

Project: Go Figure, gallery installation
Location: Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles, CA
Date: Jan 13 - Feb 24, 2012
Design: Ramiro Diaz-Granados
Design development: Ramiro Diaz-Granados, Daniel Berlin, Mahyoub Aranki
Installation coordinator: Matthew Au
Structural consultant: Bruce Danziger

A team of two graduate students from Clemson University School of Architecture, Eric Laine and Suzanne Steelman, has won the international Dow Solar Design to Zero competition. The team's proposal LiveWork was awarded the first place award, along with a $20,000 prize sponsored by Dow Solar. 

LiveWork envisions a home that expands beyond traditional building sustainability and incorporates both commercial and residential functionalities. The structure embraces its urban setting in Athens, Georgia both architecturally and economically, adapting its energy systems to the regional environment and integrating those systems seamlessly into the aesthetic design of the building.

The Design to Zero competition invited architecture students to develop exceptional design innovations to achieve affordable, high performing and energy-efficient housing solutions on a global scale. Dow launched the design competition in August 2011, and received 131 entries from 19 countries. The final 32 teams were announced in December 2011 and included designs from the U.S., Canada, China, Spain, Korea, France and Australia.

Project Description from the Architects:

The live/work concept embodies the social and economic aspects of a sustainable life. With this in mind, the site is divided into 3 units to accommodate families of 2, 4 and 6 people. Located beneath each unit is a commercial space. The retail space, as a blank canvas could become anything from a market to a gallery or even a bike shop. The live/work concept is therefore in operation a full 24 hours. Because the complex is in constant use, it uses energy most efficiently.  Those who occupy the space have the opportunity to live and work economically socially and environmentally 24 hours a day.

View also the floor plans, structural and concept diagrams of LiveWork in the image gallery below.

Architect and designer Joseph Choma of Design Topology Lab, a research platform dedicated to the ontology of space defined by mathematics, has shared with us his project, BOUNDARIES. The installation, part of a recent exhibition at SP_ARC Gallery in Marietta, Georgia, is a 26' x 13' drawing of his trigonometric transformation: thickening and is constructed out of 450 tiles.

Joseph Choma is currently an Assistant Professor at Southern Polytechnic State University, where he directs the Digital Fabrication Lab.

Project Description from the Designer:

In linguistics, a boundary is anything that defines a limit. Numerically, it may be straightforward to determine a boundary, however, perceptually it is often more ambiguous and subjective. This installation challenges fixed preconceptions of what it means to draw and experience a drawing. The drawing itself is computationally generated using a thickening trigonometric transformation. As the sphere thickens over a series of recursions its geometry begins to mediate between multiple envelopes. The sphere no longer has one boundary but rather has multiple boundaries.

Typically a drawing is at a scale which can be held in the hands of an observer, but this drawing is significantly larger. At 26’ x 13’ the drawings fills a vertical wall while extending onto the floor. It is no longer an objectified element on the wall with defined boundaries, but rather is the wall and floor. The 450 tiles which compose this installation define a cubic space, while the drawing on its surface portrays the sphere thickening from an object state, to that of an atmosphere.

The drawing creases at the center radius of the sphere. A three dimensional illusion emerges as individuals inhabit the drawing. It is no longer enough to have one’s eye move across the drawing, the observer’s themselves must walk, bend and alter their posture.