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.

Les Architectes FABG is the winning firm in the architecture competition for a new cultural venue adjacent to the St. Lawrence River in Montreal's Verdun Borough. The project includes a professional theater and also provides for redevelopment and expansion of Verdun's circus school, the École de cirque de Verdun.

The winning team was selected from four finalists, also including Saucier + Perrotte, Architectes; Dan S. Hanganu, Architectes; and Manon Asselin, Architectes in collaboration with Jodoin Lamarre Pratte, Architectes.

Regarding the competition-winning entry by Les Architectes FABG, the jury praised the quality of atmospheres, the development of the nearby river and the views of the surrounding landscape and the overall functionality. The jury emphasized the artistic signature of the projects submitted in the competition.

"We organized architecture competitions in order to develop a project meeting the challenge of converting the former Aréna Guy-Gagnon into a high-quality artistic venue that helps bridge the gap between the audience and the performers," explained Verdun Borough Mayor Claude Trudel, in congratulating the winning firm.

"We were concerned about making a connection between the building and the river as well as the park in which the building is located. This project is meant to be a sign of distinctiveness, yet integration, boldness and exemplariness, from an environmental standpoint," explained Éric Gauthier, a partner at Les Architectes FABG.

On the whole, the project aims at creating a hub for performing arts and circus arts in Verdun. The former arena (located at 5190, boulevard LaSalle) will be redeveloped and slightly expanded in order to better accommodate the existing Studios B and A: A cultural venue will be set up in Studio B. The new, expanded facilities will be more than a traditional theater: they will be used as a venue for creation, production and promotion for various cultural organizations in the arts field. These facilities will include a mediation room, allowing for synergy between the performers and the audience before the shows, as well as an exhibition hall and areas for the performers' living quarters.

Currently, École de cirque de Verdun is located in Studio A, which is to be redeveloped and expanded.

"We want to make Verdun a real cultural hub which—in addition to this cultural venue project—also includes La Station, recognized as a historical monument, which has been restored and converted into an intergenerational centre, inaugurated last week in the L’Île-des-Soeurs neighbourhood, and Maison Nivard-De Saint-Dizier, a museum and archaeological site located on boulevard LaSalle," pointed out Mayor Trudel.

"The materialization of this project to set up this new cultural venue is a fine example of the efforts invested by Montreal's Administration, which aims at positioning culture at the very heart of the development of our metropolis. In fact, Ville de Montréal recently adopted a resolution making culture one of the four pillars of sustainable development—a dynamic force that is making our city a major cultural metropolis. This new cultural venue is consolidating our cultural network and is thereby tangibly embodying the objectives of Réseau Accès culture's 2010-2014 Action Plan. Moreover, the outstanding architecture that will define this new performing arts hub is bringing to light the importance we attach to design—a strategic force not only for the development and recognition of our city, but also a key to improving our residents living environment," added Helen Fotopulos, responsible for culture, heritage, design and the status of women on Ville de Montréal's Executive Committee.

Over the coming months, Les Architectes FABG will be designing the plans and specifications for the project. It will also be responsible for site supervision.

Below are renderings of the three other finalist projects.

Find also plans, sections and elevations of Les Architectes FABG's winning entry in the image gallery below. All images courtesy of Ville de Montréal.

The Serpentine Gallery in London today announced that Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei will create the 2012 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. It will be the twelfth commission in the gallery’s highly prestigious annual series.

The design team responsible for the celebrated Beijing National Stadium, which was built for the 2008 Olympic Games and won the RIBA Lubetkin Prize, will come together again in London in 2012 in a special development of the Serpentine’s acclaimed annual commission which will be presented as part of the London 2012 Festival, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad. The Pavilion will be 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 will support a floating platform roof 1.5 meters above ground. 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. We are delighted that our annual commission will bring this unique architectural collaboration to Europe to mark the continuity between the Beijing 2008 and the London 2012 Games.”

Describing their design concept 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 some five 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.”

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 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 Gallery Pavilion 2012 designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei will open from June – October 2012.

The AIA New York Chapter recently announced seven promising and pioneering new architecture and design firms from the New York area to receive the New Practices New York 2012 awards. The seven selected firms are:

• Holler Architecture
• The Living
• Abruzzo Bodziak
• SLO Architecture
• formlessfinder
• Marc Fornes & THEVERYMANY
• Christian Wassman

To qualify for the competition, practices had to be founded since 2006 and be located within the five boroughs of New York City. New Practices New York serves as the preeminent platform in New York City to recognize and promote new and innovative architecture and design firms.

Jury members were Stan Allen, FAIA, Principal, Stan Allen Architect ; Kit von Dalwig, AIA, Principal, Manifold (winner of New Practices New York 2010); William Menking, Editor-in-Chief, The Architect's Newspaper; Mahadev Raman, P.E., Chairman, Americas, Arup; Billie Tsien, AIA, Principal, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.

“I am proud to welcome the winners of the competition to the Center for Architecture and to include these promising young practices in the New Practices New York 2012 exhibition, presented as part of the FutureNow presidential theme,” said Joseph J. Aliotta, AIA, LEED AP, President of AIANY. “These seven practices have demonstrated their innovative, sustainable, and creative approaches are at the forefront of contemporary young firms. I look forward to learning more about their practices throughout this year, as we celebrate the future of the profession and architects’ contributions to New York City’s built environment. I’m certain that these design talents will give us new insight into what we can all expect from the future leaders of the industry.”

Holler Architecture

From the jury: “It was refreshing to see the ‘systems approach’ to sustainability that was evident in their work. The architects were careful to treat the complex processes with rigor and to leverage them to inform their innovative design propositions.

The Living

From the jury: “We loved the blend of invention, humor, and the deep conviction that the work done should make the world a better place. The communication of their research is done in ways that are elegant and absolutely visceral.”

Abruzzo Bodziak

From the jury: “An inspiring—and very consistent—portfolio; a serious and mature practice for its relatively young age. Good dialogue between ideas, practice, architecture, client, builder, and consultants.”

SLO Architecture

From the jury: “The 3 projects presented in this portfolio—Bronx River Crossing, Bushkill Overflow, and Harvest Dome—display a compelling and unified vision of architectural research. In their selection of what to focus on, who to work for and how to bring an architectural perspective to regional concerns they take seriously their claim to “explore how nature can transcend preconceived boundaries to trace new trajectories of urban life.” Their formal creations-developed in dialog with users and the public- all bring a light, sensitive touch to their sites and show promise that SLO can themselves transcend preconceived boundaries of community architecture.”

formlessfinder (Garret Ricciardi and Julian Rose)

From the jury: “John Cage once said that an experimental act is one where the outcome is not known in advance. For Garret and Julian, matter and ideas are one. The perform material experiments not with a specific outcome in mid, but in an authentic spirit of exploration—sometimes ugly, often surprising, the results are materially rich and experientially suggestive.”

Marc Fornes & THEVERYMANY

From the jury: “Marc Fornes designs and builds meticulous constructions that are formally intricate, tactile, and experientially complex. The one and the many have never been so many. He is a highly sophisticated scripter and user of complex software but he is also a canny, hand’s on maker of things, and it is this interplay between the virtual and the real that makes his work so compelling.”

Christian Wassmann

From the jury: “Although we all had difficulty in navigating through the folding portfolio, when we did we found a coherent sense of exploration. Ideas were pursued at various scales and through various media and techniques—there is a clear sense that a true and thoughtful practice is in formation.”

The New Practices New York 2012 exhibition will be designed by Remake and will be on view at the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, New York City from June 14 – September 8, 2012.

The 2012 Alvar Aalto Medal was awarded to Portuguese architect Paulo David last night at the World Design Capital Gala in Lahti, Finland. In the view of the jury, David’s architecture forms a convincing synthesis of contemporary and traditional architecture.

David creates architecture that respects local conditions on his home island of Madeira. According to the jury, David’s timeless architecture succeeds in forming a new historical layer of Madeira’s centuries-old landscape and housing stock. The buildings designed by David can be considered both landscape and architecture.

In the words of the jury, “David’s work is locally rooted, yet at the same time universal. His is a timely reminder that architecture can be quiet, serene, lyrical, powerful and well removed from spectacle. His work continues the search for an appropriate, relevant and authentic architecture that fuses with the landscape. The work respects and responds to ‘history, time, place, culture and technology’ – his is architecture of response rather than of imposition.”

Nature on the remote volcanic island of Madeira is part of David’s architecture. The roofs of his buildings may form part of the landscape. Through carefully-designed openings, natural light and other weather conditions become part of each structure’s interior. The surrounding vegetation, too, becomes part of the building.

The office of Paulo David Arquitectos has been based in Madeira since 2003.

The Alvar Aalto Medal is awarded to an architect or architectural office in recognition of a significant contribution to creative architecture. The medal has traditionally been presented on or around Alvar Aalto’s birthday (February 3).

The prize is awarded by the Alvar Aalto Medal Committee, which represents the Alvar Aalto Foundation, the Finnish Association of Architects SAFA, the Foundation for the Museum of Finnish Architecture, the Finnish Architectural Society and the City of Helsinki. The Medal Committee appoints a jury of experts, who select the recipient of the honor.

The 2012 Alvar Aalto Medal jury included the architects Glenn Murcutt (chair), Simo Paavilainen, Jens Arnfred, Roy Mänttäri and Luis M. Mansilla.

The Alvar Aalto Medal was first awarded to Aalto himself in 1967. This year’s medal is the 11th awarded so far. The bronze medal was designed by Aalto. Its relief design is based on the shape of an amphitheatre, a frequently-recurring theme in Aalto’s architecture.

Recipients of the Alvar Aalto Medal:

1967 Alvar Aalto
1973 Hakon Ahlberg (Sweden)
1978 James Stirling (UK)
1982 Jørn Utzon (Denmark)
1985 Tadao Ando (Japan)
1988 Alvaro Siza (Portugal)
1992 Glenn Murcutt (Australia)
1998 Steven Holl (USA)
2003 Rogelio Salmona (Colombia)
2009 Tegnestuen Vandkunsten (Denmark)
2012 Paulo David (Portugal)

Paulo David will speak tonight at the Day of Architecture and Design seminar in Helsinki and tomorrow, Saturday, February 4, at the opening of an exhibition about the Alvar Aalto Medal at the Museum of Finnish Architecture.

All photos courtesy of the Alvar Aalto Museum.

Los Angeles architect Yaohua Wang - many may still remember his Nanjing Lab proposal - has sent us his latest project, a schematic design proposal for the experimental Xianghong Theater in Taiyuan, China.

Project Description from the Architect:

Taiyuan Theater, which is a small scale experimental theater, located at a cross road in Taiyuan Yin Ze District.

The theater has two main spaces, stacking vertically. The performance space has been surrounded by sound proof glass, providing a unique view to the city context that creates an interesting relationship between city and private art activity. The back stage is under the performance space. Through a mechanical system, the stage in the performance space can be lowered down to connect to the back stage. Workers and equipments can commute between these two spaces through this mechanical system. At the same time, artists can elevate and disappear in front of the audience through this system. Therefore, there is a whole new dimension of dynamics been created for the performance.

On the outer shell, Taiyuan theater tries to blend together different types of tectonics and geometry, which are reacting to different internal functions and exterior aesthetic needs. Such as surfaces with creased edge, boxy beveled volume and mellow, rounded bumps.

The structural systems lifts the theater from the site, to free the ground, allowing the public to have an outdoor shelter space. Meanwhile, it creates this unique circulation sequence. Therefore, as the audience climbs up the stairs to get access to the theater, the entire site context around the theater is changing and also revealed.

On the east side of the theater, there is a billboard, which is showing information about the activity of the theater. Also structurally, the billboard balances the weight of the theater space.

Project Details:

Project: Taiyuan Theater IV
Architect: Yaohua Wang Architecture
Location: Taiyuan, China
Structural Engineer: Organization Group
Client: Xianghong Theater
Program: Experimental Theater
Size: 480 m²
Note: Schematic design proposal

Find more renderings, diagrams and sections in the image gallery below.

Des Moines Water Works, working in partnership with Iowa State University Department of Landscape Architecture, recently announced that Sasaki Associates, with RDG Planning & Design and Applied Ecological Services (AES), is the winning team of the Water Works Parkitecture Competition.

The Parkitecture competition, aptly named for its emphasis on the fundamental role landscape architecture and design play in re-envisioning Water Works Park, began June 2011.  The international design competition entailed the creation of a conceptual plan for Water Works Park to form dynamic relationships between the river, the watershed, and the community.

A panel of judges representing the design industry, Des Moines Water Works and the Greater Des Moines community, reviewed 44 proposals and selected 5 finalists for further review and public comment. The winning team of Sasaki Associates, RDG Planning & Design and AES was confirmed by the Board of Water Works Trustees of the City of Des Moines, Iowa.

The competition sought proposals to integrate the ecological and social function of a park and river into a unified landscape; to inspire the community and to generate discussion about watershed issues/best practices; and offer innovative design solutions to address ecological and recreational challenges specific to Water Works Park.

The 1,500 acre park is bisected by the Raccoon River and a 3-mile-long infiltration gallery, which is a major source of drinking water for Des Moines. The overall vision of Sasaki’s winning plan was to shape, using the natural boundary of the River, two distinct – yet complementary – sections of the Water Works Park: the wild and the engineered. The wild offers immersion into the park’s magnificent natural setting through activities like horseback riding, hiking, and exploration. The engineered is the active heart of the park and provides more structured outdoor activities and event spaces.

The centerpiece of the ‘engineered landscape’ is a recreational watercourse, experienced on standing paddleboards, that is linked to interpretive opportunities regarding the role of the site in harvesting and cleaning drinking water. The engineered landscape also connects to city streets, integrating the park with the urban fabric of Des Moines. Through a series of engaging experiences, the plan offers the potential to realize Water Works Park’s mission – to transform the way society thinks and understands the role of water in the region.

“Education and the connection between the river and the community were highly stressed in Sasaki’s winning plan,” said competition judge, Ted Corrigan, Director of Water Distribution and Grounds for Des Moines Water Works. “The concept of integrating recreation with water supply operational enhancements also stood out from the other submissions.”

Sasaki’s concept plan already won “People’s Favorite” at the public open house on December 15, at the Des Moines Art Center.

The design team and Des Moines Water Works will begin a concept validation process which will address specific issues and include public outreach. It is expected that a majority of the funds for implementation of the vision plan will be obtained through private fundraising and will not be borne by water rate payers.

Throughout the design process, the design team interviewed citizens, community leaders, focus groups, and stakeholders, and will continue engaging the public throughout the master plan and implementation process of the park.

“Building on this concept in a way that provides meaning to the people of Greater Des Moines will be key to the overall success of the ultimate design,” says Pat Boddy, RDG Planning & Design Stewardship Director.

The Water Works Park vision plan is the most recent in a series of urban Midwest floodplain projects for Sasaki. Sasaki principal and landscape architect, Gina Ford, has been involved in the firm’s work in Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Chicago, and Des Moines.

“Our recent work has inspired a deep respect for the dynamism of the floodplain and the need for flood resilience,” she explains. “The Water Works Park competition provided us an opportunity to explore water holistically – from the watershed all the way to the tap. The site is rich with the potential to interpret and transform public understanding of water and its role in the region.”

Sasaki collaborated with Des Moines-based RDG Planning & Design and Minneapolis-based Applied Ecological Services on the competition entry and will continue to do so through implementation. Collectively, the team proffers progressive design strategy, creative vision, acute regional understanding, and technical prowess.

Dutch firms LOLA landscape architects, Deltavormgroep, and Piet Oudolf have won the commission for the extension of the historical park Groot Vijversburg in the north of The Netherlands with their submission “Star Maze”. The team has won the commission through a national tender, for which five teams were selected.

The other design teams were B+B in collaboration with Michael van Gessel, OKRA, Hosper en Strootman. 

Project Description from the Architects:

Park Groot Vijversburg is a romantic public park with a growing art collection, located in the north of The Netherlands. The park is broadening its boundaries and is ambitious to become a national destination. The winning landscape design gives a contemporary interpretation to two new park chambers which create a link between the historical park, a post-war recreational area and a nature reserve.

Central element in the design is the ‘Star Maze’, a remix of two historic park figures: the star shaped forest and the labyrinth. This structure consists of tall hedges that function like room dividers for the existing meadow and create several park spaces suitable for various use. On top of this, the structure creates connections to the surrounding landscape and arranges the accessibility to the various fields.

Each ending of the ‘Star Maze’ has a function, such as a landscape balcony with a view over the nature reserve, a pier for canoe travelers in the recreational area, a window with a vista to the main park villa and a shed with rubber boots, to explore the marshland. The second park chamber, which can be flooded regularly, contains several hills with perennials in a field of pollard willows. The hills can be reached through a grid structure of small dikes.

The design offers the visitor a great freedom of choice in the way he can move through the park. The visitor has to find his own way through the ‘Star Maze’ to the different areas. The central space gives an overview in all directions but at the same time doesn’t impose any direction. By doing so, the design goes beyond the ideals of public cultivation and public health on which the nearby romantic park and the modernistic recreational landscape are based, and it gives the visitor maximum freedom to use the park however he wishes to.

Construction will start in 2013.

Find more plans and diagrams in the image gallery below.

After winning Phase 1 of the design competion for the supertall Cheongna City Tower (formerly known as Tower Infinity) in Incheon, South Korea (previously on Bustler), international practice GDS Architects has now also taken the Fist Prize in the invited competition (Phase 2) to do the project through design development.

Project Description from the Architects:

The observation tower will be the new national gateway landmark for Korea as passengers travel to and from Incheon Int'l Airport. Instead of symbolizing prominence as another of the world's "tallest and best" towers, it sets itself apart by celebrating the global community rather than focusing on itself. the tower subtly demonstrates Korea's rising position in the world by establishing its most powerful presence through diminishing its presense. Korea will have a unique position of having the "best" tower by having an "anti tower". The tower itself appears to disappear through a unique optical technology. Outdoor promenades connect to Cheongna's water canals and natural park setting. Extensive podium program of retail, children activities, water park, cultural, sports, and ecological activities complete the visitor experience.

Project Details:

Client: Korea Land Corporation and Cheongna Organization
Tower Height: 450m
Site area: 110,400 sqm
Total area: 145,500 sqm, 2,000 parking stalls
Status: International design competition winner, 2008 Second stage competition winner, 2012
Completion: 2014

Phase 2 Winner:

Design Architect: GDS Architects and GDS Korea                                                 
Executive Architect: Samoo Architects                                                 
Associate Architects: A&U Group Architects, 2HM Architects, Haima Architects    
GDS Team: Charles Wee, AIA, Michael Collins, Scott Callihan
GDSK Team:  Jae Young Jang, Yong Won Sohn, Min Wook Kang 
Structural Engineer: King-Le Chang & Associates, USA/Taiwan 
Facade/Sustainability: ARUP- Hong Kong

Construction work will shortly begin of the Mateo Arquitectura-designed housing blocks in the Andromède district of Toulouse, France, near the airport of Toulouse-Blagnac. 

Project Description from the Architects:

The site is ready for construction work, which will last 18 months. The project consists of four volumes built around a central garden that will house 104 dwellings, each with a terrace or balcony.

The four buildings share a car-parking floor, which has a waterproofing system to prevent future leakage, as this is a wetland area.

Three of the four blocks are built with brickwork lattice, presenting a harder appearance, and the fourth is built with wood, establishing a contrast with the others.

The underlying premiss of the project is to give the apartments the best orientation, in all cases avoiding the north. Accordingly, all the dwellings in the block on the north side of the site, whether crossventilated or corner apartments, have a double orientation.

The building on the north side is the hardest, built with 80% of black materials and 20% of white materials, thereby marking the urban area, which starts with Avenue Andromède. On the central plot, the proportion is inverted (80% white and 20% black) in a tendency to a shiny white that reflects the vegetation in the garden. The third volume on Rue Jacqueline Auriol is grey (50% black, 50% white). The resulting volumes will be lightweight, perceived not as a continuity of colour but as clouds of pixels, a collection of dots that form a volume.

Designed by John Kaliski Architects, in conjunction with Lawrence Moss & Associates, Landscape Architects, and Kimley-Horn & Associates, Civil Engineers, the Ocean Park Boulevard Complete Green Street recently broke ground on December 12, 2011. When completed in early 2013, it will be the longest complete green street in the City of Santa Monica, and one of the longest in Southern California.

The project’s design expresses and expands upon the long standing ambition of Ocean Park Residents and their community association to revitalize and humanize this artery, for a distance of about a mile from Lincoln Boulevard to Nielsen Way. To this end, the architects have widened existing sidewalks, proposed the planting of over a hundred new trees, allowed for visibly painted bike lanes as well as marked crosswalks with overhead flashing beacons. The improved sidewalks will host pedestrian friendly street furniture and add recycling and trash bins. For bicyclists, there will now be bike racks, and, for everyone, there will be traffic signal improvements to go along with the additional landscaping and new medians. The construction budget is $3.8 million.

In approving this project, the City was determined to address the release of untreated storm water draining into Santa Monica Bay. Hence the Ocean Park Boulevard Complete Green Street will incorporate storm water bioswales and underground bioretention chambers which, together with storm drain improvements in adjacent Los Amigos Park, will capture 55 acres of watershead and significantly reduce unwanted run-off infiltrating it into the ground water instead.

The Ocean Park Boulevard Complete Green Street will be a model for future sustainable green street projects in Santa Monica as well as elsewhere in Southern California. In itself, it will stitch together a previously divided neighborhood, conserve water, protect the ocean from runoff, and provide a vibrant pedestrian and bicycle avenue to and from the beach. As a template for change, it will show how streets designed for automobiles can be transformed into inviting parts of the urban landscape.

The joint proposal by Danish architects CEBRA, developers HP Byg, engineers Viggo Madsen and exhibition architect Elisabeth Topsøe has won the competition to design a new information portal for Rebild, one of the most popular tourist destinations in northern Denmark.

Project Description from the Architects:

Rebild Hills and Rold Forest in northern Jutland are some of Denmark's most beautiful and unique nature reserves, and thus the area holds an extraordinary potential for offering spectacular experiences in this very distinctive rolling landscape. We wish to contribute to the creation of an ideal setting for the narrative about cultural history and nature experiences in these unique surroundings.

We are inspired by the idea of a building, which bids you welcome and acts as a natural gathering place. An open and accommodating building that offers knowledge and insight before guiding and distributing the visitors into the hills and the forest.

We have created an information portal, which is both building and nature. The project's distinctive expression and character are derived directly from Nature's own formal language and elements, which makes the building stand out from its surroundings and blend in with nature's scenery at one and the same time.

The building as landmark

Our proposal is formed as a hymn to nature and the hills and forest, next to which it is situated. Visitors will experience it as a small section of stylised forest with stems and branches, which rise towards the sky and let us catch a glimpse of what lies beyond as fragments of a whole.

It is created in the encounter of building and nature, and appears as a sculptural structure made of bluff timber, thus making the building accessible to the eye of the observer - very similar to a forest's opening and closing when one moves through it and looks upwards through the branches’ chaotic network of crossing lines.

By shaping the building out of raw cut timber, the visitor not only experiences a 'walk in the forest', and a particular atmosphere determined by Nature's own strength and rustic weight, but also the scent of wood and nature, which sets the mood for the visit to the forest and hills. With its location between Rebildhus and The Fiddler's Museum, the building stands out from its surroundings as a place of significance - a small piece of forest projecting out into the built environment.

Communication and guiding

Rebild Hills is centrally located in Northern Jutland and is, together with Rebild Forest, one the region's main tourist attractions and recreational areas with approx. 400.000 visitors a year. The information portal is the gateway to this area, acting both as a key to information and inspiration and as a 'Chinese bo'x where experiences are folded out continuously and new layers are added.

The information portal is the visitor's window to the unique nature, history and the many activities in the area. At the same time, it aims at contributing to the creation of synergy and a collective identity in a strong and lively local environment with a variety of committed players.

Thus, communication and guiding becomes a crucial factor for the project's ability to function as both usable and recognisable gathering point. The project incorporates an overall concept and appearance for communication and presentation, where individual key elements and design secure recognisability, whether you find yourself in virtual space, out in nature or in the building itself.

The building's distinct characteristic - the 'graphic' strength of the timber's structure and the visual reference to trees and branches - acts as a matrix for logos, communication elements, media, guiding landscape elements etc., in order to create an appearance and a guiding concept, which tie landscape, building and user experience together in consecutive story.

Project Details:

Name: Infoportal Rebildbakker & Roldskov
Commision: Public
Type: Competition
Category: Culture
Client: Rebild Municipality & Realdania
Location: Rebild, DK
Year: 2012 - ongoing
Purpose: Information center & museum
Size: 10,760 sq. ft.
Budget: DKK 12.7 mio.
Prize: 1. prize in competition
Service: Lead consultancy services
Energy class: Standard 2015
Collaboration: developers HP Byg, engineers Viggo Madsen, exhibition architect Elisabeth Topsøe

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

This morning, the jury at the international St. Petersburg Pier competition announced "The Lens" proposal as the winning entry. Designed by Los Angeles firm Michael Maltzan Architecture in collaboration with landscape architects Tom Leader Studio, the scheme proposes a network of looping walkways and sweeping bridges which will add a landmark to the waterfront of St. Petersburg, Florida. The jury, three architects and two elected officials, selected the concept unanimously.

The competition shortlist included designs by BIG and West 8.

Project Description from the Architects:

The New St. Petersburg Pier

The St. Petersburg Pier is an extraordinary opportunity to create a new landmark that is representative of both the people and the City of St. Petersburg. As a team,we have come to know the City, its people, and its landscape. We recognize the challenge of continuing the legacy first begun by William Straub, as well as the importance of this key public space for all of St. Petersburg. Furthermore, the City and the Pier have a shared identity, one that has become inextricably intertwined over time. Given this close relationship, it is especially important that this new icon reflects and resonates with the City and its defining characteristic—its connection to the water.

The new Pier is not an icon unto itself. It is instead a lens that frames the City’s relationship to the water, changing how St. Petersburg views its present and its future. While the Pier will remain an important attraction for visitors, we believe that the Pier must be first for the people of St. Petersburg, an active, vital part of the City’s life and culture. Operating on multiple scales of renewal—individual, urban, economic, ecological—this new Pier serve as a new kind of fountain of youth for St. Petersburg and its citizens, a symbol of the renewed vitality of the City, a platform for continued growth, and a destination within the City, the region, and our nation.

The Lens: An Innovative View

Like a magnifying glass on the water, the new Pier acts both as a lens back to the City and a window into the underwater world beneath. Looping out over the water from the shore, the Lens provides views of the bay below and sky above, framing and highlighting the reciprocal relationship between the City and the Bay. Rising above the water, the crenellated form of the Lens canopy evokes waves or sails, a crown on the eastern horizon. Twin bridge paths that extend out and back from the uplands, eliminate the traditional unidirectional path typical for a pier and instead creates a circuit that allows for a wider variety of experiences as visitors walk to the Pier’s length, take in the waterfront vistas, and return back to the City.

From its beginnings as the Municipal Pier, the years of the “Million Dollar Pier,” and the decades that have followed, the Pier has always been a city forum; at its core, it is a place for residents to come together. It has also been the backdrop for important memories: fishing with a parent, a first date, a marriage proposal or returning with their own child. No longer simply a pathway to a terminus, the Pier will become a space for new experiences, one where new programs and activities create opportunities to build lasting memories for individuals, for families, and for the collective community. Recognizing the history and importance of the existing Pier, our proposal does not demolish it; instead it remakes the existing pier’s underwater structure into a framework for an extraordinary new aquatic landscape. The Lens, in essence, is a living room for the City, one where residents and visitors can make a direct, unmediated connection with the waterfront, with each other, and with the City of St. Petersburg.

The Civic Loop: A New Civic Green

Opposite the Lens that extends out over the water is a complementary loop that encircles the upland as it meets downtown. During our team’s visits over the past several months, it is apparent that the experience of the Pier today is isolated from the upland and downtown. This Civic Loop, with the great lawn of the Civic Green at its center, directly links the experience of the water with the life of the downtown St. Petersburg. Pedestrian and bicycle pathways extending across this landscape loop connecting a diverse range of recreational experiences both over land or over water, knitting the site into a singular whole. The new marina, beaches, and lagoons that extend across the upland, descend to the water’s edge, float over it, and arc above it, defining extraordinary experiences and environments for recreation and restoration. The new Pier also reshapes the upland’s southern edge by lifting the primary pedestrian promenade to create a continuous experience of the water that begins at Bayshore Drive. Linking City and Pier alike, the project is no longer two parts, upland and over water, but instead a united whole.

The Hub: Between Land and Water

At the threshold where water and land meet is the new Hub of activity with a flexible array of program areas including the new Amphitheater to the south and the extraordinary new Water Park and playground to the north. Easily accessed, serviced, and closer to the activity of downtown, this zone is integrated into the surrounding landscape through a series of pathways and open lawns, connecting the beach front, new cafes and retail spaces, transient boat slips, and a series of expansive plazas. Each area is woven into the next, combining spaces for families, for play, and for performance. This space is the retail and commercial attractor and economic driver for the project, a counterweight to the more experiential icon of the Lens.

Connecting St. Petersburg and Its Waterfront

One of the great opportunities of this competition is to provide the new living room, the central piazza or town square for the city. It only makes sense that in St. Petersburg, this would happen partly on land and in large part on water. The heritage and identity of the city rests in countless ways on its relationship to the Bay. Water is the icon; it is a vast amenity the city already owns: no one needs to invent it or pay for it. What we can invent is a host of both powerful and nuanced ways to experience the Bay, its particular light, atmosphere, horizon, its nautical sociability, its renewed underwater life, and an aquatic perspective on the city itself. These experiences can include everyone that calls St. Petersburg home, from children and young families to longestablished residents. This is a place for the entire city to gather on common ground—and water.

We recognize the new Pier will be the linchpin in a larger network of interconnected circulation pathways of pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists that extend across the entire downtown waterfront. Connecting Vinoy Park, Demen’s Landing, and Straub Park, the new Pier will be an integral part of downtown St. Petersburg. Once completed, the Pier will be a model for how other cities can rethink their waterfronts, especially their relationship to the natural environment when planning adaptable and sustainable energy and water strategies. A new waterfront promenade and sculpture walk links the existing cultural and commercial axis extending north and south along Beach Drive and Straub Park, creating more direct experiences of the water. To the west, Central Avenue and a remade 2nd Avenue North extending to Mirror Lake, links the Pier with the heart of downtown.

The Lens: Framing the City and Bay

The Lens is a new icon for the City of St. Petersburg, reframing the relationship between the City and the Bay. Visible from afar, it is a crown on the skyline and a marker within the daily life of St. Petersburg. Embracing the water at its center, it is a loupe focused on the water, an observation point for the sky overhead, the water below, and the city skyline beyond. This is a new space for collective experiences for individuals, families, and the residents of St. Pete to gather, to play, and to celebrate, whether for an afternoon walk, weekly farmer’s market, seasonal festival, or large annual event like July 4th.

As its canopy rises over the Bay, the Lens incorporates bicycle and walking paths arcing upwards before returning to the water’s edge. Its broad form shelters the main promenade from the hot sun and the rain, and creates a welcoming space for visitors as they arrive on foot, on bicycle, or via the Pier Tram. Elevators and stairs bring visitors up to a series of viewing decks with unprecedented views of the city skyline in the distance. An oculus inscribed at the far end of the loop opens and connects the world within the Lens and Tampa Bay beyond. At night, the surface of the canopy can become an extraordinary surface for video projection, for performance, and for art. Patterns of light, color or even clouds can track across its surface and will be visible from the Amphitheater and the surrounding city. The Lens will be an active extension of the city skyline on the water.

The canopy’s surface also plays an active role for sustainability. Built of pre-cast white concrete panels,the canopy incorporates an array of micro turbines embedded in its surface, their patterned form taking advantage of prevailing winds and the canopy’s airfoil form. Solar panels are arrayed across the northwest edge of the bowl; their position optimized in relationship to the sun’s path. The canopy also captures and routes rainwater into collection cisterns embedded in the pedestrian pathway below.

The Lens canopy floats effortlessly over the water, light in construction, yet able to resist hurricane-force winds and significant use over time. The design criteria for the project is a 75-year lifespan: as a result, the canopy is constructed of concrete, a lasting icon for the City. Given the sculptural form of the structure and the challenges of building overwater, the canopy’s form is developed into a regular, 30’ radial structural grid arrayed within the footprint of the shell. Below, the scale of the grid and its large-scale columns create a unique architectural space beneath the canopy; above, the grid is linked seamlessly into the upward-curving shape of the shell.

The structure consists of a series of precast concrete beams in a warped grid, following the funicular shape of the canopy, designed to be shallow but wide, taking advantage of the shell’s inherently structural form. Infill precast panels are then placed within this grid, cast in shallow trapezoidal shapes that repeat as they array around the Lens, meeting each other in a way that allows each to act as a component of a larger arch, with the innermost panels acting as the keystone. On top of this assembly is an architectural slab, mechanically attached to distribute loads across the entirety of the shell.

Precast concrete provides an ideal solution to the challenges of working overwater, with construction that can be erected from crane-equipped barges; individual components are small and light enough to be easily brought to site and quickly erected. These precast elements can then provide a working platform from which further work can be efficiently completed. Further, given its mass, the concrete structure is ideally suited to counteract both uplift and column bending that may occur during gale and hurricane force wind events.

Twin Bridges: A Circulation Circuit

Two bridges link the Lens to the upland: one skims along the water’s surface creating a direct dialogue with the surrounding Bay; the other raises high overhead taking in sweeping vistas of the Pier and City. These twin bridges create a promenade to and from the Lens which is no longer unidirectional, but is instead a circuit, providing a diversity of experience as visitors travel out and return. The lower bridge is a wider, wood-clad deck accommodating pedestrians, runners, bicyclists, the Pier Tram, and service and emergency vehicles. The upper bridge’s airy promenade is for pedestrians, and perhaps pelicans, with views in all directions, to the bridge below, and the water beneath.

The Reef: Life in the Water

At the focal point within the Lens are the remains of the old pier. Recognizing the significant role the current Pier has played in the City’s history, and the not insignificant cost to remove it, we have not demolished it. Instead the design leaves the caissons that support the current pier in place beneath the water’s surface and created an armature for an unprecedented underwater reef. The Reef will host a publicly visible and rich marine habitat that will support regeneration and growth, granting the aging pier structure a new life. At night underwater lights will reveal marine life and become a natural aquarium. As never before, the extraordinary natural elements that exist along the central downtown waterfront take center stage, are allowed to flourish, and in doing so, bring great joy to visitors of all ages. The waterfront is a constant source of environmental education and can sensitize the community more than ever to the fragile beauty of these underwater places and the critical importance of careful stewardship.

The Reef is constructed with varying levels of planted media for sea grass and extensive lightweight trays of oyster habitat suspended between the remaining underwater caissons. Oysters and sea grass create the “floor” of Tampa Bay’s food web structure – they create the conditions for mollusks, fish, turtles, manatees to thrive. Within the enclosure of the Lens, it is possible to create a wave-sheltered zone for an extensive new growth of these “floor” species, which clean the bay water which create water clarity and good conditions for dramatic species growth and diversity. The 2.5 acres of oyster habitat within the lens is sufficient to clean 20 million gallons of sea water per day. While we can’t clarify the entire bay, we can definitely create a clean and highly diverse native aquatic ecosystem inside the confines of the Lens.

Find more diagrams, plans and sections in the image gallery below.

The U.S. Pavilion at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale, devoted to the theme Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good, has launched a new website to share information about the exhibition and to broaden the call for projects to be considered for inclusion. Organized by the Institute for Urban Design, Spontaneous Interventions will examine the nascent movement of architects, designers, planners, artists and everyday community members initiating their own projects to bring positive change to the urban realm.

The exhibition will feature a range of realized interventions that expand the comfort, functionality, inclusiveness, safety, and sustainability of U.S. cities. Motivated by a renewed sense of social and political engagement, featured projects include: guerrilla bike lanes, community gardens, urban farms, occupations, urban repair squads, pop-up markets, crowdsourced urban planning, chairbombing, sharing networks, temporary architecture, and communication campaigns, plus digital projects that make cities more navigable, accessible, and transparent. Spontaneous Interventions will frame an archive of actionable strategies that bring immediate citizen-led improvements to cities. Taken together, these projects demonstrate an alternative to traditional, top-down approaches to urban revitalization.

The website will continue to grow over the next nine months, expanding to include a news column, curators’ blog, links to related articles and resources, and list of participants and projects. When the Biennale opens in September, the site will include a participants’ blog, a searchable database of projects, and guide to programs in Venice and the United States during the Biennale.

Architects, designers, planners and artists who have realized an intervention in a U.S. city are encouraged to submit their projects by February 6 in order to be reviewed during the next curators’ meeting.

Click here for additional details about project criteria and submission requirements.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro have won the Aberdeen City Garden Project design competition which seeks to transform the center of Aberdeen, Scotland. New York City-based DS+R collaborated with local Scottish architects, Keppie Design and landscape architects OLIN, on this project and emerged as winners from a head-to-head race with another finalist team led by Foster + Partners. The competition shortlist also included other international heavyweights Gustafson Porter, Mecanoo, Snøhetta & Hoskins, and West 8.

The successful proposal, popularly known as the Granite Web, celebrates the three-dimensional aspects of Aberdeen, reinterpreting the topography of the Denburn Valley and the dramatic cascade of the existing Union Terrace Gardens while creating graceful new spaces and structures that contribute to a memorable and thrilling contemporary design.

It provides additional usable garden space, a landmark cultural and arts center, and promotes the City’s historic streets, revealing the arches, vaults and bridge on Union Street and retaining the balustrades and statues which are part of Aberdeen’s legacy.

The Jury’s decision represents a breakthrough for DS+R giving them their first major European design competition win. DS+R Partner, Charles Renfro said the practice was very excited about ‘jumping across the pond’, commenting:

‘The steep competition drove us that much harder to do more research, to understand the site more thoroughly, to dig deeper into our creative reserve and our technical expertise to find a daring, thoughtful and beautiful solution.

‘While the City Garden is at the heart of Aberdeen, the heart has little pulse…we feel that we can make that heart throb and bring life and energy into the center of town. By making the park greener, more accommodating to passive and active uses, more engaged at its edges, the gardens can become a magnet for this otherwise youthful and energetic city. We feel particularly well- suited to this challenge – the project reflects an integration of landscape design, museum design and design for the performing arts, the primary focuses of our practice.’

The Jury weighed information from a technical panel, face-to-face discussions with the respective teams, public and stakeholder feedback; the two finalists’ schemes being those most popular in a public exhibition held in the city in the autumn. The winning design scored higher in all key areas of the brief including, creation of more new space, cost and viability in construction and on-going maintenance, environmental sustainability and energy efficiency.

Malcolm Reading, the competition organizer, commented:

‘This is such an exciting outcome and a great coup for the city. This ingenious and inspiring design for Aberdeen’s key public space gives the city a new social landscape but one rooted in its extraordinarily rich heritage and natural assets.

‘The runner-up concept, by Foster and Partners was outstanding, elegant and thoughtful, but did not, in the end, persuade the Jury that it could match the promise of connectivity, excitement and spatial diversity of the winning scheme.’

Sir Duncan Rice, former Principal of Aberdeen University and Chair of the Jury said:

‘The Diller Scofidio team had thought long and hard about Aberdeen's special history and unique needs. Answer by answer, they overwhelmed the jury with their vision and their sensitivity to the whole downtown context. They are flexible and responsive, and the thrilling concept they have offered will continue to adapt and evolve as discussion proceeds. I'm proud that our city has been able to attract a team which combines distinction, creativity and urban experience.’

Charles Landry, author of The Creative City and a member of the Jury added:

‘This is a design that can act as the catalyst to regenerate the whole of Aberdeen’s city center with significant economic impacts for the entire city. Truly inspiring, it can put Aberdeen onto the global radar screen - very, very few designs can do this. In time it will be surely loved by locals and visitors alike. Without this type of transformational change, Aberdeen will struggle to meet the challenges it will inevitably face in the future.’

John Stewart, Chairman of the City Garden Project management board said:

‘We promised the public we would deliver an exceptional design and then produce a detailed economic assessment. This will be announced shortly so that the public know what the project could look like, how it will be funded and the economic benefits it will bring before making their decision in the referendum.’

Check also the image gallery below to see the projects of the five shortlisted teams led by Foster + Partners, Gustafson Porter, Mecanoo, Snøhetta & Hoskins, and West 8.

The Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has won an international competition to design Greenland Group Suzhou Center, a 358-meter supertall landmark tower, in Wujiang, China. This is SOM Chicago’s sixth project with the Greenland Group.

Project Description from the Architects:

The atrium is a key design feature of the building. It maximizes daylight penetration, facilitates mixed mode ventilation in the lobbies and public spaces, and acts as a fresh air supply source for the tower. The building is oriented to harness both the stack effect and prevailing winds via the east and west façades of the atrium.

Major high performance energy saving strategies include a high performance façade, utilizing cooler outside air at higher levels for natural ventilation of the atrium, natural light harvesting using daylight responsive controls, lighting energy optimization using efficient fixtures and occupant controls, energy recovery systems, demand controlled ventilation, and an onsite energy center with combined heat and power plant to capitalize on the overall load diversity of the development.

Luke Leung, SOM Director of Sustainable and MEP Engineering, adds, “The design of the Greenland Group Suzhou Center utilizes an atrium as the ‘lung’ of the building to provide ventilation and will incorporate a series of high efficiency measures with the objective to achieve a 60% savings in energy consumption compared to a conventional US high rise and a 60% reduction in potable water use.”

SOM Managing Partner Jeffrey McCarthy states, “This exciting new commission embodies SOM’s interdisciplinary commitment to elegant high performance design. The Greenland Group Suzhou Center is designed not only for efficiency of construction and operation, but to make a strong skyline statement about Wujiang and its bright future.”

The Greenland Group Suzhou Center is SOM Chicago’s sixth project with the Greenland Group. The firm’s work began with Zifeng Tower, formerly Nanjing Greenland Financial Center, in Nanjing, China and was completed in 2009. Five additional supertall projects designed by Wimer for the Greenland Group are the 56-story Zhengzhou Greenland Plaza in Zhengzhou, China, the 59-story Jiangxi Nanchang Greenland Central Plaza, Parcel A in Nanchang, China, the 56-story Nanchang Zifeng Tower in Nanchang, China and the 55-story Greenland Dawangjing Supertall Project in Dawangjing, China.

And here's another entry to the international competiton for a hotel residence at ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, in the Atacama Desert, in the foothills of the Chilean Andes. This proposal here, we received from Paris-based LAN Architecture who collaborated with German structural engineers Bollinger-Grohmann.

Project Description from the Architects:

Extreme

Extreme is the word that keeps coming back on the table at the time of the study.

Extreme but necessary is the choice to implement life and activity in the region.

Extreme is the site, the climate, the drought, the light, the horizontal dimension of the territory.

Extreme is also the way the place will be used: without schedule, without rules, without connection to the site, lost in the middle of the desert.

Extreme is the fact that once there, there is no alternative but to live in this very hotel.

Extreme is also the time given to draw a project that embraces all the factors.

Facing the extreme

This is the drive that leads us, from the desert, through civilizations, techniques and architectures to an idea.

How to transcribe these conditions in a site where for thousands of years the phenomenon hasn’t been generated by itself? How to import urbanity in an area where nature overwhelms man?

The hotel project rapidly became a small city project, a human settlement in which is combined habitat, commerce, education, politics, culture.

To achieve the announced objective we set a strategy where each component of the project plays an essential role in the definition of the whole: rooms becomes roof, roof is a plaza, the plaza a window, the window a façade, the façade a landscape, etc.

The building consists of a low rise hotel and recreational complex. It measures 32,7m x 144,8m. Spread over three levels and dug partially into the slope it appears to float above the contour lines and is orientated to the west, parallel to the slope with views towards the Salar of Atacama.

The principle theme of the project is to generate transitional spaces between outside and inside that reduce energy needs and offer a variety of different situations.

We split the residence program in two distinctive horizontal sections: the upper zone dedicated to the guest’s rooms and the below zone which address the common areas.

In order to limit the impact of the operation on the site, the room system takes place on the higher plateau, taking advantage of the different levels on the site, protects and defines therefore spaces located on the lower level.

The Residence’s rooms are distributed on three levels: the majority of the suites are allocated at level two, with direct access and security-control entrances from and to the campus. This floor is internally connected to the lower common areas as well as to the other two floors of rooms. 

All the rooms benefit of exterior views as well as connections towards the east and west plaza, whose geometry generates semi-private terraces and more open collective zone where to socialize.

Due to the scale and variety of lounge’s sizes the common space at the rooms floors range from small and intimate spaces to the extreme of the plaza’s openness.

Orientation and views were the principle factor that guided the layout of the room.

49% of the rooms are oriented towards west, 24% towards east, 17% towards north and 10% towards south. This layout generates two “piazzas” east and west that can be used at different time in the day depending on the sun.

The layout and the organization of the upper part of the project define the common spaces.

The main entrance to the residence is at the ground floor, at level -8.00 m, where all the reception services are gathered.

At this floor, the overall organization of the program divides the space in a wet area, where to find all the sport activities as well as the gardens, versus the dry zone, where to find the restaurants lounges and the multipurpose room. The two zone have been customized and accurately designed in order to fit the specificity of the building’ s section:  where the  water reflects the slot of light coming from the last level, the restaurant expands towards the above west plaza.

The restaurant with its 5m high ceiling ending with an open roof slit, the space is visually connected with the west piazza and the horizon becomes the protagonist of its identity, the latter participates by its light and colors to the identity of the space. The space will be used around the clock and should be able to accommodate simultaneously big gatherings, small groups and individuals.

The swimming pool part with its 12m high ceiling is a kind of programmed winter garden, an interior landscaped area that offers a very different microclimate from the exterior environment.

The desert is still present but not in a hostile way anymore, it is softened and promotes a friendly atmosphere.

The climate of the Atacama Desert is very particular, and although it is experienced as extreme and inhospitable, the temperatures are not that extreme, at least, not at the altitude of the site at 2900m.

Solar radiation is important as it is paired with practically non cloud cover.

As a result, people and buildings are exposed to a high degree of insolation during the day, almost all the year round, and at night. So if one is protected from the sun and the wind whilst enjoying the outside heat, we can experience one of the most enjoyable climates.

The bioclimatic design is based on the solar protection and limiting heat loss at night.

The strategy is based on a structure of staggered floors offering sun protection and allows the creation of buffer zones that limit convection. These spaces are also an exterior extension of the dwelling.

The aim is to limit the buildings gross requirements in terms of heating, cooling and lighting. The effect is to smooth out the outside temperature curve while limiting the effects of wind and radiation.

The building is conceived as a steel skeleton structure with columns, steel trusses, lightweight infill and composite steel floors. The steel construction allows for a high degree of prefabrication and thus limitation of labor time on site, an optimized weight for the building and a highly ductile structure which can respond well to the high seismic loads and which allows for a high flexibility in the use of the building.

Project Description from the Architects:

Project: Construction of a Hotel Residence of 120 rooms
Client: European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere
Location: ALMA Operations Support Facility in the Atacama Desert, near San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile
Budget: € 7, 7 M Excl. VAT
Project surface: 5,800 m²
Competition: 2011
Team: LAN Architecture (lead architect), Bollinger-Grohmann (structure)

Check the image gallery below for more diagrams and plans.

Finnish architects Kouvo & Partanen have just recently been chosen to design a hotel residence for the astronomers, engineers, and other observatory staff working at ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. At 2,900 meters above sea level, the hotel residence will be built at the ALMA Operations Support Facility in the Atacama Desert, in the foothills of the Chilean Andes.

Project Description from ALMA:

The buildings’ architectural design will be integrated into the landscape by using local materials such as stone, copper and volcanic rock. Their facades and structures will use the colors and tones of the surroundings, and the natural landscape will be preserved as much as possible. The buildings are designed for energy efficiency, using natural light wherever possible, and collecting solar energy for hot water and heating. The intense sunlight has influenced the design in other ways, too: the entrances and access ways will have canopies made of local materials and natural stone, to provide protection from the strong ultraviolet radiation at this high-altitude site.

The dormitories are designed as modules, each with two sets of ten bedrooms, and individual balconies. The dormitories will branch out from a central building, which will contain numerous communal spaces. These include a lounge, dining room, and an outdoor terrace, for barbecues and sunset viewing over the Salar de Atacama. The residence will be a welcome oasis in the harsh conditions of one of the driest places on Earth, and will offer an environment that is both relaxing and stimulating — perfect for the staff working round the clock at the world’s most complex ground-based astronomical observatory.

The roof terrace will provide scenic views of the breathtaking landscape: the Salar de Atacama stretching below, the extinct Licancabur volcano about 35 kilometers to the north and the active Lascar volcano about 50 kilometers to the south. There will also be an observation point for stargazing with an amateur telescope.

The total floor area of the hotel residence with 120 bedrooms and the main building will be about 5,900 square meters. The leaders of the design project at Architectural Office Kouvo & Partanen Oy are architects Arch Safa, Erkki Partanen and Sinikka Kouvo.

The design phase is planned to last six months, followed by the procurement actions for the construction. Completion of construction is expected in 2014.

ALMA’s Operations Support Facility, where the hotel residence will be built, is near San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile. The telescope itself is located 28 kilometers away, at the higher altitude of 5,000 meters on the Chajnantor plateau. Once completed, the telescope will consist of an array of 66 high-precision radio antennas, 12 meters and 7 meters in diameter, working at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. The observatory began scientific observations at the end of September 2011 with a partial array. ALMA will study the building blocks of stars, planetary systems, galaxies and life itself, letting astronomers address some of the deepest questions of our cosmic origins.

Our friends at Wallpaper* yesterday announced the winners of their 2012 Design Awards. The international panel of judges, this year comprising Grayson Perry, Rafael Vinoly, Simon de Pury, Gerd Bulthaup, and Jean-Paul Goude, selected the top entries in eleven major design categories. Many more awards in highly specialized design categories were chosen by Wallpaper* editors and contributors.

Below are the winners and shortlist candidates in the architectural categories Best New Public Building, Best New Private House, Best New or Renovated Hotel, and the top-scoring Life Enhancer of the Year. For the complete list of this year's winners, please visit wallpaper.com or pick up the new issue of Wallpaper* at your trusted newsstand.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected the Gehry Residence in Santa Monica, California for the 2012 AIA Twenty-five Year Award.

Recognizing architectural design of enduring significance, the Twenty-five Year Award is conferred on a building that has stood the test of time for 25 to 35 years as an embodiment of architectural excellence. Projects must demonstrate excellence in function, in the distinguished execution of its original program, and in the creative aspects of its statement by today’s standards.

A seemingly ad hoc collection of raw, workmanlike materials wrapped around an unassuming two-story clapboard bungalow, Frank Gehry’s, FAIA, home for his wife, Berta, and two sons found a literal, but unexpected, answer to the question of neighborhood context, and used it to forever re-shape the formal and material boundaries of architecture.

As soon as it was completed in 1978, reactions ranged from hagiography to anathema. Over time, critical reactions mirrored the role the house would play in the larger canon of contemporary architecture. A 1979 review by New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger, Hon. AIA, recognized the house as an extremely successful provocation—if not much more. He called the Gehry Residence the most significant new house in Southern California in years, admiring its central conceptual conceit: an old house wrapped in jagged panels of corrugated metal, creating a new band of patio-like indoor/outdoor space on three sides.

The exposed structure, chaotic fusion of disparate materials, and aggressive juxtaposition of old and new communicate a sense of real-time formal evolution and conflict, as if the building were dynamically, violently creating itself with found objects. This notion of embracing unfinished imperfection has been powerfully influential among progressive building designers, especially in Gehry’s home base of Southern California. The sculptural qualities of Gehry’s house presage the wild eruptions of form at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and Walt Disney Concert Hall that would make him a world design icon, still recognizable under the rectilinear massing of the old bungalow and its curious new armature.

The award will be presented this May at the AIA National Convention in Washington, D.C.

Czech firm CHYBIK+KRISTOF Associated Architects have shared with us their schematic design for the Faculty of Fine Arts at Brno University of Technology in Brno, Czech Republic. The project team also included Ivan Ruller and Ondrej Stehlik.

Project Description from the Architects:

The project is based on the idea of maximal respect to the character of the park’s locality in the city centre for which it is designed. It is a complex of separate pavilions based on the floor plan of the existing build-up area of provisional assembled buildings, so-called likusáks. The concept of the project presupposes an interaction between education, culture and the public. Its realisation will significantly contribute to revitalise the neglected eastern part of the park on Kraví hora. The exclusively located area offers only a commercial use of the provisional built-up area, and even though it is situated in the wider city centre, it has not undergone a process of revitalisation yet. The joyless nature of the area with decrepit temporary objects contrasts dramatically with the surrounds of Kraví hora, being architectonically and socially highly attractive.

Historically, the most significant urbanistic intention to fully exploit the area was the project of the Academic Square from 1920s and 1930s which had counted on building up Kraví hora for the newly founded Masaryk University. Successive competitions were attended by renowned representatives of the Czech interwar architecture, e. g. Alois Dryák, Bohuslav Fuchs, Jindřich Kumpošt, Miloš Laml, Jan Víšek, Ernst Wiesner etc. However, due to the antagonism of both the architectural and academic community, the only building realised was the Faculty of Law by Alois Dryák. The project of the new campus of the Faculty of Arts follows the historic continuity of the first-republican idea of building a campus. Nevertheless, it differs significantly in the fact that it preserves desirable green zones in this area.

An optimal space for art presentation in public will be created within the new premises of the Faculty of Arts. The educational function will be completed with a cultural and social function: in one of its variants, the project includes a public-accessible gallery, a club, a library and rooms for organising lectures and workshops. These rooms will be situated in the central object which will act as a spine of the area. The project’s realisation will bring a complex use of the whole area – it will include science and education (observatory and planetarium, technical and art schooling), culture (gallery, art presentations in public) and sport (sport and recreational area with a pool, baseball field). At the same time, a new dominant feature will emerge within the city structure connecting the Veveří Street to the square náměstí Míru. Thanks to this, the whole area will get more open and less obstructed.

The basic unit of the architectonical structure is a pavilion situated on the existing built-up space with total dimensions of 67.5 m in length and 10 m in width. The characteristic motive is a counter roof ensuring optimal indirect illumination. The shape and the orientation of the roofs incite to use renewable solar energy. Natural window ventilation and individual air-conditioning heat recovering units will be put in place. The authorial team consulted the construction and the static solution, as well as the question of heating with specialised institutes of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of Brno University of Technology – the area could be rebuilt surprisingly simply and quite quickly. Some objects may serve as ateliers for young artists as a sort of incubators. This will steadily cover a part of school’s expenses. Moreover, the projected green zone of the park surpasses the actual state since it anticipates planting of new trees.

A campus endowed with public functions will aid to open the locality to wider and more socially varied user groups. One of the key developing strategies of Brno consisting in creating an image of Brno as a European academic city will be fulfilled.

Project Details:

Location: Brno, Czech Republic
Use: University and creative incubator
Team: CHYBIK+KRISTOF ASSOCIATED ARCHITECTS, Ivan Ruller, Ondrej Stehlik
Structure: Petr Stepanek
Heating: Jiri Hirs
Construction: Josef Chybik
Consultants: Michal Gabriel, Tomas Ruller
Text: Marketa Zackova
Visualizations: Miss3
Size: 8,500 m2
Site Area: 48,000 m2
Project year: 2011
Type: Commission
Status: Ongoing

The collaboration of three Toronto-based firms, JET Architecture, JCI Architects, and Terraplan Landscape Architects, has won the commission to build the "Shobuj Pata" (Green Leaf) Eco Community Development in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Project description from the architects:

The landmark “Shobuj Pata” (Green Leaf) Eco Community Development by Rupayan Housing Estate Ltd., one of the largest developers in Bangledesh, will be an oasis with green trees, plants and vegetation.   This sustainable garden city of the future will be located on the outskirts of Dhaka, the capital of the Bangladesh. Named after “Green Leaf” in Bengali, the construction of Shobuj Pata garden city begins in 2012. The project will be ready to house 10,000 people in 2015, with habitable space for 2300 – 2400 dwelling units and convention centre, mosque, retail, school, etc. Green Leaf will become a livable low-carbon community incorporating landscape elements with architecture.

JET Architecture was invited by JCI Architects along with  Terraplan Landscape Architects, to joint venture in the design of the Green Leaf project.   After winning the commission earlier in 2011, on December 16th, 2011, the final negotiations were completed to enable the project to move forward quickly.   The team will be working together, helping Bangladesh to design a sustainable community with an innovative green concept.  Green Leaf is green landscape architecture and built form which takes full advantages of the local natural resources to create a hybrid habitable space combining architecture and nature. The concept is inspired by adopting current and green innovative technology to make the design construction economic and feasible.

Bangladesh is a naturally lush green country with abundant rainfall every year. It is actually the country with the highest annual average rainfall in the world. Due to the hot and humid climate, a heat island effect occurs naturally in Dhaka. In order to deal with these extreme conditions, local ecology, micro climate and natural environment must all be key architectural influences during the design stage. Another challenge in Green Leaf is to find the balance by combining passive and technologically sustainable strategies in order to achieve high energy efficiency and performance within a high density atmosphere. The design team has found the perfect solution to form the complex by designing the building envelope with vernacular textures and vegetation. Green Leaf’s open-air architecture becomes an extension of the natural landscape, where interior and exterior spaces become interchangeable. The façade has used local vegetation as the design element to bring Bengali landscape into the heart of the built form, which stretches from the ground up to the rooftops.

To direct rainwater runoff away from buildings, and to prevent water overflow, bioswales are incorporated along the street edges throughout the ground plane. The bioswales also act as a rainwater filtration system retaining excess water for irrigation of the gardens and parks within the development. In the dry seasons, these water featured areas can function as additional water recreation space. In case of excessive storm water, green roofs are designed to mitigate the runoff and assist water and air purification. Furthermore, these systems can also reduce overall building energy consumption and moderate the urban heat island effects. The green wall acts as an air filtration system and creates its own microclimate which mitigates heat gain in the units as well as reducing both indoor air and outdoor radiated temperature. Reinforcing the idea of cross-ventilation, the thin profile and shallow floor plates which align with the local main wind direction generate a stunning configuration and provide opportunities for natural daylight to be accessible on both sides of the units.

Green Leaf is not only acting as natural demarcation for spaces and activities; the various vegetated landscapes also create a green network that reconnects the urban population with the natural landscape of Bangladesh through a system of parks, paths and open public spaces. The planting species include fast-growing trees which create a comfortable microclimate for residents and visitors. One of the most important functions of the green façade is that it offers shade during intense heat and helps oxygenate surrounding air. The hedges, inspired by gardens that are carefully designed and organized, become the buildings in the Green Leaf plan, defining habitable space within the natural landscapes. They create a sense of living among trees, differentiated from a typical urban context. Smaller squares and parkettes closer to the centre contrast soft edges with hardscape materials that are necessary for active spaces. The landscape contains the key functions of this urban enclave. The garden city contains a central square with a market, commercial spaces, and educational and religious institutions that become an accessible public focus for gathering and events, encouraging the experience of city and nature simultaneously.

With private courtyards and gardens aligned with the spaces between buildings and bioswales preventing potential water overflow, this bio-integration of architecture and natural landscape will define a new development paradigm for Bangladesh that maximizes density, value and returns, both ecologically and economically. Exhibiting sustainable designs that embrace vernacular landscapes, Green Leaf architecture draws from the lushness of the Bengali landscape and gives both beauty and function back to its surroundings.

Find more diagrams and floor plans of the residential units in the image gallery below.

Polish practice BudCud has sent us their EUROPAN 11 entry 'Central Lake' for the Kanaalzone site in Leeuwarden, Netherlands which won the team an Honorable Mention. For the EUROPAN Leeuwarden challenge, participants were confronted with questions that asked for a solution on all levels: landscape, urban and architectural.

Project Description from the Architects:

On the beginning, Leeuwarden village was located by an inlet that in fact was a lake. The big water determined the city sprawl. Then the lake was changed into grid of canals, and fields. The city extended parallel into dense grid of streets and canals. City block became the mane typology. Later on it sprawl towards the former so called Middelzee and the city spirit was lost.

With our strategy, we want to revive the primal nature of the site. Adjusting canal grid once again, by a simple gesture of squeezing it into a bigger volume, the statement is made. The new lake is created, so that outstanding features describe Leeuwarden. Again. the site is an ideal place for water lovers, for whose affection the big lake is more appropriate than practical, but characterless narrow irrigation canals. The site character now is distinctive. It is similar to a big city block. It is as natural as a region of Fryslan should be, directed into the phenomena of something between urban and rural lifestyle. Absolutely honest in its return to nature and celebration of a common space, yet with a respect to private. It is environmentally conscious, but in a modern way, with its contemporary approach.

Housing is organized around the lake, what guarantees spectacular views and contact with nature.There are 304 sites from witch 300 host single family housing typologies: free standing houses, semidetached and detached housing, with height ranging from one floor bungalows to 3 story houses. 4 sites are taken by apartment blocks, with total number of 100 units. In this scenario we are opting for 400 apartments in total. Site width vary between 6 and 10 m, and its depth can be from 20 to 80 meters, what gives a total area from 150 sqm to 485 sqm per site. Which is enough efficient and cheap to buy. Housing units are put in sets as mediators to create subdivisions of the whole area. That arrangement also allows wide angled, spacious perspectives full of green and water from the inside of the site, giving the illusion of uninhabited, virgin land for those who live there. From outside it seems like a dense part of a city. Giving us the dream come true. The site arrangement behaves like a magnetic field, with an intense social performance zone in the center.

The urban strategy assumption is similar to the one of Central Park, New York, USA - that green area became city orientation surface, it's relief and activity zone. Just like Manhattan blocks, Leeuwarden sites are arranged around the lake, perpendicularly to the closest waterline, forming compact stripped masterplan. Long, narrow sites allow to locate units in few different condition. It can be closer to the road, leaving the great area for 'a secret garden' and a long perspective to the lake. A house can be located in the middle of the site, retreating itself from the road, indulged in a garden. On the back part of the site a private water platform can be located, used according to the need- as a fishing spot, boat platform or a sundeck. Water lovers can have their house on the verge of the lake, overlooking their boat moored nearby or even under the first floor.

The rest of the site is wild, suggesting the natural culmination of the path. The set of sites, where the buildings are moved from the road, forms a panorama of a park. That strategy saves the community funds reserved for public spaces, because the park is maintained by private owners, but used by the whole community. The dimensions of the site give one more urban strategy- a possibility of subdivision depending on the real estate market situation. Site sizes are elastic. It means the total footprint could be more intense without losing the spontaneous character of the site.

Project Details:

Year: 2011
Client: MUNICIPALITY OF LEEUWARDEN, ELKIEN, EUROPAN EUROPE
Location: LEEUWARDEN, NL
Program: URBAN PLANNING, HOUSING
Area: 490000 M2
Status: COMPETITION, SPECIAL MENTION
Team BudCud: MATEUSZ ADAMCZYK, MARCELINA KOLASIŃSKA, AGATA WOŹNICZKA

Check also the image gallery below for more diagrams.

International design and research collaborative Y Design Office has sent us the proposal Unit Fusion, a modular, plug-in high-rise residential typology for Hong Kong. As of yet, the 75-story tower project is still in its conceptual design phase.

Project Description from the Architects:

Under rapid housing developments in the past years, Hong Kong has benefited much in terms of economy. However, important values such as value in sense of community and individual identity were lost. This thesis hereby critically reviews current and past housing projects in Hong Kong and stating the notion of verticality as the only solution. The ambition is a new alternative high-rise residential typology, in which its inhabitants are given unique units and allocations in accordance to specific zoning strategy within a tower structure, thus creating a phenomenal living experience through bonding and acquiring needs by each and every single individual. It is a re-interpretation of the balance between genericity and specificity aiming at formulating an extraordinary democratic living concept.

empowerment of individuality

A catalog of 1,960 unique residential units that reflects the importance of individual identity is provided- at the same time, it enables the owners as individuals to choose their own unit types from XS to XL, custom-fit to their own features, namely kitchen, bathroom/powder, closet, balcony, entry/fa?ade in accordance to their specific needs. All unit types are formulated based on the primitive cubic size of 2.6m x 2.6m x 2.6m, ranging from 4 to 20 cubes that would define their unit types: XS, S, M, L, XL. Also each unit feature is highly modularized such that it enables open configuration and arrangement in the interior, accommodating each individual’s needs. Life cycle of each unit is approximately 30 years, and maintenance will be on a 5-year-basis to ensure high quality living condition.

empowerment of network

The overall architectural settings of the units generate an extremely complex, yet harmonic living network. The network adapts through time in terms of location, zoning and orientation. Every 5 years each unit will be re-located and contribute to the expansion of the network in order to achieve improved and stronger social bonding in-between units. The 30-year life-cycle of a unit fundamentally engages 6 different locations throughout the tower. There is also a plug in & out mechanical system for the re-allocation of the units within a 4-month period for the capacity of 1,940 units.

empowerment of participation

Diversity of public programs generates an energetic community. Each public program situates specific area of each floor [sky-garden], every five floors [sky-lobby] and each zone [four zone at 3rd, 20th, 40th, 60th and 75th floors] to provide public services for the users, as well as providing high dynamic pedestrian connections between floors. An intimate social fellowship and physical community are made possible by variety in activities.

unity

The overall parameter of the tower is highly articulated such that the tower itself would be greatly responsive to specific site conditions. Each condition, namely the surrounding environment such as the sun angle, wind direction and historical axis, defines the zoning, orientation and occupancy location of the tower. Within each unique residential unit, as well as the entire living network, the tower generates a phenomenal architectural experience.

Project Details:

Project: Unit Fusion - a new alternative high-rise residential typology
Architect: Y Design Office
Location: WKCD, Hong Kong
Building Type: tower / prefabricated unit
Building Height: 427.5m
Number of Dwellings: 1940
Date Built: concept design
Dwelling Types: XS, S, M, L, XL 18 types [27.4sqm to 133.38sqm; studio, 1,2,3 BR]
No. Floors: 75 floors
Floor to floor: 5.7m
Section Type: plug-in unit on slab corridor
Exterior Finish Materials: prefab. steel panel/glass panel
Construction Type: prefab. steel and precast reinforced concrete
Ancillary Services: urban park, entertainment/food&cafe, shopping, art & cultural, recreation, sky-garden/observation
Total GFA [90% unit plug-in]: 166,874sq

Copenhagen architects LETH & GORI have shared with us their entry in the open competition for a new police headquarter and public parking facilities in Lidköping, Sweden.

Project Description from the Architects:

The project site is an open square on the border of Lidköping’s historical urban plan from 1672. The site is an important entrance point to the historic city and one of the design objectives of the competition was how to emphasize this.

LETH & GORI’s proposal is a hybrid project that balances between building and urban space. The police building is lifted and perforated to create a series of different public spaces. In addition the building integrates four existing buildings that are programmed with functions related to the local community. This transforms the traditionally closed Police Building into a building that supports and celebrates the local community and the life in the city.

Project Details:

Architects: LETH & GORI
Team: Karsten Gori, Uffe Leth, Stefano Cinus, Danila Lampis and Sebastian Andersen
Status: Competition entry
Program: Police station and public parking
Location: Lidköping, Sweden
Year: 2011

Find also plans, sections and concept diagrams of the proposal in the image gallery below.

The YUL-MTL : Moving landscapes international ideas competition on the Autoroute 20 gateway corridor linking the Montreal-Trudeau Airport to downtown Montreal recently announced three equal winners. The competition, hosted by the Chair in Landscape and Environmental Design at the University of Montreal (CPEUM), aimed to develop strategic visions for the development of the 17 km corridor mainly composed of transport infrastructures, residential and industrials areas and brownfields in dire need of revitalization.

The three winning proposals selected by the jury stood out by their ability to integrate all of the planning issues involved in a territory project, such as those related with the quality of transport infrastructures, living and working environments and natural areas.

Three equal prizes of $33,000 were awarded to these contestants:

• Brown and Storey Architects (Toronto, Canada), for their development of a strategy based on the densification of neighborhoods;
• dlandstudio with Trollbäck + Company (Brooklyn, USA), for their contextualization of Montreal’s transport infrastructure problems into the North American context and for the proposed concepts to reduce the effects of barriers between neighborhoods;
• Gilles Hanicot (Montreal, Canada), for their proposal based on the uses of renewable energy structures to build new landmarks in the corridor and for the development of the mixed-use urban development program.

The jury also honored 11 more projects with honorable mentions. All winning proposals and honorable mentions of the ideas competition will generate an “Atlas of possibilities” to feed the discussion of the working group which already defined the design orientations of the competition which were 1) an evolving and emblematic landscape project for the metropolitan area; 2) a scenographic composition of the corridor experiences; and 3) a collaborative approach to sustainable urban development.

Chaired by the French architect and urban planner Édouard François, the international jury members of the ideas competition were Pierre Bélanger, associate professor in landscape architecture, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, Cambridge; Ken Greenberg, architect and urban designer, Greenberg consultants inc., Toronto; Florence Junca-Adenot, founder of the Forum Urba 2015, Université du Québec à Montréal; Anick La Bissonnière, architect and scenic designer, Atelier Labi, Montréal; and Jacques Verville, representative of the ministère des Transports du Québec.

Here are the plans of the three winning proposals:

Brown + Storey Architects Inc.
Toronto, Canada

Authors: James Brown, Kim Storey, Stephen King, Richard Averill, Matthew Unternahrer, John Duchene, Emma Brown

 

dlandstudio with Trollbäck + Company
Brooklyn, United States

Authors: Susannah Drake, Forbes Lipschitz, Jakob Trollback, Rachelle Madden, Erica Hirshfeld, Peter Alfano

 

Gilles Hanicot, Architecture de Paysage
Montreal, Canada

Author: Gilles Hanicot

All images courtesy of CPEUM and Bureau du design de la Ville de Montréal.

Czech firm mjölk architekti has shared with us their fascinating proposal "POLAR HEN" which was - under the title "ICE PILLOWS" - just recently named one of the five winners in the internationally acclaimed Warming Huts v.2011, An Art +Architecture Competition on Ice (...with one of the other four winners being Frank Gehry!).

For only one winter, the five winning huts will be created and placed on the frozen Assiniboine River in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Project Description from the Architects:

Our idea of warming huts for ice skaters extends the provision of mere shelter. Instead of adding a new structure to the landscape, the landscape itself is transformed into shapes that offer shelter.

We designed „POLAR HEN“, a terraforming creature.

A pump with a sprinkler connected to a compressor and a generator. It settles down on the ice, perforates it and begins to pump up the icy riverwater to spray it over an air-filled silicone inflatable. The icy water freezes on the surface of the inflatable thus creating fully transparent ice igloos. When the ice coat thickens enough, the inflatable is emptied and removed from the inside of the igloo.

POLAR HEN is now ready to move on and create more igloos!

International design collective HAO / Holm Architecture Office, in collaboration with New York-based VM Studio, has received first place in a competition for the re-design of the Coleman Oval Skate Park in Manhattan.

Nine New York design firms were invited to participate in the competition, which was sponsored by Architecture for Humanity and a Gamechangers grant from Nike, a campaign encouraging community organizations to empower youth through sports programs that spur social and economic development. The project is being developed with the New York City Parks & Recreation Department’s Adopt-a-Park program.

The first part of the new design, the Skate Park and seating area, is expected to be completed mid 2012.

The Coleman Oval Skate Park, situated partly under the Manhattan Bridge on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, has become one of the most heavily trafficked skate parks in New York City.

HAO’s winning solution re-imagines the park and conceives a program designed specifically to suit the unique character and demographic mix of the surrounding neighborhood.

With the new skate park and seating area as the cornerstone of the revitalization of the larger Coleman Oval Park, HAO proposes a plug-and-play design solution that can be developed in phases while still establishing a strong unified architectural solution.

“By creating a park that emphasizes and underlines local diversity, Coleman Oval Park has the potential to become a one of a kind city park simply by accommodating the potential of the dense urban area it sits within: the secret is in the mix,” said Jens Holm, founder, HAO.

Project Details:

Title: Coleman Oval Skate Park
Program: Playground, Skate Park, Public Park, Stage, Dog Run, Base Ball Field & Sports Program
Type: Invited Competition
Client: Architecture for Humanity & Steve Rodriguez / 5boro
Location: Coleman Oval Park, Manhattan, NY
Status: Ongoing
Team: Jens Holm/HAO; Kay Vorwuelderbecke/VM Studio

Just last week, we published the outstanding winners of the 2011 Regional Holcim Awards for the Asia Pacific Region which celebrates smart, sustainable solutions in architecture and construction. Taking the top prize in the program's “Next Generation” category was MIT student August Liau for a project to increase bicycle commuting in Beijing, China. The project advocates pedal power as a dynamic alternative for urban transit and recalls its well-proven potential in the world’s former cycling capital.

Following is the proposal in detail.

Project Description from the Architect:

This project intends to be a catalyst for a renewed bicycle culture in Beijing, the capital of the former “Bicycle Kingdom”.  Beijing, having more bicycles than any other city in the world just 15 years ago, has in recent years undergone a drastic shift to become a city consumed by cars and highways.  This has produced disruptive voids in the traditional small-scale fabric of the city that once made the old city unique.  It has also produced some of the highest traffic volumes, longest automobile commute times, and some of the highest levels of air pollution among major world cities.  This ironic transformation from a city dependent on the most sustainable form of transit to one that is gridlocked by the form that is the least sustainable is what this project critiques.

Recognizing that this shift is largely attributed to the changing culture of the citizens as they gain higher economic status, the project aims to create a place to generate an attractive counter-culture to the current trend toward motor vehicles.  It will target the population of the growing white-collar working class as its main audience, as they are the ones who are setting the trends of contemporary transportation in Beijing.

The proposal is a new building typology for the city - a bicycle commute center which will occupy the urban void space produced by the highways.  The center will provide an ‘oasis’ in the city, a place which promotes a lifestyle of wellness and sustainability centered around the daily bicycle commute - a lifestyle antithetical to that of the motor vehicle.  The guiding metaphor for the project is the “auto”-mobile lifestyle, derived from the literal meaning of the phrase for bicycle in Chinese: “zi” (auto/self) “xing” (mobile/sufficient) “che” (vehicle).

Comment of the Holcim Awards Jury Asia Pacific:

The jury is convinced by this remarkable project due to its visionary and strategic approach. It advocates bicycling as a powerful alternative for urban transit and recalls its well proven potential in the world’s former bicycling capital. The visionary idea is shown to integrate pollution reduction and energy saving solutions into existing structures while addressing the urgency of implementing different approaches to urban transit – here and in other cities of the world. Moreover it demonstrates how residual central spaces may be occupied with beneficial and sophisticated design solutions in function, embedded systems and aesthetics that are well integrated.

This “out-of-the-box” thinking sends a message to all developing metropolitan areas and provokes a process of rethinking by contemporary urban planners.

The international competition for the concept design of the new Eni Exploration & Production Business Center in San Donato Milanese, Italy, was won by Morphosis Architects with Nemesi Partners (architectural design partner), Setec TPI (structures designer), Setec Batiment (plants designer) and Pasodoble (landscape architect).

The group has been chosen from among 10 contestants which were selected during the first stage of the competition. The task of the competition, which was entered by over 50 international teams, was to develop the concept design for the construction of the new Exploration & Production Business Center for Eni, one of the largest global energy companies operating in the oil and gas, electricity generation and sale, petrochemicals, oilfield services construction and engineering industries.

The goal was to leave a mark on the territory, expressing Eni’s values and vision, in line with the adjacent Metanopoli, and in alignment with the principles of economic, social and environmental sustainability, in continuity with the tradition of Enrico Mattei.

Eni’s Exploration & Production Business Center will have an area of 65,000m2 including 60,000m2 for offices and 5,000m2 for services. The Business Center will have the capacity to host approximately 3,500 people, and is expected to be completed in time for Milan’s Expo in 2015.

The project area is located in the ex-Industrial Complex, Eni’s first settlement in San Donato Milanese, which boundaries are Viale De Gasperi on the north-west side, Via Ravenna on the north-east side, Via Correggio on the south-east side and Via Vannucchi on the south-west side.

From the architectural point of view, the winning project embraces three values: the individual and the community as core elements: the square, symbolic and functional heart of the new Business Center; democracy and integration, from a tout court architecture to a landscape architecture: the business towers lose their self reference, originating an horizontal and democratic architecture; research and innovation towards new sustainability: the design concept expresses the Exploration & Production process through metamorphic architecture, a fluid and dynamic continuum, which represents the transformation of matter into energy.

Images courtesy of Eni.

Chinese practice LYCS Architecture has won an invited competition for a 32,000 sqm testing and assessment research center in the city of Shenzhen, China. The brief called for a mixed-use building including offices, residential and commercial.

Project Description from the Architects:

The project conceptually begins with the traditional Chinese urban design idea of a “miniature city” and divides the site into 10 equal volumes. Then the volumes are aligned corresponding to the scattered programs across the landscape.

The project maintains horizontal consistency while allowing for the necessary building components to address diverse and at times conflicting desires for the overall design concept.

As the building volumes shift in plan according to programmatic adjacencies, the glass curtain walls remain continuous and the floor plates are consistently continuous. Meanwhile, the third floor is being dramatically transformed into a tessellated plate that twists horizontally to tension the homogenous facade and break the overall continuity of the design. Additionally, the external stairs break down the facade's impassibly clean horizontal lines, allowing the design of the facade to function both in the big picture horizontally, and in precise detail diagonally.

The building volume is radically interrupted by a series of tessellated hyperbolic parabola surfaces on the third floor. This floor fundamentally challenges the standard office building with a synthetic gathering of three alternate architectural inventions: interruption of the perfect horizontal grid, connection of many floors with varying heights, and formation of a wave-like landscape terrace. Each terrace is smoothly connected by ramps and steps, providing people with multiple choices of circulation and rich spatial experiences. The terrace roof also extends into the interior space of the third floor, creating spaces for public exhibition, education, service and commercial.

The building volumes are connected on the second floor by different outdoor and indoor corridors, forming courtyards in the interstices of the unity. The courtyards, together with roof gardens and third floor landscape terraces, create a vertical green system.

Project Details:

Architects: LYCS Architecture
Location: Shenzhen, China
Project Team: Hao Ruan, Yuan Zhan, Xu Li, Meng Yang, Yan Li, Peng Wang, Vedrana Puhalo, Zhengmeng Dong
Consultant: Shenzhen Institute of Building Research
Project Period: 2011-2013
Size: 32,000 sqm

The Mayor of Montreal, Gérald Tremblay, recently unveiled the winning project in the architecture competition for the new indoor soccer center at the Saint-Michel Environmental Complex (SMEC). The jury has chosen the concept developed by Saucier + Perrotte / Hughes Condon Marler Architects from among the four submitted by the finalist firms.

The jury also awarded a special mention to the firm Éric Pelletier Architectes for its concept, which displayed remarkable functional qualities, placing the user first and creating connections between sports activities and the park.

The total cost of the new soccer center is $28.3 million, with the Ville de Montréal investing $15.6 million and the governments of Canada and Quebec contributing another $12.7 million through the Building Canada Fund – Quebec.

“First of all, I would like to congratulate the winners of this architecture competition, who have demonstrated daring and creativity,” the Mayor said. “This is one more step toward the completion of this long-awaited project, which will provide Montrealers with access to a sports center that is not only functional but boasts a modern design meeting the highest standards of quality. This public building, a testament to the talent of our local architects, will be incorporated into the SMEC, one of the largest parks in Montréal.”

For her part, Manon Barbe, Ville de Montréal Executive Committee Member responsible for Sports and Recreation, said: “Soccer is constantly growing in popularity in the province of Québec as well as in Montreal, where there are more than 40,000 competitive players. The indoor soccer center therefore fills a real need. Soccer is an accessible sport, and with this new facility it will remain so year-round.”

And Helen Fotopulos, Executive Committee Member responsible for Culture, Heritage, Design and the Status of Women, noted: “As a UNESCO City of Design, Montréal encourages designers to contribute to the city’s future. I salute the outstanding quality of the artistic and architectural expression seen in the winning concept, which also incorporates best practices in sustainable development.”

Project Description from the Architects:

The roof of the new soccer center on the site of the former Miron quarry will call to mind a mineral stratum, eloquently heralding the structure as seen from Avenue Papineau. The volumes of the building will rise like a series of luminous crystals among the trees in the wooded embankment bordering the avenue, lending a human scale to the project to observers in the residential neighborhood on the other side of Papineau, and inviting citizens to explore the SMEC park.

The center will include one full-size soccer pitch that can be subdivided into smaller surfaces for seven-a-side play; locker rooms; a fitness and physiotherapy room; an event and restaurant area; and a family rest area. The center will also house the offices of the Association régionale de soccer Montréal Concordia. Pursuant to Montreal's policy on sustainable development for municipal buildings, the Ville de Montréal is targeting LEED–NC (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, New Construction) Gold certification for this exemplary structure.

See more plans and diagrams of the winning project in the image gallery below. All images courtesy of Montréal Ville UNESCO de Design.

The inNATUR Competition, organized by OPENGAP, recently announced three winning entries and five honorable mentions. The international contest sought for innovative and cutting-edge ideas for a Nature Interpretation Center committed to a strategy of implementing architecture in a protected natural environment. The jury comprised architects Edgar Gonzalez, Liong Lie, Gerardo Mingo, and Paula Montoya.

The brief asked to find synergies between nature and the building itself, and designers were invited to find spaces that promote a deep understanding and assimilation of nature. Each participant or team could define the location of their project, however, the proposal had to justify the choice of the location and the interaction reached between the project and the site’s environment.

These are the winning proposals:

First Prize: IN1257
Authors: Lindsay Griggs, Jason Tan, Reece Vigelsaks, Robert Barker (United Kingdom)

Jury verdict: "The proposal covers all aspects of the competition in an intelligent, original and surprising way. The project goes beyond the architecture and interacts actively with its context. The time factor is involved in the proposal as a key aspect with fascinating results. The idea is not  only committed to having a positive impact on the environment through the years, but also to creating a virtual window that allows users to infer the importance of the project going beyond  the present state of the site. It provides an unprecedented architectural figuration halfway between the industrial and the  ephemeral, resulting in a strange, original beauty. It is brave and rigorous in its research on waste  treatment technology that makes productive argument of the proposal: the debated "leaching" of great interest to the jury."

 

Second Prize: IN989
Authors: Gregorio Saura Lorente, Jose Carlos Pérez Martínez, Carlos Cubero Valera (Spain)

Jury verdict: "This is a great idea that explores the boundaries and paradigms of architecture. It is remarkable  how the project itself expands its own scope and possibilities through a daring and original concept. The project is not just born from an imaginative compelling and inspiring idea, but also offers a convincing and original development of  the requirements in the architectural program. It is very remarkable the figurative and architectural quality of the proposal, creating a bold  language and impeccable constructive resolution of it. The effort shown is consistent with the  high level of risk of the proposal. The concept of roaming architecture is also fascinating, with "docking" stations  which, like the  itinerary of the "airborne observatory" are subject of careful design."

 

Third Prize: IN1115
Author: Heinrich Lipp (Germany)

Jury verdict: "The jury highlights the stunning beauty of the image of a building immersed in a waterfall. This huge structure and formal gesture has been perceived as very strong and exceptional. The project has a strong presence on the site but also blends in a very attractive way with the  envirnoment."

The jury also awarded five honorable mentions which you can find in the image gallery below.

Danish practice DEVE Architecture has shared with us their prequalified entry for the expansion competition of Copenhagen's Rigshospital. This hospital is the main hospital in Copenhagen and is the foremost treatment and teaching hospital in Denmark. The design is a collaborative proposal with fellow Scandinavian firms COWI A/S, WHITE Arkitekter A/S, LAND+ Landskabsarkitekter, Aps, and Lyngkilde A/S and was prequalified alongside 6 other international teams for this project.

Project Description from the Architects:

Potentials

The Rigshospital is well-defined by Fælledparken and Amorparken at its boundaries, and due to these park areas, the hospital campus exudes a unique 'green' potential. The buildings serve as an intermediary between the dense urban fabric on Blegdamsvej and the open natural areas to the north of the site.  This interconnectedness strongly influenced the concept and form of this scheme, leading to what could eventually become a hospital nestled within a lush, green, natural environment within the bustling urban center of Copenhagen.

Challenges

It is important that the Hospital embrace the natural and healing nature of the surrounding parks, but also that the new addition to The Rigshospital also addresses the built context in an appropriate manor. A good  hospital expansion must function seamlessly and efficiently with the existing facilities, and should be accessible from all directions.  Scale, traffic, and material are concerns that also affect the neighboring buildings, some of which include shops, offices, schools, and housing.  The two main development sites for the hospital expansion offer several special challenges that require especially unconventional approaches. The largest site to be developed on the new campus lies at the corner where park and city meet, and there are other points at which access and circulation become crucial.  In this scheme, we hope to satisfy each requirement, while injecting the entire area with nature, helping The Rigshospital to become a comfortable, healthy, and sustainable environment.

Visions

We believe that The Rigshospital will play a very significant role in the development of Nørre Health and Sciences Campus. The expansion of the hospital will provide valuable area and facilities for the education of Denmark's future doctors, and the injection of nature throughout the area will greatly contribute to the environment where people are learning, healing, and recovering.  In order to achieve these two goals simultaneously, the points at which the functions overlap are shaped with special care. 

This project's vision is to allow the research and education facilities to function alongside the new park spaces, creating an open and transparent look into our universities, while also providing a comfortable and productive learning environment.  The ground level of The Rigshospital campus will become an extension of the surrounding parks, and specific social and educational nodes will be established at points around the park where the new buildings are able to touch down.

The green hospital

The building footprint is heavily restricted at the largest development site, due to an existing radiology wing operating underground that must be preserved.  Most of the great mass of this section of the hospital must bridge over parts of the existing radiology department, without seeming so enormous that it dominates the more regular context of the neighborhood. 

Because we are choosing to draw the park into the site, having to lift the buildings actually helps make that gesture even more powerful. The green areas that flow into the hospital campus help to create relaxing and healing natural areas for the patients and staff, blurring the line between institution and recreation.  

The new buildings provide open and inviting entrance points, but the primary masses of the new buildings also promote an openness as well.  Rather than being closed courtyard blocks, the different wings open out towards the park and the city, allowing light and views for the patients that occupy the upper levels.

The idea of open and green spaces is applied to a number of other sites throughout the new campus expansion, and will help make the entire hospital a very positive and green environment for the patients, staff, students, doctors and visitors.

The main building

While there are points where this building touches the ground and holds education facilities, the main mass of this building is lifted one level above the ground.  There is also a vast technical layer tucked within the truss bridge structure that spans over the newly established park level, and pre-op, post-op, and surgery functions occupy the next two floors.

Bedrooms and treatment areas are considered to be private spaces.  Because of this relative vulnerability, these areas are lifted several floors above the ground level, on top of the operation levels.  That also ensures that people who have to spend extended periods in the hospital have access to plenty of sunlight and that their rooms will look mostly towards a dense, peaceful layer of trees and foliage.  The patient levels have thinner cross section than the surgery levels below.  This means that while they can all look out to the nature from their rooms, the patients and visitors can also go out onto a terrace that runs around most of the building, to experience the park without having to go down to the ground level.

Research center

The research center, a series of laboratories and offices continues an extended axis from the Panum Knowledge Bridge, through the existing hospital buildings and into the surgery and education areas of the new wing of the hospital.  A large auditorium on Blegdamsvej, at the same scale as the surrounding urban context, terminates the long axis at a plaza carved out of the park at street level.  This plaza exists as the primary entrance to the new educational portion of the hospital expansion, and also provides cafe space that contributes to the social role of the hospital in the neighborhood. 

Symbolically, the long axis of research and education serves as the spine connecting the new treatment areas to the old.  This connection, over and through a continuous green area, expresses the importance of fusing the educational and treatment functions of a hospital with the calming and healing aspects of the natural environment.

Ambulatory building

The ambulatory building is located at the point where the research axis bends towards the new main extension.  This building is a place where people come for appointments, so it requires independent access from the rest of the hospital.  At the same time, it may be important to transfer people from this area of the hospital to the more critical care facilities in the hospital, so its placement along the different connecting bars of hospital is very important.

 

All images courtesy of DEVE Architecture.

The winners for the EUROPAN 11 challenge for Vienna, Austria were announced just last night, and the first prize, by unanimous vote, went to the urban design proposal of Dreiecksplatz (Triangle Square) by an international team comprising Artur Borejszo (PL, Architect), Leena Cho (US, Landscape Architect), Jason Hilgefort (US, Architect & Urbanist), and Andreas Karavanas (GR, Architect & Urbanist).

Excerpt from the Jury Comments:

The project gives to the city and the site owner a promising spatial concept which is “robust” enough to be adapted in phases and its respective parts by multiple authors. The quality of the project is the striking simplicity of the idea of the triangular space which is both public space and organizing principle; it succeeds in linking both sides of the railway without elaborate engineering.

The idea to group three different “landscapes” of housing around this square must be followed because it is their very differences, that ensures a “malleable richness” for the future development.

The way how the project deals with the level crossing could trigger new ways of integrating infrastructure in the local tissue: conflict points between different sorts of mobility systems are crucial nowadays.

The quality of the winning project is exactly to make a proposition of how to „de-instrumentalize“ the usual spatial regulations. Regarding the benefits of a successful integration, the city planning department should explore this innovative concept, finding ways to negotiate its implementation. In this way the project would become a pilot, contributing to necessary transformations of existing planning regulations.

Project Description from the Architects (Excerpt):

Located between the Vienna Ring and Vienna Woods, the site embraces the marks of both environment – urban and nature – as a basis for future development. Currently surrounded by houses with a large amount of private green space, what is needed in the site is a generous, quality public space that will invite and sustain diverse groups of community to gather, live and work by. Major forms of transit – bus, tram and bicycle – anchor three corners of the triangle-shaped plaza with an integrated train platform in the middle. Various residential, commercial and social programs both frame and spill out toward the public triangle and support its liveliness. Green space is maximized at all different scales, fostering health, education and social interactions, while each kind of nature – from ‘wild woods’ to herb garden – defines the atmosphere of individual housing zone.

Find more plans in the image gallery below. All images courtesy of Artur Borejszo, Leena Cho, Jason Hilgefort and Andreas Karavanas

Portuguese collective DOSE has sent us images and a fascinating time-lapse video of their project BLUETUBE BAR, a temporary bar to operate at the annual academic festival in Oporto, Portugal, Queima das Fitas. The project won the student competition sponsored by the School of Architecture at Oporto University.

Project Description from the Architects:

The BLUETUBE BAR presents the TUBE-IT system as a feasible and flexible low-cost constructive resource. This system is based on the assembly of “corrugated tube” and “plastic clamps” and it has recently been tested in the construction of a temporary bar for the annual academic festival in Porto - [Queima das Fitas do Porto 2010].

Horizontally, the given intervention area was limited to a 3x3m square, whilst vertically the construction should not exceed 5m high. Constrained by the restricted budget, the requested functional device / building should nonetheless emphasize, by its materiality, an outstanding alluring outcome.

When applying the TUBE-IT system, the chosen main material - corrugated tube - is rolled up around a given existing structure in a helicoid manner. In addition to its structural purpose - i. e. to attach the different tube layers to each other as well as to the structure itself - the plastic clamps enhance the desired visual impact of the whole. This kind of tube, usually used in construction with an infrastructural role, becomes the design’s primary element. 

Conceptually such an approach departs from a system of modular repetition and explores the continuity of a single element. The building process - managed “in situ” – stressed out and demonstrated both feasibility and versatility of the developed system, reinforcing at the same time the idea that it may just as well be capable of hosting a diversity of other spatial and constructive challenges.

Project Details:

Architect: DOSE
Location:  Porto, Portugal
Project Team: António Martins, Carlos Foyedo, Luís Grilo.
Client: Ae FAUP
Project Year: 2010
Project Area: 9 sqm
Photographs: DOSE + Carlos Trancoso
Video: DOSE videos

Check also the image gallery below for concept diagrams and drawings.

American architect Michael Graves has been named the recipient of the 2012 Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame. Winner of the university's 2012 Henry Hope Reed Award is writer and landscape preservationist Elizabeth Barlow Rogers.

Michael Graves is Founding Principal of the firm Michael Graves & Associates (MGA) and the Robert Schirmer Professor of Architecture, Emeritus at Princeton University, where he taught for 39 years.

Members of the Driehaus Prize jury commended his commitment to the traditional city—in its human scale, complexity, and vitality—as emblematic of a time-tested sustainability.

“Michael Graves has enhanced not just the architecture profession with his talent and scholarship, but everyday life itself through his inspiring attention to beautiful and accessible design,” says Michael Lykoudis, Driehaus Prize Jury Chair and Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture. “The quality and scope of his work have enhanced how people work, live, and interact in public and private realms, making a profound impact on American life.”

Following is a small selection of some of Michael Graves' most iconic works.

Established in 2003 through the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, the Richard H. Driehaus Prize honors lifetime contributions to traditional, classical, and sustainable architecture and urbanism in the modern world. The Driehaus Prize represents the most significant recognition for classicism in the contemporary built environment. 

Recipients are selected by a jury comprised of Adele Chatfield-Taylor (President of the American Academy in Rome), Robert Davis (Developer and Founder of Seaside, Florida), Paul Goldberger (Architecture Critic for The New Yorker), Léon Krier (Inaugural Driehaus Prize Laureate), Witold Rybczynski (Meyerson Professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania and Architecture Critic for Slate), Richard H. Driehaus (Founder and Chairman of Driehaus Capital Management) and Michael Lykoudis (Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture).

Following the regional Holcim Awards for sustainable construction projects for Latin America, Europe, Africa Middle East, and North America, winners of the Asia Pacific Awards have recently been announced, bringing the regional phase of the 3rd International Holcim Awards competition to a close. A total of USD 300,000 was presented to twelve groundbreaking projects at a ceremony in Singapore.

A project that upgrades a traditional building method with effective low-tech measures through engineering and design won the top prize of USD 100,000 in Asia Pacific. The Earthen School Tipu Sultan Merkez, in a small village near Lahore, Pakistan and designed by architect Eike Roswag of Ziegert Roswag Seiler Architekten Ingenieure in Germany, provides seven new classrooms in a school for underprivileged girls. The building is constructed from a locally-sourced cob (clay, sand, water, and straw) lower-floor combined with an upper floor made of earth-filled bamboo walls. Intense research on cob construction resulted in a significant increase in strength and durability, and extended maintenance intervals compared to traditional approaches. 

Wowo Ding, Head of jury and Dean of Architecture at Nanjing University, China, praised the project for propagating the use of new construction methods by the agrarian population and improving the local economic situation. “The new construction approach shows the rural community an affordable, high quality and durable alternative compared to widely-used but higher cost and less environmentally-compatible construction materials,” she said.

The Holcim Awards Silver was presented to a Thai project team led by Isavaret Tamonut of TTH Trading for the conversion of a former textile factory and adjacent land into a 1.4ha agricultural production site and retail outlet. The Urban Farm Urban Barn is located in a mixed use urban zone of central Bangkok and reintroduces elements of self-sufficiency while also reconnecting food production and consumption. The project was applauded by the jury for its potential to create a new urban culture, re-sensitizing the community to its ecological impacts and offering a new perception of urbanity that is readily transferrable.

The Holcim Awards Bronze was awarded to a team led by architect Ken Yeang of TR Hamzah & Yeang International for a 14-level commercial and retail building located in Malaysia’s federal administrative city of Putrajaya. The building brings together state-of-the-art technologies appropriate for high-quality use in two interconnected towers that use vegetation to actively reduce energy consumption, provide solar shading, and create comfortable spaces considering all requirements of utilization. The jury commended the project for its imaginative and leading-edge response to upmarket building design that uses integrative engineering to create a sustainable building organism, showcasing best practice design.

Six projects were presented with an Acknowledgement prize – three are located in Indonesia, two in India and one in Japan. A project in three villages of Central and West Java led by Yandi Yatmo of Universitas Indonesia uses the process of building to encourage community consolidation and development. A socially-integrated rural school in Sukoharjo by Dian Susilo of deesignhandmade includes school functions, agricultural areas and a marketplace that involves the local community to share in the benefits of the school infrastructure. The vertical informal settlement designed by a team led by Steven Brunsmann of nunc architects in the Netherlands provides a housing strategy for informal settlements in Jakarta that alleviates problems from flooding, promotes waste recycling, maintains social coherence and provides affordable living spaces.  

A primary healthcare center, near Dharmapuri, in a hot and semi-arid rural region in Andhra Pradesh, India designed by Rajesh Renganathan and Iype Vernperampil of Flying Elephant Studio provides a shaded and well-ventilated waiting and gathering space together with a high-tech medical core. An urban renewal and transport circuit designed by Madhav Raman and Vaibhav Dimri of Anagram Architects converts an under-utilized ring railway into a multi-use civic and traffic space within the urban fabric of New Delhi to support the vibrant street life which is an integral part of Indian culture. A post-earthquake housing renovation project in Kobe, Japan by Masaaki Takeuchi of uzulab and Shihoko Koike of Osaka City University upgrades an existing concrete structure using simple means to include a ground-floor retail facility, outdoor gardens, and extensively vegetated exterior structures forming an ameliorated urban space.

The Holcim Awards competition recognizes the importance of engaging tomorrow’s professionals on the theme of sustainable construction through the “Next Generation” category which shares the visions and ideas of postgraduate university students. First prize was awarded to August Liau, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States for a project to increase bicycle commuting in Beijing, China. The project advocates pedal power as a dynamic alternative for urban transit and recalls its well-proven potential in the world’s former cycling capital. Second prize was awarded to Indian student Mishkat Ahmed, University of California, Berkeley, United States for an approach to town planning that introduces focus and context-sensitivity into large scale urban planning for the revitalization and urban development of Navi Mumbai. Julia King, London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom received the third prize for a sound research approach that leads to a practical solution for an urgent problem by providing a decentralized sanitation system in Savda Gehvra, a regulated resettlement suburb 30km west of New Delhi, India.

Holcim Awards submissions for projects in Asia Pacific were evaluated by an independent jury hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay), in Mumbai: Wowo Ding (Head, China), Uday Athavankar (India), Olivia la O’ Castillo (Philippines), Paul Hugentobler (Switzerland), Momoyo Kaijima (Japan), Ashok B Lall (India), Valérie Portefaix (China), Hans-Rudolf Schalcher (Switzerland), and Gunawan Tjahjono (Indonesia) used the five “target issues” for sustainable construction developed by the Holcim Foundation to evaluate submissions. The “target issues” address the triple bottom line of economic, environmental, and social factors together with architectural quality and the potential to apply the innovation in other locations.

The Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction conducts the Holcim Awards competition to promote sustainable responses to contemporary technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues from the building and construction. More than 6,000 submissions for projects located in 146 countries entered the competition with a total prize sum of USD 2 million per three-year cycle.

Check out images of the six Acknowledgement Prizes and three "Next Generation" Prizes in the image gallery below. All images courtesy of the Holcim Foundation.

BIG has just been announced winning an invited competition for Koutalaki Ski Village, a 47,000 m2 ski resort and recreational area in Levi, Finland.

Project Description from the Architects:

The future Ski Village will transform the existing Levi ski resort into a world class destination, offering top quality accommodation and leisure services for skiers of all levels and demands. The proximity to the Kittilä airport ensures easy access to the resort attracting international visitors to Levi village and the whole Lapland region. The Finland-based developer Kassiopeia Finland Oy is investing in its local region as it currently owns and operates Hotel Levi Panorama, Levi Summit Congress Center and Hotel K5 Levi and above and beyond has interests in developing the exquisite Koutalaki area.

“BIG’s visionary approach of combining unique types of accommodation and amenities along with the leisure activities offered at the resort, left the jury in awe. BIG’s ambitious plan challenges traditional thinking and we believe that the collaboration between Kassiopeia Finland and BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group will rise to the occasion.” Jury, Kassiopeia Finland Oy.

Located on a gentle slope, the existing Levi ski center provides the framework for the future Koutalaki Ski Village which is conceived as an extension of the summit and the existing cluster of buildings in Koutalaki. BIG proposes to create a series of buildings that radiate out from a central square and whose ends touch the ground to create four freestanding buildings that each provide access to the roof and allow the skiers to descend from the resort’s rooftop downhill in any direction. The soft curves of the undulating roofs of the four buildings create a visual continuity of the natural land­scape while lending the whole village the unique character of a skislope skyline that creates an inhabited mountain top.

”The Koutalaki Ski Village is conceived as an extension of both the summit and the resort. Grown from the natural topography rather than dropped from the sky – the ar­chitecture extends the organic forms of natural landscape creating an inhabitable as well as skiable manmade mountain. As a result, our design for the Koutalaki Ski Village creates a new hybrid integrating distinct identities such as village and resort, shelter and openness, cozy intimacy and natural maj­esty, unique character and careful continuity – or simply - architecture and landscape.” Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Partner, BIG.

The four build­ings arc around a central square to create a new bustling village plaza at the heart of the resort, which is sheltered from the wind yet open and inviting to the surrounding landscape. The plaza allows ice skating and music events and is connected to a bowl like yard with cafés and bars created by the lower interior heights of the new buildings. The intimate atmosphere of the spaces created here contrasts the open views from the summit.

The whole resort area is connected through a network of paths that prioritizes skiers and pedestrians. Access to the roofs happens through central elevator cores allowing skiing down either towards the courtyard or the piste. An elevator located centrally in the hotel provides access to the roof top restaurant with a 360 degree panorama views of the landscape and plaza.

”When first visiting the future Koutalaki village site you realize the proximity to the ski slopes but at the same time the importance of creating a connection for skiers as well. The gentle slope away from the main ski system seems to offer the solution for a unified proposal that creates maximum connectivity for skiers and pedestrians.” Jakob Lange, Partner-in-Charge, BIG.

All accommodation units offered at the new resort enjoy beautiful views of the surrounding nature, including the eight private villas which are situated at different elevations to provide an undisturbed panorama, while the elevated private gardens serve as an extension of the landscape. The villas embrace the snowy landscape and allow the snow in all its forms become a part of the architecture itself.

“Instead of creating design solutions that aim at dealing with snow by shoveling or moving it, we want to create a village that utilizes the full potential of snow. When it is caught on the façade the window frames become a living part of the landscape, adapting to changes in the weather. The light granite façade enhances the intimate relation with the nature. “ Hanna Johansson, Project Leader, BIG.

While the four buildings simulate real ski slopes during winter time, combining the essence of a ski resort - skiing, relaxation, rec­reation and dwelling, the roofscape of the buildings during summer will be just as attractive serving as a green continuum of the surrounding natural landscape for hiking and pic­nics.

Project Details:

Project title: Koutalaki Ski Village
Size: 47,000m2
Client: Kassiopeia Finland Oy
Location: Levi, Finland

Partners in Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Jakob Lange
Project Leader: Hanna Johansson
Team: David Tao, Erik de Haan, Jeff Mikolajewski, Jesper Victor Henriksson, Lucian Racovitan, Maren Allen

Find concept diagrams and model photos in the image gallery below.

The Board of Directors of The American Institute of Architects (AIA) voted yesterday to award the 2012 AIA Gold Medal, considered to be the profession's highest honor that an individual can receive, to Steven Holl, FAIA. The Gold Medal honors an individual whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture.

“What, in my view, especially commends him as a candidate for the Gold Medal,” wrote Harry Cobb, FAIA, of Pei Cobb Freed, in a recommendation letter, “is his brilliantly demonstrated capacity to join his refined design sensibility to a rigorously exploratory theoretical project.”

Holl completed two projects located in China in 2009 that are emblematic of his approach to architecture and his innovative method of design inquiry: the Linked Hybrid, in Beijing, and the Vanke Center in Shenzhen. In addition to China, Holl’s work can be seen across the United States and Europe, like the Nelson Atkins Museum Bloch Building in Kansas City, Missouri; MIT’s Simmons Hall in Cambridge, Massachusettes; the Knut Hamsun Center in Norway; or NYU’s Department of Philosophy, as well as Pratt Institute’s Higgins Hall Insertion in New York City.

The 2012 AIA Architecture Firm Award, the highest honor the AIA bestows on an architecture firm, went to VJAA, the Minneapolis-based firm, noted for its consistently rigorous approach to research-driven form-making.

“We are honored to be recognized by the AIA with this important award,” said Vincent James, FAIA, principal at VJAA. “This recognition is due to talented and committed employees, ambitious clients and the strong support we receive from our local design community. With this encouragement, we will continue to build a practice that strives to innovate while creating a responsive architecture that is sensitive to its users and its place.”

The AIA also selected Mortimer Marshall, Jr., FAIA, as the 2012 recipient of the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award, given to an architect or architecturally oriented organization exemplifying the profession's responsibility toward current social issues. Marshall is being recognized for his continued dedication to the profession and his approach to architecture as a vehicle for leadership and service.

The 2012 Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education was given in conjunction with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) to George Baird, Intl. Assoc. AIA, one of Canada's most celebrated architects, for his association with the University of Toronto's architecture school. The AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion honors an individual who has been intensely involved in architecture education for more than a decade and whose teaching has influenced a broad range of students.

And here's another Dutch firm that just designed an unusual residential tower for a booming Asian metropolis: Yongsan Dreamhub corporation presented the MVRDV-designed residential development of the Yongsan Business district in Seoul, South Korea: two connected luxury residential high-rises. A 260 meter tall tower and a 300 meter tall tower are connected in the center by a pixelated cloud of additional program offering amenities and outside spaces with wide views. The towers with a total surface of 128,000m2 are expected to be completed in 2015.

Project Description from the Architects:

The two towers are positioned at the entrance of the Yongsan Dreamhub  project, a master plan designed by Studio Libeskind, extending the business district of the South Korean capital Seoul. The southern tower reaches a height of 260 meters with 54 floors, the northern tower 300 meters with 60 floors. Halfway, at the level of the 27th floor the cloud is positioned, a 10 floor tall pixelated volume, connecting the two towers. The cloud differentiates the project from other luxury developments, it moves the plinth upwards and makes space on ground floor level for public gardens, designed by Martha Schwartz.

Usually a high-rise adds little to the immediate surrounding city life, by integrating public program to the cloud the typology adds in a more social way to the city. Inside the cloud, besides the residential function, 14,357m2 of amenities are located: the sky lounge - a large connecting atrium, a wellness centre, conference centre, fitness studio, various pools, restaurants and cafes. On top of the cloud are a series of public and private outside spaces, patios, decks, gardens and pools.  To allow fast access the cloud is accessible by special express elevators.

The luxurious apartments range from 80m2 to 260m2 of which some offer double height ceilings , patios or gardens. The towers with a perfect square floor plan contain four corner apartments per floor offering each fine daylight conditions and cross ventilation.  Each tower is accessed via a grand lobby at ground level; the rest of the ground floor is divided into town houses. In addition to the amenities the Cloud furthermore contains  9,000m2 of Officetel (Office-Hotel) a typical Korean typology and 25,000m2 panoramic apartments with specific lay-outs. The top floors of both towers are reserved for penthouse apartments of 1200m2 with private roof gardens.

Ben van Berkel / UNStudio has shared with us their design for The Scotts Tower in Singapore which was just unveiled yesterday.

The tower will be the first development under the Far East Organisation’s new SOHO brand. Designed to conserve space whilst maximizing live/work/play areas, The Scotts Tower promises to present a new dimension of functional and flexible vertical space.

Project Description from the Architects:

The Scotts Tower SOHO apartment building is situated on a prime location in Singapore, close to the Orchard Road luxury shopping district and with views encompassing both nearby parkland and the panoramic cityscape of Singapore City.

Ben van Berkel: "An interesting facet of The Scotts Tower is the way that it reacts to the urban context of Singapore. Instead of the more usual means of planning a city horizontally, we have created neighbourhoods in the sky; a vertical city where each zone has its own distinct identity."

The 18,500m2, 31-storey, 231-unit tower consists of 1 to 3-bedroom apartments and 4-bedroom penthouses; expansive landscaped gardens, sky terraces, penthouse roof gardens and diverse recreational facilities.   

Neighbourhoods in the sky

The concept of The Scotts Tower is that of a vertical city incorporating a variety of residence types and scales. In addition, outdoor green areas in the form of sky terraces, penthouse roof gardens and individual terraces form an important element of the design. The vertical city concept is interpreted on the tower in three scales; the "city", the  "neighbourhood" and the "home". The three elements of the vertical city concept along with the green areas are bound together by two gestures: the "vertical frame" and the "sky frames".

The vertical frame organises the tower architecturally in an urban manner. The frame affords the tower the vertical city effect by dividing the four residential clusters into different neighbourhoods.

The sky frames - at the lobby (Level 1 & Level 2) and sky terrace (Level 25) - organise the amenity spaces and green areas of the tower.

Customised living

The four residential clusters are each designed for versatile and customised living. Individual identity is given to each unit by means of type, scale, distribution and articulation of outdoor space, along with the possibility for personalisation of the interior layout; by means of a semi-white plan, residents will be given the freedom to configure their personal living spaces according to their lifestyles and aspirations.

The individual articulation of each cluster within the main framework of the tower is directly related to the organisation and materialisation of the terrace spaces. These varied outdoor spaces afford a choice of views, with corner terraces providing both cityscape panoramas and vistas over the natural landscape adjacent to the building.

Ben van Berkel: "The balconies combined with the zoning of the individually framed neighbourhoods in The Scotts Tower create different scales of detail in the structure; both intricate, smaller details and larger gestural details. In The Scotts Tower the balconies form part of the interior furniture."

City Loft, City View, Park View and Penthouses

Situated above the lower sky frame, the hundred and twenty-eight City Loft residences in the first cluster occupy the lower sixteen floors of the tower.

The second cluster offers a total of eighty City View units distributed in two clusters. The first cluster shares the first sixteen floor plates with the City Loft residencies. While the second cluster of forty eight units runs above the previous package.

Park View units form the next cluster above the second sky frame, covering five floors and containing twenty units. Crowning the tower is the final cluster containing one floor of three exclusive Penthouse residences.

Gardens, recreation and Sky Frames

The nearby green area to the West of the tower is extended into The Scotts Tower site initially by means of a ground level landscape concept designed by Sitetectonix. This ground level concept incorporates a multi-layered environment which links together the different zones and recreational facilities available to the residents. Recreational facilities within the gardens include a 50 meter lap pool with sunning deck, a children’s pool, a wellness pool, dining & BBQ pavilions, a meeting pavilion and massage and gym pavilions.

A green gateway to the residences is created by the lower sky frame terrace, the "sky lobby", which is located eight meters above the access routes to the building. This terrace serves to continue the natural landscape of the gardens vertically into the tower.

A second sky frame terrace, the "sky garden" is introduced above the third cluster, offering panoramic views and the possibility for use as a social platform for outdoor events. Facilities such as Jacuzzi pools, a swimming pool and a dining deck can be found on the "sky garden" level.

Project Details:

Project title: The Scotts Tower
Client: Far East Organisation
Location: 38 Scotts Road, Singapore
Building surface: 18,500 m2
Building volume: 115,000m3
Units: 231 units (128:1bd; 80:2bd; 20:3bd; 3:4bd-penthouse)
Floors: 31 stories (153m high)
Building site: 6099.7 m2
Program: SOHO residential tower
Status: design development phase

Project Credits:

Design Architect UNStudio: Ben van Berkel, Astrid Piber with Luis Etchegorry, Ger Gijzen and Cynthia Markhoff, Konstantinos Chrysos, Elisabeth Brauner, Shany Barath, Thomas van Bekhoven, Iris Pastor, Rodrigo Cañizares, Albert Gnodde, Mo Ching Ying Lai, Grete Veskiväli, Samuel Bernier Lavigne, Lukasz Walczak, Alicja Chola, Cheng Gong

Executive Architect: ONG&ONG, Singapore

Advisers:
Landscape Architect: Sitetectonix, Singapore
Structural Engineer: KTP Consultants, Singapore
Mechanical Engineer: United Project Consultants, Singapore
Interior Design (Residential Units): Creative Mind Design, Singapore
Visualization: rendertaxi, Aachen

United States Artists has honored the USA Fellows for 2011 at a festive event earlier this week in Santa Monica, CA. Fellowship grants of $50,000 each were awarded to fifty outstanding performing, visual, media, and literary artists or artist teams. USA Fellowships are presented annually in the disciplines Architecture & Design, Crafts & Traditional Arts, Dance, Literature, Media, Music, Theater Arts, and Visual Arts.

Following are the five fellows for 2011 in the Architecture & Design category (click here for the complete list):

Ada Tolla & Giuseppe Lignano

USA Booth Fellow
Brooklyn, NY

Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano both studied at the Universitá di Napoli, where they met, before moving to New York to complete post-graduate studies at Columbia University. In 1993, they founded their architectural firm LOT-EK, which is known for the adaptive reuse and up-cycling of infrastructural and industrial structures, most notably the standard 40-foot shipping container, but also airplane fuselages, oil truck tanks, and cement-mixer drums. Tolla and Lignano both teach at Columbia University.

Elena Manferdini


USA California Community Foundation Fellow
Marina del Rey, CA

Elena Manferdini is an architect, engineer, industrial designer, fashion designer, and teacher. Manferdini applies construction techniques from the engineering field to design clothing, products, and buildings, and patterning has been a particular focus of her research. In 2004, she founded the design firm Atelier Manferdini, which has collaborated with companies such as Moroso, Nike, and Alessi on product designs. She teaches at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Los Angeles.

J. Morgan Puett

USA Simon Fellow
Beach Lake, PA

The work of conceptual artist J. Morgan Puett encompasses fashion, architecture, public projects, and frequent collaborations with other artists. Puett’s work is imbued with the atmosphere of the rural South, where she grew up. During the 1990s, she ran a series of clothing stores in New York that were art environments as well as venues for her Amish-inspired fashions. In 1997, she moved to rural Pennsylvania to create an artist’s colony named Mildred’s Lane, which operates as a residency for artists and students, a space for landscape and architecture projects, public events, communal dinners, and a studio for research into textile and clothing history.

Jenny E. Sabin

USA Knight Fellow
Philadelphia, PA

Jenny E. Sabin is an architectural designer, artist, and educator whose work focuses on the intersection between architecture and science. Sabin is the principal of Jenny Sabin Studio (since 2005), an experimental design studio, and is co-founder of the hybrid research and design unit, LabStudio, where architects, scientists, and engineers collaborate to  develop, analyze, and abstract dynamic biological systems to develop new ideas about the ecological design of architecture. She is also an Assistant Professor in the area of Design and Emerging Technologies in the Department of Architecture at Cornell University.

Mabel O. Wilson

USA Ford Fellow
New York, NY

Mabel O. Wilson is an architect and scholar whose interdisciplinary practice includes designing buildings, creating speculative installations, and writing. Wilson also runs 
the design firm 6Ten Studio in New York. 
Her research examines the history of African American and black diasporic culture within 
the built environment and expands the 
Euro-American legacy of architectural discourse. Wilson’s book, Progress and Prospects: Black Americans in the World of Fairs and Museums, will be published in 2012. She is Associate Professor at Columbia University.

The winner of the 2012 TED Prize has just been announced, and being awarded is not a single person, but - for the first time in the history of the prize - a collaborative idea: the City 2.0.

TED Prize Director Amy Novogratz: "This year, we’re challenging everyone in the TED Community to embrace radical collaboration on one of the most pressing issues we face: how to build sustainable, vibrant, working cities."

TED Prize defines City 2.0 as following:

The City 2.0 is the city of the future… a future in which more than ten billion people on planet Earth must somehow live sustainably.

The City 2.0 is not a sterile utopian dream, but a real-world upgrade tapping into humanity’s collective wisdom.

The City 2.0 promotes innovation, education, culture and economic opportunity.

The City 2.0 reduces the carbon footprint of its occupants, facilitates smaller families and eases the environmental pressure on the world’s rural areas.

The City 2.0 is a place of beauty, wonder, excitement, inclusion, diversity, life.

The City 2.0 is the city that works.

The TED Prize grants its winner $100,000 and "one wish to change the world." Amy Novogratz again when asked how the City 2.0 can achieve such massive change: "You’ll have to wait until February 29, 2012 for the TED Conference in Long Beach, California when the TED Prize winner – the City 2.0 – makes its wish live from the stage."

The Royal Institute of British Architects has named internationally acclaimed Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger as the recipient of the 2012 Royal Gold Medal. Given in recognition of a lifetime's work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by the Queen of England and is awarded annually to a person or group of people whose influence on architecture has had a truly international effect.  

RIBA President Angela Brady, who chaired the Honors Committee which selected the Royal Gold medal winner said: "Herman Hertzberger has transformed the way we think about architecture, both as architects and people who use buildings. His architecture is about form and space which he defines as "place which has not been appropriated". Throughout his career his humanity has shone through in his schools, homes, theaters and workplaces. The RIBA is delighted to recognize the importance of his achievements and the effect his designs have on people and place."

The award is for a body of work, rather than for one building or for an architect who is currently fashionable. Previous winners include Le Corbusier (1953), Frank Gehry (2000), Archigram (2002), Frei Otto (2005), Toyo Ito (2006), Herzog and de Meuron (2007), Edward (Ted) Cullinan (2008), Alvaro Siza (2009), I. M. Pei (2010) and Sir David Chipperfiled (2011).

In addition to the Gold Medal, the RIBA Council today also approved 14 new RIBA Honorary Fellowships and seven new RIBA International Fellowships to reward individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, including politics, journalism, architecture, engineering and the arts.

The 2012 RIBA Honorary Fellowships will be awarded to:

• Nicole Crockett, Chief Executive, Building Exploratory 
• Robert Elwall Assistant, Director, Photographs Collection, British Architectural Library, RIBA
• Adrian Forty, academic and writer
• Malcolm Hankey, Managing Director, Civic Trust Awards
• Boris Johnson, Mayor of London
• Doug King, environmental engineer, King Shaw Associates
• Fiona MacCarthy, writer
• Frank McDonald, Environment Editor, Irish Times
• Sandra O'Connell, writer and curator, Open House Dublin
• Peter Wynne Rees, Chief Planning Officer, City of London
• Peter Salter, academic and writer
• Richard Simmons, academic and former Chief Executive, CABE
• Chris Smith, National Planning Director, English Heritage
• Ai Weiwei, artist

The 2012 RIBA International Fellowships have been awarded to:

• Atelier Bow-Wow: Momoyo Kaijima and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Japan
• Carlos Ferrater, Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Spain
• Sou Fujimoto, Sou Fujimoto Architects, Japan
• Anna Heringer, Germany/Austria
• Christian Kerez, Switzerland
• Francisco Mangado, Spain

Speaking today, RIBA President Angela Brady said: "The RIBA is delighted to honor all seven new International Fellows. Each has made a major contribution to the world of architecture. Three of the 2012 International Fellows come from Japan; the others from Germany, Spain and Switzerland. The inspiration and influence of their work, however, extends beyond their borders. They join an illustrious list of architects honored by the RIBA as International Fellows."

This year's RIBA Honors Committee was chaired by RIBA President Angela Brady and included architects David Adjaye, Yvonne Farrell, Niall Mc Laughlin, Sarah Wigglesworth, and Sir Terence Conran.

Herman Hertzberger will be presented with the Royal Gold Medal on February 9, 2012 at a ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, during which the 2012 RIBA International and Honorary Fellowships will also be presented.

A few days ago, we published the winners of the Architect's Eye Awards, a British competition celebrating excellence in architectural photography. Today, we are happy to also post all finalists from the 'Architecture and People' category.

Images courtesy of Architect's Eye Awards/International Art Consultants.

The winners of the Architect's Eye Awards, which celebrates architects' passion for photograph, were announced on Tuesday, November 22, during a ceremony hosted by the competition organizers, International Art Consultants, at their gallery in London, UK.

Simon Kennedy, a freelance architect and lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture, won the Architecture and Place category with his image "Heygate Estate" (Southwark, London).

Designed by Tim Tinker, the Heygate was completed in 1974 and was once a popular place to live, the flats thought to be light and spacious, but the estate later developed a reputation for crime, poverty and dilapidation. The sheer scale of many of the blocks also meant there was little sense of community. Subjected to urban decay and now abandoned, the Heygate estate is currently being demolished to make way for 2,500 new homes.

The runner-up for this category, Revti Halai, a Part II Architectural Assistant at TP Bennett Architects was rewarded for her stunning shot of this year's Serpentine Gallery Pavilion designed by Peter Zumthor.

Neil Dusheiko, Director of Neil Dusheiko Architects, won the Architecture and People category with his picture of "Unite d'Habitation", the modernist residential housing design developed by Le Corbusier.

The Unite d'Habitation is a courageous architectural experiment, borne out the architect's believe that a buildings social program can positively alter the way people live. The Unite is a utopian vision of the Garden City model realized in an urban context.

The runner-up for this category was Chris Drummond, an architectural assistant at Grimshaw and Partners, who presented "Ghosts of the Underground" which he described as "the traces that people leave on the places they inhabit through use and time".

Commenting on the results of the competition, the Chairman of the Judges Jack Pringle (Pringle Brandon Architects and recent president of RIBA) said: "The two winning photographs, both of modernist designs, demonstrate carefully and beautifully, the striking contrast between the vibrant success of the Le Corbusier building and the lifeless failure of the Heygate estate".

Along with Jack Pringle, the judging panel comprised Keith Priest (Fletcher Priest Architects and President of the Architectural Association), Simon Allford (Allford Hall Monaghan Morris), photographers Grant Smith and Nick Scott (Chair of Applied and Professional Panel, Royal Photographic Society), Dr Irena Murray (Sir Banister Fletcher Director of the British Architectural Library), Amanda Baillieu (Editor of Building Design) and Alex Heath (Managing Director of International Art Consultants).

Architect's Eye was launched in 2006 by International Art Consultants (IAC), one of Europe's leading corporate art advisers, who developed the idea from observing architects' enthusiasm when photographing buildings. Since the awards were launched, they have counted on the support of leading figures from the architecture and photography communities alike. This year, the competition has been sponsored by Building Design and supported by the Royal Photographic Society and RIBA Trust.

All 19 competition finalists across both categories are currently being exhibited and can still be viewed by appointment until November 30 at the Galleries, 15 Dock Street in London, UK.

Berlin-based practice J. MAYER H. has landed one of two first prizes in a three-level peer review process for an urban planning concept in Düsseldorf, Germany. The concept was developed for the area of what was once the post office on Erkrather Strasse. The so-called "Quartier M" is to serve as the future link between the Hauptbahnhof central station and Tanzhaus NRW/Capitol, becoming a lively city quarter for living and working.

In addition to offices and a hotel, the trend-setting urban design also provides for both privately financed and government subsidized public housing. Other plans include space for a day care center for children and service providers for the quarter.

The urban plan for "Quartier M" envisions three building blocks. J. MAYER H., as one of the two prize winners, will realize the commercial block including the office/hotel high rise. The planned high rise will grow like a sculpture from one of the enclosing peripheral developments. A peripheral structure unifies the "Quartier M" as a cohesive urban plan, creating a striking conclusion to the city's cultural boulevard.

The required pre-construction planning proceedings are scheduled for completion in mid-2014.

Project Details:

J. MAYER H. Architects, Team: Juergen Mayer H., Max Reinhardt, Simon Kassner, Hugo Reis, Jan-Christoph Stockebrand
Investor: Lorac Investment Management, Luxemburg
Structure and facade planning: Knippers Helbig, Stuttgart
Climate and energy concept: Transsolar, Stuttgart
Traffic consultant: GRI Gesellschaft für Gesamtverkehrsplanung, Berlin
Start of construction approx: 2014

DawnTown Miami | The First Four Years of Ideas, the exhibition on the eponymous annual architectural design competition for Downtown Miami, ended last week. Over the past four years, DawnTown Miami has challenged architects, urban designers, and artists, to propose their visions for neglected spaces in Florida's largest city, inviting creative proposals in the competitions Water Works (2008), Metro Mover (2009), Seaplane Terminal (2010), and, earlier this year, Floating Stage. The First Four Years of Ideas took a look back at the very best works produced from these competitions. 

The exhibition's opening event on November 9th at the University of Miami School of Architecture was attended by over 140 people, made up of members of the design and academic community.

The evening began with a panel discussion, moderated by Jean Francois Lejeune, Graduate Director of the School of Architecture. The panel consisted of Joachim Perez, executive director of DawnTown and adjunct faculty at the School of Architecture, Andrey Frey, DawnTown’s founder and board chairman, Don Worth, co-founder of Friend’s of Marine Stadium and co-sponsor of the Floating Stage competition, and Jason Chandler, Assistant Professor at FIU and honorable mention from the Water Works competition.

The panelists spoke about the history of DawnTown, from its inception as a conversation in a Hong Kong bar to its current state as the international design contest for the Miami. The panelists also addressed the importance of ideas competitions for both professionals and students, and that the main objective is to bring an international spotlight to the architecture scene of Miami.

“Everyone knows about the innovative architecture that happens in places in New York City, Dubai, Madrid, and we believe Miami should also be mentioned in a similar list”, said Perez, “In the last few years we’ve attracted Herzog & de Meuron, [Frank] Gehry, Zaha Hadid, and we have great buildings already like the Marine Stadium, so let’s acknowledge that and announce it to the world: Miami is a significant place for architecture.”

The opening event continued and closed in the Irvin Korach Gallery, where the exhibit was held. Over eighty entries were displayed showcasing the best work of the past four DawnTown competitions. The original competition boards were hung in the gallery, divided by each year, and a projector displayed images of many other entries on one the gallery walls.

Along with the boards were a series of models, graciously donated by three Miami architecture firms who have competed in the past: Jacob Brillhart Architect, NC-Office, and Chandler Architecture.

Finally, an art piece was installed that paid recognition to all participants by having their names displayed in the form of a mural.

Find more photos of the opening event at the Irvin Korach Gallery below.

All images courtesy of Joachim Perez/DawnTown Miami.

Ben van Berkel / UNStudio's design for the new Transfer Terminal and Air Traffic Control Tower for Kutaisi Airport was officially presented last week by the President of the Republic of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili. Amsterdam-based UNStudio has designed the new Kutaisi Airport which will serve domestic and international flights for use by international diplomats, national politicians and for tourism.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who personally demolished one of the walls of the old airport last week, announced, "We will build an international airport here, which will take aircraft from Munich, Rome, Baku and other cities as of next year."

The Netherlands‘ Ambassador Pieter Langenberg said that the next year to be finished airport in Kutaisi would be a landmark for Kutaisi. "Dutch architects firm UNStudio is well known from projects all over the world, and Georgia, as a country in transformation, rapidly modernizing, would fit well in their list of prestigious projects. I’m hoping that the airport will be a landmark for Dutch investment, too, the Netherlands being one of the biggest investors in the country."

Georgia, a young state in the Caucasus which has undergone considerable development in recent years, is moving its Parliament from the capital Tbilisi to the city of Kutaisi. A new parliament building is currently under construction in Kutaisi and in 2012 the first parliamentary meeting will take place.

In recent years growing numbers of tourists have been discovering Georgia, a country with an ancient and engaging history. As a result there is increasing demand from airlines to fly to Georgia. By virtue of its geographical advantages and the nearby location of two of Georgia’s most important Unesco monuments, Kutaisi was selected as the destination for a new airport. The new Kutaisi airport will in addition provide an economic impulse to Georgia’s second city and its new seat of Parliament.

Ben van Berkel: "The design for the new terminal in Kutaisi focuses first and foremost on the experience of the traveler by creating an inviting, safe, transparent and user-friendly airport. The desire to provide for and communicate equally with both international visitors and the local community is paramount. "

UNStudio’s design for the new Kutaisi Airport incorporates both Georgia’s historic landscape and its architecture. In Georgia public buildings and private houses employ their entrance lobbies as showcases for their individual identities. In the design for the new airport, UNStudio embraces this architectural concept in order to manifest Georgia’s young and dynamic democracy, along with its rapid development as a main crossing point in the region. Georgia is located on a crossroads of rich cultures, with a history of travelers passing through the Caucasus or arriving from the Black Sea.

Ben van Berkel: "It was particularly exciting for me to be able to design an airport which is not only linked to the new seat of parliament in Kutaisi, but which also creates an entrance condition which functions as a port for the international community. The airport presents a symbolic infrastructural gateway to Georgia and, from there, to the rest of the world."

The 4,000 m2 terminal building will house a central arrivals hall, a check-in area with lounge, cafe and car rental facilities, three gates for departure with retail, cafes, a CIP lounge area and exterior garden, an arrival area with customs and offices for the border police and an administration area with staff rooms and press conference facilities.

The architecture of the terminal refers to a pavilion; a gateway, in which a clear structural layout creates an all encompassing and protective volume. The volume is structured around a central exterior space which is used for departing passengers. The transparent space around this central point is designed to ensure that flows of passengers are smooth and that departure and arrival flows do not coincide. These axes incorporate views from the plaza to the apron and to the Caucasus on the horizon. The design organizes the logistical processes, provides optimal security and ensures that the traveler has sufficient space to circulate comfortably. Serving as a lobby to Georgia, the terminal could in addition operate as an art gallery, displaying works by Georgian artists and thereby presenting a further identifier of contemporary Georgian culture.

The 55m high, 300 m2 Air Traffic Control Tower is designed to compliment the design of the terminal. The traffic control cabin on the top level forms the focal point of the tower, with a spacious and comfortable interior ensuring a workspace of optimal concentration. 1,500 m2 of supporting office spaces are housed in a nearby building. The exterior of the tower is clad with a transparent skin with the potential to change color whenever there is a fluctuation in traffic. The Air Traffic Control Tower will function as a light beacon to the sky for the international airport, but also from the road to and from Georgia’s new parliamentary city Kutaisi.

Ben van Berkel: "The design for the new airport embraces the traveler by embodying the circumstance of the site. Moments of both leaving and returning are celebrated by the large span, open spaces and high ceiling of the terminal structure - reflecting the ways in which such gestures were employed in the great railway stations of the past."

The design for the new airport aims to incorporate local and international sustainable elements. An onsite underground source of natural water provides the basis for the reduction of energy consumption through concrete core activation. The floors of both the Terminal and the ATCT will utilize this water for maintaining a regulated temperature in the two volumes. In the Terminal building  cantilevered roofs provide sun shading on south and southwest zones. A hybrid low pressure ventilation system will be integrated into the terminal's main structure and there will be a grey water collection system in the floor underneath the terminal building. To further lower energy consumption, there is the possibility to implement large areas of PV-cells on the roof surface. Kustaisi airport will be Georgia’s first airport to incorporate a strict segregation of waste. The aim is to establish a recycling system which could be further implemented into new and existing projects in Georgia.

Construction on the new Kutaisi Airport will begin in December 2011. The airport is scheduled to be operational in September 2012.

Project Details:

Project: Kutaisi Airport, Georgia, 2011 - 2012
Client Terminal: United Airports of Georgia LLC
Client Air Traffic Control Tower and Offices: SAKAERONAVIGATSIA Ltd.
Location: Kutaisi, Republic of Georgia
Building surface: Terminal 4,000m2, Control Tower and Offices 1,750m2
Height Air Traffic Control Tower: 55m
Building site: 11,000 m2
Program: International Airport Terminal, Air Traffic Control Tower and Offices for Navigation
Status: Concept Design 2011, Construction 2012

Project Credits:

UNStudio: Ben van Berkel, Gerard Loozekoot with Frans van Vuure and Filippo Lodi, Tina Kortmann, Roman Kristesiashvili, Gustav Fagerström, Wendy van der Knijff, Machiel Wafelbakker, Deepak Jawahar

Yaohua Wang, of Los Angeles firm Yaohua Wang Architecture, has sent us visualizations of proposed Nanjing Lab, a vegetation laboratory in Nanjing, China. The project was comissioned by the Nanjing Xiaguan district goverment and is currently within the schematic design phase.

Project Description from the Architect:

Nanjing Lab is a vegetation laboratory located in the historical district of Nanjing. Different from the traditional vegetation lab, which focuses on the attributes of the plants themselves, the purpose of the Nanjing lab is to test the plants’ behavior inside Nanjing city, for instance, the plants’ reaction to the the city’s polluted air and dust. 

Therefore, the design focuses on being able to control the plant’s interaction with the outside. In order to do this, different plant species are put into separate containers which protrude from the main volume of the building to the outside environment. The containers provide the ability to let sun light come through and control the amount of air that passes through. At the same time, the form of the landscape around the building creates different levels humidity and solar conditions around the building, allowing the containers to interact with a diverse environment.

In the center of the lab, there is a central robot arm that is able to take out the core of the container and place them into storage for further research. The control room of the robot's arm is located on the south side of the building.  The windows of the control room allow free view of the central robot room and the exterior.   

The two big C channel steel beams are the main structure of the Nanjing lab. They lift the main body of the lab off of the ground to provide space for the underside plant containers. In between the C channel steel beams and the body of lab space is the hydraulic mechanical system that absorbs the impact of the structure from movement of the central robot arm.

Project Details:

Architect: Yaohua Wang Architecture
Location: Nanjing, China
Structural Engineer: Organization Group
Client: Nanjing Xiaguan district goverment
Program: Vegetation lab
Size: 200 m²
Note: Project under schematic design phase

Find many more renderings in the image gallery below.

Danish practice schmidt hammer lassen architects has won the international architectural competition to design a 188 meter office tower in the financial district of central Warsaw, Poland. The 60,000 m2 high-rise building is to replace the existing ‘Ilmet’ building.

“The object of the competition was to design an office tower that will be a new landmark in the Warsaw skyline while at the same time capturing the full potential of the outstanding historic location,” said Founding Partner of schmidt hammer lassen architects, John Lassen.

The building consists of three individually stepped rectangular volumes with increasing heights towards the east. The façades create a subtle rhythm in the cityscape by slightly shifting inwards and outwards, and the inclined rooflines preserve optimal light conditions for the adjacent buildings.

“The design of the building offers a spatial coherence between roof and street level”, said Kim Holst Jensen, Partner of schmidt hammer lassen architects, and he continued: “The lobby at street level, with its spectacular shaped ceiling, corresponds with the sloping shapes of the rooftops, making the building perceive as a sculptural object.”

The open lobby allows the people of Warsaw to pass into and through the building, connecting the plaza and park in front of the building with the courtyards of the historical tenement houses to the south.

The building is designed to reduce energy consumption with the goal of qualifying for the highest levels of sustainability certifications as BREEAM Excellent or LEED Gold status. The modular façade system with floor to ceiling glass elements, provide high levels of transparency as well as full integration of sun shading and light reflection shutters. The sloped rooftops are equipped with photovoltaic cells and elements for harvesting rainwater. The total sustainability approach is a combination of intelligent building management and minimizing technical installations by using passive elements.

The Jury was impressed by the high quality and innovation evident in the urban, architectural and technical concepts of the winning design. The future building will offer a number of attractive public areas and serve to complement the project’s prominent setting, as well as the entire neighborhood.

schmidt hammer lassen architects has experience with designing office buildings. Earlier this year, The Crystal in Copenhagen, Denmark, an extension to the headquarters of financial institution Nykredit, opened and has already received the European Steel Design Award 2011 and a LEAF Award 2011 for Best Structural Design. Another example is Amazon Court in Prague, the Czech Republic, which incorporates a range of sustainable solutions resulting in a 50 per cent lower energy consumption than a standard office building and an approximately 65 per cent lower maintenance cost.

Project Details:

Architect: schmidt hammer lassen architects
Client: UBS Real Estate Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH
Area: 60,000 m2
Competition: 2011, 1st prize in restricted international competition
Status: Construction period 2012-2016
Engineer: ARUP

Find more model photos and a site plan in the image gallery below.

Danish and French architects BIG & OFF, engineers Buro Happold, consultants Michel Forgue and environmental engineer Franck Boutte is the winning team to design the new 15,000 m2 research center for Sorbonne Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. The winning team was honored as the best design among proposals from MVRDV, Lipsky Rollet, Mario Cucinella and Peripherique.

Project Description from the Architects:

The new multidisciplinary research centre, Paris PARC, located between Jean Nouvel’s Institut du Monde Arabe and the open green park of the Jussieu Campus will become a significant addition to the campus, strengthening the international appeal and openness of this leading French University for Science and Medicine. The facility will bring together academic scholars and the busi­ness community, while re-connecting the university physically and visually with the city of Paris.

Paris PARC is located in the visual axis of the Notre Dame Cathedral in a dense context of university buildings from different historical periods. BIG proposes a building geometry that adapts to the specific conditions of all adjoining sides, optimized for daylight, views and accessibility.

The three-dimensional envelope retracts from the neighboring facades, opens up towards the square of Institut du Monde Arabe and the park, and folds into a publicly accessible rooftop landscape, resulting in an adapted sculptural building volume situated between the emblematic architectural monuments of the university.

“As a form of urban experiment the Paris PARC is the imprint of the pressures of its urban context. Wedged into a super dense context – in terms of space, public flows and architectural history – the PARC is conceived as a chain of reactions to the various external and internal forces acting upon it. Inflated to allow daylight and air to enter into the heart of the facility, compressed to ensure daylight and views for the neighboring classrooms and dormitories, lifted and decompressed to allow the public to enter from both plaza and park and finally tilted to reflect the spectacular view of the Paris skyline and the Notre Dame to the Parisians.” Bjarke Ingels, Founder, BIG.

A central canyon provides daylight and a visual connection between laboratories and offices. In the atrium a cascade of informal meeting spaces lead to the public rooftop terrace and faculty club. A public stair to the rooftop offers glimpses into the activities of the laboratories which are divided by transparent walls throughout the building to ensure visual connections between the working spaces. The upper levels have panoramic views towards the Notre Dame and the skyline of Paris.

“We propose a building that creates the optimum conditions for encounters and exchange among the academics and visitors of Paris PARC. Like a scientific incubator the new building will provide the physical environment for nurturing growth of cultures and sharing of ideas – through the internal mix of laboratories, research facilities and informal meeting spaces, and through a reunification with the public life of the city.” Andreas Klok Pedersen, Partner-in-Charge, BIG.

The Paris PARC becomes the interface between campus life and city life by reuniting the Jussieu Campus with the city of Paris. The iconic view of the Notre Dame Cathedral is brought into the daily life of the building through the large panoramic windows while the façade towards the entrance square is slightly tilted, hence, a mirrored image of the Cathedral becomes visible at eyelevel on the square, connecting the building to its iconic location.

Project Details:

Project: Paris PARC
Type: Competition
Client: UPMC University
Size: 15,000 m2
Location: Paris, France
Status: 1. Prize

BIG
Partners-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Andreas Klok Pedersen
Project Leader: Daniel Sundlin
Architect: Gabrielle Nadeau
Team: Camille Crepin, Edouard Boisse, Tiina Liisa Juuti, Alexandre Carpentier

OFF
Partners-in-Charge: Manal Rachdi, Tanguy Vermet, Ute Rinnebach
Project Leader: Daniel Colin, Antonio Rovira
Team: Akram Rachdi, Olfa Kamoon

Check the image gallery below for BIG's famous concept diagrams.

Yong Ju Lee and Brian Brush, partners of New York/Portland-based design collaboration EB Office, have sent us photos and plans of their latest interactive media installation Dynamic Performance of Nature in Salt Lake City's Leonardo Museum of Art, Science and Technology.

Project Description from the Architects:

Dynamic Performance of Nature is a permanent architectural media installation in the Leonardo Museum of Art, Science and Technology, located in Salt Lake City, Utah. DPoN engenders environmental perception in the museum’s visitors by communicating global environmental information through a dynamic and interactive interface embedded in the material of the wall.   

It’s conceived upon the notion that sustainability for the 21st century should be crafted to evolve beyond conventional application of green techniques into something alive and integrated with the environment, conditioning the most sophisticated forms of creativity for the preservation of life. DPoN will invite curious inquisition as well as detached contemplation of the synthesis between light, material, space, and global environmental information in hopes that visitors can perceive an architecture that is alive, pulsing with live information, communicating something in its own language which isindelibly linked to the material, geometry, and form of the wall itself.

With DPoN we’ve injected static materials with live information to create a flowing picture of the world.  Environmental sensors capture data from sources throughout the planet and feed that data to solar-powered LEDs embedded in the sine-wave form made of recycled plastic. As the sensors register changes in temperature, wind, seismicity, and other factors, the LEDs reflect these fluctuations with continuous spectral waves that represent minute shifts in the data feed from moment to moment.  At 92 feet long and over 14 feet high, DPoN covers 1300 sqft of vertical exhibition space traversing the museum’s ground floor lobby and acting as a programmatic threshold between exhibit spaces. It’s composed of 176 unique recycled HDPE fins embedded with 1,888 full-color RGB LED’s and held together by approximately 8000 individual set screws.  We estimate the amount of plastic this project diverted from a landfill to be around three tons.

The color spectrum seen flowing through the wall reflects temperatures in the weather feed; the speed of color flow across the piece shows actual wind speed; the direction of color flow indicates the direction of the wind with cardinal directions oriented to the sides of the wall. When an earthquake registers with the USGS, a distorted world map on the wall displays the earthquake's location — the brighter the color and more frequent the lights flash, the stronger the quake.

Visitors can interact with DPoN using Twitter to send messages to @LeoArtwall that either change the global weather feed or simply paint a wash of colors that dance and chase across the wall.  Not only limited to weather and color, we imagine DPoN growing and evolving over time, acting as site for continued creative experimentation by designers in the visualization of information through material and architecture.

Project Credit:

Data visualization designer : Noa Younse
Consulting engineer : Kyle Twitchell, Telyk Works
Lighting consultant : Ben Watson, Solus Inc.
Installation team : Haley Blanco, Thomas Candee, Shaun Salisbury, Florence Schmitt, Hayes Shair, Danny Thai
Photography courtesy of EB Office, The Leonardo, Peter Katz, and Noa Younse

Find more photos, as well as drawings and plans in the image gallery below.

Eleven winners and eighteen finalists were announced this week at KRob 2011, the international Ken Roberts Architectural Delineation, Drawing and Illustration Competition. The prestigious contest is the longest running architectural drawing competition currently in operation anywhere in the world, hosted annually by the AIA Dallas chapter, and has come a long way in its 37-year history: what began in 1973 as a competition for architectural hand renderings and illustrations from the northwest Texas region, steadily grew into an important national event, and later opened up also to international entries and inclusion of digital media via online submission. This year, KRob's popularity reached its highest level yet with nearly four hundred submissions from twelve countries, divided in student and professional categories.

Together with fellow jurors, Julie VandenBerg Snow of Julie Snow Architects and Kevin Sloan of Kevin Sloan Studio, I had the great pleasure to also serve on this year's judging panel as part of the long-standing partnership between the KRob competition and Bustler & Archinect.

Looking through the impressive number of entries, we were struck by the range of submitted work: quick notebook sketches, meticulous hand drawings, analytical collages, photo-realistic computer renderings, and any conceivable hybrid media in between. Jury deliberations took all day, and the winning entries were officially announced later that evening at a presentation at the Dallas Museum of Art. The presentation preceded a lecture by Julie Snow as part of the Dallas Architecture Forum's 2011 lecture series.

All winners and finalists will be part of an exhibition at the Dallas Center for Architecture from January 10 through February 24.

Following here are the Ken Roberts competition winners of 2011.

Also check out the eighteen finalists in the image gallery below. All images courtesy of the KRob competition.

Winners have recently been revealed in Aarhus, Denmark, for the new Brabrand Housing Association residential complex competition. The winning team consists of Danish architects ADEPT and LUPLAU & POULSEN, turn-key contractor Dansk Boligbyg and NIRAS Consulting Engineers. The team has designed a project entitled 'The City in the Building - Housing for All at Harbor North', that consists of 238 public dwellings distributed between 83 apartments for families and +55 aged seniors, and 155 student-housing units.

The architects have taken the best aspects of the city’s existing block structure and reinterpreted it, providing a modern and sustainable expression on the waterfront in Aarhus Nordhavn. The simple building arrangement is complemented by shared greenhouses on the roof, varied building heights and sustainable initiatives that make the new dwellings robust and future-proof. The housing structure adapts to its context that, on the one hand, consists of large, industrial scale and on the other, a smaller and intimate scale with a lively maritime atmosphere.

“Placing the building volumes along the edge of the site proved to be highly appropriate for the location. It gathers the dwellings around a large green courtyard sheltered from the wind and creates the best sun and daylighting conditions for the apartments,” says Martin Laursen, partner of ADEPT. The development is being realized predominantly in brick, dropping in building height towards the water and the marina. As a consequence, the apartments furthest from the water, the youth homes share the extensive views. In addition, the building structure is subdivided into smaller buildings, marked by varying heights and subtle changes in façade expression. “The building’s division into smaller buildings relates to the human scale and creates affinities between the residents and the individual ’town house’,” says Simon Lyager Poulsen, ADEPT’s project architect on the Port Dwellings.

The project differs from the bulk of existing and proposed port projects in that it does not attempt to be a major iconic building – an aspect of the scheme remarked upon positively by the developer and competition jury. Brabrand Housing Association has deliberately chosen to focus on a building that inserts itself in the port in a humble manner, challenging the large scale of the context by addressing the scale of inhabitants’ daily lives.

The family apartments are located in the lowest buildings, in close proximity to the water and the intimate scale of the marina. In this way children and parents have convenient access to activities at the waters edge, the forest and the inner courtyard. In addition, all roof surfaces are designed for shared-use amongst residents. The sunny roof surfaces are activated with greenhouses, common areas and living terraces with excellent views of the city, forest and bay. The remaining roofs are established as green surfaces both for collecting rain water and supporting solar panel arrays.

The settlement is a ‘zero-energy building,’ which, with its solar panels and greenhouses, takes more advanced steps toward meeting future energy requirements than those currently formulated by the municipality and the state government. Brabrand Housing Association expects the future settlement to meet the energy requirements of 2025 – an energy class yet to be formulated. At the same time the dwellings can be built within the allocated budget, which allows rents to be competitive.

Each apartment is lit from two sides and has private outdoor spaces overlooking the water and the common courtyard. The units range in size between 78m2 and 115 m2 and consist of 2, 3, 4 and 5 room apartments. Robust and flexible plan layouts ensure live-ability over the years, across generations and changing architectural trends. In these terms, the winning project offers both a robust, simple and coherent project as well as a varied and lively architecture.

Throughout the competition process, ADEPT and LUPLAU & POULSEN have enjoyed a close collaboration. LUPLAU & POULSEN has in recent years been responsible for several new Brabrand Housing Association projects. “We are delighted to continue the strong cooperation with Brabrand Housing Association,” says Jørn Lyager Poulsen, partner responsible for the housing project at LUPLAU & POULSEN.

The three partners in ADEPT, who all come from Aarhus are, like LUPLAU & POULSEN, excited about the opportunity to build in their hometown and to contribute to the development of the waterfront in Aarhus.

Construction of the new Maritime Museum and Science Center started this week in Porsgrunn, Norway. The building, designed by Danish architecture offices COBE and TRANSFORM, conveys Norway’s transformation from a seafaring nation to a modern society based on knowledge industry. The project is expected to be completed already in fall of 2012.

The iconic character of the new Maritime Museum and its attractive location at the river close to the city center makes this new building a natural landmark for the city of Porsgrunn. Furthermore, the new museum building is the first step towards a big new master plan development for Porsgrunn City Center - also designed by COBE and TRANSFORM.

The city of Porsgrunn has a long maritime history of shipping and the unique development of the region is clearly visible in the existing remarkable building structure of the area. The concept of the museum shows a high level of sensitivity towards the existing small buildings yet simultaneously stands out as a contemporary public building.

Taking into account the surrounding building structure, the new building is composed of 9 smaller building volumes with tilted and pitched roofs that are assembled into a larger building unit. A characteristic aluminum façade outlines the shape of the building and provides a vivid impression by reflecting the lights and colors of the surrounding landscape.

All public functions of the building are situated on the ground floor and have direct access to the outdoor areas including the new promenade towards the river.

The central entrance area is the building’s main room from where all other rooms are distributed. This multifunctional space is defined by a central characteristic staircase that folds down from above and invites visitors upstairs to the large, enclosed exhibition area. Here various room heights and a distinct ceiling line emphasizes an airy and continuous space.

The exhibition space is composed as an open flexible space, gently subdivided by the roof into 9 different spatial experiences. The 9 spatialities can be separated or combined thereby providing a sound functional setting for small and large exhibitions.

Lars Bendrup, director at TRANSFORM, says: ”The new Maritime Museum and Science Center starts up an important process to turn the back of the city to the front. In the future, the city of Porsgrunn will be oriented towards the river. The signaling effect will therefore be crucial to the city’s new situation”.

Dan Stubbergaard, owner of COBE, says: “The new Maritime Museum and Science Center balances between contextual adaptation and modernity.The interpretation of the context’s pitched roofs and small building volumes create the frames for a unique intenior with varying, vivid spatialities.”

The project is done in collaboration with the engineering firm Sweco and is expected to be completed in autumn 2012.

Project Details:

Project: Porsgrunn Maritime Museum
Location: Porsgrunn, Southern Norway
Client: Telemark Museum
Program: Maritime Museum and Science Center
Size: 1,700 m²
Status: 1st prize 2009, design development started october 2009, completion 2011

All images courtesy of COBE and TRANSFORM.

One winning project and two runners-up have recently been announced at the 2011 edition of the James Dyson Awards, an international student design award running in 18 countries. The first prize went to the entry 'AirDrop Irrigation' from Australia. Two top awards went to the design concepts 'Blindspot' from Singapore and 'KwickScreen' from the UK.

Project Description from the Designer:

Function 

The Airdrop irrigation concept is a response to poor agricultural conditions in periods of severe drought. Extensive research into droughts revealed an increase in soil evaporation and trans-evaporation (plant and soil) due to the increasing temperatures. Airdrop Irrigation works to provide a solution to this problem. Moisture is harvested out of the air to irrigate crops by an efficient system that produces large amounts of condensation. A turbine intake drives air underground through a network of piping that rapidly cools the air to the temperature of the soil where it reaches 100% humidity and produces water. The water is then stored in an underground tank and pumped through to the roots of crops via sub surface drip irrigation hosing. The Airdrop system also includes an LCD screen that displays tank water levels, pressure strength, solar battery life and system health.

Inspiration 

The effects of climate change on Australia are accelerating at an alarming rate. Last year the Murray Darling area experienced the worst drought in a century, lasting 12 years and resulting in irreversible damage to ecosystems, widespread wildlife decline and catastrophic bushfire conditions. Agriculture in the region suffered record losses. An alarming figure of 1 rancher/farmer a week was taking their own life, as years of drought resulted in failed crops, mounting debt and decaying towns. Although 2010 brought much needed rainfall to the area, other parts of Australia are continuing to suffer drought. The southwest corner of the country has experienced its driest year to date. Scientific projections indicate as temperatures continue to increase so too will the severity, frequency and duration of droughts worldwide. While there are various atmospheric water harvesting technologies that exist today, most are high-tech and expensive - not ideal for the rural farmer market.

Development 

The airdrop irrigation system is a low-tech, self sufficient solar powered solution; an innovation bread of comprehensive investigations into rural agricultural environments, developed through working with irrigation manufacturers and local farmers, and refined by extensive prototyping with successful results. Research reveals a gap in the use of atmospheric water harvesting technologies for irrigation purposes within Australia, and there has been no discovery of any similarities to the condensation producing system of piping present in the Airdrop irrigation design. The pipe construction was born through investigations into the principles of air-flow. Other elements that incorporate the resolved concept include the turbine - designed to maximize air intake, to operate freely in high wind and switch to battery power in low wind. The submersible pump that drives water from the underground tank includes a float cut off switch to cut power to the pump when water levels are low.

 

These are the two runners-up entries 'Blindspot' and 'KwickScreen':

 

 

Find also images of 'Blindspot' and 'KwickScreen' in the image gallery below. All images courtesy of the James Dyson Awards.

The iconic Media-TIC building in Barcelona, designed by Spanish architects Cloud 9, has beaten off competition from hundreds of buildings around the globe to win the ‘World Building of the Year 2011’ award at the prestigious World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards in Barcelona.

The project was commissioned by The Consortium of the Zona Franca CZFB and @22Barcelona, an experimental district in the city. The architects were extremely interested in the digital city model based on information, communication and technology, with the idea of a city where what matters is knowledge, added value and patents. In short the objective was for the architecture to be in sync with the city’s values. The building is divided with large companies on the upper floors, smaller spaces for emerging companies below and the first floor features a cibernariun and auditorium offering courses and programs to city residents.

The building was selected from 16 finalists to win the highest accolade in global architecture by the WAF Awards Jury, led by Michael Sorkin. It is the first win for the host city.

Speaking at the awards presentation, Paul Finch, WAF Program Director said that the building was 'a magnet for people with a whole range of ideas'. It won, he said, for the scale and degree of difficulty of its ambition, and because it was a symbol of an emerging movement in the city of Barcelona.

Also, he said, it opens up conversations of concerns about energy and sustainability and shows that when addressing issues of sustainability, architects should lead the charge and this was the project that has most taken on this challenge.

Providing a mix of large office space, space for start-ups and public space, the building has excellent green credentials. It targets and achieves the following:

1-20% CO2 reduction due to the use of District Cooling, clean energy.
2-10% CO2 reduction due to the photovoltaic roof.
3-55% CO2 reduction due to the dynamic ETFE sun filters.
4-10% CO2 reduction due to energy efficiency related to smart sensors.
Total 95% CO2 reduction, the Media-ICT is a NET building almost a net zero building.

Enric Ruiz-Geli of Cloud 9, which designed the Media-TIC building, said it should act as a 'seed for an environmental revolution'. He said, If it doesn't happen, we will not succeed with our fight against global warming.'

Ruiz-Geli took to the stage with his entire family, saying, 'This is what happens when you win an award at home.' His nine-year old son, Iago, had chosen the green colour that dominates in the building, he said.

Looking at his children, Ruiz-Geli added, 'These are our clients.' He also praised the experience of WAF, bringing together architects from so many different countries. 'I was amazed by the density of cultures,' he said.

Finch added: “The World Architecture Festival is the world's largest, live, truly inclusive and interactive global architectural awards program. Attracting entries from internationally renowned practices to small local architects, the stellar quality of this year’s designs demonstrates their commitment to designing the world’s most exciting buildings. This year, we’ve attracted more entries than ever before, with over 700 submissions from 59 different countries. Our congratulations go to Cloud-9 for a truly accomplished project.”

This is the 4th year the World Architecture Festival Awards have been presented. Previous winners include ‘World Building of the Year 2008’ - Luigi Bocconi University, Milan, designed by Irish practice Grafton Architects; ‘World Building of the Year 2009’ - Mapungubwe Interpretation Center in South Africa, designed by Peter Rich Architects of Johannesburg, and ‘World Building of the Year 2010’ - MAXXI (National Museum of the 21st Century Arts) in Rome, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.

Hanimaadaoo International Airport, Maldives, designed by Integrated Design Associates Limited was awarded the ‘Future Project of the Year 2011’ award, the iconic 76-story Beekman Tower at 8 Spruce Street, New York, designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, won the ‘Structural Project of the Year 2011’ with the prize going to engineer WSP Cantor Seinuk, and the OpenBuildings People’s Choice Award was presented to Memorial House Todor Proski in Krushevo, Macedonia, designed by Macedonian architects Syndicate studio.

WAF Structural Project of the Year Award 2011:
8 Spruce Street-Beekman Tower, New York, USA, WSP Cantor Seinuk

The 867 ft, 76-story Beekman Tower, designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, is New York City’s tallest residential tower. Located in the middle of the block bounded by Nassau, Beekman, Spruce and Gold Streets, just south of the Brooklyn Bridge, the 1.1 million SF mixed-use building has redefined the skyline of Downtown Manhattan. It is a reinforced concrete building and the structure is composed of cast-in-place, concrete flat plate floors supported by reinforced concrete columns and shear walls. The 5 to 6 ft deep mat foundation is supported on 18” diameter concrete encased steel piles and also various capacity drilled caissons adjacent to an MTA subway tunnel.

WAF Future Project of the Year Award 2011:
Hanimaadaoo International Airport, Maldives, Integrated Design Associates Limited, Hong Kong 

The new airport, designated as the country’s second international gateway, is located on an island with very limited land mass for an international airport of this size. With airfield infrastructure consuming nearly all the available land the concept of a “floating terminal” has been selected by the Maldivian Government for its innovative, exciting and eco-friendly approach. The proposed terminal is built entirely on stilts over water without reclamation to preserve the existing environment and the natural coastline.

WAF OpenBuildings People’s Choice Award 2011:
Memorial House Todor Proski, Krushevo, Macedonia, Syndicate studio, Skopje, Macedonia

The introduction of the OpenBuildings People’s Choice Award, which is supported by our friends at OpenBuildings.com, is a new addition to WAF 2011. It provided an opportunity for the public with a keen interest in architecture to pick their favorite building among the 281 projects that were shortlisted for the world’s biggest architectural competition – the WAF Awards 2011.

Critiquing the public’s choice, the WAF Jury said: “Memorial House Todor Proski is a good clear concept, that is well executed, and begins to do justice to the memory and legacy of a charismatic singer and cultural icon in eastern Europe.”

Highly Commended was awarded to second place Museum of Memory and Tolerance, Mexico, designed by Arditti + RDT Arquitectos, Mexico.

All images courtesy of World Architecture Festival.

One of our favorite architectural design competitions has just announced the winning entries of its 2011 edition: the Zombie Safe House Competition. Sure, laugh about it, but once the postapocalyptic days are upon us and roaming hordes of the undead come for your guts, the term "sustainable design" takes on a whole new meaning.

Austin Fleming, winner of this year's Gold Shovel Award, explains his portable design solution Vagabond Mobile Safe House Device: "Within the Mobile Skeleton, the spring-loaded ribs apply a counter weighted load evenly dispersed on the periphery of the cabin. The concrete anchor bolts are for additional support to prevent shifting. You can buy yours for just 4 easy payments of 24.95 +S&H!!"

But the handy design solutions don't stop here. As Austin commented on his proposal, "reflective surface = zombies don’t attack other zombies." - Smart!

The Public Choice/Silver Machete Award went to the entry Oil Silo Home (Independent Eco System) by German team PinkCloud.DK.

Two outstanding honorable mentions were also given: the Post Apocalyptic Pritzker for Look.Out.House by Christina Geros from Tennessee and the Best Bug In Award for Morte by Jordan Lloyd Androg from the UK.

Check also the image gallery below for the thirteen Bloody Bludgeon Award winners. All images courtesy of Zombie Safe House Competition.

The winning entries have been published at the international Hotel Liesma Design Ideas Competition for a music-themed upscale hotel in Jurmala, an important leisure and cultural site in the Gulf of Riga, in Latvia. Winner of the First Prize is Portuguese architect João Maria de Paiva Ventura Trindade of Lisbon-based VENTURA TRINDADE architects, Ida.

Also check out the two second prize winners, three third prize winners, and two honorable mentions in the image gallery below. All images courtesy Hotel Liesma Design Ideas Competition.

Four completed buildings and ten future projects, celebrating designs still on the drawing board, from around the world have today been announced as winners on the second day of the World Architectural Festival (WAF) Awards 2011.

The presentation of the WAF Awards is taking place during the largest global celebration of architecture - the World Architecture Festival, which is being held in Barcelona (CCIB) this week.

The WAF Awards day two winners are as follows:

World Shopping Building of the Year: 
Decameron, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Studio MK27, Brazil

The showroom of the Decameron furniture store is located on a rented site in the furniture commercial alley in São Paulo. To make the quick and economic construction viable, the architect, worked with the premise of a light occupation combined with industrial elements, which could easily be assembled.

World Display Building of the Year:
Norwegian Wild Reindeer Centre Pavilion, Hjerkinn, Norway, Snøhetta, Norway

The Norwegian Wild Reindeer Centre Pavilion is located at Hjerkinn on the outskirts of Dovrefjell National Park, which rises 1200 metres above sea level and is home to Europe’s last wild reindeer herds and is the natural habitat for many rare plants and animals. The 90m² building, which features a rigid outer shell and an organic inner core is open to the public and serves as an observation pavilion for the Wild Reindeer Foundation educational programmes.

World Health Building of the Year:
Rehabilitation Centre Groot Klimmendaal, Arnhem, Netherlands, Architectenbureau Koen van Velsen, Netherlands  

In the undulating forest landscape around Arnhem in the eastern part of the Netherlands, revalidation centre ‘Groot Klimmendaal’ can be found standing as a quiet deer in between trees. From a small footprint, the building gradually fans out towards the top and cantilevers out over the surrounding terrain. The care concept is based on the idea that a positive and stimulating environment increases the well-being of patients and has a beneficial effect on their revalidation process. The design ambition was not to create a centre with the appearance of a health building but a building as a part of its surroundings and the community.

World Housing Building of the Year:
8 House, Copenhagen, Denmark, Bjarke Ingels Group, Denmark 

With spectacular views towards the Copenhagen Canal and over Kalvebod Fælled’s protected open spaces, 8 House will not only be offering residences to people in all of life’s stages as well as office spaces to the city’s business and trade - it will also serve as a house that allows people to cycle all the way from the ground floor to the top, moving alongside townhouses with gardens winding through an urban perimeter block.

Future Project of the Year – Commercial:
Wadi Rum Resort, Jordan, Oppenheim Architecture + Design, USA

A unique luxury accommodation where desert sand meets desert stone, engaging with the landscape with nominal impact and primal elegance. The boundaries between man-made and nature, interior and exterior are deliberately blurred to establish maximum impact.

Future Project of the Year - Competition Entries:
Glacier Discovery Walk, Alberta, Canada, Sturgess Architecture, Canada  

The Glacier Discovery Walk is envisioned as an extension of the fractal landscape that defines the Columbia Icefields in Canada’s Jasper National Park. Located along the edge of this dramatic escarpment, the project weaves a continuous thread of experience through united geometric and material forms. This sinuous experience defines the Discovery Walk not only as a singular destination, but as a catalyst and gateway that empowers guests to immerse themselves in the untouched natural environment.

Future Project of the Year – Experimental:
The Tower of Nests, Shanghai, China, Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture AB

Located in down town Shanghai, it is designed to be co-inhabited by humans and animals.  Its outer skin is composed of natural materials to allow birds and bees to inhabit, yet providing a community space.

Future Project of the Year – Education:
Women’s Opportunity Center, Kayonza, Rwanda, Sharon Davis Design, USA

On a two-hectare site in Rwanda, the most densely populated country in Africa, the Women’s Opportunity Center is a change-making campus that empowers one small community and, in turn, reframes the way we as architects engage the world.

Future Project of the Year – Cultural:
Zhang Da Qian Museum, Neijang, China, Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, Spain

On April 2010, Excellence group invited EMBT to design Zhang Da Qian's museum in Neijang city, a purpose built museum to exhibit the work of the legendary Chinese painter in his home town. The design philosophy behind the museum would be to integrate the cultural essence of east and west and to express the past and the future and relate to the painter’s friendship with Picasso.

Future Project of the Year – Residential:
Wafra Living, Kuwait, AGi Architects, Kuwait

The design for the “Wafra Living” complex, consists of a high rise building set back from the street and an L-shaped building defining the street edge, conceived to maximize privacy within the community, whilst providing ample natural light and usable indoor and outdoor common spaces. Cuts have been made in the front building in order to provide better views for the lower floor apartments in the back tower.

Future Project of the Year – Masterplanning:
West Kowloon Cultural District Conceptual Plan, Hong Kong, Rocco Design Architects Ltd, Hong Kong

The proposed Conceptual Plan for the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) aspires to evoke a social energy conducive to the spirit of exploration and discovery, hence the essence for long-term sustainable cultural development for Hong Kong. The programmatic disposition of the master plan is structured on a 3-layer organization: green terrain (south), city link (north) and a cultural zone (centre) for the arts.  Overlaid onto its framework is an urban street-grid. The Conceptual Plane aim is to offer a low carbon sustainable community.

Future Project of the Year – Infrastructure:
Hanimaadaoo International Airport, Maldives, Integrated Design Associates Limited, Hong Kong

The new airport, designated as the country’s second international gateway, is located on an island with very limited land mass for an international airport of this size. With airfield infrastructure consuming nearly all the available land our concept of a “floating terminal” has been selected by the Government for its innovative, exciting and eco-friendly approach. The proposed terminal is built entirely on stilts over water without reclamation to preserve the existing environment and the natural coastline. With blue sea, white sandy beach as backdrop the new airport aims to provide passengers with a unique and memorable travel experience.

Future Project of the Year – Health:
Binh Chanh Pediatric Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, VK, 2050 A+P, Nhat My, Belgium

The Centre presents a welcoming and open environment, offering a natural habitat for care whilst still allowing plenty of opportunity for other activities. The double-height ground floor at entrance level facilitates the rehabilitation process with a sports and fitness facility including a swimming pool, and also a restaurant and theatre. As well as patients, family members and members of the local community (schools, theatre groups etc) are invited to use these facilities on a regular basis. The meandering facade of the building allows the forest inside the building.

Future Project of the Year – Landscape:
Shoreline Walk, Beirut, Lebanon, Gustafson Porter, UK

The ‘Shoreline Walk’ is a sequence of connected spaces which form part of the reconstruction of the Beirut city centre. The project demonstrates Beirut’s character and resolve.  It guides and reveals Beirut’s history and forms a connective spine to the city. A continuous white limestone line marks the ground and a wide pedestrian promenade. It features four areas to pause and reflect on pre-war city and forgotten memories.

The World Architecture Festival Awards 2011 jury includes Michael Sorkin, Principal of the Michael Sorkin Studio, New York; Jo Noero, Principal of Noero Wolff Architects, Cape Town; Odile Decq, Principal of ODBC, Paris; and Professor Kongjian Yu, Principal of Turenscape, Beijing, a double category winner in previous WAF awards.

All images courtesy of World Architecture Festival.

Twelve buildings from around the world have today been announced as winners on the first day of the World Architectural Festival (WAF) Awards 2011.

The presentation of the WAF Awards is taking place during the largest global celebration of architecture - the World Architecture Festival, which is being held in Barcelona (CCIB) this week.

The WAF Awards day one winners are as follows:

World Villa of the Year:
InBetween House, Nagano, Japan, Koji Tsutsui & Associates, Japan

Surrounded by Japanese larch trees in a mountainous region of Karuizawa, Japan, this 178sqm house sits on an artificially levelled area of the site created thirty years ago and left unused.

World Holiday Building of the Year: 
Raas, Jodhpur, India, The Lotus Praxis Initiative, India

A luxury boutique hotel in the old city of Johhpur, which features 17th and 18th century period structures that have been restored using traditional crafts and materials, to provide visitors with a sensual contemporary experience.

World Production, Energy, & Recycling Building of the Year:
Waste Treatment Facility, Barcelona, Spain, Batlle & Roig Architects, Spain

This facility consists of two large treatments at different levels, under one roof, which aims to integrate with the land.

World Landscape Project of the Year: 
A Mother River Recovered - The Sanlihe Greenway, Qian’an City, China, Turenscape, China

Transformation of a former garbage dump and sewage drainage facility into a ecological landscape and habitat for native biodiversity, integrating pedestrian and cycle paths for recreation and commuting uses.

World Transport Building of the Year: 
Kurilpa Bridge, Brisbane, Australia, Cox Architecture/ Cox Ryaner Architectects, Australia

Kurilpa Bridge provides a new pedestrian and cycle connection across Brisbane’s river but also forms a new public space, as well as a symbol for art, science, technology and healthy living.

World House of the Year: 
Small House, Sydney, Australia, Domenic Alvaro, Australia

The ultra-compact vertical house is located in an urban setting and features an outdoor room on the top floor. It was designed by Alvaro not only to be his own home, but also to test a development model for downtown urban living as an alternative to the ubiquitous luxury apartment.

World Civic and Community Building of the Year: 
Saint Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, USA,  Marlon Blackwell Architect

The church is the result of a transformation of an existing metal shop building into a sanctuary and fellowship hall in anticipation of a larger adjacent sanctuary on the same site. The simple original structure is enveloped by a new skin, obscuring and refining the original gabled form.

World New & Old Building of the Year: 
Puzzle Piece, Canary Islands, Spain, Romera y Ruiz Arquitectos, Spain

A cover for a patio in a nursery school for children to protect their play area from sun and rain, allowing all-weather play. The cover is shaped like a puzzle piece with gaps allowing light in.

World Learning Building of the Year: 
Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge, UK, Stanton Williams, UK

The Sainsbury Laboratory is an 11,000 sq.m. plant science research centre set in the University of Cambridge’s Botanic Garden, and brings together world-leading scientists in a working environment of the highest quality. The design reconciles complex scientific requirements with the need for a piece of architecture that also responds to its landscape setting.

World Office Building of the Year: 
Media-ICT, Barcelona, Spain, Cloud 9, Spain

The project was commissioned by The Consortium of the Zona Franca CZFB and @22Barcelona, an experimental district in the city. The architects were extremely interested in the digital city model based on information, communication and technology, with the idea of a city where what matters is knowledge, added value and patents. 

World Culture Building of the Year: 
Shima Kitchen, Tonosyotyo, Japan, Architects Atelier RYO ABE, Japan

An arts centre and restaurant situated on a rural island in Western Japan. The building features an awning made of charred timber shingles, which are tied loosely to the main frame of the building to create an illusion of shimmering feathers in the wind.

World Sport Building of the Year:
Speedskating Stadium Inzell – Max Aicher Arena, Inzell, Germany, Projektarbeitsgemeinschaft Behnisch Architekten Pohl Architekten, Germany

Intelligent roof free of interior columns, built over pre-existing speed-skating track, which allows athletes and spectators continuous panoramic views over the Bavarian Alps.

The World Architecture Festival Awards 2011 jury includes Michael Sorkin, Principal of the Michael Sorkin Studio, New York; Jo Noero, Principal of Noero Wolff Architects, Cape Town; Odile Decq, Principal of ODBC, Paris; and Professor Kongjian Yu, Principal of Turenscape, Beijing, a double category winner in previous WAF awards.

All images courtesy of World Architecture Festival.

Winners have been announced at the first annual CTBUH International Student Design Competition "2011: Why Tall?". From more than 200 projects submitted, 32 finalists were displayed and judged during the 2011 Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) World Conference in Seoul, earlier in October. The winning projects were announced at the conference dinner.

The competition picked up on the 2011 CTBUH Seoul Conference themes, seeking to find innovative ideas to shed new light on the meaning and value of tall buildings in modern society from the themes of green, safety, and humanity. There were no restrictions on site, program or size, with the objective of allowing maximum freedom to the participants in proposing imaginative design ideas for new construction. This resulted in a very diverse compilation within the competition.

As noted by the 2011 Jury Chair, William Pedersen (Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects): "There has been a major transition in the sense of the value of the tall building and what it can contribute to the urban realm, and society in general. This transition moves the tall building away from just an instrument of financial exploitation and toward a development highly concerned with its impact on the city, the environment, and the urban habitat. Bringing students together from all over the world, as this competition has done, is an important step for the evolution of the tall building typology."

These are the winning projects:

1st Prize: "MultipliCITY"
Xiaokai Huang, Dong Jin & Lingyun Yang, Harvard University (United States) & Tongji University (China)
Board (PDF)

2nd Prize: "Cloud Skyscraper"
Sungjin Jang, Hojun Choi, Yohwan Jo, Youngshin Kim, Sewook Son, Yonsei University (Korea) & Hyunkyu Lim, Kyunkook University (Korea)
Board (PDF)

3rd Prize: "Vertical Neighborhood"
Daniel Sacristán Contreras, Escuela Tecnica de Arquitectura de Madrid (Spain)
Board (PDF)

Special Mention: "Culture Transcend"
Davin Tanasa, University of Melbourne (Australia)
Board (PDF)

During the Special Exhibition, Seoul Conference attendees were given the opportunity to vote on their favorite project. Unbeknownst to the jury at the time of judging, “MultipliCITY” was selected as the “Public’s Favorite” winner, showing the judges views were aligned with the majority of Conference attendees. Also unknown to the jury at the time of their selections, but a pleasant surprise and excellent reflection of the international nature of the competition, the top awards were from students located all over the globe: USA, China, South Korea, and Spain were all included in the top three winners alone.

Also check out the six Honorable Mentions in the image gallery below. All images courtesy of 2011: Why Tall?

Tomorrow, November 2, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art will celebrate the public opening of its $55 million Herta and Paul Amir Building. The 195,000-square-foot building adds a visionary work of contemporary architecture to the Museum’s campus in the heart of Tel Aviv and provides a new international landmark for Israel’s cultural capital.

Designed by Preston Scott Cohen, Inc., of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the freestanding concrete-and-glass building is a tour de force of complex geometry and light-filled space. Outside, the gleaming and angular Amir Building establishes a dialogue with the Museum’s existing building and the renowned modern architecture of Tel Aviv, with its traditions of Mendelsohn, the White Bauhaus City. On the inside, the Amir Building reveals that it is built around a spiraling, top-lit, 87-foot-high atrium known as the “Lightfall”, whose subtly twisting surfaces curve and veer up and down through the structure.

There are five levels to the building—two above grade and three below—which twist from floor to floor, to accommodate large, rectangular galleries within the compact, nearly triangular site. The stairs and ramped promenades of the Lightfall serve as the surprising, continually unfolding vertical circulation through these floors, connecting the disparate angles of the galleries and allowing natural light to refract into the deepest recesses of the half-buried building.

“We are immensely pleased to be able to add much-needed space to our facilities while making an exciting and important contribution to the landscape of our city,” stated Professor Mordechai Omer, Director and Chief Curator of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. “I believe the Israeli public and visitors from around the world will share our excitement. As if in a single gesture, Preston Scott Cohen’s building is startling and original and yet beautifully practical as a setting for our works of art.”

The Amir Building houses 18,500 square feet of gallery space for the Museum’s comprehensive collection of Israeli art. A selection of some 250 of these works will be on view in the inaugural installation, dating from 1906 to the present. Also on view in the permanent collection galleries of the Amir Building during the opening period will be:

• an installation of Israeli photography of the past twenty years;
• a series of two consecutive exhibitions, Utopias of Expressionism and Cure by Expression, showing the strength of the collection of prints and drawings;
• two installations of work by leading Israeli designers, Library by Chanan DeLange and Circle by Yaakov Kaufman;
• and an exhibition documenting the design of the five buildings of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, from the original Dizengoff House to the Amir Building, organized by guest curators Jascha Grobman and Ariel Blonder.

To inaugurate its new 9,000-square-foot temporary exhibitions gallery in the Amir Building, the Museum will present Kiefer in Tel Aviv, a site-specific exhibition organized by Mordechai Omer in collaboration with the artist. Large-scale works by Kiefer inspired by themes of the Hebrew Bible, Jewish myths and mysticism and German-Jewish history will surround two of the artist’s monumental enclosures: East-West, housing 44 huge metal plates imprinted with images of paintings and objects, and a specially conceived version of The Library, whose multiple pewter and lead “books” are a record of diagrams and photographs.

Among its other facilities, the Amir Building provides a new 7,000-square-foot auditorium, allowing the institution to expand the busy schedule of film screenings, music performances, readings, lectures and discussion programs that make the Tel Aviv Museum of Art an indispensable center of activity for the city’s artistic and cultural community. Today, November 1, the auditorium is the venue for a symposium on the architecture of contemporary museums, featuring Preston Scott Cohen in conversation with Eran Neuman and a roster of international architects, including Sylvia Lavin, Jeff Kipnis, Dan Sherer, Jesse Reiser, Inaki Abalos and Ben Van Berkel.

Speaking about his design for the Amir Building, Preston Scott Cohen stated, “The Museum’s program set the challenge of providing several floors of large, neutral, rectangular galleries within a tight, idiosyncratic, triangular site. The solution we proposed was to ‘square the triangle’ by constructing the levels on different axes, which deviate significantly from floor to floor and are unified by the Lightfall. This decision enabled us to combine two seemingly irreconcilable paradigms of the contemporary art museum: the museum of neutral white boxes, which provides optimal, flexible space for the exhibition of art, and the museum of spectacle, which moves visitors and offers a remarkable social experience. In this way, the Amir Building’s synthesis of radical and conventional geometries produces a new type of museum experience, one that is as rooted in the Baroque as it is in the Modern.”

Ron Huldai, Mayor of the Municipality of Tel Aviv, commented, “We see the opening of the Amir Building as a landmark moment to inaugurate our Tel Aviv Global City initiative, a strategic plan that follows an investment of $250 million in our cultural and historical institutions over the past decade. To make Tel Aviv Global City a part of everyone’s life from the very beginning, we will launch The Year of Art in September 2011. The city will present a calendar of dozens of exhibitions, conferences, community projects, educational initiatives and festivals, many of them with international partners—and as the centerpiece, we will celebrate the opening of the Herta and Paul Amir Building.”

Paul Amir, the Los Angeles-based real-estate developer and philanthropist who with his wife Herta provided the naming gift for the building, stated, “We feel privileged to have been able to advance the work of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, an institution that is truly at the heart of Israel’s creative community. With this exceptional building by Preston Scott Cohen, and with the ability to showcase the work of Israel’s artists as never before, the Museum now has the potential to step up to a prominent new role on the international scene, to the benefit of everyone.”

The architectural competition for the Herta and Paul Amir Building was conducted in the first half of 2003. Design development began in 2005, and the groundbreaking was held in 2007.

The Museum campus is located in the heart of Tel Aviv, immediately adjacent to the Golda Meir Cultural & Art Center (with the New Israeli Opera and the Cameri Theater) and the Beit Ariela Municipal Library. The existing main building, a 175,000-square-foot structure by Dan Eytan and Yitzchak Yashar, opened in 1971 and was expanded with an 11,300-square-foot Sculpture Garden (opened 1996) and the 32,300-square-foot Gabrielle Rich Wing (Dan Eytan, 1999).

When the Amir Building opens tomorrow, galleries in the main building that were previously used for Israeli art, photography, video, and design and architecture will be dedicated to the Museum’s extensive program of changing exhibitions. The central Sam and Ayala Zacks Gallery in the main building, previously used for changing exhibitions , will now be dedicated to an installation from the permanent collection of European and American art from the era after World War II.

Find plans and drawings of the building in the image gallery below. For an in-depth ShowCase feature, including additional photographs, head over to our sister site Archinect.

Earlier this month, we published the winners and finalists of the International School-Museum of Flamenco (ISMOF) competition for the city of Jerez de la Frontera in the Spanish Andalusia region. Among the ten finalists was also the proposal STRUCTURE OF EMOTIONS - FEISTY FLAMCENCO by Polish practice MUS architects. The design team included Adam Zwierzynski and Anna Porebska.

Project Description from the Architects:

Movements and gestures of dancers are full of expression and tension. Dancers bring the fascinated viewer into an internal world of experience and emotion through the swinging movement of their hips, decorative arrangement of their fingers and smooth vibration of the ornamental frills. Rhythmic and dynamic music transmits the spectator into a world of incredible aesthetic feelings awakening all senses and inflaming the imagination…

….This is how architecture dedicated to the culture of feisty flamenco should look like….

Form

Site management and building form reflect the flamenco spirit. Interior and exterior spaces of ISMOF building were created through the sculptural interpretation of the theme.

Building solid responds to diverse height of the terrain – it rises and falls like a sinusoidal diagram of dynamic sound waves. 

On the ground floor which is canopied by sails vaults an extensive square is located – a foreground for internal building programme. Space areas are divided only by glass sheets. As a result internal and external spaces penetrate themselves flowing under vaults of expressive canopies.

Solid angles were risen up to open the surroundings onto a canopied square – whilst shaping a “bowl” of the upper plaza. Upper square is available directly from the terrain's level through a ramp – from the north and from the south side of the plot. This is a space for a garden, recreation area and an open-air amphitheatre but most of all it is a wide open space which can be used as an arena for various mass and artistic events. Museum and a viewing terrace were located in the highest part of the building.

The structure of the surfaces making up the solid is a very important aspect of the project. Visions of movement, dynamics, emotional tension and images of ornamental dress frills, cracks of eroding rocks as well as examples of decorative perforated architectonic shelters were an inspiration during the project.

The structural make-up of the solid consists of numerous folds creating unexpected interrelationships.

Soothing out and roughness were used to contrast surface of the building's solid – texture becomes another factor creating the sensual architecture of ISMOF.

The colour scheme of the project is natural and rough – „mass is of clay or stone” - sculptural materials.

The sculpture of the building strongly interacts with light. Dynamic lighting introduces movement which stimulates the building. Light intensifies and moderates the aesthetic and emotional experiences and the impact of the architecture on its users

Program

This version of the functional programme is one of many possible scenarios and it is possible to enlarge or reduce its scope. According to the competition's brief the conceptual design is the primary focus of the project.

Lets think about architecture. Let’s feel...flamenco....

Find more images and drawings of the proposal in the image gallery below.

If you happen to be in Miami, Florida this November, make sure to check out the upcoming exhibition DawnTown Miami | The First Four Years of Ideas which will open on November 9th, 2011 at the University of Miami School of Architecture. The opening and reception begins at 6:30pm at the Irvin Korach Gallery, and marks the first retrospective ever produced by DawnTown.

Over the past four years, DawnTown Miami has challenged architects, urban designers, and artists, to propose their visions for neglected spaces in city. Designers have answered that call, producing extraordinary reinventions of these sites:

The 2008 Water Works sought out to create a new building skin for the water pump station on Biscayne Boulevard to turn it into an iconic structure on a prominent city street.

The 2009 Metro Mover campaign asked designers to create a new public transit station that would be the entry point for the new Miami Art and Miami Science Museums at the future Museum Park. (Winners)

The 2010 Seaplane Terminal competition paid homage to Miami’s history of aviation and the unique character of having a major transportation hub in downtown. (Winners)

The 2011 Floating Stage challenge was based on a complimenting piece of architecture to one of Miami’s most significant structures, The Miami Marine Stadium. (Winners)

The First Four Years of Ideas takes a look back at the very best works produced from these unique competitions. On display will be the winning entries from all four years, as well as curated works, selected by DawnTown’s directors. A video display will be also being present, streaming every entry ever submitted.

Below are images of the winning DawnTown Miami projects from the previous four years.

JDS / Julien De Smedt Architects have just signed the contract to execute their first French project for the city of Lille. The project that houses a youth hostel, a kindergarten and offices is the result of an invited competition that JDS won in collaboration with EGIS, Agence Franck Boutté Consultants, and SL2EC.

Project Description from the Architects:

Over the past twenty years Lille has become a European hub; a destination for business and congress, a great place to study and live and also a tourist destination. It is a city with a turbulent history of conquest and reconquest, a heritage as an important medieval city and later on enjoyed and sometimes suffered the title of Northern France industrial capital.

Our project emerges from the idea of creating an urban catalyst, accommodating three distinct programmes on a triangular site. By placing a program in each point of the triangle we offer maximum privacy while allowing them a closeness and continuity of space, organized around a garden, like a cloister of calm in the center of the city. The lifting of the mass of the programme at the corners illuminates and activates the adjacent public spaces and creates a continuity from outside to inside of the building.

Project Details:

Project: Youth hostel, kindergarten, office    
Budget: 12,150,000 EUR    
Type: Invited Competition
Size: 6,980 m2
Client: SAEM Euralille    
Status: 1st Prize 2011
Location: Lille, France    
Team: JDS, EGIS, Agence Franck Boutté Consultants, SL2EC        

JDS Partner in Charge: Julien De Smedt    
Project Leader: Renaud Pereira
Project Team: Henning Stuben, Sandra Fleischmann, Heechan Park, Francisco Villeda, Edna Lueddecke, Wouter Dons, Felix Luong, Leonora Daly, David Dominguez Iriondo, Priscilla Girelli, Marion Julien

d3 and Transportation Alternatives have announce the winners of the “Close The Gap” design competition, which invited architects, landscape architects, urban designers, engineers and students worldwide to envision the completion of New York City's East River Greenway. Submissions from pla.net Architects and the design team of James Stokoe & Madeline Stokoe were selected by the jurors for a shared first prize.

The competition called for proposals that fundamentally transform how people move through Manhattan by filling in a 22-block gap along the East River.

“The competition drew responses from all over the world, from 22 countries, ranging from Canada to Iran,” said Sandy McKee, principal of Yoshihara McKee Architects and competition co-director of d3. “They all assumed that we can redesign New York to make it a better place to live. We started the competition when the goal of closing the East Side Gap seemed like an impossible dream, but we are now one step closer with innovative, thoughtful and exciting ideas to explore.”

“The winning submissions envision a vibrant East Side waterfront that enables the full scope of possibilities for urban transportation,” said Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. “From the pla.net team’s focus on increasing access to open space in Manhattan with an eye to integrating new and old infrastructure to the Stokoe’s design, which challenges us to rediscover the power, potential and history of the East River, these teams took the hopes of countless East Side residents and brought them to life.”

Earlier this month, Mayor Bloomberg approved a land swap agreement that will allow the completion of the East River Greenway. By selling three properties to the United Nations, the city will have the funds to the fill in a 22-block gap along the East River greenway.  Demand for waterfront space has been growing steadily in Manhattan, resulting in a greenway surrounding virtually the entire island--with the exception of Harlem’s East River shoreline above 120th Street and the gap between East 38th and East 60th streets. As a result, the East Side currently has the lowest ratio of open space to residents and workers in the city. Closing this gap in the East River Greenway will finally bring more open space to the East Side waterfront and enable access to active transportation like bicycling and walking.

d3 competition co-directors Sandra McKee and Gregory Marinic assembled a jury of architects, landscape architects, and stakeholders in the East River revitalization effort.  The jury included Victoria Marshall, Till Design; Michael Szivos, softLAB; Paul Steely White, Executive Director Transportation Alternatives; Audrey Matlock, Audrey Matlock Architect; Rob Rogers, Rogers Marvell Architects; Hiroki Yoshihara,  Yoshihara McKee Architects; Steve Vaccaro, Chair of Transportation Alternatives East Side Committee; Mark Thompson, Chair of Manhattan Community Board Six; and Laurie Beckelman, Beckelman+Capalino.

Find images of the special mentions winners in the image gallery below. All images courtesy of d3.

Boston architects PRAUD have shared with us their entry to the international Hotel Liesma design competition for a music-themed upscale hotel in Jurmala, Latvia. The proposal did not manage to win a prize, but we are happy to publish it.

PRAUD's project team included Dongwoo Yim, Rafael Luna, and Emily Ko.

Project Description from the Architects:

APPROACH

There are two challenging questions we had when we first met the project. First, what type of architectural form can strengthen the concept of music hotel as well as this amazing landscape? Perhaps the architecture should not be an iconic building that tries to outstand itself amongs the environment, but a very gentle form that just sits on the site.
The next question was,  is it able to bring in the nature into the site so that the whole site is conceived as park? To achieve this concept of music park, having a landscape field in the left over space in the site is not enough, perhaps we need more aggressive approach so that the music park we are trying to create is not something you can experience in other parts of the city.

CONCEPT

The main concept of the project is to elevate the new hotel mass from the ground level. There are two major purposes of this approach; to have widely open public park on the ground level and to provide better view to the Baltic sea from hotel rooms.

Every single room in the new mass has direct view towards the sea and has access to the balcony on the roof. This new mat-type mass is held by multiple cones that contain public programs inside such as, music cafe, restaurants, conference hall, and swimming pool. By having private hotel rooms separated from the ground level and public programs sitting on the ground, the whole ground level, which we call it as music park, could be used as a dynamic and cultural park not only for the visitors to the hotel but also for all people who visits the city. Therefore, the music park becomes a new field for all those music concerts and festival of the city.

And by putting business class rooms and junior suites in the existing building, the hotel can be managed more efficiently. When it is in leisure season mostly for families, the hotel can only operate the new mat-type mass and couple of cones, while when it is for business conference, it can mainly operate the existing building, conference cone and restaurant cone. This efficient way of using the hotel facilities will let the hotel run viably through out the whole year.

Project Data:

Client: Hotel Liesma
Architect: PRAUD
Team: Dongwoo Yim, Rafael Luna, Emily Ko
Location: Jurmala, Latvia
Site Area: 15,000 m2
Project Floor Area: 10,300 m2

Find more plans and sections in the image gallery below.

The winners of the 3rd International Holcim Awards competition for sustainable construction projects and visions from North America have just been announced. A total of USD 300,000 was presented to ten diverse and innovative projects from Canada and the USA at a ceremony in Washington, DC. The regional awards for Latin America, Europe, and Africa Middle East were presented just recently. Winners of the Asia Pacific awards will be announced end of November in Singapore.

A socio-architectural project to create regional food-gathering nodes and a logistics network in Canada’s high arctic territory won the top prize for North America of USD 100,000. The Arctic Food Network (AFN) secures mobility between the scattered Inuit communities, allows a better distribution of local foods, and serves as a series of bases for the reinforcement of traditional hunting. The infrastructure project by Lateral Office / InfraNet Lab based in Toronto, Ontario, and Princeton, New Jersey, also establishes new foundations for a sustainable, more independent economy.

Mohsen Mostafavi, Head of jury and Dean of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, congratulated the project for creating a cohesive strategy that responds to the landscape, climatic and site conditions. “The project includes purposeful interventions which are integrated without any grand gestures or expensive structures – but instead bridges between the traditions of the Inuit and the expectations of the young generation. The project thereby provides an opportunity to create an improved future, in terms of both economic opportunity and a sustainable way of living,” he said.

The Holcim Awards Silver was presented to a design for a two-level zero energy certified school building to be constructed on multiple campuses throughout Los Angeles. The project led by architects Swift Lee Office of Los Angeles uses “off-the shelf” components and modular panels to create a pre-fabricated system that features a double-layered façade for solar, acoustic, and environmental control and achieves a climate-responsive solution for each site. The project was applauded by the jury for its thoroughly developed and comprehensively presented design, which manages the integration of a coherent technical and structural concept, yet retains spatial and conceptual simplicity.

The Holcim Awards Bronze was awarded to Julie Snow Architects of Minneapolis for a border control station on the US frontier to Canada at Van Buren, Maine. The approach meets a range of stringent regulations for safety, operation and durability and yet is a highly aesthetic structure marking the national frontier. A zero net energy goal and water saving targets, challenged by the remote location of the site and energy demand for 24-hour operation, are achieved through features such as a ground source heating and cooling, a solar wall to temper outside ventilation air, a ground-coupled heat pump, peaking bio-diesel boilers, LED lights, and lighting control systems to reduce fossil fuel consumption. The jury commended the design for successfully applying state-of-the-art features of sustainability in a government project with its regulatory implications.

Four projects were presented with an Acknowledgement prize. An energy-efficient university building in Lawrence, Kansas, by Dan Rockhill of Studio 804 which forms part of the University of Kansas architecture, design and planning curriculum and traces the entire process of planning and construction up to realization. An energy-neutral portable classroom designed for use in Hawaii by Anderson Anderson Architecture of San Francisco that reaches manufacturing and transport efficiency, and achieves low operating costs and ease of maintenance. An energy, water and waste efficient military installation in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri by the US Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, DC, which adapts sustainable planning and construction to the military field. And, the Ford Calumet Environmental Center by Studio Gang Architects of Chicago that reuses materials from the site’s previous industrial function – while serving bird watchers and creating a dialog about the region’s environmental past, present, and future.

The Holcim Awards competition recognizes the importance of engaging tomorrow’s professionals on the theme of sustainable construction through the “Next Generation” category which shares the visions and ideas of postgraduate university students. First prize was awarded to Keith Van de Riet, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY for a strategy to strengthen mangrove forests along coastlines to reinforce the natural protection of the coastal communities against the threat of tsunamis. Second prize was awarded to a team of students led by David Getty, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) of Providence, RI for the unique use of secondary building materials in a temporary festival structure. Przemyslaw Latoszek of the University of Toronto received the third prize for a materials science project that studies the building properties of foam concrete and the potential for wider use of the material in architecture and construction.

Holcim Awards submissions for projects in North America were evaluated by an independent jury hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): Mohsen Mostafavi (Head, USA), Ray Cole (Canada), Keller Easterling (USA), Harry Gugger (Switzerland), Sheila Kennedy (USA), Hans-Rudolf Schalcher (Switzerland), Nader Tehrani (USA), Bernard Terver (USA) and Mark West (Canada) used the five “target issues” for sustainable construction developed by the Holcim Foundation to evaluate submissions. The “target issues” address the triple bottom line of economic, environmental, and social factors together with architectural quality and the potential to apply the innovation in other locations.

The Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction conducts the competition in five regions in parallel across the world. More than 6,000 submissions for projects located in 146 countries entered the Holcim Awards which aims to promote sustainable responses from the building and construction industry to technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues.  

Check out images of the four Acknowledgement Prizes and three "Next Generation" Prizes in the image gallery below. All images courtesy of the Holcim Foundation.

French architects Paul Le Quernec and Michel Grasso have shared with us photos of their recently completed collaboration, La Bulle Enchantée, a nursery in Sarreguemines, France. The design is based on the concept of a body cell with its nucleus as the core and surrounding elements that are being confined by the cell membrane.

Project Description from the Architects:

La Bulle Enchantée - A body cell and uterin concept:

The project is designed as a body cell, placing the nursery at the center of the layout as the nucleus, surrounding gardens as the cytoplasm, and a circumscribing enclosing wall as the membrane.

A large outdoor playground is generated through a continuous curvilinear wall that shapes out the boundaries of the facility. The ‘‘vaginal’’ entrance is characterized by a concrete vault which is a continuation of the peripheral wall. Floating within its membrane, the nursery welcomes visitors into a round space at the center of the building, enlightened by a covered patio. All the children units radiate outwards from this central room. This concept of transitional space and centripetal walkway avoids all effect of corridor and all effect of start or end of movement. Thus, the playrooms spread out like a hand-held fan ideally oriented to the south where each one leads to its own playground. The curved lines of walls and ceilings underline the organic and uterin concept which provides safety and comfort within the building for children as for parents.

Double scaling:

The ceiling height in the surrounding playrooms is 2,10 meters-high to create a comfortable environment for the babies and children. Thus, to give a stronger spotlight on this idea, we combined it with a variation of ceilings heights up to 4,20 meters, creating a large range of spaces and volumes. Thanks to this contrast effect, the units with low ceilings are perceived as protective recesses. The circulation space and the children units are lighted up by zenithal openings, creating the contrast between spaces with low ceiling that are moderately lightened and spaces that generously receive the day light. The transition between different ceiling heights is smoothly done by the curves, generating a various reflection of light on the ceilings.

Buildings fragmentation:

Considering the childrens perception of the building, we decided to turn it into a raw of variously dimensioned boxes coming out a bush of bamboos and capturing the day light. This idea does not only consist in an aesthetical function: thanks to its shade, the bamboo coat protects the frontages of the building from over heating while the hat shaped boxes regulate the energy intake depending on seasons.

Project Details:

Size: 1,350 m2
Costs: 2,400,000 Euro

Client: Communauté d'Agglomération Sarreguemines Confluences
Architects: Paul Le Quernec & Michel Grasso

Find more interior and construction photos of the nursery in the image gallery below.

In the last few days, we've published the winners of the Regional Holcim Awards 2011 for Latin America, as well as Europe. Here are now also the winning projects of the competition for sustainable construction projects and visions from Africa Middle East which had been announced recently at a ceremony in Casablanca, Morocco. A total of USD 300,000 was presented to ten remarkable projects submitted by architects, planners, engineers and project owners. The winning projects illustrate the broad scope of applying sustainable approaches in construction including school infrastructure, community renewal, urban redevelopment, and energy-efficient design.

A school project in Burkina Faso using only solar and wind power to cool the classrooms won the top prize of USD 100,000. Natural ventilation is used in an ingenious manner to maximize the cooling effect during oppressive summer heat – routing air through underground tubes, planting vegetation, and using double-skin roofs and façades to achieve a 5°C thermal reduction. The project creates an indoor climate conducive to learning, improves social conditions by providing jobs and training, and repairs the environment through reforestation. The design for the secondary school in the village of Gando on the dry tropical savanna was created by Germany-based architect Diébédo Francis Kéré, of Kéré Achitecture, who was the first person from the village to study internationally, and is also the son of the village headman. 

Special Advisor of the UN Global Compact and founding member of the Holcim Foundation, Claude Fussler (France), commended the project for its broad approach towards enmeshing discrete sustainable aspects of the program into a comprehensive whole. “The school is constructed by the community and builds not only a physical structure that makes use of high-tech ideas that are implemented with low-teach means, but also creates a sense of identity and enhanced social cohesion,” he said.

The Holcim Awards Silver was presented to a school project in Palestine. The refurbishment approach designed by Italian architects ARCò – Architettura e Cooperazione improves natural ventilation and thermal insulation, thus achieving climatic comfort and energy reduction. At the same time, it generates a positive impact on the students of the Bedouin community less than 10km east of Jerusalem. Traditional mud brick techniques are adapted by local artisans to improve thermal dynamics and reduce dependence on imported building materials. The approach to refurbish an inadequate existing structure uses well-directed and precise low-tech measures to create a functional educational unit, and the simplicity of the underlying concept and easy transferability make the project a remarkable blueprint.

The design approach for a training center in Morocco led by a team of architects from Austria, Germany and Morocco received the Holcim Awards Bronze. The project in Marrakesh was commended for concentrating on the use of nearby resources including the local workforce and earth as the primary construction material. Design-inherent shading and natural ventilation are combined with modern technologies such as heat pumps and solar panels to demonstrate a range of sustainable construction techniques. The vocational training center enhances the future prospects of the youth in the area by providing practical education and vocational qualifications – and generates opportunities for employment using sustainable practices in the prospering construction sector.

Acknowledgement prizes were allocated to an urban precinct reconstruction and rehabilitation project in Morocco led by mossessian & partners, United Kingdom, and a building materials research project using recycled plant-based agricultural waste in Nigeria by a consortium of universities in Nigeria and Switzerland. Acknowledgement prizes also went to a sustainable eco-tourism facility in Cape Town by South African architects Architecture co-op and a state-of-the-art mixed use building implementing holistic architectural design in the UAE led by Swiss architectural firm Bob Gysin + Partner.

The Holcim Awards competition recognizes the importance of engaging tomorrow’s professionals on the theme of sustainable construction, and sharing their visions and ideas at a conceptual level. The “Next Generation” category was open to student projects. The first prize was awarded to Calayde Aenis Davey of the University of Pretoria, South Africa, who proposed the adaptive re-use of a power station for urban agriculture. Second prize was conferred to a passive agriculture proposal for the floodplain of the Nile River in Ethiopia, developed by students of the University of Seoul, South Korea. The urban masterplan which proposed a culturally-sensitive redevelopment by Khalid El Jaouhari at ENA Rabat, Morocco received the third prize.

Competition submissions for projects in Africa Middle East were evaluated by an independent jury hosted by the Ecole Supérieure d’Architecture de Casablanca, in Morocco: Hashim Sarkis (Head of jury, Lebanon), Javier de Benito (Switzerland), Chrisna du Plessis (South Africa), Abderrafih Lahbabi (Morocco), Mphethi Morojele (South Africa), Amer Moustafa (UAE), Joe Osae-Addo (Ghana), Hans-Rudolf Schalcher (Switzerland), and Holger Wallbaum (Switzerland) used the “target issues” for sustainable construction developed by the Holcim Foundation to evaluate submissions. The “target issues” address the triple bottom line of economic, environmental, and social factors together with architectural quality and the potential to apply the innovation in other locations.

The Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction conducts the competition in five regions in parallel across the world. More than 6,000 submissions for projects located in 146 countries entered the Holcim Awards which aims to promote sustainable responses from the building and construction industry to technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues. 

Check out images of the four Acknowledgement Prizes and three "Next Generation" Prizes in the image gallery below. All images courtesy of the Holcim Foundation.

With the announcement of the prestigious Dutch Design Awards 2011 being only days away, we're happy to share videos and photos from three live performances created by Rotterdam-based Studio Dumbar. The performances are to promote the Dutch Design Awards categories: Spatial-, Product- and Communication Design.

The performances were released through live streaming, social media and photography, and found their way through a network of online and offline media.

In addition, a limited edition pocket book, that richly illustrates the event, will be spread around the Netherlands during the Dutch Design Week (Oct 22 - 30 in Eindhoven).

Expect to find the book popping up in unexpected places... And when you find it, it is yours to keep!

Also, until October 29, you have the chance to vote for one or more of your favorite entries to the Dutch Design Awards and help decide who will win the first ever DDA Public Award. Click here to vote now.

Here is the performance promoting the category Spatial Design:

Here is the performance promoting the category Product Design:

And this is the performance promoting the category Communication Design:

Images and videos courtesy of Studio Dumbar, photography by Stay Gold Photography.

If you dig a hole deep enough... is an installation by New York architects LEVENBETTS for The Solutions, the 2011 Chengdu Arts and Design Biennial, currently running through October 30 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China.

The impetus for LEVENBETTS' installation was the children’s adage in America that says that if you dig a hole in the ground deep enough you will emerge on the other side of the earth in China. The trees, the root balls and the water they share encompass the idea of China and America on opposite sides of the planet, sharing the same earth. The installation embodies basic ideas about coexistence and the ability of design to offer and celebrate various perspectives.

Project Description from the Architects:

If you dig a hole deep enough... consists of a 7 meter in diameter round disk lifted at an angle out of the floor of the building with three trees right side up, three trees upside down, T(h)ree up T(h)ree dn, and a generous set of bleacher stairs, that in the opening events of the exhibition were used as seating for the talks by the artists and designers who were featured in the biennial.

The installation consists of the lifted round disk, that is a counterpoint to the orthagonality of the former electronics factory building, the composition and interplay of the elements that sustain the trees – three right side up (China) and three upside down (America), and the stairs that engage the individuals who come to see and interact with the installation. This idea of using life sustaining elements (infrastructure) is central to our work. And in T(h)ree up T(h)ree dn the infrastructure consists of transparent spheres of soil that are suspended in the structural grid, provide oxygen, and are able to be watered. There are also grow-lights that are hung from the structure to provide light for the trees to photosynthesize and for the visitors to see the piece, especially those on the underside with the upside down trees.

If the piece were to be installed in the US, the relationship would be flipped with the US trees up and the Chinese trees down. This is not a comment about who is on top economically/politically, etc. but is about the perspective of the viewer/visitor. In this regard the visitors are presented with a choice and two similar conditions: a stair up onto the disk, upon which one can sit next to the trees, and a mirrored platform on the floor of the gallery upon which one views the upside down trees.

We find these ideas of life sustaining systems as design elements, places for people to engage with an installation, relative perspective (what’s up and what’s down), and choice - how to experience the piece - all to address the central challenge of the brief of the Biennial, how design can address rapid social change. T(h)ree up T(h)ree dn, poses questions about relative perspectives on design and place without providing a “solution”. In this manner the installation avoids declaring a doctrine or a manifesto while remaining open to the perspective of the visitor. 

Project Credits:

Project: Installation for the 2011 Chengdu Arts and Design Biennial
Design Team: LEVENBETTS, David Leven and Stella Betts, Principals, Sungteak Lee, Project Architect
Location: East Chengdu Music Park, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
Dimensions: 7m diameter x 3m high
Structural Engineering: Robert Silman Associates, PC: Nat Oppenheimer, Principal
Fabrication: Project Managers: Jenny Chou and Su Qiu, Fabrication Shop: Longshao-Long Hui Ming

Find more photos of the installation in the image gallery below.

Munich's Department of Urban Planning and Construction recently announced that Rotterdam-based practice West 8 has won Part B (Housing and Neighborhood Center) of the urban and landscape planning competition for the first phase of Freiham North. Part A (Community Center, School and Sports Center) was won by Ortner & Ortner Baukunst Gesellschaft von Architekten, Berlin.

Mayor Of Munich, Christian Ude comments that the West 8 winning design "promises a pleasing vibrancy and diversity of the plots." 

Urban Planning Councillor Prof. Dr. (I) Elizabeth Merk: "Freiham offers the chance to tread a different path in a small-scale urban development and to realize a growing city in space and time structure. Open space and green structure is therefore a key element of this urban design. 'Everyone wants a house' - the selected competition design meets this request by a tight, yet loosened development structure, which is conveyed by a green space design."

Project Description from the Architects:

Freiham Nord will be the last substantial development to take place in Munich and will accommodate about 10.000 inhabitants. In the Masterplan Freiham Nord has been divided into several project areas with different programming, each about 40 ha in size. The city of Munich organized a design competition for the first two project areas in which 24 offices participated.

West 8’s winning entry is about a friendly green neighbourhood. Our design allows the creation of a city for all generations intending to mix ages and achieve a diverse melange of inhabitants.

At the moment the project site is characterised by open, agricultural land which is flat and sparsely vegetated. The landscape doesn’t provide any particular identity that could be build on in an urban design proposal. So character and identity needs to be created. West 8 has found the identity in a robust hierarchic structure of urban green spaces as alleys, boulevards, parks and squares which brings nature closer to urban life. Within this green network we identify one central square and two secondary neighbourhood squares with churches. The network creates a framework for diverse mixed-use urbanity which is both, dense and green. The neighbourhood consists out of housing for families, couples, singles, seniors and students; it also includes shops, schools and buildings for cultural, religious and social activities.

Varying compact isolated objects are loosely added in a green topography in order to reach transparent and lively city blocks. Internal spaces within the building blocks are designed as semi public urban spaces with specific housing related functions as allotment gardens, daycare playgrounds and neighbourhood meeting points.

Simple design guidelines for building development, based on wood structures, have to guarantee that the project keeps a specific unique Bavarian identity.

Project Details:

Project: Freiham Nord, Munich
Client: City of Munich
Location: Munich, Germany
Design: 2011
Realization: -
Size: 400,000 m2

West 8 Team: Adriaan Geuze, Christoph Elsasser, Daniel Vasini, Joris Weijts, Karsten Buchholz, Katharina Posselt, Simone Huijbregts

Find more plans of the winning Freiham Nord proposal in the image gallery below.

Oslo-based Eriksen Skajaa Architects recently won the competition for new gateways to the Sjunkhatten National Park in the northern part of Norway with their proposal called SAIVU. The proposal was a collaboration with Pushak and Bjørbekk & Lindheim Landscape Architects.

Project Description from the Architects:

”Saivu” is the sami word for a portal to another world. Based on the magic realism of the sami people and their understanding of nature, the construction of their ”lavvo”, and an interpretation of old sami signs, the team made a proposal for three gateways to the Sjunkhatten National Park. As the park has a focus on children, the jury found the mythical approach appropriate for enriching children’s experience of nature. 

It is a dramatic and beautiful landscape close to Bodø in northern Norway between fjords and snow-covered mountain peaks.

The project consists of three separate entrance areas with information boards, toilets, camp-fire places, seating, playgrounds, parking and toilets. There is also a possibility of shelters for sleeping and other activities connected to the separate sites.

The main element of the project is the construction system of wood and canvas that will give a common expression to the elements in the park while making it possible to meet the challenges of the different sites. The northern parts of Norway have a long history of tent-based nomad settlements. By choosing a modular structure system of wood and canvas we wanted to continue that tradition.

There is also a large horizontal information disk made of gold coated stainless steel. This disk will contain information about the park and can also be used independently of the gateway constructions.

Find more plans, diagrams and renderings in the image gallery below.

In a not too distant future, hordes of blood-drenched zombies are on the horizon, mindlessly roaming the deserted streets, trying to get into your house and eat your brains. Sucks if your house isn't fully zombie-proof by then, right? So head over to the 2011 Zombie Safe House Competition voting page and root for your favorite entries. Or get eaten alive. Voting ends October 21.

This year's ZSHC judging panel includes an award winning author and zombie expert, a horror novel author, a movie critic/independent film producer, and...oh well...an architect.

Below are just some of our favorites from over 200 entries.

All images via Zombie Safe House Competition.

Just last week, we published the winning projects of the Holcim Awards 2011 for Latin America. Here are now also the winners of the 3rd International Regional Holcim Awards for sustainable construction projects and visions from across Europe that were recently presented at a ceremony in Milan. A total of USD 300,000 was presented to ten projects submitted by architects, planners, engineers and project owners. The winning projects show the wide range of approaches in the region to sustainable construction that respond both to intensified urbanization and innovation in building materials and construction techniques.

An urban plan which transforms an under-utilized arm of the River Spree in Berlin into a natural 745m-long “swimming pool” won the top prize of USD 100,000. 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, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the precinct has experienced a 75% increase in resident population and parallel loss of vacant space. The urban plan which includes a 1.8ha reed bed natural reserve with sub-surface sand bed filters to purify the water was created by a team led by architect Tim Edler of realities united, Germany. 

Member of the jury and Co-director of London-based public planning agency, Publica, Lucy Musgrave, congratulated the project for creating a direct and strong impact on the quality of urban life and positive ecological contribution through remediation of the city’s waterways. “It is an excellent example of what could be achieved within challenging inner city areas that possess a rich tradition and cultural heritage where the local public has been overlooked,” she said.

The Holcim Awards Silver was presented to a project that converts a former factory into a new City Hall and Civic Center for the city of Oostkamp in Belgium. The key idea of Spanish Carlos Arroyo Arquitectos is not only to recycle the main structure and materials but also to re-use the space itself and its technical infrastructure. Distinctive interiors made of glass-reinforced gypsum and recycled paper complement the layout of modular clusters which are arranged according to thermal zones: the “thermal onion” design reduces energy consumption significantly. The project delivers maximum effect through the least possible degree of technical intervention and minimal financial investment. The open main hall is an outstanding example for transparency in governmental architecture.

The Holcim Awards Bronze was awarded to a collaborative project by Philippe Rizzotti Architects, Samuel Nageotte Architecture and Off Architecture, all based in France, which plans the conversion of one of the viaducts on a recently bypassed section of an expressway into vertical homes. The housing units near Scilla in Southern Italy are intended for European retirees attracted to the region by advantageous climatic and lifestyle factors. The vertical piles of the bridge are reinforced to improve structural capacity and horizontal platforms are added to accommodate living units, medical services, recreation and shops. The project was recognized for its smart transformation of an existing structure into a completely different use, and for offering new economic potency within the region.

Acknowledgement prizes were allocated to a multi-national team of Sauerbruch Hutton, Germany Arup, UK and Experentia, Italy for a medium-rise timber office building in a low-to-no carbon emissions district in Helsinki – and also to German firms Barkow Leibinger Architects, Schlaich Bergermann und Partner, and TRANSSOLAR Energietechnik for their collaboration on low-cost apartments in Hamburg that use innovative techniques and materials including pre-fabricated lightweight-concrete elements with recycled foamed glass as an internal aggregate. Acknowledgement prizes also went to Dutch architectural offices De Stuurlui Stedenbouw, and Atelier Gras for their cottage garden structure that creates green recreation spaces in dense urban areas, and to a production technology project for fabricating non-repetitive free-form cast-on-site concrete structures using re-usable and digitally-produced wax formwork by Gramazio & Kohler, Architecktur und Digitale Fabrikation – ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

The Holcim Awards competition recognizes the importance of engaging tomorrow’s professionals on the theme of sustainable construction, and sharing their visions and ideas at a conceptual level. The “Next Generation” category was open to student projects. The first prize was awarded to a team of four students from the AA School of Architecture, UK, for their research project on an efficient cast concrete fabrication system for geometrically complex building elements. A proposal for materials reuse and regional transformation in the Spanish city of Gijón/Xixón, by Elisa de los Reyes Garcia of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain, received the second prize. Eduardo Mayoral of the Universidad de Sevilla, Spain was awarded the third prize for an ambitious design and fabrication concept for bioluminescent devices for zero-electricity lighting.

Holcim Awards submissions for projects in Europe were evaluated by an independent jury hosted by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich): Jürgen Mayer H. (Head of jury, Germany), Kai-Uwe Bergmann (Denmark), Hansjürg Leibundgut (Switzerland), Winy Maas (Netherlands), Marta Malé-Alemany (Spain/UK), Leo Mittelholzer (Germany), Lucy Musgrave (UK), Hans-Rudolf Schalcher (Switzerland), and Jean-Philippe Vassal (France) used the five “target issues” for sustainable construction developed by the Holcim Foundation to evaluate submissions. The “target issues” address the triple bottom line of economic, environmental, and social factors together with architectural quality and the potential to apply the innovation in other locations.

The Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction conducts the competition in five regions in parallel across the world. More than 6,000 submissions for projects located in 146 countries entered the Holcim Awards which aims to promote sustainable responses from the building and construction industry to technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues.

Check out images of the four Acknowledgement Prizes and three "Next Generation" Prizes in the image gallery below. All images courtesy of the Holcim Foundation.

The Crystal, the new extension to the financial institution Nykredit in Copenhagen, Denmark, by schmidt hammer lassen architects, has won an Emirates Glass LEAF Award in the category ‘Best Structural Design of the Year’ 2011.

The Crystal is sited northwest of the existing Nykredit Headquarters, called the Glass Cube, on the edge of the new waterfront and the historic Copenhagen.

“Freestanding on the site, the building reads as a transparent, geometrical, glazed form which, resting only on a single point and a single line, floats as a visually light, crystalline structure above the plaza,” explained Partner Mr Kim Holst Jensen of schmidt hammer lassen architects. He continued: “The building and the plaza are designed to interact with each other and with the surrounding city.”

In terms of both form and scale, the building is intermediate between the city and the harbor, and harmonizes with neighboring buildings. On the southern side, it rises with reference to the gable apex of the “Elephant House” and creates space for the main entrance. From the corner of Puggardsgade and Hambrosgade, the passage under the building allows a clear view towards Nykredit’s head office building and the harbor.

The interior of the building complies with the demands for functionality, flexibility and efficiency. The typical floor plan is disposed in a Z-shape around two atria, ensuring that all workstations are well lit and enjoy a view. The disposition of the plan allows the accommodation of an open plan, separate offices or meeting rooms. The large three-dimensional steel structure constituting the building’s constructive system functions as an architectural element while at the same time freeing the building of columns, creating maximum flexibility in the office spaces.

The double-glazed façade has integrated solar screens and is decorated by a subtle silk screen frit design that mitigates solar ingress, reflects daylight, and gives the building a homogenous expression which enhances its sculptural form.

“The architectural idea of The Crystal’s design is inspired by the fascinating shapes of nature, the premises and the potential of the site,” said Kim Holst Jensen. “The building distinguishes itself from traditional commercial buildings by being a precise sculpture rising elegantly from the plaza underneath.”

In August, The Crystal also received the prestigious European Steel Design Award 2011. Furthermore, schmidt hammer lassen architects' The Crystal and City of Westminster College are shortlisted for a World Architecture Festival Award 2011. The winners will be announced in Barcelona November 2-4, 2011.

Sustainability Features:

Energy

The design team has brought a holistic approach to the environmental strategy underlying the project. The scheme manages to combine a completely transparent office building with an exceptionally low energy-consumption at 70 kWh per square meter, which means that the building consumes 25 percent less energy than the requirements of the existing Danish energy legislation. The roof is covered with highly efficient photovoltaic panels generating 80,000 kWh per year. In addition, the triple-layered inner glass façade provides extremely effective thermal insulation, with a U-value of only 0.7 Wh per square meter.

Water

Rainwater run-off is collected and used as grey water for toilet facilities throughout the building, while sea water provides additional cooling for the building.

Ventilation

The scheme operates a night-time cooling strategy where natural ventilation is introduced through the double façade and extracted through the atrium skylights, maintaining optimum internal temperatures.

Context

The building floats above the plaza resting only on a single point and a single line, and it is carefully harmonized with the neighboring buildings. The additional public space at ground level creates a dynamic public realm.

Daylight

The highly transparent building with a subtle silk-printed design on the outer glass façade functioning as a sunscreen creates a harmonious and versatile working environment for all employees.

Noise

The building’s insulated façade prevents noise interference from the traffic outside.

Project Details:

Client: Nykredit
Area: 6,850 m2
On commission: 2006
Status: Construction period 2008 - 2010

Architect: schmidt hammer lassen architects
Engineer: Grontmij I Carl Bro A/S, Buro Happold
Client consultant: Alectia
Landscape architect: SLA

Find floor plans, sections and details in the image gallery below.

The winners of the 3rd International Holcim Awards competition for sustainable construction projects and visions from across Latin America have just been announced. A total of USD 300,000 was presented to eleven outstanding projects at a ceremony in Buenos Aires. The winning projects mainly address the challenges of intensified urbanization – and range in scale from innovative community buildings through to broad master plans and infrastructure projects.

The Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction conducts the competition in parallel in five regions across the world. More than 6,000 submissions for projects located in 146 countries entered the Holcim Awards which aims to promote sustainable responses from the building and construction industry to technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues.

A multifunctional public building in the Paraisópolis favela of São Paulo, Brazil won the top prize of USD 100,000. The Grotão – Fábrica de Música prevents further erosion and dangerous mudslides on the steep slopes and provides social and cultural infrastructure to a community which is effectively separated from the formal city. The project led by Alfredo Brillembourg of Urban Think Tank includes a terraced public space featuring 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. 

Head of the jury and Dean of Architecture at the Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) in Mexico City, Carolyn Aguilar, 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. “The project has the potential to contribute to an enrichment of social awareness and cohesion in the area, and applies technical features in an exemplary and educative character,” she said.

The Holcim Awards Silver was presented to a strategic response to the earthquake and tsunami risk in the coastal city of Constitución, Chile. Instead of considering a construction ban or a massive barrier along the risk zones, the project led by Alejandro Aravena of ELEMENTAL S.A. recommends planting forests along the flood-prone areas to dissipate the energy of waves through friction and implementing specific restrictions on the use and layout of ground floor spaces in the risk zone. The project advocates a long-term strategy to upgrade the built environment rather than implementing an ad hoc action plan to reconstruct the part of the city that was destroyed by the tsunami and earthquake. The approach was also applauded by the jury for integrating citizen participation to enhance the contextual and social sensitivity of the master plan.

The Holcim Awards Bronze was awarded to a master plan designed by Jose Castillo of arquitectura 911sc for the northwest sector of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, which suffers from increasing violence due to its strategic position for drugs and arms trafficking. The project is based on the consolidation of existing water retention basins to mitigate future flooding, and their conversion into public spaces including agricultural terraces, community workshops, commercial lots, playgrounds, sporting facilities, a skate park and progressive housing units. The project was recognized for providing space for economic, educational and recreational activities with the overall intention to strengthen community networks.

Acknowledgement prizes were allocated to three submissions from Mexico: a project led by Jorge Ambrosi of Ambrosi Arquitectos for an ecological awareness and recreation reserve in Banderilla; the recovery of the rail transport network in the Oaxaca Valley by Gustavo Madrid Vazquez of espacio entre tiempo Architects; and, an urban transit corridor and river remediation master plan for Mexico City led by Elias Cattan of Taller13 Arquitectura Regenerativa. A library in Rosario, Argentina with an integrated community outreach program led by Alfredo Tapia of AFT Arquitectos and the proposal by Mathias Klotz of klotz y asociados ltda for a green university library in Santiago, Chile also received Acknowledgement prizes.

The Holcim Awards competition recognizes the importance of engaging tomorrow’s professionals on the theme of sustainable construction, and sharing their visions and ideas. The “Next Generation” category was open to student projects. The first prize was awarded to a team of students led by Mauro Ivan Barrio, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC) in Argentina for their vision of an energy self-sufficient water desalination facility. A proposal to reinvigorate waterways for transportation and sustainable development in Puerto Suárez, Bolivia, by Martin Fernández de Lema of the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina received the second prize. A team led by Gabriel Kozlowski Maia of Pontifícia Universidade Católica (PUC-Rio), Brazil was awarded the third prize for a proposal to densify and upgrade the PUC-Rio campus.

Holcim Awards submissions for projects in Latin America were evaluated by an independent jury hosted by the UIA in Mexico City: Carolyn Aguilar (Head, Mexico), Marc M Angélil (Switzerland), Daniel Bermúdez (Colombia), Angelo Bucci (Brazil), Vanderley M John (Brazil), Andreas Leu (Switzerland), Michel Rojkind (Mexico), Hans-Rudolf Schalcher (Switzerland) and Bruno Stagno (Costa Rica) used the five “target issues” for sustainable construction developed by the Holcim Foundation to evaluate submissions. The “target issues” address the triple bottom line of economic, environmental, and social factors together with architectural quality and the potential to apply the innovation in other locations.

See also the projects that won the five Acknowledgement Prizes and three "Next Generation" Prizes in the image gallery below. All images courtesy of the Holcim Foundation.

This week, MVRDV, The Why Factory and the JUT Foundation for Arts and Architecture opened the fourth edition of the exhibition series “Museum of Tomorrow” in Taiwan's capital Taipei. Under the title “The Vertical Village” the exhibition explores the rapid urban transformation in East Asia, the qualities of urban villages and the potential to realize this in a much denser, vertical way as a radical alternative to the identical block architecture with standard apartments and its consequences for the city.

The exhibition consists of analytical research, a grid of models, various movies, a documentary and animations, two software packages and a 6 meter tall installation of a possible Vertical Village developed by MVRDV and The Why Factory. Visitors can design their ideal house and compose their own Vertical Village with parametric software. The exhibition is located in Chung Shan Creative Hub, Taipei and open from October 8 to January 8, 2012.

Event Description from MVRDV:

The pressure on the East Asian cities has lead to an increasing urbanization and densification during the last decades. It has made way for the construction of giant buildings, mostly towers, blocks and slabs. A ‘Block Attack’ that gradually replaces and scrapes away the more traditional low rise, small scale, often ‘lighter’ types of architecture and urbanism: the Hutong in Beijing, the small wooden houses in Tokyo, the villages in Singapore, the individual houses in Taipei and other East Asian cities. These urban villages form mostly intense and socially highly connected communities, with enormous individual identities and differentiations. One can speak of urban ecologies, communities that have evolved over the course of centuries. Their faceless replacements packed with identical apartment units offer a Western standard of living at an affordable price, but at the expense of differentiation, flexibility and individual expression.

Is there an alternative to this process? Can one imagine a new model for the development of East Asian cities? Can these areas be densified in such a way that the qualities of the traditional village are preserved? The exhibition offers an alternative, a contemporary Vertical Village – a three-dimensional community that brings personal freedom, diversity, flexibility and neighbourhood life back into East Asian – and maybe even Western – cities.

In the fourth edition of the Museum of Tomorrow, MVRDV and The Why Factory analyse, explore and deepen this vision, with the help of the Berlage Institute and many other contributors. The exhibition located in Chung Shan Creative Hub, Taipei, features a 6 meter tall installation and a variety of analytical models and research elements. Visitors will be able to design their ideal house with an interactive platform, “The House Maker”, and develop their Vertical Village with parametric software – a Grasshopper scripted Rhinoceros model, developed by MVRDV and The Why Factory. 

JUT Foundation for Arts and Architecture publishes the Chinese edition of ‘the Vertical Village catalogue. NAi Publishers is publisher of the English language version which will be published January 16th 2012. The 528 page volume contains the ample research made comprehensible with countless colour illustrations. It features detailed case studies for Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Djakarta, Seoul and Bangkok, interviews with among others Winy Maas, Alfredo Brillemburg and Hubert Klumpner, Lieven De Cauter, Peter Trummer and families living in Taipei. 

The exhibition and publication has been made possible with the generous support of JUT Foundation for Arts and Architecture, Delft University of Technology, The Why Foundation and the Netherlands Architecture Funds.

Ten finalists have been announced in the International School-Museum of Flamenco (ISMOF) competition, with three of them being honorable mentions and another three as the final winners. The jury members Inma E. Maluenda, Juan Roldán Martín, Edgar Gonzalez, Luis Diaz-Mauriño, and Victoria Acebo met a few days ago in Madrid to select the winning entries.

Organized by the Spanish platform contestA, ISMOF is an international ideas competition with the main objective to enable students of architecture and young architects to present their work, promote research in the field of museum architecture, as well as to highlight the important role of flamenco in the Spanish identity, specifically the Andalusian.

Jury verdict about the First Prize winner: "It uses an interesting dose of risk, is not a finished project yet this ambiguity suggests a lot, [...] open project that opens a line, the versatile layering, programmable in the future versatile, committed overlay order morphological families, well drawn and with good references. Rich concept with spatial complexity, commitment and ambition. Interesting scale related with the city, resolved confidently and without being tied to self-imposed conventions and without bias. Smart."

Jury verdict about the Second Prize winner: "Very consistent proposal, clear, well constructed and justified. We relish the section with a series of milestones inthe public plaza, a lot of control of the volumes and scale, interesting for future alternatives... "

Jury verdict about the Third Prize winner: "This project as opposed to the first, leaves everything defined, has a number of easily discoverable references,emphatic, direct, explains and shows what the project is. Ironic interpretation about SAANA´s proposal for the city of flamenco. "

See also the four finalist projects in the image gallery below.

The 2011 Curry Stone Design Prize Winners were announced today with an official presentation ceremony to follow on November 7th at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

The Curry Stone Design Prize was created to champion designers as a force for social change. Now in its fourth year, the Prize recognizes innovators who address critical issues involving clean air, food and water, shelter, health care, energy, education, social justice or peace.

Hsieh Ying-Chun is the Grand Prize Winner; he will receive $100,000 from the foundation with no strings attached. Hsieh is a leading Taiwanese architect who for over a decade has deployed his talents in rural areas decimated by natural disaster. Hsieh works throughout Asia, training villagers to build locally appropriate dwellings in response to devastation such as the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the 1999 Nantou earthquake, and the 2009 Morakot typhoon in Taiwan. Through Hsieh’s hands-on education process, villagers reconstruct their own community foundation, knowing they will live in buildings with greater safety, structural integrity, and sustainability.

Hsieh establishes a cooperative network of designers, contractors, and residents that supports local needs. His simple designs ensure that every villager can have a hand in building their own home. His work has generated job opportunities and environmental awareness, while protecting local diversities and cultural traditions. After completion, he makes the design plans available in creative commons. Hsieh’s work has helped thousands of people.

Two additional 2011 Winner Prizes, of $10,000 each, will be awarded to Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée (AAA) and FrontlineSMS.

Atelier d'Architecture Autogérée is a collective of architects, designers and social scientists who transform urban spaces through collaborative endeavors. Based in Paris and founded by Romanian architects Constatin Petcou and Doina Petrescu in 2001, AAA has become an engine for engaging citizens in shaping their own cities through building, farming, and artistic intervention. AAA acts as a creative instigator, empowering local communities to carry out and sustain their own ideas for urban regeneration.

FrontlineSMS was founded in London by Ken Banks in 2005 to enable effective communications channels for communities in the developing world. FrontlineSMS leverages the ubiquity of mobile phones and familiarity of text messaging to turn an offline laptop into a communication hub. The simple innovation empowers villagers, aid agencies, and news services to exchange information easily among groups.

CURRY STONE DESIGN PRIZE FESTIVAL, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Prize Ceremony & Presentation: Monday, November 7th, 2011
6:30-8:00pm Harvard GSD, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
RSVP events@currystonedesignprize.com

Three Workshops at the GSD: Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
12pm-2:00pm, CSDP Prize winners Hsieh Ying-Chun, Constantin Petcou and Doina Petrescu, and Ken Banks will each lead a workshop.

Check the image gallery below for design projects of the two additional 2011 prize winners, Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée (AAA) and FrontlineSMS. All images courtesy of Curry Stone Design Prize.

“Design with the Other 90%: Cities,” the second in a series of themed exhibitions by Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum that demonstrate how design can address the world’s most critical issues, opens October 15 at the United Nations and runs through January 9, 2012.

Organized by Cynthia E. Smith, the museum’s curator of socially responsible design, the exhibition will feature more than 60 projects from 22 countries around the globe. Admission to the exhibition will be free of charge.

The museum’s main facility, housed in the Carnegie Mansion, will undergo renovation, beginning in fall 2011, as part of a $64 million capital campaign that includes enlarged and enhanced facilities for exhibitions, collections display, education programming and the National Design Library, and an increased endowment.

The exhibition will explore design solutions to the challenges created by rapid urban growth in informal settlements, commonly referred to as slums. Close to 1 billion people live in informal settlements, and that population is projected to swell to 2 billion people by 2030. This accelerated urban expansion will take place primarily in developing and emerging economies in an increasingly climate-challenged world.

Projects and products at every scale will be included, with a focus on designs that are informed by end users: alternative housing design, methods and materials; low-cost clean water; accessible education initiatives; sanitation and solid-waste management; transportation solutions; innovative systems and infrastructure; and urban design and planning.

Exchange

Increasingly, local and regional authorities cannot keep up with the unprecedented growth of informal settlements or slums. This section of the exhibition showcases innovative solutions that have emerged as the informal and formal cities exchange design knowledge to meet this demand.

Among the projects on view are community-generated solutions by Shack/Slum Dwellers International that build the capacity of poor urban communities by addressing secure land tenure, housing, basic amenities and livelihood through community-to-community exchanges throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America; the Urbanism Manual for Precarious Settlements, designed and produced for use in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which provides a free “how-to” urban design manual for newly arriving settlers; and the Incremental Housing project in Iquique, Chile, and Monterrey, Mexico, which produces half-finished houses that are completed by the residents and contain only the essentials of a built home—bathroom, kitchen, structure and roof—in order to stretch resources further to meet the rapidly growing demand for housing.

Other projects in this section explore building methods, materials and manufacturing, including a full-scale shelter installation representing an alternative gabions construction method used in Mexico City, in which mesh and wire containers are filled on-site with locally available materials. This low-cost, flexible system can easily adapt to accommodate a range of needs. Also on view will be a plastic formwork kit to produce cast-in-place mortar structures using mostly indigenous materials, in order to quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively produce homes.

Reveal

The projects on view in this section increase awareness of the scope and scale of the conditions in informal settlements, which are often invisible and do not show up on official maps or on census roles.

Highlights of the included projects are the Praça Cantão Favela Painting project in Santa Marta, Rio de Janeiro, where artists engaged community members to paint the building exteriors in their neighborhood, calling international media attention to their need for improvement; and the open-source mapping project Map Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya, which engages local youth to map the settlement in order to locate and number the hundreds of thousands of people living there and document the lack of basic services of the informal settlement.

Adapt

Designers and architects are collaborating with communities to create design solutions that respond to the local terrain, urban or climate conditions of the region.

Featured works on view in this section include the Integral Urban Project in the neighborhood of San Rafael-Barrio Unido in Caracas, Venezuela, which upgraded the extremely vertical settlement with an improved network of stairs that integrate drainage, sewage and clean water infrastructure; and the Floating Community Lifeboats in Bangladesh, which provide space for solar-powered schools, libraries, clinics and community centers in response to rising waters and extreme density.

Include

There is a growing urban divide in many of the world’s cities. The “include” section features design solutions that seek to include those who had been marginalized by the established city—the poor, women, youth and entire communities.

Among the featured projects are the Jiko ya jamii (Community Cooker), a large-scale oven that uses trash as fuel to power a communal cooking facility in Kibera, Nairobi; the city of Diadema, Brazil, where the mayor worked directly with the informal communities through participatory planning and budgeting to reurbanize the settlements, including widening and paving what were once narrow streets, cooperatively building social housing, establishing a new system of land tenure and providing quality health care to all residents; and Kaputiei New Town in Kenya, developed by Jamii Bora Trust, a micro-finance organization started by 50 street beggar families who saved enough money to found the Trust in 1999. Jamii Bora members receive loans to start small businesses and save enough to purchase a house in the town, where social amenities, facilities and open spaces are maintained by neighborhood management associations.

Prosper

Informal communities often form as people from rural areas migrate to urban centers in search of jobs and better lives. The projects in this section create work opportunities, such as Spaza-de-Move-on in Durban, South Africa, a portable, durable device that provides dignity and convenience to informal street vendors; M-PESA, a mobile money transfer service that enables urban migrants in Kenya to send money back to their villages via a mobile device; and in Bangalore, India Babajob.com, a social-networking service, connects impoverished job seekers with employers through chains of personal connections, replicating the process by which Indians hire in real life.

Access

Informal settlements lack access to basic services. The largest section of the exhibition includes design solutions to improve access to water, sanitation, food security, electricity, health, transportation and education.

Projects on view include the SONO Water Filter from Bangladesh, a low-cost, reliable and user-friendly household system to remove arsenic from drinking water through a series of buckets filled with locally available materials that act as natural filters; the BioCentres in Nairobi are complexes that feature toilets and washrooms accessible to the disabled, with free child only toilets, water kiosks selling affordable clean water and ancillary rooms for community and livelihood activities on the upper floors; Garden-in-a-sack in Kibera, Nairobi made from inexpensive, available materials to maximize the small amount of space available in the settlement for micro-agriculture; the Bicycle Phone Charger, a simple device made from bicycle and radio parts that is attached to a bicycle to generate enough power to charge a cell phone; the Shasthya Shebika (Health Volunteer) Kit, a portable pharmacy kit for health volunteers throughout informal communities in Dhaka, Bangladesh; the Guangzhou Bus Rapid Transit system in Guangzhou, China, services nearly 1 million riders per day and the cost is 10 times less expensive than the metro; and the Digital Drum in Kampala, Uganda, a solar-powered information access point made from two durable, low-cost oil drums welded together, rugged keyboards, solar panels and low-power tablets.

A site-specific installation in the lobby of the United Nations Visitors Centre will be designed by Moorhead + Moorhead, a New York-based architecture and design firm.

“Cities” will be accompanied by an online open-network database, which will extend the exhibition beyond the physical space. Developed in collaboration with the museum’s curatorial, communications and education staff, the database will compile vital design resources for developing and emerging economies; connect numerous stakeholders in the field of socially responsible design and engage a wider local and international audience in developing solutions for those living in poverty. The database will begin with 100 projects from both the “Design for the Other 90%” and “Design with the Other 90%: Cities” exhibitions, and invite user-generated content, in order to track a multitude of projects throughout the world and their global impact.

A fully illustrated catalog will accompany the exhibition, featuring essays by Somsook Boonyabancha of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights, Edgar Pieterse of the African Centre for Cities and Christian Werthmann from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Also included in the catalog will be interviews conducted by Smith with Jockin Arputham of Shack/Slum Dwellers International and Sheela Patel of SPARC, Juliana Rotich of Ushahidi, Rob Small and Christina Kaba of Abalimi Bezekhaya, Gabriela Sorda from the Architecture, Design and Urbanism Department at the University of Buenos Aires and Sharad Sapra of UNICEF.

“Cities” will be shown in the Main Gallery of the United Nations Visitors Lobby. The galleries can be viewed daily from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission to the exhibition at the United Nations is free. The United Nations Visitors Centre is located on First Avenue at 46th Street. Public transit routes include the Lexington Avenue 4, 5 and 6 subways to Grand Central Terminal and the M15, M27, M42 or M104 buses. The United Nations is fully accessible.

Find more featured examples of life-changing design projects in the image gallery below.

The Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK has been named the 2011 RIBA Client of the Year supported by the Bloxham Charitable Trust.

The Royal Shakespeare Company has commissioned a formidable portfolio of projects, including the Stirling Prize nominated Royal Shakespeare Theatre with Bennetts Associates, Ian Ritchie's temporary Courtyard Theatre, and the Swan Theatre and Chapel Lane studio building also with Bennetts Associates. In 2011, the RSC constructed a temporary replica of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre's new auditorium in New York City.

The RIBA Client of the Year award honors the key role that a good client plays in the creation of fine architecture. They consider clients of the year's RIBA Award-winning schemes but take into account a track record of previous successful commissioning, particularly where this has led to earlier RIBA Awards.

The judges named the Royal Shakespeare Company the 2011 Client of the Year for being 'exceptional'. They added, 'the most remarkable thing about the RSC as a client is the way in which they have consistently looked at the big picture. Their buildings represent a formidable portfolio of high quality patronage, and have been carried out in a collaborative way with the RSC’s theatrical designers fully integrated with the architect-led teams.'

The announcement was made at the RIBA Stirling Prize 2011 Dinner in association with The Architects' Journal and Benchmark on Saturday, October 1 at Magna Science Adventure Center in Rotherham. Tom Bloxham MBE, architect and founder of Urban Splash, announced the winner, and the award was presented by RIBA Chief Executive Harry Rich. The award was judged by architect and Chair of Awards Deborah Saunt; architect Bob Allies, and Tony Chapman, Head of RIBA Awards.

Speaking about the Royal Shakespeare Company, Chair of judges Deborah Saunt said:

'The RIBA Client of the Year usually goes to a client for a body of work encompassing a number of different projects on a variety of sites. But once in a while - and the MCC springs to mind - the RIBA rewards the successful culmination of a series of commissions to bring an institution up to date and to work for a wider constituency than ever before. The RSC is another fine example in this tradition. Through a long, complex and exhaustive process, working with a number of architects, but Bennetts Associates in particular, they have brought into the theater people who would never have dreamed of going before and given them theatrical experiences to treasure for the rest of their lives.'

The other clients shortlisted for the award were:

• Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust
• Land Securities
• The London Borough of Hackney
• The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)

An ingenious school library and music room for St Patrick's School in north-west London by Coffey Architects has been awarded the RIBA's 2011 Stephen Lawrence Prize.

The Stephen Lawrence Prize was set up 14 years ago in memory of the teenager who was setting out on the road to becoming an architect when he was murdered in 1993. Funded by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation, the £5,000 prize rewards the best examples of projects that have a construction budget of less than £1 million, is intended to encourage fresh talent working with smaller budgets.

Coffey Architects' delightful school extension delivers a library, music room and store room with a simplicity that comes from a straightforward plan and the prevailing use of two materials: zinc and timber. The space is lined on three sides by bookshelves at ground level, and the storage display of musical instruments on the first floor mezzanine. The central volume created by this arrangement is an open and flexible space for musical practice and a group reading area. This simple arrangement is given a third dimension by the openable glass wall with a freestanding external canopy, which creates an informal area for play.

The winner was announced at the RIBA Stirling Prize 2011 Dinner in association with The Architects' Journal and Benchmark on Saturday, October 1, at Magna Science Adventure Center in Rotherham.

Architect and RIBA Past President Marco Goldschmied said:

'The St Patrick's School Music Room and Library marks that rare occasion when a small budget in the hands of a thoughtful and ingenious architect lays the seed for the step by step transformation of an entire institution. The effortless and elegant integration of structure, internal finishes and fixed furniture creates a place that generations of pupils will fondly remember in years to come.'

RIBA Past President Marco Goldschmied announced the winner, and the award was presented by Stephen Lawrence's mother Doreen Lawrence OBE. The judges included the architect and past President of the RIBA Marco Goldschmied, Doreen Lawrence OBE, founder of the Stephen Lawrence Centre, and last year's winning architect Philip Gumuchdjian.

The other entries shortlisted for the awards were:

• Brown's Dental Practice, Ivybridge by David Sheppard Architects
• Hoxton House, London N1 by David Mikhail Architects
• Marshland Discovery Zone, Purfleet by Peter Beard_LANDROOM
• Ty-Hedfan, Brecon, Powys by Featherstone Young
• White House, Isle of Coll by WT Architecture

Project Details:

Project title: St Patrick's School Library and Music Room,
Address: Holmes Road, London NW5    
Architect: Coffey Architects    
Client: St. Patrick’s Primary School    
Contractor: Bolt and Heeks    
Structural Engineer: Rodrigues Associates    
Quantity Surveyor: Stockdale Chartered Quantity Surveyors    
Services Engineer: Con-Serv    
Contract Value: £350,000 (US$541,555)
Date of completion: February 2011    
Gross internal area: 60 sq m

The Met in Bangkok, Thailand by Singapore-based firm WOHA has scooped the Royal Institute of British Architects' (RIBA) prestigious RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the most outstanding work of international architecture by a member of the RIBA.

A residential skyscraper incorporating outdoor spaces, balconies and gardens, The Met is a 66 story perforate tower which uses the power of nature to cool the apartments. Wind speeds at that height are considerable, so by punching holes through the building and drawing air up vertical voids in the structure, the architects have been able to introduce natural ventilation to flats at all levels. Some of these floors are kept open to provide communal spaces, which include a garden, a gym, a 50 meter swimming pool and other leisure facilities, such as barbecue and seating areas.

The winner of the RIBA Lubetkin Prize was announced at the RIBA Stirling Prize 2011 Dinner in association with The Architects' Journal and Benchmark on Saturday, October 1, at Magna Science Adventure Center in Rotherham, and was featured in a special edition of BBC Two's The Culture Show on Sunday.

The four other outstanding buildings competing for this year’s title were:

• Masdar Institute, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi by Foster + Partners
• Guangzhou Opera House, Guangzhou, China by Zaha Hadid Architects
• Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA by Foster + Partners
• Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, USA by Rick Mather Architects +SMBW

Speaking about the building, the RIBA Lubetkin Prize jury chair and RIBA President, Angela Brady said:

‘This year's shortlist for the RIBA Lubetkin Prize was of an exceptionally high standard, really representing some of most innovative and unique pieces of architecture of the decade. WOHA’s The Met Building is a highly deserving winner; the building combines beautiful design with sustainable credentials, creating a high specification residential complex and an intelligent alternative to the sleek, air-conditioned box in a tropical environment. Congratulations to WOHA for their creation of a delightful and unique building.'

The shortlisted buildings were seen by a visiting jury comprising architects Deborah Saunt, Jim Eyre and Peter Clegg, and RIBA Head of Awards Tony Chapman.

The Lubetkin Prize was established in 2006 and is given to the best international building outside the EU. It is named after the world-renowned architect Berthold Lubetkin (1901 - 1990). The winner will be presented with a unique cast concrete plaque, based loosely on Lubetkin’s design for the Penguin Pool at London Zoo, commissioned by the RIBA and designed and made by the artist Petr Weigl.

Project Details:

Project name: The Met
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Architect: WOHA with Tandem Architects 2001
Client: Pebble Bay Thailand
Contractor: Bouygues Thai
Landscape consultant: Cicada
Contract value: $132m
Gross internal area: 113,000 sq m

The Evelyn Grace Academy, a cutting-edge new secondary school in Brixton, south London by Zaha Hadid Architects has won the prestigious £20,000 (US$31,000) RIBA Stirling Prize 2011 for the best new European building built or designed in the United Kingdom.

This is the second year running that Zaha Hadid Architects have won the RIBA Stirling Prize; last year they won the award for their MAXXI Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome; this year they have put the practice's formidable reputation to great use by breaking new ground in school design. Now in its 16th year, the RIBA Stirling Prize is presented in association with The Architects Journal and Kingspan Benchmark.

The presentation of the UK's premier architectural award took place at a special ceremony on Saturday, October 1) at the RIBA Stirling Prize-winning (2001) Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham, and was televised the following day on BBC Two's The Culture Show.

A highly stylized zig-zag of steel and glass, the Evelyn Grace Academy is squeezed onto the tightest of urban sites (1.4 hectares - the average secondary school is 8/9 hectares). The architects received a complex brief: four schools under a single academy umbrella with the need to express both independence and unity. The architects were strongly encouraged by the client to 'think outside the box'. With such a small space and with sport being one of the Academy's 'special subjects' (each Academy school has one), the architects needed to be highly inventive.

They succeeded, for instance by cleverly inserting a 100m running track into the heart of the site taking pupils right up to the front door. By dramatically celebrating the school's specialism, the RIBA Stirling Prize judges noted 'this is a design that literally makes kids run to get into school in the morning'.

The Evelyn Grace Academy is the first school to win the RIBA Stirling Prize, with seven schools shortlisted in previous years. It is the first time that Zaha Hadid Architects have designed a school and their first large-scale project in the UK. Previously they designed a Maggie's Centre in Scotland and more recently they have completed the Riverside Museum in Glasgow and the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympics.

Speaking tonight, RIBA President Angela Brady, Chair of the judges, said:

'The Evelyn Grace Academy is an exceptional example of what can be achieved when we invest carefully in a well-designed new school building. The result - a highly imaginative, exciting Academy that shows the students, staff and local residents that they are valued - is what every school should and could be.

The unique design, expertly inserted into an extremely tight site, celebrates the school's sports specialism throughout its fabric, with drama and views of student participation at every contortion and turn. Evelyn Grace Academy is a very worthy winner of architecture's most prestigious award and I am delighted to present Zaha Hadid Architects with this accolade.'

The Evelyn Grace Academy is run by ARK (Absolute Return for Kids) Academy organization, a charity set up by Arpad 'Arki' Busson, the hedge-fund multimillionaire. ARK aims to offer exceptional opportunities to local children in inner cities with the aim of helping to close the achievement gap between children from disadvantaged and more affluent backgrounds.

Peter Walker, Principal of the Evelyn Grace Academy said:

'This visually stunning building makes a powerful statement to our students every day they attend school. As a new academy setting the highest expectations for all students, it is fitting that we have such an aspirational environment. The internal structure of the building supports the innovative nature of Evelyn Grace Academy’s small school system exceptionally well.'

Zaha Hadid said:

'It is very significant that our first project in London is the Evelyn Grace. Schools are among the first examples of architecture that everyone experiences and have a profound impact on all children as they grow up. I am delighted that the Evelyn Grace Academy has been so well received by all its students and staff.'

Evelyn Grace Academy was chosen from the following outstanding shortlisted entries:

• An Gaelaras, Derry by O’Donnell and Tuomey
• The Angel Building, London by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM)
• Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany by David Chipperfield Architects
• Olympic Velodrome London 2012 by Hopkins Architects, supported by the Olympic Delivery Authority
• Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres, Stratford by Bennetts Associates

RIBA President Angela Brady announced the winner, editor of The Architects' Journal Christine Murray awarded the £20,000 check and Peter Santo, Head of Benchmark presented the certificate to architects Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher and Lars Teichman, and school principal Peter Walker.

The 2011 RIBA Stirling Prize judges were RIBA President and Chair of the judges, Angela Brady; Sir Peter Cook - architect and academic, formerly of Royal Gold Medal winning Archigram; Hanif Kara - engineer, Adams Kara Taylor; Dan Pearson - landscape designer and RIBA Honorary Fellow and Alison Brooks - architect and winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize 2008 with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Maccreanor Lavington for the Accordia housing scheme.

The winners of the RIBA Lubetkin Prize and two special awards were also announced that evening:

The Met, a sixty-six story residential skyscraper in Bangkok, Thailand by WOHA architects won the prestigious RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the most outstanding work of international architecture outside the EU by a member of the RIBA.

St. Patrick's School Library and Music Room in north-west London by Coffey Architects won the RIBA’s 2011 Stephen Lawrence Prize. Set up in memory of Stephen Lawrence who was setting out on the road to becoming an architect when he was murdered in 1993 and funded by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation, the prize rewards the best examples of projects that have a construction budget of less than £1 million and is intended to encourage fresh talent working with smaller budgets.

The Royal Shakespeare Company won the 2011 RIBA Client of the Year supported by the Bloxham Charitable Trust. The award recognizes the role good clients play in the delivery of fine architecture.

Project Details:

Project name: Evelyn Grace Academy 
Address: Shakespeare Road, London SE24     
Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects   
Client: ARK Schools 
Contractor: Mace Plus 
Structural Engineer: Arup 
Contract value: £37.5m (US$58m)
Date of completion: 2010 
Gross internal area: 10,745 sq m

October 1st marks the first day of an outstanding event marathon in New York City: Archtober, a month-long festival of architectural design activities, programs and exhibitions. The program was carefully curated by the Center for Architecture, in collaboration with a host of other organizations, and includes special tours, lectures, films and exhibitions that focus on the importance of architecture and design in everyday life.

As Archtober's media sponsor, we at Archinect & Bustler have hand-picked a few Archtober goodies that you should definitely look out for this October. You can find our list of favorites over here in the Archinect News.

Young Czech practice CHYBIK+KRISTOF Associated Architects has recently been named winner of the international architectural and urbanistic competition for 33 apartment buildings in the newly rebuilt site Danubia Park near Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. The project aims to create quality housing with direct access to the water and places a considerable part of the houses in the riparian forest in the riverbed of the Danube.

Project Description from the Architects:

We have designed for each object a group of four materials which create together a common atrium as well as a scenic jetty near the water. The resulting combination of two- or three-floored buildings makes ideal conditions for social life inside each villa house whilst at the same time it provides enough privacy in each apartment. We do not design an ensemble of anonymous apartments but a PLACE with a bountiful view on water surface and with sojourning areas in the semi-private space.

The villa house is projected as a structure of four units, perpendicular to one another. It reflects the scale of the area as well as the relation to the country of the riparian forest. Proportionally designed volumes enclose a semi-public atrium. The position of the individual boxes is projected in a way so that it ensures a direct view on the water surface from each apartment in the area.

The central space of the house, an out-door atrium, is a sort of urban garden, a “microworld” shared by several families. It also has the function of natural air-conditioning. Thanks to its natural humidity, it helps to improve the quality of the environment inside the apartments in summer months. The atrium is directly linked to the common jetty on the lake’s surface for first-hand contact of the inhabitants of the villa house with water.

Each apartment is provided with an out-door terrace with sufficient view on the surrounding country. In summer months, it is possible to fully open the glass walls of the apartments. The living room can thus seasonally become a spacious loggia.

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

The MVRDV and COBE scheme for the transformation of a former concrete factory into a multifunctional creative hub was chosen winner of an international design competition. The master plan proposes an informal transformation of the 45,000m2 site into a dense neighborhood, incl. 8,000m2 existing factory halls, organized around a plaza for events.

Three new volumes will be added on top of the halls: The 11,000m2 ROCKmagneten consists of The Danish Rock Museum, The Roskilde Festival Folkschool incl. student housing, and the headquarters of the famous Roskilde Rock Festival. They share program in a public creative communal house. The museum with a total of 3,000m2 will be completed as the first phase in 2014.

Project Description from the Architects:

The site is located between Roskilde city centre and the Festival grounds of the annual rock festival. The brief demanded preservation halls of the former concrete factory Unicon and the informal character of the site which is currently used by artists, skaters and musicians. How to organise liberty, creativity and informality? The main idea is to create contrast by preserving the existing fabric as much as possible and positioning the new volumes above the existing halls. The masterplan defines areas for future buildings and temporary pavilions around a large event plaza connecting the halls and the ROCKmagneten with the main street. As a result Unicon becomes Musicon.

The old industrial halls will be insulated and opened for daylight but keep their rough character. The big open spaces inside the halls will then be interconnected and partly filled with elements of the ROCKmagneten's public program and partly consist of 'undefined' space where temporary activities, events, exhibitions or the unplanned can take place. The halls function as the heart of the creative hub for the Musicon area.

Three new volumes will be added on top of the halls. The Danish Rock Museum (3.000m2) is the main focus of the masterplan with a facade of gold colored spikes. The exhibition concept of the new museum is based on the rock star experience, like 'the rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust'. Visitors can arrive by limo on a red carpet, stand in line to get a ticket and then enter the main exhibition hall through a stage elevator. The descend down through the bar marks the exit of the museum. The foyer of the museum not only provides access to the whole ROCKmagneten but can also be used as an outdoor concert stage, performing to either the big event plaza or the halls.

The Roskilde Festival Headquarter is an office block on top of one of the factory halls shaped as a stack of loud speakers with a black rubber facade. Some speakers are real and can be used for concerts on the plaza.

The Roskilde Festival Folkschool will occupy one of the halls with rooms for lectures, study, lounges etc. positioned around an open space containing a fireplace. A 3-level circular volume on top of the halls contains 80 double rooms for students.

The ambition is to create a green machine; based on the smart combination of proven technologies the buildings will act in accordance with the environmental vision of Roskilde Festival. The annual rock festival is the biggest in Northern Europe and organised as a charity which donates its profit. Bands such as U2, R.E.M., Coldplay, Pet Shop Boys, Prince, Rammstein and Robbie Williams perform to an enthusiastic crowd from all over Europe. MVRDV and COBE conceived the plan with Arup engineering, Wessberg engineers, LIW planning landscape architects and Transsolar for climate and energy.

Polymorphic is a fascinating kinetic installation designed and produced by ten architecture students from Columbia University GSAPP in New York City. The installation was created within Fast Pace/Slow Space, a course taught by Brigette Borders and Mark Bearak. The team included Charlie Able, Alexis Burson, Ivy Chan, Jennifer Chang, Aaron Harris, Trevor Hollyn Taub, Brian Lee, Eliza Montgomery, Vernon Roether, and David Zhai.

Project Description from the Students:

Polymorphic is a kinetic installation utilizing an innovative design and engineering solution inspired by the simple kinetic action of a see-saw and the reverberating motion of a Slinky. The design is comprised of a double-sided bench which transforms through a series of 119 unique and interconnected sections into a chaise lounge and finally an interactive balance board. These sections are connected via an inventive pivot and bolt system which allows the vertical movement of one section to be picked up by others down the line. Together, this motion allows the installation to transform from a series of leveled sections into an undulating form activated through interaction with its occupants.

While the overall form of the bench is realized as a continuous landscape, each seating condition was designed according to existing ergonomic profiles in order to maximize comfort and functionality. This is further realized by allowing the tolerance of its motion to conform to the postures of the occupants using simply their weight as a point of activation for the movement of the sections. Furthermore, a series of internal notches linked together by elastic bands and reinforced by couplings located on the central pivot rods prevent lateral movement and ensures safety during motion.

At its core, the design of the installation is not only an inventive solution to a design idea, but also a test of the limits and capabilities of digital fabrication and its role in advancing architectural and industrial design practices. While the installation had a designated scale and dimension, the developed system has the ability to grow much larger and wider depending on the availability of resources and materials. The form of the design can likewise be readily adjusted to suit the conditions and contextual requirements of various spaces and environments. The scalability of the joint system and design together creates a truly parametric system in which its use is not only for aesthetics, but for construction, functionality, and comfort as well.

Design

Project Details:

Design team: Charlie Able, Alexis Burson, Ivy Chan, Jennifer Chang, Aaron Harris, Trevor Hollyn-Taub, Brian Lee, Eliza Montgomery, Vernon Roether, and David Zhai

A product of Fast Pace/Slow Space, a course taught by Brigette Borders and Mark Bearak, at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University. For inquiries contact team2@fpssgmail.com.

All photographs courtesy of Jennifer Chang.

German firm kadawittfeldarchitektur has sent us fascinating first photographs of the recently completed new adidas research and development building "adidas Laces". The new structure houses 1,700 working places at the adidas World of Sports campus in Herzogenaurach, Germany. In contrast to conventional office typologies, the ring structure developed by kadawittfeldarchitektur lends to the building a double relationship to the landscape – both to the outer surroundings and to the communicative landscape of the atrium.

In 2007, kadawittfeldarchitektur emerged as 1st prize winners of an international competition for this design task.

Project Description from the Architects:

Adi Dassler was inspired by a single idea when he made his first shoes: all athletes should get shoes that were  ideally adapted to them and their discipline. Almost 100 years later, this motto still applies at adidas.

Task

The adidas brand is characterised by permanent development, as it was in the days of the company founder Adi Dassler. Innovations don’t happen by chance, however, and they happen not only in the development department but every day, when employees apply their minds, are committed and collaborate with passion on the creation of new products. The further extension of the “World of Sports” by means of the sustainable office building called Laces makes a significant contribution by providing employees not only with functional and optimised working conditions but also with inspiring surroundings that encourage creativity.

In the competition that was held in 2006, the challenge was to match the high functional and architectural standards of the buildings previously constructed here, and at the same time to represent the individual character of the adidas brand.

Intention

Adi Dassler’s endeavour to make the perfect product can be transferred to architecture in many ways. 

The aim of the proposal was to create a building that fitted the adidas brand. This applied to the design of the building, on the one hand, but above all to the atmosphere and everyday creative work. A building in which employees work with both success and enjoyment, and one that makes it possible to experience every day what it is that makes the location in Herzogenaurach so special. It was not to be a typical office building with zones separated according to department, but an unmistakable place for the mainly young employees from all over the world to identify with the company. Starting from countless different approaches, what finally emerged was the idea of a ring-shaped building with a spacious atrium and connecting walkways, the “laces” (like the laces of a shoe), which give the structure its name on account of their particular geometry: crossing the airspace of the atrium, they connect office areas lying opposite each other on each level and thus “tie” the volume together to form an office building that is rich in multi-faceted relationships. The themes of movement and dynamism are ever-present in this way and convey to the employees the feeling of being part of the creative work process.

Embedding in the Landscape / Context of HerzoBase

The campus is formed from a loose arrangement of individual built volumes, each of which speaks a distinctive and unique architectural language in it own right but at the same time takes its place in the diverse ensemble of the World of Sports. Laces is situated in the southeastern part of the site, between the adidas Brand Center and the Adi Dassler Sports Ground. The topography is used to let the landscape flow into the transparent covered atrium and the building via the two-storey entrance area, and thus to extend the extraordinary quality of the campus in the form of an artificial landscape. The green space of the park is present in the atrium at all times through the two-storey glass façade. The clear contour of the ring-shaped structure permits an uninterrupted view of the surrounding country from every department. Only the part containing the Test Hall lies outside the shell and is integrated into the topography as a greened-over hill.

Complex of Buildings

As a counterpart to the black and somewhat flat volume of the adidas Brand Center, Laces fits into the existing complex of buildings with its white banded façade and its dynamic architectural volume. The clearly contoured   volume positively invites the surrounding campus to find a continuation inside as a climate-controlled atrium. Lined up in a ring, the office spaces open up to the atmospheric interior and the remarkable landscape with their large glazed surfaces. Within the individual storeys the “laces”, free linking walkways that span the atrium, permit a maximum of interaction and quick connections, and allow areas of open communication to arise. The walkways “tie” the building together in terms of structural engineering, too, making it a multi-layered office environment with abundant relationships. As delicate connecting bridges, they weave a poetic spatial structure into the interior and thus make the special creative atmosphere of the building legible. The result is an inspiring place for research and product development. The external appearance of Laces is characterised by its clearly contoured, reflective smoothness, which is thus courteously unobtrusive and visually reduces the built volume. The smooth façade surfaces are structured and articulated by set-back loggias corresponding to the walkways.

Laces can broadly be divided into four zones:

• the office area on the four storeys above ground level, the so-called Office Module;
• the areas for special use on the ground floor, the so-called Service Module;
• the model workshops, materials laboratories and research areas including the Test Hall, the so-called Innovation Module; and
• the technical areas, store rooms and other auxiliary rooms.

Inside Laces the zones known as the Office Module account for the largest part of the building in terms of volume and surface. This is where the “creative units” will move in, whose working materials consist not of paper and files, as is normal, but of textiles, shoes and accessories such as bags, balls etc. In their understated white or grey colour scheme the office areas produce a studio-like atmosphere for creative work on products, designs and ideas. Here the purpose of the mainly neutral colour scheme is not only tranquillity in view of all the colourful variety of the products, but also to ensure a working atmosphere that is as bright and pleasant as possible. In a conscious contrast to the light-coloured Office Module and the white, transparent inner façade, the eponymous “laces” take the form of dark grey catwalks, connecting belts which pass through and lend structure to the spacious atrium with their all-round charcoal colour.

At the points where the walkways enter the surrounding office spaces, the so-called Office Lounges form open areas for communication that are oriented to the outside thanks to the loggias placed in front of them and represent an invitation to stay and relax. The interplay of the walkways and the encircling Office Module provides maximum flexibility in the placement of departments and takes account of security requirements: there must be no crossing of other departments. Moreover, the disturbance caused by people passing through departments no longer exists. At the same time internal relationships between different departments are created by a high degree of transparency. The central atrium becomes a zone of communication adjoined by meeting areas for common use by different departments and by the bistro lounge.

Appearance

Without resorting to showy acrobatics of design, the building has been given an appearance that matches the adidas brand. Its perceived volume is reduced by the striped character of the façade, a result of the alternation of white surface bands with dark bands of windows. The smooth, reflective surface of the façade further reinforces this reduction. Depending on the angle from which the façades are viewed, the building melts into a mirror image of the surrounding landscape.

The walkways that mark the interior are also apparent on the exterior, where loggias give a structure to the long façades in the shape of three-dimensional vertical cut-outs.

In order to lend dynamic expression to the sharp-edged volume and to extend upwards the spatial impression of the atrium, two of the six sides of the building lean outwards slightly. This incline is continued through the whole building via the walkways that are connected to these sides. In this way the loggia zones, cut out at a slight diagonal, refer to the dynamics of the interior.

The two façades that flank the two-storey entrance area have also been turned, in order to make visible as much as possible of the horizon of the campus. By this means the campus remains connected to the surrounding countryside despite the size and width of the building.

Façades

The starting point for the design scheme is a smooth and sharp-edged contour of the built volume, which takes its character from the white-enamelled exterior bands. The building is also articulated by the dark-looking horizontal bands of windows, which are broken and divided by loggias, placed vertically one above the other with their black facings. The smooth appearance of the façade is achieved through the use of a construction of aluminium elements in the form of a structural glazing façade, with triple-glass insulation windows and integrated sun and glare shield in the intermediate space between the glass panes. 

At the south-west of the building, the circular shape opens up over two storeys to create a large, roofed porch area as the entrance to the campus. In order to assist the flow of the landscape into the atrium interior by means of maximum transparency of the façade and to maintain delicate façade profiles, the steel construction is suspended from the section of the ring-shaped volume that lies above. The inclined sides and ends of the adjoining sections of the building on both sides of the main entrance reflect the surrounding landscape thanks to high-gloss, invisibly attached wall cladding of polished stainless-steel sheets.

The high proportion of glazing on the outer façade and the floor-to-ceiling windows of the inner façade towards the atrium ensure that the work areas are extremely well lit and that their communicative ambience has a transparent character.

Thanks to the fact the whole atrium was roofed with a printed foil-cushion roof and has a controlled temperature, it was possible to fit the inner façades with single glazing without vertical bars.

Holistic Approach

An additional feature of this building is that it was possible to include other design themes such as orientation and office furnishings into the planning process at an unusually early stage. This led to the creation of an exceptionally homogeneous whole. The building, interior design, graphics and furnishings are all of a piece.

Concept for Office Space

Laces was conceived as a flexible office building. Changes in the composition and size of teams or of the entire occupying units are every bit as normal in a globally active company like adidas as the temporary integration of employees from other locations worldwide or groups of external persons. This means that the use of space within the Office Module can be adapted to organisational changes more easily than hitherto. This reversible concept for office space is based on modular units of occupancy following the planning grid of 1.60 metres, a flexible partition system to create individual offices and meeting rooms, and on an elaborate technical pre-installation enabling media provision that also functions according to the planning grid. 

An essential point here is the allocation of the office space into three functional zones: two workplace zones, one each along the outer and inner façade, and a multifunctional zone between them. While the workplace zones contain both closed spatial units and also open group offices, the multifunctional zone is conceived as an open area that connects the two other zones. It provides space for informal meetings, temporary workplaces and space for storage, printers and other functions. 

Sustainability

In planning and building Laces, numerous measures were adopted that combine to form a coherent overall strategy for sustainability.

Building shell and energy economics: the glazing of the highly insulated outer façades is a three-layer structural glazing construction that complies with the highest standards in respect of the thermal and moisture-protection qualities of the shell of the building. By covering the atrium with an extremely light ETFE cushion roof which is UV-permeable and requires very little cleaning, it was possible to optimise the outer surface (i.e. improve significantly the ratio of outer surface to volume).

Laces over-fulfils the requirements of the German directive on energy saving (EnEV) by 38.8%. The climate conditioning of the atrium is carried out by streaming conditioned air from the office areas with higher air pressure, so that no additional operating costs are incurred for the atrium. In this way it was possible to reduce the area devoted to air ducts in the cores, for example, and thus optimising the usable area. The energy from the exhaust air is recirculated via an energy recovery system.

Considerable electricity savings were achieved by means of intelligent light control such as dimmable lighting controlled by daylight and presence. The illumination of the “laces” in the whole atrium is supplied by means of  a 750-metre-long LED lighting strip. The power requirement and the need for heating and cooling were further optimised thanks to controllable sunlight and glare protection (extremely high rate of use of daylight).

Geothermal warmth: The use of renewable energy through 28 geothermal probes with a length of approximately 4300 metres results in a carbon saving of some 80 tons per year.

Green roof: The whole 1700m² surface of the test centre roof was greened, planted with native species of vegetation and landscaped to integrate it into the surroundings.

Use of rainwater to reduce the consumption of mains water and minimise use of the waste-water infrastructure: For WCs and urinals rainwater is used all year round. Precipitation on the main roof of Laces is channelled to a subterranean rainwater cistern with a capacity of 180m³. Surplus rainwater is used for irrigating the grounds. The use of water-saving, no-touch faucets was a further means of reducing water consumption.

Project Details:

Typology: office building  
Construction volume: gfa 62,000m², cubature 356,000m³  
Realization: 2008-2011  
Client: adidas AG World of Sports  
Competition: 1st Prize 2007  
Architect: kadawittfeldarchitektur   
Project partner: Dirk Zweering  
Awards: Office Application Award 2009: Best Innovative Concept

Find more photos and drawings in the image gallery below.

The Art Directors Club in New York City just announced the lineup of industry leaders who will serve as jury chairs for the ADC 91st Annual Awards program.

Jury chairs for the six ADC 91st Annual Awards categories are as follows:

• Advertising: John Boiler, president, 72andSunny, Los Angeles, CA
• Design:  Arem Duplessis, design director, The New York Times Magazine, New York, NY
• Photography:  Kieran Antill, creative director, senior vice president, Leo Burnett, New York, NY
• Illustration:  Rodrigo Corral, creative director, Farrar, Straus and Giroux; founder, Rodrigo Corral Design, New York, NY
• Interactive:  Natalie Lam, executive creative director, McCann Erickson, New York, NY
• Integrated:  Brian DiLorenzo, chief production officer, McCann Erickson, New York, NY
• Motion:  Andre Stringer, director, creative director, founder, Shilo, New York, NY

New for this year is the appointment of a separate jury chair for Motion, a fast-growing segment of awards entries.  In addition, this will be the first time the ADC Annual Awards will have a separate jury chair and jury dedicated specifically to Integrated.  Elevating these two areas reflects the growing importance of each in today’s creative work.  

The online call for entries (CFE) for the ADC 91st Annual Awards will be open shortly at www.adcawards.org.  Deadlines for entry are January 20, 2012 for Design, Photography, Illustration and Interactive; February 3, 2012 for Student, and February 10, 2012 for Advertising and Integrated.    

This year’s CFE is created by DDB New York.  “This CFE  campaign looks at the obstacles that increasingly stand in the way of doing great creative,”  said Olga Grisaitis, director, ADC.  “We are encouraging creatives worldwide to keep fighting the good fight.”  To receive the CFE, please sign up at http://www.adcglobal.org/register/user/.  

Entrants are eligible to be the recipients of the coveted ADC Black Cube for best-in-show in Advertising, Design and Interactive categories, as well as cumulative awards for Design Firm of the Year, Advertising Agency of the Year, Interactive Agency of the Year, Network of the Year and School of the Year, based on winning point totals for the year.

Mateo Arquitectura recently completed the new building for the Film Library of Catalonia in the Raval district of Barcelona. Designed by Josep Lluís Mateo, the project won the first prize in a restricted competition in 2004 and houses archives, a library and cinema halls on a total area of 7,515 sqm (80,891 sqft).

Project Description from the Architects:

Josep Lluís Mateo: "About the form… The ruins mark the structure of the buildings. The Roman forum formalizes the plane of foundations and drains.

In the old town, my building sets out to express itself as pure structure—no cladding, no finishes.

The bare concrete beams-cum-walls that form the façades are very varied, proving themselves members of the family of the dilapidated neighbouring walls, where plaster crumbles to reveal their original central mass.

Filters are juxtaposed on the wall. This cinematographic metaphor is not just conceptual; it is above all physical, sensible. In the old town, with very close relations between buildings, interaction must be mediated, filtered. And this is implemented by a variety of devices, with a vague cinematographic reference.

About the space… The space is organized around two movements: a) The descent into the darkness of the cinemas, with the reflection of the spectators (in turn reflected, actors seen in a series of mirrors); b) The ascent towards the light, towards the places of work.

Two courtyards, connected but not continuous, accompany and construct the movement."

Place and Project

The new film theatre building presents a façade on Plaça de Salvador Seguí, at an angle to Carrer de Sant Pau. Together with the existing constructions, it forms Carrer d’Espalter.

It is very close to the mythical Carrer de Robador, in an area which, despite the major clean-ups still going on and the change in population, is still a popular, built-up, oppressively Mediterranean/port neighbourhood.

Its relation with its setting operates on the following levels:

The project and Plaça de Salvador Seguí:

The plaza represents a clearing in the built-up district of El Raval which, thanks to this construction, attracts new users and hosts large-scale events. A porch on the ground floor can be opened or closed according to functional needs.
The film theatre is a continuation of the building line of the street, blending in with its setting.

The project and its immediate surroundings: Carrer d’Espalter:

The volume of the cinemas is undergrounded, thereby reducing the scale and visual impact of the building. The street is widened a little, drawing the construction back from the building line. The new building reduces the ground floor section at the end walls, which also makes the street wider.

Material/Form

The Film Theatre was conceived as a form “under construction”, as mass and volume without detail. The principal material used is therefore concrete—hard and strong. To accentuate this “unfinished” appearance, the beams extend to the exterior with their tensioning cables.

The building is basically a beam-cum-wall that also frees up space without imposing a domestic presence.

The brief

The brief brings together in a single building functions that were previously housed separately: the library, the archive and the two cinemas, along with administrative and other functions, such as preparing publicity and information. There are also galleries and a cafeteria-bar.

The ground floor houses the reception and foyer to the cinemas, the vertical communication shafts, the cafeteria-bar and the necessary complementary services (ticket desk, etc.)

On the first floor are the library and a permanent exhibition gallery, and the second and third floors house the offices of the ICIC (Catalan Institute of Cultural Industries). The second floor is an open-plan space that looks out over the plaza and the street, Carrer d’Espalter, with a terrace overlooking Carrer de Sant Josep Oriol. The third floor is partially lit by a courtyard that becomes a skylight in the roof of the second floor.

In the basement, beneath the building’s projection, are the two floors of archives and storage, and the part of the basement below the plaza houses the two cinemas.

Project Details:

Site: Plaza Salvador Seguí, distrito del raval, Barcelona
Surface: 7,515 m2
Author: Josep Lluís Mateo
Client: ICIC (Institut Català de les Indústries Culturals)
Budget: 12,000,000 Euros
Structural Engineering: BOMA, Agustí Obiol
Installations Engineering: Grupo JG
Budget Control: Tram
Fire Protection Francesc Labastida
Constructor: Emcofa

Earlier this week on Wednesday, the construction of the new academic building for the Amsterdam University College reached its highest point. Mecanoo architecten, based in Delft, designed the 6,000 m² faculty for the University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam. The new Liberal Arts and Science building will be located in Science Park Amsterdam, the international science and research center in the area referred to as Watergraafsmeer, and will be realized in 2012.

Project Description from the Architects:

Amsterdam University College is designed as an inspiring home for a community of international students and their professors. It is an inviting building with a spacious attic on top. The attic was created by placing the roof diagonally north-south. A large void forms the heart of the building and creates a visual relationship between the different floors. A staircase winds through the void, symbolizing a sense of community for its users.

Special spaces such as the restaurant, common room and study hall are two stories high. Double height windows in these rooms offer beautiful views of the surroundings.

The striking façade is made of corten steel and furnishes the building with a warm yet formal presence which contrasts with the more business like architecture of the Science Park. Amsterdam University College is a sustainable building, which uses ground source heat-cold storage and concrete core activation. A sedum roof cover provides not only insulation, but also mitigates storm water runoff.

Project Details:

Program: University building of 5,800 m2 with classrooms, library, restaurant, common room (living room), project rooms, conference rooms, workstations

Client: Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) en de Vrije Universiteit (VU)

Project address: Science Park, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Design 2008 - 2010

Realization 2010 - 2012