A r c h i m a f i a

Cooled Conservatories, Gardens by the Bay wins 2013 RIBA Lubetkin Prize

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 14:47:00 +0000

"Cooled Conservatories, Gardens by the Bay in Singapore by London-based Wilkinson Eyre Architects is the winner of the 2013 RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the best new international building. This is the second year running for Wilkinson Eyre, who also won the prize last year for Guangzhou International Finance Center in China.

The Lubetkin Prize trophy was presented at a special ceremony this evening in London where the RIBA also announced the winner of the prestigious Stirling Prize...

Cooled Conservatories, Gardens by the Bay are the biggest climate-controlled greenhouses in the world and a key project in the Singapore Government’s vision of transforming it into a ‘City in a Garden’ to find out more...

images & passage via Bustler

Building Temporary Dormitories With Local Recycled Timber and Renewable Bamboo in Thailand

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 17:01:00 +0000

"The armed conflict that has persisted for decades in the Karen State of Myanmar results in a daily flow of refugees and migrants into neighboring Thailand. In the Thai town of Mae Sot, a few kilometers from the Burmese border, numerous learning centers and orphanages offer accommodation and education. One of these learning centers, the CDC School (Children Development Centre) under the tutelage of the community based organisation Mae Tao Clinic, hosts more than 500 students...
The interior layout ensures an open and airy space that offers semi-privacy and includes storage space for each student. The main cost of the buildings is the timber structure, which represents 70% of the total cost. Bamboo, thatch and eucalyptus are used for walls, floor and roof. Though these materials are not prepared to last over two years without any previous treatment, they are all easily available every season and the cost is affordable and stable for the local people..."
to find out more...
Images & passage via a.gor.a

Tokyo 2020 Olympics to centre around Zaha Hadid's stadium

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 16:07:00 +0000

"The forthcoming National Stadium of Japan by Zaha Hadid Architects is now set to become the main sporting venue for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games, following the news that Tokyo will be the host city.

The new 80,000-seat stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2020 games, as well as athletics, football and rugby events..." to find out more...

Images & passage via Dezeen

Teikyo University Elementary School by Kengo Kuma and Associates

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 16:30:00 +0000

"Japanese architect Kengo Kuma conceived this primary school in north-west Tokyo as the modern equivalent of a traditional Japanese schoolhouse with timber-clad walls ...
The Teikyo University Elementary School comprises a row of twelve connected classroom buildings that Kengo Kuma and Associates also compares to a row of terraced houses...
By changing its length and height of eave, roof can create multiformity to respond to its environment and different programs..." to find out more...
Images & passage via Dezeen

Coop Himmelb(l)au plans sports resort for abandoned Chinese quarry

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 15:58:00 +0000

"Austrian firm Coop Himmelb(l)au has landed a commission to design a winter sports resort and water park across an abandoned cement-mining quarry and lake near Changsha, China. Located at the Dawang Mountain Resort outside the city, the Deep Pit Ice and Snow World will be constructed from cliff to cliff across the old quarry, which itself will be transformed into an artificial landscape of islands, pools and pathways..." to find out more...

Images & passage via Bustler

Behnisch Architekten Completes John and Frances Angelos Law Center for the University of Baltimore

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 14:45:00 +0000

"Since its completion, the new Law Center received awards from the US Green Building Council Maryland and the Building Congress & Exchange of Metropolitan Baltimore. Additionally, it was shortlisted for the international World Architecture Festival and recognized by the high-profile Energy Performance + Architecture Award from France this year. The building will also be presented at the upcoming SCUP 48th Annual International Conference.

Aside from its eye-catching exterior, the 192,000 sq.ft. (17,837 m²) structure at the urban center of Baltimore is full of revolutionary features—like its sustainable technology and its numerous state-of-the-art educational facilities—as described in the official press release below.

The building form consists of three interlocking L-shaped volumes which articulate the functions of the building program – classrooms and offices, the legal clinic, and the law library – and define a narrow atrium, a "green stalk" rising up through the heart of the building and connecting the three volumes. In addition to its function as the connective tissue between program spaces, the atrium also captures the lobby, two coffee bars (forum level and Level 6) and informal work and meeting spaces..." to find out more...

Images & passage via Bustler

HASSELL + Herzog & de Meuron Win Flinders Street Station Competition

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 16:29:00 +0000

"The Jury of Melbourne's Flinders Street Station competition was unanimous in the highly anticipated selection of the final winner: the beautiful vaulted roof-scape designed by Australian/Swiss team HASSELL + Herzog & de Meuron with London-based Purcell as heritage consultants. The entry by Eduardo Velasquez, Manuel Pineda and Santiago Medina was announced as Winner of the People's Choice Award.
The project will turn the station into a modern 21st century transport hub while retaining its best known heritage features and buildings. It transforms the site into a new civic precinct with a major public art gallery, a public plaza, an amphitheatre, marketplace, and a permanent home for arts and cultural festival organisations..."
To find out more...
Images & passage via Bustler

Aedas Wins Competition for Xuhui Binjan Media City 188S-G-1 Tower in Shanghai

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 16:04:00 +0000

"Warped skyscrapers keep trending: global architecture firm Aedas announces its recent competition win in Shanghai – the Xuhui Binjian Media City 188S-G-1 Tower and Podium.

The tower has a very dynamic and unique shape. It begins with an extruded rectangular plan. Going upward, the west wall is gradually warped to accommodate the subway setback that cuts off the corner of the otherwise square project site; and the north wall is warped to the east to acquire a desired view of DreamWorks sites and other neighbouring blocks..." to find out more...

Images & passage via Bustler

OMA’s Winning “The Plaza at Santa Monica” Entry

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 15:57:00 +0000

"Hohei Shigematsu, director of OMA New York and lead designer, commented: “Our ambition was to contribute to Santa Monica’s diverse network of public spaces, from the recreational plazas at the Pier and Palisades Park to contained commercial centers like Third Street Promenade and Santa Monica Place. Our design provides residents, tourists, and entrepreneurs a dynamic new public realm – a stepped building that achieves a strong interaction between interior program and exterior environments...” to find out more...
Images & passage via Bustler

Cave hotel underway in water-filled Chinese quarry

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 17:29:00 +0000

"The Songjiang Hotel is designed by UK architecture firm Atkins, who won the competition bid in 2006. Construction has just begun and will take up to three years, although the hotel could open in 2015. This hotel resort will nestle into the 100 metre-high rockface of an abandoned water-filled quarry outside Shanghai.A huge waterfall will pour down from the roof of the 19-storey hotel complex, which will have part of its body built into the cave and two of its floors submerged beneath the water..." to find out more...
Images & passage via Dezeen

Garden and House by Ryue Nishizawa

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 16:56:00 +0000

"This Tokyo five-storey townhouse by Japanese architect Ryue Nishizawa is fronted by a stack of gardens...
Located in a dense commercial district, the building provides a combined home and workplace for two writers. The site was just four metres wide, so Nishizawa designed a building that has only glass walls to avoid narrowing the interior spaces even further...
he entirety is a wall-less transparent building designed to provide an environment with maximum sunlight despite the dark site conditions..." to find out more...
Images & passage via Dezeen

Helsinki Central Library Entry by AAKAA & MARS Architectes

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 17:11:00 +0000

"Through the Looking Glass which is conceptualized around the idea of a "building like a bookcase." The design was a collaboration between French architecture firms AAKAA andMARS Architectes.
"The traditional library is the container of a precious and invisible cognition. It resemble a vault whose boundaries seem jealously kept hermetic to the world. This fortress appears to protect its sacred and timeless spaces from an invasive exterior. The vast and silent distances it holds paralyze the pleasure of exchanging, their immensity affects the simplicity of a gesture to the other....escaping from its fortifications, reaching the town in a mutual desire of communion and generosity: a library in the city, a city in the library...." to find out more...
Images & passage via Buslter

OMA’s Twin Skyscrapers Win Tors Torn Competition in Stockholm

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Sat, 22 Jun 2013 17:05:00 +0000

"OMA has been announced as winner of the design competition for Tors Torn in Stockholm. The proposed pair of towers with its facetted facade was designed as the third tallest twin skyscrapers in Sweden. OMA Partner Reinier de Graaf and OMA Associate Alex de Jong were in charge of this submission which emerged victoriously from a field of four competing practices. The project is scheduled to break ground in 2015...
OMA's design proposes the introduction of a "rough skin" formed through a striking, alternating pattern of protruding living spaces and introverted outdoor spaces...
OMA's design challenges the expected uniformity and homogenous façade treatment that is often assigned to tower structures. Instead, it extends the skin to expose the individuality of the separate living units in the two blocks - a true vertical, urban agglomeration..." to find out more...
Images & passage via Bustler

C. F. Møller designs world's tallest wooden skyscraper

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:23:00 +0000

"Scandinavian firm C. F. Møller has revealed proposals that could see the world's tallest timber-framed building constructed in Stockholm.

As one of three shortlisted proposals in a housing design competition, the 34-storey Wooden Skyscraper is presented by architect C. F. Møller, architect Dinell Johansson and consultant Tyréns as a vision of future housing that would be cheaper, easier and more sustainable than typical steel and concrete constructions..." to find out more...

Images & passage via Dezeen

Besançon Art Centre and Cité de la Musique by Kengo Kuma and Associates

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:36:00 +0000

"Kengo Kuma and Associates won a competition to design the centre with plans for a timber-clad complex united beneath a single roof. This roof bridges the gap between a pair of three-storey buildings, creating a sheltered terrace in the space between...
"We did not want to propose a simple box," say the architects. "By covering the gorgeous riverside with one generous roof, we aimed to give a unity to a site characterised by heterogeneous existing elements, and to create a special space under the roof, a 'shade of trees' space where the wind from the river could blow and pass through."... to find out more...

Images & passage via Dezeen

Vale da Abelha House by Duarte Pape

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 16:57:00 +0000

"Portuguese architect Duarte Pape has combined a long stone wall with folding timber facades in this residential extension in northwestern Portugal...
Duarte Pape used timber cladding and blue limestone to extend the traditional Portuguese house located in a tiny rural village called Mação.
"The goal was to create a connection between the old structure and the surrounding nature," explains the architect..." to find out more...
Images & passage via Dezeen

Cultural Center Chapultepec Entry by Yau/Morales/Easter/Wawrzenczyk

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Fri, 31 May 2013 16:34:00 +0000

"The collaborative design team consisting of architects Adrian Yau, Frisly Colop Morales,Jason Easter and Lukasz Wawrzenczyk has shared with us their entry to the Cultural Center Chapultepec competition in Mexico City...

The Cultural Center of Chapultepec is designed to merge the concepts of aesthetics and functionality. It is to become the icon of the city through its subtle yet dynamic form and overall composition.
The building is thoughtfully designed as a singular form with material simplicity. It seeks to create a city focal point that adapts to its surrounding context, and establishes itself as the heart of the local community...
Though designed as a singular volume, the building changes in dynamics when viewed at different location. It gives the public glimpses of the activities within the center. The northern façade, cladded with molten cast glass, allows the public to be visually connected to the slow and calm movement of users through the exhibition halls...." to find out more...
Images & passage via Buslter

Old Market Square Stage by 5468796 Architecture

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Mon, 27 May 2013 16:09:00 +0000

"Twenty-thousand pieces of aluminium form a chain-mail blanket over this concrete performance venue in Winnipeg by Canadian firm 5468796 Architecture...
The Old Market Square Stage, also known as The Cube, was designed by5468796 Architecture as the centrepiece of a recently remodelled public square by landscape architects Scatliff+Miller+Murray...
"[It] throws out the old bandshell concept on the grounds that when a conventional stage is not in use it would look forlorn," say the architects, explaining their concept for a structure that can "hibernate" during the city's long winters..." to find out more...
Images & passage via Archdaily

Two in One House / Clavienrossier Architectes

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Sat, 25 May 2013 16:11:00 +0000

"The site is located on the edge of a residen- tial zone on the outskirts of Geneva, flanked on its southern border by a forest and opening out to fields to the west. It sits right on the line between the city and nature.

The building, backed by a paved access ramp, is placed in the north east corner of the site. The space between the building and the forest allows for a swimming pool and a large open garden.

The program includes two apartments of differing size, a continuous party wall sepa- rates the two.

A pitched roof over a diamond shaped plan, allows each apartment to have its own orien- tation. This distinct geometry allows for a greater degree of privacy for the residents and when viewed from the outside, gives the impression of a single unit..." to find out more...

Images & passage via Archdaily

Garden Terrace Miyazaki by Kengo Kuma and Associates

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:28:00 +0000

"Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has completed a hotel in Miyazaki where guest rooms and dining areas surround a central courtyard and wedding chapel ...
Located on the site of a former factory, Garden Terrace Miyazaki comprises a single two-storey building that features bamboo-clad walls and a large sloping roof with overhanging eaves...
Kengo Kuma and Associates designed this space as a "calm and tranquil environment", where a landscape of bamboo trees and pools of water provide a scenic setting to the glazed wedding chapel at its centre..."
to find out more...
Images & passage via Dezeen

Premier Campus Office by Julien De Smedt Architects

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:32:00 +0000

" DS Architects has unveiled plans for an M-shaped office building with green terraces in the north of Turkey's largest city. Called Premier Campus Office, the building will be located in the Kagithane district of Istanbul...

Julien De Smedt Architects has proposed a gently curving M-shaped plan topped with several levels of green terraces. As well as offices, the building will offer shops and leisure activities on its ground floor...The volume of the block is literally carved out to invite the surroundings in. The local hilly landscape, characteristic to Istanbul, is continued in the meandering of the volume both in plan, adapting to the site's edges, and in section, weaving into itself in a series of gentle curving slopes, echoing the nearby Bosphorus waves..." to find out more...

Images & passage via Dezeen

Harpa Wins 2013 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:22:00 +0000

"Designed by Danish Henning Larsen Architects, Icelandic Batteríið Architects and Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, the building has helped to transform and revitalize Reykjavik harbor and brought the city and harbor district closer together.
Harpa's crystalline structure was inspired by Icelandic landscapes and traditions. Its dramatic design captures and reflects the light of the city, ocean and sky to thrilling effect...
Wiel Arets, Chair of the Jury, said: "Harpa has captured the myth of a nation – Iceland – that has consciously acted in favor of a hybrid - cultural building during the middle of the ongoing Great Recession. The iconic and transparent porous 'quasi brick' appears as an ever-changing play of colored light, promoting a dialogue between the city of Reykjavik and the building's interior life. By giving an identity to a society long known for its sagas, through an interdisciplinary collaboration between Henning Larsen Architects and artist Olafur Eliasson, this project is an important message to the world and to the Icelandic people, fulfilling their long expected dream." to find out more...
Images & passage via Bustler

Sunlitun SOHO by Kengo Kuma

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:47:00 +0000

“The first unique feature of Sanlitun SOHO is that it is designed to be an open community, melding with the city, with no surrounding walls whatsoever,” said Pan Shiyi. “The second is that there are many paths built for freely browsing about. To accommodate this idea, we have designed three layers of walkways, with two layers underground. On the two sides of each colonnade are the five shopping malls and boutiques, lending vigor to the community...
The exterior of the retail podiums and the towers are continuous façades, with no edges, creating an inviting, friendly urban space for both visitors and inhabitants. The podium and tower interiors employ glass and aluminum panels in naturally producing a sense of vertical alignment to reflect the architecture’s narrow straightness. The lightly colored buildings surround a vibrant orange building, creating a strong visual centerpiece..." to find out more...
Images & passage via http://sanlitunsoho.sohochina.com

DNB Bank Headquarters by MVRDV

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:19:00 +0000

" Dutch studio MVRDV has given the new Oslo headquarters for Norwegian bank DNB a pixellated appearance by building a stack of brick and glass cubes.
The irregular arrangement of the six-metre wide cubes creates recessed openings across the facade, which MVRDV has used to add sheltered terraces to each floor and a new route from the waterfront towards the nearby railway station.
"We started with a massive slab and by removing pixels one by one we were able to create an arcade, terraces, a public passage, etcetera," project architect Jeroen Zuidgeest told Dezeen. "By carving out volumes, we made sure every floor has access to interior and exterior terraces..." to find out more...
Images & Passage via Dezeen

The Braggs / BVN Architecture

noreply@blogger.com (swl) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:07:00 +0000

"The Braggs is the new transdisciplinary research Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) at the University of Adelaide. The facility completes the newly developed science and research precinct on the North Terrace campus, housing both research, and undergraduate laboratories, and a 420 seat lecture theatre...
The central philosophy of the building is to enable researchers from different disciplines – physics, chemistry, biology – to come together to enable a transdisciplinary approach to research. The methodology, led by the Institute’s head, Tanya Munro, has required a building that supports and fosters both formal and informal collaboration. As such, the building investigates methods of three dimensional connection of space within the tight security and safety requirements of a leading laboratory environment, through its positioning on campus, its relationship to campus life, and its strategic inclusion of two vibrant internal vertical streets...." to find out more...
Images & Passage via Archdaily