With Expo 2012 debuting this month in Yeosu, South Korea, EXHIBITOR Magazine is now seeking entries for its Expo 2012 Awards competition. The contest will be judged by a star-studded panel of multidisciplinary design, marketing, and communications experts who will ultimately choose which entries represent the best the World Expo has to offer. Entries must be pavilions, exhibits, presentations, or elements of pavilions and exhibits appearing at Expo 2012 in Yeosu. The early bird deadline for entry is June 8, 2012, and the final deadline is June 18. More information on the competition after the break.

Foster + Partners was awarded first prize for their museum design in collaboration with Adrien Gardere for Narbonne in southern France. The museum’s central collection includes more than 1,000 ancient stone relief funerary blocks excavated from a nearby archaeological site, as Narbonne’s historical past as a vital Roman port has left an impressive legacy of buildings and ancient relics. Within the new design, Foster + Partners has created a wall to insert the stones that will act as a natural barrier to separate the public galleries from the more private restoration spaces. The building will also reinforce the strong landscape connection between water and gardens due to the site’s adjacency to the Canal du Midi.

More about the museum design after the break.

With an arrival sequence that starts at curbside with a new canopy system providing both shelter and a new architectural image for the building, the renovations for Terminal 1 at Raleigh-Durham International Airport have been carefully considered and addressed. Designed by Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee, their main challenge was the transformation of the existing building in support of the passenger travel experience. As the canopy extends the length of the building and transforms itself at the crosswalk linking the commercial curb canopy, both arrival and departure experienced are emphasized. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Approach, a two-day parametric design workshop June 23-24, put on by Studio Mode / modeLab, will introduce participants to advanced topics in Grasshopper for Rhinoceros. In a fast-paced and hands-on learning environment, participants will iteratively engage a diverse set of parametric approaches to case-study design scenarios, each requiring advanced creation and manipulation of Data Structures and/or the extension of Grasshopper’s Parametric Workflow. The collection of case-studies will furthermore provide a mechanism to critically assess the value in each approach relative to workflow, best practices, linear versus non-linear design processes, and opportunities for modular re-use in other design contexts. For more information, please visit here.

HOK was recently selected to design the new University at Buffalo (UB) School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences on its downtown campus upon winning a global design ideas competition. Located at the center of the region’s emerging bio-sciences corridor, this new transit-oriented medical school development will anchor a lively, urban mixed-use district on campus and bring 1,200 students, faculty and staff downtown. With the goal of fostering collaboration and interdisciplinary care, the new academic medical center will create connections that allow students, faculty, biomedical researchers and clinicians to move easily from classroom to bedside to lab. More images and archtiects’ description after the break.

Last night, dozens packed into the Center for Architecture to join the conversation among some of the most influential in our field. With the energy levels high, panelists Bjarke Ingels of BIG, Toru Hasegawa and Mark Collins of Morpholio and Cloud Lab Columbia University GSAPP, and ArchDaily founders David Basulto and David Assael, shared insight into the impact social media and technology have on our profession and the way in which we design. While the panelists all share a background in design, their differences in applying technology to their particular niche – whether to aid the design process, to collect and redistribute data, or to share information and bring awareness - fueled a dynamic dialogue that kept the crowd engaged and informed way past the closing hours of the Center for Architecture.

Read on for the story behind ArchDaily, and, if you happened to catch the event, let us know in the comments below.

Christopher Hawthorne’s article “Atlantic on the Move“, published in the Los Angeles Times, covers the transitions taking place along LA’s boulevards and one in particular: the 5600 block of Atlantic Avenue. Hawthorne reveals the changes taking place that are “reversing decades of neglect” among LA’s roadways. Among those that have promoted a cultural association with Los Angeles: traffic, congestion and miles of roadways. The article covers the small steps that take place over time via minor interventions that combine to change the face of the boulevards to more pedestrian and bike-friendly spaces for alternative modes of transportation.

Read on for more after the break.

On May 11, 2011, the performance of Aeschylus’s Prometheus Unbound premiered on OMA‘s (Office for Metropolitan Architecture) stage set for the Greek Theatre in Syracuse, Sicily. The design consists of three transformable architectural devices that can be reinterpreted among the different spaces of the theater. These devices date back to 5th century BCE.

More after the break.

+ 7

Two weeks ago we started proposing films relevant to our field for you to primarily enjoy and also to encourage its discussion. First with “The Belly of an Architect”, and then “Blade Runner”, this week is the turn for a slightly more contemporary movie written and directed by Andrew Niccol, Gattaca. The film presents a future were the human condition is already defined in DNA, therefore human’s opportunities for life development are pre-established. Beyond the interesting ethical issue, the architecture where this story occurs is carefully selected in order to fit the director’s image of the future. Locations include the Marin County Civic Center by Frank Lloyd Wright and the CLA Building by Antoine Predock.

The masterplan for the National Creative Cluster by Sasaki Associates integrates the urban form with the surrounding landscape by creating a series of green wedges, interspersed within the urban clusters and forming a series of community parks. Located near Songzhuang, a quiet village on the outskirts of Beijing, the success of the district is tied to its openness, where people can interact in both structured and spontaneous ways to exchange ideas and have constructive dialogue. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The project for an office buiding in Boulogne Billancourt, France consists of the renovation of building B’s existing 10,402m² surface area, the redesign of the facade taking into account the overall structure, the renovation of the technical premises, and the optimizing of office surface space. The competition winning design by Atelier Zündel Cristea is conceived with the logic of functional flexibility in which a central technical core frees the 8 floors, including the ground floor, from bearing concerns.

Built during the 1970’s, building B forms part of a larger whole located at 122, avenue du Général Leclerc, in the Silly-Gallieni neighborhood. The complex is made up of 11 buildings for housing, situated in the northern section of the site, along with the two office buildings, interconnected at ground floor level via a shared lobby with accompanying spaces for businesses to the south. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The public space project by Domitianus Arquitectura of this unique urban neighbourhood comes at a time of re-foundation of the modern process, reflecting in its urban structure the main issues from the time it was done. In this housing complex, their design overcomes the idea of urban center, and instead, long sets of “bands” are adapting along the road structure, promoting advances and setbacks of buildings or misalignments in the implementation of several blocks, situations diversity, which take on greater meaning when incorporated into the structure of green frame. More images and architects’ description after the break.

International architectural practice Swanke Hayden Connell has won the international competition commissioned by Tahincioglu Gayrimenkul (Tahincioglu Real Estate) for the Palladium Tower in Istanbul, Turkey. The 49,500 sq meter tower will be situated on a 1.7 hectare site. The project is due for completion in 2014.

More after the break.

In celebration of LEG0’s 80th birthday, Danish Crown Prince Frederik unveiled the world’s largest LEGO tower in South Korea last week. Nearly 4,000 children stacked 50,000 bricks in five days to help build the 105-foot-tall tower in front of Seoul’s Olympic Stadium. The structure surpassed the previous records set last year in France at 103-feet and in Brazil at 102-feet. As reported by The Daily Mail, the record has been broken more than 30 times since the first LEGO tower was constructed in London in 1988 at a height of less than 50-feet.

Stantec’s design for the DjavafMowafaghian Centre for Brain Health at UBC, in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada is envisioned as a translational research facility defined by present and future medical practices that collaborate under research and patient care. To achieve this, designers considered the intersections within the spatial dynamics of the facility to coordinate interactions between researchers and clinicians. The facility is 134,500 square feet and includes exam / consultation rooms, lab benches, a full conference centre, a brain tissue and DNA bank of samples collected from consenting patients, and patient and animal MRI capabilities.

More after the break.

+ 17

There are few organizations that would utter the words: “we need to constantly look for ways to make ourselves redundant” (46).

But Architecture for Humanity isn’t your typical organization. Since its inception in 1999, the company has put design professionals in the service of local communities, empowering these locals to the point where, frankly, they don’t need the architects any more.

And Design Like You Give A Damn : Building Change from the Ground Up, written by Architecture for Humanity co-founders Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr, isn’t your typical architecture book. More like an inspiration design manual, Design Like You Give A Damn offers practical advise and over 100 case studies of projects that share Architecture for Humanity’s mission of building a sustainable future.

Beyond chronicling inspired designs and against-the-odds accomplishments, the book importantly offers a provocative philosophy : architecture belongs, not to the architect, but to the people and the world for whom it is designed.

More about life lessons and tips from Design Like You Give A Damn after the break…

Commissioned by the Golden Harbor Group, the design for the masterplan for the Honghe project by AECOM is aimed to help Longgang, an emerging area of Shenzhen, to function positively on the city’s renovation and upgrading. Located in a new rising area, the project covers the south area of the main venue for last year’s University Games. Their design will not only become the complex of services in east Shenzhen, but will lead the development of sports and mice industries, which will also be important for Shenzhen to become the base radiation to the development of east Guangdong Province. More images and architects’ description after the break.

During the launch of the META Project in Chile, we had the chance to interview Bijoy Jain, founder of Studio Mumbai.

Nearly two years ago, we introduced Farshid Moussavi’s first major US building – a sleek geometrical design for Cleveland’s Museum of Contemporary Art. With its strong formal moves, the museum intends to aid the city’s urban-revitalization efforts by shaping an iconic cultural destination alongside its neighboring concentration of museums, such as the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. MOCA Executive Director Jill Snyder says, “We believe MOCA is contributing a great building to Cleveland, one that will stimulate critical thinking and animate social exchange. MOCA is expanding its scope and activities on all fronts, supported by new architecture that allows for flexibility, unconventionality, and technological capacity in the presentation of contemporary art.” The 34,000 sqf building is nearing completion, and a public opening will be celebrated in early October with the inaugural exhibition, Inside Out and from the Ground Up, featuring an in-depth look at how international artists engage with architecture and spatial ideas.

More about the project, including facade photos, after the break. 

To be held August 10-12, the 12th international Alvar Aalto Symposium, entitled “CRAFTED – The Ingredients of Architecture”, will discuss how architecture can rise above the ordinary. The symposium will feature 14 top experts and thinkers in their fields, offering their takes on this year’s theme. The latest addition to the list of speakers is Mohsen Mostafavi, a renowned architect who is dean and professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

The goal of the ARCHIVE’s CONSTRUIRE LA PRÉVENTION DU PALUDISME: Building Malaria Prevention competition is to retrofit 24 housing units in the community of Minkoaméyos in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The design of the housing units should combine the use of common sense principles and innovative ideas to minimize the transmission of malaria. Our campaign is unique in that we not only seek design excellence, but design that truly integrates architectural construction with community health improvements. ARCHIVE hopes that this campaign will raise awareness about the role of housing and environmental design by changing the way that communities deal with global health issues. While the ideas generated here will initially be locally specific, they should seek to be globally transferrable. For more information, please visit here.

The architectural design for the U27 Office building, by Park Associati, is based on an analytical approach to the articulated system of access to the Milanofiori Nord area in Assago, Italy. The pedestrian walkways and roads, climatic factors relating to the context and the goal of properly integrating the building into the overall masterplan are the main elements they focused on. Its position as a link to an area of forest towards the north led to the development of a complex that while being based on a closed courtyard layout, enables a visual permeability to be maintained in terms of the routes that surround the building. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The volume composition of the NUK II University Library is formed as a group of three volumes set on top of an elevated plateau hovering above the excavations. Designed by SANGRAD Architects, AVP Arhitekti, and Biro Arhitekti, this unity of forms also means a unity of space, function and organization. Within the existing roman structure (which is understood as geometrical and spatial order, urban definition and direction), the archaeological grid becomes the base of the library functional scheme and the excavations are actively transferred to the future architectural assembly. More images and architects’ description after the break.

On view now until September 9, the ‘Très Grande Bibliothèque (Very Big Library)’ Exhibition at the Canadian Center for Architecture (CCA) presents materials produced by OMA, in response to an international competition launched by France’s then president, Francois Mitterrand, in 1989 to design the new bibliotheque nationale de France. Curated by Rem Koolhaas and Clement Blanchet of OMA, the concept of their proposal resided in the notion of the library spaces being excavated as voids from a ‘solid cube’ containing the archives. The concept offered great architectural freedom, with the public spaces (or voids) being liberated from the constraints of a predeterminded structure or form. More information on the exhibition after the break.