Mid-2009 projects for our 8th selection of previously featured interior posts. Check them all after the break.

Eva’s bed / h20 architectes The arrival of a new child in the family pressed a young couple to think about a way to divide a room into two parts. The idea was to provide a personnal space to each child. The projet answers to this request of separation by adding a third space making the partition. The creation of a “multiple-use furniture” in the middle of the space allows to add some depth to the primary basic partition. It afford passages, secret storage, bed, office… in a funny way (read more…)

By invitation of Nexity/SAEM, STUDIONINEDOTS was awarded second place in the competition for their design of macro LOT AA in Paris, an icon for life. Their intention was to create a recognizable residential building with a luxurious appearance where, by making a smart intervention, all residents can enjoy the great qualities of the site. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Snøhetta

The University of Technology, Sydney commissioned PTW Architects to design a Multi-Purpose Sports Hall and Teaching Facility. Situated under a green park area in the university’s city campus on Broadway, the design started in early 2009 and has just recently been completed. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Mackintosh School of Architecture recently made us aware that their Friday Lecture Series is available to watch online. We will be showcasing a few periodically over the next couple of weeks. Among other topics, in this video Wiel Arets talks about the world becoming one big city in the near future. It is a fairly engaging talk that you should check out.

PIQUE, a collaborative of design professionals shared with us a video of their proposal por the Henry Art Gallery facade. The goal of this project is to transform the Henry Art Gallery storefront from a busy corridor into an energetic, engaging extension of the Gallery that makes people aware of the act of observing, reacting and interacting.

A proposal for an Olympic complex for Harbin’s bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, SuperStadium, designed by Alan Lu, seeks to integrate the multitude of Olympic arenas and villages into one continuous entity. Consequently, this design allows for a seamless transition between programs and events. More images and project description after the break.

This space houses the corporate headquarters for a young company that is developing new technology for concrete. The objective was to design a think tank that would encourage interaction and reflect the innovative green products that they are developing.

Architect: The Felderman Keatinge + Associates (FKA) Location: Los Angeles, California, USA Photographs: Courtesy of FKA

Providing the winning design for the Parc des Expositions (PEX) in the innovation zone of Toulouse, in southern France, OMA conceived PEX to be a new gateway to the city hosting exhibitions, conferences, and concerts. The 338,000 sqm project is designed to be a compact mini-city – an antidote to the sprawl of a standard exposition park, and a means to preserve the surrounding French countryside.

Surpassing three submissions by internationally-renowned competitors, the project, led by OMA’s director of French projects Clément Blanchet, will be completed by 2016. Blanchet commented: “This project is not only about architecture, but rather infrastructure. It’s a condenser for diversity, a machine that can promote an infinite amount of possibilities.”

Architects: OMA Location: Toulouse, France Designers: Rem Koolhaas and Clément Blanchet Client: Société Publique Locale d’Améngement (SPLA) Project Area: 338,000 sqm Project Year: 2016 Renderings: Courtesy of OMA

Chicago-based firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture recently announced that it has won an international competition to design the Wuhan Greenland Center, which will likely be China’s third-tallest building, and the fourth tallest in the world, when completed in about five years at 606 meters (1,988 feet) high. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer in Wuhan near the meeting of the Yangtze and Han rivers.

More images and project description after the break.

The Neenan Company, an integrated architecture and construction firm based in Fort Collins, Colorado, partnered with the EMU Festival, an eco-conscious music festival held in Snowmass, Colorado, to re-invent the traditional music festival tent.

Neenan employees were invited to participate in a contest to create the world’s first sustainable festival tent. The goal of the contest was to create a portable structure that could be installed on a city street as easily as it could at the top of a mountain. Materials for the tent were required to be biodegradable, recyclable, or have a sustainable end-of-life plan, so none of the pieces would end up in a landfill. In addition, the design needed to be easy-to-assemble, so that the tent could be put together by a few people with minimal or no tools.

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Designer: Ben Shepard, 3D Animator, The Neenan Company Location: Fort Collins, Colorado, USA Collaborators: Randell Johnson, AIA, Vice President Business Development, The Neenan Company; Timothy Wooster, Founder, EMU Festival Project Year: 2011 Renderings: The Neenan Company Photographs: Yann Ropars and The Neenan Company

Manhattanhenge, is the term used to describe a biannual occurrence in New York City when the sun aligns with the east-west streets of Manhattan’s main grid. Adopted in 1811 the famous street grid of Manhattan, the Commissioners’ Plan, was the original design plan for the streets in which the grid plan is offset at 29.0 degrees from true east-west. Twice a year photographers gather to witness this urban solar phenomenon, when the sun sets perfectly between the skyscraper corridors and illuminates the north-south facades of the streets. Tripods and pedestrians filled the crosswalks this past Wednesday to catch a glimpse of this moment.

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This proposal for a Hotel and Spa was designed by Igor Brożyn. Located in an open landscape in Gdynia, Poland, this project has the advantage of the seclusion of a natural setting for its visitors.

On June 23, 2001, in the residential neighborhood of Fužine in Slovenia, Ljubljana, Trimo officially handed over a public architectural installation “Life Stand” – the winning project of the Trimo Urban Crash competition for students of architecture and design which was created by Polish students, Wojciech Nowak from an architectural faculty in Gliwice, and Martynika Bielawska, from an art and design academy in Wroclaw.

“Life Stand” is the result of the Trimo Urban Crash competition, which encourages a creative transformation of the urban environment with the help of advanced building materials and technologies. The creative workshop was held by Professor Cyril Shing from the Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of Arts, London who also served as the mentor for the finalists. The event was opened by the General Manager of Trimo, Tatjana Fink, and the Deputy Mayor of Ljubljana prof. Janez Koželj.

Read on for more after the break.

Building an operating system for everyday life, Urbanflow Helsinki, imagines how to address the changing city and connecting it to its people. A concept from Nordkapp and Urbanscale, Urbanflow plans to help visitors and tourists find and get to where they want to go, and provide a more serendipitous city for locals.

Each fall High Desert Test Sites invites artists to create experimental projects adjacent to California’s Joshua Tree National Park. This year HDTS invited Ball Nogues Studio to create a structure in a remote region of the Mojave Desert. This presents a unique opportunity to draw upon an unfettered landscape at a grand scale. Expanding on theories developed by earthwork artists Yucca Crater will re-imagine these concepts through new methods of production linked to their cross-disciplinary artistic, architectural, design and fabrication practice.

The new office building of The Korea Teachers Pension Head Office was established to bring the unification of three bodies for the stability and efficiency of educational pursuits: Teachers, The Korean Teachers Pension Head Office and the country. Tomoon Architects and Engineers have designed this facility with these three organizations in mind to achieve this goal in Naju, South Korea. Read on for more on this project after the break.

In response to a public debate about rebuilding the historic wing of the Louvre in Paris, Carl Fredrik Svenstedt Architecte shared with us their initiative to extend the Louvre. Destroyed by the French Republic at the end of the 19th century as a symbol of royal and imperial power, this proposal aims to build a more democratic building better suited to the site and our times. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Recently opened, SOM designed, Lotte Department Store Gwangbok branch in Busan, Korea requested Yamasaki Ku Hong Associates Design Lab (YKH) to modify the existing ‘roof garden’ to allow and amplify users to enjoy the spectacular view of Busan Port. Additionally, the client requested us to find a way to increase ‘brand identity’ and ‘sales volume’. Existing conditions of roof garden with two separate observatories were not efficiently designed and more importantly were not connected; there were a possibility to increase two floors of additional retail area. YKH have come up with a new idea called, ‘Way-Pod’; Way Pod is derived from I-Pod, creating a hardware that could evolve with time. Way-Pod is comprised of ‘Way’ – free of charge, elevated view corridor – and ‘Pod’ – with charge, entertainment hardware for fun, culture and event.

The surrounding neighborhood consists mostly of apartment blocks that date back from the 70’s. The buildings are large with enough space in-between and plenty of greenery. Because the whole area is built in relatively short period of time and not very long ago, it lacks the typical historic layers of the city center. Here the connection to nature is direct enough, the access to all city-conveniences – fast enough and easy, what makes the area nice to dwell. In spite of that it still lacks history, (memories of) the past and atmosphere.

Architect: Aedes Studio Location: Sofia, Bulgaria Photographs: Aedes Studio

We are pleased to announce that the Dynamic ShapeShifting Helix Bridge by sanzpont , Sergio Sanz Pont and Victor Sanz Pont, has won the latest DesignByMany challenge: “Building to Building Pedestrian Bridge”, sponsored by HP and media partner ArchDaily. The challenge asked professionals and students in the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) community to submit a proposal to design a pedestrian bridge between to two existing buildings.

The DSSH Bridge was chosen by a select group of judges, including: Andrea Graziano from DigitAG&, Ezra Groskin from Wilkinson Eyre Architects, and Robert Mencarini from SOM.

For winning the HP-supported challenge, Sergio Sanz Pont and Victor Sanz Pont will take home a brand-new HP Designjet T790 24″ PostScript ePrinter. This solution is one of the latest additions to the HP web-connected ePrinter portfolio, making large-format printing easy and offering instant file access to design professionals. With the HP Designjet T790 ePrinter, users can simply plug and print directly from a USB thumb drive or connect a laptop directly to the device to print with driverless printing. Users can also print directly from the web without a computer and preview projects through the large-format industry’s only color touchscreen interface.

A video of DSSH Bridge, as well as the runner up projects following the break.

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Maxwan Architects + Urbanists shared with ArchDaily their winning proposal for the Machelen-Diegem masterplan. This urban area is located in Brussels, Belgium and is filled with historic value. The site, located between the arteries of the capital of Europe (surrounded by airport, road and rail infrastructure), in the vicinity of strategic economic development, near a large city, yet affordable living in a green environment, Machelen and Diegem is a very interesting area. The nature of the site poses a variety of challenges for the designers.

Read on for more on the resolutions of this urban plan after the break.

This project is a bold public-private initiative to support energy, business and culture. The project aims to synthesize an interest in energy, business and culture by generating a new public and transformative icon along the Ohio River. By re-functionalizing HMP1 and bringing new public amenities to the site, the proposal intends to revitalize a decaying and neglected waterfront and therefore have a positive effect in business and tourism and the region at large.

One of the New York City’s most forgettable buildings has been transformed into a model of modern technology. The Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT), located in midtown Manhattan between 40th and 42nd street, now boasts the world’s largest transparent media façade completed by GKD Metal Fabrics which effectively covers the building’s outdated steel façade. More images and project description after the break.