Now in it’s 5th year, DesCours will be holding its annual event in New Orleans from December 2nd-December 11th, 2011. DesCours is a ten-day, contemporary architecture and art event that looks towards the future in showcasing experimental, cutting-edge new media and interactive installations while embracing New Orleans rich cultural heritage. During DesCours, internationally recognized architects, designers and artists transform unique, hidden spaces within the French Quarter and Central Business District into destination places for visitors and locals alike.
There are a total of 11-13 artists and architects (individuals and teams) that will be selected through this proposal process, which is due by August 19th at 5pm, and by invitation to participate by creating installations for French Quarter courtyards, downtown building lobbies, rooftops, walkways and other ‘hidden’ New Orleans spaces. Overall, we are seeking installations that react and respond both to the historic nature of the sites, and to the public audience that views them. More event description after the break.
The Internet is now the library of the past. Where the public library has historically served as the primary source of information gathering and dissemination, we now look to this new virtual, infinitely large library that can be accessed anywhere at any time as the Library of the present.
As a result, the primary roles of today’s physical libraries have shifted. Libraries of the past focused primarily on individualized information consumption. Communal aspects of interaction and information dissemination now represent the core mission of the library when information is more easily accessible. The silent grand beaux-arts reading rooms of New York or Boston have of the past been transformed into flexible communal “living rooms” in Seattle.
The strategic planning of the city of Palmas, while in the search for expansion of urban space, often creates a certain peculiar urbanization compared to other Brazilian cities, such as in the topography of the land available for development of the IAB-To. It’s unusual for architects, who work in densely built metropolis, to design in a “loose” environment without references incorporated or pre-set aesthetic guidelines. For Urban Recycle Architecture Studio, the terrain of the project, in theory, represents everything that architects and builders like the most, “the new”. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Do you remember playing with Lego as a child? Recently the firms Atmos Studio, Make, Foster + Partners, AOC, Adjaye Associates, FAT and DSDHA took some time out from designing real buildings to create their own interpretation of some of the world’s most notable architectural icons in the form of Lego for an Icon Eye initiative.
Dellekamp Arquitectos + Periférica shared with us their proposal for the Gosta Museum Extension competition. The project aims to preserve the historical value and prominence of the original building by smoothly integrating it to the new museum. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Tallinn Vision competition STREET 2020 was addressed to young architects and architecture students who were asked to describe a fluently connected, compatible and diverse urban landscape, with a focus on one particular urban typology: the street. The organizers received 35 competition entries, 34 of which qualified. Entries were submitted from Japan, Bangladesh, New-Zealand, Turkey, Italy, Poland, USA, Austria, Lithuania, Estonia and other countries.
The architects from WTARCH describe their winning proposal after the break
Any trip to Athens, Greece would not be complete without a visit to the Acropolis, the purest remaining form of what the Greeks thought architecture should be. And yet, if you stopped by a few weeks ago, you might have been surprised to find large banners proclaiming support for a communist trade union adorning the Acropolis hill. These banners are the most visible and literal signs of the Greek debt crisis affecting the historic landmarks in the country, but they are not the ones doing the most damage. That honor goes to the drop in tourism that Greece has experienced since the beginning of the global recession and runs through the country’s fiscal problems to the present. More on how the debt crisis is affecting historical landmarks after the break.
Northern S.T.A.R.S. Safety Village, designed by assemblageSTUDIO, is a place where children learn real life strategies for dealing with emergencies while developing a positive attitude towards safety. The Northern S.T.A.R.S. Safety Village will combine traditional classroom education methods with unique interactive experiences in a realistic child-sized townscape. The overall design of the facility will also educate people on how to live in this desert region. With multiple sustainable systems people will learn how to live sustainably in the desert. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Genre De Vie, “Way of Life”, by filmakers Sven Prince and Jorrit Spoelstra researches the effects that bicycling, as a popularized form of transport, has had in transforming our cities, and by extension the lifestyles attached to it. This video takes on a global perspective on the initiatives taken in the revitalization of the bicycle and its socio-cultural impacts. It focuses mainly on city’s that already promote a pro bicycle lifestyle. This coming from a viewpoint, that the bicycle is a positive development on the social and environmental structure and hence of profound effect on the living quality of its inhabitance. The documentary concentrates on individuals that plan yearly races in the post-industrial landscape of the city, and the sociological processes in which the bike plays a pivotal role. It also focuses on the more general role of the bicycle with regards to personal experience and use of space.
The St. Petersburg Pier, a long-adored and long-outdated West Florida cultural attraction, has unveiled the semi-finalists in its international redesign competition. Of the twenty-three qualified inquiries received, nine were chosen to move forward in the contest. The competition attracted big names in the architecture world; BIG, West 8Urban Design, James Corner Field Operations, and HOK Architects were among the participants.
Tallinn Architecture Biennale is a new international architecture forum that brings together theory and practice as well as young and experienced architects in order to arouse rich discussion upon the issues of architecture, urban planning and landscape. The first TAB concentrates on the hybrid issue of Landscape Urbanism.
Our hope is to see landscape urbanism as a ’third way’ which can solve urban problems that have proved too difficult for conventional planning methods. Landscape urbanism could provide answers to the question of how to guide urban processes from the inside so that the system as a whole would maintain its balance and integrity. The term ’landscape’ is here used primarily as a model of consistency, responsiveness and scale, that is, a conceptual tool rather than a direct reference to nature.
For further details on this years Tallinn Architecture Biennale, please follow after the break.
The architecture community recently lost Chicago architect Douglas Garofalo, FAIA. Founder of Garofalo Architects, he was a University of Notre Dame graduate and a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, serving as director (2001-2003) and co-founded the alternative design school Archeworks. Garofalo also was known for pioneering the use of computer technology in building design within the United States. His award-winning Korean Presbyterian Church in New York, a collaborative project with Greg Lynn and Michael McInturf, received international attention with its digital media approach and alternative solution to adaptive reuse.
The Libyan Museum of History located in Tripoli, Libya proposes a unique twist on the traditional museum typology. Consolidated Consultants/Jafar Tukan Architects has taken an approach that blends the building experience into the existing urban fabric through the integration of two surrounding pathways that define both experience and building geometry and massing. Unfortunately, the project has suffered numerous setbacks since concept approval including delays related to property issues, which was followed by a six month delay. Construction of the project is currently undetermined as the current national conflict within Libya continues. More details after the break.
The Allianz Headquarters is an office complex linked and interlocked by a series of bridges and voids that aims to progress the 21st century work environment by becoming a second home to employees.
Waggonner & Ball Architects have been chosen to develop the water management strategy for Greater New Orleans. It was announced on March 21 that they were awarded the contract from Greater New Orleans, Inc. to develop the Comprehensive, Integrated, Sustainable Water Management System for the Greater New Orleans Region which includes the east banks of Jefferson, Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes.
The Earthscraper, designed by BNKR Arquitectura, is the Skyscraper’s antagonist in the historic urban landscape of Mexico City where the latter is condemned and the preservation of the built environment is the paramount ambition. It preserves the iconic presence of the city square and the existing hierarchy of the buildings that surround it. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Developer Hines “quietly filed” plans for a shortened, 1050 foot-version of Jean Nouvel’s “Torre Verre” earlier this month. The tower, on 53rd St. in Midtown Manhattan, will be located on land sold to Hines by the Museum of Modern Art in exchange for$125 million and three floors of new gallery space. Originally designed in 2007, the tower has seen numerous setbacks including a 200-foot “haircut” by the City Planning Commission in July 2009 in response to its impact on views from the nearby Empire State Building. The plans are compliant with two special permits filed in fall 2009. According to a department spokesperson the application is “chair certification,” which doesn’t require public approvals.
The event will take place in Sao Paulo from August 29th to September 2nd, 2011 at the Centro Universitario Belas Artes de Sao Paulo. More competition information after the break.
AETER Architects shared with us their competition entry, titled Eco-Land, for the International Design Ideas Competition for Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point Passenger Terminal Building. Between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, the PTB (Passenger Terminal Building) is a transitional area interrupting the waterfront of the adjacent cities. The proposed PTB abandons its rights of the waterfront and becomes ‘in between’. More images and architects’ description after the break.
STREET WORKS is a competition to create temporary installations that transform under-utilised public spaces into vibrant places. An initiative of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) NSW, STREET WORKS invites you to re-imagine spaces in the City of Sydney as dynamic, innovative and sustainable temporary public places that will bring people together in unique ways.
Last week I had the pleasure of presenting our work on the construction of the Louisiana State Museum and Sports Hall of Fame by Trahan Architects at the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) BIM Forum in Chicago. The event is meant to “facilitate and accelerate the adoption of building information modeling (BIM) in the AEC industry lead by example and synchronize with counterparts in all sectors of the industry to jointly develop best practice for virtual design and construction (VDC).” I also got a copy of Chuck Eastman’s new edition of his BIM Handbook which served as entertainment during the trip and which I’ll refer to later in this post.
It was my first time at the forum. Here is what I learned about the adoption of BIM by the industry and how it is understood.
Next week we will be taking our Architecture City Guide to Madrid and we need your help. To make the City Guides more engaging we are asking for your input on which designs should comprise our weekly list of 12-24. In order for this to work we will need you, our readers, to suggest a few of your favorite modern/contemporary buildings for the upcoming city guide in the comment section below. Along with your suggestions we ask that you provide a link to an image you took of the building that we can use, the address of the building, and the architect. (The image must be from a site that has a Creative Common License cache like Flickr or Wikimedia. We cannot use images that are copyrighted unless they are yours and you give us permission.) From that we will select the top 12-24 most recommended buildings. Hopefully this method will help bring to our attention smaller well done projects that only locals truly know. With that in mind we do not showcase private single-family residences for obvious reasons. Additionally, we try to only show completed projects.
https://www.archdaily.com/155989/help-us-with-our-architecture-city-guide-madridChristopher Henry
This video features the architecture firm Build LLC, as they discuss the beauty in developing designs through different means: visiting other places, eating good food, meeting new people. It discusses the value in learning from the environment around us and developing one’s own designs based on one’s everyday experiences. They discuss the psychology of our environment and what it means to design interior space for various climates, particularly areas like the North American Northwest were six months out of the year people are indoors because of the cold and rainy seasons.
