Architects: MiAS Arquitectes / Josep Miàs Location: Barcelona, Spain Project Area: 9,000 sqm Photographs: Adrià Goula

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by Federico Negro

Earlier this year I had the following experience. Two friends, the first a lone (and successful) entrepreneur whose company brings kids books to the iPad, the other a banker, both asked what I knew about 3D printing… on the same day!

What was going on? Where did the sudden interest in 3D printing come from? 3D printers had been a staple in architecture schools and many offices for years, so I assumed everyone knew about them, no? Confused, I did what I usually do when faced with the unknown. I asked Google.

Recently awarded third prize in the Mobilizarte Mobile Cultural Structure competition, architecture firms FRENTES & PAX.ARQ have shared with us their proposal. Further images, a video and a lengthy narrative from the architects can be found after the jump.

I never can get enough of Volume. This issue is loaded with provocative articles that stimulate discussion about a pressing reality, the dramatic demographic shift in the age of human populations. Throughout this issue there are articles like Martti Kalliala’s that push the boundaries of the discussion. Looking at the rapid increases in average life expectancy, Kalliala’s asks what the world will be like if we could live to a thousand? These types of articles are supplemented by exposés into existing and proposed retirement communities and nursing homes. This, as Volume always does, gives a nice balance to the intellectual inquiry and practical application.

This is our second attempt at a bottom-up approach to our Architecture City Guides 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. 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.

V Tower is a residential high rise positioned atop of a base of retail, restaurant, cafe, and parking designed by Meridian 105 Architecture. The tower provides an urban park for the neighborhood in Denver, Colorado while establishing a new ground plane for street-life to develop at the site.

Read on for more on this project after the break.

With the help from a few of our readers, our Architecture City Guide headed to Charlotte this week. By American standards Charlotte is an old city, but it has undergone a huge transformation in the last few decades with the influx of banking headquarters. It is now the second largest banking center in the United State and this is partly reflected in its growing skyline. We, with the help of our readers, have put together a list of 12 buildings worth seeing. There are plenty more that could have made the list so please add your favorites to the comment section below.

The Architecture City Guide: Charlotte list and corresponding map after the break.

Projects from Europe and USA for our seventh selection of previously featured cultural centers. Check them all after the break.

Kodály Centre / Építész Stúdió There are two identities constituting the units of our world: inside and outside. Object and space. Extrovert and introvert. Active and passive. Community life and internal silence. The building that we can walk around, and the hall where music surrounds us. The building itself is vivid, moved by the dynamic symmetry of golden ratio. The hall itself is tranquillity filled by the symmetry of intellectual serenity (read more…)

Howard will be discussing his office’s current projects and investigations. The brief presentation starts promptly at 7pm to allow for continued networking + mingling amongst our design and building industry peers. The event will take place at the Innovant Showroom, 37 West 20th Street, New York.

(Amsterdam) The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) released two landmark reports on June 7th that underline the critical role played by cities in confronting climate change. The complementary reports were published to coincide with the C40 Cities Summit being held this year in Sao Paulo, Brazil (May 31 – June 2). Representatives of the core C40 cities are attending the event with delegates from cities affiliated with the global climate group and a host of international experts to discuss strategies for building a low carbon future. The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group releases two complementary reports to help megacities mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts. Arup produces one of the reports that details how cities are already confronting climate change and highlights opportunities for action.

Departing from what is already exists in the mangrove forest of Jakarta, the Agung Sedayu Center rises out of the natural habitat as an iconic volume that takes in the breathtaking views of the forest. The Agung Sedayu Center is an office building for Jakarta, Indonesia by Agung Mahaputra, Andika Priya Utama, Arief Aditya Putra, Dely Hamzah, Nidia Safiana, and Rahadi Utomo.

Read on for more on this project after the break.

Allied Works Architecture was named one of eighteen international finalists to create the Pôle Muséal Lausanne, which encompasses tranforming an hlistoric train shed and industrial site into a new cultural district. As part of the competition, Allied Works created a master plan and completed the building design for the new Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts (MCBA). Future institutions include the Musée de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains (MUDAC) and the Musée de l’Elysée. More images and architect’s description after the break.

The Pharrell Williams Resource Center is a design that represents the future for youth centers. The treehouse concepts aims to inspire future generations through architecture providing a place where kids can escape and imagine. A unique combination of architect Chad Oppenheim of Oppenheim Architecture + Design and musical impressario Pharrell Williams they are hoping that this youth center will set a new standard for the way the world builds for its future. “We’re creating an environment to house creativity,” said Chad about his design. “Pharrell is a visionary renaissance man, and this center is a reflection of his passion for education and natural design sensibility.” The PWRC is slated for completion by 2013.

Courtyard Urbanism is a project by University of Hong Kong students Adrian Yee Cheung Lo, Ray Jiaheng Zhang, and Patricia Tung Yan Ng which was selected for the Gold prize at the IDesign Awards. The project aims to reinvent the traditional Chinese courtyards in a contemporary setting where density and increased building heights affect the social dynamic of residential architecture.

Read on for more on this project after the break.

Overlooking the Port of Marseille in the Fort Saint-Jean the MuCEM, was designed by Rudy Ricciotti. This major cultural project is dedicated to the cultures of Europe and the Mediterranean, housing collections of the former Museum of Arts and Popular Traditions in the Bois de Boulogne alson with collections from the Museum of Man in Paris’ Europe department.

The video by Exmagina was shot at the beginning of May, 2011 for DUMEZ Mediterranean. The music accompaniment is Ludwig Von Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

Architect: Rudy Ricciotti Construction: Méditterannée Dumez / Freyssinet

Update: The MuCEM inauguration will take place this week. Our friends from Lafarge, whose products were used in the construction of the museum, shared with us some photographs of the finished museum. See them after the break.

Architects: PLAN Arquitectos Location: La Cisterna, Santiago, Chile Design Team: Rodrigo Cáceres Moena, Alejandro Vargas Peyreblanque, Álvaro González Bastías Site Area: 91,212 sqm Constructed Area: 4,306 sqm Project Year: 2009 Year of Construction: 2010 Photography: Pablo Blanco Barros

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Great projects from Europe, Canada, and Colombia you may have missed from last week. Check our selection of the best after the break.

Barceloneta Market / MiAS Arquitectes When I was a student at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), the maritime neighborhood, Barceloneta, was the subject of much conversation. Restaurants on the beach which later disappeared with its narrow streets, cramped flats, the clothes hanging out on the balconies, the shops, the artisans’ workshops and its people, who talked, and still talk, fast and loud (read more…)

Hosting the 6th Annual Green Homes and Sustainable Communities Conference, the city of New Orleans will bring together a variety of individuals from financiers and policy makers to developers and technical experts all focused on redefining affordable housing and community development. In addition to the symposium’s national focus, this year’s event will highlight some of the Gulf Coast’s most innovative green affordable housing projects. The Green Homes and Sustainable Communities Conference will be next month, July 14th and 15th, further details can be found here.

Barcelona-based architects Estudio Barozzi Veiga have unanimously been selected as the winners in a competition to design a new Museum of Fine Arts in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland. More images, a video and information after the break.

West 57th, BIG’s design of a New York apartment building for client Durst Fetner Residential, takes shape in model form in this video. On display at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the model is part of Living: Frontiers of Architecture III-IV exhibition. The exhibition which opened the first of this month and will run through October 2nd ‘is full of impressions and insights into the multiple ways we live in the world today’.

With the general aim to create an integrated urban infrastructure, the proposal for the Beton Hala Waterfront competition by office ReduX creates a way to produce a provocative architectural vision. As programs, spaces and typologies are interwoven, this center is a vision of the future progression of Belgrade as a hub for business and culture. As a result, this allows residents and visitors to experience an ultimate experience of the past, present, and future. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Out of this scenario comes the idea to launch an International Ideas Competition to design an innovative, expandable and replicable model of an urban area which can provide structural solutions to the challenges/needs of African urbanization. An additional aim of the competition is to focus the best ideas and design capabilities currently available among young European and African architects and engineers on this topic. For more information, please visit the competition’s official website.

As the first prize winner in the Hangzhou Gateway Competition, JDS Architects shared with us their building concept, which is to create a gateway that is neither closing-off or dividing the city. The 15-story tower features offices, restaurants, post office, a terraced roof garden and a sunken passage that leads through a shopping center. More images and architects’ description after the break.