The recently unveiled renderings for the Mashouf Performing Arts Center at San Francisco State University (SFSU), feature not just one new building but five performance spaces linked through a series of transparent hallways and classrooms. Michael Maltzan Architecture, the designers behind the new Arts Center garnered the commission ahead of six shortlisted firms including Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
“The building is almost like a city. It is meant to act like a small campus with those spaces and connective elements,” said Maltzan. “There’s one continuous horizontal layer, which connects across the entire project and many different disciplines. With informal as well as formal spots, in the choreography of that mix, you create the culture of the college.”
The architects were inspired by the triangular site and its slanted lines, which they chose to repeat throughout the overall design and details of the buildings. This repetition can be seen in a series of sloping balconies within the primary performance space and the triangular shaped courtyards that are exterior connections between the buildings.
More details about this newly unveiled design and renderings following the break.
Mecanoo architecten teamed up with Artech architects, Taipei for their proposal for the Kaohsiung Library Competition. Their 38,000 sqm library, which will become the region’s main library, won second place. More images and complete press release after the break.
The Israeli duo, L2 Tsionov-Vitkon Architects in association with architect Ofir Nahum has shared with us their entry to the Agamon Hakhula Visitor Center Competition, which has been awarded second prize. More images and a description from the architects after the jump.
New York architect Thomas Phifer recently published his first monograph and shared the publication with us. The work matches our perception of Phifer’s architecture – elegent and pristine – as the pages are filled with exciting photography, capturing the essence of the buildings in their natural context. As Phifer shared when we interviewed him, “We really seek to open buildings up again…to nature and to the sun, to the sound of the wind; to bring back that sense of nature which is part of architecture.”
Situated near the entrance to the Gowanus Canal, formerly the site of a police impound lot, the 11-acre pier will house a new 125,500 sqf facility for recycling and education. Designed by Selldorf Architects, the Sunset Park Materials Recycling Facility was not just conceived as a facility for recycling, but also as an active classroom. The approximate 2.5 acres of green space, complete with grazing goats, 50,000 sqf of photovoltaic cells and hopeful wind turbine, will offer an observation corridor and educational classrooms for students. The site is currently being raised four feet by construction crews and a completion date of December 2011 is anticipated.
Architects: Selldorf Architects Location: Brooklyn, New York, USA Client: Sims Municipal Recycling Project Area: 125,000 sqf Renderings: Courtesy of Selldorf Architects
New architecture firm names are getting out of hand. It’s as if they are trying to sound like Indie bands. Barring that, they often fall back on “Atelier such and such.” One trendy use of atelier has been the “Atelier insert-your-name-here” variation. This has been way overdone. There is also the “Atelier theoretical buzz word” version.
Since a name is how you present your firm to the world, it’s worth giving it some serious consideration. It’s more important to be apt and appropriate rather than too creative with names. Save the creativity for your designs.
The Polish firm, Mariusz Wrzeszcz Office, has submitted their recent project, the Center for Promotion of Science in Belgrade for our readers. The architects description and additional images are available after the break.
Olivier Brouillard, from Complex City, shared the design of Dress Code, an elementary school designed for the community of Fréchy, Switzerland, an area surrounded by farming and nearby hills. Under the idea that once the program and the function are defined, the architect’s job consists in dressing up architecture; Dress Code was conceived. It gives a major importance to the facades and to the way the building is seen externally. Visual communication is a key point, especially considering that school is the first source of knowledge for youngsters.More images and project description after the break.
Construction for the City Green Court, Richard Meier & Partners third building within the Prague 4-Pankrác Master Plan, is underway. Receiving a pre-certification of LEED Platinum, the building’s design is inspired by the language of Czech Cubism simultaneously responding to issues of conservation and sustainability. A completion date of early 2012 is anticipated. The video,
“We are working together to make City Green Court a benchmark for green building design in the Czech Republic,” shared Richard Meier. “This assignment has been particularly challenging as it also meant addressing the historic beauty of Prague and at the same time creating a modern image of the City for its future.”
More renderings and drawings of City Green Court following the break.
Tomorrow marks the opening day of Zaha Hadid’s Guangzhou Opera House. The 70,000 sqm project consists of two solid geometric forms wrapped with a structural exoskeleton. The two components, with their similar form, color and shared structural expression, create a strong artistic expression to house the cultural center. Hadid’s angular exterior intentions are carried through the interiors, shaping dynamic gathering spaces and interstitial spaces. For the main auditorium, Hadid’s concept has manifested itself in the form of fluid ribbons that wrap the main stage. Previously, we have featured some great photos showing the building further along in its construction process , thanks to our reader Sharwe, and we’re excited to share news of its opening!
“Overlooking the Pearl River the Guangzhou Opera House is at the heart of Guangzhou’s cultural sites development. Adopting state of the art technology in its design and construction it will be a lasting monument to the New Millennium, confirming Guangzhou as one of Asia’s cultural centers. Its unique twin boulder design will enhance urban function by opening access to the riverside and dock areas and creating a new dialogue with the emerging new town,” explains Hadid.
Bjarke Ingels recently appeared on CNN’s series Big Idea, very fitting for his architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group or BIG. Utilizing the firm’s website, Ingels turns it into a presentation tool, and with ease discusses the design process, sharing diagrams and photographs for four of their projects: Mountain Dwellings, their submission to the Shanghai Expo complete with video of Ingels himself riding through the Danish Pavilion, the recently unveiled designs for West 57th in New York City, and the winning design for a new Waste-to-Energy plan in Denmark. The quick, straightforward, and stylish presentation beckons the question, is there still a place for powerpoint?
Dig will be developed in three stages. ‘Exhibition’ will run from March 1 to March 28. ‘Installation’ from March 29 to April 4. And finally, ‘Performance’, from April 5 to April 23. At the close of the exhibition, all material will be returned to the manufacturer and recycled into rigid foam insulation, leaving no evidences or traces behind.
The U.S. Department of Energy just announced that the West Potomac Park, adjacent to the National Mall between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials will be hosting the 2011 Solar Decathlon. The event’s permit for the National Mall, the launching pad for the largest solar competition in the world, had been revoked in mid January creating a lot of disruption for the 20 collegiate Solar Decathlon teams who had put over 18 months of work in preparation for the event.
Here is our previous coverage of the Solar Decathlon.
Leading international “green” architect Chad Oppenheim of Oppenheim Architecture + Designwas selected by top Philippine developer, The Net Group, to design the nation’s first certified green project in Taguig City, Philippines. The Net Metropolis is the flagship pilot development of the recently created Philippine Green Building Council (PHILGBC) to answer to the local environment’s specific needs.
Oppenheim, who has a growing reputation for his green design work, participated with the PHILGBC in the actual creation of the nation’s new rating system BERDE (Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence) to apply to the design of the first tower in the project, The Net Lima. You can check more projects by Oppenheim here, and don’t miss our interview with him! More images and project description after the break.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently announced the recipients of the 2011 Honorary Fellowship (Hon. FAIA). This is given to architects with distinguished achievements, who display exceptional character and are held in high esteem by colleagues. Hon. FAIA members are neither U.S. citizens nor U.S. residents, and do not primarily practice architecture within the domain of the AIA.
For this week the Architecture City Guide series headed to the city of Boston including neighboring Cambridge just across the Charles River Basin. This area has an overwhelmingly large amount of modern architecture in a small radius, and our list reflects just that. What buildings do you want to see added to our Boston list, share them with us in the comment section below.
South Korean architects thegroundstudio shared with us their winning proposal for the Shop & Cafe + Pavilion Redesign Competition at the entrance of Seoul National University’s main gate and SNU Museum. More images and a brief description after the break.
In the Spring of 2010 a team of Landscape and Architecture graduate students from the University of California, Berkeley led a design build seminar to rethink a little known courtyard on the northeast corner of Wurster Hall. Originally used as an outdoor classroom, plant demonstration area, work space, and location for the CED happy hour, the objective of the project was to make a “bench” to accommodate and enhance these diverse activities. More images and team’s description after the break.
An exciting new structural system will be unveiled tomorrow at the Design Indaba conference in Cape Town, South Africa. QuaDror, invented and patented by Dror Benshetrit, is a space truss geometry system inspired by versatility and structural integrity of interlocking members.
Like a magician revealing the secrets behind his magic, Dror Benshetrit shows that the mechanism behind these structures is surprisingly simple but it is the complex interaction of the interlocking members that makes it so unique. From a simple block model to a bridge support system, the QuaDror system shows its abilities at all scales.
Just projects from 2009 for our fifth selection of today’s institutional architecture. Check them all after the break.
Ruy Barbosa Labor Courthouse / Decio Tozzi The traditional buildings for courthouses up to the beginning of the twentieth century, designed according to the conceptual ideas of the Grand Prix de Rome, were distinguished by their formal structures inspired by classical architecture and conveyed the idea of sumptuous monumentality (read more…)
Austrian architects Delugan Meissl shared with us their project for the Winter Festival Hall in Tyrol, Austria. More images and architect’s description after the break.
The Estoril Sol Residence is situated near the mouth of the Vale da Ribeira de la Castellana. This unique location required a design that created a relationship between the adjacent sea and valley, and added public green space infront of the water. Designed by architect Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos, the video is produced by João Morgado.
Architects’ Week is a longstanding tradition of the Tulane School of Architecture as a weeklong, design and build, group project. It is a unique occasion for students to work not only with a proven designer, but also with fellow students. The exact form that it takes varies from year to year. In 2010, A-Week groups created information kiosks for New Orleans. The year before was an exploration in rethinking the bench. This year the project brief was a bit different. The project brief, images and descriptions of each student project and the winning design after the break.
