We know you’ve been anxiously waiting to have ArchDaily with you everywhere you go - whether on the road or on your couch. Well, we’ve listened, and we’re more than proud to announce the launch of our first iPad application!
Our new App will give you in-depth access to the winners and finalists of The Building Of The Year Award, the most important architecture award in the online world (since 2009). It’s an award that recognizes architects - both established heavyweights and emerging talents - as the best and brightest of today, and they’re all chosen by you, our community of ArchDaily readers. While you'll have to wait a bit longer until you can vote for your favorite 2012 projects (TBA early 2013), the App offers the perfect distraction: full access to the 2011 winners.
Find out more about our “Building of the Year” App, after the break...
The QNL, a public access library, will symbolically connect the country's past and future. As her highness explained: “The library’s vision of bridging with knowledge Qatar’s heritage and future demonstrates the significant role QNL will play in unlocking human potential as Qatar builds a knowledge-based economy. A modern dynamic National Library for the country is essential in reaching this goal.”
As such, Rem Koolhass - an architect known both for his iconic structures as well as his success with the Seattle Public Library - has been hand-picked for the important design, soon to be, according to the QNL website, "one of the most [...] iconic landmarks in Qatar and the region." As a library on the cutting-edge of digital archiving, the building will require innovative facilities (including over 300 public computers, wifi and multi-media production studios); however, it will also serve the community as a relaxed, social gathering place.
More images of OMA's plans for the Qatar National Library, after the break....
Located at a strategic point within the city of Helsinki, the ‘Shared Dreams’ proposal for the Helsinki Central Library conforms to the proposed massing and urban regulations, while endeavoring to give a coherent response to the program and the environment. Designed by Kubota & Bachmann Architects, the variety of the urban conditions will be, from the very beginning, reflected in the concept of the building and the organization of spaces. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) just announced that they will be partnering with Skanska, one of the world’s largest construction and development groups, for the B2 project. This project is making headlines because it will be the first residential tower that is part of the Atlantic Yards Development in Brooklyn using modular construction. FCRC plans to break ground on the 32-story building on December 18th and anticipates that the building will open in 2014. While high-rise modular technology has been initially developed for use at Atlantic Yards, this new industry has the potential to create modular components for construction projects across New York City and worldwide, becoming the first major manufacturing expansion in New York City since manufacturing began its decline over a generation ago. More information after the break.
AllesWirdGut, together with the German climate engineering experts Transsolar and the Dutch-born urban planning avant-gardist Ton Matton, recently developed their concept for the BIO Campus. The project consists of a huge site just outside Istanbul that is becoming one of the world’s leading scientific research centers which has had a holistic approach from the very start. The main idea behind the architectural and environmental project is to create a self-sufficient and self-supporting accumulation of living spaces for work, scientific research, everyday life and recreational activities. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed for the 8th China Flower expo, which will be held in 2014, the design for the information center by Lab Architecture Studio aims to create a very subtle expression. By blending it into nature, the project is able to unite itself with the land and environment. Both the lively architectural form and the flexible spatial structures activate the whole expo park. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Architecture is fundamentally existential in its very essence, and it arises from existential experience and wisdom rather than intellectualized and formalized theories. We can only prepare ourselves for our work in architecture by developing a distinct sensitivity and awareness for architectural phenomena.” With these declarative words, Finnish architect, educator and critic Juhani Pallasmaa resounds the call of his 2005 volume, Encounters: Architectural Essays, in this second volume of essays, Encounters 2.
Since 1851, World Fairs have offered glimpses into specific moments in time - giving us insight into what was once innovative, high-tech, and down-right radical. But the structures, the icons of each Fair, don't always stand the test of time - no matter their architectural pedigree. In Flushing Meadows Park, New York, for example, Modernist icon Philip Johnson's 1964 New York State Pavilion now stands neglected, overgrown in ivy. Mies van der Rohe's German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona Expo was promptly demolished (although eventually reconstructed).
On the other hand, the Eiffel Tower, although considered "vulgar" in its day (1889), was maintained because its height made it well-suited for emitting radio signals; it's now Paris' most important tourist attraction.
The fate of World Fair Structures is the theme of New York-based photographer, Jade Doskow, who has already shot 19 former World’s Fair sites. Take a peek at Doskow's images and find out how World Fair structures have fared, some better than others, after the break...
After Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic failed to raise the $300 million they needed to cover construction costs, and due to concerns that displacing the orchestra would jeopardize potential revenue, Foster+Partners' plans languished. However, the Philharmonic is now under new leadership, and its young directors are anxious to transform the conventional music hall, hence why they've decided to solicit new proposals for the building.
As the Orchestra's new executive eirector, Matthew VanBesien, told theNew York Times: “If you’re not thinking about the way in which our art form and music and audiences are evolving, you’re not serving the art form long term. You really want to build this next great hall in a new way, to do the kinds of things you maybe are doing but want to do in a more compelling way or maybe can’t even imagine yet.”
More info about the proposal for the new Avery Fisher Hall, after the break...
SANAA has just unveiled their plans for the Bocconi University Campus in Milan, Italy. The design features various undulating structures, forming connective inner courtyards, that wind their way across a 17,500 square meter green space open to both students and neighborhood residents.
According to Paola Nicolin, a professor at Bocconi and writer forDomus, the University is a "playground" for the imagination, using "non-hierarchic compositional elements" to establish a relationship between the campus' organic forms and the human lives which inhabit it. In Nicolin's words, the project "speaks of transparency, empathy for nature, and far-sightedness."
More images and info on the project, after the break...
OFIS Arhitekti shared with us a video they put together for their project, Alpine Hut. Situated in a small Alpine village, part of Triglav national park with very strict rules of construction and architectural design, the client bought the site together with existing construction permit for the generic project. Basically, the main task was to give the hut a new look, create a new veranda around the house and position the openings towards the views and increasing its sustainability.
Situated in the new green heart of Helsinki, the ‘Light Forest’ proposal for the Helsinki Central Library intends to replace the existing green that the architects will subtract to the park in a perfectly controlled indoor environment. Occupying 4500m² of the site, MenoMenoPiu Architects decided to conceive the building as a tree forest enclosed in a climatic box, in which the structure represents the causality of the wood. More images and architects’ description after the break.
As a follow up to a previous post we recently published regarding the positive look on the Architecture Billings Index (ABI), forward-looking indicators for building and construction activity have been turning increasingly positive over recent months, which is the good news. Current market conditions for architecture and the near-term outlook for the construction industry in the US is a two-sided story, with forward-looking indicators showing steady improvement but serious concerns arising out of an impending ‘fiscal cliff’. To be sure, the good news is not evenly spread across sectors and regions. Buoyed by lower interest rates, growing demand for rental accommodation and the progressive subsiding of the mortgage crisis, the residential building sector (57.3) is improving quickly whereas activity in commercial and industrial building remains flat. More information after the break.
High profile architects BIG (Bjarke Ingels) and OMA (Rem Koolhaas) are in a close battle to win the redevelopment competition for the design of the Miami Beach Convention Center. Recently put on hold by a corruption probe and procedural concerns, Miami Beach’s ambitious plans to create a 52-acre convention center district are again progressing toward a crucial vote by elected officials. The committee’s recommendations will be reviewed by interim City Manager Kathie Brooks, who will issue her own recommendation to city commissioners. Commissioners could vote on the project and development teams Dec. 12. More information after the break.
Previously limited to particular locations, Naver App was delivered all around the nation using a ‘kit-box’ concept. With the addition of a ‘kinetic’ element to the existing over-sized delivery box concept, the new Naver App Square, designed and constructed by URBANTAINER has evolved into a giant moving gift box. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Building on a previous piece entitled “Suspension Bridge, the passage”, Olivier Grossetête’s ‘Pont de Singe’ in the UK is a model of floating bridge attached to helium balloons, thus taking literally the term “suspension bridge “. The object aims to connect two mobile spaces, questioning its usefulness. This bridge becomes a floating symbol of all relationships, and embodies the space surrounding its slight movements caused by our air movement. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Proposed by Talmon Biran Architecture Studio, the Yad Le’Banim building is located within an existing grove at the local council of Ramat Yishay, Israel, which provides a unique opportunity to integrate landscape with the architectural design. This setting doesn’t only add a visual values for the building, but also adds and symbolic aspect – the trees which are seen from all the building’s façades create an image that expresses the relation between life and death, between growth and loss. This relation is inherent in the definition of the Yad Le’Banim buildings as cultural and educational centers on the one hand, and as a memorials on the other hand. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Last week I asked how architecture can ramp up its efforts to do all it can to help limit climate change. Sandy is a turning point. It will take action on the part of the profession and its members to make this turning point meaningful. Turning points are easily forgotten after the panels have been convened and the articles written. The vicarious thrill of crisis abates and everyone returns to business as usual, feeling better for having contributed to the discussion. If we listen to the scientists, we must not lose that sense of crisis and we must do more.
Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam is known for her massive, colorful architectural sculptures/playgrounds. The most famous example of her work is the expansive net-structure inside the "Woods of Net" Pavilion at the Hakone Open Air Museum in Japan - which Horiuchi MacAdam knitted, entirely by hand, over the span of a year.
We took a moment to speak with Ms. Horiuchi MacAdam about the Pavilion and her other works, how they bridge the worlds of art and architecture, and how they irresistibly invite the world to play. You can read our interview, and see more images of her fascinating work, after the break...
