Mikey Nitro shared with us his proposal for a people’s park in the financial district of Los Angeles; a Radical Urban Intervention that questions our public realm. It reshapes our humanistic and democratic ideals; to awake and avenge our dusted nation. he based the programs of this intervention by the essence of Los Angeles: City of Entertainment, City of Hybridity (Culture), City of Agriculture (Opportunity). Each program is porous and adaptable through different times of the day. Since downtown L.A. is a becoming a new trend for residency, this park will provide locals a place to exercise, walk their dogs, picnic, place for theater night life, and a community garden. More images and Nitro’s description after the break.
“Inspired by Lebbeus Woods’ Slipstreaming drawings, this installation is made from over one thousand CNC cut plywood pieces that notch together to create an undulating, dynamically patterned and brightly colored wall. Developed as the extrusion of a 2-dimensional drawing through the gallery space in New York, the structure is then cut away to produce a set of interconnected 3-dimensional spaces. The project develops novel forms of digital drawing, ‘egg-crate’ type assemblies typical in stick built construction, and our ability to describe and produce the dynamics of flow and turbulence, a phenomena that have fascinated artists at least since Leonardo Da Vinci.”
FreelandBuck‘s installation Slipstream (previously mentioned on AD) has been on view at New York’s Bridge Gallery since mid-July. However, the exhibition has come to an end and Slipstream is in need of a new home. Interested? You have less than 24 hours to place a bid on Ebay now!
Mark Zuckerberg, the 28-year-old co-founder of Facebook, has commissioned Frank Gehry to design a new campus headquarters on the outskirts of San Francisco Bay, California. Located across the highway from Facebook East, the company’s current headquarters, Facebook West will provide every luxury expected from a modern office space, from a flexible open floor plan, to arcade-filled lounge areas and a massive roof garden.
Each year, approximately two million Mexican residents take part in the religious phenomenon Ruta del Peregrino (Pilgrim’s Route) – a 117 kilometer pilgrimage through the mountain range of Jalisco that is centered around and moved by the adoration to the Virgin of Talpa. This religious voyage has been taking place since the 17th century and represents the pilgrim’s act of faith carried to penitence. Although conditions are harsh, this sacrifice carried with austerity is an essential part of the promise or offering that become the ritual of purification.
In an effort to provide the historical route with better conditions, nine architecture firms and design offices collaborated to build seven architectural landmarks that provide shelter, services and outlook points for the pilgrims. By establishing a strong relationship with both the extraordinary landscape and the religious rituals of Ruta del Peregrino, the architectural pieces have become the “imaginary landmarks” of a deeply rooted phenomenon.
Continue reading to learn about how this project is contributing to the 2012 Venice Biennale.
The EXPO Booth, designed and built by Design Initiatives, presented their Not Just a Chair furniture collection which was displayed at the Outdoor Lifestyle Hangzhou Fair from March 21-24 of this year. Two wings curve out of the advertising wall with the company’s logo – the lower one becomes a platform to showcase the furniture objects, the upper one light up the exposed objects. The lower platform can be multi-functionally used as a meeting table. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Together with the surrounding Design Museum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture, the Pavilion is the heart of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012. An open and easy to approach building designed by Aalto University Wood Studio students and specialists, their design enables the organization and integration of many types of functions and events through its physical shape and function. The pavilion, which will be open until September 16, offers free of charge program and recreation for everyone during the 105 days it will be open. More images and project description after the break.
The 13th Venice Architecture Biennale is about to start, opening to the public on August 29th. ArchDaily is already in Venice preparing our intensive coverage during the press preview starting Sunday. On this video by the Biennale you can see a small part of the team’s efforts preparing this fascinating event.
More photos of the upcoming exhibits at the Giardini below:
Designed by Aleph Zero + Juliano Monteiro, the dobrar Memorial is a space composed by reflective elements which is therefore a cloudy limited space: in, out, far and near, front, back, unique, multiple, real reflection. An important element of the project is one that activates and gives meaning to the objects: the user / observer. Unlike a mere passive spectator, is the observer who composes the piece through its position and its motion in space. Such movement is yet ‘reflected’ by objects that “dance” as the passage of passersby and accuses them of being they, too, actors in a multiple reality, dynamic and interconnected. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The ‘Clopen’ shelf panel, designed by Torafu Architects, is constructed from elaborate aluminum parts, and at 34mm thick, it looks as if it’s made of natural wood. Attaching sliced veneer to a thin structure, they made space between two boards which can be opened using magnetic keys. When pulled, a secret 23mm thick drawer appears, which is of minimal thickness to store your valuables such as stamps and passbooks. More images of their product after the break.
The 2012–13 season at the Yale School of Architecture Gallery opened on August 20 with Palladio Virtuel. The exhibition, which is on view until October 27, presents a groundbreaking new analysis of the work of Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio by Peter Eisenman, renowned New York architect and Charles Gwathmey, Professor in Practice at Yale. It represents the culmination of ten years of study of Palladio’s villas by Eisenman, adding an important contribution to the sixteenth-century master’s already robust legacy. The exhibition proposes a reading of the buildings that undermines the traditional view of Palladio’s architecture as founded on ideal forms. For more information, please visit here. More images and information on the exhibition after the break.
Russia’s leading creative think tank, Strelka Institute, is hosting a series of discussions with preeminent voices in architecture and urban design in the pre-opening days of the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale. Inspired by the Biennale’s theme of Common Ground, the conversations will focus on how architecture and design can drive the physical, social and economic regeneration of urban environments. Using Russian cities as a starting point, the talks will explore wider issues in urban design around global metropoles. Featured speakers include OMA’s Reinier de Graaf, Teddy Cruz, Stefano Boeri, and more.
The discussions will take place on August 27 and 28 at the Strelka Palazzo. All events are free to attend, but space is limited. Please email venice@strelka.com to reserve a seat.
For the first time ever, Design Onscreen – the Initiative for Architecture and Design on Film – will present the Design Onscreen Film Festival at the Venice Architecture Biennale, August 27 through the 29th at the Arsenale’s Teatro Piccolo. All sixteen screenings are free and open to the public and most will be followed by dynamic in-person discussions and audience Q&As, featuring top architects and design experts from around the globe, including Lord Norman Foster, Peter Eisenman, Rick Joy, Steven Holl, Vittorio Garatti, Deyan Sudjic (Director, Design Museum London), Barry Bergdoll (Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art); Moshen Mostafavi (Dean, Harvard Graduate School of Design), Mark Wigley (Dean, Columbia Univ. School of Architecture), and David Chipperfield (Curator and Director of the 13th Annual International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale).
Continue after the break for trailers and more information.
Join the authors and editors of Lars Müller Publishers for a rare book signing opportunity with architects Wang Shu, Sou Fujimoto, and Steven Hollon August 28th at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale! This event will kick off the exhibition Lars Müller Publishers – Book Fever, which will feature sixty publications – new releases, bestsellers, milestones from the past, and rare treasures – for the public to explore.
Founded thirty years ago, Lars Müller Publishers’ carefully edited and designed publications on architecture, design, and contemporary art has lead them to become a renowned international publisher. One milestone you may remember was their release of Peter Zumthor’s Works (1998), which was the first survey of the oeuvre of the architect now known worldwide that set new standards for the monograph as a book genre.
Continue after the break for more details on the book signing and exhibition.
Last week, thanks to the courtesy of Cicada Books, we gave you the chance to win three copies of: ‘Draw Me a House‘. To participate, we asked you to answer the following question:
As reported by David W Dunlap for the NYTimes, the safety-restoration applied to Philip Johnson and Richard Foster’s Elmer Holmes Bobst Library on the NYU campus near Washington Square is close to completion. While the library, which was constructed in the early 1970s, remains intact, the tremendous atrium space – a soaring 150 ft void – is proving to be more of a safety hazard than the magnificent architectural experience the architects intended. Since 2003, the library has been marred by claiming the lives of three students who leaped to their deaths (even after the university installed 8ft polycarbonate barriers). Charged with the task of eliminating the possibility for such a future occurrence, Joel Sanders Architectresponded with a perforated alumium screen that completely walls off the atrium from the library’s levels.
Architects: Askim/Lantto Architects Location: The Edøy Island, Smøla, Norway Project Leader: Niels Marius Askim Project Year: 2008 Photographs: Courtesy of Kvernberget Print og Reklame AS, Niels Marius Askim, Bjarne Ytrøy
I spent much of the nineties living in Tokyo, but it wasn’t until I had left that Ryuichi Sakamoto’s(1) music began to inform me about its complex environments.
His album, somewhat ironically (I think) titled BTTB, or, Back to the Basics, came out way back in 1999. Though post-dating my Tokyo Period, it sonically completed my memories of that city. Having leapt through time, it resolved my incomplete Tokyo soundtrack.
BTTB tries to be minimal, but, like the city it came from, struggles with complexity(2). Its opulent density made it seem like the piano had been miked on the inside, my ear forced down to the machinery of strings. The tension between richness and absence I perceived reminded me of trying to find my way in and around all of Tokyo’s jumbled systems.
Taking place October 6, Woodbury University in Burbank, CA is hosting the Advancing Sustainability 2012 Business + Design Symposium that focuses on the “cardiovascular system” of a city—its infrastructure. The discussion will investigate how various infrastructures—providers of core operational supply (transportation systems, energy and water supply, communications, built environment)—perform, exchange, and are incorporated into the natural environment. The discussion will address the extent of their influence on lifestyle and the overall dynamics of the city, as well as their management and opportunities for advancement. The event will curate a conversation amongst the most innovative minds within the fields of architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, engineering, and design to investigate the potential of sustainability within lifestyles and soft infrastructures. For more information, please visit here.
The Greek pavilion for the 2012 Venice Biennale will focus on the particular dynamics of Athens during a period of economic meltdown by addressing the deterioration of Athenian urban space, plummeting standards of living, and the need to redefine the priorities of architectural design. Architects and creative groups have already begun to shape a new “common ground” within Athens. With the exhibition “Made in Athens”, the Greek pavilion aims highlight these positive forces emerging during this crucial present moment in an effort to foreshadow a better future for the city and its architecture.
Continue after the break to learn more about “Made in Athens”.
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