Alison Furuto

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Video: Knowing Kuma

Produced by Omar Kakar of OHM Studio Collaborative, the video above features the motto of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, "Starting from small things". The film begins to grasp the view of a man's goal to "recover the traditional Japanese building." From philosophy of nature and materiality to personal taste in film and music, Kuma travels to San Diego to share his influences and insight on the world of architecture with design students from Woodbury School of Architecture as part of their 2012 lecture series. Kuma takes you on a tour of the inspirational Salk Institute by Kahn, while mentioning a few of his favorite works. An Archdaily interview with Kuma can be viewed here.

2013 Douglas C. Allen Lecture: Adriaan Geuze

This year's Douglas C. Allen Lecture, presented by the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Architecture, features Adriaan Geuze, one of the founders of West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture. Founded in 1987, West 8 is an award-winning international office which has established itself as a leading practice within the last 20 years with about 70 architects, urban designers, landscape architects, and industrial engineers. The event takes place Wednesday, March 6th, from 6:00pm-7:30pm in the Reinsch-Pierce Family Auditorium. For more details about the event, please visit here.

Call for Projects: Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good

Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good, the official U.S. representation at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2012), will travel to Chicago in May 2013, and is seeking new projects—urban interventions realized in U.S. cities in the past two years—with an emphasis on those based in Chicago and the Midwest region. The exhibition will be on view through Summer 2013. The exhibition in Chicago will feature a site-specific adaptation of the original exhibition design and will include many of the projects featured in Venice alongside dozens of new projects selected as a result of this open call for submissions. Submissions are due no later than March 6th. For more information, please visit here.

Art-Ovrag 2013: Garden City Festival Competition - Balancing Pavilion

In the framework of New Culture Festival, 'Art-Ovrag 2013: Garden City', there is currently an open call for their open architectural international competition “Balancing Pavilion”. The event, which takes place annually in Vyksa, Russia, gathers the best modern art designers, architectures and artists in one place. The 30 best projects will be presented on the exhibitions in Vyksa city, Volga department of NCCA (Nizhny Novgorod) and State Museum of architecture named after Schusev, Moscow. The deadline to register is March 22nd and the submission deadline is March 30th. To register, and for more information, please visit here.

Olympiades District in Paris Exhibition

Going on now until March 31, the Olympiades, Paris exhibition at the Pavillon de l'Arsenal revisits the Olympiades district and its half century past rich in architectural thought, controversy, citizen debates and engagement at the heart of the city of Paris in general and the 13th arrondissement in particular. About 40 years after the construction of the first buildings, the historian and exhibition curator, Françoise Moiroux, explores the urban, political and social elements of vertical urban planning and platform architecture through the prism of the Olympiades area. More information after the break.

Iwan Baan: 'The Way We Live' Exhibition

Opening tonight, February 20, at 6:00pm PST at the Perry Rubenstein Gallery in Los Angeles, Iwan Baan's 'The Way We Live' exhibition features captivating large-scale images of urban, architectural, and home environments that capture Baan’s singular vision. Baan’s artistic practice examines how we live and interact with architecture, focusing on the human element, which brings buildings, intersections, and public gathering places to life. Running until April 13, this is Baan's first solo exhibition at the gallery. More information after the break.

Nordic Cool 2013 Forum Talk by Bjarke Ingels

As part of the Nordic Cool 2013 Forum: Designing Nature: Art & Architecture in Cities and Public Spaces exhibition, which is on now until March 17, Bjarke Ingels, the internationally acclaimed Danish architect and founder and principal of BIG, will give a forum talk on February 24. At this free event, located at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C, Ingels will share to the audience his views on development and challenges of sustainable design. Through a series of award-winning design projects, Bjarke and BIG have developed a reputation for designing buildings that are as programmatically and technically innovative as they are cost and resource conscious. More information after the break.

Indesem ’13: 'Scale Matters'

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the biannual workshop series, Indesem (International Design Seminar) '13 is a week long workshop for students and recent graduates, accompanied by a publicly accessible lecture series featuring renowned architects and theorists reflecting on the current theme. Taking place April 19-26 at the Faculty of Architecture in Delft, the Netherlands, the fundamental idea of the seminar, with the theme of 'Scale Matters', is to create an environment where students and professionals can debate about the position of an architect. The outcome can contribute to the current architectural discussion. Competition to participate in the workshop is open for applicants until February 27. For more information, please visit here.

Video: Diller Scofidio + Renfro talk Hirshhorn "Bubble" on The Creators Project

The Creators Project released two new documentaries this week which feature the brightest new minds in design and architecture. The first piece investigates the work of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and interdisciplinary design firm behind NYC’s High Line and Lincoln Center, and more. The second piece introduces us to the digital deviants OKFocus behind their new alpha-channel video experience for Tanlines’ “Not The Same.” The first video is above and the second video can be viewed after the break.

Equation Exhibition

Taking place February 20-March 15, Grimshaw Architects will be holding their first exhibition staged in Asia, titled 'Equation'. The exhibition will explore how the natural environment provides inspiration for innovative architectural projects around the world. These projects adopt biomimicry for greater efficiency, acknowledge the importance of connecting building users to nature and work to harness natural systems which ensure that buildings conserve and replenish natural resources. Located at the Urban Redevelopment Authority in Singapore, this marks the sixth major exhibition of work from Grimshaw which continues on from this tradition. More information after the break.

Aurinkokivi School Awarded Proposal / Rudanko+Kankkunen

Aurinkokivi School Awarded Proposal / Rudanko+Kankkunen - Image 4 of 4
Courtesy of Rudanko+Kankkunen

The design proposal for the Aurinkokivi School competition in Vantaa, Finland by Rudanko + Kankkunen was recently awarded a purchase prize for its inspiring architecture and child-friendly spaces. The concept is simple yet fresh: traditional gabled building wings meet and form a surprising composition at the heart of the building. The building is mostly on one level and can be realized with repeating construction elements. It is designed to be inexpensive to build, yet highly fresh and inviting. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Winy Maas to Deliver Lecture on “What’s Next?” at NSAD

Winy Maas to Deliver Lecture on “What’s Next?” at NSAD - Featured Image
DNB Bank Headquarters by MVRDV / © Jiri Havran

Taking place this coming Wednesday, February 20th, Winy Maas, a Netherlands-based architect, urbanist and co-founder of the internationally-recognized firm MVRDV, is scheduled to speak at NewSchool of Architecture and Design (NSAD) at 9:00am PST on the topic of “What’s Next?”. The free lecture includes a discussion on the recent works of MVRDV and the research institute The Why Factory, a think tank directed by Maas in collaboration with Delft University of Technology that develops scenarios and models of the city of the future. For more information, please visit here.

100 Norfolk Street / ODA

100 Norfolk Street / ODA - Image 5 of 4
Courtesy of ODA

Designed by ODA, 100 Norfolk Street expresses the unlimited potential and ambition hidden in the New York Block as it stands significantly taller than its neighbors. Located within the Lower east side Manhattan, the design creates a rather unusual condition, a mid-block – freestanding building overlooking the area, offering strong light exposure for the interior residential spaces and direct views of Downtown, Midtown and the Williamsburg Bridge. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Art Stage Singapore Installation & Exhibition / WY-TO Architects

Art Stage Singapore Installation & Exhibition / WY-TO Architects - Image 21 of 4
© Frank Pinckers

Inspired by the textile industry of Southeast Asia, Yann Follain, co-founder of WY-TO Architects, has designed a Floating Skeleton at Art Stage Singapore to greet the fair’s visitors. The wire-framed floating structure will act as a gateway to Asia’s global art fair. The over-sized loom theme follows through into the new VIP area – The Whirl. Follain has deliberately used lines (representing thread), color, light and textures to represent the diverse and differentiating cultural influences on the established textile industry of Southeast Asia. More images and architects’ description after the break.

5th Annual Budapest Architecture Film Days

5th Annual Budapest Architecture Film Days - Featured Image
Courtesy of Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre

Initiated by KÉK – Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre in 2007, the 5th Annual Budapest Architecture Film Days will be taking place February 28-March 3. The main intent of the event is to use the medium of film to highlight the most subtle processes in architecture, design and urban development. This year, the 4-day festival proposes the richest and most diverse program of its half-decade existence to those interested in architecture, design and cities. The event opens with a portrait of one of the most influential architects of the 20th century, Oscar Niemeyer. For more information, including a complete program of events, please visit here.

Video: 'The Scooter' / A4 Studio

Above is a video created by A4 Studio which features three of their projects located in the shore of the biggest lake of Middle-Europe, Lake Balaton. The Club 218 and Sio Plaza are two of the three projects in the film that have been published on Archdaily. All projects featured here are very modern works and emphasize A4 Studio’s creative design methodology. The architectural gestures of these projects is shown in detail as a child is shown moving in and around the buildings on a scooter.

Eco-Zone Winning Proposal / BAT + Arquitecnica + LaSuma Paisajistas

Eco-Zone Winning Proposal / BAT + Arquitecnica + LaSuma Paisajistas - Image 11 of 4
Courtesy of BAT + Arquitecnica + LaSuma Paisajistas

BAT + Arquitecnica + LaSuma Paisajistas shared with us their first prize winning proposal in the Eco-Zone competition for a center for cultural and linguistic diversity and an energy platform (renewable + energy efficiency technologies), including all their necessary content of museographic character. Their proposal aims to value the pre-existing built and landscape of the estate Zabalegi in San Sebastian. The architects seek to remember through their intervention, raising some core structural sections that are born from the house of the Indian, that the first stone or seed of this project was planted by Mr. Arteaga when he to donated his plot performing an act of social responsibility. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Grand Stade FFR (French Rugby Federation) Winning Proposal / Populous & Ateliers 2/3/4/

Grand Stade FFR (French Rugby Federation) Winning Proposal / Populous & Ateliers 2/3/4/ - Image 2 of 4
Courtesy of Populous & Ateliers 2/3/4/

The French Rugby Federation (FFR) recently announced they will use the proposal by Populous and Ateliers 2/3/4/ for the design of the Grand Stade. After several months of discussions with three competing groups, the FFR has made its choice of designers and has issued the first computer-rendered images. The FFR Grand Stade will be much more than a stadium; the 82,000 capacity venue will become the ‘national stadium of rugby’. It will host all the French rugby home matches, and also accommodate conventions, shows and a broad range of sporting events thanks to its multi-purpose design. More images and architects’ description after the break.