Taking place June 21-25 at Ajman University of Science & Technology, is a 5-day architectural workshop by the internationally renowned architect Tom Wiscombe. The title of the workshop is: “Nested Figures and Loose Outer Shells.” For more information and registration please contact workshop coordinator Dr. Jihad Awad: dr_jihadaa@yahoo.com, j.awad@ajman.ac.ae
Designed by Gartnerfuglen Arkitekter, the small shelter for ice fishing, titled ‘Noun.1 Unavailability’, is built with and by nature. The timber frame is foldable for easy relocation and storage, and is effortlessly put up anywhere by one (or two small) persons in 30 seconds. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Organized by RCR Arquitectes and the Bunka Foundation, this year’s course, which takes place August 4-31, offers the architectural point of view of RCR Arquitectes, with the architects’ monitoring of the projects produced in the workshop and guided tours throughout their built work. This course will be complemented with conferences given by prestigious guests combining architecture, landscape and other related issues (Josep Maria Montaner, Hisao Suzuki, Carme Pigem, amongst others). Participants will live an intense experience during one month in which creativity and humanism will trace the main axes of the course, in order to achieve a complete and high standard result and understanding of an architectural Project. More information after the break.
Yasuaki Onishi, who is known for his art throughout Japan and internationally, currently has an installation on exhibit in the Rice Gallery in Houston titled, ‘Reverse of Volume RG’. On display until June 24, he uses plastic sheeting and black hot glue to create a monumental, mountainous form that appears to float in space. In using these simple materials, he is able to successfully meditate on the nature of the negative space, or void, left behind. More images and project description after the break.
Kokaistudios was recently announced as the winner of the competition for the new Tsinghua University Law Library located in Beijing, China. Proposing a reflection on the role of void in structuring functions and programs within the building, their design also defines, at the same time, its relations within its surroundings. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Hosted by Topos Magazine, the ‘Follow Me: Berlin’s Airport’ Conference will be taking place in the disused buildings of Tempelhof Airport on June 5. A number of prominent European Architects, Urban Designers & Landscape Architects will be giving lectures / presentations on the re-appropriation of redundant airports. What role will this new airport on the fringes of Berlin play in the development of the city into the future? What will become of Tempelhof, Tegel & Gatow? The Topos Landscape Award will also be presented. Tours of Tempelhof will be offered on the following day. For more detailed information on the event, please visit here.
Sunglass, built by two TED fellows, Nitin Rao and Kaustuv DeBiswas, is a collection of three products: the company’s Sunglass Player, which allows artists to incorporate the objects that they’ve created with the software into other web services like Behance. The player is fully interactive, allowing someone to rotate, flip, and scale the model that they’re currently building, through their mouse and, again, without Flash installed. At a time when Autodesk’s AutoCAD suite of software, costs upwards of $5,000 for a single copy and feels clunky on most machines, Sunglass brings some true innovation to the drawing table.
Driven by the collaboration of Quicksand Design Studio, Jameel Poverty Action Lab, the city governments of two large cities in India, and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Project Sammaan is a development project that seeks to create improved sanitation services for the urban poor residing in slums in India. The challenge seeks to discover radical ideas and new perspectives that will help us in our attempt to reinvent low-cost urban sanitation. The goals is to design and build 119 sanitation facilities in urban slums in India. Collectively, these facilities will have 1200+ toilets, bathrooms, spaces for washing clothes, and will benefit 60,000+ people. The project started in February 2012 and will last for 16-19 months at the end of which these toilets will be operational. The deadline for submissions is May 15. For more detailed information, please visit here.
Taking place May 12 from 1oam-4pm, the Marin Living: Home Tours, hosted by AIA San Francisco, is an open house tour featuring five projects that showcase and celebrate the richness of our local built environment in hopes of engaging the general public about the value of good design and its impact on our daily lives. Now in its third year, Marin Living: Home Tours offers an inside look at the wealth of great design in our region. Tour-goers will have the opportunity to explore cutting-edge residential projects in Sausalito, Mill Valley and San Rafael, meet design teams, and discover innovative design solutions. Featured projects exhibit sustainable features, innovative use of materials and thoughtful integration with the neighborhood and surrounding landscape. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit here.
Aedas recently won 8 prestigious awards at the Asia Pacific Property Awards presentation ceremony, which was held on April 28 in Kuala Lumpur. Center 66 from Hang Lung Properties, a mixed use development of 376,800 sqm straddling across two sites conjoined by a public plaza hosting a cluster of heritage buildings in Wuxi, PRC, won “5 Star Award, Best Mixed Use Architecture for China”, and subsequently won “Best Mixed Use Architecture Award for Asia Pacific”. More information on their awards after the break.
One of the most prominent architectural event in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Days of Architecture, which takes place May 10-13, includes different lectures held by local and international architects, exhibitions, movie screenings etc. The topic for Days of Architecture 2012 -City(and)conscience, aims at questioning the cities of today, not only by the experts, but the broader audience too. “Urban Farmers”, “Informal Cities”, “Social sustainability”, “Green City and mobility” are some of the topics to be discussed by architects from different parts of the world, while presenting contemporary processes, projects and approaches in practice. More information on the event after the break.
Attracting more than 1.4 million visitors since opening in June, the Riverside Museum, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, recently won the European Museum Academy Micheletti Award 2012. Named the most innovative museum in the fields of technology, labor and social history, Riverside competed against museums in 12 other European countries to win the 17th annual award. More information on the award after the break.
The new city, designed by Mekano Studio, will be a smart data city, a city driven with data, a city that can help each person to choose and decide, a City respects the human mind and gives him the option to take part in his own life as it must have to be. The data city is a city that administrates everything with a real time data, in order to evaluate and respect the time factor as well and to increase the productivity with a well organized community. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Architects and designers everywhere know the amount of time it takes to get accurate floor plan measurements with a measuring tape, a pencil, and some graph paper, but now there’s an app that gives you the convenience of measuring right in the palm of your hand in a matter of minutes. The Magic Plan app, conveniently named, simply asks for certain areas of a specific room and is able to assemble a floor plan for you. The app also includes tutorials on how to use it effectively and get fully adjusted to it. Above is a video to give you an idea of how this magic app works and some images can be viewed after the break.
Seattle-based landscape architects Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN) and New York-based architects Davis Brody Bond (DBB) were recently selected as the winners of the National Mall Design Competition for Union Square. Organized by the Trust for the National Mall, a jury of eight esteemed professionals selected a design team for each of the three re-design sites of the National Mall through a three-stage process. The winning design was judged on flexibility, sustainability, and creativity of their design and how well it reflects the established vision and design influences of this historic setting. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The winning proposal for the conference and exhibition center in Leon, Spain by Dominique Perrault Architecture stands on the grounds of the old Sugar Santa Elvira and involves the transformation of the main building of the former sugar in Congress Hall (Grand Palais) and the creation of an Exhibition center located to the east side of the Palace of Congress. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Danish architects CEBRA, along with developers Pihl & Søn and engineers Hundsbæk & Henriksen recenlty won the competition for a new Adult Education Centre of in downtown Odense, Denmarks’s third largest city. The 12.500 m2 / 134.550 ft2 educational institution aims at creating a flexible and diverse learning environment that gives room for individual needs in a collective building. According to the plans, the centre will open at the beginning of 2014. More images and architects’ description after the break.
gmp Architekten shared with us their first prize winning proposal for the Trianel GmgH Corporate Centre in Aachen, Germany. The new building is located along a major road next to the Tivoli stadium. From 2013 on it is to be built in two phases, the first of which comprises 9,600 square metres of gross floor area and will accommodate 400 members of staff. In the second, optional phase the building can be extended by 4,800 square metres to accommodate a further 200 employees. The building’s sustainability concept merits a silver DGNB certificate. More images and architects’ description after the break.