The Hong Kong Alternative Car Park Tower, designed by Chris Y. H. Chan + Stephanie M. L. Tan, is an alternative building typology that could fit for a city with very limited land resources. At the same time, they are critiquing the current developments of most metropolitan cities: growing rapidly without vision and preparation for our human future. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Mjölk Architects shared with us their winning entry, titled ‘Polar Hen’, to an international arts and architecture competition in Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Their design consists of a pump with a sprinkler connected to a compressor and a generator creating a very fearsome creature which lays ‘ice eggs’. The Warming Huts v.2012 was an open competition endorsed by the Manitoba Association of Architects. More images and brief architects’ description after the break.
Gathering was a pavilion designed by Gathering (Ginna Nguyen, So Sugita, Dale Suttle) selected out of more than 600 international entries to be built in a “visionary village” in Union Square Park in September 2010. The distinguished jury included Thom Mayne, Paul Goldberger and Geoff Manaugh, among others. Gathering was then purchased by the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue and exhibited in Washington, D.C. through October 2010. Sukkah City New York was a competition that sought to re-imagine the sukkah, a temporary shelter erected each year to remember the biblical exodus from Egypt. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Located in close proximity to the regional Hospital in Næstved, Denmark, the new Oasis Cancer Care Center, designed by WE Architecture, will help anyone affected by cancer through professional help in exceptional buildings specifically designed for this. In order to create a building inspired by the model of healing architecture, the Cancer Care Center was designed as an introvert building, opening up towards two inner courtyards. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Commissioned by the Housing and Development Board as an exploration of the future of affordable public housing, WOHA‘s public housing design for Skyville @ Dawson consists of 960 homes in Singapore. As a response to the enthusiasm received by the public, their project is currently under construction and is estimated to be completed February 2015. The design focuses on 3 themes – community, variety and sustainability. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Grimshaw Architects, in association with local project partners Konrath & Wennemar and FSWLA were recently selected to deliver their visionary masterplan strategy for the city center area of Mönchengladbach, Germany. Through close collaborative working with the citizens of Mönchengladbach, the aim is to produce a strategy to optimise the quality of life, improve the economy and the appearance of the inner-city areas. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Oasia Downtown, designed by WOHA, sets out to create an alternative imagery for commercial high-rise developments. It combines innovative ways to intensify land use with a tropical approach that showcases a perforated, permeable, furry, verdant tower of green in the heart of Singapore’s Central Business District (CBD). More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by Łukasz Iwan, the educational center is devoted to the youth of Praga in Warsaw, Poland. The fundamental assumption of the project is to integrate the building with the adjacent elementary school to create a database to develop talent among young people. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by Henning Larsen Architects and Batteriid Architects, the Harpa Concert Hall was one of the finalists for Building of the Year. On the border between land and sea, the Center stands out as a large, radiant sculpture reflecting both sky and harbor space as well as the vibrant life of the city. This is all very elegantly represented in Pedro Kok‘s video which gives us more insight to the building from multiple viewpoints.
DO|SU Studio Architecture shared with us their architectural research installation, titled ‘Bloom,’ displayed at the Materials and Application Gallery in Los Angeles. The project acts as a sun tracking instrument indexing time and temperature, with a shape alluding to a woman’s Victorian-era under garment, ‘Bloom’ to stitch together material experimentation, structural innovation, and computational form and pattern making into an environmentally responsive form. The project is especially designed for peak performance on spring equinox, March 20, 2012. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The design for the Wind Tower by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos aims to create a landmark which modifies its proportions depending on the viewpoint and the effect of the sunlight; revealing an element in a constant evolution. An engraved tower devoted to the wind, The building combines renewable energy which feeds the city and its facilities with electricity, without needing other resources. More images and architects’ description after the break.
On behalf of the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture (MoIC), representing the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and supported by the Government of the U.S. and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, S.E.E. | office for architecture and design is pleased to announce and promote the International Architectural Ideas Competition (IAIC_NMA) for the new National Museum of Afghanistan.
The competition is a one stage ideas competition to generate design proposals, which are due no later than June 6th, for an architectural master plan and detailed building design for the site of the National Museum of Afghanistan. More information on the competition after the break.
The hotel-spa building proposal for the ‘Stavia 2012′ competition aims to be fully integrated with the landscape, for it is covered by a green slope that hides the stack of the building. Designed by Menomenopiu Architects, the building is no longer an urban border between the city and the lake but it rather becomes nature’s means to claim and regain the bank by providing the user with a promenade equipped with different services. More images and architects’ description after the break.
i2a istituto internazionale di architettura will be organizing a round table on airports and their complexity on Friday, March 16th at 8:00pm in Vico Morcote. Representatives of the fields of airport management and design will be joined by two artists to exchange stories, uses, criticality and design of several airports in and around Ticino. They will be offering a more poetic vision of infrastructure as a reflection on spatial types. This discussion will coincide with the opening of the exhibition The life of airports. Two case studies: Lugano and Santa Maria Island (Azores). More information on the event after the break.
The aim of the proposal for the University of Latvia Academic Center of Natural Sciences by Sestais Stils Architects is to create a comfortable, functional and sustainable environment for studies and work. They wanted a space for students and other interested persons to research and acquire contemporary knowledge and technologies. They also wanted to create a unit of urban structure where all functions necessary for optimal study and research process are provided at one place but at the same time the structure interacts with ‘outside world’ as well. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission for a permanent installation at the Randal Museum, Windswept, designed by Charles Sowers Studios, is a wind-driven kinetic facade that transforms a blank wall into an observational instrument that reveals the complex interactions between wind and environment. The design consists of 612 freely-rotating directional arrows, which serve as discrete data points indicating the direction of local flow within the larger phenomenon. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Chris Mullaney shared with us a project he designed for his parent’s house in Stroud on a relatively small budget. Through working with form and construction and a chance to put academic work into practice, the Origami Coop sees the ubiquitous chicken coop as an opportunity for experiment. More images and Mullaney’s description after the break.
Suyabatmaz Demirel Architects shared with us their design for the Goksu Rope Factory Lofts in Istanbul. The new owner of this derelict factory wanted to turn his investment into a high-end residential project consisting of various sized lofts. After visiting the site, our major concern became clear. Since the 17.000m2 building was used many years for industrial production, it should still deliver the authentic atmosphere even after it has been rehabilitated for new functions. In order to keep the intangible precipitation of this place, a subtle and humble design strategy was necessary. More images and architects’ description after the break.