Big Enough? Architecture Exhibition held at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, Canada now until July 8 features architecture firms Altius Architecture Inc., nkA and rzlbd who created new installations which explore the idea of what is big enough. In addition, artist Surendra Lawoti presents a photography installation. The Metrics or Memories? installation by nkA seeks to illustrate the potential qualitative returns should we choose to shift focus from the metrics of space to the optimization of spatial experience. More architects’ description after the break.
Frank Lloyd Wright‘s 16-room, 6,100 square foot house built in 1897 for Isidore Heller was just placed on the market with an asking price of $2.5 million. Sitting on a large piece of land in Hyde Park, one of Wright’s more highly regarded house, is an architectural marvel with its high ceilings and and large rooms, which contrasts with the more well-known houses Wright is known for. The house also includes seven bedrooms, 33 stained glass windows, four fireplaces and an operational elevator. More images after the break.
Atelier Thomas Pucher recently won the first prize in the international competition for the new extension of the Salzburg Regional Hospital. The design combines a “double-comb” structure that accommodates treatment and examination rooms with a cross-shaped area dedicated for the ward and nursery departments. This distribution is completed by a final slab that host the laboratory and that integrates seamlessly the whole building. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Active City Transformation (ACT) recently designed a public space using flooding as a productive phenomenon, both as an active and attractive element. The intent of Shifting Fields is to create a more experience-rich site, which underlines the relationships to the adjacent functions and characteristics. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Located in the Finnish city of Turku, the Calamari Union project by LRA (Lapo Ruffi Architetto) is designed around the theme, “European urbanity | Resonance between territories and ways of life. What architectures for sustainable cities?”. The project responds to a new demand of making a city outside of the city. How must we design places to live in contexts not yet settled? Limen in Latin means limit, but also threshold, entrance. It is therefore in the etymology of this word that the premises are found for what can become a place of boundary, not to be intended as a barrier, but as an opportunity of connection. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Andrew Burns Architect recently won the competition for a gallery-atelier in rural Japan – Australia House. The competition was judged by Tadao Ando and open internationally. Their design is scheduled to be completed in July 2012 and will be a key part of the Echigo Tsumari Art Trienale 2012. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Architectural League recently announced the winners of its 30th annual Emerging Voices awards. Each year the League selects eight emerging practitioners through a juried portfolio competition. The award spotlights individuals and firms based in the United States, Canada, or Mexico with distinct design voices and the potential to influence the disciplines of architecture, landscape design, and urbanism. The jury reviews significant bodies of realized work that represent the best of their kind, and address larger issues of architecture, landscape, and the built environment. This year’s jury included Henry Cobb, Geoff Manaugh, Paul Lewis, Jamie Maslyn Larson, Annabelle Selldorf, Claire Weisz, and Dan Wood. More images and information on the awards after the break.
Collective Architects shared with us their proposal for the Uşak Intercity Bus Terminal Complex Architectural Design Competition which won the second prize. Their design aims to bring in a terminal building to the city, which is designed with a well topographic analysis of the competition site. Their approach also involves combining the space left from the terminal building with the recreational area. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Architects: Anna & Eugeni Bach Location: Pälölä farm, Nummi Pusula, Finland Collaborators: Uma and Rufus Bach Project Dates: July 20 - July 21, 2011 Work Site Dates: August 10 – August 24, 2011 Built Surface: 13,50 m2 Budget: 800 € Promoter/Owner: Uma and Rufus Bach Constructor: Self built (Anna & Eugeni Bach) Photographs: Tiia Ettala
Last summer, architects Anna & Eugeni Bach found themselves in a situation that many parents who are architects with children might be able to relate. Their children, after realizing their parents were architects, wondered why they hadn’t made a house for them. So they promised them they would build a house for them on their grandparents farm in Finland. And, of course, at the kids insistence, they fulfilled their promise. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Tesseract Collective‘s shared with us the results of their recent competition “Almost Home”, which asked designers to consider how it is possible to rehabilitate homeless people. They hold regular design competitions around humanitarian topics, with the intention of opening discussion over how architecture can be used powerfully to alleviate suffering and social deprivation around the world. “Almost Home” was the second homeless themed competition they have held. The brief called for a holistic and thoughtful strategy, which would integrate well with the urban environment and have a more long-term approach than immediate survival and comfort. More images and information on the winning entries after the break.
The challenging task of designing for the Eurovision Song Contest this year was undertaken by combining the efforts of gmp Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner, Alpine Bau Deutschland AG, and Nüssli International AG. Taking place in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku at Crystal Hall, the aim was to create and implement a multipurpose event-venue that is meant to accommodate 25,000 spectators.The characteristic crystalline shape of the building and its illuminated façade is the response to Azerbaijan’s special request for the creation of a widely visible and visually effective landmark as a bridge between Asia and Europe that will be noticed in an international context. More images and architects’ description after the break.
From February 3 – March 15, renowned Architecture Forum Aedes Gallery in Berlin will be hosting an exhibition with the title Give more featuring projects by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects. Give more features nine selected architecture projects paraphrasing nine visions on how architecture can give more by adding value and positive change for people, places, and communities. More architects’ description on the exhibition after the break.
Designed by Like Architects, Frozen Trees is a temporary installation for Christmas lighting in D. Pedro IV square in Lisbon. It builds an illuminated, frozen and fractal Christmas landscape that affects and alters the path of passers by as thirty cylinders – structured, self-sufficient streetlights – are placed throughout the square, drawing a new landscape and context and inviting the visitors to new spatial experiences. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Lost Wall project by YNL Design is not meant to be a physical revival of what’s lost, but rather an ideological intervention through the use of controversial architectural intrusion. It redefines the project site by sharply contrasting with the surrounding environment, an allegory of modern China and its destructive treatment of Beijing’s historic buildings in the past century. The goal is to reinforce the importance of historic preservation by facilitating a cultural discussion. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Sasaki Associates, with RDG Planning & Design and Applied Ecological Services (AES), were recently announced as the winning team of the Water Works Parkitecture Competition. The international design competition entailed the creation of a conceptual plan for Water Works Park to form dynamic relationships between the river, the watershed, and the community. Education and the connection between the river and the community were highly stressed in Sasaki’s winning proposal. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The aim of Bike The Floating Stadium by architects Quentin Perchet & Gabriel Scerri is to design a gift to the city, a symbol of sustainability, and a 24/7 open public space gathering in an exemplary way for leisure, entertainment, and philanthropy. Their concept consists in driving bicycles and pedestrians from their homes to an exceptional viewing platform of the city, through a promenade along the water in the Noord 7 area of Amsterdam. More images and architects’ description after the break.
As part of the European Capital of Culture Maribor 2012, the architectural exhibition, ‘Unfinished Modernisations / Between Utopia and Pragmatism’ will be taking place at the Maribor Art Gallery from February 10 – April 22. The presentation of architectural projects and large-scale urbanistic plannings which denote the period of (socialist) Yugoslavia is a long-expected project that will focus on the milestones and visions of the (unfinished) modernisation of cities during socialism as well as answer the questions about their role and legacy in the successor countries. More information on the exhibition after the break
Above is a video of the Redbull New Headquarters in Amsterdam designed by Sid Lee Architecture. Their main goal was to combine the almost brutal simplicity of an industrial built work with Red Bull’s mystical invitation to perform. In the architecture, they offer, nothing is clearly set; all is a matter of perception.
