Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects state, “In human experience there is no greater contrast than the conditions of peace and war.” For the Museum of the Second World War International Competition they wanted to highlight this contrast. The architecture of the museum building and its landscapes posits the conditions of contrast that invoke contemplation of the contradictions that war overlays onto human endeavor. Ultimately, the magnification and illumination of the museum’s message is the project of the architecture and the landscape.

Architect: Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects Location: Gdansk, Poland Project Team: Mack Scogin , Merrill Elam, Alan Locke, Rubi Xu, Greg Tran, Jared Serwer, Christopher Hoxie, Helen Han, Margaret Fletcher, Barnum Tiller, Mathew Weaver, Barrett Feldman, Ted Paxton Landscape Architect: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Landscape Project Team: Michael Van Valkenburgh, Izabela Riano ,Nicholas Pevzner Structural Engineer: Jane Wernick Associates Mechanical Engineer: Max Fordham Mechanical Engineer Team: Henry Luker, Mark Nutley Façade Consultant Team: Front, Bruce Nichol, Zach Wiegand Cost Consultant Team: Turner Townsend, Colin Wood Project Area: 22,330 sqm Competition Year: 2010

Zoka Zola is an architecture firm that is interested in high degrees of optimization that are achieved through a series of inventions — similar to the inventions and optimizations leading to human flight from early gliders and flying machines to the airplane — where characteristics, shape and use of each element is in a tight interdependent relationship with every other element. Where every element can be enjoyed on its own while at the same time is an essential part of the entire assembly. These inventions toward optimization contribute to the body of usable strategies in architecture, since each assembly is optimized for a very specific set of circumstances. While this high degree of “optimization” is not yet taken seriously as an architectural objective, they believe it will become an objective of future architects because of the growing awareness of our available resources and their uses, eventually making the terms “efficient” and “optimized” common place. This project develops a series of steps towards optimization through architectural form of a building’s natural ventilation.

Architect: Zoka Zola Architecture + Urban Design Location: Southern China MEP and Structural Engineer: Arup Cost Estimator: Rider Levett Bucknall

This week we are taking our Architecture City Guide to South Beach. Miami’s architectural styles range from austere corporate architecture, as it has the largest concentration of international banks in the United States, to colorful and playful architecture that reflects its beach and Latin American culture. Architecture lovers can’t miss Miami Beach’s Art Deco District or its old Spanish heritage. We have put together a list of 12 contemporary buildings that range from a small park pavilion to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. There is plenty more to see in Miami so please add your “must not miss” in the comment section below.

Architecture City Guide: Miami list and corresponding map after the break!

This is a vertically integrated neighborhood 22 stories in height consisting of 140 residential condominiums. The basis of the building design was to develop a vertically integrated neighborhood, with an emphasis on identity, connectivity to neighbors and gathering spaces.

Architect: Circle West Architects Location: 948 + 1000 East Apache Blvd. Tempe, Arizona, USA General Contractor: Wespac Construction Structural Engineer: Paul Koehler Civil Engineer: Site Consultants Electrical Engineer: CR Engineers Mechanical & Plumbing Engineer: Professional Consulting Engineers Project Area: 375,000 sqf Project Year: 2006 Photographs: Courtesy of Circle West Architects

In search of the origins of architecture, Laugier presented a primitive hut using the three basic elements of architecture – the post, the lintel and the gable. Semper’s pursuit of the origin resulted in a primitive dwelling that was comprised of four basic qualities – earthwork, hearth, framework/roof, and enclosing membrane. While Laugier’s list of basic elements stemmed from the obsession with disciplinary origins, Semper‘s meditations were a vehicle to essentialize that which was previously seen as superfluous, namely the building enclosure. Semper wanted to put ornament to work. Butterfly House is an exercise in re-working three ubiquitous elements – window, door and roof – until they exceed their functional value and lead the way to new architectural effects. Butterfly House builds upon Laugier’s primitive hut as a model of fitness, updated to reflect a post-bubble economic climate rather than mythical origins, as well as Semper’s interest in the productive capacity of the apparently unnecessary. Our conceptual hut uses a limited quantity of elements to solicit rich qualities and characteristics and uncovers a zone of enchantment between the essential and the excessive.

Architect: davidclovers Location: Wayne County, Pennsylvania, USA Project Area: 1,000 sqf Expected Completion: Fall 2011

Similar to the first edition published in 2007, the second edition of The Green Studio Handbook offers a useful introduction to green design. As noted in the title the content stays fairly schematic to help guide and introduce green strategies. This book purposely avoids creating a green building checklists and getting bogged down in technical details. In this way the book can cover a wide variety of topics and show how they are interrelated systems. Each strategy is accompanied by a wonderful set of sketches and images that aid in the readers understanding of the basic concepts.

This week our Architecture City Guide is headed to the capital and largest city in Ohio. Columbus is home to The Ohio State University, which probably merits a separate architecture guide all itself. Adding the city to the mix, it was very difficult to keep our list to only twelve. Check out our contemporary list and add to it in the comment section below.

The Architecture City Guide: Columbus list and corresponding map after the break.

When coming across Delugan Meissl Associated Architects’s newest book I first noticed its sheer weight and size. The second thing I noticed were the words Vol. I. Most architects would be happy/lucky enough to fill a book a quarter the size with their work. The projects range from chairs and small houses to the Porsche Museum and master planning of healthcare campuses. The introduction by Karl Jormakka gives a nice lens in which to view their work. Their work is constantly trying to elicit physiological responses “from a visceral juxtaposition of the human body with the architectural setting,” says Jormakka. In this way their work differs from many of the avant-garde architects who tie their work to French philosophers or abstract ideas from the natural sciences. Viewing DMAA’s work in this light, readers can easily explore how each project attempts to physiologically engage its users.

When I first read John Adams by David McCullough a few years ago I could not decide if I liked Mr. Adams for Mr. Adams or if I liked him for Mr. McCullough’s writing. After viewing Iwan Baan’s newest book, Living with Modernity, I have the same ambiguous feeling about Brasilia and Chandigarh. Baan’s photography of these controversial cities is both subtle and disarming. “ do not show how Le Corbusier and Niemeyer thought their cities would look; they show what the cities look like now, fifty to sixty years later.” Without arguing any particular point, Baan documents “what happens when the chilly, impersonal drawing from the past is populated by real, live human beings.” Some discomforting images are reminiscent of what happens when a child places his Tonka Trunk in the middle of an anthill; life follows in and out of structures that relate very little to the realities of daily life. Spaces are simply co-opted for purposes that stand in stark contrast to the intended purpose of the structures. At the same time Baan captures fascinating and brilliant moments of beauty that Niemeyer and Le Corbusier never could have planned for–or the did. As difficult as it is to put stunning photography into words, the short accompanying essay by Cees Nooteboom certainly comes close and is well worth a read. The book closes with a succinct but informative piece by Martino Stierli. Stierli gives the background, historical context, and controversy surrounding the two cities. In the end, I am still ambivalent on whether or not I admire such a ambitious/hubris top-down approach to design, but after seeing the cities in Baan’s book I am certainly fascinated by them—perhaps enough so that I will travel there some day in the future.

This week our Architecture City Guide is headed to the city stars fall on. With a few notable exceptions, one can hardly be called a starchitect if s/he hasn’t designed something in Minneapolis. Since 2005 the starchitects that have fallen on this “City of Lakes” include Jean Nouvel, Herzog & de Mueron, César Pelli, Michael Graves, Steven Holl, and Frank Gehry. This is a surprising number for a city just north of 380,000 people. Few cities of this size could boast as much. What’s more our list of 12 is far from complete. There are many wonderful historic and contemporary buildings mixed in with the explosion of starchitecture. Please leave comments of buildings one should not miss when visiting Minneapolis.

Architecture City Guide: Minneapolis list and corresponding map after the break!

Author, architect and materials expert Blaine Brownell recently published a book on his travels to twenty leading material and design innovators in Japan. The book includes interviews with Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, Kengo Kuma, Kazuyo Sejima, and others. Brownell took on this journey to discover the connections between materiality and transience in their work. For centuries the Japanese culture has treated materials with an uncommon reverence. Regarded as rich resources of inspiration, materials are consecrated when they are handled or altered according to their “internal voice”. Brownell sought to find how today’s daily inundation of new materials has affected this thoughtful approach. The discussion is carried out with text and stunning photographs that help illustrate his main points.

Table of Contents following the break.

I recently got the chance to review Pamphlet Architecture Coupling / Strategies for Infrastructural Opportunism. From bringing a terminal lake back to life and using landfills as an open space connectors to actively anticipating the future of the Caspian Sea’s oil rig field and turning Canada’s northern regions into a more active destination, this work explores ways infrastructures can become soft multivalent systems instead of the hard systems we see today. This challenges the antiquated ideas of buildings simply being geometric formal objects. With the interconnected world, buildings themselves have become infrastructural to the larger systems. Keller Easterling states, “No longer simply what is hidden or beneath another urban structure, many infrastructures are the urban formula, the very parameters of global urbanism.”

Table of Contents following the break.

This week our Architecture City Guide heads to Richmond, Virginia. Admittedly, it was Richmond’s pair of Cinderellas in this year’s NCAA Tournament that first caught our attention. However, with our interest peaked, we spent the last week exploring its architecture and found much to be admired. Richmond is by far the smallest city we have featured; with only 200,000 residents, the next closest on our list is twice its size. Architecturally, this Cinderella city can compete in her own way with the architectural powerhouses we have previously featured. Richmond’s architectural appeal comes from the city’s ability to keep its rich historic fabric intact while experimenting with new modes of design. While the city strongly embraces the gritty manufacturing buildings of its past, Richmond has resisted the imitation trap and has promoted modern interpretations of the older forms and materials. The majority of the buildings we chose to feature are emblematic of Richmond architecture, rehab/addition projects. We couldn’t possibly fit all our favorites in our list of twelve, so please take a look and add ones that visitors should not miss in the comment section below.

The Architecture City Guide: Richmond list and corresponding map after the break!

Christian Pottgiesser architecturespossibles recently shared with us their entry for the Russian Orthodox Center in Paris. Read about their proposal and view their renderings and video after the break.

Two students, Jarrad Morgan and Christopher Roach, at the Harvard Graduate School of Design shared with us an intriguing book they recently published. The book explores how small autonomous practices can come together as a networked practice “to create a unique value proposition for targeting large commissions and exploiting markets that would be otherwise unavailable.” They chose to take on this topic at a time when most firms exist in one of two extremes; global conglomerate A/E firms or small localized specialty offices. To investigate their hypothesis, they looked at six firms that exhibit many of the characteristics they believe are necessary to be successful as a networked practice. The case study examples include six degrees, over,under, UNStudio, various network and supersudaca.

The main objective behind the design for the new Staten Island Animal Care Center was to create a high quality environment for the animals, staff and visitors. The building is sheathed in a highly insulating, translucent polycarbonate envelope. This provides higher performance in comparison to typical glass and maximizes the benefits of natural light. The roof of the outer perimeter housing the animals is raised above a lower interior roof plane, which covers other shelter functions. This configuration permits the daylight to enter the facility on multiple sides. Natural ventilation is encouraged along the periphery with the use of a passive air ventilation system. A sophisticated mechanical system that uses heat recovery to feed heat gain energy back into the system is incorporated into the design to provide constant fresh air exchange.

Architect: Garrison Architects Location: Staten Island, New York City, New York, USA Project Area: 5,500 sqf Renderings: Courtesy of Garrison Architects

Architects Andreas Fuhrimann and Gabrielle Hächler recently published a monograph detailing seven buildings and their design philosophy. It is easy to get caught up in the mesmerizing images of this book. With little more than plywood and concrete, they bring spaces to life in a way that few can. They demonstrate how “spatial quality is by no means merely an issue of the materials employed.” That being said, make sure you pull yourself away from the images as the text should not be missed. Besides their own contributions, other authors include, Kurt W. Forster, Marie Theres Stauffer, Gianni Jetzer, and Hubertus Adam.

More on the monograph after the break.

The international team of 3XN and William McDonough + Partners is about to develop one of Europe’s first and most ambitious Cradle to Cradle® projects; the Green Solution House on the island of Bornholm, Denmark. Green Solution House will be an innovative ‘Demonstratorium’ facilitating the development and test of new green technologies on an international scale. At the same time the building will function as a showcase in itself; designed according to the Cradle to Cradle® principles, the project is anticipated to integrate the latest knowledge within materials and appropriate technologies.

More details after the break.

Visit the projects we have previously featured of both firms: 3XN and William McDonough + Partners