We’re excited to share that Islington Council has just announced Levitt Bernstein’s ‘Homesown’ scheme as the winning proposal for the Islington Housing Design Competition. Competing against 59 other firms, Levitt Bernstein’s design attracted the jurors with its ‘grow your own food’ ethos in central London. The affordable housing scheme includes family residences that emphasizes sustainability and create spacious living conditions. The competition presented difficult obstacles to the architects as the proposal needed to fit into the area’s context of Georgian town houses, while still being affordable, accesible for impaired people, as well as provide a welcoming and adaptable living space for local families.
A young design firm led by Parke MacDowell, Diana Tomova and Boriana Tomova have shared their recently completed Wave Pavilion with us. Situated on the campus of the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, the pavilion functions as a gathering space and doubles as a didactic tool within the dialogue of digital fabrication. Constructed from ½ inch steel rods, the pavilion intends to illustrate how the line can be “explicitly leveraged toward the nuanced description of space.”
More about the pavilion, including a quick construction video, after the break.
Over the past few months, we’ve been keeping you up to date on the latest reportings of the Architecture Billings Index as our profession, among others, seems to be stuck in a frustrating cycle of huge drops and struggling gains. AsJeff Byles reported for the Architect’s Newspaper, the Billings Index slowly climbed upward from 47.9 in July to 48.2 in August. Although this does mark some progress, we still are not where we would all like to be as a profession. Yet, could this finally be the end of the decline? Are we on the path toward recovery? We are certainly optimistic, even if the Billings continue to slowly inch upward. Kermit Baker, the chief economist for the AIA told the AN, “I expect it to continue to move up, but move up fairly slowly in the months ahead…We’ve had a pretty strong year of business investment on the software and equipment side, and that usually leads to a recovery on the building side. We’re in the early stages of that.”
What do you think of Tony Owen Partners’ latest luxury apartments? The design will shortly enter its construction phase on Elizabeth Street in Sydney’s CBD in prestigious Hyde Park. With only 19 apartments, this exclusive development intends to define the new standard in luxury and contemporary design for Australia. On the exterior, the units’ varied facades are the product of parametric exercises in responding to the changing solar, view and planning conditions on each level. The building is topped by a 3 storey penthouse inspired by classics of 20th century. The firm’s modern spin includes a roof top pool, private elevator and grand staircase. “The design in a combines fluid digital profiles with classic and elegant materials to create a building which is at once progressive and stately,” explained the architects.
UNStudio shared their new pavilion for the 29th Art Biennale in Sao Paulo, Brazil with us. The project is intended to encourage interaction between the participants and visitors by creating a place for display, discussion, and debate. An artistic expression that also functions programmatically, the pavilion embodies the dynamic geometry and spatial qualities common in the firm’s work (to compare, be sure to check out UNStudio’s New Amsterdam Pavilon or the Burnham Pavilion previously featured on AD).
More about the pavilion, including photographs by Ding Musa after the break.
In the summer, we introduced the proposals for The City + The Arch + The River competition that challenged designers to revive the urban fabric surrounding St. Louis’ iconic arch. The proposals offered differing views on ways to activate a park system and attract the public. We’re excited to share the news that the proposal by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh and his multidisciplinary team has been selected to move forward!
Check out a cool video of MVVA’s proposal and more about the project after the break.
SmithGroup shared their winning master plan proposal for a new Marine Sciences campus for the Pohang Institute of Science and Technology (POSTECH), in Uljin, South Korea. With the driving concept of a “wave” – a form common to both land and sea – the new design takes full advantage of the site’s natural beauty, weaving students throughout the campus and tying the man-made with the undulating topography.
For Thomas Phifer + Partners’latest residence, the firm takes inspiration from the envisioned Long Island site’s proximity to the water. The seemingly repetitious simplistic form is actually one continuous surface that undulates to carve spaces underneath it.
More images and more about the residence after the break.
Axis Mundi … remember that firm? Back when controversy surrounded Jean Nouvel’s proposed tower for the MoMA’s expansion, the firm offered an alternative stacked design highly different from Nouvel’s metallic creation. It seems Axis Mundi is back for the shock value as the firm has just released images for their version of the new Whitney Museum of American Art. The current design, led by Renzo Piano, utilizes his characteristically light and technical aesthetics (check out his Shard which is under construction) to create an elegant addition critics have challenge may be too “timid” – Axis Mundi’s design is anything but. Their proposal incorporates a loud exoskeleton that not only seems completely out of scale, but also fights with its neighborhood for attention rather than settling into its context. The geometry, which has been shaped by the sight lines and street grid of the city, intends to reference Breuer’s Whitney on Madison Avenue. As The Architect’s Newspaper Blog noted, the proposal mentions nothing of cost – one of the biggest obstacles Piano is facing.
Check out more images of Axis Mundi’s proposal after the break.
Although the field of architecture continually changes with advances in technology and shifts in society and culture, there rest a few names that seem frozen in time, as their ideas will continually influence generations of architects to come. Of them, Louis Kahn has been revered as a master of the 20th century and soon, his memorial park design of the 1970s will finally be completed in New York. The memorial is named after FDR’s Four Freedoms speech from 1941 where he declares that “In the future days,….we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression–everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way–everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want–which, translated into universal terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants–everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear–which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor–anywhere in the world.”
Update: We wrongly featured this entry as the winning design for this competition. The winning entry can be found here.
Various Architects, together with Kant Arkitekter and landscape architects Grindaker Landksapsarkitekter, shared their entry for a competition to design a new school for 1st – 7th grade students in Norway. Their proposal is an energy-efficient and space-effective building that integrates the school’s complex functional needs onto a suburban site. The compact design creates dynamic learning spaces for children, and from a sustainable standpoint, the design is set to achieve passivhaus standard due to its well insulated body.
C. F. Møller Architects placed first in a competition to design eighteen sustainable town houses for Norra Djurgaardsstaden, Stockholm. The town houses are part of a larger effort to convert the area of Norra Djurgaardsstaden into a completely high-profile environmental area. The architectural expression of the residences finds inspiration in the neighboring cultural center and Husarviken, which flows into the archipelago, and the Stockholm National City Park. According to C.F. Møller, “The project makes it possible to live a modern life based on sustainable solutions.”
Manuelle Gautrand Architects shared their Enzo Hotel in Paris with us. The hotel’s strong triangular form holds different programmatic elements to engage its lively streetscape. The colorful façade took inspiration from the landscape’s natural palette. The colors add a crisp aesthetic to the building as the different panels and their varying tints add a sleek texture to the form. According to the architects, “Their fragmented bands give a kinetic effect to overall volume – one can see the movement of the cars there, a certain impression of speed.”
More images and more about the hotel after the break.
New York’s MoMA will be featuring a new exhibition that focuses on architects’ social responsibility. The exhibition, entitled Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement, which will open at the beginning of October and run through January, will showcase 11 projects on five continents that “respond to localized needs in under-served communities.” These pragmatic solutions demonstrate how architecture can serve the greater needs of society. From a handmade school in Bangladesh, to a cable car that connects a single hillside barrio in Caracas to the city, these realized projects are infused with passion and a strong drive to uplift society through architecture. “Together, these undertakings not only offer practical solutions to known needs, but also aim to have a broader effect on the communities in which they work, using design as a tool,” explained the MoMA.
A list of the projects that will be included in the exhibition after the break.
The Japan Art Association just named Toyo Ito its 2010 Praemium Imperiale Laureate for Architecture. The annual global arts prize is regarded as one of the highest honors for those in the arts. Ito was joined by Sophia Loren for Theater/Film, Enrico Castellani for Painting, Rebecca Horn for Sculpture, and Maurizio Pollini for Music. Practicing architecture for decades, Ito continually brings a sense of sophisticated elegance to his projects with “a deep concern for the relationships between architecture, nature and the environment,” explained the jury. We have featured several projects by Ito previously on AD, and whether it be a residence, a public theater, or a library, Ito consistently pushes the boundary of architectural expression by testing the limits of structure, using a modern material palette and bringing his ideas of transparency to each project.
With 600 participants from 43 countries, the Sukkah City competition has challenged designers across the globe to try their hand at making a temporary structure fusing a traditional religious festival with contemporary architectural strategies. We’ve shared several different proposals for the competition with you, but don’t forget that your voteat NYMag.com will determine which structure will be displayed until October 2, in Union Square.
This just in from Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The firm has recently completed an installation at Lincoln Center that will serve as the primary entrance for over seventy fashion events taking place this week . The dramatically hovering volume of 50 ft seems to float without support above the Lincoln Center plaza. Constructed to mirror the travertine cladding of the Center, the canopy is a fabric structure that wraps about a structural support system. Yet, the effect of walking under a seemingly travertine volume is completely breath-taking and leaves people marveling at its construction. Only when the viewer sees the fabric gently cascading about the bottom of the installation does its flexibility become apparent.
More images from our friend, architectural photographer Iwan Baan.
After finishing his Hollyhock House and the Imperial Hotel, Frank Lloyd Wright began to push his ideas concerning patterned concrete blocks. Utilizing the textile block, Wright built four houses – La Miniatura, the Ennis House, the Freeman House and the Storer House – as a way to truly challenge himself, as he explained in Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer and Gerald Nordland’s book, Frank Lloyd Wright: In the Realm of Ideas, “ “What about the concrete block? It was the cheapest (and ugliest) thing in the building world. It lived mostly in the architectural gutter as an imitation of rock-faced stone. Why not see what could be done with that gutter rat? Steel rods cast inside the joints of the blocks themselves and the whole brought into some broad, practical scheme of general treatment, why would it not be fit for a new phase of our modern architecture? It might be permanent, noble beautiful.”
