Sellar Property Group has announced plans to commission yet another Renzo Piano-designed tower in London at the base of The Shard. Replacing the current Fielden House, a 1970s office building located on London Bridge Street, the new 27-story residential tower plans to provide 150 apartments, retail space and roof garden. As part of the area’s regeneration plan, the project will be the third Piano-designed building on the block.
A team led by London-based masterplanners Gillespies has been announced as the winner of an international competition to design the largest theme park in Europe. Planned for a 1,000-hectare site in the Domodevdovo district of Moscow, “Park Russia” aims to merge concepts of healthy living, entertainment and education into one commercially attractive tourist destination.
The winning Cushman & Wakefield-led UK consortium includes architectural design firm Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, engineer Buro Happold, cost consultant Rider Levett Bucknall and place makers Fourth Street.
Kathryn Findlay, educator and co-founder of Ushida Findlay Architects, has been named winner of the 2014 Jane Drew Prize. This announcement comes shortly after the news of Findlay’s death, which was unknown at the time of the jury’s decision. Known as “one of the most talented people in British architecture,” Findlay will be remembered for her “outstanding contribution to the status of women in architecture.”
Barcelona-based architect and graphic artist Federico Babina is at it again, this time creating an imaginary “Archibet City” guided by the language of architecture. From Alvar Aalto’s Riolo Parish Church to Zaha Hadid's Library and Learning Centre in Vienna, the collection reimagines 26 famous works of architecture into a set of letters that, as Babina describes, expresses the “heterogeneity of forms and styles” that make up our profession. Each letter is drawn according to the interpretation of an architect’s style, forming part of the cityscape that Babina refers to as “Archibet”.
See the whole set, after the break...
Eleven projects have been selected to receive the American Institute of Architects' (AIA) 2014 Institute Honor Award for Architecture, an award known as the profession’s high recognition for works in the United States that exemplify excellence in architecture. These projects, and the architects who designed them, will be honored at the AIA 2014 National Convention and Design Exposition in Chicago.
A glimpse, after the break...
TimeLAX travels across the sprawled city of Los Angeles, connecting some of the city’s most iconic landmarks - Disney Concert Hall, the Griffith Observatory and John Ferraro Building - with over 200 locations that reveal the true essence of the city’s fabric.
Part 2, after the break.
David Adjaye has been selected to design what will be the centerpiece of the largest redevelopment project in Africa’s history. The British architect, who spent his childhood growing up in Uganda, recently presented the vision alongside designer and Made in Africa Foundation co-founder Ozwald Boateng Obe and CEO Chris Cleverly.
The 65-hectare vision, which is aimed to redevelop the Naguru and Nakawa areas of Uganda's capital city, will include everything needed for a functioning, vibrant micro-city: affordable homes, educational facilities, office space, shopping and entertainment centers, and more. Adjaye’s contribution will be a massive office complex made up of 10, conoidal towers that form a circular, public plaza at its center.
In 2007, Oklahoma City was ranked the most obese city in America. The heavy news caused the city’s - at the time - overweight mayor, Mick Cornett to take a hard look at himself and his city. He realized that the city he deemed great, was only great if its citizen was the car.
Foster + Partners has unveiled a scheme that aims to transform London’s railways into cycling freeways. The seemingly plausible proposal, which was designed with the help of landscape firm Exterior Architecture and transportation consultant Space Syntax, would connect more than six million residents to an elevated network of car-free bicycle paths built above London’s existing railway lines if approved.
"SkyCycle is a lateral approach to finding space in a congested city," said Norman Foster, who is both a regular cyclist and the president of Britain's National Byway Trust. "By using the corridors above the suburban railways, we could create a world-class network of safe, car free cycle routes that are ideally located for commuters."
Laboratorio de Arquitectura Dominicana (LAD) has been selected to curate the Dominican Republic’s first pavilion for the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. Developed by Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo and inspired by Mussolini's 1942, the “exhibition will explore modern attitudes and local narratives around the 1955 Fair of Peace and Fraternity of the Free World.”
Three teams have been shortlisted from a longlist of ten for the renovation of Washington DC’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library - the only library and D.C. building ever designed by Mies van der Rohe. The three competing teams are:
How will data shape mobility in future mega-cites? This is precisely what three innovation teams are striving to answer for the 2014 Audi Urban Future Award. Review each team’s revolutionary idea after the break and cast your vote on the most innovative solution here. The winner of the voting will be announced by Audi's CEO, Rupert Stadler, at the International CES in Las Vegas on January 6, 2014, and will be one participant in next year's Audi Urban Future Award.
UPDATE: REM's Kickstarter campaign was successfully funded!
The Italian joint-venture between Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel and Partners and C+S Architects has been announced as winner of an international competition for the requalification of a former railway station site in Chiasso, Switzerland. The team’s winning scheme proposes a “soft urban design” aimed at giving value to the pre-existing buildings, which are substantially maintained and sewn to the newly designed complex of two fashion schools: SAMS and STA.
Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) have been commissioned to design of a new urban development project on a 45 hectare site in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. The competition-winning proposal comprises a transportation hub including five underground railway stations, a border control point and numerous commercial areas. Above ground there will be a range of tower blocks of different heights with apartments, shops and offices to form multi-functional city quarters.
Bunker 599, one of 700 secret bunkers that were used to weaponize artificial hydrology in during the 19th century (see: New Dutch Waterline), recently underwent a radical transformation. RAAAF [Rietveld Architecture-Art-Affordances], in collaboration with Atelier de Lyon, sliced through the seemingly indestructible bunker to link visitors to an existing network of footpaths, create a publicly accessible attraction to those revisiting the NDW, and form a dramatic connection with the flooded plains that were altered more than 200 years ago.
The video above takes you through the process of altering the concrete monolith, ending with film of the stunning result that has been attracting thousands of daily visitors since its completion. To learn more about the project, follow this link.
Trailing Situ Studio’s recycled lumber heart, Young Projects has been chosen to design the annual Times Square Valentine’s Day installation for lovers in the Big Apple. Made in collaboration with fabricator Kammental, “Match-Maker” will debut early February.
LEGO® has announced the architecture series’ newest addition: The Eiffel Tower (La tour Eiffel). Named after its engineer, Gustave Eiffel, the famous lattice structure is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world. Built on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France, to serve as the entrance to the 1889 World’s Fair, The Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure in the world until 1930, and remains the tallest structure in Paris. More than 5,000 detailed drawings were required to assemble the 1063-foot tower’s 18,038 iron parts, which took just over two years to complete.