Exhibition: The Latest Architecture and News

Experts from all continents will meet in Mexico City at the 3rd International Holcim Forum for Sustainable Construction in April 2010. The conference for academics and professionals from architecture, civil engineering, urban planning, natural and social sciences will advance concepts on how construction needs to be re-invented and aligned with principles of sustainable development. Limited places are available – registration is possible until the end of January 2010.

Taking an array of disciplines into consideration, the focus of the Holcim Forum will be on knowledge mining and dissemination, material and product life-cycle assessment, CO2 emissions and energy efficiency, considered deployment of means and economic resources, as well as social welfare and equity. The event will offer opportunities for networking and discussion, stimulated by keynote speeches, workshops, panel sessions and a full-day excursion aligned with the workshop themes to sites in Mexico City.

More after the break.

Twenty years after the Romanian government was overthrown and its dictator, Nicolae Ceauşescu executed, Anca Trandafirescu erected a “monument ” to that dark chapter in the otherwise peaceful events of Central and Eastern Europe ’s 1989 revolutions. Trandafirescu, an architect and assistant professor in architecture at the University of Michigan, designed and constructed the large inflatable, inhabitable structure ―in the iconic shape of the head of a toppled statue ―that was displayed on the Piata Victoriei (Victory Plaza) in Timişoara from November 3 -7, 2009.

This location was the site of the first large demonstrations in the country and that led to the subsequent fall of the Ceauşescu dictatorship. The head itself is without specific identity and is meant to signify, rather than a particular hero, a toppled everyman who has in the course of twenty years following the revolution continued to await a government free from rulers of the past regime.

The name HOT AIR refers to both the unusually warm temperatures in Romania during that special week in December 1989, which helped to bring citizens out into the streets to rally against the government; and also to the large amount of rhetoric surrounding the events that ensued.

The inflatable monument was erected in association with the city ’s Young Artists/Young Democracy expo and the American-Romanian Music Festival and was a venue for visitation,conversation,and a bit of recreation by the public.It kicked off a series of planned celebrations commemorating the events of December 1989 in Timisoara.

More images and a video after the break.

Over the last few months architectural firm Powerhouse Company have been working on the project Rien ne va Plus. This project consists of a research on the economic crisis and its intricate relation with architecture. This research resulted in an exhibition, that takes place at the architectural instute NAiM/Bureau Europa in Maastricht (The Netherlands), a reader that was published in collaboration with the magazine A10 and a series of debates.

You can also find the architect’s description after the break, along with photos of the exhibition taken by Johannes Schwartz and Christiaan van der Kooy, and a video created by Powerhouse Company.

With the exhibition “COOP HIMMELB(L)AU: Beyond the Blue” being recently closed at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio, USA another single exhibition will be opened on September 18, 2009 at NTT InterCommunication Center in Tokyo, Japan.

Through February 2010, New York’s Urban Center Books is exploring the relationship between architecture and print with Unpacking My Library, an exhibition of the book collections of prominent New York architects such as Steven Holl and Michael Sorkin.

i.M.A.D.E is an institute within Ball State University, focusing on digital design and fabrication techniques for both industry and education related to architecture and allied arts.

It acts as an effective link between the academy and the manufacturing industry, with all the benefits this alliances bring: the fresh ideas on one side, and the technical capacity on the other.

With strategic industry partners, students test knowledge through team-based projects dealing with the translation of bits into atoms, shifting scales between models, prototypes, 1:1 construction, and the development of solutions to real problems by managing a complex set of design constraints.

Among this partners we find our friends from CASE, experts in applying design technology to built environments. They partner with i.M.A.D.E in technology (workshops, lectures, crits, etc.). Our friend Federico from CASE collaborated with i.M.A.D.E’s director Kevin Klinger in the book “Manufacturing Material Effects”.

After the jump, selected works from i.M.A.D.E.

A month ago we told you about the upcoming exhibition Overlappings (which already ended), which included a selection of fresh portuguese architects.

Now, young architecture photographer Joao Morgado shared with us some photos of the exhibit.

The intervention of the space is kept minimal, same as the architecture being displayed. A set of 6 chests contain the works of each office (Aires Mateus, Bak Gordon, Inês Lobo, João Favila, Paulo David and Ricardo Carvalho & Joana Vilhena), each one displayed on a different way: computer screen, models, drawings, photos, etc.

I wouldn´t expect “less” from an exhibit of these brilliant architects.

More photos after the break:

Three Rotterdam museums – Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Netherlands Architecture Institute and Nederlands Fotomuseum – are bringing the rich culture of Brazil to the city on the Maas.

Brazil Contemporary is running since 30 May until 23 August 2009.

Our friend Rob Ley sent us info on their latest installation, Reef, which we’ll be checking out next week. Reef, an installation by Los Angeles Designers Rob Ley (Urbana) and Joshua G. Stein (Radical Craft) is currently on view at Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City. This kinetic sculptural installation takes advantage of new Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) technology to create a responsive environment.

You can see more images and architect’s description, after the break.

Our friends from Minimalismi shared with us this info. This October, Zaha Hadid will exhibit her best works in an exhibition at the Salone of the Palazzo della Ragione in the Italian city of Padova.

The Palazzo has presented itself as a vigorous design challenge for Zaha Hadid due to the historical quality of the space. The aim has been both to respect the spatial / contextual characteristics and to intervene in the space at the same time. The undulating blocks, whose forms are defined by the rules of breaking and continuity, generate 6 distinct islands within themselves. Each of these islands define the Conceptual Morphologies of the ZHA exhibition concept, namely: (1) Lines/Bundles/Networks, (2) Waves/Shells/Cocoons, (3) Aggregations/Clusters/Jigsaws, (4) Fields, (5)Landscape & Topography, and (6) Parametricism.

More images after the break.

In recent years, the art world has played host to a number of lively explorations of architecture and the built environment. (In 2006, The New Yorker went so far as to snipe, “Painting about architecture has become popular to the point of excess, much the way seventies artists went overboard on the cube.”) By looking at architecture through the lenses of politics, psychology, humor, and more, artists have been helping to enrich the conversation about the field.

Last week I sat down with painter Sarah McKenzie, who was in New York for the opening of her new show, Building Code, to discuss her thoughts on art and architecture. McKenzie, who first came to public attention for her aerial views of suburban developments, currently uses images of construction sites as her source material.

The interview after the break.

With the exhibition “Yes is more”, the Danish Architecture Centre zooms in on BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group. Using unconventional approaches, humour, and international focus, BIG has contributed to the renewal of the Danish architectural tradition.

An exhibition on the works of German architect Juergen Mayer H., entitled “Patterns of Speculation”, just opened at the SF MoMA. Mayer joins two modes of exhibiting architecture in a gallery – installation and documentation – to present a unique, hybrid environment.

Architects: KPMB Architects Location: Toronto, Canada Client: Gardiner Museum Project Team: Bruce Kuwabara (design principal), Shirley Blumberg (partner-in-charge), Paulo Rocha (design/project architect); Shane O’Neill, Javier Uribe, Kevin Bridgman, Tyler Sharpe, Ramon Janer, Steven Casey, Bill Colaco (project team) Structural Enginnering: Halsall Associates Ltd. Mechanical and Electrical Engineering: Crossey Engineering Ltd. Contractor: Urbacon Budget: US $7,23M Photographs: Eduard Hueber & Tom Arban

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