Todd Saunders of Saunders Architecture will be giving a lecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich on January 25th at 7:30pm. Led by a strong contemporary design sensibility, Saunders has worked on cultural and residential projects right across Norway, as well as England, Denmark, Italy, Sweden and Canada. The studio believes that architecture must play an important role in creating place, using form, materials and texture to help evoke and shape memory and human interaction.
Architectural Dialogues is a film by Sasha Waltz shot in the unconventional setting of three museums and cultural centers: Neues Museum in Berlin designed by David Chipperfield Architects in collaboration with Julian Harrap, MAXXI National Museum of the XXI Century Arts in Rome designed by Zaha Hadid and the Jewish Museum in Berlin designed by Daniel Libeskind.
More on the film with trailers after the break!
Through our interview program, I’ve had the chance to meet with some of the world’s most renowned architects, while creating a moment to share their views about the profession with our readers.
ArchDaily is once again updating you on the progress of The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center designed by Renzo Piano. We showed you initial plans for the building back in 2009. Since then, we have been provided with more detail on the development of the project, which we continue to share with you. As previously mentioned, the center will be a sustainable arts, education, and recreation complex that will contribute to the community of Athens, financed by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Plans for this building began five years ago but it was not until December 2011 that preparatory excavation work finally began. Construction is scheduled for Spring 2012 and according to the foundation website:
The beginning of the construction phase comes at a very critical juncture in modern Greek history and brings a much-needed sense of optimism and hope, as well as a whole range of significant economic benefits to the country. Approximately €1 billion of total economic stimulus will be derived from the upfront commitment in the construction of the SNFCC, while 1,500 to 2,400 people will be employed each year to support SNFCC construction and all related industries.
More after the break.
Check out this great video on one of our favorite landscape architects, James Corner. Named one of Time Magazine’s Game Changers - “innovators and problem-solvers that are inspiring change in America” – thousands have enjoyed Corner’s work on the High Line, and we are excited to monitor the progress of Corner’s recent joint win with SOM on Cornell’s NYC Tech Campus. The video sheds light upon Corner’s philosophy on landscape and how public spaces are a defining component of urban spaces. “…As designers, you bring an incredible sense of optimism and faith….and the capacity of good design to transform what may be perceived as negative to something very positive,” explained Corner. Overall, we found the video inspiring and we hope you enjoy it!
In this TEDx sponsored talk, Rachel Armstrong - co-director of AVATAR (Advanced Virtual and Technological Architectural Research) in Architecture and Synthetic Biology at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL) – speaks about the dangerous relationship that we have developed with machines since the industrial revolution and ways we can break that habit. Along with her research on “living materials” and “synthetic biology”, Armstrong is looking for ways to rebuild the relationship between our reliance on machines and the systems of nature and our ecologies that are often neglected.
More on this talk after the break.
American architect Peter Bohlin, FAIA discusses his life work and design philosophy at the 2011 September AIA Chapter Meeting, held in the Cartwright Auditorium at Kent State University. Bohlin founded Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in 1965 and has since gained a reputation for creating exceptional designs that are committed to the individuality of place and user. Bohlin has been awarded over 500 regional, national and international awards for design. In 2010, he received the national AIA Gold Medal, the highest award given by the institute. Enjoy the lecture and view ArchDaily’s exclusive interview with Peter Bohlin here.
A few months ago I had the chance to visit and interview Architecture Research Office (ARO), just after they were announced as the recipients of the prestigious 2011 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture.
On December 17, 2011, the New York Chapter of the AIA held a panel discussion about the Occupy Wall Street events that have spurred people from all over the country into political involvement. The discussion featured nine panelists with introductory remarks from Lance Jay Brown and Michael Kimmelman and closing remarks by Ron Shiffman (all listed below). It focused on aspects of the built environment, public spaces and how they reflect the way in which people assemble.
Follow us after the break for more about this discussion, including video.
Founder of Amateur Architecture Studio and Head of Architecture at the China Academy of Art, Wang Shu was the first Chinese architect to hold Harvards Graduate School of Design (GSD) Kenzo Tange professorship. The Harvard lecture honors architect Kenzo Tange by bringing distinguished architects from around the globe to the GSD.
Since Wim Wenders’s new documentary “Pina” hit the theaters this month, the online world hasn’t stopped talking about the German film director’s plan to create a 3D documentary film on architecture. In a recent interview with the Documentary Channel, Wenders revealed his plans stating, “I have actually already started a long-term project, another documentary in 3D. It will take several years, but it’s going to be about architecture. I have always wanted to do a film about architecture, and I have a lot of architect friends. But that is another subject I never really knew how to approach with film. I realized through PINA that architecture is something that could have a real affinity to this medium. We started shooting already, but it’s at the very, very beginning. That’s going to be my next documentary project in 3D, but I would definitely also do a narrative film in the future in 3D as well.”
Continue reading for more information and videos.
Check out this fun video of students from Carleton University enjoying a series of cool architecture installations at their annual public gala. This year, Barry J. Hobin & Associates Architects and GRC Architects with Wall Sound-Lighting.com and Graphic Carleton Services sponsored the efforts to transform the open hall with architectural interventions and installation art to create one of the largest student organized events in Ottawa. We love the tunnel that changes color and the metal slides on the grass – what’s your favorite?
‘And then it became a city…’ is a film series featured at the 2011 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture. The Biennale is curated by Terence Riley and just opened last week – on view in Shenzhen through February 18, 2012. And then it became a city… shows the everyday life and activity of six planned cities under sixty years old. The cities featured include Gabarone, Chandigarh, Shenzhen, Almere, Las Vegas, and Brasilia. More trailers on the films about their corresponding cities can be viewed after the break.
Architectural photographer Cristobal Palma shared with us this short clip of the Ultra Light Village installation by Clavel Arquitectos, on view at the Shenzhen Civic Square. This is part of a series of installations for the 2011 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Urbanism / Architecture Biennale, open until February 18th, 2012.
More videos by Cristobal Palma at ArchDaily:
Our friends from architectural videos told us about this video of Norman Foster‘s Humanitas, Oxford University Lecture which took place on November 28th. The lecture considers ‘Heritage and Lessons’ where Foster encourages us to imagine how differently we might understand the modern world if we could travel back in time. We would discover that the cathedrals, the castles and the viaducts that form our ‘heritage’ were once new themselves and were seen as quite alien at the time; and that many of the landscapes we revere as ‘natural’ were in fact shaped subtly by man — some the outcome of the Industrial Revolution itself. We would also find that many of the challenges we face now have been met before.
