The University of Queensland’s (UQ) School of Architecture has proven again that the creative skills developed in its design studios are truly award winning. Graduating from UQ’s Master of Architecture program in 2010, Rick Hill and Josh Spillane, along with 3D graphic artist Leon McBride, recently submitted one of three winning designs in an international competition to redesign the Parramatta foreshore in New South Wales. Mr Hill said that the Ideas on Edge competition coordinated by the Parramatta City Council provided the perfect opportunity to put the skills they learnt in the masters design studio to the test.
https://www.archdaily.com/153329/the-ideas-on-edge-competition-university-of-queenslands-school-of-architectureChristopher Henry
The purpose of this architecture contest is to “equip the city of Trois-Rivières with an open-air amphitheater capable of seating 10,000.” Trois-Rivières is a small Canadian city (population 130,407) once known as the pulp and paper industry capital of the world. Located halfway between Montreal and Quebec City, Trois-Rivières was looking to build its own venue for hosting high-volume summer festivals and internationally renowned bands, and housing its symphony orchestra during the summer. “In the early 2000s, the city of Trois-Rivières began work on a re-qualification project. The site in question (a former paper mill) is situated along the St. Lawrence River, adjacent to the harbourfront park, the city centre, the St. Lawrence River and St. Quentin Island (for outdoor activities). Such a location calls for an extraordinary construction,” explains Philippe Drolet, architect, in an excerpt from the contest catalogue. For the first phase of the contest, Sid Lee Architecture and Régis Côté et Associés banked on the project’s historical roots and awed the jury with a vision that reflects the site’s industrial past. Their competition entry was awarded as a finalist.
https://www.archdaily.com/153311/competition-finalist-for-the-tripode-amphitheatre-de-tois-rivieres-sid-lee-architecture-and-regis-cote-et-associesChristopher Henry
Most design and building processes relay on pre-determination and accuracy, plus an efficient coordination of data input leading to a physical realization representing previously conceived ideas as closely as possible. Parametric and generative design add an extra element of “objective” formulae playing role of legitimizations of designer’s intentional design, while the choice of data pools, algorithms or auto-generative formulae is in fact another intentional element.
Architect: Centrala Location: Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany Designer: Jakub Szczęsny Assistant: Helmut Dietz Project Year: 2011 Photographs: Rolf Wohrle, Hagen Betzwieser and Jakub Szczęsny
https://www.archdaily.com/153044/stretched-pavilion-centralaChristopher Henry
Following years of research, a+t publishers presents the first theoretical-practical book on hybrid buildings. Taking its inspiration from the four issues of a+t magazine’s Hybrid series, the book takes a look at the theories and projects which have had the greatest historical importance. Steven Holl prefaces the book with an introduction where he foresees the path which hybrid typologies should take towards the creation of new urban spaces.
https://www.archdaily.com/152914/this-is-hybrid-atChristopher Henry
We recently got to preview the newest addition to In DETAIL’s typological series, Work Environments: Spatial concepts, Usage strategies, Communications. It will be available next month (August 2011), and it is great for anyone who is interested in improving a user’s working conditions beyond the basic ergonomic and safety requirements. The first third of this volume deals with spatial organization, acoustics, lighting, and user satisfaction. The rest of the volume features projects from which the various concepts developed in the first third can be used to analyze them. I, personally, enjoyed the section on user satisfaction and how to measure it. After reading this section I speculated how researchers would control for the various confounding factors that exist in the uniqueness of each building presented in the rest of the book. This would not be an easy task by any means, but the necessity of such research is made clear throughout this volume.
Read more after the break.
https://www.archdaily.com/152514/work-environments-detailChristopher Henry
Next week we will be taking our Architecture City Guide to Berlin and we need your help. To make the City Guides more engaging we are asking for your input on which designs should comprise our weekly list of 12-24. In order for this to work we will need you, our readers, to suggest a few of your favorite modern/contemporary buildings for the upcoming city guide in the comment section below. Along with your suggestions we ask that you provide a link to an image you took of the building that we can use, the address of the building, and the architect. (The image must be from a site that has a Creative Common License cache like Flickr or Wikimedia. We cannot use images that are copyrighted unless they are yours and you give us permission.) From that we will select the top 12 most recommended buildings. Hopefully this method will help bring to our attention smaller well done projects that only locals truly know. With that in mind we do not showcase private single-family residences for obvious reasons. Additionally, we try to only show completed projects.
https://www.archdaily.com/152210/help-us-with-our-architecture-city-guide-berlinChristopher Henry
If you have enjoyed the Eskew+Dumez+Ripple (EDR) projects we have featured then this is the book for you. With stunning photography and informative text, this book examines not only an architect’s physical impact on the built landscape, but also her/his role as a community builder and shaper of human experience. The projects showcased throughout this book illustrate EDR’s commitment to the community in both small and large scale projects.
More after the break.
https://www.archdaily.com/152158/building-community-eskewdumezrippleChristopher Henry
This week, with the help of our readers, our Architecture City Guide is headed to Barcelona. We recently featured an engaging video where Wiel Arets half jokingly said Barcelona is fantastic but boring. He continued to say as soon as Sagrada Família is finished Barcelona is done; there is nothing left to do there (10:50). Arets can say what he wants about Barcelona supposedly being boring, but our city guide doesn’t reflect this. Barcelona is filled with fantastically expressive architecture that springs from its proud Catalan culture. It was impossible to feature all our readers suggestions in the first go around, and we did not even come close to including some of the most iconic building such as Casa Milà. Thus we are looking to add to our list of 24 in the near future. Further more there are so many fabulous buildings on the drawing board or under construction, i.e. the projects in the @22 district, we’ll most likely be updating this city guide for quite awhile, regardless of Sagrada Família’s completion.
Take a look at our list with the knowledge it is far complete and add to it in the comment section below.
The Mackintosh School of Architecture recently made us aware that their Friday Lecture Series is available to watch online. We will be showcasing a few periodically over the next couple of weeks. Among other topics, in this video Wiel Arets talks about the world becoming one big city in the near future. It is a fairly engaging talk that you should check out.
https://www.archdaily.com/150990/video-wiel-arets-at-the-the-mackintosh-school-of-architecture-2Christopher Henry
This space houses the corporate headquarters for a young company that is developing new technology for concrete. The objective was to design a think tank that would encourage interaction and reflect the innovative green products that they are developing.
Recently opened, SOM designed, Lotte Department Store Gwangbok branch in Busan, Korea requested Yamasaki Ku Hong Associates Design Lab (YKH) to modify the existing ‘roof garden’ to allow and amplify users to enjoy the spectacular view of Busan Port. Additionally, the client requested us to find a way to increase ‘brand identity’ and ‘sales volume’. Existing conditions of roof garden with two separate observatories were not efficiently designed and more importantly were not connected; there were a possibility to increase two floors of additional retail area. YKH have come up with a new idea called, ‘Way-Pod’; Way Pod is derived from I-Pod, creating a hardware that could evolve with time. Way-Pod is comprised of ‘Way’ – free of charge, elevated view corridor – and ‘Pod’ – with charge, entertainment hardware for fun, culture and event.
https://www.archdaily.com/150787/department-store-roof-garden-ykhChristopher Henry
The surrounding neighborhood consists mostly of apartment blocks that date back from the 70’s. The buildings are large with enough space in-between and plenty of greenery. Because the whole area is built in relatively short period of time and not very long ago, it lacks the typical historic layers of the city center. Here the connection to nature is direct enough, the access to all city-conveniences – fast enough and easy, what makes the area nice to dwell. In spite of that it still lacks history, (memories of) the past and atmosphere.
This project is a bold public-private initiative to support energy, business and culture. The project aims to synthesize an interest in energy, business and culture by generating a new public and transformative icon along the Ohio River. By re-functionalizing HMP1 and bringing new public amenities to the site, the proposal intends to revitalize a decaying and neglected waterfront and therefore have a positive effect in business and tourism and the region at large.
https://www.archdaily.com/150484/video-henderson-project-patternsChristopher Henry
Atelier Thomas Pucher has won the international competition for the new seat of the world renowned Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra in Warsaw. The 20,000m² cultural centre is housed on the site of a former Veterinary Institute with existing – yet dormant – buildings and a fairy-tale like park. The area occupies a 1,800 seat symphonic hall with first class acoustic properties, large rehearsal areas, merchandise facilities, musical workshops and a small hotel for artists in residence and music lovers on vacation.
https://www.archdaily.com/150421/winner-of-the-sinfonia-varsovia-concert-hall-competition-atelier-thomas-pucherChristopher Henry
The task of the competition for the Serlachius Museum Gösta was to design an extension containing five times the area of the existing museum. The current museum is a solitaire exposed on the top of a hill at a lake in a dramatic landscape. magma architecture proposes to preserve the beauty of the natural surroundings and integrate them into the visitor experience of the museum.
https://www.archdaily.com/150252/entry-for-the-serlachius-museum-gosta-extension-competition-magma-architectureChristopher Henry
Next week we will be taking our Architecture City Guide to Barcelona and we need your help. To make the City Guides more engaging we are asking for your input on which designs should comprise our weekly list of 12-24. In order for this to work we will need you, our readers, to suggest a few of your favorite modern/contemporary buildings for the upcoming city guide in the comment section below. Along with your suggestions we ask that you provide a link to an image you took of the building that we can use, the address of the building, and the architect. (The image must be from a site that has a Creative Common License cache like Flickr or Wikimedia. We cannot use images that are copyrighted unless they are yours and you give us permission.) From that we will select the top 12 most recommended buildings. Hopefully this method will help bring to our attention smaller well done projects that only locals truly know. With that in mind we do not showcase private single-family residences for obvious reasons. Additionally, we try to only show completed projects.
https://www.archdaily.com/150313/help-us-with-our-architecture-city-guide-barcelonaChristopher Henry
The Cultural Center of the Philippines’ masterplan states that ”The CCP Complex shall be a center for arts and culture in Asia. Primarily, it shall be the centerpiece of artistic expression of the Filipino soul and spirit, created for the Filipino artist and all sectors of Philippine society. The CCP Complex shall be the major cultural, ecological and tourism landmark of the Philippines. It shall be a home for the Filipino artist and an urban oasis for the Filipino people.” In relation to this vision, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, recently held a design competition for two new iconic buildings within it’s complex –a New Performing Arts Theatre, and an Artists’ Center, located within the Arts Sanctuary Cluster of the 62 hectare property. Buensalido Architects recently shared with us their entry for this competition.
https://www.archdaily.com/149984/entry-for-the-ccp-architectural-design-competition-for-the-artist%25e2%2580%2599s-center-and-performing-arts-theatre-buensalido-architectsChristopher Henry