Archinect - News

Ground/Work: A Design Competition for Van Alen Institute’s New Street-Level Space

2013-05-17T19:02:00-04:00

Looking for a nice design competition to participate in this month? Our friends at New York's Van Alen Institute just announced the launch of Ground/Work, an international architecture competition seeking innovative designs for a new street-level venue to house the Institute’s work space and public programs. The competition started accepting entries earlier this week, submission deadline is June 13, 2013.

Gia Wolff wins $100,000 Wheelwright Prize

2013-05-17T18:46:00-04:00

Gia Wolff, Brooklyn-based architect, wins $100,000 travel grant for her proposal Floating City: The Community-Based Architecture of Parade Floats

Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, is pleased to announce that Gia Wolff, an architect based in Brooklyn, New York, is the winner of the inaugural Wheelwright Prize, a $100,000 traveling fellowship dedicated to fostering new forms of architectural research informed by cross-cultural engagement.

The Wheelwright Prize jury—Mostafavi, Yung Ho Chang, Farès el-Dahdah, K. Michael Hays, Farshid Moussavi, Zoe Ryan, and Jorge Silvetti—selected Gia Wolff from among 231 applicants from 45 countries, including Afghanistan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, and Spain. Applicants were asked to submit portfolios along with a research proposal and travel itinerary, outlining an extended field investigation and its anticipated benefits for the field of architecture. “The positive response to the Wheelwright Prize has been extraordinary,” said Mostafavi. “It is inspiring to see so many talented architects with clear agendas...

Prishtina Central Mosque Entry by Paolo Venturella Architecture

2013-05-17T17:42:00-04:00

Italian Paolo Venturella Architecture is sharing with us their rather unusual spin on mosque design. The solar panel-covered "Wall-Dome" concept was the firm's entry to the highly debated architecture competition to design the Central Mosque of Prishtina, Kosovo.

Previously: No Clear Winner (yet) in Kosovo’s Central Mosque of Prishtina Competition

Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Architect Sure!" Pinterest Board

2013-05-17T14:41:00-04:00

In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.

Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Architect Sure!.

↑ Brown Vujcich in Herne Bay, New Zealand by Bossley Architects

↑ Palace of Justice in Amsterdam, The Netherlands by Claus en Kaan Architecten; Photo: Sebastian van Damme

↑ Private Client in Crouch End, London, United Kingdom by LLI Design

↑ Taizhou Medical City Convention Center in Taizhou, China by Futurepolis

↑ The Old Vicarage in Rendham, Suffolk, United Kingdom by Studio RHE

↑ Zenale Building in Milan, Italy by Filippo Taidelli Architetto

↑ CEREZA House in Puebla, Mexico by NOVHUS

↑ Tree House in Los Angeles, CA by Standard

↑ OCT Museum in Shenzhen, China by Studio Pei-Zhu; Team Member: Ryan Newman

(Cover pic: VÅGEN High School and SANDNES Culture Academy in Sand...

Lian live-blogs final reviews from Harvard GSD

2013-05-17T14:26:00-04:00

Lian, our resident GSD school blogger is currently live blogging reviews. So far she's covered:

And M.Arch.I thesis reviews...pictures

Security trumps urban planning at WTC site

2013-05-17T13:56:00-04:00

With the blank slate offered by a catastrophic attack, planners, soon joined by the mayor himself, saw a chance to re-establish a great crossroads: Fulton and Greenwich Streets, tying the second World Trade Center into New York — north, south, east and west. Now, however, they see that vision slipping away, as security concerns trump urban planning.

Miami Herald obituary writer pens a farewell to the Miami Herald building

2013-05-17T13:52:00-04:00

One Herald Plaza, the bayfront behemoth from which generations of journalists fanned out across South Florida — and at times the world — to cover the news, passed into history on Thursday after succumbing to a real estate deal. … She was 60.

What is the future of the library?

2013-05-16T18:36:00-04:00

For the first time since Henri Labrouste (1801-1875), currently the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, formulated the conception of the new, democratic library, the central library is fighting for survival. The relevance of these gloriously inflated book boxes is being questioned in an age that looks to the Internet for its intellectual resources.

Life-size Barbie Dreamhouse opens in Berlin

2013-05-16T18:27:00-04:00

The first life-size Barbie Dreamhouse opened in Berlin on Thursday and is being guarded by police after feminist groups and left-wing activists said they would picket the plastic villa.

Previously on Archinect:

Winners of the 2013 AIA/HUD Secretary Awards

2013-05-16T17:16:00-04:00

Also announced this week were the three recipients of the 2013 AIA/HUD Secretary Awards, sponsored by the institute's Housing and Custom Residential Knowledge Community in conjunction with the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD).

Winners of the 2013 AIA Housing Awards

2013-05-16T14:41:00-04:00

Six residential projects have been selected as recipients of the 2013 AIA Housing Awards. The jury recognized projects in four award categories: One/Two Family Custom Housing, One/Two Family Production Housing (none selected this year), Multifamily Housing and Special Housing.

Ed Mazria announces his 2030 Palette design tool

2013-05-16T14:35:00-04:00

The 2030 Palette is an interactive online tool that puts the principles behind low-carbon and resilient built environments at the fingertips of architects, planners and designers worldwide. Our goal is to inform the planning and design process at the point of inspiration. By curating the best information... highly complex ideas are made intuitive and accessible. Guiding principles are presented as individual “Swatches”, which together make up the larger fabric of sustainable built environments.

The site - www.2030palette.org - looks like a very useful resource. Could be useful for designers but even more so for client to get by in when trying "new" strategies.

El Paso, laser scanned in 3D

2013-05-16T14:23:00-04:00

Robert González wants to create a 3D digital replica of Downtown El Paso, using lasers. The director of Texas Tech’s fledgling architecture program in El Paso says the student project would be part of a new historic preservation program he is developing here. The project would create a permanent record, in 3D, of El Paso’s most historic and endangered buildings.

An exhibition of 3D captured border cities from around the world projected onto giant scrims filling an abandoned maquilladora, might be an interesting project.

Hirshhorn ‘Bubble’ risks operating at a loss, internal Smithsonian report says

2013-05-16T13:13:00-04:00

The Hirshhorn Museum’s proposed Seasonal Inflatable Structure, also known as “the Bubble,” a project announced in 2009 and intended as an architecturally and culturally transformative space on the Mall, would operate at a loss in each of three scenarios examined in an assessment done by the Smithsonian.

“We’ve said from the beginning, and the secretary [G. Wayne Clough] has said it, this is a bold project,” said Richard Kurin, the Smithsonian’s undersecretary for history, art and culture. “We’ve encouraged this, but it has to be raised by private money. In terms of doing that, we’re still trying to raise money for construction of the Inflatable Structure. We’ve been at this for some years. We hope its time has come now, but if not, we look forward to a better time.”

Four Design Teams Shortlisted for Major Rehabilitation of Gropius-Designed Athens Chancery

2013-05-15T19:26:00-04:00

Four design firms have been shortlisted by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) for the major rehabilitation of the Athens Chancery project. The iconic modernist embassy building, designed by Walter Gropius with consulting architect Pericles A. Sakellarios, was constructed between 1959 and 1961 and is a protected architectural landmark.

The shortlisted firms are:

Ann Beha Architects, Boston, MA
DesignLab Architects, Inc., Boston, MA
Machado Silvetti / Baker, Boston, MA
Mark Cavagnero Associates, San Francisco, CA

FRANK GEHRY AT WORK on View in New York City

2013-05-15T18:27:00-04:00

Gehry fans in NYC, here's one for you: A selection of over 30 Frank Gehry process models is currently on display at Manhattan's Leslie Feely Fine Art. The exhibition FRANK GEHRY AT WORK opened in April and still runs until June 29. The gallery is located at 33 E 68th Street, 5th Floor.

Fix Penn Station Now; Raze $1 Billion Knicks Garden Later

2013-05-15T12:12:00-04:00

It’s perched atop the depressing, low-ceilinged maze known as Penn Station, daily hive for 600,000 scuttling commuters. The Garden’s presence is one major impediment to the 25-year-old dream of turning the decrepit and overcrowded Penn station into a smoothly operating city gateway.

BRUTALISM + PRESERVATION panel discussion tonight in NYC

2013-05-15T12:09:00-04:00

Following the release of CLOG: Brutalism—the architecture journal's most recent issue—CLOG and DoCoMoMO NY Tristate are pleased to co-sponsor a panel discussion that will focus on the politics, opportunities, and constraints surrounding these structures. The conversation will address common issues faced by Brutalist buildings including their structural potential, aesthetics, and how these factors and more make the question of preserving Brutalist structures difficult and oftentimes contentious.

For those of you who heart brutalism, we still have some t-shirts left.

Oh, and CLOG is hiring, if you haven't heard.

She may favor Brutalist forms...

2013-05-15T11:37:00-04:00

the 40-year-old architect has emerged as one of the country’s major creative voices, building an eclectic portfolio of work that includes a 10,000-square-foot neo-Brutalist palazzo, the master plan for an art-filled botanical garden and a spiritual refuge in the Jalisco Mountains. The projects vary wildly in attitude and style

Nicolai Ouroussoff profiled the Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao, for the NYT, T Magazine "Hot Summer" travel edition.

NEW CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR MONU #19 - GREATER URBANISM

2013-05-15T11:36:00-04:00

Are cities becoming "greater" these days? (Bernd Upmeyer, Editor-in-Chief, May 2013)

Are cities becoming "greater" these days? When two years ago, in our 14th issue of MONU Magazine entitled "Editing Urbanism", we claimed that in the Western world, the need for new buildings and city districts was decreasing or even ceasing to exist altogether due to demographic changes and financially difficult times, we did not believe in all those new, big-scale, and long-term urban development strategies for the metropolitan areas of certain European cities that were being proposed at the time. The growth numbers that plans such as "Greater Helsinki" envisioned for the year 2050, trying to brand the city as one of the most dynamic metropolises in Europe, predicting a population growth from 1.3 million to 2 million, were too exuberant and too vast. However, other European cities, such as Paris, seem to be changing substantially within their metropolitan areas, their "greater" areas. Paris needs to build 70.000 new housing units per year. Mainly because of such requirements, but...

The Roman Catholic Church is coming to the Venice Biennale

2013-05-14T20:44:00-04:00

The Vatican’s presence at the Biennale is the brainchild of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, an exuberant polymath who as president of the Pontifical Council for Culture since 2009 has tried to build bridges between the church and contemporary culture, two worlds that have often clashed.

China's 'ghost mall'

2013-05-14T20:15:00-04:00

The New South China Mall was once promoted as the world's biggest mall, but it's now pretty much deserted.

Isotopes v.02 Is An Audiovisual Cage

2013-05-14T20:01:00-04:00

Design studio Nonotak—Noémi Schipfer and Takami Nakamoto—have created an installation, called Isotopes v.02, which is a reaction to the Fukushima nuclear meltdown that happened back in 2011. The piece featured at Geneva's 2013 Mapping Festival and consists of projected light which entices the viewer to investigate further. But, once the unsuspecting visitor has headed towards the light like a moth to the flame, they become trapped in this beguiling maze...

BIG & Design Partners Propose Miami Beach Square as Massive Convention Center Redevelopment

2013-05-14T19:09:00-04:00

BIG together with West 8, Fentress Architects, John Portman & Associates (JPA), Revuelta Architecture International and developers Portman-CMC have unveiled the urban planning proposal Miami Beach Square, the centerpiece of a 52-acre Miami Beach Convention Center District development. Portman-CMC is one of two development teams currently in the race for the project.

Archinect talks wtih Ivan Blanco, winner of the LA Film Festival Director's Lounge Design Competition

2013-05-14T18:55:00-04:00

Each summer Downtown Los Angeles is home to one of the most creatively-energized film festivals - The Los Angeles Film Festival. This year the festival, hosted by Film Independent, will be taking place from June 13-23. Archinect had the honor to co-host a competition to design the VIP Director's Lounge for this year's event, alongside Film Independent and Designer Pages, with an esteemed jury consisting of director Alexei Tylevich (Logan & Sons/LOGAN); architect Barbara Bestor (Bestor Architecture); actor Nick Offerman; Kimberly Brooks, from Huffington Post Arts; Megan Reilly, from westedge Design Fair; and architect Shawn Gehle (Gensler).

We talked to Ivan Blanco, designer of the competition-winning entry. Ivan heads LA-based multi-disciplinary design studio Blnko Design Labs.

What is your professional background? Where did you study?

Ivan Blanco: My professional background is a bit varied. I went to Architecture school at USC. However, before, during and after that I have ...

Eclectic Revisited: Preserving Venice's Architectural Context

2013-05-14T18:35:00-04:00

In Venice, Sandmeier wanted to tell the story of a whole neighborhood, not just emphasize the architectural merits of any one structure, and in doing so build a history of architects and artists working together. "Buildings are important for different reasons. Sometimes it's the architecture, sometimes it is the history, and sometimes it is the context," she explains. "Venice is a place with such rich cultural context that underlies the whole community, there is a lot to talk about."

Mimi Zeiger reports from the self-guided tour "Venice Eclectic: Modern Architecture from the '70s and '80s", part of "Curating the City Modern Architecture in L.A.," the Conservancy's ongoing contribution to Pacific Standard Time: Modern Architecture in Los Angeles.

A classroom for the 21st century: where are the best places for learning?

2013-05-14T18:21:00-04:00

... how does using a different physical space have an impact on learning? Bosch argued that changing the environment helps teachers and students to break free from old habits: "One of the things you can do is create an environment where you cannot function the same way as you used to. What happens when you go out of the school into a theatre, you have to improvise. When you improvise, you start learning and developing."

Eric Owen Moss will be a guest on HuffPost Live today at 3:30 PST to discuss cities

2013-05-14T17:59:00-04:00

Eric Moss gets to play a real-life game of Sim City. The architect's 1986 master plan for Culver City proposed 43 buildings and half are completed today. Eric joins us along with others from across the country to discuss urban revitalization.

Prishtina Central Mosque Entry by OODA + AND-RÉ

2013-05-14T14:19:00-04:00

Since we announced that the international architecture competition to design the Central Mosque of Prishtina, Kosovo had not (yet) turned out a clear winner, we have received many, many mosque design entries, some of which we have published here on Bustler. Another entry well worth featuring is this design collaboration between Portuguese firms OODA and AND-RÉ with AFA CONSULT / Rui Furtado as the engineering partner.

Previously: No Clear Winner (yet) in Kosovo’s Central Mosque of Prishtina Competition

Charles Correa's influence and style

2013-05-14T10:17:00-04:00

His eye-catching buildings have helped define the architecture of post-independence India.

A new exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London - which has been gifted Correa's archive - celebrates his decades-long career. The BBC's took a look with the designer, fellow architect David Adjaye.