Archinect - News

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...

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

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.

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...

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.

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.

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

INABA Completes Red Bull Music Academy New York

2013-05-13T20:18:00-04:00

Jeffrey Inaba’s firm INABA was commissioned by Red Bull Music Academy to transform four floors of a vacant building in New York's Chelsea neighborhood into a model learning environment. INABA has used dramatic walls and lighting to create unique collaborative work areas in place of the traditional classroom.

Curving walls throughout the 38,000 square foot forum give shape to the distinct spaces. On the ground level the walls extend far into the former warehouse allowing passersby and users unrestricted views across the floor. They reveal a cross section of the types of activity taking place which include performances, private workshops, music production and broadcasting, aimed at making a statement that the space is different in its use from the shops, galleries, and cafés of the area. Below, on the cellar level, the arcing walls of the capsule-shaped lounge are interrupted only to establish long views from the recording studio located at the south end to the open-air patio ...

Flatpack homes offer Dutch first-time buyers chance to get on housing ladder

2013-05-13T18:36:00-04:00

Choosing your dream home has become as simple as picking furniture from the Ikea catalogue for residents of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, where a neighbourhood of affordable architect-designed kit houses has just been launched. Aimed at first-time buyers, the city's "I build affordable in Nijmegen" initiative has paired 20 architects with building companies to produce about 30 designs – from detached timber cabins to redbrick terraced houses – with a construction cost of as little as €115,000.

From 8A Architecten, the archtiects, "8A designed houses for first time buyers for the IbbN-program in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. ‘IbbN’ stands for ‘Ik bouw betaalbaar in Nijmegen’, translated in English as ‘I build affordable in Nijmegen’. This is a special program for first time buyers on the housing market who like to build their own house. With this program everyone with an income between € 30.000,- and € 47.000,- a year, gets a chance to build their own house."

More information about the project can be seen here, at it's dedicated website: www.ikbouwbetaalbaarmet8a.nl

Anywhere but Here: Deserted Banking Empire turned Skyscraper Slum

2013-05-13T14:04:00-04:00

It was built for stockbrokers and bankers in their thousand dollar suits to make million dollar deals, but for nearly two decades it has held the less impressive title of the world’s tallest squat. Welcome to the Centro Financiero Confinanzas, more commonly known as the Torre David (the Tower of David) in Caracas, Venezuela, an unfinished skyscraper which has now been colonised by an ad hoc community of over 700 families.

Defending the Former American Folk Art Museum Building

2013-05-13T14:01:00-04:00

It’s a relief on the block, representing the diversity vital to healthy streets — not a perfect building, not even its architects’ best work. But its unembarrassed, luxuriant materiality, its small scale and vulnerability, all qualities that the Modern now seems to reject, belong no less than the glass tower to the messy story of Modernism and city life.

Architectural Photography without Architecture

2013-05-13T13:44:00-04:00

Slowly it dawned on me that this was not a photograph of a real building but a total digital fabrication. I was shocked, not in a moralistic way but, rather, with amazement at the masterful deception and amused pique at being fooled.

The technologies of representing architecture have advanced steadily over the years, from drawing to photography to digital rendering — and have lately taken a new leap.

On Places, Belmont Freeman argues, "the crafts of architectural rendering and photography have now merged into a common activity of digital image-making — so completely that one can conceive a work of architecture and produce a 'photograph' of it without having to go through the expensive, tedious and corrupting intermediate step of actually building the building. Welcome to the world of architectural photography without architecture."

He discusses the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibitions "After Photoshop: Manipulated Photography in the Digital Age" and "Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop"; the MoMA exhibition "9 + 1 Ways of Being Political: 50 Years of Political Stances in Architecture and Urban Design," and recent books of photography by Frédéric Chauban and Ezra Stoller.

...

BERLIN SOLIDARITY! FREE COOPER UNION!

2013-05-12T19:51:00-04:00

As alumni living abroad in Berlin, we stand In solidarity with the students occupying the presidents office. We are moved by the actions of the occupying students, enraged by the actions of the Board of Trustees, President Bharucha, and former President Campbell. We are demonstrating outside of John Hejduk's Kreuzberg Tower to symbolize the legacy of Cooper Union and the global reach of free education. Long live Cooper Union, demand free education!

On May 12th Cooper Union alumni in Berlin gathered in front of the Kreuzberg Tower, designed by John Hejduk to show solidarity with Free Cooper Union. This action is in correlation with a student occupation of 50+ students who have currently been occupying the president of Cooper Union, Jamshed Bharuch’s office, since May 8th. The recent string of protests, and petition of no confidence in the president, is in reaction to Cooper’s Board of Trustees decision to charge tuition for the first time in the historically free school, and a variety of other community grievances with the administration and Board of Trustees.

The Kreuzberg Tower was part of the Inernational BauAfstellung Program in 1987, and is one of John Hejduk’s very few built works. The founder and first Dean of Cooper’s Architecture school, John Hejduk viewed the Cooper Union as a spiritual space, “A place that believes one of society's prime social responsibilities is towards learning and education in the deepest se...

MoMA pulls back from original plan to destroy award-winning American Folk Art Museum building

2013-05-11T22:08:00-04:00

Thursday, MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry sent a memo to MoMA's trustees and staff announcing the museum had retained Diller Scofidio + Renfro to "work with us to design a plan that will integrate the Museum's current building with the property of the American Folk Art Museum. . . . We readily agreed to consider a range of options, and look forward to seeing their results."

A statement from Diller Scofidio + Renfro said the design firm would explore all possibilities, "which include, but are not limited to, integrating the former American Folk Art Museum building, designed by our friends and admired colleagues, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien."

"My sense is they will try to save at least some of it. I can't imagine good designers destroying a great building for no good reason," said Quilian Riano, acting professor of design at Parsons The New School.

Riano helped lead a digital battle to offer MoMA "alternative visions" to destroying the 12-year-old building that swept world arch...

Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Glass" Pinterest Board

2013-05-10T10:00:00-04:00

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 Glass.

↑ Historic Wicker Park 2-Flat Conversion + Modern Addition in Chicago, IL by dSpace Studio

↑ 185 Post Street in San Francisco, CA by Brand + Allen Architects

↑ Fletcher Hotel in Amsterdam, The Netherlands by Benthem Crouwel Architects; Photo: Jannes Linders

↑ Vilnius University Library, Science Communication and Information Center in Vilnius, Lithuania by PALEKO ARCH STUDIJA; Photo: Raimondas Urbakavicius © R. Paleko arch studija

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

↑ Voyager Maritime Museum in Auckland, New Zealand by Bossley Architects

↑ LOW3 in Sant Cugat del Vallès, Spain, a design and research project by Barcelona Tech (UPC) students; Team Member: ...

DawnTown Announces Landmark Miami Competition Winners

2013-05-09T18:08:00-04:00

Three winners and one honorable mention have been announced in DawnTown Miami's 2013 ideas competition entitled Landmark Miami. This year’s theme focused on how cities are instantly identified by the individual structures within them. [...] architects and designers were tasked with creating an iconic architectural piece that contributes to the image of Miami.

MoMA reconsiders razing of Folk Art Museum, hands decision over to newly selected architects DS+R

2013-05-09T17:12:00-04:00

AFTER impassioned protests from prominent architects, preservationists and design critics, the Museum of Modern Art said on Thursday that it would reconsider its decision to demolish its next-door neighbor, the former home of the American Folk Art Museum, to make room for an expansion.

In a board meeting on Thursday morning, the directors were told that a board committee had selected the design firm Diller Scofidio & Renfro to handle the expansion and to help determine whether to keep any of the existing structure.