Archinect - News

Peace Pavilion by Atelier Zündel Cristea

2013-06-18T18:39:00-04:00

Paris-based practice Atelier Zündel Cristea (AZC) has shared with us photos of its Peace Pavilion which was open to the public for a few weeks in May and June at London's Bethnal Green, Museum Gardens. The proposal had won the first prize in the Triumph Pavilion - LONDON competition and earned the rare opportunity to go from design concept to built pavilion.

Vitra | Diogene: A cabin designed by Renzo Piano and RPBW for Vitra

2013-06-14T15:41:00-04:00

In June 2013, a further element will be introduced on the Vitra Campus. On a hill between the VitraHaus and the Dome, the Italian architect Renzo Piano and the Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) has developed “Diogene”, which to date is Vitra’s smallest building ― but largest product.

An Interview with Anouska Hempel, Interior Designer of London's La Suite West Hotel

2013-06-13T15:04:00-04:00

Anouska Hempel is a London-based hotelier and interior designer. Recently, Archinect correspondent, Jill Johnson, had the opportunity to stay at one of Anouska's recent projects, La Suite West, a boutique hotel in London, and followed up her stay with a brief conversation about the design.

Can you discuss the balance of architecture, interiors and styling in your work?
To manage all the work there are many rules. One cannot be considered without the other however we are a design studio so the vision (beauty) comes first which is complimented by the architecture, followed by the interiors and styling.

The style in your portfolio seems to range from highly decorative to minimal. How do you define your style?
Simply, I don’t think one can. I truly enjoy and appreciate a broad spectrum, as demonstrated, but if one had to define it in a word, that would most likely be “couture”. The style can vary but the quality most definitely cannot!

Where did you study design? Whom di...

World's most expensive (and probably tackiest) motorhome goes on sale for £2m

2013-06-12T18:59:00-04:00

The space-age eleMMent Palazzo comes complete with a colossal master bedroom, 40-inch TV, on-board bar, fireplace and even its own rooftop terrace. But the most impressive piece of luxury is the 'Sky Lounge' - at the press of a button the 40ft home transforms into a personal retreat with pop up cocktail bar, underfloor heating and extravagant marble lighting.

Filling the Gap: New Architecture Discourse in Rio de Janeiro

2013-06-11T11:45:00-04:00

Since 2011, Studio-X Rio has been bringing together professionals, academics, decision makers, students, and the general public to confront the city’s most pressing challenges.

Architecture gallery, "Department of Architecture", to open in San Francisco on June 12th

2013-06-07T20:35:00-04:00

Michelle Chang, a GSD grad, and current studio teacher at CCA and Berkeley, has responded to the closing of SFMOMA's A+D department by initiating a new gallery space to promote the work of young professionals.

The first exhibit at Department of Architecture is opening on June 12 at the architecture office and think tank, MKThink, featuring practicing academics Matsys (CCA), MTTR MGMT (CCA, Berkeley, SCI-Arc), and Nervous System (MIT).

Michelle tells us, "starting Department of Architecture (DoA) grew out of a frustration with architecture's lack of presence within the city. Especially with the SFMOMA closing next week (for three years), all architecture events will be embedded within either local architecture schools or small professional circles. Some of the best architecture exhibitions I've been to were in lobbies of architecture schools, but they were mostly attended by faculty and students. The idea behind DoA is to engage the public in two ways: through a series of ha...

Paul Goldberger shares his list of airports that offer a "grand welcome"

2013-06-07T19:32:00-04:00

Dramatic entries are a given with air travel, and airports should convey a sense of welcome and arrival to travelers landing in a new city, like the great train stations of yesteryear, says architecture critic Paul Goldberger.

Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Art-chitecture" Pinterest Board

2013-06-07T14:12:00-04:00

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 Art-chitecture.

↑ The Cathedral by Jason Orbe-Smith

↑ Settlements and City Strategies by Olalekan Jeyifous

↑ A Gothic Thing (Schindler House), West Hollywood,CA by Ehab Ghali, design collaboration with Xiaofeng Mei

↑ Platonic Solids by Ibrahim Rajah

↑ Between the Sheets by David Rowan Johnson, Aaron Baseman and Kris Fuentes

↑ Nightlight in Sydney, Australia by Office Feuerman

↑ Detroit Series by John Szot

↑ Over the meaning of a place by Crilo

↑ The House As A Metaphor: Dream House by Michael Jantzen

(Cover pic: fielded drawing by Jarrod Ray Caranto)

Click here to see more "Ten Top Images on Archinect's Pinterest Boards" features.

More details of Zumthor's LACMA redesign

2013-06-06T19:19:00-04:00

Here is your first look at models and details of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor's proposed new building for LACMA. See these for yourself, along with a look at LACMA's architectural history and an overview of other Zumthor projects, in THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST: PETER ZUMTHOR RECONSIDERS LACMA, on view July 9-September 15, 2013

For more information, visit lacma.org/zumthor.

5468796 Architecture wins one of five WAN 21 FOR 21 Awards

2013-06-05T20:22:00-04:00

Canadian firm 5468796 Architecture has been selected for the WAN 21 FOR 21 Award by World Architecture News in London, UK. 5468796 was one of five emerging architectural practices chosen from over 150 entries and a longlist of 50 firms from around the world.

It's official, the Hirshhorn Museum has burst the bubble

2013-06-05T15:03:00-04:00

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on Wednesday finally abandoned its long-planned project to cover the museum’s interior courtyard in Washington D.C. with a distinctive, temporary inflatable bubble. Citing financial uncertainties, Richard Kurin, the Smithsonian Institution’s under secretary for history, art and culture, made the announcement. He said outgoing director Richard Koshalek, who resigned last month after failing to receive full support for the bubble...

Ghastly Bridge, Hopeless Rail Plan Leave New York Cheated

2013-06-05T13:50:00-04:00

Renderings by Tappan Zee Constructors LLC, the team selected to design and build the bridge at a cost of $4 billion, show a structure crowned by 400-foot-high towers that look like insect antennae waving aimlessly in the wind. Four pairs of masts tilt outward, from which cables splay to support the road deck. The towers are intended to form an iconic image, but they are just stumpy. This is a site that deserves the magnificence of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Design for LEGO House, designed by BIG, unveiled today

2013-06-05T13:30:00-04:00

The LEGO Group today revealed the design of the experience center “The LEGO House”. The center, which will be built in Denmark, illustrates the systematic creativity of LEGO bricks and is expected to attract 250,000 visitors annually.

J Mays, Ford's head of vehicle design, discusses his architectural inspirations

2013-06-04T17:00:00-04:00

As the person in charge of design for Ford's entire vehicle porfolio, Mays looks at architecture a lot. And he's ever mindful of buildings and how they're designed whenever he sets about creating a new car or truck for Ford. What he's learned — and what he likes— about architecture, and Chicago architecture in particular, will be his focus when he joins the panel discussion "Big Ideas in Small Places" on Thursday at the Chicago Architecture Foundation.

Sou Fujimoto's Serpentine Gallery Pavilion opens June 8th, first photos by Iwan Baan emerge

2013-06-04T12:04:00-04:00

Occupying some 350 square-metres of lawn in front of the Serpentine Gallery, Sou Fujimoto's delicate, latticed structure of 20mm steel poles will have a lightweight and semi-transparent appearance that will allow it to blend, cloud-like, into the landscape and against the classical backdrop of the Gallery's colonnaded East wing. Designed as a flexible, multi-purpose social space - with a café sited inside - visitors will be encouraged to enter and interact with the Pavilion...

Facebook's positive experience with Gehry in California leads to commission to design new NYC office

2013-06-04T11:52:00-04:00

The company will be moving all of its teams from its current office near Grand Central to two floors at the new office, the interior of which architect Frank Gehry has agreed to design. Gehry is already leading the expansion of Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, CA. A source familiar with Facebook's plans said the company is "extraordinarily pleased with [Gehry's] ability to delivery an incredible quality of design at a remarkably efficient price"...

Peter Zumthor's $450,000,000 'Black Flower' for LACMA

2013-06-03T14:10:00-04:00

"Bracingly forward-looking, Zumthor's design for LACMA would give the city a much-needed jolt of architectural energy."

Zumthor's design, which obliterates the original campus of LACMA, would cost an estimated $450M to construct, with another $200M in soft and operating costs built in.

A few questions abound: is this really any different (in overall approach) than OMA's ill-fated masterplan from roughly 10 years ago? Will this truly solve LACMA's core collections questions? And would the money raised be much better allocated towards improving those, the existing facilities and creating a long term operations fund to help stabilize the institution?

Donald Judd’s SoHo Loft Opens After $23 Million Makeover

2013-05-31T12:05:00-04:00

Donald Judd bought 101 Spring Street, an 1870 cast-iron building, in 1968 for $68,000. He stripped the dilapidated building down to its plaster walls and wood floors, illegally removing distractions like fire sprinklers. Then Judd (1928-1994) spent decades turning the spaces into a showcase for his art and a place to rest his head on a bed made of wood planks. It’s carefully related to the colored tubes by Dan Flavin that march across the room, echoing the rhythm of a gorgeous row of windows.

Solidarity with Istanbul

2013-05-31T11:14:00-04:00

Last few days Istanbul has been the site of mass protests and battles raging for the Gezi Park (translating as stroll park) in Taksim District where the prime minister Erdogan's government wants to build a "Shopping Mall," a kitschy copy of a 19th. century building, Taksim Military Barracks, that was demolished in 1940 on the recommendations of French architect Henri Prost who is known for his work with Tony Garnier.

The morphing of the existing park with grown trees to enclosed courtyard style kitsch shopping mall.

The decision to demolish the park is really a most recent assault in accordance with the over commercialization of this historic city of 16 million people. The blunt action to send bulldozers to uproot the trees certainly hit a nerve with thousands of protesters who are fed up with government's draconian measures of late, threatening the basic liberties of Turkish society at large and the invasion of the publicness of the open spaces in Turkey's largest c...

Bluetooth is coming to your deadbolt

2013-05-30T19:20:00-04:00

The August Smart Lock is the secure, simple, and social way to manage your home’s lock. Now you can control who can enter and who can’t—without the need for keys or codes. And you can do it all from your smartphone or computer.

Key-less entry has been available for cars for ages. It's about time buildings adopt this new technology. Fortunately, this new product is designed by master product designer Yves Behar, of Fuseproject.

Adobe is scratching the surface with new analog tools for digital drawings

2013-05-29T16:18:00-04:00

Our XD team revealed a few projects they're working on at Adobe MAX 2013. The team has been exploring how new form factor displays, new interactions (like touch and gesture), cloud connections and even new hardware might change how you all create and in turn how it might impact what software we need to build.

Bolts along Bay Bridge bike path fail

2013-05-29T15:37:00-04:00

Crews that built the railing committed what experts called a basic mistake - they welded the bolts in place firmly in their slots rather than leaving a small amount of room to accommodate a natural expansion of the bicycle path that happens in hot weather. As a result, scores of the 1-inch-diameter bolts have been sheared off along the 1.2-mile bike path on the southern side of the span's skyway section.

New York Design Commissioner David Burney on the Politics of the Public

2013-05-28T20:33:00-04:00

Increasingly it's been cities that have taken the lead on critical issues, from gun control to immigration reform to economic stimulus to climate change. Given the migration of people into cities worldwide, this trend is sure to continue. We might even be in a de facto transition to a society dominated by economically and politically powerful cities — a contemporary version of the great city-states that arose in the 13th century and ruled Europe until the consolidation of modern nation-states.

For almost a decade David Burney has been Commissioner of the Department of Design and Construction in New York City.

In an interview with Places editor Nancy Levinson, he reflects on the urban design record of the Bloomberg years, focusing especially on PlaNYC, the ongoing post-Sandy recovery effort, and the potential for cities to take the lead in 21st-century sustainability planning.

Luxury Flats Planned for Derelict Nazi Resort

2013-05-27T19:08:00-04:00

With so much discussion going on with former Nazi Party relics these days, German developers are trying to revive a valuable real estate, the Nazi built Prora resort complex which served to Hitler's upper ranks. Once it is fixed and put on the market, it will be called "Sea Symphony" with a slogan, "Awakened with a kiss and beautifully renovated."

Der Spiegel

PATH/Fail: The Story of the World’s Most Expensive Train Station

2013-05-24T18:56:00-04:00

At $3.74 billion, plus another $200 million in contingencies, the “Transportation Hub” at the World Trade Center—not even the busiest station in the Financial District—will be far and away the most expensive train station built in modern history. The Hub, as it’s known in Port Authority speak, will be the crowning artistic statement of the World Trade Center complex, perhaps the last grand gesture at a site that was supposed to be full of them.

L.A. artists, architects' effect on each other at MAK Center exhibit

2013-05-24T18:49:00-04:00

The exhibition at the MAK Center in West Hollywood, curated by UCLA architectural historian and critic Sylvia Lavin, is a wry study of the ways Los Angeles artists and architects worked with, leaned on, stole from and influenced one another in the 1970s. In a larger sense, it charts the way Southern California architects threw off the influence of establishmen Modernism and helped remake the profession in that decade.

Packed with mostly small-scale work by artists Judy Chicago, Billy Al Bengston, Robert Smithson, Ed Moses and architects Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Charles Moore, Cesar Pelli and Frank Gehry, among many others, it is easily the most surprising and opinionated of the exhibitions to open as part of the Getty L.A. architecture series "Pacific Standard Time Presents."

Jorge Pardo & Oscar Tuazon, in conversation

2013-05-23T18:22:00-04:00

Though indebted to conventional artistic methodologies, the vibrant, playful works of Jorge Prado lack traditional notions of artistic autonomy, with multiple uses straddling sculpture, furniture and architecture. Over espresso and a cigarette in the kitchen of his Los Angeles home, Pardo shares with Oscar Tuazon his processes of transforming built environments into functionally fluid sites designed to facilitate a diversity of experience.

Zaha Hadid beyond buildings: architect launches new design gallery

2013-05-23T13:01:00-04:00

She has become a global brand so desirable that her buildings in China are now being pirated – before they are even finished. So what territory is left to conquer? The answer might be found by peering through the windows of an innocuous looking building on Clerkenwell Road in east London, which opened this week as the Zaha Hadid Design Gallery, part of Clerkenwell Design Week.

Fast Company's "Most Creative People 2013" includes four architects

2013-05-22T15:15:00-04:00

The 2013 global leaders in technology, design, media, music, movies, marketing, television, sports, and more.

Each year Fast Company puts together a list of the 100 most creative people in business. This year the list includes the following faces familiar to readers of Archinect...

3. Diana Balmori

12. Liz Muller

16. Ai Weiwei

60. Peter Marino

For the full list go here...

Help The Draftery on Kickstarter

2013-05-22T11:06:00-04:00

The Draftery is a curated drawing archive with multiple platforms. We promote graphic works by lesser known architects, artists, students, and other practitioners.

Along with our web-based Archive, we also publish Figures, our printed biannual. It is the only journal that we know of that continuously places contemporary architectural representation at the forefront of discourse. Each issue of Figures showcases a selection of thematically-related architectural drawings.

We are currently working on producing the third issue of Figures, but we need help raising funds to cover production costs. We have launched a Kickstarter campaign that can be found here: http://kck.st/10FAFfE

We've worked hard to keep the conversation alive. With our third issue, our goal is to broaden the journal's audience base as well as offering it at a higher quality. We hope that members of this community will join us in producing this issue by sharing this news to their networks, and if able, pledgin...