Archinect - News

Editor's Picks # 319

2013-06-11T11:52:00-04:00

Paul Petrunia spoke with Ali Jeevanjee and Ben Anderson from the Flux Foundation, an Oakland based organization dedicated to producing large scale public art via a collaborative process. To this end they installed Sidewalk's End at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, California, back in April 2013.

News
Over at the LA Times Christopher Hawthorne reported on LACMA's unfurled Peter Zumthor's design. Mr. Hawthorne wrote "Still a work in progress, the design is full of gestures that are more speculative, even searching, than fully formed. One crucial element that remains under-developed is how it will feel to walk beneath the museum's raised main floor — and how the underside of the building will be clad or look as seen from the ground. (In such a large, dark piece of architecture it will be important to keep that space from feeling cave-like.) The plan so far has little to say about landscape architecture". Gregory Walker had a few questions "is this really any ...

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.

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.

BIG’s Marknagil Education Center Breaks Ground on Faroe Islands

2013-04-18T21:31:00-04:00

It seems to be big groundbreaking week for Danish firms right now: yesterday we reported about schmidt hammer lassen architects kicking off construction of their enormous International Criminal Court campus in The Hague, The Netherlands, and now we're also hearing of BIG breaking ground on the Marknagil Education Center—soon to become the biggest building on the Faroe Islands.

Together with local architects Fuglark and a team of consultants, BIG had won the competition for the 19,200 sqm / 206,667 sq ft educational facility back in 2009.

BIG Wins EuropaCity Competition

2013-04-17T17:56:00-04:00

BIG, along with fellow team members Tess, Transsolar, Base, Transitec, and Michel Forgue, has been selected to design EuropaCity, an 80-hectare cultural and commercial destination in the heart of France.

LEGO taps BIG and RAA to design the LEGO Brand House, a public LEGO museum and experience center, in Denmark

2013-03-12T18:27:00-04:00

“It is one of our great dreams at BIG that we are now able to design a building for and with the LEGO Group. I owe a huge personal debt to the LEGO brick, and I can see in my nephews that its role in developing the child as a creative, thinking, imaginative human being becomes ever stronger in a world in which creativity and innovation are key elements in virtually all aspects of society,” says Bjarke Ingels, founder and partner, BIG.

Smithsonian hires Bjarke Ingels Group to rethink historic D.C. campus

2013-02-28T16:02:00-05:00

Ingels has been asked to envision a gateway, one that invites visitors to learn, rest and escape and then leads them north to the rest of the Mall. B.I.G. will be responsible for site and building investigations, programming, campus planning, architectural and engineering design concepts and cost analysis. The area "suffers from some notable impediments, and the buildings within the landscape are not utilized in a fully functional and efficient way," the Smithsonian says.

Copenhagen’s Superkilen Urban Park by BIG + Topotek1 + Superflex

2013-01-16T14:00:00-05:00

Earlier this week, we published the winners of the 2013 AIA Institute Honor Awards with eight projects from around the world being recognized in the category "Regional and Urban Design." One of the lucky award winners is Superkilen, an urban park master plan in Copenhagen designed by BIG in collaboration with landscape architects Topotek1 and artists' group Superflex.

BIG News: Planning Commission Approves Durst’s 57th Street Pyramid Apartments

2012-12-22T17:57:00-05:00

“Our approval will facilitate development of a significant new building with a distinctive pyramid-like shaped design and thoughtful site plan that integrates the full block site into the evolving residential, institutional, and commercial neighborhood surrounding it,” Ms. Burden said before voting in favor of the project.

BIG Designs Sexy Observation Tower for Phoenix

2012-12-19T17:19:00-05:00

News just broke that BIG has been commissioned to design a sleek 420 ft tall mixed-use observation tower for Phoenix, Arizona. Quite possibly the city's new symbol?

BIG Transforms Ft. Lauderdale Waterfront in Florida

2012-10-16T13:47:00-04:00

BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and Cymbal Development transform a portion of Fort Lauderdale’s New River front into a vibrant addition for the local community and future residents of the city.

The mixed-use development, Marina Lofts, in downtown Fort Lauderdale seeks to infuse a currently run-down stretch along the New River with a thriving pedestrian friendly public space thereby attracting new residents into its development. Totaling 1,000 rental apartments, 10,000 sq ft of restaurants and 25,000 sq ft of retail, the mixed-use development is broken into three phases. The Florida-based developer, Asi Cymbal, expects the project to have a positive long-term economic benefit to the city and local community of Fort Lauderdale.

“Our intent here is to create a world class project that will serve as a model for architecture, creativity, and energy along the most prime stretch of waterfront in Downtown Fort Lauderdale,” says Asi Cymbal, owner of Cymbal Development.

Situ...

Editor's Picks #282

2012-09-18T11:58:00-04:00

The NYT reported that Pedro E. Guerrero, a former art school dropout , died on Thursday at his home in Florence, Ariz. w. wynne A.I.A. offered up the following "Pedro has a wonderful book about his photographic work, and I am sadden to hear of his death. Mr. Wright called him ‘Peter’, but the story of his life with FLW is very nice and interesting account of the middle career of Mr. Wright."

News

The NYT reported that Pedro E. Guerrero, a former art school dropout who showed up in the dusty Arizona driveway of Frank Lloyd Wright in 1939, boldly declared himself a photographer and then spent the next half-century working closely with him, capturing his modernist architecture on film, died on Thursday at his home in Florence, Ariz. w. wynne A.I.A. offered up the following "Pedro has a wonderful book about his photographic work, and I am sadden to hear of his death. Mr. Wright called him ‘Peter’, but the story of his life with FLW is very nice and interesting account of the middle career of Mr. Wright."

Bustler announced that architect Deborah Berke, founder of New York City-based firm Deborah Berke Partners, was selected as the first recipient of UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design (CED) inaugural 2012 Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize. Aaron Willette commented "I had the pleasure of working with Deborah at Ghost 10, and to nobody's surpri...

Community Board Spikes Durst’s BIG Pyramid Over Lack of Permanent Affordable Housing, Parking Problems

2012-09-12T14:16:00-04:00

Their singular issue is affordable housing, of which there will be some 150-units. The sticking point is that those apartments will only be reserved for low-income tenants for 35 years. The board wants permanent affordability, instead. “As a community board, we are supposed to do the best we can to preserve and maintain our communities and keep them going,” Mr. Nolan said.

BIG at the Danish Pavilion in Venice

2012-08-23T15:36:00-04:00

BIG in collaboration with TENU, Julie Hardenberg and Inuk Silas Høgh present Connecting Greenland: AIR+PORT as a part of the exhibition “POSSIBLE GREENLAND” at the Danish Biennale di Venezia Pavilion, exploring the potentials and challenges that Greenland is facing as the country gains global attention.

Click here to see more Archinect News posts related to the 13th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.

Team BIG+FREAKS Wins Competition for New Cultural Center in Bordeaux

2012-06-21T19:38:00-04:00

The collaborative effort of team BIG+FREAKS freearchitects, dUCKS scéno, Khephren Ingénierie, VPEAS, ALTO Ingénierie, Vincent Hedont, PBNL, Mryk & Moriceau, Ph.A., has won the competition to design a new 12,000 m2 cultural center on the riverfront of Bordeaux, France, merging three cultural institutions into one single building. [...] The Regional Council of Bordeaux selected the winning team among proposals from SANAA, the Toulouse-based firm W-Architectures and Bordeaux-based FLINT.

Lil' Bjarke

2012-04-23T16:02:00-04:00

CNN's The Next List profiles innovative Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.

Bjarke talks about his childhood and early inspiration.

Also see Rethinking social infrastructure on CNN's What's Next blog - an essay by Bjarke along with CNN footage of him and his Yale studio.

Editor's Picks #261

2012-04-22T22:54:00-04:00

In anticipation of the Publish Or... bracket [GOES SOFT] event at WUHO Gallery this past Thursday, April 19, Archinect showcased a few select projects from the book including GROUNDING: Landslide Mitigation Housing Jared Winchester / Viktor Ramos. Orhan Ayyüce opined “Let the earth slide. don't build in land slide areas. another anology to this is seminal article by mike davis, ‘let malibu burn’ meaning don't build in areas where nature has a way of acting up."

For current feature 525 Golden Gate Seismically and Systematically Sustainable I spoke with architect David Hobstetter, of the San Francisco firm KMD Architects. David made the case for seismic resilience as a key factor in discussing his building’s sustainability. Particularly, within a regional context and as part of a rating system like LEED.

On a related note Bill Lascher wrote Disaster Resilience Part of Sustainability, Too, an article for Miller McCune wherein Erik Kneer, an associate engineer at Degenkolb argues that LEED scoring should "be more closely tied to a project’s regional context. Along the Pacific Coast, for example, regionalization credits might be based on a building’s seismic performance, while in the Southeast credits might be issued for the ability to withstand hurricanes". Lascher reports that "many regional chapters have advocated for such credits, and chapters can adapt their guidelines somewhat to address regional concerns, but disaster resiliency hasn...

BIG’s 490-foot-tall Beach and Howe Tower for Vancouver

2012-04-17T14:38:00-04:00

Copenhagen darlings BIG have unveiled their design for the 490-foot-tall Beach and Howe tower in Vancouver, a collaboration with Westbank, Dialog, Cobalt, PFS, Buro Happold, Glotman Simpson and local architect James Cheng. The new mixed-use tower marks the entry point to downtown Vancouver, forming a welcoming gateway to the city, while adding another unique structure to the city's skyline.

After the first leaked renderings from a few weeks ago, here some official images from BIG directly.

Beach & Howe Tower Proposal Vancouver BIG Tower Bjarke Ingels Group

2012-02-14T18:37:00-05:00

The proposal is for a mixed-use development. On the Howe Street side, there will be a 49-storey residential tower with a 9-storey podium which includes market rental housing, commercial uses, and a childcare facility. The building height is at 150 metres and will be the tallest building on the southern end of downtown and the 4th tallest building in the city, unless the Ritz Carlton site gets developed before this, in which case it would be the 5th tallest.

BIG is named winner of the Kimball Art Center Transformation Project Design Competition

2012-02-10T20:52:00-05:00

He plans to build an 80-foot-tall tower by stacking former railway planks at a slight spiral so that the entire structure will appear to change directions midway up, like a game of Jenga gone askew. Inside, a restaurant will sit on the building's lobby floor while a cantilevered, wooden staircase will lead visitors to the various white-cube gallery floors above.

BIG to Design Ski Resort in Lapland

2011-12-12T18:56:32-05:00

BIG has just been announced winning an invited competition for Koutalaki Ski Village, a 47,000 m2 ski resort and recreational area in Levi, Finland.

BIG’s waste-to-energy ski slope incinerator scrapped due to environmental concerns.

2011-12-07T11:10:03-05:00

Last year, when BIG unveiled its fantastical ski resort on top of a waste-to-energy incinerator plant in Copenhagen, we were admittedly intrigued. But we weren’t at all surprised when the City of Copenhagen denied the project yesterday because they believe it will damage the climate and environment.

BIG + OFF to Design New University Research Center in Paris

2011-11-21T18:09:00-05:00

Danish and French architects BIG & OFF, engineers Buro Happold, consultants Michel Forgue and environmental engineer Franck Boutte is the winning team to design the new 15,000 m2 research center for Sorbonne Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. The winning team was honored as the best design among proposals from MVRDV, Lipsky Rollet, Mario Cucinella and Peripherique.

Bjarke Ingels Explains “Court-Scrapers,” Robo-cars, and Mirrored Ceilings

2011-11-04T23:32:20-04:00

Architects do a lousy job of selling their ideas to the general public, said Bjarke Ingels, on Thursday morning during his keynote address at Architectural Record’s annual Innovation conference in New York. They need to “find ways to present their ideas or concerns in words that are so clear that non-architects will actually take an interest in them”

BIG to Transform Swiss Transitlager Warehouse Into a Hip Urban Development

2011-10-26T11:52:17-04:00

The plan is to transform a 1960s warehouse into a multifunctional space dedicated to the intersection of art, commerce, working, and living. Called, Transitlager, the restored building is part of a larger redevelopment of Basel’s upcoming Dreispitz neighborhood, which is becoming an attractive and inviting urban quarter. The industrial area is characterized by hard lines and the renovated and extended warehouse will reflect its origins with a modern twist on those geometries.

Inaugural Issue of CLOG Arrives

2011-09-12T11:23:14-04:00

CLOG slows things down. Each issue explores, from multiple viewpoints and through a variety of means, a single subject particularly relevant to architecture now. Succinctly, on paper, away from the distractions and imperatives of the screen.

CLOG is a new publication that tries to address the problem of speed and deluge of content we experience in today's new media landscape.

To continue the dialogue initiated in this issue, on October 7, 2011 Storefront for Art and Architecture will host CLOG and Bjarke Ingels as part of their Interrogation Series.

Editors:

Kyle May (Editor-in-chief)
Julia van den Hout
Jacob Reidel
Human Wu
The Office of PlayLab, Inc. (Design)

Contributors:
Michael Abrahamson, Iwan Baan, E. Sean Bailey, Grey Barton and Michael Keller, Aleksandr Bierig, Janine Biunno, Gabrielle Brainard, Greg Broerman, Sean Burkholder, John Cantwell, Dan Clark, Justin Davidson, Obinna Elechi, Fake Design, Graffitilab, Rúnar Halldórsson, Jonathan Hanahan, Han His Ho, Julia van den Hout, Karrie Jacobs, KiBiSi, Klaus, Jonathan Kurtz, Alexandra Lange, Kyle May, Stephen Melville, Michel Onfray (translated by Charlotte van den Hout), Carol Patterson, Ethan Pomerance, Jacob Reidel, Team JiYo, Erandi...

Big Name Semi-Finalists for the St. Petersburg Pier Design Competition

2011-07-30T10:35:00-04:00

Six New York City firms were selected, including BIG, which Saitowitz said had designs of past projects that were "jaw dropping."

On Friday, a five-member panel narrowed down a list of 23 firms and teams competing to design a new $50 million Pier to nine semifinalists. They are:

West 8 Urban Design, New York City
Michael Maltzan Architecture, Los Angeles
BIG, New York City
James Corner Field Operations, New York City
HOK, Tampa
Frederic Schwartz, New York City
Weiss/Manfredi Architectural/Landscape/Urbanism, NYC
Farshid Moussavi Architecture, London
!melk Urban Design, NYC

Bjarke Ingels designs incinerator that doubles as ski slope in Copenhagen

2011-07-05T12:02:00-04:00

How do you turn a 100-metre-tall incinerator in the heart of Copenhagen into a social and cultural hub? By building a ski slope on the roof, of course.

We also published news of this project back in January.

Bjarke Ingels's BIG Ambitions

2011-06-10T12:17:00-04:00

Although Mr. Ingels is one of Europe's best-known young architects, he actually entered the profession by default. "I wanted to be a cartoonist," he says, speaking earlier this spring from Spain, where he was attending a friend's bachelor party. "There is no cartoon academy in Copenhagen but there is an architecture school."

BIG to Design Major Cultural Center in Albania

2011-05-04T18:12:00-04:00

BIG, Martha Schwartz Landscape, Buro Happold, Speirs & Major, Lutzenberger & Lutzenberger, and Global Cultural Asset Management were today announced as the winning team of the international design competition for a new 27,000 m2 cultural complex in Albania, consisting of a Mosque, an Islamic Center, and a Museum of Religious Harmony.