Archinect - News

Henning Larsen Architects, COBE and SLA to Design European Spallation Source (ESS)

2013-02-28T14:17:00-05:00

In the international design competition for the European Spallation Source (ESS), in Lund, Sweden the architectual team consisting of Henning Larsen Architects, COBE, and SLA has emerged victoriously. The team also includes the engineering partners Buro Happold, NNE Pharmaplan, and Transsolar. [...] ESS will become the world's largest and most advanced facility for neutron-based research.

The winning proposal beat out tough competition from international design heavy hitters like Foster + Partners, BIG, HOK, or Mecanoo.

Update: Henning Larsen Architects Releases New European Spallation Source (ESS) Video

MVRDV Builds “Porous City” Exhibition with LEGOs in Cannes

2013-02-04T15:24:00-05:00

If you happen to be in the South of France this March, make sure to attend MIPIM’s first edition of the Innovation Forum in Cannes, March 12-15th, where MVRDV and Delft-based innitiative The Why Factory (T?F) present the exhibition, Porous City – Open the Tower. The event is part of their ongoing research on the design of skyscrapers and the potential of porosity as a European approach to urban density.

Winners of Transiting Cities - Low Carbon Futures Competition

2013-01-21T14:42:00-05:00

A few days ago, we published one of the finalist entries of the international design ideas competition, Transiting Cities - Low Carbon Futures. The competition was open [...] to develop innovative visions for Latrobe City, in eastern Victoria, Australia to make the transition from a singular economy dominated by the power industry (coal mining and electricity generation) into a diversified economy and prosperous low carbon regional city.

Four Winners of 2012 RIBA President’s Awards for Research Announced

2012-10-30T18:01:00-04:00

The Royal Institute of British Architects today recognized four outstanding architectural research projects with the RIBA President's Awards for Research.

Bradley Garrett, Urban Explorer

2012-10-05T19:38:00-04:00

He may look like a kid in a hoodie, but Bradley Garrett has a degree in anthropology and history, a PhD in social and cultural geography, and is about to take up a research post at Oxford University. But away from his lofty academic work, this bespectacled American is a trespasser – "urban explorer" has a nicer ring – who infiltrates abandoned buildings, sewers, bridges and office-block rooftops, filming and photographing them to bring these hidden spaces to public view.

What About It? Part 2 goes Online!

2012-08-26T12:24:00-04:00

What About It? Part 2 is now available online on the digital publishing platform ISSUU.

The second issue of the graphic narrative in magazine format created, designed, edited, and written by WAI Architecture Think Tank includes essays, Manifestoes, Projects, Collages and a series of Conversations with: Simona Rota (Madrid); Zhang Ke / standardarchitecture (Beijing); Bernd Upmeyer / MONU (Rotterdam); and Perry Kulper (Michigan).

Manifesto of the WAIzine:

The WAIzine switches rhythm and pace, focus and aim, strategy and method. It goes from pure research, to retroactive manifesto, to speculative provocation. It is ambitious like architecture should be, especially these days of philosophical uncertainty, intellectual laissez faire, economic restraints, and social deterioration.

Rejecting the role of mere spectators of the global spectacle that has been set up by previous generations, the new generation of thinkers should be eager to embrace and confront the world with a pa...

Winners of the d3 Natural Systems 2012 Competition

2012-08-20T18:26:00-04:00

d3 today announced the winners of its Natural Systems competition for 2012. The annual competition promotes investigation of natural systems from microscopic to universal toward determining new architectonic strategies. The competition invited architects, designers, engineers, and students to collectively explore the potential for analyzing, documenting, and deploying nature-based, sustainable influences in urbanism, architecture, interiors, and designed objects.

Plans to build $1billion ghost town in New Mexico desert delayed

2012-07-16T13:21:00-04:00

Pegasus, the company behind the scheme, had originally intended to build the huge, 15-square mile replica town near to Hobbs in the southwestern U.S. state but has postponed building work after struggling to find enough land for the project. The $1billion city (£643million) with no residents had been billed as a testing ground for researchers developing products ranging from self-flushing toilets, intelligent traffic systems and next-generation wireless networks.

Post(card) Ideological Icons

2011-11-28T05:14:00-05:00

What about revisiting the hardcore shapes of the avant-garde?

It has been almost a century since the air was heavily saturated with the combustible gas of ideology. Almost a hundred years have passed since everything from film, through art and architecture, to urbanism was susceptible to the slightest friction in the atmosphere sparking endless manifestoes and multiple visions of the perennial “new beginning”. But what happens when the ideological fire that fuels urbanism is extinguished, and in its place just smoke remains? What is left after the idealistic energy of the avant-garde has vanished and we are left with necrophilic icons of dead ideologies? Why aren’t we able to see the striking similarities and contrasting disparities between the avatars of yesterday’s ideological urbanism and today’s pop-architectural icons?

In the twenties imaginary taut wires, steel trusses, and structural concrete gave form to the muscular monuments of a Potemkinesque avant-garde. Utopia had...

HUD Seeks Public Comment on Research Agenda

2011-10-19T14:54:04-04:00

Over the next 5-10 years, what does HUD need to know to improve knowledge gaps that are affecting the execution of good housing and community development policy and practice?

From HUD:

"PD&R is in the process of formulating our research agenda for the next 5-10 years and would like your input. We invite you to think critically about the following question and respond in one of the four targeted topic areas. To ensure consideration in advance of our upcoming research agenda conference in November, be sure to submit your suggestions no later than November 4th. Over the next 5-10 years, what do we need to know to improve knowledge gaps that are affecting the execution of good housing and community development policy and practice?"

POSTPOST

2011-07-15T11:12:35-04:00

Post Post is a new online project focused on exploring the dialog of relational contexts within architectural projects and practices. By extending the lens beyond the individual scope of projects, Post Post seeks to illuminate the interwoven and complex relationships of congruous trajectories within contemporary architectural practice. Post Post looks forward to furthering this pursuit with an active community of user-submitted content.

Bookless Library Trend: Designing Space for Digital Learning

2011-07-11T13:57:37-04:00

Scott Erdy, designer of the new library, says open, flexible space — the furniture is movable and the walls act as one giant whiteboard — allows student and staff "knowledge transfer," a concept reinforced by Danuta Nitecki, dean of Drexel's libraries. "We don't just house books, we house learning," she says.