Archinect - News

German building uses algae for heating and cooling

2013-04-25T17:54:00-04:00

A new apartment complex in Hamburg, Germany, intends to generate heat, as well as revenue, from growing the micro-organism. The five-story Bio Intelligent Quotient (B.I.Q.) building, which was expected to become fully operational on Wednesday, has a high-tech facade that looks like a cross between a Mondrian painting and a terrarium but is actually a vertical algae farm.

Big Air Package: The Largest Inflated Envelope in History by Christo

2013-03-18T14:30:00-04:00

Big Air Package is the latest project from artist Christo installed at the Gasometer Oberhausen in Germany, a facility that still holds the record as the largest disc-type gas holder in Europe that was converted into an exhibition hall in the 1990s. Big Air Package is the largest ever inflated envelope without aid of a skeleton (Gasometer Oberhausen bills it as the largest indoor sculpture in history) and reaches 90 meters high, with a diameter of 50 meters and a volume of 177,000 cubic meters.

Unveiled> Engel & Volkers Headquarters

2013-01-15T11:37:00-05:00

Richard Meier & Partners’ mixed-use building was selected in an international competition topping submissions by Foster + Partners and Zaha Hadid Architects. The challenge, Bernhard Karpf, associate partner-in-charge, said was to create a hybrid building that was “like a city in itself,” which creates “property lines” that carves out distinct areas for rentals, offices, and shops, but still comes together in a unified and coherent design.

U. of Illinois' Studio Berlin 2012 shares their story in a video

2013-01-09T12:55:00-05:00

In true Studio Berlin fashion, this last summer's group has put together a short film on their escapades throughout Europe. Enjoy!

History Honoured in German Retail Centre Revamp

2012-11-30T15:03:00-05:00

Modern retailers go to extremes to make their mark and compete within an increasingly competitive market. This often goes beyond out the box design ideals such as virtual retail or smartphone-based shopping processes.

Uncovering Berlin’s Hidden Architectural History

2012-11-30T02:23:00-05:00

A recent structural discovery that was recently found buried beneath 30 tonnes of rubble has the global industry abuzz. The architectural secret, which was dubbed ‘Berlin’s best kept architectural secret,’ is a three-storey German Music Hall Theatre, designed by famous architect and business owner Oscar Garbe and built in 1905.

UNStudio completes Haus am Weinberg

2012-10-16T11:34:00-04:00

UNStudio’s recently completed Haus am Weinberg, located on the outskirts of Stuttgart, affords pastoral views of the stepped terraces of an ancient hillside vineyard on one side and cityscape vistas on the other.

Whilst structurally the Haus am Weinberg and its garden landscaping reflect the strata and gradations of the nearby vineyard landscape, the true experience of the house is to be found from the inside out.

Ben van Berkel: “The Haus am Weinberg adopts a stereovisual spatial effect, acting almost as an optical instrument, whereby not a parallax view, but a parallax experience is created. Moments of parity with the surrounding landscape from inside the house form a constant experiential connection and awareness of its immediate context.”

The inner circulation, organisation of the views and the programme distribution of the house are determined by a single gesture, ‘the twist’. In the Haus am Weinberg the central twist element supports the main staircase as it ...

Meier goes back to German roots

2012-10-08T15:16:00-04:00

"I was very fortunate because the first building in Germany was the Museum for Applied Art, which was a competition that I won. After that I was invited to do other competitions. There's an appreciation for architecture in Germany that doesn't exist in many other places."

A Rational Approach

2012-08-21T13:57:00-04:00

When asked, the German-born “Father of Fonts” insists that there is nothing similar about designing a typeface and designing a house. “They’re totally different,” he says, in excellent English peppered with correctly implemented expletives. “With a typeface, you design a space. A letter is defined by the inside space, more than it is by the outside. You design for shape, but also for function.”... “In either case,” he concedes, “the design is as much about function as it is about aesthetics.”

Structureless structure?

2012-08-20T11:05:00-04:00

The general Idea from my interpretation was to produce a lightweight structure that uses minimal material yet uses technology to account for the lack of girth and material. - Rogelio Mercado

The buildings are always designed with redundant structural assemblies to resist forces that might happen maybe .001 time of their existence and sometimes never. So what happens when all that structural apparatus and weight has taken out from an experimental "structure" is explained to a group of traveling students by Prof. Haag from HOCHSCHULE BIBERACH UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES in Stuttgart, Germany. This fascinating video shot by Cal Poly student Rogelio Mercado shows how the actuators placed in four corners re-distribute the weight continuously and keep the large plywood sheet dome from collapsing.

BMW, Guggenheim Cancel Berlin Lab Project on Violence Threats

2012-03-21T11:21:00-04:00

Threats by left-wing activists in Berlin prompted New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to cancel a planned stop in the city’s Kreuzberg district for its mobile laboratory, the BMW Guggenheim Lab.

Hamburg sues over Herzog & de Meuron's pricey, late concert hall

2012-02-22T12:49:00-05:00

The city was initially prepared to contribute €77 million to the project – but this figure has since gone up by nearly five times to more than €323 million – more than half the expected €600 million total cost. And the original completion date of 2010 has been pushed back to 2014. The building’s designers had underestimated certain costs – such as an acoustic panelling for the main concert hall which cost five times as much as expected, adding more than €10 million to the bill.

Talk about adaptive re-use: Baltic style

2011-07-07T21:08:27-04:00

Prora was designed to accommodate 20,000 people in one go. Hitler was convinced Germany lost World War I because its population lost its nerve. His idea was to create cheap package holidays to wed the nation to Nazism and to shape happy, strong, well-rested new generations capable of winning the next war.

Germany's newest youth hostel offers access to one of the best beaches the Baltic has to offer. Sunseekers are flocking to the place, which is booked out for the summer season and is already receiving bookings for summer 2012. The hostel stands just meters away from one of the best beaches the Baltic Sea has to offer, but is located in a building with a deeply troubled past. The 400-bed hostel, which calls itself "the longest youth hostel in the world," was opened on July 1 in a gigantic former Nazi holiday hotel that stretches for 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) along the coast of the island of Rügen at the resort of Prora.

Raumlabor’s ‘Big Crunch’ is an Incredible Building Made from Discarded Materials

2011-06-29T14:29:51-04:00

Raumlabor just completed construction on "The Big Crunch" - a recycled building made from a heap of discarded objects. The mound of materials is condensed in a theater plaza from all over the area, seemingly to move like a small wave cresting on the Georg-Büchner-Platz grounds in Darmstadt, Germany.

Unesco status for Walter Gropius' Fagus Factory

2011-06-27T20:45:04-04:00

With its strips of glass windows and clean geometric structures, the building paved the way for a modernist style which became the trademark of the Bauhaus. The factory still produces shoe lasts, the forms used to mould shoes, to this day.

Walter Gropius' Fagus Factory has long been considered a frontrunner of modernist architecture. Now, a century after it was designed, the building in the German state of Lower Saxony has been added to the prestigious list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Mettre - Student Design Project at BTU in Cottbus, Germany

2011-06-27T20:34:59-04:00

Sabrina Kolar, graduate architecture student at Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus, Germany, has sent us images of the temporary membrane sculpture "Mettre" which was exhibited on the school's campus earlier this June. The sculpture design followed an internal, studio-wide competition for students of architecture and structural engineering in which Kolar, together with fellow student Ben Strachotta, was awarded the First Prize. The winning proposal was then further worked out within the studio project "Flying Surfaces" and finally realized.

Here's a more detailed project description from the designers:

Mettre: French for use, make, and create.

This single word is the inspiration for the design and construction of the Flying Surfaces sculpture for the 20th Anniversary of BTU Cottbus.The sculpture was specifically designed to be ‘hands on’ allowing people to use, touch, explored, and view from every angle. Allowing people the chance to fully ‘experience’ the sculp...

Hamburg Philharmonic is on the rise

2011-05-25T12:40:00-04:00

Hamburg is building a cultural landmark: The Elbphilharmonie. Designed by the architects Herzog & de Meuron, a synthesis of the arts comprising architecture, music and a unique location by the port is arising on the banks of the River Elbe. In addition to three concert halls, a hotel and 45 apartments, the complex will boast a freely accessible venue at a height of 37 meters, affording a 360° panoramic view of the city – The Plaza.

Covering some 4,000 square meters, The Plaza is almost as big as the Town Hall market square and is an ideal place for Hamburg’s citizens, tourists, concert-goers and hotel guests alike to stroll and enjoy life. The Large Concert Hall, with seating for 2,150, will form the heart of the Elbphilharmonie. A special material has been developed to deliver perfect acoustics by reflecting the sound in all directions, thereby ensuring complete listening pleasure throughout the auditorium: The White Skin.

Aesthetic Energy Autobahns: Can Designer Power Masts Win Over the Public?

2011-05-20T11:40:39-04:00

Europe is undergoing a revolution in energy production that requires massive new infrastructure to support the shift to renewables. But do new power lines always have to result in blight? Some utility companies are hoping that designer power masts can help overcome local opposition.

Honey, I shrunk the Flughafen

2011-05-05T17:13:56-04:00

"that is just fantastic ..."

The sole credit for the maker in this news article goes to "German" as in "German builds world’s largest model airport."

From Matterhorn to molehill: a scaled-back fake Berlin mountain to be built

2011-04-19T14:52:26-04:00

The city has given the thumbs up to a design by Dutch architect Eelco Hooftman for a mountain in the park to be used by Alpine climbing enthusiasts. At 60 meters (around 197 feet), it may not be a Matterhorn, but it still has the potential to beat any of the capital city's existing puny climbing walls.

Remember the giant synthetic mountain, known as the Berg, that made the rounds a few years back? That one. It's not happening. Until then, Germany will just have to make do with a tiny, insignificant version on the 60-acre Tempelhof Airport site.