Archinect - News

SANAA's Grace Farms “River” building wins latest MCHAP

2016-10-19T23:00:00-04:00

The verdict is out! SANAA's meandering Grace Farms “River” project has won the second Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, as announced by IIT College of Architecture Dean Wiel Arets and MCHAP Director Dirk Denison during a ceremony tonight at the S.R. Crown Hall in Chicago. First awarded in 2014, the biennial MCHAP is IIT's way of illuminating the most distinguished architectural projects built in the Americas. Projects for the second edition had to be completed between January 2014 and December 2015.

As part of their prize package, SANAA founders Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa will be appointed as MCHAP Chair at IIT Architecture Chicago for the following academic year and will receive up to $50,000 to fund research and a collaborative publication with the school.

SANAA won over an international group of finalists that included Michael Maltzan, Grafton Architects, and Patkau Architects + Kearns Mancini Architects, to name a few (projects pictured in photo gallery below).

The River has co...

Watch SANAA's "River" project come to life in this time-lapse

2016-02-03T13:21:00-05:00

SANAA's "River" community center emerges from the grounds of the New Canaan-based Grace Farms in less than a minute and a half in this time-lapse video by Work Cam Zone. The video captures the meandering structure transforming along with its open landscape, starting from September 2013 to October 2015, when it opened to the public with a slew of festive events.

Take a gander at the video right below.

SANAA's meandering "River" community center opens to the public

2015-10-09T15:15:00-04:00

Within the green open spaces of Grace Farms in New Canaan, Connecticut stands the new arts and community center, the River, which finally opened its doors to the public today. The Grace Farms Foundation selected SANAA to design the building in 2010, not long before Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa won the Pritzker Prize that year. SANAA first revealed their design in 2012.

The new 83,000-square foot structure consists of transparent-walled multi-functional volumes and covered walkways that wind down the park's rolling terrain, hence its River name. Its milky exterior complements the nearby woodlands and meadows at Grace Farms, while the clear glass walls show off the surrounding community gardens, athletic fields, and trails that SANAA designed in collaboration with OLIN. Fifty-five 500-foot-deep geothermal walls heat and cool the building.

The River's scheme boasts a 20,900 sq.ft. indoor amphitheater; a staffed library; a Commons dining and living room that can accommodate up to 300 ...

Editor's Picks #395

2014-11-28T13:12:00-05:00

Julia Ingalls reviews, the built work and paper architecture of Jimenez Lai. To wit "regardless of the medium...Understanding the role of storytelling within design is fundamental to all of Lai's work".

jla-x commented "The most interesting drawing that he did was a series of plans of a space ship city...really cool how he treated all surfaces as plan (the drawing was in zero gravity...)...A guy like him would be really great at film...I would love to see his drawings animated into short films". tanya enjoyed reading the article and summed up why "Understanding space from a different viewpoint , experiencing a variety of emotions while inhabiting a space , having the luxury to change the vibe of a specifically designed space, a sense of play within architecture, playing around with the art/part of architecture !"

Paul Keskeys, penned A First-Hand View of Gentrification in San Francisco. Arch2133 wasn’t happy "I really don't understand neutral positions like this and it leaves a bad t...

SANAA's Grace Farms River project to open in fall 2015

2014-11-19T19:31:00-05:00

SANAA's River project in the upcoming Grace Farms in New Canaan, CT will finally celebrate its grand opening next fall. The non-profit Grace Farms Foundation developed Grace Farms as an open public park for the local community, whereas the SANAA-designed building will be used for various community programs and recreation.

After an international search, the Foundation selected SANAA in 2010 to design the structure -- not long before the firm won the 2010 Pritzker Prize. SANAA then revealed their design of the River in 2012.

Reminiscent of SANAA's 2009 Serpentine Pavilion, the River building evidently gets its name from the way it meanders through the park's greenery. The 86,000 sq.ft structure is made of glass, concrete, steel, and wood, and is essentially connected by a single roof that appears to float approximately 10-14 feet above the ground. From an aerial view, the roof's water-like appearance allows the project to blend in with the surrounding landscape, which SANAA designed in ...

Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA lectures at GSAPP

2014-09-22T16:47:00-04:00

This past Wednesday, Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA addressed an overflowing Wood Auditorium, giving the first GSAPP lecture of the semester. Recently appointed dean Amale Andraos gave a brief introduction of Sejima and returned at the end of the lecture to lead a discussion as well as the Q/A portion of the evening.

Sejima began her lecture by explaining her choice of “Canopy” as her theme, an idea that is central to her, both as a part of SANAA and independently. “I like to make a space like a park, because a park is a place where different kind of people can gather,” stated Sejima, describing her desire to create an architecture that allows diverse groups of people to come together to both share and create their own space. By developing the concept of a canopy, Sejima creates a direct connection with the building and the environment, in a similar way that parks connect people with each other and the environment.

Starting with the Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, Switzerland and conc...