Archinect - News

Hawaii fights for Obama presidential center

2013-05-08T12:54:00-04:00

The president still has three years in office, but eventually his thoughts will turn to what comes afterward. [...] A presidential library has to be easily accessible to scholars and visitors, so Chicago has a clear advantage. That’s why Honolulu’s leaders named their public campaign carefully: The Hawaii Presidential Center Initiative, not a presidential library.

Previously: The LA Times' Christopher Hawthorne reviews the "fittingly blunt" Bush presidential library

The LA Times' Christopher Hawthorne reviews the "fittingly blunt" Bush presidential library

2013-04-23T20:41:00-04:00

Stern's architecture is always steeped in strategic references to past landmarks; there is no doubt he knows how to send, and shape, an architectural message. And the message the front entrance to the Bush Library delivers is clear: This is a building meant to honor a particularly blunt and plain-spoken kind of political power.

New Central Library of Berlin State by FAR frohn&rojas

2013-04-15T14:39:00-04:00

An intriguing design scheme by Berlin/Santiago de Chile/Los Angeles-based practice FAR frohn&rojas is one of the winners of the architectural competition for the new central library of the state of Berlin at the airfield of the former Tempelhof Airport in Berlin.

MVRDV's "Book Mountain" wins Red Dot Award

2013-03-27T18:38:00-04:00

MVRDV has announced that they have taken the Red Dot award in the Architecture and Urban Design category. Archinect recently published "Book Mountain" - click here to read more about the project.

Press release follows...

Spijkenisse Book Mountain has been announced winner of a red dot design award, one of the world’s most acclaimed design awards. Book Mountain received a ‘red dot’ for high design quality in the ‘Architecture and Urban Design’ category, and was selected from 4,662 entries from 54 countries. The jury recognises work that distinguishes itself through highly refined detail solutions. The official awards ceremony will take place at the Aalto Theatre in Essen, Germany on 1 July 2013.

The new public library in Spijkenisse manifests itself clearly as a mountain of books on the towns market square, it is both an advertisement and an invitation for reading, which holds great significance for a community with 10 percent illiteracy. Besides the library, the building hou...

Stewart Hollenstein & Colin Stewart Architects Win Sydney’s Green Square Library Competition

2013-02-27T19:00:00-05:00

The City of Sydney has just announced the winning team in the international competition to design a new library and plaza for Green Square, one of the city's major new developments. The jury, including famed architects John Denton, George Hargreaves, and Pritzker Prize winner Glenn Murcutt, selected the entry by Stewart Hollenstein in association with Colin Stewart Architects from a field of 167 entrants from 29 countries.

In Renderings for a Library Landmark, Stacks of Questions, Still

2013-01-30T12:05:00-05:00

The value of an institution isn’t measured in public square feet. But its value can be devalued by bad architecture...The designs have all the elegance and distinction of a suburban mall. I was reminded that Mr. Foster is also responsible for the canopied enclosure of the inner court at the British Museum, a pompous waste of public space that inserts a shopping gallery into the heart of a sublime cultural institution.

schmidt hammer lassen to Design New Cultural Center and Library in Karlshamn, Sweden

2013-01-25T13:50:00-05:00

schmidt hammer lassen architects has just won an international competition for the new Cultural Center and Library in the Swedish city of Karlshamn, designed to gather the city’s cultural functions under one roof. The 5,000 square meter (53,820 sq ft) facility aims to be the city’s new meeting place and will house a library, an exhibition area, a movie theater, a tourist office, and a café.

N.Y. Public Library, Norman Foster Evict a Million Books

2012-12-19T12:20:00-05:00

A $300 million renovation of the New York Public Library’s ornate marble palace in midtown Manhattan will start by evicting 1.2 million books. The plan, unveiled today and overseen by the London firm of Foster & Partners, keeps more books onsite than had been suggested in earlier proposals. Books will be stored in space under Bryant Park and in a Princeton, New Jersey, facility.

Helsinki Central Library Entry by OYO + office9 + Ingenium

2012-11-30T20:02:00-05:00

As part of our mini series of Stage 1 proposals submitted to the Helsinki Central Library competition, here is the entry by Belgian collaboration OYO + office9 + Ingenium.

Helsinki Central Library Entry by OODA

2012-11-29T13:30:00-05:00

As part of our mini series of Stage 1 proposals submitted to the Helsinki Central Library competition, here is the entry by Portuguese firm OODA.

Helsinki Central Library Entry by Sputnik and ABT

2012-11-28T14:12:00-05:00

As part of our mini series of Stage 1 proposals submitted to the Helsinki Central Library competition, here is the entry by Sputnik and ABT from Rotterdam.

Helsinki Central Library Entry by Team HELLO WORLD!

2012-11-28T14:10:00-05:00

As part of our mini series of Stage 1 proposals submitted to the Helsinki Central Library competition, here is the entry by Viennese team HELLO WORLD!

Helsinki Central Library Entry by MenoMenoPiu Architects

2012-11-27T21:18:00-05:00

As part of our mini series of Stage 1 proposals submitted to the Helsinki Central Library competition, here is the entry by Paris-based MenoMenoPiu Architects.

HELSINKI CENTRAL LIBRARY OPEN INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITION / by Djuric Tardio Architectes

2012-11-22T21:49:00-05:00

HELSINKI CENTRAL LIBRARY

THE STORYTELLING TREE

The book is an everlasting memory. It is like a hundred-year-old tree that tells us stories and tales, from here and elsewhere. This is where we start from. Just as the roots of the trees are deeply anchored in the ground, the books and their pages, forged by these trees, are deeply anchored in and are representative of Culture. Initially we traverse these roots and gradually journey through the knowledge they contain and protect, until we reach the evergreen canopy. We pause there, in order to meditate, discover and read the books we have encountered and brought.

Our concept : to return to the source of the books and the knowledge they can give us, to ensure its continued existence in today’s Libraries, alongside their new electronic mediums and devices.
This modern Library is like a prime and basic emblem of the Finnish identity, culture and know-how, fruit of the most accomplished wood construction technology. This techn...

Helsinki Central Library Entry by Kubota & Bachmann Architects+Martinez

2012-11-21T21:19:00-05:00

Earlier today, we had published the six proposals to reach stage 2 of the international competition for the design of the Helsinki Central Library. Here's now also another stage 1 entry we have received from Swiss/Japanese practice Kubota & Bachmann Architects in collaboration with Francisco Martinez.

Helsinki Central Library Competition Announces Stage 2 Finalists

2012-11-21T20:19:00-05:00

Heart of the Metropolis, the international architectural competition for the design of the Helsinki Central Library today announced six proposals to move on to the competition's second stage. The selected finalists have now until February 2013 to further develop their proposals. The final winner will be announced in June 2013.

Daegu Gosan Public Library - Entries, Entries, Entries!

2012-10-26T21:22:00-04:00

The international competition for the new Daegu Gosan Public Library in South Korea has proven to be incredibly popular with our readers, and we have received tons of requests from architects from around the world to publish their competition entries. So if you have already inspected the first, second, and third place (as well as this honorable mention) and are still lusting for more library designs, you'll enjoy the selection we have put together below.

Think your design entry is still missing? Send your two strongest images to hustler@bustler.net - we’ll keep on adding new projects as we receive them…

Daegu Gosan Public Library - 1st Place Entry by Gorka Blas

2012-10-25T20:00:00-04:00

We're very excited to finally also publish the winner of the first place in the Korean Daegu Gosan Public Library competition (previously on Bustler). As sole member of the team Gorka Blas, Spanish architect Gorka Blas Revilla took home the top honor with an ultra-minimalist cube and its careful integration in the urban context.

Daegu Gosan Public Library - 2nd Place Entry by studio SH

2012-10-22T18:15:00-04:00

British firm studio SH just sent us their competition entry for the new Gosan Public Library in South Korea which had snatched the second place in this hugely popular international competition. The proposal, "White Diamond," was designed by studio SH partners Seung Hyun Yuh and Se Hyeon Kim.

Daegu Gosan Public Library Entry by Sunggi Park

2012-10-18T21:31:00-04:00

A few days ago, Bustler published jaja architects' high-scoring proposal for the new Gosan Public Library in South Korea. Today we're excited to share one of the competition's honorable mentions, designed by Harvard GSD student Sunggi Park who currently works as a design assistant at BIG, Bjarke Ingels Group in Copenhagen.

JAJA Architects Among Winners at Daegu Gosan Public Library Competition

2012-10-11T17:36:00-04:00

Three winning entries and twelve honorable mentions were recently announced in the international competition for the Gosan Public Library in Daegu Metropolitan City, South Korea. With the first prize going to Spanish firm Gorka Blas and the second prize to British team STUDIO SH, we have just received the competition entry "Between Books and Trees" which won the third prize for Danish practice jaja architects.

MVDRV's Book Mountain

2012-10-04T11:30:00-04:00

A literal advertisement for reading: MVRDV completes Book Mountain and Library Quarter Spijkenisse.

(Spijkenisse, October 4th, 2012): Today Spijkenisse Book Mountain and the adjacent residential neighbourhood will be opened by Prinses Laurentien of the Netherlands. Manifesting itself clearly as a mountain of books on the towns market square, it is both an advertisement and an invitation for reading. Clever stacking of the buildings commercial functions produces its pyramidal form, which in turn, is wrapped in the libraries 480 meters route along bookshelves. Underneath the libraries barn shaped glass envelope the book gains a strong educational presence in this formerly agricultural community located close the docks of the Port of Rotterdam. The adjacent Library Quarter consisting of 42 social housing units, parking and public space is also a project by MVRDV, together with the Book Mountain it forms an exemplary eco-neighbourhood.

The library is designed as an advert for reading, its visible presence and invitation holding great significance for a community with 10 percent...

What lies behind the battle over the New York Public Library

2012-07-09T12:25:00-04:00

The hottest cultural controversy of this already hot summer concerns the New York Public Library (NYPL), and a plan to disembowel its main building – a plan that will slice open the stacks and "replace books with people", in the words of the NYPL system's CEO, Tony Marx. It's enraged writers and professors, demoralized a staff already coping with layoffs, and called the entire purpose of the system into question.

Seattle Library: Homeless Man Interview Clips

2012-07-02T13:24:00-04:00

CLIPS OF SEATTLE LIBRARY: INTERVIEW WITH HOMELESS MAN AND SHOTS OF STRUCTURE. This footage is part of a feature length Documentary film that I am making about my father Rem Koolhaas.

What Do Norman Foster's Plans for the New York Public Library Mean for its Storied Architecture?

2012-06-06T14:28:00-04:00

People love the New York Public Library, and yet there’s a general agreement that it cannot survive in its current state. [...] While strong points have been made on all sides of the debate over the NYPL's future as a center of research, a real conversation about its future as an architectural treasure is just now emerging — and thankfully so, for the fate of the institution is also the fate of one of New York's most iconic landmarks.

New York’s Public Architecture Gets a Face-Lift

2011-10-10T15:21:44-04:00

Designed by 1100 Architect with an interior by Lee H. Skolnick Architecture & Design Partnership, the Children’s Library Discovery Center, as it’s called, is part of a quiet revolution reshaping the city’s public architecture. Piecemeal across the five boroughs, New York is gradually being remade.

Architecture Review: West Hollywood Library among top works

2011-09-30T19:28:08-04:00

The new library across from the Pacific Design Center strikes an appealingly upbeat tone, borrowing from various architectural influences to become one of the most impressive public pieces in the region in a decade.

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.

MVRDV Wins Competition for China Comic and Animation Museum in Hangzhou

2011-05-06T19:23:00-04:00

Hangzhou urban planning bureau has announced Dutch firm MVRDV winner of the international design competition for the China Comic and Animation Museum (CCAM) in Hangzhou, China. MVRDV's winning design refers to the speech balloon: a series of eight balloon shaped volumes create an internally complex museum experience of in total 30,000m2. Part of the project is also a series of parks on islands, a public plaza and a 13,000m2 expo center.