Archinect

Portland Building still controversial after 30 years

2012-02-22T22:20:00-05:00

“It had such a low budget. I was criticized for putting the windows in too small, but it got more expensive the more glass I had. I wasn’t the one who put the workers near the windows, limiting the light let in. Most people don’t realize I didn’t design the interior.” Despite proceeding to design award-winning buildings and products worldwide, Graves holds the Portland Building as one of his greatest achievements. He still enjoys talking about the sculpture that sits in front, Portlandia.

John Pawson: A Visual Inventory

2012-02-22T19:34:00-05:00

From patterns in a trail of caterpillars in Spain to the geometry of a whitewashed house on the Greek island of Rhodes, renowned British architect John Pawson’s personal photographs reveal the visual details that intrigue him. Known for a minimalist aesthetic that places emphasis on light, material and proportion, Pawson has lent his modernist sensibility to everything from a Cistercian monastery in the Czech Republic to countless private homes, luxury yachts, and the Calvin Klein store in NYC.

Watch: First Look at the Museum of African American History and Culture

2012-02-22T19:27:00-05:00

When the Museum of African American History and Culture opens on the National Mall in 2015, it will be "not just a record of tragedy, but a celebration of life," as President Obama said during the ground breaking ceremony on the site today.

Robert Young Architects seeking Senior Project Architect in New York, NY, US

2012-02-22T19:14:00-05:00

Robert Young Architecture & Interiors is an award-winning multi-disciplinary design studio specializing in high-end residential and hospitality projects. We seek a Senior Project Architect with experience leading a team to produce simultaneous projects, large and small. Equal passion for both design and technical means/methods is necessary to see projects through all phases of design and construction at the highest possible level.

Minimum 10-15 years of experience working on high-end architecture and interior architecture in the United States.
Bachelors or Masters Degree in Architecture from an accredited school of architecture.
Architectural registration in the State of New York a plus but not required.
Extensive experience with local codes and approval processes in NYC and Eastern Long Island.
Experienced and comfortable working directly with clients.
Mastery of project management processes, including responsibility for internal project budget and schedul...

DEEP NORTH: Light, Snow, and Alvar Aalto

2012-02-22T18:47:00-05:00

Rovaniemi: Home to the arctic circle, Santa Claus, reindeer, world class skiers, and of course, a wealth of Alvar Aalto works.

Excursion

As our colleagues Brian and Brownyn of the Red Herring mentioned in an earlier post, we traveled to the northern Finnish City of Rovaniemi for a study tour. This is the first component of what will be three excursions throughout Finland: the North (Lapland), the East, and ultimately the West.

This was not your typical whirlwind of an architecture tour; the spirit of the excursion remained true to the nature of Lapland – relaxed, restful, and an escape from the schedule-obsessed pace of the city.

A twelve hour night train sweeps us out of Helsinki, through the forests and up the coast into Lapland. By early morning we arrive, where we are greeted by Matti Rautiola, Rovaniemi native, our studio professor, and guide for the weekend.

Fortunately (and unfortunately) we arrive on a particularly warm (by arctic standards) and snowy weeke...

Luis Moreno Mansilla passed away

2012-02-22T18:35:00-05:00

Spanish architect Luis Moreno Mansilla has passed away at the age of 53. Mansilla was a founding partner of Mansilla+Tuñón, whose work includes the Fine Arts Museum in Castellón, the Auditorium of Leon, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Castilla and Leon MUSAC, which received the Mies van der Rohe Prize. Mansilla, was a professor at the School of Architecture in Madrid, and had been a Visiting Professor at Princeton University.

This is incredibly sad. He was part of the most promising office in Spain. I saw him lecturing in Princeton while I was a student there, and he was extremely intelligent. But most of all he was a very kind soul, something difficult to find these days in this business.

Architects See Glimmers of Hope for New Construction

2012-02-22T17:30:00-05:00

For three straight months now, the Architecture Billings Index — a measure from the American Institute of Architects — has shown slight increases in work levels at architectural firms, with the latest figures showing a score in January of 50.9, compared with 51.0 in December. ... the index tends to provide a decent lens into the mood of the real estate world, and an increase may lay the groundwork for new construction projects months down the road.

Ordos 100, directed by Ai Weiwei

2012-02-22T17:16:00-05:00

Directed by Ai Weiwei (China, 2012). Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam 2012. Ordos 100 is a construction project curated by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei. One hundred architects from 27 countries were chosen to participate and each design a 1000-square-meter villa to be built in a new community in Inner Mongolia. The 100 villas would be designed to fit a master plan designed by Ai Weiwei.

Cultural Center in Verdun by Saucier + Perrotte, Architectes

2012-02-22T15:07:00-05:00

Earlier this month, we published the winners in the competition for a new cultural venue in Montreal's Verdun Borough with Les Architectes FABG taking home the First Prize. One of the four outstanding finalist entries was submitted by Montreal-based Saucier + Perrotte, Architectes which we present here in detail.

4 - Interview, Oaxaca-Style (Part Deux)

2012-02-22T14:36:00-05:00

A recent article in a local Oaxacan news blog described an effort by the municipal government to invest in the infrastructure of its public market system. According to the article (and thanks to my friend Pedro Mora Jr. for the brief translation):

The government will spend 100 million pesos (roughly 7.6 million dollars) to “modernize” six of the biggest public markets in the state of Oaxaca. After remodeling is complete, they plan to implement a program of periodic maintenance. The government has asked to create a panel of representatives from every market to have planning meetings and ease the decision process.

I had an opportunity to interview the most vocal proponent of the modernization effort, the Oaxaca city Director of Tourism and Economic Development, José Manuel Núñez Banuet.

Nunez Banuet addressing vendors at Mercado Benito Juarez.

Photo: http://www.municipiodeoaxaca.gob.mx/

StC: Public markets are no longer an active part of everyday life in most...

SOM Wins Master Plan Competition for Beijing Bohai Innovation City

2012-02-22T14:17:00-05:00

In an international design competiton for the rapid development of satellite cities along Chinese high speed rail corridors, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's Beijing Bohai Innovation City master plan has just been named the winning submission.

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.

Wiel Arets Architects continue construction on Regiocentrale Zuid in Maasbracht, the Netherlands

2012-02-22T11:09:00-05:00

(Amsterdam, 22 February 2012) Regiocentrale Zuid is a levee and water coordination centre for a large
section of the river Meuse that will bring formerly scattered water management locations under one roof

Regiocentrale Zuid will serve as a water and levee coordination centre for a section of the river Meuse–a water body serving vital purposes at both the European and global scales. Next to being an important transport route for inland shipping, the river’s banks accommo- date agriculture, wildlife, and recreational activities. The river’s water is used for drinking, as well as industrial processes – such as cooling – while its summer bed is an important source of sand and gravel.

Forming the base of a long-term water management strategy within the Netherlands, Re- giocentrale Zuid will direct bridges and sluices between Maastricht and Venlo. Alongside the mechanical instrumentation, a lobby, nautical training centre, and public educational facilities have also been incorpora...

INDEX: AWARD 2011 EXHIBITION PAVILIONS OPEN AT DESIGN SINGAPORE

2012-02-22T02:50:00-05:00

February 4th – 19th, 2012, Open daily (outdoor exhibition), The Cathay (External Atrium) 2 Handy Road, Singapore, Admission fee is FREE

Since 2007, the INDEX: Award Exhibition has been shown in various formats on different world tours in 12 countries around the world – and has now seen by more than 10 million people! On February 8th 2012, the exhibition (showcasing the 60 finalists for INDEX: Award 2011) will open in (INDEX: Partner City) Singapore. It is the second time that the Award Exhibition will be featured in Singapore, and we look forward to displaying our new exhibition design and exciting finalists to the Singaporean people. Pavilions designed by Greg Lynn FORM.

http://www.designsingapore.org/who_we_are/events/events_details.aspx?eID=cb84e8bc-78a2-41ba-b274-513fefd4ad92

Ever wondered how small an apartment can legally get in California?

2012-02-22T00:22:00-05:00

To create a smarter space, Kennedy constructed a 160-square-foot test home (the smallest legal-sized apartment for California) inside a Berkeley wherehouse. SmartSpace 1.0 is filled with innovations like the SmartBench, an adjustable banquette that converts from a dining table to a guest bed.

PUBLIC|PRIVATE : UB Inclusive Design Research Group

2012-02-21T20:00:00-05:00

Contributed By: Courtney Creenan, M.Arch + M.UP Student

Getting inside Buffalo, New York’s grain elevators has been on many a University at Buffalo architecture student’s to-do list. This past fall, students in the Inclusive Design Research Group were able to not only tour the facilities, but work inside the Marine A Grain Elevator, which is now a part of the newly incorporated Silo City complex.

The studio focused on a topic often overlooked in the architecture field: the public bathroom. Students had to design innovative, responsible, inclusive, and clever responses to potential event spaces proposed along with their public bathroom design. Some projects challenged current bathroom practices and stigmas. Others integrated the event space programming into the bathroom to create more atmospheric experiences than normally found in a typical bathroom through the use of repurposed materials, lighting affects, and acoustics.

Although many projects were very detailed in...

Rafael Viñoly Architects publishes a Major Study of Global Cities

2012-02-21T18:39:00-05:00

The Research Program of Rafael Viñoly Architects published Pressures and Distortions: City Dwellers as Builders and Critics. The book represents the culmination of a three-year research process organized and funded by the Research Program. In it, four teams of researchers analyze how residents are designing, building, and interpreting cities in the face of wrenching transformations. The cities chronicled in depth include examples from China (Shanghai and Shenzhen), Latin America (Bogotá and Mexico City), and Indonesia (Banda Aceh). Shorter sections cover Lima and Rio de Janeiro. The authors show how residents respond creatively to environmental disaster, poverty, housing shortages, and surging urban population. They also show how governments, international relief agencies, architects, and planners can shape better urban environments. Throughout, the experiences of residents are presented through their own words and through careful documentation of their living environments.

Pres...

In Focus: Sam Javanrouh

2012-02-21T18:33:00-05:00

In Focus is Archinect's series of features dedicated to profiling the photographers who help make the work of architects look that much better. What has attracted them to architecture? How do they work? What type of equipment do they use? What do they think about seeing their work in blogs?

In this feature, we talk to Iranian-Canadian creative director and photographer Sam Javanrouh.

Lecture: Marcos Cruz

2012-02-21T16:51:00-05:00

Marcos Cruz

Nurbsters, Foldsters and Neoplasmatic Architecture

Reinsch-Pierce Family Auditorium

Wednesday February 22, 2011 6:00 PM

Marcos Cruz is the Director of the Bartlett School of Architecture in London where he is also Studio Master of MArch Unit 20. His varied teaching activity as a researcher, tutor and critic has been carried out at many Schools of Architecture, including University College London, University of Westminster and University of California Los Angeles. Cruz studied architecture at the ESAP Porto, while also frequenting courses at the ETSAB in Barcelona. After moving to London he gained a master's degree in Architectural Design in 1999 and later a PhD by Design research in 2007. His investigations about Neoplasmatic Architecture, which focused on a contemporary discussion about the body and the impact of bio-technology on architecture, won the RIBA President's Medals Research Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis in 2008. Cruz co-founded the atelier marcos...

Brad Pitt’s foundation to help redevelop Bancroft School

2012-02-21T14:31:00-05:00

A bond forged in storm-ravaged New Orleans between actor Brad Pitt and a local architecture firm is bearing fruit in Kansas City — and may show the path forward to reusing dozens of empty schools. The long-closed Bancroft School at 4300 Tracy Ave. will be renovated into affordable apartments and a community center with the aid of the Make It Right Foundation founded by Pitt...

THE BLUE LINE - Winner of Kiev Islands Master Plan Competition

2012-02-21T14:16:00-05:00

A few days ago, we published BudCud's finalist entry to the Kiev Islands Master Plan Competition. Here is now also the winner of the First Prize, the concept THE BLUE LINE by Romanian team Wolf House Productions and Gabriel Pascariu.

Woodbury School of Architecture's Norman Millar elected ACSA president

2012-02-21T14:11:00-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Woodbury University's Norman Millar elected ACSA president

(Burbank, CA - February 21, 2012) Woodbury University and its School of Architecture are honored to announce that the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) elected Norman Millar, AIA, dean, Woodbury University School of Architecture, as president of its prestigious organization. The appointment recognizes Millar's extraordinary leadership and forward-thinking vision.

"Norman's vision of the architect-citizen as designer and cultural builder is particularly relevant as architectural practices transform," says Kenneth R. Nielsen, Ed.D., president, Woodbury University. "Woodbury congratulates Norman on his election as ASCA president and is proud of his role in helping architecture students achieve their educational and professional goals while expanding into new areas of architectural specialization and alternative practice."

Founded in 1912 to advance the quality of architect...

TOPOLOGICAL URBANISM 2012 Symposium - Texas Tech University College of Architecture

2012-02-21T12:20:00-05:00

Texas Tech University College of Architecture

Saturday, March 24, 2012
9:30 - 1:00 pm
First Floor Gallery in the College of Architecture

TOPOLOGICAL URBANISM
2012 Symposium
http://arch.ttu.edu/wiki/Urban_Symposium_2012

Participants:

John Hoal
of H3 Studio & Washington University in St. Louis
Lars Lerup
Albert K. and Harry K. Smith Professor of Rice University
Peter Zellner
of ZELLNERPLUS & Future Initiatives Program at SCI-Arc
Jeffrey S. Nesbit, Organizer + Moderator
of Haecceitas Studio & Texas Tech University

‘Topological thinking’ is a term used by Manual de Landa as a way to describe and interpret an understanding of differential geometry. Though for de Landa, this mathematical theory is used to investigate how our environments evolve through intensive differences, or rather determining rates of change within informational data. Within ‘Field Conditions’, Stan Allen describes object to field systematic responses. Allen explains that it is no longer about the ‘glob...

Sympathy for the Suburbs

2012-02-21T12:20:00-05:00

Foreclosed, a new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, shows ways of radically rethinking suburbia, homeownership and housing. But are such drastic measures what the suburbs really need?

Also, see on Archinect: The CRIT: Thoughts on MoMA's Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream

NewSchool of Architecture and Design Students Present Ideas for Redeveloping Sections of the Rural Community of Ramona

2012-02-21T12:16:00-05:00

San Diego—February 21, 2012—NewSchool of Architecture and Design (NSAD) students created redevelopment concepts for Ramona, a rural community of 40,000, located about 35 miles northeast of San Diego. The project is part of a design studio class taught by adjunct faculty member Howard Blackson. Blackson arranged for the students to present their ideas to the Ramona Village Design Group, a community advisory panel, in December.

Blackson, principal and director of planning with PlaceMakers, a design and architecture firm, had been working with the community’s design group to revise Ramona’s 30-year-old architectural design guidelines. His involvement with the project provided the opportunity for 12 NSAD students to be part of the creative process. “We made use of the studio to understand the architectural elements of both public and private buildings in Ramona to code and regulate for their unique community character,” said Blackson.

Students used architectural elements to de...

The University of Nottingham - Jubilee campus extension by Make Architects

2012-02-21T12:08:00-05:00

The first phase of the Jubilee Campus expansion project delivers a remarkable new environment for research, study, business and leisure to be enjoyed by both the university and the city of Nottingham as a whole.

Three new buildings and the Aspire sculpture signal the transformation of a former industrial site and create a new identity for the campus. Dramatically angular in form, International House and the Amenities Building emerge from the landscape like natural landforms and feature dynamic facades clad in red and brown terracotta tiles randomly arranged for maximum visual impact.

The Sir Colin Campbell Building houses a range of facilities for new businesses, and straddles the main campus road to forge a physical link between the academic and business and enterprise zones of the campus. A cladding of zinc shingles emphasises the sinuous curves of the structure and establishes the building as a distinctive new focal point for the campus.

All buildings feature high-perform...

Ghost 8 by Dru Schwyhart

2012-02-21T11:17:00-05:00

"Imagine flying over the bones of a ghost village on the edge of the world"- Brian MacKay-Lyons

Every Summer, Canadian architect Brian MacKay-Lyons hosts a two week design-build seminar at his own farm along the southern Nova Scotian coast.
Students of architecture from the international community convene here, and construct an additional piece of the ghost lab village. A structure’s concept is born from the site’s contextual properties -views, material, proximity, location as well as it’s 400 year history of settlement. Past ghosts were meant to be ephemeral, temporary structures-almost considered to be follies. Eventually the weathering elements would take them out to sea, or pull them back to the earth in a heap of lumber. However, the most recent projects have become permanent dwellings, allowing participants a greater appreciation for students’ work before them.

A Crash Course in ‘Material Culture’

Built in the master craftsmen tradition, a number of guests from the ...

The Marxist Restaurant by Albert Chao

2012-02-21T01:37:00-05:00

Ten tables, each sixty feet long, continuously run through from the kitchen to the dining area. Both patrons and dining staff share the same table. Food is both prepared on the same table as it is eaten.

Diners are excluded from all views of Niagara Falls. Instead, the dining experience will consist of watching the shadows of the cooks and chefs as they prepare the meals.

Workers have the coveted views of the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. The everyday experience of the workers will consist of food preparation on while cantilevering into the air beyond the cliff face.

Hardwall Softwall by Ryan Manning

2012-02-20T23:25:00-05:00

Dallas Museum of Art commissioned our class at UTA to design a wall dealing with redefining the perception of a materials properties. By the use of several scripting methods, we attempted to make concrete perceived as pillows and chipboard as bone.

Openarch, smart home prototype

2012-02-20T20:46:00-05:00

Openarch is a real prototype of a smart home. The first home designed from scratch to incorporate a digital layer connecting the house and its elements to the Internet. Its inhabitants lead a new digital and connected life. It is flexible and thanks to its ability to transform, it can adapt to any condition that the user requires.