Archinect - News

Rubber Duckie, you make globalization so much fun

2014-08-21T14:32:00-04:00

A six-story-tall floating "Rubber Duck" is making its West Coast debut at the Port of Los Angeles, where it will lead more than a dozen battleships and sailboats in the Tall Ships Festival L.A. parade [...] Dubbed the world's largest rubber duck, the giant inflatable was created by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman. "The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties," Hofman said on the event's website. "It can relieve the world's tensions as well as define them."

Adorable? Certainly. Humorous? Obviously. Architecture? Maybe.

According to Hofman's website, the Rubber Duck "doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have a political connotation... The Rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages!" This description accounts for all rubber duckies ever. What distinguishes this Rubber Duck is where its been. The giant inflatable has appeared on the shores of Beijing, Pittsburgh, Sydney, Osaka, São Paulo and others, to delight folks around the world. The ocean is the globalized world's bathtub, and this giant duck its bath toy.

Hofman claims the duck "doesn't have a political connotation", but its difficult to not see it as a symbol for globalized commerce. With the same universal cuteness the world-over, it visits ports (such as in Los Angeles) that support global shipping infrastructures, networking economies and cultures with a universally accessible cuteness. The duck's path is paved by human, economic forces, not natural ocean ones — un...

Results of Taiwan’s Kinmen Passenger Service Terminal competition

2014-05-13T17:59:00-04:00

The two-stage Port of Kinmen Passenger Service Center International Competition‏‎ in Taiwan has come to a close. Since our last update in January, five star-studded firms — who worked with local architects — were in the final round to become the master architect to design a new multi-functional terminal facility and expansion for the Port of Kinmen.

At the end of the competition, the jury awarded three prize winners and two honorable mentions:

1ST PRIZE: Junya Ishigami + Associates / Junya Ishigami (Japan) with Bio Architecture Formosana Architecture / Ching-Hwa Chang (Taiwan)

2ND PRIZE: Tom Wiscombe Architecture, Inc / Thomas Wiscombe (USA) with Fei & Cheng Associates / Philip T.C. Fei (Taiwan)

3RD PRIZE: Lorcan O'Herlihy (LOHA) Architects / Lorcan O'Herlihy with EDS International Inc / Yuan Liang Tsai (Taiwan)

HONORABLE MENTION: Miralles Tagliabue EMBT SLP / Benedetta Tagliabue (Spain) with Shou Dong-Gang (Taiwan) and Su Mao-Pin Architect / Su Mao-Pin (Taiwan)

HONORABLE MENTION: Josep Mias Gifre (Spain) with Mias Engineering Limited (Spain) and Tai Architect & Associates / Yu-Tse 'Daniel' Tai (Taiwan)

See more project photos on Bustler.

Piraeus Museum for Underwater Antiquities - The Competition Winners

2013-02-22T19:29:00-05:00

Just a few days ago, results were announced in the international architectural competition Piraeus Cultural Coast - Museum of Underwater Antiquities. Now the organizers also released images of the five winning projects and nine honorable mentions. The brief calls for the conversion of an existing industrial facility in the port of Piraeus, Greece into a museum of underwater antiquities with redesigned open public spaces for outdoor activities.

Shortlist Revealed for New Keelung Harbor Service Building

2012-07-19T16:59:00-04:00

In the international competition for the New Harbor Service Building in the major Taiwanese port city of Keelung, a shortlist of five teams has just been released. Among the nominees are well-known firms like Asymptote Architecture, Neil M. Denari Architects, and Mecanoo architecten. The international jury also included American architects Aaron Betsky and Michael Speaks. The final competition winner will be announced in September.

AGER Group’s Winning Kaohsiung Port Station Proposal

2011-08-03T20:01:48-04:00

We recently published one of the two winning entries to the Kaohsiung Port Station Urban Design competition by De Architekten Cie. Here is now also the second of two entries that managed to win the jury's highest praise, the Excellence Award, by AGER Group’s Boston Studio.

Previously.

De Architekten Cie. Wins Kaohsiung Port Station Urban Design Competition

2011-07-14T17:49:33-04:00

Amsterdam-based practice De Architekten Cie. has won the open international Kaohsiung Port Station Urban Design competition in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The competition was initiated by the city government of Kaohsiung to transform the derelict site of the old railyards and port station from a barrier between two important areas of the city into a connective piece of the urban fabric.