Archinect - News

Kengo Kuma hopes to 'blur the line' between outdoor activity and office work in San Jose

2022-05-12T13:45:00-04:00

Kengo Kuma and Associates has unveiled plans for a new biophilia-laden office complex in downtown San Jose, California.

Under the monicker “Park Habitat,” the massive new 1.3-million-square-foot development offers 20 stories of office and retail spaces which are beset by a network of internal and external parks and gardens.

In a new manifesto published by the group Westbank Campus, the international development group’s founder Ian Gillespie outlined his reasoning for choosing the influential Japanese architect for a design whose scope purportedly entails a focus on user wellness and local environment.

Previously on Archinect: BIG, Kengo Kuma, and Studio Gang tapped for Westbank's San Jose masterplan

“I chose Kengo for a very deliberate reason: Kuma-San has risen to the pinnacle of his profession by blurring the lines between nature and the built environment. His practice is dedicated to making buildings less definitive or solid and more ephemeral. In essence, creating a particular co...

If you can't stand the heat, get an outdoor kitchen (homeowners are, says AIA)

2017-03-23T13:02:00-04:00

Over the past century, kitchens have gone from being a back room to the center of many homes. Now, according to a new study released by the AIA, many homeowners are requesting outdoor kitchens, creating an uptick in work for residential architects. “Homeowners continue to find new ways to add value to their homes by creating more functional space, which is apparent in the rise in popularity of outdoor kitchens,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “Kitchens have become a hub for the home, now homeowners want to bring some of that activity to their outside space.”

Doug Aitken among artists in Palm Springs-adjacent art show, "Desert X"

2017-02-23T19:53:00-05:00

Amid the dust and clamor is the steel skeleton of Aitken’s “Mirage,” which takes the form of a 1960s-style suburban California ranch house. The seven-room structure, to be fully mirrored on the outside and inside, is perched on a hillside with city and desert views, which are key to the piece. The structure has gaping holes where doors and windows might be, and its interior walls are built on angles to reflect the sky and contrasting surrounding terrain...

What does the desert in Riverside County have to offer aside from a massive annual music festival, the sleek modernism of Palm Springs, and the ethereal vista of untrammeled nature? Well, starting on February 25th, it has the Desert Exhibition of Art, or Desert X for short.

Exhibitors in the self-guided, wide-ranging exhibit (you should plan on driving) include Doug Aitken, Sherin Guirguis, and Claudia Comte, who has created a 110-foot long stucco/wood sculpture that is part wall, part meditative exercise. Maps are available at the Ace Hotel; the exhibition will be up until April.

Register now for the Field Constructs installation competition in Austin, TX

2015-01-30T20:50:00-05:00

The international Field Constructs Design Competition is currently open to all emerging architects, designers, landscape architects, and artists for temporary installation proposals for the Circle Acres Nature Preserve in Austin, Texas. If you haven't registered yet, now's the chance: the early-bird deadline is February 15.

The FCDC jury will select 5-8 proposals to be realized and then publicly exhibited at the nature preserve during a week-long series of creative community events in November. Aside being innovative, proposals should also be engaging minimal-impact outdoor installations that reflect the cultural and natural characteristics unique to the evolving city of Austin.

All submissions are due on April 1, 11:59 p.m. EST.

Winners will be announced on June 1. They'll receive a US$5,000 reimbursable budget to build their proposals. Authors of the winning proposals will be honored during a public reception.

FCDC Jury:

Benjamin Ball, Ball-Nogues Studio, Los Angeles
Eva Franch i Gilabe...

22 landscape installations now at the 15th International Garden Festival in Quebec’s Reford Gardens

2014-06-30T20:25:00-04:00

Sixty-five international designers created 22 garden installations at the 15th International Garden Festival, which opened this past weekend at the iconic Reford Gardens (aka les Jardins de Métis) in Quebec, Canada. Established in 2000, the event is one of the biggest garden festivals in the world. Located along the edge of the St. Lawrence River, the various installations are a playful reminder about the value of landscape architecture and nature in everyday living.

See more projects on Bustler.

The mythologically inspired “Shinseon Play” wins the first Young Architects Program Seoul

2014-06-05T19:35:00-04:00

Jang Won Choi, Kyung Min Kwon, and Cheon Kang Park of collaborative team MOON JI BANG recently won the inaugural Young Architects Program Seoul in South Korea with their proposal, "Shinseon Play". The proposal draws inspiration from traditional Korean mythology with features like gently swaying "clouds", a trampoline, and a grassy meadow -- making it an ideal outdoor installation for the summer season.

Find out more on Bustler.

Sou Fujimoto discusses limbo, dichotomies and nature in his architecture

2014-04-18T13:47:00-04:00

This past Tuesday, The Architectural League of New York hosted a lecture at Cooper Union by architect Sou Fujimoto, entitled “Between Nature and Architecture”. Despite the great number of practitioners and students in attendance (almost a full-house), the event felt more like an intimate conversation with the architect, as he shared his unique brand of architectural investigation. Each project he presented helped substantiate his lifelong interest in blurring the boundaries of established architectural conceptions. Fujimoto explained that he is inspired by dissolving such falsely dichotomous themes as: nature and architecture, the house and the city, complexity and simplicity, or inside and outside, in order to examine the new possibilities that exist “in between.”

The lecture progressed rather linearly, tracing his practice's themes from their conceptual foundation in his “younger ideas” through to their mature forms. As he talked us through some of his earliest conceptual sketches,...