OPENGAP has announced the winners of its international Inspiration HOTEL Ideas Competition which sought for designs of spaces that motivate creativity and concentration, allowing users to focus, inspire and develop their artistic ideas. The Jury was comprised of the architects Ricardo Agraz, Jorge Ambrosi, Salvador Macías, and Álvaro Morales. — bustler.net
Proposals to reinvigorate the city centre of Aberdeen, Scotland by High Line architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro have been rejected by City Councillors. [...] The Full Council voted 22-20 - with one abstention - to reject the scheme but agreed to retain proposals to refurbish Aberdeen Art Gallery, redevelop the site of the City Council’s former St Nicholas House headquarters and the Upper Denburn area, and to invest in ‘City Circle’ plans to make the city better connected for pedestrians. — World Architecture News
We have received plenty of photos of the recently completed Wuxi Grand Theatre in Wuxi, China. Designed by Helsinki-based PES-Architects, the 78,000 m2 (839,600 sq ft) project was the competition-winning entry back in 2008 and is the first large scale example of Finnish design in China. — bustler.net
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding student projects on various Archinect People profiles. Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Student Work. ↑ Savannah Extended Hotel... View full entry
“Mark said he wanted to be in the same room with all his engineers,” Gehry said. “I told him we could put the building up on stilts, park cars underneath and create a room as large as he wanted.”
This is not a Gehry project of shiny fronds of fluttering reflective metal. To support his vision of anti-hierarchy, free- form collaborative work, Zuckerberg tapped the Gehry who has built furniture out of cardboard and covered his own house in chain-link fencing.
— bloomberg.com
For an architect, in the instant that he has undivided attention of a patron with the power to realize his designs, literally nothing else matters; not a fire alarm, not even an earthquake; there is nothing else to talk about but architecture. -Dejan Sudjic, The Edifice Complex The fully... View full entry
I went to Vienna earlier this year, and it’s extremely charming and deeply concerned with coffee and cake, both of which I appreciate. But I confess that as I wandered the streets, looking up at graceful churches and palaces, I often thought “what a shame it is that none of these buildings look like a nightmare structure of bare twigs and spider egg sacs.” — Grist.org
Five architecture and design firms were recently honored by the annual Shaw Contract Group Design Is… Award program. This year's winning projects were selected from 285 entries from 19 countries. — bustler.net
A remarkable Frank Lloyd Wright house in Phoenix is under threat of demolition. Wright designed the house for his son David and it is unique among all his residential designs. Your support is needed to urge the City of Phoenix to approve historic preservation designation for the house thereby extending its temporary protection from demolition. — change.org
Via Kevin W. in the Forum View full entry
Our World Wonders Project is also supported by a broad, connected suite of other Google technologies, bringing wonders of the world within reach of an unprecedented global audience. The project website also provides a window to 3D models, YouTube videos and photography of the famous heritage sites.
Together with partners including UNESCO, the World Monuments Fund and Cyark, the World Wonders Project is preserving the world heritage sites for future generations.
— google.com
Rumor has it that Pritzker Prize–winning French architect Jean Nouvel has been selected to design a mammoth new building for the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), renowned for its exhibitions of 20th-century and contemporary Chinese art, in Beijing. If reports prove to be true, Nouvel will not only have the distinguished honor of executing this highly coveted commission, but also to win bragging rights for outgunning his blockbuster contemporaries, Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid... — jingdaily.com
UPDATE: Jean Nouvel Confirmed as Winner of the National Art Museum of China Competition View full entry
When asked, the German-born “Father of Fonts” insists that there is nothing similar about designing a typeface and designing a house. “They’re totally different,” he says, in excellent English peppered with correctly implemented expletives. “With a typeface, you design a space. A letter is defined by the inside space, more than it is by the outside. You design for shape, but also for function.”... “In either case,” he concedes, “the design is as much about function as it is about aesthetics.” — dwell.com
d3 today announced the winners of its Natural Systems competition for 2012. The annual competition promotes investigation of natural systems from microscopic to universal toward determining new architectonic strategies. The competition invited architects, designers, engineers, and students to collectively explore the potential for analyzing, documenting, and deploying nature-based, sustainable influences in urbanism, architecture, interiors, and designed objects. — bustler.net
Ratner & Co. believe Brooklyn as a whole is already well on its way to super-premium status and will never go back. They believe Ratner has built exactly the sort of architectural showpiece and modern sports-and-entertainment megaplex that the newly gentrified Brooklynites want. — New York Magazine
Will Leitch asks now that the fighting is over and Bruce Ratner’s Barclays Center is almost completed, will the crowds come? Additionally, Aaron Plewke recently snapped some photos of the building under construction. View full entry
We have received stunning photos of the new Porsche Pavilion at the Autostadt in Wolfsburg, Germany. The building which opened just recently is the first addition to Volkswagen's theme park since its opening in 2000. Designed by German HENN Architekten, the pavilion expresses the importance of Porsche within the Volkswagen Group family. — bustler.net