Following the regional Holcim Awards for sustainable construction projects for Latin America, Europe, Africa Middle East, and North America, winners of the Asia Pacific Awards have recently been announced, bringing the regional phase of the 3rd International Holcim Awards competition to a close. A total of USD 300,000 was presented to twelve groundbreaking projects at a ceremony in Singapore. — bustler.net
The new Rush hospital is already a major success as a work of architecture and urban design. It reminds us that a hospital needs to be designed for two sets of clients: Those who use it and those who simply pass by. The best-designed hospitals heal scars in the cityscape as well as patients. We'll know next year if the new Rush does both. — Blair Kamin
The architects' sketches for SFMOMA's new expansion reveal a transformative design for the museum, the neighborhood, and the city. "Our design for SFMOMA responds to the unique demands of this site, as well as the physical and urban terrain of San Francisco," says Snøhetta principal architect Craig Dykers. "The scale of the building meets the museum's mission, and our approach to the neighborhood strengthens SFMOMA's engagement with the city. — sfmoma.org
BIG has just been announced winning an invited competition for Koutalaki Ski Village, a 47,000 m2 ski resort and recreational area in Levi, Finland. — bustler.net
In landscape, legible intent is different for forms we perceive to be buildings than for forms we perceive to be sculptures, since in most cases (Gehry is the exception) before we ask, what is the architect’s purpose, we ask, what is the building’s purpose? This may be the single most profound difference between architectural and sculptural presence in landscape. — Places Journal
David Heymann analyzes the very different ways in which works of sculpture and works of architecture occupy the landscape. And he looks closely at a grain elevator, and shows how a form which we usually experience as a familiar and even neighborly presence can come to seem evil. The final... View full entry
A real media storm has started and we receive threatening emails and calls of angry people calling us Al Qaeda lovers or worse.
MVRDV regrets deeply any connotations The Cloud projects evokes regarding 9/11, it was not our intention.
— MVRDV, facebook.com
The Cloud was designed based on parameters such as sunlight, outside spaces, living quality for inhabitants and the city. It is one of many projects in which MVRDV experiments with a raised city level to reinvent the often solitary typology of the skyscraper. It was not our intention to create an... View full entry
This is John Hill’s element, and these are his people. Hill has begun to emerge, in the past five years or so, as one of New York’s great architectural communicators, an exquisitely informed tour guide for the layman design enthusiast. His main platform has been his website, A Daily Dose of Architecture, which, if it does not quite stand astride the world of design blogs, nevertheless lords over a small sub-fiefdom of largely unstaffed, noncommercial sites. — capitalnewyork.com
... according to a person familiar with the plans who is bound by a nondisclosure agreement, Apple has already begun work on such a store in Santa Monica. Like the Peter Bohlin-designed Apple Store on New York's Upper West Side, it will have a tall, striking glass storefront... — cnn.com
The Santa Monica store episode also illustrates Apple's unusually covert way of doing business. Interviews with almost two dozen people familiar with Apple Store negotiations say the Cupertino, California, company sometimes employs uncommon legal tactics, refuses to name itself in public... View full entry
A-cero's villas, which seem to combine the geometric flow of early Le Corbusier with the textural flourish of his later work, also demonstrate a keen eye for the simple grandeur of expensive materials, like stone, that characterizes the early work of Mies van der Rohe. — online.wsj.com
Rafael Llamazares and Mr. Torres (right) View full entry
And here's another Dutch firm that just designed an unusual residential tower for a booming Asian metropolis: Yongsan Dreamhub corporation presented the MVRDV-designed residential development of the Yongsan Business district in Seoul, South Korea: two connected luxury residential high-rises. A 260 meter tall tower and a 300 meter tall tower are connected in the center by a pixelated cloud of additional program offering amenities and outside spaces with wide views. — bustler.net
Ben van Berkel / UNStudio has shared with us their design for The Scotts Tower in Singapore which was just unveiled yesterday.
The tower will be the first development under the Far East Organisation’s new SOHO brand. Designed to conserve space whilst maximizing live/work/play areas, The Scotts Tower promises to present a new dimension of functional and flexible vertical space.
— bustler.net
With innovative mechanical systems, natural daylighting, clear signage and a variety of behind the scenes sustainability strategies, San Francisco International Airport's Terminal 2 has become a destination unto itself. And the LEED Gold certification? Well, that's just an added bonus. — Inhabitat
San Francisco's Terminal 2 just became the first airport in the United States to achieve LEED Gold certification, and Inhabitat hit the scene yesterday to bring you exclusive photos of the airy, energy-efficient building renovated by Gensler. View full entry
We already suspected the Starbucks of the future might be serving a whole lot of juice. Now, it looks like tomorrow’s Starbucks cafes might be rectangular and metal — and look suspiciously like shipping containers. — blog.seattlepi.com
A basic Cartesian building is suddenly animated by internal program event, its evidence on the facade observe a new status of synergy, almost as if natural forces become managed by human construction skills of the 21. century. It simple yet complex appearance contributes to awareness of natural causality yet becomes a playful attribute to Istanbul’s awaking suburbia. — http://robotafr.wordpress.com/
If firmness, utility, and delight are the enduring pinnacles of architectural achievement, then it would appear architecture’s moral destiny is a foregone conclusion. But is it possible that opportunities for valuable cultural insight are being lost out of deference to this legacy? We examine forces, trends, and ideas that enhance the significance of the built environment despite, or due to, their deviant nature. — MAS CONTEXT
Latest issue of MAS CONTEXT now available on-line - fresh content from Lebbeus Woods, Paul Shepheard, Jürgen Mayer H, formlessfinder, Luis Urculo, and...MAS! Also includes the next part of the 3-part video series "Architecture and the Unspeakable" from our studio: the Shibuya Tower Project... View full entry