“These churches must become not only a decoration of our city, but truly a phenomenon of civic and church art of our 21st century,” said Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, the executive secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, at a news conference. “They must become a kind of pearl of ancient tradition, uniting historic Moscow with its new districts and buildings.” He said the terms of the competition would be announced by the end of the year. — theartnewspaper.com
A fusion of traditional Islamic architecture and modern sustainable design, Gaza’s new green schools will cost the same to build as their less-sustainable counterparts. — Green Prophet
The UNRWA is partnering with architect Mario Cucinella to build up to 20 “zero impact” schools in the Gaza Strip. The schools will include room for 800 students and will rely completely on renewable energy sources. Specifically, solar panels will be strategically placed and geothermal... View full entry
Having been given a prized collection of contemporary American art earlier this year, Stanford University on Wednesday announced plans for a new $30.5-million museum to house it.
New York-based Ennead Architects will design a 30,000-square-foot building devoted to the Anderson Collection –- 121 works by 86 artists collected by a Bay Area family...
— latimesblogs.latimes.com
Portuguese collective DOSE has sent us images and a fascinating time-lapse video of their project BLUETUBE BAR, a temporary bar to operate at the annual academic festival in Oporto, Portugal, Queima das Fitas. The project won the student competition sponsored by the School of Architecture at Oporto University. — bustler.net
Artists and designer Michael Jantzen has shared with us his latest utopian pavilion concept, The Transmutation Pavilion. Read more about Jantzen in his insightful 2009 interview with Archinect writer Katya Tylevich. Project Description: The Transmutation Pavilion is a design proposal for a large... View full entry
Clips from documentary of modern architectural masterpiece built in 1930 in Czechoslovakia by German architect Mies van der Rohe for a Jewish family that had to flee in 1938. Interviews with the Tugendhat daughter and Mies' grandson about this unique house now owned by the government in Brno, Czech Republic. — youtube.com
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
