Hydro Building Systems, a division of the Norwegian multinational aluminum giant Hydro, has confirmed the energy-positive performance of a building constructed in 2009 in Bellenberg, Germany.
The building produces about 80% more electric power than it consumes annually, according to analysis of performance data collected to date.
— blogs.forbes.com
Just six months after the death of its longtime director, Peter C. Marzio, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has chosen three architects to submit designs for the new building he envisioned and hired a firm to search for his successor. Selected from an international list of 10 candidates, the firms are Morphosis, Snøhetta and Steven Holl Architects. Each will develop a concept for a building to house post-1900 art as well as a parking garage. — chron.com
These homes in Vicksburg are all situated along the Yazoo River, a tributary of the overflowing Mississippi River, and their owners have surrounded themselves with tons of earth and sand.
With questions over whether the main levees that protect the area from floods would hold, these farmers took no chances and have so far saved their homes and crops from destruction.
— dailymail.co.uk
Archinect's Building of the Day series is brought to you by our friends at OpenBuildings.com, the web's most comprehensive directory of buildings. UNStudio’s Galleria Centercity Department Store in the Korean city of Cheonan has been awarded a RIBA International Award 2011. It ... View full entry
Fred Scharmen in a new Op-Ed entitled "Sticks and Stones; Ai Weiwei and the Uses of Architecture", offers his opinion about whether or not media should "protest the treatment of Ai Weiwei by ceasing promotion of all new architectural work in China? Should architects refuse to take on new work in China? Should we continue to support the work of architects and artists in China, but only with a disclaimer?"
Ann Lui in a new feature writes "LEED turns a blind eye to worker safety" and argues that if LEED is all about building better communities, in the future it should also account for the "Sustainability of Workers' Rights".Fred Scharmen in a new Op-Ed entitled "Sticks and Stones; Ai Weiwei and the... View full entry
An advisory body to UNESCO has counseled against registering 19 buildings designed by French architect Le Corbusier, including the National Museum of Western Art in Taito Ward, Tokyo, as world cultural heritage sites, it has been learned.
The recommendation was made by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), a cultural conservation organization, the central government's Cultural Affairs Agency said Saturday.
— yomiuri.co.jp
Institutions including SFMOMA, the Whitney, the Barnes Foundation and MoMA plan various additions and exits, a boom for contemporary architects but a bust for architectural history. — latimes.com
Designed by busy Norwegian firm Snøhetta, which is also at work on the museum at New York's ground zero, the addition will slip a massive, 335-foot-long cruise ship of a structure behind the museum's existing building, which was designed by Mario Botta and opened in 1995. The main entry to Botta's museum, along Third Street, will remain, but a second gateway to the museum will open up along Howard Street. — latimesblogs.latimes.com
Intersection: Intimacy and Spectacle will introduce to the city center an ephemeral artistic dwelling composed of thirty boxes, designed by Israeli architect Oren Sagiv and curated by Sodja Lotker. These boxes will be inhabited by performative projects realized and performed by... View full entry
This lovely underground home is slated to be the first zero-carbon home in the North West of England. Designed by Make Architects, this 4-bedroom oasis leaves the views of nature in tact above the ground while creating spaces filled with light and space below the ground plane. — michellekaufmann.com
Archinect's Building of the Day series is brought to you by our friends at OpenBuildings.com, the web's most comprehensive directory of buildings. OMA has begun to install its exhibition of projects with Prada at Ca’ Corner della Regina, a 17th century palazzo in Venice and the venue... View full entry
Last week, we published the winners of the 2011 RIBA Awards, as well as the RIBA International Awards, presented by the Royal Institute of British Architects for architectural excellence in the UK and abroad. The 3XN-designed Middelfart Savings Bank in Denmark was one of the eight buildings honored in the European Union award category. — bustler.net
Restoration work on one of Buckminster Fuller’s most iconic structures, the 24 foot Fly’s Eye Dome, was completed yesterday, and the restored dome was unveiled to the public at Goetz Composites in Bristol, RI. Patented in 1965, Fuller created two prototypes of this structure... View full entry
This retired Soviet Iluyshin IL-14 plane has found new life as an incredible restaurant and bar in Zurich, Switzerland. The vintage plane and its hangar, located across from the Zurich International Airport, have been converted into a unique dining experience, called Runway 34. The aviation-themed restaurant offers visitors the opportunity to enjoy meals, stiff cocktails, cappuccino and cigars inside the renovated aircraft and its environs. — http://www.inhabitat.com
“Cronocaos” was first shown at the 2010 architecture biennale in Venice, the ultimate example of what can happen to an aged city when it is repackaged for tourists. — NYT
All over the world, historic centers are being sanitized of signs of age and decay, losing any sense of the identity that buildings accumulate over time. Facades are carefully scrubbed clean; interiors, often blending minimalist white walls and a few painstakingly restored historic details, are... View full entry