Estonian National Museum (ENM) by Vincent Callebaut

At the crossing of the Estonian and Finno-Ugric History and cultures, the Estonian national Museum (ENM) presents an architecture that inserts itself as a built geography. Towards a new understanding of the place, it imposes itself like an open field of multilayer strength that compresses the nature of the city and of the dynamic processes which govern it. It is an animated matrix with compressive folds topologically open which forms a common meeting frame between the city and the rural municipality, between the site and the visitor. The museum is at the intersection of new devices able, simultaneously, to generate reactive mechanisms (operating paradoxes) and evolutional spaces (landscapes). It is an interactive field of strengths among other fields, a geography of transition.

INFILTRATION FROM THE VACUUM
The notion of vacuum is considered in the project as first-rate « architectural material » on top of the predominance of the form. The building is a « space in negative » formed more by « absences » than by « presences ». It is an architecture of the vacuum that is planned in resonance with the qualities of a « free landscape-space ». At the intersection of the leak lines and the crossing dynamics of the park, an inhabited frame of 250 meters by side is at the meeting of the sky and the earth. In levitation above the lake, it constitutes a true double “building-bridge” articulating the course and framing with its tremendous fertile vacuum the luxuriant plants. It is a laminated area of “nurbs-surfaces” of “floors on other floors” that mixes furtively the Estonian horizons. It is a “presence-absence” which affirms itself from the paradoxical combination between densification and disappearing. It is a space dedicated to be infiltrated, crossed, contaminated. (to find out more...)

text and image from : http://vincent.callebaut.org/page1-img-estonie.html

posted by s-uper-chii

Arne Quinze

REBIRTH BY ARNE QUINZE is a unique futuristic and provoking wooden sculpture by Arne Quinze for the well-knownand distinguished five-star Paris hotel Le Royal Monceau on Avenue Hoche. The Art Deco temple will close its doors for an entire year while it undergoes a complete revamp by Philippe Starck. But the hotel doesn’t plan to go quietly, and gives an exclusive party. In full contrast with the abundantly decorated interior, Arne Quinze will turn heads with a gigantic new futuristic art installation, and an exclusive selection of VIP guests are invited to take out theirunresolved issues by partaking in a subsequent ‘Demolition Party’, where they are invited to smash, wreck and generally annihilate anything left standing.

The dazzling sculpture — which lasts for only one exclusive night — embraces the entire hotel building as a conquering and boldness alien stream, breaking through walls, corridors, stairways, lobbies and rooms... (to find out more...)

text and images from: http://www.arnequinze.tv/

posted by s-uper-chii

Tokyo Jewel Box : Ando + Olafur

Obayashi had in mind a house that would be a collaborative effort between artists and architect, and he commissioned works by several talents, including Danish-born light artist Olafur Eliasson, Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka and Japanese lighting architect Shozo Toyohisa, who has designed lighting for exhibitions at MoMA in New York. “When Eliasson came up with the idea of working with the courtyard using ceramic tiles, I really liked it,” says Obayashi, who was hesitant to propose the idea to Ando. “Many architects want minimal change within their design. They want to speak with their own language. In Mr. Ando’s case, his language is glass, steel frames and concrete.”
With over 6,800 platinum-glazed ceramic tiles attached to the concrete walls of the courtyard, Eliasson created an astonishing spectacle. “Small changes in light make the tiles appear different, and it changes the light in the interior as well,” says Eliasson. “You really get the feeling of a temporal or ephemeral component to the house and the constitution of its space.”
“Olaf’s work has a very strong impact,” says Ando. “You don’t ever see anything like this in my work. In the beginning I thought the tiles were too drastic technically and aesthetically. They arrived late. We didn’t know if they could be affixed properly. It’s difficult to adhere things to the surface,” he admits. “Of course, I work with a lot of artists. In Los Angeles, I’m making a guesthouse and exhibition space sort of like Yu-un, and we’re doing things with Damien Hirst and other people with installations on the surfaces. So it may become common with this kind of project where one installs treatments on certain surfaces.” (to find out more..)

View Slideshow via Architectural Digest.




passage and images from: http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architects/features/2008/01/ando_article_012008?currentPage=1

posted by afterrabbit

Werner Sobek

Architecture which claims to formulate an attitude appropriate to our time and the future, must be a form of architecture that finds its forms and materials not by reference to traditional forms and materials. We should not ask "how did we use to work and live" but "how shall we work and live in the future". The answer to this question requires an unconditional anticipation of what the future holds in store - a method which occasionally may lead us in the wrong direction but which is the only way in terms of being intellectually justifiable. Or, in the words of Hegel "...that the fear of being wrong constitutes an error in itself".
The architecture of our own time and the future must exhibit a radically different, viz. positive, attitude to the natural environment and its users and to its inherent technology.

(to find out more..)

passage & images from: http://www.wernersobek.com/

posted by afterrabbit

Underwater Museum@Egypt

Architect Jacques Rougerie -an expert when it comes to space and underwater structures- has designed the soon-to-be first underwater museum. It will be located off the coast of Egypt, near the new Library of Alexandria, where Cleopatra once had a palace on an island in one of the largest human-made bays in the world back in the day, submerged by earthquakes in the 4th century. The ruins were discovered years ago, and include several sphinxes, statues, roman and greek shipwrecks and pieces believed to be from the Pharos of Alexandria lighthouse (one of the seven ancient wonders of the world).
(to find out more..)



image & passage from:
http://www.archdaily.com/7427/underwater-museum-for-egypt-jacques-rougerie/

posted by midori mizu

Estonian Academy of Arts

posted by midori mizu

Libeskind's Westside shopping center opens in Switzerland

The Westside shopping center in Brünnen, a part of the city of Berne (the capital of Switzerland) , opened it's gates this weekend. The project was started 2000, when Daniel Libeskind won an international competition to design the shoppingcenter. Construction did not start until 2006. The complex not only features a shopping mall, but also a conference-hotel, a cineplex, elderly people housing and a spa. The whole development at the western most part of the city of Berne will complete a dense housing development started in the seventies and when completed will offer housing to additional 3000 people. The shoppingcenter is said to cater an area with around 1.2 Million people sourrounding the city of Berne.
(to find out more..)

image & passage from:
http://cisar.blogspot.com/2008/10/libeskind-westside-shoppingcenter-opens.html

posted by midori mizu

Modernist Master’s Deceptively Simple World

IT’S unlikely that the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza will ever enjoy the fame of, say, a Rem Koolhaas or a Frank Gehry, architects who have vaulted to international attention by demolishing accepted orthodoxies.
For one thing Mr. Siza rarely builds outside Europe, while his celebrity counterparts shuttle around the globe.
He has spent his career quietly working on the fringes of the international architecture scene. He dislikes long plane flights, mostly because of a decades-long smoking habit and recent back problems. And he still seems most at ease in Porto, Portugal, his native city, where he can often be found sketching in a local cafe with a pack of cigarettes within easy reach.
Yet over the last five decades Mr. Siza, now 74, has steadily assembled a body of work that ranks him among the greatest architects of his generation, and his creative voice has never seemed more relevant than now.
His reputation is likely to receive a boost from his museum here for the Iberê Camargo Foundation, his most sculptural work to date. Its curvaceous bleached white exterior, nestled against a lush Brazilian hillside, has a vibrant sensuality that contrasts with the corporate sterility of so many museums today. (to find out more..)

passage from: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/arts/design/05ouro.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2
images from: http://particool.wordpress.com/2007/12/23/ibere-camargo-foundation/ & http://flickr.com/photos/visualcuriosity/144785931/
image edited by DeArasis

posted by afterrabbit

New wave hero Portuguese architect wins UK's most prestigious prize

Álvaro Siza, the Portuguese architect and hero of a new wave of British design talent, was yesterday awarded the Royal Gold Medal, British architecture's most prestigious prize. The 78-year-old is regarded by some as the greatest architect Portugal has ever produced, although his only British building to date has been a temporary pavilion for the Serpentine Gallery in London in 2006.(to find out more..)

image & passage from:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/oct/08/architecture.portugal

posted by midori mizu

Parliament House, Malaysia

Although not as famous as its predecessor, The Petronas Twin Towers, the Parliament building is a case worth studying as a building that is modernist in outlook yet respecting the local context.

The Architect:

William Ivor Shipley graduated from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and then did national service as a British Army garrison engineer from 1950 to 1952 in Singapore, where he met his wife, Stella. Returning to Britain, he applied in 1953 to the Crown Agents to work in Singapore. However, he was informed that his posting would instead be as Settlement Architect when his ship arrived in Penang. He worked on the island until his transfer to Kuala Lumpur (KL) in 1956.

The Building:

Parliament House in the making. — Picture courtesy of William Ivor Shipley

The realization of Parliament’s House’s architecture was a process that mapped Shipley’s design development professionally. While in Penang, he met Konrad Wachsmarm who, with Bauhausfounder Walter Gropius, had developed a modular grid. He experimented with his own three-dimensional grid layouts and design ideas on an eight-bay linear standard office block that expedited construction and planning: over 200 were eventually constructed nationwide (an example is the PWD Head-quarters in Jalan Sultan Salahuddin).

As one of PWD’s most talented architects, his selection to design the Parliament House came as no surprise. From its inception and expanding on his grid measurements, Shipley honed spaces around the bicameral arrangements and to accommodate the Senate and the Dewan Rakyat in a podium block.

Separating processes of Parliament from governmental establishment, offices were then contained in an 18-storey tower block whose reticulated façade of pre-cast terrazzo cladding panels became its signature.

The roof of the Dewan Rakyat was formed as a pleated shell with a five-sided section but later refined into a more triangular one, leading to interpretations of a “Malay House Roof’ — which the architect had not originally intended.

Its generous internal space-provision for future expansion saw its accommodation of Malaysia when 11 states became 14 (and then 13) and up to the present day.

Despite not including the additional mural art and sculpture that Shipley had hoped for, the complex remains one of KL’s most prominent and significant buildings.

The construction of a national culture was important for post-colonial states like Malaysia. National buildings then were, as now, major visual signs towards which a national gaze or imagination gravitated.

Shipley’s contributions to the development of Malaysia’s built environment are crucial. He understood modernist architecture and transformed it for the region.

The result was a set of important national works that are not only functional and expressive, but which exude actuality of purpose and confidence commensurate with the times. (For the full article..)

The above post are excerpts from a New Sunday Times newspaper article (July 27, 2008) entitled “Shipley, an Architect Extraordinaire” by Lai Chee Kien, Assistant Professor with the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore, who also curated “Building Merdeka: Independence Architecture in Kuala Lumpur, 1957-1966” in Kuala Lumpur in 2007.

Images from: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/Columns/20080726233753/Article/index_html

http://www.virtualmalaysia.com/visit_malaysia/government/parliament.cfm

posted by ling

Koivusaari International Ideas Competition 12 Aug - 10 Nov 2008

The City of Helsinki organises, in co-operation with the Finnish Association of Architects (SAFA), an open international ideas competition on the planning of Koivusaari Island.
The competition is open to all. The competition languages are Finnish and English. The entrants are encouraged to form multidisciplinary planning groups with a wide range of expertise on land use, landscape planning, traffic technology, municipal engineering, and construction and energy engineering.
The competition is organised in order to prepare the component master plan for Koivusaari Island. The objective of the competition is to produce innovative plan alternatives which can serve as a basis for further planning and drafting of the component master plan and to identify the essential features of this new district which will have a maritime atmosphere and an underground railway connection. (to find out more..)

passage & image from: http://www.hel.fi/wps/portal/Kaupunkisuunnitteluvirasto_en/Artikkeli_en?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/Ksv/en/Town+Planning/City+planning+projects/Koivusaari+Ideas+Competition

posted by afterrabbit

Abandoned spaces

What is it about abandoned property and places, frozen in time, that makes them seem more real than any other representation of history we encounter? From individual structures to entire abandoned towns and cities, abandonments large and small inspire the imagination and tell us things about the past in a visceral way. Capturing moments in time, deserted cities, towns, buildings and other abandoned property can be powerfully evocative. Many people break laws, trespass on property and risk life and limb to explore and photograph abandoned places. (to find out more..)

Image and text from: http://weburbanist.com/abandoned-buildings-towns-and-cities/

posted by ling

Covent Garden - A Brief History

by John Richardson

...The Covent Garden area then reverted to agricultural land until the 17th century. It was then the scene of the first experiment in London of town planning, and the creation of the first public square in the country. It was the work of three men - the Earl of Bedford the developer, Charles I, who gave his strong support to the scheme, and Inigo Jones the most important architect of the day.
The enthusiasm of Jones for classical, especially Palladian, architecture was to have an enormous effect on London's later buildings. Having seen and studied the many public squares in Italy, he brought the idea to London and he also surrounded it with a perfectly straight grid of streets. Londoners, used to the random and haphazard arrangement of winding streets, alleyways and courtyards, must have been amazed. Architecturally, it was a watershed in English architecture.
The Piazza was designed by Jones with arcaded houses to the north and east. (These are now all gone but more modern developments have sought to remind us of them.) To the west was the church of St Paul, flanked by two houses, and to the south there was at first no development because the Piazza backed on to the mansion of the Bedford family, which faced the Strand, the main artery of London connecting City and Court at Westminster.
This new square was a public one - and meant to be so... (to find out more..)



passage from: http://www.coventgardenlife.com/info/history.htm
images from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Greater_london_outline_map_bw.png & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Covent_Garden_Interior_May_2006.jpg & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Covent_Garden_Panorama_May_2006.jpg & http://www.cgareatrust.org.uk/images/aerialview.jpg
image edited by Dearasis

posted by afterrabbit

Yehiam Memorial by SO Architecture

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the convoy to Yechiam, the memorial site for those who were killed in the convoy, and for the fallen Kibbutz members, was designed. The project is situated in Kibbutz Yechiam on the north of Israel in the community center area.

The project derives its geometrical form from two major sources:
1. The feeling of the inside of an armored truck of the days of the convoy
2. The will to convey the feeling of bereavement

The visitor who arrives at the memorial experiences, while progressing to the hall the confined geometry of the place that was designed with the help of a computer, and based on physical models. The materials used in the construction are wood and plaster. The space that is revealed inside the building is a clean space, which forms a balance on the one hand of the general feeling, and on the other hand points to the photos of the fallen.

The photos themselves are emphasized by hidden lighting, both natural and artificial. In the interior design work of the site, the photos of the fallen were reconstructed and renovated with the help of computers. This project, was executed on a very small budget, succeeds in producing a special, strong and exciting feeling, which honors the memory of the fallen. (more images..)

images & passage from:
http://www.archdaily.com/6478/yehiam-memorial-so-architecture/

posted by midori mizu

Antonín Dvořák Concert & Congress Centre by Future Systems

Architects Future Systems have been commissioned to design a new concert and congress centre at České Budějovice in the Czech Republic.As the home of the Ceske Budejovice philharmonic orchestra the design will achieve an exquisite blend between and culture and music with the utmost sensitivity and understanding of every user and does so while maintaining a thrilling narrative, as is true of all one off Future Systems projects.



The two concert halls, seating a 1000 people in the philharmonic music hall and 400 in the chamber music hall, are of a completely new breed in architecture. For the first time in musical design a large and elegant rear window behind the musicians will be carved out to allow for spectacular views in to the park behind the building. Each hall is formed of sensual free form curves that manage to combine aesthetic beauty with outstanding acoustic quality that is only enhanced by the ‘eye’ window concept. (to find out more..)

images and passage from:
http://www.dezeen.com/2008/09/21/antonin-dvorak-concert-and-congress-centre-by-future-systems/

posted by midori mizu

Black & White Fest

The Annexe Gallery and Central Market is proud to present the Black & White Fest, a mini multi-arts fest happening from Fri 19 Sep to Mon 5 Oct.
The Annexe Gallery & Central Marketinvite you to the opening of

BLACK & WHITE FEST
A Celebration of Diversity
Fri 19 Sep, 2008, 8pm
Refreshments served

Exhibition will continue until Sun 5 Oct 2008, 11am - 7pm daily
Admission free and open to the public

DIVERSITY
Photography Exhibition

By Alan Ng, Alex Moh, Azril Ismail, Azrul K. Abdullah, Bernice Chauly, Caecar Chong, Erna Dyanty, Lim Hock Seng, Pang Khee Teik & Tan Chee Hon.
Ten Malaysian photographers return to their first love, black & white photography, to seek diversity in a monochromatic world. All works are shot on black & white film and printed on silver gelatin paper.

I think everyone should make an effort to visit this Exhibition, regardless which field or industry you are in; because after this exhibition, I felt that everything is very much inter-related. There's a huge variety of story being told here, such as:

the story of colours through Black and White,

the story of a girl and her flamboyant family,

the story of dealing with mannequins and loneliness,

a brave adventure to seek sensuality through nature,

a love for natural rainforest and his encounters,

the harmony of human elements as a background of the natural landscape,

the story of nude patient models and a photographer + the joyful process of picture development,

the beautification of a transgender,

a psycological message "Whatever You Believe Becomes True To You" that questions our belief and what is real to us,

a creepy sealed entrance that is blocked by the Goddess of Mercy.

text and image from: http://www.annexegallery.com/index.php?/View-Full-Listing/Black-White-Fest.html?White_Fest=0

posted by s-uper-chii

Rectification to the design history of the Temppeliaukio Church

Temppeliaukio Church (“Rock Church”) in Helsinki centre attracts visitors from all over the world. The rock church, designed by Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen and built in 1969, is the most popular architectural sight in Finland, not only among modern but also historic buildings. Yet, as a result of superficial observation, mistaken assumptions about its design history and architecture have been and still are presented as facts. It is time for rectification.

Architect brothers Timo (1928-) and Tuomo (1931-88) Suomalainen won the open competition in 1960-61 for the architectural design of Temppeliaukio Church as a result of the unanimous decision of the jury. There had been two competitions arranged about the same church in the 1930s, both unrealised. Architect P.E. Blomstedt (1900-1935) participated in the first competition arranged in 1932-33, but without success. The similarity between Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen’s and P.E. Blomstedt’s proposals is a persistently repeated claim or insinuation. In these designs both the main idea and the artistic overall structure are, however, totally different and only the Suomalainen brothers’ church is sunk into the rock.

......

It dawned intuitively on the Suomalainen brothers when they visited the building site that, in order to save the character of place, the rock itself had to be understood as a church and everything to be built at the site should be adjusted to accompany the character of the rock. The architect brothers had a firm relationship to rock. They had been born and lived their childhood until the beginning of the World War II on a small island, called Suursaari, in the middle of the Gulf of Finland. Juxtaposed to the white sandy beaches of the island’s bays were hills, precipices and crevices, caves, gorges, boulders, and stony fields. Timo Suomalainen tells how the island of their birth, lost to the Soviet Union, unconsciously participated in their architecture. On the Temppeliaukio Square (“Temple Square”) the home island of the brothers, which was its own micro cosmos, is present as the rock church itself. Transferred from the island is the simultaneous feeling of security and freedom that one can experience in nature, which offers not only surprises and adventure, but also a feeling of stability and shelter. Before the brothers started designing the Temppeliaukio Church, they had done planning work for the Ministry of Defence and thus had become familiar with rock building. Moreover, they had come to the point in their career where, after having designed clean-lined and minimalistic architecture, they wished to open to architecturally intuitive, unconscious, solutions giving space even to chance. (to find out more..)


Architect brothers Timo (1928-) and Tuomo (1931-88) Suomalainen in 1984

passage from: http://www.temppeliaukio.fi/english/artikkeli1.htm
images from: http://www.congreszon.fi/eahil_2008/social_programme/ & http://www.temppeliaukio.fi/english/index.htm & https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ4-MD2i7RkDrSGJccWba2gDnKaLx0MH_hzOMXFOtXcN5-57KrCfXwqLw_O9y-Akl6iXTR3hDRCtfWMEfNOnYhgBB17CP2CLAURiIxVFOrjX3JUMTZ4GgtUgRWL_BsWWHZMFXaJCI7Sd0/s1600-h/rock+church+2.JPG

posted by afterrabbit

Some Ideas on Generating Ideas

by Akira

In a book called Kougu*, which in Japanese means “thinking tools,” author Masaharu Kato of ad agency Hakuhoudo offers a few tips to come up with fresh ideas. I’ve used them when coming up with ideas for our clients, and thought I’d share some of my favorites…

1. Know what you are looking for.
Start with a clear idea of what you’re trying to come up with. A catch phrase? A new name, a logo? Once you identify your goal, repeat it aloud to yourself a few times, and engrave it on your mindscape.

2. Focus on the surface: color, shape, size, word.
You can gather ideas anytime–driving to work, taking a stroll, during your lunch breaks. When you start these 'idea gathering sessions', sometimes it helps to decide ahead of time that you’ll focus on something arbitrary, say the color red. Think about the problem you are trying to solve, and at the same time, focus on the color red. You’ll notice red things around you that you’d might otherwise ignore, just by being focused on that color. Tuning into these details can lead to unusual, fresh connections that help you solve the problem.

3. Write thoughts down wherever, whatever they may be.
The act of writing activates your brain and focuses your thoughts. Use anything : post-it's, the back of napkins, or a sketch book, to write. The point isn't to come up with perfect notes, so don’t worry about keeping everything together or too tidy. Don't worry about whether your thoughts are 'good' ideas, either. Just keep writing–sometimes that's enough for something brilliant to pop up in your head.

Here’s an example.

Say you’re trying to come up with a tag line for your new product - a new condo complex on the waterfront. You are thinking about the condo - how big it is, what kind of amenities it has, your target demography, etc. Then, you go out gathering hints outside. Focus on something specific, like, for example, the color blue today…The sky is blue (for once, in Seattle! Hey, maybe weather should play a role in this), so is this car (an SUV - what kind of cars do the prospect tenants own?), and a mailbox (maybe they can offer a concierge service for the tenants, drop-off points for mail, dry cleaning, packages, rented videos/dvds?).

Jot stuff into a notebook as you go, connecting dots and coming up with more random links. Get your head to work this way so you can get to really interesting ideas more quickly.

*Published in Japan by Hankyu Communications, 2003.

passage from: http://www.design-kompany.com/inspiration/132/

posted by afterrabbit

Free Architecture Courses

If you have a computer or an iPod, you can go to college for free. Hundreds of colleges and universities around the world offer free downloads of popular courses and lectures in architecture, urban design, and engineering.

Yes, there are drawbacks. You can't chat with the professors or classmates. You can't earn credits or work toward a degree. But you'll get the same lecture notes and assignments as "live" students. In some cases, you can even download free audio files and videos.
(to find out more..)

passage from:
http://architecture.about.com/od/schools/tp/freecourses.htm

posted by midori mizu

The 2008 Small Project Awards

AIA Small Project Practitioners presents the recipients of its third annual Small Projects Awards program, which promotes excellence in small-project design. The awards program emphasizes the excellence of small-project design and strives to raise public awareness of the value and design excellence that architects bring to all projects, regardless of the size and scope.





text and images from: http://www.aia.org/nwsltr_spf_SPP.cfm?pagename=spf_nwsltr_200806

posted by s-uper-chii