Richard Rogers' Maggie's cancer care centre has won the RIBA Stirling Prize 2009

Maggie's Centre, a beautiful cancer care sanctuary in west London by Richard Rogers' practice Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has won the coveted RIBA Stirling Prize 2009 in association with The Architects Journal and Crystal CG. This is the second time the practice has been awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize (Barajas Airport, Spain, 2006).

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners’ Maggie’s Centre exceeds at every level in fulfilling the most demanding of briefs: to create a sanctuary for terminally ill cancer sufferers with client Charles Jencks, whose deep conviction of architecture’s power to shape our experience has led to a series of cancer care centres creating a fitting memorial to his wife Maggie.
This quietly confident building is truly, unquestionably a haven for those who have been diagnosed with cancer. Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners’ achievement is in having created a completely informal, home-like sanctuary to help patients learn to live with cancer.
(to find out more..)

image & passage from:
http://www.architecture.com/NewsAndPress/News/AwardsNews/News/2009/MaggiesCentreWinsSitrlingPrize2009.aspx

posted by midori mizu

114 Year Old Pudu Jail Demolished To Make Way For Shopping Mall

Work has started on the demolition of part of the landmark Pudu Jail, to make way for a road expansion and tunnel project. UDA Holdings Sdn Bhd had bought over the land from the government and they are planning to build a shopping mall on the location.
(to find out more..)

images from:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/40275-hammer-finally-falls-on-pudu-jail
http://blog.miragestudio7.com/2009/10/114-year-old-pudu-jail-demolished-to-make-way-for-shopping-mall/

passage from:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/40275-hammer-finally-falls-on-pudu-jail

posted by midori mizu

Marking George Town

Marking George Town

An Ideas Competition For A UNESCO World Heritage Site

The State Government of Penang, Malaysia invites submissions for an international competition for design ideas to physically brand the historic city of George Town, Penang in conjunction with its listing as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008.

The winning entry will enter into negotiations with the State Government of Penang, Malaysia to implement the design. Please refer to the design brief and prizes.

(to find out more..)

**Upon a number of requests, the deadline for registration & payment has been extended from 15th Oct 2009 to 30th Oct 2009. (source: The competition committee)

text & image from: http://www.markinggeorgetown.com/home

posted by afterrabbit

空気の港 / Air Harbour

空港(kuukou) is the Japanese character for 'airport', break it down and it becomes 'air port', or

'air harbour', 空気の港(kuuki no minato) as how they put it.

This is a [not quite]digital public art project currently put up at Haneda International Airport, Tokyo.

A port that is filled with air.

A new way of feeling -with a little bit of joy and slowness- the Huge and Airy terminal space we might have often neglected as we rushed through the gates.

It is a pleasant co-existence of two different worlds: gravitation & zero-gravitation; fast-walking & slow-floating; tension & relaxation; restriction & freedom..

It may have an antidotal effect on the common urban illness of pressure in the Japanese society, who knows? Try stalking one which floats slowly across the terminal, or turn around and say hi to one which has just landed beside you~

(to find out more..)

image from: http://www.digital-public-art.org/airharbor/airharbor.php?pg=top

posted by afterrabbit

8th IAHH International Student Design Competition 2010

IAHH is pleased to announce its Eighth International Student Design Competition on the theme of “Affordable Housing in Sustainable Humane Habitats”. The competition is open to students of architecture, housing, planning, urban design, landscape architecture and related disciplines of anthropology, sociology, engineering, economics, geography, social work etc. However, the design team must be led by a student of architecture...

The student participants are required to identify a site in a city of their own choice anywhere in the world for planning and designing affordable housing in sustainable humane habitat project.

The site for the project shall be about 5-10 ha which will be a brown field site located in an urban area which is at present neglected. The site may have dilapidated housing stock. The project shall aim at providing affordable housing to about 1000 families belonging to various income and social groups. A high priority shall be given to provide housing for the urban poor and low income families. The project shall aim at sustainable urban renewal of the area with a mixed land use strategy...(to find out more..)

text & image from: http://humanehabitat.org/competitions/8th-iahh-international-student-design-competition-2010/

posted by afterrabbit

Intervention - Hutong Bubble 32

It's been two years since I was shown this intriguing proposal at a lecture by Ma Yansong. Though' I am quite surprised one has actually been built, it's much delighted to see that the outcome does not seem as alien in the context as the models & renderings earlier. All thanks to the reflective surface which absorbs the readily available textures of its surrounding.

As an effort to save the rapidly shrinking fabric of ancient hutongs, conversions of old courtyard houses into modern dwellings, studios and etc. have been carried out at various parts of the fabric by the conscious-minded, to help the traditional built environment in re-adapting to new ways of living in the Beijing.

I'm not sure to what extent such effort has gone thus far, but we can be optimistic that forward-thinking ideas are flowing into these narrow alleys of hutongs, slowly forming a new situation that nurtures creativities, and more of these delightful bubbles!

One good example of modern intervention on traditional Chinese urban fabric. Not so much hostility, it actually reminds me of the decorative (sometimes symbolic) huge stones found in many traditional Chinese gardens, ie. the imperial gardens.

More project descriptions at MAD Ltd.

images from: http://www.i-mad.com/?go/#/projects/status/56/

posted by afterrabbit