Archifest 2009 : Architecture for Humanity

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The annual event in Singapore is back as Archifest 2009 : Architecture for Humanity

Information subjected to change every now and then.

Official website by SIA for the event is under construction and will likely be up by next week.

Or contact via email @ archifest@sia.org.sg

flyer acquired from the SIA.

afterrabbit

upto35

OLIAROS, a young property development company, is calling architects up to 35 years old to submit proposals for the construction of a student housing unit in Kerameikos and Metaxourgeio (KM), an area in the historic centre of Athens, Greece. The aim of the competition is to encourage creativity among the next generation of designers while supporting architectural research and the implementation of contemporary architecture projects in Greece. The competition seeks to elicit designs which explore new ideas on urbanism and rethink existing housing models for communities. (to find out more..)

image and text from: http://www.upto35.com/

posted by afterrabbit

Yikes! Sears Tower’s 1353-Foot High Glass Balconies

Would you trust a glass floor that’s an inch and a half thick when suspended 103 stories in the air? People in Chicago today can find out at the Sears Tower, which opened its new set of glass balconies for public viewing. “The Ledge,” as they’re collectively called, hangs 1,353 feet in the air. With transparent walls and ceilings, visitors say its like floating in the sky, and the view is, of course, spectacular. Don’t worry, those glass floor can withstand five tons, but just to be safe, jumping up and down is probably not a good idea.

image and passage from:
http://designcrave.com/2009-07-02/sears-tower-reveals-glass-balconies-on-103rd-floor/

posted by midori mizu

Melbourne’s Iconic Theater Buildings Scoop Victorian Architecture Awards

The Melbourne Recital Centre, and its neighbor, the first permanent home for the Melbourne Theatre Company, have taken out four of the highest honors at this year’s Victorian Architecture Awards. Presented by the Australian Institute of Architects, 37 awards and prizes were announced today at a dinner on Friday, July 10 attended by over 800 guests.

The recital centre and MTC buildings by ARM and the urban transformation of their formerly neglected Southbank site are honored with the 2009 Victorian Architecture Medal for successfully crossing design boundaries and taking out the top awards in three categories: the William Wardell Award for public architecture; the Marion Mahony Award for interior architecture and the Joseph Reed Award for urban design.

Chair of juries, Philip Goad, says the combined buildings make a significant contribution to Melbourne’s arts precinct and may well expand current audiences, sentiments echoed in the Victorian Medal jury citation. “The robust sculptural facades have already become iconic and the changes to traffic and pedestrian patterns at an urban level have transformed the area into an active domain,” praised the jury.(to find out more..)

image and passage from:
http://www.bustler.net/index.php/article/melbournes_iconic_theater_buildings_scoop_victorian_architecture_awards/

posted by midori mizu

Bartlett School of Architecture, Year 1, End of the Year Film 2009, UCL

posted by midori mizu

JS Bach Chamber Music Hall by Zaha Hadid Architects

Zaha Hadid Architects have created a unique chamber music hall specially designed to house solo performances of the exquisite music of Johann Sebastian Bach.A voluminous ribbon swirls within the room, carving out a spatial and visual response to the intricate relationships of Bach’s harmonies. As the ribbon careens above the performer, cascades into the ground and wraps around the audience, the original room as a box is sculpted into fluid spaces swelling, merging, and slipping through one another.(to find out more..)

image and passage from:
http://www.dezeen.com/2009/07/07/js-bach-chamber-music-hall-by-zaha-hadid-architects/

posted by midori mizu

UK Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 by Thomas Heatherwick

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office today reveals updated designs for the UK pavilion that will represent this country at Shanghai Expo 2010; its theme being ‘Better City, Better Life’. Developed by one of the UK’s leading creative talents – Thomas Heatherwick – the UK pavilion will provide a dramatic demonstration of creativity and innovation in the UK.

The centrepiece of the UK’s offering is the extraordinary pavilion building - a six storey high object formed from some 60,000 slender transparent rods, which will extend from the structure and quiver in the breeze. During the day, each of these 7.5m long rods will act like fibre optic filaments, drawing on daylight to illuminate the interior, thereby creating a contemplative awe-inspiring space. At night, light sources at the interior end of each rod will allow the whole structure to glow. The pavilion will sit on a landscape looking like paper that once wrapped the building and that now lies unfolded on the site. The landscape provides an open space for public events and shelter for visitors making their way into the pavilion structure.(to find out more..)

images and passage from:
http://www.dezeen.com/2009/06/30/uk-pavilion-at-shanghai-expo-2010-by-thomas-heatherwick/

posted by midori mizu

OMA's Rotating Pavilion - Prada Transformer

The 20-metre high Prada Transformer is located adjacent to the 16th Century Gyeonghui Palace in the centre of Seoul. The pavilion consists of four basic geometric shapes – a circle, a cross, a hexagon, a rectangle – leaning together and wrapped in a translucent membrane. Each shape is a potential floor plan designed to be ideal for the cultural programming unfolding over the next three months: a fashion exhibition, a film festival, an art exhibition, and finally a Prada fashion show. Walls will become floors and floors will become walls as the pavilion is flipped over by three cranes after each event to accommodate the next.
Rem Koolhaas explained the idea behind the Prada Transformer: “Rather than having one average condition, we conceived a pavilion that, by simply rotating it, acquires a different character and accommodates different needs.” Koolhaas added: “The project is exciting to us because it is the first hybrid between Prada fashion and the Prada Foundation.” (to find out more..)

A typical example of Koolhaas' placeless architecture, it choses to be indifferent to the surrounding and creating an interesting juxtaposition of two cultures and time. Even though appearing hostile, the pavilion is the result of an encounter between two icons (Gyeonghui Palace & Prada) from different time and origins that had never quite come together, which further exemplifies each other's identity and statement of its own.

Why bother its hostility since Prada's only going to stay until its job is finished?

Modern, functional, innovative and being temporal is the context.

Another commendable aspect of this well-conceived pavilion is its transformability.

Rather than a typical exhibition typology that requires individual covered spaces for each programs, Prada Transformer is like a folded-up plan. A single huge space where internal surfaces - the floor, walls & ceiling - all act as floor spaces for different programs.

This innovation quite successfully reduces the size and footprint of the structure, making it 'lighter' in many senses; While the down side is that the programs can't operate simultaneously.

What more to say about the interior space?

The honesty of materials and structures, the togetherness between rigid geometries and softness of fabric & daylighting is pretty obvious.

It is unquestionably that the idea behind this design is simply, and strongly expressed through the actual pavilion created, actually, much better than the 3d visualizations published earlier.

intro from: http://archide.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/prada-transformer-by-omarem-koolhaas-open-to-the-public/

images from: http://archide.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/prada-transformer-by-omarem-koolhaas-open-to-the-public/

http://www.oma.nl/

http://www.shoppingblog.com/cgi-bin/sblog.pl?sblog=4250924

http://www.yatzer.com/1650_the_prada_transformer_pavilion_by_oma

http://kpculture.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/prada-transformer-project/

http://www.designscene.net/2009/04/first-look-prada-transformer.html

posted by afterrabbit

MVRDV

posted by midori mizu

5 designs that change the world

“You know a design is good when you want to lick it,” says Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer. But a truly iconic design must do more than make you salivate. It must have social impact too.

Great design should marry aesthetics with practicality, providing solutions to everyday problems – even if you didn’t know you had them before they came along.

CNN has picked out five great designs from the last 100 years. They are all products which have fundamentally changed the lives of millions of people.

1. Volkwagen ‘Beetle’



2. The Leica camera


3. The ballpoint pen


4. The iPod


5. The London Underground map


Text from: http://bloggomatic.wordpress.com/2007/11/01/five-designs-that-changed-the-world/

Images from:
http://www.analogstereo.com/volkswagen_beetle_owners_manual.htm
http://www.shotaddict.com/wordpress/2007/06/03/3568.html
http://www.swisherpens.com/Catalog/conklin-all-american-ballpoint-pen.htm
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/09/13/review_apple_ipod_classic/
http://www.tourstolondon.co.uk/london-map.html

posted by ling

Latest Update! DATUM:KL 2009

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For your information, David Adjaye will not make it to the event due to clashes in his working schedule, sorry for those eagerly awaiting for his presentation...
However, there're 2 added speakers:

1) Alastair Hall of Hackett Hall Mcknight from Ireland ( Winners of BD Young Architects of the Year in Oct 2008 ), &
2) Marina Tabassum of MTA/Urbana from Bangladesh.

along with other confirmed speakers:
3) Winy Maas of MVRDV
4) Han Tumertekin of Mimarlar Tasarim Danismanlink Ltd
5) Junya Ishigami of Junya Ishigami + Associates
6) Roman Delugan of Delugan Meissl Associated Architects
7) Meejin Yoon & Eric Howeler of Howeler + Yoon Architects
8) Stephen Pimbley of Sparch
9) Zhang Ke of Standardarchitecture
10) Hud Abu Bakar of RSP Architects, Planners & Engineers.


Thanks Fay~

posted by afterrabbit

Updates on DATUM KL 2009

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posted by afterrabbit

Silos Competition - NL Architects

Amsterdam city council recently held 'the silo competition' which involved the adaptive and reuse design for two former sewage treatment silos in the city's Zeeburg District.
For the competition NL Architects proposed silos dedicated to climbing, sports and culture. In their design the existing structures were extended to the maximum height to benefit from the views.
The cultural silo consists of two theaters with dressing rooms and rehearsal spaces, spaces for workshops, exhibition spaces, music studios and a space for hair design. A bridge connects the silos at the height of the original roof level and office spaces will be positioned on top. The top level will be dedicated to a restaurant with 360 views and a roof terrace.
Using the cylinder of the silo as a basis they created a 40 meter high artificial cave that consists of challenging cantilevers and overhangs for climbers. Since climbing walls essentially are oblique, a section can allow for an increase in space between the inside and outside, allowing usable floor areas on a higher level. (to find out more..)




passage & images from: http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/6197/nl-architects-annie-mg-schimdt-house-competition-proposal.html

posted by afterrabbit

Ewha Womans University - DPA

A landscape then, more than an architecture work, located in the midst of Seoul’s university area. A campus valley where nature, sport grounds, event locations and educational buildings mix, intermingle and follow one another. A long asphalted strip, delineated at one end by a race track, and, completely surrounded by nature. Arranged nature where pear trees and topiary reign. Black asphalt, red race track, green nature and fi nally the white brightness of a valley appears. A valley, which is bravely drawn in the ground, slides down along a gentle slope. At the other end, the slope becomes a huge stairway which can be used as an open air amphitheatre if necessary.
At the very heart of the valley, a dreamlike immersion takes place. Opposed to the outdoor world, a subtle and serene universe appears suddenly. Classrooms and libraries, amphitheatres and auditoriums, shops and movement… Everything follows up with a constant. (to find out more..)

Dominique Perrault Architecture






passage from: http://d-p-a.fr/news/PressRelease-EWHA-eng.pdf
images from: http://www.e-architect.co.uk/korea/ewha_womans_university.htm

posted by afterrabbit

3D Design Visualization Seminar

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posted by afterrabbit

Sir Peter Cook Lecture Tour - KL

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posted by afterrabbit

12 Reasons to refuse to Render!

Marc Joseph, from Young Architect, has written a post about one of those tasks you should try to avoid at all cost in order to make your life easier: 3D Rendering. He wrote down 12 reasons why you should avoid rendering in your office:

1. You Will Lose Track of Time

2. More Demands on Your Time

3. The Employer Doesn’t Have Knowledge of the Software

4. You Will Find Yourself Re-doing Things Over and Over

5. You Have to Sweat the Details

6. You Are On Your Own: No One Else Can Help You

7. You May Have Knowledge in One Software But Not Another

8. You Lose Your Personal Space

9. You Won’t Be Working on Important Tasks

10. You Will Learn Less

11. You Will Be Under-appreciated

12. Professionals Do It Better

(to find out more..)

images & passage from:
http://www.archdaily.com/19360/12-reasons-to-refuse-to-render/#more-19360

posted by midori mizu

Thinking Architecture

"I believe that architecture today needs to reflect on the tasks and possibilities which are inherently its own. Architecture is not a vehicle or a symbol for things that do not belong to its essence. In a society that celebrates the inessential, architecture can put up a resistance, counteract the waste of forms and meanings, and speak its own language. I believe that the language of architecture is not a question of a specific style. Every building is built for a specific use in a specific place and for a specific society. My buildings try to answer the questions that emerge from these simple facts as precisely and critically as they can."

Thinking Architecture
Peter Zumthor, Swiss architect and winner of the 2009 Pritzker Prize

passage from:
http://architect-studio.blogspot.com/2009/04/thinking-architecture-peter-zumthor.html

posted by midori mizu

Ex Fonderie Riunite, Modena

A team of Italian architects comprising Modostudio, CCDP and Studio Cattinari have won first prize in a competition to regenerate a former industrial area in Modena, Italy, into a mixed-use public space.

Called ‘Ex Fonderie Riunite’, the project focuses around the conversion of a former metal-smelting complex into the new site for DAST, the centre for design, art, science and technology in the city.

The new buildings will be clad in perforated gold metal, which the architects claim will evoke the past use of the existing buildings.

‘The competition brief was the regeneration of an urban area called Ex Fonderie Riunite, a strategic area for the city of Modena with important historical value. The basic idea was the recovery of a former industrial building and a new detailed urban plan in the other areas of the competition.

Our proposal for this existing industrial complex, characterized by historically protected office buildings, was to keep the identity as a symbol for the history of the Italian workers movement. The regeneration includes new uses and functions and the new spaces of the DAST faculty (Design, Art, Science and Technology).

We proposed to create buildings of different heights with plans that follow the structure of the industrial building and preserve the existing fascinating spaces of the old plant. These new volumes will be detached from the ground and they will be covered, on the north and south facades with a golden perforated metal sheet. This particular material is the same that will characterize the exterior skin of the roof throughout the rest of the building.

The golden colour of this new roof, the harshness of the metal material and at the same time, the softness of the perforated pattern will be able to evoke the past; a metal smelting complex building full of history, and at the same time to communicate unambiguously the birth of the new feature. (to find out more...)

text and images from: http://www.archicentral.com/ex-fonderie-riunite-modena-italy-modostudio-ccdp-and-studio-cattinari-7939/

posted by s-uper-chii

Ned Kahn

An artist from Northern California, Kahn replicates the forms and forces of nature. Happening across his work can be a stupefying experience, as it was for this author, since typically invisible or unobservable forces are felt as immediate, bodily experiences, as natural effects, which are only later discovered to have been artificially constructed. The planet's complex, random and aleatory perturbations become manifested visually, tactilely and acoustically in his work. At times he re-creates environmental conditions in controlled settings, and at other times, he lets nature animate his works. Across the breadth of his work, the artist expertly choreographs natural phenomena – a skill more often attributed to gods or supernatural entities than to humans. (to find out more..)

Fragmented Dunes
A wind-animated shade screen for the new performing arts center that consists of thousands of 9-inch squares of perforated aluminum mounted on low friction hinges so that the entire surface of the facade responds to the wind. Each moving panel is perforated with thousands of different sized holes that, when viewed from a distance, create a photographic mosaic of sand dune images. When sunlight passes through the screens, intricate shadow images of the dunes are projected onto the walls and floor of the lobby.



texts from: http://nedkahn.com/biography.html & http://nedkahn.com/wind.html
images from: http://nedkahn.com/wind.html & http://nait5.wordpress.com/2008/06/ & http://www.montshire.org/exhibits/descriptions/planetary_landscapes/ned-kahn.html

posted by afterrabbit