TateShots: Jacques Herzog

Jacques Herzog (architects Herzog & de Meuron) discusses plans for the extension to the Tate Modern gallery.

Studio Banana Tv ::: Iñaki Ábalos

Studio Banana interviews Spanish architect Iñaki (Ábalos + Sentkiewicz architects).

on the boards: New National Museum in Oslo

In September 2009 the Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs announced the shortlist of competitors for the design of the New National Museum in Oslo. The names of the architects behind the designs have not been made public, but you can see the works here.

on the boards: Nørreport Station

COBE architects have been awarded the design for the new Nørreport Train Station in Copenhagen, Denmark having won first place in the international competition.

on the boards: Dun Laoghaire Library & Cultural Centre

Inspired by the connection to the Dublin port and resembling a dismantled hull of a ship, the proposed £30m Central Library and Cultural Centre in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland by Walter Menteth Architects will serve as the anchor for a new public park towards the North Irish sea.

House of the Week 046: Heeren Shophouse

The shophouse is an important element in the study of how the Malay streetscapes evolved demonstrating the negotiations between the strict Dutch planning regulations of the 17th & 18th Century and the commercial and domestic needs of the urban population. Singapore architect Chan Soo Khian (SCDA Architects) renovated this historic site in 2002 on a meagre budget as a meditation centre that sympathetically recalls it's previous use as an urban residence.

product review ::: Snap It!

Product Review a new monthly feature where we review products to enhance the modern architectural practice.

SnapIt is a software by Digeus Inc is described as an easy to use screen capture software that allows the user to easily capture anything on the screen including windows, menus, full screen, rectangular regions, web pages and image shots of moving images. SnapIt enhances the print screen tool common on most computers by allowing the user to select exactly what image on the screen they wish to save. This process eliminates the need to open images in a photo editing programme to crop the bits you don't need.

The software developers of SnapIt suggest that bloggers and web designers will find the most benefit. However because of the wide reaches of the print screen function it allows for the saving of on-screen images, which in often case for the architectural practice means images of drawings and renderings can be effortlessly shared across different platforms and software without complicated conversions. Files can be saved in a variety of file formats including jpeg, bmp, png and tiff formats.

The trial version is available for download here

blog wunderlust: 02 November 2009

10 years of turbine commissions | a sad fate | no to Gropius, in Chicago | stoop to conquer | Rope-Access Surveying | a glimpse into my past | forest façade takes root | from industry to living | kirigami

Architecture is a local act: it ought to be attentive to and representative of the unique physical, topographic and environmental constraints of the location.

Graeme Massie architects

Steven Holl ::: The Hamsun Centre

Dutch Profiles: 2012 Architects

Stirling Shortlist: Maggie's Centre

Maggie's Centre by architects Rogers, Stirk, Harbour + Partners

on the boards: Akureyri Urban Plan

Located on the northern coast of Iceland, Akureyri is a historic fishing town and the largest outside of Reykjavik with 16,000 inhabitants. Graeme Massie Architects were awarded first place in a 2005 design competition with their plan envisioning the town centre as a vibrant mixed-use area.

on the boards: Great George Street

Alison Brooks Architects have recently revealed images of an urban housing development proposal for Great George Street in Liverpool.

on the boards: World Village of Women Sports

BIG has recently won an international design competition for the World Village of Women Sports in Malmø, Sweden. The project which occupies an entire block is sloped reducing the scale to adjacent buildings as well allows light to penetrate the landscaped interior.

House of the Week 045: K18VI23

This urban residence in Nieuw Leyden, Netherlands by architects Pasel Künzel is set in a masterplan designed by MVRDV. The design raises the garden to the second floor with the open floor plan built around it - blurring the relationship from inside out and further stated by the interruptions in the brise soleil.

more via the urban tent

blog wunderlust: 26 October 2009

Does architecture have a shoe fetish? | monuments from the old country | cheap furniture quiz | 5 bridges | Michael Arad Interview | a temple of trash | before there was Sketch Up | Civic vandalism | concrete mushrooms | affordable housing? | and now the LEGO kitchen | the future, underground | cool parking garages | no shoes and barefooted dentists

also take a look at some 3d renders of the Farnsworth house by Peter Guthrie

A modern, harmonic and lively architecture is the visible sign of an authentic democracy.

- Walter Gropius

Dutch Profiles: MVRDV

Dutch Profiles: NL Architects

Stirling Shortlist: Fuglsang Kunstmuseum

Stirling Prize Shortlist 2009: Fuglsang Kunstmuseum by Tony Fretton Architects
via Architects Journal

on the boards: House of Music

Coop Himmelb(l)au have recently presented the final scheme design for the 1300 seat House of Music to be located in Aalborg, Denmark. The architects were awarded first place for the competition to design the 18,000 sqm cultural and educational facility back in 2003.

on the boards: Yatenga Museum

OVO Grabczewscy Architekci has designed the Museum Yatenga to be located in Silesia, Poland. The proposed museum when complete will house the cultures of the world exhibition, in an open, interactive public space that is both about the works on show, as it is about gathering and socialising.

on the boards: Magnet

Magnet is a 15,000 m2 Swimming house and Hotel in Malmö, Sweden by architects CEBRA in association with Gehl Architects

on the boards: Munch Museum

A design by Herreros architects inspired by a Edvard Munch quote has been awarded first prize for the Munch Museum and the Stenersen Art Collections competition in Oslo, Norway.

I am more interested in the line, its rise and fall, than in color.

~ Edvard Munch

on the boards: Shenzhen towers

BIG, in collaboration with ARUP, have been awarded first place in an international competition, to design the Shenzhen International Energy Mansion - a pair of sustainable towers to house the regional headquarters for the Shenzhen Energy Company.

House of the Week 044: Farnsworth House

Built between 1946 and 1951 as a weekend retreat for a wealthy client, the Farnsworth house was one of three residences in the United States by Mies van der Rohe. The house was designed as an extension of the landscape with its emphasis of the horizon and floor to ceiling panes of glass. And from the deceptively simple floor plan and section emerged endless spatial possibilities.