New Work ::: CH2 - cuckoo

The CH2 (the Council House 2 building), designed by Design Inc, and which opened in August 2006 is the first building to recieve a Green Building Council of Australia six-star energy rating. The timber shades made of recycled lumber, that open depending on the intensity of the sun are only part of the AUD $50 million budget to provide innovative and technological features including photovoltaic cells, wind turbines, chilled ceilings and blackwater sewage recycling systems. Notwithstanding it is expected that the sustainability features of the building will have paid themselves within a decade.
Melbourne, Australia.

Open Architecture Challenge

more on the AMD Open Architecture Challenge

LEGO celebrates 50 years

(click on image for a larger view)

Casa 89 by Spanish outfit, H Architects
there is just something about sexy boxes (boxtastic)

Zenith Music by Architect Massimiliano Fuksas in France, read the write up at Eikongraphia

Architects Duel no.4 - tonight!!

a Pattern Language - Towns | Buildings | Construction.... now available online (and its free)

With the rise in the popularity of the architect as celebrity persona, dubbed the starchitect, and specific marketing geared towards the profession as a global traveller with chic styling as seen in Banana Republic's 2006/7 advertisement campaign (above) - it is really no surprise to see Lisa Anne Couture, of Asymptote, advertising the Blackberry Pearl.

books

Storefront for Art & Architecture has opened a micro-bookstore within their walls featuring books selected by key figures in the Storefront's history, an artists' book series published by Kitakyushu Centre for Contemporary Art in Japan, and material related their exhibitions.

items to build an apple store

blog wunderlust: 23 January 2008

Treehugger on the changing faces at DWELL magazine.

55th annual Progressive Architecture Awards via Architect Online

NYT on BMW's Cathedral of Cars

A re-interpretation of a Le Corbusier chaise lounge

Not the sleeves of your shirt, but similar by Steven Holl; and continuing with clothes how about a pleated skirt?

2008 Olympics: new towers for a new superpower | cool image here

chocolate cities

Lagrange34 a range of chocolate bars called for Pasticceria Gertosio chocolate makers designed by Italian interior designers Jjuice and include a square in the form of the city.

via

Arbre de Flonville

This steel tree designed by Samuel Wilkinson & Oloom as part of a grouping of outdoor furniture for public space in Lausanne, provides shade and its “roots” take the form of benches beneath the wooden canopy

Competitions

Reinventing Grand Army Plaza Ideas Competition

Grand Army Plaza in New York City is home to powerful architecture, the Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch, the elegant Bailey Fountain, the entrance to Frederick Law Olmsted's greatest park, and a major transit hub, the sum of these parts is today emphatically less than the whole. Currently an underdeveloped public amenity, the redesign of Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza will invigorate surrounding communities, just as the re-conception of Manhattan's High Line set off an explosion of activity in West Chelsea.

To catalyze Grand Army Plaza's rebirth, the Design Trust for Public Space, in partnership with the Grand Army Plaza Coalition, is launching an international ideas competition, "Reinventing Grand Army Plaza," to generate new visions for every aspect of the plaza's design.

Caribbean Modernist Architecture

The Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA and the Caribbean School of Architecture, University of Technology, Jamaica will collaborate for the first time to present an international symposium on the subject of "Caribbean Modernist Architecture" from 29th February to 1st March 2008 in Jamaica.

added to side bar

Architechnophilia served as the guest editor for archinect's editor's pick no.30

UIA Competition: Infopoint

The UIA is hosting an ideas competition, in a single stage, illustrating the theme: transmitting architecture.

The aim is to create a UIA information point in the city of Turin, a place, dedicated to urban democracy where people can meet, relax. The design is be a public house for architecture, that will be usable both day and night, whether open or closed. The facility is to be a maximum of 100 M2, and is to be built of recyclable eco-friendly materials and be equipped with communication technologies.

The competition is open to architects worldwide, under the age of 35 at the time of registration. The entire procedure will be on-line on internet. All the competition documents, programme and regulations may be downloaded on the competition web site.

Tokyo Design Duo

The Japan Times interviews Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishiszawa of SANAA

AMD Open Architecture Challenge

Help connect 50% of the world to the Internet by 2015. Enter the AMD Open Architecture Challenge.

AMD and Architecture for Humanity challenge the creative world to develop sustainable technology centers for underserved communities. Funding is already in place to build the winning design for the AMD Open Architecture Challenge.

To enter, visit www.openarchitecturenetwork.org

Submissions Due: 01/15/2008 1^st March 2008

Open To: Design professionals and non-professionals alike are invited to compete to develop the winning technology center design.

Entry Fee: $25 per entry, per site (Free for entrants from developing nations.)

Site Awards: The top entry for each site will be awarded one third of the proceeds from all competition entry fees.

Challenge Award: The winning design team will have the opportunity to work on site with the community partner and Architecture for Humanity to build their design.

www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/challenge

on the boards: Polish Pavilion (Shanghai Expo)

The Polish Pavilion for the Shanghai Expo by the architectural team of Wojciech Kakowski, Marcin Mostafa, Natalia Paszkowska. The architects were announced as the competition winners in December for their design that radiates with iconographic imagery by the use of perforated cladding derived from Polish folk-art paper cut-outs. more , more

Architect and artist Ettore Sottsass formerly of the Memphis Group has died at age 90

more here, here, here, here, here....

strange bed fellows

Yesterday's post on Norman Foster's mega structure reminds me of this...



set to be the World's tallest tower when complete. More via Inhabitat

I have been educated to believe that being an architect is a vocation, just as it is a vocation to be a priest.

Claudio Silvestrin

Foster goes Big!!

With what is expected to be the largest structure in the world when complete, Norman Foster shows no sign of slowing down. The mega project called the Crystal Island to be built in Russia, on a peninsula located five miles from the city centre. In the words of the architect,

“I am very excited about this project – there is no equivalent to it anywhere in the world,”

The £2 billion project, which unremarkably resembles a Christmas tree, has come under much criticism before a single foundation has been cast. However despite the nay sayers, the project has already recieved preliminary planning permission.

The building, dubbed a city in a building, will have 900 apartments and 3,000 hotel rooms, as well as school for 500 pupils, a cinema, a amuseum, a theatre, a sports complex and a large public space, raised nearly 1,000ft with panoramic views over the Moscow's skyline.

The project is expected to be completed in 2014, and when complete will contain more floor space than any other structure on Earth.