July 31, 2009

blog wunderlust: 31 July 2009

changing face: Kenya paid dues & overdue new directions location, location, location more Star Wars influences outdoor living a strawbale in the desert archigram walking city | reflections on a lake | modern doll house |


also look out next week when we'll be publishing our recent interview with architect Michael Graves

July 30, 2009

on the boards: Camp Nou at Sea

In 2007 Norman Foster presented a redesign for the FC Barcelona stadium commemorating the 50th anniversary of the football club. The proposal although impressive had its critics. Catalan architect Emili Vidal presented a counter proposal aiming to resolve the critical aspects of based on a 150,000 capacity built on a man-made island off the coast of Barcelona. More here

on the boards: Museum of Cantabria



Museum of Cantabria by Mansilla Tunon draws inspiration from the mountains seen from the Llamas valley. The architects were awarded first place in 2003, construction is expected later this year

July 29, 2009

House of the Week 033: Residence F


This 300 sqm contemporary dwelling, designed by architects Meixner Schlüter Wendt, takes its inspiration from modern instruments of flight and speed with the steeply angled elevation and roof line. The ground floor has an unbroken visual line connecting the interior with the lawns, provided by a glazed elevation that provides ample light to the basement floor below.

July 28, 2009

the adventures of Tin Tin

The Adventures of Tintin was an internationally successful comic created in the late 1920s by Hergé, the pseudonym of Belgian artist Georges Remi. In 2009 a museum in Brussels designed by Christian de Portzamparc was dedicated to the artist and his works

July 27, 2009

A Strange Beauty


Hillary Sample and Michael Meredith of MOS Architects discuss their new installation at MoMA's P.S.1 in Queens. Visitors weigh in on the recycled aluminium and palm thatch project.

July 24, 2009

blog wunderlust: 24 July 2009

A better architecture blog | Gehry to be replaced? | Ito to the World | Our world | Have a little humanity... but not too much | new urbanism Seattle style | 13th room | architecture on a stick | pet architecture 2.0 | Rem Koolhaas and Herzog de Mueron face off | Downfall of a showman |

July 23, 2009

on the boards: Bibliosphere Library

Greeen! Architects has recently won a competition for the design of a library and student centre for the University Duisburg-Essen. The building‘s vivid, albeit familiar, design aims to be a landmark for the differing from the existing surroundings.

Jokes aside the project boasts green credibility and once complete is likely to be certified Gold from the German Sustainable Building Council.

on the boards: Spaceport America


Spaceport America was designed by London-based architecture firm Foster + Partners as Virgin Galactic is expected to begin launching tourists into space from the spaceport in 2010, as more than 45,000 people have registered to take a trip from New Mexico.

July 22, 2009

House of the Week 032: House in Kasumi

Designed by architect Kiyonobu Nakagame this zigzag family house sits on a narrow lot in Kasumi, Japan. The shape of the building creates an elongated continuous interior space with views to the adjacent park throughout via two huge openings whilst providing parking and a visual separation from the neighbouring property.

July 21, 2009

built from ashes

As our cities increase to widths unimaginable the balance between the living and the dead must carefully be weighed. Historically in many cultures the dead were sited on the perimeter our towns or set a blaze reduced to ashes. Increasingly in our modern society especially where land is of a premium, areas previously earmarked for the dead are becoming housing or worse big box retail outlets. And it seemed we lost our regard for the dead or so we thought.

There has been a substantial increase over the years of architect designed crematoriums and sites for burial - sculptural, restrained, silent. Flores Zanchi describes the crematorium as "a space which induces contemplation of the thin line separating life from death and necessarily calls up absolute, archetypal forms...far removed from ordinary architectural issues"

Below is a list of the visually stimulating.

Treptow Crematorium by Axel Schultes & Charlotte Frank with its forest of concrete columns piercing the slab, symbolically leading the ashes of the departed to the white light above

The restrained modernism of the crematorium in Heimolen by architects Claus en Kaan

Igualada Cemetery Park in Barcelona, Spain by Carme Pinos and the late Enric Miralles. This is a poetic exploration that transforms the surrounding landscape in a series of descending streets

The chapel at St. Mary of Angels Cemetery by Mecanoo architects in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

July 20, 2009

and the winner is....

Architechnophilia in association with All Modern, providers of modern & contemporary furniture, home accessories and lighting, is pleased to announce the winner of an Alessi Mediterrano multipurpose container.

Congratulations Ilya Bourim!!

All Modern has a fantastic selection of modern and contemporary furniture, home accessories and lighting from top brands including Knoll, Herman Miller, Alessi, Blu Dot & more!

Jacques Herzog for Banana TV

Studio Banana TV was appointed the audiovisual documentation of the Bienal X of Spanish Architecture 2009. Jacques Herzog of Herzog de Meuron speaks about design of the La Caixa Museum in Madrid, Spain.

July 17, 2009

blog wunderlust: 17 July 2009


LEGO replicas | Towards a New Urban Paradigm | 100 Abandoned Houses | the price of a Corb | for the children of architects | shed of the year | Small Food Architect | paper Architect | Planning win beats a Pritzker

July 16, 2009

on the boards: Theatre Spijkenisse

A proposal by Dutch architects UNStudio for a theatre in Spijkenisse, the Netherlands. Composed of two main theatre spaces placed end to end to minimise patron movement throughout the space and receive the flow directly from the foyer and the public square.

on the boards: 8 Towers

8 Towers is a housing proposal by Single Speed Design (SSD) for the ORDOS 100 a residential project in the desert of Inner Mongolia designed by 100 different architects with the global selection curated by Ai WeiWei and Herzog deMeuron

July 15, 2009

Rising Tides: Winners

An unexpected six entrants were chosen as winners for the Rising Tides Competition - that sought to conceptualise ways of adapting to the dramatic increases in sea level expected around the San Francisco Bay area. The twist by announcing multiple winners for the competition illustrated just how many different promising solutions were offered. “San Francisco Bay is not the place for a single idea. Taken as a whole, the six winning entries begin to tell a story about adaptation to sea level rise.” said juror Walter Hood

house of the week 031: House 2



House 2 is a 6,000 sq ft single family house in Karjat, India by architect Samira Rathod
The house is situated on the edge of a stream. It was conceived as a combination of a contemporary box and a pitched roof structure forked to accommodate a fan shaped swimming pool in between. The house is devised as a series of spaces to create a narrative of tactility. Large openings blur the edge of the inside with the outside allowing the outdoors to integrate with the indoors.

- Samira Rathod via

July 14, 2009

on the boards: Seoul, Korea

Seoul is undergoing an Olympic-sized design makeover in preparation for their 2010 World Design Capital status, led by chief industrial designer Chung Kyung-won. More

Puerto Plata International Design Competition

The State Ministry of Tourism of the Dominican Republic is launching an international competition for the redesign of Puerto Plata as a tourist destination. The project aims to introduce urban solutions that encourage social and cultural activities, and to serve as a catalyst for integrated and sustainable tourism.

To download the pdf for more

July 13, 2009

Snakebit



A documentary film on renowned architect Samuel Mockbee and the spirit of the Rural Studio

House Sakt



House Sakt by Japanese architects Denefes

July 12, 2009

re:mixng the 'burbs

given the chance, how would you re-conceptualize the suburbs??

With the rising cost of energy and the global economic crisis the future of suburban communities looks bleak. Inhabitat in association with Dwell magazine are calling on all future-forward architects, urban designers, renegade planners etc to present how to they would re-invent the suburbs!

July 10, 2009

blog wunderlust: 10 July 2009

IKEA is 50 | the problem with Poseidon | Modern in Antiquity | rethinking prefab | I ♥ Zaha | end of another modern icon | top ten comic book cities | & another top ten |

AllModern | Architechnophilia Competition

AllModern has partnered with architechnophilia for a fantastic offer, a chance to win an Alessi Mediterrano multipurpose container.


To enter this competition simply add a comment with your name, email address, occupation, and location. The winner will be selected at random and notified by email, and your name published in a future edition.

Information received will not be stored or passed on to anyone else; rather we just want to know a little more about our viewers. Competition closes 20 July 2009.

July 9, 2009

Prefab 20*20

Introducing PREFAB 20*20: Visions For 400 Square Foot Homes, an International Open Ideas Competition. Open to all designers, architects, engineers, artists and students around the world, PREFAB 20*20 challenges you to propose a free-standing, prefab dwelling unit for a footprint no more than 400sf (37.5sm) in an urban setting anywhere in the world. Fit for two adults, its basic program shall include sleeping, bathing, cooking, living, working/studying, and storage areas.

And who said Prefab is dead? I guess they didn't get the memo

on the boards: Crystal Clear


Danish architects C.F.Møller and Norwegian practice Kristin Jarmund Arkitekter have won a competition to design a series of office towers in Oslo dubbed the Crystal Clear due to resemblance to stacked glazed boxes.

on the boards: Make it Right


Frank Gehry has proposed a multi-family residence for the Make it Right foundation, a charity founded by actor Brad Pitt to develop new housing typologies for the hurricane-devastated Lower 9th Ward district of New Orleans.

on the boards: London School of Economics

Irish architecture firm O’Donnell & Tuomey has won the RIBA-organized design contest for a new $35.6 million student center at the London School of Economics.

July 8, 2009

House of the Week 030: Brosmith House


The 4,500 sq ft Brosmith residence located in Beverly Hills, California was designed by SPF:a [Studio Pali Fekete: architects] as separate living pods along a central spine to capture uninterrupted views of the San Fernando Valley below.

July 6, 2009

Della Valle Bernheimer



From the creative foment of Brooklyn comes Della Valle Bernheimer, a young design firm committed to new forms of collaborating.

July 3, 2009

blog wunderlust: 3 July 2009

Mousavi the architect | US Housing Awards | Johnston Marklee interview | the architecture of video games | the bathroom reinvented | tipsy in Shanghai | 22% of Game Show Audience Members Think Gehry Can Fly | Fighting back | a model for our times | toothpick city | green roof law grows |

July 2, 2009

on the boards: British Pavilion (Shanghai Expo)


Thomas Heatherwick has recently released images for the British pavilion for the 2010 Shanghai Exposition. The six-storey pavilion under the theme "Better City, Better Life" is pierced by 60,000 transparent rods that will illuminate the interior of the pavilion with natural light during the day, whilst at night, transporting artificial light from the inside to the exterior, allowing the structure to glow.

on the boards: Coomba Park House



Proposal for a weekend house built on the edge of a lake in Australia by Neeson Murcutt Architects

July 1, 2009

Up to 35: a competition

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.

for more

House of the Week 029: Lake House

This copper clad weekend home on Mercer Island, Washington by architects Hutchison + Maul makes use of the stunning view with the sight lines it creates perched high above the water's edge like a telescope balancing on staggered pilotis.