Klekotki Spa & Wellness facility

The Klekotki Spa & Wellness facility designed by Marek Rytych Architecture

Louis Kahn's Exeter Library

a dramatic capture of Louis Kahn's Exeter Library

17 words of architectural inspiration

on the boards: Frederiksberg Courthouse

Architects 3XN has won an architectural competition for the Frederiksberg Courthouse in Denmark. The new Courthouse will be a natural extension of the existing neo-classical building and is intended to express a welcoming transparency whilst maintaining the sobriety and seriousness of the justice system.

images via 3XN

on the boards: Museum of the West

The 45,000 sf Museum of the West is to be located in Scotsdale, Arizona. This proposal by architects Jones Studio draws inspiration from a straw hat filtering the sun and mitigating the heat.

on the boards: Mauer Museum

A competition proposal for the Mauer Museum in Berlin on the site of checkpoint Charlie by HWKN architects is defined by a solid volume (defined by the height of the old Berlin wall) hovering over a transparent public space.

House of the Week 049: the Spaghetti House

Originally designed as a graduate thesis project, architect David Baker built and resided in the Spaghetti House in the 1980s. Built in San Francisco, California the house is actually the renovation of a dilapidated 1911 stucco duplex that used every inch of available lot space. The house smartly and quietly uses alternative energy sources integrated into architecture.

blog wunderlust: 23 November 2009

The blog wunderlust is a weekly round up summarizing the architectural highlights, news and web links, that don't otherwise fit the format of this blog. If you have any to share feel free to drop me an email.

chocolate mies | the Impact of the Bauhaus | another modern dog house or prefab for pets | the wall vanishes | the work of MC Escher in LEGO | old school meets high tech | a fine line between drawing and sculpture | The Architect as Totalitarian | Zaha meets the Pontif

Architects believe that not only do they sit at the right hand of God, but that if God ever gets up, they take the chair

Karen Moyer

Dutch Profiles: Benthem Crouwel Architects

Dutch Profile on Benthem Crouwel Architects

also check out the profile on designer Hella Jongerius

Studio Banana TV ::: Benedetta Tagliabue

Studio Banana TV interviews Italian architect Benedetta Tagliabue from the studio Miralles-Tagliabue (EMBT)in Barcelona.

on the boards: Taipei Music Centre

The competition entry for the Taipei Music Centre by Italian architects Nabito consists of a simple twist on a rectangular from which visuals are projected and the sun's rays are captured.
more via design boom

on the boards: Baton Rouge Downtown Library

The design programme for the proposed library in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana by Trahan Architects is curtained around the service core resembling an extruded accordion. 

more

on the boards: Łódź Public Library

Designed as a graduate project, the Łódź Public Library by Maciek Grelewicz’ includes alongside a traditional and media library, a cafe, exhibition spaces and a roof terrace, contained in a golden lettered skin.

House of the Week 048: Sorrento

Perched on a large elevated deck, this low key beach house by Marcus O’Reilly Architects, sits on an eucalyptus tree filled site in the Mornington Peninsula in Australia. This eco-responsive dwelling utilises passive means to limit the effects of the environment and uses local materials, in the sandstone walls and tea tree stake sunshades in a nod to the local vernacular.

images by Dianna Snape

happy birthday Rem

Today is the 65th birthday of Dutch architect and 2000 Pritzker Prize Laurette Rem Koolhaas and at an age when most have to legally retire he seems to be going as strong as ever and such I've decided to do a post devoted specifically to all things Rem. Happy Birthday.

1975 ::: sets up the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA)

2000 ::: awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize

2005 ::: completes the CASA Musica in Porto, Portugal

House of the Week 40 ::: Villa Dall'Ava , Rem caricatured , more random OMA stuff, construction photos of the CCTV in China, the OMA proposal for North Sea wind farm, the Interlace Housing, from the loins of Rem Koolhaas, an incomplete list

blog wunderlust: 16 November 2009

I live in a Steven Holl |  Palace of Grace | LEGO style | the work of Thom Mayne | vertical farms don't work |  broken glass | the women of the Bauhaus | the rolling house aka a reality show waiting to happen | an increased demand for construction software | KPF rips at the seams 

check out an interactive floor plan of the Shed House in the Isle of Skye

To make a house, you grab a fist of air and then you hold it with walls

Persian Proverb

on the boards: Humber Orangeville

Canadian Architects GH3 have revealed via their website a proposed sustainable master plan for the Humber College for a forested site in Orangeville, Ontario.

on the boards: Cycling and Pedestrian Bridge, Lisbon

A proposal by Suleiman Alhadidi of Mutation studio for a new cycling and pedestrian bridge in Lisbon, Portugal.

house of the week 47: Tubac House

In the desert of Arizona, architect Rick Joy has created a rough weathered steel exterior form that contrasts with the refinement of the soft white, steel and maple wood interior palette. The house, defined by retaining walls burrowed into the hillside, is punctuated with openings that frame articulated views of the landscape.

No house should ever be on a hill [...] It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together each the happier for the other

Frank Lloyd Wright

blog wunderlust: 09 November 2009

Dubai gets a retro makeover | how big a solar panel would you need to power everyone in the world? |  a place for trace | Obama's Mayne man |  banquet origami | don't roll your eyes; architects can learn alot by playing golf | video: Berlin's Federal Foreign Office | tallest prefab skyscraper | urban sensing

The civilized man has the habits of the house. His house is his prison, in which he finds himself oppressed and confined, not sheltered and protected. He walks as if the walls would fall in and crush him.

Henry David Thoreau

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