blog wunderlust : 31 May 2010

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

Why open competitions are good for Architects | interview with Bjarke Ingels | shock of the Nouvel | a feminine touch to Chicago's muscled skyline | the BIG dive, Caribbean community pavilions and transparent concrete at the Shanghai expo | Kimbell expansion plans | World’s Tallest Wooden Building Planned for Norway | hallucinatory architecture

The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheatres, for wild beasts to fight in.

Voltaire

bubble wrap

A bubble wrap inspired bathroom by PROJECTiONE

A Gharafa World Cup Stadium

Previously shown

Studio Banana TV: Patxi Mangado

Studio Banana TV interviews Patxi Mangado, architect for the Spanish Pavillion at the Zaragoza Expo 08 and the Pamplona horse-riding centre.

Dutch Profiles ::: Rem Koolhaas (OMA)

on the boards: Boys & Girls Club

The proposed extension of the Boys & Girls Club by Griffin Enright Architects consists of new roof that wraps around the street-side façade of the existing building to the rest of the site. The formal expression of the addition reflects the role of the club as a place where children can find inspiration.

on the boards: Miami Civic Centre

2nd place winner awardees for a new Civic Centre to be located in Miami, Florida by Netherlands based architects Theo Mathijssen and Willem Lucassen.

on the boards: Biblioteca UAZ

Mexico based stación-ARquitectura have a proposed a new Library for the Faculty of Law Autonomous University of Zacatecason (UAZ) on an embankment of a steep site.

House of the Week 70: Bamboo House

Architect Benjamin Garcia Saxe designed this two room house for his mother in the interior of Costa Rica to replace a previous home made of scrap wood and plastic bags. Built on a modest budget, the humble home allows for ample natural ventilation and a view of the moon.

more via Inhabitat

Olympic museum of Athens Student Competition

ArchMedium is hosting a competition to design a new Olympic museum in Athens, dedicated to protect and remember historical the games' moments. The site is surrounded by work representative of ancient Greek culture most notably the Acropolis. The competition is open to all undergraduate students of Architecture and related fields as well as graduate students, whose undergraduate degree is not older than 3 years.

Registration ends: September 15, 2010
Submission deadline: September 30, 2010

First prize: €2000, a one-year subscription to ON Design magazine & more

New Work ::: Danish Pavilion [Shanghai Expo 2010]

Architectural Photographer Roland Halbe has captured some beautiful images of the Bjarke Injels (BIG) designed Danish Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. More via Dezeen

blog wunderlust : 24 May 2010

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

huffing & puffing won't blow this house down | walking makes trees grow, art grows on trees & transparent cells and flying trees | 2010 RIBA Award Winners | recycling & architecture | architecture to a techno beat | LEGO bombing | Barasoain Church a fine example of Eclectic Architecture | India's Vision for an Urban Future | best parking garages for 2010 | Architectural Anorexia

also check out the first screenshots of AutoCAD for Mac or as I like to call it "the first signs of the apocalypse"

My growth in teaching myself to think like an architect taught me soon not to copy the work of those greats, but to analyse their works

Anthony C. Lewis

Albert Speer interview

Voice of Architecture interviews architect and planner Albert Speer

Architecture for Humanity

For 10 years Architecture for Humanity has pioneered humanitarian design

2010 IIDA Pioneers in Design Award from Architecture for_Humanity on Vimeo.

the Glass House - a play

The design and building of Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House and Philip Johnson's Glass House is the background for the penetrating dramatic plot that entwines the epic conflict between artist and patron. The Glass House explores the classic struggle of ambition, love and betrayal.

Starring Harris Yulin as Mies van der Rohe, David Bishins as Philip Johnson and Janet Zaris as Edith Farnsworth.

on the boards: Yéle Haiti

First runner up in the Yéle Haiti design competition for a music studio in Cité Soleil (Port-au-Prince). The proposal by designer Tak Kei Yip is an evocative architectural translation of Haiti’s Tent City - a symbol of joy, unity and hope.

on the boards: San Francisco Jazz Centre

The 35,000 ft² transparent free-standing structure designed by architect Mark Cavagnero is being built at a cost of $60 million and when complete will provide a unique experience on par with institutions created for other musical arts.

on the boards: New World Symphony

The building conceptually aims to be a generator for new ideas in music education and performance. Designed by Frank Gehry, the New World Symphony will feature a 700+ seat performance space featuring large, naturally amplified with distinctive sail-like surfaces that double as backdrops for theatrical lighting, videos and other projected imagery.

house of the week 69: Concrete Studio

This week's House of the Week is an unabashed residence tucked into a landscaped hillside by Texas based Mell Lawrence architects. The in-situ formed concrete surfaces recall stacked blocks whilst edges of the building are sliced off to create apertures for light and access.

blog wunderlust : 17 May 2010

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

Medellín, Colombia's architectural renaissance | Shanghai architecture Expo: an empty experience? | Gehry & green architecture | Gyeong-bokgung, Reminder of a Great Heritage | Clever Concealment: Wood Facade Makes Modern Log Cabin | NOT made for wheelchair | Interior Design as Strategy | shrek residences | diy urban gardens in your window

Architecture is a social act and the material theatre of human activity

Spiro Kostof

on the boards: Kista Offices

Sandellsandberg architects have proposed an extension to an existing 80s tower block in Stockholm. The design intersects glass slabs containing workspaces to the otherwise contained 4500 m² courtyard and the entry has been re-envisioned with a façade dynamic that changes from transparent to translucent.

on the boards: MSU Competition

Randall Stout Architects have proposed an iconic building to house the art collection at the Michigan State University. The design touches the ground lightly hovering over the canopy of the trees allowing free movement from the sculpture garden to the rest of the campus.

House of the Week 68: Krater

Situated on top of a hill in Antiparos island, in Greece the sculptural 570m² residence by decaARCHITECTURE is partially submerged to protect it from the strong winds as well to engage with the terrain and inspiring landscape.

new work ::: Salle de Repetition Musicale

A small musical rehearsal room in Chartres-De-Bretagne, France by architect Jean-Marc Rivet
more

blog wunderlust : 10 May 2010

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

a home is not a mouse | brain on architecture | world in a shell | BIG to life | sections of nuclear plants | the Spyfrost project | David Adjaye photographs + underwear | pub sketch crawl | 18 strangest airports | Meier Model Museum | Supermarket chain Tesco to build four villages in Britain | the World's Foremost Female Architect | the Ethics of Dust

If a building becomes architecture, then it is art

Arne Jacobsen 

Annual Exhibition

UK Pavilion: Shanghai Expo 2010

Studio Banana TV: Carols Ferrater & Patrick Genard

Studio Banana TV interviews Carlos Ferrater and Patrick Genard as they discuss the Mediapro tower in Barcelona.

Also check out a bit of architecture and comedy, Bill Murray reading to construction workers from the Poets House building site in New York

on the boards: Soms Atoll

The competition entry for the World Sustainability Centre by LA based architects Radical Craft. The proposal draws inspiration from the Afsluitdijk, the great historic dike in Northern Holland by creating a design that reveals and conceals itself with changes in the tides .

on the boards: Contemporary Art Museum (CAM)

Proposed for a site in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) by Pugh + Scarpa is part of a revitalization effort for the warehouse district. The programme contains a dynamic mixed-use residential tower inspired by the magnolia seed bud, a symbol of strength in the South, and a 30,500 sq. ft. museum.

on the boards: Mountain Biker's Paradise

Proposed for a site on a steep mountain ridge and cantilevered over the Lake Garda, Italy the hotel designed by Philip Modest Schambelan + Anton Fromm aims to cater to the sports and nature enthusiast.

more

House of the Week 67: Szirtes House

The Szirtes House by Chenchow Little Architects reveals itself in layers, appearing as a solid volume on entry is sliced to create a narrow courtyard enclosed by a small garden wall. Timber screens and translucent drapes further convey the concept containing the activity within.