e² - the village architect

"e²: the economies of being environmentally conscious" is an ongoing PBS documentary series about solutions to the world's most pervasive environmental challenges. The series continues its flagship coverage of sustainable architecture with "e² design season three," featuring innovations in green building and planning from around the globe.

Pole Dance by SO-IL

The 2010 MoMA/MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program presents POLE DANCE by SO-IL from Yellow Line Pictures

Hemeroscopium house

Hemeroscopium in Greek is the place where the sun sets, an allusion to a setting that exists only in our mind and senses. The Hemeroscopium house designed by Antón García-Abril (Ensamble Studio) is a balanced assemblage of oversized prefabricated parts that suggest inhabitation that was constructed in only 7 days.

on the boards: Historical Archives Geodesica

The design of the Historical Archives in Geodesica, Argentina was challenged by the dimension of the programme, the narrow lot and the domestic context of the neighbourhood. The architect Ignacio Montaldo sought to resolve this by placing the archives underground with the public interface floating above and wrapped with an open veiled brick work.

on the boards: Biosphere Sustainability Centre

Designed by Paul Raff Studio the Biosphere Sustainability Centre is 14,000 m² multi-use and cultural facility proposed for a site in Ontario, Canada that aims to be a catalyst for environmental, social and economic sustainable development with a programme that demonstrates to the public how renewable energy technologies can provide heating, cooling, electricity and waste management.

House of the Week 80: Sugarbowl

Located in the old village at Sugarbowl, California sits a cedar-clad house with a simple bent planar roof. The residence designed by architect John Maniscalco (m-architecture) is perched on a concrete plinth to take in views to the mountain are captured through framed openings.

found via the Architect's List, the best in modern residential home design

new work ::: Schönberg Project

Designed by Dialect Design a design and build practice in Charlotte, North Carolina; the Schönberg Project is a modern second story addition to the couple's existing home containing a reading room that both evokes the intimacy of reading and adventure with it's hovering red boxes.

between shadow and light

UKIGUMO – floating clouds by architects MoNo

The city of Montpellier hosted the 5th Festival of Lively Architecture (see previous). For the duration of the festival the historical town is transformed into a mass gallery by teams of architects and artists aiming to capture the theme "between shadow and light."

blog wunderlust : 26 July 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

university builds green in Trinidad because it's easy being green | city wide mazes in Inception | a house too big to sell | more on Rem's new title | Mozambique to build new bridge over the Zambezi | how space affects well-being | Underground Missile Silos as a Home | Rebuilding Solomon’s Temple, in São Paulo | another dose of architecture

Architecture is to make us know and remember who we are

Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe

Dezeen Tv: Rolex Learning Centre

Brazilian architectural photographer Pedro Kok has made this black-and-white movie for Dezeen of the Rolex Learning Centre in Switzerland, designed by Japanese architects SANAA.

Dezeen Tv: Marquise do Parque do Ibirapuera

A film about the Marquise do Parque do Ibirapuera in São Paulo, Brazil, designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1952 captured by photographer Pedro Kok for Dezeen Tv.

on the boards: Docklands housing

This urban intervention in France, designed by landscape architects Atelier Altern (Sylvain Morin + Aurélien Zoia), re-envisioned a docklands area with medium density housing.

on the boards: Museum of Bond Vehicles and Espionage

The museum of Bond Vehicles and Espionage designed by Gensler architects will showcase the entire collection of James Bond vehicles and the culture that surrounds them & hopes to be catalyst for the revitalization of the historic and once-vibrant city of Momerce, Illnois. Scheduled to open in 2012 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first Bond movie, Dr. No.

on the boards: Escuela de Ciencias de la Salud

The Escuela de Ciencias de la Salud is located in Badajoz, Spain. The 21,000m² school is a combination of three large but different volumes joined together tangentially, generating a strong spatial tension; the architects modostudio married the structures with complementary façades of pre-cast concrete.

House of the Week 79: Artreehouse

Architect Della Valle Bernheimer [dbnyc] has carefully located a 5400 ft² residence on a wooded site in New Fairfield, Connecticut. The house in part floats, much a tree canopy on the site providing both shelter and the cast of light as of coming through gaps in tree branches.

new work ::: Kripalu Housing

The recently completed Kripalu housing by architects Peter Rose is part of the master plan to reshape the Kripalu Centre for Yoga & Health. The ecologically innovative design sits on 300 acres of dense forest in the Berkshire Mountains. The design in plan, is arranged along a tapering axis that reveals views through the slatted cypress cladding of the landscape and funnels breeze to the spartan concrete structure within.

blog wunderlust : 19 July 2010

architects don't like people, we are sexy and we box too | green streets for all | sfumato | movable palaces | architecture + gastronomy | Rem Koolhaas wins the Golden Lion | compact urban woodland oasis | the Insect Hotel | Living Architecture : holidays in modern architecture | top ten cardboard projects (Dezeen)

A structure becomes architectural, and not sculptural, when its elements no longer have their justification in nature.

Guillaume Apollinaire

1:1 Architects build small spaces

The Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) is staging an exhibition of contemporary architecture that explores the power of small spaces, from 15 June - 30 August 2010. A number of international architects have been asked to design structures which explore notions of refuge and 'retreat'. These buildings examine themes such as play, work, performance and study were built at full-scale in various spaces within the V&A.

Fuglsang Kunstmuseum

The Fuglsang Kunstmuseum by Tony Fretton Architects, short listed for Stirling Prize in 2009

Studio Banana Tv ::: Andrés Jaque

Studio Banana TV interviews Andrés Jaque, architect for the controversial Tupper home housing project. The project was proposed as an alternative to the official line of urban planning, instead is based on door to door marketing such as tupperware and the first prototype was recently built in the centre Madrid.

House of the Week 78: the Ranu House

Designed by All Australian Architecture, the Ranu House in Manly, Sydney is a 185 m² extension to a 1930s two-story bungalow. The renovation ripped and gutted the interior and exterior walls creating a more engaging relationship with the landscape.

Suburban Tract

Currently housing is mass produced on a mammoth scale, in controlled factories and out in the converted farmland of exurbia. Thousands of houses at a time are rolled out on blindingly fast schedules, with sequenced assembly line-like efficiency sometimes as little as 40 days - it is the fast food of shelter.

seeking to participate and to understand the economics, of time and money works partnership architecture attempted to use the same ingredients to cook a better cake, one slice at a time, collaborating on a new model of tract house, a new American bungalow. The metrics were simple: 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms minimum, 2 car garage mandatory.

The house needed to meet or exceed the economics of the competition. For more visit the suburban tract house

on the boards: EMA Regional Offices

The Environmental Management Authority Regional Offices designed by acla:works in the Trincity Millennium Park Industrial Zone in the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. The 2,800 m2 facility was designed with sustainability as paramount to serve as an exemplary project and was measured and guided by the new LEED (V2.2) rating system.

New Work ::: 580 Carroll

Designed by architect Enrique Norten, 580 Carroll is a recently completed a five story 17 unit multi-family dwelling in the historic district of Park Slope in Brooklyn, New York. The façade of the building is finished in angular glass and has a private 3,500 square foot landscaped garden flanked by a cedar boardwalk adding a natural warmth in contrast to the raw concrete of the residence.

blog wunderlust: 12 July 2010

Skateboarding The City: Deconstructing Architecture | is the profession of architecture corrupt? | Vanity Fair’s World Architecture Survey | Heat islands: Cities heat quickly, cool slowly | more than skin deep | Architects voted sexiest professionals (again) | NYC 10 ugliest buildings | emotional architecture | As Rome Modernizes, Its Past Quietly Crumbles |

oh and a little recognition via Critique this!

Architecture, of all the arts, is the one which acts most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul

E. Dimmet

72 Hour Urban Action Project

The 72 Hour Urban Action Project is an international rapid architecture and design festival. Defined by community needs, a deadline, a tight budget and limited space the competition invites teams of architects, students, designers, artists and craftspeople to respond to community needs. Selected teams will have three days to plan and realize their projects. Selected projects will remain on site permanently. Winners will be selected by a professional jury.

Min House

The Min House in Argentina by Max Zolkwer (Pop-Arq)

Football for Hope

Before the excitement of the World Cup Finals, being played this weekend between the Netherlands and Spain, Architecture for Humanity sponsored the production of a film about the creation of the Football For Hope Centre in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa.

Studio Banana TV: Callís-Wortham

Studio Banana TV interviewed architects Callís-Wortham about their recent project, an apartment block for the elderly in Barris Nous, Barcelona.

on the boards: Marstall revitalization

Rotterdam-based architects & urbanists Maxwan in collaboration with landscape architects Lola have won the first prize in a competition inviting proposals for the revitalization of the Marstall area in the heart of German city of Hannover.

on the boards: Ville de Goussainville

The € 2.8m Ville de Goussainville is a 1,200m² multi-functioned facility designed by French architect Wilfrid Bellcour (Studio Bellcour). The portico extends from the corner of south-eastern elevation twisting to become the façade creating the allusion of a entry courtyard.

on the boards: Inflatable Building, NYC

Conceived by architects Woods Bagot as a temporary solution for stalled building sites where financing has slowed building development. The proposal made from EFTE & steel creates "a quality scheme that can go in quickly, and be taken away even quicker."

House of the Week 77: Lago Vista

The Lago Vista guest house designed by Alek Istanbullu (ai-architects) presents itself as a solid play of massing from the entry. The programme is expressed in two major volumes, the smaller for sleeping and utility, the larger for respite and contemplation. The 855 ft² retreat ultimately reveals itself as a subtle garden feature echoing the colour and breezes of the grass reeds of the surrounding Beverly Hills landscape.