BIG 8-House

Bjarke Ingels of BIG speaks about the 8-house project in Ørestad, Copenhagen

thanks Sean

Kanopi House

Kanopi House Portland, Jamaica

blog wunderlust: 27 March 2009

green islands | green ugly architecture | interactive floor plans | the Florence Institute | Stern comments on Women in Architecture | Lebbeus musings on architectural education | ditch the architect |

and for those interested HafenCity University of Hamburg is offering a new interdisciplinary Master´s degree programme in “Resource Efficiency in Architecture and Planning”

on the boards: Wei-Wu-Ying Centre

Mecanoo has recently been awarded first prize in an International Competition for the design of the Wei-Wu-Ying - a 115,000 sq.m, 6,000 capacity Performing Arts Centre to be built on the site of a former military complex in Taiwan. The architect's proposal was inspired by the centuries-old banyan trees on site, with the design seeking to embody the branches and roots of the massive trees. Completion is expected in 2012

more about the practice

The sustainable icon

Edgar Gonzalez Michiel van Raaij of Eikongraphia offers a brilliant critical piece about the changing air happening in architecture. Inspired by Le Corbusier's Vers Une Architecture and its call for standardisation and functionalism, Edgar writes that just as Modernism sought to respond to the decadence of the 19th century so too are we to move beyond the economic failures occurring around us.

Architecture [is] more popular than ever before. The services of the architect are in high demand. Ambitious clients still ask for a new Bilbao, more than ten years after the completion of the museum. The architect, as a hip figure, features in commercials on television. [...]Are we about to throw that all away?

Apologies on the misquote...thanks for the correction

House of the Week 015: Eggo house

aerial view of house in context

This a self-contained dwelling unit designed by Czech architects a69 in the garden of an existing family house in Prague. Called the Eggo house the architecture of this project is not defined by the house, rather by the natural space of the original garden of well preserved full-grown trees.

art + architecture (part 2)

A media installation entitled "Virtu-Real goes Tokyo" constructed of recycled wood beams and container board reinforced textiles, designed by Swedish-Japanese architecture office Studio Un/Real.

The installation, constructed in a joint collaboration with +TEAM and a group of Japanese architecture students, created new ways to physically interact with the virtual online world of Second Life and its users

art + architecture (part 1)

An installation produced for the exhibition New Architecture at the Monash University Museum of Art back in 2005 - the work was a collaboration between artist/architect Rory Hyde and BKK Architects

more

Short film about Vicente Guallart

Balzac.tv

thanks Kisha for the link

Michelle Kaufmann interview as part of the Dwell video series

the art of destruction

Art installations set within the damaged houses of New Orleans

blog wunderlust: 21 March 2009

Revisions of Paris | Prada Transformer | post-bombing | dirt and hay | Dubai is Nuts! | dwell for the James Bond villian | labyrinth gardens | unusual churches | narrow houses | igloo diy

Aalto....doorstop??

The use of concrete blocks are commonly used for doorstops, however at the entry of some mid century modern villa lies a $3500 chunk of cement holding a door open. This concrete doorstop is shaped like an Alvar Aalto Savoy vase - because one was used to cast the shape which was then shattered to let out the mould.

An intriguing albeit wasteful use of an iconic and expensive vase.

via

thanks Sacha

AnOther....

The next issue of AnOther Man magazine - a leading style and culture magazine for men extensively covers artists and architects and engages in collaborations from the world’s most innovative, inspiring and defining creatives. The feature on architecture includes a look at the archive work of Architecture’s 60s badboys Ant Farm, and Jurgen Mayer H, (J Mayer H Studio) is interviewed about the optimistic, playful spirit of his work.

View the latest issue of Another Man

Festival of Lively Architecture

Announcing the 4th staging of the Festival of Lively Architecture to be held in Montpellier, France on the 18th to 21st June 2009.

The festival offers a walking tour of the city, envisoned as an architecture discovery that opens, often closed to public, 17th century mansions and their intimate courtyards.

The city of Montpellier possesses more than seventy private mansions, providing the escucheon of Montpellier proper characteristics.

The aims of the Festival are two fold, firstly to open these otherwise private mansions to a public audience, and thanks to the interventions of young architects & designers, present a unique dialogue - between contemporary architecture and heritage, conceived specifically for the festival.

on the boards: Container Nation

Container Nation is a 200 unit multi-family development in Salt Lake City, Utah to be constructed out of nearly 1000 shipping containers and built on a concrete plinth containing shops and parking.

Presently in concept phase, the architects Group 41 have proposed schemes that take different approaches to the stacking and build-out of the containers.

House of the Week 014: house in Curitiba

This house is a 300 sq.m in Curitiba, Brazil by UNA Architects and features a central 2 story volume that can be completely open to the elements. The residence is raised off the ground creating a service layer with the main living spaces and the bedrooms on the ground and first floor respectively.

being...

Well it seems that this blog has been added to the lexicon of pop culture (or at least the architectural version)

Maybe I am turning into an architechnophilia.

via

happy St. Patricks Day

A truly green post for St Paddy's. Combining primitive building techniques with a deep respect for nature, artist Patrick Dougherty experiments with tree saplings as a construction material creating spatial environments that are part landscape - part structure. This Frankenstein approach towards green design has afforded him a growing body of work throughout the world.

via

Trailer for Rem Koolhaas - A Kind of Architect

Rarely has an architect caused as much sensation outside of the architecture community as Rem Koolhaas. [...]his work is as much about ideas as it is about constructing buildings [...] what is essential is [...] to provoke and excite through the wide range of his activities.