blog wunderlust : 21st June 2010

10 Architectural Wonders of Expo 2010 Shanghai | RIP William Mitchell | Original & derivatives | Architects on stage | futuristic mega-projects | one $500 house - 5 architectural experiments | EU architects will soon be able to practice in St Kitts-Nevis | ruler pen | world's most stunning Presidential palaces | extra / ordinary

The house becomes the disguise for spaces that vary according to function and use

Jose Paulo dos Santos

Studio Banana Tv ::: estudio Entresitio

Studio Banana TV interviews [translated studio in-between], architects of the San Blas health centre in Madrid

PROJECTiONE

Radiance from the design-build collective PROJECTiONE

on the boards: Comparto Cultural District master plan

Architects -scape have proposed a 70,000 m² master plan for new housing, offices, hotel and shopping facilities for the Comparto Cultural District located in the Kenzo Tange designed Bussiness District in Naples, Italy.

on the boards: Landmark Project in Sweden

A proposal by 3XN for a 13,000 m² mixed use structure marking the entrance to the Vällingby Parkstad, Sweden. The curved design with lively shaped balconies embraces the area, in contrast to the traditional buildings surrounding the site. The dense city structure at the base adds activity at eye level and creates a close relation between work life, housing, and leisure.

images courtesy of 3XN

Also check out this article on a new mixed-use in California seeking LEED certification

on the boards: Bergen University College

A 51,000m² new academic facility Bergen designed Cubo Architects & HLM for University College will be situated in an old industrial site just south of downtown Bergen, Norway. The new building will house 6000 students and 600 academic and administrative staff with completion expected in 2013.

House of the Week 74: Origami House

Formwerkz, a Singapore based practice have recently completed this detached residence for a small family called the Origami House. The folding planes of the house inspired the title as well provides its structural properties and spatial dynamic.

Interiors : Tool Box

The design and layout of a professional incubator in a former industrial space in Torino, Italy called Tool Box by architects Caterina Tiazzoldi / Nuova Ordentra. The approach was to create a cohesive concept despite the diversity of the group, created through a modular volume with different finishes including cork and rubber.

blog wunderlust: 14 June 2010

the house next door | Like Living in a Giant Jenga Game | the International Style | Hip-hop’s view of Chicago architecture | crazy floor plan porn | manifesto for the Gulf | Abandoned Theme Parks Open for Exploration | furthest leaning tower | Town comes to life with digital graffiti | Cardboard Fort Architecture: A Critical Analysis

also check out the Fresh Air Fund an organisation that arranges host families to exposes inner city children to life in the country.

To be a good architect you must love people; architectural designs, after all, are not isolated pieces of art - they are frameworks around people's lives, and if, deep down, you don't really care about people, of course you can't create good architecture

Ralph Erskine

Studio Banana TV: José María García Sánchez

Studio Banana TV interviews José María García Sánchez architect for the sports activities centre in the Tajo river basin, Caceres, Spain.

the Highway's Church

the Highway's Church in Florence, Italy by Giovanni Michelucci

Penn Station

The Futures Channel presents the design of the Grand Central Penn Station entrance

on the boards: Kindergarten & Primary School

Autrian architects feld72 have revealed plans for a €5 million Kindergarten and Primary School on adjoining sites.The dissimilar buildings relate to their immediate context but are married by the textural treatment.

on the boards: Museum of Agriculture

Architects a10studio were selected as one of the finalists for a competition inviting proposals for a new Museum of Agriculture in the city of Culiacan, Mexico.

on the boards: the Paineiras Hotel

A collective of São Paulo based architects (Alexandre Hepner, Denis Cossia, João Paulo Payar, Rafael Brych, Ricardo Gonçalves, and environmental design consultant Ricardo Messano) have proposed the Paineiras Hotel complex, a project that seeks to harmonize with the existing context without denying a contemporary character.

house of the week 72: Lifeguard Tower

Design-Build practice Lazar has recently completed a 5,000 ft² residence in Hermosa Beach, California. Dubbed the “lifeguard tower” the house is a contemporary interpretation of the lifeguard stations of Cape Cod, seen in the rooftop lounge with panoramic views.

all photographs courtesy of Laura Hull

what's with the horses??

Whilst searching for a suitable choice for the regular House of the Week feature I came across a stunning trend. It turns out for that "perfect image" devoid of such extraneous features such as furniture and people - architects, designers and photographers have opted to place live animals in their photography alas not just your regular domestic fare but instead farm animals, mostly horses. Now the use of people or landscape has often been used in architectural photography for scale but does the average person know how tall a horse is??

blog wunderlust : 7 June 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

Hipster & non-hipster urbanism | tableware for royalty architects | Archaeologists unearth 6th century Ikea-style temple | Kitintale skateboarders | Landscape Architecture | The Secret is Out, Sticky Rice=Super Strong Buildings | stay as long as you like | inflatable architecture | Two Architects Have a Meeting of the Minds at a Texas Museum

architects + film updated

A fundamental truth: man needs colour. Colour is the immediate, spotaneous expression of life...

Le Corbusier

Studio Banana Tv ::: Juan Navarro Baldeweg

Studio Banana TV interviews acclaimed Spanish architect and artist Juan Navarro Baldeweg about his project Teatro del Canal in Madrid

Shanghai Expo

Nicked from [the belly of an architect] time elapsed videos of the Danish and UK pavilions by Bjarke Injels Group and Thomas Heatherwick, respectively.

on the boards: Araucano Park bridge

A competition entry by Bosch Lyon Architects for a catwalk over the Manquehue street in Las Condes, Chile linking the Araucano and Juan Pablo II Parks.

on the boards: Montreal Planetarium

The competition entry for the Montreal Planetarium by architect Chevalier Morales is intended to be a lantern of human activity, seen through the translucent and milky finish façade, the interior will be invaded by colours and the many polished and reflective surfaces.

on the boards: Stone Towers

Zaha Hadid have unveiled plans for a mixed-use development dubbed the Stone Towers in Cairo, Egypt. The facades on the North and South elevations of the Towers adopts the rich vocabulary of patterns and textures often found in ancient Egyptian architecture

on the boards: Teesside Power Station

Heatherwick studio has recently revealed proposals for a bio-mass fueled power station to be located on a river bank in Stockton-On-Tees, UK. The design of the power station is integrated into the landscape, into a single volume, providing public recreation along with energy generation.

House of the Week 71: Norman Fisher House

Located on a gently sloping site in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, the Norman Fisher house designed by Louis Kahn built between 1960 and 1967 consists of two interconnected cubes and third smaller independent one. The cubes house the bedrooms and living areas, and together with the existing trees and land features form the outdoor spaces

Cherokee Lofts

Cherokee Lofts is an urban infill, mixed-use housing project designed by archiects Pugh + Scarpa inspired by a series of paintings by Patrick Hughes titled, “Prospectivity.” The building like the paintings appear to be ever changing and physically moving while being viewed, created by a façade that allows the occupant to adjust, at will screens that reveal life within.

harrowingly engaging and voyeuristic

Agenda: Can We Sustain Our Ability to Crisis?
Julian de Smedt Architects
Actar Publishers (2010)
Rating: 5 stars

Written on the cusp of the global financial downfall, AGENDA prompts the question, what can architecture learn from crisis? What threads and strategies lie within this modality that can sustain a new means of architectural practice? At 544 pages, this book is ample; comprised of a running dialogue of interviews, images of project progress and deadlines, providing voyeuristic insight into JDS architects. The narrative of projects, a format likely borrowed from de Smedt's mentor Rem Koolhaas (Content, 2004) is harrowingly engaging. Teetering on the ambitious, AGENDA never glibly offers solutions making this stellar read, a smart new generation of monograph.

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)