Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies: Architecture Daily

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FeaturedAL House / Studio Arthur Casas

Editor's ChoiceStudio CTC Imagines Terraced Twin Skyscrapers in Hong Kong

GG House / Architekt.Lemanski

Architects: Architekt.Lemanski
Location: Krakow, Poland
Area: 369.0 sqm
Year: 2014
Photographs: Tomasz Zakrzewski

House Plot 75 / Office Winhov

Architects: Office Winhov
Location: Lisdoddelaan 114, 1087 KA Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Area: 252.0 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: Stefan Müller

Olafur Eliasson Creates an Indoor Riverbed at Danish Museum

Courtesy of Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

Blurring the boundaries between the Natural world and the Manmade in one wide, sweeping gesture, Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson‘s first solo exhibit, aptly titled Riverbed, brings the Outdoors in.
Recreating an enormous, ruggedly enchanting landscape, complete with riverbed and rocky earth, the artist draws heavily from site-specific inspiration. The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art‘s location on the Danish coast lends a raw, elemental and powerful character that extends into the building as a major intervention, transforming into a work of art.

House of a Backstage / y+M

Architects: y+M
Location: Tokushima, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan
Photographs: Nacasa & Partners

Prisoners Designing Prisons: Restorative Justice in Action

The design of prisons is a controversial topic for architects, but Deanna VanBuren takes a novel approach to the subject. Designing for a judicial system that advocates “restorative justice,” VanBuren works with felons, victims, and other architects to create spaces where everyone can undergo a healing process following a crime. In a recent profile, the L.A. Times documents one of her design workshops with prisoners, demonstrating how this form of outreach can change the lives of those inside. Read the full story here. Also, be sure to check out our interview with Deanna VanBuren here!

Guatemala Beach House / Christian Ochaita + Roberto Gálvez

Architects: Christian Ochaita, Roberto Gálvez
Location: Guatemala
Design Team: Walfred Lainfiesta,Susan García, Leah Cabrera, José Miguel Benítez
Year: 2013
Photographs: Víctor Martínez

Rafael de La-Hoz Arquitectos Takes a Page Out of the Quran to Design a Natural Oasis

Courtesy of Rafael de La-Hoz Arquitectos

Drawing both literal and theoretical inspiration from the Islamic Holy Book, Rafael de La-Hoz Arquitectos earned an Honourable Mention for their design proposal of a habitable natural oasis for the Noble Quran International Competition in Saudi Arabia.
Understanding the significance of the location’s proximity to Islam’s second holiest city and the Capital of Islamic Culture, Rafael de La-Hoz aimed to create a memorable and iconic Islamic Landmark. Therefore, the Quran itself was chosen as the primary source of physical and contextual understanding, the most significant vessel of knowledge for the people and the location.

Leça do Balio School / aNC arquitectos

Architects: aNC arquitectos
Location: Rua Dom Frei Manuel de Almeida de Vasconcelos, 4465, Portugal
Partner In Charge: Teresa Novais
Project Leader: Luísa Meneses
Design Team: João Pedro Fernandes, Pedro Loureiro, Ana Bacelar
Area: 2736.0 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: Daniel Malhão, Jorge Carvalho

Yesterday’s Future, Today: What’s it Like to Work as an Architect in North Korea?

A silk co-operative clad with acres of PV solar panels, one of several illustrations exhibited at the Korean Pavilion in Venice. Image Courtesy of Koryo Tours

Originally published on Metropolis Magazine as “The Future of Architecture, According to a North Korean Architect,” this interview with Nick Bonner, Curator of the North Korean Portion of the Venice Biennale’s Korean Pavilion, delves into the realities of architectural work in one of the world’s most secretive countries.

There’s good chance you’ll never step foot in North Korea, which isn’t the same as saying you can’t. Interest in the socialist state is increasingly high, a fact reflected by a rise in tourists eager to discover the sites and spectacles of Pyongyang. Nick Bonner, founder of Koryo Tours, has been bringing visitors to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) for over two decades. He recently curated a small exhibition in the Korean Pavilion at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale.

For “Utopian Tours” Bonner commissioned designs from an unidentified North Korean architect, asking him to envision a whole new infrastructure for accommodating larger and larger groups of tourists. The resulting handdrawn illustrations are fascinating: the future of architecture—at least in North Korea—looks a lot like yesterday’s future, where tourists travel in hovercraft RVs, and workers live in ziggurat-shaped hotels inspired by mountains and trees.

Metropolis asked the trained landscape architect to give us a tour inside the present architecture scene of one of the world’s most isolated countries today.

Qiqihaer Hezhitang Hot Spring / A-ASTERISK

Architects: A-ASTERISK
Location: Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, China
Architects In Charge: Nakamura Nobuhiro, Qin Yi, Shigeno Yuji, Lai Jie, Wang Wenping, He Zengcai.
Area: 11357.0 sqm
Year: 2014
Photographs: Misae Hiromatsu

Excavating the Sky: Syria’s Contemporary Landscape at Monditalia

From August 12-15, architects, filmmakers and activists from Syria and the Arab World gathered in the Arsenale at the 2014 Venice Biennale for “excavating the sky,” a four-day event focusing on Syria and the production of its contemporary landscape from before WWI until today. The event took place in the context of the Monditalia exhibition and one of its key components was a “displaced pavilion” in Syria – a recently dug well providing water for a community of 15,000 people.
“As you know, Syria is currently undergoing a profound, and often violent, transformation, much of which is difficult to fully comprehend. It is my belief that architecture does play a role in this conflict, and that architects, with their disciplinary tools, must act more meaningfully and creatively in these struggles in/of space,” Khaled Malas, a Syrian architect and organizer of “excavating the sky,” told ArchDaily. “The ‘displaced pavilion’, in the form of a water-well, is an active embodiment of these struggles and our responsible participation as a discipline amongst those who have suffered years of neglect followed by war.”
To represent the “displaced pavilion” at Monditalia, a banner with a drawing of the well was hung in the Aresenale.
Read on after the break to learn more about the other key components of the event and the significance behind its name…

Zaha Hadid to Receive Honoray Degree from Goldsmiths College

Zaha Hadid will be awarded an honorary degree and fellowship from Goldsmiths College, at the University of London, during the college’s graduation ceremony in September. Hadid was chosen because of her “inventive approach, and eagerness to challenge conventions which have pushed the boundaries of architecture and urban design,” A rchitects’ Journal (AJ) reported.
Among Hadid’s work in London is the Aquatics centre for the 2012 London Olympics, which has been shortlisted for the 2014 Stirling Prize, which recognizes a building that has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year. Zaha Hadid Architects was also behind the design for London’s Roca Gallery and was selected to develop plans for a new airport in London.
Hadid is one of six other creative professionals receiving honorary degrees from Goldsmiths College.

João Ferreira House / taO Arquitetura

Architects: taO Arquitetura
Location: Brasília, Distrito Federal – Brasil
Project Architect: Paulo Henrique Paranhos
Collaborators: Eder Alencar, Ana Carolina Vaz
Project Area: 880.0 m2
Project Year: 2006
Photography: Joana França

Visiting Gunārs Birkerts’s Latvian “Castle of Light”

For an article featured in Blueprint Herbert Wright examines Riga’s new National Library of Latvia, completed by 89-year-old Gunārs Birkerts this month. Located in one of Latvia’s most historic urban settings, the library – locally known as the “Castle of Light” – challenges the city’s recent history of Soviet public architecture with a contemporary, if not as equally monumental, cultural edifice. Initially conceived in 1988 now, over twenty five years later, the structure stands as a €163million testament to Latvia’s rich academic and public cultural heritage. Earlier this year, “14,000 Latvians formed a 2km human chain to pass books from the old to new libraries.” Wright’s exploration of this seminal building on Birkert’s œuvre is complemented by Janis Dripe’s excellent photographic studies of what is certain to be one of the most important Eastern European buildings of this decade.

C-Q Project / JSª

Architects: JSª
Location: Miraflores, Peru
Project Architects: Javier Sánchez, Irvine Torres
Design Team: Francisco de la Concha, Carlos Chauca, Oscar Pita
Project Area: 3800.0 sqm
Project Year: 2013
Photographs: Sandra Pereznieto

Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies

Translation from English

Friday, August 22, 2014

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