The Circle at Zurich Airport is a mixed-use development designed by New York-based avant-garde architectural firm Asymptote Architecture. The complex near Zurich’s international airport seeks to become a cultural, commercial, health, and educational destination to the city while serving the needs of travelers. It is designed as four towers above a three story plinth that connects to the surrounding landscape. Between each tower there are external galleries that connect the interior of the Circle to the city. Asymptote’s design anticipates the evolution in transportations hubs that will become active urban environments utilizing the energy and action of flight and internationalism. Read the rest of this entry »

Rocinha, Brazil, is one of the world’s largest slums with a population over 150,000 people. It is located in the southern part of Rio de Janeiro; a hillside the overlooks the city and the ocean.  In the 1930’s the Rocinha community emerged from the division of large farm fields and in the 1940’s and 1950’s it was the epicenter of illegal settlements with lack of regulation. The result is an area with a strong community bonds but without any infrastructure or security.

One of the most interesting characteristics of the “favelas” is the non-existent boundaries between public and private space. The unorganized construction creates residual spaces that are use by the residents for all kinds of community activities. Our intention is to design a high-rise building that will provide safe housing for the people while preserving these in-between areas. Read the rest of this entry »

Award-winning architecture studio Asymptote, directed by Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture, recently unveiled their design for the FCD Yongsan Landmark Tower in Seoul, Korea.  The tower was conceived by Asymptote and engineered by Thorton Tomassetti. It was designed to confront the notion of a single spire, instead, proposes the idea of coupling and stringing three towers together.  According to Asymptote, “the inherent symbolism and reading of this tower will appeal to the global community and place a focus on South Korea, specifically Seoul’s aspirations for the future. Read the rest of this entry »

London-based architect Daniel Widrig designed a set of stackable side tables for a private exhibition in London. Its organic and nature-inspired geometry, fluid lines, and colors remind us Art Nouveau at the turn of the 20^th century. Read the rest of this entry »

Kroon Hall at Yale University was named “Building of the Year” by the UK’s architecture sector, during the prestigious AJ100 awards. The new building, designed by Hopkins Architects for the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, was one of six shortlisted entries – from a total of 33 – and ultimately selected as the winner by a panel of expert judges.

The judges were impressed with the school’s simple, aesthetic form and green credentials – the project has been awarded LEED* ‘Platinum’, the highest certification, and is designed to be as close to carbon neutral as possible. Clad with yellow Briar Hill stone, the structure is lined with American red oak, much of which has been sourced from the university’s own forests. Read the rest of this entry »

The Architectural Association School is mounting the first ever retrospective of the books produced by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture – a practice co-founded by a writer, Rem Koolhaas, largely on the basis of a book, Delirious New York (1978).

The centrepiece of the show is a specially-made 40,000-page book, binding together hundreds of OMA’s pamphlets and books made over 35 years of architectural thought, work and provocation.

OMA Book Machine: The Books of OMA runs from 8 May until 4 June 2010 at the AA School Gallery.

Many OMA books – like S,M,L,XL (1995) and Exodus or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture (made by the founders of OMA in 1975, and submitted by Koolhaas as his fifth-year thesis at the AA) – have had a decisive impact on architectural practice and book publishing in general. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week we compiled photos of all the national pavilions at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. This time we want to show you all the pavilions built by corporations and institutions.

Aurora Pavilion

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On May 17^th, 2010 the City Museum of Antwerp (MAS) designed by Neutelings Riedijk Architecten was completed and the international architectural press was invited to an exclusive visit of the building. The museum will remain closed to the public for one year until all the artworks and exhibitions have been completed. Read the rest of this entry »

Designed by Alisa Andrasek, the Seroussi Pavilion was “grown” out of self-modifying patterns of vectors based on electro-magnetic fields (EMF). Through logics of attraction/repulsion trajectories were computed in plan and than lifted via series of structural microarching sections through different frequencies of sine function. Additional feature built into script allows for local adaptation to the site in regards to the section (pavilion is implanted into a steep hill _ EMF trajectories needed to “find the ground”). Six different geometrical systems were used for design and are all steaming out of primary trajectories. The plan of the pavilion differs greatly from a classical notion of architectural plan drawing _ it is a dynamic blueprint closer to musical notation _ deep ecology of imbedded algorithmic and parametric relationships are the seed for possible materialization procedures and adaptation to the site conditions. In a design of the roof tilling resolution was increased by the algorithmic differentiation of components features. Read the rest of this entry »

pALICE Exhibition by SOFTlab

The American Institute of Architects New York Chapter announced the winners of its biennial design competition, New Practices New York, which recognizes innovative new architecture firms.

In order to qualify for the competition, the practices had to be founded since 2004, and be located within the five boroughs. This is the first year that the New Practices competition has been open to firms without a registered architect, widening the field of entrants to architectural designers and young professionals in the process of becoming licensed architects. Sixty-five registrants entered, and a distinguished panel of jurors selected the competition’s winners on Wednesday, May 12. The jury members were: Toshiko Mori, Joe MacDonald, William Menking, Guy Nordenson, and Galia Solomonoff.

The New Practices New York 2010 competition winners are: Easton+Combs, Archipelagos, Leong Leong, Manifold, SOFTlab, SO-IL, and Tacklebox. Read the rest of this entry »