This project designed by Alessandro Tonni and Manuela Spera was created as a meeting point between architecture and literature encompassing and reinterpreting one of the most suggestive surreal images of the 1900’s Italo Calvino’s invisible city, Zenobia. This reference is carried out through the general idea of the articulation of single elements, their placing amongst each other, the choice of the communal areas and the materials used. Every floor has housing, outdoor public spaces, and indoor public spaces which are repeated with identical components, thus favouring the economic and construction aspects. Read the rest of this entry »
Livestock Quarantine Architecture
The rapid increase in population in the United States along with the shortage of farmers has prompted some architects to design new architectural typologies like a quarantine structure for imported livestock conceived by California-based architect Drew Pusey. Pusey states that “given the current consumption rates of beef products in the US and the available land/resources we have for livestock production, it’s only a matter of time before these beef products (in the form of live cattle) will come largely from foreign sources. Unlike other imports, livestock presents a particular problem to domestic food safety in that diseased animals might not immediately show signs of contamination. The Ruminant Quarantine (based on the 4-chambered stomach of a cow) sits on the Port of Los Angeles and operates as both the storage and processing facility for the animals during the 60 day period of sterile isolation from when they are first taken off the ship to when they are distributed via rail to consumers. In contextual terms, the structure strives to mediate between its own monstrous scale and its status a a player in the surrounding urban condition. All said, the Ruminant Quarantine is largely an investigation of mass infrastructure as an expression of state-sponsored paranoia.” Read the rest of this entry »
BioUrban Generator
During the last decade the construction of hundreds of super-tall skyscrapers around the world has been a fierce race among nations to show economic prosperity and geopolitical power. Unfortunately these buildings do not respond to the environmental crisis that our generation is responsible for.
The BioUrban Generator is a proposal by CJ Chen Architects to create net-positive vertical cities that consist of mega skyscrapers equipped with solar, wind, and water collection systems. In addition they propose a series of agricultural terraces attached to the main structure where vertical harvesting, farming, and recreational areas will be located. The building houses a variety of commercial and residential programs that will enrich and transform the host cities. Read the rest of this entry »
Industrial City Skyscraper
Russian Architect Kitaev Artem Leonidovich shared with us his vision for a 21st century skyscraper that responds to a specific industrial area in Moscow. His thesis is to erase the preconceived idea of a high-rise building as an extruded crystal prism of repeated floor plates.
Having seen new skyscrapers in China not very different from the ones in Dubai or New York, Kitaev proposes a building that blends into a historic 19th century neighborhood with hundreds of clothing factories. His goal is to solve the housing and commercial requirements while preserving and enriching the existing urban context. Read the rest of this entry »
Architectural Table Cloth Installation – UCLA / Ball Nogues Studio
Table Cloth, designed by Ball Nogues Studio, is collaboration between the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design, The Herb Alpert School of Music, and UCLA Design Media Arts. It is made possible by generous support from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the UCLA Arts Initiative.
The installation in the courtyard at Schoenberg Hall serves as an integrated set piece and backdrop for performance and everyday social interaction. We understand the work as a tablecloth to adorn and activate the architecture of the campus. Tables are places where people interact socially. Dining tables, specifically, facilitate organization and communication within the typical American home.
We see this project like the cloth adorning a dining table; however, at Schoenberg it will embellish a courtyard, an important social hub, and will facilitate community at the scale of the University. It can be used for a variety of activities, from musical practice to performance, dance to lectures, and from casual conversations to academic discussions. It will embellish the courtyard through the summer of 2010. The processes to manufacture, assemble, and dismantle the performance space are examples of an unique approach to the challenges of sustainability. This approach to design, manufacturing and re-purposing of building materials is a process we term “Cross Manufacturing.” Read the rest of this entry »
Prosthetic Architecture
Alex Lozano from Miami, Florida explores ideas of prosthetic architecture. Prosthetics can be subdivided into two categories: 1) those that rehabilitate and 2) those that enhance.
The idea of prosthesis sets up an interesting situation which questions the boundaries between existing private areas and adjacent proposed public programs. Prosthetic architecture has the ability to “cut out” detrimental facades and compromised structure and replaces them with a new formal species which will set up a dialogue between old and new. Read the rest of this entry »
CHROMAtex.me needs YOU!
SOFTlab is one of the most talented design studios in New York; they recently won the New Practices New York Award and they need your help to produce an installation at the Bridgegallery in the lower east side of Manhattan. The idea is to fill the gallery by August 26th with a funnel made out of 5,000 panels of different color.
In order to fund CHROMAtex.me they have created a Kickstarter page. The catch is that if they do not raise the set amount in the remaining days, they will lose all the funds. So, if you have as little as $5 you will help this project become a colorful reality. In addition, there are very interesting rewards including pieces of the actual exhibit mailed to you. Read the rest of this entry »
Bella Sky Hotel’s Leaning Towers / 3XN
As a part of the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark the signature Bella Sky Hotel is currently under construction. The towers lean 15 degrees in opposite directions to provide views for all the rooms but still alolows the towers to share a common footprint. Being located adjacent to Copenhagen Airport 3XN Architects had to design two 75m tall (25 floors) towers rather than a single tower to accommodate 800 rooms .
The 42,000 square meter facility is intended to provide a landmark status for Bella Center, host to many international events. A turn on the top floors of the towers is designed to lower wind turbulence around the structures and soften the angularity. The fenestration is angled with the towers lean, an effect enhanced from the interior view. The Bella Hotel recalls the Puerta de Europa twin towers in Madrid, only at a larger scale, becoming the largest hotel in Nordic Europe. Expected to top out this summer the first phase of the Bella Hotel will be completed in spring 2011. Read the rest of this entry »
Kripalu Housing Annex by Peter Rose + Partners, Winner of AIA Housing Award
Architecture firm Peter Rose + Partners has completed the Kripalu Annex, the first step in the firm’s master plan to reshape the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. The project, which reflects Rose’s career-long commitment to ecologically innovative design, has recently been declared a winner of the prestigious AIA National Housing Award in the category of Specialized Housing; just one day later, I.D.’s 2010 Annual Design Review awarded Kripalu an Honorable Mention in the Environments category.
Tucked into 300 acres of dense forest in the Berkshire Mountains, Kripalu (kri-PAH-loo) is the largest and most established yoga retreat in North America. For over 30 years, Kripalu has been teaching skills for optimal living through experiential education for mind, body, and spirit, and this holistic approach was the starting point for the innovative plan that secured Peter Rose the Kripalu commission in 2004.
According to Rose, “Kripalu’s housing needs are modest and straightforward, but the architecture of the Annex, like yoga itself, is full of subtlety and layers of complexity that gently improve the structure’s performance. Light, air, using minimal means to create a calm, healing environment—it’s all about fulfilling these almost intangible requirements.”
The 80-room Housing Tower is attached to Kripalu’s existing facility through a glazed passage with a planted roof and sunny southern exposure, allowing guests to pass from the older structure to the new one with ease—in their stocking feet if they choose. Under a canopy on the western façade, the primary entrance leads to a modest lobby and a 2,400-square-foot yoga space glazed on two sides, surrounded by dense foliage, and filled with light. Read the rest of this entry »
UPDATE: Winners will be announced on March 7, 2011
eVolo Magazine is pleased to invite students, architects, engineers, and designers from around the globe to take part in the 2011 Skyscraper Competition.
The annual eVolo Skyscraper Competition is a forum for the discussion, development, and promotion of innovative concepts for vertical density. It examines the relationship between the skyscraper and the natural world, the skyscraper and the community, and the skyscraper and the city.
The exponential increase of the world’s population and its unprecedented shift from rural to urban areas has prompted hundreds of new developments without adequate urban planning and poor architectural design. The aim of this competition is to redefine what we understand as a skyscraper and initiate a new architectural discourse of economic, environmental, intellectual, and perceptual responsibility that could ultimately modify our cities and improve our way of life.
The use of new materials, technologies, aesthetics, and novel spatial organizations, along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution are some of the multi-layered elements that the participants should take into consideration. This is also an investigation on the public and private space and the role of the individual and the collective in the creation of a dynamic and adaptive vertical community.
There are no restrictions in regards to site, program or size. The objective is to provide maximum freedom to the participants to engage the project without constraints in the most creative way. What is a skyscraper in the 21st century? What are the historical, contextual, social, urban, and environmental responsibilities of these mega-structures?
Registration
Students, architects, engineers, and designers are invited to participate in the competition. We encourage you to have multidisciplinary teams.
- Participants must register by January 11, 2011.
- Early Registration: US $65 until November 16, 2010
- Late Registration: US $85 from November 17, 2010 to January 11, 2011
- One registration = One project.
- Participants may submit various projects, but must register each entry.
- There is no limit as to the number of participants per team. Individual entries are accepted.
- After your registration has been approved eVolo will send the registration number which will be necessary for submission boards.
Schedule
- July 19, 2010 – Competition announcement, registration begins, acceptance of questions
- November 8, 2010 – Deadline for submitting questions
- November 16, 2010 – Early registration deadline
- November 30, 2010 – Answers to questions posted on website
- January 11, 2011 – Late registration deadline
- January 18, 2011 – Project submission deadline
- February 28, 2011 – Winners’ announcement
Submission Requirements
This is a digital competition and no hardcopies are necessary. Entrants must submit their proposal via email no later than January 18, 2011 (23:00 hours US Eastern Time) to the following email address: skyscraper2011@evolo.us
The project submission must contain the following files:
- Two boards with the project information including plans, sections, and perspectives. Participants are encouraged to submit all the information they consider necessary to explain their proposal. These boards should be 24″ X 48″ in HORIZONTAL format. The resolution of the boards must be 150 dpi, RGB mode and saved as JPG files. The upper right corner of each board must contain the participation number. There should not be any marks or any other form of identification. The files must be named after the registration number followed by the board number. For example: 0101-1.jpg and 0101-2.jpg.
- A DOC file containing the project statement (600 words max). This file must be named after the registration number followed by the word “statement”. For example: 0101-statement.doc.
- A DOC file containing the entrants’ personal information, including name, profession, address, and email. This file must be named after the registration number followed by the word “info”. For example: 0101-info.doc.
- All the files must be placed in a ZIP folder named after your registration number. For example: 0101.zip
Jury
Benjamin Aranda [principal Aranda\Lasch]
Juan Azulay [principal Matter Management, professor at Southern California Institute of Architecture]
CarloMaria Ciampoli [port director Live Architecture Network]
Mario Cipresso [principal Studio Shift, professor at University of Southern California]
Ted Givens [associate director RMJM]
Eric Goldemberg [principal Monad Studio, professor at Florida International University]
Jose Gonzalez [principal Softlab, professor at Pratt Institute]
John Hill [editor Archidose]
Mitchell Joachim [principal Terreform One, professor at New York University]
Andrew Liang [principal Studio 0.10., professor at University of Southern California]
Chris Lasch [principal Aranda\Lasch]
Neri Oxman [principal Materialecology, Presidential Fellow at MIT Media Lab]
Javier Quintana [principal Taller Basico de Arquitectura, Dean of IE School of Architecture]
Rezza Rahdian [Architect, Second Place 2009 Skyscraper Competition]
Michel Rojkind [principal Rojkind Arquitectos]
Michael Szivos [principal Softlab, professor at Pratt Institute]
Regulations
- This is an anonymous competition and the registration number is the only means of identification.
- The official language of the competition is English.
- The registration fee is non-refundable.
- Contacting the Jury is prohibited.
- Entrants will be disqualified if any of the competition rules are not considered.
- Participation assumes acceptance of the regulations.
Awards
- 1st place – US $5000
- 2nd place – US $2000
- 3rd place – US $1000
Winners and special mentions will be published in several print magazines including eVolo_04.
Previous winners have been featured in:
About:Blank Magazine – Portugal, Aeroflot – Russia, Architecture and Culture – Korea, AWM – The Netherlands, B-1 – Thailand, Bauwelt – Germany, Blueprint – United Kingdom, BusinessWeek – USA, C3 – Korea, CAAOH – Ukraine, Casamica – Italy, Casas y Mas – Mexico, Discover Magazine – USA, Enlace – Mexico, Focus – Canada/Italy, Future Arquitecturas – Spain, Grazia Casa – Italy, Indian Architect Builder – India, Kijk – The Netherlands, L’Installatore Italiano – Italy, La Razon – Spain, L’Arca – Italy, Le Fourquet – Mexico, L’Uomo Vogue – Italy, Mark Magazine – The Netherlands, Mladina – Slovenia, NAN – Spain, New Scientist – United Kingdom, Of Arch – Italy, Pasajes de Arquitectura – Spain, Popular Mechanics – USA/Russia, Puls Biznesu – Poland, Quo – China/Spain, RUM – Sweden, Salt Magazine – The Netherlands, Space – Korea, Spade – Canada, Spazio Casa – Italy, Stafette – Germany, Tatlin – Russia, The Broker – The Netherlands, The Outlook Magazine – China, Time Style and Design – USA, Vida Simples Magazine – Brazil, Vogue – Australia, USA, Vox Design – Poland, Wettbewerbe Aktuell – Germany, Wired – USA/Italy, Woongjin – Korea, World Architecture – China