BIG + TNT Nuuk + Ramboll Nuuk + Arkitekti is the winning team to design the new National Gallery of Greenland in the country’s capital Nuuk, among invited proposals totaling 6 Nordic architects.

Located on a steep slope overlooking the most beautiful of Greenland’s fjords, the 3000 m2 National Gallery will serve as a cultural and architectural icon for the people of Greenland. The new museum will combine historical and contemporary art of the country in one dynamic institution The winning proposal was selected by a unanimous museum board among 6 proposals, including Norwegian Snøhetta, Finnish Heikkinen‐Komonen, Islandic Studio Granda and Greenlandic Tegnestuen Nuuk.

“The Board has a clear vision: to work for the establishment of an internationally oriented highly professional institution that communicates the continuous project of documenting and developing the Greenlandic national identity through art and culture. Our dream is a national gallery where historic and contemporary art meets circumpolar pieces, Nordic and world art in general. Our dream is an institution that stimulates our curiosity, awake our excitement with its thought‐provoking design and where we all feel at home. Selecting a prominent architect as BIG, I am sure that our chances of realizing that dream are good”, Tuusi Josef Motzfeldt, Greenland’s National Gallery of Art.

As a projection of a geometrically perfect circle on to the steep slope, the new gallery is conceived as a courtyard building that combines a pure geometrical layout with a sensitive adaption to the landscape. The three‐dimensional imprint of the landscape creates a protective ring around the museum’s focal point, the sculpture garden where visitors, personnel, exhibition merge with culture and nature, inside and outside. Read the rest of this entry »

The brief called for the design of two prototype Villas for a new Golf and Spa Resort in Croatia overlooking the old town of Dubrovnik. The total development comprises 400 villas, two 5* hotels, luxury apartments, retail facilities, a spa and an 18 hole golf course including a golf resort club house. A recently developed master plan determines the perimeter and size of the parcels, which range from 12,000m2 to 20,000m2. The site of the prototype villas is located at the edge of the plateau with picturesque views. The prototype villas shall define the overall architectural design of the resort.

The area of development is located north of Dubrovnik, a Unesco World Heritage Site. The land comprises 430 hectare and is located on a high plateau approximately 300m to 400m above sea level, north of the old town of Dubrovnik. At the southern edge of the project site, the terrain slopes steeply towards the sea. The terrain also slightly slopes from west to east. The elevated level of the site allows for magnificent views in all directions. Towards south the owner will enjoy sea views and views of the old town of Dubrovnik. In north direction one can enjoy picturesque mountain and landscape views. Zaha Hadid Architects architectural proposal is a distinct and unique structure with a strong sense of identity and character. It has a highly expressive, sculptural quality, infused with a sense of light and space. Light and views are the driving forces of the house. The design is inspired by the Croatian karst topography. Read the rest of this entry »

Rather than taking the “true” or literal approach to materials, this project designed by Dave Bantz and Michael Gross attempts to adopt techniques mastered by artists and apply them at an architectural scale. Material in art is used as a representational device for effects and a gateway to sensation. The”Artificial Matters” studio, run by SCI-arc professor Elena Manferdini, aims to provoke new sensations through texture, geometry, coloration, and finish. The studio began by 3D scanning literal materials (in this case a sliced peach) and modifying the raw data to produce a synthetic material with the potential to create new sensations. Read the rest of this entry »

AetherSCS.02 - Alan Tansey

Studio Mode/modeLab is pleased to announce the fourth installment of the coLab workshop series: Interactive Parametrics – a two-day processing workshop (with an optional third day) focusing on dynamic sketches and prototyping. The workshop will be held in New York City during the weekend of February 19, 2011.

The paradigm of scripting within ubiquitous modeling platforms such as Rhino or Maya allows users to generate complex form by accessing an underlying geometry engine and performing iterative functions. This paradigm is typically based on run-once execution, making it unsuitable for designing interactive or time-based behaviors. By implementing workflows that utilize Processing to create real-time software sketches, we can design dynamic systems that can act as standalone tools for parametric design, input mechanisms to feed other platforms, or processors of existing or sensor-based data sets. Read the rest of this entry »

West 57th, designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, introduces an entirely new residential typology to New York City that will add an inviting twist to the Manhattan Skyline.

Durst Fetner Residential (DFR) today announced the design of West 57, a 600-unit 80/20 residential building on West 57th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues. The building is designed by renowned Danish Architect firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and is their in¬augural North American project. The building’s program consists of over 600 residential units of different scales situated on a podium with a cultural and commercial program. The building will strive for LEED Gold Certification.

“It’s extraordinarily exciting to build a building whose architecture will attract visitors from around the globe,” said, Hal Fetner, CEO of Durst Fetner Residential. “BIG’s design is innovative, evocative and unique and the building’s beauty is matched only by its efficient and functional design that preserves existing view corridors while maximizing the new building’s access to natural light and views of the Hudson River. West 57th will establish a new standard for architectural excellence and its creative design, sustainable-construc¬tion and operations, breathtaking views and distinctive amenities will make it New York’s most sought after residential address.” Read the rest of this entry »

Erick Kristanto received a honorable mention in the international competition to design a Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art sponsored by suckerPUNCH.

Bubble Art Display is a way of presenting comic and cartoon art into an architectural building as a public display that attracts people with the intention of promote the art itself. The concept originates from a series of bubble quotes used in comics, which, in this design, is used to display the programs of the Museum. The dynamic and playful interior space, created by the bubble quotes shapes, generates an engaging, fun visitor’s experience, which allows them to observe different activities happening at the same time. Moreover, these bubble quotes are connected by a vertical helix ramp at the center of the building. And to make the experience even more amusing, slides are provided as a shortcut from one space to another. With the unique figure that carries a mission to display as well as promote comic and cartoon art, this museum will be the new icon for lower east side area of Manhattan.

Designed by Meridian 105 Architecture, ‘Weave Housing’ is a design proposal for an urban mixed use complex in Denver CO, with 160 apartment units, retail and parking. Inspired by a children’s potholder loom, the facade texture supports multiple interior apartment arrangements with units occupying one or two bays in width, and one or two levels in height, allowing for flexibility and plan variety. By weaving occupiable volumes across the facade, private balconies and overhangs are created, establishing zones of natural shading and meeting the desired passive energy strategy. The long dimension of each apartment unit is stretched parallel to the corridors, taking advantage of natural light and views while minimizing the depth light is asked to penetrate the space. Read the rest of this entry »

Kubota & Bachmann Architects won a honorable mention for the Maritime Culture & Pop Music Center in Kaohsiung,Taiwan.

Color is joy, color is love and color is Pop! Joy is the pleasure of living in front of the sea, strolling along the beach, walking on the port and visiting the Port Market, the ships that come and go, looking into the distance. Love is the meeting of two programs on a single site. It is the encounter of Kaohsiung Maritime Cultural and Popular Music Center. Pop is the new symbol of Kaohsiung’s port. A place accessible to all audiences. A place where people sing and dance. A new meeting place in the city of Kaohsiung. The Kaohsiung Maritime Cultural & Popular Music center is a composition of different programs and components. The arrangement forms a harmony of colors. Read the rest of this entry »

The 2011 d3: Housing Tomorrow competition called for the design of “transformative solutions that advance sustainable thought, building performance, and social interaction”. David Zhai and Alexis Burson’s winning selection for the New York category was an innovative project that speculated on the future of the network society through the hybridization of data and living.

The design strategy called for a series of server farms established within a network of high and low-density housing. The servers interface with surrounding domestic spaces allowing informational feedback to occur between the inhabitants and a kinetic architectural system that responds to the various spatial needs of its community.

Revenue generated from the data servers help to subsidize the cost of living while the substantial heat created from the processing of data is used in a heat-exchange process to support domestic heating and hot water. Heat from the servers also support a network of vertical farming which provides sustenance for the community. An integrated biometric monitoring system allows residents to better improve on their health and lifestyle while increasing the effectiveness of health and emergency response services.

By re-conceptualizing new modes of informational collection and distribution on an urban scale, with consideration for health, privacy, economy, and the environment, this project tests but also begins to define the emergence of the post-computing society and the creation of a new urbanism and a new model of community. Read the rest of this entry »

The Energy Report: a comprehensive study developed by the WWF, AMO and Ecofys claiming that the world can be 100% reliant on renewable energy by 2050, launches globally today.

The report proposes to address the urgent problems caused by looming climate change and dwindling fossil fuel supply through its assertion that by 2050, the world’s energy needs could be met entirely by renewable sources. It outlines an ambitious energy saving scenario as the first step toward an energy system in which fossil fuels are gradually replaced by wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower and sustainable forms of bio-energy.

The aim of the report is to inspire governments and businesses to understand the challenges associated with this shift and, at the same time, to encourage them to move boldly to bring the renewable economy into reality. By demonstrating the advantages of global cooperation and the deeper integration of global energy infrastructure, The Energy Report shows that the benefits of a transition to renewable energy far outweigh the challenges.

AMO’s contribution to the report, led by Partner Reinier de Graaf and Associate Laura Baird, both conceptualizes and visualizes the geographic, political, and cultural implications of a 100 percent renewable energy world. AMO draws a vision of a world without borders in which all continents have equal access to sustainable energy. Read the rest of this entry »