JDS Architects completed the Holmenkollen Ski Jump in Oslo, Norway. The International Ski Federation has certified the structure and it is ready to host the Nordic World Ski Championship in March 2011. The Jump passed all the technical and safety standards and was inaugurated in an opening ceremony that included 20 ski jumpers. Rune Vetla had the longest jump at 141 meters. According to some contestants, this is the best ski jump they have ever competed on.

The cantilevered design includes a restaurant/bar at 418 meters where visitors will enjoy views to Oslo and to the fjords. A special feature is the stainless steel mesh that protects the jumpers from extreme wind and fog. Read the rest of this entry »

Vertical farms seem to be one of the best solutions for encouraging agriculture in the cities. They are a smart solution where transportation costs and pollutants are reduced. This proposal conceived by Michaela Dejdarova and Michal Votruba is located in the outskirts of Prague, Czech Republic and it is intended to be a communal farm for the city. The structure consists of clusters of tetrahedrons grouped to create an exoskeleton that peels from the ground and supports hundreds of green terraces for agriculture. The novelty of the idea is that it could be developed in stages because of the modularity of all the components. It could grow and spread according to demands and could also be easily dismantled and transported to other locations. As with other vertical farms this project uses rainwater collection systems and solar panels as its main source of water and energy. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 26^th 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 »

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 »