Building art is a synthesis of life in materialised form. We should try to bring in under the same hat not a splintered way of thinking, but all in harmony together.
Repairs to cracks found along a $1.4-billion, 20-mile Phoenix-area light-rail project are nearly complete, but deciding who's to blame is still far from done.
Public comments are due on May 9 on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' "tentatively selected plan" (TSP) to address one of the longest-standing congressional mandates for restoration of the Everglades.
A new report from the National Research Council underscores desalination's viability as a potential method for boosting the nation’s water supply but says more research is needed to bring the costs down and to better understand the technology's environmental impacts.
Erick van Egeraat Architect Creates Glowing Icon in Denmark
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Written by Lee Fischer
Friday, 09 May 2008
Buildings advocated for waste management are usually discreetly left out of sight. This project is a flagrant exception to the rule. Dutch Architect Erick van Egeraat has won the international competition for the design of a new incineration line in Roskilde, Denmark.
Local waste management company sought an iconic expression for the otherwise functional architecture of its next generation incineration line. Due to its large scale, the incinerator is destined to become an outstanding structure in the wide and open landscape of the Roskilde area. After its completion in 2013, the facility will produce both electricity and heating for the Roskilde district.
The sleek new Visitor Centre, designed by Architype, provides a unique
experience and vastly improved facilities for all those visiting the
magnificent landscape of Chiltern Hills at Dunstable Downs, north of
London, England.
The purpose designed Centre replaces an
undistinguished kiosk snack bar with basic visitor facilities, which
until now has serviced visitors.
Located at Bedfordshire’s highest point – 798 ft above sea level - the
new building will provide a rich visitor experience for the 400,000
people who visit each year.
Simone Giostra - Greenpix, a Zero-Energy Media Wall
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Written by Susan Grant Lewin
Wednesday, 07 May 2008
Simone Giostra & Partners Architects have designed the GreenPix - Zero Energy Media Wall - a groundbreaking project applying sustainable and digital media technology to the curtain wall of Xicui Entertainment Complex in Beijing, near the site of the 2008 Olympics.
Featuring the largest color LED display worldwide and the first photovoltaic system integrated into a glass curtain wall in China, GreenPix transforms the building envelop into a self-sufficient organic system, harvesting solar energy by day and using it to illuminate the screen after dark, mirroring a day’s climatic cycle. Arup provided engineering services for the project.
“The Media Wall will provide the city of Beijing with its first venue
dedicated to digital media art, while offering the most radical example
of sustainable technology applied to an entire building’s envelope to
date”, said Simone Giostra.
Photograph courtesy of Simone Giostra, ARUP and Ruogu
Daniel Libeskind - Extension to the Denver Art Museum, Frederic C. Hamilton Building
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Written by Camille Chami
Friday, 02 May 2008
Since opening its doors in 2006, the Frederic C. Hamilton Building has become one of downtown Denver’s most recognizable landmarks, drawing thousands of visitors. The project, designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind and Davis Partnership, consists of a 146,000ft² addition to the existing Denver Art Museum, built originally in 1971, almost doubling its size.
Consisting of a separate building this major expansion tied to the existing museum through a 100ft long enclosed walkway. It hosts the main entrance to the museum complex, as well as a collection of Modern and contemporary art, a collection of Oceanic art and African Art, a theatre and a rooftop sculpture garden with views over the scenic Rocky Mountain range.
The Downing Residence is a carefully nested desert dwelling on a hillside west of Tucson organized between existing saguaros. The 3500 square foot design splits the floor plan into three smaller pavilion-like footprints in order to rest more gently between areas of dense vegetation.
From a distance, the Downing Residence is barely discernable from its east-facing mountainside backdrop. The structure blends with the surrounding rock outcroppings as each of its three volumes sit reverently within a grove of saguaro that dot the hillside.
All photographs are by Bill Timmerman, courtesy of the architect.
Steven Holl - T-Husene Development in Ørestad, Copenhagen
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Written by Bruce Morgan
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
The T-Husene is a mixed-use development, for Ørestad, Copenhagen (Denmark) presented by Steven Holl Architects for a direct commission from City Development in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Besides a constructed landscape of 8000 sq. m. T-Husene contains 18,000 sq.m. residential space in 5 towers above 12,500 sq.m. commercial space.
Katsuhiro Miyamoto thrives on designing dwellings on challenging sites. As we saw in projects previously featured on Archinnovations, the architect carefully composes his projects from the constraint imposed by the surrounding density of the urban landscapes, developing his ideas despite the awkwardness of the site’s shapes and dimensions.
He proposes solutions that possess a powerful in their visual appeal while staying focused on the functional requirements of the house and the creation of user-centric living space.
The economic boom of the late 1980s and 90s fueled remarkable growth within the City of Redmond, home to software giants Microsoft and Nintendo America. This period saw a similar growth in the size of the City government. As the new century began, it became clear that they had outgrown their existing 1960s era building, and needed a newer, more flexible facility that would serve their needs and represent the City as they faced the future.
The new City Hall building is the largest public works project ever undertaken in the City’s history. In order to ease the financial burden that such a project would impose, Wright Runstad & Company and the City agreed upon a public / private funding mechanism which has become increasingly more popular for the financing of public projects.
LEED Platinum Certified Desert Museum Complex By Lehrer + Gangi Design + Build
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Written by Julie D. Taylor
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
A Platinum LEED certification from the US Green Building Council (USGBC) was awarded to the Water + Life Museums, which comprise the Center for Water Education and the Western Center for Archeology and Paleontology, designed and constructed by Los Angeles-based Lehrer + Gangi Design + Build.
The complex is the first museum building to secure a Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating, the highest bestowed by the USGBC. The award is doubly impressive, as the 70,000-square-foot museum complex met the most exacting green standards (including those regarding energy and water consumption), despite the harsh desert environment of Hemet, where triple-digit summer heat is the norm, but where water can freeze in winter.
