The Deloitte Headquarters is Denmark’s largest open office building. Designed by 3XN, it is situated opposite the recreational area of Stadsgraven waters by Langebro, close to city, Ørestad and the Metro.


A common urban masterplan controls three buildings, of which Deloitte is the largest. They present themselves as solitary volumes on the edge between land and water.

  
This office building rises from its surroundings with a distinctive exterior; a shell structure of intertwined wooden elements, covering a transparent structure of glass and steel.  Transparency and lightness make the essential ingredients of the formal concept.


The bended wooden diamond elements, sprouting from balconies, enter in a dialogue with the textile membrane that helps the building integrate in the surrounding landscape and protects the construction from bad weather conditions and excessive exposure to the sun. 


Natural illumination penetrates the building from all sides and enhances the visual impact of the internal volumes, the different textures and materials that are used, guaranteeing a crisp visual cleanliness.

Some projects help the architect to think about the basics. This is more important in these times when, they are questioning their methods, and needs to be done differently to obtain a more eco-friendly and sustainable project.

In that perspective, Sou Fujimoto built this prototypical project that kept him thinking of the primary functions of the house.

Here are the ideas behind the project, in the architect’s own words.

« I wanted to create an ultimate wooden architecture. I thought through this bungalow, which can be considered as a small and primitive house, it was possible to do a primitive and simultaneously new architecture. 350mm square profile cedar is piled endlessly. At the end of the process appears a prototypical place before architecture became architecture."

All photographs © Iwan Baan

Designed by architect Zaha Hadid (winner of the international competition in 1999), the MAXXI is located in the Flaminio quarter of Rome, in the area of the former Montello military barracks.

The MAXXI_Museum of 21st Century Arts is a foundation created by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (Minister Sandro Bondi). The president is Pio Baldi.


The complex houses two institutions: MAXXI Arte (Director Anna Mattirolo) and MAXXI Architecture (Director Margherita Guccione), aiming to promote art and architecture through collection, conservation, study and exhibition of contemporary works.

As of today, over 300 works are part of the MAXXI Art collection, including those of Boetti, Clemente, Kapoor, Kentridge, Merz, Penone, Pintaldi, Richter, Warhol and many others. MAXXI Architecture includes the files of the designs of Carlo Scarpa, Aldo Rossi, Pierluigi Nervi and others, as well as the projects of contemporary authors such as Toyo Ito, Italo Rota and Giancarlo De Carlo, and photography collections of the projects Italian Atlas and Author’s Site.

San Francisco based KMD Architects wins international design competition for Seongnam City Hall, Seoul’s largest satellite city.

A year and a half after winning the international design competition for the new Seoul City Hall, KMD in association with Samoo Architects and Hyundai has won a second international design competition in Korea, this time for the new Seongnam City Hall near Seoul.

Modernism had a famous motto stating that a house is a machine for living in.


If the architect still adheres to that principle, as the machine and the societies  that were built upon it go through dramatic changes, the question he should ask himself would relate to the understanding of about the definition of modern architecture today. What message should the architecture convey if it distances itself away from the industrial age?


Like other fast developing suburbs in North America, Mississauga, located in the vicinities of Toronto, is seeking a new identity that best explains its own characters.