Glacier Bay National Park – Alaska – USA (by Alexander Shchukin)
Manila Architecture Workshop (MAAW) was just awarded one of six outstanding entries to the recently completed Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (MADE) programs for Architecture and Interior Design. In partnership with the United Architects of the Philippines and BluPrint Magazine, MADE encourages architects to design inventive buildings that address public, economic, and environmental issues.
Per the competition’s instructions, design entries were required to relate to their chosen site or inhabitants. MAAW proposed a Civic Center — intended as an urban environment capable of supporting its community and wellbeing. The firm believes that a civic center can be responsible for improving the quality of life through cultural opportunities and exposure to knowledge.
This project was inspired by one of the Philippines’ noble traits which embodies close relationship with neighbors, and devotion to a community’s organization, “Bayanihan” which means “being in a bayan”, refers to the spirit of communal unity, work and cooperation to achieve a particular goal, states their proposal.
Within the civic center, spaces will be provided for a community library, a learning center, barangay and local government offices, a lecture auditorium, and a multi-purpose gallery. In addition to an urban farm deck where community members can produce their own food, a ground level plaza allows pedestrians to move freely through the space. Naturally, a farm-to-table concept will then enable produce from the community garden to be cooked at the canteen.
Inspired by “blinking eyes,” the proposal’s façade (or modular cells capable of eliminating pollution) wrap around the building and thereby cleanse the air. Its exterior is composed of a material that screens direct sunlight (helping cool the building), while photovoltaic cells line the roof deck. What more could this building need? A desalination tank that processes storm water is also located at basement level to be reserved for outdoor irrigation.
In MAAW’s statement for their proposal, they link the civic center to the Agora in ancient Greece, inviting the public to make transactions and engage in cultural pursuits. A key attribute of their project needs the continuity of public interest and commitment to the Civic Center.
MADE was created in 1984 with the intent to engage youth in positive challenges during the political turmoil in the Philippines at that time.
News Via: Manila Architecture Workshop
French studio Lacaton & Vassal and Chilean studio UMWELT have been revealed as the recipients of the 2016 Lisbon Architecture Triennale’s Lifetime Achievement Award and Début Award, respectively. An award ceremony will take place on the 15th November 2016 at the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB), followed by a conference convened by Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal.
The Lisbon Architecture Triennial’s Millennium bcp Lifetime Achievement Award “distinguishes the individual or studio whose work and ideas have influenced and continue to have a great impact on current architectural practices and discourse.” Selected by an international jury of architects, writers and curators—including Andres Lepik, Bijoy Jain, Cecilia Puga, Jorge Figueira, Juan Herreros, and Niall Hobhouse—the practice will receive a specially commissioned artwork by José Pedro Croft, the artist representing Portugal at the 2017 Venice Art Biennale.
José Mateus, President of the Triennale, has said that “the work of Lacaton & Vassal has reached worldwide recognition for its relevance as well as uniqueness. From small projects marked by the questioning of typologies and materials used outside of their conventional field, to the clever re-invention of pre-existing architectures, their body of work is an extraordinary example of the capacity of transformation that architecture can achieve.”
Founded in Paris by Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, the studio is internationally recognized for its sustainable reuse of existent resources and structures as well as for a series of careful rehabilitation schemes. Their most notable projects include the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the School of Architecture in Nantes, and Cité Manifeste in Mulhouse. Previous Lifetime Achievement Awards have been bestowed upon Italian architect Vittorio Gregotti (2007), Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira (2010), and British theorist and historian Kenneth Frampton (2013).
The Millennium bcp Début Award, now in its second year (having been previously awarded in 2013 to American architect Jimenez Lai), aims to recognize the work and promote the career of new generations of architects and studios under the age of 35. The jury—including André Tavares (co-curator of the The Form of Form, the 2016 Triennale), Fernanda Bárbara, Luís Santiago Baptista, Margarita Jover, Mimi Zeiger, Tetsuo Kondo, and Tim Abrahams—evaluated more than 140 applications from across the world before reaching their decision.
For Tavares, “the body of work already done by this promising duo combines built projects with highly relevant research work. There are links to be found between their critical look at the landscape and territory, as well as a very strong connection between their conceptual thinking and the realization of their projects. Thought and rigor of construction drive the renovation of the formal imagery of architecture in their projects.” Founded in 2011 by Ignacio Garcia Partarrieu (1984) and Arturo Scheidegger (1983), the studio “develops research and design projects at different scales” and has exhibited widely. They will receive a prize of €5000.
Þjófafoss by g nikulasson í Þjórsá Búrfell í bakgrunni http://flic.kr/p/8tKA1y
Berkeley-based TLS Landscape Architecture has won the Lion Mountain Park Design competition in Suzhou, China, corresponding to the Chinese government’s new Urban Work Guidelines. The guidelines prioritize ecological and urban development, as well as rejuvenation of local character in public spaces. Lion Mountain Park will be the first large-scale public project to be constructed according to these values, envisioned as the core of a new urban ecosystem complex.
To that end, the park aims to revitalize the surrounding mountain, forest, and aquatic environment through natural processes in the traditional Chinese style of shanshui—unifying the adjacent Shishan (Lion) Mountain and Shishan Lake. Shishan Lake is planned to double in size and improve drastically in water quality as a result of a new sustainable watershed that harvests rainwater and naturally filters runoff from the development area.
Lion Mountain Park is also projected to become the featured amenity of the up-and-coming Suzhou High-Tech District. Developers hope the park’s spotlight on flourishing nature and an ancient geological landmark will produce a high-value focal point in its urban environment. At 74 hectares, the park will be built on the grounds of a former amusement park and pond, and will house a public art program emphasizing local cultural and artistic traditions. Park construction is scheduled to begin in March 2017.
News via: TLS Landscape Architecture
Sig Nordal 