Coinciding with the organization’s 60th anniversary this year, The Graham Foundation has announced the list of recipients of their 2016 Grants to Organizations, a total of $419,000 (USD) to be given to 31 exemplary projects from around the world. The Organization Grants are awarded to projects displaying “originality, capacity, feasibility and potential for impact” and are divided amongst four categories: Exhibition, Film/Video/New Media, Public Program, and Publication.

In its 60 years, the foundation has made significant impacts in the fields of art and architecture through the awarding of grants to outstanding projects, exhibitions and publications. They have expanded their exhibition programming in the past few years, including a display at the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennale last year.

Continue after the break for the full list of recipients.

EXHIBITION (16 awards) 

Marshall Brown Projects, "Dequindre Civic Academy," 2016. Towards a Coordinate Unit, handmade collage on inkjet print, 40×50 inches. Speculative project spanning Detroit’s Dequindre Cut greenway. Courtesy of the artist. From the 2016 Organizational Grant to Anyone Corporation for "The Architectural Imagination: US Pavilion, 15th International Architecture Exhibition."

ANYONE CORPORATION
New York, NY
The Architectural Imagination: US Pavilion, 15th International Architecture Exhibition
The United States Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, curated by Cynthia Davidson and Monica Ponce de Leon, presents twelve speculative architecture projects across four Detroit sites with far-reaching applications for cities around the world. 

THE BRONX MUSEUM OF THE ARTS
New York, NY
Gordon Matta-Clark: Anarchitect
This project examines the artist’s groundbreaking impact on rethinking architecture after the fall of modernism’s urban utopia and demonstrates, through a distinctive exhibition and accompanying publication, the unique role of the Bronx in both his artistic development and sociopolitical engagement. 

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY LONG BEACH-UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM
Long Beach, CA
Robert Irwin: Site Determined
Four decades of artist Robert Irwin’s work—site-determined outdoor environmental projects—are explored in this comprehensive exhibition of his drawings and architectural models. 

CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM ST. LOUIS
St. Louis, MO
Urban Planning: Contemporary Art and the City, 1966–2017
Critical socioeconomic developments have resulted in the irrevocable transformation of North American cities through various stages of growth, decline, and revival—this exhibition features more than twenty international artists including Mark Bradford, Abigail DeVille, Glenn Ligon, Josiah McElheny, Catherine Opie, Michael Rakowitz, Robert Smithson, and Sara Van Der Beek, among others whose work demonstrates how such conditions offer fertile ground for artistic inquiry today. 

Chinese public health poster depicting the human body as a factory, 1933. Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine. From the 2016 Organizational Grant to Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts for "Are We Human?, 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial."

ISTANBUL FOUNDATION FOR CULTURE AND ARTS
Istanbul, Turkey
Are We Human?, 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial
Opening this October, curators Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley put forward eight interlinked propositions around the topic “Are We Human? The Design of the Species: 2 seconds, 2 years, 200 years, 200,000 years.” 

Pierre Chareau, Maison de Verre interior, 1928–32, Paris. Copyright: Mark Lyon. From the 2016 Organizational Grant to The Jewish Museum for "Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design."

THE JEWISH MUSEUM
New York, NY
Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design
This first US retrospective of French modernist Pierre Chareau—known for ingeniously integrating traditional craftsmanship with Machine Age–advances—showcases his creative contributions as an architect, artist, and furniture designer, within the context of his extraordinary life and Jewish cultural background. 

LIGA-SPACE FOR ARCHITECTURE
Mexico City, Mexico
LIGA Exhibition Program, 2016–2017
LIGA’s annual program will consist of four exhibitions, in which emerging studios from across Latin America intervene in their Insurgents’ Avenue gallery space, along with conferences, workshops, debates, and performances, each of which explore tangential relationships with architecture. 

LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART
Liverpool, United Kingdom
Céline Condorelli: Liverpool Biennial 2016 Portals
Céline Condorelli’s artworks sit between architecture and contemporary art—here they will serve as gateways to access the fictional worlds of the 2016 Liverpool Biennial, which will unfold through the landscape of the city. 

LOS ANGELES FORUM FOR ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN
Los Angeles, CA
Tu casa es mi casa
Two modernist houses—the Neutra VDL Studio and Residence in Los Angeles and the Archivo house by Arturo Chávez Paz in Mexico City—are brought together via the exchange of narrative texts, industrial objects, and installations by contemporary architects/artists, including Frida Escobedo, Aris Janigian, Pedro&Juana, and Katya Tylevich. 

MADISON SQUARE PARK CONSERVANCY
New York, NY
Prismatic Park: Colored Glass to Destroy Hatred
Artist Josiah McElheny will create an outdoor, multidisciplinary exhibition uniting architectural form, sculpture, and performing arts to explore the ongoing urgency of public space as a place for and catalyst of cultural expression and inclusion. 

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART TUCSON
Tucson, AZ
The World Would Burn without Rain
The architecture office Aranda\Lasch and artist Terrol Dew Johnson collaborate to showcase a collection of experimental new work that blends traditional Native American craft with contemporary design. 

Frank Lloyd Wright, "Liberty Magazine" cover, colored pencil on paper, 24.5 x 28.25” (62.2 x 71.8 cm), 1926. Courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (the Museum of Modern Art/Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York). From the 2016 Organizational Grant to Museum of Modern Art for "Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive."

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
New York, NY
Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive
The Museum of Modern Art’s major exhibition critically engages the recently acquired Wright archive, offering new interpretations of this rich trove to the public, 150 years after the birth of the seminal modern American architect. 

NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM
Washington, DC
Secret Cities: The Architecture and Planning of the Manhattan Project
This exhibition examines the innovative architecture, construction, and planning of three cities built from scratch by the US government during World War II—Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Hanford/Richland, Washington—in order to produce the first atomic bomb. 

Yona Friedman, Serpentine Summer House, 2016, London. Photo: Iwan Baan. From the 2016 Organizational Grant to Serpentine Gallery for "Serpentine Pavilion and Summer Houses 2016."

SERPENTINE GALLERY
London, United Kingdom
Serpentine Pavilion and Summer Houses 2016
The Serpentine Architecture Programme expands this year with the addition of four newly commissioned Summer Houses by Kunlé Adeyemi, Barkow Leibinger, Yona Friedman, and Asif Khan, which join the 2016 Serpentine Pavilion by Bjarke Ingels Group. 

OFFICE Kersten Geers and David Van Severen, "Korea City Hall", 2015. Courtesy of the artists. From the 2016 Organizational Grant to Swiss Institute for "Display."

SWISS INSTITUTE
New York, NY
Display
Curated by Niels Olsen and Fredi Fischli, this conceptual project explores the tension in exhibiting architecture through layering modes of display in an atmospheric installation consisting of architectural drawings. 

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO-NEUBAUER COLLEGIUM FOR CULTURE AND SOCIETY & SMART MUSEUM OF ART
Chicago, IL
Fantastic Architecture: Vostell, Fluxus, and the Built Environment and Vostell Concrete, 1969– 1973 
In conjunction with the reinstallation of Concrete Traffic (1970)—a major public sculpture by leading Fluxus artist Wolf Vostell—on the University of Chicago campus, two original exhibitions examine Vostell’s use of concrete against the contexts of postwar art, architecture, and urbanism, and explore the Fluxus movement’s engagement with public space and the built environment. 

FILM/VIDEO/NEW MEDIA (1 award) 

MONOAMBIENTE
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Amancio Williams 2.0
Working with documents from the archive of Argentine architect Amancio Williams, this project will introduce Williams’s work to an international audience, while formulating a new vision of how to develop a living archive. 

PUBLIC PROGRAM (3 awards) 

CAMPO
Bogota, Colombia
Colombian Architecture Banal
Envisioned to become a space reflecting upon architectural practice, this public program aims to discuss the production of the public sphere and question the proliferation of the biennial as a model for the “exhibition,” rather than reflection, of architecture. 

LAMPO
Chicago, IL
Lampo 2016 Concert Series at the Graham Foundation
A concert series presenting the work of music’s leading experimentalists, bringing musicians and composers from North America, South America, Europe, and Asia to Chicago. 

SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS
Chicago, IL
Making and Re-Making Glasgow: Heritage and Sustainability
This seminar seeks to bring new perspectives and audiences to the dialogue addressing regeneration, preservation, and sustainability for Glasgow and other post-industrial cities as it relates to housing, open spaces, and waterways, particularly Glasgow’s River Clyde. 

PUBLICATION (11 awards) 

Rifat Chadirji, IRQ/314/154: Offices and stores, Tobacco Monopoly Administration, 1966, Baghdad, Iraq. Courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation. From the 2016 Organizational Grant to Arab Image Foundation for "Rifat Chadirji: Architecture Photo Index."

ARAB IMAGE FOUNDATION
Beirut, Lebanon
Rifat Chadirji: Architecture Photo Index
A comprehensive publication of Iraqi architect Rifat Chadirji’s photographic folio that records and analyzes the development of his building practice in and around Baghdad from 1952 through the early 1980s. 

Adrian George, front and back covers of "Architectural Design" special issue on IID Summer Session (1970), April 1971, London. Courtesy of Alvin Boyarsky Archive. From the 2016 Organizational Grant to the Architectural Association for "In Progress: The IID Summer Sessions."

ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION
London, United Kingdom
In Progress: The IID Summer Sessions
Featuring a wealth of previously unpublished archival material, this book, edited by Irene Sunwoo, documents the history of Alvin Boyarsky’s International Institute of Design Summer Sessions (1970-72), an experimental school that convened architects, educators, planners, and students from across the world for the global exchange of emerging design strategies, teaching methods, and theoretical positions. 

ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO 
Chicago, IL
As Seen: Exhibitions that Made Architecture and Design History 
One of the first publications to explore the influence of architecture and design exhibitions long after their closing date. 

CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL
Chicago, IL
The State of the Art of Architecture
The curatorial team of the 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial invited practicing architects to converse with leading cultural figures, resulting in a collection of original texts that serve as both a legacy of the first Biennial and an invaluable survey of ideas and positions in architecture today. 

GUAYABA PRESS
Mexico City, Mexico
Sur 3: Esther McCoy: The Mexican Years
Taking as its starting point the connections between architectural critic Esther McCoy and Mexico, this publication includes moments from her personal life, her political and artistic acquaintances, her writings while in Mexico, and the relationships the writer started with some of the most emblematic figures of modern Mexican history. 

MAS CONTEXT
Chicago, IL
MAS Context, Issues 33–36
A quarterly design journal that addresses issues that affect the urban context, providing a comprehensive view of a single topic through the participation of people from different fields and different perspectives. 

PLACES JOURNAL
San Francisco, CA
Places Journal: Writers Fund
This capacity-building initiative will allow Places Journal to proactively commission agenda-setting articles and to support the valuable intellectual labor of research, reportage, and critique. 

PROJECT: A JOURNAL FOR ARCHITECTURE
Los Angeles, CA
Project: A Journal for Architecture, Issue No. 6
Focused on publishing the work of emerging practices and critics, this print and online platform engages critical writing and architectural projects as a serious forum for work and thought on the discipline of architecture today. 

TERREFORM
New York, NY
UR (Urban Research), Volumes 07–11
This book series, edited by Michael Sorkin, devoted to speculation about the conditions and the future of the city continues to establish UR and Terreform as key venues for both individuals and organizations engaged in progressive urban research, design, and critical advocacy. 

UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG
Johannesburg, South Africa
Folio
A dynamic internationally peer-reviewed publication that will focus on emerging discourses of architecture, education, and urbanism across the African continent. 

VERLAG DER BUCHHANDLUNG WALTHER KÖNIG
Cologne, Germany
Thomas Demand: Model Studies I & II
Exploring the work of architects John Lautner and SANAA, German sculptor and photographer Thomas Demand focuses his lens on the pockets, edges, and corners of architectural models made from materials such as paper and cardboard. 

About the Graham Foundation
Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts makes project-based grants to individuals and organizations, and produces programming designed to foster the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society.
The Graham Foundation was created by a bequest from Ernest R. Graham (1866–1936), a prominent Chicago architect and protégé of Daniel Burnham.

Upcoming Grant Application Deadlines
Grants to Individuals: September 15, 2016
Carter Manny Award: November 15, 2016
Grants to Organizations: January 25, 2017

News via The Graham Foundation.

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© John Ellis

• Architects: Rios Clementi Hale Studios
• Location: United States, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Project Year: 2014
• Photographs: John Ellis

• Interior Designer: Waldo’s Designs

© John Ellis

From the architect. Rios Clementi Hale Studios renovated and expanded an eclectic, 1980s manor house into a contemporary “farmhouse” retreat for a film and television producer.  Since the original house was already well situated in its orientation to canyon views, the architects kept the building footprint in place and preserved the height and steep pitch of the roof to create a loft feeling inside.  They extensively remodeled and expanded the interiors to open the rooms, simplify the circulation, better capture views, and blur the boundary between indoors and outdoors.  The architects maximized the existing “bones” of the house and then focused on letting the landscape flow through.  

© John Ellis

Complementary slate roof tiles and tongue-and-groove siding of gray-painted cedar replace the original exterior materials.  New expanses of glass are screened from direct sunlight by a rhythmic pattern of vertical, aluminum fins forming a continuous, two-story brise soleil (that also deters nosy onlookers).  Large, cantilevered windows rimmed in steel project from gabled additions on the north and south sides of the house to engage the landscape.  Original masonry chimneys were rebuilt to current seismic standards and internal gutters hidden from view to maintain the home’s taut profile.  The resulting design reinterprets the traditional barn vernacular through modern simplicity and transparency.  

1st Floor Plan

The house is organized into a T-shape with rooms on each level accessed from the longer, horizontal bar, essentially a central, east-west circulation spine that extends the entire length of the house.  Staircases and less-used spaces—including guest rooms, home gym, garages, and screening room—occupy the perpendicular wing at the front of the property.  To highlight the owner’s extensive art collection, the architects designed the interiors as clean-lined, flowing spaces open to views through floor-to-ceiling windows.  New skylights funnel daylight into living spaces and bedrooms.  Banks of glass doors open the ground floor rooms to the outdoors.  Steel-framed windows on the second floor project into the landscape to create the feeling of being suspended in midair.  Connections to the outdoors are reinforced through floors of gray limestone extending from the entrance through the foyer, living area, and family porch to cover the rear patio.

© John Ellis

A staircase featuring full-height, gunmetal-finished metal railings at the center of the house leads to the middle of the spine, where a mezzanine office/den overlooks the living room on the west end, and bedroom suites sit at the east.  The original master suite was moved from the southwest corner of the house to the northeast side overlooking the pool view.  The master bedroom was enlarged and new his-and-her bathrooms added to the suite.

2nd Floor Plan

The interior furnishings selections—by Waldo’s Designs, which is known for its high-profile Hollywood clientele—complement the architecture in their soft contemporary style.  Natural textures, including dark-stained oak, rough-hewn stone, and high-grained woods, are balanced against the hard-edged, metal surfaces, glass walls, and stone floors throughout.

© John Ellis

An important component of the design is the estate’s park-like landscape that was refreshed and refined by the architects.  Old-growth trees, including redwoods, cedars, and palms, are preserved and surrounded by manicured lawns and hedges.  The lawn appears as an extension of the golf course below the property to reinforce the vistas from the estate.  Separating building from landscape is a strip of gravel encircling the base of the house to set off its modern architecture.  A new reflecting pool and illuminated bridge create a dramatic entrance to the front door, particularly at night when the glass-faced house glows like a lantern.

© John Ellis

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Courtesy of RIBA

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has elected Ben Derbyshire, chair of HTA Design, to become their next president. Beating out other candidates Alan Jones and Andrew Salter, Derbyshire will take over from current president Jane Duncan for a two-year term beginning on September 1, 2017.

Derbyshire has been a partner at HTA since 1987, where he has penned several essays including a recommendation on solutions to London’s Tall Building Boom, and has played an active role in RIBA activities for a number of years, including calling for an overhaul of the RIBA election process in 2014. He has held a number of Board positions throughout his career, including at RIBA Enterprises, and Design for Homes, and is a trustee of The London Society.

Courtesy of RIBA

“Once again we find ourselves in turbulent times. In winning this election I am conscious of a great sense of responsibility owed to architects everywhere, in all corners of the UK and overseas,” said Derbyshire following the announcement. “Jane Duncan has laid the foundations for change at the RIBA that I look forward to driving forward, when I take up the role of President. My primary goal is to champion architects so that they, our sister professions and clients, can advance architecture as the cornerstone of the well-designed and more sustainable built environment society desperately needs. All architects, wherever and however we practice, need an RIBA that works for us.”

“Congratulations to Ben Derbyshire on his successful election and to Alan Jones and Andrew Salter for putting themselves forward for this fantastic role,” said current RIBA President Jane Duncan. “During the next year of my Presidency, I will be playing my part in implementing the RIBA’s new five-year strategy which distilled the collective views of our membership. I look forward to passing this important baton on to Ben Derbyshire and ensuring that our profession has a strong voice and all our members, wherever they are, have the skills and support they need to thrive.”

Turnout for the election was 15.2%; Ben Derbyshire was elected with 53.8% of the votes after the exclusion and re-allocation of 1st preference votes. For the year leading up to his inauguration, Derbyshire will become the official RIBA President-Elect.

The position of RIBA President was established in 1835 and has been held by notable architects including Sir George Gilbert Scott, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, Alfred Waterhouse and Sir Basil Spence.

News via RIBA.

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Initial study for internal street. Image Courtesy of Stanton Williams

University College London (UCL) has selected Stanton Williams and Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands to design buildings for two sites as part of the first phase of the new UCL East campus. The campus will be constructed at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London, adjacent to the London Olympics Stadium, Zaha Hadid’s London Aquatics Center and the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower by Anish Kapoor, and is anticipated to contain facilities for a major new school of design.

Courtesy of Stanton Williams

Stanton Williams will design “Marshgate”, a 33,500 square meter academic facility south of the ArcelorMittal Orbit, while Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands will realize a 16,500 square meter mixed-use facility containing university residential and academic space on Pool Street, just south of the Aquatics Center.

“This is a unique opportunity to create a distinctive place: a new kind of university quarter that captures the excitement and vitality that draws people to live, work and study in contemporary London,” said Gavin Henderson, Director, Stanton Williams. “Drawing on the energy of its East London setting, the Lee Valley’s legacy of industriousness and creativity, and the exceptional cultural and landscape setting of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, this will be a place for curiosity, learning and collaboration engaged with the culture of the surrounding city. We feel privileged to have the opportunity to work with UCL and LLDC to deliver the vision for UCL East.”

Courtesy of Stanton Williams

Courtesy of Stanton Williams

“This is a fascinating project for a building that combines many uses – residential as well as academic.” said Alex Lifschutz about the Pool Street project. “We very much wish it also to become a place that local people visit and enjoy, to make contact with UCL and to engage in many inspiring conversations. We hope that this building together with its neighbour on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park are as much of a catalyst for this new campus as the Wilkins Building on Gower Street was for this most prestigious university in 1825.”

Study model: building form and cast of social spaces. Image Courtesy of Stanton Williams

The complete East campus plan will accommodate 3,000 students and 625 staff members, including academics and researchers, and will cost an estimated £270 million. The scheme will also incorporate the Stratford Waterfront, which will include a new museum for the V&A, a theater for Sadler’s Wells, a new campus for the UAL’s London College of Fashion and a residential complex. The development is part of a larger £1.2 billion initiative to upgrade and expand university facilities, including at the school’s historic Bloomsbury campus, home to the acclaimed Bartlett School of Architecture.

News via Stanton Williams.

How London’s Olympic Stadium Finally Transitioned to Legacy Mode
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Instant City project model, 1966. Image Courtesy of Tigerman McCurry Architects

This article was originally published on Autodesk’s Line//Shape//Space publication as “Inside My Design Mind: Salt-of-the-Earth Lessons From Architect Stanley Tigerman.”

It’s no secret Stanley Tigerman has made a few enemies in his career. Chicago’s pugnacious 85-year-old architecture star and elder statesman, who received a lifetime achievement award from the American Institute of Architects in October, is known perhaps as much for his brand of gloves-off honesty as his buildings. In a 2013 interview with Chicago magazine, he summed up the redesign of the city’s Ludwig Mies van der Rohe–designed IBM tower as “shit.”

But there’s a socially minded, nurturing side of Tigerman—designer of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Pacific Garden Mission—that is sometimes lost in the offhand bravado of his public-facing comments. As a member of the Chicago Seven (which protested the predominance of modernism) and a provocateur who has organized seminal forums about architecture’s future, Tigerman is more than just tough talk.

Here, the architect, educator, and curator reveals a generous and expansive mind, praising the uncompromising will of his role model Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and explaining where he finds and nourishes inspiration. He speaks fondly of architecture’s next generation, to whom he offers this advice: Go slow. Don’t copy. Stand firm. Work hard.

The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie, Illinois, 2009. Image Courtesy of Tigerman McCurry Architects

Jeff Link: You’re deeply tied to Chicago’s architectural traditions and history. Your practice is in River North, you directed the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture, and you even call Chicago the city of modernism. How does that Chicago tradition inspire you?

Stanley Tigerman: I was born in Chicago, and being an architect here is like being a Muslim in Mecca—you are right at the source of the flame. Chicago is the most modern city on the planet, acknowledged to be after it burned down in 1871. It’s challenging to go up against all those great names, my predecessors.

But Chicago is in good hands. The youngest generation practicing architecture has so much talent, including theoretical understanding. And it continues to be challenging and exciting to me. I live in one of Mies’ buildings [910 Lake Shore Drive], and that was done very consciously by me because I wanted to live in response to that excellence, the level to which one needs to aspire.

JL: Did Mies have a strong influence on your work?

ST: No. There’s very little physical bearing on what Mies did and what I did. What there is, is the challenge of his thinking, his way of working. When he was forced to leave Germany in 1938, he had a library of 3,000 books. The SS only allowed him to take 30. The 30 he took are all in the rare books library at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and they are incredible to look at: the writings of Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas. He was a serious reader.

Mies didn’t say anything casually. He meant what he said, and he said very little. I knew him very well; he was very impressive. It’s a challenge because he wasn’t loose with his comments—about life, about work and architecture. He took things very slowly; very deliberately; and never in any way, shape, or form off the cuff. That, to me, has always instilled a kind of role model and paradigm. It’s not my nature. I make a lot of mistakes, but I always go back and try to correct them. Like how a building turns a corner: Sometimes I think about it in a very slipshod way; I think about it, and I can’t do this or that, so I redesign it again and again and again. Architecture is like editing is for a writer: honing it, getting it a little better and a little better.

Illinois Regional Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, 1982. Image Courtesy of Tigerman McCurry Architects

JL: Can you point to a specific project that shows the importance of editing in your work?

ST: No. But let me approach it this way: Once, we were working on a project in Mies’ office in Montreal. I was talking to someone, and Mies was nearby at one of the drafting boards. There was a young man asking him questions about how he wanted a certain thing to look. Mies told him he would think about it. Three weeks later, I was in the same office; Mies was there with the same young man, and he showed him how to do it. He saw it through, and that stayed in my mind: that the right decision took him three weeks. That’s important to my way of thinking.

JL: You run your architectural practice, Tigerman McCurry Architects, with your wife and partner, Margaret McCurry. Is that a challenge?

ST: Yes. It’s difficult. We argue all the time. But Margaret is a very good architect. I listen to her. I didn’t always, but I do now. My influence on Margaret has made her a bit quicker. Her influence on me has slowed me down. Margaret has impeccable taste.

JL: Your 2011 autobiography is called Designing Bridges to Burn. Why, as a designer, do you want to burn bridges?

ST: Because an unfortunate part of my M.O. is putting my foot in my mouth more often than necessary. I tend to say things without thinking. That’s why Mies was such a role model to me. He never said boo without thinking it through. The title came from a phrase Margaret used one day after we were having some argument. “When they find you face down in an alley, it will take the police a very long time to find the killer because the list of suspects will be very long,” she said. “You’re at the stage of your life where you’re designing bridges to burn.” I’m not exactly user-friendly, which I feel badly about because that’s not the way I see myself.

Stanley Tigerman’s conceptual 1978 image of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s <a href='http://ift.tt/2aD3wKf;. Image Courtesy of Tigerman McCurry Architects

JL: In an interview with Chicago magazine, you said you prefer to begin “with a blank slate every time, rather than returning to a particular style.” Where do your ideas originate?

ST: They originate in the idiosyncrasies because they are all different—different aspirations, ambitions, and conceits. And where my own head is at, at the particular moment. From the particular to the general, from a site to the work and back again. People say, “What’s your favorite project?” The next one, of course.

JL: What happens when you get architect’s block?

ST: We’re working on a number of things right now. I just sat down on a detail on a garden in Michigan, working out how to turn a corner. I told the client what I was thinking, and it helped with another project. Writer’s block, or architect’s block, is not a big deal. You just go and do something else, and it will come back to you. You need to leave the mind.

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© MIR/Snøhetta

Snøhetta has won a competition to design the new headquarters for Banque Libano Francaise (BLF) in Beirut, Lebanon. The building will feature a geometric facade and several large outdoor terraces carved from the built volume to create a vibrant workplace community. The project marks Snøhetta’s first ever commission in Lebanon.

© MIR/Snøhetta

To create a building emblematic of the evolving strategies of the corporate world, Snøhetta approached the design with an architectural language that is “both generic and conceptual at the same time.” The result is an aesthetic that speaks both to the future of the bank and its surrounding city and community.

The BLF Headquarters will contain both public and private areas. Public spaces are found at the building base, where the building’s permeable facade encourages a connection to the street and the larger neighborhood. Workspaces are designed to encircle the shared terraces, carved from different sides of the volume as it rises. The terraces will serve as the nexus of the work environment, acting as social hubs which form the primary organization for the entire office.

© MIR/Snøhetta

© MIR/Snøhetta

Another key quality of the building will be its sustainability, organized by Snøhetta into three categories: “Economic Sustainability – the project must be fundamentally economically viable; Social Sustainability – the project must give back to the city and complement the existing urban context; and Environmental Sustainability – the project must respond to the environment both in regard to energy consumed and with regard the embodied energy of the structure.”

“We are delighted to enter into this creative partnership with the BLF. In a time of profound change and transformation, the BLF is an ideal partner for Snøhetta with our shared ideals of sustainability, community, and dialogue.”, says Snøhetta founding partner Kjetil T. Thorsen.

© MIR/Snøhetta

Snøhetta will continue working to finalize the design. A timetable for construction has not yet been released.

© MIR/Snøhetta

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© Marcelo Donadussi

• Architects: Arquitetura Nacional
• Location: Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
• Authors: Eduardo Maurmann, Elen Balvedi Maurmann, Paula Otto, Luiza Otto and Arquitetura Nacional Team
• Mep Projects: Elétrons
• Area: 550.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Marcelo Donadussi

© Marcelo Donadussi

Estúdio Pretto specializes in Functional training and Sports Conditioning. They hired Arquitetura Nacional to design their new – and much larger- space. Located in the same neighborhood – Moinhos de Vento – the studio now occupies an entire floor of a newly built commercial space, featuring original concrete slab that was kept intact and aparent. 

© Marcelo Donadussi

The proposal sought maximum visual integration of spaces – as the training requires constant communication between teachers and students. However, compartmentalization of the respective areas was necessary: the reception and lounge area, the locker rooms, warm-up area and training – achieved through changes in the floors designs. The lounge and reception area received a stronger marking: floors, walls and ceiling were painted yellow. The idea was to create a living space – previously non-existent in the old space – an area where the students can rest and, more importantly, socialize out of training hours. 

© Marcelo Donadussi

Plan

© Marcelo Donadussi

The training area divides in shades of gray and black. The goal is that a student can intuitively understand the spaces the moment he enters the training zone, preparing the mood. The specific floors for each type of practice alternate in space, respecting circulation flows. Ropes in 5 different colors run throughout the ceiling – starting all together and following the paths of the concrete beams until each one follows it’s own course. 

© Marcelo Donadussi

Diagram

© Marcelo Donadussi

Main partitions are made of iron frames, with checkerboard shape, remembering old industrial buildings. The use of small tiles and neon lights also bring a vintage mood for the studio. The idea is that it is a timeless space with elements that refer to good things from the past, but with a simple and contemporary language. In this sense, the choice of furniture also had the same objective: the studio can grow healthily, with a strong character that lasts over the many years of future success.

© Marcelo Donadussi

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As part of the Danish contribution to the 2016 Venice Biennale Urban Agency embarked on a challenging feat: the construction a 1:50 concrete model. The firm—based in Dublin, Copenhagen and Lyon—contributed three projects to the “Human Architectures” exhibition at this year’s Danish Pavilion.

The video shows the careful, painstaking process of molding, setting and assembling the 150kg model. Urban Agency told ArchDaily,

“Enjoy watching our conceptual 1:50 concrete model come to life! This short film shows the process of creating the model, while the model tells the story behind the architecture. After many endeavors on the way, the 150kg heavy design arrived safely in Venice alongside our two other “Human Architectures” and will be on display in the Danish Pavilion until the 27th of November. “

See ArchDaily’s full coverage of the 2016 Venice Biennale at http://archdai.ly/2016biennale

DENMARK Art of many and the right to space. 15th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, REPORTING FROM THE FRONT. Image © Giorgio Zucchiatti

DENMARK- Art of many and the right to space. 15th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, REPORTING FROM THE FRONT. Image © Giorgio Zucchiatti

DENMARK Art of many and the right to space. 15th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, REPORTING FROM THE FRONT. Image © Giorgio Zucchiatti

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© Roland Halbe

• Architects: Undurraga + Deves
• Location: Vicuña Mackenna 37, Providencia, Región Metropolitana, Chile
• Project Architect: Cristian Undurraga
• Team: Undurraga + Deves, Pablo Lopez, Soledad Fernandez
• Project Area: 4209.0 m2
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Roland Halbe

• Client: Fundacion Violeta Parra
• Construction: FIDENTIA
• Engineer: Jose Gajardo
• Text: Cristian Undurraga
• Built Area: 1.377 m2
• Site Area: 4.209 m2
• Construction Cost: U$ 2.500.000

© Roland Halbe

This museum stands as a tribute to Violeta Parra (1917-1967), one of the most complete and notable artists born in Chile. The multiplicity of her facets, (music, poetry, visual art, ceramics, popular researcher, stubborn defender of the people, uncompromising artist) make her work and her life a kind of cultural kaleidoscope where multiple edges and infinite reflections are mixed.

© Roland Halbe

The museum is located on the edges of the historic center of Santiago in the “San Borja” neighborhood, an urban area that has evolved from a compact city model to a city of isolated towers where the formal clarity of traditional public space has become blurred in time.

Plans

The site, a large rectangle 44 x 95 meters, is between two important streets in the urban fabric of the city, Avenida Vicuña Mackenna (east boundary), one of the structural axes of Santiago.

© Roland Halbe

The Violeta Parra museum assumes the longitudinal deployment of its facade as urban strategy, with the responsibility to shape the pedestrian walkway. Compression and expansion of this facade along the route results in a figure whose variable width imposes slower traffic on the urban space. Within this route,the access to the Museum is defined by a broad concavity which suggests a pause in the journey.

Elevations

The main facade of the building, which receives light from the south, is made up of double glazing panels with a wicker weave in between, which allows on the one hand, the passage of subdued light and on the other a private and protected interior. This wicker weave announces, from the urban space, the artist’s commitment to craftsmanship.

© Roland Halbe

Inside, a set of curves and counter curves refer to a rich and complex microcosm, anticipating the multiple realities that Violeta Parra witnessed.

© Roland Halbe

© Roland Halbe

The “anchor” programs are located at the ends of the building. To the west there is a small 100-person auditorium, while the exhibition halls are located on the east. The internal circulation extends into the room on the second level, through a ramp that rises between the wicker weave and the wall of the rooms. There, a set of strategically arranged windows reveal the inside of the exhibition halls.

© Roland Halbe

The offices and archives, located on the second level, extend between the exhibition and auditorium areas. Outside, on the top floor, garden areas prolong the central courtyard vegetation. The idea is that the green covers the interior walls of the courtyards obliterating the architecture and displaying a vegetable universe as the dank and cold jungles of southern Chile that Violeta Parra loved.

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Courtesy of Avoid Other Architects + TETRA Architects and Planners

Highways have been operating in largely the same way since the early twentieth century. In the Bao’an District in Shenzhen, China, rapid urbanization and industrialization within the built environment is not mirrored in its infrastructural spine, the G107 highway. In order to investigate the possibilities for this strip and its adjacent areas, a visionary open competition was organized earlier this year. A team lead by Avoid Obvious Architects (AOA) and TETRA Architects and Planners presented a redefinition of the highway typology, with a system complex enough to properly service the rich productivity it is connecting. 

AOA and TETRA’s new G107 is a multi-modal transport system, focused on allowing futuristic modes of transport as it is on implementing cutting edge levels of sustainability. Also referred to by the consortium as an “organic highway,” the proposition aims to foster and connect a network of “green manufacturing,” with the strategic vision of making Bao’an a carbon neutral city by 2045. 

Organized jointly by the People’s Government of Bao’an District, Shenzhen and Urban Planning, Land & Resources Commission of Shenzhen Municipality, the competition drew responses from seven global design firms, one of which was OMA. Spawned from the desire to match the infrastructure to the speed of production, the competition objective was to push teams to conjure up technologically focused, sustainable solutions.

Courtesy of Avoid Other Architects + TETRA Architects and Planners

The current 30km long 12-lane G107 is seen as the antagonist to efficient productivity and transport, and it cuts off the city’s western waterfront development areas from its mountain ranges to the east. AOA and TETRA’s scheme reconnects these two natural amenities, creating an urban landscape between the arterial G107.

We started the G107 challenge by questioning the role of a highway. We propose that traditional highways are outdated and inefficient. Our presentation will demonstrate that multimodal transportation systems that integrate automated technologies like drones, auto-pilot vehicles and high-speed transit are the future of 21st century urban development. We believe there is no need to expand Bao’an’s 12-lane highway. Instead of treating the traditional highway as a fixed piece of infrastructure, we will design a smaller, more fluid, multi-layered, thoroughfare that will be a spectacular starting point of growth for an organic smart city.

In AOA and TETRA’s design, the existing 12-lane highway is split into two 4-lane enclosures which interweave vertically and horizontally along the 30km strip. With sections at grade, above grade and below grade all being utilized for greenery and public amenities, a new density of public program is established. The sections above grade snake through buildings on both sides of the highway, allow pedestrians access to the new transit hubs. Distributed along the strip are new cultural centers which celebrate art and design.

Multimodal transit systems will be employed making travel time from one area to the next within a 15 minute timeframe. An added benefit will be to reduce the city’s dependence on cars. In order to foster an economy of sharing, each intersection will feature transit hubs with shared vehicles.

The design for the new G107 interlaces water management, landscape treatment and transportation so seamlessly that it is almost impossible to differentiate between them. Within the multi-layered design, smart technology to manage air pollution and water are integrated into the roadways themselves. 

Courtesy of Avoid Other Architects + TETRA Architects and Planners

Our design intent is not to give up Bao’an as a manufacturing town, but to upgrade its facilities into a “Green Manufacturing City” with the power to share and connect people, places, and amenities. This sustainable city will celebrate the new “sharing economy” with facilities like transparent factories, drone ports for deliveries, open platforms for experiments, mobile offices and natural amenities to share. The new G107 will be a place to live, work and play.

While Shenzhen have been recognized as the greenest city in China, Bao’an is behind on its pollution management and green ratio. The new G107 plan would see Bao’an become the greenest city in China, a carbon neutral, green manufacturing zone which would become the model for other cities to aspire to. Aside from the vision to achieve sustainability, the city would also become a world leader in technologically innovative infrastructure, cementing Shenzhen’s title as the “City of Design.”

• Architects: Avoid Obvious Architects , TETRA Architects and Planners
• Location: G107, Baoan Qu, Shenzhen Shi, Guangdong Sheng, China
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Courtesy of Avoid Other Architects + TETRA Architects and Planners

News via Avoid Obvious Architects.

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