Louis Kahn’s 41-year floating concert hall "Point Counterpoint II" faces demolition

WA Contents • July 14, 2017 • 670

Point Counterpoint II, a giant steel vessel floating concert hall, designed by world famous architect Louis I. Kahn now faces with demolition, according to Yo-Yo Ma's reaction published in The New York Review of Books.

An American-Chinese cellist Yo-Yo Ma expressed his sadness related to the demolition of this 41-year historic concert stage and invited the readers of the magazine to join the conversation to find a new home for Point Counterpoint II by writing to Robert Austin Boudreau and himself over an email provided in the magazine's website.Point Counterpoint IIPoint Counterpoint II in California, PA

"After five decades, Robert Boudreau (who just turned ninety) and his wife, Kathleen, have decided that they canno (...)

Lendager Group designs sustainable permaculture farm in the wild woods of Sweden

WA Contents • July 14, 2017 • 592

Lendager Group envisions a sustainable permaculture farm for Stedsans, a local food academy founded by Mette Helbæk and Flemming Hansen. The couple has recently decided to move their location from the heart of Copenhagen to follow their dreams of combing wild nature and forest farming to Southern Sweden and to create a food laboratory obtained from available local sources in the wild woods of Sweden - it will act as a "sufficient lab of tomorrow where nothing goes to waste."

Called Stedsans in the Woods, the 800-square-metre complex will feature a restaurant, cabins and a permaculture farm in a forest. Located in Bohult, Sweden, the proposed restaurant will use readily available materials in the area around Stedsans in the Wood (...)

Adjaye Associates’ arch-motif and colonnaded mixed-use building gets planning permission for London

WA Contents • July 14, 2017 • 348

David Adjaye's firm Adjaye Associates has received planning permission from the Westminster City Council for its new development located at 5 Strand in the heart of London’s Trafalgar Square Conservation Area. The studio will add a new mixed-use building consisting of flexible office spaces and 26 luxury residential apartments - placed on the upper four levels.

The 6-storey building, occupying a 158,000 square-feet (14,678 square meters) area, is composed of arch-motifs and cantilevered colonnade for retail spaces, inspired by the surrounding character of the 5 Strand and language of the The Strand and immediate area.

The internationally acclaimed architecture practice has been appointed by development manager Alch (...)

Ypsilon summer house embedded in landscape overlooking Peloponnese’s olive grove

WA Contents • July 14, 2017 • 575

Delicately designed curve-roofed summer house is stretched out on the natural terrain of Peloponnese overlooking the olive grove in Greece - to frame the most significant views from inside to outside.

The most significant part of this house is the roof that acts both as an extension of the landscape and a terrace that can easily be reachable and walkable. Named Villa Ypsilon, the villa was designed by London and Brussels-based LASSA Architects, led by Theo Sarantoglou Lalis and Dora Sweijd.

The villa features only three facades with elaborately-shaped windows looking at different parts of the city, which becomes hard to grasp its distinctive form at first sight.

The 150-square-metre villa is differentiated with its bi (...)

Joseph Grima appointed as Creative Director of Design Academy Eindhoven

WA Contents • July 14, 2017 • 506

Design Academy Eindhoven has announced that Joseph Grima will be a new Creative Director of the school. The move about Grima's appointment to his new position has been spoken for over a month, but it has never been confirmed by the school. Joseph Grima will take his role from Thomas Widdershoven, who resigned last year. His role starts as of September 1st, 2017 as Chair Executive Board / Creative Director.

Grima, 40, graduated from the Architectural Association in 2003. He is the founder of Space Caviar - a Genova-based multidisciplinary studio, focusing on design research and it operates at the intersection of architecture, technology, politics and the public realm. He has extensive international experience as curator, editor (...)

Futuristic Interiors shortlisted for INSIDE World Festival of Interiors 2017

WA Contents • July 13, 2017 • 878

WAF's sister festival INSIDE World Festival of Interiors has announced the shortlist of 78 projects that will compete to be crowned World Interior of the Year 2017. A floating bar by WOW Architects | Warner Wong Design, a jade green spa by Maos Design in Shanghai, and a futuristic mathematics gallery by Zaha Hadid Architects are among this year's INSIDE World Festival of Interiors shortlist.

World Architecture Festival and INSIDE World Festival of Interiors are taking place at the same venue at Arena, Berlin simultaneously between 15-17 November, 2017.

Projects from across the globe were entered across nine diverse categories, ranging from grand civic spaces and hospitals to transportation hubs, bars and shops. Hoste (...)

The Why Factory’s exhibition in Munich reveals ten-year research and production for future cities

WA Contents • July 13, 2017 • 528

The Why Factory, a research and education institution led by MVRDV's Prof. Winy Maas, has opened its new exhibition at the Architekturgalerie in Munich, exploring The Why Factory's ten-year research and production conducted with Winy Maas and his students for the future of cities. The exhibition presents a worth-seeing chronological journey through a series of well crafted models, videos, projections and publications.

Titled as "The Why Factory: Research, Education and Public Engagement (2007-2017)", the extremist model show gives an incisive idea about how The Why Factory's research projects can stimulate alternative living patterns with porousness, adaptability, communicative, intense, dense, innovative, robotic and (...)

"How architecture makes difference to our lives" asks Architecture Fringe 2017

Dr Hatice Ozhisar • July 13, 2017 • 654

Scotland as the venue of many festivals throughout the year has started to host a series of events and projects, exploring architecture and its impact on our lives. Before the start of the official fringe festival, currently, the streets of Scotland are busy with architecture this time of the year, because the Architecture Fringe Festival has opened its doors with the theme of "Infrastructure".

Though the Fringe (noun); meaning ‘the outer or less important part of an area, group, or activity,’ Architecture Fringe is not less important or outer of the centre of the Scotland.

As initiated by the group of architects, photographers, engineers, landscape architects, visual artists, designers, curators and musicians, t (...)

Book review: "Spaces Inspired by Nature" created by Shirish Beri

SARBJIT BAHGA • July 13, 2017 • 1581

"When any building designed by me is occupied, one of the test questions that I ask myself is - 'Has my design helped to bring man closer to nature?' - The answer is expressive of how far I have been successful in addressing one of my basic concerns in today’s life – that of modern man moving farther away from nature."

These are the words of an eminent Indian architect whose works are so ingeniously interwoven in nature that one can’t make out what comes first – the nature or the building. He is none other than Shirish Beri who lives in and practices from Kolhapur and Andur, India. After 40 years of unique architectural practice, here comes his first monograph "Spaces Inspired by Nature".

The (...)

MVRDV wins competition to design the most "Saxy" tower of Rotterdam

WA Contents • July 12, 2017 • 1072

MVRDV has won an international competition to design the most "Saxy" mixed-use tower of Rotterdam, combined with rhythmic pixelated facade and an orange-coloured lateral volume, crosscutting two interconnected towers. MVRDV's "the Saxiest" tower will rise between the New Luxor Theater and the Boston & Seattle residential towers.

Called The Sax, a 51 floor mixed-use tower will be added to Rotterdam’s renowned Wilhelminapier historic port development consisting of Rotterdam's harbour basins and quays - firmly established as one of its most popular and spectacular areas.

The Sax, drawing a distinctive character along with the port, will occupy a 82,000 square-metre surface area and will include 450 apartments, (...)

24H calls for innovative ideas to transform cities collectively for its new competition

WA Contents • July 12, 2017 • 543

24H, a competition branch of ideasforward, has called for new ideas about its themed-based international competition, titled "Ct's". The international competition invites all architects, designers, and creative thinkers to develop a new discourse about a social organisation rooted in architecture and derived from its nature, history and architecture language. The competition will select 3 winners and 7 Honorable Mentions.

Ideasforward wants to give young creative people from around the world the opportunity to express their views on the future of societies through their innovative and visionary proposals. 24H is an experimental platform seeking progressive ideas that reflect on emerging themes. The eco design, sustainable archit (...)

David Walsh plans to build elevated skeleton-hotel as an expansion of MONA in Berridale

WA Contents • July 12, 2017 • 937

David Walsh, the Australian professional multimillionaire gambler, art collector, businessman and founder of Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), has announced his plans to build an elevated-five-star iconic hotel as an expansion of MONA in Berridale, Australia. The project is developed by an Australian architecture firm Fender Katsalidis Architects.

The new hotel- called HOMO - composed of an acronym of HOtel MOna - will be developed as the next phase of growth for the museum and it will not only function as a luxury hotel, but also will include an art anti-casino, an amphitheatre, conference and retail spaces, a giant library, a playground and a new spa treatment centre.

It will be built from the top down on a s (...)

London Mayor Sadiq Khan appoints 50 architects and designers as Design Advocates for London

WA Contents • July 12, 2017 • 772

London mayor Sadiq Khan has appointed 50 architects and designers to develop a vision for the future of London. Sadiq Khan's special "design advocates" list included Sir David Adjaye, Wayne Hemingway MBE and Sadie Morgan to work with City Hall and Councils within the scope of a newly-developed programme.

50 selected names will be working as part of the Good Growth by Design Programme, has been launched by Sadiq Khan. The Good Growth by Design Programme - supported by three design advocates including Sir David Adjaye, Wayne Hemingway MBE and Sadie Morgan - will aim to enhance the design of buildings and neighbourhoods for all Londoners, stated during a speech at the London School of Economics on Monday.

As London's p (...)

Francisco Pardo Arquitecto converts old auto-parts warehouse into a vibrant local market in Mexico

WA Contents • July 11, 2017 • 689

A gridded-concrete facade with open terrace and public space marks the corner of a historic street of Colonia Juarez in Mexico City - the building was carefully converted from an old auto-parts warehouse into a vibrant local market by Francisco Pardo Arquitecto in collaboration with architect Julio Amezcua, co-founder of AT103.

Named Milán 44, the building is conceived as an urban-regeneration project located in Colonia Juarez, is a small town in the northern part of the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

Occupying a total of 1,016 square-metre space, the project transforms a four-storey warehouse built in the early 1900’s that was originally home to an auto-parts store into an urban market that reactivates a neighborho (...)

Studio Gang’s pink-domed Hive opens at the National Building Museum

WA Contents • July 11, 2017 • 780

Studio Gang's hotly-anticipated installation, called Hive, has been opened to the public at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. - the domed-installation introduces an immersive structure, made out of more than 2,700 pinky wound paper tubes to experience it and its surrounding with light and sound in different ways.

Commissioned by the National Building Museum last year, the temporary structure is presented as part of the latest installations of the Museum’s annual Summer Block Party series, following Icebergs by James Corner Field Operations, which remained open through September 5, 2016. Previous summer collaborations included The Beach by Snarkitecture and the BIG Maze by the Bjarke Ingels Group.

Soar (...)

A well-contoured art pavilion is built to remind a historical tragedy in Hiroshima

WA Contents • July 11, 2017 • 858

This floating art pavilion - covered by thousands of wood shingles - is situated in Shinshoji Zen Museum and Gardens within the campus of Tenshinzan Shinshoji temple in Fukuyama-city, Hiroshima, Japan. The pavilion features a well-contoured form and smooth surface raised above the ground with very slender columns that create a walkable space beneath its undulating surface with natural stones.

Named Kohtei, this elegantly-designed pavilion is commemorated to several people who lost their lives in accidents at sea and industry. The Kohtei art pavilion creates a memorable Zen experience at the complex. The Kohtei offers the visitors an opportunity to contemplate spirit of Zen by looking at its landscape and gardens and being subjected (...)

Zaha Hadid Architects presents a worth-seeing model show at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park

WA Contents • July 11, 2017 • 656

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has opened its new exhibition - called Global Design Laboratory - at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei, Taiwan, presenting highly-stylistic and well-crafted models with several images of the studio's recent projects. A worth-seeing model show of Zaha Hadid Architects can be visited at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park between July 8 - October 10, 2017.

ZHA's exhibition gives an overview and cross section of the recent and current work of ZHA including built and unbuilt architectural works, furniture and product design.

The experimental designs of our research group CODE (Computational Design) are also showcased, together with the work of ZHA’s Virtual Reality G (...)

World Architecture Community Awards 25th Cycle Winners Announced

WA Contents • July 10, 2017 • 1380

World Architecture Community team is proud to announce the winners of 10+5+X WA Awards 25th Cycle. Once again, we had a great list of submissions, with many diverse projects from all over the globe, spanning from Turkey to India, from Brazil to Japan, from Iran to the United States, overall from 17 different countries, including IDMM Architects' Moken Resort in South Korea, Zaha Hadid Architects' Mathematics: The Winton Gallery in United Kingdom and Port House in Belgium and Sanjay Puri's Isvatham 9 and Akshaya 36 in India and Erginoglu Calislar Architects' KA House in Turkey and many more...

10+5 projects were selected by the votes of Honorary Members and Winners of earlier cycles (10) and rates of WA Community M (...)

OMA develops new community-based residential village for Facebook in Menlo Park

WA Contents • July 10, 2017 • 642

Facebook has commissioned OMA-New York office to develop a new residential complex in Menlo Park, situated next to Frank Gehry-designed new campus in Menlo Park, California. OMA's new scheme will considerably be conceived as a "community-based" development that nurtures its surrounding as a new neighborhood center - which provides long-needed community services.

Situated at the former Menlo Science & Technology Park - a 56-acre industrial park that Facebook purchased this land two years ago for $400M - the former site will now be resurrected with an integrated, mixed-use village that will provide much needed services, housing and transit solutions as well as office space.

The new mixed-use residential complex will be (...)

Winners announced for European Prize For Architecture Philippe Rotthier 2017

WA Contents • July 10, 2017 • 698

The 11th European Prize For Architecture Philippe Rotthier has announced winners for 2017 as related to its specific theme: water, architecture and the town. For "Water and the town", "Water and memory" and "Water and the sacred", three of them are awarded with a Philippe Rotthier prize worth an amount of 6,000€. The jury has also decided to grant 2 special prizes of an amount of 6,000€ for "Water and urgency", a prize of an amount of 5,000€ for the best imaginative project and to honor four other projects.

"Water, today a precious and strategic resource, has long been present in towns and cities in the form of rivers and canals, lakes and fountains. A presence giving rise to works of architecture and public spaces... (...)