An energy plant that’s a showcase for sustainable and excellent design—that’s the agenda for a new project by Steven Holl Architects in Toronto. The city’s waterfront redevelopment agency announced last week that it hired Holl’s firm for the new District Energy Centre, an approximately 37,700-square-foot facility that will power a new neighborhood on the city’s lakefront. Image courtesy Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Toronto planners looked to the Whitney Water Purification Facility and Park, in New Haven, Connecticut, for a model of how urban infrastructure can integrate successfully with a natural setting. Related Links: Van Valkenburgh to Remake 2,400 AcresLandscape/Architecture Firms
When Steve Glenn launched the Santa Monica–based development firm LivingHomes in April 2006, he also initiated a tradition of engaging high-profile architects. SCI-Arc co-founder Ray Kappe, FAIA, created the company’s first line of prefabricated, sustainable modular houses, and David Hertz, AIA, has since developed a model comprising an aluminum-based panelized system. Yesterday LivingHomes unveiled its first multifamily product, designed by the progressive Philadelphia studio KieranTimberlake. Images courtesy LivingHomes KieranTimberlake has developed a prefabricated, modular system of townhouse units that link laterally, making very large-scale development possible (top). Developed by LivingHomes, each residence encompasses roughly 1,500 square feet (above). Although Glenn
With the official release of GenerativeComponents (GC) as part of Bentley Systems’ MicroStation platform late last year, this parametric design tool could be poised to move beyond its traditional base of users in academia and at technologically advanced design firms.
Michael Graves, FAIA, has channeled many avatars during his career, from one of the academically minded New York Five in the 1970s, to a populist product designer for the retailer Target. After a bacterial infection paralyzed him from the waist down in 2003, the now wheelchair-bound architect works to be a champion of universal design, a movement that advocates creating spaces and products that any person, regardless of physical ability, can use. The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) recently appointed Graves as the honorary chair of its “Beyond Architecture” campaign, which seeks to establish a $2 million endowment to
Whether the content of an exhibition is as ethereal as digital sound pieces or as concretely grounded as full-scale model houses, whether it draws on art, architecture, written documents, household objects, anthropological artifacts, or any other collection of information, the perennial conundrum is how to render the immaterial spatial—how to give the show’s concept impact and three-dimensional meaning for visitors moving through it. As artist Marcel Duchamp made abundantly clear when he signed a urinal for display in an art exhibition, the immediate surroundings can influence the perception, if not the experience, of the work presented. After all, even the
KMD's Government Building Alights Like a Bird Seongnam, a satellite city southeast of Seoul, South Korea, recently broke ground on a city hall that it hopes will symbolize the young community’s aspirations at a pivotal point in its growth. Chief among this building’s concerns is to sit lightly in its environment. Images courtesy KMD Architects Seongnam’s new city hall occupies a site in 250 acres of parkland at the center of town (top). KMD Architects attempted to convey lightness with its design by lofting the building on piers (above). Throughout the interior, garden atria will brighten and ventilate workspaces (right).
Banyan Tree Inspires Shape of Taiwan's Largest Arts Hall The Dutch firm Mecanoo is designing the largest performing arts facility in Taiwan: the 1-million-square-foot National Performing Arts Center. It will be located inside Wei-Wu-Ying Metropolitan Park, a former military base, in the city of Kaohsiung. Mecanoo won the commission in 2007 after competing against Zaha Hadid of London, Kiyoshi Sey Takeyama Amorphe of Tokyo, Artech Architects of Taiwan, and Weber + Hofer Architects of Switzerland. Images courtesy Mecanoo Mecanoo has designed an undulating topographical roof structure for Taiwan’s National Performing Arts Center (top). The design was inspired by the banyan
Construction on two towers at the World Trade Center, designed by Richard Rogers and Fumihiko Maki, will begin this week—or by the end of the month, depending on whom you believe, and whether or not you consider test blasts to represent the start of foundation work. A March 13 article in the New York Post says “this week,” whereas The New York Sun wrote that it would be “later this month” when workers begin “foundation work” following this week’s test blasts. Both papers were reporting on remarks made by developer Larry Silverstein during a speech at the New York Building
In a project that fuses fashion, art, and architecture, Zaha Hadid has created a moveable art space for the fashion house Chanel. Taking his cues from Mademoiselle Chanel herself—who supported Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Jacques Lipchitz, and other artists during her lifetime—Karl Lagerfeld, the company’s director of collections and ready-to-wear, gathered 20 international artists to collaborate with Chanel on unique art installations for the gallery. Officially opened yesterday in Hong Kong, the Mobile Art Pavilion, which resembles a space capsule, will touch down for one to two months at a time over the next two years in Tokyo, London, Moscow,
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