Francis Kéré takes the top prize for a secondary school in his rural Burkina Faso village. The 2012 Global Holcim Award winners were announced today, with Berlin-based architect Diébédo Francis Kéré taking the Gold Award and $200,000 for a secondary school he designed for his native village of Gando, Burkina Faso. As Kéré’s practice has grown (with current projects in countries ranging from Switzerland to China) he has remained dedicated to improving conditions in his 6,000-person village. He has designed, raised funds to build, and coordinated the construction of public buildings from a primary school—for which he won the Aga
The March 27 event drew roughly 200 attendees, many of them Greenwich Village residents opposed to the plan. Image courtesy MAS NYU wants to add 2.5 million square feet to its Greenwich Village campus. The plan will likely reach the city council this summer. New York University has proposed reshaping its Greenwich Village neighborhood with 2.5 million square feet of new construction, dramatically increasing density on two “superblocks” devoted mainly to faculty housing. The plan, initially generated by a competition-winning team composed of SMWM (now part of Perkins+Will), Toshiko Mori, Grimshaw Architects, and Olin Partnership, would entail the demolition of
Princeton University’s School of Architecture, long known for a focus on architectural theory, has chosen a theorist and practitioner as its next dean.
Architect Sergio Palleroni, founder of BaSiC Initiative, has dedicated his career to helping communities in need. Image courtesy BaSiC Initiative Click on the slide show button to view images of BaSiC Initiative’s work in various communities. Related Links: Special Report: Building for Social Change Humanitarian Design: The New Frontier in Education To Sergio Palleroni, humanitarian architecture is nothing new. In the 1980s, long before public interest design became fashionable, Palleroni was working on sustainable architecture projects for the World Bank and the United Nations in Nicaragua, Mexico, and Africa. Then, in 1995, while teaching at University of Washington, he co-founded
Image ' Lebbeus Woods and Christoph a. Kumpusch A pavilion designed by Woods in collaboration with Christoph a. Kumpusch is under construction in Chengdu, China. Four stories high, it is a riot of angled steel beams housed in polycarbonate sleeves containing LEDs. Photo courtesy Christoph a. Kumpusch The pavilion is part of a giant mixed-use development by Steven Holl, a longtime friend of Woods. “I was never in love with drawing,” says Lebbeus Woods, sipping a cocktail in his apartment in Manhattan’s Financial District. “I drew because I wanted to express ideas.” Downstairs, construction work on Nassau Street has revealed
Deborah Gans In the third installment of our “Three Questions” series, we catch up with architect and Pratt Institute professor Deborah Gans, whose work at her eponymous Gans Studio has long addressed issues of social responsibility and environmental stewardship. RECORD spoke to Gans about various topics, including a recent event that got her thinking more about designing for social impact right at home. AS: How did you get involved in humanitarian work? Deborah Gans: I’ve always been interested in emerging social conditions and how architecture engages them. The work I do is generally more a search for new ideas of
Honest Buildings is a new social media platform that connects people to the buildings they live, work, and spend time in. The Honest Buildings website profiles more than 50,000 buildings (and counting). The founders hope that transparency and competition will accelerate demand for high-performance buildings. Imagine an online social network that’s all about buildings. Architects, contractors, and engineers can connect with future clients and subcontractors, give and receive referrals, and even get RFPs and submit bids right in the same platform. Property managers and building owners can show off their retrofit projects and rental spaces. At the same time, prospective
Image courtesy Jack DeBartolo 3 Click to view additional images. Related Links: Humanitarian Design: The New Frontier in Education Special Coverage: Building for Social Change Resources for Socially Conscious Designers Prayer Pavilion by DeBartolo Architects Every April, faculty members at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts meet with graduate architecture students to present options for a half-dozen or so international studio courses. It’s a chance for professors to “sell” their programs, but adjunct professor Jack DeBartolo 3 takes a somewhat different approach. “I spend most of my presentation trying to discourage students from coming,” says the
Five public districts get useful advice through a workshop presented by the USGBC and American Architectural Foundation in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy AAF Joanne R. Milner, the Education Partnership Coordinator and a senior advisor to Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker, works with architect Ryan Freeland of Cuningham Group. Related Links: Special Coverage: Schools of the 21st Century Sustainable Solutions: Green Schools Movement Gains Steam Robert Redford Teams Up With USGBC for Green Schools Summit SOM, Haworth Among Honorees at AAF Gala In November 2010, ten city mayors and nine school superintendants met with sustainability experts, architects, and educators at