When asked to sharpen the corporate image of the Spanish furniture manufacturer Ofita for visiting designers, architects, and specifiers, the Milan-based design and architecture firm King & Miranda transformed the company’s Madrid offices and showroom—located on two adjacent floors—into an integrated sales tool using a spare vocabulary of textural elements, colors, and lighting strategies.
Construction Grinds to a Halt Burdened by a meltdown in its overheated real estate market, Spain has been severely affected by the world financial crisis, and its architects are feeling the pinch. The boom in housing construction, fueled over the past decade by low European Union interest rates, was dealt a fatal blow by the crisis this past fall. According to the Madrid College of Architects, a professional association, permits for new construction virtually came to a halt in 2008. Paloma Sabrini, head of the organization, estimates that at a national level, the market will require three years to absorb
Steven Holl Photo courtesy Steven Holl Architects The first edition of the BBVA Foundation’s Frontiers of Knowledge Prize in the Arts, sponsored by the Spanish bank BBVA, has been awarded to American architect Steven Holl. The 400,000 euro prize (roughly US $500,000), whose announcement surprised even Holl, is a another sign of the apparent good health of the Spanish banking system, following the BBVA's recent announcement of a new headquarters building by Herzog and De Meuron. The jury cited for distinction “the humanistic values that Steven Holl has preserved in his work, promoting social and cultural fundamentals without sacrificing his
Project Specs Petter Dass Museum Alstahaug, Norway Snøhetta << Return to article the People Architect Snøhetta www.snohetta.com Project Team: Project Architects: Tarald Lundevall, Maria Svaland Principal Architects: Craig Dykers, Kjetil Thorsen Architects: Jim Dodson, Ellen Heier, Tom Holtmann, Bartec Milewski, Andreas Nygaard, Astrid Van Veen Interior Architect: Snøhetta Interior Architect: Heidi Pettersvold Landscape Architect: Snøhetta Landscape Architects: Lars Jørstad Nordbye, Jenny Osuldsen Engineer(s): Structural Engineering: Norconsult AS v/ Frank Jacobsen Engineering Geology: Norconsult v/ Arild Neby Engineering Lighting: Ingeniør Per Rasmussen AS v/ Per Einar Skog MEP Engineering: VVSplan AS v/ Lars Beck FEDRA: Norconsult AS v/
Project Specs Museum of the Roman Theater of Cartagena Cartagena, Spain José Rafael Moneo << Return to article the People Architect José Rafael Moneo Project architect: Juan Manuel Nicás Collaborators: Carla Bovio Angel Huertas Suanzes Engineer(s) Structural engineer: NB 35 Jesús Jiménez Cañas Mechanical Engineer: Úrculo Ingenieros Model makers: Estudio Rafael Moneo the Products
Located on the Mediterranean coast almost 300 miles southeast of Madrid, the port city of Cartagena is rich in a history that dates back more than 2,000 years, when it was a stronghold of ancient Carthage.
A wheel-shaped tower rises out of a “carpet” of low-rise offices and gardens in Herzog and de Meuron’s design for the new Madrid headquarters of BBVA, Spain’s second largest bank. With over 800,000 square feet of office space for 6,500 employees, construction of the building will begin this year on a 22-acre site in the city’s northern suburbs. The project is scheduled for completion in 2013. Images courtesy BBVA Herzog and de Meuron have designed the new Madrid headquarters of BBVA, Spain's second largest bank. Construction is scheduled to begin this year. In their project brief, the architects describe the