Francisco “Patxi” Mangado, the 54-year-old Spanish architect, compares his bronze-clad Archaeological Museum of Álava in Vitoria, Spain, to a “coffer guarding a treasure.”
A pair of designers working from Spain and Mexico explore the intersections between art and architecture, shelter and clothes, and the human body and space.
Image courtesy Gunnar Birkerts The Latvian National Library was conceived in 1991, the same year Latvia gained independence from the Soviet Union. Image courtesy Gunnar Birkerts The building is rising on the banks of the Daugava River in the capital city of Riga. Gunnar Birkerts, FAIA, a Latvia native now based in Massachusetts, won the commission to design the Latvian National Library in 1991—the same year the country gained independence from the Soviet Union. But the high-profile project never got off the ground due to funding woes. Now, nearly two decades later, construction of the library is finally under way
Swiss architect Gus Wüstemann defines his design approach as “program-free architecture,” in which “everything that contaminates the space with a program disappears.”
The completion of Zaha Hadid's Central Library for the University of Seville is threatened by a court decision that declares the urban plan permitting its construction illegal. The competition-winning design of 2006 has been under construction since last October. Image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects The library is being constructed in the Prado de San Sebastián Park, in Seville, Spain. A lawsuit threatens to halt the project. The $30 million building is sited in the 12-acre Prado de San Sebastián Park, created in 1994 on a portion of the grounds of the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition. In 2006, the city modified its
Project Specs Ofita, Madrid Madrid, Spain King & Miranda Design << Return to article the People Architect King & Miranda Design Via Savona 97 Milan 20144 Italy Phone: +39 02 48953851 Fax: +39 02 47711872 www.kingmiranda.com Caroline King, project architect Registered architect both in the United Kingdom (ARB) and in Italy (Ordine degli Architetti di Milano) Interior designer: King & Miranda Design Consultant(s) Lighting: King & Miranda Design Acoustical: King & Miranda Design General contractor: Ofita Special realizations (i.e. gold ceiling in meeting rooms) by: Iniciativas y Exposiciones, S.A Coloreros 2, 1° - 1 28013 Madrid, Spain Photographer Rafael Vargas
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.