The world’s biggest architectural summit, the World Architecture Festival, will take place in Barcelona for the second year running, with new opportunities for the industry to showcase its work as part of the world’s biggest architectural Awards programme.
Programme Director Paul Finch confirmed that following its successful inaugural year, World Architecture Festival (WAF) will again take place in Barcelona at the Centre Convencions International Barcelona (CCIB) from 4th to 6th November 2009. continue >>>
This is the first of what we hope will be a somewhat regular feature where we highlight interesting architectural photography of our urbanscape. First up are photos of Tyersall House in Singapore by Daniel Cheong.
Some months ago, we did a website called Confessions of an Architect which allowed people to confess their architectural sins and frustrations anonymously. Here’s a recent one that we thought is rather interesting.
when i say i will be an architect, most people go: “OH YOU ARE GOING TO BE RICH THEN 
FIVEFOOTWAY.com will be unavailable on 3rd April 2009 for about 3 hours (0000hrs to 0300hrs) for scheduled maintenance. We will be upgrading our website engine, upgrading plugins, improve security measures, do some server maintenance and roll out some visual tweaks to the website.
Singapore today unveiled the winning design of the Singapore Pavilion for World Expo Shanghai 2010. Designed by Kay Ngee Tan Architects, the winning design titled Urban Symphony pays tribute to Singapore symbolising its harmony of culture, progress and sustainability. continue >>>
Singapore based design firm, Design Act have sent us images of their entry into the World Expo 2010 Singapore Pavilion competition. Selected as one of the finalists, alongside the likes of Ministry of Design, their submission attempts to take a much more conceptual approach.
Ministry of Design (MOD) have sent us images of their submission for the World Expo 2010 Singapore pavilion. Titled “SINGAPORE IS ALCHEMY”, the submission was one of the finalists in the competition organised by the Singapore Tourism Board. More than a mere enclosure to house life, the design is conceptualized as an icon that is given its distinct 3-dimensional form by the myriad of activities it contains. continue >>>
We know it seems rather late to have last year’s Annual Report at the first quarter of 2009 but that’s because we wanted to include the survey results in it. Perhaps more importantly, we wanted to unveil a new and more focused direction for FIVEFOOTWAY within that report and that has taken a little bit more time than expected.
As JJ puts the finishing prettifying touches to the report which is expected to be out early next week, I would like to give you a sneak into some of the contents of that report. We begin with, a brief look into who our readers are and where they come from. continue >>>
What will Singapore’s Chinatown look like in the hands of a group of 18 year olds?
CUBE, short for Challenge for the Urban & Built Environment, is a two and a half day workshop organised by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in collaboration with Re:Act of Singapore that attempted to answer that question. The quasi-competition was held in conjunction with URA’s 35th anniversary and saw young minds being given an early experience of designing our built environment, in this case Singapore’s Chinatown. continue >>>
As most of you probably already know, FIVEFOOTWAY is an open broadcast platform for (almost) anything architecture related. We want to hear your stories so that we can share it on the FFW.
Here are stuff that we hope you’ll send to us:
1- Events
Workshops, Exhibitions, Lectures,etc. Give us the details and we’ll do the whole broadcast thing for you.
2- New Projects
Have your office recently completed a project? Send us images and texts and if we love it, we’ll tell the world about it! Just make sure that you are either based in Asia or your work was completed in the region.
Hypothetical and Academic projects are welcomed too. In fact, if you’ve got an academic paper that you want to share on the FFW, that’s brilliant too!
3- Jobs/Openings
If you’ve got a job out there for the other FFW readers, do tell us about it and we will spread the word.
4- Stories
Written a good article? Found one on another website or magazine? Tell us about it and we will look into sharing it on our website.
Send your good stuff to us via our contact page OR email us at office[at]fivefootway.com. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Just opened in the historic center of Florence, a new international design school will welcome students from all over the world to commence the first full session in January. The Florence Institute of Design International offers a new type of boutique academics focused entirely on international students providing Interior Design, Graphic Design and Architecture programs with both master and semester abroad options available.
Founder and Creative Director Marc DiDomenico, also the 2009 President of the AIA Continental Europe, has collaborated with some of the leading design studios such as those of Massimo Carmassi and Andrea Ponsi. He holds titles as architect in both Italy and the United States. DiDomenico’s experience in architecture, interiors, competitions, and preservation brings a professional emphasis to the school’s academic structure as he will oversee The Florence Institute’s academic programs and instruct critical parts of the Interior Design courses.
In Berlin, there is a place called Museum Island. With stereotypical Prussian thoroughness, the five great museums and art galleries of the nation were all built together in this one place between 1825 and 1930. Badly damaged in the Second World War, they then found themselves on the wrong side of the Wall, their collections divided between East and West. Since reunification, this has been Germany’s biggest cultural reconstruction project, a 1.5 billion Euro work in progress. It has led to a strange and wonderful architectural phenomenon, just completed: the Neues Museum, as restored by Brits.
A collaborative journalistic exploration on the site around Art space, Sculpture Square
This blog is a collaborative art work of 3 artists, Joey Soh, Michelle Tan and Ong Xiao Yun.
Together, they will each contribute their individual perspective on the site around Art Space, Sculpture Square.
The 3 artists hope to understand and investigate more about the various interconnected elements that creates this interesting place in the city of Singapore.
This is held in conjunction with their residency undertaken in Sculpture Square in March 2009.
The artists also seek the audience to participate in the discussions initiated by the thoughts of the artists.
Part of the Artists Caravan edition II art project 2009 and residency program of Sculpture Square.
Where: Level 1, Visitors’ Briefing Room, National Library Building, Singapore
Registration Required
The use of paint as a finishing surface in architectural settings is ubiquitous to the point of being taken for granted. Often, colour schemes are changed at will, depending on aesthetic fads as well as availability of materials. Through a careful analysis of the accumulated paint layers, useful information could be unearthed and added to the knowledge of architectural development and history.
The analysis of paint layers is a well-established technique that is commonly employed in the technical study of paintings. Various established techniques, which had been used in extracting information from paint samples, will be highlighted in this talk. In addition, the application of such technical analysis in actual case studies of architectural paint will be discussed. Finally, the challenges and limitations of such analysis will be broached. Due to limited seats, registration is required and can be made via http://golibrary.nlb.gov.sg and surf on to ‘Heritage’ to reserve your seat. Organized by the Preservation of Monuments Board with support from the National Library Board
When: 7 – 8:30pm, Fridays, 6th, 13th and 20th March 2009
Where: National University of Singapore,
Lecture Room LR427, School of Design and Environment, SDE3, Level 4
Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore- The Architecture Society will be organizing a guest lecture series during the month of March. Entitled ‘Perspective‘, this series of three talks is meant as a reflection on architectural practice in Singapore over the last forty years.
Three speakers from three generations spanning the gamut of Singapore’s growth have been invited. The series will progress in a reversed chronological order, kicking off with Mr Ernesto Bedmar, who started practicing in Singapore in the 1980s, followed by Mr Chan Sau Yan from Chan Sau Yan Associates (CSYA) and concluding with Datuk Lim Chong Keat who, together with William Lim and Chen Voon Fee, started Malayan Architect’s Co-Partnership in 1960.
Each speaker will share their respective approaches to architecture through a monograph of their works. Out of this collective sharing, we hope that everyone will gain a greater appreciation of architectural endeavour on the home front.
The lectures will take place everyFriday night at 7pm, LR 427, beginning with Mr Bedmar’s talk on Friday, 6 March.
Where: AFC Studio, TradeHub 21, 18 Boon Lay Way, #07-143, Singapore 609966
When: Friday, 20th March 12.00pm till 18th March 2009
Reminiscing on Paper is an exhibition of selected charcoal drawings of architectural spaces on paper by Tang Ling Nah. Created during 2002 to 2008, they range from full-on drawings to preparatory studies of her large-scale site-specific works (dimensions from 40 x 60cm to 160 x 210cm).
Tang’s work seeks to reflect and address the conditions of the modern city, particularly its speed and the lack of interpersonal intimacy in urban life. She is inspired by the city’s transitory spaces such as the public housing’s void decks, alleys, shopping malls and Mass Rapid Transit stations. Her works are important documentation of changes of Singapore’s urban spaces.
Opening Reception: Thu, 19 Mar 2009; 6:30–9:30pm
a quasi-documentary on the evolution of public housing in Singapore
by Choy Ka Fai
Rectangular Dreams is an unofficial account of historical events, stories and ideas that may have shaped Singaporean current state of living. Through a series of visual studies and whimsical commentary; this documentary observes the public housing program through its architecture, design aesthetic, urban planning and social policies, reflecting on the perception of “ The Singaporean Dreamâ€- beyond the material needs and methodology of attaining happiness as a Singaporean.
*RECTANGULAR DREAMS WAS FIRST COMMISSIONED BY The Art House _For the exhibition- Poetics Of Space- As part of Spotlight Singapore in Moscow, Presented at Khokhlovskaya Manifactural, Moscow, Russia In June 2008
Concept+Direction+Video+Sound Design : Choy Ka Fai Assistant Video Production/Editing : Murmi Mastan Actress/Video Performance : Patricia Toh Yi Ling Researcher : Lam Yishan
