April 30, 2009 | Broadcast | Jobs
Job: Assistant Professors in the Department of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong
Applications are invited for appointments as Assistant Professor (full-time or fractional) in the Department of Architecture, on a three-year fixed-term basis, with the possibility of renewal.
via BD4Jobs.com
April 28, 2009 | Broadcast | News
Broadway Malyan appointed to design National Heart Centre in Singapore
Broadway Malyan has been appointed to a £73 million project to design a new building for the National Heart Centre Singapore. The appointment gives the firm’s new Singapore office, which opened last year, a significant boost.
The 35,299 sq m building will play part of the wider masterplanning for the redevelopment of Singapore General Hospital’s Outram Campus and is designed in conjunction by the company’s Singapore and Weybridge offices and in collaboration with Ong & Ong Architects.
“The building’s design has been born out of a multi-disciplinary process focussing on the social, economic, environmental and technological requirements of the National Heart Centre Singapore,” commented Jason Pomeroy, director for Broadway Malyan’s Singapore office. “Fundamental to this is our ethos for the building – Placing People First – a philosophy which will ensure the needs of the individual are met at the Centre in their everyday working, living, playing and healing lives, be they the patient, doctor or visitor.”
April 28, 2009 | Broadcast | News
Prada’s new pavilion in Seoul
OMA’s founder, Rem Koolhaas, is an architect who has never seemed quite comfortable with the limits of building. Despite having realised some of the most extraordinary buildings of the modern age, most notably Seattle’s Public Library and Porto’s Casa da Música, there remains a nagging sense that impermanence suits the restlessness of his ideas. He is impatient, he is uneasy with conventional ideas of beauty and he seems unconvinced by architecture’s power to effect change. He famously stated that shopping was the only truly public activity our cities have left. So this strange event suits him perfectly: a slightly ugly object set in the grounds of a beautiful palace in an ugly city. – Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times
April 28, 2009 | Broadcast | News
The Sky’s No Longer the Limit
Rem Koolhaas reflects on the global slowdown’s effect on ambitious projects; the aftermath of a fire]
April 27, 2009 | Broadcast | News
LKY World City Prize
Speaking at the annual Asia Society conference in Ho Chi Minh City, Singapore’s National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan announced a biennial award that seeks to recognise individuals and organisations that have made outstanding contributions to the creation of vibrant, liveable and sustainable cities.
Called the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize, it will award “world class cities” that have innovative planning projects, policies and solutions that show foresight and good governance.
‘Through this prize, we hope to facilitate the sharing of best practices in urban solutions and spur further innovation in the area of sustainable urban development and city excellence,’ said Mr Mah.
Nominations will commence in June when the Prize is formally launched at the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize Awards Ceremony.
April 27, 2009 | Broadcast | Showcase
Filament 2009: Reclaim Land, For Rent, Make.Shift.
Filament ‘09 is an annual showcase of audio and visual projects from the graduating students of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Singapore. This year’s event will feature 11 video projects (10 from the division of Electronic and Broadcasting Media, and one from the division of Journalism) and 1 audio project.
Reclaim Land
One which has caught our attention is “Reclaim Land”, a project about stories by ordinary people who have created their own places despite living in the city-state of Singapore that is just over 700 kilometres-square in size — so small that some have called it a “little red dot”.
The accompanying website, reclaimland.sg, features Stories, a multimedia gallery, a Q & A section and a Blog that captures latest happenings on Reclaim Land as well as recommended events and news.
For Rent
Of note are projects that explore various facets of our built environment such as “For Rent” which attempt to capture the challenges faced by residents who rent their HDB flats. The video also attempts to shed light on underlying social issues that a common Singaporean may overlook and forget, while living comfortably in their own housing estates. More info about “For Rent”
Make.Shift
Another video documentary explores the temporal nature of space utilisation of “Pasar Malam” (Malay for Night Market). Aptly titled “Make.Shift” , the video introduces the vibrant and widely known night markets, offering an in-depth understanding of the trade and its conventions. More info about “Make.Shift”.
April 27, 2009 | Broadcast | News
Reflecting about architecture in the recession
In the current economic climate, firms are adapting their business strategies and operations to ensure that they stay afloat. Even the likes of Frank Gehry aren’t spared and he among many others have been forced to downsize and restrategise. The challenging times have not escaped Asia at all and this series of reports by Business Week such as this one on Japan and a similar one on China, sheds further light on the impact of the economy on architecture.
Beyond the business and financial impact that has been felt, the economic climate is also affecting change in the design of our built environment. One of which is the creation of ‘Accidental Architecture’ – a situation where the final design is a result of series of cutbacks and new economic limitations. Similarly, the outspoken Mr. Koolhaas have also commented that this global recession could be a ‘healthy thing’ after all. This is also shared by Blair Kamin in his article in the Chicago Tribune where he waves goodbye to architectural icons.
Among other things, this is also a good time to reflect on our state of being and the profession as expressed by the following quotes.
“In a funny way, the recession has been good for making these mega-projects stop,” said Pauline Saliga, executive director of the Chicago-based Society of Architectural Historians. “It’s giving us a little breathing room, a little time to reassess where we’re going with all of this.”
“Sometimes a break is good, since it gives us a chance to take another look at the design and maybe make it better,” says Michel Weenick, president of the Tokyo firm PAE Design and Facility Management.
The recession has also caught up with architectural publications in the form of dwindling advert revenue. This has led UK based magazine, Building Design to change its business model to a paid-subscription one and it wouldn’t be a surprise if a few more shut down due to declining sales. Of course this has not stopped some publications to take a moment and refresh themselves such as the recent redesign of Architectural Review magazine.
How else will architecture evolve? Share with us your thoughts in the comments or drop us an email at office[at]fivefootway.com.
April 26, 2009 | Broadcast | News
Op-Ed: Designing the New Public/Private Model
Greater government involvement in design can be an opportunity – if done correctly. That requires architects to be to be at the table from the beginning.
In this time of economic crisis the lines between the public and private sectors are blurring. The federal government is considering nationalizing some banks and bailing out the automakers. And with billions of dollars to be invested in building and infrastructure projects through the stimulus, government involvement in the design world will grow.
Some people may think of the worst public housing projects or schools that look like prisons and be fearful. In many government-funded buildings of the 1960s and 70s, a misguided functionalism led to low-aspiration architecture. Form followed function but it also very obviously followed price. A subsequent reaction to that period led to a view that all government involvement in design is automatically bad news.
But in fact, greater government involvement in design can be an opportunity – if done correctly. That requires architects to be involved and to be at the table from the beginning.
More via ArchNewsNow
April 26, 2009 | Broadcast | News
Sydney Opera House to take on Chinese hues
The Sydney Opera House will feature a Tibetan red-color scheme in its proposed $600 million makeover, adding to an array of other little-known Chinese architecture elements already used in the iconic structure.
The interior renovation plans, which were revealed in Australia recently, will include original design concepts architect Jorn Utzon had planned more than 50 years ago before he famously walked out midway through the project.
Utzon died last November, aged 90, and at a special memorial service in Sydney for the Danish architect last month, an image of his Chinese “festive red” interior design for the opera theater was unveiled.
“For the last 10 years he was working on new designs and was re-introducing his original Chinese idea,” said Adrian Carter, director of the Utzon Center in Denmark. “Sometime in the future, the Sydney Opera House interior will be more like this.
“He was fascinated by the very vibrant, dramatic colors used in China architecture. His interior is very festive and very alive.”
Carter, who was in Beijing this month lecturing to architecture students, said the Sydney Opera House was arguably the most famous building of the 20th century, but very few people know Chinese design principles were its inspiration.
via ChinaDaily.com
April 26, 2009 | Broadcast | News
Updating the Mosque for the 21st Century
A new generation of Muslim builders and designers, as well as non-Muslims designing for Muslim groups, often in Europe or North America, are updating the mosque for the 21st century, sparking not just a hugely creative period in Islamic design, but one riven by controversy.
The whole world is a mosque, the Prophet Muhammad once said. With pious intent, a faithful Muslim can conjure a mosque almost anywhere, transforming a desert sand dune, airport departure lounge or city pavement into a sacred space simply by stopping to pray. The first mosque was Muhammad’s mud-brick house in Medina, where a portico of palm-tree branches provided shade for prayer and theological discussion. As the young religion spread, Arabs — and later Asians and Africans — developed their own ideas of what made a building a mosque. But that innovative spirit has slowed in recent decades, leaving most Islamic skylines dominated by the dome-and-minaret design that first appeared centuries ago.
The simplest design decision can reflect questions that are crucial to Islam and its adherents: Should women be allowed in a mosque’s main hall or confined to separate quarters? Are minarets necessary in the West, where laws on noise levels mean they are rarely used for the call to prayer? It is in this context that we see the actuality of architecture’s power and influence on civilization.
Read the full article on Malaysia-Today.net
April 26, 2009 | Broadcast | Competitions | News
M2L Announces Winning Essays For Inaugural “Genuine Design Scholarship”
M2L, a NY-based furniture importer and distributor specializing in modern design, just announced the winners of its first-ever Genuine Design Scholarship. Furthering the company’s mission of promoting authenticity, M2L developed this scholarship in conjunction with Ruth Lynford, founder of NY Eleven, to educate students about knockoffs and their harmful impact on the design industry. The scholarship was open to students at the twelve prestigious NY colleges that offer four-year programs in interior design. After reviewing responses from the participating schools, four students, including the top winner from Cornell University, were selected for their insightful and well-written essays.
Read about the winners and get to read their winning essays at Bustler.net
April 26, 2009 | Broadcast | News | Reports | Uncategorized
Koolhaas sees economic woes blunting excess
SEOUL (Reuters Life!) – Architect Rem Koolhaas, renowned for his striking designs and musings on cities, believes the global economic downturn will lead to less ostentatious, more “socially responsible” buildings that better serve the public.
The Dutch architect, whose firm designed the gravity-defying CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, Casa de Musica in Portugal and the Seattle Central Library, said more emphasis will now be placed on the efficient use of space during these lean times.
“The last 10 years have been noteworthy for the excess in the private sector,” Koolhaas told Reuters at the opening of a sleek temporary exhibit hall he and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture designed for fashion house Prada in Seoul.
“What we are going to see is a return to the public sector. This is a healthy thing,” he said on Wednesday.
The Prada Transformer structure, located next to an ancient palace in central Seoul, will open on Saturday with a fashion display.
The tetrahedron-shaped steel building, covered in a translucent white skin, is designed to be lifted by cranes and rotated so that it can best use each of its differently designed sides to show movies, host fashion shows or hold art exhibits.
Koolhaas said the building provides a bit of lightness — constructed at a reasonable costs — that is needed during an economic downturn.
Prada would not provide the amount it paid to construct the building.
via Reuters, editing by Miral Fahmy
April 23, 2009 | Broadcast | News
Designboom Interview with Jun Aoki
This is Jun Aoki’s life:
Do you listen to the radio?
I have no radio.
Do you read design / architecture / fashion magazines?
I don’t read any magazines or newspapers nor watch television – no leisure (laughs).
Where do you get news from?
I don’t keep up with the news. any news.
I’m not quite sure what to make of his life but let’s just say its strange and interesting at the same time.
Read the full DesignBoom interview here
April 23, 2009 | Broadcast | News
Conversation with Wang Shu- by Moving Cities
Our friends at MovingCities have recently published an interview with Wang Shu (Amateur Architecture Studio), Chinese architect and Professor and Head of Architecture department at the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou. The interview explores the absurdities and realities of the construction process in China and his ambition to be a local architect. Wang Shu explains his points by going deeper in some of his recent constructions like the Contemporary Art Museum (Ningbo), Five Scattered Houses (Ningbo), the Historic Museum (Ningbo), Xiangshan Campus (Huangzhou) and the Ceramic House (Jinhua).
Read introduction and full interview.
April 14, 2009 | Broadcast | Competitions
ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN EXCELLENCE (A•UDE) PROMOTION PROGRAMME (9TH CYCLE)
ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN EXCELLENCE (A•UDE) PROMOTION PROGRAMME (9TH CYCLE)
- NOW OPEN FOR APPLICATIONS !
The Architecture & Urban Design Excellence (A•UDE) Promotion Programme
is now open for applications from 6 Apr 09 to 10 Jul 09.
The Programme provides funding for a wide range of A&UD-related
activities including exhibitions, publications, multi-media
productions, research studies and competitions. Successful applicants
can look forward to receiving up to 50% of the total expenditure.
We welcome private organisations / individuals to propose projects
which would help promote awareness and appreciation of good
architecture & urban design in Singapore. To download the application
form, please visit our website at:
http://www.ura.gov.sg/audepp/index_flash.htm
Please do help to disseminate this email to your friends, colleagues
and members of your organisation / institution who may be interested
in the A•UDE Promotion Programme. For any queries, please email:
aude@ura.gov.sg or call +65 6321 8029 (Ms Elaine Tan). Thank you.
We look forward to receiving your proposals!
Some of the recent projects supported by the A•UDE Promotion Programme include:
Great Asian Streets Symposium 2008: Future Asian Space
- Be at the Forefront of the discussion! Find out the latest ideas and
research in the future of Asian urbanism and Asian cities in the 21st
century.
Archifest 08
- Come re-live the highlights of Architectural Design Festival 2008 -
an event to celebrate Singapore’s built environment.
Design My Place [A Workshop With a Difference]
- Watch it on YOUTUBE! A workshop that introduces the various ways to
look at our surrounding urban spaces to secondary school students.
STAMP
- Have you seen it on the streets? Public art competition to paint 40
postboxes in the City Centre with designs that reflect the character
or culture of their immediate environment and the history of the
areas.
April 13, 2009 | Broadcast | News
Zumthor bags 2009 Pritzker
For Peter Zumthor, 65, winning the Pritzker, which is awarded annually to a living architect and regarded as architecture’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, is a kind of vindication. “You can do your work, you do your thing, and it gets recognized,” he said in a telephone interview from Haldenstein, the Swiss village where he lives and works.
full report on The New York Times
Download Peter Zumthor project images and text via PritzkerPrize.com
Search ‘Peter Zumthor’ on Google Images
April 12, 2009 | Broadcast | News
The Rafflesia House – Competition Winning Zero Energy Design in Malaysia
In 2007, eight designers were asked to submit two designs for an international competition for Zero Energy Housing, on six sites in the middle of Sentul Park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. From sixteen designs six designs were chosen to be constructed.
The project is envisaged as one of the the first showcases of Sustainable Zero Energy Housing in the world. The competition brief called for houses that work in harmony with the environment, are made from renewable materials, create their own energy, and recycle water.
Beside requirements that the houses are zero energy, the competition called for innovative and extraordinary designs that contribute to the legacy of contemporary architecture.
The South China Morning Post said: “This project will become as important of a permanent exhibition for sustainable contemporary architecture as the Weissenhofsiedlung Exhibition of 1927 was for the modern movement in architecture last century.” (Nov 16, 2007)
Chicago-based Zoka Zola Architecture + Urban Design is one of the winning design teams whose proposal “Rafflesia House” was selected for construction.
via Bustler.net
April 12, 2009 | Broadcast | Competitions
red dot design award
| Early registration |
| 15 Jan – 15 Apr 2009 |
| Standard registration |
| 16 Apr – 1 Jul 2009 |
| Late registration |
| 2 Jul – 13 Jul 2009 |
The red dot award: design concept reflects a positive energy during this weak economy. It is the energy of imagination, the energy of innovation and the energy of competition.
More important than before, designers, companies and institutions have to prove their innovativeness and creativity to remain competitive and relevant. In a market flooded with supply while demand is lacking, only the fittest will survive. In the world of design, only the most creative designers will find jobs, only the most innovative companies will generate enough sales and only the best institutions will continue to enjoy high student registration.
A red dot is that seal of quality that identifies and separates one as outstanding even amongst the best in the field of design. It is an independent and indisputable proof of creativity, capable of propelling you or your organisation forward to greater achievements.
We invite you to harness the positive energy of competition, to submit your design concept for international comparison and to win a red dot. All the best!
Ken Koo
President, Asia
red dot design award
