A Chippefield project has a kind of calming effect on the senses. For the government of the Austrian city of Innsbruck -along with this project’s developers – I imagine DC’s proposal for the Kaufhaus Tyrol Department Store was like taking a deep breath of fresh air and saying ‘everything is going to be alright’.
Long story short – this retail project in the heart of a ‘traditional’ [re: Baroque] Austrian city was a mess, and chewed up two different architecture firms before Chipperfield was called in to clean up the mess. A few months later his office was redesigning the entire project with the blessings of the client and the government – a task that had apparently seemed impossible to the previous designers.
Possibly the nicest part – at first glance the project really isn’t a big deal. Calm, simple, clean, quiet, respectful of its context without fading into the background – are we sure this is a retail project? Was the developer confused?
While not DC’s greatest project, the firm was able to stay true to its typically dope style, creating something elegant and modern [out of a shopping mall – my ninjas, please]. While obviously going for a modern approach, the project sought to address its context in an appropriate way – and does so by angling slightly along its long facade. This subtly breaks the mass into three sections, meant to be reminiscent of the massing of the surrounding historic buildings. The fifth floor of the project is also pulled back, mimicking the way floors were added to the surrounding structures throughout the years.
For this month’s installment of New Yorker Currents, Paul Goldberger, The New Yorker’s architecture critic, spoke with Richard Cook, a partner in Cook+Fox Architects and the designer of the new Bank of America Tower, a Manhattan skyscraper, completed earlier this year, that is the largest building to receive a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification, the highest standard set by the U.S. Green Building Council. Here they discuss sustainable architecture, the use of nature in design, and the debates over the LEED standard.
[3D compositions (concepts for Iron Man 2) by Prologue – via]
Monday Monday Monday…well, Sunday night for me actually. I like to use these ninjas on the net posts to vent a little sometimes, and was considering losing my mind over this whole Islamic Cultural Center in the general region we will forever know as Ground Zero – but it seems played out. That, and I guess I don’t have much to say about it. Haters gonna hate, I suppose – and bigots even more so. I would like to point everyone in the direction of this great little map over at C-Monster’s Tumblr site and put this out there, tho – which basically just illustrates the fact that while Ground Zero itself may be hallowed ground, the surrounding area is just NYC. We’re not turning all of Manhattan into an extended memorial – it just ain’t happening.
Anyways, I’m always looking for links! If you come across something on the net that you think should appear on AMNP, or that readers should be made aware of, drop me an email [architecture@myninjaplease.com], hit me up on google talk [same email], contact me via Twitter, or simply leave a comment here on the site. And as I said last week – I’d really like to get the Ninja Arithmetic posts going again, and they relied mostly on reader submissions.
Ah – buildings for the Greenway! Thankfully the BSA is on top of things, and trying to push along planning for these empty spaces. Commercial properties? Ground floor retail? A building at Dewey Square? All the buildings ‘don’t have to be museums’? Brilliant – let’s hope we start to see some of these ideas unfold.
Putting an actual building at Dewey Square would be great – holding that space out front of South Station, and improving the streetscape along Summer Street. That, and I was just saying the other night while leaving the Fisherman’s Feast (in the North End) that what the Greenway seems to desperately need is a bar (really, more than one). It’s a strange scene there at night, with most people (it seems) just passing through the space – unless some special event is going on. I say dope little cafe by day, classy bar at night.
One thing I’m tired of hearing about is the scary shadows, blah blah blah. Sure, we need to be careful of blocking out the sun – but people have complained about tall buildings being suggested for the EAST of the Greenway. I’m not going to insult a ninjas intelligence and explain why that’s ridiculous – but c’mon son.
Architecture student Magnus Larsson details his bold plan to transform the harsh Sahara desert using bacteria and a surprising construction material: the sand itself.
Not so new, but new to me – this video is pretty interesting. Imagine building with nature like this, and what that could mean for architecture and construction. Who’s to say that we won’t be programming these bacteria, etc, to perform increasingly complex & specific tasks – guiding them along a certain design trajectory while allowing for just enough randomness for unique and ‘natural’ results. We could be growing whole cities – which, needless to say, would be pretty dope.
Winners of the 2010 Boston Society of Architects Unbuilt Architecture Award have been announced and include Brookline, MA base Choi+Shine – for their entry Land of Giants (above)- along with NYC based NAMELESS for Playcloud (below).
Making only minor alterations to well established steel-framed tower design, we have created a series of towers that are powerful, solemn and variable. These iconic pylon-figures will become monuments in the landscape. Seeing the pylon-figures will become an unforgettable experience, elevating the towers to something more than merely a functional design of necessity.
I’m really in love with Land of Giants – it’s like something out of Middle Earth, but from the future. The idea that these electrical towers could be considered aesthetically in addition to functionally says a lot about what could be done with our infrastructure projects – and the added whimsy of the chosen forms [giants!] is super entertaining. It would be so great if we could consider the fact that we have to look at these things when building our electrical grid, or highways, etc – and then have a little fun with them.
Playcloud explores the narrative potential of a pneumatic and fabric structure. We are not only looking for the utopian implications of the pavilion, but also investing in a practical and sustainable solution for City of Dreams Pavilion.
Playcloud is simply visually stunning in terms of the renderings. These lighter than air, almost ghost-like structures would make for a great pavilion installation -if they’re buildable [i suppose that’s why they’re the ‘unbuilt architecture’ awards].
More images for each project can been seen over at Bustler. There were two other winners of the award, but I didn’t think they were quite as ill. You can find out more over at ArchDaily.
Note: this really has nothing to do with anything, but does anyone else think it’s strange that the BSA doesn’t publish this sort of thing itself? I mean, they have a webpage – no reason why they shouldn’t use it to display winning entries to the competitions they’re holding. Weird.
Alright, so I’m still getting back into the swing of things over here – hence the week showing for this list-o-links. Really tho, if you’re looking to see what ninjas are reading/watching/listening to/whatever then you should follow me on Twitter [@architecturemnp]. I’m hoping to keep the Twitter feed updated on the regular and then to pick selected links for this weekly round-up.
With that in mind – I’m always looking for links! If you come across something on the net that you think should appear on AMNP, or that readers should be made aware of, drop me an email [architecture@myninjaplease.com], hit me up on google talk [same email], contact me via Twitter, or simply leave a comment here on the site. In particular I would love to get Ninja Arithmetic going again, which was really made possible by reader submissions. Hope  to hear from you – and enjoy the week ahead.
– looking for a dope metal facade for a project? turn to Bill Zahner [WIRED]
– we should run a competition for designs for some kind of outpost for the giant chunk of ice that broke of of Greenland… [Boston Globe]
These two videos – both found over at Treehugger – are pretty great, and show why we should a) be more like Copenhagen and b) how we could possibly do it.
But this is the US, where our government itself is desperate for you to buy and drive cars – so keep dreaming, my ninjas.
I don’t really think I’m a fan of the museum as a whole [link below], but this staircase is SICK! Too bad they’ll have to give it some handrails – you know, to keep people from falling to their death and all that…
Chinese companies have been caught illegally stretching steel re-bar, thus thinning the cross-section to unsafe diameters. Must be great when an earthquake hits. I mean, this is pretty terrible... (not that a US company wouldn't do the same)
Damn near everyone with an architecture blog that has been read by more than 5 people has been plagiarized - probably by another blog or site that is much larger and established. I won't name names of who has ripped off AMNP - but they were the kind of sites that could afford to pay me for my content, no doubt. Arch Record, however, has no qualms calling someone out...
The symbolism of the skyscraper has changed very little - if at all - since 9/11, argues LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne. I would contend that in terms of the WTC it has changed somewhat, but in no way for the better.
The September issue is Scientific American is devoted to cities - and has one of AMNP's favorite authors, William Gibson! I'm looking forward to the issue, but until then check out the features being released online - like this interview with the author of such novels as Neuromancer and Pattern Language.
Wow, I really hope to one day cool-out in a space hotel of some sort - but I hope that sometime in my lifetime they evolve into something iller / cheaper /need less training than what the Russians are planning. Still, this is pretty awesome - see what I'm talking about after the link.
I basically think that these Ayn Rand followers are a bunch of crazies (and assholes, to a certain extent), but I actually wish Peter Thiel luck and success in his creating man-made, floating independent nation states. Then all these libertarians can go read Atlas Shrugged in their own country and leave us the F alone.
While this article on Gaudi over at the Atlantic starts out with some typical BS about 'trends' in architecture in the 21st century (I don't think Gehry and the like are really 'trending', at least not as built projects), it is a nice little write up on Gaudi that reminds us he was ill.
AIA Consensus Construction Forecast is predicting continued declines in spending for non-residential and commercial projects through the end of the year, with a possible modest recovery in 2012. Super - we might maybe see a little bit of improvement - which will probably actually simply get us back to where we are now - sometime next year. Something to look forward to.
Eh, maybe - there certainly aren't people lining up to save them. My question remains 'should the suburbs be saved'? At least, should they be saved in their current form? They seem like mostly a failed experiment - areas that actually embody what the suburbs are supposedly about are usually considered 'urban' (or at least semi-urban). I'm thinking Dorchester (Boston), for instance, as it's where I'm typing this post...
Adobe is launching a preview of Edge - basically a tool allowing web designers to ditch Flash and move to an HTML 5 future. As much as I hate to agree with Steve Jobs being super evil, Flash is pretty terrible and has to go. Sure, it revolutionized the web in certain ways, but it's time is done - time for us to move on to something faster and less clunky. And something that actually functions properly on touch screens / handheld devices.
These ninjas were arrested for building an awesome monster - thing out of shipping pallets and skateboards on top of a Brooklyn warehouse? My ninjas, please - this is a sad sad world that we live in. And these guys are ninjas.
When you sue an architect for problems with an unconventional / original design, are you stomping out innovation? MIT would probably say no, while Frankie G may disagree...
We've all known for a minute now that the architecture and sculpture of ancient Greece wasn't left as natural stone, but was painted in technicolor - and ultraviolet light is know giving us a better idea of just what these familiar ruins and works of art really looked like. Makes our copies of Ancient Greece's architecture look like they're in need of a paint job, no?
In this Sunday's Boston Globe Robert Campbell discusses a new book tells how a Cambridge store spread modern design across America. The People's Republic would like to say "You're Welcome for all the dopeness". .:via->Boston.com
There is already an existing mosque less than a mile from Ground Zero - only 686 feet from the proposed Cordoba Center. Is this existing mosque insulting to the WTC site? Could Cordoba move the 686 feet and be okay? Oh no, wait - I'm trying to understand this from a rational standpoint, which is obviously naive of me...
Anyone else think that Santiago Calatrava's design for the redevelopment of the Denver International Airport's South Terminal is a little ridiculous looking? I mean, definitely not his best work. The interiors look fine, I suppose - very 'Calatrava goes to the airport' with the white trusses. But from what the renderings show the exterior isn't looking so hot...
The Architecture League has a great series of recent programs [in podcast form] related to the The City We Imagined / The City We Made: New New York 2001-2010 exhibition that you should definitely check out - along with most of the other talks they have available on their site.
I've been hating on fancy architectural renderings since before I even started AMNP - now people are asking if the actual buildings can ever live up to the photoshopped hype. For real? That we're so enamored with the imagery that we don't appreciate the final result suggests some pretty serious issues...