Architecture Lab

Via Bustler

A jury consisting of Daniel Libeskind, Wiesław Bielawski, Grzegorz Buczek, Wiesław Czabański, Wojciech Duda, George Ferguson, Wiesław Gruszkowski, Jack Lohman, Andrzej Pągowski, and Hans Stimmann has announced their decision for the competition for the Museum of the Second World War in Poland, Gdańsk.

- Prize I EUR 80,000- entry no. 117- identification number 84171358- 92 pt – Studio Architektoniczne “Kwadrat”, Gdynia; Poland. (See below for details)
- Prize II EUR 50,000- entry no. 125- identification number 11092109- 79 pt – Piotr Płaskowicki & partnerzy Architekci; Warszawa; Poland.
- Prize III EUR 30,000- entry no. 21- identification number 02122001- 75 pt – BETAPLAN S.A. ; Ateny; Greece.
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View the winning entry “Kwadrat”, with jury comments:

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The Jury is of the opinion that the design selected in the Architectural Competition has every chance of becoming one of the most important features of the Gdańsk City Centre from the very beginning. In our belief it meets all conditions of joining in the sophisticated symbols in the future alongside the Armoury, St Mary’s Church, or the Crane.
The huge building tactfully merges in the neighbourhood sharing the chance of becoming an icon of Gdańsk with the major historic elements around. The minimalist means of architectural expression proposed by the authors gracefully blend the modern idea of the building with the historic background. In its Design, the innovative, huge-scale project makes use of the unique air of the city and transforms it in a modern manner. The colour and texture proposed in the design smoothly blend with the colours of Gdańsk giving the museum the power to pass the test of the 21.c century.
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The huge building tactfully merges in the neighbourhood sharing the chance of becoming an icon of Gdańsk with the major historic elements around. The minimalist means of architectural expression proposed by the authors gracefully blend the modern idea of the building with the historic background. In its Design, the innovative, huge-scale project makes use of the unique air of the city and transforms it in a modern manner. The colour and texture proposed in the design smoothly blend with the colours of Gdańsk giving the museum the power to pass the test of the 21.c century.

Check the rest of the entry at Bustler
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Via Bustler

A jury consisting of Daniel Libeskind, Wiesław Bielawski, Grzegorz Buczek, Wiesław Czabański, Wojciech Duda, George Ferguson, Wiesław Gruszkowski, Jack Lohman, Andrzej Pągowski, and Hans Stimmann has announced their decision for the competition for the Museum of the Second World War in Poland, Gdańsk.

- Prize I EUR 80,000- entry no. 117- identification number 84171358- 92 pt – Studio Architektoniczne “Kwadrat”, Gdynia; Poland. (See below for details)
- Prize II EUR 50,000- entry no. 125- identification number 11092109- 79 pt – Piotr Płaskowicki & partnerzy Architekci; Warszawa; Poland.
- Prize III EUR 30,000- entry no. 21- identification number 02122001- 75 pt – BETAPLAN S.A. ; Ateny; Greece.
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View the winning entry “Kwadrat”, with jury comments:

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The Jury is of the opinion that the design selected in the Architectural Competition has every chance of becoming one of the most important features of the Gdańsk City Centre from the very beginning. In our belief it meets all conditions of joining in the sophisticated symbols in the future alongside the Armoury, St Mary’s Church, or the Crane.
The huge building tactfully merges in the neighbourhood sharing the chance of becoming an icon of Gdańsk with the major historic elements around. The minimalist means of architectural expression proposed by the authors gracefully blend the modern idea of the building with the historic background. In its Design, the innovative, huge-scale project makes use of the unique air of the city and transforms it in a modern manner. The colour and texture proposed in the design smoothly blend with the colours of Gdańsk giving the museum the power to pass the test of the 21.c century.
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The huge building tactfully merges in the neighbourhood sharing the chance of becoming an icon of Gdańsk with the major historic elements around. The minimalist means of architectural expression proposed by the authors gracefully blend the modern idea of the building with the historic background. In its Design, the innovative, huge-scale project makes use of the unique air of the city and transforms it in a modern manner. The colour and texture proposed in the design smoothly blend with the colours of Gdańsk giving the museum the power to pass the test of the 21.c century.

Check the rest of the entry at Bustler
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Via Bustler - Archinect

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Lively architectural exchanges occur every day in schools, coffee shops, and on online blogs. Archinect Sessions looks to formalize these discussions through a series of debates that will take place in front of live and online audiences. Why debates? Because we believe that a level of criticality needs to return to architecture. This format strips away the visual crutches of the traditional “show and tell” lecture circuit, and instead requires participants to advocate for a particular point of view rooted in genuine political conviction.

For some years now architectural discourse has tended towards the abstruse and self-involved. We are looking here to broaden the conversation. The Archinect Sessions will bring to the surface new developments, strategies, and positions affecting a broad range of issues including urban form, architectural education, practice, and modes of production.

Format & Location
The Archinect Sessions will occur once per month and will focus on a different theme or problematic. A moderator will lead the discussion directing questions at two or more guests. The format will consist of three rounds of discussions (lasting 15 minutes each.) At the end of the three rounds, the audience (both physical and virtual) will get their turn to ask questions of the guests. Online audience members can post their questions online on Archinect (a selection of these will be read by the moderator.)

The Archinect Sessions will be physically located at Neutra VDL House in Silver Lake (2300 Silver Lake Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039) and will be streamed live on Archinect.

Because of limited seating at the VDL House, attendance to the live event will be limited to the first 50 people that reserve a space. To reserve a space, email sarah@neutra-vdl.org.

Come join the melee. No hitting below the belt, holding, tripping, pushing, biting, spitting or wrestling.

Topics/Guests
Our first debate, The Future of Urbanism, is scheduled for 4pm on September 11th 2010, will feature moderator Orhan Ayyuce, and guests Bryan Finoki (Subtopia) and Geoff Manaugh (BLDGBLOG.)
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Discussion will center on the future of urbanism in series of visual, psychological, political, and fictional snapshots.

Orhan Ayyuce is an architect, educator and writer. He will scribble on any subject: architecture, urbanism, politics, art, culture. Sometimes his low-end, hi-style, avant-garde stuff causes security guards chase him.

Geoff Manaugh is the author of BLDGBLOG where he categorizes his writings as “

architectural conjecture, urban speculation, and landscapes futures.” He has lectured on a broad range of architectural topics at design schools and museums around the world, and he has taught at Columbia University, the Pratt Institute, and the University of Technology, Sydney.

Bryan Finoki is a writer, artist, photographer, and worldwide wanderer. He has a background in literature, creative writing, art, psychology, and activism. He maps and writes about the strange urban underworlds and global borders he visits on his website Subtopia.
Series are co-directed by Orhan Ayyuce and Sarah Lorenzen.

Sponsors:
Archinect
Neutra VDL House
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Via Ja StudioInc

Solar Park south, August 2010s
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Slow Up-rising
Solar Park south, International Idea competition – Calabria, Italy – August 2010
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“Subject: Solar Park South Works – Solar Highway – carried out by re-using Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway sections between Scilla and Bagnara to be decommissioned by the Italian Highways Authority.” Solar Park South brief
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“Rather than completely demolishing the old route, with its extraordinary reinforced concrete viaducts, now fully integrated within the landscape and the collective imagination, the reuse and redevelopment of certain by-passed sections is proposed as a means of boosting the production of renewable energy; experimenting with new eco-friendly technologies; favoring connections between villages and access to the valuable crops on mountain crests; and, finally, developing new forms of environmental and land art capable of stimulating responsible tourism.” Solar Park South brief
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The submitted panels for the competition:

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Project Details:
Pavilion Commissioner Agnieszka Morawińska
Curator Elias Redstone
Assistant Commissioner Joanna Waśko
http://www.labiennale.art.pl/
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press preview 26 – 28.08.2010
opening reception: 27.08.2010, 4 p.m.
exhibition open to the public: 29.08.10 – 21.11.10
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‘A neon Emergency Exit sign hangs on the facade of the Polish Pavilion. Inside, a surreal structure made of hundreds of reclaimed bird cages hides a path to its summit. It is lit from within, suggesting a night landscape, a fantastical de-materialized world containing an object and an action. You climb the seemingly precarious structure. At the height of the summit you look down into a churning sea of clouds. Your breath catches, your pulse quickens; you look down, then out, and then leap blindly into the void. . .’

The installation Emergency Exit by artist Agnieszka Kurant and architect Aleksandra Wasilkowska seeks to go beyond the logic of urban reality through the creation of ‘urban portable holes’: in-between spaces, places of uncertainty and doubt, of time-space discontinuity, such as abandoned or unfinished buildings, sites of catastrophe or accidents, illegal markets, rooftops and tunnels. The title refers ironically to the health and safety regulations in buildings and urban space that seek to plan, control risk and eliminate the accidental and unexpected.

The installation is constructed from an aggregate of metal cages, more commonly used to contain birds and prevent flight, to create a new fictional sport within the urban context. The design makes reference to the forms of decaying sports monuments, such as the ski jump in Mokotów, Warsaw—a surrealistic icon of socialist era architecture that is now in ruins. During a test phase, visitors will be able to climb to the top of the structure and jump out into artificially generated clouds, representing ultimate freedom and urban escapism. The Polish Pavilion acts as a laboratory within which Emergency Exit engages with the public directly to provoke, inspire and excite the collective body. These actions will be documented and then presented within the Pavilion.

Kurant and Wasilkowska interpret the city as an unpredictable, complex system whose collective understanding is composed of intersecting real and imaginary spaces changed through extremely rare events. Nine out of ten things that influence our behaviour and thinking are invisible or intangible. Factors such as myths, rumours and legends overlay themselves onto the physical environment to create an urban morphology of augmented landscapes. At the same time, spontaneity and risk exist as human characteristics that can work against a rational layer of control within the urban fabric. Both invisible phenomena and social actions can change the dynamic of a street, borough, or even the entire city. Architects and planners are therefore unable to precisely anticipate all the needs and transformations of the city. If a rigid and deterministic master plan is unable to integrate emergent needs and changes then the whole city looses its equilibrium.

Emergency Exit is conceived as a hybrid machine for the transfer to other realities, perforating the system of the city. It is a portable hole to the unknown; a catalyst for different, contradictory emotions and needs. Through the transfer, people fill in the gaps with their own emotions, ideas and desires. Kurant and Wasilkowska see the moment of jumping as an exit from the modernist paradigm in architecture where emotional, affective space was ignored and considered an obsolete ornament. The activity materialises the need and desire to lose control, to free oneself both physically and metaphorically from the current system; from a dominant paradigm, logic or state. To get out of here.

The project promotes an approach to architecture and urbanism that reverses the logic of a unilaterally defined urban reality and deterministic master plan; it embraces the unknown phenomena of the city; introduces a higher flexibility of the urban tissue through integrating interstices, gaps and pores, and leaving people space to plug-in or plug-out of dominant urban structures through developing individual, self-organising activities and actions.

Organization of the Exhibition: Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
Pavilion Commissioner: Agnieszka Morawińska
Curator: Elias Redstone
Assistant Commissioner: Joanna Waśko

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Special effects: Artur Etiop Bartos ETIOP FX productions
Audio-Video: Eidotech
Video documentation: Mirek Szewczyk with special thanks to EBH Polska
Installation engineer: Monika Bodurkiewicz
Construction: Befstal
Cages: Net–Kar
Neons: Neoneon
Lighting: Lumiere essence Małgorzata Baj
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Project Details:
Client: Stockholms Hamn AB
Architect: Arkitektfirmaet C. F. Møller and Berg Arkitektkontor
Address: Värtahamnen, Stockholm, Sverige
Size:16500 m2 and a new customs area of 1100 m2
Competition year: 2009-2010
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“The new terminal for Stockholm’s permanent ferry connections to Finland and the Baltics will be a landmark for the new urban development Norra Djursgårdsstaden – both architecturally and environmentally. The terminal, which will have a facade covered with expanded mesh, recalls the shape of a moving vessel and the architecture – with large cranes and warehouses – that previously characterized the ports. At the same time, the terminal has an ambitious sustainable profile, characteristic of the entire development.

The main idea has been to create natural links between central Stockholm and the new urban area in connection with the terminal, so that city life will naturally flow into the area. Therefore the terminal is raised to be at level with the urban zone, so it is easy for both pedestrians and traffic to access. At the same time the roof of the terminal building is designed as a varied green landscape with stairs, ramps, niches, and cosy corners, inviting both Stockholmers and passengers for a stroll or relaxing moments, while enjoying the view of the ferries, the archipelago, and the city skyline.

The aim is that the ferry terminal will be predominantly self-sufficient in energy and thus stand as an environmental model for public construction. Therefore the architecture of the terminal will integrate i.e. solar and wind power, for example the terraced landscape on the roof will integrate beds of solar cells along with the planting. The plan is to communicate the sustainable efforts to the people in the building by using i.e. centrally placed television screens, helping to raise awareness of the potential of sustainable construction.
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Via Atelier Hapsitus

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Selected as co-finalist

The project consists of the creation of a landmark for the city of Beirut, extending the existing building without destroying it. We created a project whereupon the new structure shares the corner with the existing building and cantilevers above it.

The presence of the existing building at the corner of the site was an enigma to us. It had the key position on the site, although it was not necessarily the most appropriate image for the BLC new headquarters.
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In order to resolve this issue, we created a project whereupon the new structure shares the corner with the existing building and cantilevers above it. In this way, the different expressions of old and new become complementary, working together in symbiosis.
Our proposal for the BLC headquarters strives to reflect the history of the bank and project its future with a design strategy that responds intuitively to the site. Like the new administration of BLC, we have chosen to adopt the existing structure, streamline it, correct its dysfunctional aspects, and celebrate it as the departure point for a dynamic, sophisticated and unique composition growing around and above it.
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We believe that BLC Bank is best represented by a project that opens itself visually to the urban fabric with alluring spaces and landscape, rather than the hermetic and alienating facades that often characterize large corporations. The streetscape we have conceived gives the image of a bank which is progressive, has a civil consciousness and offers a quality environment to clients and employees alike.
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The design of the project is an unselfconscious gesture shaped by the site itself and the needs of the project. We toyed with forms and ideas until an intuitive, almost spontaneous shape imposed itself; a process which gives the design an edge of unconventionality.
The total project is an arresting visible landmark that thrusts the bank headquarters into the 21st century in all ways possible. It is innovative in design, in its integration of the existing building, in the way it addresses the site, in its use of sustainability, in forward-thinking social facilities, and in its bold structural solution which makes the design possible.
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Consultants:
ARUP London for structural studies.
ZEF London for sustainability and low energy studies.
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Via Foster + Partners – Bustler

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“Foster + Partners’ masterplan for West Kowloon Cultural District, on a reclaimed harbour-front site, has been launched in Hong Kong. ‘City Park’ will capture and recreate the unique character, the DNA, that makes Hong Kong such a great city. At its heart, a 23-hectare great park and a green avenue will provide a landscaped setting for a series of spectacular new cultural buildings – the jewels in Hong Kong’s architectural crown. These new buildings will be approachable and welcoming – places for both high culture and popular enjoyment.

The seventeen new cultural venues include a Great Opera House; M+ (a pioneering museum of modern art); concert halls; and a 15,000-seat Arena with an Expo Centre below. Arts educational facilities, apartments, offices, shops and transport links are to be fully integrated, and 2 kilometres of harbour-front promenade will give the people of Hong Kong their first chance to look back at the city’s iconic skyline. A social focus is created along a new central avenue, extending from Canton Road in the east to the Harbour Tunnel mouth in the west, along which a variety of cultural and commercial activities are integrated.”
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“Foster + Partners brings its understanding of urban design and knowledge of Hong Kong – gained from thirty-one years’ experience in the city – to create a vibrant new cultural quarter with public spaces and buildings where public and private realms converge, social and physical boundaries are dissolved, and different groups can meet. West Kowloon’s familiar street pattern will extend into ‘City Park’ so that it becomes a natural extension of the local community. This relationship is reflected in a rich mixture of colonnades, alleyways, lanes and tree-lined promenades – streetscapes that recall the bustle of Lan Kwai Fong and thoroughfares such as Shanghai Street in Kowloon.

Though the district will attract visitors for its imaginative cultural programme, equally important are the 30,000 square metres of arts education facilities that will encourage home-grown artistic talent and benefit the people of Hong Kong.”
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“The 19-hectare great park will have magnificent views of the harbour and Hong Kong Island, and be open and accessible to local people and visitors alike. Its sculpted terrain, with dense tree planting, will provide shade and shelter, bringing the Hong Kong countryside into the city. A series of outdoor terraces and promenades will link the cultural buildings to the waterfront with vistas to Hong Kong Island. The great park also incorporates areas for outdoor performances and exhibitions. The needs of pedestrians and cars are balanced by sinking the main vehicle route below ground level; and to further maximise parkland, the Expo Centre is embedded below the Arena, combining two functions in one compact form.”
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“City Park will achieve a carbon-neutral rating with a synergistic system of high-efficiency and low-consumption infrastructure. The low-energy design includes district cooling/heating, grey water recycling, energy recovery systems for sewage, recycling, a waste-to-energy scheme and the generation of local, low-carbon electricity. There is also provision for solar and wind energy generation.

Lord Foster, Founder and Chairman, Foster + Partners said: “Hong Kong is a great city and this project captures what is important about its DNA: the civic spaces, the squares, the parks, the greenery, the avenues and the small side streets. At ‘City Park’ we have created a world class setting for a new cultural city for everyone.”
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“Mouzhan Majidi, Chief Executive, Foster + Partners said: “The West Kowloon Cultural District is an ambitious project to create a dynamic new district with a rich mix of spaces for everyone in Hong Kong. Our approach is to create a masterplan where the boundaries between living, working and playing are blurred, public space is welcoming and lively, and the quality of urban life is substantially improved. We look forward to carrying out further work on this exciting endeavour.”
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Spencer de Grey, Head of Design, Foster + Partners said: “City Park belongs to the people of Hong Kong. What we have done is taken our years of experience here, listened to what people need and created a setting for a new world class cultural district that expresses the hopes and aspirations of the city. It will be the most extraordinary international destination – a new landmark on the world’s cultural map.” Foster + Partners
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Work on the WKCD will be phased and the venues include:

The Great Park and green avenue
Characterised by an organic landscape, the Great Park is a twenty-three-hectare green oasis, including a nineteen-hectare park, on the western promontory of the site. It not only provides the setting for three major venues – the Arena, the Exhibition Centre and the Opera House – but also contains tea houses, small temples, follies, picnic areas and informal sports pitches within its hills and densely planted trees.

The Arena and Expo
A reinvention of a building type, the Arena and Expo centre contains a stacked programme – combining two functions within one compact form. With the arena constituting a large-scale performance venue on the upper levels, the expo centre is dug-into the site, below ground. The benefit of this unique programme is that it not only frees space for more parkland, but also concentrates two heavily serviced buildings within one, thereby reducing the infrastructure required for access and services for each. While the Expo centre will be full of activity during the daytime, the Arena will host events at night, thus creating a lively 24-hour shopping and entertainment centre.

Habitable Wall
Sweeping around the inner perimeter of the park and establishing a buffer to the West Harbour Crossing, a “green wall” contains hotels, restaurants, conference facilities and the showcase energy centre that serves the whole site.

Great Opera House
The home of WKCD’s resident opera company, the Great Opera House nestles within the Great Park, flanking its north-eastern edge and representing the western culmination of the Avenue. The Great Opera House marks the transition from city to park-scape. In front of the Great Opera House is Opera Plaza, which can be used for informal events and temporary exhibitions. This space sits within the park and offers spectacular views of the Bay and the Hong Kong skyline.

Green Rooms / the Urban Edge
With services and infrastructure placed below ground and the level of the development dictated by the buried Express Rail Link station, the public urban realm of WKCD is raised three metres above the current topographic datum. The city therefore steps down to the water’s edge, establishing dramatic views across the bay. A series of ‘green rooms’ step down from the cultural venues along the site edge, and extend towards Kowloon Park. Each room has a distinct identity, with the level change offering potential for terraced gardens, stepped plazas and integrated services and kiosks.

The Avenue
The Avenue, a bustling, wide boulevard-like pedestrian street, is the central spine running east/west from the Great Opera House at the edge of the Great Park, to Black Box Tower and Canton Road Plaza Gateway. The Avenue unlocks the whole district, connecting all the different elements together, and is characterised by a dynamic mix of major cultural venues, along with shops, noodle bars, private galleries, artists’ studios, workshops and residential apartments. A network of smaller streets intersect the Avenue, offering specialist culture-related shopping and cultural experiences. At the far western end of the Avenue, a bridge leads directly to Elements shopping centre and to Kowloon MTR station, while at the far eastern end, Austin Bridge connects directly to Austin Station and to King George IV Memorial Park beyond.

Xiqu Plaza and the Chinese Theatre
At the centre of the Avenue, adjacent to the Chinese Theatre, Xiqu Plaza is the centrepiece of the district. Occupying a strategic location, Xiqu Plaza connects to the forecourt plaza of the Express West Kowloon Terminus Rail Link, establishing a dramatic gateway to the development on arrival by train with a view corridor towards the Hong Kong skyline. The social heart of West Kowloon Cultural District, the plaza is filled with food stalls, organic markets, restaurants and cafes. The square is influenced by the presence of the adjacent Chinese Theatre, with its generous overhanging roof, beneath which there are restaurants and cafes. This establishes a traditional Chinese identity for the entire district.

Art School, Theatre and Academy, Music Square
Adjacent to the Great Opera House, a mixed-programme development would house an art school on the upper levels, with a music academy on the lower levels and theatre below grade. To the north of the building, a public square establishes an outdoor social space, with temporary music-related events or installations and a possible showcase for the art school and music academy. Rising above the height of the surrounding buildings, the art school is a bold marker, with spectacular views towards Hong Kong and an external rooftop terrace with sculpture garden.

The Concert Hall and Symphonic Stairs
The concert hall is defined by its raised public terrace that steps up, dramatically, from the waterfront. A key viewing point for the Hong Kong skyline, audiences are able to watch performances against the backdrop of Hong Kong. Equally, the building’s strong form is a civic and cultural marker for the cultural district, when viewed from Hong Kong. A music centre of international standing, the concert hall will consolidate West Kowloon’s position as an arts destination in its own right.

East of Xiqu
A number of further venues and public squares extend eastward from Xiqu Theatre. Characterised by a mixed programme of commercial, education and cultural uses, these include recording studios, the White Box gallery, Literature Square and Dance studios.

Knowledge Centre
The Knowledge Centre is located to the south of West Kowloon Terminus and Austin Station, connecting to East Gate Plaza and Austin Bridge to the east. A 21st century library and centre for learning and literature, the Knowledge Centre is welcoming and accessible, offering visitors and the local community a place to learn, meet, research and spend leisure time. Containing a library, computer rooms with wi-fi, the building is also home to exhibitions relating to literature and local history and culture. The programme suggests open, flexible environments in which communication can flourish.

M+
WKCD’s pioneering museum of modern art, M+ is accessed from the Avenue, near to Kowloon Park Bridge on the waterfront. Flanked by two plazas, the venue is also home to a sculpture-making courtyard to the east and a sculpture garden to the west. The building is characterised by its flexible exhibition spaces – including spaces for large-scale installations – as well as additional functions, such as lecture theatres, an archive of Chinese painting, art storage and a roof-top restaurant and sky-garden. A pedestrian public route leads through the site, reinforcing its integration into the wider city context. A major international centre for the visual arts, M+ is ranked among the world’s elite modern arts institutions, such as the Pompidou Centre in Paris and Tate Modern in London.

Canton Road Plaza and Black Box Tower
The Avenue culminates, at its far eastern end, in the Canton Road Plaza and the distinctive Black Box Tower. The tower houses a twenty-four-hour bookshop at the lower level, with three theatres stacked above, hosting fringe performances and comedy.

Connections and transport integration
Central to the vision for WKCD is the seamless integration of public transport and connections to Hong Kong, China and beyond. There are footbridges to Austin Station, Elements shopping centre, Kowloon Park and West Kowloon Station (with trains to the airport taking just twenty minutes). There is also the China ferry terminal to the East and the Star Ferry terminal close to the concert hall with regular connections to Hong Kong. The infrastructure for the entire site is discreetly placed below grade, with deliveries and service access to the venues separated from the predominantly pedestrian ground level. An automated transit system is proposed, which would connect all venues, keeping walking distances to a minimum and strategically connecting all the dots on the transport map. A fleet of eco minibuses connects further into central Kowloon areas.”
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Via Foster + Partners – Bustler

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“Foster + Partners’ masterplan for West Kowloon Cultural District, on a reclaimed harbour-front site, has been launched in Hong Kong. ‘City Park’ will capture and recreate the unique character, the DNA, that makes Hong Kong such a great city. At its heart, a 23-hectare great park and a green avenue will provide a landscaped setting for a series of spectacular new cultural buildings – the jewels in Hong Kong’s architectural crown. These new buildings will be approachable and welcoming – places for both high culture and popular enjoyment.

The seventeen new cultural venues include a Great Opera House; M+ (a pioneering museum of modern art); concert halls; and a 15,000-seat Arena with an Expo Centre below. Arts educational facilities, apartments, offices, shops and transport links are to be fully integrated, and 2 kilometres of harbour-front promenade will give the people of Hong Kong their first chance to look back at the city’s iconic skyline. A social focus is created along a new central avenue, extending from Canton Road in the east to the Harbour Tunnel mouth in the west, along which a variety of cultural and commercial activities are integrated.”
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“Foster + Partners brings its understanding of urban design and knowledge of Hong Kong – gained from thirty-one years’ experience in the city – to create a vibrant new cultural quarter with public spaces and buildings where public and private realms converge, social and physical boundaries are dissolved, and different groups can meet. West Kowloon’s familiar street pattern will extend into ‘City Park’ so that it becomes a natural extension of the local community. This relationship is reflected in a rich mixture of colonnades, alleyways, lanes and tree-lined promenades – streetscapes that recall the bustle of Lan Kwai Fong and thoroughfares such as Shanghai Street in Kowloon.

Though the district will attract visitors for its imaginative cultural programme, equally important are the 30,000 square metres of arts education facilities that will encourage home-grown artistic talent and benefit the people of Hong Kong.”
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“The 19-hectare great park will have magnificent views of the harbour and Hong Kong Island, and be open and accessible to local people and visitors alike. Its sculpted terrain, with dense tree planting, will provide shade and shelter, bringing the Hong Kong countryside into the city. A series of outdoor terraces and promenades will link the cultural buildings to the waterfront with vistas to Hong Kong Island. The great park also incorporates areas for outdoor performances and exhibitions. The needs of pedestrians and cars are balanced by sinking the main vehicle route below ground level; and to further maximise parkland, the Expo Centre is embedded below the Arena, combining two functions in one compact form.”
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“City Park will achieve a carbon-neutral rating with a synergistic system of high-efficiency and low-consumption infrastructure. The low-energy design includes district cooling/heating, grey water recycling, energy recovery systems for sewage, recycling, a waste-to-energy scheme and the generation of local, low-carbon electricity. There is also provision for solar and wind energy generation.

Lord Foster, Founder and Chairman, Foster + Partners said: “Hong Kong is a great city and this project captures what is important about its DNA: the civic spaces, the squares, the parks, the greenery, the avenues and the small side streets. At ‘City Park’ we have created a world class setting for a new cultural city for everyone.”
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“Mouzhan Majidi, Chief Executive, Foster + Partners said: “The West Kowloon Cultural District is an ambitious project to create a dynamic new district with a rich mix of spaces for everyone in Hong Kong. Our approach is to create a masterplan where the boundaries between living, working and playing are blurred, public space is welcoming and lively, and the quality of urban life is substantially improved. We look forward to carrying out further work on this exciting endeavour.”
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Spencer de Grey, Head of Design, Foster + Partners said: “City Park belongs to the people of Hong Kong. What we have done is taken our years of experience here, listened to what people need and created a setting for a new world class cultural district that expresses the hopes and aspirations of the city. It will be the most extraordinary international destination – a new landmark on the world’s cultural map.” Foster + Partners
—————————————————————————-
Work on the WKCD will be phased and the venues include:

The Great Park and green avenue
Characterised by an organic landscape, the Great Park is a twenty-three-hectare green oasis, including a nineteen-hectare park, on the western promontory of the site. It not only provides the setting for three major venues – the Arena, the Exhibition Centre and the Opera House – but also contains tea houses, small temples, follies, picnic areas and informal sports pitches within its hills and densely planted trees.

The Arena and Expo
A reinvention of a building type, the Arena and Expo centre contains a stacked programme – combining two functions within one compact form. With the arena constituting a large-scale performance venue on the upper levels, the expo centre is dug-into the site, below ground. The benefit of this unique programme is that it not only frees space for more parkland, but also concentrates two heavily serviced buildings within one, thereby reducing the infrastructure required for access and services for each. While the Expo centre will be full of activity during the daytime, the Arena will host events at night, thus creating a lively 24-hour shopping and entertainment centre.

Habitable Wall
Sweeping around the inner perimeter of the park and establishing a buffer to the West Harbour Crossing, a “green wall” contains hotels, restaurants, conference facilities and the showcase energy centre that serves the whole site.

Great Opera House
The home of WKCD’s resident opera company, the Great Opera House nestles within the Great Park, flanking its north-eastern edge and representing the western culmination of the Avenue. The Great Opera House marks the transition from city to park-scape. In front of the Great Opera House is Opera Plaza, which can be used for informal events and temporary exhibitions. This space sits within the park and offers spectacular views of the Bay and the Hong Kong skyline.

Green Rooms / the Urban Edge
With services and infrastructure placed below ground and the level of the development dictated by the buried Express Rail Link station, the public urban realm of WKCD is raised three metres above the current topographic datum. The city therefore steps down to the water’s edge, establishing dramatic views across the bay. A series of ‘green rooms’ step down from the cultural venues along the site edge, and extend towards Kowloon Park. Each room has a distinct identity, with the level change offering potential for terraced gardens, stepped plazas and integrated services and kiosks.

The Avenue
The Avenue, a bustling, wide boulevard-like pedestrian street, is the central spine running east/west from the Great Opera House at the edge of the Great Park, to Black Box Tower and Canton Road Plaza Gateway. The Avenue unlocks the whole district, connecting all the different elements together, and is characterised by a dynamic mix of major cultural venues, along with shops, noodle bars, private galleries, artists’ studios, workshops and residential apartments. A network of smaller streets intersect the Avenue, offering specialist culture-related shopping and cultural experiences. At the far western end of the Avenue, a bridge leads directly to Elements shopping centre and to Kowloon MTR station, while at the far eastern end, Austin Bridge connects directly to Austin Station and to King George IV Memorial Park beyond.

Xiqu Plaza and the Chinese Theatre
At the centre of the Avenue, adjacent to the Chinese Theatre, Xiqu Plaza is the centrepiece of the district. Occupying a strategic location, Xiqu Plaza connects to the forecourt plaza of the Express West Kowloon Terminus Rail Link, establishing a dramatic gateway to the development on arrival by train with a view corridor towards the Hong Kong skyline. The social heart of West Kowloon Cultural District, the plaza is filled with food stalls, organic markets, restaurants and cafes. The square is influenced by the presence of the adjacent Chinese Theatre, with its generous overhanging roof, beneath which there are restaurants and cafes. This establishes a traditional Chinese identity for the entire district.

Art School, Theatre and Academy, Music Square
Adjacent to the Great Opera House, a mixed-programme development would house an art school on the upper levels, with a music academy on the lower levels and theatre below grade. To the north of the building, a public square establishes an outdoor social space, with temporary music-related events or installations and a possible showcase for the art school and music academy. Rising above the height of the surrounding buildings, the art school is a bold marker, with spectacular views towards Hong Kong and an external rooftop terrace with sculpture garden.

The Concert Hall and Symphonic Stairs
The concert hall is defined by its raised public terrace that steps up, dramatically, from the waterfront. A key viewing point for the Hong Kong skyline, audiences are able to watch performances against the backdrop of Hong Kong. Equally, the building’s strong form is a civic and cultural marker for the cultural district, when viewed from Hong Kong. A music centre of international standing, the concert hall will consolidate West Kowloon’s position as an arts destination in its own right.

East of Xiqu
A number of further venues and public squares extend eastward from Xiqu Theatre. Characterised by a mixed programme of commercial, education and cultural uses, these include recording studios, the White Box gallery, Literature Square and Dance studios.

Knowledge Centre
The Knowledge Centre is located to the south of West Kowloon Terminus and Austin Station, connecting to East Gate Plaza and Austin Bridge to the east. A 21st century library and centre for learning and literature, the Knowledge Centre is welcoming and accessible, offering visitors and the local community a place to learn, meet, research and spend leisure time. Containing a library, computer rooms with wi-fi, the building is also home to exhibitions relating to literature and local history and culture. The programme suggests open, flexible environments in which communication can flourish.

M+
WKCD’s pioneering museum of modern art, M+ is accessed from the Avenue, near to Kowloon Park Bridge on the waterfront. Flanked by two plazas, the venue is also home to a sculpture-making courtyard to the east and a sculpture garden to the west. The building is characterised by its flexible exhibition spaces – including spaces for large-scale installations – as well as additional functions, such as lecture theatres, an archive of Chinese painting, art storage and a roof-top restaurant and sky-garden. A pedestrian public route leads through the site, reinforcing its integration into the wider city context. A major international centre for the visual arts, M+ is ranked among the world’s elite modern arts institutions, such as the Pompidou Centre in Paris and Tate Modern in London.

Canton Road Plaza and Black Box Tower
The Avenue culminates, at its far eastern end, in the Canton Road Plaza and the distinctive Black Box Tower. The tower houses a twenty-four-hour bookshop at the lower level, with three theatres stacked above, hosting fringe performances and comedy.

Connections and transport integration
Central to the vision for WKCD is the seamless integration of public transport and connections to Hong Kong, China and beyond. There are footbridges to Austin Station, Elements shopping centre, Kowloon Park and West Kowloon Station (with trains to the airport taking just twenty minutes). There is also the China ferry terminal to the East and the Star Ferry terminal close to the concert hall with regular connections to Hong Kong. The infrastructure for the entire site is discreetly placed below grade, with deliveries and service access to the venues separated from the predominantly pedestrian ground level. An automated transit system is proposed, which would connect all venues, keeping walking distances to a minimum and strategically connecting all the dots on the transport map. A fleet of eco minibuses connects further into central Kowloon areas.”
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Via AIA San Fransisco

The American Institute of Architects, San Francisco chapter (AIA San Francisco) and Center for Architecture + Design announce the seventh annual Architecture and the City festival, which takes place September 1-30, 2010.
As the nation’s largest architectural festival showcasing tours, films, exhibitions, lectures, family programs and more, Architecture and the City reaches more than 20,000 people and provides an opportunity for individuals, design practices, companies, cultural institutions and the general public to celebrate San Francisco’s unique built environment and their contribution towards it.

The 2010 festival theme Investigating Urban Metabolisms takes an in-depth look at hidden and emergent systems that generate form, movement, growth and entropy in the city. According to festival curator, Erin Cullerton, programs will explore how the city is organized via information systems, ecological systems, building systems, transportation systems, surveillance systems, life cycle systems, natural systems, and beyond. Additionally, programming will explore the way architects or projects thoughtfully impact our communities and reflect issues of sustainability.

Once again, the festival will showcase everything from exhibitions and lectures to behind-the-scenes walking tours, hands-on workshops, dynamic new architecture and much, much more. Confirmed popular programs include the San Francisco Living: Home Tours weekend, which returns September 11-12, 2010, giving participants the unique opportunity to see some of the city’s latest residential projects from the inside out, meet design teams, explore housing trends, and discover design solutions that inspire unique San Francisco living. The central exhibition of the festival, Water for a Sustainable City, will explore the story of San Francisco’s water system through the lens of architecture and design. Additionally, architectural programming for the whole family, tours of evolving San Francisco neighborhoods, and community workshops on everything from landscape design to home remodeling will be available.

The Architecture and the City festival has been engaging members of the public and design enthusiasts, as well as architects and designers, with a deeper appreciation for San Francisco’s rich architectural and design community since 2003. In honor of the festival, Mayor Gavin Newsom has officially proclaimed September “Architecture and the City” month.

Complete programming details, including pricing and program locations, will be available mid-July 2010. Tickets for all programs go on sale August 1, 2010.

Information on the festival can be found at: www.aiasf.org/archandcity.
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Via AIA San Fransisco

The American Institute of Architects, San Francisco chapter (AIA San Francisco) and Center for Architecture + Design announce the seventh annual Architecture and the City festival, which takes place September 1-30, 2010.
As the nation’s largest architectural festival showcasing tours, films, exhibitions, lectures, family programs and more, Architecture and the City reaches more than 20,000 people and provides an opportunity for individuals, design practices, companies, cultural institutions and the general public to celebrate San Francisco’s unique built environment and their contribution towards it.

The 2010 festival theme Investigating Urban Metabolisms takes an in-depth look at hidden and emergent systems that generate form, movement, growth and entropy in the city. According to festival curator, Erin Cullerton, programs will explore how the city is organized via information systems, ecological systems, building systems, transportation systems, surveillance systems, life cycle systems, natural systems, and beyond. Additionally, programming will explore the way architects or projects thoughtfully impact our communities and reflect issues of sustainability.

Once again, the festival will showcase everything from exhibitions and lectures to behind-the-scenes walking tours, hands-on workshops, dynamic new architecture and much, much more. Confirmed popular programs include the San Francisco Living: Home Tours weekend, which returns September 11-12, 2010, giving participants the unique opportunity to see some of the city’s latest residential projects from the inside out, meet design teams, explore housing trends, and discover design solutions that inspire unique San Francisco living. The central exhibition of the festival, Water for a Sustainable City, will explore the story of San Francisco’s water system through the lens of architecture and design. Additionally, architectural programming for the whole family, tours of evolving San Francisco neighborhoods, and community workshops on everything from landscape design to home remodeling will be available.

The Architecture and the City festival has been engaging members of the public and design enthusiasts, as well as architects and designers, with a deeper appreciation for San Francisco’s rich architectural and design community since 2003. In honor of the festival, Mayor Gavin Newsom has officially proclaimed September “Architecture and the City” month.

Complete programming details, including pricing and program locations, will be available mid-July 2010. Tickets for all programs go on sale August 1, 2010.

Information on the festival can be found at: www.aiasf.org/archandcity.
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NEW YORK, NY (August 19, 2010) — Sukkah City, www.sukkahcity.com, an ambitious global architectural contest that engaged the design, creative and architectural worlds to radically reinvent the ancient sukkah, today announced the twelve winners of the competition that will be on display in Union Square Park, ahead of the week-long festival of Sukkot. The selected designs will be built by their designers at the Gowanus Studio Space in Brooklyn and then driven by truck to Union Square for public display on Sunday, September 19 and Monday, September 20.
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More than 600 entrants had to wrap their minds around the arcane rules of Halakah, Jewish Law — which allows a sukkah to be built in a tree, on a wagon, or out of a living elephant. Entries came from 43 countries, including China, India, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Turkey, and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

“We asked some of the most creative people in the world to re-imagine and renew the sukkah, and the results are truly dazzling and inspiring,” said Roger Bennett and Joshua Foer of the cultural organization Reboot, which organized the competition in collaboration with the American Institute of Architects, Architizer, Dwell, the Union Square Partnership, and the City’s Department of Parks & Recreation. “This humble structure will come to life in twelve new forms that are bold, beautiful and quintessentially New York.”

A panel of judges, including Pritzker prize-winning architect Thom Mayne, The New Yorker’s architecture critic, Paul Goldberger, NYU Environmental Health Clinic Director Natalie Jeremijenko, and designer Ron Arad selected the winning entries during a recent session at the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The winners (full list below) were selected in a blind review, and include the Brooklyn-based firms Matter Architecture Practice; Bittertang, winners of the 2010 Architectural League Prize; and Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu, winner of the 2010 MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program. One structure will be voted on by New Yorkers to stand and delight throughout the week-long festival of Sukkot as the “People’s Choice Sukkah.” The “People’s Choice” will be announced at a September 20 ceremony. Selected entries will also be displayed in an exhibit at the Center for Architecture in New York City during the month of September.

The process and results of the competition, along with construction documentation and critical essays, will be published in the forthcoming book “Sukkah City: Radically Temporary Architecture for the Next Three Thousand Years.”
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Sukkah City 2010 Winners

Dale Suttle, So Sugita, and Ginna Nguyen – New York, NY
Gathering

Henry Grosman and Babak Bryan – Long Island City, NY
Fractured Bubble

Ronald Rael, Virginia San Fratello – Oakland, CA
Sukkah of the Signs

Kyle May and Scott Abrahams – New York, NY
LOG

Peter Sagar – United Kingdom
Time/Timeless

tinder, tinker – Sagle, ID
Shim Sukkah

Matthias Karch – Berlin, Germany
Repetition meets Difference | Stability meets Volatileness

Matter Practice – Brooklyn, NY
Single Thread

Volkan Alkanoglu – Los Angeles, CA
Star Cocoon

Bittertang – Brooklyn, NY
Bio Puff

SO-IL – Brooklyn, NY
In Tension

THEVERYMANY – Brooklyn, NY
P.YGROS.C / passive hygroscopic curls
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NEW YORK, NY (August 19, 2010) — Sukkah City, www.sukkahcity.com, an ambitious global architectural contest that engaged the design, creative and architectural worlds to radically reinvent the ancient sukkah, today announced the twelve winners of the competition that will be on display in Union Square Park, ahead of the week-long festival of Sukkot. The selected designs will be built by their designers at the Gowanus Studio Space in Brooklyn and then driven by truck to Union Square for public display on Sunday, September 19 and Monday, September 20.
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More than 600 entrants had to wrap their minds around the arcane rules of Halakah, Jewish Law — which allows a sukkah to be built in a tree, on a wagon, or out of a living elephant. Entries came from 43 countries, including China, India, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Turkey, and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

“We asked some of the most creative people in the world to re-imagine and renew the sukkah, and the results are truly dazzling and inspiring,” said Roger Bennett and Joshua Foer of the cultural organization Reboot, which organized the competition in collaboration with the American Institute of Architects, Architizer, Dwell, the Union Square Partnership, and the City’s Department of Parks & Recreation. “This humble structure will come to life in twelve new forms that are bold, beautiful and quintessentially New York.”

A panel of judges, including Pritzker prize-winning architect Thom Mayne, The New Yorker’s architecture critic, Paul Goldberger, NYU Environmental Health Clinic Director Natalie Jeremijenko, and designer Ron Arad selected the winning entries during a recent session at the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The winners (full list below) were selected in a blind review, and include the Brooklyn-based firms Matter Architecture Practice; Bittertang, winners of the 2010 Architectural League Prize; and Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu, winner of the 2010 MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program. One structure will be voted on by New Yorkers to stand and delight throughout the week-long festival of Sukkot as the “People’s Choice Sukkah.” The “People’s Choice” will be announced at a September 20 ceremony. Selected entries will also be displayed in an exhibit at the Center for Architecture in New York City during the month of September.

The process and results of the competition, along with construction documentation and critical essays, will be published in the forthcoming book “Sukkah City: Radically Temporary Architecture for the Next Three Thousand Years.”
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Sukkah City 2010 Winners

Dale Suttle, So Sugita, and Ginna Nguyen – New York, NY
Gathering

Henry Grosman and Babak Bryan – Long Island City, NY
Fractured Bubble

Ronald Rael, Virginia San Fratello – Oakland, CA
Sukkah of the Signs

Kyle May and Scott Abrahams – New York, NY
LOG

Peter Sagar – United Kingdom
Time/Timeless

tinder, tinker – Sagle, ID
Shim Sukkah

Matthias Karch – Berlin, Germany
Repetition meets Difference | Stability meets Volatileness

Matter Practice – Brooklyn, NY
Single Thread

Volkan Alkanoglu – Los Angeles, CA
Star Cocoon

Bittertang – Brooklyn, NY
Bio Puff

SO-IL – Brooklyn, NY
In Tension

THEVERYMANY – Brooklyn, NY
P.YGROS.C / passive hygroscopic curls
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Via Bustler

Long Island-based firm Bates Masi + Architects has been honored with two AIA New York State Design Awards in the Residential Small Project Category. Competition for this award is open to Architects registered in the State of New York with projects located around the world. Awards will be presented on October 15 at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center at the annual AIA New York State Convention.
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“The Pryor Residence in Montauk, New York was awarded the AIA NY State 2010 Award of Merit. In addition, this project was featured in the July 11, 2010 issue of New York Magazine and noted for evoking childhood experiences of camping through the design. A seamless relationship between the house and nature occurs when the 36’ wide sliding doors completely pocket into the walls. Bronzed metal sunscreens slide to allow varying levels of sunlight for unique living experiences.

AIA NY State also honored the firm with its 2010 Citation of Design Award for Noyack Creek Residence located in Southampton, New York. Utilizing a limited material pallet and orienting the views out to the tidal estuary liberates the predetermined building envelope of this residence on a narrow lot. Noyack Creek was featured in the House and Home Section of the New York Times in 2009 as well as on our sister site Archinect. ”
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The architectural firm based on the East End of Long Island has been practicing for the past 46 years and has completed a range of projects including residential, institutional and commercial located around the world. Bustler
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