Canadian Pavilion in Venice: Hylozoic Ground by Philip Beesley

VENICE.- For the 12th International Architecture Exhibition Hylozoic Ground transforms the Canada Pavilion with an immersive, interactive environment made of tens of thousands of lightweight digitally-fabricated components fitted with meshed microprocessors and sensors. The glass-like fragility of this artificial forest is built of an intricate lattice of small transparent acrylic meshwork links, covered with a network of interactive mechanical fronds, filters and whiskers. The environment is similar to a coral reef, following cycles of opening, clamping, filtering and digesting. Arrays [...]

Walking in a Cloud at Venice Architecture Biennale 2010

VENICE (REUTERS).- If you thought that the world’s biggest architecture show would be about buildings, this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale has a few surprises in store. Highlights include a steel ramp sneaking into a cloud, a pitch-black room where water falls from a swirling hose and a tower of metal cages from which one can jump into the void — setting the tone for a show that, in a break with the past, this time focuses on people and space. [...]

French Pavilion in Venice by Dominique Perrault Explores the Metropolis

VENICE.- Obviously, unceasing transformation of urban territories has considerably altered the perception and the reality of the city envisaged as a unified urban entity of defined space and built form. The new, increasingly complex, disjointed, splintered and polluted urban territories we see today are a succession of solids and voids. The metropolis, in contrast to the city considered as a single physical mass, is precisely what the city has rejected, expelled outside of and beyond itself. With the “METROPOLIS ?” [...]

Internationally Acclaimed Architects and Artists at the Venice Architecture Biennale

VENICE.- The Venice Biennale, which has its offices in Ca’ Giustinian (San Marco, 1364/A), has for over a century been one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in the world. Ever since its foundation in 1895, it has been in the avant-garde, promoting new artistic trends and organising international events in contemporary arts. It is world-beating for the International Film Festival, for the International Art Exhibition and for the International Architecture Exhibition, and continues the great tradition of the Festival [...]

Norman Foster Designs First Office Headquarters in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES.- Foster + Partners, working with construction firm, CRIBA S.A. and local architect, BBRCH-Minond, has won the competition to design a new corporate headquarters for the Banco Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Plans for the energy-efficient building, which will occupy an entire city block in the neighbourhood of Parque Patricios, echo its park-side setting with landscaped courtyards and shaded walkways and will provide a distinctive new presence for the bank in the city. The scheme occupies the whole site [...]

Bacardi Celebrates Ties to Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

BERLIN.- Bacardi Limited, the largest privately held spirits company in the world, today celebrates the opening of a joint event with Neue Nationalgalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (New National Gallery in Berlin) in honor of famed German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The collection titled “There is a Reason” features the acclaimed works, drawings, plans and photographs of Bauhaus architect Mies van der Rohe and his unique relationship with Bacardi and Neue Nationalgalerie. The event kicks off today [...]

Empire State Building Cries Foul Over Proposed Rival Nearby

NEW YORK (AP).- Look at Manhattan from afar, and the first thing you notice is the Empire State Building, spiking like a needle above the carpet of skyscrapers that coats Manhattan from tip to tip. Now it’s got some competition — a proposal for a nearby glass office tower that would rise almost as high and alter the iconic skyline. The tower would spoil the famous view of the 102-story skyscraper for millions of tourists, the Empire State Building’s owner, [...]

Steven Holl Architects Chosen to Design the New Queens Library at Hunters Point

NEW YORK, NY.- Steven Holl Architects has been selected to design the new library at the Queens West Development at Hunters Point. This new library will provide state of the art library services to the community, as well as offer a space for community programming. The new Queens Library is sited with spectacular views over the East River and major landmarks, such as the UN Building and the Roosevelt Memorial by Louis I. Kahn under construction on Roosevelt Island. It [...]

CBT Receives “Best in Show” for One Post Office Square at IIDA New England’s Design Awards

BOSTON, MA.- CBT Architects and Equity Office Properties took home multiple honors in the New England Chapter of the International Interior Design Association’s (IIDA) fourth annual Interior Design Awards, including the Best in Show award for its renovation and repositioning of the lobby at One Post Office Square in Boston. The 41-story Class A office tower also received first place in the Office Under 30,000 SF category, and CBT and Equity Office Properties placed first in the Hospitality category for [...]

Istanbul’s Pera Palace to Reopen and Seek Return to Glory Era

ISTANBUL (AP).- It was the last stop on the Orient Express, a grand hotel with Istanbul’s first electric elevator where artists and aristocrats sipped champagne beneath chandeliers as the Ottoman Empire dissolved and the world drifted toward war. Mata Hari, accused of spying and executed in France in 1917, stayed at the Pera Palace Hotel. So did Greta Garbo, who played the shadowy dancer in a 1931 movie. Ernest Hemingway checked in to report on war between Turks and Greeks. [...]

Denver International Airport Unveils Conceptual Design by Santiago Calatrava

DENVER, CO.- Denver International Airport (DEN) today unveiled the conceptual design of the South Terminal Redevelopment Program at the Westin Tabor Center in Denver. Speakers included Mayor John W. Hickenlooper, Denver Manager of Aviation Kim Day and Architect Santiago Calatrava. In conjunction with RTD’s FasTracks East Corridor, the South Terminal Redevelopment Program is expected to create more than 6,600 jobs and is scheduled for completion in 2016. The South Terminal Redevelopment Program includes the construction of a train station to [...]

Ikon.5 architects Selected for International Architecture Award by Chicago Athenaeum

PRINCETON, NJ.- ikon.5 architects of Princeton, NJ have been awarded The International Architecture Award for 2010 by the Chicago Athenaeum: The Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. Their winning project was Kirkwood Public Library, New Castle, Delaware. The International Architecture Awards are the highest and most prestigious distinguished building awards that honor new and cutting‐edge design. The annual program has become the largest and most comprehensive distinguished awards program in [...]

Steven Holl Architects Wins Two International Architecture Awards

NEW YORK, NY.- Steven Holl Architects has received International Architecture Awards for the Knut Hamsun Center in Hamarøy, Norway and the Herning Museum of Contemporary Art in Herning, Denmark. The awards, administered annually by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Center for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies honor “new and cutting-edge design” and aim to promote “excellence in architecture and urbanism from a global point-of-view.” The Knut Hamsun Center, completed August 2009, is dedicated [...]

Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize 2010 Shortlist Announced

LONDON.- Two exceptional museum buildings in Oxford and Berlin, a striking new art gallery in Rome, a skilful live/work development in Shoreditch and two schools: one an inventive and uplifting new build in London, the other a clever extension in Guildford, form the shortlist for the prestigious £20,000 RIBA Stirling Prize 2010 in association with The Architects’ Journal and Benchmark. Now in its fifteenth year, the RIBA Stirling Prize is awarded to the architects of the best new European building [...]

Cronkite School Wins International Architecture Award

PHOENIX, AZ.- The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication building at Arizona State University has been awarded an International Architecture Award. The International Architecture Awards are conferred on the world’s most significant new buildings and urban or landscape developments by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design in conjunction with The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. The Cronkite building was one of 95 buildings and urban planning projects from 38 nations, and one [...]