Awarding the most creative, disruptive, and influential individuals in the world today, Bjarke Ingels receives the Wall Street Journal’s first annual Innovator of the Year Award for Architecture for BIG’s wildly expressive structures, including the radical re-imagining of the New York high-rise apartment building, the commitment to sustainability and the philosophy of pragmatic utopianism. [More info after the break]

The prize was presented to Bjarke Ingels by author, architect and Founder of TED Conferences Richard Saul Wurman. Other winners include Ai Weiwei (Art); Katie Grand (Fashion); Elon Musk (Technology); Steve Ells (Food); Joris Laarman (Design); and The Giving Pledge, founded by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates (Philanthropy). The ceremony took place at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC , Thursday, October 27th following the official opening of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group’s New York office, Friday, the 21st of October in the presence of Their Royal Highnesses the Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark.

BIG New York is situated in the Chelsea district of New York City and established in order to oversee the development and upcoming construction of West 57th on Manhattan and better service the growing work in North-, South- and Latin-America. BIG is currently involved in a number of projects in San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver and Toronto.

Earlier in October, Bjarke Ingels was selected as the winner of TRH Crown Prince Couple annual Culture Prize 2011, honoring the first architect since the foundation of the Award in 2004 and granted the 2011 Prize of Honor by Danish Dreyer Foundation.

Image courtesy: Bill Farrell Agency.

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Project: Brussels Airport Connector
Architect: UNStudio
Ben van Berkel, Gerard Loozekoot with Wesley Lanckriet and Joerg Petri, Maud van Hees, Milena Stopic, Perrine Planché, Deepak Jawahar, Hans Kooij, Benjamin Moore.
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Client: The Brussels Airport Company NV
Building surface: 23,182m2
Programme: Connector building between the Terminal and Pier A
Status: Competition entry
Local architect: M. & J-M. Jaspers-J. Eyers & Partners
Structural advisors: Ney+Partners and Technum-Tractebel Engineering
Visuals: MIR and Moka-Studio

The design for the Brussels Airport Connector Building focuses on providing a highly efficient, flexible infrastructural element that connects to and negotiates the existing airport architecture. The connector is part of the future ambition of the Brussels Airport to create a European hub in Brussels. The design approach ensures cohesive functioning of the three buildings, with the Connector Building establishing a seamless connection between the two contrasting identities of the terminal and Pier A, whilst simultaneously creating its own new identity.

The Connector incorporates logistical efficiency in handling passenger flows, security and operational processes. Additionally, opportunities for commercial activity are maximised with the newly expanded, double-storey commercial area of the Connector, creating a fully-integrated retail zone as the main programmatic spine. The post-screening area with fast duty-free shopping and a horizontal organisation gradually morphs into a double-height central plaza housing the main cafe, from where the high-end boutique stores begin. Surrounding the central plaza is the elevated Cockpit – the highest occupiable point of the Connector with a light cafe boasting the best views of the bustling plaza and shopping area below, as well as the fleeting fields of airplanes outside.

BIG wins an invited competition to renovate and extend an existing 1960′s concrete warehouse situated in a Basel industrial district which is being transformed into an alternative Arts District. [More info and renders after the break]

Located in Basel’s upcoming Dreispitz neighborhood, which is envisioned as an attractive and inviting urban quarter in Herzog de Meuron’s master plan from 2003, the existing 18.000 m2 ”Transitlager” built in the late 1960s is to be renovated and extended by up to 7.000 m2 for residential and arts related purposes. The development is undertaken by Basel-based real estate group Nüesch Development for the Christoph Merian Foundation with the assistance of the UBS investment company Balintra AG. The winning entry which included engineers Bollinger Grohmann and HL Technik was chosen among proposals from Harry Gugger Studio and Lacaton Vassal among others.

The Transitlager’s surrounding industrial area is characterized by the geometries of infrastructures – the intersecting railways, loading docks and turning radiuses that weave through the city and create a puzzle of linear buildings with pointy corners and staggered façade lines into an untraditional and adventurous urban area consisting of galleries, restaurants and creative businesses. The iconic character of the existing Transitlager, its generous surrounding public spaces, and connection to the city’s botanical garden makes the building a natural focal point of the Arts District. By re-programming and extending the former warehouse into a multifunctional series of floors for various uses, BIG proposes a cross breed of art, commerce, working and living. Two distinct buildings on top of each other form a mixed-use hybrid with activity and life 24 hours a day.

“We propose a transformation of the Transitlager that builds on the industrial logic of the existing building and of the surrounding area. The extension doubles the size of the Transitlager and becomes an opposite twin – based on the same structure, but with a different geometry. The combined building becomes a spectrum of optimal conditions: From open and flexible plans to tailor made units, public programs to private residences, vibrant urban space to peaceful green gardens and from cool industrial to warm and refined. ” Andreas Klok Pedersen, Partner, BIG.

The wide dimensions of the former warehouse, the mix of programs, the structural limits and the sun orientation creates a typology that is neither point house nor slab – a folded geometry adapted to the specifics of the existing structure and optimized for daylight and views. The staggered edge and pointy ends echoes the geometries of the industrial buildings of the neighborhood, creating a surprising familiarity with the heterogeneous surroundings.

“The stacking of two complimentary structures – one on top of the other – has generated a new take on the typology of the communal courtyard. Where the typical residential courtyard finds itself incarcerated by walls of program, the roofyards of the Transitlager combine the tranquility and communal space of the courtyard with the sunlight and panoramic views of the penthouse. A penthouse for the people.” Bjarke Ingels, Partner and Founder, BIG.

Stripped from existing interior walls, the 60’s era structure offers flexible open plans and an exceptional high quality of concrete work. BIG proposes an extension that with a minimum of intervention, creates a maximum of programmatic diversity and feasibility. By keeping the interior finishing sparse, and installations simple we propose a building tailored for creative businesses, ateliers and workshops. We propose a building with a simple and economical material palette optimized for both artistic work and classy luxury.

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eVolo Magazine is pleased to invite architects, students, engineers, designers, and artists from around the globe to take part in the eVolo 2012 Skyscraper Competition. Established in 2006, the annual Skyscraper Competition is one of the world’s most prestigious awards for high-rise architecture. It recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the implementation of novel technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution. It is a forum that examines the relationship between the skyscraper and the natural world, the skyscraper and the community, and the skyscraper and the city. [More info after the break]

The participants should take into consideration the advances in technology, the exploration of sustainable systems, and the establishment of new urban and architectural methods to solve economic, social, and cultural problems of the contemporary city including the scarcity of natural resources and infrastructure and the exponential increase of inhabitants, pollution, economic division, and unplanned urban sprawl.

The competition is an investigation on the public and private space and the role of the individual and the collective in the creation of a dynamic and adaptive vertical community. It is also a response to the exploration and adaptation of new habitats and territories based on a dynamic equilibrium between man and nature – a new kind of responsive and adaptive design capable of intelligent growth through the self-regulation of its own systems.

There are no restrictions in regards to site, program or size. The objective is to provide maximum freedom to the participants to engage the project without constraints in the most creative way. What is a skyscraper in the 21st century? What are the historical, contextual, social, urban, and environmental responsibilities of these mega-structures?

eVolo Magazine is committed to continue stimulating the imagination of designers around the world – thinkers that initiate a new architectural discourse of economic, environmental, intellectual, and perceptual responsibility that could ultimately modify what we understand as a contemporary skyscraper, its impact on urban planning and on the improvement of our way of life.

Registration
Architects, students, engineers, and designers are invited to participate in the competition. We encourage you to have multidisciplinary teams.

Schedule

• June 27, 2011 – Competition announcement, registration begins, acceptance of questions.
• November 7, 2011 – Deadline for submitting questions.
• November 15, 2011 – Early registration deadline
• November 30, 2011 – Answers to questions posted on website
• January 17, 2012 – Late registration deadline
• January 24, 2012 – Project submission deadline (23:00 hours US Eastern Time)
• February 27, 2012 – Winners’ announcement

Jury

• Maria Ailova [principal Terreform One]
• Chris Bosse [principal LAVA – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture]
• Gaël Brulé [principal Atelier CMJN, winner 2011 Skyscraper Competition]
• Julien Combes [principal Atelier CMJN, winner 2011 Skyscraper Competition]
• Marc Fornes [principal THEVERYMANY]
• Florian Idenburg [principal SO-IL  Solid Objectives – Indenburg Liu]
• Minnie Jan [principal MisoSoupDesign]
• Mitchell Joachim [principal Terreform One, professor at New York University]
• Jing Liu [principal SO-IL  Solid Objectives – Indenburg Liu]
• Daisuke Nagatomo [principal MisoSoupDesign]
• Alexander Rieck [principal LAVA – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture]
• Michel Rojkind [principal Rojkind Arquitectos]
• Michael Szivos [principal Softlab, professor at Pratt Institute]
• Tobias Wallisser [principal LAVA – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture]
• Ma Yansong [principal MAD Architects]

Awards

• 1st place – US $5000
• 2nd place – US $2000
• 3rd place – US $1000

More information and registration

http://www.evolo.us/architecture/registration-evolo-2012-skyscraper-competition/

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The Serpentine Gallery is delighted to reveal the plans for the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011 by world-renowned Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. This year’s Pavilion is the 11th commission in the Gallery’s annual series, the world’s first and most ambitious architectural programme of its kind. It will be the architect’s first completed building in the UK and will include a specially created garden by the influential Dutch designer Piet Oudolf. [More info and images after the break]

The concept for this year’s Pavilion is the hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. One enters the building from the lawn and begins the transition into the central garden, a place abstracted from the world of noise and traffic and the smells of London – an interior space within which to sit, to walk, to observe the flowers.

With this Pavilion, as with previous structures such as the famous Thermal Baths at Vals, Switzerland, or the Bruder Klaus Chapel in Mechernich, Germany, Zumthor has emphasised the sensory and spiritual aspects of the architectural experience, from the precise yet simple composition and ‘presence’ of the materials, to the handling of scale and the effect of light.

At the heart of Peter Zumthor’s practice is a refined selection of materials used to create contemplative spaces that evoke the spiritual dimension of our physical environment. As always, Zumthor’s aesthetic goal is to customise the building precisely to its purpose as a physical body and an object of emotional experience.

Hortus conclusus
‘A garden is the most intimate landscape ensemble I know of. It is close to us. There we cultivate the plants we need. A garden requires care and protection. And so we encircle it, we defend it and fend for it. We give it shelter. The garden turns into a place.

Enclosed gardens fascinate me. A forerunner of this fascination is my love of the fenced vegetable gardens on farms in the Alps, where farmers’ wives often planted flowers as well. I love the image of these small rectangles cut out of vast alpine meadows, the fence keeping the animals out. There is something else that strikes me in this image of a garden fenced off within the larger landscape around it: something small has found sanctuary within something big.

The hortus conclusus that I dream of is enclosed all around and open to the sky. Every time I imagine a garden in an architectural setting, it turns into a magical place. I think of gardens that I have seen, that I believe I have seen, that I long to see, surrounded by simple walls, columns, arcades or the façades of buildings – sheltered places of great intimacy where I want to stay for a long time.’
Peter Zumthor
May 2011

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Project: Omonia Bakery
Architect: bluarch
Antonio Di Oronzo
Location: Queens, New York, USA

This bakery is a brand new project for the family that behind the renowned Omonia brand famous for its Greek pastries. It sells pastries and breads prepared on premises in the see-through kitchen. The design of this store celebrates indulgence… the suspension of one’s everyday grind through the consumption of a sweet delight. The space is soft and warm… sexy and decadent… as chocolate.

Much like the physiognomy of a pastry, this design wants to offer the exciting anticipation of a pastry in-fieri… the liquid concoction, the minced ingredients…  The space shifts organically with the narrative of flavors as patrons taste the succulent delicacies.

The main feature of the 1,000SF interior space is a fluid surface [clad with ¼” chocolate brown Bisazza tiles] which covers the ceiling and the side walls to different heights. This surface warps in bubbles and negotiates a system of 6-inch tubular incandescent light bulbs… and an arrangement of red cedar wood spheres. The epoxy flooring continues to the walls via filleted corners. A shelf and LED strips navigate the transition with the chocolate surface.

The kitchen is exhibited to the public, as it sits simply within a tempered glass box…Therefore, the exquisite level of craftsmanship of the project [with its unforgiving alignments and complex details] is paralleled with the refined artisanship of Omonia’s pastries.

Via: Contemporist

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Project: New Cultural Center in Ranica
Architects: DAP studio & Paola Giaconia
Location: Bergamo, Italy
Typology: Cultural
Photography: Alessandra Bello

The new Cultural Center in Ranica, medieval town near Bergamo in Northern Italy, contains a public library, an auditorium, a kindergarten, and a school for dance and theater.

With its 2.000 square meters, the Center is conceived as a new catalyst of urban life. Not only is the building a laboratory for education and information, but it also becomes a new “piazza” where people can meet and where citizens can reinforce their sense of belonging to their territory.

The site where the building rises, located midway between the city center and an area of urban growth, is destined to turn into an important hub. The building represents a sort of threshold between the scale of the city and the scale of the surrounding territory.

Aim of this project is to trigger a dialogue between the new building, the city center and the infrastructural system. If historically piazzas are defined by the visual and physical boundaries of the buildings surrounding them, in this project we tried to open up the building to city life by welcoming pedestrians into its core, under the large overhanging volume. The large slab is pierced by a series of openings, along its perimeter -next to the main entrances- as well as in the middle, where two large courtyards bring natural light and fresh air.

The building is organized on two floors: the upper volume is cantilivered out from the lower floor, and seems to be floating above ground. The distinction between the two volumes is made even stronger by means of the choice of materials: the ground floor is enclosed by glazed and stuccoed walls, while the facades of the upper volume are made of colored, sometimes semi-opaque polycarbonate panels which allow for silhouettes of people inside the building to be revealed outside.

The compactness of the exterior volumes is coupled by a complexity of the interiors. In the wide double-height space of the library, the various program areas appear as independent volumes, connected by aerial catwalks from which visitors can constantly appreciate the central patio. The idea was to create a scenario where the links between the program areas could turn into pleasant meeting points, similarly to what happens in the streets and piazzas in the city.

Via: +Mood

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Project: The Nautilus Project
Architect: Design Spirits
Location: Singapore
Photography: Toshide Kajiwara

The Nautilus Project is located on the fourth floor of the ION shopping center, where opened recently on the Orchard Road, Singapore. The great strategy of the location has brought them lot of benefits as the floor composite of sales, drinks and food.  Besides, the entrance of the restaurant is flanked on one side by an oyster bar and on the other side by displays of delectable dessert and trays of fresh crustaceans on ice.

A certain concept of the design, chef, design and location have been prepared by the food consultant from the beginning had caused me difficulty in leading my own ideal interior design.  However, the owner is the president of the cargo company and her beauty made me decided to reflect her sophisticate, elegant plus the tender characteristic to this restaurant project.

I stopped making a facade and designed the entrance where a common passageway for the restaurant in order to make visitor enter easily without any hesitation.  Both are curved inward towards the middle to highlight the beginning of the passageway into the restaurant.  This create a non-intimidating welcome for passers-by to get a glimpse of what the restaurant has to offer, as well as sets the tone for the restaurant’s focus on an interactive experience for the patrons.

Via: Contemporist

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Project: Qi Urban Lobby
Architect: Manadaº
Katerina Alatzia, Alejandro Tapia
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Type: wellness/retail
Area: 162 sq mt
Date of completion: November 2010
Client: Centro Qi Wellnes Center, Condesa, Mexico DF
Time to completion: 6 weeks
General contractor: La Invencible
General contractor: construccion patente, mexico city.
Photography: Jaime Navarro

Harmony and Balance to the Qi Urban wellness centre, Mexico City
As Chinese philosophy teaches, “qi”, the circulating life energy, is inherent in all things. The balance of negative and positive is believed to be essential for good health and wellbeing, and this balance and harmony was the essence that Qi Urban, a wellness center, located in the fashion and art district Condesa, in Mexico City, was searching to restore.

Growing rapidly into one of the largest and best equipped wellness centers in the city, frequented by artists and actors, with multiple services like spa, oxygen bar, full fitness, etc. the owners soon realized that the demand of visitors and vast palette of the services offered required a new Qi welcome area, which would extend the balance and harmony of the center’s inner spaces into the lobby, thus welcoming visitors to the balanced state of mind straight upon their entrance.

Architectural studio Manadaº (www.manada.com.mx) planned the new lobby in order to bring balance and harmony in the space, connecting the Hair Salon, the Aveda boutique store, an open kitchen/bar and a welcome reception area.

The reception area was placed to the center of a welcome lobby, and thoughtfully surrounded with other functional areas. Hair salon is positioned on a second open level, but divided only with a glass division, so it keeps integrated and feels a part of the space. The open kitchen bar is positioned on a wooden deck, while its design, installation and function make the customers feel comfortable just like at home or at their best friends’.

The interiors were manufactured by La Invencible (www.lainvencible.org), Mexico City’s furniture manufacturing studio. Manufacture is made out of solid American oak – scrap wood reclaimed from a flooring company, assembled by 1 1/2 inches wood strips. For the main furniture each piece was mapped in order to make construction possible, with each wood strip painted individually in different colors, then constructed on site again. The main part of the manufacture is made of solid ash tree, also assembled by 1 1/2 inches wood strips.

The extension of the wooden deck opens to the front facade, converting the space into a semi open terrace, thus blending the limits of internal space with external. The natural light, balanced colored tones, consisting of natural wood and earthly colors, and the orientation and functionality of the space helped reach a new level of connection and communication with customers, and enabled the harmonious floating of energy through the lobby and interconnection with the inner areas of the wellness center.

about manada:
manadaº is an architectural studio dedicated to confrontation and expansion of architectural boundaries

Project: Adamos Residence
Architect: Varda Studio
Location: Limassol, Cyprus
Photography: Christos Papantoniou

The luxury residence, located in Limassol, attracts attention with elegant proportion of intersected volumes. The variety of materials- white paint, fair face concrete, wood- highlights an architectural composition, that converges with the yard area. Playful unexpected division of the walls between the yard and the garage entry visually closes relax zone, at the same time it is see-through.

Via: Contemporist

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