architect studio

Interviewed with Rem Koolhaas

2011-07-18T18:41:00.000+08:00

Rem Koolhaas discusses OMA‘s practice in an interview with Dutch Design Fashion Architecture:

"I don’t think you can make critical architecture because, in a sense, architecture always supports someone else’s impulse. On the other hand I think our architecture is thoroughly critical because every subject, every question, every ambition is analysed and is placed on the operating table, as it were…"

Urban sculpture in Ljbljana Tivoli park: TIVOLI INFO POINT

2011-05-28T12:17:00.002+08:00

The new Info point in park Tivoli in Ljubljana Slovenia, was opened this month.

"Its an open, clear and structurally dynamic form in a contrasting red color that explores the possibility of motion in the environment, in witch this kind of exploration is needed; at the same time the movement itself is present as a natural environmental process. The idea represents a blooming of a frame though five different phases, a somewhat Calderian approach."

Rok Grdisa

Rok Grdisa
Ljbljana Tivoli park, Slovenia
Photo courtesy Peter Mihelic

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Architecture, Vincent Scully

2011-05-11T23:29:00.002+08:00

"The making and the experience of architecture, as of every art, are always critical-historical acts, involving what the architect and the viewer have learned to distinguish and to imagine through their own relationship with life and things."

Vincent Scully, Introducation Notes to Second Edition of Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1977)

Galleria Centercity by UNStudio

2011-04-05T17:30:00.001+08:00

Galleria Centercity in Cheonan is just completed by Ben van Berkel / UNStudio.

"The Galleria Cheonan responds to the current retail climate in Asia, where department stores also operate as social and semi-cultural meeting places. Because of this, the quality of the public spaces within the building was treated as an integral aspect of the design."

Ben van Berkel

Ben van Berkel, UNStudio
Galleria Centercity
Cheonan, Korea

UNStudio
UN Studio: Design Models - Architecture, Urbanism, Infrastructure
via

Kinetower by Kinetura

2011-03-02T17:37:00.000+08:00

“The Kinetura concept is adding a new dynamic dimension to common static design and architecture. By making use of the flexible characteristics of specific materials combined with motion-based technologies, objects transform in a silent and nearly imperceptible way into a contrasting shape with a completely different functionality and expression.

As if a extra dimension were involved… Kinetura tries to respect the ‘form follows function’ approach extended with an extra adaptive dimension…."

Kinetura
Kinetower

more @ Kinetic architecture

Building with personality, Eike Becker architekten

2011-03-02T17:09:00.003+08:00

"In many cases, I compare a building with a friend, who ones certain characteristics. Are these characteristics independent, accomplishing and inspiring, a personality with charisma is standing in front of us."

Eike Becker architekten

Art, Albert Camus

2011-02-16T08:40:00.000+08:00

"without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others."

Albert Camus
French Algerian author, philosopher and journalist.
(7 November, 1913 – 4 January, 1960)

Hoki Museum by Nikken Sekkei

2011-02-14T22:01:00.003+08:00

Japanese architect Nikken Sekkei has completed the Hoki Museum (ホキ美術館) in Chiba, Japan. It is Japan's first museum dedicated to Realist painting.

"What makes Realist painting so fascinating? Realist art works depict what the painter sees, as is. These works are intricately worked, each massively time-consuming, as the painter creates just a few works a year, facing the same canvas day after day. And when we see the worlds created in such works, we sense that the painting has so much more to say than the reality it depicts.

Today, the Hoki Museum collections include 300 works by some 40 painters, ranging from great masters to young artists. Up until now, there have been few opportunities to see Realist works in Japan. The Hoki Museum will now fill that void. My hope is that the Hoki Museum will be a "healing museum" where visitors can appreciate the art works slowly and thoroughly."

Masao Hoki
Director, Hoki Museum

Nikken Sekkei
Hoki Museum (ホキ美術館)
Chiba, Japan
Images: © Ken Lee 2010 @ flickr

see more photos @ Ken Lee 2010 @ flickr

Epoch & eyes, Le Corbusier

2011-02-14T11:59:00.001+08:00

"Our own epoch is determining, day by day, its own style. Our eyes, unhappily, are unable yet to discern it."

Le Corbusier
(October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965)

Greenland’s New National Gallery by BIG

2011-02-14T09:58:00.003+08:00

Copenhagen architects BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, in collaboration with TNT Nuuk + Ramboll Nuuk + Arkitekti have won the competition to design Greenland‘s New National Gallery.

"The Danish functionalistic architecture in Nuuk is typically square boxes which ignore the unique nature of Greenland. We therefore propose a national gallery which is both physically and visually in harmony with the dramatic nature, just like life in Greenland is a symbiosis of the nature. We have created a simple, functional and symbolic shape, where the perfect circle is supplied by the local topography which creates a unique hybrid between the abstract shape and the specific location."

Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Partner, BIG
Greenland National Gallery
Nuuk, Greenland
Images: © BIG

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Yes Is More: An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution
BIG: Bjarke Ingels Group Projects 2001-2010

Rabat Grand Theatre by Zaha Hadid Architects

2010-11-25T22:52:00.006+08:00

"I am delighted to be building the Grand Theatre in Rabat… Morocco’s unique musical traditions and rich cultural history in the performing arts are renowned throughout the world. I am honoured to be part of the cultural development of the nation’s capital."

Zaha Hadid, founding partner of Zaha Hadid Architects
Rabat Grand Theatre
Rabat, Morocco

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Zaha Hadid: Complete Works
Zaha Hadid: Complete Works, 1979-2009

The architecture, Mies van der Rohe

2010-11-21T14:38:00.000+08:00

“architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. there it begins.”

Mies van der Rohe (March 27, 1886 – August 17, 1969)

Umeå School of Architecture by Henning Larsen Architects + White Arkitekter

2010-10-02T11:03:00.001+08:00

Umeå School of Architecture was inaugurated in late September.

"The intention has been to design an open, robust study environment where each student feels part of the creative study community. The open layout and informal meeting places create a light and laboratory-like atmosphere supporting idea development and creative work processes."

Architect Per Ebbe Hansson, Henning Larsen Architects
Umeå School of Architecture
Umeå, Sweden

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Henning Larsen: The Architect's Studio

WEST KOWLOON CULTURAL DISTRICT, HONG KONG, OMA

2010-08-21T14:26:00.002+08:00

OMA's proposal is one of the shortlisted entries for WEST KOWLOON CULTURAL DISTRICT Masterplan.

"We have tried to make the district a microcosm of the city in its combination of density and nature, discovering, to our own surprise, that we could realize the vast program and still preserve wide swaths of open space. An unsolicited part of our project is a Cultural Masterplan: a collaboration with experts from the cultural and financial worlds, based on a debriefing of Hong Kong’s stakeholders.

This cultural masterplan works in tandem with the physical plan, each informing and empowering the other. It tries to establish a new zone of creativity, interplay, and production on the basis of an existing infrastructure that, I can already testify, makes a mockery of the notion that Hong Kong has 'no culture'."

Rem Koolhaas
See more Video and interactive animation

CAU Central Library: Overlap, Kim in-cheurl+archium

2010-08-01T12:31:00.006+08:00

Before

After

This building was refurbished from an old building by Kim in-cheurl+archium.

"Architecture is an identification of place, a creation of individualism that makes it unique to anything else in the world. The place thus creates a memory with time...The meaning of place is the result of an accumulation of memories."

Kim in-cheurl+archium

Kim in-cheurl+archium
CAU Central Library: Overlap
221 Heuk seok-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Korea

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Georgian Aquarium, Henning Larsen Architects

2010-08-01T12:13:00.006+08:00

"The building will become a landmark and an organic reference to all elements of the sea… … It captures the special atmosphere by the sea and thus becomes a tribute to the power of the sea!"

Design Director and Partner at Henning Larsen Architects, Louis Becker

Henning Larsen Architects
Georgian Aquarium
Rustaveli Str., Batumi, The Republic of Georgia

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the architecture, Philip Johnson

2010-08-01T12:08:00.001+08:00

"architecture is the art of how to waste space."

Philip Johnson (July 8, 1906– January 25, 2005)

Architecture, Julia Morgan

2010-08-01T12:04:00.002+08:00

"Architecture is a visual art, and the buildings speak for themselves."

Julia Morgan

Architecture, Spiro Kostof

2010-02-28T14:48:00.003+08:00

"Architecture is a social act and the material theater of human activity."

Spiro Kostof (1936 - 1991)

Architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright

2010-02-28T14:40:00.001+08:00

"The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization."

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)

Existence, by Arthur Schopenhauer

2009-12-23T23:02:00.002+08:00

“…existence…is a constant hurrying of the present into the dead past, a constant dying…it is clear that, as our walking is admittedly merely a constantly prevented falling, the life of our body is only a constantly prevented dying, an ever postponed death:finally, in the same way, the activity of our mind is a constantly deferred ennui. Every breath we draw wards off the death that is constantly intruding upon us.”

Arthur Schopenhauer

Relationship of architecture and technology, Mies van der Rohe

2009-11-25T20:03:00.007+08:00

“...Architecture depends upon its time. It is the crystallization of its inner structure, the slow unfolding of its form. That is the reason why technology and architecture are so closely related. Our real hope is that they will grow together, that some day the one will be the expression of the other. Only then will we have an architecture worthy of its name: architecture as a true symbol of our time”

Mies van der Rohe (March 27, 1886 – August 17, 1969)

Urban Mediaspace, Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

2009-09-20T19:15:00.004+08:00

"The cantilevering roof plate is a dominant component of the architectural expression; during the day and especially in the evening, when the transparent façade allows the building to glow from the inside."

Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects
Urban Mediaspace
Europaplads, Århus, Denmark

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Serpentine Pavilion 2009, SANAA

2009-09-20T18:55:00.005+08:00

"The Pavilion is floating aluminium, drifting freely between the trees like smoke. The reflective canopy undulates across the site, expanding the park and sky. Its appearance changes according to the weather, allowing it to melt into the surroundings.

It works as a field of activity with no walls, allowing uninterrupted view across the park and encouraging access from all sides. It is a sheltered extension of the park where people can read, relax and enjoy lovely summer days..."

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa

SANAA
Serpentine Pavilion 2009
London, UK

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The Hilton in Bandung by Warner Wong Design | WOW Architects

2009-07-19T16:26:00.003+08:00

"We began the entire design process by understanding the cultural, economic and geo-climatic context of the Bandung area… In order to tap into the visitors of this great city, and profile of the expected client base, the hotel was to deliberate internationally in spirit and be localized in design touches. High modernism fused with local traditional craft."

Bandung Hilton Hotel
Warner Wong Design | WOW Architects
Bandung, Indonesia

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