Transformations

The Festival’s thematic exhibition and seminar programme will be based around the theme of ‘Transformations’ and will relate to the way in which the built environment can be transformed by a combination of client commitment, architectural imagination, technological development and professional teamwork. more

Exhibition

Sponsored by HP the 2010 World Architecture Festival thematic exhibition uses case studies from around the world to illustrate different aspects of transformation, including: creative re-use and adaptation, regeneration, technology transfer, climate - change initiatives, social change, economic growth.

The exhibition will include filmed interviews with participants, who will also contribute to the Festival seminar programme.

Seminars

• Transforming Buildings: Transforming Culture - David Chipperfield, Founder and Principal David Chipperfield Architects
• Transforming Image and Meaning - Sean Griffiths, F A T::Architecture more
• Architectural Practice Transformation - Philip G.Bernstein, VP Industry Strategy and Relations, Autodesk and Lecturer, Yale School of Architecture more
• Shape, Space & Structure Transformed Through Digital Technology - Vesna Petresin and Laurent-Paul of Robert of Rubedo and engineers Adams Kara Taylor more
• Case study, rethinking the possibilities for urban expansion: Red Location, Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Jo Noero, Noero Wolff Architects more
• Transforming Art in Work and Public Space - Paul Finch, Programme Director of World Architecture Festival and Director of CABE, Alex Heath, Director, International Art Consultants, Will Alsop, Director, Alsop Architects more
• Transforming Land and Site: Singapore Gardens, Singapore - Kathryn Gustafson and Mary Bowman, Gustafson Porter, Andrew Grant of Grant Associates and Paul Baker of Wilkinson Eyre more

Panel Discussions

• Practice Transformation - Lead by Phillip G. Bernstein, VP Industry Strategy and Relations, Autodesk with Peter Chappell, Director, Aedas Architects Ltd, Ramon Jesus Gonzalez, Architectural Area Manager, Sener, James Austin, BIM Leader, Space Group, Elodie Hanen, Architect Project Manager, AREP Group more
• Transforming Design - Paul Flowers, Senior Vice President of Design at Grohe, Blair Hutton, Senior Design Engineer at Dyson more

Keynote

• Transforming Cities and Districts: Singapore and Bilbao - Ng Lang, CEO, Singapore Urban Redevelopment Authority, Ibon Areso, Deputy Mayor, Bilbao City Hall more
• Arata Isozaki - one of the most influential architects practicing today, whose work blends Eastern architectural style with emerging global trends, will reflect on his illustrious career, achievements, recent and current projects more

Barcelona city’s revolution

The Festival will also feature insightful and interesting seminar and keynote on the transformation of Barcelona

Seminars

• New Barcelona - Queralt Garriga, Cultural Director of the Catalan Association of Architects (COAC), Marc Zaballa, Founder and Principal, Lagula Arquitectes, Jorge Duró and Laia Mogas, Founding Directors, Dumo* Architecture more
• Keynote: New Urban Paradigms, Barcelona Case Study - Josep Acebillo, Architect, CEO Barcelona Regional; Principal AuS, Professor at the Architecture Academy of Mendrisio-Lugana (Switzerland) more

The world’s biggest celebration of all things architecture gets underway next week as World Architecture Festival takes centre stage in Barcelona for the third year running from 3rd to 5th November 2010.

The annual Festival continues to build momentum, and this year has already attracted more than 1300 attendees from 85 different countries around the World.

The Festival’s thematic exhibition will be based around the theme of ‘Transformations’ and will relate to the way in which the built environment can be transformed by a combination of client commitment, architectural imagination, technological development and professional teamwork.

As well as providing a platform to meet and celebrate the work, concerns and aspirations of the global architectural community, WAF will feature a packed programme of presentations, three days of interactive seminars, 512 award entries spread over a 1690 sq ft exhibition gallery, Aecom’s URBAN SOS student competition, and inspirational keynote addresses from leading international architects.

At the heart of the festival is the World Architectural Festival Awards (WAF Awards), which will see unsung local buildings will take on internationally acclaimed projects in what is the world’s biggest architecture contest. Over 235 projects from 55 countries will go head to head at the Festival, where unlike other architectural competitions, architects will present their work in front of leading industry judges and a live public audience as they compete for the accolade of ‘World Building of the Year 2010′.

Buildings by internationally renowned architects such as Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, Will Alsop at RMJM, and Terry Farrell & Partners (Farrells), as well as smaller practices are represented among the shortlisted projects.

A star studded super-jury of distinguished architects and renowned industry figures from around the world will again be one of the highlights, led by Arata Isozaki, one of the most influential architects practicing today, whose work blends Eastern architectural style with emerging global trends, will cast the deciding vote during the grand finale.

For more information and to purchase tickets for the Festival visit: www.worldarchitecturefestival.com

During the debate they will post reflections, links and bibliographic references made by both followers and other concerned citizens as you. Hand by hand with this, Paisaje Transversal will make available a wide diversity of information in order to investigate, learn and deepen as well as promote certain points of the subject of study.

Is this picture the image of the ecological or sustainable city?

Paisaje Transversal would like to encourage every one of you to participate in this feedback. In fact, the larger the number of contributors, the more interesting will be the debate. They look forward to receiving your points and queries, as well as any kind of document to “boost” the discussion. In addition, they want to establish an open, dynamic and transparent process, in which the choice about what role is necessary to play in this complicated context will be taken by the users of the blog.

Therefore, do not hesitate to send them a brief text with some bibliographical or other type of reference to this e-mail address: paisaje.transversal@gmail.com

Read all the posts associated with Urban Ecology and Sustainability >

The FAD initiates the second edition of the award City to City.

The City to City Barcelona FAD Award aims to recognise urban processes that lead to substantial transformations in the reality of a particular city. By urban process we understand the sum of actions of varying kinds (social, architectural, educational, urban planning-related, etc) with a far-reaching impact on the city as a whole.

Candidatures are made through a participatory process. If you want to propose a city click here

Download the competition rules >>

urbArAmA mówi po polsku!!!

The translation has been made by Kasia Adamowicz.  Thanks Kasia for your help and patience with us!

We expect to see soon more Polish architecture lovers coming to urbArAmA to share their work and their vision on Architecture. There’s already some Polish Architecture in urbArAmA, but we’d like to see more of it.

The current top Polish project in urbArAmA is this Gren Water Spots Station uploaded by kuczia

As promised, here is a review of the strangest project we found at the World Architecture Festival: Das Urpflanze Haus-Homage to Goethe.

The Modern Movement in architecture was based primarily in Utopian Solutions to its constructed Tasks. To complete these Tasks the Moderns combined Science [ as the desire to differentiate Nature indefinitely ] with Personal Intuition, so as to inform the architect when to make an end. Modernism’s most pressing problem then was assumed to be the construction of Mass-Housing that is truly affordable by all.

Although the real issue was stated by the Modernists, somehow it was never solved successfully by their many strategies that included but not limited to Architectural Planning at the Macro and Micro Scales that would make anyone who ever attended L’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts take on a green patina , and the study of New Materials combined with Progressive Engineering that looked to Nature as the Source of its Structural Principles. The Post-Modernists who converged Science with Nostalgia avoided the Present, and its problems altogether, in favor of reviving the Past.

As we enter The Bauharoque [the third phase of Modernism] , architects are now faced with such problems as : bulging populations, the United Nations has predicted that by the year 2050 the world’s population will have reached 10 billion, and this will mean to feed and house these teeming masses will require a program as drastic as raising three more continents the size of Africa from the ocean floor, fleeing from un–winnable terrorist wars that seem to keep on escalating, and ignoring the general and continuous degrading of the world’s natural environment, believing politics is entertainment and a substitute for religion, or that popular media makes its money by pitting various interest groups and classes against each other.

What could be a more plausible or delightful solution than to live in a world-wide garden: The New Eden – populated with physically alive architecture that could exist almost anywhere on the Earth’s surface or under the ocean or up in the air, that was produced in growing time of approximately two to three months. Also as Humanity begins to explore other planets and satellites , I do not believe , people will like living in high-tech tin cans on barren wastelands. We would certainly prefer Bio-forming an alien environment in staying alive to the ill-fated Bio-Sphere Earth Projects which were simply a complex form of the 19th Century conservatory or greenhouse.

Bringing this proposal to fruition will first require prototypes created by grafting plant materials in forms generated by advancements in Combinatorial Topology – the branch of mathematics that the best chance of understanding the true nature of Biology forms. The secret of grafting and growing DAS URPFLANZE HAUS [the primordial plant house] to a mature and seeded state is the Ginkgo Biloba or The Maidenhair Tree. Native to China , it tolerates all climates and soils. It was saved from extinction in the 19th Century by being grown in certain Chinese Monasteries. The tree dates from the Permian Period of the Paleozoic Era [286 to 245 million years ago], making the Ginkgo Biloba the oldest flowering plant on earth, and the fact that it was alive during the time of the Dinosaurs ,live shoots of The Tree can connect deciduous to conifer trees , fruits to vegetables, and grasses to vines. The Ginkgo Biloba is not subject to the so-called Divine Proportion [.382…/.618…] which is actually The Proportion of Death.

Text by Paul Laffoley as presented to the competition at the World Architecture Festival 2009

Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre in South Africa, designed by Peter Rich Architects of Johannesburg, has won global architecture’s most coveted accolade of World Building of the Year at the prestigious World Architecture Festival Awards (WAF Awards) 2009.

The presentation took place during a special awards ceremony, which marked the conclusion of global architecture summit the World Architecture Festival, at the Centre Convencions International Barcelona (CCIB) on 6th November.

Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre, which is situated at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers, is designed to house artifacts from the region’s prehistory. The project is underpinned by a strong social programme, using the skills and labour of local people and involving them in the design and construction process. Judges praised the project for its roughness and hand-crafted intelligence. They also admired the way in which it handled issues of sustainability and its relationship to the landscape.

Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre was selected from a total of 15 finalists, by a ‘super-jury’ chaired by Raphael Viñoly of Rafael Viñoly Architects PC, which included Kengo Kuma, Farshid Moussavi, Suha Ozkan and Matthias Sauerbruch. The finalists were whittled down from a shortlist of over 270 projects.

Speaking at the WAF Awards Paul Finch, WAF programme director and editor of Architectural Review, said: “The super-jury faced a tough challenge to choose a winner from such a strong list of finalists. Yet again we received a huge response to these fiercely contested Awards, with 272 projects shortlisted from a 67 different countries. The wide geographical range and quality of this year’s designs were exceptionally high and offers a real insight into the current condition and diversity of global architecture. Our congratulations go to Peter Rich Architects who thoroughly deserve to receive world architecture’s highest accolade.”

Dear friends of urbArAmA,

It’s been a year since the launch of urbArAmA Atlas of Architecture . We would like to thank you for your support and feedback during this year.

We released urbArAma to make extremely easy to share engineering and architecture projects on the Internet. With urbArmA you can easily share your own architecture projects or simply your favourite ones with a growing community, either at urbArAmA.com or at your own website thanks to our API and widgets If you haven’t done so yet, please give it a try and upload your favourite architecture project to urbArAmA, it’s extremely easy and fast. Share with us your favorite projects!

Thanks to your active support, urbArAmA has also evolved into a growing community  of architects and architecture passionates. Please, take a look at our community webpage and new members profiles. Complete your own profile with your picture and info. And join us in our Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter Groups. We’ll love to hear your comments and feedback to improve urbArAmA.

Thanks again for your support,

Ethel, Martin and Jordi

Due to an overwhelming amount of interest, the entry deadline for the AR Emerging Architecture Awards has been extended. The new deadline is:

FRIDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2009

You now have an extra 10 days in which to send in your entries so don’t miss out on the chance to see your work:

* Exhibited at the Royal Institute of British Architects
* Published in the Architectural Review
* Featured on the awards and magazine websites

This is your last chance to have your designs judged by a distinguished international panel of judges against the best of your peers from across the world. Winning entries will also receive a share of the prize money. The judges will be:

Elizabeth Diller (Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York)
Yvonne Farrell (Grafton Architects, Dublin)
Tony Fretton (Tony Fretton Architects, London)
Thomas Heatherwick (Heatherwick Studio, London)
Kieran Long, Editor-in-Chief of the AR (jury chairman)

Winners and highly commended entries will be published in the December 2009 issue of The Architectural Review and on the awards and magazine websites www.architecturalreviewawards.com and www.arplus.com, and will also receive a share of the £6,000 prize money. The AR Awards ceremony will be held in London at the Royal Institute of British Architecture (RIBA). All winners will be invited to the event. Everyone who enters is welcome to join us to discover our winners and commended entries and to launch the start of the AR Emerging Architecture exhibition.

Enter online now – it is important that you send your A2 boards and entry material by 18 September or AR will be unable to include your entry in the judging process.

El prestigioso arquitecto Josep Lluís Mateo, presentará su último libro Ocasiones en la galería RAS de Barcelona. El libro recoge proyectos, charlas y reflexiones del arquitecto durante los últimos cinco años. Con motivo de esta presentación, el estudio ha ideado una instalación efímera, Occasional City, que muestra maquetas y documentos de proyectos recientes.

Sobre el libro:
El libro Ocasiones está editado por Actar en castellano y en inglés y se distribuirá en más de 20 países. Recoge contribuciones de Stan Allen, Dominique Boudet, Vicente Guallart, José Luis Guerín, Marta Poch, Carlos M. Reis de Figueiredo y Jordi Teixidor.

En palabras del mismo Mateo:

Ocasiones hace referencia a la especificidad de nuestras acciones y se distancia de cualquier enfoque genérico. Operando como arquitecto, debo acercarme a los fenómenos, no puedo sólo explicarlos desde la distancia que los uniformiza y diluye. Me interesa el punto de vista que hace que las experiencias y las ideas se materialicen de forma única y especial.

Por tanto, frente a la propuesta de una práctica de la arquitectura genérica, abstracta, general, Ocasiones pretende entenderla y describirla como fruto de una inteligencia y de una sensibilidad específica.

Ocasiones señala que nuestros trabajos son siempre oportunidades para entender y establecer relaciones activas con el mundo.

Sobre la instalación:
OCCASIONAL CITY es una ciudad ideal constituida a partir de fragmentos de ciudades. Es global y es local. La instalación, de carácter efímero, está formada por maquetas y material audiovisual y se podrá visitar únicamente desde el 15 al 19 de septiembre en la galería RAS de Barcelona.

Maqueta del Hotel Shangai, que estará presente en la instalación.

Maqueta del proyecto Nuevo Camp Nou.

Fotomontaje con fragmentos de varias ciudades que representa la Occasional City de José Luis Mateo.

La instalación estará abierta al público del 15 al 19 de septiembre de 2009 en la galería RAS de Barcelona. La inauguración será el martes 15 de septiembre por la tarde.
RAS está en la calle Doctor Dou, 10 de Barcelona.