mies van der rohe award 2009

the shortlist for the mies van der rohe award 2009 [european union prize for contemporary architecture] was announced in the second week of february!
i was sinking in the final rush for a competition deadline and didn't have time to update the blog!
Here are the finalists:
the Norwegian Opera & Ballet by Snøhetta



the Multimodal Centre – Nice Tramway by Atelier Marc Barani


the Library, Senior Citizens’ Centre and City Block Core Zone in Barcelona by RCR Aranda Pigem Vilalta Arquitectes


the University Luigi Bocconi by Grafton Architects



the Zenith Music Hall in Strasbourg by Massimiliano Fuksas Architecture



i am very undecided between fukas and snøhetta...which one do you like?

pics via dezeen

heads up people!

ART1:ITALY IS A DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC [...]

for the right of refusing life-prolonging procedures
in defence of the Italian Constitution and our freedom
against any Vatican's interference in the Italian civil life

in memory of Eluana Englaro
09.02.2009

i can read movies

Spacesick's fake 1960s-style book covers: really cool!

via Good

ubiquity

try this out!

Ubiquity for Firefox on Vimeo.

views + light

Architect David Hertz' s beautiful renovation work in Marina del Rey, California. The original residence (right) was built in 1923, with a second floor and an unsightly wood-shingled mansard roof that were added in the ’70s.


Even if “It would have been more economical to start over”, the house wasn't torn down in order to preserve "stunning ocean views that would have been lost because of the larger setbacks required by the building code for new constructions".
The new appearance is the result of a design exercise based on those views and the enhancement of light for the interiors.





all pics by Stephanie Diani via the NYTimes

her morning elegance

absolutely sweet stop motion video!

via swissmiss

finger dip

eleonora barbareschi+alessandra mantovani's 'finger dip'
special mention for designboom's 'dining in 2015' competition..
i love it!



"The act of eating and its nature are one of man’s a prime needs. Our hands, sensually evoking a wild return to our origins, are the best instruments for feeding ourselves leading to the satisfaction of our animal impulses. Therefore, no more cutleries, no more tablecloths! No more formality or cultural distinctions in the approach to food. In a society where everything is frenetic and sometimes hypocrite, it can be luxurious to allow our souls to listen once again to our most distant instincts, it is a privilege that only few of us can allow. Finger-Dip is a provocation, an invitation for users to stop and reflect, a way to use technology and man’s intelligence in the objective of giving value to a gesture which has now a days become symbol of sophistication and style other than a necessity. Eating is a pleasure, and it becomes even more satisfying when doing it with our hands! Finger-Dip is hygienic, for single-use and fun! It is ideal when traveling, when the lunch is quick and simple, and when there is no chance of washing our hands and there are no utensils around".

happy bday MAC!

apple turns 25

map via Wired

Wilderness

"only 10% of the land area is remote – more than 48 hours from a large city".


beautiful global map of accessibility by the JRC at the EU

Objectified

the trailer of Objectified - Gary Haustwit's new documentary - was released the first week of january!
"Objectified is a feature-length independent documentary about industrial design. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the people who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. It’s about our relationship to mass-produced objects and, by extension, the people who design them."
World premiere is scheduled for March

starting fresh!

happy new year everyone!
after the christmas party with the office i switched to holiday mode...
waited for my boy to arrive from canada, enjoyed three full weeks with him, around germany and italy, took a break from all the architecturing!
i am glad 2008 is over!
wishing you all a 'colorful' 2009!

the crew is heading north

the Behnisch crew is leaving for 2 days parties up north
Hamburg for visiting Haus im Haus and the construction site of MP Tower and Unilever
then Stralsund for our Christmas party at the Ozeaneum
weekend in Berlin...
4 days, 4 cities, 1850 km! bis montag!

Make me curious>>make me happy [2]

Objective
Pac-Man attempts to clear the game board of dots before getting caught by ghosts.

Setup
4 players are designated as Ghosts, 4 player are designated as Ghost Generals
1 player is designated as Pac-Man, 1 player is designated as Pac-Man's General.
Ghost Generals and Pac-Man's General fire up the control panel and select the corresponding character names from the list. The Ghosts and Pac-Man proceed to their starting locations. When all players are at their starting stations the Ghost and Pac-Man Generals move their icons to the starting point on the game board.

The Playing Area
The Pac-Manhattan grid covers a 6 x 4 block area surrounding Washington Square Park. Intersections are designated by a letter and number starting in the top left corner and continuing left to right
Power pellets are located at the intersections A1; E1; A6; E7 (i.e. the corners of the board) If they are active their intersection is colored yellow, when consumed their intersection turns white. Washington Square Park is off limits to all players.


Game Play
Pac-Man and Ghosts
At the start of the game, Pac-Man runs along the streets, staying outdoors, within the designated playing area at all times. The ghosts may begin to chase Pac-Man. Pac-Man continues to run the board until all of the dots are "eaten" or one of the ghosts eats Pac-Man.

Upon arriving at a street corner, Pac-Man and the Ghosts must report their new location to their respective Generals.
When Pac-Man arrives at an intersection with an available Power pellet he automatically consumes it. If being chased, Pac-Man must touch the pole at the corner to activate the power pellet. Upon consuming a power pellet Pac-Man is "invincible" for two minutes and may eat the ghosts. If a Ghost is eaten, the ghost must return to the starting point before being able to chase Pac-Man again.

Communication
Pac-Man's General can pass any information regarding the state of the board to Pac-Man.
Ghost Generals can inform the Ghosts of other ghosts' locations and Pac-Man's power up state (powered or not) but may not reveal Pac-Man's Location

Scoring
Pac-Man receives 30 points per block traveled in entirety and 200 points for the first ghost captured during a particular power pellet's duration. Points gained for catching a Ghost are doubled for each subsequent Ghost (i.e.200, 400, 800, 1600).

ICA WANTS TO PLAY!

via Doug's presentation 'Child and the City' today at lunchbreak

all images via pacManhattan.com

Make me curious>>make me happy [1]

Share-it square and City Repair are based in Portland and they are awesome!
Share-it Square, at the intersection of Southeast Ninth and Sherett Avenue in Portland, was started in 1996 by the Sellwood neighborhood.
more info can be found here and here

I found this video of the City Repair's 7th Annual Village Building Convergence [held last May]



via Doug's presentation 'Child and the City' today at lunchbreak

Gwanggyo

"Rotterdam-based architects MVRDV recently won the Gwanggyo City Centre Competition with their design of this incredible new city just south of Seoul, South Korea. Envisioned as a verdant acropolis of organic ‘hill’ structures, the proposed complex is a fully self-sufficient city for up to 77,000 inhabitants. Similar nodes, common in South Korea, concentrate residences, work and play all in one interactive center, reducing dependency on auto or train travel and building a strong sense of community".



via Inhabitat

people are strange

sketchbooks....

People are strange on Vimeo.

Kiltro House

"This project is almost a statement of how to accomplish architecture in Latin-america.
The process was so unsteady, that all possible architectural design resources available where exercised to cope with the challenge of this house in the Chilean Central Valley.
Everything was in constant change: the program, the surface, building permits, the contractors, even the view!
The modus operandi is rather based on mistakes than certainties.
The result: a mix, a bastardized design, a fusion, like a crossbreed dog, in Chilean:
A Kiltro."

Kiltro House is a beautiful project by Supersudaka [Gabriel Vergara, Cristian Axl Valdés,Pablo Abdala, Natalia Gajardo, Jaime Pavez, Ingrid Sepúlveda]

all images via Supersudaka

Back to the Future, people! :|

i was hoping this competition was at the stake because of the non-sense proposal it was launched for. apparently it was not.

Directly from our history of architecture book, in colors,... a project dated 2008

from the NYTimes:
A German jury has selected the Italian architect Francesco Stella to rebuild the Berlin City Palace, Agence France-Presse reported. The original Baroque Stadtschloss, once home to the kings of Prussia and later to the German kaisers, was damaged by Allied bombing during World War II and was demolished by the East German Communist authorities in 1950. It its place the Communists erected the Palast der Republik, a parliament building whose stark design was widely criticized; the structure was later found to contain asbestos, and demolition was completed this month. The project is estimated to cost about $700 million and will take until 2013 to complete.

- new stadtschloss







- palast der republik




shhhht! don't say around it was an Italian and that he was a student of Aldo Rossi!!

Processing 1.0 [Enjoy!]

Robert Hodgin - Solar Demo

Robert Hodgin - Magnetic Ink

Among the daily emails:

Subject: [Processing] It only took 162 attempts, but Processing 1.0 is here!

From: announce@processing.org
Date: November 25, 2008 6:23:45 AM GMT+01:00
To: announce@processing.org
Reply-To: announce@processing.org

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and LOS ANGELES, Calif. - November 24, 2008 - The Processing project today announced the immediate availability of the Processing 1.0 product family, the highly anticipated release of industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow. Delivering radical breakthroughs in workflow efficiency - and packed with hundreds of innovative, time-saving features - the new Processing 1.0 product line advances the creative process across print, Web, interactive, film, video and mobile.

Whups! That's not the right one. Here we go:

Today, on November 24, 2008, we launch the 1.0 version of the Processing software. Processing is a programming language, development environment, and online community that since 2001 has promoted software literacy within the visual arts. Initially created to serve as a software sketchbook and to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context, Processing quickly developed into a tool for creating finished professional work as well.

Processing is a free, open source alternative to proprietary software tools with expensive licenses, making it accessible to schools and individual students. Its open source status encourages the community participation and collaboration that is vital to Processing's growth. Contributors share programs, contribute code, answer questions in the discussion forum, and build libraries to extend the possibilities of the software. The Processing community has written over seventy libraries to facilitate computer vision, data visualization, music, networking, and electronics.

Students at hundreds of schools around the world use Processing for classes ranging from middle school math education to undergraduate programming courses to graduate fine arts studios.

+ At New York University's graduate ITP program, Processing is taught alongside its sister project Arduino and PHP as part of the foundation course for 100 incoming students each year.
+ At UCLA, undergraduates in the Design | Media Arts program use Processing to learn the concepts and skills needed to imagine the next generation of web sites and video games.
+ At Lincoln Public Schools in Nebraska and the Phoenix Country Day School in Arizona, middle school teachers are experimenting with Processing to supplement traditional algebra and geometry classes.

Tens of thousands of companies, artists, designers, architects, and researchers use Processing to create an incredibly diverse range of projects.
+ Design firms such as Motion Theory provide motion graphics created with Processing for the TV commercials of companies like Nike, Budweiser, and Hewlett-Packard.
+ Bands such as R.E.M., Radiohead, and Modest Mouse have featured animation created with Processing in their music videos.
+ Publications such as the journal Nature, the New York Times, Seed, and Communications of the ACM have commissioned information graphics created with Processing.
+ The artist group HeHe used Processing to produce their award-winning Nuage Vert installation, a large-scale public visualization of pollution levels in Helsinki.
+ The University of Washington's Applied Physics Lab used Processing to create a visualization of a coastal marine ecosystem as a part of the NSF RISE project.
+ The Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies at Miami University uses Processing to build visualization tools and analyze text for digital humanities research.

The Processing software runs on the Mac, Windows, and GNU/Linux platforms. With the click of a button, it exports applets for the Web or standalone applications for Mac, Windows, and GNU/Linux. Graphics from Processing programs may also be exported as PDF, DXF, or TIFF files and many other file formats. Future Processing releases will focus on faster 3D graphics, better video playback and capture, and enhancing the development environment. Some experimental versions of Processing have been adapted to other languages such as JavaScript, ActionScript, Ruby, Python, and Scala; other adaptations bring Processing to platforms like the OpenMoko, iPhone, and OLPC XO-1.

Processing was founded by Ben Fry and Casey Reas in 2001 while both were John Maeda's students at the MIT Media Lab. Further development has taken place at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Carnegie Mellon University, and the UCLA, where Reas is chair of the Department of Design | Media Arts. Miami University, Oblong Industries, and the Rockefeller Foundation have generously contributed funding to the project.

The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (a Smithsonian Institution) included Processing in its National Design Triennial. Works created with Processing were featured prominently in the Design and the Elastic Mind show at the Museum of Modern Art. Numerous design magazines, including Print, Eye, and Creativity, have highlighted the software.

For their work on Processing, Fry and Reas received the 2008 Muriel Cooper Prize from the Design Management Institute. The Processing community was awarded the 2005 Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica award and the 2005 Interactive Design Prize from the Tokyo Type Director's Club.

The Processing website (www.processing.org) includes tutorials, exhibitions, interviews, a complete reference, and hundreds of software examples. The Discourse forum hosts continuous community discussions and dialog with the developers.

[images via Processing.org]

I guess i just don't like 'stones'

Biblioteca Parque Esapana by Giancarlo Mazzanti. Santo Domingo, Colombia.
Feeling VERY heavy while browsing through the pages of Architectural Record's latest issue.

[images via Plataforma Urbana]