Category: Architecture
Posted by James on 4/30/2009 5:27:00 PM
Abstracted Victoriana
 A tired San Francisco Victorian duplex is transformed by Oakland firm Envelope Architecture + Design in collaboration with owner and interior designer Claire Bigbie and landscape designer Flora Grubb.
Claire, a RISD trained designer, purchased this Noe Valley duplex in 2005 with her partner Jay Shapiro after returning to the US from London (where she worked for the hip interior design studio Precious McBane) to take a position as the style editor for ReadyMade Magazine. The house was in need of serious renovation, and the resulting project transformed the typical series of dark, cellular rooms into contemporary live/work spaces which respects the existing historic fabric while re-imagining the altered structure. Three days after Claire and Jay moved in, Claire began consulting on projects with Envelope A+D where she now leads the interiors component of the collaborative design process.
Architecture Firm: Envelope A+D
Landscape: Flora Grubb
Article: NY Times - When Skaters Grow Up by Penelope Green
Photo Gallery: NY Times
Photography: Todd Hido
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Category: Architecture
Posted by James on 4/29/2009 7:49:00 AM
Winner of the 2009 Mies van der Rohe Award
This landmark building in Oslo by Snøhetta (Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, Tarald Lundevall, Craig Dykers) is the
largest cultural centre built in Norway in 700 years. The competion brief stated that the operahouse should be monumental in it’s expression. Snøhetta's interpretation of monumentality is a concept of togetherness, joint ownership, easy and open access for all which is manifested in the warping roof plane making the an extended piece of civic public space. Monumentality is achieved through wide horizontal extension and not verticality. Integral to the 1,000-room interior, which is largely lined with crafted woodwork (using the traditions of Norwegian boat builders), are a number of art commissions interwoven into the structural fabric, including a cloakroom, a collaboration with their 2007 Serpentine Pavilion collaborator Olafur Eliasson.
The European Commission and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe announced today that the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, Oslo, Norway by Snøhetta is the winner of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2009.
Link: Snøhetta
Location: L+L Maps - Norwegian National Opera & Ballet
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Category: Architecture
Posted by James on 4/21/2009 10:45:00 AM
Audio: A discussion with Frank Gehry and Architecture for Humanity’s Cameron Sinclair.
Will an architecture of "excess" will be replaced by one of "relevance?" Frances Anderton talks to Cameron Sinclair (Co-founder of Architecture for Humanity) and Frank Gehry. Listen below:
Via: KCRW
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Category: Furniture
Posted by James on 4/20/2009 8:58:00 PM
Emeco and Frank Gehry, together again... for a cause
Emeco and Frank Gehry have collaborated in the development a one-of-a-kind large scale bench which will be presented during the Salone del Mobile in Milan, April 22-27 2009. If you want it, you won't be able to just place your order with DWR... Tuyomyo is a unique piece which will be auctioned in December, 2009. Funds raised will go towards the creation a million dollar fund called, Leslie Gehry Brenner Award, to honor Frank’s late daughter in support of the work of the Hereditary Disease Foundation.
For the design, Gehry’s mandate was simple, "The form has to be free and light. It must be structural, and at the same time poetic. And a little dangerous." And indeed it is... the project was truly an experiment pushing the boundaries of aluminum fabrication and paving the way for possible new products. The bench measures 3 meters long, weighs 122 pounds, and is composed of 80% recycled aluminum formed using aircraft manufacturing technology.
Link: Emeco
Link: Hereditary
Disease Foundation
Designer: Frank Gehry
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Category: Events
Posted by James on 4/17/2009 11:58:00 AM
North America’s only multi-discipline non-traditional design show
Are you ready?! The 6th incarnation of the CA Boom Design Show in Los Angeles is coming. As y'all know, we've offered the most comprehensive CA Boom web coverage since the very first show. And this year we just might have a few tricks up our sleeves. For starters, we will have FREE tickets to give to some lucky L+L readers... and as usual we will have a discount code for pre-purchased tickets. Stay tuned for details.
This year the show moves to a new larger location in Beverly Hills at the former Robinsons flagship Department Store (a very cool mid-century building) which provides almost double the exhibition/event space.
The show floor will be divided into distinct zones: international design manufacturers, national & limited production manufacturers, studio furniture, modern parenting, modern prefab, indoor/outdoor living, building accessories, and surfaces & finishes.
The Design Conference speakers series will again provide some nice depth to the show.
And of course the highlight, at least for us, are the home tours. Fifteen different houses will be featured, Case Study House #22 (aka the Stahl House) in the Hollywood Hills designed by Pierre Koenig is THE tour this year. One of the original family members will be on site for you to chat up, and part of the proceeds for this tour will go to Stahl Foundation for maintenance and restoration of the property. Very nice.
Link: CA Boom
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Category: Architecture
Posted by James on 4/13/2009 5:29:00 PM
2009 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate
Peter Zumthor of Switzerland has been chosen as the 2009
Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The Zumthor choice marks the second time in three decades of the Pritzker
Architecture Prize that Switzerland has provided the laureate. In 2001, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were the honorees.
In Zumthor’s own words as expressed in his book, Thinking Architecture:
I believe that architecture today needs to reflect on the tasks and possibilities which are inherently its own. Architecture is not a vehicle or a symbol for things that do not belong to its essence. In a society that celebrates the inessential, architecture can put up a resistance, counteract the waste of forms and meanings, and speak its own language. I believe that the language of architecture is not a question of a specific style. Every building is built for a specific use in a specific place and for a specific society. My buildings try to answer the questions that emerge from these simple facts as precisely and critically as they can.
The formal ceremony for what has come to be known throughout the world as architecture’s highest honor will be held on May 29 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
After the jump is a sampling of Zumthor's work.
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Category: Events
Posted by James on 4/13/2009 12:02:00 PM
MoMA Exhibition
The exhibition, running at MoMA in New York City from April 8, 2009–September 14, 2009, draws from the rich collection of The Museum of Modern Art to examine the diverse attitudes toward landscape over the last hundred years.
I saw a sneak peak of the exhibit before it opened a couple of weeks ago, and what I saw left me wanting to see more. Featured designers include Roberto Burle Marx, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hans Hollein, Diller + Scofidio, Tadao Ando, Mies van der Rohe, Bernard Tschumi, Enric Miralles, and many more.
Link: MoMA
Article: Art Daily
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Category: Architecture
Posted by James on 4/9/2009 11:43:00 AM
The Polshek Partnership's High Line hurdling hotel
 It's been around the blogosphere for a while... and we've mused on the nice lap dance it gives the High Line park. But in a striking bit of coincidence, I just recently had the opportunity to see The Standard with my own eyes, and NY Time critic Nicolai Ouroussoff has reviewed it. So I'm inspired to post a nice, old-fashioned bit of archiporn... yes, lots of pictures after the jump. But I'll keep writing so you can say you read the articles.
Sure, it's a bit over-the-top and extravagant in the face of our current economic woes, but why not wax a bit nostalgic... nay... optimistic for the good days to come. Heck, the hotel hasn't even been completed! And neither is the aforementioned elevated park. So, I suppose we're looking to the future.
Link: NY Times
Link: Standard Hotel NYC
Firm: Polshek Partnership Architects
Related: "Down-to-Earth Masterpieces of Public Landscape Design" (L+L)
L+L Map: The Standard New York
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