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
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:
Listen on KCRW »
Via: KCRW
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
Exhibition by Adriean Koleric
HERD is the first solo outing by Edmonton-based designer and L+L friend Adriean Koleric (aka ITEM). The exhibit is the first in a series that will be focusing on early 80's Western Pop Culture and it's enduring influence on today's Designers and Artists.
The installation features the original Star Wars AT-AT (Imperial Walker) designs from The Empire Strikes Back in numerous mediums. The main component is a series of twelve customized AT-AT models. Koleric is interested in architecture and industrial design and how both are influenced by popular culture and nostalgia.
The exhibit opens, April 17th, at Latitude 53 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and runs through May 16th. Congrats, Adriean!
Link: ITEM - HERD by Adriean Koleric
Gallery: Latitude 53
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.
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
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. 
Link: 