Dezeen Wire: Dezeen has been placed first in a list of the 10 best architecture blogs compiled by UK newspaper The Independent.
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Dezeen Wire: Sergio Pininfarina, the Italian car designer who worked for brands including Ferrari, Maserati and Lancia, has died aged 85 (via Reuters). Pininfarina worked at and later ran the family-run Pininfarina design studio from 1950 until 2006, working on models including the Ferrari Testarossa, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider and Bentley Azure.
The post Sergio Pininfarina 1926-2012 appeared first on Dezeen.
Dezeen Wire: the latest report from Rotterdam research agency Arch-Vision shows that the construction industries in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands remain in decline, but that markets remain stable in France and the UK, and have improved in Germany.
Other recent reports show that workloads for U.S. architects have fallen sharply, but that UK architects has seen a significant increase in their workload.
See all Arch-Vision reports on Dezeen Wire.
Here’s the full press release:
Dutch construction market still worsening, France and UK quite stable
In nearly all countries, the development of European architecture firms observed in Q4 2011 continued in Q1 2012.
The exception to this rule is France. No further decrease in the order book has been registered among the French architects this quarter. This is one of the conclusions of the Q1 2012 report of the European Architectural Barometer, a quarterly research among 1,200 architects in six European countries. European architects act as leading indicators for construction activity.
The latest European Architectural Barometer (Q1 2012) confirms most of the architects’ expectations from the previous quarter. The construction market in Spain and Italy is still most affected by the crisis. The Spanish and Italian architects continue to report decreasing order books and turnovers.
A slightly positive sign on the Spanish horizon is the share of architectural companies reporting that their order books increased by more than 5% in the last quarter. In comparison to Q1 2011 (the most positive quarter in Spain until now, where about 10% of the architects reported a growth of the order books by more than 5%), the group with a significant rise in the order book almost doubled in Q1 2012 (19%).
The situation in Italy is still deteriorating. For the second quarter in a row, about two thirds of the Italian architects report a declining order book and turnover. The outlook for the market is not positive either, and Arch-Vision expects the building volumes for Italy to be around 16% lower than in 2011 at the end of this year.
In Q3 2011, Arch-Vision reported that the Netherlands and France seemed to be reaching a second low point. The Q1 2012 results confirm this trend for the Netherlands, while no major changes in this quarter can be seen for France. In the UK, a small drop of the indicators has been registered, but in general the UK market remains stable at a slightly lower level than before the crisis and the forecast for 2012 is a drop in the building volumes of about 2%.
Germany remains the only country which has recovered and the order book development continues to show positive figures. As a result of the survey data and the market indicators used in the forecast model, the expected growth of 8% in the building volumes remains unchanged (as predicted in Q4 2011).
The table below presents the forecast of Arch-Vision for the building volumes in 2012 and 2013. The data for Q2 2012 is currently being gathered via telephone survey among architects in the 6 countries. The new results will be available in about four weeks time.
These and many other results and trends of the developments of the European construction market can be found in the European Architectural Barometer, an international research conducted among 1,200 architects in Europe. This study is conducted in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and the Netherlands by Arch-Vision four times a year.
Besides indicators to forecast European building volumes, a specific topic is highlighted each quarter. The topic in Q2 2012 is “Architectural Design & Technology trends” Architects can be used not only as a reliable source for future building volumes information, but their role is very important as they have great influence on how projects are built and which materials are used.
Dezeen Wire: design critic Alice Rawsthorn describes how the famous Arco lamp by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni has become a cliché for precisely the reasons that made it great – New York Times
A replica of the iconic design caused a furor last autumn when it emerged that the UK prime minister’s wife had purchased a reproduction for her home, prompting a scathing attack from Elle Decoration UK editor Michelle Ogundehin and the start of her Equal Rights for Design design campaign that culminated in changes to UK copyright law. Read the full story here.
Dezeen Wire: new Royal College of Art dean of architecture Alex de Rijke will steer students away from proposing unrealisable “paper architecture” and instead focus on how their ideas could be built (+ movie).
In an interview with Dezeen at the RCA Show 2012 last month, de Rijke said: “Historically [at the RCA] there’s always been a very strong agenda on paper architecture – the speculative, the work that is provocative but not necessarily make-able.”
In future, “Students will be encouraged to speculate not just about future uses or programmes or places, but actually speculate about how they will be built,” de Rijke says. “Material experiment will very much become part of the course.”
De Rijke, of UK firm dRMM, was appointed to the role in September 2011 following the retirement of Nigel Coates in May.
Watch him give a tour of work by this year’s graduates in our other movie filmed with him at the show and see all our coverage of Show RCA 2012 here.
Dezeen Wire: Newham Borough Council are appealing to designers and brands to help them furnish a drop-in centre for victims of domestic and sexual violence during the Olympic Games next month.
Newham are one of the host boroughs for the games and their council are concerned that the number of abuse cases will significantly increase during the period, like it does when holidays or football matches are taking place (typically by 27-29%).
“To try to mitigate this risk we have rented an office in Stratford across the street from the Olympic Park that victims of domestic or sexual violence can go to for support,” says organiser Kelly Simmons. “Now our only problem is trying to find furniture to make the space comfortable for victims and staff during this seven week period. Interiors are important to people’s behaviour and it would be unfortunate if we were not able to make this space comfortable for those reporting abuse.”
There will be three interview rooms, two waiting rooms, a front desk, main office, small kitchen and a toilet to furnish at the One Stop Shop. They are looking to borrow seven sofas, seven chairs, five coffee tables, five lamps, a filing cabinet, a printer and a small dining table with chairs to furnish this space for two months.
Police, local solicitors firms and charities Rape Crisis, Aanchal Women’s Aid, Newham Action Against Domestic Violence and Refuge have all pledged to help staff the One Stop Shop when it opens between 23 July and 13 September.
Anyone able to help should contact Simmons via email at Kelly.Simmons@newham.gov.uk or over the phone on +44 20 3373 1781.
Dezeen Wire: journalist Oliver Wainwright has revealed on Twitter that he will be the new architecture and design critic at UK newspaper the Guardian.
Wainwright, who is currently the features editor at UK architecture weekly Building Design, will take over from Jonathan Glancey, who left the role in February.
Dezeen Wire: the winners of this year’s TED Prize for urban innovation have been announced. Recipients of the prize include London design studio 00:/ for their project WikiHouse, which involves the construction of wooden houses from a downloaded kit of parts. Read our story about the project here.
Dezeen Wire: architects Hassell have been appointed to design a new zoo on the outskirts of Georgia’s capital city, Tbilisi.
Replacing an existing zoo in the city centre, the new complex will encompass woodland areas from a national park and will include an aquarium and a diving school.
Other recent projects from Georgia include a collection of infrastructure projects by German architects J. Mayer H, which you can see in our special slideshow feature.
See all our stories about zoos »
Here’s a full statement from Hassell:
HASSELL appointed to design the new Tbilisi Zoo in Georgia
The London Studio of HASSELL, working with Arup, has been appointed by Tbilisi City Hall to carry out the concept design of the new Tbilisi Zoo on the outskirts of the Georgian capital city.
The project will see the existing city centre zoo replaced by a zoological and recreation complex adjacent to the inland lake known as Tbilisi Sea.
Working with Arup’s Dublin office, HASSELL has developed a concept that sits lightly within the spectacular new site, using a design strategy of minimal disturbance to preserve the area’s natural beauty. Relocating the current zoo’s species and activities calls for a number of new buildings and landscapes. These will include an entrance hub, boulevard, a secondary hub with playground and café, inner zoo and an outer open range zoo as well as woodland areas set within the Soviet era Arboretum known as Dendropark National Park. A recreation area created on the shore of the Tbilisi Sea will include new buildings for an aquarium and dive school.
The plan builds upon the dramatic landscape and mountainous topography of the area to create a visitor experience unique to Georgia. The country is positioned at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa and these will be represented by the division of the site into distinct grassland habitats. A choice of five different walking routes around the zoo affords a variety of visitor experiences, encouraging return visits.
The zoo will be built to world-class standards, creating an international tourist destination for zoo, safari, botanical and recreational experiences. The design will celebrate the natural history of the site and encourage visitors of all ages to take a personal interest in the importance of conserving the earth’s environmental heritage.
The project builds on HASSELL’s extensive masterplanning, landscape architecture and zoo experience in Australasia including the award-winning Adelaide Zoo, Taronga Zoo in Sydney and Werribee Open Range in Victoria.
Jon Hazelwood, Head of Landscape Architecture at HASSELL’s London Studio, commented:
“We believe in the collaboration of landscape architecture, masterplanning and architectural design and the new Tbilisi Zoo is a fantastic opportunity to put this philosophy into practice by developing a new zoo destination from first principles. Our team has been inspired by the beauty of the Georgian landscape to create a scheme that works in harmony with the environment, respects the animals that will inhabit it and allows people to observe them in a space akin to their natural habitat.”
Dezeen Wire: Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry and Kengo Kuma are among more than 70 architects and designers who have donated drawings, paintings and other works to an auction for San Francisco-based charity Architecture for Humanity.
Buyers have until June 29 to bid on the lots, which range from sketches on the backs of napkins to watercolours and digital prints.
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