Dezeen Wire: retail expert Mary Portas has published a report on the future of the high street. The review was commissioned by the British government. Read the full report here or check a summary of Portas’ 28 recommendations here.
Dezeen Wire: Dutch architects MVRDV have received threatening emails and angry phone calls after revealing proposals for skyscrapers that resemble the exploding World Trade Centre on 9/11.
We published the project first on Dezeen, prompting outrage from many of our readers. One declared the images “insensitive and offensive” while another claimed “this is like 9/11 freeze framed”.
Above: The Cloud by MVRDV – see more images in our earlier story
In an article titled “Do These Skyscrapers Remind You Of The 9/11 Attacks?” online magazine Fast Co. Design used Dezeen’s reader comments to explain the story, while gadget blog Gizmodo Australia led a piece with the question “What The Hell Were These Architects Thinking?”
In an official statement on their Facebook page, MVRDV apologise for any upset cause and explain that they did not see the resemblance during the design process. However, Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad claims that MVRDV representative Jan Knikker admitted that they in fact did notice, fuelling the debate further.
Most recently, American magazine the New York Post have picked up the story, blasting the towers as “sick” and “a spectacular case of architectural tastelessness” and the BBC reported the story in their televised news program.
You can see all the original images here, or contribute to the debate by adding a comment here.
Dezeen Wire: Grafik magazine is to cease publication once again. The graphic design magazine only reopened under new ownership in February this year after its previous owners went into administration in June 2010.
Read a statement from the magazine’s editorial team and owners Woodbridge & Rees here and read critic Rick Poynor’s take on the news here.
Dezeen Wire: architect Steven Holl has been named as the winner of this year’s AIA Gold Medal. See all our stories about his work here.
Photo is by Mark Heitoff
Here are some more details from Holl’s office:
Steven Holl Named 2012 AIA Gold Medal Winner
In recognition of his contributions to architecture in both theory and practice Steven Holl has been named the 2012 AIA Gold Medal Winner. The AIA Gold Medal, voted on annually, is considered to be the profession’s highest honor that an individual can receive. Steven Holl will be honored at the 2012 AIA National Convention in Washington, D.C.
“What, in my view, especially commends him as a candidate for the Gold Medal,” said Harry Cobb, FAIA, founder of Pei Cobb Freed, “is his brilliantly demonstrated capacity to join his refined design sensibility to a rigorously exploratory theoretical project.”
Steven Holl stated, “I am grateful, I am still beginning and I consider this award shared with all my collaborators. I feel this award is a positive advocacy to make theoretical explorations and experimental works. I was on the way to my final review at Columbia University when I received the call from Washington D.C. and felt it connected to my teaching and efforts toward education. I remember John Hejduk’s statement that teaching is a social contract, and I remain committed to teaching.”
The AIA highlighted Steven Holl’s “humanist approach to formal experimentation” and his ability to “tackle the urban-scale planning and development conundrums that define success in the built environment throughout the world.”
Steven Holl leads Steven Holl Architects with partner Chris McVoy. With each project the firm explores new ways to integrate an organizing idea with the programmatic and functional essence of a building. Rather than imposing a style upon different sites and climates, or pursued irrespective of program, the unique character of a program and a site becomes the starting point for an architectural idea. While anchoring each work in its specific site and circumstance, Steven Holl Architects endeavors to obtain a deeper beginning in the experience of time, space, light and materials. The phenomena of the space of a room, the sunlight entering through a window, and the color and reflection of materials on a wall and floor all have integral relationships. The materials of architecture communicate through resonance and dissonance, just as instruments in musical composition, producing thought and sense-provoking qualities in the experience of a place. Extending this approach with ecological innovation Steven Holl Architects is recognized for the ability to shape space and light with great contextual sensitivity and to catalyze the unique qualities of each project to create a concept-driven design at multiple scales, from minimal dwellings, to university and museum works, to new hybrid models of urbanism.
“Steven not only improves the built environment, he improves the field of architecture by constantly moving us forward,” said Olson Kundig Architects’ Tom Kundig, FAIA.
Steven Holl is the 68th AIA Gold Medalist, an award that has previously gone to such prominent architects as Frank Lloyd Wright (1949), Le Corbusier (1961), Louis Kahn (1971), I.M. Pei (1979), and Fumihiko Maki (2011).
Dezeen Wire: British architect Terry Farrell has unveiled conceptual proposals to convert London’s Battersea Power Station into a park, which oppose existing plans for a mixed-used development by New York architect Rafael Viñoly.
Unlike Viñoly, whose stalled proposals to develop the Grade II listed former power station require a significant investment, Farrell intends simply to replace the sides of the building with an open colonnade and create a public park inside.
The architect hopes that these alternative plans will enable the construction of a new underground station for a fraction of the cost projected for it in Viñoly’s scheme.
We published some of Viñoly’s originals plans for the site back in 2008 – see our earlier story here.
Here’s some more text from Farrells:
Farrells release radical proposals for Battersea Power Station
Terry Farrell & Partners have released proposals for Battersea Power Station which offer a radical rethink involving an incremental two step strategy for its future.
This fresh approach aims to combat the “bigness” that is blocking the project with a plan that doesn’t rely on starting with a £1.5 billion new tube station or the refurbishment of an enormous and deteriorating ex industrial building.
Sir Terry said; “We have to learn lessons from the problems that have thwarted previous attempts to redevelop this much loved landmark.”
The first lesson that informs Farrell’s proposal is that little will happen whilst there is still a gigantic ruin in the middle of the site. Flat sales, particularly on the riverfront, will not achieve full value if the power station is not dealt with first.
Farrell’s proposal is to create a simple and beautiful finished monument at a very early stage by retaining the front and back elements and their chimneys. From most river views this would retain the full convincing form of the building by constructing a grand muscular monument with an open colonnade screen along the two flank walls.
From the river, this will appear solid and retain the full grandeur of the buildings form. From the sides, however, it will be open so that within the site and from the surrounding flats there will be views through the colonnade into a large generous parkland for people to enjoy. Such a unique and stunning park could be used for leisure and occasional events as have already taken place here over the years.
As for the transport connections, for now we could spend a fraction of the amount it would cost for a new tube station on a surface tram link or a shuttle bus service to Vauxhall station. When the tube line is up and running, which could take many years, it can service the increased people traffic there. A second phase could then involve the reconstruction of the walls and the roof to contain what is considered to be viable and appropriate at that point in time.
Sir Terry, who is an Ex-Commissioner of English Heritage and Ex-Chair of their London Advisory Committee, said;
“This is a pragmatic and incremental approach to enable the redevelopment of this famous landmark sitting in one of the largest and most valuable regeneration sites in Central London. In many ways, this strategy is already on its way to being realised as there is one long flank wall missing as well as the roof itself.
It is not the first time the power station would have been taken down and put back together again. Not many people know that the chimneys were removed during the Second World War to prevent them being targets for German bombers before being replaced.
The key to this strategy is that it will be, and will be seen to be, complete at each stage so that the redevelopment project can get started and make positive and rapid progress.”
A sci-fi animation in which a downtrodden robot workforce battles with police against a backdrop of dystopian architecture is one of the winners of the RIBA President’s Medals Student Awards, announced this evening.
Top and above: Robots of Brixton by Kibwe Tavares
Bartlett School of Architecture graduate Kibwe Tavares receives the Silver Medal for his project, Robots of Brixton, which we featured in the summer – watch the movie here.
Above: Robots of Brixton by Kibwe Tavares
Basmah Kaki, a student at the Architectural Association, wins the Bronze medal for a conceptual building that manipulates wind and acoustics to protect workers at a granite quarry from noise pollution.
Above: acoustic lyrical mechanism by Basmah Kaki
The dissertation medal is awarded to University of Melbourne student Hannah Robertson, who presented a study of homes for an indigenous community in northeast Australia.
Above: acoustic lyrical mechanism by Basmah Kaki
All shortlisted projects will be on display at the RIBA in London until the end of January 2012 and will then travel to other venues.
Above: Bush Owner Builder by Hannah Robertson
See some of the winners from previous years here.
Above: Bush Owner Builder by Hannah Robertson
Here’s a press release from the RIBA:
A brave new world – RIBA President’s Medals Student Awards 2011
From a dystopian vision of Brixton, to a sanctuary for quarry workers in Bangalore, to new homes for a remote Aboriginal community in Australia, this year’s RIBA President’s Medals Student Awards, in association with Atkins, show how today’s architecture students around the world are grappling with pressing social issues and, through architecture, coming up with original solutions.
The winners of the President’s Medals will be announced this evening (Wednesday 7 December 2011) at the RIBA in London.
Kibwe Tavares, a student of The Bartlett, University College London, has won the Silver Medal – awarded to a Part 2 project (second degree) – for Robots of Brixton. Taking the existing buildings of Brixton as a starting point, and eerily prescient of this summer’s riots in English cities, this startling short film combines architectural drawings and futuristic animation to comment on the social tensions of inner city life. The judges said: “We were stunned by the research work that went into making this film: not only had an urban environment been designed but the film itself was a complex design project. An amazing piece of work that is truly exciting and inspirational.”
The Bronze Medal – for a Part 1 project (first degree) – has been awarded to Basmah Kaki, a student at the Architectural Association. An acoustic lyrical mechanism is an ingenious design which exploits the natural environment to create a sanctuary for workers, protecting them from damage caused by noise pollution in an Indian granite quarry. The judges said: “This is beautifully presented, but equally impressive is the journey of architectural exploration. Prototypes have been made, and topographical models used to help analyse the impact of wind and the visual and sound environment that the building would create.’
Hannah Robertson, of the University of Melbourne, receives the Dissertation Medal for her work Bush Owner Builder which develops culturally sensitive and appropriate homes for an indigenous community in the far north of Queensland. Designs that emerged from working closely with the Aboriginal community are now being built on ‘homeland’ sites. The judges said: “This dissertation warmed our hearts with its social concern. A sensitive and respectful piece of work, it rethinks the world of the architect and shows people not as clients but as genuine participants in the creative architectural process.”
In addition to the three RIBA President’s Medals, commendations were awarded to:
Part 1: Daniel Schinagl, London South Bank University, for Institute of Language and Knowledge
Part 2: Duncan Corrigall and Daniel Spence, University of Sydney, for Metamorphoses: Echo’s Retreat; Marie Kojzar, Royal College of Art, for Human Nature; and Christopher Christophi, De Montfort University, for Ecological research and macro algae monitoring facility, North Arsenale, Venice
Dissertation: Julianne Cassidy, University of Westminster, for Arka Pana: the Church in the City without God; Costa Elia, The Bartlett, University College London, for The Buyukada Museum: building new viewpoints on the Istanbul Pogrom; and Joanna Doherty, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, for Constructing the ‘Other’: the role of space in continuing conflict in Northern Ireland.
Congratulating the winners, RIBA President Angela Brady said:
“The winners of this year’s RIBA President’s Medals show the outstanding talent of today’s architecture students. With highly creative and inspired thinking they are confronting real social issues – and showing how quality architectural design improves the quality of people’s lives. I am delighted to present these awards.”
Philip Watson, Design Director, Atkins, added:
“The industry needs to encourage and celebrate creativity and innovation, which is why Atkins continues to support the RIBA President’s Medals Student Awards. The best entries this year tackled social, economic and environmental issues head-on, showing real awareness and a refreshing sense of optimism.”
Daniel Schinagl and Christopher Christophi also receive the Serjeant Award for Excellence in Architectural Drawing. Travelling Fellowships from the Skidmore Owings Merrill (SOM) Foundation go to three students from the University of Liverpool, Steven Kok, Sean Peel and Hannah Wilson, for Zeitgeist Archive, Berlin, as well as to Bronze medal-winner Basmah Kaki.
The awards will be presented by RIBA President Angela Brady on Wednesday 7 December 2011 and winning projects will be displayed at the RIBA from 7 December 2011 until 28 January 2012. The exhibition will then travel to Newcastle, Liverpool and Dublin, with other venues in the United Kingdom, Australia, Romania and the United Arab Emirates to be confirmed.
This year saw the highest number ever of entries for the President’s Medals: 276 entries from 83 schools of architecture in 27 countries.
Dezeen Wire: Oscar-winning film maker Bruce Beresford will direct a forthcoming movie about iconic American architect Frank Lloyd Wright – The Hollywood Reporter
The film will be centred around the architect’s Wisconsin home Taliesin, after which the film is to be named.
Dezeen Wire: a Danish news site reports that the power plant with integrated ski slope proposed by Bjarke Ingels Group has been denied funding by the City of Copenhagen due to environmental risks – Politiken
See renders of the Waste-to-Energy Plant, which would also blow smoke rings, in our earlier story.
Here’s a selection of projects by Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger, who was named as this year’s Royal Gold Medal recipient this morning.
Top: portrait by Hans van den Bogaard
Above: Montessori School, Delft (1960-66), photograph is by Johan van der Keuken
Hertzberger will receive the prize in February 2012 – more details in our earlier Dezeen Wire story.
Above: Montessori School, Delft (1960-66), photograph is by Herman van Doorn
Here’s Hertzberger’s biography from the RIBA:
Born in 1932 Herman Hertzberger opened his own firm of architects in 1960, the present-day Architectuurstudio HH in Amsterdam. One of his major influences on 20th century architecture was to challenge the early modernist belief that ‘form follows function’ – that the shape of the building was defined by its purpose.
Above: Lin Mij Textile Workshop, Amsterdam (1962-64), demolished, photograph is by Jan Versnel
Hertzberger believes that the core function of a building does not provide the total solution to space usage: it is a framework that should enable its users to interpret and define how they inhabit it.
Above: Lin Mij Textile Workshop, Amsterdam (1962-64), demolished, photograph is by Jan Versnel
His buildings offer flexible ‘in between’ spaces that encourage our deeper human needs of dwelling and social activity.
Above: Centraal Beheer Apeldoorn (1968-72), photograph is by Aviodrome Luchtfotografie
His celebrated Montessori School in Delft (1960-66) rethought the way that classrooms were laid out, with L-shaped rooms creating different zones.
Above: Centraal Beheer Apeldoorn (1968-72), photograph is by Willem Diepraam
Images of children playing and learning on broad wooden steps as a creative space inspired many architects of schools across northern Europe.
Above: Centraal Beheer Apeldoorn (1968-72), photograph is by Willem Diepraam
His exemplary workplace Central Baheer in Apeldoorn (1968-72) was designed with the needs of the individual at its core and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment in The Hague (1979-90) was one of the first buildings to develop the idea of the internal street or elongated atrium to encourage social interaction and get light into all the rooms.
Above: Diagoon Housing, Delft (1969-70)
Above: Apolloscholen, Amsterdam (1980-83), photograph is by Frits Dijkhof
Above: Apolloscholen, Amsterdam (1980-83)
Above: YKK Dormitory, Kurobe, Japan (1991-98)
Above: YKK Dormitory, Kurobe, Japan (1991-98)
Above: Chasse Concert Hall, Breda (1992-95), photograph is by Herman van Doorn
Above: Chasse Concert Hall, Breda (1992-95), photograph is by Herman van Doorn
Above: Waternet Head Office, Amsterdam (2000-05), photograph is by Duccio Malagamba
Above: Waternet Head Office, Amsterdam (2000-05), photograph is by Duccio Malagamba
Above: Media Park & Housing Cologne, Germany (2004-04), photgraph is by Duccio Malagamba
Above: NHL University Leeuwarden (2004-10), photograph is by John Lewis Marshall
Above: NHL University Leeuwarden (2004-10), photograph is by John Lewis Marshall
Above: NHL University Leeuwarden (2004-10)
Above: Coda Shelter for Culture (museum) Apeldoorn (2004-11), photograph is by Herman van Doorn
Above: Coda Shelter for Culture (museum) Apeldoorn (2004-11), photograph is by Herman van Doorn
Above: Faculty of Science University of Utrecht (2006-11)
Above: Faculty of Science University of Utrecht (2006-11), photograph is by Rob Hoekstra
Dezeen Wire: Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger has been named as the recipient of this year’s Royal Gold Medal for architecture.
Hertzberger will receive the award in a ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London on 9 February 2012.
The Royal Gold Medal was awarded to British architect David Chipperfield last year and to Chinese-born American architect I. M. Pei in 2009.
Here’s the announcement from the RIBA:
The internationally acclaimed Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger has been named today (Tuesday 6 December 2011) as the recipient of one of the world’s most prestigious architecture prizes, the Royal Gold Medal.
Established in 1848 and given in recognition of a body of work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by Her Majesty the Queen and is given to a person or group of people whose influence on architecture has had a truly international effect.
Born in 1932 Herman Hertzberger opened his own firm of architects in 1960, the present-day Architectuurstudio HH in Amsterdam. One of his major influences on 20th century architecture was to challenge the early modernist belief that ‘form follows function’ – that the shape of the building was defined by its purpose. Hertzberger believes that the core function of a building does not provide the total solution to space usage: it is a framework that should enable its users to interpret and define how they inhabit it. His buildings offer flexible ‘in between’ spaces that encourage our
deeper human needs of dwelling and social activity.
His celebrated Montessori School in Delft (1960-66) rethought the way that classrooms were laid out, with L-shaped rooms creating different zones. Images of children playing and learning on broad wooden steps as a creative space inspired many architects of schools across northern Europe. His exemplary workplace Central Baheer in Apeldoorn (1968-72) was designed with the needs of the individual at its core and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment in The Hague (1979-90) was one of the first buildings to develop the idea of the internal street or elongated atrium to encourage social interaction and get light into all the rooms.
RIBA President Angela Brady, who chaired the Honours Committee which selected the Royal Gold Medal winner said:
“Herman Hertzberger has transformed the way we think about architecture, both as architects and people who use buildings. His architecture is about from and space which he defines as ‘place which has not been appropriated’. Throughout his career his humanity has shone through in his schools, homes, theatres and workplaces. The RIBA is delighted to recognize the importance of his achievements and the effect his designs have on people and place.”
Herman Hertzberger will be presented with the Royal Gold Medal on 9 February 2012 at a ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, during which the 2012 RIBA International and Honorary Fellowships will also be presented.
This year’s RIBA Honours Committee was chaired by RIBA President Angela Brady with architects David Adjaye, Yvonne Farrell, Niall McLaughlin, Sarah Wigglesworth and Sir Terence Conran.
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