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Dezeen Wire: Foster + Partners have been shortlisted to design the Xiqu Chinese Opera Centre, the first in a series of new arts and cultural venues for the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong.

Collaborating with local studio O Studio Architects, the firm is one of five in a shortlist that also includes Safdie Architects, Mecanoo Architecten, Wong & Ouyang (HK) Ltd. and Bing Thom Architects.

Foster + Partners won a competition to design the masterplan for the district in 2010, beating entries by OMA and Rocco Design Architects.

See all our stories about Foster + Partners »
See all our stories about the West Kowloon Cultural District »

Read the full press release below:

Leading British architectural firm Foster + Partners shortlisted for arts venue in one of worlds largest cultural infrastructure projects.

Shortlisted design teams announced for the first arts venue in the West Kowloon Cultural District.

(17 July 2012, Hong Kong) The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) announced today a shortlist of five design teams that have been invited to submit proposals for the architectural design of the Xiqu Centre, one of the landmark cultural venues for the West Kowloon Cultural District.

The five shortlisted teams are:

» BTA & RLP Company Limited (Bing Thom Architects, Vancouver, and Ronald Lu and Partners, HK)
» Foster + Partners (UK) with O Studio Architects (HK)
» Mecanoo architecten (the Netherlands) / Leigh & Orange (HK)
» Safdie Architects LLC (US & Israel)
» Wong & Ouyang (HK) Ltd. (in collaboration with Diamond and Schmitt, Canada)

The Xiqu Centre, scheduled for completion at the end of 2015, will be the first of 17 core arts and cultural venues to be opened within the District and one of 15 proposed performing arts venues. The Chinese opera venue will provide a world-class facility for the preservation and development of the art form in Hong Kong and will be designed to host and produce the finest examples of Cantonese and other Chinese opera performances. Occupying a prime site at the eastern edge of the District on the corner of Canton Road and Austin Road West, the centre will provide a gateway of access to the Cultural District. The competition covers the design of a 1,100-seat main theatre, a 400-seat small theatre, a Tea House for performances for audiences up to 280 and ancillary training and education facilities.

The teams were shortlisted by the West Kowloon Cultural Authority Board following the recommendation of an independent Steering Committee set up to oversee the design competition, assisted by an Independent Professional Advisor, and with the participation of the Jury Panel.

Mr Louis Yu, Executive Director, Performing Arts, said:
“There has been a fantastic response to our plans for the Xiqu Centre from design teams from across the world. We are working hard to find the right team to work with to fulfill our ambitions. The shortlisted teams will meet with representatives of the Chinese opera artform, engaging with stakeholders so we can conceive together a world-class building for Hong Kong and for the development and promotion of this important form of Chinese cultural heritage”.

The shortlisted design teams will be invited to submit schematic designs of their concepts before 5 October, 2012. Entries from the shortlisted design teams will be assessed by a Jury Panel made up of prominent leaders in the relevant professional and arts and culture fields from Hong Kong, China and internationally: Mr. Cui Kai, Architect, China; Prof. Odile Decq, Architect/ Urbanist, France; Mr. Jordi Farrando, Architect, Spain; Mr. Lee Shing See GBS, OBE, JP, WKCDA Development Committee member and Chairman of the Steering Committee and Engineer – Hong Kong, China; Mr. Mao Chun Fai, Fredric BBS, Theatre Director, Hong Kong, China; Mr. Pau Shiu Hung SBS, Architect, Hong Kong, China; Mr. Yuen Siu Fai, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Artists Association of Hong Kong.

Further details on the Design Competition are available on the WKCDA website: http://www.wkcda.hk/en/architectural_competition/xiqucentre

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Hong Kong arts venue appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen Wire: the Architects’ Council of Europe has condemned the proposed exclusion of 90% of architecture firms from the public procurement market.

In their latest report, the council has urged the EU to amend drafted legislation to help small and medium-sized practices bid for and obtain work in the public sector.

Read the full press release below:

ACE deplores the exclusion of 90% of architectural firms from the public procurement market, and calls on the EU to amend its legislative proposal in order to achieve improved market access for SMEs

Amendments submitted by the Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE) in response to the proposed modernisation of the Public Procurement Directive stress that the proposals will not improve access to public procurement for architects. An ACE study of professional practice reveals that the application of turnover requirements would exclude 90% of architectural firms from public procurement contracts, thereby failing to improve the SME access that the Directive sets out to achieve.

ACE recently submitted draft amendments regarding the draft Public Procurement Directive, to Rapporteur, Marc Tarabella. While welcoming the Commission’s decision to modernise the Directive, ensure efficient use of public funds, improve the business environment and generally increase SME access to the market, ACE reiterated the fact that current access to public contracts for architects is virtually non-existent. Misapplication of earlier provisions has led to an almost total loss of potential benefits – a waste of public funds and a serious handicap to EU competitiveness in the global market.

The ACE submission seeks to:
– facilitate participation of architectural firms (mostly SMEs) in public procurement;
– promote selection procedures and award criteria based on quality;
– ensure that the specific nature of intellectual services is taken into account.

SMEs: ACE advocates simplifying administrative demands and opposes setting turnover requirements for architectural service providers at three times the estimated contract value. ACE believes that it is not possible to find a limit that is appropriate to all procurement procedures and professional services, and suggests deleting this restriction and putting more emphasis on qualitative selection criteria, based on principles of sustainable development. At worst, any turnover requirements should not exceed the contract value.

Choice of procedures: ACE suggests the inclusion of design contests followed by the negotiated procedure as a standard approach to the procurement of architectural services, given the unsuitability of electronic auctions for intellectual services. ACE calls for more disaggregation and opposes centralized procurement and framework agreements as they exclude SMEs/young professionals from the market.

Contract awarding criteria: ACE welcomes the substitution of “lowest price” with “lowest cost” (including life-cycle assessment) but regrets that procuring authorities remain free to award either on price or cost. ACE calls for awards for intellectual services to be based only on “economically most advantageous tender” and to prohibit lowest price. Price is the worst criterion as it favours the candidate who devotes least time to a solution, which then impacts on the quality of the project.

ACE Secretary General Ian Pritchard said: “Unlike some other goods or services, architectural services are intellectual services which cannot be precisely defined at the outset. ACE believes that for the revised the Public Procurement Directive to achieve its ambition for growth and employment, it must take account of the specific nature of architectural services”.

If adopted on 10 October 2012, the Directive will have to be implemented by Member States by 30 June 2014 latest. To download the ACE submission to Marc Tarabella, the European Parliament Rapporteur, go to: http://www.ace-cae.eu/public/contents/getdocument/content_id/1393

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from public procurement appeared first on Dezeen.

Narrow glass openings provide glimpses through the rampart-like facade of this property showroom in Singapore by architects Ministry of Design (+ slideshow).

Named the Edge Gallery, the building contains a double-height sales gallery and two show apartments for developer UOL, who are constructing three residential towers on a former hotel and theatre site nearby.

The walls of the two-storey building comprise a series of L-shaped columns that wrap over the roof, while doors and windows fill the gaps between.

Unlike most showrooms, there are no signs or advertisements on the exterior of the building at all.

Other projects we’ve featured by Ministry of Design include a monochrome hotel and an extremely pointy pavilion.

See all our stories about Singapore »

Photography is by CI&A Photography.

Here’s some text from the architects:

The Edge Gallery
Architecture + Interiors + Furniture Design
910 sqm | Singapore | Completed 2012

Scope

The Edge Gallery explores and redefines the typology of the Singaporean condominium show gallery on several fronts.

Commissioned by a reputed Singaporean developer, the project for the design of a sales gallery and two show flats of a 244 unit residential development is located at a major intersection along Singapore’s eastern city fringe.

Explorations

Firstly, the design synthesizes unique characteristics of the site context with the client’s programmatic requirements.

Key site issues included the unique semi-circle shaped site, noisy surroundings and a distant vehicular drop off point.

On another front, the design also sought to challenge conventional Singaporean show gallery precedents which seem to ignore the potential for unique architectural solutions as a valid and powerful marketing device.

In contrast to this, the Edge Gallery departs from the formulaic combination of staid glass boxes and over-sized billboards.

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Relying instead on the inherent branding value of an iconic architectural statement as a more relevant, subtle & sophisticated form of advertisement.

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Incidentally, the project met with significant sales success within its first week and has established a possible new alternative model for the Singaporean show gallery.

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Solution

The building can be understood as a series of white L-shaped walls paired with interstitial vertical glass strips contouring in harmony with the shape of the site to form the overall building.

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The glass strips are intentionally turned away from the oncoming traffic flow but allow for views ports and entry portals.

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The alternating rhythm of wall and glass is continued in the building’s section, peaking at over 7m to form a double-height internal space into which the show flats and balconies face, simulating high-rise living.

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The interior design takes its cues from the overarching design language, applying it to floor and wall patterns or finishes.

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The show flats question the notion of contemporary luxury, eschewing typical elements of ostentation for more understated luxury and authentic material richness.

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Ministry of Design appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen Wire: a $1 billion project to build an experimental city with no inhabitants in the New Mexico desert has been postponed – Daily Mail

Developer Pegasus struggled to find land for the 15-square mile city designed to test new technologies such as self-flushing toilets, intelligent traffic systems and next-generation wireless networks.

See also: a city for 100,000 inhabitants in Brazil by architects Broadway Malyan

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ghost town pulls out appeared first on Dezeen.

French architects Opus 5 have built a concert hall on top of a former seventeenth century convent in northern France.

The glass-fronted extension wraps over the southern wing of the complex, creating a orchestral hall with an undulating mirrored ceiling on the uppermost floor and a music library on the first floor below.

A new entrance foyer is located behind the ground floor cloisters, which have been infilled with glazing to provide visitors with a view out over the river running alongside.

The remaining facades of the extension are windowless and are clad with concrete panels.

The convent of the Penitents in Louviers, Normandy, has served a variety of uses over the years and has housed a church, a prison and a tribunal court, but was converted into a music school in 1990.

See our story about a house with stone screens by Opus 5 here.

We’ve published several architecture projects recently that wrap over existing buildings, including a white concrete extension over the top of a former brewery.

See all our stories about parasitic architecture »

Here’s a project description from Opus 5:

Rehabilitation and Extension of the Music School Louviers

History

The antique convent of the Penitents, in the city center of Louviers – Normandy, is a very exceptional example of “cloister on water”, made of a complex assembly of successive constructions.

The monastery was built between 1646 and 1659 for the Franciscan brethren. There used to be a church in the west and two conventual wings surrounding the central building.

The cloister was sold in 1789 as a national fortune: the conventual parts were transformed into prisons and the church into a tribunal.

In 1827, the church was demolished and the tribunal was transferred in a new part of the edifice. The prison closed in 1934 while the old south wing started falling down. The building, partially amputated, was reused as a music school in 1990.

The remains of the cloister above the river ‘L’Epervier’ are forming an ‘Impressionist’ picture combining stone, vegetation and water in a beautiful harmony. This landscape value has been highlighted and interpreted in the rehabilitation project.

Program

The brief was to offer Louviers a new musical school, modern, functional, attractive and representing the town’s cultural policy. The plan was also to highlight the archaeological heritage and its exceptional site in the heart of the city.

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Finally, the project aimed to display a new image of the place and to shed its prison characteristics. The project of the New Musical School of Louviers in the convent of the Penitents – 24 classrooms, a score library and two big orchestra rooms- was raising a certain problematic in term of rehabilitation because of a heavy program implicating substantial interventions: the contemporary extensions have become more important than the existing building.

These were conceived in a very tight plot which led the architects to fill all free spaces, removing the “breathings” and raising these extensions on top of existing walls.

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The result is a compact project where the new parts dominate the ancient elements; however, the historical construction is still governing. This is an ‘intimate’ program within each task requires isolation and concentration and will adapt to the compact and intimate character of the project.

South Extension

The second extension, replacing the missing parts of the south wing, exposes its front to the water, towards the cloister and the city. Its incredible position represents the key of the project. It hosts the major element of the program: the big orchestra hall. It represents the emblem of the musical school and composes the landscape with natural elements.

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This façade fits in a simple rectangular glass box with chrome stripes reflecting the surrounding environment and fading in the sky. It appears as an echo to music and as a poetic image of the sound. It has two characteristics – sweetness and creativity during the day, warm and glowing at night. This room, by its transparency and its lightness, stands out of its strict and severe environment. It is a showcase exhibiting the building’s creative life.

Glazed Façade

The North façade is made of laminated glazed panels within the inside layer has been coated with mirror finish (titanium, siliconitride, chrome et siliconitride) A ‘non-crossing’ attachment system holds the glass and leaves the fixing points invisible from outside.

The whole set is maintained on mirror polished stainless steel wales of 10 mm sickness and 25 cm depth. The wales are suspended to a mechanically welded steel beam of 450×900 mm used as a duct blower for the orchestra room.

Concrete panels

The frontier façades are made of prefabricated concrete panels of 8 cm thickness/ 180 cm width and of variable heights.

They are cut out to follow the surface of the ancient masonry. These panels are reinforced and attached on the extensions’ metal structure.

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by Opus 5 appeared first on Dezeen.