Hasta La Ideas

presentation of the la melle lamp at Blickfang/Stuttgart2010. The lamp was hung in the middle of a tipi structure whose wooden lattice is partially ex..

To stay on this Pritzker theme for a second longer, although Adrian Smith was our first pick to win this year’s prize, only to have it snapped up by our longshot selection, SANAA, Smith still wound up making some big news. The architect was the original designer of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, but his involvement was a bit shadowed (so much so that he began to complain publicly about it) given that he was working for Skidmore, Owings & Merill when he created it. But now Smith might have his revenge while also one-upping himself, as it’s been rumored/announced that Smith’s firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture has been chosen to design the next world’s tallest building, a kilometer-high skyscraper in Jeddah, a city in Saudi Arabia. The news was leaked to the Middle Eastern news site, MEED, and then picked up by Blair Kamin of the Tribune who puts the building in context and lends some additional details. Here’s a bit:

The planned Saudi tower would rise to a height of at least 3,281 feet and would house a mix of uses, previously identified as a hotel, offices and high-end residences. MEED’s report said the Saudi investment firm, Kingdom Holding Co., had asked contractors to submit revised prices for the tower now that the company has selected an architect.

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In former Pritzker winners news, this writer was just headed out to New Orleans and didn’t get the chance to post that starchitect Jean Nouvel has landed the commission to build this year’s Serpentine Pavilion in London’s Hyde Park. It’s the 10th anniversary of the building of the temporary structure, thus far always by the most high-profile of architects (SANAA created last year’s). True to form, given the completely open brief for the Serepentine, Nouvel’s plans for the building look like he just wanted to get experimental and try some things out (we particularly like the solid, bright red color he’s chosen for it). Also per usual, the selection of a starchitect has led to an outpouring of criticism about said starchitect, detailed in full in this Guardian editorial. Personally speaking, it’s one of our favorite Pavilion designs of recent years. Things seemed to get a little too weird around 2006 with Rem Koolhaas‘ bubble, through Zaha Hadid‘s second pavilion, and stayed that way through Frank Gehry‘s earthquake Acropolis. Nice to see something interesting-but-accessible again. Here’s a brief description of Nouvel’s:

The building consists of bold geometric forms, large retractable awnings and a freestanding wall that climbs 12m above the lawn, sloping at a gravity defying angle. It experiments with the idea of play in its incorporation of the French tradition of outdoor table-tennis. Striking glass, polycarbonate and fabric structures create a versatile system of interior and exterior spaces. The flexible auditoria will accommodate the Serpentine Gallery Park Nights and Marathon and the changing summer weather.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Ice House Detroit is an abandoned suburban home in Detroit covered in ice by photographer Gregory Holm and architect Matthew Radune. (more…)

New York office Butler Rogers Baskett Architects have been awarded an AIA New York 2010 Design Award for their renovation of a chapel at a New York school. (more…)