Hasta La Ideas

The London 2012 Olympics are well underway and every day this week we’ll award medals to design and architecture created for the games, starting with the three most popular stories. The Olympic Torch by BarberOsgerby takes the gold, with over 40,000 pageviews. Watch BarberOsgerby talk about their design in our movie interview here.

The silver medal goes to the Olympic Stadium (above) with over 38,000 pageviews. You can explore all the buildings in the Olympic Park in our interactive aerial photo here.

Coming in third with a bronze medal is a motorway floating on the River Thames (above) to ease congestion in the city, cunningly unveiled on 1 April with almost 30,000 pageviews.

That’s it for today – we’ll be back tomorrow with another round of medallists!

Meanwhile see all our coverage of London 2012 Olympic design here.

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London based graphic designer Sarah Hyndman has completed her year-long project photographs objects arranged in groups of five to look like the Olympic rings (+ movie).

In the run up to the games, Hyndman photographed objects such as fruit, sunglasses and telephones and posted them to her blog once a day.

Now the project has finished, the images have been compiled into a movie (above) to showcase the idea in it’s entirety.

Some of the images related to the time of year they were taken, with chocolate pennies at Christmas and Love Heart sweets on Valentine’s Day.

We previously featured a story about Hyndman’s alternative Olympic posters for the games that were creating using some of the photos.

See all our stories about the London 2012 Olympics »

Here is some more information from Sarah Hyndman:

For a year Sarah Hyndman has been remaking the Olympic rings logo out of everyday objects to celebrate the countdown to the start of the Olympics in London. It was a small, lighthearted idea that paid quiet homage to the power of a well designed logo. The resulting blog has caught imaginations, been blogged, tweeted and featured around the world, and has been viewed in 120 countries in the last 30 days.

After a year of daily remakes, 366 logos (it’s a leap year), the culmination is a movie which shows all the images as they progress through the 12 months, the seasons, holidays and the events that have marked out the year.

Sarah explains that her highlight was when Barnes Primary School created the images that hosted the blog for a month, tying in with the announcement that the 2012 game’s motto is ‘inspire a generation’. “The children asked me questions which I responded to by filming my answers for them. They put a lot of thought and enthusiasm into the project and their logos came complete with clever captions which really made me up my game. I love the photo where’ they’re lying on the ground smiling and waving in the formation of the five rings (day 233).”

Having plundered the every day objects around her extensively, Sarah turned to taking inspiration from events such as Wimbledon, key dates such as Valentines (the day after features broken Loveheart sweets with the caption “it’s complicated”), and taking on tweeted challenges such as Mandy’s request for a logo relating to National Transplant Week (the result is on day 350). The blog has received contributions from people who have, like Sarah, started to see Olympic rings in their everyday lives demonstrating the pervasiveness of the 100 year old icon.

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by Sarah Hyndman appeared first on Dezeen.

Street artist Banksy has created two new works to mark the London 2012 Olympics.

The first depicts a javelin thrower who’s exchanged his javelin for a missile, while the second shows a sportsman pole-vaulting over a barbed-wire fence to land on a dumped mattress. The artist announced the new work via his website but left everyone guessing as to its location.

Banksy became famous for his work in the east London borough of Hackney and we compiled a map of his stencil work in the area for our Designed in Hackney showcase.

See all our stories about Banksy »
See all our stories about the London 2012 Olympics »

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Ahead of the London 2012 Olympics opening on Friday, here’s a slideshow of images from photographer Edmund Sumner documenting architecture created for the games.

Sumner captured buildings including the Aquatics Centre by Zaha Hadid and Velodrome by Hopkins Architects plus infrastructure and the athletes’ village for two books published by Wiley: The Architecture of London 2012 by Tom Dyckhoff and Claire Barrett, and London 2012 Sustainable Design by Hattie Hartman.

See all our stories about Sumner’s photographs here.

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London studio David Kohn Architects has created an arts venue in a former sweet factory on the edge of the Olympic park.

The White Building is situated amongst a community of artists on Fish Island in Hackney Wick and accommodates a gallery, an events space, a cafe and a series of artists’ studios.

Lambswool hangs in nets to cover the underside of an existing asbestos roof that is supported by red steel trusses.

Five new entrances lead into the building, allowing the different rooms to be used in flexible configurations.

The project is one of a number of “Olympic Fringe” projects instigated by Design for London for sites bordering the Olympic park. Others include public realm improvements by architects Muf and the London Pleasure Gardens.

See more stories about London 2012 »

Photography is by Will Pryce.

Here’s some more information from David Kohn Architects:

‘The White Building’ is a new cultural venue in Hackney Wick commissioned by the London Legacy Development Corporation.

Situated across the Lea Navigation Channel from the Olympic site, the project overlooks the Olympic stadium. The refurbished building, a former print works and previously a sweet factory, will house artists’ studios, a gallery, hire space, café and micro-brewery.

The project was won through invited competition by David Kohn Architects in collaboration with Michael Pawlyn of Exploration Architecture, specialists in environmentally sustainable design.

The competition was organised by Design for London, part of the Greater London Authority, as part of the ‘Olympic Fringe’ a string of small-scale projects aimed at stitching the Olympic Park into the surrounding city fabric.

Hackney Wick Fish Island, a former industrial area, is currently celebrated for being home to the highest concentration of artists studios in Europe.

The end user is Space Studios who contributed to the project brief to create a cultural venue in Hackney Wick that would serve the existing community as well as provide a public face to visitors. Space Studios is a charity that has been providing platforms for artists since 1968.

In response to the competition brief, David Kohn Architects proposed that the White Building would:

» be built by local people for local people;
» foreground the pleasures of making;
» resonate with the history of the area;
» work with the existing building fabric;
» demonstrate innovative sustainable design;
» be realised affordably and quickly;
» show a past and future London at the Olympics.

The eventual built project used local businesses extensively for supplying materials and skills from glazing to sign-painting, steelwork to joinery. The project was delivered on time and budget.

New interventions complimented the existing building fabric, such as blockwork walls on the ground floor that incorporated steel-framed windows. The ground floor was opened up to the canalside and Queen’s Yard to create a light-filled interior with the feel of an urban courtyard.

On the first floor, existing red-painted steel trusses supported an asbestos sheet roof with no insulation. In order to improve the environmental performance of the building and the appearance of the interiors without interfering with the asbestos, lambswool was suspended in red string nets to create soft vaults between the trusses.

Throughout, there was a design approach that sought to use conventional construction materials, but in a playful way. Material junctions were detailed in such a way as to give even the most industrial construction a lightness of touch.

Five new entrances were created that allow the building to be used in a variety of different configurations. The ground floor houses a café, pizzeria, microbrewery and group studio space. The first floor offers four artists’ studios, a gallery and hire space overlooking the Olympic stadium. External works included wide steps from street level down to the canalside.

Space Studios currently have a ten year lease on the property. The hope is that during that time, The White Building can become a significant local asset, well-used by the creative community and public alike. If it proves to be successful, then the project could become key to the retention of cultural activities in the area during future urban change and development.

Address: Unit 7 Queens Yard, White Post Lane London E9 5EN
Client: London Legacy Development Company
Tenant: Space Studios & Crate Café
Planning Department: LB Tower Hamlets
Project Period: December 2010 – July 2012
Construction Period: 12 weeks
Gross External Floor Area: 760m2
Gross Internal Floor Area: 695m2
Construction Value: £550k

Design Team
Architects: David Kohn Architects, Liz Betterton, Saya Hakamata, David Kohn, Tom McGlynn (Project Architect), Ulla Tervo
in collaboration with Michael Pawlyn, Exploration Architecture
Landscape: Muf architecture/ art
Structural Engineer: Alan Baxter Associates
Civils Engineer: Stockley
Services Engineer: Capita Symonds
Project Manager: Capita Symonds
CDM Co-ordinator: Capita Symonds
Cost Consultant: Sweett Group
Graphic Designer: Modern Activity

Contractors
Main Contractor: BRAC Contracts
Blockwork: Plasmor
Glazing: Caplin Glass
Sheep’s Wool: Black Mountain Insulation Ltd
Metal Windows: Monk Metal Windows
Steel Doors: Dove Steel Doors
Steel Sign: PJ Signs
Outdoor steps steelwork: Lemon Steel
Hand-Painted Signage: Ornamental Conifer and Mark Bayley

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David Kohn Architects appeared first on Dezeen.