Bryghusgrunden Project | OMA

So I decide not to write anything about Dubai, Zaha, Gehry (!?), Nouvel or the Milano Design Week and all of a sudden – there’s absolutely nothing to post. Any of you fucking pricks write more news about Milano Design Week and I’ll execute every motherfucking last one of you. (Was that.. too harsh? Pulp Ficiton style?  *pretty smile*  I like ponies.) I mean it’s mad. It’s been all mad – the pre-pre 2007 Milano, the pre Milano, the right before omg omfg Milano, the right freaking now Milano and I’m sure the after Milano madness will clog the internets as well. So out I dug one bit of news that might interest you…

Right… So this is the newest addition to the Copenhagen waterfront. OMA designed (and I’ll stop using that verb in sentences containing ‘OMA’ pretty soon, I think) a new building that will house ”new facilities for the Danish Architecture Center (DAC), the headquarters of the Realdania Foundation, along with a distinctive mix of residential units, public program and playground facilities.” I’m not sure what to make of this one. Do I like it, will it work? I like blocks stacked together, I do. But I’m a little disappointed in the Office for Metropolitan Architecture lately, it seems to me like they could do so much better. At least it’s not that violent.

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(via: Noticias Arquitectura)

Sustainable Towers, Malaysia

Studio Nicoletti Associati and Hijjas Kasturi Associates won a recent contest for the Precinct 4 sustainable housing masterplan design in Putrajaya, Malaysia, 30km south of Kuala Lumpur. The city has a very unique shape. Water and land form a dynamic terrain that determined the serpentine course on which the buildings are positioned. The idea for the buildings came from a fleet of ships and blends splendidly with the tropical, Islamic environment. Green space is integrated within the buildings, there is plenty of natural ventilation, shading suitable for the extreme conditions and the complex will source from alternative energy. I love projects like this, it’s really refreshing to see a different design. It reminds me of the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in New Caledonia, one of my favorite architecture projects ever built. I wish more projects today would connect with the cultural landscape like this.
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(via: Metaefficient)

Tetris Apartments | OFIS Arhitekti

OK in my defence, I didn’t have a blog in 2007 when this building was completed. Having that said =) here’s a little something about the apartment building designed by the Slovenian studio OFIS Arhitekti now, better later than never. It’s a social housing project in the center of Ljubljana located by a busy city road which represented a problem to be solved as far as noise was concerned. The way they came about this problem was by designing the facade as fish gills, automatically turning and protecting the apartment openings from the road towards the South. The apartment sizes vary from 30m2 studio flats to 103m2 3-bedroom apartments; all of the units are equipped wity quality materials such as granite tiles in the bathrooms, oak hardwood flooring and external metal blinds. The outer structural walls are protected by plaster and the loggias are wrapped in precast panels of different colours. The square footage of the whole complex is 5000m2  and the price per square meter was 1300€.

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(via: NoticiasArquitectura)

Kisho Kurokawa On The Nakagin Capsule Building

Bringing The Sony Tower in Osaka down was stupid and soulless enough, why bring this pioneer of architectural flexibility down as well? Capitalism can be such a ruthless bitch.

Metal Shutter Houses | Shigeru Ban

This oh-so urban industrial chic project by Shigeru Ban in New York City will be completed in fall this year. The Metal Shutter Houses are a part of a series of shutter homes (see also Shutter House of a Photographer and The Glass Shutter House in Tokyo). The building of 11 stories has 9 duplex apartments with floor areas ranging from 180m2 to 295m2 (the penthouse) and all have walls that can be moved out of the way completely. The facade metal shutters are motorated and serve as privacy screens by covering the double-hight living rooms that are otherwise exposed to the streets. In the penthouse the large windows can be opened completely, leaving no boundaries between the interior and the terrace. The idea for this came from delis and industrial rolling gates to close the storefronts, allowing the house to blend perfectly with the densly built city environment.

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download floorplan: PDF

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(via: freshhome & inhabitat)

The Chicago Spire | Santiago Calatrava

The starchitect that is Santiago Calatrava will change the Chicago skyline with this slim skyscraper – a residential building that is called The Chicago Spire and is proclaimed to be the most significant residential building in the world. In a city where architecture played a huge role in its cultural image, Calatrava will be joining a very long list of big names in the business (I found a very informative timeline of notable buildings in Chicago on Wiki). I hope more information about this project will surface soon. The website says little about the construction but shows a lot of neat renderings, a panorama from the top of the tower, interior images and a movie accompanied by DiCaprio-sees-Titanic-for-the-fist-time-style music. With all do respect, I have to say I’m left unimpressed with the way he did the interior. Maybe because I was all siked and high on adrenalin from the movie; but fool me you can not with your magical presentation :D Could be just my taste. Anyways…

/check out the movie here (and scan through the elegant website while you’re there)

Carabanchel Housing | Foreign Office Architects

This residential building in Madrid was finished in 2007. It was designed by Foreign Office whose aim was to give every apartment 2 different views: one to the East and the other to the West. What they did was, they connected both of the facades with apartments by making every unit narrow. Now all of the residential units are opened to two different gardens. The glass facade is surrounded by external corridors that are covered with a second facade – bamboo panels. Made out of bamboo it provides the inhabitants with enough shade and they are able to move the panels as they please.

/for more photos, plans, sections and details click here. (scroll down)

(via: TreeHugger & noticias arquitectura)

Solarsiedlung Freiburg | Rolf Disch

Freiburg am Breisgau is an eco-city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and it carries a reputation every city longs to have. It’s also believed to be the warmest city in Germany and it takes full advantage of the solar power it receives. Their public transport is amazing and they’re known for haveing a big pedestrian zone in the city centre where no cars are allowed. Because of that, the city has a cool vibe to it and what is more – the trams are really quiet – very important. Many quarters of Freiburg were built by the standards of sustainability and for that we salute them.

Achtung Kinder – Bauhaus Is Back

Der Spiegel is reporting today about the new Social Houseing Award sponsored by The Bauhaus-Dessau Foundation. All young architects are encouraged to think about poverty and ”…build attractive homes for the poor”. The competition is called “Housing shortages: The minimum subsistence level housing of today.” Provocative? Yes.

/more text and photos after the jump

(via: TreeHugger via: Der Spiegel)

Sweden Heals Old Apartment Buildings

About 400,000 apartments need help in Sweden due to bad energy efficiancy. About a gazillion other homes around the world do too, but not all coutries act upon such matters. Their aim is to upgrade appartment buildings from the 70’s so that they would meet the standards of a passive house. To do that they will thickly insulate them, install better and more energy-efficient windows and doors, equip them with more efficient appliances and lighting and install heat exchangers. All of the rooftops facing south will also receive solar panels to provide districts with warm water. Their aim is to cut the use of energy from 216 kWh/m2 to about 92 kWh/m2.

I bow to you, queen Sweden.

(via: TreeHugger)