http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/ Full issue contents of ArchitectureWeek - The magazine of design and building en-us Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss ArchitectureWeek Editorial System editor@architectureweek.com editor@architectureweek.com http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/news_1-1.html Eight projects by Virginia architects recently received kudos from the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects. The Awards for Excellence in Architecture went to a broad diversity of project types, from a futuristic transit station to a comforting mausoleum garden; from a woodland house to a fabricroofed convention center. Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/news_1-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/news_2-1.html The American Institute of Architects has announced three of its most prestigious annual national awards to an architect, a firm, and a timeless building. Antoine Predock, FAIA, will receive The 2006 AIA Gold Medal; Moore Ruble Yudell Architects Planners, the Architecture Firm Award; and Thorncrown Chapel is being honored with the AIA's Twentyfive Year Award. Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/news_2-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/news_3-1.html From a single family house in Chicago's DePaul neighborhood to a massive train station built within a European airport, a new collection of projects has once again demonstrated that "great architects and great architecture remain an enormous part of Chicago's identity." So said Thomas Kerwin, AIA, thenpresident of the city's chapter of the American Institute of Architects, when he recently announced the organization's design award recipients. Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/news_3-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/design_1-1.html When a theological seminary commissioned a worship space that would be timeless, spiritually uplifting, and ecumenical, architect Joan Soranno returned to first principles, posing to herself the question: "what is each individual's relationship to God" In a striking play of form and material, her answer offers a fresh take on religious architecture. Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/design_1-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/design_2-1.html The original Skillman Library was always a bit of an arsenal for books. Designed by Philadelphia architect Vincent Kling and constructed in 1963 on the campus of Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, it was a limestone and brick fortress with narrow slit windows and all the warmth of a bunker. The design of the limestone cornice at the building's top even suggested battlements. Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/design_2-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/design_3-1.html The 179yearold Maryland Institute College of Art MICA is one of the cultural gems of Baltimore, a city that seldom receives the recognition it deserves for its rhythmic 19thcentury classical architecture, occasionally edgy 20thcentury modernism, and outstanding cultural and educational institutions. Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/design_3-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/building_1-1.html Vancouver, BCbased architects Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen Forsythe MacAllen Design have been studying ways to create simple and beautiful objects designed from a single material. Their latest effort is "softwall", a flexible partition prefabricated from 250400 thin layers of soft, translucent paper or polyethylene nonwoven textile. Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/building_1-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/building_2-1.html Designers of the new Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario could have merely created a protective envelope for Canada's wartime artifacts. Instead they designed a monumental structure to inspire a nation by integrating artistic symbolism with pragmatic innovation. Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/building_2-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/tools_1-1.html To support the rapid expansion of China Central Television CCTV, an international design competition was launched in 2002 for a centralized headquarters building in Beijing. Winning the commission was Rem Koolhaas Office for Metropolitan Architecture, OMA, teamed with engineering firm Arup and the East China Architecture and Design Institute as both architect and engineer of record. Koolhaas imagined a building whose three dimensional form brings CCTV's staff and functions into a "continuous tube." This is part of the story of the engineering challenge. Editor Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/tools_1-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/environment_1-1.html As the concept of sustainable design moves into the mainstream of architectural practice, it will evolve in how it is perceived and understood. Already the idea has moved in from the fringes of practice and has shed most of its original, inappropriate reputation as a fad. In light of its growing acceptance, sustainable design is now worthwhile fodder for philosophical speculation. Editor Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/environment_1-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/environment_2-1.html Seventeen teams of North American architecture and engineering students, joined by a team from Spain, have shown how their generation of design professionals is preparing for a responsible, lowenergy future. These students met in Washington DC in October 2005 to participate in the Solar Decathlon on the National Mall. There, the teams assembled solarpowered houses that they had designed, and they demonstrated various technologies to the visiting public. Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/environment_2-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/environment_3-1.html In December, 2005, the American Institute of Architects Board of Directors adopted a position statement they hope will "transform the profession to emphasize sustainability." In the absence of federal leadership on this issue, the AIA recognizes the need for design professionals to find solutions to serious global problems. In the following letter to the construction industry, a veteran environmental activist architect discusses what this means to practitioners. Editor Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/environment_3-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/culture_1-1.html Since before its completion in 2002, Stephen Holl's awardwinning MIT dormitory, Simmons Hall, has been garnering praise from the architectural community. But assessing a building as a professional critic is different from living in and interacting with it. I wondered how the students who lived there felt about it. Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/culture_1-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/culture_2-1.html Spanish architect Josep Llus Sert 19021983 is perhaps best known for his buildings and urbanscale projects. As a member of GATEPAC "Group of Spanish Architects and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture", he was concerned with the role of architects in city planning. And yet he was also a master of smallscale interior and furniture design. Some of his favorite forms were inspired by vernacular houses. Editor Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2006/0208/culture_2-1.html