http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/ Full issue contents of ArchitectureWeek - The magazine of design and building en-us Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss ArchitectureWeek Editorial System editor@architectureweek.com editor@architectureweek.com http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/news_1-1.html The Royal Australian Institute of Architects RAIA has awarded its Gold Medal for Architecture to Italianborn architect Enrico Taglietti. For 50 years, he has lived in Australia and influenced the course of regional architecture in the Australian Capital Territory ACT, most notably in the capital city of Canberra. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/news_1-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/news_2-1.html On behalf of everyone at ArchitectureWeek, and the entire extended design and building community, I want to express our deepest sympathies to all the victims of Monday's tragedy in the Blue Ridge Mountains, at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, shattered by the twisted violence of a broken soul: stricken survivors, families, friends, witnesses, associates. Saturated, overflowing, or washed distantly with grief, all who know of this tragedy are touched through with its sadness. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/news_2-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/news_3-1.html The American Institute of Architects has announced 19 recipients in its 2007 Housing Awards Program. Within this diverse collection of multifamily projects and singlefamily houses are common themes of economy, sustainability, and sensitivity to urban and environmental context. Collectively, these buildings represent the variety of ways in which Americans, rich and poor, are being newly housed. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/news_3-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/news_4-1.html The Pritzker Prize, one of the world's highest honors in architecture, goes this year to British architect Richard Rogers. In announcing the jury's choice, Thomas J. Pritzker, president of The Hyatt Foundation, said: "Rogers is a champion of urban life and believes in the potential of the city to be a catalyst for social change." Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/news_4-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/design_1-1.html Creating dramatic architecture can be challenging in an icy climate where people prioritize function over flamboyance and where the natural environment can satisfy their desire for beauty. The state of Alaska has breathtaking vistas of mountains, snow flats, and the dancing aurora borealis, but its urban landscapes have tended to remain resilient and simple. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/design_1-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/design_2-1.html Eight vibrantly colored steel and glass towers dance around a landscaped courtyard, exposing most of the living rooms to the outdoors, with a wall of bedrooms wrapped around three sides of the block. Each of the 27 apartments has a unique character, the block is selfsufficient in energy, and many functions from heating to door locks can be individually controlled by personal computer. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/design_2-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/design_3-1.html The abstract expressionist painter Robert Motherwell once said, "Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it." Those words convey the inspiration behind much of the work of Christopher Harty and Chris Botterill. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/design_3-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/design_4-1.html According to architect Kisho Kurokawa, the new National Art Center Tokyo is a perfect expression of his philosophy of symbiosis. Rather than trying to iron out irregularities and resolve contradictions into what he calls a "dull, flat harmony," his distinctly nonWestern idea seeks to apply conflicts and tensions in positive ways to achieve interesting and energizing effects. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/design_4-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/building_1-1.html Words such as "city," "suburb," and "countryside" no longer capture the reality of real estate development in the United States. Most Americans inhabit complex metropolitan landscapes layered with tracts, strips, malls, office parks, and highways. Widespread dissatisfaction with speculative building has provoked many critiques, but precise terms to define the physical elements of sprawl are often missing. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/building_1-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/building_2-1.html Imagine rushing through an underground subway station and suddenly looking up into the sky to realize that the earth has turned a few degrees and the weather has changed. This is the reaction that architect and artist James Carpenter wants to create with his daylightbending projects. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/building_2-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/building_3-1.html Modular houses are composed of one or more sections that are factory built, transported by truck, and set on a foundation. Modular houses may be made of two modules, as is the Sunset Breezehouse shown here, or they can be assembled from a kit of prefabricated parts. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/building_3-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/tools_1-1.html Bell Travers Willson, a Londonbased architecture and design studio, has launched a method that harnesses digital design technology and lowvolume custom production methods to build a sustainable alternative to traditional housing. Through FACIT, the housemanufacturing company they founded, the architects produce the "Digital House" using a detailed 3D computer model. This information is transferred to a computer numerically controlled CNC router, which rapidly cuts components from sheets of plywood in a controlled factory setting. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/tools_1-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/tools_2-1.html At the GreenBuild Conference in late 2006, Phil Bernstein, Autodesk vice president of Building Industry Strategy and Relations, announced that the software company would begin working with the U.S. Green Building Council to help architects and engineers more readily adapt their digital design processes to incorporate sustainability issues. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/tools_2-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/environment_1-1.html Because of unusually strict technical, mechanical, and air quality requirements, hospitals are one of the most difficult building types to design sustainably. Yet the Providence Newberg Medical Center by Mahlum Architects has achieved a LEED Gold rating the first hospital in the United States to do so. It is also the first U.S. hospital to acquire enough renewable electric power to meet all its needs. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/environment_1-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/environment_2-1.html Like many other buildings that receive the coveted Platinumlevel LEED certification, the Sweetwater Creek State Park Visitors Center, near Lithia Springs, Georgia, features numerous energy conservation measures and has a roof full of photovoltaic cells to generate electricity. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/environment_2-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/environment_3-1.html Magic in architecture often occurs when the client presents the architect with clear criteria and formidable challenges and when, rather than engineer around obstacles, the designer embraces the challenges as opportunities to enrich the project. Such was the case with the Heifer International Center, in Little Rock, Arkansas, designed by Polk Stanley Rowland Curzon Porter Architects. The result is a building that meets the client's needs with stellar design and an anticipated LEEDGold rating. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/environment_3-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/culture_1-1.html Cities are often symbolized by their prominent buildings. For example, it is hard to contemplate Sydney without thinking of the Opera House by Jrn Utzon or Barcelona without recalling the works by Antoni Gaud. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/culture_1-1.html http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/culture_2-1.html Three hundred steps lead down to the Sundanese village of Kampung Naga. Here, in this valley of West Java, Indonesia, the people consciously maintain the knowledge of their ancestors and their traditional lifestyles in a close relationship with nature. This philosophy extends to their construction methods using local materials of timber, stone, bamboo, and palm leaves. Wed, 02 May 2007 23:59:00 GMT http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2007/0502/culture_2-1.html