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CONSTRUCTING OSAKA ART
Until recently, the site of Osaka Japan's National Museum of Contemporary Art, one of three national contemporary art museums in Japan, was at the far edge of the city, on the former site of the 1970 World's Fair. The museum had planned to move from this distant suburb to a central urban location in the middle of Nakanoshima Island, part of a planned cultural arts district that has great potential to activate and energize an integral part of the city. — Published 2006.0222
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HOUSE BY UNIT A
Nestled on the edge of a town in southwest Germany is the Fleischmann House. Its owner, a photographer, craved open, visually quiet surroundings to counteract the visual bombardment of his profession. One-third studio, two-thirds open-plan dwelling, the house is a sustainable abode flavored by Japanese tradition.
The building plan is rectangular. Maki Kuwayama, of unit a architects, describes both the exterior architecture and interior design as "simple and clean... not so much a style as a lifestyle choice." — Published 2006.0222
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MADRID TAKES FLIGHT
In 1930 Le Corbusier wrote: "the beauty of an airport is in the splendor of wide open spaces" and added that the most appropriate architecture would emphasize "sky, grass, and concrete runways." Barajas New Area Terminal (NAT) in Madrid, a joint venture between Richard Rogers Partnership (London) and Estudio Lamela (Madrid), lives up to that height of inspiration. — Published 2006.0215
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AIA HONOR AWARDS 2006
In January, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced the 2006 recipients of their national Honor Awards. The 30 chosen projects — in architecture, interior architecture, and urban design — will receive the AIA's recognition of excellence at the institute's annual convention in June. — Published 2006.0215
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OF GLASS AND WARMTH AND WOOD
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. — Published 2006.0201
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CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM
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. — Published 2006.0125
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LIBRARY ENLIGHTENED
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. — Published 2006.0125
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RACE TO THE SUN
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, low-energy future. These students met in Washington DC in October 2005 to participate in the Solar Decathlon on the National Mall. There, the teams assembled solar-powered houses that they had designed, and they demonstrated various technologies to the visiting public. — Published 2006.0118
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ENGINEERING KOOLHAAS
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 — Published 2006.0111
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BALTIMORE BERYL
The 179-year-old 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 19th-century classical architecture, occasionally edgy 20th-century modernism, and outstanding cultural and educational institutions. — Published 2006.0111
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