Month: March 2018

Located in a rural context, but close to the historical and central center of Santa Maria da Feira, the project develops based on the recovery of an existing stone housing and the construction of a new concrete body interconnected through a wooden structure and wide openings in a frank dialogue with the outside and surrounding.

An “Ice Breaker” is a colloquial term used to connote something that relieves inhibitions or breaks the tension between people. In Toronto, Ice Breakers is an annual international design competition for innovative public works that break up the dreary, seemingly endless winter with engaging, colorful, and humorous installations along the city’s waterfront that encourage spontaneous interaction.

Joseph Rodota’s new book The Watergate: Inside America’s Most Infamous Address (William Morrow) presents the story of a building complex whose name is recognized around the world as the address at the center of the United States’ greatest political scandal—but one that has so many more tales to tell. In this excerpt from the book, the author looks into the design and construction of a building The Washington Post once called a “glittering Potomac Titanic,” a description granted because the Watergate was ahead of its time, filled with boldface names—and ultimately doomed. 

On the evening of October 25, 1965, the grand opening of the Watergate was held for fifteen-hundred guests. Luigi Moretti, the architect, flew in from Rome. Other executives came from Mexico, where the Watergate developer, the Italian real estate giant known as Societa Generale Immobiliare, was planning a community outside Mexico City, and from Montreal, where the company was erecting the tallest concrete-and-steel skyscraper in Canada, designed by Moretti and another Italian, Pier Luigi Nervi.

OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci’s stacked garden-like proposal has been awarded third place in a competition for the new Małopolska Science Center in Krakow, Poland. The competition brief asked for the design of an innovative cultural institution with an iconic architectural form that would represent creativity, openness and independent thinking. As a reflection of both the city and the region, the center is also intended to provide a model for sustainable construction, energy efficiency, and education that inspires immersive visitor engagement. 

The Shard, also known as the London Bridge Tower, is a 72-storey, mixed-use tower located beside London Bridge Station on the south bank of the River Thames. This project was a response to the urban vision of London Mayor Ken Livingstone and to his policy of encouraging high-density development at key transport nodes in London. This sort of sustainable urban extension relies on the proximity of public transportation, discourages car use and helps to reduce traffic congestion in the city.

The house is located on a large field of mature cork oaks and stone pines in Grandola, Alentejo, near the Atlantic coast. Typologically, it is inspired by the Portuguese rural settlements known as “montes” which were usually located in dominant places in the landscape and formed by clusters of volumes informally positioned around a courtyard.  In like manner, the concept for this house spring from the idea of a central patio, which is the main source of light and shade. 

RAMOPRIMO plays with colorful picnic elements to create a salad restaurant full of fun.

The post big beetles on the wall: ‘sweetie salad’ restaurant by RAMOPRIMO in beijing appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

RAMOPRIMO plays with colorful picnic elements to create a salad restaurant full of fun.

The post big beetles on the wall: ‘sweetie salad’ restaurant by RAMOPRIMO in beijing appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

RAMOPRIMO plays with colorful picnic elements to create a salad restaurant full of fun.

The post big beetles on the wall: ‘sweetie salad’ restaurant by RAMOPRIMO in beijing appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.