Yesterday, 15th of December, Oscar Niemeyer commemorated his 104th birthday. He is an important figure in the history of architecture.
Some people like him, some don't. For him "architecture is invention", he is always trying to do something new.
You can see ate Archdaily an exclusive interview:
http://www.archdaily.com/192691/ad-interviews-oscar-niemeyer/#more-192691
NAD/ was choosed to project the Stand that represents Angola in this year's edition of ITU Telecom World, one of the most important communications event in the world. This year's edition was in Geneva, Switzerland.
The stand created to the Angolan participation in the ITU Telecom World 2011 pretends to highlight the angolan presence in the event using its architectonical expressions. The stand is inspired by elements such as the national values, innovation, visibility, technologies and sustainability. Two bodies L-shaped define a central room and a VIP area at the ground level and two exhibition spaces at the higher level.
The connection between the two levels is made through two spaces like auditoriums that allow the visitors to stay there and shows promotional videos in the several multimedia screens. The exhibition rooms are subdivided in several spaces through fixed furniture, allowing the division of the several expositors as well as the two meeting rooms.
The highly recognizable architectonical shape of the stand is emphasized by the main facade, that is composed by vertical metallic props covered in LEDs that reproduce colors identifying the angolan flag. In the centre of the stand there is a cube suspended where promotional spots of the several sponsors are projected.
In an environment where everybody wants to stand out, the ITU stand defines itself in a simple formality but with great visual impact.
Architecture is everywhere.
"Paris Fashion week launched the 2012 Chanel runway, designed by Zaha Hadid. Karl Lagerfeld enlisted the architect to enhance the nautical concept and transform the Grand Palais for the Spring/Summer women’s collection. An ocean of models strutted through a purified landscape of white occupied by oversized sea creatures and coral. The dramatic scene was enhanced by iridescent drapes enclosing the performance. Zaha Hadid and Karl Lagerfeld have teamed up before. In 2008, Hadid designed a dynamic mobile art pavilion for Chanel, inspired by Chanel’s signature quilted bag.", by archdaily.
An Architect’s Dress code (Revised 9-12-11)
Employees contribute to the culture and reputation of the SVEHN JØSSANG ATELJE in the way they present themselves. An Architectural appearance is essential to a favorable impression with clients, and company shareholders (ie. Svehn). Good grooming and appropriate dress should reflect an employee’s confidence in his/her aesthetic convictions and inspire others to realize that they are dressed unimaginatively. An Architect’s attire should be minimal yet condescending at the same time.
Managers may exercise good discretion to determine appropriateness in appearance. Architects who do not meet a professional standard may be mocked and sent home to change. Some basic essentials of appropriate dress include the wearing of black and the need for clothing to be neat, clean, and expensive. Note: at no time will an employee be permitted to remove his or her “air of superiority”.
Management may make exceptions for special occasions (ie. An employee is exceptionally attractive, or has especially “fit” ankles). An employee unsure of what is appropriate should check with Svehn. (Please close the door behind you).
Architectural casual dress will be permitted on Fridays. “Architectural casual” is defined as follows:
Acceptable shirts: Black shirts, Black turtlenecks, Black T-shirts, Black long sleeve T-shirts, Black tunics.
Inappropriate shirts: White T-shirts, shirts with slogans, tank tops, muscle shirts, crop tops, Plaid shirts, Striped shirts, shirts with patterns or mixed-patterns, anything with flower prints, or birds or lighthouses on it, non-black color, neon, hairshirts, anything with a visible logo or label, anything that brings to mind the word “polo”.
Acceptable Pants: Black slacks, Black Jeans, Prada.
Inappropriate pants: Shorts, trousers, tights, Khakis, pleats, double pleats, triple pleats, anything with more than 4 pockets, polyester, Eddie Bauer.
Acceptable Footwear: Black boots, black leather “minimally designed” shoes. Depending on the department, Black athletic shoes may be worn on the annual company hiking day.
Inappropriate footwear: Brown leather, tassels, loafers, penny loafers, Sandals, crocs, clogs, flip-flops, any footwear appropriate for the yacht, should remain on the yacht, Architects do not design yachts.
Acceptable eyewear: Black-rimmed-round glasses, Black-rectangular-framed glasses (if you must).
Inappropriate eyewear: Colored frames, Tortoise shell, 20/20 vision.
Acceptable bag: Black messenger-bag.
Inappropriate bag: any bag except a black messenger bag.
Acceptable hair color: Bald, grey, white, clear.
Inappropriate hair color: Blond or, optimistic.
Acceptable fragrance or aroma: Indistinct, not unpleasant, or French roast.
Inappropriate fragrance or aroma: fear.
An Architect’s attire should incite one of the following acceptable emotions: Angst, ennui, malaise, ensomhet, disinterest, simplicity, arrogance.
An Architect’s attire should NOT incite any of the following emotions: Happiness, relevance.
Svehn’s personal assistants may require additional guidelines. Architects who need to leave work to change clothes for meetings will take personal time or vacation time to do so. If you are meeting clients, business dress is appropriate, and you should remain quiet. These policies may be changed as the fashions change.
In conclusion: An Architect’s attire should tell you nothing about them, while at the same time, it should tell you everything about them, although, they probably won’t understand
http://www.archdaily.com/
When Christian Schallert isn't cooking, dressing, sleeping or eating, his 24 square meter (258 square feet) apartment looks like an empty cube. To use a piece of furniture, he has to build it.
Located in Barcelona's hip Born district, the tiny apartment is a remodeled pigeon loft. Christian says its design was inspired by the space-saving furniture aboard boats, as well as the clean lines of a small Japanese home.
"Urban Abstract was created by Jopsu Ramu and Timo Huhtala - creative team and founders of Musuta Ltd. Jopsu is a young female designer and Creative Director of Musiuta Ltd. Timo Huhtala is her creative partner and manager of Musuta Ltd.
This digital art piece was commissioned by TV Nelonen / channel 4 Finland and it was shown as the November break bumpers on one of the biggest commercial TV channels in Finland: TV Nelonen.
Urban Abstract has been highly awarded, it has won bronze / in book award in D&Ad awards in London, Bronze in European Design Awards in Rottedam and most recently it won a Gold Lion from design category in Cannes Lions.
Urban Abstract - piece was born in Tokyo during 2009. It consists of 40 x five second clips or it can be viewed as a one 200 second journey.
The website urban-abstract.com works as a part of the piece and creates an extra dimension for the clip shown on TV."
The Archigram Archival Project (AAP) is a purely digital resource, displaying digital versions of works held in many different collections. The main collections are the Archigram Archive, held and run by Dennis Crompton and the Ron Herron Archive, held and run by Simon Herron, but work from other personal Archigram collections and public collections has also been made available through this current project.
Almost 10,000 items are included in this archive, including digital versions of drawings, collages, paintings, photographs, magazines, articles, slides and multi-media material, accompanied by original texts by Archigram wherever these are available. Around half of these items belong to the 202 projects currently listed and given project numbers by Dennis Crompton in the Archigram Archives. The rest are supporting and contextual material such as letters, photos, texts and additional projects provided by the depositors.
The AAP focuses on the main Archigram period of 1961-1974, but includes all the projects, both before and after these dates, which have been included in the project list of the Archigram Archives at the time of doing the project. The main omissions from the Archigram Archival Project website are the films, television programmes and audio-visual material which for technical or copyright reasons cannot be included at this stage. Some projects and project material have been lost over the years; both we and Archigram members would welcome approaches from anyone holding material or copies of material which is not included here.
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It's a known fact that on Sundays (in western societies) more people attend stadiums than churches and it's therefore quite legitimate to claim that stadiums are the true temples of our times.
Or at least this is what Herzog & de Meuron seem to have had in mind when designing their proposal for the new stadium of Bordeaux.
The social importance of this building is underlined by it's unequivocal monumentality that is strikingly reminiscent of some kind of ancient temple.
The traditional/functional introversion of the stadium is drastically subverted by strongly connecting it's interior to it's exterior by inserting in all it's perimeter an open public hall.
The Energy Report, a comprehensive study developed by the WWF, AMO and Ecofys claiming that the world can be 100 percent reliant on renewable energy by 2050, launches globally today.
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More information about it OMA.nl
Download the full report
Thomas Heatherwick is an architect that truly and only thinks "outside the box" producing an architecture that, despite having no archetypical references, is still very capable of keeping in touch with reality by solving real problems in a very unique way.
