Ideas: The Facebook for Architects

Dear Architects,

Allow me the pleasure of introducing you to Architizer! A Facebook-meets-Linkedin social hub targeted for architects to promote themselves, their companies and their projects. It is the perfect medium to showcase a project give credit to the numerous people involved. It is a usefool marketing tool for developers to identify the local firms in each region and a creative and social place in the web to get inspired and educated by the current trends around the world!

Case in point, one of the featured projects of Architizer of this month that we love is Ex Arsenale de La Maddalena (as seen above), a project designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti. Located in La Maddalena of Sardinia, the renovation of the ex military port included the recuperation of 15,000 square meters of public waterfront, a new Conference center, hotel and recuperated existing structures destined for commercial use and nautical events. The buildings cover an area of 155,000 square meters.

All of the buildings are connected conceptually and aesthetically in a contemporary design inspired by the infinite shapes of the waves and the rigorous forms of Italy’s traditional military architecture. The most appealing element of the project though is that it is a model of sustainability and urban regeneration. The energy efficiency is incorporated through heat exchange systems with the use of seawater for heating and cooling, solar panels for the production of hot water and large photovoltaic surfaces producing energy from renewable resources. To discover more about Ex Arsenal, visit the Archetizer, here.

Wallpaper*: The "It-Architect" List 2009

The Architect's Who's Who List for 2009 is out... The project? To create the ideal model home... For an architect... designing a house is the most basic form of design, yet the most challenging too. It defines all their beliefs, ideas, styles and views by the simple or complex lies they shall draw. Needles to say, Wallpaper did a fine job at selecting the 30 emerging practices of 2009, but only one model called home to us and that is without a doubt... "The Envelope House", by Divercity Architects. This envelope house highlights the flexibility, freedom and involvement that the resident is able to enjoy. The beauty of Divercity Architects' concept lies in the incorporated diversity of uses depending to one's needs. As the designers describe it: "The house can be adapted to the ever-changing needs of the fast-paced contemporary lifestyle". The following design of a private residence in Athens is another example of their inspiring structural and conceptual forms. To view more, click here. 

Development: Nothing Standard about it...

That's why New York is the capital of all cities... It never seezes to amaze its residents, always has something new to its visitors and knows how to work with what it got! In a part of town, the High Line in the Meatpacking district, where any other city would have left it be and forgotten, Andre Balazs, managed to build a luxury hotel. Not only, his opening coincided with the biggest development halt of this century, so all eyes on him, but also his architects - the Polshek Partnership - managed to create a rather "instantly iconic" building compared to the likes of "Le Corbusier and other notable international style buildings, like the locally based Lever House and United Nations". It's presence makes you question if it was always there, with its 13 mm concrete skin covering 28,000 sft, rising from stilts 18 stories above the High Line, a disused elevated rail line that is today one of the city’s hippest parks. The Standard's interiors aren't so bad either... designed by Hollywood set designer Shawn Hausmann and New York based Roman and Williams, they keep a modern simplistic tone, so that nothing can take away the breathtaking views from its guest...

Architecture: Snow White

In the remote desert of Idaho, Tom Kundig of Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects, created the perfect heaven for artist and designer Jan  McFarland Cox. Ms McFarland spent the past decade working on her dream project that would serve as a residence and a work studio at the same time. A secluded garden is designed as an oasis, separated from the dry landscape by thick concrete wall. Concrete block, car-decking and plywood are a few of the sustainable materials used to withstand the extreme weather and to integrate with the natural landscape.  

via The New York Times

Event: Columbia University invites Zaha Hadid

Columbia University is validating its name once more for being an incredible academic institution by offering lectures as this tonight to its students and guests... The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation is hosting Zaha Hadid to discuss about her recent works and her thoughts about the future in architectural design in line of the recent economic events. Zaha has just launched her recent creation in New York, a Pavilion in Central Park that features objets de la Maison Chanel...  More on this... soon!  

Architecture: The Dream House

This could easily be the definition of an oasis... the private house in Arizona designed by the owners themselves, Sarah Swartz Wessel and Ethan Wessel of Tennen Studio is sited on a rocky slope planted with agave, desert mikweed and night-blooming cacti. The 10,500 SF house carries a strong influence of Asian design that is eminent to all of the work of Tennen Studio. The house is projected out from the slope, taking advantage of the mountain views mostly rather than the valley near by. Its undeniable how this modern creation has a timeless element to it... With the use of natural materials, the house is perfectly embraced within the natural landscape. The art above, a Lucien Wercollier bronze sculpture, is just icing on the cake! 

via Architectural Digest 

Architecture: a Sheik's High-Tech McMansion...

While architecture and new developments have come to a halt, due to the current economic crisis, one place that is still keeping things busy is Qatar. This private villa was designed by Project A01 architects, based in Vienna, located in the West Bay Lagoon area in Doha.  The beach house, with a very Zaha Hadid air to it, has blended modernism and heritage perfectly, by embedding local ornamental and traditional patterns in its context.