LA MARINA BY ANDREW FRANZ ARCHITECT

Architecture and design firm Andrew Franz Architect PLLC has announced that La Marina, a new waterfront development project including two new buildings with a restaurant and café on the Hudson River near Inwood Hill Park, opened officially this week. The waterfront architecture sets the stage for new public amenities that are already drawing people from around the city, with a new marina to come later.

New York's Mayor Bloomberg attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony with a large group of dignitaries, including New York City Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

“This is great news for the city of New York, making even more of our beautiful waterfront available for public enjoyment,” says Franz. “It’s one of the last undeveloped parcels of waterfront in Manhattan, and the Manhattan River Group’s plan has been praised by city parks officials and riverfront activists alike.” The project is also promoted as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s Waterfront Action Agenda, adds Franz, and will revive a site once known only for derelict boats.

Positioned as a “landmark destination” along the Hudson River pedestrian and bike path, the project location benefits from major parkland redevelopment. Nearby amenities include a newly restored Art Deco railroad building that will have public bathrooms, and a planned extension of the Manhattan Greenway to connect Dyckman Street and Upper Manhattan to other waterfront greenway projects south of the George Washington Bridge, says Manhattan River Group partner, Jerald Tenenbaum.

Andrew Franz, RA, a LEED-accredited architect and designer known for fresh, timeless designs, was recruited to the Dyckman Landing project this past spring to bring new energy and his firm’s signature style to the effort. Struck immediately by the unique waterfront experience offered by the site, Franz planned to capitalize on its sense of arrival and its low, rocky outcropping.

The uniqueness and rawness of the flat site inspired Franz to break up the robust program into a series of smaller, unimposing building modules. The grouping culminates in an open pavilion serving gatherings of up to 300 people along the water, with large glass doors to shield from the weather as needed. The structures are clustered around a shaded courtyard, inspired by the nearby Cloisters Museum and Gardens, with a large mature tree.

The marina and restaurant, designed by Andrew Franz Architect, are also expected to draw bicyclists, boaters and diners from across New York, Westchester County and New Jersey with the lure of an aesthetically appealing waterfront, a well-run marina, great food and a proactive approach to improving river ecology.

The new site design, completed by Andrew Franz Architect to Manhattan River Group LLC’s specifications, includes four distinct zones: an integrated parking and staging area; a full service restaurant and snack/picnic window open to the public; the marina and launch area with a 22-slip dock, ship store and sailing school; and an area for a casual waterfront lounge running between the Hudson’s shore on the west and the Manhattan Greenway to the east.

COLUMBIA'S NEW MEDICAL CENTER

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) recently announced plans for a new, state-of-the-art medical and graduate education building on the CUMC campus in the Washington Heights community of Northern Manhattan, New York, NY.

The new building, with a design led by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, in collaboration with Gensler as executive architect, is a 14-story facility that incorporates technologically advanced classrooms, collaboration spaces, and a modern simulation center, all reflecting how medicine is and will be taught, learned, and practiced in the 21st century.

The building will become an important landmark to the skyline of Northern Manhattan – as it will be visible from the nearby George Washington Bridge and Riverside Park. Construction is expected to begin in early 2013 and will take approximately 42 months.

"The new building provides upgraded education facilities that reflect the eminence of one of the top medical schools in the world. Both the building and the newly created green space that will surround it will also revitalize our campus in ways that will benefit both our medical center and the entire community,” said Lee Goldman, M.D., dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine at CUMC and executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences at Columbia University.

Located on existing Columbia property on Haven Avenue between West 171st and West 172nd Streets, the Medical and Graduate Education Building will be used by students from all four CUMC schools (P&S, Nursing, Dental Medicine and the Mailman School of Public Health), and the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Its high-tech medical simulation center, which will allow hands-on learning in realistic settings, will transform the way CUMC trains health professionals in medicine, dentistry, and nursing, as well as how practicing physicians maintain their clinical skills and learn new techniques.

The design weaves together areas for study and other activities. It features technology-enabled classrooms; a state-of-the-art medical simulation center that will replicate clinics, operating rooms and other real world medical environments; innovative learning facilities for both collaboration and quiet study; an auditorium and event areas with integrated technology; centralized student support services; student lounges and cafés; and multiple purpose outdoor spaces, including a terrace with views of the Hudson River.

The “Study Cascade” is the principle design strategy of the building - a network of social and study spaces distributed across oversized landings along an intricate 14-story stair. The Study Cascade creates a single interconnected space the height of the building, stretching from the ground floor lobby to the top of the building, and conducive to collaborative, team-based learning and teaching. The “Study Cascade” interiors are complemented by a distributed network of south-facing outdoor “rooms” and terraces that are clad with cement panels and wood. While the “Study Cascade” provides an organizational strategy for the building’s interior, it is also an urban gesture that, with its glass façade, aims to become a visual landmark at the northern limit of Columbia University’s medical campus. The northern face of the building houses space for classrooms, clinical simulation and administration and support.

“The new Medical and Graduate Education Building will be the social and academic anchor of the CUMC campus,” said Elizabeth Diller, principal-in-charge of the project Diller Scofidio + Renfro. “Spaces for education and socializing are intertwined to encourage new forms of collaborative learning among students and faculty.”

“The architecture of the (campus) revitalization program is really powerful and brings medical students, dental students, graduate students all together and makes us feel more like we are part of the community,” said Kally Pan, a doctoral candidate in P&S and a member of a student committee that participated in the design process.


The Medical and Graduate Education Building incorporates green design and building techniques that will create a welcoming environment and contribute to the long-term sustainability of the entire neighborhood. The University is planning the building to meet LEED-Gold standards for sustainability. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a national design standard for green buildings and sustainability which is administered by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).

7th EUROPEAN BIENNIAL OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

BARCELONA 27,28 & 29 SEPTEMBER

Due to our circumstances most territorial and cultural disciplines are ranging from anxiety and emergence. Thus, the VII Biennial of Landscape Barcelona claims to be both a catalyst for doubt and a driver to illusions and changes in the field of Landscape Architecture.

The announcing of this year’s event suggests interest in discovering new ways of action, while exploring inhospitable areas and guiding discussion towards rethinking old certainties and providing new sensitivities certitudes. 

Biennial against Biennial wants to be present at the discussion of what should be the landscape design and planning nowadays , aiming to provide a plausible (and exciting) future.
 

Consequently, the biennial will review formats, formulas, concepts and professional practice objectives while watching herself critically as the main living platform for European Landscape and watchtower of the International Landscape Architecture movements.

organizers

STORY: 

Since its first edition, the European Landscape Biennial has expressed its desire to intently study and discuss landscape interventions, as much from the perspective of landscape architecture as from other disciplines that are linked to its study and evolution.

The Biennial has been consolidated on a European scale in its six previous editions—“Remaking Landscapes” (1999), “Gardens in Arms” (2001), “Only with Nature” (2003), “Landscape: a Product / a Production” (2006)— Storm & stress (2008) and “Liquid Landscape” (2010).And also on an international scale in the lasts edition as we have focused on the contemporary landscapes of USA and China.

 Barcelona will open itself to landscape in a symposium adapted to contemporary circumstances. This symposium will last three days and will include talks, presentations by those finalists competing for the Rosa Barba European Landscape Award, papers, roundtable discussions, exhibitions and samples from which we will be able to track and discuss the evolution of landscape design in Europe..

INFO: www.coac.net

MUSE BY RENZO PIANO

MUSEis a Trentino's Science museum conjugating nature, science and technology. It lays in the former disused Michelin factory's area, where the famous international architect Renzo Piano has designed the new residential district covering an area of 11 hectares. 

Renzo Piano, the famous international architect, participated in the presentation of the new headquarters of Trentino's Science Museum: MUSE, which will be delivered to the city of Trento by summer 2013.

The core issues on which MUSE will be focused range from Alpine nature to the current themes of sustainability and development, from the birth of solar system to technological perspectives for Earth's future. 

Its mission is not only being a museum in its classic meaning, but also a research center linked to Trentino's territory, aiming at integrating itself in Trentino's network of knowledge which also involves the technological transfer to enterprises.

According to this network vision, MUSE will represent a further step for innovation and research but also for the competitiveness of Trentino territory on the international stage. 

During the event it has been underlined that the economic crisis is often associated with a cultural one. Trentino, instead, has chosen to invest in culture, research, innovation, future and knowledge in order to overcome the economic crisis, accepting its challenge and the economic bet. 

According to Renzo Piano, in fact, culture is an opportunity for Italy's economic recovery and also MUSE, in the cultural context, is one of the step to relaunch local economy.

The MUSE has another added value: it pays attention to environment. MUSE, in fact, beyond studying environment aims at preserving it through the adoption of procedures for gaining the silver level of LEED certification. According to plans the area is going to be delivered within summer 2013.

Trentino is and will be enriched by other relevant architectural projects: the recently inaugurated Ishimoto Architectural&Engineering firm's Trento University seat, the future Mario Botta's library, the palnned ICT cluster, and the planned logistic hub.

 

THE NUMBERS OF THE MUSE

Permanent exhibitions	3.300mq
Special exhibitions	500 mq.
Tropical Greenhouse	600 mq.
Kids area	200 mq.
Bibliotecane store	800 mq.
Reception area and bar	600 mq.
Classrooms and teaching laboratories	500 mq.
Offices	900 mq.
Research laboratories	800 mq.
Workshops	400 mq.
Warehouse and collections	1800 mq.
Conference room (100 seats)	200 mq.
Service areas	2,000 mq.
Total area	12,000 mq.

SA RESIDENCE BY SHATOTTO ARCHITECTURE

As Lalon (a spiritual folk singer, Sufi and philosopher) says if there is not one thing inside the body then it is not outside the body either. Body is the key word. Just like human body, there is a body of architecture.

This body of architecture has two parts; shell and thinking as soul. Shell and soul are interdependent yet independent. They belong to each other and they belong to themselves. A good soul needs a good shell.

In this project the shell is a pure square made of a single material ‘concrete’ transformed from celestial form grounded. The added squares act as torana to its temple. The site is surrounded by multi storied buildings and apartments as onlookers.

Considering the socio economic condition of Dhaka, a very simple architectural vocabulary has been adopted, with subtle social interventions with form, material and vegetation. The traditional space quality, both from urban and rural typology merged to creating "URAL" architecture.

 

In the current trend of real estate development, this residence has been a challenge particularly placing a water court as swimming pool in the middle of the house, a surely difficult task to ensure privacy. As a result, an introverted design has been adopted.

 The south and the southeast have been designed to bring in cool breeze during the hot humid summer and the warmth of the sun during winter. The center "water court" acts as a natural exhaust, which flows out the hot air and makes the middle court a solace.

A small “dingi” boat waiting by the “ghat”, patch green and light with its silence, the space becomes a natural habitat within a manmade dwelling and the layers of understanding to unfold nothingness.

The traditional courtyard connected to the adjacent pond transformed into one in an urban context and created a quad of water symbolizing nothingness yet containing the power vase of capturing, reflecting and refracting the sky, flying birds, smiling sun, shying moon, composed earth and so on.

When light caresses the wall, or the water touches the land, or the land pats the green, or the green cuddles the breeze or the breeze touches....... Its all about touching and feeling soul. The destiny is ‘nothingness’ where soul and shell cohabit and purify themselves. Let the soul come inside the home and let go off it. And let it be and let it be.............

 

Project: SA Residence

Location: House# 37, Road# 100, Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Site Area: 11,970 sft / 1,112.45sqm

Floor Area: 20,667 sft / 1920.75sqm

Client: Salauddin Ahmed

Firm: SHATOTTO - architecture for green living

Principal Architect: Md. Rafiq Azam

Assistant Project Architect: Md Akter Hossen

As Built Drawing: Md Akter Hossen

Structural Engineer: Md. Shamsul Alam

Mechanical Design: Md Sayedul Islam

Electrical Engineer: Md Lutfur Rahman

Construction Date: February 2005

MADE IN ITALY VILLAGES

Linari

Proponiamo una nostra selezione, certamente non esaustiva, di alcuni dei borghi più belli della Penisola lungo le coste, nei laghi, in collina e in montagna dove ri-scoprire i sapori della tipicità italiana in questi piccoli musei all’aperto.

Varigotti

Non è una promozione turistica, non vengono assegnate bandiere e marchi di qualità, non vi sono altri fini tranne quelli di conoscere alcuni dei luoghi più affascinanti d’Italia diversi dalle tipiche mete turistiche note in tutto il mondo.

Peschici

Spesso tali luoghi sono belli ed unici non soltanto per la loro natura o architettura ma perché coniugano questi aspetti con uno stile di vita di grande qualità con atmosfere uniche ed intatte per secoli.

Orta San Giulio

Proprio per questo vi chiediamo, qualora intendiate visitarli, il massimo rispetto del luogo, per la loro magia fatta di profumi e sapori delicati che quindi devono essere preservati ed assaporati con un’adeguata sensibilità.

Craco

Spesso vi si trovano anche una ricca cultura enogastronomica, grandi tradizioni locali, sapienze artigianali, ma anche dialetti incomprensibili, basta informarsi sul luogo chiedendo agli abitanti e troverete una grande ospitalità, sincera e senza doppi fini, che quindi merita di essere ascoltata. 

Scopello

Pertanto non chiedeteci altre informazioni, non abbiamo nessun consiglio ne su ristoranti ne per pernottare perché non siamo una agenzia turistica ma soltanto degli appassionati come voi che cercano la serenità di questi luoghi per gustare i sapori di una vita realmente sostenibile.

Furore

Nulla a che vedere però con il classico stereotipo banale dell’Italia, sole - mare - mandolino, perché questi luoghi spesso sono il risultato di sofferenze e abbandono alla ricerca di lavoro nelle grandi città o all’estero.

Cefalù

Vi si trovano pochi anziani o persone del luogo che ritornano per le vacanze e talvolta sono luoghi abbandonati e disabitati e quindi molto suggestivi da visitare con attenzione per il pericolo di crolli.

Montefioralle

Nel caso ci andate o già li conoscete siamo ben lieti di accogliere le vostre impressioni o foto, inviandoci un’email a aasarchitecture@gmail.com e provvederemo eventualmente a pubblicarle in altri articoli, o nella nostra pagina di facebook oppure su nostro profilo di twitter. 

Vitorchiano

Ci sono molti altri borghi già famosi come San Gimignano, Civita di Bgnoregio, Todi ed altri non solo nell’Italia Centrale ma in tutta la penisola per i quali crediamo non sia necessario includerli in una selezioni essendo già mete turistiche.

Elcito

Non dobbiamo obbligatoriamente sceglierli per regione perché non dobbiamo creare guide, mappe, o tour anche se siamo convinti che ognuna delle regione italiane conserva più di uno di questi luoghi unici al mondo.

Pietrapertosa

Probamente in futuro riproporremo questo genere di articoli forse suddividendo i borghi secondo la loro ubicazione come ad esempio borghi di mare, laghi e fiumi, collina e montagna oppure cercheremo sempre di presentarli in modo casuale senza divisione ne tanto meno gerarchie.

Tellaro

BSI SWISS ARCHITECTURAL AWARD 2012

Lo Studio Mumbai vince il BSI SWISS ARCHITECTURAL AWARD che sarà consegnato il prossimo 20 settembre all’Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio, Università della Svizzera italiana. In quella occasione sarà pure inaugurata la mostra e presentato il volume monografico di tutti i canditati dell’edizione 2012.

Un premio, per un valore di 100.000 franchi, che viene assegnato ogni due anni a giovani architetti di tutto il mondo che hanno saputo contribuire significativamente al dibattito e alla pratica architettonica dimostrando particolare sensibilità al contesto paesaggistico e ambientale.

A convincere la giuria è stato proprio l’approccio unico dello studio indiano che si fonda su una riconsiderazione del sapere artigianale e sulla valorizzazione della tradizione localeche il gruppo diretto da Bijoy Jain riesce a reinterpretare in modo esemplare.

Il comitato di advisors , cui compete l’individuazione dei candidati, è composto da Solano Benitez (Paraguay), Barry Bergdoll (USA), Ole Bouman (Olanda), Luis Fernandez Galiano (Spagna), Kenneth Frampton (USA), Sean Godsell (Australia), Kengo Kuma (Giappone), Shelley McNamara (Irlanda), Rahul Mehrotra (India), Valerio Olgiati (Svizzera): una compagine altamente rappresentativa, arricchita dalla presenza dei due più recenti vincitori del Premio Pritzker: Eduardo Souto de Moura(Portogallo) e Wang Shu(Cina).

PICTURE INFO:

PROJECT:     Palmyra House
DESIGN:      Studio Mumbai Architects
LOCATION:  Nandgaon, Maharashtra, India
DATE:         2009         

This two-storey timber house, built as a weekend retreat, lies in the shade of an extensive coconut grove on coastal agricultural land facing the sea, near the fishing village of Nandgaon, south of Mumbai. The functions of the house are placed within two oblong masses slightly offset from one another, whose facades are predominantly characterised by louvers made from the trunks of the local Palmyra palm. The structure is made of ain wood; local basalt was used to make boundary walls, plinths and paving. Plaster finishes were pigmented with sand from the site. The development of the design and detail, which resulted from collaboration between the architect and the craftsmen, took on tested techniques, both local and foreign, and raised them to a finer construction resolution. The house is well-adapted to its environment: the louvers on the elevations enable passive cooling, as does the extensive shade provided by the coconut trees above; water for the house is harvested from three on-site wells, filtered and stored at the top of a water tower and fed by gravity to the house. The result of these measures is a quietly compelling project that is fully integrated into its landscape.