The Architectural Review articles from December 2006

The Architectural Review archives from December 2006

Taking advantage of inevitable change.(view)(Viewpoint essay)
December 1, 2006... War; pestilence; famine; flood: always with us and yet, in our media culture, always supposed to be a shock to the system. A truly extraordinary year would be one in which none of these four conditions arose, but this would be treated by news...

Celebrating 10 years of Maggies.(view)(Maggie Keswick Jencks)(Viewpoint essay)
December 1, 2006... It has been a long time coming, but finally Zaha Hadid has completed her first permanent building in Britain. Maggie's Fife was opened last month by local constituency MP and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. In a relaxed public...

Mending Modernism.(view)
December 1, 2006... Modernism as an architectural style has existed for over 70 years. Now, the need and demand for repair and upgrade of Modernist buildings is growing. But working with Modernist architecture is a challenge. Many Modernist buildings are listed or...

Praemium Imperiale.(Praemium Imperiale Japanese Awards)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Frei Otto has received the prestigious Praemium Imperiale Japanese Awards for the Arts, Architecture. Since its inception in 1898, previous winners of the architecture award include Pei, Stirling, Gehry, Tange, Correa, Piano, Ando, Meier, Siza,...

AR Awards at the RIBA.(view)
December 1, 2006... The AR Awards for Emerging Architecture featured in this issue will be exhibited at the RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London, from 1 December to the end of February.

Peter cook: reflections on how architects are educated and cultivated in Europe and the US.(view)
December 1, 2006... As Europeans we shouldn't crow, but it does seem that all those aspiring American cities find it exciting to commission yet another architect from these parts for a museum/theatre/park/tallest tower or whatever gives them the dreaded 'icon'...

Outrage: aboard Oviedo's starship enterprise, there's life, but not as we know it.(view)
December 1, 2006... October, Oviedo in northern Spain: a small city of 200 000 people with an exceptionally well preserved and carefully maintained historic core. While the full horror is not yet complete, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict the full...

Emerging Architecture: this year's AR Awards programme yielded its customary crop of invention, sensitivity and optimism.(comment)(Editorial)
December 1, 2006... This is the eighth annual cycle of the AR Awards for Emerging Architecture. Since 1999, the programme has celebrated and nurtured the talent of an emerging generation of architects from all over the world, and is now firmly on the radar of...

Earth works: simple materials and local skills inform a life-enhancing rural architecture.
December 1, 2006... All too often, aspirations towards modernity in developing countries have malign economic and cultural effects where construction is concerned. Traditional materials and techniques are abandoned in favour of the import of expensive and...

Across the pond: the ingenious use of metal tubes has created an unexpected jewel.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... The extraordinary simplicity of this bridge earmarked it for further consideration from the beginning of the judging process; in the event the design went all the way to become one of this year's winners. It would have been hard to predict,...

Centre point: disturbed children find a focus in a big house/little city.
December 1, 2006... Of the many Japanese entries in this year's awards, this treatment centre for disturbed children by Sou Fujimoto won unanimous praise from the judges for its combination of simplicity and sympathy. How, given the unhappy circumstances of those...

... Off the wall: described as a hill on a house, this home is more than a little.(Mount Fuji)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Despite its distance from the city, Mount Fuji dominates Tokyo's horizon, both in the mind's-eye of its inhabitants and with its physical presence when visible on a clear day. Fittingly, when designing this modest house on a typically cramped...

Taking flight: the airport, that most challenging of modern building types, is civilised and uplifted.
December 1, 2006... The general disagreeability of airports is well known to the point of cliche, so it was heartening to reflect on this attempt by Emre Arolat and his partner Gonca Cirakoglu to uplift and civilise a fundamentally dreary building type. The jury...

Pod life: the potential of concrete is explored in this delicate yet robust structure.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Concrete technology takes another small and surprising leap, even by exacting Japanese standards, in this delicately perforated pod-for-all-occasions designed by Kazuya Morita. The secret of this remarkable little structure lies in its material...

Bridging the past: destroyed in the nineteenth century, this bridge has been imaginatively reborn.(Pont Trencat)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... On 23 February 1811, in a desperate attempt to stop Napoleon's invading army, General Josep Obispo ordered the destruction of the Pont Trencat, a double arched stone bridge spanning the River Tordera just east of Barcelona. Since that time, the...

Earth to earth: this house is an inventive prototype for rammed earth construction in Japan.(Loco Architects )(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... The principles of rammed earth construction, perhaps the oldest form of building, are reinterpreted in this intriguing project for an experimental house. Tokyo-based Loco Architects won a national Japanese competition for a concept house which...

Stack effect: a sound cavern has been created that gives form to the fluidity of sound waves.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Ikea pack furniture in it. Gehry has made furniture from it. Now architects are shaping spaces with it. Is there any limit to the creative re-use of corrugated cardboard? With its unique physical consistency, its decidedly axial strength, and...

Mountain high, valley low; Seven divided by two: two new homes with seven pitched roofs.
December 1, 2006... Once again, Sou Fujimoto has succeeded where so many other architects fail; namely in carrying off apparently simple solutions with unswerving directness, commitment and exquisite mastery. His responses are almost elementary. Working with basic...

Space invaders: actors and architects collaborate on the hanging gardens of Brazil.
December 1, 2006... Brazilian cities add a great deal to the diversity of the world's urban landscape. The favelas of Rio are well known as self-governing communities, randomly assembled and built without permission or in accordance with any building regulations....

Strung up: this diaphanous tensile structure goes with the wind.(nARCHITECTS)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... How long is a piece of string? In the case of Windshape, a pair of wind responsive pavilions embedded in the medieval townscape of Lacoste, the answer is an astonishing 50km. Commissioned by a local arts college as a gathering place for art...

Tea bunker: the traditional Japanese tea house gets a new and surprising twist.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... The tea house and its associated ceremonies occupy a cherished place in Japanese life. Qualities such as stillness, slowness and asceticism speak of a different sort of world and are a quiet retort to the blare, bustle and sensory overload of...

Desert bloom: this multipurpose building offers hope to a remote indigenous community.(Iredale Pedersen Hook )
December 1, 2006... Australia's relationship with its indigenous peoples is still deeply troubled. When colonisation of the continent began in the late eighteenth century, there were around 350 individual Aboriginal nations, each with its own language and culture....

Full-stop plot: an exemplary end-of-terrace addition.
December 1, 2006... This house is in a conservation area close to central Dublin. It replaces a cottage to provide two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, utility and living/dining spaces. Remaining largely in character with the existing properties--made of brick...

Danish dipping: the hardy Danes show how public bathing can be civilised and fun.(White Arkitekter)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... What Denmark lacks in a Mediterranean climate, it makes up for in hardy, sportif enthusiasm, as borne out by this pier-cum-lido structure for sea swimming that forms part of a revitalised sea front at Kastrup, near Copenhagen. Swedish practice...

Death duty: this new cemetery sensitively reinterprets the necropolis for the modern age.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Commended in the AR Awards of 2003 for their extension to a Ligurian cemetery (AR December 2003), Aldo Amoretti and Marco Calvi impressed the jury with another project for a contemporary necropolis. This extension to the small municipal...

Plug-in living: if you can't beat them, join them.(Water towers )(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Water towers are curious structures. Set in rural landscapes, some are objects of sculptural beauty. In cities, however, they commonly lack the same formal sophistication, dressed up as castellated turrets or left as purely utilitarian...

Corten gem: it seems surprising that this beautiful pavilion is only temporary.(archeological discovery site between Via Appia Antica and Via Appia Nuova)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... This temporary structure is set inside the Parco dell'Appia Antica, an authentic archaeological park that is open to the public, situated between Via Appia Antica and Via Appia Nuova. It is close to the Villa dei Quintili, a huge second-century...

Singapore shophouse: in response to Singapore's strict conservation regime, WOHA build a model mixed-use development.
December 1, 2006... In societies perceived to be super modern, conservation may not seem to have been a particular priority in the past. Recent Colonial relics, however, are now being conserved, and as such retained facades are becoming increasingly common...

Touching the void: this bold viewing platform brings tourists thrillingly close to nature.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Three hours drive from Bergen is Aurland, a small town on Sogne og Fjordane, one of the largest and most spectacular fjords on Norway's meandering west coast. Phenomenal views attract tourists here from all over the world, but the net effect of...

Seasonal touch: clay and concrete combine to make a house for all seasons.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Sixty-three year old Mrs Seifert commissioned this radical house after her nineteenth-century home burnt down. Unlike the former property, her new home allows her to experience the changing seasons. Balancing privacy and openness was therefore...

Flower power: a simple steel and glass insertion gives prominence to this small flower shop.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... On a 90-degree corner plot, set beneath a rough concrete, unadorned five-storey car park, Naoto Yamakuma/kt architects have inserted this ingeniously designed flower shop. In response to the two-dimensional thinness of flashy billboard...

Live the dream: D & G's new headquarters in Milan dons a new and sharply tailored two-piece suit.(Dolce & Gabbana )(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... 'Dolce & Gabbana is the Dream: a luxury brand that owes its incomparable appeal to superior sartorial content and stylistic originality. Dolce & Gabbana evolves but never changes radically. An unmistakable timeless style, standing for an...

Communing with nature: deep in a Thai forest, Buddhist monks embrace tranquillity and contemplation.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Of all the major religions, the ancient tenets of Buddhism place perhaps the most explicit importance on living in harmony with nature. Here in the dense Thai jungle, these principles are put diligently and poetically into practice in a project...

Specifier's information.(Corus's added value services)(Wrightstyle introduces multi pane glass and glazing system)(Hacel Network lighting system)
December 1, 2006... Corus Corus have launched the Part L--SBEM (Simplified Building Energy Model) Advice Service as part of their ongoing commitment to added value services for the construction industry, available to specifiers through the Colorcoat...

Delight.(an architectural design by Fujiki Studio representating jellyfish)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Inspired by such diverse sources as origami and jellyfish, this remarkable 'floating' structure caught the judges' imagination. Designed by Tokyo-based Fujiki Studio, it synthesises and channels different kinds of technologies, from weaving to...