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post updated 13 Apr 2021

Information Based Architecture

9 Oct 2013

Information Based Architecture News

On Saturday 12 October 2013, a new documentary about the office and tower in China will have its world premiere as part of the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam.

On 29 October 11pm the same film will be broadcasted by AVRO Close up on Dutch TV

Note: language is Dutch and partly Chinese, with English undertitles

‘Reaching for the Sky’

Guangzhou TV tower:

image from Information Based Architecture

A film by Bert Oosterveld and Peter Franken

in world premiere during the Architecture Film Festival in Rotterdam.

On Saturday 12 October 2013 Start: 5:30 PM Cinema Lantaren Venster Otto Reuchlinweg 996 Rotterdam.

The young Dutch architect Mark Hemel wins an architecture competition together with his wife Barbara Kuit and designs the highest television tower in the world in Guangzhou. His dream to build an icon becomes reality. This tower will be his calling card and may give him the opportunity to move to China, a country where there is still room for special ideas. But as the construction of the tower progresses, disappointments follow.

“Reaching for the Sky” is a candid report on the personal and professional dilemmas of Mark Hemel who, with his first major assignment, is alternately painfully confronted and pleasantly charmed by the Chinese way of executing architecture companies and projects.

This film was created with support from the Architecture Fund and the Dutch Consulate General in Guangzhou.

The short version of Reaching for the Sky will be broadcast on AVRO Close Up on Tuesday 29 October at 11 pm.

Information Based Architecture (IBA) was originally set up in London in 1998 as a partnership between architects Mark Hemel and Barbara Kuit. Using the newest technologies the practice challenges conventional thinking and seeks to exploit new opportunities to enrich our cities with conceptually interesting, and well thought through environmentally responsible architecture.

IBA’s name is translated into Chinese as; 信基. (xin 4) (ji 1): meaning trustworthy architecture founded on information

Information Based Architecture specializes in large-scale architectural and urban projects. Having won several high-profile competitions, the most famous one being the design for the Guangzhou TV-tower. IBA can be typified as both ‘experimental’ and ‘progressive’. Information Based Architecture constantly attempts to extend the boundaries of artistic design, while also introducing the newest digital technologies. The work was published and exhibited widely. In 2002 they were short listed for the Young Architects of the Year Award in the United Kingdom. They have received support by the Dutch Department of Trade and Industry and received several encouragement-grants by the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture.

Currently based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, IBA continues its work on both large and small projects in Europe and Asia. The work includes urban master-planning, architecture, landscaping and furniture design.

Mark Hemel teaches at the Architectural Association in London where he has been Unit-master since 1999, and a design tutor in the Environment & Energy Program. Before setting up practice, Barbara Kuitworked as a local architect on projects of Philippe Starck in London; (the Sanderson and St Martin’s Lane hotels), and subsequently worked for several years for Zaha Hadid on many projects among which; the Mind Zone in the Millennium Dome, London, the Contemporary Arts Center in Rome and Wolfsburg Science Center in Germany.

Key Buildings by IBA

Guangzhou TV Station
–

image : Information Based Architecture
Guangzhou TV Station

Guangzhou TV tower
2010

photo : Information Based Architecture
Guangzhou TV tower

X-treme Sports Centre
–

image : Information Based Architecture
Guangzhou Velodrome

Location: Stavangerweg 890 / 29.1013 AX Amsterdam, The Netherlands

IBA Architecture Practice Information

Partners
Mark Hemel

image : Information Based Architecture

Current position:
Co-founder and Director Information Based Architecture

Nationality:
The Netherlands

1993 Mark Hemel graduated from the Technical University of Delft, the Netherlands.

1994 He subsequently received a scholarship from the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture to research the development of vernacular architecture in West Africa, and historical cities in Southern India.

In 1996 he completed his Postgraduate studies at the Architectural Association in London.

In 1996-97 he worked for Zaha Hadid in London.

Between 1999-2008 he was Unit-master at the Architectural Association in London.

In 2002-03 he taught as design-tutor of the post-graduate Environment and Energy program at the AA in London, and also taught at the Architecture Academy in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

In 2003 he received the RIBA Bronze Medal tutor award from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Mark’s writings are widely published.

2010 He is currently writing a book on the design-process of the Guangzhou TV tower called Supertall, the rise of bio-intelligence.

He is a registered as architect at the Stichting Bureau Architecten Register, The Hague, the Netherlands (SBA nr. 1.960910.005)

Barbara Kuit

image : Information Based Architecture

Current position:

Co-founder and Director Information Based Architecture

Nationality:

The Netherlands

1993 Barbara Kuit graduated from the Technical University Delft, The Netherlands.

She taught various workshops at the Technical University Delft, and was visiting critic at the Architectural Association in London, United Kingdom.

1996-97 She worked as a local architect on projects of Philippe Starck in London, the Sanderson and St Martins Lane Hotels.

1997-2002 She worked as senior designer at the office of Zaha Hadid in London, on the Mind zone in the Millennium Dome in London-Greenwich; the Wolfsburg Science Centre in Germany; the competition for the Contemporary Arts Centre in Rome and on many other competitions and projects.

Registered as architect at the Stichting Bureau Architecten Register, The Hague (SBA nr. 1.950619.007), and at the Architects Registration Board, London, United Kingdom (061236G)

Address

Information Based Architecture BV, Stavangerweg 890 / 29.1013 AX Amsterdam