Architecture in 2013, Buildings of the Year, Architects, Designs, Pictures
Buildings of 2013 : Architecture of the Year
e-architect Selection of Key Architectural Developments
31 + 20 Dec 2013
Major Buildings from 2013
e-architect have selected some key buildings of 2013.
Our parameters? Architecture that stimulates, buildings that question, designs that show innovation.
We aren’t saying these are the ‘best’ buildings of 2013, merely a selection of ones that have moved us.
Clearly there is a wide range of sizes, types and qualities.
We are asking a selection of architecture critics at the end of December to once again pick out the key buildings of the year but we’re deliberately not considering the complex task of selecting ‘winners’.
(Adrian Welch, e-architect editor)
We’ve divided up completed buildings and Building Designs of 2013 (ie proposals).
Buildings / designs are listed in chronological order, most recent first:
Major Buildings completed in 2013
Architecture in 2013 – latest additions to this page, arranged chronologically:
Part 2 – Architecture of 2013
Part 1:
New Maritime Museum and Exploratorium in Porsgrunn, Norway
Design: COBE + TRANSFORM
photograph : Rasmus Hjortshoj
Museum in Porsgrunn – 13 Dec 2013
New Maritime Museum and Exploratorium designed by Danish architect duo opens today
Today is the grand opening of a new spectacular Maritime Museum and Exploratorium in the Norwegian town Porsgrunn. The building is designed by the Danish architects COBE and TRANSFORM, and has already, before the opening, become an architectural landmark of the town.
Estadio Pasaron, Pontevedra, Spain
Design: ACXT / Idom
photograph : Héctor Santos-Díez
Pasaron stadium – 9 Dec 2013
Facing Pontevedra, on the other side of the river Lerez, an untidy urban setting has developed with a mixture of houses and amenities. It is an environment that demands clear actions that will regenerate the urban surroundings.
Heated conservatory at the Botanical Gardens, Aarhus
Design: C. F. Møller Architekten
photograph : Quintin Lake
Transparent roofing made of ETFE foil cushions with an interior pneumatic shading system planned by formTL and C. F. Møller Architekten. The new tropical conservatory at the Botanical Gardens in Aarhus is like a drop of dew in its green surroundings.
De Rotterdam
Design: OMA
image courtesy of OMA; photography by Michel van de Kar
De Rotterdam, a mixed-use, 160,000m2 slab-tower conceived as a ‘vertical city’ on the River Maas, has been completed.
Air Traffic Control Center (ATCC) Slovenia
Design: SADAR + VUGA
photograph : Miran Kambic
New Air Traffic Control Center at the Ljubljana airport, comprising air control center with 24/7 amenities and office premises, is a highly demanding and complex object due to the nature of the institution it hosts. It is designed to enable safety and high operational activity as well as consistent comfort for visitors and staff 24 hours a day all year around.
Largo da Devesa City Square and Cultural Center in Castelo Branco, Portugal
Design: Josep Lluís Mateo
photo © Adrià Goula
Cultural Center in Castelo Branco – 5 Dec 2013
The plaza is a surface, a topography drawn out in relation to the movement of the water and built by pedreiros, following patterns that are abstract but not random. The Cultural Center, built in phase two, though part of the original project, floats on two piles over the plaza, like a bridge, freeing up at its base a covered ice-skating rink, and giving continuity to this large public space, to the plaza and to the adjacent park.
Kimbell Art Museum Pavilion, TX, USA
Design: Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) and Kendall/Heaton Associates
photograph : Robert Polidori
Renzo Piano Pavilion at Kimbell Art Museum
Surrounded by elms and red oaks, Renzo Piano’s 101,130-sqft colonnaded pavilion stands as an expression of simplicity and lightness – glass, concrete and wood – some 65 yards to the west of Louis I. Kahn’s signature cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972.
Ardmore Residence Tower, Singapore – more images online
Architect: UNStudio
photograph © Iwan Baan
In recent years high-rise residential towers is Asia have undergone a significant transformation. No longer only mass replicated tower blocks dot the skyline of most Asian cities, a new generation of bespoke towers now provide aesthetic, singular silhouettes and incorporate comfortable living spaces, attractive landscaped gardens and an array of amenities for residents.
Heydar Aliyev Centre Baku, Azerbaijan
Design: Zaha Hadid Architects
photograph : Iwan Baan
The building design establishes a continuous, fluid relationship between its surrounding plaza and the building’s interior. The plaza, as the ground surface, accessible to all, rises to envelop an equally public interior and define a sequence of event spaces within.
Law Faculties and Central Administration Buildings for Wirtschafts University, Vienna, Austria
Design: CRAB Studio, Architects
photo © Kurt Kuball
The building is designed around Cook and Robotham’s strongly held belief (based on many years as University teachers) that a lively and successful college building should have generous and engaging internal spaces that are not just seminar rooms or offices, but places to ‘hang out’ and possibly encourage you to stay around after class: so these are carved out of the interior and slither around in a similar way to the building as a whole.
Kutaisi ‘King David the Builder’ International Airport, Georgia
Design: UNStudio
photograph © Nakanimamasakhlisi
In recent years Georgia has undergone considerable development and as a result has moved its Parliament from the capital Tbilisi to the city of Kutaisi, a city which is also home to a large university and student population. Following the cessation of heavy industry exports to Russia, the city experienced a difficult economic period.
Nanjing Museum of Art & Architecture, China – building opening + new photos
Design: Steven Holl Architects
photograph © Sifang Art Museum
The Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing opened to the public on November 2nd with its inaugural exhibition, “The Garden of Diversion.” The 30,000 sqft museum building is sited at the gateway to the Chinese International Practical Exhibition of Architecture (CIPEA), which brings together the work of 24 Chinese and international designers.
Ecorium at the National Ecological Institute, Seocheon, South Korea
Design: Grimshaw Architects / Samoo Architects & Engineers
photograph : Young Chae Park
Grimshaw is delighted to announce the completion of its first project in Asia. Ecorium is an innovative environmental visitor attraction at the National Ecology Center in Seocheon, South Korea. The project, which was secured through a turnkey design and build competition hosted by Korea’s Ministry of the Environment, uses nature as an immersive teaching tool to showcase the world’s diverse ecosystems.
Planalto House, São Paulo, Brasil
Architect: Flavio Castro
photograph : Nelson Kon
The way of appropriation of the 800 square meters available for the establishment of the house (20x40m) is quite clear. Two large perpendiculars volumes mark the territory and categorize the uses and functions of other areas of the land.
Danish Maritime Museum Building, Sjælland, Denmark
Design: BIG architects
photo : Rasmus Hjortshøj
One of the most intriguing buildings completed this year. ‘Underground’ buildings are often criticsed for being unconfident and praised for their sustainable credentials, however this project is anything but innocuous. Part of the Kulturhavn Kronborg – two new buildings and renovation of the historic Castle (made famouis by Shakepseare in Hamlet) – this intrepid architectural tour de force is a clever building and will definitely feature at the end of 2013 in our selection of key buildings of the year.
Villa Escarpa, Praia da Luz, Algarve, Portugal
Design: Mario Martins
photo : Fernando Guerra [FG+SG]
This is an elegant new house perched on the crest of a hill looking out over the coast – its thick purist expression of the slab is reminiscent of the famous Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright but the setting is very different. The house features expansive outdoor spaces – a mix of covered areas, exposed terraces and the obligatory pool.
Shenzhen Stock Exchange Headquarters, China
Design: OMA
image courtesy of OMA ; photography by Philippe Ruault
The new headquarters for the Shenzhen Stock Exchange has been completed. This unusual 180,000 sqm tower is OMA’s next completed building in China after the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing.
MUCEM Museum Marseille, southern France
Design: Rudy Ricciotti
photo : Gabrielle Voinot
Rudy Riciotti’s classic monolithic design is built around a perfect square; each side of the building is 72 metres. An inner square of 52 metres per side forms the heart of the museum and comprises the exhibition and conference halls. The inner structure, which is composed of steel and glass, has been covered with a delicate ornamental skin of filigreed concrete.
Blaa Planet, Kastrup, Copenhagen, Denmark – World Architecture Festival Award news
Architect: 3XN
photo from architects
Denmark’s new National Aquarium has won the Display Award at the prestigious World Architecture Festival. Inspired by the shape of water in endless motion, The Blue Planet building is shaped as a great whirlpool.
Summerhouse Lagnö, Sweden
Design: Tham & Videgård Arkitekter
photo : Åke E’son Lindman
The exterior character of the house is derived from a number of transverse gable roofs, which connect to each other, and like boathouses in a line form a pleated long facade. This provides a sequence of varied room heights for the interior and create places in the otherwise completely open living room that stretches through the entire length of the main building.
Caterpillar House, Lo Barnechea, Santiago de Chile, Chile
Design: Sebastián Irarrázaval Delpiano ; Associated Architect: Erick Caro
photo : Sergio Pirrone
Putting aside the fulfillment of the brief; the main purposes of the house were two: The first one was to integrate it to the territory of this part of the city where the presence of the Andes Mountain is extremely strong both visually and tectonically. Therefore the presence of the Andes was considered as an obvious background worst to be highlighted and also as a sloped ground needed to be negotiated.
Court of Justice in Hasselt, Belgium
Design: J. MAYER H. Architects / a2o-architecten / Lensºass architecten
photo : Filip Dujardin
Based on a master plan by West 8, the former railway station site has been restructured with a park, public buildings, offices and hotels, as well as urban residential blocks. The team of J. MAYER H. Architects, Lens °Ass and a20-architecten have realized one of the two high-rise buildings, “the new court of justice”, a structure that stands as a contemporary urban landmark of the new district.
House Philipp, Waldenburg, Germany
Design: Philipp Architekten
photo : Victor Brigola
Another simple white-coloured residence, this time located on a small mountain ridge in Southern Germany. The architects say this, “There is a cube placed in this glass box as a key element, completely panelled with Elm Wood”.
New Mineirão Stadium, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Design: BCMF Arquitetos
photo : Leonardo Finotti
BCMF Architects renovation of the MINEIRÃO STADIUM includes an operational and commercial platform opened to the public as a landscaped Plaza. The platform is sculpted and molded to the lot, organized into several semipublic use spaces and programs echeloned in levels.
Library of Birmingham, England
Design: Mecanoo
photo : Christian Richters
The second largest city in the UK gets a new library by celebrated Dutch architects. In recent years the ‘once forbidden’ decorated facades have started to appear in the UK such as on the Scottish Parliament, and in various scales in England such as Ravensbourne College by FOA. I find it hard to digest these facades, they are different than the patterned glass or ceramic facads which are so fashionable yet easily enjoyed. Perhaps the building it reminds of most is the Selfridges Birmingham by Future Systems – which was covered in shiny circular discs – not because of the form but due to this circular repetition across a large urban form. I need to visit this building soon before making any more observations!
Croatian Bishops’ Conference Building, Zagreb, Croatia
Design: University of Zagreb
photo : Miro Martinic
The Croatian Bishops’ Conference building is located in an attractive northern area of the city with gardens and green public areas. It is positioned on a gentle slope with a park and two individual buildings.
Casa Bauzà, Mallorca, Spain
Design: Miquel Àngel Lacomba
photo : Miquel Lacomba
This elegant contemporary house in the Balearic Islands is formed from a single-storey volume with a central focal two-storey element. The simple white facades are softened by timber brise soleil, working with the blues of the sky and obligatory pool. The house is located at the back of the plot, facing south, maintaining the existing forest of pine and oak trees, and framing the mountain’s profile. The exterior of the housing, made of sandstone, uniformly covers facades, sloping roofs and roadways so that it can be observed as a single piece.
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, London
Design: Sou Fujimoto
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013 Designed by Sou Fujimoto © Sou Fujimoto Architects ; Image © 2013 Iwan Baan
Sou Fujimoto is the youngest architect to accept the invitation to design a temporary structure for the Serpentine Gallery. The most ambitious architectural programme of its kind worldwide, the Serpentine’s annual Pavilion commission is one of the most anticipated announcements on the cultural calendar. Past Pavilions have included designs by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei, Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid.
Croft House at Inverloch, Victoria, Australia
Design: James Stockwell Architect
photo : James Archibald
This thing, a building of real geometric beauty, is made out of a combination of painstakingly fabricated, exquisitely formed timber ring beams and dead straight sticks. These structural underpinnings are all made from ethically grown, eminently renewable wood, insulated between interior ply and exterior metal skins.
The Filling Station at Kings Cross, London, England
Design: Carmody Groarke Architects
photo © Luke Hayes
The ambition for the project was to create a temporary use for the site – a corner of the Kings Cross lands currently under phased re-development by client Argent. The small structure accommodates an events space facing the Regents Canal, a diner-style restaurant and a marketing suite. The architects came up with the idea and with restaurateur, Bistroteque, pitched the idea to Argent. A reduction in the height of this wall was key to unlocking the site.
Shanghai Tower Building, China
Design: Gensler
photo from architect
Topping out ceremonies were held to mark the completion of the core structure of the Shanghai Tower. The last beam was placed atop the 632-meter (2,073-foot) building designed by global design and architecture firm Gensler. Shanghai Tower is a beacon of sustainable design strategies, anchoring the city’s Lujiazui commercial district with prominent public spaces in a series of nine vertical communities.
Cultural Center of Viana do Castelo, Portugal
Design: Souto Moura Arquitectos
photograph : Joao Morgado – Architecture Photography
Like a low-level Pompidou Centre with the colour taken out: the cultural center of Viana do Castelo is a project inserted into the privileged space of marginal river mouth Lima, around an axis that is claimed as new cultural centrality of Minho. This bold project with an end multipurpose intended to be the headquarters of cultural events, music, sports and leisure.
Consell Kindergarten, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain
Architect: RipollTizon Estudio de arquitectura
photo : José Hevia
The design strategy intends to accommodate the whole building area in the ground floor and thus create a fluid relation between the interior and the play grounds. In addition to this, the need of creating the access to the building from the main avenue, and the need to establish a pedestrian connection with the existing building, led us considering a building to be crossed, to be traversed. The building will be a path.
CasaAltamira, Ciudad Colón, Costa Rica
Design: Joan Puigcorbé
photo : Rodrigo Montoya / Joan Puigcorbé
The architects say, “We conceive architecture as a language across which properties can express themselves such as: harmony, creativity, happiness, beauty, poetry, complexity, magic, provocation and culture.”
Finish Tower Rotsee, near Lucerne, Switzerland
Design: Andreas Fuhrimann Gabrielle Hächler Architekten
photo : Valentin Jeck
The topographical situation on the Rotsee-Delta is a unique landscape, embedded in between two hill chains the lake is very calm. Through its ideal character for rowing regattas the lake is called the „Lake of Gods“ amongst rowers. By subtle offsets of the three levels, the building volume seems fragile and delicate, despite it‘s considerable volume.
Ecorium of the National Ecological Institute, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea
Design: Samoo Architects & Engineers, Grimshaw Architect
photo : Young Chae Park
Within the Ecoplex lies the Ecorium, a landmark facility and a purpose-built exhibition facility. Designed by Samoo Architects & Engineers in collaboration with Grimshaw Architects, the Ecorium is composed of various greenhouses and controlled environments in order to reproduce the global ecosystem of five different climatic zones ranging from the tropical to the polar regions. Designed with the concept of ‘Nature’s Odyssey’, the individual climate zones are grouped by a linear podium which also functions as the main exhibition circulation path providing various experiences to visitors.
VW Autostadt Roof and Service Pavilion, Wolfsburg, Germany
Design: Graft Gesellschaft von Architektem / landscape architect wes Landschaftsarchitektur
image from architect
GRAFT was commissioned to remodel a former parking area on the site of VW Autostadt in Wolfsburg, Germany. The task was to create a quiet area where the buyer of a new car could get familiar with all the functions in an almost private atmosphere. The space had to be protected from rain and direct sunlight, while allowing enough daylight to avoid the usage of energetically expensive and unnecessary artificial light.
Islam Arts Department Louvre Museum, Paris, France – new information + photos
Design: Architects Rudy Ricciotti and Mario Bellini
photograph : Raffaele Cipolletta
The idea of covering the Cour Visconti with a glass roof would hark back to a nineteenth-century concept for a space that, until today, has looked at the sky. We proposed the creation of a sail-like glass and metal canopy set back from the historic facades on all sides, floating over the galleries like golden, iridescent cloud that filters daylight.
Drehmo Building, Wenden, Germany
Design: wurm+wurm architekten ingenieure GmbH
photo : Ester Havlova, Walter Fogel
The basic arrangement consists of the assembly hall with the affiliated areas of the loading bay and an automatic shelf storage. The two-story administrative wing situated in front of the assembly hall forms with this an entrance situation. The basement accommodates staff rooms and the canteen, which is naturally lit via a courtyard and expands into this free area with glazing from floor to ceiling.
House L, The Netherlands
Design: Grosfeld van der Velde architecten
photo : Marcel Briaire
The ground floor was raised with respect to the current ground level, with large glass surfaces positioned to look out over the rural landscape and terraces running the length of the building with an unbroken roof surface on corbelling, all of which allow the outer space to be experienced to the full. At the same time, the large roof projections are designed to prevent too much light entering.
Step Tower Osaka, Osaka, Japan
Architects: EASTERN design office
photograph : Koichi Torimura
A stark white ship that sails in the middle of the bustling sea of colors.
The ship floating on the ocean suddenly appears in a shopping center. It evokes a feeling not of a resort area, but of an exotic corner of a town in some southern country. A feeling of a ship that comes across this area by chance. It makes you imagine the wave splashes that occur when the bow heads-on through the sea.
Bayuquan Vanke Exhibition Center, Liaoning Province, China
Design: Vector Architects
photo : Shu He Photo, Shengliang Su
The site is flat and vast, with the endless ocean view at one side. The “height” and “distance”, consequently, becomes the key factors through the concept generating process. We set up an observatory platform on the roof of the building, where people could enjoy the maximum view of the landscape.
Emporia, Malmö, Sweden
Design: Wingårdhs
photo : Tord-Rikard Soderstrom
This is a huge development, of which only the corner building with the Amber Entrance has yet been completed. This entrance will be the only part of the Emporia shopping center that remains visible when the development is completely built out. The idea of lining the streets with mixed-use buildings demanded a strong form that could attract visitors from Station Square to come in and shop. A sequence of vaults from a previous competition proposal, along with a memory from the Pantheon, reemerged in a bronze-ochre tone.
Buk Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Design: SAMOO Architects & Engineers
photo : Young Chae Park
Like a serene white mass integrated into the hill this new building revitalizes the region which is mostly composed of monotonous high-rises apartments and provides a nature-friendly cultural space in which the green flow of the park integrates with the art museum to become a single entity.
Nest House, Singapore
Design: WOHA
photo : Patrick Bingham-Hall
A delicate, textural design from this talented Singapore architecture practice. The expression of house refers to bark, branches and twigs. These components achieve a delicate complexity. The rooms are wrapped with a curved textured screen in a timber and aluminium woven lattice in different lengths and diameters.
James B. Hunt Jr. Library, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA wins AIA/ALA Library Building Award
Design: Snøhetta
photograph : Jeff Goldberg/Esto
In July 2013, the new James B. Hunt Jr. Library at North Carolina State University, designed by Snøhetta in collaboration with local architect Clark Nexsen (formerly PBC+L), received the 2013 Library Building Award from the American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association in recognition of design excellence.
Kloof 151, Clifton, Cape Town, South Africa
Design: SAOTA – Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl Truen Architects
photo : SAOTA
The client’s brief was for a family home with a guest and a ‘work-from-home’ wing spread over two levels. The home was not only to enjoy the dramatic views of the Clifton beaches, but also to engage with the natural fynbos on the slopes of Lion’s Head to the North.
Levin Residence, Arizona, USA
Design: Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
photo : Bill Timmerman
The sun’s path and the client’s goals of having no steps combined into a design that needed to lift up off the ground in order to satisfy everything for which we were asked. Positioning the house to face the slightly east of south (the ideal solar orientation) means that the floor starts tangent to the earth on the east end and remains level as the land slopes downward, leaving the floor floating above the desert.
Teacher Training Center – Archbishop of Granada, Spain
Design: Ramón Fernández-Alonso Y Asociados
photo : Jesus Granada
An unusually bold articulation of form, tending towards the spectacle rather than traditional nroms of architectural beauty, “This basic approach results from the structural solution adopted by this project based on the study of the section: a roof truss, containing the two upper floors of classrooms and departments, supported by two lines of brackets, saving a long distance, under which common areas are developed in continuity with the outside landscaped terraces and protected by a powerful cantilever.”
Clifton Beach Apartment, Cape Town, South Africa
Design: ANTONI ASSOCIATES Architects
photo : Adam Letch
This waterfront project combines elegance, luxury and sophistication in a beach front property located along one of the pristine beaches of Cape Town. The Client’s brief was to renovate a ground floor double level apartment in a newly constructed luxury complex. The design of the original unit felt constricted and the Client wanted to add a fourth master bedroom suite.
PALÄON Research and Experience Centre, Germany
Design: Holzer Kobler Architekturen
photo : Jan Bitter
The PALÄON pushes itself out of the slightly hilly topography and cuts into the forested meadows. The volume of the three-story building and the paths emanating from it form lines of sight that divide the landscape into vectors. A second winding path system forms synapses that connect to the surroundings. The building is a camouflage – a hyperrealistic abstraction of the landscape.
Gangnam Style – Chungha Building, Seoul, South Korea
Design: MVRDV
photo : ShinkyoungSub
Just before a Korean pop-song became a global success on YouTube for the first time in history, and Gangnam became world famous as the nouveau riche hangout of the South-Korean capital Seoul, MVRDV was commissioned to redefine a building on Gangnam’s chic Apgujung Road. Even though the Chungha building was completed in the 1980s it was already outdated in a street dominated by flagship stores.
Hotel Pupp, Brixen, northern Italy
Design: bergmeisterwolf architekten
photo : Jürgen Eheim
A withdrawal in the middle of the city, away from the hustle and bustle, is made possible. From the outside the tripartite interlocked structure is supplied with a special plaster (in German called “Besenputz”), like the residences close to the city, but is pushed to the fore with the colour pure white. The building comes to life with its cantilevers, with its shadow play in the façade. In the interior the colour white runs through, but this time coarse-grained, tough, cave-like, and can be found in the illuminated spaces and paths as well as in the rooms.
House of Prayer for Brethren, Litomyšl, Czech Republic
Design: Fránek Architects
photo : Peter Polak
The designed building represents usage both ancient and modern architectural principles in a simple concept that uses proportions of the terrain and transformation of principles of various classical cultures.
The Yardmaster’s Building, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Design: McBride Charles Ryan Architects
photo : John Gollings
Within the gritty rail yard environment, squeezed between a space formed by the divergence of V-Line tracks at the end of platforms 5 and 6, the Yardmasters Building is a multi-use facility for the various workers and operations associated with the Southern Cross Rail Yard. A service building that in years passed may have been treated in a pragmatic and unremarkable way.
Plane House, Skiathos, Greece
Design: K-STUDIO
photo : Yiorgos Kordakis
Plane House is a new-build, family house of approximately 500sqm on the island of Skiathos, Greece. The brief for the architects was to create a summer escape for family and friends with the emphasis on laid-back, social living. The aim for the project was to merge internal and external space, maximising the benefits of both and minimising the impact on the surrounding landscape.
Blanc Showroom, Villareal, Castellón, eastern Spain
Design: Fran Silvestre Arquitectos
photograph : Fernando Alda
Another beautiful design by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos. This interior is pure and serene, but also luxuriously futuristic like a set from a recent James Bond film.
Cayan Tower : Twisting Skyscraper in Dubai – building news – new photos
Architects: Skidmore Owings & Merrill
photo from architect
Photographs of the AED 1 billion Cayan Tower: formerly titled ‘Infinity’ this 310 m high skyscraper building broke the record for the tallest twisted architectural creation in the world. It has a helix structure.
Beveridge Mews, Stepney Green Estate, London, UK
Design: Peter Barber Architects
photo © Morley von sternberg
Beveridge Mews is a social housing project set around a community garden in Stepney Green. The newly landscaped and densely planted community garden has a delightful new terrace of eight contemporary houses. The new row of houses is conceived as a continuation of the timber garden fences of the existing housing blocks. They are constructed from timber and configured as a series of stepped and notched south and east facing garden terraces, and they employ a unique courtyard/terraced housing hybrid typology.
Jesolo Lido Village Condominium, Italy – building news
Design: Richard Meier & Partners Architects
photo : Roland Halbe
Richard Meier & Partners Completes 5th completed project in Italy. The new building is a beautiful condominium next to the water and it is part of a complex comprised of the Jesolo Lido Village, completed by Richard Meier & Partners in 2007, and the Jesolo Lido Hotel. This project has also been recently awarded the 2013 AIANY Architecture Award.
Chapel at Cuddesdon, England – new photos
Design: Niall Maclaughlin
photograph © Niall Ferguson
Ripon College Cuddesdon and the Oxford Ministry Course combine to make a thriving, vibrant single institution providing theological education and training for ministry. The new Chapel building will be built as part of a major programme of expansion and consolidation of its buildings in order to meet the needs of ministerial formation and Christian education in the 21st century.
Residence in Kallitechnoupolis, Greece
Design: Tense Architecture Network
photo : Filippo Poli
The residence’s view is a slope: a naked attic slope. The site is significantly inclined and is accessed only through its narrow upper side. The declivity of the site faces an equally slanted hill – the predominant point of visual reference. As the residence neighbors with two extrovert residences on both sides, it realizes enclosure, concentration of the view and an introvert escalating development of its open spaces towards the east. The opposing landscape of the hill is perceived from a distance.
The Bow Calgary, Canada – architecture news
Design: Foster + Partners with Zeidler Partnership
image : Nigel Young_Foster + Partners
This 237m-high headquarters tower is the city’s tallest building but also Canada’s tallest tower outside Toronto. A bold new landmark on the skyline, the project is equally significant in urban, social and environmental terms: the public base of the tower is filled with shops, restaurants and cafes and extends into a generous landscaped plaza, while the office floors are punctuated by three six-storey sky gardens, which encourage natural ventilation and help to significantly reduce energy use.
55 Elizabeth Street Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Design: BVN Architecture
photo : Willis Lim
The building is relatively modest in scale, with a tripartite arrangement which reflects historic CBD development heights, stepping both in plan and section in response to important street views to neighbouring heritage buildings. Each datum of the building reflects the changing contextual qualities and eras at each level – ranging from monumental sandstone planes at entry level to minimalist anodized sunshades to the upper western façade.
BBC New Broadcasting House, London, UK
Design: exterior – Sheppard Robson / interior – HOK
photo © Eric Laignel
HM The Queen officially opened the building: “the new state-of-the-art, multimedia broadcasting centre in the heart of London. This world-class facility is the iconic new home for the BBC’s network and global services in Television, Radio, News and Online”.
Audi Centre Singapore
Design: ONG&ONG Pte Ltd
photo : Aaron Pocock
Standing eight-storeys high, Audi Singapore’s newly unveiled flagship store is the first ever high-rise Audi Terminal, and at 1,350 square metres per floor, is also the largest Audi showroom in Southeast Asia.
Nou Mercat dels Encants Barcelona, Spain
Design: Fermín Vázquez, head of the b720 architecture studio
photo © Rafael Vargas
In London there is Camden Town, in Paris the Marché aux Puces and in Barcelona the Nous Encants, which will open on June 21st, putting an end to its 85 years of existence without a permanent structure. The Nous Encants is a market dedicated to auctions and the sale of second hand objects, furniture, clothing and all sorts of curios and bric-à-brac. Its origins go back to the 14th Century.
Barcelona Design Museum, Catalonia, Spain – building news
Design: MBM Arquitectes
photo © Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre
In Bruno Zevi’s book “Architecture as Space”, published way back in 1957, he affirms that we cannot understand architecture if we ignore its spatial essence. “Our use of words like rhythm, scale, balance, mass will continue to be vague until we have succeeded in giving them meaning specific to the reality which defines architecture, and that is: space”. Zevi gives us the clue to the question, “What is space?” by observing that architectural space is about the successive displacement in time which he calls the “fourth dimension”.
Shenzhen Stock Exchange, China – new building photos
Design: OMA
image courtesy of OMA ; photography by Philippe Ruault
The podium? Although aspects of this building look perfectly normal – the straight tower, the repetitive fenestration – look at the podium, it has been jacked 36m above ground level.
Casa Nova Lima, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Design: Denise Macedo Architects Associates
photo : Gustavo Xavier
The house should harmonize two important needs: large area in brickwork walls for the exhibition of the arts, and facades with glass so that the external landscape could be seen in the House. Thus was created a gallery of 14 meters deep, and double height of 6 meters high, offering a display area of 190 square meters.
New Opera House Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, eastern China
Design: Cui Kai, Architect, China Architecture Design & Research Group
photograph : Philippe Ruault
An interesting swirling building in eastern China. Cui Kai was on the jury panel for the recent Xiqu (Chinese opera) Centre, one of the landmark cultural venues for the West Kowloon Cultural District, China. Since 2000 he has been Vice President, Chief Architect, National Design Master at the China Architecture Design & Research Group, Beijing.
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