Topic+of+interest

//By James Murdock //

 As Rio de Janeiro prepares to host several high-profile events, including the United Nations’ 2012 “Rio+20” Earth Summit, and the 2016 Summer Olympics, the city is unveiling major architecture commissions and urban improvements. One such undertaking breaks ground this month: the Museu do Amanhã, or Museum of Tomorrow, designed by Santiago Calatrava.  Located on Pier Maua, adjacent to Rio’s main cruise ship terminal, the museum will anchor a $2.8 billion waterfront redevelopment plan dubbed “Marvelous Port.” The 134,549-square-foot building and surrounding 5.4 acres of gardens and pools will showcase science and sustainability—suggesting a path for future, greener development.  “It will be a living museum and pedagogical tool,” Calatrava explains. “We want it to exemplify ecology for young people who’ve never heard about it. They’ll be able to see how things work with their own eyes.”  The rectangular, concrete building’s most prominent feature is a series of photovoltaic panels protruding from its steel roof. During the daytime, they will tilt to follow the sun’s course across the sky. “They’re not passive elements,” Calatrava says. “The building changes like a flower or a plant.”

 Other pedagogic green features include pools to capture rainwater, for use in the plumbing system, as well as pools that naturally filter water from the bay. Pumps will harvest seawater, moreover, to cool interior rooms and galleries—all features that could earn LEED certification from the Green Building Council Brasil, an affiliate of the USGBC.

As for the museum’s contents, Hugo Barreto, secretary general of the project’s developer, the Fundação Roberto Marinho, describes it as “a collection of possibilities for the future.” If this sounds ambiguous, the foundation has experience taking abstract concepts and making them concrete. It commissioned Paulo Mendes da Rocha to design the Museum of the Portugeuse Language, in São Paolo, and Diller Scofidio + Renfro to design a Museum of Image & Sound, currently under construction in Rio.

 At the Museum of Tomorrow, interactive exhibits designed by Manhattan-based Ralph Appelbaum Associates will contextualize sustainability within Brazil’s landscape. Visitors will enter from a ground-level plaza then ascend to an upper level via two long ramps—one geared toward children, the other for adults—that terminate in windows overlooking the bay. From there, they will pass through a vestibule that rotates 180 degrees and deposits them into a high-ceilinged, nave-like gallery running the building’s length. Dockside, Calatrava has proposed removing an elevated highway and extending the nearby Praça Mauá, a plaza bounded on its southern end by Rio’s first skyscraper, the Edificio do Jornal A Noite. Although the city is still evaluating this element, construction of the $49 million museum begins this fall. The gardens and a plaza-level auditorium should open by 2012, in time to host Earth Summit events.  “The summit, the 2014 World Cup, and the Olympics are a huge opportunity to rehabilitate areas like the seaport,” Barreto says, adding that he hopes Calatrava’s Museum of Tomorrow will similarly become a catalyst and “iconic emblem” for more projects like it.  The trio of major events is already inspiring other architects to design sustainable projects. The Swiss firm RAFAA, for instance, in June unveiled Solar City Tower, its proposal for an artificial waterfall in Rio’s harbor. Photovoltaic panels would power pumps to haul seawater 344 feet above the bay, then send water tumbling down past electricity-generating turbines that would help power athlete housing during the 2016 Olympics.  “We tried to make this project the representation of an inner attitude, a symbol of a society facing the future,” explains Rafael Schmidt, RAFAA’s director. “This is why we proposed infrastructure and not a monument.” He adds that RAFAA contacted Carlos Nuzman, president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, to gauge interest in building the tower but has yet to receive a response. With or without a solar tower, one thing is certain—Rio is set to capture the world’s attention in a big way.

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= = ====//Interview by // //Robert Ivy// ====

//Last month Architectural Record visited Tadao Ando, Hon. FAIA, in his office in Osaka, Japan, and talked with him about the nature of architecture and creativity, and his view of architecture within a changing global landscape.//

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Architectural Record:** How do you approach the problem of creating architecture? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Tadao Ando: You cannot simply put something new into a place. You have to absorb what you see around you, what exists on the land, and then use that knowledge along with contemporary thinking to interpret what you see. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**AR:** What do you respond to from your own tradition that has some meaning for you and your work at this point in your life? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**TA:** When you look at Japanese traditional architecture, you have to look at Japanese culture and its relationship with nature. You can actually live in a harmonious, close contact with nature—this very unique to Japan. Japanese traditional architecture is created based on these conditions. This is the reason you have a very high degree of connection between the outside and inside in architecture. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**AR:** You have taken the Modernist idiom for your architecture and made it your own. How do you see this language evolving? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**TA:** The logic of Modernism, you could say, is born from functionalism as we know it, but that’s only the beginning of what Modernism is all about. Modernist architecture also has to deal with people. And people always relate to the spirit of the place, or to the spirit of the time. Without this spirit, Modernist architecture cannot fully exist. Since there is often a mismatch between the logic and the spirit of Modernism, I use architecture to reconcile the two. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**AR:** There are several themes in your work that are striking. For example, you conceive of space as a dark, heavy, and powerful void. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**TA:** If you give people nothingness, they can ponder what can be achieved from that nothingness. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**AR:** Yet another theme in your work is the element of surprise. You take a path, which makes a turn, and you discover something else. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**TA:** When I design buildings, I think of the overall composition, much as the parts of a body would fit together. On top of that, I think about how people will approach the building and experience that space. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**AR:** You are constantly drawing. How has the computer modified your design process? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**TA:** When I draw something, the brain and the hands work together. My hand is the extension of the thinking process—the creative process. The computer offers another kind of creativity. You cannot ignore the creativity that computer technology can bring. But you need to be able to move between those two different worlds. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**AR:** It’s not fashionable to talk about beauty, but in looking at your buildings, I think about it. What is the role of beauty in your work? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**TA:** There is a role and function for beauty in our time. In Japan it may be translated into the concept of Uskuji, which also means a beautiful life, that is, how a person lives––his or her inner life. It’s something beyond appearance, or what only meets the eye. You can’t really say what is beautiful about a place, but the image of the place will remain vividly with you. People tend not to use this word beauty because it’s not intellectual—but there has to be an overlap between beauty and intellect. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**AR:** You purposefully introduce intuitive, internal, or illogical elements into your work. These are very human attributes. Is this a way of understanding and connecting to people? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**TA:** You’re absolutely right. It’s a way of relating the work to people. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**AR:** How does your architecture come to terms with the immense speed of change going on in the world now? For example, you designed the Komyo-ji Temple in Saijo, Ehime, out of wood, which suggests impermanence. It seems like the Ise Shrine in Nara, which is rebuilt every 20 years. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**TA:** The speed of change makes you wonder what will become of architecture. In the West there has always been the attempt to try make the religious building, whether it’s a Medieval or Renaissance church, an eternal object for the celebration of God. The material chosen, such as stone, brick, or concrete, is meant to eternally preserve what is inside. But in Japan, there’s nothing like that, since the temple is made of wood. The divine spirit inside the building is eternal, so the enclosure doesn’t have to be. Japanese architecture, therefore, allows you the freedom to express this concept. It’s a mistake to adhere to the stylistic development of religious architecture of the past and try to imitate it. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**AR:** What about the role of craft in your work? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**TA:** The level of detail and craft is something that’s inscribed within the original design concept. And so when I begin to draw, I know what kind of detailing I want the building to have. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**AR:** What do you see as the role of architecture in the world? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**TA:** We have to realize that the "age of discovery" has brought with it a disruption of the environment. Now architects are facing the "age of responsibility." When you design and build something, you have to consider what you are taking away from the earth or the environment in order to make something new. At the same time, I would add that the American people have a lot of courage. This is embedded within the American spirit, the "frontier spirit." You always want to try to make something new, and, of course, America is the world leader in economics today. I hope America can also be the cultural leader of the world, and use this frontier spirit to lead and show others that we need courage to go places where we have not gone before. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">If you look at the 1950s, you will notice that the modern world’s most representative architecture was created in the United States at that time—such as the Seagram Building. And even before that, with the Chrysler Building and Rockefeller Center, you can see that American society was interested in creating a culture of the future. But now, more and more, its society is concerned with economy and finance. I hope that America as a whole, and especially its architects, will become more seriously involved in producing a new architectural culture that would bring the nation to the apex—where it has stood before—and lead the world.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">From: []

=<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> = //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; line-height: normal;">By: Tim Newcomb //

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Spread over 55 acres and featuring more than 255,000 different types of plants, the VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver offers the ideal setting for urban dwellers wanting to commune with nature. Fittingly, a new visitor center now under construction at the public garden incorporates elements intended to minimize the building’s impact on the environment.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The $22-million, 20,000-square-foot project was designed by the local firm Busby Perkins + Will in partnership with landscape designer Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. The building is designed to meet the strict criteria of both the Living Building Challenge and LEED Platinum certification. The center will contain a 50-foot-tall atrium, café, lecture rooms, exhibition spaces, and guest services for the park. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Creating a building that has zero impact on the surrounding site—a Living Building Challenge requirement—is no easy feat, says Jim Huffman, associate principal at Busby Perkins + Will. The design team integrated a number of sustainable features, including natural ventilation, local materials, sustainably harvested wood, and a rainwater catchment system. The green roof will feature walls made of rammed earth. To power the building, the owner plans to purchase energy produced from nearby hydro plants.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Mary Butterfield, VanDusen’s campaign director, says she expects the new building will become a local icon. Originally, the botanical garden had planned to just freshen up an existing visitor center. “Our focus switched from a renovation to making a really sustainable, self-sufficient building, matching the ecology of the garden,” she says. Construction began in May and is slated to be finished by next April.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">From: []

=<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> =

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14px;">By: Alejandro Concha //

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====<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">EVolo magazine is pleased to invite students, architects, engineers and designers from around the world to take participation in the Contest 2011 skyscrapers. The aim of this competition is to redefine what we understand as a skyscraper and launch a new architectural discourse based on economic, environmental, intellectual and responsibility that could change our cities and improve our way of life. ====

====<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The use of new materials, technologies, aesthetics and spatiality, together with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability and the digital revolution are some of the elements that participants should take into account. There is no restriction on the site, program, or size. The aim is to provide maximum freedom for participants to engage in the most creative and unlimited in the project. ====

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Participants must register until January 11, 2011. More information about this contest**[| here.]**
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">From: []

=<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> = <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">﻿ <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 0px;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14px;">//By: Gabriela Mardones//

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Berlin, "the European city without form" in 1925 became a true cultural, architectural and financial center worldwide. In 1939 after the Second World War the city was divided into four sectors under the administration of the Allies. Twenty-two years later the RDA built the Berlin Wall that separated the city. Thirty-four years ago the "European city" was rediscovered. In 1975 the European Council initiated one of the urban development programs most successful in its history.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Under the theme "A Future for our past. European architectural heritage", the European Council not only managed to draw attention to the heritage of the European city, but also position it as a model for a better city.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The rediscovery or reinvention of the "European city" took shape primarily through a policy aimed at the protection of monuments (Denkmalschutz).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The ultimate goal of this policy was to protect individuals and communities in a modern world characterized by deep economic and social changes that would threaten community life.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">¿Are there any formal criteria or ideals that distinguish European cities? ¿What are the urban challenges that facing the contemporary European cities? ¿Do you provide the idea of "European urbanism" or "European city" some guidance for the future?- Between 8 and 10 September 2005 held in Berlin the first international conference of the Council of European Urbanism (CEU), a network of academics, urban planners, architects, politicians, representatives of civic associations and social movements from all corners of Europe gathered by its search for answers to questions like these. This article (PDF) seeks to account for these, the latest movements in the European urban and clarify its historical background, theoretical and policy, considering that even in the case of debate somewhat distant, they encourage reflection on the premises - or the lack there of- in urban Latin America.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I mention this issue and article from the past as an introduction to a topic that I find of great importance in the present and the future, "the real estate business." I take as an example to refer the matter to the city of Berlin, Germany, and currently reside in this place and I could see the big difference today with the business (supply and demand) and the timely construction of residential buildings (apartments) with our country.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Where here is constructed with some awareness, preserving urban heritage. Respecting existing city's image and the concept of neighborhood, without causing disorder or disturbance in the urban image, where property development is not necessarily to do with destroying and forgetting the old.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">From: []