May 2008
division of Archi-Europe Group


 Editiorial


Urban policies and an integrated approach

The  Architects’ Council of Europe conference held on 10 April on the topic of “Designing for the Future: The Market and Quality of Life” highlighted a number of fundamental points. The economic table drawn up by American political scientist Richard Parker refers to problems caused by globalisation and accelerated growth. Another issue raised is a Europe suffering from a shortfall in public interest. Methods do exist that would enable us to achieve a balance between the economy, competitiveness and sustainable development, but when will we achieve a true political consensus?  When it comes down to it, who is going to build our cities? Promoters? Local authorities? Citizens? This is all about creating platforms to enable dialogue and discussion for the allocation of funding and sharing out this funding among the authorities. In the opinion of Mateu Turo Calvet, this approach needs to be a part of European policy. With his significant role in the overall management of initiatives undertaken by the European Investment Bank, he studies the economic viability of certain projects and their long-term funding. While he laments the fact that, generally speaking, architects do not take into consideration the term “cost” (going over budget is still a prickly topic for them), he does disapprove of striving for low prices to the detriment of architectural quality.

Europe can boast of its diversity of languages and cultures, the enormous potential for development in its cities, but only sustainable cities will be competitive in the future. Slovenia’s experience shows us that the heritage of a long tradition of sustainable development coupled with joint funding from banks has brought about a positive impact on improvements in construction. But the revitalisation of cities – not only with successful new buildings – also involves transport and public management. This important issue currently facing society – social cohesion, the safety of property and people and environmental issues – is championed by Charles Picqué, Minister-President for the Brussels-Capital region, who dreams of an overall strategy including both development and social planning. He believes that the separation of these issues should be avoided at all costs. How can work carried out by different parties be made consistent? European Deputy Jean-Marie Beaupuy would like to see the EU make a number of changes to practices prevalent in Europe. A longstanding campaigner against urban creep, he would like to encourage the emergence of initiatives working for everyone’s interests – not too costly or polluting, acceptable for human quality of life and “shared” among all the parties concerned.  European regulations governing European regional policy oversees whether or not projects seeking to benefit from European funding actually practice this integrated approach. But such practices are not yet mandatory. There is an awful lot yet to be done in this regard.

The Archi-Europe Team!

 
Portrait of the month
Books
Project of the month
Contact
Product of the month        



 Portrait of the month


Snøhetta, Oslo

As smooth and white as a chunk of ice drifting from a fjord, the new Oslo Opera House has just been inaugurated, and is destined to become the jewel in the city’s architectural crown. And so this provides a good opportunity to present the building’s designers – Snøhetta. Snøhetta is a group of architects, landscapers and designers, and was formed in 1989 by Kjetil Thorsen (1958), Graig Dykers (1961) and Christoph Kapeller (1956). It has become a leading light in new Norwegian architecture. The team is responsible for a large number of public and cultural buildings. It pays close attention to creating buildings in harmony with the urban environment. But the Library of Alexandria in Egypt has truly pushed the group to the forefront of the architectural scene. Until this point, Norway had never been seen as particularly innovating in the field of architecture. That perception has now been turned on its head. The Norwegian Embassy in Berlin, constructed on a very limited surface area, gives a good rendition of the country’s image, its fjords, mountains and large forests. Its south façade is made up of a huge slice of Norwegian granite. Moving location, we find another function for their designs. In designing the Neurobiology Institute in Marseille, the architects chose the principle of fixed supports – cutting into the landscape to fully integrate the building, drawing all its materials and colours from the earth. This architectural agency has also just completed work in Alstahaug, in northern Norway, with its Petter Dass museum. The architecture of the museum devoted to poet Petter Dass has been very sensitively done, in terms of its location. Snøhetta decided to cut into the stone in order to blend the building perfectly in with the landscape, while creating a truly expressive architecture. Bergen, Norway’s second city, has also benefitted from Snøhetta’s architectural creativity. The National Academy for the Arts, due for completion in June 2009, is being built on the shores of a lake surrounded by mountains in a dazzlingly beautiful landscape. The new Academy stands to generate significant urban development along the shoreline, and will become an emblem for the cultural life of the city. The preservation of trees and existing buildings is a very important aspect for this project. We believe that this respect for both nature and for human needs will spill over to other projects – even projects as significant is the Oslo Opera in terms of scope, accessibility and surprising originality.


1. Snøhetta
2. The Library of Alexandria, 2001
Covered by a light roof, this building opens out onto the seafront. Its inclined circular shape rises up from the ground and gives off the aspect of a huge stone wall, inscribed with calligraphy. Inside lies a wide open space, just as with ancient libraries.
3. Neurobiology Institute, Marseille, 2003
The building is covered in limestone from the surrounding landscape, as well as earth-coloured concrete. The project stands amidst preserved vegetation, similar to the nearby university campus.
4. Norwegian Embassy, Berlin, 2003
Monolithic stone, glass and wood present an image of the Norwegian landscape.
5. Petter Dass Museum, Alstahaug, 2007
Large areas of glass placed at two ends of an enclosed space highlight the connection between the landscape and the building, bringing the works of Petter Dass into the modern age, three hundred years after his death.
6. Oslo National Opera, 2008
This building stands out through its composition, which brings a blend of sobriety and originality to the cityscape. An edifice. Inclined Carrara marble surfaces make the roof space accessible to visitors.
7. National Academy of Arts, Bergen, under construction.
click to enlarge

 


2. The Library of Alexandria


3. Neurobiology Institute, Marseille


4. Norwegian Embassy, Berlin


5. Petter Dass Museum, Alstahaug


6. Oslo National Opera


7. National Academy of Arts, Bergen


--- Go to the site ---





 Project of the month

New General Building of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg
Architects: Art & Build Architect (Brussels) in partnership with Denu & Paradon (Strasbourg)

A prize-winner at the MIPIM Awards 2008 in Cannes, in the “Business Centre” category, this new building covering almost 25,000m² has rounded off a consistent urban plan within the city. Its location links Strasbourg’s European quarter with residential areas and the countryside adjoining buildings occupied by European officials. With its large glass frontage opening onto the city, its majestic look is highlighted by a metal canopy harmoniously integrating its technical elements. The building is also made up of three branches enclosing two patios running into garden areas. Apart from the 14,000m² of office space, the building has 8500m² of shared usage areas. A naturally-shaped crèche is housed in the garden, providing an additional service to the building’s occupants.

The atriums help with connecting the office space and the many conference rooms in the hear t of the building. The atriums’ partitioned rooms covered in prepatina copper give off a sense of the solid foundations of the institution. As well as their user-friendly design, the atriums act as buffer zones between the outside and the office space. The conference halls benefit from natural light diffused from the atrium.
The structural principle of the pre-stressed slabs from one end to the other provides spaces free of any intermediate columns or cross beams. Aside from the exceptional flexibility of the space, this enables any long-term changes to be made without heavy work, in the spirit of sustainable development. The building was designed to be capable of extension along several wings or stories. Its mixed ventilation system (natural and double flow ventilation) takes into account the continental climate enjoyed b y Strasbourg. The Council of Europe has sought to highlight the environmental aspect, opting for both integration into the landscape and energy saving measures. The green aspect appears to have been a decisive factor in winning the MIPIM Award, given that this project was up against two other major buildings: the R&F Center tower in Guangzhou, by Aedas, and the Midtown tower in Tokyo, by SOM.


www.artbuild.com
www.denu-paradon.com

 


 Product of the month



Saint-Gobain Glass noise solutions

Comfort and quality of life have long been at the centre of this Saint Gobain company’s concerns, alongside energy saving issues. Very effective in terms of noise reduction, this company’s windows, integrating layered SGG Stadip Silence glass, absorb unwanted noise and insulate residential and office buildings, leisure centres, halls and conference rooms against noise pollution. They even go so far as to provide complete silence in some cases. This sound-insulating layered safety glass is made up of two layers assembled using one or more PVB silence films. This provides both the maximum attenuation of sounds and high level security. The product is particularly convenient for large floor to ceiling windows, for providing sunlight to buildings in areas with high exposure to noise (stations, airports and motorways), as well as for glass roofing, where the sound of rainfall is much reduced. Double glazing including SGG Stadip Silence is called SGG Climaplus Silence if one of the two glass components is low-emission, providing increased thermal insulation. Saint-Gobain Glass recommends the following composition: SGG Planilux 6 mm + Argon 15 mm +  SGG Stadip Silence 44.2A with SGG Planitherm Ultra N (two layers of 4mm glass sheets, of which one is SGG Planitherm Ultra N assembled with two PVB Silence films). If traditional double glazing is used, without a low-emissions layer, the name SGG Climalit Silence is used. All these double glazing systems can also be self-cleaning.

--- Go to the site ---


 

 
 Agenda

- GERMANY -

  • Architektur im Kreis der Künste - 200 Jahre Kunstakademie München 1808 | 2008
    (> 18/05/2008) - Munich
    Pinakothek der Moderne
    To mark the 200th anniversary of the Bavarian Academy of the Fine Arts the Architecture Museum is showing the work of its architects and students.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Nieto Sobejano
    (> 30/05/2008) - Berlin
    Aedes Am Pfefferberg

    For years, Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano have numbered among the most distinguished representatives of Spain’s contemporary architectural scene. For the first time with the exhibition “Arquitectura Concreta,” held at Aedes am Pfefferberg, this pair of successful Madrid architects provides an overview of current projects, all characterized by fascinating spatial configurations and incisive formal idioms. The overview of Nieto Sobejano’s current activities is embedded in an ambitious exhibition design, one that mirrors the forms of their current projects. Enthralling spatial effects, sophisticated materiality, and sculptural design are united here in conjunction with the featured projects to form an unmistakable architectonic approach – the one responsible for the success of Nieto Sobejano.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Neo Tokyo3. Architektur in Manga und Anime
    (> 8/06/2008) - Francfort/Main
    DAM
    Utopian and fantastic urban megastructures presented in the comic strips and Japanese films.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Umsicht - Regards - Sguardi
    (> 22/06/2008) - Berlin
    Deutsche Architektur Zentrum

    The exhibition is a snapshot of sustainable development in Swiss building culture. It presents the results of an award given by the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA) for the design of a sustainable environment. Works of different scales are presented, which by demonstrating either an exemplary, or an unexpected and creative engagement with the social and natural environment, lead the way for future development.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Living Under the Crescent Moon
    (> 31/08/2008) - Weil am Rhein
    Vitra Design Museum

    The exhibition demonstrates the diversity of domestic lifestyles between Morocco, Syria and the Arabian Peninsula - from the nomadic tents of the Tuareg or Bedouins to Moroccan casbahs; from the grand courtyard houses in cities such as Marrakech, Damascus or Cairo to buildings by twentieth-century architects like Hassan Fathy, Elie Mouyal or Abdelwahed El-Wakil. Numerous models and reconstructed room environments provide visitors with an opportunity to physically experience various building types, while domestic objects such as ceramics, textiles, tools and architectural elements offer impressions of everyday customs.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • COLLECTIONE
    (4 - 8/07/2008) - Francfort/Main
    The summertime consumer goods fair for a large-scale retailer or distributor
     --- Go to the site ---

  • TENDENCE DECORATE LIFE
    (4 - 8/07/2008) - Francfort/Main
    The new all-in-one trend fair: all seasons, all channels of distribution
     --- Go to the site ---

- AUSTRIA -

  • Coop Himmelb(l)au. Beyond the Blue
    (> 11/05/2008) - Vienna
    MAK Exhibition Hall
    The exhibition shows the team’s recent and very latest projects. A spectacular space installation has been specially conceived for the MAK Exhibition Hall, the core of which shows the constant development of urban projects. Established in 1968 by Wolf D. Prix and Helmut Swiczinsky are among the most important and innovative architects of our time, who, with their unconventional, cutting-edge work, have laid the foundation stone for the unparalleled global career of the architectural studio. Models, sketches, drawings, projections and animations offer deep insight into older as well as future buildings and projects which trace the development in the architectural vocabulary and its path from experiment to buildings, thereby demonstrating that a vision can ultimately become reality.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • The White City of Tel Aviv / Tel-Aviv's Modern Movement
    (> 19/05/2008) - Vienna
    Architekturzentrum
    The "White City's" development is presented in the form of plans and models. Historic and contemporary photographs provide an insight into the architectural language of the time, showing the influence that the European heritage had on what was created there. he diversity of surface quality and colours of different plaster are shown, as are precise analyses of the detail planning.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Empty the pond to get the fish
    (> 13/07/2008) - Vienna
    Museum Moderner Kunst
    The artist Runa Islam, born in 1970 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, works with the aesthetic and the illusionary character of film in her installations and projections.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Andreas Fogarasi 2008
    (> 14/09/2008) - Vienna
    MAK gallery
    In his spatial work, typographical studies and architectural analyses, Andreas Fogarasi investigates the institutional parameters of a geographical and political space and challenges its cultural representations.
    --- Go to the site ---

- BELGIUM -

  • Frans Van Praet
    (> 1/06/2008) - Brussels
    Design Vlaanderen Galerie
    Exhibition dedicated to the work of the Flemish designer Frans Van Praet.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Shanghai - Bruxelles ARCHITopia 2
    (> 10/06/2008) - Brussels
    CIVA
    The work and the resaerch of ten young Chinese architectural offices. The projects are sont articulés autour d’une scénographie traduisant la densité urbaine de Shanghai.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Pierre Paulin
    (> 18/06/2008) - Hornu
    Grand-Hornu

    First big retrospective about one of the most important designers from the second half of the 20th century. Pierre Paulin has always been linked to pop design and the 60s and 70s.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Voices. Contemporary Ceramic Art from Sweden
    (17/05 - 22/06/2008) - Ghent
    Design Museum
    The exhibition displays works by ten contemporary Swedish ceramics artists. Inger Mollin, the exhibition’s curator, selected artists from various generations who are all taking a different approach to ceramics. Each of those has a different voice.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Belgique 58
    (> 21/12/2008) - Brussels
    Musée d'Architecture - La Loge

    Drawings, photographies, posters and furniture representing the style of 58 in Belgium.
     --- Go to the site ---

  • DECOSIT
    (13 - 16/09/2008) - Brussels
    International Exhibition for Home textile fabrics.
     --- Go to the site ---
- DENMARK -

  • Instant Urbanism “Don’t Let your City exploit you, exploit your City”
    (>     1/06/2008) - Copenhagen
    Dansk Arkitektur Center
    The exhibition shows international, alternative and action-based projects made by architects and artists, which focuse on mobility, light technical constructions, reuse and spontaneous solutions. The architects and artists in the exhibition draws on the avantgarde “situationists” from the 60s and 70s and their simple premise saying that citizens can choose for themselves how the surrounding architecture and urban landscape should look like and how they can live in it.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Cézanne & Giacometti
    (> 09/06/2008) - Humlebæk
    Louisiana Museum
    For the first time in the world an exhibition is being shown that confronts the works of the two artists Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) and Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) with each other. The exhibition consists of a generous selection of the works of both artists that brings out the retrospective view as well as showing specific points of contact between the works in the two artists’ formidable oeuvres.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Bodil Manz
    (> 3/08/2008) - Copenhagen
    Danish Museum Art & Design
    Bodil Manz belongs in the international elite of ceramicists represented in important museums and private collections worldwide. Through 40 years Bodil Manz has developed a craftsmanship of which the parchment-thin and transparent cylinders are the pinnacle. Bodil Manz has always experimented and sought new challenges in expression and technique, she has worked with plaster tableaus, sand-cast porcelain squares and handmade paper. The exhibition at the Danish Museum of Art & Design illustrates the whole spectre of Bodil Manz' work, from the expressionistic pieces of the early years of youth to the cylinders with geometric abstract graphics of the latest years, ‘Transparent Zen’
    --- Go to the site ---

  • CODE 08
    (15 - 18/05/2008) - Copenhagen
    new concept that embraces a select mix of outstanding design, furniture and architecture.
    --- Go to the site ---

- SPAIN -

  • Asier Mendizabal
    (> 18/05/2008) - Barcelona
    Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona
    This exhibition presents a monographic vision of Mendizabal’s work, focusing on certain works that explore the tension between urban environments that contain and generate collective consciousness on one hand, and semi-rural landscapes that shape certain kinds of associations (neighbourhoods, sympathies, groups, etc.) that are equally important on the other.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Jean Tinguely
    (> 8/06/2008) - Valencia
    IVAM
    Resulting from a cooperation with the Tinguely Museum, this exhibition shows the Works from the swiss sculptor and experimental artist Jean Tinguely (1925-1991) and enables the visitor to view the evolution of his creations and the richness of his extensive production.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Surreal Things
    (> 7/09/2008) - Bilbao
    Museum Guggenheim

    This remarkable exhibition is the first to explore the influence of Surrealism on the world of design: theatre, interiors, fashion, film, architecture, and advertising. Showcasing approximately 250 objects drawn from public and private collections worldwide—many of which have never been exhibited before—Surreal Things emphasizes the tensions that arose from the increasing commercialization of Surrealism’s visual aesthetic.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • ECOFIRA
    (11 - 13/06/2008) - Valencia
    International Fair for Water, Soil, Air, Wastes and their Technologies and Services
    --- Go to the site ---

  • HABITAT VALENCIA FORWARD
    (24 - 29/09/2008) - Valencia
    European creavity meeting point (furniture, decoration a accessories)
    --- Go to the site ---

  • WORLD ARCHITECTURE FESTIVAL
    (22 - 25/10/2008) - Barcelone
    First annual worldarchitecture event
    --- Go to the site ---

- FINLAND -
  • Flower Power. Flower Design
    (> 25/05/2008) - Helsinki
    Design Museum
    Flower Power is an exuberantly ornamental and colourful exhibition that provides a new perspective on the collections of Design Museum. The exhibits include textiles, ceramics, glass, metal and furniture with floral motifs, as well as vases and pots from the 18th century to the present day. Geographically, the exhibition presents material ranging from China and Japan to Europe and Finnish design in particular.
    --- Go to the site ---
  • Raili and Reima Pietilä. Challenging Modern Architecture
    (> 25/05/2008) - Helsinki
    Museum of Finnish Architecture

    One of the great names of Finnish 20th-century architecture, Pietilä rose to international fame when the established principles of modernism began to be questioned in the 1960s and 1970s. Raili (1926–) and Reima (1923–1993) Pietilä emphasize organic form and natural morphology, and their work is markedly distinctive from the mainstream of the latter half of the century. They created signature buildings experimenting with new forms, such as Dipoli in Espoo (1966), Main City Library in Tampere (1986) and the Presidents’s Residence in Helsinki (1993). Reima Pietilä was also an acute architectural theorist actively contributing to the discussion on the future of modernism in Finland as well as abroad.
     --- Go to the site ---
  • Image and After
    (> 11/01/2009) - Helsinki
    Kiasma
    Contemporary art often has nothing to do with images in frames, yet the concept and nature of the image remain fundamental questions of art. Image and After presents work from Kiasma’s collection that approach the themes of image and its absence from a variety of perspectives.
    --- Go to the site ---

- FRANCE -

  • Bijoux sculptures : l’art vous va si bien
    (> 25/05/2008) - Bordeaux
    Musée La Piscine
    Jewels designed by artists such as Calder, Chillida, Picasso or Anish Kapour.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Louise Bourgeois
    (> 12/06/2008) - Paris
    Centre Pompidou

    The Centre Pompidou will be presenting the first extensive retrospective showcasing Louise Bourgeois' work since the exhibition that the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris held in 1995. This retrospective has been organised with the London Tate Modern and will feature around 200 sculptures, paintings, drawings and engravings she produced between 1940 and 2007, with a special focus on the past decade and this 95-year-old artist's knack for relentlessly rejuvenating her artistic language.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Monumenta 2008
    (> 15/06/2008) - Paris
    Grand Palais
    Each year, Monumenta invites a leading artist to engage with the monumental nave of the Grand Palais through the creation of a series of new works. After Anselm Kiefer in 2007, Richard Serra takes up the challenge, disrupts our relationship to the architectural setting and offers a unique experience designed to challenge our perception of balance and gravity.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Yona Friedman, architecte
    (> 15/06/2008) - Bordeaux
    arc en rêve centre d’architecture
    Cette exposition monographique est consacrée à l’oeuvre d’un architecte atypique des années 60, humaniste et pédagogue inlassable au service de l’habiter.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Architecture japonaise 1996-2006 / Parallel Nippon
    (> 21/06/2008) - Paris
    Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris
    This exhibition presents 10 years of Japanese architecture and shows how the architects have adapted themselves to the new challenges of a changing world : Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, Toyo Ito, Kengo Kuma, Kazuyo Seijima...
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Mega City in China
    (> 31/07/2008) - Toulouse
    Centre Méridional de l'Architecture et de la Ville
    Urban development in China
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Dominique Perrault
    (11/06 - 22/09/2008) - Paris
    Centre Pompidou
    The first very important exhibition dedicated to the French architect Dominique Perrault, after Christian de Portzamparc (1996), Renzo Piano (2000), Jean Nouvel (2001), Thom Mayne (2006) and Richard Rogers (2007).
    --- Go to the site ---

  • La peau. Entre texture et ossature
    (> 31/12/2008) - Paris
    Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine - Palais de Chaillot
    The building’s skin has always been a challenge for the architects and the builders. The scenography of this exhibition conceived by the architects Hamonic+Masson presents 14 projects recently realized or under construction in France.
    --- Go to the site ---
- GREAT-BRITAIN -
  • Take Away
    (> 8/06/2008) - Glasgow
    The Lighthouse
    Take Away looks at the culture of takeaway food and the objects associated with eating on the move.
    --- Go to the site ---
  • China Design Now
    (> 13/06/2008) - London
    Victoria & Albert Museum Architecture Exhibition Gallery

    The exhibition will explore the recent explosion of new design in China, from the 2008 Olympic stadium to the most interesting fashion and graphics. It will display the work of Chinese and international designers, focussing on architecture, fashion, youth culture and graphics as well as film, photography, product and furniture design and digital media.
    --- Go to the site ---
  • Richard Rogers + Architects. From the House to the City
    (> 25/08/2008) - Londres
    Design Museum
    Recipient of the most prestigious distinction in international architecture, the 2007 Pritzker Prize, Richard Rogers is one of Britain’s most influential architects.
    --- Go to the site ---
  • Sign and Texture
    (> 19/10/2008) - London
    Tate Modern

    This display brings together works made from the 1950s onwards by painters who have explored the relationship between experience and abstract mark-making.
    --- Go to the site ---

- ITALY -
  • Il mito della velocità. Arte, motori e società nell'Italia del ‘900
    (> 18/05/2008) - Roma
    Palazzo Esposizioni

    Speed is the focal point of this fascinating and scenically spectacular exhibition devised by Contemporanea Progetti, a theme developed in all its forms through a chronological overview of the 20th century that goes on to explore a range of entrancing future scenarios.
     --- Go to the site ---
  • Made in Cassina
    (> 7/09/2008) - Milano
    Triennale
    Cassina is one of the most well-known italian furniture manufactuers, having produced hundreds of design classics with designers from around the world. to honour the company's rich history. The exhibition will display over 100 pieces by around 20 designers, demonstrating cassina's progression and transformation over the years.
    --- Go to the site ---
  • 11th International Architecture Exhibition
    (14/09 - 23/10/2008) - Venice
    Directed by Aaron Betsky the Architecture Biennale is entitled Out There: Architecture Beyond Building. According to Aaron Betsky, the Biennale "points out what should be an obvious fact: architecture is not building. Buildings are objects and the act of building leads to such objects, but architecture is something else. It is the way we think and talk about buildings, how we represent them, how we build them."
     --- Go to the site ---

- LUXEMBOURG -

  • Frédéric Prat
    (> 26/05/2008) - Luxembourg
    MUDAM
    Since the beginning of the Nineties, Frédéric Prat questions the pictorial process. Forsaking the three-dimensional illusion, the painter explores the essence of painting. The concern of his last works expresses a maculation according to color convolutions, pointing out the reality of the surface. The Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean presents a selection of paintings representative of the artists’ researches, including several works from the Mudam Collection.
    --- Go to the site ---

- NORWAY -

  • Clip/Stamp/Fold. The Radical Architecture of Little Magazines 196X-197X
    (15/05 - 3/08/2008) - Oslo
    Norsk Design - Architecture Center
    An explosion of architectural little magazines in the 1960s and 1970s instigated a radical transformation in architectural culture with the architecture of the magazines acting as the site of innovation and debate.
    The exhibition takes stock of seventy little magazines from this period, which were published in over a dozen cities. Assembling all these remarkable documents for the first time offers a unique view of a key period of architectural innovation and challenges today's architects to provoke a similar intensity. Illustration: Archigram 1964
    --- Go to the site ---

- NETHERLAND -

  • Magnum - 60 Years of Photoqraphy
    (> 12/05/2008) - Amsterdam
    Stedelijke Museum
    This retrospective is being presented to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the renowned Magnum photo and press agency. The exhibition uses photographs, books and texts to illustrate the history of Magnum year by year and gives visitors the opportunity to view work by 83 photographers, such as Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Carl de Keyzer, Martin Parr, Susan Meiselas and Leonard Freed. They have recorded every major aspect of our times, from armed conflicts and revolutions through to everyday life and outstanding personalities. Their insight and vision have enabled them to create iconic images which have been disseminated through the international press to become part of our society’s collective memory.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Roots
    (30/05 - 16/08/2008) - Amsterdam
    ARCAM

    In the exhibition, a large number of architectural projects, in which the designer’s roots have unmistakably played a role, are shown by means of photographs, drawings and models. These roots are revealed in the accompanying texts written by the designers themselves: what is so typically Japanese about Blok 65B on IJburg? What is so typically Turkish about the design for a bathhouse in Oosterpark, and how does the design for a interior reflect a Croatian background? Participating architects include: Uri Gilad (Israel), Lada Hršak (Croatia), Sebastian Janusz (Poland), Moriko Kira (Japan), Furkan Köse (Turkey), Felix Madrazo (Mexico) en Arman Akdogan (Turkey), Carina Nilsson (Sweden) and Ana Rocha (Portugal).
    --- Go to the site ---

  • NL28 Olympic Fire
    (31/05 - 31/09/2008) - Rotterdam
    NAI
    The NAI, in collaboration with the Netherlands Olympic Committee*Netherlands Sport Federation (NOC*NSF), the Berlage Institute, Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and the MVRDV firm of architects, presents ‘NL28 Olympic Fire’, an exhibition in which scale models, film, debate and theatre help visitors to imagine that the Netherlands is organising the Olympic Games in 2028, a century after the Games in Amsterdam. The NAI starts the countdown!
    --- Go to the site ---

- PORTUGAL -

  • Campaj Collection
    (> 30/12/2008) - Lisbon
    Gulbenkian Museum
    Works in the fields of the surrealims, expressuionism and neo realisme of the forties and fifties.
    --- Go to the site ---

- SWITZERLAND -

  • Action Painting
    (> 12/05/2008) - Basle
    Fondation Beyeler

    The exhibition is devoted to aspects of gestural painting from 1945 to 1965. As the history of modern painting ran its course, works of art began ever more clearly to reflect artists' individuality. Paintings increasingly took on the character of a record of their personality, as expressed through the movements of their painting hand. This development culminated in the gestural painting of the postwar period, especially in that of Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), whose abstract compositions inspired the term "Action Painting"
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Wouldn't it be nice... - 10 Utopias in Art and Design
    (> 25/05/2008) - Zürich
    Museum für Gestaltung

    Art and design have had an enduringly productive relationship. Artists and designers, as well as graphic artists, fashion designers, and architects, share common strategies, methods, and aims. While some artists employ design strategies to make socially critical statements, others use design as a way of reflecting everyday phenomena, emotions, or conceptual approaches. Many designers on the other hand, having dispensed with any belief in the ideal of neutrality, intervene increasingly in social, political, ethical, or ecological discourses. This exhibition confronts ten contemporary positions on the edge of reality, on the border of what is possible.
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  • Art Machines - Machine Art
    (> 29/06/2008) - Basle
    Museum Tinguely
    In general, we assume that artists make art - but what happens, if machines produce art? Do artists then become engineers? What is the meaning of the apparent withdrawal of artists from the creative act and what consequences does this have for the artwork’s originality and uniqueness? And what is an artwork in the first place: the machine, the product, or the act of its production? What role is granted the viewer in the course of production: interaction or exclusion? Starting with Jean Tinguely’s drawing machines from the 1950s, the exhibition jointly organized by the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and the Museum Tinguely will present art machines from different ages and contexts through to the present day.
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  • East of Eden. A Garden Show
    (17/05 - 31/08/2008) - Bern
    Zentrum Paul Klee
    Exhibitions, installations and events transform the entire Zentrum – and the grounds around it – into a dynamic theme park that places the interior spaces and exterior environment in thrilling and varying reciprocal exchange.
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Navigation


 Competitions

  • The Wood Awards (UK)
    Organisers of the 2008 Wood Awards are inviting professionals who are working with wood to enter projects now for the 2008 Wood Awards, what has become the premier awards programme for the use of nature’s most sustainable material.
    Broad entry categories are designed to attract every type and size of project in construction, joinery and furniture. With permission from the owner, anyone associated with a qualifying building or furniture project - from timber supplier to designer - can enter the project before the closing date of 21 May 2008.  It must have been completed between May 2007 and May 2008.
    The categories for entry are Commercial & Public Access, Private, Structural, Conservation/Restoration and Furniture.
    Deadline for submissions : 21/05/2008
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  • LEX, WALSALL,
    international architecture competition (UK)
    Urban Splash has now been invited to come up with plans for Phase Two, the Lex site. This is where we need a great architect to work with us to deliver yet more award winning buildings. It's a real key site that's sort of triangular in shape and bordered on two sides by canals. Our aspirations for this site are typically high. We're looking for excitement, flair, imagination - basically we're looking for the defining piece of architecture for Walsall. Give us your best - site plans, site sections and elevations to describe your thinking and approach. Other drawings or diagrams might be better at getting across ideas that underpin your big idea. You decide what you show.
    Deadline for submissions: 30/05/2008
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  • WAF Architecture Awards
     The 2008 awards are for buildings completed between 1 January 2007 and 20 June 2008. Buildings in any country, by architects of any nationality, are eligible for entry. All entries in the awards will be exhibited on site at the Festival in a gallery modelled on the Barcelona grid system, and after the Festival all entries will be permanently available on the WAF website.
    Deadline for submissions: 20/06/2008
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 Books
  • Looking at European Architecture: a Critical View
    Sylvie Lemaire, Christophe Pourtois, Caroline Vermeulen avec la collaboration d'Irena Murra (RIBA)

    Drawn up as part of the European gau:di programme (Governance, Architecture and Urbanism: a Democratic Interaction), this work brings together 27 texts written by architects and historians from the 27 Member States of the European Union, taking into account issues relating to contemporary architecture in each of their countries.
    464 pages
    15.00 €
    Editions CIVA
    English + languages of the 27 Member States of the EU
    ISBN: 978-2-9303-9126-7
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  • Barragán: l'espace et l'ombre, le mur et la couleur
    Danièle Pauly

    It is a research study dedicated to Luis Barragán (1902-1988), the world-renowned Mexican architect who has stirred up a great deal of interest over many years. Relying on the abundant iconography he left behind, the book provides a detailed view of the life and work of Barragán: his Mexican roots, Mediterranean influences, his period of functionalism right up to his full maturity as an architect.
    230 pages
    Editions Birkhauser
    French | ISBN: 978-3-7643-8706-8 | 37.82 €
    English | ISBN 978-3-7643-8705-1 | 39.90 €
    German | ISBN 978-3-7643-8704-4 | 37.23 €
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  • Détails de paysage contemporain
    Virginia McLeod

    The book gives a detailed analysis of forty recent landscaping projects across the world, from both a technical and an aesthetic perspective. These projects are classed in four different types: parks, cultural and social landscapes, and sea and lakeside landscapes. Each project is illustrated by photographs, block plans, cross sections and/or elevations and a great deal of pictorial detail on the construction itself, all stored on a CD that accompanies the book.
    192 pages
    42.00 €
    Editions du Moniteur
    French
    ISBN: 978-2-2811-9357-2
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