MAY
Winning the Architecture category of the International Design Awards is Ward + Blake for their EarthWall 2 house.
The architects consider their design a product of the site’s spatial qualities, in particular its flat vast horizons, and a product of the physical material of the site, the earth itself. Read more
APR
The Great Fen Visitor Centre is a convincing attempt to intervene in a delicate landscape that man has radically altered since the 17th century, but which nature has resolved into a stable ecosystem of great beauty and value. The Fens were marshlands drained for agriculture. Subsequently, great swathes of peat were cut from the land for both fuel and agricultural nutrient. The result now, is a series of waterways teaming with diverse wildlife.
The French Practice CMJN won a competition with this delicate proposal they liken to a precise surgical intervention that, like acupuncture, works to enhance the natural rhythms and resources of the body. Their aim is to cause minimal disruption to the site’s ecological balance, whilst restoring the landscape to work more closely with the annual cycles of rising and receding water. Read more
MAR
The pioneering industrial city of Manchester, long past its prime as the capital of cotton, is rediscovering its mojo through interesting and sustainable architecture.
This head quarter office building, part of a mixed use development that includes retail and residential, sits squat and powerful next to a tower in a defiant kind of way; something like an ugly, powerful, but lovable bull dog might sit at its master’s feet.
That is not to say the building is ugly, far from it, but it is powerful and it exudes a kind of attitude that is entirely appropriate for its setting and its client, The Co-operative. They hang their hat on their sustainability and ethical credentials. Read more
FEB
The recent meteor strike over Russia has shaken anybody who thought that these things only happened in the minds of scientists and film makers.
It is fortuitous therefore that a Russian architect, Alexander Remizov, has created a proposal for an Ark able to withstand floods and earthquake. It raises the question as to what provision we should make for disaster recovery? Read more
JAN
When getting married in a church or temple of some kind, the solemnity and gravity of the occasion is perhaps rendered in the notion of standing before God or a God, depending on your beliefs. But where spaces are not dedicated to a single, or any faith, and religious symbols are absent, how does the architect spatially anchor the weight of the ritual?
Brooks Scarpa Architectshave proposed this scheme that focuses its attention on the perceived constancy of the Pole or North star, whose light if it could be seen, would illuminate the alter through a high-level aperture.
