Grafton Architects #39; Institut Mines Telecom in Paris

By: Architects Journal

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Grafton Architects' Institut Mines Telecom in Paris - Video

MANILA, PhilippinesTo a regular audience, Architects will sound no more than a fist forcing its way inside an ear. But to avid fans of this British band from Brighton, England, this group of fourSam Carter on vocals, Tom Searle on guitar and keyboard, Alex Dean on bass, and Dan Searle on drumsis the truth, akin to a mirror reflecting anything standing right in front of it.

Having released six studio albums and one split EP since 2006, Architects have explored numerous sounds that helped make the bands musicality evolve. And apparent enough, from the two-minute To the Death track of its debut album Nightmares to the seemingly candid but accurate Gravedigger of its 2014 LP Lost Forever // Lost Together, much has changed with Architects.

If there is one thing that remained steady in the bands run in the music industry, it is the downright honest lyrics that the quartet brings to the table that is constant and unfazed. And this was exactly what they brought to Manila when they played an hour and a half-long show at the SM North Edsa Skydome last Feb. 7a showcase of sharp words paired with above average mastery of the strings and the percussion.

Brutal, casual

Carter was casual on stage while chanting gripping words from tracks Broken Cross, The Devil is Near, Dead Man Talking, Castles in the Air, and Alpha Omega. He wasnt even hopping aroundsomething you somehow expect from a band vocalist. But the message of each song they performed delivered the brutal tang expected of the Architects.

Whether its a matter of the heart or of the society, Architects can only sing honestly about anything.

In a plain black wife beater top (and dark denim jeans), Carter and the rest of the group continued to kill the stage with Naysayer, Youth is Wasted on the Young, These Colours Dont Run, The Distant Blue, and Gravedigger, among five others.

Carter dropped the F word a number of times that night, if not a hundred. And the audience just banged their head and body to the music while some ran and went infinite in a circle pit.

If anything, Architects felt like a fine fist bump to the earsthanks to the engulfing melody the band plays. And the screams were rather enthralling than intolerable.

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British band Architects plays sharp music in Manila

Stanton Williams Architects
Central Saint Martins is flying the flag for art and design education in the UK, despite short-sighted government policies. Monocle meets the principals at Stanton Williams, the architects...

By: Monocle Magazine

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Stanton Williams Architects - Video

By KNA

Two people died and 40 others were injured after a building collapsed in Huruma

The Board of Registration of Architects and Quantity Surveyors (BORAQS) has issued a stern warning against landlords who prevent professionals from inspecting and supervising their buildings.

Speaking Tuesday in Nairobi , the chairman of Board of Registration of Architects and Quantity Surveyors Kenya Cosmas Maweu warned the landlord should they continue defying the law.

Maweu said that the enforcement of building laws and regulations has been hampered by lack of technical and supervisory staff and as a result there is a serious lack of proper trained artisans and inspectors.

The board decried poorly trained artisans who carry out constructions in the country leading to collapse of most buildings.

The board urged the stakeholders and artisans to register on their website, http://www.boraqs.go.ke for further trainings as it is committed to instill professionalism in the building sector.

Nairobi city county government has a statutory power to regulate and manage all the building developments within its jurisdiction pursuant to part 11 of the 4th schedule, County Government Act 2012, Urban Areas and Cities Act 2011, Physical Planning Act Cap 286 and other related statutes, said Maweu.

Maweus remark comes after the recent building which collapsed in Nairobi in Huruma which led to loss of lives and many injured.

According to the register of BORAQS Kenya, Patrick Githinji who designed the building is not an architect.

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Architects board warns defiant landlords

Los Angelesbased Morphosis Architects has been selected to design a new 100-suite hotel adjacent the Therme Vals spa in Switzerland designed by Peter Zumthor. The spa, which was completed in 1996, features walls of locally sourced Valser quartzite slabs and a grass roof.

The new hotel design by Morphosis was selected from designs by eight firms including New Yorkbased Steven Holl Architects and London-based Studio 6a Architectsvia a juried competition led by Sauerbruch Hutton co-founder Louisa Hutton. The client for the project, 7132, already operates a hotel near the spa.

Morphosis founder Thom Mayne, who was awarded the Pritzker Prize for architecture four years before Zumthor, said in a statement: "We are thrilled about the jury's decision and look forward to working with a visionary client to create a unique design that resonates with this incredible destination in the Alps."

Morphosiss winning design will be revealed later this month at an event in New York.

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Morphosis to Design Hotel Adjacent to Zumthors Therme Vals Spa

Political unrest and sporadic violence on highways and roads in Bangladesh provided the backdrop to a three-day architectural conference in the countrys capital, Dhaka, in mid-January. Organized by the Bengal Foundation, a private trust dedicated to promoting the arts in Bangladesh, the event brought together speakers such as Fumihiko Maki, William J.R. Curtis, and Ken Yeang to examine how notions of place and presence shape the built environment. Other participants included architects Hctor Fernndez Elorza from Spain, John Lin from Hong Kong, Anupama Kundoo from India, and Palinda Kannangara from Sri Lanka, and landscape architect Kongjian Yu from China, among others.

Photo Architectural Record

Crowded street in the old city Dhaka.

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Although the conference was not affected by the political turmoil, it took place while Bangladeshs top opposition leader was being held in virtual house arrest and opposition activists were trying to impose an embargo on deliveries to the capital city. In the first two weeks since the call for an embargo was made on January 5, at least 23 people had been killed, mostly by fire bombings of buses and vehicles on highways leading to Dhaka.

Undeterred, nearly 2,400 people each daymostly architects and studentsattended the free conference, called EngageDhaka. Architect Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury, who runs the Dhaka firm Urbana, served as director of the event, which was the Bengal Foundations first major foray into architecture. The organization, which is headed by businessman and art collector Abul Khair, publishes magazines and books on the arts and runs an annual Indian classical music festival that draws up to 60,000 people. It hopes to mount the architecture conference on an annual basis too.

At EngageDhaka, Khair announced the establishment of the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes, and Settlements, a multidisciplinary program that will start in August and be directed by architect and educator Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, who comes from Bangladesh and is currently teaching at the University of Hawaii. We need a new kind of urbanism, said Ashraf about Dhaka, a mega-city of 15 million people that sits at the mouth of an enormous delta fed by the countrys 700 rivers. The challenge for designers will be to accommodate urban growth without harming the citys landscape and hydrology, said Ashraf. Form follows flow, he noted. Emphasizing the connection between the city and the countryside, Khair told the audience, As an architect, you must go out to the villages and be a villager.

In addition to the official topic of place and presence, a recurring theme of many of the 14 presentations was the impact of climate change, a critical issue in a country of nearly 160 million people living mostly at sea level and threatened by rising oceans. Kongjian Yu, who heads the Chinese landscape architecture firm Turenscape and will serve on the faculty of the new Bengal Institute, stated, Landscape architecture is about survival. Its about infrastructure, planning, food, water, and cultural identity. His point was underlined by a freak hailstorm the night before the last day of the conference, an almost unheard of weather event for Dhaka in the usually dry month of January.

Likening the built environment to a prosthetic attached to a host organismin this case, Earths biospherearchitect and ecologist Ken Yeang said architects job was to successfully integrate their projects with the natural systems that support the planet. He described the various strategies he has used in his buildings and planning projects to make this bio-integration happen. Good design must be functional and livable, but ultimately, it must make people happy, he said.

Anupama Kundoo, who practices in India and teaches in Madrid and Ithaca, NY, gave the most personal talk at the conference, which she titled Uprootedness and the Sense of Place. Though she was born in India, her family comes from Dhaka and moved to India before with the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. The morning before her talk, Kundoo visited for the first time the house her grandparents had left seven decades ago. She showed an old black-and-white photograph of the imposing mansion in the 1930s and then a color shot of the ruined building today.

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Architects Take the Stage in Bangladesh

A little more than two years ago, local architects Jeff Kidder and Chip Wachter took their shot at creating a redevelopment plan for the 12.5 acres along Erie's west bayfront that was once home to the GAF Materials Corp.

Their proposal, which promoted a dense, urban atmosphere and suggested a mix of recreational, retail and residential options for the site, generated significant buzz at public meetings and on social media.

No one asked Kidder and Wachter to create their plan; they said they did so because they care about Erie's future.

The property's owner, Erie Events, had spent time and money creating its own preliminary concept for the site, but it paid attention to what Kidder and Wachter created.

Now the two architects have a tangible stake in the waterfront parcel's future.

Their firm, Kidder Wachter Architecture & Design, has been hired by Erie Events -- until recently known as the Erie County Convention Center Authority -- to develop a new concept plan for the former GAF site, aimed at detailing the best use for the property.

The firm is being paid between $85 and $145 per hour for its work, and its fees are not to exceed $100,000, said Chuck Iverson, Erie Events' director of finance and administration.

Neither Kidder nor Wachter would disclose details of the concept plan, which will be unveiled in spring.

They did say, however, that their plan will include a mixed-use concept that includes housing, retail, offices and green space, as well as the layout for roads, sidewalks, streetlights and underground utilities at the site.

It will also suggest the best ways to complement the nearby Bayfront Convention Center and Sheraton Erie Bayfront Hotel, as well as the $54 million Courtyard by Marriott and parking garage project under construction in that area.

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Erie architects take 2nd swing at GAF plan

Washington, DC (PRWEB) February 10, 2015

The year 2014 was the 24th year of operation for OTJ Architects, headquartered in Washington, DC. It also marked a year of change, growth and continued success.

In October, Ania Leeson became Studio Director and was named an Associate at the end of the year. A registered architect and LEED Accredited Professional with a Masters in Architecture from Harvard University, her career has spanned 10 years with the past four years being at OTJ. Anias technical background and experience were integral in leading and designing two of OTJs showpiece projects: National Restaurant Association and National Trust for Historic Preservation, which were both recently featured in the Washington Business Journal.

Laura Kennington, who previously served as Director of Business Development & Marketing Strategy, was named Partner in December. Having joined OTJ nine years ago, she leads the marketing and business development teams and is involved in setting the strategic direction of the firm. She is an active member of the real estate community and currently serves on the Jubilee Support Alliance Auxiliary Board and is involved in organizations such as CoreNet Global, CADRE and Commercial Real Estate Marketers. Her local involvement also includes being a former Co-Director of the Real Estate Games for JDRF and member of Commercial Real Estate for Women.

Other OTJ staff named Associates in 2014 include: Annette Carter, Kaan Dilber, Brett Hartle, Travis Herret and Elizabeth Long.

In addition to these individual accomplishments, firm-wide success can be seen in projects successfully completed in 2014 several detailed below and also include national work for Strayer University, Level 3 and a leading banking and financial institution.

United Educators To allow for growth and open up the floor plate, our design placed workstations along the window line, with 80 percent of offices on the interior. The lunchroom, or bistro, was moved to the interior and provides a social, collaborative space for staff to gather. Because it is not on the window line, we included a floor-to-ceiling bamboo wall decal to provide an organic, outdoorsy element in the space.

Council on Competitiveness Council on Competitivenesss main focus was the design of its 50-person conference room, which is used for board meetings and may be rented for use by other organizations. The nonprofit also wanted to solely use American products because its mission is to increase the nations competitiveness in the global market; therefore, 99 percent of the products found in the space were made in the United States.

Global Integrity Global Integrity, a permanent tenant in a co-working office, has an open office design incorporating perimeter phone rooms, a variety of meeting rooms, charging stations, a large pantry and a 2,000 SF event space complete with a bar and foosball table. Touchdown desks are available to rent for visitors, as is the event space, which is used for educational and networking events.

SunEdison SunEdisons office features contemporary details and abstract materials to reinforce the brand including a sunburst graphic in the conference room and light fixtures that mimic the sun in reception. An elegant staircase also connects the floors functionally and spatially and promotes cohesion between the two floors, which will eventually house separate divisions.

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2014 Marks Individual and Firm-Wide Successes for OTJ Architects

ST. PETERSBURG Seven design teams are gearing up to make their pitches for a chance to fashion the city's next Pier, the seventh since 1889.

Each group of architects and assorted professionals two with strong hometown connections will make their presentations this week to a mayoral committee that will select the top three for the $46 million project.

In addition to determining what the city's latest incarnation of the Pier will look like, each group is being judged on how its vision will sustain the interest of residents and tourists alike, complement the city's waterfront plan, navigate a formidable permitting process and free taxpayers from subsidies.

As the teams have responded to concerns in a technical report and from the project's construction manager, they've brought their concepts in line with the $33 million construction budget, city architect Raul Quintana said.

Looking toward the next round, two concepts Prospect Pier and Destination St. Pete Pier both with local ties and plans to save the inverted pyramid, are sentimental favorites. But a Tampa firm planning to demolish the 1973 structure and erect a condolike tower could win support for its Alma concept from fans of the controversial avant-garde design once proposed to replace the pyramid.

Other teams, seemingly hedging their bets with a fractious public, vary in plans for the pyramid. One will strip it of its "cladding and additions" to accentuate its iconic form for a concept called rePier. Another would reuse only the massive caissons and elevator shafts for Pier Park. A New York team will save only the caissons for its Blue Pier concept, while an Orlando firm will top the iconic structure with a diamond-shaped sculpture for its Discover Bay Life concept.

The options

Here's what each team's chances look like:

W Architecture and Landscape Architecture's Blue Pier got the best rating concerning subsidies. The New York firm, though, will have to explain its idea for 3.5 acres of lagoons and address concerns about permitting. It plans to replace the inverted pyramid with a 30-foot-high sloped lawn and is one of the few concepts to offer transient docks within its budget, an amenity residents have said they want. But the team's proposals for dining, another must-have, were questioned by the city's report, which said the group included no shell spaces for them in its budget. The team has since added a building on the uplands for a burger shack and cafe, but says other facilities are proposed for future or concurrent development based on public-private investment. The concept is ranked lowest for revenue potential.

Discover Bay Life from VOA of Orlando ranked low for revenue. The team will keep the inverted pyramid, removing nonstructural stucco exterior walls. The technical report raised concerns about birds nesting in the structure. The firm says it will install "bird rejection apparatus." Responding to fear that the "multiple moving components" of the diamond could deteriorate because of exposure to salt spray, the firm noted that Milwaukee has operated a similar structure for nine years, "in a similar environment with higher temperature variances."

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It's showtime for firms hoping to design St.Petersburg's new pier

Fawley-Bryant Architects Inc. has redesigned the entrance of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota. The entry canopy will be updated, and lighting, Cooley Theater and educational displays will be improved.

Fawley Bryant Architects Inc. is continuing its work with Marie Selby Botanical Gardens by designing improvements to the gardens' entrance.

The new project follows and complements the firm's successful redesign of Selby Gardens' Great Room By the Bay, the popular wedding and reception venue overlooking Sarasota Bay.

The renovation to the Welcome Center will update the entry canopy and lighting, Cooley Theater and educational displays about the Gardens and its botanical mission.

The membership sales area, daily sales counters and the gift shop will receive such improvements as accessible entryways for guests with disabilities.

Restrooms at the gift shop and caf will receive cosmetic upgrades.

Tandem Construction will manage construction, as it did with on the Great Room renovation.

"Marie Selby would be proud that we continue to fulfill her dream of making the Gardens accessible to all of Sarasota's citizens and visitors," Cathy Layton, Selby Gardens' Board of Trustees' chairwoman, said in a written statement..

The main goals of the design are capitalizing on the beauty of the grounds and improving the visitors' experience, staff/operational efficiency, and security, Fawley Bryant said.

Staff report

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Fawley Bryant makes front of Selby Gardens look good too