After more than 40 years with Arup, the famed structural engineer Cecil Balmond is launching his own practice. Renowned structural engineer and designer Cecil Balmond is leaving Arup, the UK-based engineering firm where he has worked for more than 40 years. “I’m stepping out to set up my own practice,” says Balmond, who is credited with making possible some of the most audacious structures in recent decades, including the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture and the Centre Pompidou in Metz, France, by Shigeru Ban. Renowned structural engineer and designer Cecil Balmond is leaving Arup, the
For its new virtual museum, Adobe wanted more than a website designer: It wanted a forward-thinking architect who could make the space feel "physical." It turned to Filippo Innocenti, co-founder of Spin+ and an associate architect at Zaha Hadid Architects. Image courtesy Adobe Museum of Digital Media The Adobe Museum of Digital Media, located at www.adobemuseum.com, will present work by leading multimedia artists. At midnight this evening, software maker Adobe will open the new Adobe Museum of Digital Media, which will present work by leading digital artists. Like many institutions, the California-based company hired a forward-thinking architect to design a
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
Photo courtesy Siméon Duchoud/Aga Khan Trust for Culture Primary School by Diébédo Francis Kéré in Gando, Burkina Faso. Metro Cable by Urban-Think Tank in Caracas, Venezuela. Among the various trends in architectural practice that emerged in the past decade, two occupied polar sides of the spectrum. On one end, designers capitalized on the once-booming economy, conceiving grandiose towers for burgeoning cities like Dubai and Shanghai. On the other end, they turned their attention to humanitarian work, using their skills to create pragmatic buildings for those in need, from hurricane victims to slum dwellers. The latter is the focus of a
Image courtesy The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and BMW announced on Friday that they will collaborate for the next six years on a project called the BMW Guggenheim Lab, an initiative to conduct a vast research and development project that will engage the public and improve urban life. Details about the format of the Lab project and the expected results were slim. “The goal is to develop and create solutions for future cities,” said Frank-Peter Arndt, a member of the board of management from BMW Group, at a press conference held in the basement of the Guggenheim. While the project’s
Designed by RNL, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, has a matrix of innovative features. When the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden released its 506-page RFP for a non-negotiable LEED-Platinum-certified office building, it wasn’t clear how something jammed full of sustainable elements would take shape. The RFP laid out not what the building should look like but how it should perform; it was up to the design-build team to come up with the rest. At 222,000 sq ft, the Research Support Facility, completed in June, is the largest net-zero-energy
The international architecture exhibition produced every two years in Venice is a sprawling, humid, one-stop shopping experience. When done right, it’s also exhilarating. Though the strategy of showcasing architecture’s freshest ideas through national pavilions and exhibition galleries has had its drawbacks in the Architecture Biennale’s 30-year history, high-quality submissions help make this year’s show feel curated. The recurring threads of sustainability, adaptive reuse, and traditional building methods — while planning for an uncertain future — give the show an underlying coherence. This year’s director, Kazuyo Sejima of the Japanese firm SANAA, chose a remarkably enigmatic theme for the Biennale —
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