The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Designed by Norway-based practice Snøhetta, in collaboration with local firm EHDD, the 10-story concrete structure will compliment SFMOMA’s original, Mario Botta-designed, red-brick museum.

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More free-to-the-public space, expanded education programs and an abundance of flexible performance-based gallery space.

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SFMOMA Expansion – Courtesy of MIR and Snøhetta
SFMOMA Expansion – Courtesy of MIR and Snøhetta

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Some Thoughts On Civilization with Mies van der Rohe

I will talk on civilization. But after a while I thought that was a very ambiguous title. It could mean a lot, it could mean the whole history of civilization.
Now what is civilization? I think it is a state of social culture marked by advances in all the world of men. It sounds like a description out of the dictionary. I know that. But to talk about civilization in the world would take a long, long time. I would not give talks on civilization in a semester. You can imagine that I cannot talk much here about that.

My definition about civilization was not a full one. There is no question that the advance in science, and I have seen it at least for more than 50 years, and I have seen it advance rapidly and in the opposite I got the impression that these things become so strong in itself that they go on forever, and that the main problem would be to be able to guide these things a little.

And that is again the question of civilization. The question if we can educate ourselves enough and not to become able to regulate things because otherwise will go out of hand.

And it, it is you, you have to build up this civilization. You have to build up the world you want to live in. And nobody else can do it for you. I have one more thing to say: Don’t worry about success.

I always tell my students, “Success is just the by-product of good, simple and honest work.” And this simple and honest work, I think, is the essence of civilization.

Snøhetta Unveils Final Design for Calgary’s Central Library

Snøhetta and DIALOG have released the final design for their competition-winning New Central Library in Calgary.

Planned for a vibrant intersection between Downtown Calgary and the East Village, the new library aims to fulfill the city’s vision for a “technologically advanced public space for innovation, research and collaboration.”

The encapsulation of the existing Light Trail Train is currently underway, and the new Calgary Public Library is expected to be completed in 2018.

At its mid-section, the building lifts to form an arched, wood-clad entry that serves as a new public plaza and directly connects pedestrians through the site from the neighboring communities.

Ordos Art & City Museum by MAD Architects

Conceived as a reaction to the strict geometry of the master plan, the Art & City museum by is an amorphous building that seems like it has landed on the earth.

Praesent sodales ante quam, eu dictum velit ornare quis. Aliquam elementum interdum elit, sollicitudin egestas libero bibendum a. Pellentesque blandit vel nisi et iaculis. Donec nec tristique arcu. Proin ac congue ante. Nunc in convallis metus. Donec luctus nisl augue, quis finibus lectus auctor nec. Cras sed rutrum lacus, eu eleifend sem. Proin faucibus consectetur metus in maximus.

Donec sodales eros sed metus consectetur, ac dapibus felis gravida. Morbi vestibulum lorem non metus pulvinar tempus. Ut non ligula ut odio ultrices tincidunt. Morbi sed hendrerit nulla.

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© Shu He
Photography Courtesy of © Shu He

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© Shu He
Photography Courtesy of © Shu He

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Courtesy of © Contacto Atlântico

Harbin Cultural Center

Influenced by both Chinese and Russian culture, Harbin is reputed as the music capital of the north. Different from other theater buildings that are normally located in the urban center, Harbin Grand Theater will not act as an isolated landmark for the city, but the natural continuation of the human spirit.

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Surrounded by rivers, the Cultural Island embraces the wide riverbank as its background appearing as a glacier stretching and connecting to each other into a cohesive whole.

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Vestibulum tincidunt, dolor sit amet placerat facilisis, ipsum ex faucibus tortor, at pellentesque turpis ipsum nec arcu.

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In Progress: Conrad Hotel by MAD

But far from the ambition of more than one hundred year ago, when people tried to challenge themselves with modern technology and future dreams, the contemporary CBD buildings are the concrete machines, copy of the copy in mass production.
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The whole building is turned into a melting box, a starting point for the urban grid to change from the solid efficiency into the liquid idea.

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conrad-hotel_2

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News via Archdaily

The Barcelona Pavilion

The Barcelona Pavilion was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as the German National Pavilion for the Barcelona International Exhibition, held on Montjuïc.

The Barcelona Pavilion, an emblematic work of the Modern Movement, has been exhaustively studied and interpreted as well as having inspired the oeuvre of several generations of architects.

Means must be subsidiary to ends and to our desire for dignity and value.
Mies Van Der Rohe

After the closure of the Exhibition, the Pavilion was disassembled in 1930. As time went by, it became a key point of reference not only in Mies van der Rohe’s own career but also in twentieth-century architecture as a whole.

Given the significance and reputation of the Pavilion, thoughts turned towards its possible reconstruction.

barcelona-pavilion-2

In 1980 Oriol Bohigas, as head of the Urban Planning Department at the Barcelona City Council, set the project in motion, designating architects Ignasi de Solà-Morales, Cristian Cirici and Fernando Ramos to research, design and supervise the reconstruction of the Pavilion.

Work began in 1983 and the new building was opened on its original site in 1986.

The Barcelona Pavilion via Fundació Mies van der Rohe.

 

Beijing’s Extraordinary Projects: Hutong Bubble

MAD’s proposal for the future Beijing 2050 was first revealed at its exhibition MAD IN CHINA in Venice during the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale.

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Three years later, the first hutong bubble has appeared in a small courtyard in Beijing.MAD Architects

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hutong-bubble-post-2
© ShuHe

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Courtesy of MAD Architects via ArchDaily

Golden State Warriors Stadium

The Golden State Warriors recently announced that Snøhetta and AECOM have been selected as the architecture team to design the Warriors’ new sports and entertainment complex on the San Francisco waterfront.

Planned for a vibrant intersection between Downtown Calgary and the East Village, the new library aims to fulfill the city’s vision for a “technologically advanced public space for innovation, research and collaboration.”

The exterior’s fritted glass openings are strategically transparent in most public areas as an attempt to encourage pedestrians to enter.

The encapsulation of the existing Light Trail Train is currently underway, and the new Calgary Public Library is expected to be completed in 2018.

© NBA.com
© NBA.com

At its mid-section, the building lifts to form an arched, wood-clad entry that serves as a new public plaza and directly connects pedestrians through the site from the neighboring communities.

All images are under copyright © NBA.com