February 16

A House for Lady Gaga – Alternative Announcements

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Remember the A House for Lady Gaga competition we posted last week? Being the polyhedric pop singer always changing her looks and shifting from one character to another, ICARCH Gallery coulnd’t just make one announcement for their contest. In fact they made five, and today we are posting all of the remaining ones. The first is below, the others for you to download here, here, and here.


January 2010. Lady Gaga is appointed creative director for a specialty line of Polaroid Imaging products

A HOUSE FOR LADY GAGA

What is a freak…?
If we look in a dictionary, we learn that it is “a thing or occurrence that is markedly unusual or irregular” or “an abnormally formed organism, especially a person or animal regarded as a curiosity or monstrosity.”
There are other meanings as well, but this will do.
Why is Lady Gaga insisting that her main interest is the “freak…?”
She even claims that herself was a freak, at least earlier in her life.
But was / is it so…? She seems sufficiently gifted and sufficiently successful, at all levels, to imagine otherwise. But maybe it is the perennial sympathy that the authentic artist has towards the underprivileged, the misrepresented, the disadvantaged, the irregular, the misfit, the weak… and if this is the case, cheers to Lady Gaga! Let’s only hope she remains so.
Read more

February 4

Apartment Fandl by schlosser+partner in Graz, Austria

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(Introduction by Aresha Gul, materials courtesy of schlosser+partner, photos by Croce&Wir)


Imagine a white canvas, with absolutely no sketch, no color, not even a single dot, placed in the middle of many colorful paintings and drawings in a room. Obviously a keen eye and an artistic mind will gaze upon all the paintings, perhaps critically or appreciatively, until it focuses on the raw canvas with nothing on it. Now, a question will arise in one’s mind that whether this canvas is yet to be painted upon, or maybe it is of no use at all. Hence, an empty white canvas will provoke a keen mind to think for some time as other more colorful pieces of art are juxtaposed around it. The same reaction takes place when we look at the Apartment Fandl, a private residence, where the client specifically asked the architects to plan and build something which her eye had caught while browsing through other colorful buildings and modern contemporary or conventional architectural plans or houses. The predominant color is white, representing purity, simplicity, & elegance. This simple bright and pristine design stands out prominently when placed side by side with other more colorful interiors. The plain white simplicity glows like the sun, actually drowning the other colorful designs by its sheer presence, and dominating the mind of the viewer who otherwise is attracted to color. Read more

January 25

Architect Kamil Khan Mumtaz in the spotlight. A frank chat

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(Text by Aresha Gul in co-operation with Kamil Khan Mumtaz Architects, all projects and images © Kamil Khan Mumtaz Architects)

Lahore, my city, is blessed with beautiful and unique architecture. To find the true soul of Lahore you must visit the Old Walled City which dates back hundreds of years. The Walled City includes lovely buildings, homes and a network of small, narrow streets which take you back in time to relive history.

The typical home was the “Haveli”. This word comes from “Hava” that is “wind”, as the Haveli was the traditional design, with large airy verandahs on all sides, high ceilings and an atrium in the middle for lighting. Haveli gave way to modern residences and buildings, though the wave of contemporary design could not wipe out the beauty and sensible pragmatism of the Haveli. It’s not surprising that the traditional Pakistani home is now back in vogue. Architect Kamil Khan Mumtaz is among those architects and designers experimenting with the haveli form and succeeding in a delicate blend between the traditional and the contemporary.

Sara Zaman Residence, Cavalry Ground, LAhore; © Kamil Khan Mumtaz Architects Read more

January 6

hometta.com

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(Text by Nicola Bozzi)

In his Manifesto of Futurist Architecture, Antonio Sant’Elia despised all architecture that wasn’t built for the people inhabiting it. Decades later, the Archigram group was designing computer-inspired visions of modular living units, focusing on human scale living spaces and the use of technology to make the best of urban living. Designing and building your own home is still too hard to do on your own, but while we wait for a technology that will allow everybody – regardless or design or architectural education – to build their own place like Lego, we can still get somebody to help us in the process of choosing and building our shelters. Today, if you are looking for both relatively-customized design and tailored assistance, as well as a relatively simple interface, you can turn to the Hometta guys. Read more

November 24

House in Canobbio by Davide Macullo Architects

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(All images courtesy of Davide Macullo Architects)

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Nestled on the Alpine slopes north of Lugano, this house is characterised by a volumetric architecture that emerges from the terrain and follows the natural contour of the land. Its constructed volumes embrace the land in an organic and fluent sequence of spaces, each relating to each other and to the surrounding landscape. In order to communicate an identity and a language to the inhabitants, the project has a strong and precise form, its clearly identifiable geometric structure delimits an organised development of spaces. Carved in a clear square geometry, the spaces meet the slope and extend in a spiral, fluent movement that continuously changes the perception of the space and its relationship to the exterior, offering striking panoramic views across the hinterland and to Lake Lugano. Read more

October 28

Ecohouse by Filippo Taidelli and OneOffice in Curno, Bergamo
2009 SAIE Selection award

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[Read the Italian version of this post]

(Text by Angelica Di Virgilio, all images courtesy of Filippo Taidelli Studio)

Saie Selection. Low cost & low energy sustainable housing
Exhibit and convention, SAIE 2009
from October 28 to October 31, 2009.

Within the International Building Exhibition, SAIE 2009, the Low cost & low energy sustainable housing exhibition opens today. The event features a selection of 24 low-cost and low-energy sustainable housing projects selected after the SAIE Selection competition promoted by BolognaFiere in co-operation with Archi-Europe Group, Edilio and under the sponsorship of ArchitettiBologna, Consiglio Nazionale degli Architetti, Pianificatori, Paesaggisti e Conservatori and of Coordinamento Nazionale dei Giovani Architetti Italiani. The jury together with chairman architect Mario Cucinella selected 24 projects and concepts (12 for young architects and 12 for students) in 4 categories: brick, metal&glass wood and concrete. We use this occasion to present the project which has attracted our attention the most, that is the Ecohouse designed by architect Filippo Taidelli and OneOffice.

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This project, which was originally elaborated on a previous ideas competition on sustainable housing promoted by Agogroup last spring, shows an interesting balance between the sustainable and technical strategies and the architectural pattern. Starting from a simple parallelepiped and specific studies on the orientation, the volume is developed towards two directions in order to allow the single flats to enjoy a good exposure to the sun and consequently a remarkable energy saving. Read more

September 29

Post-eartquake L’Aquila and Expo 2015: our next chances

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I’ve walked among the streets of L’Aquila’s “red zone” for hours.
Before the night of April 6, 2009 the historical center was the working heart of the city. It housed more than 40.000 people, about 4500 shops and firms employing almost 20.000 people.
I walked in a deserted city, hurt by Mother Nature. I wandered about the streets and lanes, surrounded by an inhuman silence which clashed with the richness and space quality L’Aquila was able to create over the centuries.
Broken buildings all around, crashed churches, streets crammed with ruins and laden with grief. And then, the first works of structural containment, the delicate care used by the Civic Protection and the Superintendence towards the wounded places. An unreal landscape, asking for careful and important solutions concerning the future.
I wonder about the micro-migrations compelling people, resources and stories from the centre towards other places. What kind of city will L’Aquila be? And, as soon as the city center will be re-opened, in eight or ten years, who will come back? What kind of desires?

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Chiesa Santa Maria del Suffragio, the spider supporting framework set by firemen on june 5

Chiesa Santa Maria del Suffragio, the spider supporting framework set by firemen on June 5

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Read more

September 25

Student Housing in Epinay by ECDM

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(photos © Benoît Fougeirol, all materials courtesy of ECDM)

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The conception of our project joins in a second reading of the landscape of the road of Saint leu, by integrating its history and its transformations to assert the manners and the qualities and reveal the poetry of the place. The project will have to play the role of revelation of a district in future, articulation of a split up territory, a synthesis of a town planning consisted of industrial and commercial buildings, detached flags of the last century, complexes and public equipments. The stakes are to impose a politeness on a secondary road, to desynchronize the shelf space built by the rhythm of the automobile, to modify the perception of a landscape having undergone without having controlled it the transformation of its territory. The politeness is there, but very little legible; it is a question of making it the evident presence. Read more

August 17

Anglesea House by Andrew Maynard Architects

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all images @ Andrew Maynard Architects

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More frequently holiday homes are becoming little more than transplanted suburban ugliness; the great Australian tradition of the ‘shack’ is in danger of being superseded by bloated mansions with four bathrooms and all the trappings of modern life.
With this project we set out to celebrate the holiday shack without adopting shack typology and as such we have kept close to the original building’s footprint to avoid taking over the rugged coastal block. Read more

August 6

The 12xMilano series
Private enterprise VS current masterplans by Librizzi, Cassani, Gangemi

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[Read the Italian version of this post, with an interview to Francesco Librizzi]

(Here’s the sixth video from 12xMilano, the exhibition currently on show at Milan’s Urban Center. Today we’re presenting you the project Private enterprise VS current masterplans: A catalogue of strategies by Francesco Librizzi, Matilde Cassani, Sara Gangemi)

In 2009 a great economic depression and the collapse of the stock market due to financial wild policies, are having tremendous consequences worldwide.

Every government of every country has asked citizens to help reducing the huge debt by extra taxes and contributions.
The Italian government has proposed a highly enticing economic device to allure the citizens by addressing their secret little desire.
Government has appealed to the low sense of public interest and the hyper-trophic sense of private property the Italian citizens have.
85% of Italians own the house they live in.
100% of Italians would like to enlarge their house very much.
Then: what about allowing people to add extra volumes to their houses, totally overstepping the existing city plans and rules?
‘Pay only a little fee, and you can make your home one room bigger’.
The power of the Made in Italy ideas.
According to the Italian president, if only 10% of Italians would decide to renew and enlarge their houses, that would trigger a 70 billion euros business, which means 4% of GDP. Read more

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