Klekotki Spa & Wellness facility

The Klekotki Spa & Wellness facility designed by Marek Rytych Architecture

Louis Kahn's Exeter Library

a dramatic capture of Louis Kahn's Exeter Library

17 words of architectural inspiration

on the boards: Frederiksberg Courthouse

Architects 3XN has won an architectural competition for the Frederiksberg Courthouse in Denmark. The new Courthouse will be a natural extension of the existing neo-classical building and is intended to express a welcoming transparency whilst maintaining the sobriety and seriousness of the justice system.

images via 3XN

on the boards: Museum of the West

The 45,000 sf Museum of the West is to be located in Scotsdale, Arizona. This proposal by architects Jones Studio draws inspiration from a straw hat filtering the sun and mitigating the heat.

on the boards: Mauer Museum

A competition proposal for the Mauer Museum in Berlin on the site of checkpoint Charlie by HWKN architects is defined by a solid volume (defined by the height of the old Berlin wall) hovering over a transparent public space.

House of the Week 049: the Spaghetti House

Originally designed as a graduate thesis project, architect David Baker built and resided in the Spaghetti House in the 1980s. Built in San Francisco, California the house is actually the renovation of a dilapidated 1911 stucco duplex that used every inch of available lot space. The house smartly and quietly uses alternative energy sources integrated into architecture.

blog wunderlust: 23 November 2009

The blog wunderlust is a weekly round up summarizing the architectural highlights, news and web links, that don't otherwise fit the format of this blog. If you have any to share feel free to drop me an email.

chocolate mies | the Impact of the Bauhaus | another modern dog house or prefab for pets | the wall vanishes | the work of MC Escher in LEGO | old school meets high tech | a fine line between drawing and sculpture | The Architect as Totalitarian | Zaha meets the Pontif

Architects believe that not only do they sit at the right hand of God, but that if God ever gets up, they take the chair

Karen Moyer

Dutch Profiles: Benthem Crouwel Architects

Dutch Profile on Benthem Crouwel Architects

also check out the profile on designer Hella Jongerius

Studio Banana TV ::: Benedetta Tagliabue

Studio Banana TV interviews Italian architect Benedetta Tagliabue from the studio Miralles-Tagliabue (EMBT)in Barcelona.

on the boards: Taipei Music Centre

The competition entry for the Taipei Music Centre by Italian architects Nabito consists of a simple twist on a rectangular from which visuals are projected and the sun's rays are captured.
more via design boom

on the boards: Baton Rouge Downtown Library

The design programme for the proposed library in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana by Trahan Architects is curtained around the service core resembling an extruded accordion. 

more

on the boards: Łódź Public Library

Designed as a graduate project, the Łódź Public Library by Maciek Grelewicz’ includes alongside a traditional and media library, a cafe, exhibition spaces and a roof terrace, contained in a golden lettered skin.

House of the Week 048: Sorrento

Perched on a large elevated deck, this low key beach house by Marcus O’Reilly Architects, sits on an eucalyptus tree filled site in the Mornington Peninsula in Australia. This eco-responsive dwelling utilises passive means to limit the effects of the environment and uses local materials, in the sandstone walls and tea tree stake sunshades in a nod to the local vernacular.

images by Dianna Snape

happy birthday Rem

Today is the 65th birthday of Dutch architect and 2000 Pritzker Prize Laurette Rem Koolhaas and at an age when most have to legally retire he seems to be going as strong as ever and such I've decided to do a post devoted specifically to all things Rem. Happy Birthday.

1975 ::: sets up the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA)

2000 ::: awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize

2005 ::: completes the CASA Musica in Porto, Portugal

House of the Week 40 ::: Villa Dall'Ava , Rem caricatured , more random OMA stuff, construction photos of the CCTV in China, the OMA proposal for North Sea wind farm, the Interlace Housing, from the loins of Rem Koolhaas, an incomplete list

blog wunderlust: 16 November 2009

I live in a Steven Holl |  Palace of Grace | LEGO style | the work of Thom Mayne | vertical farms don't work |  broken glass | the women of the Bauhaus | the rolling house aka a reality show waiting to happen | an increased demand for construction software | KPF rips at the seams 

check out an interactive floor plan of the Shed House in the Isle of Skye

To make a house, you grab a fist of air and then you hold it with walls

Persian Proverb

on the boards: Humber Orangeville

Canadian Architects GH3 have revealed via their website a proposed sustainable master plan for the Humber College for a forested site in Orangeville, Ontario.

on the boards: Cycling and Pedestrian Bridge, Lisbon

A proposal by Suleiman Alhadidi of Mutation studio for a new cycling and pedestrian bridge in Lisbon, Portugal.

house of the week 47: Tubac House

In the desert of Arizona, architect Rick Joy has created a rough weathered steel exterior form that contrasts with the refinement of the soft white, steel and maple wood interior palette. The house, defined by retaining walls burrowed into the hillside, is punctuated with openings that frame articulated views of the landscape.

No house should ever be on a hill [...] It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together each the happier for the other

Frank Lloyd Wright

blog wunderlust: 09 November 2009

Dubai gets a retro makeover | how big a solar panel would you need to power everyone in the world? |  a place for trace | Obama's Mayne man |  banquet origami | don't roll your eyes; architects can learn alot by playing golf | video: Berlin's Federal Foreign Office | tallest prefab skyscraper | urban sensing

The civilized man has the habits of the house. His house is his prison, in which he finds himself oppressed and confined, not sheltered and protected. He walks as if the walls would fall in and crush him.

Henry David Thoreau