Magazines, Announcements, and Awards

Catching up with a bit of inbox overload this week. Some announcements from your favorite magazines. First up, the winners of the AR Awards for Emerging Architecture were recently announced:


Wall House. by FAR: Frohn & Rojas, of Santiago.


Vegetation Installation, by Taketo Simohigoshi/AAE of Tokyo.


Ecoboulevard, by the Madrid-based Ecosistema Urbano Arquitectos.

Next up, Metropolis is currently accepting entries for the eleventh annual EDRA/Places Awards for Place Design, Planning and Research.



They're also looking for submissions for the 2008 Next Generation Design Competition. This year's theme is WATER:

We call on your innovative design solutions at all scales and sizes—products, interiors, buildings, landscapes, communication systems, or anything else you’ve dreamed up—for handling this most precious and most threatened natural resource. The time for new thinking on water is now.

The deadline for this one is January 4th, so quit reading blogs and get designin'.


And last but most certainly not least, Wallpaper Magazine has launched another new feature to their website, which has drastically improved in both quality and content during this past year. With an interface very similar to their 101 Architects Directory, The Wallpaper Graduate Directory features 110 recent graduates in the fields of design, fashion, photography, art, and graphics. Below, the "Theatre for Magicians," designed by Sara Shafei of the Bartlett School of Architecture, London.

Life Without Buildings is inspired to champion a new cause: More Architecture for Magicicans!

David Adjaye's Whitechapel Idea Store

As an unabashed fan of David Adjaye's work, I was very much looking forward to visiting his Whitechapel Idea Store during my recent visit to London. My expectations were high, and I'm glad to say that the building most definitely did not disappoint.

The Idea Store – Adjaye's work in general, really – show's an incredible awareness of context. Although not as subtle as much of his work, the use of colored glass, drawn from vendor's tents of the adjacent market, not only animates the exterior of the building, but also casts brilliant dynamic shadows on the interior.



The entrance to the building – or what should be the entrance to the building – projects out prominently over the sidewalk; further integrating the building within the neighborhood. An entry escalator slips between the sidewalk and the building - a liminal threshold from interior to exterior, that was closed, I was told, for "safety reasons." No further explanations were offered.





Ample space is provided for the classrooms, studios, and workshops, but each programatic component isn't necessarily relegated to a separate part of the building. Successfully integrating program elements in this manner seems like it will ensure that all floors are used, while prevent the manifestation of dead spaces.



Shelves and desks are integrated into the the building's structural system and facade. Every component of the building seems to be supporting another. There is a definite sense of cohesion and coherence within the Whitechapel Idea Store that unfortunately, this seems to be lacking all to often in contemporary architecture.







As always, more photos can be found on the Life Without Buildings flickr page.

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The Bat House Project

The Bat House Project is the brainchild of Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller. Deller's film "Memory Bucket," for which he was awarded the prestigious British Prize, features eight minutes of footage of bats flying from a cave in Texas. After winning, Deller announced that he intended to build a bat habitat that "would be a piece of architecture, a sculpture and a living, working object.” In collaboration with the Arts Council of England and the Bat Conservation Trust, he launched Bat House Competition in 2006, inviting entrants to "imagine, design and build a home for bats in London"

Open to all ages, the competition was divided into 3 categories: 1) architects and design professionals, 2) students and the general public, and 3) school kids. Currently, many of the top submissions are on display at the RIBA building in London, and they've confirmed what many of us have long since believe - kids are geniuses:







The overall winner was the team of Jorgen Tandberg and Yo Murata, who submitted their entry in the student / general public category. Their design is a simple wood and concrete structure enclosing a series of what looks like laser-cut plywood fabricated and placed to create a habitat uniquely suited to accommodate bats. Judges called the design "beautiful, poetic and unexpected, combining state-of-the-art technology with a rural and romantic aesthetic."





Just for fun, let's take a look at a couple more entries.



The category 1 winning entry, designed by Andrew Brown, Gareth Jones, and James Falconer included multiple types of habitats for different climates and species of bats. Although Buckminster Fuller would be proud, the judges questioned the practicality of airlifting bat habitats.

And a Category 2 entry designed by Alexander Bartscher & Elisabeth Deutschmann, who separated out the "batspace" of a house from the typical humanspace:



The bat house exhibition will be on display at RIBA until January 26th. For more information, and to see other entries, visit the Bat House Project website.