Architect: Pieta-Linda Auttila
Location: Valkosaari island in Southern Harbour of Helsinki, Finland
Building owner: UPM Kymmene
Construction: 30 to 40 m² / 150 m³
Structure: Wood
Coating: Native woods, Glass
Concept and Communication: Trust Creative Society
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: UPM

WISA Wooden Design Hotel is an architectural gem of wood situated in the maritime heart of Helsinki, capital of Finland. Around it lie the city and 200 years of architectural history. The work was designed by interior architect Pieta-Linda Auttila. She hopes to spark interest in wood and highlight its role in building and interior design. Read the rest of this entry »

Architect: Fearon Hay Architects
Location: Great Barrier Island, New Zealand
Constructed Area: 250 sqm
Project Year: 2007-2008
Photographs: Patrick Reynolds

Located on the Eastern coastline of the Huaraki Gulfs, Great Barrier Island the ‘Great Barrier House’ is a relaxed holiday destination that references traditional notions of bach occupation. Drawing inspiration from the idea of two sheds linked by stretched tarpaulin, the house consists of two habitable areas joined by an expansive floating pavilion. Wide expanses of sliding glass doors & adjustable blinds allow the pavilion to respond to different environmental conditions while providing the location for eating dining & relaxing within the natural surrounds of the property. Read the rest of this entry »

Architect: Alberto Campo Baeza
Location: Granada, Andalucía, Spain
Client: Caja de Granada
Collaborators: Alejandro Cervilla García, Ignacio Aguirre López
Structure: Andrés Rubio Morán, Mª Concepción Pérez Gutiérrez
Engineering: R. Úrculo Ingenieros Consultores S.A.
Estudiantes: Miguel Cabrillo, Sergio Sánchez Muñoz, Petter Palander
Project Area: 15.000 sqm
Project Year: 2006-2009
Photographs: Javier Callejas

We would like to make “the most beautiful building” for the Museo de al Memoria de Andalucía (Andalusia’s Museum of Memory) in Granada. The MA. A museum that wishes to transmit the entire history of Andalusia. As early as Roman times, Strabo described the inhabitants of Andalusia as “the most cultivated of the Iberians, who have laws in verse.” Read the rest of this entry »

Architects: Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects
Location: Mazama, Washington, USA
Lead Architect: Tom Kundig, FAIA
Date of Completion: 2008
Size: 440 sf/per hut (200 sf interior space, 240 sf exterior deck)
Photographs: Chad Kirkpatrick & /Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

Responding to the owner’s need for space to house visiting friends and family, the Rolling Huts are several steps above camping, while remaining low-tech and low-impact in their design. The huts sit lightly on the site, a flood plain meadow in an alpine river valley. The owner purchased the site, formerly a RV campground, with the aim of allowing the landscape return to its natural state. The wheels lift the structures above the meadow, providing an unobstructed view into nature and the prospect of the surrounding mountains. Read the rest of this entry »

Architects: Preston Scott Cohen, Inc. (Design Architect), Institute of Architectural Design and Planning with Atelier Zhang Lei (Chinese architect of record)
Location: Nanjing, China
Client: Nanjing University
Project Area: 16,000 sqm
Budget: RMB 3,000/sqm
Design Year: 2007
Construction Year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Iwan Baan

Located centrally in the new Nanjing University Campus in Xianlin, this building aims to offer a singular expression of the dialogue between two opposing paradigmatic forms of symbolic significance: a curving roof that appears to be related to the landscape of the larger campus context, and a tower which acts as a beacon and observation point. Read the rest of this entry »

Architects: ACXT
Location: Derio, Bizkaia, Spain
Project Architect: Gonzalo Carro
Collaborators: Carlos Miguel Guimaraes & Javier Pérez Uribarri
Project Development: Gonzalo Carro & ATHOS (Pedro Berroya, Aitziber Goikoetxea)
Structure: Javier Eskubi, Amaia Oyón, Ángel Gómez
Project Area: 2,600 sqm
Design year: 2006–2007
Construction year: 2007–2009
Photographer: Aitor Ortiz

BTEK is an interpretation centre for new technologies, aimed at student visitors. The Centre’s promoter, Parque Tecnológico, S.A., (Technology Park) set out the following as the most important guidelines: Read the rest of this entry »

Architects: Max Pritchard Architect
Location: Kangaroo Island, SA, Australia
Engineering Consultant: Engineers Pocius & Associates
Project year: 2008
Project Area: 1,548 sqm
Photographs: Sam Noonan & George Apostolid

Southern Ocean Lodge is being described as Australia’s first “Super Lodge”; and has already been named by Tatler Magazine following a worldwide survey as Hotel of the Year 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

Location: New York, USA
Architecture: Morphosis Architects
Thom Mayne, Principal / Design Director, Silvia Kuhle, Project Manager, Pavel Getov, Project Architect, Jean Oei, Job Captain/ Project Designer, Chandler Ahrens / Lead Designer
Project Designers: Natalia Traverso Caruana, Go-Woon Seo
Project Team: Irena Bedenikovic, Salvador Hidalgo, Debbie Lin, Kristina Loock,
General Contractor: FJ Sciame
Client: The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
Program: Academic and laboratory building with exhibition gallery, auditorium, lounge and multi-purpose space, and retail space
Constructed Area: 16,258 sqm
Design Year: 2004-2006
Construction Year: 2006-2009
Photographs: Iwan Baan

41 Cooper Square, the new academic building for The Cooper Union, aspires to manifest the character, culture and vibrancy of both the 150 year-old institution and of the city in which it was founded. The institution remains committed to Peter Cooper’s radically optimistic intention to provide an education “as free as water and air” and has subsequently grown to become a renowned intellectual and cultural center for the City of New York. 41 Cooper Square aspires to reflect the institution’s stated goal to create an iconic building – one that reflects its values and aspirations as a center for advanced and innovative education in Art, Architecture and Engineering. Read the rest of this entry »

Architects: Chenchow Little
Location: Sydney, Australia
Project Team: Tony Chenchow, Stephanie Little, Janice Chenchow, Angela Rowson, Jenni Dang
Structural Engineer: Ruggero Benvenuti – Benvenuti S.C Pty Ltd
Builder: Tecorp Constructions Pty Ltd
Project Area: 280 sqm
Project Year: 2006-2008
Photographs: John Gollings

The Freshwater House developed the idea of the operable façade to mediate between the requirements for privacy and shading on a relatively public site adjacent to the beach. The resulting building is made up of three distinct parts; a podium base, a garden/ living space, and a bedroom volume clad with operable screens; each designed with unique spatial and material qualities. Read the rest of this entry »

Architects: Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design
Location: Northridge, California, USA
Design Principal: Mehrdad Yazdani
Principal in Charge: Craig Hamilton
Project Manager: Martha Ball
Planning Principal: Tom Harvath
Senior Designers: Craig Booth + Philip Ra
Project Architects: Jessica Yi + Larry Taniguichi
Project Area: 90,000 sqf
Budget: $44,800,000
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Timothy Hursley

The building opened last fall and serves students from throughout the College of Science and Mathematics who have greater access to new and improved lecture halls on the first floor and computer labs throughout the building. The building is home to the Department of Biology’s office as well as much of the department’s offerings, including teaching and research activities. Chaparral Hall includes 18 research labs, nine introductory teaching labs and 13 lecture rooms in addition to a DNA sequencing lab and a microscopy suite. The building has two computer labs equipped with high-speed “hard wired” and wireless connections. The building also supports fiber optic data transmission required by high-bandwidth instruments like the new confocal and electron microscopes. Read the rest of this entry »