Santiago Calatrava's
Guillemins TGV station in Liège (BE) Monopoly-inspired kiosks appear in Madrid (ES) Rotor's recycled office in Brussels (BE) Update: Scotland Colourful student rooms at Krabbesholm Art College (DK) Reality check: Centra Nams in Riga (LV) and more...
New projects
Silis, Zabers & Klava challenge the traditional image of a theatre in their design of a concert hall in Riga (LV) The results of the Proyecto VIVA housing competition in Spain shows that young architects search for innovation via strategic rather than formal processes Projektil has designed
two very different but equally iconic libraries in Prague and Hradec
Králové (CZ) Tadeusz Kantor's Art Documentation Centre, alias 'Cricoteka', by Wizja and nsMoonStudio 'clashes' with Cracow's old architecture (PL) Marios Economides and Maria Akkelidou won the competition for the Cavo Greco information centre (CY) Ski manufacturer Rossignol's
headquarters in the French Alps by Hérault & Arnod pays homage
to the mountains, but also to technology
Paul Kahlfeldt
Berlin-based architect Paul Kahlfeldt explains why all architecture
is basically the same ever since it has been known that loads are transferred
vertically towards the centre of the earth: 'That is why the column
is a central element in construction'.
New buildings
Dorte Mandrup Architects evoke warm feelings with a cool sports and culture centre in Copenhagen (DK) Raumzeit have given space, colour and a sense of luxury to a youth hostel in Bremen (DE) In Tallinn (EE), KOKO architects have placed a glass box on top of the Fahle building, symbolizing its conversion from paper to lifestyle factory No w here architects' cathedral choir school in Stuttgart (DE) is not spectacular, but certainly unconventional On Malta, Architecture Project has turned a garden into a spectacular outdoor living room In Dromahair (IE), Dominic Stevens has realized his ambition for building a house that would literally become part of the Irish landscape ZOOM's unorthodox apartment building in Sofia (BU) had to weather a few local storms before being accepted Despite its makeshift appearance, MARC's sports club boathouse on Lake Como (IE) was built to endure In Joensuu (FI), Lahdelma & Mahlamœki designed a pavilion-like primary school with a 'windmill' plan The undulating balconies of RVDM's Glicinias housing in Aveiro (PT) prompt Pedro Gadanho to reflect on how taste changes 'A case of cannibalism in architecture' is what EM2N architect Daniel Niggli calls his conversion of the Stadthof 11 in Zurich-Oerlikon (CH) into a theatre for musicals Fast, cheap, non-aesthetic: Catalin Berescu's emergency housing in Dorohoi (RO) is miles away from contemporary fashionable experiments
Climate control
The connection between climate and building has undergone a paradoxical
evolution. Whereas houses used to provide their occupants protection
from the climate, they must now protect the changing climate from human
beings.
Materia's view on the latest materials
Materials that are light-permeable are usually called 'transparent'
or 'translucent', although it might be more accurate to call them 'diaphanous'
- of such fine texture as to allow light to pass through; translucent
or transparent (from dia-, 'through' + phainen, 'to show, to appear').
It is related to 'phantom', something apparently sensed but having no
physical reality.
Focusing on European countries, cities and regions
Over the last few years a trend has been emerging in Dutch architecture that could perhaps be categorized as 'unspectacular'. After the visual frenzy of supermodernism and neo-traditionalism, this looks like a choice for the middle of the road. The opposite is true: it signifies a deliberate reticence An architectural tour
guide of Brno's boxes and anti-boxes (CZ) Home: Ilja Skocek's apartment, Bratislava (SK)
Buildings from the margins of modern history
Oliver Elser takes a closer look at Gert Hänska's monstrous Research
Facility for Experimental Medicine, established with the best of intentions
and set down in an almost idyllic landscape location in Berlin (DE).
Santiago Calatrava's
Guillemins TGV station in Liège (BE)
