#11 Sept/Oct 2006

News and observations

• PÉRIPHERIQUES' refreshingly low-tech circulation building for the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris (FR)
• Sir Norman Foster lands in Russia with plans for New Holland island in St Petersburg and Rossiya Tower in Moscow (RU)
• Update: four young Hungarian practices
• In Lyon (FR), Patrick Bouchain and Loïc Julienne have built a dance centre in the form of a gigantic shed for controversial choreographer Maguy Marin
• Reality check: Jürgen Mayer H.'s refectory building in Karlsruhe (DE)
• Interview with Tanja Rajic of Expeditio, an organization that aims at raising public awareness of a better quality living environment Europe's youngest nation Montenegro
• The spectacular Zollverein School of Management & Design in Essen (DE) by Japanese architects SANAA is the first completed building on Zeche Zollverein, a former mining area
• and more…

New projects

• British car manufacturer Vauxhall invited Moxon Architects to envision a service station of the future
• In Tyrol (AT), Johannes Wiesflecker has developed the first business park to combine living and working
• Sergey Skuratov Architects redefine Moscovian luxury with the design of an apartment building in Moscow (RU)
• With a utopian proposal, Sarah M. Miebach and Rico M. Oberholzer are among the winners in a student competition to redevelop a vast industrial complex in Vockerode (DE)
• 'Hysteric ballroom' by bube architects is the most audacious winner of the 'Simplicity' competition held in Almere (NL)
• KHR arkitekter's serpentine shaped centre for health education in Copenhagen (DK) returns as much quality space to the Danish capital as it will occupy

Christian Kieckens: Secretly beautiful

Veronique Boone and Lars Kwakkenbos interview Christian Kieckens, a Flemish architect whose work ranges beyond mere architecture. As the driving force behind Stichting Architectuurmuseum, he casts a critical eye over the Flemish architectural scene.

New buildings

• PPAG's weekend house in Zurndorf (AT) is distinguished by its elephant skin
• In their design for a school in Pederobba (IT), C+S Associati use multiple colours to good effect
• With an apartment building in Tallinn (EE), 3+1 architects prove that the suburban dream can be realized downtown
• Alexandros Livadas' Supreme Court in Nicosia (CY) exemplifies a new period of modernization in Cypriot architecture
• Pedro Gadanho and Nuno Grande give their personal view of their collaborative design of a weekend retreat in Carreço (PT)
• MTM Arquitectos have built an extension to the School of Pharmacy in Madrid (ES)
• Terry Pawson turns a defunct Magistrates Court in London (UK) into a distinctive office complex
• The more one looks, the more Knapkiewicz & Fickert's coach terminal in Baden-Rütihof (CH) becomes an intriguing adventure
• Mestura arquitectes' police station in Barcelona (ES) plays with the standard connotations of such a programme
• Geninasca Delefortrie architects' private house in Chabrey (CH)
• Marjan Zupanc has turned the brief for a shopping centre in Celje (SI) into real architecture
• With one of his first realizations, Chris Briffa has reconciled a new housing type with a block of typical maltese townhouses in Mosta (MT)

Focusing on European countries, cities and regions

• Southern Italy has generated a determined group of architects who know not only how to work as architects, but also how to interpret the situations in which they work, assuming a strategic role
• Claes Caldenby, editor of the Swedish architectural review, Arkitektur, for almost 30 years, responds to Claes Sörstedt's article on 'arrogantly modest' Sweden in A10 #6 and explains the merits of being boring
• Twenty reasons to visit Nizhny Novgorod, Russia's unofficial architectural capital, formerly known as Gorky
• Office: Elliott Wood Partnership's suburban office on a tight plot in London (UK)
• Profile: Arup Associates

Buildings from the margins of modern history

A new section focusing on buildings in the margins of modern architectural history. First up, one of the editor's favorites: Koen van der Gaast's railway station in Tilburg (NL) of 1965.