#36 Nov/Dec 2010

News and observations

• The physical legacy of Ireland's property crash
• Landscaping a cemetery in Järvafältet (SE)
• Lego school in London (UK)
• Apple green bicycle garage, Alphen aan den Rijn (NL)
• Update: a new French crop
• Zorlu Center, a modest mega-project on the banks of the Bosphorus (TR)
• and more…

New projects

• Opera house, Izmir (TR) by Teget Architecture
• Library, Falun (SE) by ADEPT and Sou Fujimoto
• Cruise terminal, Lisbon (PT) by João Luís Carrilho da Graça
• Private house, Sarajevo (BA) by Lejla Kreševljaković and Dino Ćiber
• Masterplan development, Tirana (AL) by JA Joubert Architecture

Emil Urbel: Assembling puzzles

Having entered the Estonian architectural scene with an array of winning competitions entries in the late 1980s, early '90s, Emil Urbel set the standards in the mid-1990s with a host of white minimalist private houses that prompted a stream of imitators. Minimalist in appearance, thoroughly worked out plans, uncompromising quality, clarity of thought: Urbel is almost a brand in Estonian architecture, to a degree that his elegant works are virtually taken for granted.

New buildings

• Architecture school, Umeå (SE) by Henning Larsen Architects and White Architects
• Holiday house, Norfolk (UK) by ACME architects
• Hospice, St. Gotthard Pass (CH) by Miller & Maranta
• Apartment complex, Zierikzee (NL) by Kingma Roorda Architecten
• Synagogue, Mainz (DE) by Manuel Herz Architekten
• Housing, Wroclaw (PL) by Lewicki Łatak
• Mixed-use complex, Sarajevo (BA) by studio nonstop
• Residential development, Halle-Neustadt (DE) by Stefan Forster Architects
• Housing, Brussels (BE) by L'Escaut
• Sports hall, Evrychou (CY) by Petros Constantinou, Skevi Farazi and Yorgos Hadjichristos

Modified wood

During the last ten or so years, wood has made a spectacular comeback as a preferred construction material – because it is sustainable (despite ongoing disputes about the precise meaning of this term); because it can be treated in many different ways; because of the 'warm' ambience it evokes; and, above all, because of its 'natural' image. Yet by no means is all of that ubiquitous 'natural' wood in fact a 100% natural product; increasingly, architects and builders are opting for modified wood.

Focusing on European countries, cities and regions

• Green roofs and facades: successful and less successful experiments
• A tour of architectural landmarks in the Ruhr district (DE)
• Profile: XPIRAL (ES)
• Home: Min2's dune-top house, Bergen aan Zee (NL)

Buildings from the margins of modern history

Renaat Braem's Police Tower is is an amputated realization of a visionary project: an administrative centre consisting of two towers connected by a low volume on an orthogonal plot. The grand undertaking shrank from prestige project to what many consider the ugliest bit of Antwerp.