#40 July/Aug 2011

News and observations

• Olympic Basketball Arena by Wilkinson Eyre Architects, London (UK)
• Sou Fujimoto and ARCVS win yet another Serbian competition
• Fascinating urban drama in Riga (LV)
• Update: urban infills in the Netherlands
• International ideas competition for the Palace of Justice, Brussels (BE)
• House of lace in Almere (NL)
• and more…

New projects

• Residential complex, Izmir (TR) by Teget Architecture
• Office/hotel renovation, Riga (LV) by MADE arhitekti
• Mixed-use development, Belgrade (RS) by ZENIT
• Jewish community centre, Ulm (DE) by ksg architecten
• Mixed-use building, Helsinki (FI) by ALA architects

Studio Non Stop: Convincing architecture

Sanja Galić and Igor Grozdanić of Studio Non Stop from Sarajevo talk about the Bosnian context and their ambition of architectural storytelling: 'If we weren't architects, one could imagine these stories being shaped with words instead of construction materials, as a literary work or movie or theatre play.'

New buildings

• Housing, Kamnik (SI) by dekleva gregorič arhitekti
• Urban complex, Memmingen (DE) by trint + kreuder
• Architecture faculty, Prague (CZ) by Šrámková architects
• Research institute for arts & humanities, Dublin (IE) by McCullough Mulvin Architects
• Housing estate, Geneva (CH) by group8
• House, Kaberneeme (EE) by Vahur Sova
• Homeless shelter, Pamplona (ES) by Javier Larraz
• Cultural-tourist complex, Mokrin (RS) by Studio AUTORI

Organic facades

There was a time when building was self-evidently organic. Huts and houses, although made by human hands, sprang as it were from nature. Depending on the continent and your precise location, you would have seen, as an integral part of the landscape, mud huts with roofs of plaited reeds, shelters assembled from blocks of stone or volcanic rock, all-wood dwellings or igloos. In protecting themselves against the elements, human beings emulated nature in what they built, in both materials and form.

Focusing on European countries, cities and regions

• Russia in search of a new architectural identity after communism
• A cross-country tour of contemporary architecture in Slovakia
• Home: Horst and Christine Lechner's house & studio, Salzburg (AT)
• Profile: medusagroup

Buildings from the margins of modern history

One of the most remarkable buildings of Latvia's history as a Soviet republic, it took eighteen years to build the Dailes Theatre in Riga. Yet most of Marta Stana's competition-winning project from 1959 survived this long building process, including her spectacular 70-metre-long glass foyer.