Azaward2017

SYNOPSIS Located outside in the Giardini for the first time in the history of the Venice Architecture Biennale in Italy, this exhibition project presents an interactive intervention—built into the ground—to reveal Canada’s global presence as pre-eminent extractive nation to the world. Visitors are invited to kneel down and peer into the ground to witness the realities of Canada’s resource mining empire around the world. THE EXHIBITION At a scale of 1:1 billion, the geological map of the world that underlies the exhibition reveals planetary scales of operation for the largest resource extraction nation on the planet whose foreign policy is borne from legacies as colony, as confederation, as country, and now, as global resource empire.... More

The site faces not only a wide street with heavy traffic but also a subway station. We thought wasn’t appropriate to adopt steel structurebecause of noisy neighborhood, even though the towering ratio was close to 5. Adopting RC structure, columns and beams might becometoo unwieldy objects in asmall room whose area is 30 square meters or more. But if the spaces between columns and beams could be considered as niches that would provide cozy rooms that protect the inhabitants from noise and vibrations. A number of six columns structure instead fourwas adopted in order to keep thestructure smaller as to create between them asuitable space for a comfortable living. The sizes of the structural members become smaller processing to the upper... More

This play structure is situated on the sloping landscape of a mid-century modern common land, where neighborhood kids enjoy a shared backyard. The Architects Collaborative designed and developed the Five Fields neighborhood in the early 1950s hoping to foster community by creating a piece of shared common land. In the ensuing 60+ years homeowners have come and gone but the community and its care and appreciation for the common land remain. TAC conceived the neighborhood as an experiment and the community, wishing to keep the experimental spirit alive, requested a structure that is both safe and exhilarating for the kids. They wanted something that would challenge the kids without any singularly functional elements. Designing a play struc... More

Designed by Vancouver based Michael Green Architecture (MGA) in conjunction with Architect-of-Record DLR Group, the seven storey office building in Minneapolis’ North Loop neighbourhood is the largest mass timber building in the United States. When Hines approached MGA with this exciting project they envisioned T3 as a unique model of new-office building; an opportunity to offer a modern interpretation of the robust character of historic wood, brick, stone, and steel buildings with the additional benefits of state of the art amenities, environmental performance, and technical capability. The project is an investment in both the past and future of Minneapolis and in the Warehouse District’s rich history. The design objective for T3 w... More

“Moving elements in a city, and in particular the people and their activities, are as important as the stationary physical parts. We are not simply observers of this spectacle, but are ourselves a part of it, on the stage with the other participants.” -- Image of the City, Kevin Lynch The ongoing events and visitors that inhabit this urban oasis, together with the designed spatial elements, bring a transformative and invigorating life to a neighborhood in the making. As Shanghai expands, the Hongqiao District has become its new vibrant neighborhood because of the concentration of Hongqiao Railway and Subway Station, Hongqiao Airport, the new Convention Center and the CBD. The developer Shui On Land, the mastermind behind the Xintiandi... More

Nestled in the privacy of a hemlock forest, FAHOUSE presents an amazing building that seems to emerge from a children's story. Exploiting the contrasts between opacity and light, the architect Jean Verville develops a graphic assemblage, which rises like two giant conifers, intensifying the dreamlike aspect of this architectural proposal. Derived from the archetypal figure of the house, the double triangular prism perfectly illustrates childhood characterizing the whole development of this project. Conceived for a couple of young professionals and two children, the cottage revisits the family home settings to explore an imaginary closely linked to the site, its occupants and their actual way of living the family life. The close complici... More

The People's Canopy is architecture for events and architecture as event. They are retractable canopies that can cycled by citizens, paraded through the city and expanded over the length of entire streets, linking disconnected public space. The People's Canopy is a two-story high expandable roof structure on bicycle wheels that can seat up to 10 cyclists. It is designed to collapse to the size of a double-decker bus so that it can be pedaled from one location to another. When parked, a canopy can open like an accordion to 12 meters in length at a span of 10 meters to cover entire streets. Spaces for automobiles are turned into spaces for pedestrians and events. The design was first commissioned by the city of Preston in the UK and In... More