Unveiled> SO-IL to Transform an Old School into a Winding Community Center
A rendering of the Wulpen Community Center (courtesy So - IL)
Wulpen Community Center
Architect: Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu
Client: Flemish Government Architect
Location: Wulpen, Belgium
Completion: 2013
The Brooklyn-based firm Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu (SO–IL) recently won a design competition for a community center located in Wulpen, a small, coastal town in Belgium. Their design transforms an unused schoolhouse into a community center with three distinct parts: a multipurpose room in the former two classrooms, a youth space in a garden, and meeting rooms in the original teachers’ house.
Architects Offer a Glimpse into the Future
WORKac's Infoodstructure Brooklyn uses food to create new infrastructures
Glimpses of New York and Amsterdam in 2040 at the Center for Architecture (through September 10) is a clarion call for designers to redefine sustainability in architecture. Though it didn’t start with this intention, the visions of 10 young architecture firms imagining future landscapes of New York and Amsterdam raise questions about what changes are imminent for urban development and what part architects can play. The projects suggest both practical and fantastical interventions to improve the prospect of urban growth in the face of ecological, geographic, and demographic shifts.
Union Square Sukkahs Finally Revealed
Sukkah of Signs by Rael San Fratello. (Courtesy Sukkah City)
They’re currently in the works in a shop in Gowanus, and we’ll have more pictures come Friday, after the in situ party Thursday night (see you there), but here, finally unveiled, are the dozen winning sukkahs from the first annual Sukkah City competition. We first revealed the impressive project, with the ambition of redefining this ancient Jewish structure, back in May, and last month we dug up the dirt on three of the winners, including preliminary plans for the homeless-sign-constructed Sukkah of Signs above. After the jump are a few more of our favorites, with all of the winners and entrants over on the competition’s site. They’ll be showing up in Union Square a few nights before Sukkot, on Sunday and Monday, with the winner of the People’s Choice sukkah, currently being selected over at New York magazine, staying all week. So go on. Vote already. It’s a mitzvah and’ll do your bubbe proud. Read More
The Most Fun at P.S. 1?
There was a party in the Citi Thursday night. (All photos by Matt Chaban)
Admittedly, we’ve been pretty darn obsessed with this year’s P.S.1 Young Architects Program, Pole Dance. But after last week’s party, the enthusiasm appears to have been justified. Not because this is the first one ever with its own interactive component, where you can log-on to the Pole Dance site and manipulate its sound (also a first) with your phone, or watch visualizations, or upload your own pictures. Not because of all the beautiful and architecturally famous people who came out, as our photos clearly document. No, this may just be the best damned pavilion in the program’s decade-long history because it’s the most damn fun. Your proof is after the jump. Read More
Warm-Up Lap for Pole Dance
If the PS1 pavilion is nearly complete, summer must be just around the corner. (Matt Chaban)
Over the weekend, we happened to be biking by the (newly renamed) MoMA PS1 in Long Island City when we noticed something unusual, familiar, even. It was SO-IL’s Pole Dance, this year’s Young Architects pavilion, taking shape. The museum was closing, so we only snapped one furtive, washed-out photo (let’s call it arty) on our cellphone before security made us leave. Fortunately, Frederick Fisher cut some slats in the imposing concrete wall he created as part of the museum’s 1997 redesign, so we managed to capture a little bit more of the installation, emphasis on little. Still, it looks like it’ll be fun, and we can’t help but notice how close it is to the renderings, as you can see after the jump. Read More
New Practices on the Block
And the New Practices New York winners are...
The New Practices New York juried portfolio competition took place on Wednesday. This biennial competition, sponsored by the AIA New York chapter and now in its third iteration, has quickly become one of New York City’s most important launching pads for architects who have been in practice for less than five years. The winners are featured in an exhibition at the Center for Architecture, which usually travels to the national AIA convention and other architectural societies (this year’s winners will be featured in Sao Paulo, Brazil) plus a one-year free membership in the AIA and visibility as a firm on the rise in this highly competitive city. This year’s jury included Toshiko Mori as lead juror, Joe MacDonald (a New Practices winner in 2008), Guy Nordenson, Galia Solomonoff, and yours truly. After reviewing nearly 70 portfolios Read More
Dance, Dance Architecture
Florian Idenburg just sent us this video, part of SO-IL’s presentation to the Young Architecture Program jury for their winning design, Pole Dance, which will be the pavilion for this summer’s Warm Up at P.S.1. No wonder he and Jing Liu prevailed. Could there be a bigger architecture party in the works? Who knew a “a metaphor for these uncertain times,” as we put it, could be so much fun. If this turns out even half as well as in the video, it will probably be the best pavilion yet, so much so, Simon and Garfunkel will be forced to reunite and perform. (As for concerned neighbors, Idenburg assured us in Thursday’s interview that the balls will not be able to jump the wall.)
P.S. 1 is SO-IL
Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu, in the studio with their daughter. (Courtesy SO-IL.org)
UPDATE: Get the full story, including renderings, on our main page.
Well into its second decade, P.S.1 and MoMA’s Young Architect’s Program looked just south of its Queens home for this year’s winner, selecting Brooklyn’s SO-IL Solid Objectives Idenburg Liu to design the now famous summertime pavilion in the P.S. 1 courtyard. They beat out two fellow Brooklynites, Freecell and Easton + Coombes, Cambridge’s William O’Brien, Jr., and a dark horse Danish contender BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group. Renderings will be released at a MoMA event tomorrow, but a press release describes their entry thusly: Read More
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