Final Reminder: City of Vancouver 2014 Urban Design Awards

The City of Vancouver is calling for submissions for the inaugural 2014 Vancouver Urban Design Awards. The call for entries closes July 14^th, 2014 at 4:00 p.m.

The awards recognize excellence in architecture and urban design which contribute to Vancouver’s vibrancy and livability. Categories include Residential buildings (small, medium and large scale), Commercial buildings, Government and institutional buildings, Urban elements, Innovation, Outstanding sustainable design, Landscape, Public Space and Infrastructure, and a Special Jury Award.

Awards will be presented at a ceremony to celebrate all entries and to honour winners on September 15^th, 2014. Entry details are available online at vancouver.ca/design-awards.

2014 MASterworks Awards Recognize Excellence in Architecture and Urban Design

By Anna Melendez
Archinect, June 17, 2014

NEW YORK, NY: June 17, 2014 –Nine innovative architecture and urban design projects have been chosen as winners of The Municipal Art Society of New York’s 2014 MASterworks Awards, with seven of the awards going to projects in Brooklyn. The Weeksville Heritage Center (Caples Jefferson Architects) has won the top honor, “Best New Building,” while “Best Restoration” goes to the Englehardt Addition, Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory (Scott Henson Architect, LLC).  The “Best Neighborhood Catalyst” award will be given to the BRIC Arts Media House & Urban Glass (LEESER Architecture), and “Best New Urban Amenity” will go to LeFrak Center at Lakeside (Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects). Brooklyn Bridge Park (Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.) will be recognized as “Best Urban Landscape.”

This year’s MASterworks also recognized two new design categories.  “Best Adaptive Reuse” will be awarded to The Queens Museum (Grimshaw Architects) and the NYC DDC Zerega Avenue Emergency Medical Services Building (Smith-Miller and Hawkinson Architects) will take home the award for “Best New Infrastructure.”  Additionally, “Best Green Design Initiative” honors will be given to Edible Schoolyard at P.S. 216 (WORKac) and P.S. 261 School and Community Playground (SiteWorks Landscape Architecture, commissioned by The Trust for Public Land).

The MASterworks Awards, hosted annually by MAS, recognize projects completed in the preceding year that exemplify excellence in architecture and urban design and make a significant contribution to New York’s built environment. Read more…

2014 Vancouver Building Bylaw – Implementation Extension

On June 24, 2014 the City of Vancouver extended the implementation of the new Vancouver Building Bylaw from July 1, 2014 to January 1, 2015.  The existing bylaw will remain in effect until the end of the year.

The City also announced the addition of two additional training sessions on the new bylaws. The ½ day sessions will take place on September 11, 1-3pm and September 16, 1-3pm.  Reservations required.

Learn more about the new Vancouver Building Bylaw and training sessions.

Light House Sustainable Building Centre

ASHRAE 90.1-2010 and NECB 2011 Workshop

BC Hydro and FortisBC are pleased to invite you to register for a half-day ASHRAE 90.1-2010 and NECB 2011 workshop on September 18, 2014. This workshop will review the new City of Vancouver Building Bylaws and British Columbia Building Code’s (BCBC’s) Part 3 energy provisions, including: a discussion on the energy performance compliance modelling paths and review of how LEED Canada modelling compares to compliance modelling. The workshop takes place from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the BC Hydro Corporate Office, 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby. For more information and to register, click here.

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Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)

For Members and Firms:

The AIBC is reminding members and firms that federal anti-spam legislation comes into force on July 1, 2014, that may affect how you send electronic messages.

CASL is intended to protect Canadians from unsolicited “commercial electronic messages” or “CEMs”: messages whose purpose is to encourage participation in a commercial activity.  The definition of commercial activity is broad and includes advertising goods or services. The content of the message and any hyperlinks in the message to website content are included in the consideration of whether it has a commercial purpose.

For many firms, this may include marketing e-mails, invitations and more.  Firms are advised to assess how CASL may apply to their business operations, including advertising and marketing activities.  Firms will want to review their electronic contact lists, including those for former, current and prospective clients, suppliers, business partners and community relationships, to determine whether and to whom any CEMs are being sent.

In order to legally send a CEM, a business or organization must obtain prior consent, whether the consent is express or implied.  Implied consent may apply to a number of relationships, but firms should review the legislation and make their own assessments.  Whether consent is express or implied, all CEMs must include certain information, including the name and contact information of the sender and a mechanism by which the recipient can choose to unsubscribe.

There are significant penalties under CASL for non-compliance, including personal liability for officers and directors of corporations.  Firms may want to seek legal advice on the applicability of CASL to their operations. The AIBC cannot provide specific legal and communications advice with respect to this federal legislation.

For more information on CASL and its requirements, the Government of Canada’s web site provides an overview of the new law, FAQs and other important information: http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/home.

For the AIBC:

The institute’s primary email communication exchange is with architects and other registrants and the subject matter is principally regulatory in nature.  Such communication does not require consent from the receiving party. There are specific provisions in CASL for organizations such as the AIBC, as a regulator, that establish implied consent for certain individuals, including architects and other registrants.

However, to the extent that the AIBC may be sending commercial messages, it will strive to comply with the legislation.

The Mound of Vendôme at the Canadian Centre for Architecture

By Staff at Canadian Architect
Canadian Architect, June 22, 2014

On view at the CCA from June 19 to September 14,  2014 and curated by architectural historian David Gissen, The Mound of Vendôme revisits one key episode of French history when the Commune de Paris in 1871 voted to demolish the Vendôme Column, abolishing all allusions to the Napoleonic era. To protect the surrounding architecture during demolition, a radical landscape was erected on Place Vendôme. Informed by the methods of project and installation at the CCA traces the provocative history of the column and mound, while arguing for its historicization and reconstruction.

The mound is a seemingly simple yet provocative artifact: an ephemeral earthwork that became a central part of a radical attempt to transform urban iconography during the two-month rule of the Paris Commune in 1871. In his research and contemporary architectural proposal, David Gissen recalls this lost structure and offers new ways of thinking about memorial landscapes and monumental forms. As mirrors of the past, architectural monuments are reminders of collective memories and socio-political powers. Yet monuments are also subject to changes in values, representations and social tensions overtime. Read more…

When seven renowned architects design bus shelters, the results are fantastical

By Dave McGinn
The Globe and Mail, May 28, 2014

Few people may have ever heard of Krumbach before, or be able to tell you a single thing about the tiny village in western Austria. But this month it’s garnering international attention for a project that has given its 1,000 inhabitants unique bragging rights – they’ve got the best bus shelters in the world.

Last year, the Kulturverein Krumbach, a local cultural group, invited seven architects from around the world to design and help build bus shelters for the area. None of the architects would be paid, although they would get a one-week holiday in the village. All of them said yes. Keep in mind, this is a group of world-renowned architects such as Japan’s Sou Fujimoto, Chile’s Smiljan Radic and Pritzker Prize-winners Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu.

Few if any of their creations will be recognizable as bus shelters, but that’s the point. Replacing all the former shelters in the village with these structures and their sculptural adventurousness will help not only rethink what’s possible when it comes to public buildings, but also attract tourists. The bus shelters were unveiled earlier this month and are now in use.

The international media attention the ambitiously whimsical project has garnered has already boosted the area’s profile among prospective tourists. It’s proof that you can make something as mundane as a bus shelter architecturally inspiring, even poetic. Read more…

Architect adds simple but clever gadgets to a builder’s tool box

By Paul Attfield
The Globe and Mail, June 18 2014

Home improvement can often be a messy and frustrating task even for those with the knowledge, skills and tools to do the jobs.

It’s also where Vancouver resident and transplanted Englishman Andrew Dewberry, 54, found an innovative niche, capitalizing on the opportunity to enhance a tiny portion of the process with a few devices designed to make every budding Mike Holmes a little more comfortable.

“I’m an architect by profession so I was actually working down at Emily Carr [University of Art and Design in Vancouver] getting the new building built on Granville Island and watching workers,” says Mr. Dewberry, a native of Manchester, England. He noted with interest as they applied caulking to some aluminum shock frames, particularly when they smoothed it out with their fingers. The crudeness of that final step got his creative juices flowing.

“To me, in the late 20th century as it was then, it was just such an anachronism. So I came up with a tool to do that.”

Mr. Dewberry had 5,000 units of his Caulk-Rite tool made out of plastic, assembled them at home and started selling them locally in 1996 as a way to simply and easily apply the ideal amount of caulk.

A hastily scrambled appearance at the Western Hardware Show brought in another 20,000 sales, while a trip to a national hardware show in Toronto added Canada-wide distribution through retail giants such as Canadian Tire and Home Hardware.

Customers quickly started requesting a caulk removal tool, too, to go along with the original piece, and Mr. Dewberry came through with that – winning “best of show” at the following year’s national show – with the pair of tools that have now sold 35 million pieces globally. Read more…

Member Advisory: Unsanctioned Competition Now In Compliance – UPDATE

On June 13, the AIBC issued an advisory to its membership regarding an unsanctioned competition for the Esquimalt Village Living Community Design Competition, organized by the Cascadia Green Building.

We are pleased to announce that the competition is now in compliance with AIBC Bylaws.

We thank members for bringing this matter to our attention and we are encouraged by the resolution.

AIBC bylaw requirements for competitions can be found in Bulletin 63, Competitions.

 

 

 

 

Bradlee Distributors

Luxury Outdoor Kitchens

Bradlee invites you to an evening of food, networking, and learning on Thursday, July 17, 2014.  This event is a free event for AIBC members with the educational component being specific to architects and design professionals. Cocktails begin at 5:00 p.m., followed by a catered dinner at 6:00 p.m.  The educational seminar is run from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. and is led by Byron Wilson, a past founder & President of Acron Rock and Waterscapes Inc., who worked on many award winning projects including the Vancouver Airport, Vancouver Aquarium and the West Vancouver Recreational Center.  This event will be held in the Bradlee Disttributors showroom, 13780 Bridgeport Road, Richmond. As well, there will also be a draw for a pair of Gift Certificates for the Dirty Apron Cooking School in Vancouver! To ensure you don’t miss out, please r.s.v.p. to Alexis by phone at (604) 244-1744 or e-mail to agavin@bradlee.net.

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Complex 3D-Printed Steel Components Push The Boundaries Of Architecture

By Emma Hutchings
June 17, 2014, Technology

Arup engineers are using the latest techniques to produce a design method for critical structural steel elements.

Multidisciplinary organization Arup (a team of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists) was founded in 1946 with an initial focus on structural engineering. It is best known for its work on the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Arup boasts a team of broad-minded individuals from a range of disciplines as well as an unconventional approach to design.

Its engineers are now pushing the boundaries of 3D printing to utilize the technology in real-world construction projects. They have used the latest additive manufacturing techniques to produce a design method for critical structural steel elements for use in various complex projects.This development could mean a new direction for the use of additive manufacturing in the fields of construction and engineering.

Arup’s research shows that these techniques have the potential to reduce both costs and waste, as well as cutting the carbon footprint of the construction sector. To showcase the possibilities of this new technology, a redesigned steel node was created for a lightweight structure using additive manufacturing. Read more…

Canadian Museum of History honours architect Douglas Cardinal

Canadian Architect Staff
June 15, 2014, Canadian Architect

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, the Canadian Museum of History is honouring architect Douglas Cardinal – the designer of its iconic and celebrated buildings – by renaming one of its principal event and meeting rooms the Douglas J. Cardinal Salon.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Museum’s two adjoining buildings. Upon opening, they received immediate international acclaim for their innovative and elegant design, inspired in part by their dramatic waterfront setting across the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill. Cardinal’s work on the project earned him a place among the world’s most renowned architects.

“Our Museum and all Canadians owe a great debt of gratitude to Mr. Cardinal for this architectural treasure, which has graced the nation’s capital for almost three decades,” said Mark O’Neill, President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of History. “The Museum is proud to honour Mr. Cardinal and extends best wishes on his 80th birthday.”

The Museum consists of two pavilions. One houses the Museum’s artifact vaults and administrative and curatorial offices. The other is the public museum building most familiar to millions of visitors from across Canada and around the world. The public building is especially dramatic with its flowing lines, copper-clad roof domes and the towering window wall of its Grand Hall.

“The Museum will be symbolic in form,” Cardinal wrote in his original design statement. “It will speak of the emergence of this continent, its forms sculpted by the winds, the rivers, the glaciers.” His vision was fully realized on June 29, 1989, when the Museum first opened to the public. Read more…

Reimagining Winnipeg: What these fearless architects can teach the rest of Canada

By Alex Bozikovic
June 13 2014, The Globe and Mail

It was Saturday night, and 1,200 people were dressed in white and sitting down to dinner on the Esplanade Riel above the Red River, where 150 tables showcased food from the city’s top chefs. The people behind the event, a group of architects who call themselves 5468796, were there, too – each hosting a table, and drinking in the atmosphere of a city that’s come alive in recent years. Johanna Hurme, a partner in 5468796, was sporting big purple sunglasses and mingling with out-of-town architects. “It really was a success,” she says. “It felt like the true spirit of Winnipeg came out.”

Many Canadians, even some Winnipeggers, might be surprised at that cultured confidence. But 5468796 is leading a new generation of local architects to invent a new city, and perhaps a new Canada, that gives innovative architecture a seat at the table. Manitoba’s capital city, after decades of stasis, is seeing an architectural rebirth, and 5468796 is at the centre of it. The firm is just seven years old, and its three partners relatively young: the Finnish-born Hurme is 38; the Bosnian-born Sasa Radulovic, 41; and Colin Neufeld, 38.

Yet they’ve managed to realize a remarkable set of projects. Among them are a condo building with units that fit together like a 3-D puzzle.

As well, there’s been a renovation that added sleek steel balconies to a historic facade on Portage Avenue, and a bandshell with walls made from 20,000 pieces of aluminum chain mail. They’ve won Canadian and international architecture awards, consistent attention from design blogs, and a partnership with a New York think tank.

And they’ve done so while smashing preconceptions about what is possible for their city and their profession. “I think we’re a bit naive,” says Radulovic, “and we work not to let go of that. If the answer is ‘No,’ we ask, ‘Why not?’” Read more…

Dutch architect Koolhaas strips architecture to its barest elements at Venice Biennale

By Colleen Barry
June 11, 2014, Times Colonist

VENICE, Italy – In an era of “starchitects,” Rem Koolhaas, who merits mention as one himself, wants to strip the discipline to its barest elements, bypassing the cult of personality and any architectural grandiosity.

Koolhaas had no time to waste as he hurriedly but efficiently guided visitors through a one-hour tour of his exhibit “Elements of Architecture” shortly before it opened here last weekend as part of the Venice Biennale’s 14th International Architecture Exhibit. The exhibit covers nothing less than architecture’s evolution from homo erectus’ first man-made fire to heating fixtures of the future, focusing on the plainer elements: ceilings unnoticed overhead; corridors too quickly bypassed; those overlooked conveyances, elevators.

“If you look at each element in isolation” you can feel its powerful, psychological dimension, Koolhaas said, beyond any “technical, artistic and pragmatic details.”

Koolhaas, 69, is known for eschewing a defined esthetic in favour of using modern materials and technology to meet clients’ needs. Projects by the Dutch architect and the team he leads at Rotterdam-based OMA have included a plan for the city centre of Lille, France, as well as such award-winning buildings as the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin and the new Seattle public library.

In preparing for the Biennale, Koolhaas seemed thrilled to have found kindred spirits taken with the fundamentals of the architecture that surrounds us daily, such as a German professor’s thesis on the corridor and an Italian scholar’s study of false ceilings. He himself has written a treatise on elevators.

While he has sought to distinguish architecture in this Biennale from art and design — a line that he says has blurred in recent years — he is actually one of the cross-disciplinary masters who have helped blur them. Read more…

The Architecture Of Football Stadiums

Architecture.com
June 11, 2014

With football the topic on everyone’s lips this summer, we look at the architecture behind some of world’s most famous platforms for the sport

Over the years, football has evolved from a working man’s pastime to a multi-billion pound industry and the architecture of its stadiums has evolved with it.

This is clear when we look at the past of the UK’s most iconic stadium, Wembley. “The cathedral of football” according to footballing legend Pele, Foster + Foster had quite a job on their hands when they took on the job of re-building the stadium after the original’s demolition in 2003.

Gone (to much public outcry) were Wembley’s iconic twin towers, and in came a 135 metre high arch that curves over (and supports) the stadium’s roof. With a cross-sectional diameter even greater than that of the average Eurostar train, and visible across London when illuminated at night, this soaring piece of architecture has now won a place in the hearts of sports fans up and down the country.

Striking a balance between the comfort of fans and that most delicate of footballing operations, maintaining the perfect pitch, Wembley also has a retractable roof. When open, sunlight can reach the whole pitch, but in poor weather, the roof can be closed within one hour.

To try and capture an intimate atmosphere  – not easy in a  stadium that can hold up to 90,000 fans  – seats are placed as close to the front of the pitch as possible. At the same time, careful attention has been paid to acoustics to maximize the impact of crowd’s roar. And to combat the misery of the half-time toilet queue, there are 2,618 toilets on site, more than at any other venue in the world. Cutting edge design in stadiums isn’t limited to the Wembleys of this world. Read more…