architecture

The board of Sberbank, the leading bank of Russia, signed a contract with the Dutch Architect Erick van Egeraat for the realization of their new Corporate University, west of Moscow, close to the Novorizhkoye highway.

In our everyday rush, sometimes we do not realize that as we stare at the pavement in front of us we are actually passing through hallowed grounds. An amazing number of churches and synagogues of various denominations dot the map of Budapest. Many of them are significant not only for religious reasons, but also for aesthetic, artistic, and historical reasons as well. These buildings shed light on the original town and its inhabitants, and on how the religious life and church influence shaped the development of the growing metropolis from the second half of the 19th century onward. During our 3 hour tour, we visit eight churches representing eight different denominations (we look at six from the inside as well). During our time together, you will learn about the basic tenets of the different religions, the formation of the buildings, and the significance of the various parts of the city. Last but not least, we will share with you colorful stories about the long-ago city and its legendary inhabitants.

Itinerary: Belvárosi plébániatemplom, Március 15. tér (Parish Church, 15. March square)– Nagyboldogasszony Magyar Ortodox Székesegyház Petőfi tér (Blessed Virgin Mary Hungarian Orthodox Cathedral, Petőfi square) – Szervita téri katolikus templom (Catholic Church of Servita square) – Deák téri evangélikus templom (Evangelich Church of Deák square) – Rumbach Sebestyén utcai zsinagóga (Synagogue of Sebestyén Rumback street)– Szent István Bazilika, Szent István tér (Saint Stephen’s Basilique, Saint Stephen square) – Hazatérés református templom, Szabadság tér (Homecoming Calvinist Church, Liberty square)– Hold utcai református templom (Calvinist Church of Moon street) – Nagy Ignác utcai unitárius templom (Unitarian Church of Ingnatius the Great square)

The international exhibition held in Venice every second year, known as the Venice Biennale is the most important foreign event of Hungarian architecture. The Art Nouveau style pavilon planned by Géza Maróti is one of the oldest buildings of Giardini, the area that hosts the event: last year was the pavilon's 100th anniversary. In the majority of this time the building gave place to exhibitions of fine and applied arts, since the Biennale itself only gained importance in the nineties. The forthcoming event will be the twelfth.

The displays of Hungarian architecture were so far accompanied by fierce debates at home and thick silence abroad. One of the more successful examples was the 1996 exhibition of Gábor Bachman, currently working in China. The event brought international popularity to the architect unrecognized in Hungary. Other such examples were the 2002 exhibition displaying the work of the three famous Hungarian masters (István Ferencz, Tamás Nagy and Gábor Turányi), and Re:orient, dealing with the situation of the Chinese minority in Hungary. The latter received positive criticism both in Hungary and abroad. Corpora-project, a Hungarian-Japanese exhibit of the previous Biennale in 2008 was based on virtual techniques and computer programming. It also referred to the question „whether current tendencies in Hungarian architecture allow us to claim international professional recognition.”

In nature, nothing is perfectly square and organisms orient themselves relative to the sun. Both truths explain the fresh design of the “net zero” Zona home.

Designed by architect John Zona III using ArchiCAD 13 software from Graphisoft, the Jacksonville, Florida, residence is Zona and his wife’s personal dream home. It features a main residence and guest cottage/studio, both with football-shaped footprints to minimize energy demands for cooling. The long edges face the south and north; only the points of the football face the higher-intensity east and west.

Sou Fujimoto is one of the most prominent young Japanese architects. Born in Hokkadio, after finishing his studies at the faculty of engineering at Tokyo University, he founded his own practice, Sou Fujimoto Architects in 2000. He received numerous awards, including three Architectural Review Awards and the 2009 Wallpaper* Design Award.

Mr Fujimoto arrived to Budapest on the invitation of KÉK – Contemporary Architecture Center, and spoke about his architectural philosophy on a full-house lecture as part of the event-series of KÉK: ‘Bubbles from Japan’. We met him before the event, on a snowy evening in the crowded Gerbeaud Confectionary, with some really loud Italian tourists in the background.

The tent-roofed cube house is the most characteristic countryside building type of 20th century Hungary. Everybody is familiar with it, since there are ten thousands of similar houses throughout our towns.

After the advance of the Communist Regime in Hungary, from the 1950’s one of the most important goals of the authority that defined itself as „workers' and peasants' goverment” was to provide homes for as many, and as soon as possible. The consecutive five-year plans increased the pace of house building throughout the country. As a result, by 1965 230 thousand appartments were constructed, providing new homes to almost a million people. Most of these were in condominiums or building estates.

Yesterday UNStudio and Grigorjev & Partners LLC signed the contract with the client, Petersburg City LLC, for the new Dance Palace in the historic centre of St. Petersburg, following the success of the design competition in July last year. The project is a 24,000 m2 dance theatre, housing The Eifman Ballet, headed by the prolific choreographer Boris Eifman. The Dance Palace forms part of the European Embankment city quarter master plan for a new urban square in St. Petersburg.

The President of the Biennale di Venezia, Paolo Baratta, accompanied by the Director of the 12th International Architecture Exhibition, Kazuyo Sejima, met today at Cà Giustinian with the representatives of the 54 Countries participating in the 12th Exhibition, which will be held from August 29 to November 21 2010 at the Giardini and at the Arsenale (preview August 26, 27 and 28 2010), and in various other venues in Venice.

After a series of Biennale Exhibitions directed by eminent critics or historians, this Sector has once again been entrusted to an architect, Kazuyo Sejima, to bring the important theme of quality in architecture back to the forefront, with a personality who makes quality her own personal vocation. The title chosen by Kazuyo Sejima for the 12th International Architecture Exhibition is: People meet in architecture.

Áron Lőrincz has already gained reputation in the architect circles of Budapest. From time to time he shocks the public with new short films posted on his blog solidfill. His latest work shows the city from an outer space perspective. Looking close, the object that first seems like a space-elevator turns out to be something different...

In fact, Áron's super-tower on Nagyvárad Square does not scrape the sky. With its 89 meter height however, it is still among the tallest buildings of the city. Built in 1978 for the Semmelweis University then called SOTE its official name is Nagyvárad Square Academic Block.

The award-winning BAR Architects firm of San Francisco has used Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD building information modeling (BIM) software to design one of the largest and most refined urban senior housing projects in the world, Sun City Palace in Kobe, Japan.

The 75-person architecture, interior design and planning firm used the software to conceive, detail and coordinate plans for the 33-story, 508,000 square foot complex – a tribute to society’s elders. The elegant tower consists of 470 independent living units, 80 skilled nursing units, a richly landscaped central courtyard, private nursing garden, auditorium, tea lounge and more.