Ask about some of Wright’s work and again Falling Water is likely to pop up.

I just recently found this which I thought was pretty cool – not a bad house design for 75 years ago!

Fallingwater from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo.

http://www.archdaily.com/51666/archdaily-building-of-the-year-2009-the-winners/

It was great to an ArchiCAD designed building took out an award:

http://www.archdaily.com/51658/building-of-the-year-2009-sports-zamet-centre-3lhd/

It is great to see New Zealand’s very own Pacific Environments Yellow Treehouse in the finals along with a number of ArchiCAD finalists from around the globe.

Check out the finalists and place your vote: http://www.archdaily.com/49280/archdaily-building-of-the-year-awards-2009-the-finalists/

In summary the judges were most impressed:

Again this year, the standard has been high and the jury was impressed with the strong and compelling quality of the verbal presentations and the professionalism of finalists in what can be a nerve-wracking situation. We saw a diverse array of presentations over the two days ranging from those firmly rooted in the best traditions of architecture to more theoretical speculations that questioned the boundaries of the discipline itself. The winner, however, stood out in terms of strong theoretical exploration with great breadth and depth. The scheme excelled on multiple levels from its proposition right through to the detailed resolution of the work.

However, there can only be one winner and that was Simon Harrison from Victoria University:

Urban Neighbours

Encouraging formation of a genuine neighbourhood in a high-rise inner city apartment building through inclusion of quality ‘in between’ spaces and design measures that allow a diverse range of inhabitants.

Juror’s Comments

A compelling investigation of physical, social and commercial aspects of architecture, taking a fresh look at private, public and in-between realms of high rise, high-density living.

The Highly Commended Prize was awarded to a joint entry from Sebastian Hamilton & Barrington Gohns of Auckland University:

Other Than Human

This highly interactive project explores sensory engagement and seeks to develop a new means of spatial engagement. It uses different technologies and tools including ‘the haptic’ to centre the user in their environment.

Juror’s Comments

Good engagement in different skill sets and disciplines, a high degree of resolution in built outcome and presentation and an exemplary process of mediating between theoretical propositions about spatial engagement and working at one-to-one scale.

Graphisoft New Zealand is extremely proud to be the sponsor of this event and I have enjoyed attending a number of the presentations.

The presentation quality of this years awards is outstanding. The diverse range of schemes from the Porosity of Architecture to Extra Sensory Experiences of Architecture to a collapsible Whare  is certain to make the judging interesting.

Tonight is the official award ceremony where one student will be picked as the best in New Zealand –  I have chosen my winner but having not attended all the presentations I could well be (and most likely will be) wrong!

Congratulations must be extended to all 12 finalists as reaching this stage is a fantastic success in itself:

2009 Finalists:

UNITEC Department of Architecture

Callum Dowie

Alisha Patel

Jayshree Magan

Elisabeth Tryland

AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY – School of Architecture and Planning

Sebastian Hamilton

Barrington Gohns

Lyannie Tran

John Hawkins

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON – Faculty of Architecture and Design

Daniel Davis

Simon Harrison

Charlotte Hoare

Frances Vessey

UNITEC Department of Architecture

• Callum Dowie
• Alisha Patel
• Jayshree Magan
• Elisabeth Tryland

AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY – School of Architecture and Planning

• Sebastian Hamilton
• Barrington Gohns
• Lyannie Tran
• John Hawkins

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON – Faculty of Architecture and Design

• Daniel Davis
• Simon Harrison
• Charlotte Hoare
• Frances Vessey

Last week I was in Madrid for 4 days.

It isn’t too surprising that the first piece of ‘local’ architecture I experienced was the relatively new Terminal 4 at  Barajas-Madrid Airport.

Actually completed in 2004 the new Terminal along with it’s associated Satelitte terminal were not opened until 2006.

The terminal was designed by Antonio Lamela and Richard Rogers, and like a number of recently completed airports has an amazing sense of space.

One thing I found particularly interesting once I started researching the airport is that it was the Worlds 11th Busiest Airport in 2008 – something I found hard to believe as it was a virtual ghost town the day I arrived. Though more surprising was the fact that in the last 24 months I have passed through 10 of the top 13 busiest airports!

A couple of side notes:

• My camera has a panaramic function but no sticthing software (work that one out!) So I searched the Internet and found AutoStitch – which I used to compile the picture above (make sure you open up the full image) The image is actually constructed of 14 photos with the righthand end having two rows of images. I was amazed to fine AutoStitch managed to compile them all together automatically – I didn’t even need to assemble them in a rough order!
• The architecture of the airport interested me to the extent I wanted to see how effectively I could model it in ArchiCAD with some of the Tools we develop – check out the results here.

Segovia is an ancient village about an hour north west of Madrid, through the mountains (yes through a 3.3km tunnel in the mountains)

The village has an extremely rich history including

• An amazing viaduct from roman times (Acueducto Roman) built late first century A.D. – 958 metres long, 28.1m high – Declared a national monument in 1884
• An impressive cathedral (Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion y de San Frutos) begun in 1525 and consecrated in 1768
• And, an ancient fortress and later a royal palace (Alcazar) built in the 12th century.

From an architectural point of view, the buildings feature a huge array of amazing plaster work. The buildings also feature an interesting anomaly… upside down Spanish roof tiles! The roof is first waterproofed and then the tiles are laid upside down so they can hold the snow…

The gallery was built by taking an unused industrial building, hollowing it out and effectively suspending it. Additional floors clad in rusted steel were also added.

The underside is remarkable and obviously hides significant stucture holding the brick clad building up. The negative detailing between the steel and brick work adds to the overall effect of disconnection.

Next to the museum is an art installation of a vertical garden.

Unfortunately I had very little time when I visited so was unable to view the Richard Rogers exhibition inside. I did however get to witness Rogers major work in Madrid – Terminal 4 at Madrid Airport – but that is the subject for a future post.