2012 LAGI Winners announced!

Most of my favorites are in the shortlist as chosen by a selection committee in NYC. Not in the 1st place......hmm...

anyway!

1st Place

Scene-Sensor // Crossing Social and Ecological Flows
Artist Team: James Murray, Shota Vashakmadze






2nd Place

Fresh Hills
Artist Team: Matthew Rosenberg

3rd Place

PIVOT
Artist Team: Ben Smith, Vee Hu

4th Place

99 Red Balloons
Artist Team: Scott Rosin, Meaghan Hunter, Danielle Loeb, Emeka Nnadi, Kara McDowell, Jocelyn Chorney, Indrajit Mitra, Narges Ayat, Denis Fleury

Related post on this blog

Designers Should...

The new report says: Designers should persuade clients with numbers not aesthetics.


Source: Dezeen

A tool that lets businesses measure and predict the financial outcomes of investing in design is being developed by a research team in Finland, whose project leader says designers should talk numbers rather than aesthetics to appeal to prospective clients.

The Design ROI tool is a collaboration between 15 Finnish design agencies and a team of academics at Aalto University in Helsinki, which was established in 2010 in the merger of the Helsinki University of Technology, the University of Art and Design Helsinki and Helsinki School of Economics.

“What we’ve set out to do is to create a methodology and metrics to measure the economic impact of design,” project leader Antti Pitkänen told Dezeen. The team analysed more than 40 internationally published academic papers to find out what design strategies businesses are investing in, whether they are benefiting from that investment and how to quantify those benefits.

The researchers also identified four areas of design in which businesses might invest: products; brands; spaces, such as offices and shops; and services, which covers how well a business responds to customers’ needs.

The first prototype of the tool is a complex spreadsheet that calculates the multiple variables affecting the return on investment (ROI) that design can deliver.

“We haven’t created a holy grail, but we’ve really tried to understand the problematics behind design ROI as well as creating some kind of understanding of the ‘ballpark’ return on the investment,” Pitkänen told Dezeen. “So if I invest £100,000, do I get £100,000 back or do I get twice that, or ten times that?”

Although it’s impossible to predict the exact return on an investment, said Pitkänen, the Design ROI tool can indicate a positive or negative result and suggest approximate figures. So while good design brings benefits that can’t be measured, designers should be thinking more about the bottom line if they want to bring clients onside, he continued.

“Design can be approached in a number of different ways. We can look at it on a qualitative basis – something is better than something else, or more beautiful. This is something that designers and design agencies are very efficient in talking about.

“But we also looked at financial measures and other quantitative measures, like the number of visits to a webpage. And with the financial measures, we’re looking at how design influences more money coming into the company, or less money going out.

“We looked at all the benefits that design has, but we focused on the link between design and what effect it has on the bottom line. And not only is it beneficial, but it’s possible to measure it.”

He suggested that designers could attract more clients by avoiding subjective language about the look and feel of a design in favour of talking about the clear financial benefits of investing in design.

“The core of the problem is that design agencies talk to people through references, and what’s very important is talking about the numbers as well,” Pitkänen said. “Once you are able to create metrics and create objectives for projects, then we start creating a better understanding of what the final outcome is. That will also increase the appreciation on the client side of why they’re using design and when design should be used.

“So it’s very much a communication tool, making the client understand how and when to use design, not only ‘I like it’ or ‘I don’t like it’.”

The prototype tool marks the end of the first phase of the Design ROI project. For the next phase, the researchers hope to collaborate with businesses and designers to fine-tune the tool and develop it for wider use.

The full report is available to read and download online, although it is only available in Finnish.

Michael Van Valkenburgh discusses Notre Dame Sculpture Park

Construction has begun on a new sculpture park on the southern edge of the University of Notre Dame’s campus. Situated in a wooded, 8-acre dell that lies between the Irish Green and the Compton Family Ice Arena, the new park is a project of Notre Dame’s Snite Museum of Art and the office of the University Architect. It has been designed by the landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh who discusses in this short 5 minute video the overall design approach and plants used in the design.

From: World Landscape Architecture

Floating Deck over Grand Central Terminal

News: while Foster + Partners think simply increasing capacity is the way to improve New York’s Grand Central Terminal, architecture firm SOM has proposed adding a floating observation deck that slides up and down the sides of two new skyscrapers.

Here’s some more information from SOM: 

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SOM presents vision for Grand Central’s next 100 years

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) presented its vision for “Grand Central’s Next 100″ at the Municipal Art Society of New York’s third annual Summit for New York City. Led by partners Roger Duffy, FAIA, and T.J. Gottesdiener, FAIA, SOM’s design transforms the public spaces around Grand Central Terminal, creating new pedestrian corridors for increased circulation and visualizing innovative options for new public amenities.

The Municipal Art Society (MAS) challenged SOM to re-think the public spaces in and around Grand Central Terminal in celebration of the landmark’s centennial. The design challenge coincides with a rezoning proposal from the New York City Department of City Planning, which, if approved, would allow the development of new office towers in the area around Grand Central, thereby increasing the density around the station exponentially.

The proposed zoning would also require developers to donate to a fund that would make improvements to the infrastructure in the area, including additional access points to the subway platforms and a pedestrian mall on Vanderbilt Avenue. Along with Foster + Partners and WXY Architecture + Urban Design, SOM was one of three architecture firms invited by MAS to present ideas about the future of Grand Central Terminal’s public realm.

SOM’s vision proposes three solutions, all of which provide improvements – both quantitative and qualitative – to the quality of public space around the station. The first solution alleviates pedestrian congestion at street level by restructuring Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) to create pedestrian corridors through multiple city blocks, connecting Grand Central to nearby urban attractors.

The second is a condensing of the public realm through the creation of additional levels of public space that exist both above and below the existing spaces. These new strata would be funded privately but under public ownership – Privately Funded Public Space (PFPS).

The third proposal creates an active, 24-hour precinct around Grand Central Terminal in the form of an iconic circular pedestrian observation deck, suspended above Grand Central, which reveals a full, 360-degree panorama of the city. This grand public space moves vertically, bringing people from the cornice of Grand Central to the pinnacle of New York City’s skyline. It is a gesture at the scale of the city that acts both as a spectacular experience as well as an iconic landmark and a symbol of a 21st-century New York City.

Text & Images from: DEZEEN

Adriaan Gueze's Insperations

Text & Images from: The Dirt

At a rich, dense lecture at the National Building Museum, Adriaan Geuze, International ASLA, a Dutch landscape architect who runs the international firmWest 8, said in Taoism, “life is tough.” To achieve wisdom, one has to “cross many rivers.” For his Garden of 10,000 Bridges in Xian, China, Geuze and his team actually created the sense of crossing thousands of bridges by setting a set of red fiberglass bridges within a maze-like pattern in an enclosing bamboo forest. The path through is “long,” but once “you get out, you’ve gotten a boost of self-esteem.”

Some of Gueze’s other projects create or enhance an existing sense of the holy. In Padua, Italy, at the Carthusian Monastery, which is famous for its pine tree that creates an “unprecedented amount of pine cones” — so much so that it’s been deemed a miracle by the church — Gueze created walls made of pine cones and pathways through the ever-growing cone floor. The “smell in summer” is amazing, as is the crackling of the walls as the cones dry out.

His project in the swamp of Charleston, South Carolina is for those who worship nature in all its messy glory. “Once they take you in, you feel like you can hardly escape. It’s warm, humid. There are bugs everywhere.” The water “is black like a mirror,” and crawling with gators. There, Gueze created a “simple, intimate space” with hanging spanish moss fences, creating an “intense atmosphere that is stronger than the swamp.” He said being there in his “enclosed swamp somehow changes the whole universe,” with the erotic Cypress roots peeking out of the water. He remembers sitting on a bench watching an alligator sunbathe on the same deck.

Gueze said these places, which create very personal journeys, are his touchstones, his inspirations. But, increasingly, he’s better known for his large-scale public projects, which he explained in a rapid-fire tour and blur of images.

The most impressive may be the relatively new Soundscape Park on Lincoln Road in Miami. A companion to Frank Gehry’s New World Symphony building, the park, which used to be a parking lot, uses the jaggedy-edge patterns West 8 applies to a number of their projects. In this case, the criss-crossing paths play off the “neurotic” Veitchia palms, which are the only ones they were allowed to use (they can withstand just about any storm). The trees, Gueze said, also help create the sense that you are at the beach, “an illusion of ocean.” The park is designed to “capture the euphoria of Miami Beach,” which Gueze said is found in its multicultural food, culture, and nightlife.

Heavy-duty steel pergolas, which were inspired by clouds, were included to provide shade. The vines that will cover the pergolas haven’t grown in yet so the metal structures make a strong statement now. In contrast to the pergolas, there are soft-edged benches that look and feel like ivory, curved and smooth. Because lying is not allowed, large pebble-like forms were added every few feet along the benches.

The design team also had the idea of transforming one of the large white walls of the building into a viewing screen. This way people can also sit outside on a picnic blanket and watch the concerts outdoors. An arena-shaped bowl in the park lined with state-of-the art acoustic speakers creates a “soundscape” visitors can either immerse themselves in or step out of. Many nights there are art installations, student work, and other works projected.

Another project that Gueze and his firm put together in record time in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, cleaned up the mess left by an architect, who didn’t deliver any plans for a huge ocean boardwalk some three months into the project. Gueze came in and had to design the boardwalk in two weeks and then deliver just two months later. A popular tourist destination, the boardwalk had to be up by the start of the tourist season.

Instead of creating another Copacabana, Gueze persuaded the mayor of the town to go local, using an Indian artist to create a mosaic design indigenous to the region. Shamans blessed the patterns, which were then simplified and translated into forms that could be built into the boardwalk by local artisans. Everything was made locally, using local vendors.

Gueze used a circuitous route to persuade the city to turn the strip, which used to be a main thoroughfare for bringing cars into the city, into a pedestrian-only space. Sure enough, right after launch, signs went up saying “no cars allowed.” That wasn’t in the master plan, but put in sneakily.

For Governor’s Island, NYC, one of West 8′s largest and highest-profile projects, an old island fortress is being turned into a fantastic park — with “democratizing elements” like hammocks and free bicycles. West 8, with partners Diller, Scofidio + Renfro and Rogers Marvel Architects, felt that the scale of the place was too big to handle on foot so bikes were needed. Already, in the parts that are accessible, the bikes have been a hit. Watching the tour, one couldn’t help but want to get out there on a bike as soon as possible.

Gueze said the island, which has a clear view of the Statue of Liberty in many spots, has a “different atmosphere every time you visit.” This is largely due to the fact that access to the water is so close, immediate. On certain sides of the island, sea spray comes over the rails.

The design team created a set of vignettes, with man-made caverns and open spaces, creating a series of visual effects. The caverns and hills are there because the low, brackish water on the island kills the grass so root zones for both trees and plants had to be raised up in parts to create any sense of an Olmstedian, English landscape. Gueze said they’ve designed it so you “will be craving to walk through this.”

Image credits: (1-2) Dezeen, (3) Swamp landscape / Andersom agency, (4) Miami Beach Soundscape / © Robin Hill for West 8, (5) Miami Beach Soundscape / ©R Griffijn RAP Photography, (6) Miami Beach Soundscape / © Robin Hill for West 8, (7) Puerto Vallarta Boardwalk / West 8, (8) Puerto Vallarta Mosaic Boardwalk / Discover Puerto Vallarta, (9) Governors Island / West 8 / Rogers Marvel Architects / Diller Scofidio + Renfro / Mathews Nielsen / Urban Design +, (10) Governors Island/ West 8 / Rogers Marvel Architects / Diller Scofidio + Renfro / Mathews Nielsen / Urban Design +

The Waller Creek Conservatory Design Competition Winner!!

An international design competition hosted by the Waller Creek Conservancy asked designers for their visions for the lower 1.5 miles of the riparian watershed, and they just announced the team of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc., and Thomas Phifer & Partners as the winners. The team’s design is a chain of parks in five connected districts: The Lattice (at left), The Grove, The Narrows, The Refuge, and The Confluence.

You can get the four finalists on here

Piet Oudolf Profile

source: World Landscape Architecture

Ken Smith gave a lecture: Aesthetics in Landscape Architecture

Ken Smith recently gave a lecture at Taubman College at the University of Michigan about aesthetics in landscape architecture. During the one and half hour lecture Ken goes through many of projects undertaken by WORKSHOP: Ken Smith Landscape Architect.

National Museum of Afghanistan Competition Winner Announced

The Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture and the US Embassy in Kabul acknowledge the extraordinary design ideas that were submitted to the International Architectural Ideas Competition for the National Museum of Afghanistan. The Jury’s decision for the winning design submissions is based on the clarity of the architectural concept that responds effectively to the programmatic, functional, technical, economic and security requirements in the brief, and the architectural quality of the proposed design as a whole. This decision ultimately recognizes the distinguished architectural quality of the winning proposed design solution.


1st Prize: AV62 ARQUITECTOS SLP, Spain

The strength of this Design Proposal rests on the balance that has been achieved between the architectural form and the presentation of the collections that will be housed in the proposed new Museum building. This has been achieved by an exterior appearance that is distinctive yet understated and which responds to the local context, along with a coherent scheme of interior spatial articulation that takes into account the nature of the materials that might be displayed. Moreover, the design is a relatively simple building solution that is both affordable and realistic to construct with the materials and skills locally available – this design will enable the collection to be safely stored as soon as possible. The clear and simple circulation concept, along with a degree of modularity, results in an efficient spatial arrangement for staff and operations that also provides a degree of flexibility in responding to changing needs and variation of displays.


2nd Prize: Mansilla + Tuñón Arquitectos, Spain

This Design Proposal is a more demonstrative, monumental type architecture that expresses the functional spaces within. The scale of the proposed new museum building is bigger than that of the First Prize Winner and the exterior profile can be seen as visually responsive to the backdrop of the surrounding mountains. Like the First Prize Winner, the design is based upon a grid, offering easy expansion and interior flexibility, but here the grid is expressed more directly externally and the building becomes visually more assertive. The design has an identifiable and recognizable visual form and scale that is quite sculptural, without being too monumental.


3rd Prize: fs-architekten, Germany

This Design Proposal makes an extremely strong and creative architectural statement and represents the most successful of the free-form designs. This is achieved by very sculptural massings and volumes. The visual references to the adjacent mountains represent a further shift towards an architecture that speaks of the landscape and of the nature of protection. The design also has the potential to be quite dramatic: a building that could become a destination visit in its own right, encouraging an interest in the collection almost by default.



You can get more infos & other prizes on here.

But shame that the provided images are too small to watch.

Text & Images from: archdaily and S.E.E

A High Line for London Competition Winner

Selected from over 170 entries, 20 Green Infrastructure designs were shortlisted in a competition run by the Landscape Institute, Mayor of London and Garden Museum to find a new design for green space in the capital.

And the winner is 

Fletcher Priest | Pop Down
Creates an urban mushroom garden lit by sculptural glass-fibre mushrooms at street level inside the ‘Mail Rail’ tunnels beneath Oxford Street. 

Runner Up

[ Y/N ] Studio | The LidoLine
A channel in the Regent’s Canal makes it possible to swim the ‘Lido Line’ from Little Venice to Limehouse. 

Highly Commended

HTA | Bridge-It
Unlocking corridors around the existing transport network – green linear parks and cycling and walking networks built over, under and beside railway lines. 

Erika Richmond and Peggy Pei-Chi Chi | Barge Walk
Connects people with water via the creation of a linear park, farm and wetland on floating barges at the edge of Canary Wharf.

Wynne James | Bus Roots

Rooves of bus shelters become raised gardens with sparrow colonies, insect hotels and miniature wildflower meadows. 

Images & Text from Landscape Institute and World Landscape Architect