CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS- ARCHITECTURE OPEN LABORATORY

now/next: performance space at the crossroads

WHAT IS A THEATRE NEXT?

an 11-day open laboratory in the architecture section of the Prague Quadrennial 2011

The Architecture Section of the 2011 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, asking “what is a theatre now and what could it be next?” will include also an Open Laboratory where selected participants will collaborate and work with renowned international experts in theatre architecture, theory, and design to propose alternative models for citing performance. Theatre will no longer be considered art form or built form but a social, cultural, and political venture; no longer a single receptacle of performance, but a civic meeting place that addresses local and global realities.

The auditorium is often considered a static object designed to contain performance. But performance cannot be contained… it exceeds architecture, especially in this age of media spectacles, fluid technologies and uncontainable bodies. So what role does the auditorium now play other than forcing us to perform as well-behaved spectators? If we acknowledge that architecture itself performs, as space-in-action, then perhaps we can explore new strategies for experiencing live performance as a more dynamic, creative and communal spatial event.

Dr Dorita Hannah: Professor of Spatial Design & Commissioner of Architecture Section at PQ11

Deadlines for Open Laboratory:
Applications: 31 October 2010.
Announcement of selection: 30 November 2010

Requirements
Applicants have to be PhD students or emerging practitioners.
Selected candidates must be present during the entire workshop (16-26 June 2011)

Costs:
Workshop fee is covered by the PQ
Travel or accommodation costs or per diems are covered by candidates

For details on Architecture Section of the PQ, the Open Laboratory, conditions of participation, application forms,  click here: http://www.pq.cz/en/architecture.html

First Archicamp: Collaboration and Innovation in Architecture — 19th June 2010, Paris, France

The first Archicamp will be focusing on how collaboration between practices allows to compare each other’s knowledge and point of view to discover new ways to design and live urban spaces.

Architects, innovators, urbanists, landscape designers, sociologists, citizens and students — all are welcome together with their ideas: Archicamp is free to register!

More info on http://archicamp.org/ (en Français, bien sûr!)

Mac Stories reports of the (coming soon?) release of Sledgehammer, which would be the first Beta of Autocad for Mac OSX:

I have a too little, too late feeling about this, as Mac users have been relying on Revit for ages now, having waited for a Mac compatible release of the programme for way too long.

Though I must admit the only reason why I never got myself a Mac is that I then couldn’t have used AutoCAD on it unless I installed Parallel or some other virtual PC software on it…

[image via Italiamac]

Rolex Learning Centre, Lausanne

Japanese architecture duo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, aka SANAA, have been awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize for 2010.

The pair formed their firm in 1995. At 44, Ryue Nishizawa is the youngest architect to win the Pritzker, while Kazuyo Sejima is the second woman to be awarded the prize, having been Zaha Hadid the first one in 2004, although many claim back in 1991 the jury wronged Denise Scott Brown in awarding only her husband and architectural partner Robert Venturi, not even mentioning her.

SANAA’s buildings include the New Museum building in New York, completed in 2007; the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art, completed in 2006; the Rolex Learning Centre in Lausanne; the O-Museum in Nagano; the Dior store in Tokyo; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa; the Zollverein School of Management and Design in Essen, Germany.

The award ceremony will be on May 17 on Ellis Island in New York.

Glasgow based firm Cameron Webster Architects has won the competition to design a new harbour at Loch Ness launched by Jacobite Cruises in order to develop a new harbour, a car park, a reception and visitor facilities on the western bank of the loch.

The design beat those by Gareth Hoskins, ANTA Architecture and McKenzie Strickland Associates.

New Parliament House, one of the most interesting A-listed buildings in Edinburgh, is going to be transformed into a hotel.

Built by Thomas Hamilton in 1829 and commonly referred to as the Old Royal High School, it’s a landmark building forming part of the World Heritage Site on Calton Hill, known as Edinburgh’s Acropolis, and it’s regarded as the city best neo-classical feature. It’s been underused (if not entirely unused) ever since the Royal High School relocated in Barnton in 1968.

Being an A-listed building, New Parliament House falls into the “buildings of national or international importance, either architectural or historic, or fine little-altered examples of some particular period, style or building type” category, but now, setting all listing regulations and World Heritage prescriptions aside, Edinburgh City Council have plans to retain ownership of the building while leasing it out after having transformed it into a £35million “arts hotel” which should also include a restaurant, a café and a public art gallery, and have already awarded the project to Duddingston House Properties, to Gareth Hoskins’ designs.

Peter Wilson, director of business development at the School of the Built Environment at Napier University in Edinburgh, criticised the council’s decision:

It is unexpected and it’s absolutely the wrong use for a building of that importance. The building helped give Edinburgh the title “Athens of the North. Turning it into yet another hotel is not what any capital city should do with a building of that status. It has clearly always been intended to be used for a cultural function but the council has been desperate to get rid of it. I think this is another council bungle, frankly. It’s something they are very good at. The whole economic development approach really needs investigation. The city has been absolutely emasculated by stupid decisions.

Scottish Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop just released brand new 3D laser scanned digital images of historical Rosslyn Chapel, part of a survey project on heritage structures developed by Historic Scotland and Digital Design Studio at the Glasgow School of Art.

Combining terrestrial laser scanning and other digital technologies, the team managed to capture both the interior and the exterior of the chapel in accurate detail: in three days they acquired over 4.5 billion points. All the data will be of course used during the ongoing restoration process of the chapel.

The same technology is also being used at Stirling Castle and is going to be used again to obtain information about a great number of historical buildings.

Historic Scotland and Digital Design Studio at the Glasgow School of Art announced a partnership in July to digitally document the country’s five World Heritage Sites, and five international heritage sites – the first being Mount Rushmore – creating what will be known as the Scottish 10.

New Lanark is one of five World Heritage Sites in Scotland along with The Antonine Wall, St Kilda, Heart of Neolithic Orkney and the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh.

Professor Seona Reid, Director of the Glasgow School of Art said:  “The work The Glasgow School of Art’s Digital Design Studio and Historic Scotland are doing is truly world-leading and clearly shows how developing new technologies can help us better understand and appreciate great works of the past.  This is just the beginning of a partnership that is set to leave a digital legacy for us all to enjoy.”

[via Historic Scotland]