'ARK booktower' by Rintala Eggertsson Arkitekter

Within the ’1:1 – Architects Build Small Spaces’ exhibition at the V&A in London the Norwegian practice Rintala Eggertsson Arkitekter realised this wooden structure, a temporary, intimate, little library, in the middle of the stairwell that leads to the museum’s first-floor National Art Library.

Now after having dismantled the ARK booktower Rintala Eggertsson Arkitekter are currently looking for someone who might be interested in it.

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2010 Taipei International Floral Expo, Fine Arts Museum Park by King Shih Architects, photo by Marc Gerritsen

The Taipei based King Shih Architects realised the center for this year’s International Floral Expo in Taipei, a horticultural event authorized by AIPH and hosted by Taipei City Government. The complex includes a Gift Shop Pavilion, an Outlook Pavilion and the Expo Hall with its stunning meshed roof that has a span of up to 65 m.

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Museum aan de Stroom by Neutelings Riedijk Architecten, photo by Sarah Blee

The Rotterdam based practice Neutelings Riedijk Architecten recently unveiled the new Museum aan de Stroom in Antwerp, located in the centre of the old harbour district, the most important and biggest city renovation project in the centre of Antwerp. This district was originally called ‘Nieuwstad (New City)’, as it was the first city expansion constructed by land speculator and urban developer Gilbert van Schoonbeke (1519-1556) outside the Spanish fortress belt in the sixteenth century. Today, old warehouses are being converted into lofts everywhere, and new apartment buildings such as the Koninklijk Entrepot by Berlin architect Hans Kolhoff, the residential towers by Swiss architects Diener en Diener and the towers by David Chipperfield and Guyer en Gigon, as well as many projects yet to follow, are being erected.

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Visitor Center Grube Messel by Holzer Kobler Architekturen, photo by Jan Bitter

For almost 100 years oil shale was mined in the Messel Pit near Darmstadt in central Germany. Here very well preserved fossils were found again and again in the course of mining operations. After the mine was closed in 1971 it turned – due to the great number of fossils that it contains – into an archaeological excavation and was placed under UNESCO protection as a World Heritage Site. The Zurich based practice Holzer Kobler Architekturen recently completed the scenography and interior design for the Visitors Center of the exhibition.

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Kindergarten Sighartstein, photo by Angelo Kaunat, Salzburg

This play school and nursery near Salzburg, Austria was realised by the German architectural practice kadawittfeldarchitektur. The building, situated in a small villages surrounded by fields and grassland, is characterised by a pictorial, abstract “grass-facade” – an ornament which creates identity and orientation at the same time. The inside of the building follows a strict material and colour-scheme of greenish and natural shades and materials.

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School 'Le Marais du Billet' by Graeme Mann & Patricia Capua Mann

The Lausanne based architects Graeme Mann & Patricia Capua Mann realised this new school complex for the community of Cheseaux, north of Lausanne. Built in the heart of the village on the same lot as the municipal building the two volumes form, protected from automobile traffic, a new “village square” that allows to organise major events and underscores the school’s public function.

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Taastrup Theatre by COBE Copenhagen

The Danish architectural practice COBE recently unveiled this extension of the 1970s local community theatre, situated in a social housing neighborhood of Taastrup closed to Copenhagen. First the architects were commissioned to improve the energy consumption of the building but they used this opportunity to improve the general appeal and functionality of the building by introducing a second (isolating) theatre curtain around the rough concrete structure.

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Centro Abierto de Actividades Ciudadanas by ParedesPino Arquitectos, photo by Jorge López Conde and Paredes Pino

The Madrid based ParedesPino Arquitectos recently completed this urban installation of permanent parasols, the Centro Abierto de Actividades Ciudadanas (CAAC), in Cordoba in the south of Spain.

The central piazza is located close to the train station and is venue for a market twice a week. The prefabricated parasols shade this higly frequented open space, solve the artificial lighting and allow drainage of water inside.

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