Awards – Quercus Architecture

12 October 2014

The Barcelona Pavilion

The Barcelona Pavilion was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as the German National Pavilion for the Barcelona International Exhibition, held on Montjuïc.

The Barcelona Pavilion, an emblematic work of the Modern Movement, has been exhaustively studied and interpreted as well as having inspired the oeuvre of several generations of architects.

Means must be subsidiary to ends and to our desire for dignity and value.
Mies Van Der Rohe

After the closure of the Exhibition, the Pavilion was disassembled in 1930. As time went by, it became a key point of reference not only in Mies van der Rohe’s own career but also in twentieth-century architecture as a whole.

Given the significance and reputation of the Pavilion, thoughts turned towards its possible reconstruction.

In 1980 Oriol Bohigas, as head of the Urban Planning Department at the Barcelona City Council, set the project in motion, designating architects Ignasi de Solà-Morales, Cristian Cirici and Fernando Ramos to research, design and supervise the reconstruction of the Pavilion.

Work began in 1983 and the new building was opened on its original site in 1986.

The Barcelona Pavilion via Fundació Mies van der Rohe.

6 October 2014

Beijing’s Extraordinary Projects: Hutong Bubble

MAD’s proposal for the future Beijing 2050 was first revealed at its exhibition MAD IN CHINA in Venice during the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale.

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Three years later, the first hutong bubble has appeared in a small courtyard in Beijing.MAD Architects

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Courtesy of MAD Architects via ArchDaily

11 August 2014

Golden State Warriors Stadium

The Golden State Warriors recently announced that Snøhetta and AECOM have been selected as the architecture team to design the Warriors’ new sports and entertainment complex on the San Francisco waterfront.

Planned for a vibrant intersection between Downtown Calgary and the East Village, the new library aims to fulfill the city’s vision for a “technologically advanced public space for innovation, research and collaboration.”

The exterior’s fritted glass openings are strategically transparent in most public areas as an attempt to encourage pedestrians to enter.

The encapsulation of the existing Light Trail Train is currently underway, and the new Calgary Public Library is expected to be completed in 2018.

At its mid-section, the building lifts to form an arched, wood-clad entry that serves as a new public plaza and directly connects pedestrians through the site from the neighboring communities.