ARCHITECTURAL NEWS

USEFUL LINKS

World Architecture Awards
Irish Architects win prestigious Awards at UIA Congress 2002 in Berlin
New Planning Regulations CD-Rom Now Available
Martin Valley Sculpture Park - Architectural Design Competition

Useful links to industry associations, semi-state organisations, government departments, exhibitions and conferences.

Click here to view

World Architecture Awards

BACK TO COMMERCIAL GLASS RESOURCES

Arup’s education project is a triple award winner
At the recent World Architecture Awards in Berlin, Arup’s education project - Druk White Lotus School, Ladakh in Northern India won three awards including ‘best education building of the year’, ‘best green building of the year’ (joint winner) and ‘regional winner - Asia’.

Consulting engineers Arup together with Arup Associates used the latest environmental engineering analysis to optimise the efficiency of traditional materials and building methods. The Pema Karpo Institute/Druk White Lotus school aims to act as a model for building in a seismic area with limited natural resources and provide a prototype for future school developments both from a construction and educational point of view. The project is an initiative of the Drukpa and Kargyud Trust, a registered UK charity under the patronage of HH the Dalai Lama.

The school complex is situated in the village of Shey where water is a scarce resource. Arup's engineers have designed a water distribution system that will reuse water for irrigation and directs the little rain that falls to planted areas. Water from the ground is pumped by solar power to a tank at the top of the site. Drinking and irrigation water is then gravity fed to gardens and water points. Health and sanitary conditions are also being improved in an affordable and low-tech way by the introduction of VIP (Ventilated Improved Pit) latrines which do not use water but rely on a solar driven flue to eliminate smells and insects.

One of the main challenges for Arup’s engineers is that Ladakh is in a highly seismic zone. Traditional buildings are not seismically engineered but with the application of simple structural principles and the use of timber frames to resist seismic loads, a huge improvement in earthquake safety for the school buildings has been achieved.

Irish Architects win prestigious Awards at UIA Congress 2002 in Berlin

For the first time ever, the Union Internationale des Architects (UIA) has awarded Irish architects for their contribution to the built environment. Group ‚91 Architects‚ the group who initiated and then brought to fruition the development of Dublin's Temple Bar, will receive the Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize for town planning and territorial development, while Justin Kilcullen, Director of Trócaire and also an architect and town planner, will be awarded the Sir Robert Matthew prize for improvement in the quality of human settlement.

These awards were created over 40 years ago (1961) to honour professionals for their 'merit, talent or actions.' The prizes, of which there are five, including the UIA gold medal for lifetime achievement, are named in honour of past presidents of the UIA.

The jury's citation to Group 91 noted "the exemplary methods and results obtained - and the creation of a successful partnership grouping several private architectural offices, in association with the city authorities, for the development of a lengthy restructuring process in a central part of the inner city. Ten years of intensive work, developing a subtle awareness of the spirit of the Temple Bar district, made it possible to uncover and highlight most of the qualities of European city centres: animation, mixed functions linked to work, leisure, shops, housing etc. The streets were given back to pedestrians without excluding all traffic inner courtyards were opened for many uses: entertainment, open air activities, gastronomy and urban life so that the population could renew its ties with the city's history."

New Planning Regulations CD-ROM Now Available

Planning Regulations, CD ROM now available and New RIAI Planning Application Checking System. A CD Rom with the complete contents of recent RIAI Planning Seminars is now available.

Content includes: New RIAI Planning Applications Checking System

Topics covered:
• Overview of the new Regulations
• Exempted Development
• Housing Supply
• Protected Structures
• Development Control
• Duchas Guidelines

Speakers:
• John Martin, Senior Planning Advisor, Dept. of Environment and Local Government
• Michael O’Carroll MRIAI, Director, Murray Ó Laoire Architects
• David O’Connor, FRIAI, County Architect, Fingal County Council
• Paul Arnold FRIAI, Conservation Architect.
• John Graby FRIAI, RIAI Director.
• Adrian Joyce, MRIAI, RIAI Practice and Member Services Director
• David Keane FRIAI, Author of Building and the Law

The CD-ROM can be purchased from the RIAI at:
The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland
8 Merrion Square,
Dublin 2.
Tel : +353 1 676 1703
Fax : +353 1 661 0948
email: info@riai.ie

Martin Valley Sculpture Park - Architectural Design Competition

The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, 8 Merrion Square, Dublin 2 (Tel: +353 1 6761703. Fax +353 1 6769510, email: jgibney@riai.ie , website: www.riai.ie ) is administering a competition on behalf of Cork County Council in partnership with the National Sculpture Factory (NSF) & Blarney Development Group.

The competition is an open one stage architectural competition to develop a Sculpture Park at Waterloo, Blarney. The site comprises four and a half acres of water meadow traversed by the River Martin below the church and tower at Waterloo. It is located approximately three hundred metres from the N20 Cork – Limerick national primary road and one kilometre from Blarney Railway Station, which is likely to be re-opened shortly. It is linked to Blarney village, which is two kilometres distant, by road and by a pedestrian route.

The guiding theme of the overall project is art and development in harmony with the environment so it is intended that landscape, building and works of art will all reflect this. It is intended that there should be one main multi-purpose building and that other site development should consist primarily of pathways and related bridges. It may be that some change to existing land levels and forms will be required but it will be essential to minimise any changes that might reduce the flood plain capacity of the site. It is anticipated that landscaping proposals will work with the existing situation rather than seek to replace it.

The Martin Valley Trail, which is presently nearing completion, is a riverside walk up the Martin River valley from Blarney village to the site at Waterloo through scenic wooded landscape. Again the theme of the walk is art in the environment. Along the trail, 10 artistic features, created by artists selected through a competition administered by the NSF are to be located. These features are strongly related to the local environment using both cultural and ecological themes. They will thus lead the walker on and set the scene for the Sculpture Park.

Click here for more information

NEXT - International Architecture Exhibition

Between 8 September and 3 November 2002, the Biennale di Venezia will host NEXT: the future of world architecture. NEXT will summarise the developments of architecture over the forthcoming few years, showing us what will be built and how it will be built. Far from the fantasy and virtual representations that have drawn architecture closer to the world of art installations, this year the Architecture Biennale will examine above all the quality of the forms and of the materials of the architecture constructed.

Architects of the whole world explore new roads, striving to blend the discovery of new materials with that of new construction techniques to provide their buildings with new tactile and visual qualities. Many of these experiments will be present in the exhibition, from work using aluminium and reinforced concrete glass by Japanese architect, Toyo Ito, to the elegant coating materials used by Herzog and de Meuron via digital design. The NEXT international exhibition will be held in the large spaces of the Arsenale (Corderie and Artiglierie) in a fascinating itinerary in which it will be possible to interweave the past of the location and the future of the new constructions, represented by large and small models and by photographs.

Over 130 projects will be presented for the first time, divided into sections, each of which dedicated to a particular form of construction of architectural theme: Housing, Museums, transport (Communications), Education, skyscrapers (Towers), the workplace (Work), shops (Shopping), free time (Performance), public and religious sites (Church/State), town plans (Masterplans). An architecture exhibition dedicated to projects, produced both by already established architects and by young, emerging talent, and in both cases selected for the quality of their work.

Click here for more information