Famed Moscow park gets a makeover
A leading British architectural consultancy, LDA Design, has won an international tender to help develop the historic Gorky Park, the popular leisure area in downtown Moscow, over the next few years. The bid by LDA Design was chosen from among more than 20 applications submitted by teams from Russia, the Netherlands, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, Italy and the US, according to Gorky Park's website.
It is the first time a firm based in the U.K. has been awarded a Russian restoration contract of this size and importance. Gorky Park, on the banks of the Moskva River, is one of the largest in Europe and is a favourite hangout for ice skaters in the winter and for families in the summer. Named after the famed Russian novelist Maxim Gorky, it was laid out by the well-known Soviet architect Konstantin Melnikov, and was first opened to the public in 1928 when Josef Stalin led the Soviet Union.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the park suffered from two decades of decay. Today, Gorky Park has a totally new look, with the launch of an ambitious project aimed at creating a modern leisure area on 120 hectares of land. During the next five years, Moscow plans to spend $100 million a year to rebuild its parks.
The goal is to inject some green into the grey cityscape, and to take the rough edges off a city often called 'kameni gorod', or stone city.
Gorky Park director Olga Zakharova said that before the makeover started some 18 months ago, only 2,000 people ventured into the park each day. "This year, we have 40,000 people coming on weekdays, and from 100,000 during weekends…For us, Gorky Park is a place where we spend a great deal of time. And we want to make it so that everyone comes here and feels happy - like every day is a holiday," she added.
Opening shortly at the park is a modern art centre, designed by the noted Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. The project, funded by the Russian business tycoon Roman Abramovich, is expected to draw even more visitors to the park.
RIBA award for research centre
The Sainsbury Laboratory, a GBP (pounds sterling) 82 million plant research centre at the University of Cambridge in England, has won the United Kingdom's most prestigious architecture award, the Stirling Prize. The laboratory was named the 'best new building' by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) at a formal ceremony in Manchester.
Judges praised the "calm beauty" of the winner, designed by Stanton Williams. It beat nominees including London's Olympic Stadium and the Hepworth art gallery in Wakefield, Yorkshire. The other buildings on the shortlist were the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland; the Maggie's cancer care centre in Glasgow, Scotland; and New Court, the home of the Rothschild Bank in the City of London.
The two-storey Sainsbury Laboratory sits on the edge of Cambridge University's botanic gardens and provides state-of-the-art facilities for 120 botanists carrying out research into plant development. Stirling Prize judge and architect Joanna van Heyningen described it as an "extraordinarily good building". The researchers "deserve the best possible space in which to work, and that's what they have been given," she told BBC News. "It's a completely sublime building with the most extraordinary, beautifully designed natural light," she added.
The site was funded by Lord Sainsbury, a former science minister and ex-chairman of the Sainsbury's supermarket, who said scientists had traditionally had to put up with "appalling" buildings.
Designers Stanton Williams received a GBP 20,000 prize. Director Alan Stanton described the design as a 21st century cloister which encouraged scientists to interact and exchange ideas. Stanton Williams was the only practice to have three buildings on the longlist for this year's Stirling Prize.
Achal Narayanan
Australia's first high-rise timber building
Australia's first high-rise timber building, Forte Development, is now nearing completion and is set to become the tallest of its kind. The 10-storey tower, designed and constructed by the developers Lend Lease, will be just over 32 metres high and will feature 23 residential apartments and four townhouses. The building, located in the Victoria Harbour area of Melbourne, uses an innovative product called cross-laminated timber (CLT) to keep the construction process clean and green. On a weight-to-strength basis, CLT meets, and in some cases exceeds, the performance of reinforced concrete, resulting in a very stable and durable structure, according to the builders. As well as echoing modern city life, the tower will incorporate environmental principles, including better energy efficiency. CLT is said to help make the entire construction process more environmentally friendly.
Timber panels are stacked at right angles, glued together over their entire surface, and then hydraulically pressed. The process creates a practical alternative to materials such as prefabricated concrete. CLT can withstand the same pressure as concrete, but is faster and cheaper to work with.
Geetha Balachandran
A leading British architectural consultancy, LDA Design, has won an international tender to help develop the historic Gorky Park, the popular leisure area in downtown Moscow, over the next few years. The bid by LDA Design was chosen from among more than 20 applications submitted by teams from Russia, the Netherlands, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, Italy and the US, according to Gorky Park's website.
It is the first time a firm based in the U.K. has been awarded a Russian restoration contract of this size and importance. Gorky Park, on the banks of the Moskva River, is one of the largest in Europe and is a favourite hangout for ice skaters in the winter and for families in the summer. Named after the famed Russian novelist Maxim Gorky, it was laid out by the well-known Soviet architect Konstantin Melnikov, and was first opened to the public in 1928 when Josef Stalin led the Soviet Union.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the park suffered from two decades of decay. Today, Gorky Park has a totally new look, with the launch of an ambitious project aimed at creating a modern leisure area on 120 hectares of land. During the next five years, Moscow plans to spend $100 million a year to rebuild its parks.
The goal is to inject some green into the grey cityscape, and to take the rough edges off a city often called 'kameni gorod', or stone city.
Gorky Park director Olga Zakharova said that before the makeover started some 18 months ago, only 2,000 people ventured into the park each day. "This year, we have 40,000 people coming on weekdays, and from 100,000 during weekends…For us, Gorky Park is a place where we spend a great deal of time. And we want to make it so that everyone comes here and feels happy - like every day is a holiday," she added.
Opening shortly at the park is a modern art centre, designed by the noted Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. The project, funded by the Russian business tycoon Roman Abramovich, is expected to draw even more visitors to the park.
RIBA award for research centre
The Sainsbury Laboratory, a GBP (pounds sterling) 82 million plant research centre at the University of Cambridge in England, has won the United Kingdom's most prestigious architecture award, the Stirling Prize. The laboratory was named the 'best new building' by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) at a formal ceremony in Manchester.
Judges praised the "calm beauty" of the winner, designed by Stanton Williams. It beat nominees including London's Olympic Stadium and the Hepworth art gallery in Wakefield, Yorkshire. The other buildings on the shortlist were the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland; the Maggie's cancer care centre in Glasgow, Scotland; and New Court, the home of the Rothschild Bank in the City of London.
The two-storey Sainsbury Laboratory sits on the edge of Cambridge University's botanic gardens and provides state-of-the-art facilities for 120 botanists carrying out research into plant development. Stirling Prize judge and architect Joanna van Heyningen described it as an "extraordinarily good building". The researchers "deserve the best possible space in which to work, and that's what they have been given," she told BBC News. "It's a completely sublime building with the most extraordinary, beautifully designed natural light," she added.
The site was funded by Lord Sainsbury, a former science minister and ex-chairman of the Sainsbury's supermarket, who said scientists had traditionally had to put up with "appalling" buildings.
Designers Stanton Williams received a GBP 20,000 prize. Director Alan Stanton described the design as a 21st century cloister which encouraged scientists to interact and exchange ideas. Stanton Williams was the only practice to have three buildings on the longlist for this year's Stirling Prize.
Achal Narayanan
Australia's first high-rise timber building
Australia's first high-rise timber building, Forte Development, is now nearing completion and is set to become the tallest of its kind. The 10-storey tower, designed and constructed by the developers Lend Lease, will be just over 32 metres high and will feature 23 residential apartments and four townhouses. The building, located in the Victoria Harbour area of Melbourne, uses an innovative product called cross-laminated timber (CLT) to keep the construction process clean and green. On a weight-to-strength basis, CLT meets, and in some cases exceeds, the performance of reinforced concrete, resulting in a very stable and durable structure, according to the builders. As well as echoing modern city life, the tower will incorporate environmental principles, including better energy efficiency. CLT is said to help make the entire construction process more environmentally friendly.
Timber panels are stacked at right angles, glued together over their entire surface, and then hydraulically pressed. The process creates a practical alternative to materials such as prefabricated concrete. CLT can withstand the same pressure as concrete, but is faster and cheaper to work with.
Geetha Balachandran