FORM Issue Event: Vertically Inclined

Join FORM for hors d’oeurvs, wine, and tall tales of luxury in the world’s high rise environments. Scott Johnson, FAIA, Michael Palladino, FAIA, and a panel of experts will detail the designs, finishes, gadgets, and concierge that define luxury in the high rises of New York, LA, Europe, and Asia.

Please RSVP to rsvp@FORMmag.net or 818.956.5313. Include name, title, phone, and email.

Thursday, April 26, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
bulthaup Santa Monica
619 Arizona Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90401

PROJECT: Woods Bagot To Design China Southern Airport City

Image courtesy of Woods BagotWoods Bagot was recently announced as the winner of a design competition for China Southern Airport City, a 41-million square-foot mixed-use development in Guangzhou, China. By positioning two wing-shaped parcels around a major highway, the Woods Bagot offices of London, San Francisco, Hong Kong and Beijing designed the winning proposal as a “legible identity” for arriving and departing planes. According to Richard Sherwood, Joint CEO/Director of Urban Design at Woods Bagot, Airport City is “China Southern Airlines’ vision for a new district that embodies its global leadership and supports ongoing innovation afforded an opportunity to really advance our thinking about the connections between economy, ecology, and culture.”

Airport City organizes its neighborhoods into three precincts. Business, cultural, and entertainment uses, as well as Southern Airlines University, make up the central precinct. The central district, intended as the heart of the city, includes executive complex including offices, a five-star hotel, and a VIP club located along the Liuxi River. Manufacturing, operations, and research uses form a second precinct to the northwest. Residential and “lifestyle neighborhoods” are found in a third precinct along the riverfront.
Woods Bagot teamed with Hargreaves Associates and Sherwood Design Engineers to develop the landscape architecture and ecological concept. Woods Bagot beat out a list of finalists that included Zaha Hadid and Paul Andreu.

Image courtesy of Woods Bagot

COMPETITION: Johnston Marklee Among Finalists for Menil Drawing Institute Contract

Image courtesy of the Menil CollectionA selection committee for the Menil Collection in Houston has announced the finalists in a competition to design a new 18,000 square foot building that will eventually house the Menil Drawing Institute. The list of finalists includes David Chipperfield, Tattiana Bilbao, Sanaa, and Johnston Marklee.

Two of the Menil Collection’s buildings, including the 13,000 square-foot Cy Twombly Gallery, were famously designed by Renzo Piano. Menil does not, however, currently have the space to display the more than 1,200 works on paper by the likes of Rembrandt, Delacroix, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Lee Krasner, Jasper Johns, and Richard Serra, currently in its collection.

The opportunity to design a building to supplement Piano’s first two U.S. commissions, and be included alongside such heavyweights as Chipperfield and SANAA, comes as a major win for LA-based firm Johnston Marklee. The firm’s current projects include a new studio campus for the UCLA Graduate Art Program in Culver City; DEPART Foundation’s Grand Traiano Art Complex in Grottaferrata, Italy; Poggio Golo winery in Montepulciano, Italy; Vault House, a private beachside residence in Oxnard; and Chile House/META, a community arts center in Penco, Chile.

According to Houston Culture Map, the final site for the MDI is yet to be determined and the selection committee allowed finalists free reign to develop “larger architectural concepts rather than specific designs.” Sarah Whitting, committee member and dean of Rice University's architecture school, tells HCM that teams have only programming, dimensions, and budget: "The parameters are quite broad so as not to impede the possibilities of these four firms' projected visions."

BOOK: Ando: Complete Works 1975 - 2012

Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, Naoshima, Kagawa, Japan. Image by Mitsuo Matsuoka.Design publisher Taschen will release Ando: Complete Works 1975 - 2012. The book is by Phillip Jodidio, who also authored the previous collection, which documented Ando’s work through 2010. The new book will be available through Taschen Press in May 2012, although Ando was at Cal Poly Pomona to sign limited edition advance copies at the end of March. Philippe Starck describes Ando as a "mystic in a country which is no longer mystic," and Philip Drew calls his buildings "land art" that "struggle to emerge from the earth." Ando is the only architect to have won the field’s four most prestigious prizes: the Pritzker, Carlsberg, Praemium Imperiale, and Kyoto Prize.

PRODUCT: Yellow Light, Pink Light, White Light from Established & Sons

Image courtesy of Established & SonsSuper Orange is now selling the Yellow Light, Pink Light, White Light from Established & Sons. The line represents designer Scholten & Baijing’s colorful take on working and reading lights—using a color gradient that creates a special effect that makes the lights appear ‘on’ when they are in fact ‘off.’ Yellow Light, Pink Light, White Light is now in stock in North America.