Art, Architecture and Design Professionals On TFOD

A supermarket is to open next month in rural Bangladesh for small local farmers to sell their produce, but interestingly, this news from the agri-business realm of a small developing nation is significant for the architecture world, and why would it not be? After all, the inputs here are as cross-continental, multi-cultural and multidisciplinary as they can get with Bangladeshi and Dutch Institutions and architects contributing to efforts for the alleviation of agrarian distress. And, when the results are as aesthetically significant as they are functionally relevant, the fraternity needs to sit up and take notice. Here’s taking a look at the design project called ‘Vegetable Super Market’ in Khulna district of Bangladesh handled in partnership by Amsterdam based Tjep and local firm Vaastukalpa.

Dutch firm MVRDV having completed a two-building entertainment hub near Seoul, South Korea, has created the latest stir on the global architectural scene. The gold and white bathed windowless structures called The Imprint, housing a night club and an entertainment theme park which form the first phase of an entertainment hub called Paradise City about a kilometre away from Seoul airport, have been the talk of the town – equally hated and loved – ever since they have been opened to the public. Visually quite un-ignorable, The Imprint is quite path-breaking, if it can be called that, in a way of its own.

The primary feeling that is ignited within a visitor, visiting the Virasat-eKhalsa, is a sense of visual grandeur, calmness and utmost positivity. The light- brown coloured sandstone towers along with lush green gardens and reflective water bodies, represent the theme of Earth and Sky, mass and lightness and depth and ascension, extremely effectively.

On 25^th September 2018, a new milestone was set in the annals of Indian architecture – when a team of architects (teachers and students) from Navrachna University, Baroda was declared the First Prize Winner of a prestigious international competition for redesigning the iconic FLW monument – the Guggenheim Museum in New York!

Prof. Percy Adil Pithawala, Head of Architecture at the School of Environmental Design and Architecture, Navrachana University, along with teaching assistant Dhruv Shah and students - Varun Shah, Meghna Kanungo, Vishesh Narola, and Roshni Shah – clinched the top slot in the Switch International Design Competition – ‘Redesigning the Guggenheim.’

With the season for students to return to schools and colleges globally having set in, educational spaces are back in focus. Investment in education was never at such a high anytime in history as it is now, and this has resulted in a boom for designers of institutional buildings and spaces as well. Well, almost in parallel, the world has woken up to the climate change and resource depletion crisis and trained the spotlight on sustainable practices in all fields, including building design. Just as these green buildings account for a large number of academic institutions, the green practices consolidated in the design of schools imparting an education in these very areas of study evoke special interest. Here’s looking at the building designs of two such institutions catering to two vastly different age groups in two varied geographical locations across the globe.