Friday, July 24, 2009

Competition for Image Models of 20th-century Architectural Heritage

The French Ministry of Culture (Direction of Architecture and Heritage – DAPA)
and the International Union of Architects
announce
an international student competition
for digital representations of landmark 20th-century buildings http://www.archi.fr/UIA/.
http://www.uia-architectes.org/texte/england/Menu-3/4-Actu.html

The panorama and 3D models designed will be based on digital photographs and developed using the Autodesk softwares ‘Autodesk ImageModeler’ and ‘Autodesk Stitcher’ (made available to the participants free of charge for three months).
The competition will be launched during the European Heritage Days
on September 19–20, 2009.
Projects submissions are planned for April 2010.

The grand prize winners and all projects selected at the national level will be exhibited at the Venice biennial in September 2010.
The digital presentations of all selected projects will be posted online at http://www.archi.fr/UIA/.

Partners:
French Ministry of Culture and Communication (Direction of Architecture and Heritage), French National Center for Scientific Research (UMR-CNRS 694 MAP),
International Union of Architects,
Docomomo International.

Contact:
communication.dapa@culture.gouv.fr
uia@uia-architectes.org

Information forwarded by
the Docomomo International
Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine
Palais de Chaillot 1, place du Trocadéro, F-75016 Paris
t +33 -1 58 51 52 65
e docomomo@citechaillot.fr
w docomomo.com

This project focuses on an international student competition for digital representations of landmark 20th century buildings.
The competition will be run entirely through the Internet.An initial national competition will be carried out by the UIA Member Sections and thewinners of the national selections will be submitted to the international jury.

The panoramas and 3D models designed for this competition will be based on digitalphotographs and developed using the Autodesk software‘Autodesk® ImageModeler™’and ‘Autodesk® Stitcher™’.
This software will be made available to the participants freeof charge for a period of three months.
Created in 2002 in the framework of an agreement between the French Ministry of Cultureand Communication (direction of Architecture and Heritage),
the French National Centre for Scientific Research (UMR-CNRS 694 MAP)
and the International Union of Architects,
the site www.archi.fr/UIA/ aims to identify and promote architectural works around theworld that have left their mark on 20th century architecture.
The international committee

for Documentation and Conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the Modern Movement, DoCoMoMo,
is also participating in this project.

Contact:
communication.dapa@culture.gouv.fr
uia@uia-architectes.org

Friday, July 17, 2009

Moscow Heritage at Crisis Point

SAVE, Maps and Docomomo International
present
second edition

Buildings under threat include internationally famous landmarks: the Bolshoi Theater, Mayakovskaya Metro Station, Monuments of the avant-garde, plus buildings that are an inseparable part of Moscow’s identity like Children’s World Department Store and the Central House of Artists.
This report was possible due to the late scholar of Russian architecture Catherine Cooke [see In Memoriam by Denis Sharp on http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/catherine-cooke-549533.html].
The report is a follow up to the 2007 report, a bombshell that focused national and international attention on the crisis that Moscow’s heritage is undergoing.
Despite the successes of the report, including the listing of 3 buildings, the destruction continues.
The new report details the changes of the last two years—what new losses the city has suffered, which buildings are under continuing or new threat, why this is happening, and also outlines the path for a more sustainable future for the city.
This new report from SAVE Europe’s Heritage and the Moscow Architectural Preservation Society (MAPS), with support from Docomomo International, condemns the losses while illustrating the astonishing range of historic building in Moscow, from medieval churches to elegant postwar modernism—all threatened by the furious pace of redevelopment of the city by a coterie of property developers during the tenure of Mayor Yury Luzhkov.

Press conference: July 22, 5pm
Schusev State Museum of ArchitectureMoscow, 5,
VozdvizhenkaWrite to clem@maps-moscow.com
More information at http://www.maps-moscow.com/index.php?chapter_id=139

Modern Heritage and the City

Docomomo Chile Third National Seminar
Valparaiso, November 2009


Docomomo Chile will hold its Third National Seminar in Valparaiso on November 18-20, 2009. The main theme of the seminar, in consonance with the next International Docomomo Conference in Mexico 2010, will address the relationships between modern heritage and the city.The city of Valparaiso, included in the World Heritage List, provides a paradigmatic urban landscape in which to confront the reality of the traditional city and the modern heritage, in the broad—and local—realms of the urban fabric, the territory, and the coast.

Docomomo Chile ще проведе своя Трети национален семинар във Valparaiso на 18-20 ноември 2009.
Основната тема на семинара, в съзвучие със следващата международна конференция на Docomomo International - Mexico'2010, ще се обърне към връзките между наследството на модернизма и града.
Град Valparaiso, включен в Листата на световното наследство, предоставя един парадигматичен градски пейзаж, в който да се противопоставят реалността на традиционния град и наследството на модернизма в общия и в локалния контекст на градската среда, територията и крайбрежието.


Scientific committee: Claudio Galeno (U. Católica del Norte, Docomomo Chile) Horacio Torrent (U. Católica de Chile, Docomomo Chile) Hugo Mondragón (U. Católica de Chile, Docomomo Chile) Humberto Eliash (U. de Chile, Docomomo Chile) Jorge Ferrada (U. Católica de Valparaíso) Luis Valenzuela (U. Católica de Chile) Marcela Hurtado (U. Técnica Federico Santa María) María Dolores Muñoz (U. de Concepción) Nelson Vásquez (U. Católica de Valparaíso) Pablo Ortúzar Silva (U. de Valparaíso) Carlos Eduardo Días Comas (UFRGS, Docomomo Brasil) Louise Noelle Gras (UNAM, Docomomo Mexico)
Abstracts (in Spanish) are to be sent to before July 15, 2009.

Maximiano Atria, secretary general
Docomomo Chilee
seminario2009@docomomo.cl
http://www.docomomo.cl/

Friday, July 10, 2009

Robin Hood Gardens: Re-Visions

RIBA, London
July 4–August 26, 2009

Alongside the continuing campaign for Robin Hood Gardens, the Twentieth Century Society has organized an exhibition at the RIBA Gallery, entitled Robin Hood Gardens: Re-Visions.Featuring archive material on the estate, a series of new images from acclaimed architectural photographer Ioana Marinescu and a new documentary film on the estate by NFT student Martin Ginestie, the exhibition will also include recent projects about Robin Hood Gardens completed by diploma students at the University of Greenwich.Launch Party on Tuesday 21 July, 6:30pm.
RSVP administrator@c20society.org.uk
Gallery 2RIBA, 66 Portland
PlaceLondon W1B 1AD
The Twentieth Century Society http://www.c20society.org.uk/docs/press/090630_rhg_update_&-exhibition.html

Information forwarded by the International committee for documentation and conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the modern movement
Docomomo International
Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine
Palais de Chaillot1, place du Trocadéro
F-75016 Paris
t +33 -1 58 51 52 65e
docomomo@citechaillot.fr
w docomomo.com

Architects' Council of Europe

PRESS RELEASE
7th July 2009
The latest Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE) quarterly survey shows that the impact of the economic crisis on the architectural profession is deepening.
The construction sector is often recognised as a good barometer for indicating the vitality of the general economy. Within that sector it is often the architectural profession that first feels the cold wind of a recession and the warm breeze of a recovery.
For this reason, the ACE initiated in 2009, a series of quarterly surveys of the opinion of practising architects on the impact of the economic crisis on their offices and workload. These surveys are based on a questionnaire that is available in 14 European languages. Each survey is opened for a period of two weeks and all Member Organisations of the ACE are invited to inform their members that the questionnaire is open and available for answers beyond the sample of volunteer architects already available to the ACE.
The second and latest survey was run between the 15th and 29th June and the results indicate that the mood in the profession is significantly more pessimistic than it was just three months ago, in April 2009. The number of responses was nearly double that of the first survey – an indication of the interest that it has generated in the profession across Europe.
In fact 62% of respondents said that the current situation is “Bad” or Very bad” as compared to 46% in April 2009. Confirming this relative pessimism just 8% of respondents in June said that they thought the situation was “Good” or “Very good” as compared with 15% in April.
When is comes to the employment situation, the ACE can report that nearly one in three architects offices has seen a decrease in staff numbers since the nominal start of the crisis in September 2008. The expectation of those who responded in June is that staff numbers will decrease in 23% of offices in the coming three months. On the positive side, 7% of architects offices have seen an increase in staff numbers since September 2008 although the survey does not permit the ACE to say how many new jobs for architects this represents.
These results are bad news for the European Union as a whole and should be a call to action for politicians at all levels in European governance. The ACE and its Member Organisations, who stand ready to contribute to well-framed actions, believe that immediate increased public investment in sustainable construction and, in particular, energy efficiency upgrading of existing buildings would be an appropriate starting point.
A presentation of the results of the survey can be downloaded at:
www.ace-cae.org/MemberN/Content/EN/documents/sdoc/structure.asp?id=aceinfo_overview
The Architects' Council of Europe (ACE) is the European organisation representing the architectural profession at European level. Its headquarters and Secretariat are located in Brussels. Its growing membership consists of Member Organisations, which are the nationally representative regulatory and professional bodies of all European Union (EU) Member States, Accession States, Switzerland and Norway. Through them, it represents the interests of about 480,000 architects. The principal function of the ACE is to monitor developments at EU level, seeking to influence those areas of EU Policy and legislation that have an impact on architectural practice and on the overall quality and sustainability of the built environment.