Townscaping An Automobile-Oriented Fabric proposes new public landscapes to re-stitch a 5,000-person bedroom community fragmented by a five-lane commercial arterial in Farmington, Arkansas.
Courtesy: University of Arkansas Community Design Center
Three design projects produced by Fay Jones School of Architecture faculty and staff were recognized with 2012 American Architecture Awards.
The program, which honors new and cutting-edge design in architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture, is organized by the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
Pettaway Pocket Neighborhood, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Courtesy: University of Arkansas Community Design Center
The University of Arkansas Community Design Center, an outreach program of the Fay Jones School, won two awards for its Townscaping an Automobile-Oriented Fabric and Pettaway Pocket Neighborhood designs. Marlon Blackwell Architect also won an award for the Ruth Lilly Visitors Pavilion, located at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Townscaping an Automobile-Oriented Fabric is a plan focused on Farmington, Ark., a bedroom community for Fayetteville that has a five-lane highway for its main street. The highway-to-boulevard plan looks to make the town more pedestrian-friendly, while creating and strengthening social spaces.
The Pettaway Pocket Neighborhood design pooled five adjacent parcels for housing in one of the more open areas of the Pettaway neighborhood in Little Rock, Ark., on property owned by the Downtown Little Rock Community Development Corp. The design center created a pocket neighborhood, nearly doubling the density by placing nine homes around a shared space.
Both projects received support from National Endowment for the Arts grants.
Ruth Lilly Visitors Pavilion at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Courtesy: Indianapolis Museum of Art
The Ruth Lilly Visitors Pavilion is part of 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park, which opened in June 2010 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The 3,000-square-foot deck structure is made from ipe wood from Brazil, charred cedar wood from Indiana, steel, acrylic and glass. The ipe wood forms extensive decks; it then folds up to form a wall and folds again to create an extensive shade canopy.
The annual program has become the most significant and most comprehensive distinguished awards program in the United States, reflecting the changing state of global architecture and revealing emerging new design directions by today’s foremost practitioners. The program also promotes American architectural design to the public at large.
The Federation of Korean Architects in Seoul organized the jury for the 2012 awards program. According to a news release, the competition attracted a record number of projects for new buildings, landscape architecture, and urban planning from some of the most important global firms. A distinguished group of Korean architects and educators selected 87 projects for recognition.
In October, The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies will present a special exhibition of all awarded American buildings at its annual symposium, “The City and the World,” in Istanbul, Turkey, and in conjunction with the Istanbul Biennial. After the display in Turkey, the exhibition will then travel through Europe. The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication, titled Global Design + Urbanism and edited by Christian K. Narkiewicz-Laine.
