Enjoy the View

Michael was invited together with the team of "Ebner and friends (EF)" to participate in the this years 12th Intl. Architecture Exhibition in Venice. The Biennale gives an overview about the status quo and work of contemporary Architecture  worldwide and exists out of several Pavillions and Areas in which around 200 Architects from all over the world present their entries. EF was invited

Biennale Awards

The international Jury or the 12th International Architecture Exhibition has decided to confer the official awards if the Architecture Biennale as follows:

Golden Lion for for the best National Participation to the Kingdom of Bahrain 
(Curators : Noura Al-Sayeh, Fuad Al-Ansari, 
 Commissioner : Ministry of Culture and Information, Bahrain)


The motivation of the International Jury :
Given the range of vast urban developments that Kingdom of Bahrain could have been tempted to include in this Exhibition, the jury was impressed by the choice, instead, of a lucid and forceful self-analysis of the nation’s relationship with its rapidly changing coastline. Here transient forms of architecture are presented as devices for reclaiming the sea as a form of public space: an exceptionally humble yet compelling response to People meet in architecture, the theme proposed by Exhibition Director Kazuyo Sejima.

This was the first year that Bahrain had participated in the affairs in Venice. In a statement, the nation’s culture minister, Mai Bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, said that the nation had hoped to "portray in an objective way a segment of our urban landscape, sharing with you the challenges, which lay ahead of us in the hope that a shared debate can be raised."

It was exciting to see, in a world of parametric architecture, a project which was very poetic by transferring history and culture from Bahrain to Venice. The Architects demounted the fisher-huts in bahrain, rebuilding them in Venice. Visitors can sit in the huts, a storyteller reports about the history and the present of Bahrain and the Gulf joining the guests in the huts. A really very impressing work. Congratulations to Noura, Fuad and their team.

Golden Lion for the best project :  junya.ishigami+associates, Japan
Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement : Rem Koolhaas
Golden Lion in memoriam : Kazuo Shinohara

Spy and Spy - an outside view to Heidelberg by an Insider

Born in Heidelberg 52 years ago, i spent app. 35 years in this town (Pfaffengrund and Boxberg), before I left Heidelberg to live in other parts of Europe and Asia. Frequently I come back, but mostly, for whatever reason, I do not stay longer then 3 - 5 days in the city.

politics and markets

it seems that the crisis of the world-economy does not stop. the european union is forced to support greece with a huge amount of money. one of the reason seems to be, as said by officials from europe, to prevent a domino-effect on other countries like spain, portugal or italy, which obviously also face serious economic problems. greece with 177 billions of debt's seems to be manageable, italy with 1.077 billions for sure not. the claim of 

Rain of Light

On April 15th, several students from "building construction class" visited the Mock-up dome of Jean Nouvel's Museum Project in Abu Dhabi / Saadiyat Island. The group have been invited by the Abu Dhabi developing group "TDIC", which is responsible for the whole development of Saadiyat Island.

When entering the Dome it was highly interesting to see, that the concept of Nouvel, which he showed very impressing in his renderings for the project, works in the 1:1 scale as perfect as in the drawings. The light, an integral part of Nouvel's idea, penetrates the skin of the Dome and creates an unique light-atmosphere, which can only be found in this country, due to the almost slightly sandy air. The game of light and shadow on the groundfloor, created by this penetration, is marvelous to see, especially its spatial and geometrical changing due to the move of the sun.

The PR text describes it and the mock-up above:

"A key design element of the Louvre Abu Dhabi will be its great dome, 180 meters (almost 600 feet) in diameter, floating above a cluster of buildings and waterways. Perforated by interlaced patterns, the dome will let a diffused light filter magically into the spaces below. The prototype, 6 meters (approximately 20 feet) in diameter, is being used to test the play of light and shadows on the site prior to fabrication of the final structure"

New Al Manakh

The follow-up issue of Al-Manakh was launched. 140 authors contributed to the book with interviews, analyses, infographics, reports etc. There are 4 main-chapters :

- Crises and Crises

  deals with the economic crisis and the reaction of the Gulf

- Vision

  deals with the planing of the region in several fields for the future

- Cohabitation

  deals with the culture and its integration into cities and the dynamics of urban living

- Export Gulf

  deals how the Gulf is exporting products such as urban models, social, political and economic influence.

The book looks into the last 2 years in this region, the height of the boom - the depth of the crash.  The impact of the international financial crisis on the Gulf has changed the world’s perspective of the region. But the real dynamics are much more complex than generally perceived. In documenting the crucial transformations in the Gulf, Al Manakh: Gulf Continued develops a new, deeply researched and nuanced viewpoint on the tenacious growth of the Gulf region.

The publishers are :

- Archis        www.archis.org

- OMA/AMO www.oma.eu

- PinkTank   www.pinktank.ae 

- NAi            www.nai.nl

www.almanakh.org

Masdar City

Due to the efforts of my colleague and friend, Dr. Jihad Awad, some students and faculty members had the chance to visit “Masdar City” in Abu Dhabi. Masdar is under construction at the moment, the goal is to create a “zero carbon city”. The introduction to the project was given by Juergen Happ, a german architect and partner of the british office “Foster + Partners”.

                                          Student's group

The first project as a result of the Masdar Initiative is a new six million square meter sustainable development that uses the traditional planning principals of a walled city like the city of Shibam in Yemen, together with existing technologies, to achieve  a carbon neutral  and zero  waste  community.  Masdar responds to the urban identity of 

                                           Top: Shibam , Masdar City

Abu Dhabi while offering a sustainable urban blueprint for the future. Launched in 2007, it is an ambitious project that will attract the highest levels of international expertise and commerce, providing a mixed-use, high-density city. The programe