DS+R, Calatrava Among Winners of 2016 Leading Culture Destinations Awards

The winners of the 2016 Leading Culture Destinations Awards have been announced. Presented this past weekend at a ceremony in London, the LCD Awards are given annually to recognize the success of “museums, art organizations, and cultural destinations from around the world [that] are investing in iconic architecture, cross-sector collaborations, [and] audacious programming […] to diversify the experiences offered to visitors and establish their global reputations.”

This year, awards were presented in four categories: Leading Cultural Destination of the Year; Best New Museum of the Year (for museums opened in the past 15 months); Best Soft Power Destination of the Year (a new award for 2016, given to destination who exhibit ‘excellence, relevance, transparency, accountability and sustainability’); and the Traveller’s Award for Best Place to Visit.

The overall winner for 2016 was Diller, Scofidio + Renfro’s Broad Museum in Los Angeles. Continue reading to see the full list of winners.

Leading Cultural Destination of the Year

Museum Architecture of the Year: The Broad Museum, Los Angeles / Diller, Scofidio + Renfro

Save this picture!

Museum Architecture of the Year: The Broad Museum, Los Angeles / Diller, Scofidio + Renfro. Image © Iwan Baan

Exhibition of the Year: Proportio, at Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, curated by Axel Vervoordt and Daniela Ferretti

Museum Shop of the Year: Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Flouisianamuseum%2Fphotos%2Fa.285374103925.144461.79404958925%2F10152873455048926%2F%3Ftype%3D3&width=500

Restaurant of the Year: LouLou, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris

Digital Museum of the Year: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Save this picture!

Digital Museum of the Year: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Image © Myra May

Best New Museum of the Year

Europe: Tate Modern Switch House extension, London / Herzog & de Meuron

Save this picture!

Best New Museum, Europe: Tate Modern Switch House extension, London / Herzog & de Meuron. Image © Iwan Baan

North America: The Broad Museum, Los Angeles / Diller, Scofidio + Renfro

Central and South America: Museu do Amañha (Museum of Tomorrow), Rio De Janeiro / Santiago Calatrava

Save this picture!

© Gustavo Xavier

Africa: Sinthian Cultural Centre (THREAD), Senegal / Toshiko Mori

Save this picture!

Best New Museum, Africa: Sinthian Cultural Centre (THREAD), Senegal / Toshiko Mori. Image © Iwan Baan

Asia Pacific: Design Museum Dharavi, India

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FDesignMuseumDharavi%2Fphotos%2Fa.1055140237843863.1073741826.1052824448075442%2F1115575528467000%2F%3Ftype%3D3&width=500

Best Soft Power Destination of the Year

Best Soft Power Cultural Activation Award: The Cultural Spring, Sunderland

Best Soft Power Cultural Organisation Award: The Canadian Museum of Human Rights, Manitoba /Antoine Predock

Save this picture!

Best Soft Power Cultural Organisation Award: The Canadian Museum of Human Rights, Manitoba / Antoine Predock. Image © Aaron Cohen/CMHR-MCDP

Best Soft Power Cultural District Award: La Ponte Ecomuséu, Villanueva de Santo Adriano, Spain

Traveller’s Award

Cultural City of the Year: Québec City

Save this picture!

Cultural City of the Year: Québec City. Image © Bruce Damonte

Art Hotel of the Year: Durslade Farmhouse, Hauser & Wirth, Somerset, England / Laplace, Piet Oudolf

Learn more about the awards here.

News via the Leading Culture Destinations Awards, DailyMail.

MIT and Google Team Up to Create Transformable Office Pods

The MIT School of Architecture’s Self-Assembly Lab has teamed up with Google to create Transformable Meeting Spaces, a project that utilizes woven structure research in wood and fiberglass pods that descend from the ceiling, transforming a large space into a smaller one. Designed as a small-scale intervention for reconfiguring open office plans—which “have been shown to decrease productivity due to noise and privacy challenges”—the pods require no electromechanical systems to function, but rather employ a flexible skeleton and counterweight to change shape.

This skeleton is composed of 36 fiberglass rods, which are woven together into a sort of textile or cylindrical braid. Thus, the structure behaves “like a Chinese finger trap: The circumference of the pod shrinks when it’s pulled, and expends when relaxed.”

+7

Save this picture!

Courtesy of MIT Self-Assembly Lab

Save this picture!

Courtesy of MIT Self-Assembly Lab

Expanded fully, the pods measure about ten feet in diameter and eight feet tall, providing space for up to eight people to either sit or stand inside.

Save this picture!

Courtesy of MIT Self-Assembly Lab

http://imgur.com/dSVi5J8/embed?ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.archdaily.com%2F796317%2Fmit-and-google-team-up-to-create-transformable-office-pods&w=540

Save this picture!

Courtesy of MIT Self-Assembly Lab

Furthermore, the inside of the spaces are lined with felt, so as to dampen outside noise.

Save this picture!

Courtesy of MIT Self-Assembly Lab

We’ve had four people sitting in there at tables, or standing in there for a meeting, said MIT Self-Assembly Lab’s co-director, Skylar Tibbits. We also thought it could be a sort of nap pod. It’s more about the transformation of space rather than trying to present what happens in that space. We’re just trying to create different capabilities.

Research on the project is ongoing, and in the future, will be concentrated on applying these transformable materials to larger-scale architectural practice, for instance in retractable stadium roofs. With such technology, the Lab hopes that stadium roofs or even stadiums themselves, among other systems, could be collapsed after use without major disturbances to the urban landscape.

Learn more about the project here.

News via Fast Company Design and the MIT Self-Assembly Lab.