Pritzker Prize 2011 Poll

Pritzker Prize 2011 Poll: "On the right side of this blog I've inserted a poll for the 2011 Pritzker Architecture Prize, which should be awarded around the end of March (I'll leave the poll up as long as possible, yet as of writing this I don't the exact date of the award). Based on my own picks, past polls, and gossip at places like Archinect I've narrowed down the poll to twelve choices (plus 'other'), in alphabetical order:

- Shigeru Ban

- Santiago Calatrava

- David Chipperfield

- Charles Correa

- Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio

- Peter Eisenman

- Steven Holl

- Bjarke Ingels

- Toyo Ito

- Eduardo Souto de Moura

- Ben Van Berkel

- Tod Williams and Billie Tsien
For reference, this year's jury is made up of:

- Lord Peter Palumbo (Chair)

- Alejandro Aravena

- Carlos Jimenez

- Glenn Murcutt

- Juhani Pallasmaa

- Renzo Piano

- Karen Stein

- Martha Thorne (Executive Director)
And here is the list of past winners:

1979 - Philip Johnson of the United States

1980 - Luis Barragán of Mexico

1981 - James Stirling of Great Britain

1982 - Kevin Roche of the United States

1983 - Ieoh Ming Pei of the United States

1984 - Richard Meier of the United States

1985 - Hans Hollein of Austria

1986 - Gottfried Boehm of Germany

1987 - Kenzo Tange of Japan

1988 - Gordon Bunshaft of the United States / Oscar Niemeyer of Brazil

1989 - Frank O. Gehry of the United States

1990 - Aldo Rossi of Italy

1991 - Robert Venturi of the United States

1992 - Alvaro Siza of Portugal

1993 - Fumihiko Maki of Japan

1994 - Christian de Portzamparc of France

1995 - Tadao Ando of Japan

1996 - Rafael Moneo of Spain

1997 - Sverre Fehn of Norway

1998 - Renzo Piano of Italy

1999 - Sir Norman Foster of the United Kingdom

2000 - Rem Koolhaas of The Netherlands

2001 - Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of Switzerland

2002 - Glenn Murcutt of Australia

2003 - Jørn Utzon of Denmark

2004 - Zaha Hadid of the United Kingdom

2005 - Thom Mayne of the United States

2006 - Paulo Mendes da Rocha of Brazil

2007 - Richard Rogers of the United Kingdom

2008 - Jean Nouvel of France

2009 - Peter Zumthor of Switzerland

2010 - Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of Japan
So VOTE and check back here when the Pritzer Prize is announced to see if the readers of this blog successfully chose this year's winner. If your vote is 'other,' feel free to add who as a comment below.

via: a daily dose of architecture

MINI Rocketman Concept

MINI Rocketman Concept: "

MINI Rocketman Concept


Car brand MINI present the Rocketman concept car at the International Geneva Motor Show, which opened yesterday.


MINI Rocketman Concept


The design features wide-opening doors with double-hinge joints, allowing easier entry into the rear passenger seat of the three-door car.


MINI Rocketman Concept


The luggage compartment can be adapted by pulling out a drawer at the back of the car to store larger items.


MINI Rocketman Concept


Integrated fibre-optics illuminate the interior and glass roof, which is imprinted with the Union Jack.


MINI Rocketman Concept


The International Geneva Motor Show continues until 13 March.


MINI Rocketman Concept


More vehicles on Dezeen »


Here’s some more information from MINI:




Driving fun in a new dimension: The MINI Rocketman Concept.


The creation of innovative concepts for urban mobility has seen MINI grow into the successful brand we know today. A constant stream of new ideas from its beginnings more than 50 years ago to the present day have ensured that driving fun has continued to grow even though space on our roads has become ever tighter.


MINI Rocketman Concept


Underpinning this success has been the creative use of space, a principle that enters new territory with the MINI Rocketman Concept. The study car, which will be revealed to the public worldwide for the first time at the International Geneva Motor Show (3 – 13 March 2011), harks back to the classic Mini in terms of its exterior dimensions, while its technology points to thefuture of automotive design.


MINI Rocketman Concept


A 3+1-seater with 3 doors and a length of just over 3 metres (approx. 10 ft.), the MINI Rocketman Concept responds to the fundamental requirements of mobile lifestyles in the big cities of the future by pooling the brand’s core values in concentrated form. Ingenious functionality, smile-inducing agility, exceptional efficiency and irresistible design come together into an extraordinarily attractive and groundbreaking, yet typically MINI, subcompact car concept for the premium segment.


MINI Rocketman Concept


Displaying both an awareness of tradition and talent for innovation, the MINI design team developed the vision of a car that takes up impressively little space on the road but boasts an enviably spacious interior. The MINI Rocketman Concept therefore carries over the classic virtues of the brand into a pathbreaking vehicle concept. It offers a fresh interpretation of unmistakable MINI design features, and uses cutting-edge construction and manufacturing technology to create unique solutions in body and interior design.


MINI Rocketman Concept


The innovative character of the study is defined by the systematic application of lightweight design principles and a pure-bred interior geared to maximum driving fun and unbeatable variability. A carbon spaceframe construction, whose striking surface structure is visible at the front end of the car, around its doors and in the interior, forms the basis for a weight-minimising construction. Indeed, the MINI Rocketman Concept offers the ideal platform for achieving outstanding efficiency.


MINI Rocketman Concept


To this end, it is designed to allow the integration of a MINI drive system which combines further enhanced sprinting ability with average fuel consumption of just three litres per 100 kilometres (94 mpg imp). Wide-opening doors with double-hinge joints and integrated sills facilitate entry into the MINI Rocketman Concept. The lightweight seats are contoured in customary MINI style and can be arranged in a variety of different positions.


MINI Rocketman Concept


This allows owners to choose between maximum driving fun two-up, a comfortable amount of room for three occupants, or even an exceptionally efficient division of space accommodating four seats. The capacity of the luggage compartment can be adapted to passenger requirements just as flexibly.


MINI Rocketman Concept


The two-part tailgate consists of one section which is attached to the roof and opens extremely high, and a lower section which extends out of the body in the form of a drawer. The operating logic of the MINI Rocketman Concept is also geared to the multi-layered demands of a contemporary target group, whose mobility needs are shaped by their desire for driving fun, flexible usage possibilities and extensive connectivity with their lives outside the car.


MINI Rocketman Concept


The MINI Rocketman Concept body is shaped by an avant-garde interpretation of time-honoured brand features. Innovative construction techniques allow the principle used in the classic Mini of providing the maximum amount of room on the smallest possible footprint to be carried over to the mobility challenges of urban areas in the 21st century. The MINI Rocketman Concept measures 3.419 metres (approx. 11 ft. 3 in.) in length, adding just a few extra centimetres to the front and rear of the brand’s founding father born in 1959.


MINI Rocketman Concept


The new study is 1.907 metres (approx. 6 ft. 3 in.) wide, including the exterior mirrors, and stands 1.398 metres (approx. 4 ft. 7 in) tall. Its proportions also display clear symmetries with both the classic Mini and the brand’s present day line-up. The brand’s familiar appearance is therefore concentrated into a new set of dimensions, with the concept for a new vehicle segment remaining unmistakably recognisable as a MINI.


MINI Rocketman Concept


Large, circular headlights and a radiator grille with chrome surround dominate the front end. While the exterior contours of the headlights fit the familiar visual template, their inner structure has been further developed for the new study. The centrally positioned LED units generating full beam are bordered by an eye-catching light ring for dipped-beam mode. Direction indicators integrated into the headlight units are a feature shared with the current range of series-produced MINI models.


MINI Rocketman Concept


The dimensions of the headlights reflect those of the current MINI, which means they come across as particularly large when set against the smaller face of the study car. As stand-out features of MINI design they symbolise the core values of the brand, which remain reassuringly intact in the new vehicle concept represented by the study.


MINI Rocketman Concept


While the study showcases a new format, MINI still remains true to its bloodline. More than 50 years ago the brand’s first car triggered a revolution in the small car segment. The classic Mini met the needs of urban mobility more comprehensively than any other vehicle before it, while at the same time offering the driving fun and individual style that sealed its legendary status.


Today MINI continues to fulfil in its own unique way the desires of demanding target groups with a sense for the creative use of space, inspiring handling and premium quality. The MINI Rocketman Concept offers a glimpse of how these features may look in the future. Using innovative technology and creative solutions, the study reflects the brand’s unsurpassed expertise in the development of vehicle concepts producing maximum interior versatility within minimal exterior dimensions and all while delivering unbeatable driving fun.

via dezeen