Build March Issue

Build Magazine 24 ack in April 2011, after 16 years of successful architectural collaboration, Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera-Polo parted ways, causing the cessation of their joint firm Foreign Office Architects (FOA). Prior to their split the firm was lauded for their projects such as the Yokohama International Ferry Terminal in Japan; noted for its use of dramatic form, innovative materials, and fascination with the interplay of architecture, landscape and nature credited by the Design Museum as a design sensation alive with bustling urbanity and seaside tranquillity. Other projects of note prior to the firm’s dissolution was the Meydan retail complex in Istanbul, and the Carabanchel social housing complex in Madrid. However, like a phoenix rises from the ashes, from the rubble of FOA rose two award winning firms. Farshid Moussavi started her eponymously named London-based international architectural practice FMA later in 2011. Among its completed projects are, the acclaimed Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art in Ohio, the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale installation ‘Architecture and its Affects’ and the Victoria Beckham Flagship Store in London. FMA is currently working on a range of prestigious international projects including an office complex in the City of London, a department store in Paris and a residential complex in the La Défense area of the city. Recently, FMA was shortlisted for the competition to design the Interactive Gallery at The Science Museum in London. AZPML, Alejandro Zaera Polo’s firm, is also an international practice based in London but also boasts practices in Surich and Princeton. The firm has a commitment to innovation in architecture and urban design, combining technical innovation with design excellence. AZPML projects include a new building for Ravensbourne in Greenwich, the John Lewis Department Store, Cineplex and Footbridges in Leicester, Carabanchel Social Housing in Madrid, Meydan Retail Complex and Multiplex in Istanbul, the Spanish Pavillion at the 2005 International Expo in Aichi, a large coastal park with outdoor auditoriums in Barcelona, a Municipal Theatre and Auditorium in Torrevieja, La Rioja Technology Transfer Centre in Logrono and the Dubnyouk Publishing Headquarters in Paju, South Korea. AZPMLs current projects in the UK include Birmingham New Street Station in Birmingham and Trinity EC3 offices complex in the City of London. In Spain, AZPML is involved in a new Hospital in Lleida, a Biotechnology centre in Barcelona, the redevelopment of the Santander Waterfron, including the design of a new ferry terminal and the yacht club which will host the World Cup in 2010, the Gurrutxaga Winery in Lekeitio and the Cerezales Foundation. AZPML is also involved in the development of two highrise residential towers in Busan, Korea and the Locarno cinema film festival headquarters in Switzerland. FMA regards architecture as an integral part of everyday life and an active agent in shaping culture. Their work generates internal orders in built forms by each time assembling them in such a way as to construct a unique transversal organization across the complex array of relevant materials. Each FMA project accordingly has a singular physical presence with a new sense of order relative to the multifarious materials that relate to it and it shapes people’s experience of everyday life in unique ways. The work of Alejandro Zaera-Polo has been widely published and exhibited, and represented Britain at the 8th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2002; he has received the Enric Miralles Prize for Architecture, five RIBA Awards, the 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale Award, and the Charles Jenckes Award for Architecture. Having lectured extensively on architecture worldwide, Farshid Moussavi has been a Professor in Practice of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design since 2006. Farshid Moussavi and her colleagues at FMA have extensive experience of projects with diverse functions for both the public and private sector, and of working internationally. They are also engaged in critical research through FMA’s research arm, FunctionLab and the publication of “The Function of…” series of books on architectural theory. As a result, FMA has a wealth of knowledge and perspectives of urban and architectural problems, and the agility required to work within different cultures. Despite their split, both architects and their firms hold true to the same principals, goals and aims that led them to achieve greatness together. This is quite evident in the recent Architects of theYear B