West 8 Urban Design and Landscape Architecture

Changing Course seeks comprehensive solutions for a more sustainable Lower Mississippi River Delta, “The competition is giving design teams and agency partners the freedom to think big and to think differently about finding solutions that will not just improve the Lower Mississippi River Delta, but could serve as a global model for other coastal areas around the world,” said Stacy Methvin, Leadership Team Member and retired Shell Oil Company vice president.

Industrial agriculture and conventional practices displace over 24 billion tons of topsoil per year – many times the rate of soil formation. This international and interdisciplinary symposium seeks to reveal the narratives that influence our relationship to the landscape and the soil. Taking place from the 7th-9th of October in Geneva, the symposium brings together a number of specialists from various disciplines to facilitate discussion and exchange on this topical issue.

Adriaan Geuze in conjunction with a number of other prominent designers has been confirmed to speak at the 2014 BIA Urban Regeneration Forum on the 25th of September in Bilbao, Spain.

Brick has a long tradition in Dutch architecture, on the 25th of September West 8 director Edzo Bindels together with Jeroen Geurst of Geurst & Schulze Architects will present a Brick Masterclass exploring the design applications and possibilites of this iconic material.  

Team West 8 is one of five internationally-renowned design teams to share their concept for the 13 new acres of Presidio parklands with the public on September 4 at The Presidio in San Francisco, CA.

It's official. Máximapark is the most popular park in the Netherlands and has earned the first spot in the Hall of Fame of Dutch Parks.

After months of work the final concept designs by the three finalists Colwell Shelor+ West 8+Weddle Gilmore; Woods Bagot+ Surface Design; and Otak+ Mayer Reed for Mesa City Center Competition were revealed to an excited public.

A new stretch of water’s edge promenade along the Portland Slip is now open. Designed by West 8 + DTAH, as part of the overall plan for the Central Waterfront, the water’s edge promenade helps connect Toronto's waterfront parks and public spaces.

The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) unveiled a concept plan for the future park in the West Kowloon Cultural District on 22nd July, conceived by a global team led by DLN (Hong Kong), with West 8 (Netherlands) and ACLA (Hong Kong). The design team has been working closely with WKCDA since their appointment in February 2014.

Rotterdam Centraal, which is made from 3500 tons of steel, has been selected as a finalist for Belgium Staalbouwwedstrijd (Steel Construction Contest) and the Netherlands Nationale Staalprijs (National Steel Award). 

West 8 has been commissioned by the Municipal Planning Bureau of Xiamen to design the landscape master plan and design concept for Gulangyu Island. Often called the "Garden on the Sea", the "Architecture Exhibition of Ten Thousand Nations" and the "Island of Piano" this popular tourist destination and heritage landscape, which lies off the coast Xiamen and is poised to undergo a major revitalization. 

The Living Daylights Foundation announced the nominees for the 2014 Daylight Award on the 23rd of June.  Rotterdam Centraal by Team CS has been selected as one of the four finalists in the category of non-residential buildings. More than eighty completed projects were submitted for this year's awards, which honor the innovative use of daylight in buildings. 

West 8's representative, Christoph Elsässer, will join the forum to tackle the question of how we make our city more attractive when changes are to be made for open spaces, in one of a 5-part series "Cologne perspectives: the public space" lecture, organised by the city of Cologne.

The recently completed Rotterdam Centraal by Team CS has been announced a finalist for the 2014 Houtarchitectuurprijs (Wood Architecture Prize) and as one of five nominees in the Habitat Category for the 2014 Dutch Design Awards (DDA). "The cooperation between various disciplines has led to a phenomenal" result says the DDA selection comittee.

The annual event Genève, villes et champs, is a manifestation questioning the models of coexistence between city and countryside. Together, West 8 + b29 have created a landscape intervention: an inflatable sculpture 'Le Bélier Têtu', for the manifestation. Fifteen locations have been selected to host landscape installations during the period between 13th June to 4th October, in Bernex, Geneva this year.

Construction continues on the rehabilitation and restoration of Fort Vechten. The Fort, which was nominated for UNESCO World Heritage listing in 1995, is one of the 47 fortresses that make up the Nieuwe Hollandsche Waterlinie, a 85km long and 3-5km wide, military defense line.

Team West 8 + Verkehrplus GMBH participated in a series of planning workshops which investigated the potentials for the planning and design of a vibrant and liveable  Karlsruhe. The final workshop, which took place on 4th June 2014 and the final joint recommendation for the city has been announced in the: "Spatial Vision Karlsruhe 2015" (Räumliches Leitbild Karlsruhe 2015).

Alan G. Brake from The Architect's Newspaper takes a stroll through the 30 acres of new parkland on Governors Island, offering his perspective on "New York's newest trophy park".

The historic center of Leidschendam in the South of Holland is in the midst of a major urban renewal. West 8 is responsible for the masterplan and supervision as well as the design of the public space.

West 8 has been commissioned by New Holland Development to develop the new master plan for New Holland Island in St Petersburg, Russia. The Island, which is one of the city's most important historical monuments, will undergo extensive restoration and preservation works, transforming it into a vibrant, multifunctional public district for the visitors and citizens of St Petersburg.