When approaching the design of cultural spaces such as museums, performance venues, or places of research and study, architecture and design professionals often have to assemble pieces of a uniquely challenging puzzle in order to make the structure resonate with a variety of visitors and occupants. Hitting the right chord can be difficult, especially when trying to combine forms into a whole that pays respect to a building's intended use while being timeless in its universality.
One way of making sure a sense of culture is omnipresent: adaptive reuse. The practice of breathing life into historic structures has been on the rise in recent years and is particularly well-suited to creating spaces that address and embody contemporary issues while connecting their inhabitants to the past. But it's not just a sense of updated heritage that makes them stand out; adaptive reuse buildings can fight urban sprawl and unsustainable building practices simply by way of existing.
Fueled by pressing issues such as the climate crisis, population density and rapid urbanization, the built environment has become increasingly complex. Architecture and design professionals are faced with a challenging, yet fundamental task: to translate society’s ever-evolving needs into tangible and future-oriented solutions. In pursuit of this goal, they must embrace the countless tools, materials and technologies emerging every day in the construction field –from AI to virtual reality software and smart home systems. After all, to remain at the forefront in an industry where change is the norm, the ability to adapt and evolve is crucial for success.
ARCH+ and Summacumfemmer Büro Juliane Greb have been selected to curate the German pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia for their concept Open for Maintenance / Wegen Umbau geöffnet. Commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development, and Building, the pavilion is dedicated to exploring matters of care, repair, and maintenance. The concept also aims to shed light on contemporary debates over the existing building stock and the social practice of maintaining urban fabric. The 18th International Architecture Exhibition will be held from May 20th until November 26th, 2023.
2023 Building of the Year Awards Trophy by Mohammad Saeed Maaleki
“With the growth of the Internet, images of architecture found a new channel for distribution. Architects in even remote geographies were tapping into a new global circulation of architectural ideas and architectural recognition. Architecture blogs such as ArchDaily started to change patterns of production and consumption of architectural knowledge [...] Crowdsourced awards such as ArchDaily's Building of the Year have changed the global map of rewarded offices and buildings.” – Shawhin Roudbari, in the paper Crowdsourced and Crowd-Pleasing: The New Architectural Awards and the City.
Over the years, the winners of the Building of the Year Awards have received a wooden trophy handcrafted in Chile. But in order to evolve and stay true to the spirit of the award, we have turned to our community to design its next iteration: a 3D printed trophy with a blockchain certificate, that will be sent to the architects and stakeholders of the project.
The National Archaeological Museum. Image Courtesy of Kengo Kuma and Associates
Kengo Kuma’s proposal for The National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece, aims to draw attention to the importance of science in archaeology, the value of its collections, and the fundamental role and character of the museum in the present and the future. As the memory of the museum is traced back, words in acts of burying, concealing, and revealing begin to emerge. These three words are pivotal transitional moments that help shape the museum into what it is today and pave the way for its future application.
Guatemala is a country located in Central America that is organized into 22 departments, its capital and most populated city is Guatemala City. Mexico forms the geographic borders that contain this territory to the north and west, Belize and Honduras to the east, and El Salvador to the south. In addition, it faces the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Honduras. It is located in Mesoamerica, home to the Mayan culture, which extended to what we know today as Mexican territory. It is for this reason and for some other reasons related to migration issues that these two countries share similar traits in terms of climate and culture, which is highly enriching when we explore the development of the territory.
QS- Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings just announced the 2023 top universities to study Architecture and the Built Environment. The index rates over 1,400 schools and covers a total of 54 disciplines, grouped into five broad subject areas, based on five indicators "to effectively reflect their performance, taking into account academic reputation, employer reputation, and faculty research".
Another year, another successful ArchDaily China Building of the Year Awards! With more than 80,000 votes gathered over the past week, the results of the 2023 edition are in! Once more, the award has proved to be the largest architecture prize centered around people’s opinion. Crowdsourced, the most relevant projects of the year were nominated and selected by our readers.
Branding for architects isn’t just about having a beautifully designed logo. In fact, when it comes to promoting your architecture firm, a distinctive brand is fundamental to communicating what makes your firm unique and different.
In our experience at Archmark branding and rebranding architecture firms, construction companies, and home service providers over the past ten years, we have developed a strategic process that makes branding easier than expected and reveals surprising results. In this article, we share the same steps we take with our clients so you apply them to your own branding efforts.
Our mission is to deliver inspiration, knowledge and tools to help architects and everybody in the industry of architecture to do more and better, in order to face the fastly evolving challenges and complexities of our built environment.
Our curators are constantly scouting and selecting projects from all over the world showing a comprehensive image of the constant innovations and references in architectural design, thus presenting you with the best projects by the best architects.
Jardín Nativo Adriana Hoffmann, Museo Interactivo Mirador (MIM) en Santiago de Chile. Image Cortesía de Bosko
During the 19th century, efforts to improve the quality of urban life focused on creating gardens and parks, marking the beginning of the evolution of landscaping as a modern discipline. However, despite remarkable examples worldwide, excessive structure and artificiality in urban parks have gone against the motivations that gave rise to them. In many cases, their design has resulted in decontextualized and inefficient public spaces that are highly demanding on resources and far from being truly sustainable.
The strict use of geometry and the imposition of species that are difficult to adapt and care for are gradually giving way to a more organic approach to landscaping, tailored to local ecosystems and more efficient in its development and conservation. Native forests embody all these positive aspects. They not only ecologically restore degraded areas but also improve air quality and retain rainwater, creating biodiverse green spaces that deeply connect people with nature. We spoke with Magdalena Valdés, founder and director of Bosko, who explains why native forests are the right path towards conscious and truly ecological landscaping.
Image by Martin Pretorius and Raphael Trischler. Buildner San Francisco Affordable Housing Challenge. Image Courtesy of Buildner
To live in a world surrounded by the constant rise of new challenges calls for adaptability, resilience and continuous learning. As a response, design competitions encourage architects to think outside the box to create innovative solutions. Both for theoretical and practical projects, these competitions provide a collaborative platform to promote innovation and creativity to solve contemporary challenges. Such is the case of Buildner, which develops a space for showcasing open architecture competitions to discover new architectural possibilities.
A tool for driving progress by fostering groundbreaking ideas that promote the discussion of critical topics such as affordable housing, sustainability and small-scale architecture, Buildner architecture competitions are key for addressing global challenges. These competitions aim to inspire the next generation of designers to challenge the status quo.
The Salone del Mobile.Milano 2023 entrusted the Milanese architecture and engineering studio Lombardini22 with curating the exhibition space and redefining its layout and circulation flows to ensure an increasingly engaging and contemporary business platform. On a similar note, Formafantasma was appointed to take care of the large Arena and the Cameos, small exhibitions layout in the trade fair site. During this year’s edition, seven exhibitions will be held simultaneously at Fiera Milano fairgrounds in Rho. The events are open to professionals from Tuesday 18th until Sunday 23rd of April, and to the general public on Saturday and Sunday.
The Polish pavilion will present Datament at the International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. The installation will allow visitors to experience data in its physical form. The core aim of the exhibition is to showcase how prevalent data has become, shaping the reality in which we live, create, and dwell. Created by Anna Barlik, Marcin Strzała and Jacek Sosnowski, Datament is the starting point for discussing how data and new technologies will play a crucial role in the future.
RAMA Estudio has won a competition organized by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Urban Development and Housing (Miduvi) to transform public buildings into social housing. "Casa Cevallos" seeks to give a new face to the Miduvi Tungurahua building, located in front of the Cevallos Park in Ambato, Ecuador, incorporating 16 apartments for 45 inhabitants through 7 adaptable typologies.
No matter how long, how far, or how restful a trip away is, one of the most relaxing moments of any vacation is when you get home. When every muscle in the body relaxes as you collapse into your own chair, greeted by the comforting features of a home you didn’t previously realize you missed.
After the rise of Airbnb and other likeminded travel accommodation sites and services, providing real homes –or at least characterful spaces dressed up as them– to travelers searching for more familial home comforts, hoteliers, designers, and architects are taking note, and implementing features that turn the hotel room into a home away from home.
Union Station Expansion Design. Image Courtesy of Grimshaw
Cities that rely on the use of private cars experience a variety of problems- long commutes to and from work, endless traffic jams, and an increase in pollution. While it seems like cars are the most reliable option to take us from place to place, city planners are frequently promoting the benefits of public transit, and the development of communities that are centered around many forms of public transportation. Many cities are growing faster than they were initially planned. As a result, roadways have expanded, land is being transformed into massive parking lots, and connections between communities are growing farther apart.
Dramatic societal transformations- such as pandemics and technological advancements - call for dramatic shifts in lifestyles. Architects keep up by exploring and proposing new models of housing, each iteration catering to society’s latest needs. The co-living model is one such example that has become a roaring success over the past few decades. Redefining the way people live, co-living seeks to provide a form of cost-effective social housing. Although widely targeted at younger generations, the co-living industryis evolving to cater to various niche groups.
Shigeru Ban Architects, in collaboration with Voluntary Architects’ Network, has developed an improved version of the temporary housing developed to help those affected by the recent Turkey-Syria earthquake. The new prototype represents an upgrade of the paper tube system deployed in northwestern Turkey after the 1999 earthquake. This new version takes into consideration matters of efficiency and the need to minimize construction time on site.
AlUla Oasis. Image Courtesy of Royal Commission of AlUla
The Centre Pompidou is an arts and culture institution that has been present in Paris since the late 1970s. It houses the Public Information Library, the largest museum for modern art in Europe, and a center for musical research. This month, the institution signed a partnership agreement to create a museum of contemporary art in Saudi Arabia with the Royal Commission of AlUla (RCU). Additionally, the establishment signed a similar partnership agreement to develop a modern and contemporary museum in Seoul, South Korea, with the Hanwha Culture Foundation.
Humanity spends more and more time inside, whether at work or at home - with studies showing that we now spend 87% of our lives indoors. Pleasant environments positively influence the mood and well-being of its occupants, just as poorly lit, uncomfortable places can make lives miserable. That is why the craft of interior design is so important, even if it is often considered minor by some professionals. When designing an interior, the architect has the power to alter important variables, be it artificial lighting, natural light, proportions, or materials - with all such elements influencing the experience that occupants will have in a space.
With a coastline of 832 kilometers facing the Atlantic Ocean, Portugal has a long and deep relationship with the sea, which was for many centuries considered the country's main means of communication with the rest of the world. Today, the Portuguese coast attracts millions of tourists every year from across Europe and around the world, who arrive in search of warm weather and beautiful seaside scenery. The main destinations are the southern beaches which are warmer than in the North however, the number of tourists has increased throughout the entire country over the past decade.
Located 108 kilometers to the south of Tel Aviv, Beersheba (Be'er Sheva) is one of Israel's oldest cities. Although in existence since biblical times, military campaigns and occupations have seen it destroyed and rebuilt throughout the centuries, resulting in the juxtaposition of various time periods and cultures that can be seen throughout the city. One of Beersheba's principal transformations happened during the population boom of the 1950s sparked by the formation of the State of Israel in 1948. To keep up with the need for housing, the government rebuilt and expanded the city, which soon transformed from a small military outpost of 4,000 people to a vibrant urban center in the middle of the Negev Desert.
