The Architecture in Development Global Challenge has just announced the finalists for the 2022 edition of the competition. Highlighting and celebrating the ongoing efforts of self-built community-led initiatives worldwide, the Global Challenge offers a platform for those initiatives while connecting partners and collaborators globally.
The process of materializing architectural ideas involves taking into account various construction and economic factors, among others, which in one way or another will have an impact on the quality of life of its future inhabitants or users. Achieving the highest thermal comfort in interior spaces and achieving the lowest possible environmental impact are just some of the objectives that architecture professionals set for themselves when designing and defining the materials that will accompany their projects.
The most important rule for a kitchen backsplash to stand by is right there in the name. An imperative part of kitchen design, backsplashes are there to guard walls and unreachable undercabinet space from problematic stains, splashes, and spills. They also, however, represent a useful creative outlet for kitchen designers and interior architects.
By adding outlandishly striking slivers of color, pattern, and texture, kitchen backsplashes can cut a strong, confident line straight through the monotony of the kitchen’s color palette.
Here are some of the different materials and design techniques that help backsplashes keep kitchens both clean and creative.
We’re all familiar with the plot of a movie that occurs in a city still standing in a post-apocalyptic era. The streets are empty, except for a few survivors who wander aimlessly, searching for signs of life. Buildings begin to crumble and rust away after years of neglect, public transportation sits idle, and overgrown weeds spring from the cracks in the unmanaged sidewalks and streets. The scene feels eerie because we can’t imagine letting our physical environment sit in decay. It seems impossible that our built environments where we live and work each day suddenly fall silent. It’s a city without a pulse.
When transparent facade elements deliberately evolve from the course of the sun, we can explore a fascinating slow movement in stark contrast to the hectic urban street life on the ground. Especially the French designer Pierre Brault has responded to the accelerated rhythm of our society with facade installations that combine the principle of the sundial with colorful pop design. His three-dimensional works made of recycled colored plexiglass mesmerize through simple but dramatic movements of colored shadows. In the interview, Brault explains his inspiration, the experimental approach and his interest in working responsibly with material.
The Law of Polarity holds good in relation to human society and cultures as well - everything has an opposite. Countercultures have erupted as condemnations of “the ways of the world”. A countercultural movement expresses the ethos and aspirations of a population during a specific time. As new lifestyles are explored, supporting architecture evolves to satiate the utopian ideals of new societies. Architecture is a product of the culture it is designed for.
Sustainability is much more than simply deciding for or against a specific product. It is a concept that must be integrated into the way we build and design architecture, as well as the intelligent use of existing buildings and their potential renovations. From a sustainability perspective, demolishing an old building is just as unsustainable as building a new one. Both use large amounts of embodied energy that can be avoided when all planning parties consider new ways of working and collaborate more closely.
In this sense, the efficient use of raw materials and the reduction of waste for reuse is essential. Polycarbonate in façades, for example, has a life cycle of at least 20 years on average and can be recycled and reused in many ways, thus doubling its useful life until it can no longer be usefully recycled.
The Danish Architecture Center (DAC) has announced that the first permanent exhibition on Danish Architecture will open on March 24, 2023, in Copenhagen. The exhibition titled “So Danish!” tells the story of the evolution of architecture in the country, starting from the Viking Age and continuing to the present day. By presenting this history, it aims to help visitors understand the role and influence of architecture in the Danish democratic society.
The new Aalto2 Museum, designed by A-Konsultit Architects, will showcase the cultural legacy of the architecture and design of renowned architect Alvar Aalto. The Museum will open to the public on 27 May 2023, fulfilling the architect's desire to establish a venue for the fusion of various mediums and art forms at the Ruusupuisto park in Jyväskylä, in Central Finland.
The Alto2 Museum Centre comprises three buildings: the renovated Alvar Aalto Museum, the Museum of Central Finland, and the new addition of the Aalto2 center which will join them this year. The original Alvar Aalto Museum will open its doors after having undergone structural repairs, and changes in facilities to serve the new Aalto2 concept. The Aalto2 design connects both museums and is based on an international competition held in 2015, which attracted nearly 700 entries worldwide, demonstrating the international appeal of Aalto’s architectural style.
The ramp is one of the architectural elements that, besides facilitating movement between different heights and floors, provide greater accessibility to spaces. In Brazil, a series of decrees and regulations seek to ensure citizenship rights and promote equality and social inclusion of people with disabilities, which permeates issues related to their mobility and freedom to come and go. Architecture plays a key role in this inclusion, by devising strategies to ensure that these people can transit, participate and interact in any environment, whether public or private.
Infrastructure is widely known by the population in general, defined simply as a set of fundamental services for the socio-economic development of a region, such as sanitation, transportation, energy, and telecommunication. The commonly presented examples always refer to man-made physical structures. However, a new concept of infrastructure has emerged in recent decades, driven primarily by the urgent need for reconciliation between humans and nature for the survival of species.
Highlighting an untapped spatial resource, MVRDV's Rooftop Catalogue, in collaboration with Rotterdam Rooftop Days, is now available online for free. Commissioned by the City of Rotterdam, the Rooftop Catalogue presents 130 innovative ideas to make use of Rotterdam's empty flat roofs, showcasing a potential new phase in the city's development and illustrating how reprogramming rooftops can help with issues such as land scarcity and climate change while also addressing the practical side of repurposing these spaces in terms of construction options and suitable sites.
Beyond light as a physical phenomenon perceptible by the human eye, daylight is an inexhaustible architectural resource that is sometimes taken for granted. Just like the air we breathe, we are all aware of the existence of light, but rarely do we seek to do anything else with it. It is essential to recognize its presence as an enabler of experiences in space, due to its intrinsic relationship with architecture and human beings.
The incidence of light in architecture directly influences the way we perceive the passage of time. Since ancient times, constructions such as ziggurats have integrated strategies to capture the changing daylight through their roofs, evolving and remaining present in modern constructions such as the Villa Savoye. More recently, the flatness of roofs in contemporary buildings has been a great resource for incorporating architectural elements that also allow them to be inhabited, such as roof access hatches, which serve as a link between natural light and roof terraces.
Below, we review some of the latest technologies in skylights and access hatches, such as those developed by LAMILUX.
https://www.archdaily.com/997903/the-threshold-between-daylight-and-architecture-flat-roof-access-hatchesEnrique Tovar
In each region of the globe, vernacular constructions of the most varied kind emerged, whether buried underground, inside caves or even built with stones, wood and fabrics. Shelter solutions were based on available materials and weather conditions. The architecture arises from the development of these shelters, built to protect people from predators and the weather.
The construction solutions employed thousands of years ago have evolved and become increasingly complex but kept a common goal: dealing with the weather.
The year 2022 was marked by several socio-cultural and economic crises across the globe, from the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the increasing cost of living worldwide, combined with a number of natural disasters such as the devastating floods in Pakistan and hurricane Ian in the US. In these difficult times, architects are stepping up and embracing their role in developing design-based solutions to humanitarian crises, ranging from temporary shelters and affordable housing schemes to centers for protecting at-risk groups such as homeless underage girls, children from low-income environments, or families in need of medical care.
This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community that engage with their local communities, offering safe spaces for disadvantaged and at-risk groups. From a sanctuary for homeless girls in Iraq to an affordable housing project in Prague’s first skyscraper, this selection features projects centered around people, their needs, and desires. Many of the projects employ local materials such as clay bricks to lower the construction costs. They also reuse existing buildings and hope to engage the local community in building and appropriating the proposed spaces.
Koolhaas' journalism work won him fame in architecture before he completed a single building. The switch from storyteller to architect was more a change in the script than a professional shift. He pointed out that "[architecture] is a form of scriptwriting that implicitly describes human and spatial relationships." Restating the role of architecture in defining daily life beyond buildings and cities' construction, architecture is also a written and spoken tool capable of explaining daily worldwide events, giving voices to unspoken projects, and actively shaping the future of the architect's role.
Glass is one of the most important discoveries of mankind. Originally used as a cutting tool, it has been around for about 75,000 years. The first records of glass making, however, date back to the Egyptian and Mesopotamian. Since then, the mastery of the manufacturing technique has been developing in different civilizations and nations until the Industrial Revolution popularized the material and allowed its production on a large scale. In architecture, glass was first used as a sealing element around 100 AD.
Besides reflecting the aspirations of a society, public spaces also configure the scenarios in which new ideas of coexistence and the collective can emerge from their qualities. Thinking about the streets, squares, parks, and even nature is a way of dealing with common ideals and ensuring the social dynamics in the relationship between bodies and the environment.
For every car that drives on the road, we need to find a place to put it- but are parking garages the answer? Parking garages are often seen as the antithesis of people-friendly urban planning. Large gray boxes are used solely to store cars that make temporary visits and seem like a poor use of space, especially in cities where land comes at a premium. Because of these garages, urban cores have quickly been transformed into parking districts, where vehicle storage dominates the aesthetic of a business district. Building codes only contribute to the problem, where the number of spaces is passed down as a mandate, even spreading out into suburban areas. Parking garages are everywhere- flanking shopping malls, connecting to residential towers, and surrounding sporting venues.
Hulking, imposing, and utilitarian, silos are an enduring urban feature, structures typically used for the storage of materials in bulk. They are important physical elements of the agricultural industry, storing grain, fermented feed, and other foodstuffs. These tall, typically cylindrical forms remain the subject of architectural fascination — from being symbols of technological progress for Modernist architectural figures of the early 20th century, to in contemporary times, instigating inventive approaches to adaptive reuse.
Le Corbusier once described architecture as “a learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.” Natural light –and its accompanying shadow– plays a crucial role in shaping our perception of architecture, serving a long list of functions that define how users experience, engage and interact with buildings. From illuminating and accentuating to enhancing views and evoking warmth, the presence of daylight has the power to set a room’s tone and aesthetic language. It even has a significant impact on human health and well-being, including boosting mood and productivity, regulating circadian rhythms and reducing eyestrain and headaches –it makes our lives brighter, literally.
Following an international competition, London-based architecture studio AL_A has been selected to design the new BelgradePhilharmonic Concert Hall. The project will become a landmark for the Serbian capital, as it represents the biggest cultural investment in the region in the last decades. Located near the historic Palace of Serbia in New Belgrade, the Concert Hall features multiple performance, rehearsal, and creative spaces, including a 1,600 seats symphonic concert hall. The design team led by AL_A also includes landscape designers VDLA, engineers AFA Consult, and local architects Zabriskie. They are joined by Arup, who coordinates the acoustic and theatrical design.
Newport School. Image Courtesy of The Norman Foster Foundation
In May this year, The Centre Pompidou in Paris will debut the largest retrospective of Norman Foster's work from the past six decades. The exhibition spans nearly 2,200 square meters, exploring the various phases of the renowned architect’s career. Essential works including the Hong Kong and Shanghai Baking Corporation's headquarters (Hong Kong, 1979–1986), the Carré d'Art (Nîmes, 1984–1993), the Hong Kong International Airport (1992–1998), and the Apple Park (Cupertino, United States, 2009-2017) will be on display.
Foster + Partners, the Norman Foster Foundation, and Norman Foster are working to develop and execute the full retrospective. Through the lenses of the seven chosen themes: Nature and Urbanity, Skin and Bones, Vertical City, History and Tradition, Planning and Location, Networks and Mobility, and Future, the exhibition is set to become a full compilation of the architect’s work.
The use of translucent materials in Brazilian architecture has been a growing trend in recent years. Translucent laminated glass, polycarbonate and acrylic are just a few of them. They have different advantages and disadvantages regarding cost, impact resistance, and thermal and acoustic insulation. What outlines the common benefit between them is the constant dialogue they provide between interior and exterior.
