A new platform launched by 3D Agora is looking to revolutionize the architectural visualization industry by sweeping out all of its cluttered corners. Finding the most suitable 3D Artist for a project, exchanging large files of various kinds with them and keeping track of all versions, requests and changes are said to become much easier with 3D Agora's worldwide database, smart filtering system, feedback panel and the industry-specific project collaboration board.
Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava has unveiled the design of the Calatrava Boulevard, a complex offering upmarket restaurants, retail, and office spaces in Düsseldorf, Germany. Located on a highly visible site between Königsallee boulevard, Königstrasse, and Steinstrasse, the new complex features a curved and vaulted 135-foot-tall roof and a flowing interior street, creating the appearance of a sculptural light-filled canyon. The project, done in collaboration with Uwe Reppegather, Founder and Managing Director of the CENTRUM Group, is set to be completed by 2028.
Titled "January, February, March", the Georgian Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale is curated by the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial. Exploring the relationship between the flow of time and energy, the Georgian intervention "will represent dead and living nature through the story of an artificially altered settlement in the Dusheti region of Georgia". Running from May 20th to November 26th, 2023 in the Giardini, at the Arsenale, and at various sites around Venice, the 18th International Architecture Exhibition tackles "the Laboratory of the Future".
"The flat floor is an invention of architects. It suits machines, not humans." Inspired by the Viennese Secessionists and Austrian artists Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, as well as bold Gaudinian forms, the author of this phrase, Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000), was a prolific painter, sculptor and architect. His works are marked by the dualities between discipline and indiscipline, the predictable and the unexpected, rational and irrational. In his creative adventure, Hundertwasser was not just an enemy of the straight line. He despised architectural rationalism, claiming fluid forms and striking colors.
The construction industry is one of the largest in the world, and cement and concrete are literally the building blocks of its success. Evolving from prehistoric caves to today’s towering skyscrapers, concrete structures have and will continue to be vital components of modern civilization, providing long-lasting, reliable support for buildings, roads, bridges, tunnels and dams. So much so that concrete is the most consumed material on Earth, second only to water, while the steel used to reinforce it is by far the most commonly used metal. But this doesn’t come without high environmental costs: concrete accounts for 8% of global CO2 emissions, much of which come from the extraction and transportation of aggregate materials such as sand, gravel and crushed stone.
On the grounds of the Tripoli International Fair (Rashid Karameh International Exhibition Center) in Lebanon, one finds one of the five largest exhibition centers in the world. The 15 structures, designed by legendary Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in 1963, remain unfinished due to the project's abandonment during the country's civil war in 1975. Inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List and World Heritage in Danger List, on January 25th, 2023, the 70-hectare site is located between the historic center of Tripoli and the port. In 2022, the renovation of one of the structures on the site, the Niemeyer Guest House, by East Architecture won the Aga Khan Award.
Ljubljana is Europe’s little secret. This small capital city (less than 300,000 inhabitants) is perhaps surprisingly big in terms of architecture, and the variety of its built history makes it a mandatory stop in your architectural journey. From richly painted churches to sobering Brutalism. From classical Baroque and Habsburg-inspired architecture to delightful Art Nouveau façades and interiors. And of course, abundant greenery (Ljubljana is Slovenia’s – and now Europe’s – green capital) and food.
Ljubljana is a city that has many layers. Its beginnings as a Roman city are still visible (a wall, the world’s oldest wooden wheel, and the roads in and out of the city to name a few). Its contemporary vestiges might have aged, but their meaning hasn’t – think of the Republic Square or Brutalist petrol stations. It’s when we visit in person that we are able to truly feel these places and understand these layers.
Imagine walking into a hospital and being greeted by greenery, views, natural light streaming in through large windows and open spaces that promote calmness and serenity. These favorable conditions play a crucial role in shaping patients’ experience, making their days a little bit easier while promoting healing. In fact, good healthcare design has been shown to reduce patient stays, infection rates, medication and medical errors, as well as improve staff attraction and performance. A well-designed facility can ultimately transport patients from a sterile, clinical environment to one that is warm, inviting and even uplifting. Such is the case of the Crystal Clinic Orthopaedic Center by HGA Architects, which has been selected among the five winners of the 2022 Shaw Contract Design Awards “Best of Globe” for its innovative approach to healthcare.
The city of Los Angeles has selected six finalists for the competition to design a new memorial dedicated to the victims of the 1871 Chinese Massacre. In one of the darkest chapters in the city’s history, on 21 October 24, roughly ten percent of the city’s Chinese population at the time, at least 18 residents, were murdered by a mob of rioters. The memorial seeks to raise public awareness of the 1871 racially motivated mass killing while simultaneously addressing contemporary concerns regarding race, intolerance, and violence. The memorial was first announced in April 2021, and it is set to be built near the site of the massacre and the Chinese American Museum.
With the exception of some areas, within the three principal regions of Peru--coastal, mountain, and rainforest--the climate is characterized as tropical or subtropical and the differences in summer and winter temperatures is minimal, rarely reaching beyond 15 °C and 27 °C. This mild climate has thinned the line between exterior and interior spaces, a fact evident in the region's architecture.
Architecture is never an accident. It is a carefully planned out scheme of patterns and styles that respond to natural surroundings, celebrate materiality, and/or are referential of stylistic movements throughout history- all a means of understanding why things are the way that they are. There are different ways to understand how to analyze architecture, through the use of diagrams, patterns, relationships, and proportions to name a few. To both architects and laypeople alike, there’s a subconscious desire for a decision-making structure in design. As a result, architecture has become an exercise in self-positioning- a microcosmic reflection of the world around us as seen in the designs we build.
Despite the initially slow and arduous process of molding glass into shape, mankind has used the material for thousands of years. According to archaeological evidence, the first human-made glass tools and jewelry were found in Eastern Mesopotamia and Egypt around 3500BC — and after the invention of the blowpipe in Syria in the 1st century BC and the Western Industrial Revolution made mass production easier, the material's signature traits of transparency and durability could finally be applied on a large scale in architecture and design.
Fast forward to the present day, and the use of glass for building facades and windows is well documented. But what about once we move inside? By treating glass for different levels of transparency, cleverly positioning it within a room, or employing its reflective surface to their advantage, interiors can benefit just as much from the material as exteriors.
In the heyday of high modernism, architects such as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe extolled the aesthetic value of whiteness, which they viewed as connoting purity and simplicity. Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, for example, paired the stripped-down whiteness of its structural skeleton with expansive floor-to-ceiling windows, using the enveloping natural light to further elevate the already heavenly aspirations of the space. Today, some contemporary architects and designers have evolved the sublime aesthetics of white high modern architecture by using translucent fabric partitions, complementing the purity of the white walls with the fabrics’ ethereal play of light and shadow. Below, we discuss different design strategies for working with white fabrics in this way, and include two examples of projects that have used translucent fabrics in soothing but innovative ways.
New York-based studio Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) has been selected to lead the design for the Niagara Falls Heritage Gateway project. This reimagined public gateway aims to reinvigorate the site, attract new visitors, and stimulate the local economy. As part of the “Downtown Niagara Falls Development Strategy,” the project also aims to strengthen the connections between downtown Niagara Falls and the Niagara Falls State Park. The project is expected to be completed in 2024.
The 2022 United Nations Conference of the Parties, more commonly referred to as COP27, was held between November 6 and November 18, 2022, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The conference included more than 90 heads of state and an estimated 35,000 representatives, or delegates, from 190 countries. Aimed at encouraging and guiding countries to take effective action against climate change, the next edition of these conferences, COP28, is already scheduled from 30 November to 12 December 2023, in the United Arab Emirates. The CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co, an oil company chief who also oversees renewable energy efforts in the Emirates, was appointed to preside over the negotiations and talks, which led to a wave of criticism from environmental activists.
Add cabbage leaves, orange peels, onions, bananas and a few slices of pumpkin to get... cement. That's right, researchers from the University of Tokyo in Japan have developed a technique through which it is possible to produce cement from food waste. Besides being used in construction, the innovative initiative is edible as well. You can make boiled cement into a delicious meal by adjusting flavors, adding seasonings, and breaking it into pieces.
Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi, master architect, urban planner, educator, 2018 Pritzker Prize Winner, and 2022 Riba’s Gold Medal has passed away at 95, in Ahmedabad, India on Tuesday the 24th of January 2023, as reported by several Indian outlets and Architectural Digest India on their Instagram page. One of the most renowned Indian architects that shaped the architecture of India and its adjacent regions, Doshi, who was inspired greatly by the works of Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, has “combined pioneering modernism with vernacular”. Known especially for his urban planning and social housing projects, as well as his academic work as a visiting professor at various universities worldwide, Balkrishna Doshi has designed, over his 70-year career, some of the most iconic buildings in India.
Designing the interior of an apartment when you have very little space to work with is certainly a challenge. We all know that a home should be as comfortable as possible for its inhabitants, but when we have only a few square meters to work with and the essential functions of the home to distribute, finding an efficient layout is not easy. Following our popular selection of houses under 100 square meters, we've gone one better: a selection of 30 floor plans between 20 and 50 square meters to inspire you in your own spatially-challenged designs.
Architecture has the power to emotionally engage with its occupants. Tactfully crafted spatial moments extend architecture into experience design - a growing need in the experience economy. Through sensorial and intellectual stimulation, spaces can deeply connect with their occupants to result in memorable instances. The orchestration of an experience requires not only an understanding of spatial principles but also how the service of the space is designed.
Some professionals have struggled with using Revit for developing interior projects from start to finish, partly due to the scarcity of modern 3D objects to meet the needs of an architecture project in BIM. As a result, the search for quality objects for Revit required time, patience and a lot of creativity.
Realizing this need among professionals, Blocks developed a free plug-in for Revit, which has a library of furniture, lighting and decor. Every week, users have access to new editable families, with the biggest trends in the architecture and interiors market.
Christian Kerez was announced as the winner of the competition for the renovation of the Palazzo Rosso in St. Gallen, home to the Textile Museum St. Gallen, in eastern Switzerland. The project, titled “Das Schwere ist des Leichten Wurzelgrund,” or “The Heavy Is the Root of the Light,” responds to the goal of raising the profile of the Palazzo Rosso and increasing its visibility and attractivity. The proposal is currently undergoing further development by order of the Textile Museum Foundation for clarifying questions of feasibility and finance.
Los Angeles is a city of dreams. Known across the United States and the world, L.A. embodies both freedom and experimentation, defined as much by its freeways as its diversity. It is also a city of houses. Single-family homes cover almost half of Los Angeles, and as the city continues to evolve, architects have explored new ideas on modernity and daily life through the single-family typology.
Around 10 million people live in L.A. County, and Los Angeles itself has become one of the world's most ethnically diverse cities. The built environment reflects the nature of its residents, home to some of the most iconic residential and cultural architecture in the world. Los Angeles has its own dose of Lautner, Schindler, Wright, and Neutra. It's a city that has long embodied multiplicity and progressive forms, from the Eames House and Gehry's Residence to the iconic Stahl House. Through the lens of photographer Julius Shulman, many homes came to represent not only new residential styles but also the postwar culture of Southern California.
Summer, school holidays, and the desire to swim in the sea. A visit to the Brazilian coast at this time of year is a great idea for a variety of reasons. Thinking about its vast diversity, we selected some hotels arranged in different states that, in their projects, bring different ways of dialoguing with the context but also give comfort and leisure to their guests.
The search for outdoor spaces in dense city dwellings has become for some a necessity and for others a requirement to be fulfilled. In short, it is one of the most sought-after commissions that architects around the world receive on a daily basis. Beyond the fact that this phenomenon has been accentuated during the Covid-19 pandemic, since their origins, these expansion spaces have been conceived not only to increase the use of natural lighting and ventilation but also to promote the indoor-outdoor relationship, giving the possibility to accommodate various uses and functions even when square meters are scarce or when the connection with nature is glimpsed far over the horizon.
