This guide covers a workflow that moves from project parameters to generated floor plans, 3D perspective views, exterior design exploration, and site context visualization, using AI tools in place of preliminary CAD and rendering work.

The winning proposal for redesigning Thessaloniki’s ConfEx fairground features a series of pavilions with large overhanging roofs that float within a park, creating the infrastructure for international events while providing locals with a robust public space. Designed by Sauerbruch Hutton, together with Gustafson Porter + Bowman as landscape architects and Elena Stavropoulou, the project builds on the existing network of landmarks creating a new hybrid landscape that caters to the Northern Greek city’s goal of becoming the region’s primary business and tourist attraction.

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After receiving Paulo Mendes da Rocha's complete collection in 2020, Casa da Arquitectura - Portuguese Center for Architecture, based in the city of Matosinhos, has just received Lucio Costa's estate. The donation was made by the family of the Brazilian architect and urban planner and includes about eleven thousand documents produced between 1910 and 1998.

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Mexican firm Tatiana Bilbao Estudio has unveiled Botániqo, its new project in collaboration with the Ecuadorian firm Uribe Schwarzkopf in Quito, Ecuador. With over 12,000 km2, the project will cede 4,000 km2 to create a new transportation hub expected to service over 60,000 people per day, in addition to the creation of green space around the residential units.

A "symbolic interpretation of the flow of movement", Calatrava’s design for the UAE Pavilion at the 2020 Expo Dubai is a 15,000 square meters immersive and multisensory experience. Images recently shot by Stephane Aboudaram highlight a structure of 28 automated cantilevered wings, that open and rotate at a range of 110 and 125 degrees. Moreover, these photos also show a central skylight, that mimics the logo of this year’s expo.

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Homebuilding company Lennar and construction technologies company ICON are collaborating with BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group to build the largest community of 3D-printed homes to date. The 100-home neighborhood in Austin is expected to break ground in 2022 and will combine ICON’s innovative robotics, software, and advanced materials with BIG's designs.

The 15-minute city urban theory receives the 2021 Obel Prize in recognition of the concept's value for creating sustainable and people-centric urban environments. First coined in 2016 by Sorbonne professor Carlos Moreno, the term defines a highly flexible urban model that ensures all citizens can access daily needs within a 15-minute distance, thus breaking the hegemony of the car and reintroducing the qualities of historic cities within contemporary urban planning.

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An honourable mention for OMA’s Taipei Performing Arts Centre celebrates the textural power of subtly shaded glass.

London-based architecture firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) has unveiled its design of a 227-acre distillery master plan in Somerset, Kentucky that aims to become a vibrant destination on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail® with commercial and cultural facilities that honor the heroes of 9/11.

Designed by Warsaw-based architecture practice WXCA and Swiss studio Bellprat Partner, the Polish Pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai is a nod to the country's natural landscapes representing an essential part of Polish identity. Through a modular structure enveloped by a kinetic sculpture resembling a flock of birds, the project references the idea of mobility while showcasing the natural connection established by bird migration between Poland and UAE.

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Spaces create living environments, and the design of the room has a direct effect on people's moods and behavior. The winners of this year's iF Design Awards show how high-tech materials, elements, and shapes shine in their uniqueness and create a very special atmosphere.

Videos

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has announced that it will convert an oil rig into a 150,000 square meter amusement park and resort located in the Arabian Gulf. Titled "THE RIG.", the project is expected to be the world's first touristic destination built on offshore oil platforms, featuring three hotels, eleven world-class restaurants, roller coaster rides, and extreme sports and activities like bungee jumping and skydiving, all accessible via a ferry, yacht, cruise, or helicopter.

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Nordic Office of Architecture won the interior design competition for the new Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport Terminal 3B in China with a concept that integrates experiential programmes and references the identity of the Chinese city. Created in collaboration with UDG, ADC and Lichtvision, the project aims to facilitate intuitive wayfinding while providing travellers with a series of interactive spaces and attractions along their journey.

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For 125 years, German brand Alape has been perfecting the visual as well as haptic experience of washbasins and washstands made of glazed steel.

According to data from the Global Media Report, in 2014, 330 million families were financially threatened by housing costs, a figure projected to rise to 440 million by 2025. Not only have these projections been confirmed, but the crisis triggered by COVID-19 is likely to drive that number even higher. 

While Brazil's socially and economically vulnerable population already faced a severe housing crisis, the situation has since worsened. According to a national survey by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA), in March 2020, at the very beginning of the pandemic, there were already over 221,000 people experiencing homelessness.

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Architectural photographer and short filmmaker Kevin Siyuan released his latest architectural short film titled "A Wes Anderson-ish Singapore", a short motion picture that features buildings by world renowned architects built around the country. The 30-minute documentary was released as part of Singapore Archifest's virtual exhibition: Singapore Through My Eyes, and focuses on the urban planning, architecture, neighborhoods, parks, and green spaces, and how the people of Singapore have adapted to the pandemic.

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MASA Gallery presents the exhibition "Vital Elements" in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico, as part of a tribute to the work of Cuban artist Ana Mendieta, returning the after-effects of an encounter—its documentation and subsequent influence—to its place of origin. For the first time, five of the artist's celebrated films are being shown in the city where they were made, including the first film from Mendieta's 'Silueta' series, filmed at the Yagul archaeological site in 1974.

HENN has won two major architecture competitions in Germany to design the Brainergy Hub in Jülich and the German Language Forum in Mannheim. The office's Brainergy Hub proposal features a circular design dedicated to renewable energy research, whereas the Language Forum proposal stands as an inviting open space that promotes communication and interaction through unique learning experiences.

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LINK Arkitektur has revealed the design of a school that integrates the local climate conditions and challenges within the educational process. Located in Torslanda near Gothenburg, Sweden, where it rains every other day during the school year, the project uses water as a resource for both play and learning, taking a disruptive situation and turning it into an opportunity for understanding nature and the state of the environment.

Office furniture specialist Haworth embraces awareness, analysis and imagination in its quest to create workspaces that have a positive impact on our lives.

Since 1985, the Faculty of Architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico has organized the Alberto J. Pani Architectural Composition Award, aiming to bring together the best students from institutions affiliated with the Association of Architecture Education Institutions of the Mexican Republic (ASINEA). This year, the collaborating host is the Universidad Internacional in Cuernavaca, Morelos.

Marcel Breuer’s Pirelli Tire Building, a beacon of Brutalist architecture in the United States, is being reimagined as a hotel by development company Becker and Becker. After being abandoned for years, the structure was sold to architect and developer Bruce Redman Becker in 2020 with plans to transform it into a sustainable 165-room hotel. The sculptural concrete structure aims to be a model for passive design hotels using its unique architectural features and innovative adaptive reuse techniques.

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The two Belgian practices BOGDAN & VAN BROECK and BC Architects & Studies are currently designing a care centre for drug users in Brussels, which would provide this vulnerable group with a safe and welcoming environment accessible 24/7. Featuring temporary residencies and community spaces, the building neighbouring the city’s port functions as a contemporary version of an inn, bringing a domestic character to an underwise sterile institutional program.

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Designed by JPG.ARQ, MMBB Arquitetos, and Ben-Avid, the Brazil Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai offers a sensory experience that connects visitors of the World Expo with Brazilian biomes and cultural heritage.

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"Architecture encompassed my interest in reality and societal issues," says architect Dorte Mandrup, in an extensive conversation with Louisiana Channel, in which the founder and creative director of Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter reflects on formative years and the values of her architecture practice. Four years in the making, the film takes viewers on a journey through Dorte Mandrup's architecture, with compelling footage telling the story of designs such as the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre, Jaegersborg Water tower, or Ama'r Children's Culture House. Through the portrait film, the architect touches on numerous topics such as sustainability and climate change, the relationship of the built environment with the landscape, and as well as the profession itself and its present transformations and challenges.

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