MAD Architects unveiled the design for the Sanxingdui Ancient Shu Cultural Heritage Museum, a project meant to immerse visitors in the still largely unknown Shu civilization. Comprising a series of curved wooden structures scattered within the existing environment of dense greenery and clear waters, "The Eyes of Sanxingdui" weaves together architecture and landscape into a cultural public space.
It was designed and built between 1943 and 1946 by Amancio Williams and Delfina Galvez Bunge over the Las Chacras Stream in the city of Mar del Plata. It eventually became known as "The House on the River" or "The Bridge House". However, it ceased to have a stream, and thus to be a bridge, in 1957 when the watercourse on which it rested was interrupted for sanitation reasons. It was used as a radio station between 1970 and 1977, but the last military dictatorship in Argentina ended up shutting it down. It remained closed, maintained by its owner until their death in 1991. Studied by all, but cared for by none. It suffered two major fires, in 2004 and 2008. Abandoned during the whole succession process, it was recovered by the Municipality of General Pueyrredón in 2012.
More than 60 years after his death, Frank Lloyd Wright's story remains relevant and arduously studied because of the great legacy he left to architecture. Considered the first truly American architect and the first superstar of his craft, Frank Lloyd Wright lives on through his buildings, his influence and his collective imagination. Surprisingly, more than half of Wright's 1171 architectural works were never erected.
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
In April 1782, just six years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, John Adams arrived in Amsterdam as the first U.S. Ambassador to The Netherlands. Three months later, a consortium of Dutch bankers provided a 5 million guilder loan (equivalent to $150 billion today) to the new republic, a clear sign of my country’s confidence in the U.S. While I can’t provide a loan, as a Dutch water engineer I can offer something else to Americans: my country’s five centuries of experience living, working, and thriving below sea level. This is surely knowledge and knowhow that the U.S. will desperately need as water levels continue to rise and countless coastal communities are threatened.
With over 100,000 votes cast during the last three weeks, we are happy to present the winners of the 2022 ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards. This peer-based, crowdsourced architecture award showcases projects chosen by ArchDaily readers who filtered thousands of projects down to the 15 best works featured on ArchDaily in 2021.
As in previous years, the winners showcase a wide spectrum of different types of building, giving an insight into how diverse the profession has become in recent decades. High-profile practices take their place as ever, with winners such as MVRDV's Housing project in Bordeaux and Kengo Kuma's Casa Batllo's installation, showing that establishment firms are still able to make their mark, as in more traditional award systems. Alongside these are previously unsung heroes, such as PALMA and HANGHAR with their project, Types of Spaces. Among the winners, we also find Ca'n Terra House by ENSAMBLE STUDIO and Plaza of Kanagawa Institute of Technology by Junya Ishigami + Associates, extremely creative projects that today challenge their typologies.
But for all their many beautiful differences, the winners share a crucial element in common: they represent the values of our mission, to bring inspiration, knowledge, and tools to architects everywhere. Neither ArchDaily nor the Building of the Year Awards would be possible without the continued generosity of the firms that choose to publish their projects with ArchDaily every year, or without the engaged readers who take part in the voting process.
The 2022 Building of the Year Awards is brought to you thanks to Dornbracht, renowned for leading designs for architecture, which can be found internationally in bathrooms and kitchens.
Few religions have as much history and symbolism as Judaism. As the world's oldest monotheistic religion, it dates back nearly 4,000 years. In Judaism, architecture and houses of worship serve as places not only for liturgical services but also for assembly and study. Today, architects are rethinking the design of synagogues and community gathering spaces to celebrate Judaism, reflection and community.
Daylight and Architecture, a global knowledge-sharing initiative focusing on exploring the limitless potential of daylight in architecture, has announced the new series of ‘Daylight Talks’.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected 11 projects as winners of its 2022 Architecture Awards. The annual Architecture Award program celebrates the best contemporary architecture, and highlights how spaces can cater to their residents and context and include a sense of place, purpose, history, and environmental sustainability. The selected projects include commercial, residential, and civic typologies, all designed by US-licensed architects.
CHYBIK + KRISTOF revealed the design of a skyscraper in the Czech Republic city of Ostrava. The project reframes the typology of the skyscraper as a dynamic social hub and activates public space in support of the post-industrial city’s reactivation and socio-economical transformation. Upon completion, the 235-metre Ostrava Tower will be the tallest building in the country.
468 years ago, at Pateo do Collegio, the largest city in Latin America was born: São Paulo. A metropolis in constant movement that, among so many complexities and conflicts, presents both cultural and human diversity, which makes it deeply rich.
In each of our nostrils, two types of nerves play an essential role in our health. The olfactory and trigeminal nerves capture odors and send information to the brain, more specifically to the olfactory bulb, for interpretation. In turn, this communicates with the cortex, responsible for the conscious perception of odors, but also with the limbic system, which controls mood and unconscious emotions. This is the body's defense against bad smells or irritating or strong odors, creating aversion to those that could harm us in some way.
But not all pollutants can be detected through this sophisticated system, and they have an intrinsic ability to positively or negatively influence our health. In fact, research has shown that air quality can be quite poor and even worrying in many indoor environments, where we spend about 90% of our lives. This is usually caused by inadequate ventilation of the space, external pollution, and biological contaminants; but mainly chemical contaminants from internal sources. That is, the building materials used in space. Therefore, there are some products that should be avoided whenever possible.
In the original design for the Sydney Opera House, Jørn Utzon envisioned the shells supported by precast concrete ribs under a reinforced concrete structure, which turned out to be prohibitively expensive. As one of the first projects to use computational calculations, the final solution - reached jointly between the architect and the structural engineer - consisted of a precast ribbed system of concrete shells created from sections of a sphere. At the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the project team used CATIA software (typically used by the aerospace industry) to model and materialize the complex curvilinear shapes of the titanium-coated volume designed by Frank Gehry. Challenging projects tend to spark the creativity of those involved to make them possible, but there are constructive systems that interact well with existing technologies. This is the case, for example, with engineered wood and the BIM system. When used simultaneously, they usually achieve highly efficient and sustainable projects.
Babyn Yar, a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, witnessed the killing of more than 33,000 Jewish men, women, and children, on September 29 and 30, 1941. The site of one of the largest single massacres perpetrated by occupying German troops against Jews during World War II, Babyn Yar became a symbol of the Holocaust by Bullets.
While the main tragic event took place in 1941, throughout the occupation, the site was used as a killing location by the German forces. In fact, it is reported that 70 to 100 000 people lost their lives in Babyn Yar. With no architecture to the tragedy and only a remaining “broken” landscape, people struggled with achieving memorialization and public recognition.
Having a physical location as a workspace has many inherent benefits, such as bringing employees together in a collaborative environment and giving companies the opportunity to create culture and identity. But when hybrid and remote work began to rise in the early stages of the pandemic, many wondered it this meant the end of the physical office. However, now that two years have passed, the pattern has been clear: instead of being completely replaced by remote methods, many companies have adapted to new employee needs and conditions by opting for team-based, comfortable and flexible spaces that foster creativity, collaboration, and productivity.
The European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation have announced the 7 finalists that will compete for the 2022 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award. The finalists include 5 projects in the Architecture category and 2 in the Emerging Architecture category, all of which "encourage and become models and references for local city policies". The winners will be announced in April 2022 and the Award ceremony will take place in May 2022.
Danish Architecture Center's most recent exhibition, A Space Saga, explores life in a lunar habitat, providing an insight into the considerations that would shape space architecture, as new lunar missions are on track for 2025. The exhibition presents the lunar habitat LUNARK developed by Danish architecture studio SAGA Space Architects, a study on physical and mental well-being in extreme environments that can also inform high-tech architecture on Earth.
For some people, hanging pictures is not always an easy task, after all, in addition to the works portraying an image that reflects part of the personality of the residents, imagining forms of composition that make the environment even more pleasant can be challenging. With that in mind, here are some examples and guidelines that can be adopted to make it easier to create an exhibition in your home.
Last year, the Basque Culinary Center announced the creation of the GOe: Gastronomy Open Ecosystem. A project that seeks to generate a gastronomic ecosystem focused on research, innovation and entrepreneurship. It will have its own building in San Sebastian, Spain, becoming the new headquarters complementary to the previous BCC building designed by VAUMM in 2011.
With the aim of selecting the best proposals for the construction of the GOe building, an international architectural competition was launched in December 2021. After receiving and analysing different proposals, five finalists were selected to move on to the next phase of the award process: 3xn (Denmark), BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group (Denmark), OMA - Office of Metropolitan Architecture (Netherlands), Snøhetta (Norway) and Toyo Ito & Associates (Japan).
This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by established firms. From river-side commercial centers to mixed-use towers, this article explores commercial and residential functions designed by global architecture offices that are either conceptual, have won first-prize in design competitions, or are currently being realized.
Featuring a pedestrian bridge by Grimshaw Architects in France, and a finance-district skyscraper dubbed as the "Lighthouse of the 21st Century" by Ronald Lu & Partners, this roundup explores how established architecture firms have designed buildings that cater to the spatial and environmental needs of their users and respective functions. This round up also includes designs from SOM, IMPLMNT, Gensler, and Aedas, among other notable architects.
With buildings glazed on all sides and very brightly as well as monotonously lit rooms, it's no surprise that we long for indoor and outdoor retreats that are less bright. Places with shade from glaring sun, dimmed rooms and exciting contrasts act on the eyes like a welcome oasis. High energy consumption and globally increasing light pollution show how acute the problem of too much light is and the alarming rate of contribution toward climate change. For a better future, it is imperative to explore ways in which we can design and focus on using darkness.
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Interior Urbanism describes interior spaces so large that they behave like cities. These kinds of constructions can develop either as an adoc growth over time, or as a planned and cohesively designed set of volumes. Each approach has its own opportunities and problems when it comes to efficiency and architectural integrity. This video explores both and uses Chicago’s Pedway and John Portman’s Hyatt Regency near O’Hare airport as examples. Stewart Hicks visits these examples, discusses the implications of bringing our urbanism indoors, and compares and contrasts the spatial qualities of each — the contingent and gritty urbanism of the Pedway, with the pristine perfection of the hotel lobby and conference center.
We invite you to participate in the ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards. We ask you to recognize and reward the projects that you feel are creating the largest impact in the built environment, that ArchDaily has published on our projects database in 2021. By voting, you form part of an interdependent, impartial, distributed network of jurors and peers that has consistently helped us celebrate architecture of every scale, purpose, and condition, from countries large and small, and architects of all descriptions. Already 4000 projects have been filtered down to just 75 finalists – representing the best in each project category on ArchDaily.
Remember, registered users will be able to vote for their favorite project for each of the 15 categories included in the Awards. One vote per category. Voting ends on February 17th, 2022 at 12:01 AM (EST). Thank you once again for helping us continue to democratize architectural excellence across the world.
Humanity's relationship with insects is ancient and complex. While they can spread disease and wipe out crops, they are also vital to our survival on Planet Earth, as pollinators and recyclers. Edward Osborne Wilson, a leading American biologist, stated in one of his articles that “If insects were to vanish, so would nearly all flowering plants and the food webs they support. This loss, in turn, would cause the extinction of reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals: in effect, nearly all terrestrial animal life. The disappearance of insects would also end rapid decomposition of organic matter and thus shut down nutrient cycling. Humans would be unable to survive.”
Especially in the case of bees, public opinion has changed in recent years and their importance in food production has sparked warnings about the indiscriminate use of poisons and pesticides around the world. But unlike nature, with its meanders and countless possibilities for resting places, our modern cities and buildings generally do not create adequate environments for insects, and even birds or other animals. The English company Green&Blue has been working on this and creating refuges to incorporate nature into our buildings. We spoke with them to better understand these products.
