This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights different competition-winning designs submitted by the ArchDaily Community. From large scale commercial developments to cultural interventions in historical urban fabrics, from adaptive reuse projects with an environmental focus to educational facilities, this article showcases a variety of design approaches, programs and scales. The proposals featured are the results of local and international competitions, either creative concepts or projects currently in progress.
The award-winning entries include a range of different projects designed by both young architects and established firms. An adaptive reuse project of a fire station in Singapore, the redevelopment of an industrial site in South Korea, a mixed-use project in China or a museum in Italy are a few of this week's highlights.
Herzog & de Meuron has unveiled the design of the new Memphis Brooks Museum of Art overlooking the Mississippi River. The 10,500 sqm structure will feature expanded galleries, exhibition spaces, and open spaces for community and educational programs with free public access, and is expected to open to the public in 2026.
This week, the C40 global network of cities and engineering and sustainability firm Arup launched a virtual exhibition showcasing examples of climate initiatives and resiliency strategies from 11 cities committed to addressing climate change. Given that cities account for more than 70% of global carbon emissions, the Global Cities Climate Action Exhibition aims to highlight the role of cities in reaching climate targets through local policies and urban development plans, achieving tangible emission reductions and increasing social equity.
It has become evident that the spaces we inhabit have changed. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to appreciate values as lighting, ventilation, and comfort when working in home.
The city of Parishas announced that it will be investing €250 million to upgrade its cycling infrastructure and expand its network of bike lanes with aims of becoming “100% cyclable”. The French capital's investment comes through Bike Plan, a 5-year-long urban project that will reinforce the presence of bikes and provide safe and well connected routes for passengers and pedestrians.
ADUs or accessory dwelling unit, a word mostly used by architects, is "a smaller, independent residential unit located on the same lot as a stand-alone single-family home" according to the American Planning Association. They can be converted spaces of existing houses, additions, or new stand-alone structures. In this piece, author Walter explores the recent policies in California that seek to reduce the shortage of housing.
The relationship between building envelope and structure remains a centerpiece of architecture. Understanding a building's skin is how designs become open or closed, controlling environmental conditions, light and views. Whether perforated, slotted or modular, brise-soleils are elegant envelopes that create new spatial conditions. This is especially true in France, where architects are rethinking tradition to bring new screened structures to life.
D5 Render SketchUp Extension | Elmtec SketchUp, a real-time renderer for digital designers, brings a whole new layer to the industry thanks to cutting-edge technologies, making it easier to render ultra-realistic images with real-time raytracing, creating a transformational movement within the design industry. From 28th September 2021, Elmtec is the official distributor for D5 Render in the UK and Ireland.
Fundació Mies van der Rohe, the European Commission, and the Irish Pavilion have inaugurated an exhibition titled “Transformation Strategies: European Architecture as Caregiver” which highlights the European Union's participation in Expo 2020 Dubai and showcases its contribution to tackling global challenges in line with the main themes of the event. The exhibition opened to the public on November 2nd at the Irish Pavilion in the Expo's Jubilee Avenue, and will be on display until the end of 2021.
A new masterplan along the central Pailao River in Shenzhen proposes a climate-proof regeneration of the area, using nature and water retention ecological zones to mitigate the risk of flooding. Created by urban design and architecture practice VenhoevenCS, with landscape vision by Hope Design and water management plan by Huadong Engineering, the Pailao River Blueway Project capitalizes on the coexistence of the urban and the natural environment, ensuring resilience and enhancing the economic growth of the city district.
Novo edifício de educação infantil e creche em Zaldibar / Hiribarren-Gonzalez + Estudio Urgari. Courtesy of Egoin
The definition of equity in dictionaries is the quality of giving equal treatment to everyone while still acknowledging the differences between individuals. In this sense, equity means fairness in the way we act toward each person but keeping in mind his or her specific characteristics and needs. From a medical perspective, equity implies that everyone needs care and attention but not necessarily the same. It is also worth mentioning that the terms equity and equality are often used interchangeably but they mean different things, mainly because equality is based on the principle of universal rights, in which all individuals are subject to the same rules, without exception.
Architectural photographer Paul Clemence has released a new photoseries of 30 E 31, a luxury apartment tower in Midtown Manhattan designed by Morris Adjmi Architects. Inspired by classic New York skyscrapers of the 1920s, the architects reimagined NoMad’s Neo-Gothic and Art Deco architecture and designed a structure with a "distinctive lattice crown" that blends two architectural eras with the city’s iconic skyline.
The Build Better Now virtual pavilion opened to the public during COP26, showcasing seventeen sustainable projects that demonstrate the built environment's opportunities for addressing the climate crisis. The initiative, run by UK Green Building Council, comes as a global call for climate action, highlighting the AEC's industry's commitment to sustainable practice on a worldwide stage, particularly since this year the COP26 dedicated a day to buildings and cities.
Hammocks are an undeniable passion and an iconic design element in Brazil and are key pieces of furniture in many Brazilian homes. In small houses or apartments, however, hammocks can often be difficult to place in the room. This article shows examples of how to include hammocks in architectural projects and ideas to inspire you to hang one in your apartment.
The new CaixaForumValencia has passed the halfway mark within Valencia's City of Arts and the Sciences complex, as explained by La Caixa Foundation deputy general director, Elisa Duran, on a site visit alongside the architect and Could 9 leader, Enric Ruiz-Geli.
Before fossil-fuel powered air-conditioning became widely available, people living in harsh climates had nothing but natural means to ventilate their spaces and control the interior temperature. To do so, they took into account several external factors such as their location, orientation with respect to the sun and wind, their area's climate conditions, and local materials. In this article, we explore how ancient civilizations in Western Asia and North Africa have used windcatchers to adapt to the region's harsh climate and provide passive cooling solutions that are still being used in contemporary architecture, proving that local approaches to climate adaptability are fundamental to the development of today's built environment.
A new report from The Trust for Public Land (TPL) makes a compelling case for transforming underperforming, paved public schoolyards into green oases for the entire community. While the benefits for schools and their educational communities are clear, TPL sees an opportunity to open up these facilities to surrounding neighborhoods after school hours, on weekends, and when school is out. If all 90,000 public schools in the country had a “community schoolyard,” more communities could tackle the persistent park equity issue — in which too few communities, particularly undeserved ones, enjoy access to nearby high-quality public green spaces. TPL argues that opening up all schoolyards, essentially turning them into part-time all-access community hubs, would “put a park within a 10-minute walk of nearly 20 million people — solving the problem of outdoor access for one-fifth of the nation’s 100 million people who don’t currently have a park close to home.”
https://www.archdaily.com/971293/the-incredible-opportunity-of-community-schoolyardsJared Green
When examining the world of African cinema, there are few names more prominent than that of Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène. His films ‘La Noire de…’ and ‘Mandabi’, released in 1966 and 1968 respectively, are films that tell evocative stories on the legacies of colonialism, identity, and immigration. And whilst these two films are relatively slow-spaced, ‘slice-of-life stories, they also offer a valuable spatial critique of the setting where the films are based, providing a helpful framework to understand the intricacies of the post-colonial African city, and the contrast between the African and European metropolises.
An icon in architecture and design holds a certain degree of widespread recognition, admiration, and originality, whether it be a famous building, an artwork or a popular piece of furniture. However, it must also be capable of remaining relevant through the years and never go out of style, constantly attracting an audience without having to entirely reinvent itself. In an era dominated by social media and the need for instant gratification, the design industry has become more trend-driven than ever, creating products that die just as fast as they’re born. That is precisely where the value of timelessness lies; classic, high-quality, and long-lasting functional products will rarely become a thing of the past.
SHoP Architects and JDS Development Group's The Brooklyn Tower at 9 DeKalb Avenue has reached its final height. The monumental tower stands at 1,066 ft. formed by interlocking hexagons that create a dramatic facade of reflective bronze and black panels, providing residents with panoramic views of the city, river, and harbor. The tower is expected to launch residence sales in early 2022, and open for occupancy late 2022.
David Chipperfield Architects won the competition to redesign 1014 Fifth Avenue, a historic 1907 townhouse owned by the German government and used for cultural programming, into a space for meeting and dialogue. The project, titled "An Open House" and developed together with New York-based practices KARO Architects and Patarus Group, reorganizes the interior and creates the framework for cultural exchange while honouring the history of the building. Inspired by the interplay of public and private space within an ambassador's house, the project draws inspiration from the building's history as the home of the German Ambassador, with a design that balances public and private functions in establishing a new cultural institution.
As a room everyone needs to visit, no matter what their social standing (or sitting), bathrooms can be one of the best ways to add character to a project. Used when we are at our most vulnerable, bathrooms are calm, solitary arenas, giving a few minutes of peace in an otherwise hectic environment. So the originality of the user experience can really stand out.
Whether they bring relaxation to hospitality, individuality to residential or drama, and culture to public space, bathrooms can both surprise and delight users, while allowing them to rest. Here are eight projects where a designer bathroom is an integral part of interior architecture.
Sustainable architecture begins with designing for longer lifecycles and reuse. Looking to create more inclusive and viable futures, architects are exploring adaptive reuse as one of the best strategies to address the climate crisis and promote social justice. Reuse keeps the culture of an area alive, bridging between old and new as projects push the boundaries of circular and adaptive design.
Four emerging architecture studio profiles from Greece, Lithuania, Italy, and Denmark have been chosen by New Generations, a European platform that analyses the most innovative emerging practices at the European level, providing a new space for the exchange of knowledge and confrontation, theory, and production. Since 2013, New Generations has involved more than 300 practices in a diverse program of cultural activities, such as festivals, exhibitions, open calls, video interviews, workshops, and experimental formats.
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