UK’s contribution to Expo 2020 Dubai is a wooden sculptural structure that celebrates cultural diversity and collaboration, highlighting Britain as a meeting place of cultures and ideas. Created by artist and designer Es Devlin, the Poem Pavilion uses advanced machine learning algorithms to transform the input of visitors into collective poems. The latter can be read in illuminating displays on the façade, transforming the pavilion into the exhibit itself.
Architecture has been increasingly focusing on adaptive reuse, taking advantage of the opportunity to redesign existing spaces to provide new purposes while also reducing damage to the environment. In this context, recycling warehouses is quite usual and is becoming more popular every day because these spaces often have large open plans which allow many different layouts.
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Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and Brookfield Properties' Manhattan West, a six-building project, has opened to the public. Nestled in the heart of New York City’s Far West Side, the mixed-use development aims to link several New York neighborhoods and transform unutilized spaces above rail lines into new dynamic destinations.
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The Singapore Pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai illustrates the city's aspiration towards a sustainable future that merges architecture, nature, technology and culture. Under the title "Nature.Nurture.Future", the pavilion designed by WOHA Architects and landscape design practice Salad Dressing showcases a sample of Singapore's urban environment that epitomizes its City in Nature vision. The multi-layered green space creates a self-sufficient ecosystem highlighting ideas of sustainability and resilience through the marriage of technology and nature.
On a clear fall day in 2005, a group of friends and collaborators from the art collective Rebar commandeered an 8-foot-wide by 20-foot-long metered parking space in downtown San Francisco. This two-hour guerilla art installation evolved into Park(ing) Day, a global public art and design activism event that has been celebrated every year since. In 2009, Rebar and other design studios were approached by the City of San Francisco to prototype a more permanent version of Park(ing) Day. In response, we created one of the world’s first parklets in San Francisco (we called our version walklet), and through the diligent efforts of Andres Power in the Mayor’s Office and City Planning, San Francisco’s pioneering parklet program was born.
BIG has collaborated with global technology platform for luxury fashion Farfetch and Portuguese real estate developer Castro Group to create "Fuse Valley", a purpose-built urban fashion village on the slopes of the Leça River in Porto, Portugal. The platform's newly unveiled HQ will feature 12 uniquely-designed interconnected buildings that represent the different elements of the company’s organization. The project is set to break ground by early 2023, and open its doors in 2025.
The boundaries between different kinds of spaces are not as defined as they used to be. All around us, we are witnessing examples of blurred boundaries between private and public spaces, interiors and exteriors, and formal and informal spaces and so on.
Kengo Kuma was asked to preserve the western portal of the Cathédrale Saint-Maurice in Angers, France, to protect 12th and 17th century polychromatic sculptures displayed within the historic structure. The proposed design creates a "harmonious dialogue" with a subtle contemporary arched intervention that preserves its medieval architectural heritage and pays tribute to the original builders' regulatory framework and unified proportions. Construction of the new arched portals have begun and are expected to be complete in 2024.
Expo 2020 Dubai's Sustainability Pavilion designed by Grimshaw Architects expresses the ethos of addressing the impact of human activities on the environment, acting as a catalyst for collective action. With sustainability as one of the three core themes of the Expo, the pavilion named Terra will become a platform for highlighting the urgency of the issue, sharing knowledge and exploring ideas while also providing visitors with n immersive experience. As one of the legacy buildings, the project is set to become a Science Centre after the event and aims to operate as an autonomous construction in terms of energy and water supply.
Office work used to only be done one way. You would sit at a desk all morning, then try not to fall asleep in the afternoon meeting. However, from continent-crossing video chats to team meetings in the park, modern workplaces are using flexible workspaces and practices to lower costs but raise creativity, production, and morale in the workforce.
Employees are now able to choose which working style does the business for them, and product manufacturers are creating simple but ingenious collections of modular, flexible furniture to suit any style and type of workspace including:
Artificial intelligence is transforming how we design and build. By 2050, the effects of AI adoption will be widely felt across all aspects of our daily lives. As the world faces a number of urgent and complex challenges, from the climate crisis to housing, AI has the potential to make the difference between a dystopian future and a livable one. By looking ahead, we're taking stock of what's happening, and in turn, imagining how AI can shape our lives for the better.
Abu Dhabi's history is tied to its development. As the capital and second most populated city of the United Arab Emirates, it has radically transformed in recent decades. Planned under the guidance of Sheikh Zayed by Japanese architect Katsuhiko Takahashi in 1967, Abu Dhabi has become an epicenter of cultural exchange and commercial activity. Between rapid development and urbanization, the city's architecture reflects global trends alongside new building methods.
After almost 60 years of its initial ideation, Artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s temporary installation, the complete wrapping of L’Arc de Triomphe in Paris has opened to the public on September 18th, attracting thousands of tourists and locals. In this new photoseries, photographer Jared Chulski captures the wrapped monument, focusing on the details of the temporary intervention and how it compliments the city's urban fabric.
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture announced the Master Jury that will select the 2020-2022 cycle winners. The jury, among which are Anne Lacaton, Francis Kéré, Nader Tehrani, or Amale Andraos, will look for projects that respond to the cultural aspirations of their social context and show innovative use of local resources and building technologies. Founded in 1988 by Aga Khan IV, the award covering three-year cycles aims to highlight projects of relevance and positive impact for Islamic communities.
The construction industry is known to be one of the most polluting industries on the planet, but we often find it difficult to associate the role of the architect and urban planner with this industry, thus avoiding the responsibility of being involved in one of the most harmful production chains in the world. Therefore, it is imperative to emphasize the importance of questioning not only the materials used in the projects but also the manufacturing systems involved.
ODA, the New York-based architecture office, has recently unveiled its design for Paseo Gigena, a former parking lot that will be transformed into a mixed-use project and a public park in Buenos Aires. Around the same time, ODA has also announced the beginning of the construction phase of its first residential venture in the same city: The ZETA building.
Located in the Belgrano neighborhood, next to the modern structure of the University of Belgrano and facing the historic mansion that houses the Australian Embassy, the 126-unit project seeks to "reimagine the language of residential buildings in Buenos Aires", according to the architects.
Twenty years after the Frank Gehry–designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi was first announced in 2006, the museum may finally have its grand opening.
The impact that the climate crisis has had on the globe over the last decade is a critical influence on how architects and urban planners design future cities. It’s clear that both at an individual and corporate level, it’s important to take action and protect the earth before the negative impacts change our familiar environments forever- and time is running out fast. When it comes to creating ways to save our cities from “the next big one”, whether it be a hurricane, flood, snowstorm, or fire, the way that we design the preventative infrastructure neglects a significant number of people. Climate change doesn’t just impact the wealthiest places in the world, it actually has greater effects on the most impoverished.
OMA New York has designed a new 145-meter pedestrian bridge over the Apatlaco River in Jojutla de Juárez, Mexico, as part of a larger reconstruction effort by Infonavit (National Workers’ Housing Fund Institute) following the 2017 earthquakes.
Welcome to the Slow House, Diller and Scofidio’s (now Diller, Scofidio and Renfro) first building commission for Long Island, in NY. The crescent-shaped slug doppelganger, was a pivotal design for the firm — and architecture at large — when it was first revealed in 1990. However, the building was never built, living only through its extensive catalog of models and drawings. In this video, the Slow House is digitally reconstructed, analyzed and explored to discover unique elements lurking in its design that can only be revealed through a first-person experience. From delayed million-dollar views, to CCTV feeds of the water, to dozens of operable plywood doors and shades, the house is truly a machine for viewing. And now, you can view it for yourself.
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Zaha Hadid Architects has ranked first in a design competition for the redevelopment of the Vilnius railway station complex and surrounding area in Lithuania, with its ‘Green Connect’ proposal. Generating an integrated transportation hub for the 21st century with new civic spaces enveloped by nature, ZHA’s project is aligned to the city’s ongoing sustainability agenda.
After being awarded with the top prize at the Munch Museum Competition in 2009, Spanish architecture firm Estudio Herreros has finally completed the construction of the museum and will open its doors on October 22, 2021. The long-awaited museum will showcase a rich collection of Norwegian heritage and culture and thousands of artworks by artist Edvard Munch, as well as present a contemporary museum concept that highlights architecture's urban role and historical responsibility of Oslo and the nation as a whole.
Aedas revealed the design for the Jurong East Integrated Transport Hub, a development merging work environment and recreation located within a vibrant commercial area outside of Singapore’s city centre. Featuring a transport interchange station and an office tower, together with community-oriented amenities, the project is designed as a catalyser for the emergence of a second financial district in the western part of the city.
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