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CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati has merged architecture with urban agriculture in the firm's newly-unveiled Jian Mu Tower in Shenzhen, China. The 218-meter high building incorporates a large-scale vertical hydroponic farm across its entire facade, producing vegetation that can feed up to 40,000 people per year. The 51-storey tower will also include housing offices, a supermarket, and a food court with inner gardens for recreation and social gatherings.
.jpg?1630396086 "Courtesy of CRA - Carlo Ratti Associati")
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UNStudio has recently published a report exploring the broader scope of community building and placemaking in the post-pandemic urban environment. Through examples from their practice, UNStudio highlights various design strategies currently incorporated in architecture and urban planning that cater to the universal and crucial need to connect socially. In addition, the practice stresses the importance of “ third spaces” and human-scale connectivity, as well as the blending of digital and physical spaces of interaction.
A building stands out along the maritime walkway in Palma, Mallorca's capital. Designed by José Ferragut Pou and completed in 1960, the building was a poster child for the modern architectural movement sweeping the globe at that time. Today, like many of its brethren, it stands in abandoned disrepair.
Lluís Bort is the Spanish architect and photographer behind "Empty Architecture," a photographic compilation of abandoned buildings from throughout the island of Mallorca, Spain.
Few materials are as timeless, durable and beautiful as terracotta. With a range of inherent properties, terracotta is being specified to redefine building envelopes. Used for its many colors and textures, as well as its flexibility, this ceramic can be constructed as cladding, rain screens and a variety of components. Dating back to the Babylonians, terracotta has been used throughout history, and it continues to be a material selected for diverse building types around the world.
The United Arab Emirates has won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 2021 Venice Biennale, with its contribution entitled Wetland curated by Wael Al Awar and Kenichi Teramoto. Selected by a jury that consists of Kazuyo Sejima (president-Japan), Sandra Barclay (Peru), Lamia Joreige (Lebanon), Lesley Lokko (Ghana-Scotland), and Luca Molinari (Italy), the winning contribution at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale explores the local geography of the United Arab Emirates to find alternatives to cement, one of the key emitters of the world's carbon dioxide.
The award ceremony, broadcasted live on the Biennale’s official page also presented the Golden Lion for Best Participant in the International Exhibition How will we live together? to RAUMLABORBERLIN- Instances of Urban Practice while the Silver Lion for a promising young participant in the International Exhibition How will we live together? went to Border Ecologies and the Gaza Strip- Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory (FAST). Other recognitions included a special mention for the national participation of the Philippines and Russia, and to Cave_bureau for the Anthropocene Museum: Exhibit 3.0 Obsidian Rain.
Mexico, a North American country spanning over 1,964,375 km2, features a vast mosaic of different cultures that extends far beyond its geographical boundaries. Nowhere is this diversity more evident than along the 3,141km border stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, running through 48 counties within the United States and 94 municipalities within the Mexican states.
Design consultancy office AUTHOS and Swiss multidisciplinary Interactive Designer Stella Speziali have collaborated to create a unique spatial intervention at the Zurich Design Biennale 2021. Titled NEBULOSUS, the installation uses mist and augmented reality as an immersive and intangible 'structure' that changes the spatial boundary of Zurich's botanical garden and creates and explorative experience for visitors.
Prolonged heatwaves have been increasingly common in recent years, and cities are devising various strategies for combating the urban heat island effect. As Sydney experienced blistering summer temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius, the authorities have recently banned dark roofs on new homes and mandated lighter-coloured alternatives to reflect solar radiation. In Europe, Athens has taken the example of Miami and hired a Chief Heat Officer, tasked with finding coping strategies as the city confronts with heatwaves and wildfires that prompted a large number of residents to vacate the capital.
Beyond "experience tourism" and light entertainment, temporary architecture is a fertile ground for testing ideas, examining places, popularizing new concepts and technologies. Taking a wide array of forms, from disaster relief projects and utilitarian structures to design experiments, architectural statements and playful installations, transient structures showcase alternative visions for the built environment, opening up new possibilities and questioning established norms. As temporary architecture now seems at odds with sustainability imperatives, the following discusses the value of temporary architecture as a vehicle of experimentation, advancing design and engaging communities.
The term “mid-century modern” conjures up images of a sharp-suited Don Draper, slender teak cabinets, and suave chairs from Scandinavia. That is, at least, one perspective of the design movement and a view more of 1950s-era Manhattan offices than anything else. But in Britain, mid-century modernism manifested as something slightly different, coming in the form of schools, cathedrals, housing, and an era-defining festival, all eloquently described and illustrated by the prolific architectural historian Elain Harwood in Mid-Century Britain: Modern Architecture 1938-1963.
The Neue Nationalgalerie, designed by Mies van der Rohe, reopened to the public after an extensive renovation project carried out by the practice of David Chipperfield. In this video created by Mies van der Rohe House, Chipperfield shares his thoughts on the design language of Mies van der Rohe while also discussing the qualities of Neue Nationalgalerie and the future role of architectural monuments. The interview is part of the film and exhibition project Mies Goes Future, which invites artists, architects, and historians to explore the work of the renowned Modernist architect as a source of inspiration for contemporary practice.
August 5th is National Health Day in Brazil. Our readers have already expressed their opinion on how psychology is essential to build healthy and pleasant spaces to live in, and for this reason, we decided to explore the impacts of the spatial experience on each person's well-being, improving quality of life and reducing mental stress. In other words, architecture not only contributes to physical health through ergonomics but also affects our emotional comfort.
In 1984, the Menil Museum in Houston, Texas, commissioned the Mexican architect Luis Barragan to build a 3,000-square feet guest house to be located across the street from the famous Rothko Chapel. The architect came back with a design for a dazzling purple, pink, and orange 8,000-square feet mansion that looked to be more at home in Mexico City than a Houston residential suburban lot. So, due to the ensuing conflict between client and architect, the house would never get built, only displayed as an exhibition within the Menil’s galleries.
“Local” is a word that is broadly used to describe something particular about a place that makes it different from somewhere else. Across the globe, the “local-ness” of our cities is what makes them unique- in the way that people live, work, socialize, and especially in the way that they plan and construct cities and infrastructure. To someone living in a suburb, the way that they move from place to place might be through a car, while someone who lives in a dense metropolis might use a subway or bus system as part of their everyday lives.
Atelier Jean Nouvel's monumental granite-clad museum in Shanghai's Pudong district is now complete and open to visitors. Labeled as a "domain" by the architecture firm, the Museum of Art Pudong covers an expansive plot of almost 40,000 sqm on the outer banks of the Huangpu River, and offers visitors a culture-driven space surrounded by the river and an undulating landscape of tall trees.
The International Architecture and Design Festival Concéntrico, now at its 7th edition, prompts an exploration of the urban environment through temporary installations inhabiting the public spaces of the city of Logroño, Spain. From September 2nd to 5th, the festival brings together an array of emerging architects and artists from all over the world to share their perspectives on urban spaces and communities.
The Museum of Art of São Paulo - MASP will soon expand its facilities to include an annex next to the iconic project by Lina Bo Bardi. The 14-story Dumont-Adams building, which has been inactive for decades, has 7800 square meters and will be renovated to house exhibition wings, a café, a restaurant, and a restoration laboratory.
Readers of ArchDaily and Strelka Mag have selected a shortlist of 15 architectural projects nominated for the joint ArchDaily & Strelka Award, which celebrates emerging architects and new ideas that transform the contemporary city. The second stage of voting, which will last until August 31st, will decide the three winners.
Over the course of the last decade there has been a growing interest in the handcrafted buildings, as well as in the application of local and renewable materials in building construction. Under the concerns about the heavy environmental and economic expenses caused by construction, nowadays urban planners are embracing the concept of sustainability, which refers to “meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
Office buildings are known for being utilitarian, efficient, and rigid. While this typology has earned a reputation for adopting rectilinear grids and open layouts, modern designs have begun exploring new alternatives for the contemporary workplace. Moving beyond standard work rooms, meeting spaces, and support zones, these projects are reimagining the relationships between envelope and program. This is a larger movement towards rethinking the formal and spatial characteristics of where we work. While this trend is being explored globally, cities have begun embracing new office designs at a larger scale.
Titled "The Available City", the fourth edition of the Chicago Architecture Bienniale will be open to the public on September 17th, 2021. This year, the event presents an unprecedented biennale model that experiments with an array of site-specific projects and programs displayed across the Chicago, "reframing what a biennial can do, be, and explore for a city". Over 80 projects from 18 different countries will respond to an urban design framework and bring ideas for community-centered, collective spaces through architectural elements, engaging programming, and enhanced community experiences.
We are about to start living in a completely wireless world, but in the meantime, many people are looking for alternatives to hide wires creating a more organized and clean space. Therefore, we have provided some tips for those who want to disguise TV cables and cords from other devices to make the environment more comfortable.
All human activities affect the environment. Some are less impactful, some much, much more. According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the construction sector is responsible for up to 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Activities such as mining, processing, transportation, industrial operations, and the combination of chemical products result in the release of gases such as CO2, CH4, N2O, O3, halocarbons, and water vapor. When these gases are released into the atmosphere, they absorb a portion of the sun's rays and redistribute them in the form of radiation in the atmosphere, warming our planet. With a rampant amount of gas released daily, this layer thickens, which causes solar radiation to enter and and stay in the planet. Today, this 'layer' has become so thick that mankind is beginning to experience severe consequence, such as desertification, ice melting, water scarcity, and the intensification of storms, hurricanes, and floods, which has modified ecosystems and reduced biodiversity.
As architects, one of our biggest concerns should be the reduction of carbon emissions from the buildings we construct. Being able to measure, quantify, and rate this quality is a good way to start.
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