Architecture is a long-standing profession, one that has produced the iconic landmarks we admire around the world, monuments which we revere around the world, and played a part in establishing the organisation of the cities we live in today. This description, however, is architecture in the traditional sense - and there are numerous examples of individuals and firms who have strayed away from traditional architectural practice, either through delving into adjacent fields or 'disrupting' the field with the harnessing of new technologies.
Today, worldbuilding is an important part of creative thinking in a wide array of activites. From successful film franchises, to video games, and to comics, worldbuilding is what draws in audiences and allows multi-part productions to cohere around a shared setting. Of course, architecture factors into this too, it is the creative and technical discipline concerned with building the world, after all. This video breaks down how worldbuilding applies to architecture and focuses on comics as a case study to explore the opportunities in its consideration. Lastly, the video includes an interview with the designer of the exhibition ‘Chicago Comics’ currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Thomas Kelley discusses how worldbuilding factored into the relationship between architecture and comics in the design of the show with regards to scale, entry sequences, and color.
The development of cities has historically been a slow-moving process. In the everchanging urban landscape that faces the pushes and pulls of a variety of social, economic, and financial factors, it’s been hard to pinpoint just one main reason over another why each city has evolved over time into the way that we experience it today. And as designers and planners speculate about what the future of our cities should be, sometimes the reason that our cities look and operate in the way that they do has come down to a few famous battles between individuals with competing schools of thought.
The Moroccan Pavilion at the 2020 Expo in Dubai explores traditional Moroccan architecture and how it can be reimagined in contemporary construction techniques and urban developments. The pavilion is designed by architects OUALALOU+CHOI, and will display a first-of-its-kind structure with a 4000 m² rammed earth facade, pushing the boundaries of the material and exploring its full potential.
Following Rio de Janeiro’s inaugural hold of the title, Copenhagen has been named World Capital of Architecture for 2023 by UNESCO and will host the International Union of Architect’s World Congress 2 years from now. At its second edition, the initiative supported by UNESCO in partnership with UIA is meant to highlight the role of architecture and urban planning in shaping a sustainable future and tackling global challenges. Designated triennially, the city World Capital of Architecture will become an international forum for debate around issues related to the urban environment.
The renowned Mexican architect Miguel Ángel Aragonés presented ten years of research materialized in his most recent project entitled "Casa PI" whose acronym translates to a new "intelligent prefabricated" construction project. Patented in Switzerland, this system seeks to break the housing paradigm from an integral design that combines the structure of the house with the furniture and new automation technologies in architecture.
https://www.archdaily.com/965480/mexican-architect-miguel-angel-aragones-patents-construction-system-with-intelligent-prefabricated-technologyArchDaily Team
Benthem Crouwel Architects and West 8 have won the international competition to design the new multimodal hub of Brno. The city announced the winning Dutch teams known for the Rotterdam Central station, and the designers were selected out of a total of 46 applications. It was the largest architectural competition in the history of the Czech Republic.
In this week's reprint, author Jacob DiCrescenzo explores the Emotional Experience of architecture, after having tackled in a previous article the so-called "feeling architecture", focusing on the psychology and emotion of the built environment. Arguing that "architecture is a deeply emotional experience", DiCrescenzo talks also about the benefits of neuroscience-informed design.
The Italian government has announced the permanent ban of large cruise ships in the Venetian lagoon, after several years of protests, petitions, and threats of being put on UNESCO’s endangered list. The ban will be effective as of August 1st, 2021, and will prohibit ships exceeding 180 meters in length or weighing 25,000 tons from entering the lagoon, hoping to sustain Venice's historic canals, waterways, and public squares.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has today revealed the 16 winners of the RIBA International Awards for Excellence 2021. The Awards, which take place every two years, recognize the most significant and inspirational projects around the world.
UNStudio has won the competition to redesign Sochi Waterfront with a masterplan that creates the framework for a vibrant urban environment for the local community while shaping a new identity for the notorious leisure resort on the Black Sea coast. Dubbed SoCo, the proposal seeks to create a year-round destination that would provide visitors with new attractions within Russia’s most important holiday destination, building on existing natural and cultural resources. At the same time, the design strategy focuses on shaping a close connection to the landscape and natural environment, building the foundation for inclusive neighbourhoods that would bring together various social groups.
The ceiling is an important element in architecture and interior design, combining functionality with aesthetics through different materials that add layers of texture and color, providing quality and comfort in interior spaces as well as a protective surface for other building systems.
Stillman House II, courtyard with view into living area, 1966. Joseph W. Molitor. . Image Courtesy of Summitridge Pictures & Monacelli Press
Now that we are halfway through the year, what better time to prioritize your reading list? Whether you’re interested in the history of interior design, the relationship between architecture and health, or learning more about the 20th century’s forgotten architects, Metropolis editors have selected a variety of current and forthcoming titles that will be sure to get you through 2021.
Looking through interior images of houses, we often see grand bedrooms with an influx of natural lighting. We see inviting open-space living rooms, lush terraces, and kitchens with high-end equipment and refined finishes. But what we don't see is that behind these sleek walls are small neglected bedrooms without proper ventilation, natural lighting, or space to move around, dedicated to those who cater to the entire household.
The disparate spatial configuration and "colonial" approach to the living conditions of servants and foreign laborers have existed long before the rise of congested cities and micro-apartments. Household owners, or at least a good sum of them, have always felt that domestic workers needed and deserved less space to reside in, not just in terms of spatial area, but in terms of necessary living conditions for a better, more comfortable life.
ODA New York have released images of their newest project "Era", Manhattan's largest residential cantilever building. Located in the Upper West Side, the 20-storey condo features a striking 50-foot cantilever structure and the neighborhood's only rooftop pool. The project’s unique cantilever design allows for more expansive views as it ascends, wide common spaces, grand residences, and a rooftop recreational space.
The NextGen International Talent Taskforce is a collaboration between IE University’s School of Architecture and Design and CPA NextGen to promote international talent exchange and foster discussions related to the real estate industry. This “working group of NextGen professionals”—which includes alumni from IE University—meets bimonthly to discuss important topics such as sustainability, inclusivity, technology, cities and wellbeing.
Since 2002, the historic city of Muharraq, the third-largest in Bahrain, has been the protagonist of a comprehensive preservation and development project meant to highlight its pearling history and improve the urban environment. Building on Muharraq’s legacy are several new structures designed by world-renowned architects to create the framework for the city’s revival, among which are four multistorey car parks designed by Christian Kerez and set to be completed this year. The structures envisioned not as car storage but as public spaces feature curved slabs that create a continuous transition from one level to the other while shaping a constantly changing spatial experience.
Refugee camp in Dadaab, Northeast Kenya. Created by @benjaminrgrant, source imagery: @digitalglobe. Image
What do Katuma, Hagadera, Dagahaley, Zaatari or Ifo bring to mind? They are truly beautiful names, and could easily belong to Italo Calvino's 55 invisible cities.
But they are not invisible cities, they are informal settlements in Kenya and Jordan, home to between 66,000 and 190,000 refugees, mostly from bordering countries, supposedly temporary camps that half a century later are still with us today. Generally lacking in infrastructure, some have schools and hospitals, and Zaatari even has a circus academy, but for most of the people who live there, they are the only cities they have ever known.
The Peak House, Main Street, Medfield, Norfolk County. Image Courtesy of Library of Congress HABS MASS
There is an architecture of the migrant. It is survivalist, built with what is available, made as quickly as possible, with safety as its core value. Americans romanticize that architecture as “Colonial”: simple timber buildings, with symmetric beginnings, infinite additions, and adaptations. But “Colonial” architecture is not what was built first by the immigrants to a fully foreign land 400 years ago. Like all migrant housing, time made it temporary and forgotten.
MVRDV's Traumhaus Funari project, a residential master plan that redevelops parts of a former US Military barracks, has started construction in Mannheim, Germany. The project aims to combine affordability, individuality, and diversity by allowing residents to make their own ecological and spatial choices regarding their homes. The master plan consists of a catalogue of residential typologies with a variety of materials, sizes, finishes, interior layouts, and connections to the outdoors which future residents can choose from.
UNStudio and South Korean design firm DA Group have been selected to design the Chungnam Art Museum in Naepo, South Korea. The proposal will provide an immersive cultural experience, with a strong focus on the interaction between art and the public. In addition to creating an assemblage of technology and art, the project will serve as a social anchor for the local community, a space defined by notions of flexibility and “art for all”.
Whether applied as cladding to steel or timber frame structures or to structures built by traditional means, sheet metal offers an array of advantages as a building material, thanks to its low cost, ease of maintenance, and versatility.
Costa Rica’s new modern homes are built to float above the landscape. This wave of elevated housing is designed to minimize environmental impact while working with varied terrain. Aiming to become a carbon-neutral country, Costa Rica is transforming its housing market as it experiences a growing demand for more residential buildings.
Bringing the weather inside is usually the opposite of what you want from a building envelope. However, new research from the University of Oregon, described in an article by The Washington Post, aims to show the physical and psychological benefits of letting nature inside. Signs of nature and change are both beneficial to our well-being, yet we don’t always have access to them when inside buildings—and humans are now spending 90% of our lives inside. But even in an urban setting, where nature may be hard to come by, there’s no escaping the weather. When researchers found ways to bring things like wind and dappled reflections of the sun inside, they found that exposure to these natural movements lowered heart rates, while being less distracting than similar artificially generated movements.
By now, green buildings are a familiar concept, but the article in The Washington Post proposes moving beyond green buildings as we know them today. While green building can be great in new construction, that excludes a lot of existing buildings that could and should also benefit from an intervention of nature. Ideally, buildings should actively demonstrate their relationship with nature, moving beyond simply “doing no harm.”
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