One of the biggest names in Brazilian and worldwide architecture, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, passed away at the age of 92. As his son Pedro Mendes da Rocha reported to ArchDaily, the architect was hospitalized in São Paulo due to lung cancer and passed away at dawn on Sunday, May 23, 2021.
Paulo Mendes da Rocha will be remembered for the great formative role he had. His architectural creation debated life above all, raising questions and challenging ready ideas and conformity. He consolidated an influence short of language or aesthetics, formed mainly by the way of acting and thinking, in which each project was an opportunity for transformation. His ideas and designs overflowed the limits of the program, place and materiality, always bringing a new point of view to achieve revolutionary simplicity.
https://www.archdaily.com/962174/paulo-mendes-da-rocha-passes-away-at-92Equipe ArchDaily Brasil
The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.
A variety of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes are interviews, while others are tips for fellow designers, reviews of buildings and other projects, or casual explorations of everyday life and design. The Second Studio is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.
This week David and Marina are joined by Architect Toshiko Mori to discuss her moving from Japan to New York City at a young age, attending The Cooper Union for Art and Architecture, starting her own practice and VisionArc, witnessing the 9/11 attack, her design process, creating a temporary concert hall, and more.
https://www.archdaily.com/962165/the-second-studio-podcast-interview-with-toshiko-moriThe Second Studio Podcast
This video uses the architect character from the movie Indecent Proposal — named David Murphy and played by Woody Harrelson — to offer professional practice tips. David Murphy engages in a series of risky business practices and repeatedly makes decisions that lead to glaring firm mismanagement. However, his most egregious oversight, and the real ‘indecent proposal’ is meeting a billionaire without cultivating him as a client. This error in judgement leads the wealthy businessman, played by Robert Redford, to purchase Murphy’s design right out from under him. In addition to the practical lessons for avoiding these pitfalls, the video also offers a character analysis that breaks down fundamental principles of Deconstructivist Architecture and other architectural references from the movie.
Chashitsu, which is the Japanese term for a teahouse or tea room is a construction specifically designed for holding the Tea Ceremony, a traditional Japanese ritual in which the host prepares and serves tea for guests. Teahouses are usually small, intimate wooden buildings, where every detail is intended to help withdraw the individual from the material disturbances of the world.
https://www.archdaily.com/962113/teahouses-reinterpretation-of-traditional-spacesClara Ott
Not-for-profit Zuecca Projects and Coldefy have shared new research for Tropicalia, the largest single-dome greenhouse on the planet, for the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Presenting tropical fauna and flora, the team is also sharing the architectural and engineering specificities of the Tropicalia greenhouse with its unique sustainable air treatment engineering.
Design can sometimes be mundane- except when it’s novelty architecture. These buildings uniquely and identifiably break away from the abstract, metaphorical, and often monotonous buildings that have classified modern-day design. Instead of favoring the steel and glass skyscrapers that serve as landmarks in cities around the world, they aim to poke fun at architecture in a way that’s jovial, commercial, and perhaps slightly more functional and expressive. Unlike other buildings, they are the literal embodiment of a thing itself, putting its function widely on display instead of hiding it within four austere walls.
Titled "Future School", the Korean Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale Di Venezia, transforms the structure into an explorative academic facility. Curated by Hae-Won Shin, the pavilion will be on display at the Giardini from May 22nd until November 21st, 2021.
The Luxembourg Pavilion at the 17th Architecture Biennale reflects on how the pandemic has brought a series of dualities to the spotlight, challenging the understanding of the relationships established between architecture and land, interior and exterior, home and work or the built environment and nature. In light of these issues, the exhibition titled Homes for Luxembourg, designed by Sara Noel Costa de Araujo (Studio SNCDA) and featuring contributions to the architecture publication Accattone explores ideas of modular, reversible living while also illustrating a model of repurposing land to build new forms of togetherness.
Developed by architect Gerardo Caballero, in collaboration with Paola Gallino, Sebastian Flosi, Franco Brachetta, Ana Babaya, Leonardo Rota, Emmanuel Leggeri, Sofia Rothman, Gerardo Bordi, Edgardo Torres, and Alessandro De Paoli, "The Infinite House", a project inspired by traditional Argentine houses, will represent Argentina in the upcoming 2021 VeniceArchitecture Biennale. The project reflects on the identity of Argentine public housing and the role collective housing, both public and private, has played in the country's history and society. The Infinite House aims to push the limits of the domestic and to highlight the importance of the collective rather than the individual by illustrating that a home extends beyond one's own living space: "it is the city, the country, and even the world."
If you live in an apartment, you may unintentionally know the details of your neighbor's life by overhearing conversations through your shared walls. Or you keep awake when the dog that lives in the apartment above decides to take a walk in the middle of the night. If so, you may live in an apartment with inadequate sound insulation in its walls and/or slabs. As cities grow increasingly dense and builders seek to increase their profit margins, it is not uncommon for acoustic comfort to be overlooked in many architectural projects. When the resulting noise is excessive or unwanted, it impacts the human body, the mind, and daily activities. While not all spaces need to seal all types of sound, creating spaces with an adequate degree of soundproofing improves the quality of life of all users.
Exploring the question of slavery in Architecture, the building materials and the construction industry, Michael J. Crosbie interviews Sharon Prince, the women behind Design for Freedom, discussing the initiative's report "on the pervasive use of slavery in the design and construction industry, and how design professionals can respond".
https://www.archdaily.com/962116/architecture-and-the-stain-of-modern-day-slaveryMichael J. Crosbie
Coming soon. Visions from the minimum territory ("Próximamente") is the title of the Uruguay Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2021, which will take place between May 22 and November 21, 2021.
Foster + Partners have shared the design for a residential-led masterplan on the outskirts of Bangkok. Dubbed The Forestias, the project includes a large forest at its heart. The design was made to address the growing disconnect between contemporary city life and family traditions. The Forestias proposal focuses on promoting multi-generational family co-living and new models of urban life in Thailand.
Aviation architecture has radically transformed. While airports themselves have grown to accommodate countless programs and increasingly higher traffic volumes each year, modern building projects are going beyond this familiar typology to explore the nature of hangars, airfield taxonomy and reuse. While airports have really only emerged within the last century, aviation has captured the imagination of designers for centuries. Today, contemporary aviation designs are being conceptualized as explorative and creative works.
Titled "It's Not For You! It's For the Building", the Latvian Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia showcases how technology risks creating new problems while providing solutions to urgent global crises. Curated by architecture office NRJA, the pavilion will be on display at the Arsenale from May 21st until November 22nd, 2021.
The Loreto Open Community project is the winning proposal of the competition organized by the Municipality of Milan to redesign Piazzale Loreto, now a crowded traffic junction. Designed by Metrogramma, together with Mobility in Chain, Studio Andrea Caputo, LAND, Temporiuso, Squadrati and developed by Ceetrus Nhood, the project envisions a layered system of architectural objects and public spaces that would foster a wide array of activities while also shaping a new green area for the city.
Israel’s Pavilion for the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale highlights the impact of intensive mechanized agriculture on landscapes and ecosystems, as well as the disruption caused to local communities. Titled Land. Milk. Honey and curated by an interdisciplinary team comprising Dan Hasson, Iddo Ginat, Rachel Gottesman, Yonatan Cohen and Tamar Novick, the exhibition portrays the fundamental changes experienced by the region through the stories of local animals, constructing a history of the 20th-century development.
The Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico and the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL) have unveiled the Mexican pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2021 entitled Displacements("Desplazamientos"), a curatorial work led by Isadora Hastings, Natalia de La Rosa, Mauricio Rocha, and Elena Tudela.
https://www.archdaily.com/961998/mexican-pavilion-at-the-2021-venice-biennale-explores-the-value-of-mexican-contemporary-architectureArchDaily Team
Yes, we know. We have been talking a lot about carbon. Not only here, but everywhere people seem to be discussing the greenhouse effect, carbon dioxide, fossil fuels, carbon sequestration, and several other seemingly esoteric terms that have increasingly permeated our daily lives. But why is carbon so important and why do we, as architects, architecture students, or architecture enthusiasts, have to care about something that seems so intangible?
Open Village Cinema / Shimu Wang. Image Courtesy of A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is the worlds' largest annual juried design competition that honors the best designers, architects, and design-oriented companies worldwide to provide them with publicity, and recognition. The A' Design Accolades are organized and awarded internationally in a variety of categories ranging from industrial design to architecture. Every year projects that focus on innovation, technology, design, and creativity are awarded the A' Award to push them further towards success.
The Case Study Houses (1945-1966), sponsored by the Arts & Architecture Magazine and immortalized by Julius Shulman’s iconic black-and-white photographs, may be some of the most famous examples of modern American architecture in history. Designed to address the postwar housing crisis with quick construction and inexpensive materials, while simultaneously embracing the tenets of modernist design and advanced contemporary technology, the Case Study Houses were molded by their central focus on materials and structural design. While each of the homes were designed by different architects for a range of clients, these shared aims unified the many case study homes around several core aesthetic and structural strategies: open plans, simple volumes, panoramic windows, steel frames, and more. Although some of the Case Study Houses’ materials and strategies would become outdated in the following decades, these unique products and features would come to define a historic era of architectural design in the United States.
https://www.archdaily.com/961900/how-did-materials-shape-the-case-study-housesLilly Cao
Floor designs with the free-form tile Tie present a visual highlight through the combination of structures and colours, and fulfil demands for both the highest quality and sustainability in equal measure. Image Courtesy of Vorwerk
Vorwerk flooring’s acoustic-tile system offers almost limitless combination possibilities, while its online configurator makes the creation of room concepts clear and uncomplicated.
Romania’s contribution to the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale showcases a new perspective on mass migration, a phenomenon with a wide array of causes, ranking high on the international public agenda. Titled Fading Borders and curated by architects Irina Meliță and Ștefan Simion, the exhibition explores the challenges and opportunities of migration and its consequences on the built environment. Using Romania as a study case, where three million people have left the country in the last decade in pursuit of a better life abroad, the curatorial project frames a conversation around the role of architecture in the successful management of the migration phenomenon, as territorial boundaries continue to fade around the globe.
In the second half of the 20th century, Soviet architecture has spread a common aesthetic across highly diverse environments, being an integral part in promoting the totalitarian ideology that disregarded local cultures, envisioning a unified, homogenous society. Nevertheless, in practice, the architecture proved itself susceptible to adaptations and local influences, perhaps nowhere more than in Central Asia. The article looks at the architectural heritage of a geographical area largely excluded from the Western-centric narratives on Soviet Modernism, encouraging a re-reading of a layered and nuanced urban landscape, with images by Roberto Conte and Stefano Perego.
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