“It all started with the question: What if I’m going to build my own house?" It was this consideration that prompted Alexis Dornier to note that when he's providing architectural design service he's mostly catering, filtering and catalyzing input from other people that have budgets, preferences and tastes and it’s up to him to channel or organize that and let it "stream through" him. Using his craft to put it in order. "But what if you did not have that other hand [designer's help]? What would you do?”

Archdaily’s Hana Abdel, projects curator, sat down with Alexis Dornier to discuss his latest venture as co-founder of Stilt Studios, a company “focused on making Architectural design accessible to a greater audience of people. People who wouldn’t be able to afford an architect or don’t want to go through the trouble of working with an architect. So, what if we could create a product, or an architecture that almost works as a product.”

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There are plenty of books about the buildings of late American architect Louis I. Kahn, including those he authored. But his drawings hold a special fascination for his peers and fans, which explains why the blog Designers and Books is launching a Kickstarter to fund the reissue of one 1962 compilation of his sketches, which has been out of print for decades.

Architectural visualizations have recently reached unthinkable levels, being a great source of inspiration and a fundamental part of the design process in architecture. This is why we are proud to announce the first edition of the ArchDaily Architecture Visualization Awards, where we will award the best of the year.

For us, visualizations have become a powerful tool that has helped us to think without limits about the design of our future cities, buildings, and structures. This is why we are proud to launch thanks to IPEVO, Cove.tool and Concepts the 1st edition of the Architectural Visualization Awards: to find the best talent from around the world and discover who is setting trends with their work and aesthetics, helping us to visualize the future of architecture.

With Sky-Frame, the focus is what inspiration and freedom their windows can help achieve, not on the windows themselves. Rather, the spatial qualities and view potential created by the windows is what you notice. The Swiss company is the leading international supplier of frameless sliding doors that work to blend interior and exterior for a unique living experience. Featured in thousands of projects worldwide, Sky-Frame products include curved and sloped sliding doors, as well as a pivot door, to fit each individual space.

As a mid-career design-professional, what avenues exist for investigating questions and problems that arise from being embedded in practice? What opportunity is there for exploring or articulating an idea for a type of project or organizational structure that could improve professional practice?

Federico Covre’s latest series of photographs showcases two of Barozzi Veiga's projects in Switzerland, the Tanzhaus Zürich Cultural Center, and the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts. The Italian architectural photographer based in Italy and Sweden, who “seeks to achieve a balance between conceptual rigor and functionality” through his images, has captured both projects after a year of their completion.

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TAMassociati has designed a new “future proof” regeneration plan for the Officine industrial site in Bellinzona, Switzerland. Working with sa_partners and Franco Giorgetta Landscape Architect, the team created a proposal for the large-scale masterplan that explores gradual development in the Swiss alpine city.

The Cerrado is a vast tropical savanna ecoregion of Brazil, a biome consisting of low trees, sparse shrubs, and grass, occupying an area of more than 2 million km² – about 23% of the national territory – covering most of the eastern, southern, and central portions of the country, particularly in the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás, Minas Gerais, Piauí, the Federal District, Tocantins and part of the states of Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, São Paulo, Paraná, and Rondônia.

We invite you to discover the landscapes of the Cerrado through architecture. Check out the following 10 projects located in various areas of the second largest biome in South America.

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There is a growing demand for specialized knowledge and skills to address emerging and critical issues that span the architecture and design disciplines. This demand is underpinned by the sustained movement in which research informs an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary design practice. Graduate study is a way for early and mid-career design professionals to gain expertise, strategically focus and develop their career path, and even seek leadership positions. The three areas of practice framed below show how advanced design education can lead to professional development and growth.

Today, Open House Worldwide (OHWW) will stage its first collaborative event: a free 48-hour non-stop streamed festival of events, discussions, tours and more. As media partners, ArchDaily will be broadcasting the entire event.

This article was originally published on Common Edge

I am tired of design magazines and paint companies trying to sell me on dull “neutral” colors. They claim ”Beige Is Back,” that there is a historical elegance and calming effect to monochromatic off-whites. I don’t buy it. A minimalistic approach to color in modern buildings and interiors doesn’t relax me—it puts me to sleep. When I awake, I am angry. The historical notion that bleached Greco-Roman temples represent beauty is a myth. The ancients never rendered their structures, interiors, and ornament without color. Their architecture was vividly polychromatic.

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Fundació Mies van der Rohe and Ajuntament de Barcelona have announced online that the 2nd Lilly Reich Grant for Equality in Architecture has been awarded to the research proposal: “[On Set with] Lilly Reich” by Valencian architects Laura Lizondo Sevilla, Débora Domingo Calabuig, and Avelina Prat García. The granted project was selected by an international jury, composed of three professionals linked to the fields of research and dissemination in architecture and the research and dissemination in the matter of equality.

The 462-meter-high Lakhta Center in St. Petersburg, Russia has been awarded the Emporis Skyscraper Award. Designed by GORPROJECT and RMJM, it is the fourteenth tallest building in the world. As the northernmost supertall skyscraper, the building regulates extreme temperatures through a double skin façade. The winner was chosen by an international jury from over 700 skyscrapers completed in 2019 with a minimum height of 100 meters.

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During times of isolation, many people have been talking about the importance of greenery in indoor spaces as a way to nourish our vital relationship with nature. These touches of green can contribute to the well-being and emotional comfort of users, whether in homes or commercial spaces.

Besides this psychological connection, a well-designed indoor garden can also help to purify the air and provide thermal comfort to the environment. 

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If a person were to imagine a setting of complete relaxation, odds are the first image that comes to mind is a place surrounded by nature, be it a forest, the mountains, the sea, or a meadow. Rarely does one imagine an office or a shopping mall as a source of comfort and relaxation. Still, the majority of people spend almost 80-90 % of their time indoors, going back and forth from their houses to their workplaces.

Architects and designers are now searching for design solutions that will resonate well into the future, turning to 'biophilia' as an important source of inspiration that promotes well-being, health, and emotional comfort.

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Every child has drawn a house. Perhaps a sunny day with some clouds, a leafy tree, a family with a dog, low wooden fences, or even a car. But in these drawings, they will almost certainly draw a simple rectangle with a gable or hip roof. This archetype of the house appears in virtually all cultures, and even today many architects use it for contemporary projects.

In addition to the primary function of draining rainwater and snow, and thus protecting the building from the weather, roofs can be an important aesthetic device for composing a project. In modern architecture, waterproof roof slabs emerged as a popular alternative, but sloping roofs have continued to captivate both clients and architects. In this article, we will cover the various types of roofs and, more specifically, the manufacturing process and characteristics of natural slate tiles.

Contreras Earl Architecture has revealed its design for the world-first coral ark. Located at the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef in Port Douglas, North Queensland, Australia, the conservation facility “aims to secure the long-term future and biodiversity of corals worldwide which are under severe threat due to climate change”.

After its opening was curtailed this past winter by the coronavirus pandemic, the hotly anticipated Archigram Cities exhibition is now officially up-and-running throughout November 2020. Presented by the Hong Kong-based visual culture museum M+ and organized in collaboration with the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong and Shanghai’s Power Station of Art, Archigram Cities has taken form as a hybrid virtual/in-person slate of happenings—talks, screenings, presentations, and more—that plumb and celebrate the vast legacy of British avant-garde architectural collective Archigram.