Heatherwick Studio has designed the Cove, a new waterfront experience for San Francisco. Seeking to activate and improve the beachfront, “while future-proofing the historic district and the City against the risks of earthquakes and climate change”, the Cove will put in place a next-generation, high-performance waterfront community that uniquely identifies with San Francisco.
Architecture News
Heatherwick Proposes New and Improved Waterfront Experience for San Francisco
Zaha Hadid Designs 2 Murray Road, Replacing a Multi-Story Car Park in Hong Kong
Zaha Hadid Architects has revealed its design for the 36-story Murray Road project for Henderson Land, in the heart of Hong Kong’s central business district. Creating new civic plazas enveloped by nature, the urban oasis is located in proximity to both Central and Admiralty MTR metro stations.
Five Projects Named Finalists for the 2020 International Highrise Award
The Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) have named five finalists for the International Highrise Award (IHP) 2020. Selected from 31 nominated highrises in 14 countries, the projects include towers by Zaha Hadid Architects, BIG, SOM, OMA and Heatherwick Studio. The IHA is considered the world's most important architecture award for high-rise buildings.
Brick Award 20: A Tribute to High Quality Brick Architecture
For almost two decades, Wienerberger AG has been hosting the international Brick Award every two years, providing a stage for excellent brick architecture and its architects. Architects from all over the world showcase their innovative concepts with ceramic materials: 644 projects from 55 countries have been submitted for this year's award. The winners of the Brick Award 20 impressed the jury with bold and creative architectural concepts for sustainable and forward-looking spaces.
Hydraulic Tiles: Artisan Manufacturing and Custom Design
Hydraulic tiles are tiles produced entirely by hand with cement-based raw materials. Created in the mid-1800s in Spain, and widely used in Europe and America, it is a versatile option that can not only be applied in public areas, such as squares and sidewalks, but also interiors, including floors, walls, and furniture. Their versatility stems from the fact that they are highly customizable, from their colors and patterns to their geometry and dimensions. Read below a mostly technical explanation of these tiles, their manufacture, and their installation.
Decoration Deserves to Be Celebrated for What It Is, Rather Than Dismissed for What It Isn’t
Beginning with the moral indignation expressed in Adolf Loos’s 1910 lecture “Ornament and Crime” and Le Corbusier’s 1925 The Decorative Art of Today, decoration has been attacked from every possible angle. Driven by the heroic male architect, Modernist dictates of good design—functionalism, truth to materials, purity of form—quickly took over and continue to be the dominant ideology today in the way architecture and interiors are taught and practiced. If Modern architecture was rational, masculine, and structural, then decoration was considered emotional, feminine, and shallow. Or, according to Loos, it was flat-out degenerate.
Finalists Released for Asian Edition of YTAA 2020
The Fundació Mies van der Rohe and Creative Europe have announced the 9 finalist projects competing to win the Asian Edition of Young Talent Architecture Award 2020 (YTAA 2020). Established in 2016, the YTAA “supports the talent of recently graduated Architects, Urban Planners and Landscape Architects who will be responsible for transforming our environment in the future."
An App That Frees Architects From the Hassle of Field Reports and Punch Lists
In 2012, Belgian software developers Peter Eerlings and Jerry De Paepe were contacted by an architecture firm looking for a solution to simplify their field reports. Creating field reports was an extremely time-consuming activity for them: first, writing down notes on paper and taking photos during a site visit. Back at the office, transferring the photos to the PC with a cable. Next, adding annotations to photos with Paint, deciphering and typing out the handwritten notes, struggling with the layout while inserting photos in Word, and so on. Over and over again. It was an administrative hassle that easily took more than an hour for each field report - sometimes two or three.
Finalists Released for 2020 Young Talent Architecture Award
The Fundació Mies van der Rohe and Creative Europe have announced the 12 finalist projects competing to win the Young Talent Architecture Award 2020 (YTAA 2020) and the 9 finalist projects competing to win the Asian Edition of YTAA 2020. Established in 2016, the YTAA “supports the talent of recently graduated Architects, Urban Planners and Landscape Architects who will be responsible for transforming our environment in the future."
Cosmos Architecture Designs New Congress Center of Banja Luka, in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Creating a building that is adaptable, interactive, and accessible for everybody, Cosmos Architecture, an international architecture practice based in Milan, Madrid, and Shanghai, imagined the new congress center of Banja Luka, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project, an iconic lighthouse represents innovative architecture paradigms and urban identity, generating narratives within the city scheme.
WXY Proposes Climate Solution Center on Governors Island in New York
Focusing on research, education, and public engagement, the Trust for Governors Island unveiled plans to develop a climate solutions center, designed by WXY Architecture + Urban Design. Inspired by the unique environment of the island, the project will generate a public living laboratory, cementing NYC’s position as a leader in climate change action.
Houston's First Botanic Garden Opens as a Museum of Plants
Dutch landscape architecture and design firm West 8 has unveiled the first phase of Houston's first ever Botanic Garden in Texas. Designed to be a "museum of plants", the project features evolving collections to inform scientists, tourists and horticulturalists alike. Conceived over twenty years ago by locals, the project has been developed on an island in the city’s expansive Bayou system.
Iwan Baan Photographs Prototype Social Housing for León, Mexico by SO-IL
Photographer Iwan Baan captured the construction process of the social housing Las Américas in León, imagined by the New York-based office, SO-IL who collaborated with the Municipal Housing Institute of León (IMUVI) in the design of the development.
Remnant Schools: Faculty Are Repurposing the Legacy of Jim Crow Across Louisiana
Throughout the south of the United States, hundreds of mid-century “equalization schools”—public schools built in the 1950s following Brown vs. Board of Education in a desperate effort to maintain segregated “separate but equal” schools in southern states—sit empty, abandoned, and crumbling.
Images Reveal Tallest Tower in Auckland, New Zealand Set for Completion in 2021
Set to be one of the tallest towers in Auckland at 178.65 meters, The Pacifica will complement the existing skyline of Auckland’s central business district. Designed by Plus Architecture, the tower “allows for a deep connection and interaction at every level”, and highlights a significant shift in Auckland’s housing approach.
Studio 44 and WEST 8 Win the Tuchkov Buyan Park Competition in Saint Petersburg, Russia
The results of the International Competition for the Architectural Landscape Design Concept for the Tuchkov Buyan Park were just revealed. The proposal by Studio 44 in consortium with WEST 8 won the first place, JV Vogt in consortium with Herzog & de Meuron won the second place while AB CHVOYA in consortium with KARAVAN landskapsarkitekter took the third position.
MODA Launches Architecture & Urbanism for Justice
The Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) has launched the new virtual series Architecture & Urbanism for Justice to foster more equitable approaches to architecture and urbanism. These free courses are presented by the museum and intended for teen and adult designers, non-designers, activists and organizers. Participants will get the chance to learn about the Design Justice movement, discussing case studies and exploring resources to help respond to injustices within their own communities.
AMDL CIRCLE, Michele De Lucchi and YACademy Students Join Forces for Milan's Suburbs
Inoltre, a new project by Unipol Group, aims to revive Milan's suburbs with art and beauty. Three suburban areas, belonging to the municipalities number 5, 8, and 9 of Milan, will be the focus of the project. Unipol will conduct research, host events and interventions to begin the rehabilitation, in a context which can typically be complex and of difficult management. The project will have an international scope, with coordination by the University of Pavia and interventions led by YAC. These will include the realization of 3 micro-architectural and tactical urbanism interventions, intended to bring authorial architecture where it is not usually seen; quality where there are economically-led decisions; and beauty where it is not usually searched for.
Polycarbonate for Interiors: 8 Examples of Translucent Architecture Indoors
Diversifying the materials of an interior space can greatly improve its depth and visual interest. At the same time, adding partitions or other delineations of internal space can help organize flow, circulation, and visibility. Polycarbonate, a type of lightweight, durable thermoplastic, is an excellent medium for both functions.
In its raw form, polycarbonate is completely transparent, transmitting light with nearly the same efficacy as glass. However, it is also lighter and stronger than glass and tougher than other similar plastics such as acrylic, polystyrene, ABS, or nylon, making it a good choice for designers seeking durable, impact and fire resistant materials that still transmit light. Like glass, it is a natural UV filter and can be colored or tinted for translucency, yet it is also prized for its flexibility, allowing it to be shaped into any size or shape. Finally, it is easily recyclable because it liquefies rather than burning, making it at least more environmentally friendly than other thermoset plastics. For example, recycled polycarbonate can be chemically reacted with phenol in a recycling plant to produce monomers that can be turned back into plastic.
Gensler Designs Tech-Focused Office Space in Miami
Gensler has unveiled 545wyn, “the first Class-A office tower in Miami in over a decade”. In collaboration with office developer Sterling Bay and local development partner Joe Furst of Place Projects, the project introduces a new generation of office space, aiming to attract a new type of innovative, forward-focused tenants. In fact, Gensler Miami will be the building’s first tenant of the 10-story tower.
Snøhetta Wins the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Competition in North Dakota
Snøhetta was selected as the winner of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Competition. Selected from three shortlisted proposals in the last step of the contest, including Studio Gang and Henning Larsen, the winning project “is informed by the President’s personal reflections on the landscape, his commitment to environmental stewardship, and the periods of quiet introspection and civic engagement that marked his life”.
Dubai Design Week Announces 2020 Abwab Pavilion
Dubai Design Week has announced the winning design for the 2020 Abwab Pavilion. This year’s commission has been awarded to Iraqi designer Hozan Zangana for his proposal Fata Morgana which features a series of seating components and seven pillars that symbolize each of the Emirates. The Design Week theme centers on redefining and reimagining the way we live and interact with public spaces under new realities.