Creating a model for rendering does have its own set of rules. To get you up and rendering as quickly as possible, here are SketchUp's top five tips for prepping your SketchUp model for rendering.

Harvard Graduate School of Design (Harvard GSD) has announced Daniel Fernández Pascual as the winner of the 2020 Wheelwright Prize. Now in its eighth cycle, the Wheelwright Prize supports innovative design research, crossing both cultural and architectural boundaries, with a $100,000 grant intended to support two years of study. The 2020 Wheelwright Prize drew over 170 applicants from over 45 countries.

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In Belval Luxembourg, ICÔNE, the Foster + Partners-designed office development has broken ground. Tackling the future of workspace, the design generates flexible layouts and addresses the current tendencies for safe working environments.

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Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the world is in isolation and everyone is confined in their own house. In an attempt to analyze and understand how people are dealing with forced isolation in their current living conditions, KAAN Architecten has released an online survey that questions the space we are currently living in and how it influences our mood.

Did you know that World Migratory Bird Day is celebrated in the second week of May?

Every year around this date, festivals, educational events, exhibitions, and excursions are organized to celebrate and raise awareness about the conservation of migratory birds. These species have seen their habitats transformed during the last few decades in part because of human action: designers and real estate agents have built and nurtured an urban imaginary dominated by glass structures as a symbol of power and progress. Before proceeding with the conquest of the sky, it is worth considering some materials that are more friendly to the species with which we cohabitate.

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In an era of great marketing efforts, in which architectural ideas increasingly seem to focus on hyper-realistic representation in an attempt to convince clients (or the jury in the case of architectural competitions) that the upcoming construction will achieve just as much quality as the visual fantasy, renderings become highly important in a project's presentation.

Because of this, every year there are new updates, as well as the launching of new software specialized in renderings, tools capable of achieving such impressive results that may lead to images being mistaken for photographs, thus blending the unreal with the notion of ultra-reality.

Morris + Company’s affordable rental housing development has just been given planning permission by a virtual committee. Located in Barking and Dagenham, the modern 56 high-quality affordable rental homes are designed for “residents ranging from single occupants to couples and families”.

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A post shared by Christo and Jeanne-Claude (@christojeanneclaude) on May 31, 2020 at 12:08pm PDT

Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, best known as Christo, has passed away at 84 years old of natural causes, in his house, in New York City. The Bulgarian artist, best known for wrapping The Pont Neuf in Paris and the Reichstag in Berlin, has created along the years, with his late wife Jeanne-Claude, large-scale architectural interventions in urban and rural environments.

Pre-leasing for the 31-story high rise residential tower ARQ is set to begin in West Los Angeles. Designed as part of the Cumulus District development, the project is sited between Culver City and West Adams. In creating ARQ, architecture firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz and interior design firm Rodrigo Vargas Design created units with panoramic views of Los Angeles spanning from the Pacific Ocean to Downtown.

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As one of the leading architects of Japan's increasingly highly-regarded architecture culture, 2013 Pritzker Laureate Toyo Ito (born June 1, 1941) has defined his career by combining elements of minimalism with an embrace of technology, in a way that merges both traditional and contemporary elements of Japanese culture.

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The launch of the 2020 educational offer of YACademy –YAC’s program to open its network of the most prestigious studios in the world for the most deserving young designers– is the right moment also to narrate some of the experiences the students had before starting their collaborations with the main characters of the contemporary architectural world.

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The Midnight Charette is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by architectural designers David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features a variety of creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions. A wide array of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes provide useful tips for designers, while others are project reviews, interviews, or explorations of everyday life and design. The Midnight Charette is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

This week hosts David and Marina are joined by Marc Neveu—Chair of Architecture, The Design School, Arizona State University and Executive Editor of the Journal of Architectural Education; Renée Cheng—Dean of the College of Built Environments, University of Washington; and Kiel Moe—Gerald Sheff Chair in Architecture, School of Architecture, McGill University to discuss how COVID-19 has impacted teachers and students, the future of education (changing studio, reviews, and lectures), and more. Enjoy!

German architect and structural engineer Frei Otto (31 May 1925 – 9 March 2015) was well known for his pioneering innovations in lightweight and tensile structures. Shortly before his death in 2015 he was awarded the Pritzker Prize and prior to that he was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2006. Much of his research in lightweight structures is as relevant today as when he first proposed them over 60 years ago, and his work continues to inform architects and engineers to this day.

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Through the past few months, the importance of community interaction and mental well-being has been felt by all. Yet, the need for a support system and constant reassurance has been a recurrent issue for much longer for forcibly displaced populations. Adding to the current health fears these communities, estimated at nearly 70.8 million ( 25.9 refugees only) around the world, struggle with traumas, mental health issues and have much difficulty in adapting to temporary or permanent foreign settings.

Architects have long explored the concept of integrating interior and exterior, smoothing out the physical and visual boundaries in an attempt to bring the landscape into the architecture. However, when visiting the site to develop the project, two distinct scenarios may appear: an urban terrain, lacking a view, or natural elements; or a green area with trees and bushes, for example. In the latter case, many projects rely on the on-site location of each tree to accommodate the architectural design, respecting them, and creating new views, through patios and connecting them with the new landscape design. However, based on studies of the species and their size, it is increasingly common for these trees to be incorporated into the interior space, either partially or completely enclosed.

When facing emergencies such as natural disasters, warfare or pandemics, architecture must offer immediate and effective solutions. In these unfortunate circumstances, the priority is usually to solve problems around housing, however, once the emergency is under control, the focus starts to slowly move towards meeting places such as community centers, neighborhood councils and public spaces.

To create new meeting places in emergency situations, scaffolding is a good alternative regarding construction speed and tight budgets. Although they are usually used as temporary structures, they also allow creating a quickly composed space playing with horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines, and the combination with other materials such as textile, wood, polycarbonate and metal.

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Conducted by The Citizens’ Brigade to Save LACMA, a recent poll revealed that only 5% approve of the current Peter Zumthor-designed scheme for a new LACMA, 50% Support the renovation of the existing buildings, and 85% favor encyclopedic collection in one location. The public survey also highlighted 3 designs selected out of the shortlisted six proposals of the “LACMA Not LackMA” competition.

Prefabricated design and manufacturing company Plant Prefab has announced their new lightHouse line, a set of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) available in multiple sizes. Working with designers Alchemy Architects, the LivingHomes concept joins a roster of work with partners that include KieranTimberlake, Koto Design and Brooks + Scarpa. With a size ranging from 310 square feet to 600, the newest line was inspired by Alchemy’s previous work on small-space living.

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Many of us spend more time at our offices than ever before and sometimes see our colleagues more than our own families. Workplaces can be considered to be our second homes, which is why the way we deliberately design them in the present day has garnered so much attention. The overarching design of workplaces aims to create a perfect balance between heads-down focus work and layers of collaboration to improve the productivity and general well being of employees. As workplace trends come and go, there’s a new progression on everyone’s minds- and it predicts what a post-COVID-19 office might look like both in the immediate and long term future. Although there’s no crystal ball answer, many architecture firms, research groups, and real estate companies have been tapped to ideate and implement forward-thinking design solutions and health safety policies that will be critical in redefining how we utilize our workplaces for the years to come.

Earthquakes, pandemics, conflicts, and environmental disasters are some of the events that have challenged architects, planners, designers, and engineers. The goal is to find ways of creating structures and infrastructure more quickly, easily, efficiently, suiting both the circumstances and the location in which they will be implemented. When searching for materials that meet the requirements for each situation, those considered "alternative" or unusual - at least in the context of emergency shelters - can offer great opportunities for experimentation and applicability for emergency structures. Containers and tensioned fabrics always come to mind when discussing temporary constructions. However, there are other highly available materials with good mechanical properties that can achieve relief purposes.

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