After Milan and Paris, London has announced its plans to transform large areas in the city, converting streets to car-free zones, as the coronavirus lockdown loosens up. Repurposing the city for people, London aims to emerge differently from the pandemic, supporting a low-carbon and sustainable recovery. Works have already started and are expected to be completed within six weeks.
Architecture News
London Introduces Car-Free Streets as Lockdown Eases
Serres Séparées Proposes a Socially-Distant Dining Experience in Amsterdam
Renovated recently, Mediamatic ETEN, the restaurant of the Art Center Mediamatic in Amsterdam, has created a new safe dining experience entitled Serres Séparées, taking into account required social distancing measures. Putting in place private and intimate “quarantine” greenhouses, or chambres séparées, people can reconnect and dine outside in a safe environment.
London Design Biennale Postponed to 2021
The 2020 London Design Biennale has officially been postponed until 2021. Established in 2016 by Sir John Sorrell CBE and Ben Evans CBE, London Design Biennale promotes international collaboration and the global role of design. The third edition of London Design Biennale, will now take place in June 2021, curated by Artistic Director Es Devlin.
Innovation and Collaboration in Brick Design Blends Past and Present
It is a rare occasion for a historic neighborhood to have new buildings. Never the less, this is exactly what happened along the elegant and ornate structures of Frederiksberg Allé in Copenhagen. The historical avenue was inspired by Parisian architecture and features many buildings notable for their intricate architectural detail.
How to Optimize Small Spaces: 9 Folding and Sliding Beds
As the number of smaller and more compact apartments grows, architects and interior designers are challenged to create multifunctional solutions and systems capable of optimizing spaces, in a way that every inch seems to make a difference. As a result, it is increasingly common for professionals to focus on designing creative furniture solutions that allow the space to transform completely in a few seconds.
ArchDaily has already published numerous articles on how to design for compact spaces, from closets and shelves to plan solutions for small apartments. We have now put together a collection of interesting projects in which the beds seem to camouflage themselves among the furniture and architectural elements, thanks to smart systems which, by using hinges and sliding tracks, allow them to be concealed in a matter of seconds, saving space and allowing versatility.
Neri&Hu Designs the Pernod Ricard Malt Whisky Distillery in Emeishan, China
Neri&Hu has designed a distillery and brand home for China’s first whisky, in Emeishan, Sichuan, China. The Pernod Ricard Malt Whisky Distillery puts in place a timeless architecture, inspired by the site itself and its unique components, blending together whisky-making and the landscape into one holistic narrative.
CLTH Proposes Adaptive Design for Schools post COVID-19
Curl la Tourelle Head Architecture (CLTH) has imagined a new design approach for classrooms when schools reopen as the lockdown eases in the UK. The architecture practice based in London has released an innovative concept “to help mitigate restricted circulation routes within schools and maintain the necessary social distancing among pupils and staff”.
Gold Medalist Tadao Ando Explores Design and the Creative Process
With over 300 architectural designs to his name, Tadao Ando is treated as a national treasure in his home country of Japan. Renowned for his work with concrete and light, his œuvre has received international recognition, including the UIA Gold Medal in 2005 and the Pritzker Prize in 1995. In an interview with the UIA / International Union of Architects, Ando explores design philosophy and creative process.
Spotlight: Walter Gropius
One of the most highly regarded architects of the 20th century, Walter Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was one of the founding fathers of Modernism, and the founder of the Bauhaus, the German "School of Building" that embraced elements of art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography in its design, development and production.
The World's Largest Soccer Stadium Breaks Ground in Guangzhou
On April 16, a ground-breaking ceremony was held in the city of Guangzhou, China, for what is to be the world’s largest soccer stadium. The most controversial aspect of the project was not its $1.7 billion price tag, but its bold lotus shape causing a backlash from the local architectural community but praise from the general public.
ArchDaily's Best Articles about Bamboo
ArchDaily has created a list of best articles, news and projects that address everything you need to know about bamboo.
Architecture Visions at a Global Scale
For more than a century, architects have been addressing the world as a project through speculative designs in an attempt to imagine the future and reframe global issues. Globalisation, the ever-increasing interconnectedness demands action on a worldwide scale and invites a reflection on the profession's responsibilities. The latter is precisely what the book The World as an Architectural Project achieves, through a compilation of world-scale speculative projects of the past century, making a compelling case for the agency of architecture.
Juha Leiviskä, Russell Foster and Henry Plummer receive The Daylight Award 2020
On the UNESCO International Day of Light, The Daylight Award announces its 2020 Laureates: Juhai Leiviskä for his architecture, Russell Foster for his research, and this year, exceptionally, The Daylight Award is also given to Henry Plummer for his lifetime achievement.
'While laureate Russell Foster studies the science behind the effect of light on human behaviour and physical and mental wellbeing, laureates Juha Leiviskä and Henry Plummer approach the effects and implications of daylight intuitively through architectural design, photographic expression and verbal mediation of these human responses. Whether elucidating the neural effects of light or invoking the poetic essence of light, the laureates of the 2020 Daylight Award demonstrate to us the power of natural light,' states the jury.
A Solitary "Walk": Building Images in Times of Isolation and Social Distancing
There are strange elements of connection within this phenomenon of social distancing: not only is the whole world experiencing it simultaneously, but we also seem to share a global momentum of awareness that something unique is taking place, which demands to be documented and gradually understood.
Moved by that impulse and under the guidance of professor Erieta Attali, 16 students from The Cooper Union, explored, through photography, their everyday life now ruled by isolation and social distancing. And they did so, not from a single city, but from 10 different places, as they returned to their home countries amidst the crisis.
Long-Term Plans: To Build for Resilience, We’ll Need to Design With—Not Against—Nature
Moving away from its early exclusive focus on natural disasters, resilient architecture and design tackles the much tougher challenge of helping ecosystems regenerate.
Thirty years ago, as a high school student at the Cranbrook boarding school in suburban Detroit, I wrote a research-based investigative report on the environmental crisis for the student newspaper. I had been encouraged to do so by a faculty adviser, David Watson, who lived a double life as a radical environmentalist writing under the pseudonym George Bradford for the anarchist tabloid Fifth Estate. His diatribe How Deep Is Deep Ecology? questioned a recurring bit of cant from the radical environmental movement: Leaders of groups like Earth First! frequently disparaged the value of human life in favor of protecting nature.
Architecture of Exhibition Spaces: 23 Art Galleries around the World
Overall, when designing exhibition spaces, certain aspects contribute to an effective display of the pieces: diffuse lighting, spatial distribution, and high ceilings are some of them. The combination of these features with rooms that are able to transform themselves (using elements that can be perforated, repainted, and adapted according to each exhibition), is common in many art galleries, expressing the dialogue between art and architecture.
Graduation Projects Nominated for the Young Talent Architecture Award 2020 Revealed
The Young Talent Architecture Award (YTAA) has unveiled the list of nominees for its 2020 award. Available on their website, the graduation projects nominated will also be exhibited amongst the Collateral Events at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition by La Biennale di Venezia.
MixC Market Hall, 10 DESIGN-Mixed-Use Development Is Under Construction in Shenzhen, China
10 DESIGN has created a new mixed-use development, the Sungang MixC Market Hall, in China. Currently under construction and scheduled for completion by 2022, the project, a retail, gastronomy and offices destination is located on a former industrial zone.
Mecanoo Designs Marktkwartier Neighborhood Masterplan for Amsterdam
Mecanoo has designed a new masterplan for the Marktkwartier neighborhood in Amsterdam. The plan aims to rethink the city's Food Center as the project makes room for the new residential neighborhood. The Marktkwartier is designed to be "a neighborhood for all Amsterdammers; families, singles, students and seniors will be accommodated in a varied residential program of around 1700 units."
Learning by Doing: Making the Unconventional Indispensable
IE School of Architecture and Design students in the Master in Strategic Design of Spaces are challenged to be future-forward thinkers from the outset. In today’s world, where urban spaces are quickly evolving and city developments must address increasingly complex requirements, overcoming these challenges requires innovative, unconventional approaches.
History of Architecture: Megaliths, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Egypt
As far as written records report, “prehistory” dates back between 35,000 BCE and 3000 BCE in the Middle East (2000 BCE in Western Europe). Ancient builders had a profound understanding of human responses to environmental conditions and physical needs. Initially, families and tribes lived together in skin-covered huts and bone structures. Thousands of years later, human settlements evolved into fortified mud-brick walls surrounding rectangular volumes with pierced openings for ventilation and sunlight.
During the upcoming months, we will be publishing short articles on the history of architecture and how it evolved to set the fundamentals of architecture we know today. This week, we are going back to some of the earliest civilizations known to mankind: Megaliths, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Egypt.
New Posters Urge End of Abuse against Construction Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Construction Industry Coronavirus Forum (CICV) has launched posters to urge people to stop their abuse against key workers carrying out essential construction tasks, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The protective signage reading “Key Worker: Carrying out Essential Work”, has been distributed to be posted on construction sites and vans.