Radical neofuturist architect Jan Kaplický (18 April 1937 – 14 January 2009) was the son of a sculptor and a botanical illustrator, and appropriately spent his career creating highly sculptural and organic forms. Working with partner Amanda Levete at his suitably-named practice Future Systems, Kaplický was catapulted to fame after his sensationally avant-garde 1999 Lord's Cricket Ground Media Centre and became a truly innovative icon of avant-garde architecture.
Architecture News
Studio Precht Imagines a Park for Physical Distancing During the Coronavirus Pandemic
While public parks and gardens have closed down their doors around the world, in fear of the COVID-19 spread, Studio Precht has proposed a green space designed around the rules of physical distancing. Entitled “Parc de la Distance”, the project introduces an outdoor space that encourages social distancing and short-term solitude.
New Film by Spirit of Space Showcases The REACH at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
A new film by Steven Holl Architects and Spirit of Space showcases the REACH at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Designed as three pavilions interconnected below an open green roof, the elegant expansion merges architecture and landscape to increase the center's interior space with 72,000 sf of open studios, rehearsal and performance spaces, and dedicated arts learning spaces.
ArchDaily's Complete Coverage on Coronavirus, Architecture and Cities
In the midst of a pandemic that has already affected 184 countries and infected more than a million people around the world, we seek to cover all topics that relate the coronavirus within architecture and space, and ways to make social distancing less painful.
Free Architectural Photography Resources to Explore During the Lockdown
Architectural and fine art photographer Pygmalion Karatzas is presenting a number of free online architectural photography resources for readers to explore in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The selected resources include e-books, numerous interviews with renowned photographers from around the world, educational presentations (academic papers, lectures, workshops), and videos.
As author Jeremy Lent points out in a recent article, the phrase “social distancing” is helpfully being recast as “physical distancing” since this pandemic is bringing people closer together in solidarity than ever before, and we are witnessing a heartwarming rediscovery of the value of community, and humanity’s prosocial impulses like altruism and compassion manifesting across sectors and boundaries.
Hassell Leads Design for Healthcare Precinct and First Medi-Hotel in Western Australia
Hassell has approached health and wellness differently in the newest healthcare facility in Western Australia. With innovation at the core of the architectural concept, the Murdoch Knowledge Health Precinct puts people first, creating a state-of-the-art intervention, a hub for activities and interconnected public spaces.
THAD and Sutherland Hussey Harris Design the National Botanical Museum in Kunming China
Located in Kunming, the city of “Three Mountains, One Lake”, the National Botanical Museum designed by THAD and Sutherland Hussey Harris, embodies the fusion and integration with nature on many different levels.
Australia Withdraws from the 2020 Venice Biennale
The Australian Institute of Architects has announced it will no longer participate in the 2020 Venice Biennale. Last month, organizers postponed the event's opening until August in light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Australia’s exhibition, titled In Between, was to be curated by creative directors Tristan Wong and Jefa Greenaway, and it aimed to explore connections between indigenous cultures across Australia and the South Pacific.
Turn Your Architectural Concepts Into an Online Reality
What size is this room? What is the view from the meeting room like? What would you see if you looked from the outside in? These are all recognizable examples of questions designers are asked. Is there any better answer than immediately showing the view in question? XUVER provides a user-friendly way to share an online-rendered visualization of your design within a minute. No additional software is required; all you need is a link and a web browser. A voice module also enables you to discuss your design simultaneously.
Rearrange, Paint, Cultivate: Brightening Up Your Home While Practicing Social Distancing
As cities around the world go on lockdown in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, most individuals have been asked to stay at home, leaving only essential workers - EMTs and other healthcare professionals, grocery workers, bus drivers, deliverymen, and more - continuing to go out to keep the world running. Other families and individuals have found themselves spending most of their time at home, permitted to leave only to buy groceries or exercise for limited periods of time. With many no doubt searching for ways to pass the time in replacement of social interaction, we suggest several ways to brighten up your home while practicing social distancing, both improving the space you’re in and giving possible activities to pass the time.
ArchDaily China Building of the Year 2020 Awards: The Finalists
Following an exciting week of nominations, ArchDaily’s readers have evaluated over 800 projects and selected 10 finalists of the Building of the Year Award. Over 20,000 architects and enthusiasts participated in the nomination process, choosing projects that exemplify what it means to push architecture forward. These finalists are the buildings that have inspired ArchDaily readers the most.
Big Data and Urbanism: How to Organize Information for Optimal Application
Big Data refers to data that, due to its quantity and complexity, requires specific applications in order to be processed. New trends in urbanism, data collection, and management, not to mention the development of new platforms and tools, have given rise to a new era in urban analysis, creating new resources to understand, evaluate, and manage the evolution of cities.
Co-Founder of the Architect’s Newspaper William Menking Passes Away
American architect, educator, critic, historian, curator and co-founder of The Architect’s Newspaper has passed away after a long battle with cancer in Manhattan at 72 years old.
AIA Releases Architect’s Guide to Business Continuity
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) have released the Architect’s Guide to Business Continuity, an effort to assist architecture firms with navigating adverse business conditions. The guide provides firm leaders with insights into managing staff, premises, technology, information, supply chains, stakeholders, and reputation. It aims to help firms continue providing services, generating revenue, and reducing the consequences of business interruption.
Turin's Castello di Rivoli Tells a Story of the Region's History through Its Architecture
Given the sheer magnitude and influence of its recorded history, Italy as we know it is a surprisingly young country. For centuries, the region was divided between powerful (and sometimes warring) city-states, each with their own identity, culture, and, fortunes, and influence. Some are eternally famous. Rome is a cradle of history and heart of religion; cool Milan is a hub of contemporary fashion and design; Florence is synonymous with the Renaissance and all the epoch’s relationship to the arts.
Turin’s history is arguably less romantic. The small city in Savoy, a north-Italian region bordering France, has established an identity as an industrial powerhouse. It is home to FIAT and some of Italy’s finest universities; the streets are dotted with works by Nervi, Botta, and Rossi. But despite the design pedigree, perhaps nothing better illustrates the region’s faceted history better than Castello di Rivoli.
The Blinking Eye: Allowing for Alternative Modes of Urbanity
We are increasingly accustomed to relying on technologies to read and process data referring to the past, in order to interpret the present and predict the future. At the same time, a growing number of studies show that the number and types of variables governing our societies is in constant change. As the natural world reacts to change by experimenting with the evolution of new species that are not necessarily destined to survive, so we should take momentary distances from the deterministic application of data-driven predictions. Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Karl-Heinz Machat propose a number of possible scenarios in which the Eyes of the City are made to blink from time to time, allowing for alternative modes of urbanity to be tried and tested. Half strategy, half tactic, these glitches offer the space in which to measure the agency of the unpredictable at various scales.
For the 2019 Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB), titled "Urban Interactions," (21 December 2019-8 March 2020) ArchDaily is working with the curators of the "Eyes of the City" section to stimulate a discussion on how new technologies might impact architecture and urban life. The contribution below is part of a series of scientific essays selected through the “Eyes of the City” call for papers, launched in preparation of the exhibitions: international scholars were asked to send their reflection in reaction to the statement by the curators Carlo Ratti Associati, Politecnico di Torino and SCUT, which you can read here.
WTA Design 60 Emergency Quarantine Facilities to Fight COVID-19
As hospitals around the world are reaching their capacity, the architecture and design community is developing new alternatives to fight COVID-19. In order to build 60 Emergency Quarantine Facilities (EQF), WTA was inspired by their pavilion developed last year, part of the Anthology Festival. A viable quarantine structure, the Boysen Pavilion “embodied speed, scalability and simplicity in its structure”.
White Arkitekter + ReGen Villages Create First Circular, Self-Sufficient Communities for Sweden
White Arkitekter, in collaboration with Silicon Valley-based ReGen Villages, have joined forces to create fully circular, self-sufficient and resilient communities in Sweden. Inspired by computer games, the project puts in place organic food production, locally produced and stored energy, comprehensive recycling, and climate positive buildings.
ODA Designs Tiered Garden Complex as its First Project in China
Architecture firm ODA has designed a 700,000 square foot, tiered development as a gathering spot for Chengdu. The team was invited to participate in a new master plan for the city in China, and their design includes a diverse program, from four residential towers to a commercial park of retail and green spaces. As ODA states, the plan is an urban experiment in rearranging priorities for the public realm.
Tips for Architects Working At Home During COVID-19
The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused an estimated 900 million people around the world to remain at home. Among them are architects and designers who have been asked to work remotely to prevent the virus from spreading through the workplace. For many architects, this is undoubtedly a new territory. However, for ArchDaily, it is not, and we can assure you that it is possible not only to work from home, but to use this time to greatly enhance your skills, knowledge, and development as an architect.
Spotlight: Peter Behrens
If asked to name buildings by German architect and designer Peter Behrens (14 April 1868 – 27 February 1940), few people would be able to answer with anything other than his AEG Turbine Factory in Berlin. His style was not one that lends itself easily to canonization; indeed, even the Turbine Factory itself is difficult to appreciate without an understanding of its historical context. Despite this, Behrens' achievements are not to be underestimated, and his importance to the development of architecture might best be understood by looking at three young architects who worked in his studio around 1910: Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and Walter Gropius.
Call for Submissions: German Design Awards 2021
Design, branding and innovation are the most important factors in the success of entrepreneurial strategy, especially in times of change and crisis like the present. Receiving a renowned award is an efficient opportunity to draw attention to the recipient’s work with precise, positive messages. The German Design Awards – the international premium prize of the German Design Council – are entering the call-for-entries stage and offering winners the best-possible opportunity for publicity. They are proof of innovation capability and design expertise and demonstrate that the winners are well positioned and able to differentiate themselves through outstanding design.