While technology and construction have progressed rapidly in recent years, allowing structures to be built taller and faster than ever, remnants of colossal ancient monuments remind us that construction techniques from as long as hundreds of years ago had enormous merit as well. In fact, many of the innovations of antiquity serve as foundations of modern construction, with the Roman invention of concrete serving as a cogent example. Other essential ancient construction techniques, such as the arch and the dome, are now often considered stylistic flourishes, with designs like the Met Opera House reinterpreting classical typologies in a modern context. Yet perhaps the most relevant reinterpretations of ancient construction today are those that do so in the interest of sustainability, renouncing high-energy modern construction methods in favor of older, more natural techniques.

Does the Coronavirus concern us? Yes, it does. Beyond the rush for health cures, cities are seen to react by using both architecture and urban strategic planning as tools for the virus’ containment, shattering our notions of city and resilience planning.

New renderings were unveiled for Heatherwick’s first residential project in New York, currently under construction. The recently dubbed “Lantern House”, in West Chelsea’s neighborhood, will join a series of developments, expanding the High Line's facades.

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The City Council of Perm, the planning commission, and members of the public gave their approval for a wHY-designed theater at the center of a major cultural revitalization initiative, led by the city’s mayor. The project will be a collaboration between wHY’s New York office and Buildings Workshop, and wHY’s Landscape Workshop, in order to generate a landmark for the emerging arts district.

Morphosis Architects designed a new conference center for the city of Nanjing in China. Located in the New Jiangbei District, the project is situated between China’s eastern coastal cities and the Yangtze River Delta region. The conference center design was made as a flagship project to embody a charter for sustainable and ecologically-sensitive development.

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The Chinese megacity of Shenzhen bares all the hallmarks of a surging modern metropolis. Busy (and loud) five-lane motorways weave through islands of glittering glass skyscrapers, rising from podiums filled with designer shops, fronting vast squares and plazas, activated by screen-savvy young professionals fueling the city’s booming tech economy. Such a scene is truly remarkable considering that before 1980, Shenzhen was nothing more than a provincial fishing town of 60,000 people. Today, that figure has risen to 13 million.

This poses the question of how the urban environment accommodated such a rapid population explosion in such a short time. The answer lies in the city’s “Urban Villages,” remarkable manifestations of Shenzhen’s past and present, though likely not of its future.

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Costing less than glitzier parks in Moscow, the Tatarstan initiative is revivifying the local design and manufacturing bases with a "teach a man to fish" approach.

In places without an established design force, there have historically been two opposing approaches at play: hire experts from abroad or nurture a local design community, a la “give a man a fish or teach him how to fish.” In the Russian republic of Tatarstan, located at the intersection between Europe and Asia, a recent Public Spaces Development Program has created over 350 parks in five years—by choosing the latter approach.

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Photographer Paul Clemence has shared with us a series of new photographs of a nearly completed 130 William development by Adjaye Associates. The firm’s first residential tower in the USA, topping out in the spring of last year at 800 feet, is located in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York.

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

The field of architecture is not exactly a hot topic of study for most undergraduate students. The closest they might get to the subject is an art history survey course in which architecture is presented as a parade of styles across the millennia—just another form of visual expression. 

Bruno Stagno from San José, Costa Rica, shares his contemplations for a free expressive code for tropical architecture.

Meetings of Design Students or MEDS is an international workshop, taking place every summer in a different country and tackling every year a new thematic. In its 10th edition, MEDS Workshop was held in Greece, on the island of Spetses, bringing together traditional craftsmanship and contemporary approaches, resulting in 14 interdisciplinary projects.

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Diamond Schmitt Architects and KWC Architects have designed the Ottawa Public Library and Archives Canada Joint Facility. In partnership with municipal and federal institutions, the facility will create an “inspiring place for gathering, learning and discovery”.

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Sidewalk Labs have released their latest study, called Proto-Model X (PMX), investigating how tall timber buildings could work in cities. As a digital proof-of-concept for how to design and manufacture a tall timber building, the study follows the team’s announcement last June to design the world’s first all-timber high-rise neighborhood on Toronto’s eastern waterfront.

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With December and January nearly behind us, many of us will have been producing reports. There is an increasing number of tools for reporting PR value sold to companies as ways to justify their worth. There is no doubt that it’s useful to regularly take stock of past and upcoming initiatives and producing a report can even be pleasurable when adding to a sense of accomplishment and direction. The bad thing is that this heavily-report-reliant culture leads to management style PR that focuses more on how something will look on paper as stats, graphs, and pics, than what is actually accomplished.

For instance, The Architecture Foundation in London is highlighting growing Biennale fatigue in its forthcoming “Bored of Biennales” event in March. One can well imagine how all-too-often such events are best experienced not in situ, but instead, through carefully-edited reports or via media coverage as suggested by the Foundation.

The Shanghai Cofco Cultural and Health Center by Steven Holl Architects has topped out. Designed in 2016, the project was designed to become a social condenser, fostering community among the residents of the surrounding new housing blocks with a public space and park along an existing canal. Centering on public space, the projects features an exoskeletal concrete construction.

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KPF and the Chiofaro Company have released images of their latest project The Pinnacle at Central Wharf, a high performance and resilient mixed-use development on the Boston Harbor waterfront. Aiming to reconnect Downtown Boston to the waterfront, the project also puts in place a new public space.

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Located in Kannauj the perfume capital of India, the Perfume Park and Museum is designed by Studio Symbiosis. Under construction, the project will host a museum, shops, a cafe, a skill development center to exchange knowledge between experts and distilleries to produce the fragrances on site.

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Unfortunately, we've probably all experienced the unfortunate surprise of finding mold at home. These undesirable black and greenish spots, usually seen in dark, damp corners, may seem harmless at first, but they pose a major problem for buildings and occupants. Because the tendency of mold is to continuously spread, it gradually contaminates other materials and surfaces, causing a characteristic smell and contaminating the air. But how is it possible to control it and, mainly, to prevent it from occurring through architectural design?

Coming from the Byzantine Era, originally used for decorating floors and walls, the hydraulic tile is a material still widely used for the coating of architectural surfaces. With versatility in patterns, composition, colors, it is water-resistant and can be installed onto various surfaces, like countertops, panels, and furniture. Going beyond thoу commonly used ones, this material still shows excellent results in projects, both residential and commercial. With that in mind, we have compiled a selection to inspire you for your next works. Check it out below:

Design and the City is a podcast by reSITE about how we can use design to make cities more livable and lovable. Every week, a new episode will be released featuring speakers that explore the future of our cities, like Thomas Heatherwick from Heatherwick Studios, Chris Precht from Studio Precht, Leona Lynen from Haus der Statistik and Yosuke Hayano from MAD Architects among others.

Zaha Hadid Architects has been selected to build the new headquarters for OPPO, a Chinese mobile brand, in Shenzhen, China. The shortlisted teams included Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) and Henning Larsen Architects HK.

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The School of Architecture at Taliesin has announced the closing of the school after 88 years. The news follows the conclusion of a multi-year struggle back in 2017, when the school was approved to maintain its accreditation as an institute of higher learning. The decision was made by the Governing Board, as the school was not able to reach an agreement with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to keep the school open.