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.

MVRDV has designed with local neighborhood organizations, a proposal to regenerate the canals of the city of The Hague, in the Netherlands. Filled-in during the 20th century, the canals will be reopened in order to revive the historic center and improve the city on the sustainable, economical and infrastructural levels.

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The Pritzker Architecture Prize has appointed Deborah Berke and Barry Bergdoll as the newest members of the prize jury. Replacing Richard Rogers and Ratan N. Tata, the new appointments of Berke and Bergdoll mark the upcoming 2020 edition of the Pritzker Prize and the 42nd anniversary of the accolade. The Pritzker Prize is internationally known as architecture's highest honor.

ArkxSite has announced the winners of its international architecture ideas competition.The competition has invited all architecture students and young architects to develop innovative ideas for the design of a Site Mausoleum located in the Jaspe Quarry, ‘Serra da Arrábida’, Portugal. The site is of great natural power as the remains of an old quarry are carved into its landscape, along with massive cliffs that drop dramatically into the Atlantic Ocean.

The competition committee wanted participants to develop an intervention that emphasizes, respects, and celebrates the site, all while providing visitors with a unique experience of movement between enclosed and open spaces.

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Architecture practice Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) have designed a concrete pavilion for the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Today, the practice is unveiling the work of its interdisciplinary practice with Stereoform Slab, a to-scale prototype of a future building system made using advanced robotic fabrication techniques. The project is simultaneously an activation and an exhibition that illustrates a design method that reduces the carbon footprint of concrete construction.

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On the 13^th of September 2019, the six winning projects of the 2019 Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) were honored at a ceremony held at the Kazan’s Musa Jalil State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. After the ceremony, ArchDaily managed to get exclusive comments from all the awarded teams and from the director of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture Farrokh Derakhshani. Read on to discover what they had to say about this cycle of prizes.

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Design company Kilograph has announced the release of “Imagined Landscapes,” a new virtual reality experience exploring the unbuilt work of architect Michael Graves. Based on Graves’ personal paintings, “Imagined Landscapes” offers the first chance to add VR watercolors to an architectural project, turning a conceptual resort into an interactive experience for visitors.

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Simbiosi, an architectural installation investigating the relationship between humans and nature was just unveiled in the Arte Sella sculpture park in Italy’s Trentino Valley. Conceived by Edoardo Tresoldi, the site-specific artwork mixes the transparency of a wired mesh structure with the materiality of local stones.

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The city of Amsterdam is popular for its compelling architecture, interlaced water canals, bridges, and docks. However, alongside these water canals lay old guard cabins that have been left to defunct. A restoration project by Dutch architecture firm space&matter promises to bring together the historic city's tourists and water canals through a unique architecture project.

The Shanghai team of Schlaich Bergermann Partner has created two winning bridge designs as part of the Jiangxi River Bridge competition. The bridges are made for Tianfu Airport City, a high-tech industrial development zone in the south of Chengdu, China. Featuring elegant and futuristic forms, the bridges are made to be beacons for the city as they rise above the Jiangxi River.

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The Master Plan imagined by Snøhetta aims to transform Ford's Research & Engineering center in southeast Michigan. After a process that lasted 2 years, the architecture firm established a project that highlights the Dearborn campus as “Ford’s global epicenter”, ensuring an innovative and vibrant workplace for people.

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Blank Space has announced the winners of the first ‘Outer Space’ competition. With submissions from over 40 countries, the entries explore future possibilities and technical breakthroughs through detailed stories and artwork.

The winners were chosen by a jury of 15 leading architects, designers, and technologists, including Chris Hadfield, Eduardo Tresoldi, David Benjamin, Chris Precht, and Sabrina Thompson. 

Keep reading to learn more about the three winning projects and 12 honorable mentions.

Tile roofs are usually multi-pitched and covered in tiles, which make them different from flat and circular shaped roofs. The “pitch” of the roof is directly related to the wind and tile type, it must be able to drain rainwater and shelter the interior of the house.  

Christensen & Co Architects have designed with the participation of Kjaer & Richter Architects, the Nordøst Amager School, a school in Copenhagen that offers new types of spaces for an innovative learning experience. The facility also doubles as a center for after school activities for adults and children.

For technology companies, image is everything. Whether it be the latest iPhone, the newest Slack interface, or the latest Uber app update, these multimillion-dollar giants strive daily to keep the user engaged, and to keep their image young, current, and cutting edge. Invariably, this need to be noticed transcends the digital screen, and manifests in the architecture of the offices where this innovation takes place.

Across the world, from Dublin to Tel Aviv to Tokyo, the workspaces of the world's largest tech companies are redefining how offices are designed, aided by leading architects such as Foster + Partners, Snøhetta, and Gehry Partners. While our recent article on solutions for flexible home offices reflects on strategic functionality and individual expression, the 30 workspaces below dedicate themselves to collaboration and inspiration through a play on scales, color, shapes, and unexpected fixtures.

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Videos

200 years ago, parks were incorporated into cities. Today, 'beach life' can also reach the hearts of cities.

A revolutionary alternative of high social impact that promises to change urban living is gaining ground. Known as Public Access Lagoons (PAL), an innovative concept developed and patented by the multinational water innovation company, Crystal Lagoons, it will bring beach life projects to the heart of large cities, with white sand beaches and monumental crystalline lagoons, in which people can swim and practice water sports in. With the capacity to receive more than one million visits a year, these large bodies of water can incorporate cultural and entertainment centers and amenities, easily accessed via ticketed entry or, alternatively, can be enjoyed free of charge from the contemplation areas.

Perkins and Will propose an innovative and resilient office building in Southeast Washington, D.C, created to survive calamities and withstand natural disasters. The project reinvestigates the relationships between humans and nature.

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

This summer the federal government released an astonishing statistic: 87% of American homes are now equipped with air conditioning. Since the world is getting undeniably warmer, I suppose this isn’t all that surprising, but keep in mind that robust number of mechanically cooled homes include residences in some fairly temperate climates. So my question is a simple one: When did air conditioning in the U.S. became a requirement, rather than an add-on? 

The 2019 London Design Festival opened this month and features a large-scale instillation called Please Be Seated by Paul Cocksedge. Returning for its 17th year, the festival celebrates design across London and aims to promote the city as a major design capital. Please Be Seated joins a series of art, design and performance-based projects by internationally-renowned designers across the city.

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Finnish practice JKMM’s newest project, The Dance House Helsinki, is set to become Finland’s first venue dedicated primarily to dance and the performing arts. Offering rehearsal and performance spaces for artists, Dance House forms an extension to Cable Factory, the largest existing cultural center in Finland.

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The “New Créteil” was an urbanization program carried out in the seventies. It was intended to provide the city of Créteil, which is located around 6 km southeast of Paris, new apartment buildings and public facilities such as a town hall, prefecture, hospital, and courthouse. In a series called “See the New Créteil,” photographer Robin Leroy documents a city considered transcendent of the traditional clichés of modern architecture.