The REACH at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington D.C. will open to the public this Saturday, September 7th. Designed by Steven Holl Architects with BNIM, the project is the first-ever expansion in the Kennedy Center's 48-year history. Aiming to open the Kennedy Center to the surrounding city and riverfront, the team made the project as a nexus of arts, learning, and culture for people to engage with the performing arts.
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
Fellow architects, can we talk? This is gonna hurt, but it needs saying. Were I a poet, I’d write, The end is nigh, and we are why. I’m no bard, though, so I’ll put it this way: Most of us suspect anthropogenic climate change will lead to civilization’s end. Some architects deny the science (“The climate is always changing!”), while others ignore the obvious (denial is a good coping mechanism), but buried within the folds of all angst-addled designer brains lies the fear that today’s toddlers could be the last of us.
I’ll pause here to let the weight of that thought depress you.
FXCollaborative has designed a church community space and 33 story tower overlooking Central Park in New York City. The project was made for Harlem’s La Hermosa Christian Church, though no developer has signed on for the project yet. The new project would serve the surrounding community and aims to embody and celebrate the neighborhood’s legacy of music and art.
Located in Trondheim, Norway, Powerhouse Brattørkaia, the world’s northernmost energy-positive building, designed by Snøhetta challenges the traditional notions of construction and puts in place new standards for buildings that produce more energy than they consume.
With the intention of maximizing available space and avoiding steep construction costs, researchers from ETH Zurich’s Department of Architecture have devised a concrete floor slab that with a thickness of a mere 2cm, remains load bearing and simultaneously sustainable. Inspired by the construction of Catalan vaults, this new floor system swaps reinforced steel bars for narrow vertical ribs, thus significantly reducing the weight of construction and ensuring stability to counter uneven distributions on its surface.
As opposed to traditional concrete floors that are evidently flat, these slabs are designed to arch to support major loads, reminiscent of the vaulted ceilings found in Gothic cathedrals. Without the need for steel reinforcing and with less concrete, the production of CO2 is minimized and the resulting 2cm floors are 70% lighter than their typical concrete counterparts.
There exist frequent reports of toilet accidents, as they are often located in tight and slippery places. Although no one is immune to a slip after bathing, it is the elderly who suffer most from falls, and can often suffer serious injuries, sequelae, and functional limitations. Due to the natural reduction of reflexes and muscle mass, the higher the age group, the more prone to falls we become.
To provide more comfortable living conditions as users grow older, the environment must adapt to the new physical capabilities of its occupants. Making toilets safer is critical to reducing the risk of accidents and decreasing response time in the event of a fall. Here are some things to keep in mind when designing toilets for older people:
Paveletskaya Place is a multi-functional public park, conceived around the experience of the visitors. In fact, the project designed by 5+design and SWA/Balsley, located next to the historic Moscow Metro Station, includes a shopping mall, programmable plazas, restaurants, event terraces, green spaces, and pedestrian walkways.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) have unveiled the latest design for Kansas City's new airport terminal. Working with the Kansas City Aviation Department, the City of Kansas City, Missouri and major airlines, the project is coming together with developer Edgemoor. The air travel hub that will be the largest single infrastructure project in Kansas City’s history.
What happens when the sensor-imbued city acquires the ability to see – almost as if it had eyes? Ahead of the 2019 Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB), titled "Urban Interactions," ArchDaily is working with the curators of the "Eyes of the City" section at the Biennial to stimulate a discussion on how new technologies – and Artificial Intelligence in particular – might impact architecture and urban life. Here you can read the “Eyes of the City” curatorial statement by Carlo Ratti, the Politecnico di Torino and SCUT.
The human body, at least in terms of anthropomorphic ideals, was in the centre of western architectural debates from Greco-Roman times up to the Renaissance. Although the very concept of the body didn't come as explicit in traditional architecture writing in the east, the notion that the body (or, the envelope of the soul) connects the mind and the physical world was constantly revisited and reinterpreted.
The world's first publicly accessible art depot by MVRDV has topped out in Rotterdam. Called Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, the new archive building was celebrated with a ceremony by the Stichting Collectiegebouw consortium, which comprises the museum, the municipality of Rotterdam, and Stichting De Verre Bergen. The depot will host the museum’s archive of 151,000 artworks and will be fully accessible to the public.
As one of the eldest in a long line of architects that have made Japan one of the most revered countries in architecture, Pritzker-Prize winning architect Kenzō Tange (4 September 1913 – 22 March 2005) helped define Japan’s post-WWII emergence into Modernism. Though he was trained as an architect, Tange was equally as influential as an urban planner giving him significant influence in Japan and around the world at both large and small scales.
ODA New York has been selected as the Design Architect for the rehabilitation of Detroit's iconic Book Tower. Working with real estate company Bedrock, the team will create a mix of residential, hospitality, retail and office space in the tower. ODA plans to update and expand on Book Tower’s programming and existing structures with nearly 500,000 square feet of downtown programming. The restoration of the 38-story landmark aims to create a cohesive civic vision for Washington Boulevard.
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The World Architecture Festival (WAF) is an annual architectural event, celebrating international projects that tackle today’s global issues. Ten innovative designs have won the 2019 WAFX prizes, each one in a category.
AI SpaceFactory, a multi-planetary architectural and technology design agency, launched TERA, a high-tech and green eco-home designed for off-grid living on earth. Inspired by their NASA-award-winning Mars habitat MARSHA, the first TERA accepts limited pre-bookings on Indiegogo and will be available starting March 2020 for one year before it is recycled and reprinted elsewhere.
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There are three words that have long-awaited to be put together: The Siza Pavilion. Their story begins with top furniture brand CAMERICH and the Aedes Architecture Forum’s search for a visionary in architecture and product design. The 1992 Pritzker Prize Laureate, Álvaro Siza, was later selected and commissioned a pavilion for China’s International Furniture Fair (CIFF 2019).
Praksis Arkitekter has won the competition to design a new visitor center for the Stevns Klint UNESCO World Heritage site in Denmark. Four architecture firms were invited to participate, and Praksis was chosen as the winner working with Kristine Jensen Landscape and Henry Jensen engineers. The project was designed to fit into the landscape as visitors move from the geology of Stevns Klint to the sea.
Expected to be completed by 2022, The Museum of Modern Art Warsaw and the TR Warszawa Theatre will put in place a new art hub for Warsaw, Poland. The two new cultural entities will add a modern vibe to the rich heritage of the city. Designed by the New York-based studio Thomas Phifer and Partners, the new center of the arts will occupy a 22-acre site.
Hello Wood, as you may already know, is an annual festival, which gathers hundreds of people in a Hungarian village for a week. Divided into groups, the architects and students carefully selected by the team of organizers, build installations made of wood with their bare hands. The outcome is amazing — dozens of beautiful structures rise up there each year adding more and more originality to the site.
The words cannot express the vibe you get at the Hello Wood Project Village — all the "beautiful people", as they call each other, are one big family. There is no competition, the teams help each other to make sure all projects are completed before the deadline, when they all march to the neighboring village and celebrate the week spent together.
But what is the idea behind this festival? What is the secret key to building a strong community of professionals and students in such a short period of time? Watch our interview with Hello Wood team to learn how they answer these questions.
Jacques Herzog met with Tatiana Bilbao at the Herzog & de Meuron’s studio in Basel, Switzerland on May 2019, and got to discuss the Mexican architect’s projects and architectural approach. The two long-time friends and prizewinning architects talked about the defining moments in their friendship and the advice of Herzog that improved Bilbao’s method.
The world's largest urban farm is set to open next year in Paris. The six-story, 150,000-square-foot garden aims to grow more than 2,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables a day. Twenty gardeners will tend to 30 different kinds of plants to produce vegetables for the community. Called Agripolis, the project uses aeroponic farming so the plants absorb water and nutrients via mist.
Many people's way of working has changed, but most offices remain the same.
However, innovating doesn't necessarily mean breaking down every wall and creating a play space; the design of an office must take into account the needs and details of each type of work separately. For every function, there are better and worse ways to organize spaces, and some configurations work better for certain activities but not for others. The most important consideration is that the workplace allows interactions while providing spaces for concentration and focus.
For the first time, San Francisco's iconic Transamerica Pyramid has been listed for sale. Built in 1972, the 48-story Brutalist-style project was designed by American architect William Pereira. The triangular-shaped skyscraper was the tallest building in San Francisco for nearly half a century, until it was surpassed by Salesforce Tower in 2018. Selling for $600 million, the building has become a landmark in the skyline of San Francisco.
Wolf Point East, a 665-foot residential tower, part of the last remaining development along the Chicago River, topped off and is near completion. Designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, and part of a master plan to redevelop the area, the east tower generates 700 rental units, 35,000 square feet of amenities, and 4,000 square feet of retail at street level.
With an aim to become a company that also offers houses, not just housing, Airbnb is venturing in the creation of prototypes of homes. Through Samara, its future-oriented product design team, and the Backyard initiative, new ideas are tested, new ways of living and experiencing the sheltered space are explored.
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