The history and architecture of Burkina Faso is tied to its landscape. As a landlocked country in western Africa, it occupies an extensive plateau with grassy savannas and sparse forests. More than two-thirds of the people live in rural villages, and as such, the country’s modern architecture is the product of ingenuity born from reimagining traditional building materials and techniques.

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Designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates (KKAA), and led by partner Yuki Ikeguchi, the Odunpazari Modern Museum (OMM) just opened in Eskisehir, Turkey. The project aims to promote Turkish art and make a cultural contribution to the city of Eskisehir.

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Fire doors are doors that meet fire resistance standards and can prevent fire (or smoke) from spreading through the floors or living spaces of a building, allowing people to evacuate safely from a fire.

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Architecture firm Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt have won approval to design a new sports pavilion and social club at May’s Bounty Cricket Ground in Basingstoke, Hampshire. Providing a new home for the area’s cricket, rugby, football and squash clubs, the project consists of two carved brick blocks that come together to form a plinth. The aspiration is for the town to host Hampshire County cricket matches once again, with the facility becoming a new home for a local rugby, football and squash club.

Tallinn Architecture Biennale (TAB) is the regions biggest architecture and urban planning festival engaging the public and the profession in the conversation around architecture and our city. The 5th installment of TAB is titled “Beauty Matters: The Resurgence of Beauty” and is curated by Dr. Yael Reisner. TAB 2019 Opening Week takes place in 11.–15.09.2019.

The international competition for the design of the Knowledge Innovation Center (KIC), part of the Tripoli Special Economic Zone (TSEZ), selected the proposal of MDDM, a Beirut based architectural firm, as the winning project. Taking place in the Rachid Karami International Fair designed by Oscar Niemeyer back in the ’60s, in Tripoli, Lebanon, the imagined intervention had to be functionaly and conceptually compliant to specific requirements.

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A 301,400-square-feet extension for a shopping center and two 12-story buildings will be the first project by Foster + Partners in Chile, according to local newspaper El Mercurio.

Planned to be built in San Joaquin, a predominantly industrial, working-class neighborhood in Santiago, Chile, the project will be made for real estate company Grupo Patio.

The proposal of the Austrian architecture bureau, Querkraft Architekten, with the landscape architect Kieran Fraser Landscape Design, was selected unanimously as the winning project for the future Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in Kyiv, Ukraine. Planned to be built on a site that has witnessed massive massacres, the center will be the first Holocaust Memorial in Eastern Europe.

Once restricted to luxury or super-tech buildings, home automation is proving to be an increasingly fundamental and affordable addition to architectural projects, whether to new buildings or renovations. While understanding how they operate can be extremely complex, the primary purpose of technology is to make life simpler, safer, and easier. By definition, home automation seeks to be globally intelligent, functioning as a system that facilitates processes without unnecessarily complicating the user's life. The idea is to connect devices, which in turn connect and talk through a centralized control unit, accessible by computers, tablets, and mobile phones. These include lights, appliances, electrical outlets, and heating and cooling systems, but also alarms, doors, windows, smoke detectors, surveillance cameras, and many other sensors and devices.

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Neri&Hu have unveiled a new video exploring the Aranya Art Center in Qinhuangdao, China. Designed to evoke notions of space for art versus communal space, the project places a strong emphasis on the spiritual nature of the seaside community. Drawing inspiration from the seasonal ocean waters nearby, the building seeks to encapsulate the natural wonder of water.

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In all religions, prayer halls and religious buildings aim to separate the visitor from the chaos of daily life and provide serenity and peace, even for the brief moment in time when visitors are performing their prayers. In the Turkish city of Şanlıurfa, BeOffice Architects designed a circular, unbound mosque with a focus on nature, tranquility, and accessibility.

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The Kharkiv School of Architecture is celebrating a prosperous year of academic and international achievements. In addition to hosting the nominated projects of the 2019 EU Mies Awards, the school has completed its first year of BA in Architecture. To celebrate these milestones, the school has organized a double exhibition showcasing the works of first-year students, as well as displaying the projects of Europe's most innovative architects.

By bringing together these two exhibitions, the school built a link between two generations of architects: The Mies Award, where the best works of the current European architects and designers are displayed, and the school's “Open/Work” exhibition, a glimpse into the innovations of future Ukrainian architecture.

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Architect and visual artist Mohammad Hassan Forouzanfar has been conceptually combining contemporary landmarks with traditional Iranian houses and palaces, in a photo-series titled "Retrofuturism". In his latest collection, the Persian architect chose to displace iconic structures and place them in 19th century paintings of the country by artist Eugène Flandin.

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Cities across the globe are undergoing makeovers - swapping out old, antiquated technology for new, sleek alternatives. The development and implementation of computer vision and real-time analytics are ushering in the newest wave of smart cities. The combination of cloud-based dashboards and machine learning are providing actionable data to be collected and understood regarding everything from vehicle concentration to pedestrian activity. As cities continue to push forward and develop socially and technologically, there is no doubt we will continue to see cities incorporate tools like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to facilitate such changes. Despite the fact that eye-popping technologies like drones and robots are at the forefront of this technological revolution, there are also a number of unexpected ways cities are becoming smarter.

The Tamayouz Excellence Award has revealed its shortlist of finalists for Women in Architecture and Construction 2019, given to emerging female contributors in the architectural and construction field throughout the Near East and North Africa. This annual award honors 2 categories, Rising Star and Woman of Outstanding Achievement, and the winners will be announced next month.

One of the most practical and functional spaces of any residential project is the kitchen. Its artificial surfaces – be it countertops, kitchen benches, or coverings – contain most of the space's equipment. Thus, it’s essential to build kitchens with the most resistant and hygienic materials. Aside from these requirements, it's also important to pay attention to aesthetics and profitability, while adapting the space to the dynamics of each family. 

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Videos

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.

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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.

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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:

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