Istanbul based Tabanlioglu Architects have designed a new national stadium for Kosovo. Located in Drenas, the 30,000-seat stadium will be built 12 miles from the country's capital of Pristina and become the new home for the Kosovo national football team. Made to bring people together, the urban project aims to reflect the contemporary culture and multi-ethnic identity of Kosovo.
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
In late May, my friend Witold Rybczynski published Charleston Fancy: Little Houses & Big Dreams in the Holy City (Yale University Press), about a group of architects and developers building small infill housing in Charleston, South Carolina. Having recently witnessed too much large scale development in my hometown, Boston, the topic piqued my interest so I called up Witold to talk about his new book.
A group of Iranian architects have come together to announce the inaugural Isfahan Prize and Architect of the Year in Iran. Designed to recognize young architects 40 years old or younger, the prize competition aims to bring awareness to those who are positively impacting architecture, Isfahan and the natural environment. It explores how Isfahan and its built environment have become grounds for contemporary architecture and design.
Superspace has designed a system of energy-harvesting balloons for Abu Dhabi. The project, titled “solarCLOUD” formed part of the LandArt generator competition and is intended as the city portal of Masdar City. The system consists of a group of solar balloons woven with solar fabric, creating a shaded park during the day while tracking and harvesting solar energy. At night, the system settles down to become a kinetic light art show.
Since the 1970s, humanity’s resource consumption began to exceed what the planet could renew in a year. That is, we are withdrawing and polluting nature more than it can naturally recover. According to the World Bank, if the world's population reaches even the projected number of 9.6 billion people by 2050, it will take almost three Earth planets to provide the natural resources needed to maintain humanity's current lifestyle.
Every day an enormous amount of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere through industry, transportation, burning fossil fuels and even respiration of plants and living things. As the consequences of climate change become clearer, both governments and private sector companies are setting targets for carbon emission reductions, since these are regarded as the main greenhouse gases, and their high concentration in the atmosphere lead to air pollution and acid rain, among other consequences.
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.
David Chipperfield's James-Simon-Galerie has opened on Museum Island in Berlin. The project serves as a new entrance between the Kupfergraben canal and the Neues Museum. The design was made to welcome large numbers of visitors while housing all the additional facilities needed by the museum. Featuring an iconic colonnade above a stone plinth, the project was made to express a classical piano nobile.
WilkinsonEyre has gained planning permission for a major biodome complex in the Reykjavik region of Iceland, designed in collaboration with a local design team. The Aldin Biodomes consist of a Main Nature Dome and Tropical Dome, showcasing exotic plants from environments around the world, and the Farm Lab; an educational environment for local food production.
Today the President of La Biennale di Venezia Paolo Baratta and the appointed Curator of the 17th International Exhibition Hashim Sarkis introduced the theme of the next year’s event “How will we live together?”. La Biennale Architettura 2020 will take place at Venice’s Giardini and Arsenale from May 23 to November 29, 2020.
“We need a new spatial contract. In the context of widening political divides and growing economic inequalities, we call on architects to imagine spaces in which we can generously live together,” reads Sarkis’ Statement. The theme that explores architecture as material, spatial, and cultural field, encourages the participating architects to engage other professionals in their research — inviting artists, builders, politicians, social scientists, and everyday citizens the Curator demands the society to acknowledge the role of the architect “as both cordial convener and custodian of the spatial contract”.
Though born in Tehran and remaining deeply inspired by her native Iran, architect Yasaman Esmaili has worked on projects all around the world. These primarily include humanitarian and crisis intervention works that deeply engage the local communities in which they are situated. A recent article by Metropolis Magazine discusses these projects in depth, as well as Esmaili’s story and inspirations.
Herzog & de Meuron have released images of their proposed mixed-use office scheme in Munich, Germany. Reusing an old building south of Munich rail station, the project features a large courtyard garden accessible to the neighborhood at the center of the site.
Bee Breeders has revealed the winners of the 2019 Rome Collective Living Challenge competition. Teams were asked to to propose solutions for collective living in Italy's capital city. Participants were tasked with designing a concept for affordable co-living around affordability and community. Organizers sought ideas that could be implemented across Rome to increase the city's housing stock.
Dutch design practice Mecanoo has won 1st Prize in the Futian Civic Culture Center Competition. The proposal includes a new cultural tower for Shenzhen in one of the city's oldest and densest districts. The project is designed to house cultural programs and social spaces to stimulate urban activity in the neighborhood. Made with three theaters, a library and exhibition halls, the project aims to be open to the city and bring people together.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has advised planners to reject the Foster + Partners-designed Tulip Tower. As reported by the BBC, the mayor has highlighted a number of concerns raised in a London Review Panel report, and advised City of London Corporation (CLC) planners to reject permission, despite a previous endorsement of the scheme by the CLC’s chief planning officer.
GVL Gossamer has released images of their design for a 19 kilometer stretch of waterfront along the Jing River in Xi’an, China. The proposal, a finalist in an international design competition, celebrates the site’s history at the origin of the Silk Road through strategies that tap into ancient and enduring histories of traditional architecture, merchant trade, and agricultural innovation. These enduring histories are woven with contemporary influences such as responses to major climatic and environmental challenges.
It should come as no surprise that one of the most respected surveys about bicycle use comes from a Danish organization. This ranking by Copenhagenize Design Company uses a point system to compile a list of the cities looking to re-establish the bicycle as an accepted and practical mode of transportation.
Japanese architect Kengo Kuma won the closed contest to design the expansion of the gardens of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon and the new entrance of the Modern Collection of the Gulbenkian Museum. The result was announced last Saturday by the Portuguese newspaper Expresso.
Four finalist teams have been shortlisted to design a new cultural hub along Perth’s Cottesloe Beach in Australia. Developed by the Minderoo Group, 11 Australian architecture firms were invited to submit ideas to reimagine the Cottesloe foreshore and the Indiana Tea House site. The designs aim to open and activate the waterfront and provide a destination for locals and visitors that brings people together.
Architectural firm bauchplan has won first prize in the competition to revitalize a disused viaduct in London. Dubbed Fish n’Chips, their proposal includes a series of green houses, aquaponics and swimming pools to create a new High Line for the city. Sited in Hammersmith, the design was made to become a blue & green living room, with a recreation area and island of retreat for the neighborhood. The project aims to bring awareness to processes of waste management and urban food production in London.
NextOffice and Alireza Taghaboni have released images of their proposed Afarinesh Tower in Shiraz, Iran. The tower is formed as a regular, uniform core housing administrative spaces, which lose their rigid order as the floor levels change, and the program becomes recreational.
ARCVS has released details of their first place entry for a competition to design a multifunctional bridge in Novi Sad, Serbia. Spanning the River Danube, the “Elbow Shadow” bridge contains a hotel and office building alongside the pedestrian walkway. The scheme combines European influences such as the Ponte Vecchio and Rialto Bridge with vernacular responses to the river channels.
Canadian architecture practice Henriquez Partners has designed a series of ten towers for a new suburban development in Vancouver. The mixed-use project was made for developer Westbank to create a new 4.5 million-square-foot residential community for the city. Dubbed Oakridge, the towers will include housing, office and retail as a contemporary architecture for the Pacific Northwest.
“When we started out, our goal was to change the world, to do something that would really make a difference to the lives of people,” said Chad Hamilton, AIA LEED AP BD+C, Principal Architect of Hamilton + Aitken Architects (H+AA). “And education is one of the things that really determines how people live the rest of their lives. “So, for us it’s just a wonderful feeling, to improve kids’ educational spaces.”
