As Paris’ famous Louvre Pyramid, designed by IM Pei, celebrates its 30th anniversary, artist JR has created a giant collaborative piece of art filling up the entire Napoleon Court. “The Secret of the Great Pyramid” was created with the help of 400 volunteers, generating a giant optical illusion of pyramid disappearing into an underground abyss.

The intervention was created by hundreds of volunteers cutting and pasting 2000 strips of paper, on a scale previously unexplored by the artist. Far from a precious fixture, the artwork is intended to be distressed and destroyed by pedestrians walking across the artwork.

CHYBIK + KRISTOF Architects has begun construction on the Lahofer Winery in the Czech Republic, seeking to create a space “symbiotic with the surrounding nature of the vineyards.” Encompassing a winemaking facility, visitor center, tasting room, and rooftop amphitheater, the scheme will be a fusion of tradition, nature, and modern winemaking practices.

The scheme’s three interconnected structures vary in height, lying under an undulating roof serving as a public amphitheater, hosting concerts and cultural events for visitors and locals. The scheme responds to the architectural language of the Moravian landscape, with a lightened volume and aesthetic that avoids impacting too heavily on the landscape.

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Hines Architecture + Design and Design Collaborative have been selected to design Jamaica's new Houses of Parliament in Kingston. Joining Christopher Bent and Gregory Lake, the winning team was selected as the People's Choice winner and beat out 23 other submissions. Dubbed “Out of Many, One People,” the winning proposal will be constructed in Kingston’s National Heroes Park.

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Paradigma Ariadné received an honorable mention in the Budapest South Gate Competition for their masterplan project in Hungary. Working with urban planners Spacefor Architect, as well as landscape and traffic designers Lépték Terv and Krisztina Mihálffy, the team's proposal was designed as a new neighborhood in Budapest for university students along the Danube river.

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Videos

SEArch+ and Apis Cor have won first place in the Virtual Construction level of NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Centennial Challenge, seeking to create sustainable shelters suitable for the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Using resources available on-site in these locations, the female-led, New York-based space research and design practice proposed the MARS X HOUSE, offering a robust, durable 3D-printed habitat using autonomous robotics.

Led by SEArch+ co-founder Melodie Yashar, the scheme employs evidence-based design for the form and constructability of the future habitat, intended for a crew of four to live and work on Mars for one Earth year. The habitat is designed to exceed radiation standards in order to ensure human health while connecting the crew with natural light and views of the Martian landscape.

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Mexican architect Michel Rojkind has been named the senior vice president of architecture at WeWork. A native of Mexico City, Rojkind founded the Rojkind Arquitectos office in 2002 focusing on design, tactical and experiential innovation, maintaining an architectural vision that will shape integral experiences, connecting the complexities of each project to a deeper level to positively impact society and the environment. This vision was what led him to connect perfectly with the WeWork approach.

Agustín Ferrer Casas has published an illustrated comic book charting the life and work of the renowned architect Mies van der Rohe. Featuring texts by Anatxu Zabalbeascoa and Norman Foster, MIES is a biopic inspired by Ferrer Casas’ reading of Mies van der Rohe: Menos es más by Anatxu Zabalbeascoa.

The presentation of the graphic novel is part of the Fundacio Mies van der Rohe's efforts to support new languages for the dissemination of knowledge of architecture that will be of interest to both professionals and those who want to learn about modern architecture through a rich, visual medium.

John Wardle Architects' Ian Potter Southbank Centre for the University of Melbourne's Conservatorium of Music has opened to faculty and students. The $109 million project was designed as part of the larger Southbank campus transformation in Australia. Made to house more than 1,000 music students, the project includes a series of performance areas, studios and rehearsal spaces. The Southbank Centre also features one of the world's largest oculus windows.

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Under heavy bombing, buildings seem to have only one fate: destruction. Severely damaged during the Spanish Civil War, the 13th-century Gothic Church of Vilanova de la Barca (Lleida, Spain) remained abandoned since 1936.

It was only almost 80 years later that the remnants of the structure – parts of the naves, the west façade and the apse towards the east– went through a restoration and refurbishment process. This time, however, the building was not meant to be used as a church but as a multi-purpose hall.

With the aim of generating an architecture that incubates the wellbeing, self-realization, and fulfillment of its inhabitants to become the best version of themselves, CEBRA has launched an ambitious Research and Development Program (R&D) called WISE (Work, Innovation, Space and Education).

As explained by its creators, the purpose of WISE is "to bridge the ongoing and rapid change in the sectors of workspace and education to inform the design of buildings that stimulate learning and innovation. We are connecting ideas of the foremost thinkers of education and entrepreneurship, research and studies in sensory stimuli, cognitive psychology, and behaviorism with architecture."

We spoke with Carsten Primdahl, founding partner of CEBRA, and Klaudio Muca, R&D Architect at CEBRA, to better understand the approach and expected results of the program.

It is the end of May 2016, Alejandro Aravena’s “Reporting from the Front” Biennale is about to kick off the next day and I just landed at Venice airport. Vaporetto waterbuses are no longer running at this late hour, so I am heading for a water taxi, thinking that it will cost me a bundle to get to the city. But maybe not! I see a lonely figure, “Are you going to Venice? Would you like to share a taxi?” A young Chinese woman agrees without hesitation. As soon as the boat leaves I keep pressing my luck, “Are you an architect, by any chance?” Yes! The next hour flew unnoticed, as we discussed our discipline and common friends. Two years passed, and I am back to Venice Biennale. At the opening of the Chinese Pavilion, I am hopping from conversation to conversation until I am introduced to Xu Tiantian, “China’s most promising female architect.” We looked at each other and said in unison, “The taxi girl/guy!” We finally exchanged contacts and on my next trip to Beijing we met at Xu’s DnA Design and Architecture studio. What follows, after a brief introduction, is an excerpt from that conversation.

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I Am Interested in Seeing the Future is an architectural exhibition, that, contrary to what you might expect, includes no models and no drawings. Instead, as soon as visitors arrive, they find themselves surrounded by text. The wall facing the entrance is covered by an installation of single words on posters, interview transcripts on colored paper, and mirrors that reflect the sentences on flimsy scrolls arcing down from the ceiling. 

Magic lies in architectural ruins. Beneath the dirt and mold, fractured walls and deserted rooms still stand, preserving the remains that have lingered long after their owners' departure.

During his explorations of abandoned places across Europe, photographer Romain Veillon stumbled upon enchanting frescoes and paintings that were left to fade in the parlors of the aristocrats. Veillon became keen on finding more of these imaginary museums across the continent, and to his chance, managed to discover many in France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, and Portugal.

Before their art is forgotten and their houses quietly rust away, Veillon captured the murals found in these haute bourgeoisie family houses, which illustrate stories of the cities they lay in and the people they once belonged to.

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“Hudson Yards’ Large Honeycomb… Hudson Yards’ New Shawarma Sculpture…”
Call it what you want, but the Vessel has created quite a buzz over the past couple of weeks, and it is not just because of its impressive architecture, or the panoramic view at the top (to which some claimed that getting there was an uncalled for work-out).

After coming across different nicknames of Hudson Yards’ now-famous point of attraction, architectural designer and illustrator Chanel Dehond selected some of the most amusing ones and transformed them into sketches.

Tell us, ArchDaily readers, what do you call the Vessel?

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Volume Zero has announced the results of their RE School architecture competition 2018, which challenged participants to design and innovative school that brings education to children living in the most inaccessible areas of the world. Serving as a hub for interaction between local communities, the winning schemes ranged from a school floating above a shanty area to a transportable building made of hands-on material.

Below, we have republished the three winners from the competition. For more information about the competition, honorable and special mentions, visit the official website here.

Dutch firm Benthem Crouwel Architects have transformed an office building in Amsterdam into the most sustainable renovated property in the Netherlands. Now the new head office for the Dutch Charity Lotteries, the building received BREEAM Outstanding rating for its sustainable design. The adaptive reuse features a series of slender, tree-shaped columns that support an iconic roof with nearly 7,000 polished aluminum leaves.

TOPOTEK 1 has won an international competition for the design of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences. Unanimously selected from a list of 60 first stage entries and 10-second stage finalists, the winning scheme seeks to become “a cosmopolitan institution that promotes excellent and future-orientated science,” situated between a parkland and seaport.

Carefully integrated into the existing environment, the complex is characterized by a distinctive typology merging two buildings with a park landscape. Fostering a cohesive visual dialogue with the surroundings, the new low-rise buildings are connected by a new inviting public space.

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JKMM Architects has won the competition to design a new museum in the sea side town of Tammisaari outside Helsinki. Organised by the Albert de la Chapelle Art Foundation, the competition aims to create a museum for the foundation's art collection with space to exhibit the work. JKMM’s entry was designed to act as a landmark and beacon for the city's cultural quarter to invite the public from the town’s main square.

This article was made in partnership with Design Indaba, a website and annual festival that uncovers innovation for good. Global Graduate Nicole Moyo presented her project Day 1 of the 2019 festival. Click here to learn more about the annual event.

Our planet is home to almost 7 billion people. Out of these 7 billion, more than 5 billion have access to mobile phones, but less have access to working toilets, and more than 1 billion still discharge waste in the open.

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Studio Gang has been selected to lead the $8.5 billon O'Hare 21 International Airport expansion in Chicago. Chosen from a list of firms including BIG, Calatrava and SOM, the Studio Gang team is part of the Studio ORD partnership. They won the project for the Global Terminal and Concourse with three volumes converging in a central hub. Designed to celebrate Chicago’s history as a city shaped by lines of movement, the project represents O’Hare’s first major overhaul in 25 years.

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Following a controversy surrounding unpaid internships at the office of Serpentine Pavilion architects Junya Ishigami + Associates, the Serpentine Gallery has ordered the firm to pay all staff who will work on the design of the 2019 pavilion. Criticism of the working conditions of interns at the firm followed an email reportedly seen by The Architects’ Journal, with a prospective intern highlighting a lack of pay, six-day work weeks, and long office hours.

The Jean Nouvel-designed National Museum of Qatar has opened to the public in Doha. The architectural concept for the scheme has been inspired by the desert rose, and seeks to create a dialogue between the fluid, contemporary architectural form of the museum, and the historic objects it will contain. As quoted in a recent press release by Qatar Museums, the scheme will “give a voice to Qatar’s heritage whilst celebrating its future.” The museum opened to a lavish ceremony attended by architect Nouvel, and celebrities such as Victoria Beckham and Johnny Depp.

London-based practice JTP won the competition to create a 760ha masterplan for a new eco-city district in Kazan, Russia. Working with OXO Architects, Terra Scape and XTU Architects, the team proposed the development outside the regional capital of Tatarstan. Dubbed Ecopolis, the design centers on a series of "green fingers" that connect to a landscape ring around the district.

Noor Art & Architecture Studio has completed a digital reconstruction of the Ayine Khaneh Palace of Isfahan, Iran. The project is led by architect Mohammad Yazdi Rad. Based on historic plans and written documents, the project visualizes one of the most important buildings in the city. In 1891, the palace was destroyed by Zello Soltan, governor of Isfahan. The reconstruction was made to create a cultural structure that brings awareness to Safavid era building and Persian architecture.