This article was originally published on CommonEdge as "How Design Education Can Transform Our Schools".

Exploring the streets of foreign cities is profoundly engaging. Whether it's meeting new cultures, observing new architectures, or trying new food, travelers usually go for the typical sightseeing activities. However, some have quite a unique take on tourism and choose to think outside the box - or in this case, above it.

Hungarian photographer Márton Mogyorósy chose to explore the Catalonian capital from above, capturing aerial shots of the city. Drone photography has helped us see cities from a unique perspective, and with Barcelona’s dynamic urban fabric, the coastal city’s buildings and beaches have turned into vibrant geometric artwork.

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Studies show that public investment in integrated and safe cycling networks promotes urban transformation, providing more humanity, health and quality of life in urban spaces. While cities in the Netherlands and the Nordic countries have already incorporated bicycles into daily life, with a significant portion of the population using the means of transport for daily commutes, much of the world is still seeking a model to reduce congestion and increase its use. According to the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), investing in non-motorized transport allows congestion reduction, improves air quality, physical and mental health of residents, and local trade and brand visibility, once that cyclists tend to pay more attention to local commerce and take up less space than cars.

But along the cycle lanes and cycle paths it is essential to provide suitable places so that bicycles can be parked at the end of the trails. While bike stands are enclosed spaces, usually with some kind of surveillance and additional infrastructure, paracycles are the structures that allow to securely support and lock the bike. They can integrate in the urban furniture of a city, next to benches, plates, lamps and informative totems.

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GoArchitect have launched a “fast-paced card game” aimed particularly at “raging architects,” challenging competing players to build a new city. Titled “CITY,” the game is currently in the process of development, with a Kickstarter campaign launched to fund the first batch. The game pits players against each other, with would-be tycoons trying to build a complete city while interfering with their competitors’ efforts.

Until recently, the architecture world largely viewed plastic polymers as inferior building materials, handy for wipe-clean kitchen surfaces, but not practical in full-scale building applications. But with technological innovations driving material capabilities forward, polymers are now being taken seriously as a legitimate part of the architect’s pallet. One of the most widely-used of these materials is a fluorine-based plastic known as ETFE (Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene). Brought into the public consciousness thanks to its use on the facade of PTW Architects' Water Cube for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, architects are now realizing the film’s capabilities to express a new aesthetic and replace costlier transparent and translucent materials. Its most recent and spectacular public appearance was on the 120-foot telescopic shell of The Shed, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rockwell Group in New York City.

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Rozana Montiel has won the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture 2019, along with Werner Sobek, Ersen Gürsel, Ammar Khammash and Jorge Lobos. The award ceremony will take place on May 13, 2019 in Paris, France.

The Royal Institute of British Architects has published a new guidance for architecture practices on closing the gender pay gap as part of its commitment to support a diverse and inclusive profession. The RIBA’s guidance – Close The Gap – Improving Gender Equality in Practice – outlines best practice measures and initiatives, and the guidance is accompanied by a #CloseTheGap pledge. The RIBA is encouraging all Chartered Practices to sign up to the pledge as a demonstration of commitment to improving gender equality and ensuring that individual career prospects are independent of one's identity.

The Bulgarian artist Christo will wrap the famous Arc de Triomphe in Paris with recyclable blue fabric in his next work. The work, which will open on April 9 and last for two weeks, coincides with the artist's large exhibition at the Center Pompidou, which brings together works done in partnership with his late wife, Jeanne-Claude, during the period in which they lived in Paris.

Bjarke Ingels Group has released details of their proposed landscape urbanism project in Brooklyn, New York, transforming a six-lane highway into a connected realm between the city and waterfront. The scheme centers on the Robert Moses-designed Brooklyn Queens Expressway, dating back to the 1960s.

As part of UN-Habitat’s New Urban Agenda, Bjarke Ingels Group has proposed a vision for the world’s first resilient and sustainable floating community, designed to accommodate 10,000 people. “Oceanix City” is a response to the prediction that by 2050, 90% of the world’s largest cities will be exposed to rising seas, resulting in mass displacement, and the destruction of homes and infrastructure. The scheme is anchored in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, enacting circular flows of food, energy, water, and waste.

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From Chinese architectural photographer Zheng Shi comes imagery of Kengo Kuma's Yangcheng Lake Tourist Transportation Center in China. Architecture aimed to build a topographic structure as a large hill by randomly placing aluminum extruded materials with single-sized sections. Inside is designed as the assemblage of slanted floors, in order to maintain the same landform both in inside and outside that create some random yet ambiguous state.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rockwell Group's iconic Shed has opened after more than a decade in the making in New York City. The building features a 120-foot telescopic shell in Hudson Yards that can extend out from the base building when needed for larger performances. Clad in ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) “pillows,” the project is connected to the High Line on 30th Street to bring performances and art to the city's newest neighborhood,

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Access to housing, both in the case of purchasing or renting, with any type of financing, is usually one of the most important economic investments in people's lives. It is natural to ask oneself what considerations are necessary in order to have a knowledge base before acting.

Safdie Architects have announced an expansion to the Marina Bay Sands Resort in Singapore. Linking to the existing resort and waterfront development, the project takes cues from the original three hotel towers completed in 2011. Safdie Architects will expand the existing resort with a new stand-alone hotel tower with about 1,000 suites and its own sky roof and swimming pool, as well as a 15,000-seat music arena.

David Chipperfield Architects Berlin has won a design competition for a new headquarters for the Bayerische Versorgungskammer (Bavarian Pensions Fund) in Munich's Bogenhausen district. Designed in collaboration with landscape architects Atelier Loidl, the scheme is to be erected on the former Siemens site at 76 Richard-Strauss-Straße. Prevailing against 11 other submissions, the Chipperfield scheme was praised by the jury for its clear formal language, and highly-flexible floor plans.

Skidmore Owings and Merrill have unveiled their design for the Kempegowda International Airport Terminal 2 in Bengaluru, India. The new air travel hub for the region, the SOM terminal reimagines the airport as a landscaped, serene transportation experience, conceived by the airport commission as a “terminal within a garden.” The project’s first phase of construction is scheduled to be completed in March 2021, when it will serve 25 million annual passengers.

Within the framework of Espacios Oscuros research project, focused on observing and analyzing the experience of sexual diversity in public spaces of Santiago de Chile, architects María González and José Tomás Franco spoke with Nikos Salingaros, a mathematician and thinker known for his alternative theoretical approach to architecture and urbanism. Salingaros promotes design focused on human needs and aspirations, combining rigorous scientific analysis with a deep intuitive experience.

Our cities are, for the most part, hostile to the sensibilities of their citizens. (...) Almost everything has been aligned, standardized, emptied. So, how to meet different people, and how to expect a mix between strangers?

Name: City of Light

Photographer: Sebastian Weiss

Location: Lisbon

Year: March 2019

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Danish firm Dorte Mandrup have designed a new skyscraper to become Western Europe’s tallest tower in Brande, Denmark. Rising over 1000 feet, the project is sited in a rural Danish village of 7,000 people. Dubbed Bestseller Tower, the project will be visible from 37 miles away in every direction. The skyscraper will include offices for the Bestseller fashion company, a hotel, and a “village” of green retail pavilions. The company aims to make the skyscraper "climate positive" as part of their sustainability goals.

Architecture, unlike other aspects of culture (such as fashion or music), can only really be experienced and understood in person. For highly branded companies, designing a new building can be a prime opportunity to signal taste and values - but also creates an interesting architectural conundrum. While the buildings will be inhabited (nearly 24/7) by company employees, they’re also very much populated by the imaginations of people across the globe. What is it like to be in these places?

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Los Angeles based architect and curator Francois Perrin has passed away. Perrin was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer in January, 2019, and passed away on April 1, 2019, in Ventura County, California. As the founder of Air Architecture, the Paris-born architect worked in Southern California while remaining professionally active in France. He is known for his creative and inventive approach to materials, and for his ability to rethink everyday life through his work.

The Foster + Partners-designed Tulip skyscraper in London just took a major step towards realization with an endorsement by planning officials. A report by the City Corporation’s chief planning officer had said that the scheme would give London “a new iconic building” with a “bold and striking” form. The 1000-foot-tall (305-meter-tall) scheme would sit adjacent to The Gherkin: one of Foster’s and London’s most iconic structures.

Officials were particularly convinced by the scheme’s proposed education facility, operated by building owners J. Safra Group giving 20,000 free places per year for London’s state school children, and featuring “an unparalleled vantage point to view London from a height of around 300 meters.” Approving the scheme, the City of London Corporation's planning committee stated their belief that the scheme would boost the area's economy.

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Airbnb has partnered with the Musée du Louvre to offer a unique experience for one lucky winner to sleep underneath the museum’s iconic Pyramid for one night. On April 30th, the winner will take up residence within I.M Pei’s famous 1989 addition to the Parisian complex, part of an elaborate “night at the museum” experience.

Snøhetta has been commissioned for the design of the Shanghai Grand Opera House in Shanghai, China, following an international design competition. Aiming to attract a broad audience for traditional, classical, and experimental performances, Snøhetta has developed the architectural, landscape, interior, and graphic design for the sweeping complex in collaboration with Shanghai-based architects ECADI.

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