Foster + Partners Applied Research + Development team has created VARID (Virtual and Augmented Reality for Inclusive Design). Designed in collaboration with City, University of London (City) and UCL’s PEARL Lab, VARID is a design toolkit that uses virtual and augmented reality technologies. Its objective is to support academics, designers, and architects in better understanding how people with vision impairments perceive their environment.
A needs program precedes every project. In certain typologies, specific activities are inherently linked to them. A meeting room in a corporate office, a collection in a museum, and bedrooms in a residence: the latter has a relatively well-defined basic needs program: bedrooms, living room, bathrooms, and kitchen. The size and arrangement of these elements in the space depend on various factors, but a house typically includes some combination of these essential components.
Rammed earth has been used in construction for thousands of years, with evidence of its use dating as far back as the Neolithic Period. Commonly used especially in China, the technique was applied to both ancient monuments and vernacular architecture, with the Great Wall utilizing the technique. Though interest in rammed earth declined in the 20th century, some continue to advocate its use today, citing its sustainability in comparison to more modern construction methods. Most notably, rammed earth structures use local materials, meaning they have low embodied energy and produce little waste. Below, we describe how to build with this material.
On March 2, 2023, Rafael Viñoly passed away at the age of 78, leaving behind a legacy of bold and imposing designs that shaped the skyline of cities across the globe. He is internationally recognized for works such as the Boston Convention Center, which redefined urban space in the American city, the new Carrasco Airport in Montevideo, and the controversial 20 Fenchurch Tower in London.
Paul Clemence has released images of the Amaris mixed-use development in Washington D.C., one of the latest works completed by renowned Uruguayan American architect, Rafael Viñoly. The photographic series reveals a distinctively shaped curvilinear building opening towards public spaces along the Potomac River. The volume is created to accommodate residential units with generous views toward the surrounding landscape, marking the terminus point to a row of new buildings in The Wharf development.
URB has released a study for “Dubai Cycle City 2040,” envisioning diverse cycling infrastructure in the Emirate. The initiative aims to revolutionize transportation in Dubai, allowing residents quick access to critical services and locations by cycling or walking. In a city where cars have reigned supreme as a transportation mode, plans are underway to transform urban mobility.
A few days before the end of November, Gramado, a city known as one of the most sought-after tourist destinations in southern Brazil, grabbed the attention of national and international media. Unfortunately, it wasn't due to its film festival or the traditional lavish Christmas festivities. The city, already suffering from weeks of persistent rain, witnessed the emergence of massive geological rifts tearing through its streets, creating a post-apocalyptic movie-like scenario.
The imminent danger of ground movement alerted the population and the authorities, who promptly evacuated the buildings on the hills of the condemned neighborhood. This course of action proved entirely effective and responsible, as one of the buildings within the designated area did indeed collapse three days after the evacuation. However, it is worth noting a detail: the affected neighborhood consisted of upscale residences and luxury hotels and inns, which raises a question: would the efforts have been the same if the situation occurred in lower-income peripheral neighborhoods?
The traditional office space of the 20th century, with its huge filing cabinets, industrial-strength printers, and high-capacity meeting rooms, is no longer the only way to do business. As technologies such as cloud computing, video conferencing, and AI make our working lives simpler, all we really need is a flat surface and a wifi password.
In a commercial climate where even the largest companies pay as much notice to their social media accounts as their share price, it’s never been easier for small businesses to compete, but finding suitable office space for single-digit employers can be hard. These four small-scale workplaces show how, by keeping things small, they can do more with a lot less.
3D printing holds vast potential due to its ease of large-quantity manufacturing, its flexibility in terms of material exploration, and its ability to materialize all kinds of geometries. This year, architects and designers have looked at 3D printing technology to decarbonize construction materials, integrate contemporary aesthetics with traditional construction methods, and add a layer of craft and artistry to interiors and facades.
Regarding urban development, the choice between demolition and adaptive reuse holds far-reaching implications. From debates around the cultural and historical significance of structure to the environmental impact of the process of razing and rebuilding, compared to the cost of preserving and adapting, the matter of demolitions has ignited the architectural community to come together and ask for more responsible assessment strategies in hopes of rediscovering the value of existing structures. This article gathers some of the stories of buildings facing the threat of demolition and the processes that led to their rescue.
Covering all regions of the world, the continental winning projects of the 2023 Prix Versailles have been revealed. With 18 selected establishments in the categories of stores, hotels, and restaurants, as well as 15 shopping centers, the projects are grouped into six regions: Africa and Western Asia; Central, South America, and the Caribbean; North America; Central and Northeast Asia; South Asia and the Pacific; and Europe.
Architecture competitions are platforms where innovation meets imagination, where the boundaries of what we know about design and architecture are relentlessly pushed. Serving as spaces for architects and designers to realize groundbreaking ideas, competitions challenge our conventions and shape our future environments. While countless creative concepts are proposed, only a handful are realized. In fact, these winning designs stand as a showcase for the creativity of architects, redefining our future built environments.
These winning projects demonstrate the global initiative to rethink the way we interact with spaces. HOKA fosters community interaction, while RITSO Resort merges tradition with modernity. Science Forest transforms museums into hubs for dialogue, and Elan-Meenakshi apartments in Hyderabad integrate urban living with green spaces. Ranging from Vietnam, Greece, Rome, to India, these examples showcase the transformative potential of architecture competition winners, reshaping our perception and interaction with the spaces we inhabit.
The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.
A variety of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes are interviews, while others are tips for fellow designers, reviews of buildings and other projects, or casual explorations of everyday life and design. The Second Studio is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.
This week David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design discuss how they use 3D images and renderings in their process. The two discuss the value of 3D images as a design tool and communication tool, the limitations and downsides of 3D images, and how these visuals are used during the different project phases.
In recent years, India has emerged as a focal point for architects and urban designers from around the world. From the rich legacy of masters and emerging firms to smart city initiates being established across the peninsula, the acts of decolonization in architecture design to the evolution of a modernized vernacular, India has been demonstrating the power of supporting good architecture and urban design. This year, ArchDaily launched ArchDaily Building for Billions, a column that discusses the effects of population rise, urbanization, and economic growth on India’s built environment. Building for Billions was fueled by the recognition of changes and innovative projects washing over the country.
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Architecture in the Global South often embodies a rich cultural heritage and craftsmanship, incorporating vibrant colors, intricate patterns, and symbolic elements. It also tackles the challenges faced by developing economies, such as limited resources, rapid urbanization, and social inequality, by promoting inclusive and community-driven design solutions. As installations and pavilions serve as radical templates for interrogating these architectural ideals and seeking innovative solutions, we present the top architectural installations as part of our year-in-review. They encompass curated exhibitions like the Venice Architecture Biennale, as well as permanent pavilion structures in specific contexts that delve into local materials, waste reuse, and the reinterpretation of historical narratives.
Our buildings become symbolic of the times we live in, reflecting the spirit of a given era, attending to different needs, lifestyles and functions. “Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness,” says one of the most prominent architects of our time, Frank Gehry. For architectural innovators, exploring new technological potentials and envisioning ways to enrich people’s lives have long been driving forces, shaping responses to contemporary challenges. Today, sustainability stands as a key challenge, adding new dimensions to the debate, bringing together form, function, the responsible choice of materials and long-term thinking. Adapting to these demands has never held more significance.
“ReviveR,” a new exhibition by MVRDV opened at the Shenzhen Women & Children’s Centre, focused on the different narratives surrounding its hosting building, from the role of play and social interaction, to the importance of fun environments for people of all ages, along with the need to reduce carbon emissions by applying principles of circularity. The exhibition is on display in the building’s 5th-floor auditorium from December 6, 2023, until February 28, 2024.
RSHP has just won the Jean Moulin competition held in La Défense, Paris, to design a low-carbon mixed-use development. The competition is a part of the Paris business district initiative to become the world's first post-carbon business neighborhood, launching “Empreintes,” aiming to revolutionize five urban sites at the district’s periphery. Through collaboration with neighboring city centers, the scheme hopes to create various sustainable mixed-use properties.
Cities are not just inert landscapes or lifeless settings; they play active and significant roles in shaping numerous television narratives. Whether in series or soap operas, urban environments play a fundamental role not only as the backdrop where plots unfold but also in shaping the developments of storylines, their creations, guidelines, and contexts. While, on the one hand, cities and their urban cultures contribute to the composition of various small screen plots, on the other hand, television programs can also help shape a certain idealized imagination about these urban spaces, generating unrealistic expectations and perpetuating a series of stereotypes about the represented cities.
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
The biennale UN climate conference, COP28, concluded in Dubai this week with a commitment to the eventual “phasing out” of fossil fuels. It was a classic glass-half-empty/glass-half-full gesture. Yes, as optimists pointed out, it was the first time any reference to moving away from fossil fuels had made it into the text of the final communique. But, like previous COPs, this resolution, too, is nonbinding and was reached over howls of protest from both oil-producing countries and developing countries reliant on existing energy supply chains for future growth. The tortuous nature of the outcome, watered down and officially toothless, left me feeling glum. If we can’t agree on the nature of the problem, it will be exceptionally difficult to fix it.
To offer perspective, I reached out to longtime activist Bill McKibben. A professor at Middlebury College, he has published 20 books; his first, The End of Nature, appeared in 1989. He was, along with Dr. James Hansen, one of the first to sound the climate alarm. McKibbin is a contributing writer to the New Yorker, and a founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice. In collaboration with seven Middlebury students, he founded 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign.
The duality of sunlight in the field of architectural design presents fascinating contrasts, especially when addressing the question of how to interact with it through the built environment and the materials that define architecture. The sun's influence in this discipline has become an essential part of the cultural heritage of some countries, as evidenced by Spanish architecture, where the interaction with sunlight manifests through elements such as lattices. These lattices are recognizable on the facades of buildings from the Middle Ages, exemplified by structures like the Alhambra, to 20th-century constructions such as Casa Gomis, considered historical monuments.
The facade, being the skin of the building, is the architectural component that is usually directly exposed to sunlight. Based on this premise, we seek to establish a dialogue between openness to the environment and the need for protection, thus creating a synergy between functionality and aesthetics. In this context, sunscreen facades have been developed through various approaches, standing out for their ability to address this design condition. For this reason, we have selected solar control solutions from Spanish brands, distinguished by their technical characteristics and materiality through various approaches.
As we reflect on the tumultuous events of 2023, it becomes evident that the challenges posed by changing environmental conditions have left an indelible mark on communities worldwide. In response, architects and urban planners have set out, searching for the ways in which their actions can help create safer environments for communities worldwide, responding with both fast-to-deploy emergency architectures and long-term strategies to build resilience and mitigate risks.
Beyond merely responding to events like the devastating earthquakes in Turkey, Syria, and Morocco, or the widespread flooding in Libya or Pakistan, professionals are attempting to take proactive approaches, developing strategies that extend from predictive modeling to the application of re-naturalizing techniques or the ongoing research into the physics of safer and resilient structures.
The Board of Directors of La Biennale di Venezia has just announced Carlo Ratti as the next curator of the International Architecture Exhibition. The 19th exhibition will take place in 2025, from May 24 to November 23. The appointment was recommended by President Roberto Cicutto, and has the support of Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, President of La Biennale di Venezia for the four-year term March 2024-2027.
BIG has just unveiled “Gelephu,” an envisioned master plan that draws from Bhutanese culture, Gross National Happiness principles, and spiritual heritage. During the 116th National Day of Bhutan, His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck introduced the plans for the prospective economic center in the country. Designed in collaboration with Arup and Cistri, the master plan is adhering to the sustainable standards of the world’s first official carbon-negative country, Bhutan.
