Barcelona-based studio Barozzi Veiga has completed its first UK project, which will house Ravensbourne University’s Institute for Creativity and Technology. The building, whose interiors are designed by Brinkworth, is also the first to be completed within the Design District, London’s new purpose-built creative hub at the heart of the Greenwich Peninsula. Featuring a polished aluminium-clad façade that reflects the neighbouring buildings, the design engages with the surrounding context, while also referencing the area’s industrial past.
Architecture News
Barozzi Veiga Completes the First Building of London's Design District
The 20th Serpentine Pavilion Designed by Counterspace, to Open on June 11th 2021
The 20th Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Johannesburg-based practice Counterspace, directed by Sumayya Vally, will finally open on 11 June 2021. After its 1-year postponement due to the global pandemic, the temporary pavilion will stay on display until 17 October 2021, on the Serpentine Gallery’s lawn in Kensington Gardens.
Henning Larsen Designs Active Community Hub as their First London Project
Located in the heart of Westminster, a short distance away from the Buckingham Palace, Henning Larsen are building a community hub that reimagines traditional office and commercial spaces. 105 Victoria Street will be the architecture firm's first ever project in London, providing visitors with an urban plaza that enables an active and social working environment both indoors and outdoors. The project is being developed by BentallGreenOak and is designed in collaboration with Adamson Associates Architects and KPF.
Zaha Hadid Architects to Design New Italian Hyperloop
Zaha Hadid Architects is collaborating with Hyperloop Italia to co-design the next phase of works of the transport vehicles, marking a turning point for the future of transportation. The collaboration aims to merge transformative architecture, engineering, and urban planning with the most efficient and sustainable transport network to improve accessibility, connectivity, and well-being in cities.
KPF Reveals Design for New Office Tower in Manhattan
After completing One Vanderbilt, the tallest office building in New York, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates has unveiled plans for a new skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan. The 320-metre high office tower at 343 Madison Avenue makes the most out of its relatively small plot and the silhouette mandated by the New York City zoning laws, featuring a series of receding volumes that leave a way to gardens and terraces at different levels. When completed, the project will also create an important new transit entrance to the Long Island Rail Road and the Grand Central Complex.
"Dissecting the Politics and Mechanics of Institutions": In Conversation with Russian Pavilion Curator Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli at the 2021 Venice Biennale
To answer the Biennale's question of "How Will We Live Together", curators of the national pavilions explored what the future would look like in an architectural, cultural, and environmental context. Many saw the future as an entirely virtual environment whereas other highlighted the cruciality of physical coexistence with neighbors. ArchDaily met with Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, curator of the Russian Pavilion, to discuss how the idea of the pavilion came together throughout the year as a virtual platform for interdisciplinary creative thinkers, the role of cultural institutions across physical and digital spaces, and how digitalization is always part of the conversation.
Herzog & de Meuron to Convert Former San Francisco Power Plant into Mixed-Use Project
Construction work began for Herzog & de Meuron’s transformation of a former power plant building in San Fransico into a mixed-use project. Designed in collaboration with California-based practice Adamson Associates, the adaptive reuse of iconic Station A is part of the Portrero Power Station project, the redevelopment of a 29-acre industrial site into an extension of the Dogpatch neighbourhood. Herzog & de Meuron’s design retains and repurposes various features of the industrial building while adding a lightweight, steel-framed structure on top, thus giving new life to one of San Francisco’s landmarks.
Modular Components in Industrial Architecture
Industrial architecture usually requires fast installation, low-maintenance components, and flexible spaces that can be used for different purposes. Therefore, modular solutions are very common in this type of construction, also adding a powerful visual language to the building.
The Restroom Pavilion at the 2021 Venice Biennale Displays how Restrooms are Political Battlegrounds
"When we enter the restroom, we are never alone. Instead, we are entangled in a network of bodies, infrastructures, ecosystems, cultural norms, and regulations". Although restrooms are often overlooked facilities that cater to the needs of individuals, they are, however, spaces where gender, religion, race, hygiene, health, and the economy are defined and expressed. For the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia, Matilde Cassani, Ignacio G. Galán, Iván L. Munuera, and Joel Sanders designed two pavilions that exhibit how restrooms are political architectures, serving as battlegrounds for the world's disputes.
Cobe Wins Competition for Gothenburg University Library with Book-Inspired Design
Cobe’s winning design for the new library of the University of Gothenburg proposes a light, clean volume, whose slightly curved facades are a nod to the pages of an open book. The Danish architecture studio translates the concept of knowledge as the heart of a library into the interior spatial configuration of the project, while the architectural image evokes the idea of a lighthouse. Featuring a transparent and open ground floor, the new repository of knowledge creates a strong connection with the surrounding park, becoming a mediator between the city and the university.
Architect Michel Rojkind on the Social Responsibility of Design
In a Design and the City episode - a podcast by reSITE on how to make cities more liveable – Mexican architect Michel Rojkind talks about running, coming from a musical background, and the responsibility of architects to create buildings that can “give something relevant” back to the community. The interview delves into Rojkind’s philosophy of making sure that architectural conversations are not insular, but instead conversations that take place within a multi-disciplinary context.
From Your Eyes to my Eyes: Winning Places Selected by Aldo Amoretti
A few weeks ago the photographer Aldo Amoretti launched an unusual call inviting his and ArchDaily's followers to share their favorite places so that he could later photograph them, in a sense of a collective perspective and with the objective of discovering places. Last week we showed the finalists and today Amoretti has already chosen the places that he will go to document, which will be published on ArchDaily in the coming weeks.
Ford Assembly Plant Renovation Tops Out in Pittsburgh
ZGF Architects, Wexford Science & Technology, and The University of Pittsburgh have revealed new details of the Ford Motor Assembly Plant adaptive reuse in Pittsburgh. Called The Assembly, the project aspires to become a hub of university research, entrepreneurial activity, and innovation programming. The six-story crane shed was used to hoist parts unloaded from the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks for assembly.
World’s Second Tallest Tower to be Built in Russia
Scottish architecture firm Kettle Collective has revealed plans for a 703-metre skyscraper in St. Petersburg, making it the second tallest building in the world after Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. The Lakhta Centre II will have the highest occupied floor, and while the exact site is yet to be confirmed, it will sit alongside Lakhta Centre, currently the tallest building in Europe and the headquarters of energy firm Gazprom.
Henning Larsen Designs New Church in Højvangen, Denmark, the First to be Built in Skanderborg Parish in Over 500 years
Henning Larsen has won a competition to design Højvangen Church, the first church to be built in Skanderborg Parish in over 500 years. The new intervention, set to be completed and inaugurated by December 2024, will be a new public gathering point in the growing residential area of Højvangen in Skanderborg, Denmark.