Architecture News

Following an international competition, MVRDV has been selected to lead the design of the Hangzhou Oil Refinery Factory Park, an extensive project aiming to transform the former industrial district into a cultural center set in a green environment. Complete with a new art and science museum, offices, retail, and a wide variety of cultural offerings, the redevelopment demonstrates a way forward from an oil-based infrastructure to more sustainable alternatives, while retaining the memory of the past technologies. The park sits alongside the southern end of China’s Grand Canal, the world’s longest and one of the oldest man-made waterways created to strengthen economic connections between the south and the north of the country.

+ 17

The Natural History Museums of Los Angeles (NHMLAC) announced the selection of Kossmanndejong (KDJ) as the firm that will lead the design of exhibition spaces and develop visitor experiences to reimagine the La Brea Tar Pits. As the world’s only active paleontological research site in an urban setting, KDJ will work through many design verticals, such as architecture, landscaping, and programming. KDJ, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, was chosen through an international search and competitive process to provide creative and interpretive strategies for the site-wide redesign in Hancock Park. KDJ will collaborate with the architectural and landscape design team led by WEISS/MANFREDI and Los Angeles-based Gruen Associates, who NHMLAC recently named Executive Architect of the Year.

+ 2

Every year since 1996, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has hosted the RIBA London Awards to celebrate outstanding works of architecture from across the United Kingdom. This year, the list of winners includes 52 buildings ranging from a senior day-care center in Blackheath to a cultural hub in Greenwich and a subtle intervention in Hackney’s de Beauvoir conservation area. All RIBA London Awards winners will be considered for the RIBA National Award, scheduled to be announced on June 22^nd.

+ 48

The Naomi Milgrom Foundation has revealed the design of its tenth MPavilion, designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Tadao Ando, set to open during Australian summer, on November 16, 2023. Reflecting the architect’s architectural approach, the design unveiled the “use of striking geometric interventions in nature and […] concrete.” Once ready, the intervention will become the architect’s first commission in Australia. Created as a new gathering place situated within Melbourne's cultural and botanical garden precinct, MPavilion 10 responds directly to the park's surroundings by emphasizing spatial purity and utilizing the geometric shapes of circles and squares.

As part of the Circlewood consortium, OMA’s David Gianotten and Michel den Otter have developed a modular system to build schools that can adapt and transform throughout their lifecycle. The system was selected by the City of Amsterdam to be employed to build multiple schools in the coming ten years, as part of the Innovation Partnership School Buildings program. The citywide initiative aims to build nine to thirty “high-quality, flexible, and sustainable” schools as a way to contribute to the city’s goal of becoming fully circular by 2050.

+ 1

The Salone del Mobile in Milan - 2023 is one of the most anticipated design events of the year. Present once again, as different brands showcased their exceptional materials, products, and features in an environment where design sets the tone, DAAily hosted the DAAily bar, in its second edition, organized jointly by Designboom, Architonic, and ArchDaily.

Taking place at the Piazza Cavour’s Swiss Corner on the edge of Brera, from April 17th, 2023, until April 21st, 2023, the DAAily bar was an opportunity to not only celebrate with architects, designers, and industry figures but also to recognize ArchDaily's "Most Referenced Brands" ranking, a diverse list of important brands in the architecture and design industry. More than 30 brands were awarded a trophy during the event.

+ 1

The Design Educates Awards, the awards that annually recognize the best projects that respond to complex social and environmental contexts and carry educational value, have just announced the results of the 2023 edition. The awards look for what will have a lasting impact on users and the environment and showcase the world's best ideas and realizations that can educate.

Following an international competition, Kengo Kuma & Associates has been selected to design the new visitor center for Butrint National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Albania’s Ionian coastline. Through its placement in a nodal and strategic position, the project aims to establish a new connection between the local communities and the expected archeological site visitors, thus improving the accessibility of the site, which is recognized as one of Albania’s chef cultural attractions. The visitor center, developed with Albanian partners CHwB Albania, is scheduled to open to the public in 2025.

+ 7

The 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennial (SAT) will take place from November 11th, 2023 to March 10th, 2024, under the theme "The Beauty of Impermanence: An Architecture of Adaptability". Focusing on how scarcity in the Global South has led to a culture of re-use, re-appropriation, innovation, collaboration, and adaptation, the second edition of the architectural exhibition, curated by Tosin Oshinowo, aims to shift global conversations towards creating a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable future.

+ 4

The Diversity in Architecture Prize (DIVIA) was awarded to Italian architect Marta Maccaglia, founder of Semillas, for her commitment to educational construction in Peru. This international recognition of 20,000 euros aims to promote the visibility of women in the architecture industry. Among the five finalists of this edition were Tosin Oshinowo (Nigeria), May al-Ibrashy (Egypt), Noella Nibakuze (Rwanda), and Katherine Clarke and Liza Fior (United Kingdom).

For the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Pavilion of Ukraine presents an exhibition titled “Before the Future,” focusing on the paradox of “building a future from a collapsing present.” The intervention reimagines two spaces, one in Arsenale and one in Giardini, to evoke protective structures that have become emblematic of feelings of safety while under threat for Ukrainian society. The curatorial team, composed of Iryna Miroshnykova and Oleksii Petrov, of the Kyiv-based architectural office ФОРМА, and Borys Filonenko, independent curator, art critic, and lecturer, set out to work with specialists from numerous fields to further explore the theme “Laboratory of the Future.”

+ 3

The Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) has selected an international architecture team to design its new performance home. Comprising BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), William Rawn Associates, and Nashville-based EOA Architects, the global architecture team will reimagine the 50-year-old performing arts non-profit on a different site from its original 1974 plot, part of the State-owned James K. Polk Cultural Center.

The Kingdom of Bahrain announced its participation at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia with a pavilion exhibition titled “Sweating Assets.” Curated by architects Latifa Alkhayat and Maryam Aljomairi, the exhibition highlights the relationship between the extreme heat and humidity that characterizes Bahrain and the inherent need for comfort. The curators aim to show how the necessary cooling infrastructure can be maximized through adaptive means and resource management while reducing its negative impact on the environment.

+ 2

The 15-story residential building designed by MVRDV in Montevideo, Uruguay, has been approved for construction. Named "Ziel," the project consists of individual homes creating an open and permeable environment that allows light and air to flow through the structure, resulting in spacious green spaces for the enjoyment and coexistence of residents. This project is MVRDV's first in Uruguay, designed for developer IXOU in collaboration with Monoblock's executive architecture.

+ 1

Deliberated by the Board of Directors of La Biennale di Venezia and upon recommendation by Curator Lesley Lokko, the International Jury of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, which will open on the 20th of May 2023, and will run until the 26th of November, 2023, has been selected. The 2023 jury will include Italian architect and curator Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli as president, Palestinian architect and curator, Nora Akawi, American director and curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, Thelma Golden, South-African founder and co-editor of Cityscapes Magazine, Tau Tavengwa; and Polish Izabela Wieczorek, architect in Spain and a researcher and educator based in London.

The International Jury will award the "Golden Lion for Best National Participation", the "Golden Lion for the best participant in the International Exhibition The Laboratory of the Future", as well as the "Silver Lion for a promising young participant in the International Exhibition The Laboratory of the Future". The Jury may also award a maximum of one special mention to a National Participation, and a maximum of two special mentions to the participants in the International Exhibition The Laboratory of the Future. The announcements and awards ceremony will take place in Venice on Saturday, May 20th, 2023.

The National Pavilion of Ireland will present an exhibition titled “In Search of Hy-Brasil” at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The pavilion set out to explore diverse cultures, communities, and experiences of Ireland’s remote islands in the search for new ways of inhabiting the world. A team of five architects has been selected as the curators of the exhibition: Peter Carroll, Peter Cody, Elizabeth Hatz, Mary Laheen, and Joseph Mackey. The pavilion will be open to the public from May 20th to November 26th, 2023; afterward, the installation will tour Ireland in 2024, bringing voices from peripheral locations into mainstream conversations around our global future.

+ 3

For the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the national pavilion of Latvia will be transformed into “TCL,” a supermarket that gathers architectural ideas and products of different origins. Commissioned by Jānis Dripe and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, the exhibition is curated by Uldis Jaunzems-Pētersons, and designed by a team comprising Ernests Cerbulis, Ints Menģelis, Toms Kampars, and Karola Rubene. The Pavilion will be open from May 20th until November 26th, 2023.

+ 2