Architecture News

The Transamerica Pyramid, a landmark in the skyline of San Francisco, is undergoing a revitalization project led by Foster + Partners and luxury real estate developers SHVO. Built in 1972, the 48-story Brutalist-style project was designed by American architect William Pereira, and was the tallest building in San Francisco for nearly half a century. The renovation will be the largest in the building’s 50-year history, will also see the expansion and upgrade of the adjacent Three Transamerica (545 Sansome).

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To honor the losses caused by the pandemic over the past two years, a temporary national memorial will be built in Bedworth’s Miners' Welfare Park in England on May 21st until May 28th. Designed by artist David Best, Sanctuary will serve as a powerful symbol of catharsis and rebirth for the whole community, giving them the chance to grieve the losses caused by the pandemic by writing messages or leaving mementos on the walls of the installation, which will then be burned on its last day.

The NextGen International Taskforce is a collaboration between IE School of Architecture & Design and CPA NextGen, bringing together international talent to exchange ideas on the real-estate industry and built environment. This group of NextGen professionals typically gathers on a bi-monthly basis to address topics such as sustainability, inclusivity, technology, cities and wellbeing.

These conversations look at the future of cities and how to build a better future for people and businesses. In this edition, held on January 25th, 2022, a group of 12 professionals came together to discuss the topic of sustainable mobility, also touching on the future of remote work and its impact on housing.

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 2022 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.

Grimshaw, in collaboration with Nautes Architects, WSP, Vogt and Turner & Townsend, have been awarded first place in an anonymous competition for the renewal of Budapest Nyugati Railway Station. Selected from a shortlist of 12 international design firms, the winning design creates a "permeable station campus" with a series of car-free streets, walkways, public squares and a park, which open up the station complex to the city and restores its significance as one of the most vibrant and historic cities in Europe.

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Pritzker Prize 2022 Laureate Francis Kéré is known for “empowering and transforming communities through the process of architecture”, as the jury stated in its citation. In this recently published video, Martha Thorne, Dean of IE School of Architecture and Design and former executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, shares some of the reasons why Francis Kéré has won the Pritzker Prize 2022.

Following Qatar's ambitious museum-building project to further promote cultural institutes in the country, Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums has announced that OMA, Herzog & de Meuron, and ELEMENTAL will be designing three new museums in Doha that explore the themes of Islamic art, contemporary art, and evolution of the automobile industry respectively.

Construction broke ground on a new cruise terminal at Port of Miami designed by Arquitectonica for cruise operator MSC Cruises. With the capacity to process 36,000 passengers per day and simultaneously accommodate three mega cruise ships, the structure due for completion in 2023 will be the largest cruise terminal in North America. Located on the eastern end of the Port, the 4-storey structure makes the most of the long, narrow site by creating a layered embark and debark experience, expressed in its architectural image.

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cove. tool's core mission is to fight climate change by helping architects, engineers, contractors, and developers use data-driven design through automation and cost optimization. Creating a competition premise that called attention to this critical issue was important. With the recently published landmark Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 2021 report that warned of increased extreme heatwaves, droughts, and flooding, as well as a key temperature limit on track to be broken in just over a decade, it further highlighted the urgency. As climate change intensifies, housing stability will be increasingly under threat. These two inextricably linked issues had the potential to spark innovative ideas from the international design community and community-at-large. With the sizeable grand prize of $50k, the goal was to solicit entries from all over the world and help facilitate more conversations about carbon positive, affordable housing that could be replicated in multiple neighborhoods, cities, and countries. Sustainability and affordability are often two topics that are at odds. However, this competition proved that there are creative solutions to complex problems.

Who Participated?

Videos

Canada’s Department of National Heritage, along with the Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth Marci Ien, as well as the LGBT Purge Fund have unveiled “Thunderhead” as the winning concept of Ottowa's LGBTQ2+ National Monument competition. The winning design symbolizes a thunderhead cloud, which embodies the "strength, activism and hope of LGBTQ2+ communities, and will be a lasting testimony to the courage and humanity of those who were harmed by the LGBT Purge, homophobic, and transphobic laws and norms".

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A new European architecture platform will launch in June this year, with the scope of supporting emerging architects and at the same time mobilizing the profession's efforts in delivering a sustainable, circular built environment. Operating on a grant from the Creative Europe initiative, LINA brings together 28 European and Mediterranean organizations from 23 countries, among which are several European biennials, triennials and festivals, museums, research networks and laboratories, publishing houses and universities. A successor to the Future Architecture platform, the initiative will be coordinated by the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Ljubljana and directed by Matevž Čelik.

The Municipality of Paysandú commissioned OMA (Office of Metropolitan Architecture) to draw up the project for the urban transformation of Paysandú's waterfront. Covering an area of about 350 hectares, the Master Plan extends from the "General José Artigas" International Bridge, which links Paysandú with Argentina on the northern border, to the mouth of the Sacra Stream.

HENN’s Zalando BHQ-Z Building topped out in Berlin and, once completed, will strengthen the city’s identity as a tech hub. The project is the last structure to be built within the HENN’s three-building headquarter complex for Zalando. The design reinterprets the traditional Berlin block through a Z-shaped plan that transforms the usually private, interior courtyard into an inviting public space. At the same time, the building’s voids create a dialogue with the surrounding built environment.

As part of a strategy developed in late 2021 by Ken Salazar (US Ambassador to Mexico), Deanna Kim (US Consul General in Nuevo Laredo), and Esteban Moctezuma (Mexico Ambassador) in collaboration with leaders politicians, and businessmen from the southern region of Texas and the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, Overland Partners has been announced in conjunction with Able City as the creators of the new 6.3-mile "Binational River Park" that will extend along the Rio Grande - Rio Grande between Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. This new space aims to restore and revitalize the ecosystem as well as attract tourism and celebrate the multiculturalism that takes place in this border territory.

The Colburn School, Los Angeles' renowned school for music and dance, has unveiled architectural designs by Frank Gehry for the Colburn Center, a 100,000 square-foot campus expansion that aims to inspire and promote the region’s young performing artists and organizations. The center will serve as a cultural and civic hub in the heart of Downtown LA through public programs, as well as performance and educational collaborations with local and touring artists.

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