As 2019 winds down, we're taking a look ahead to the projects we're most looking forward to in 2020. With a mix of cultural and commercial programs, the designs are located across five continents, with many under construction for multiple years. Designed across a wide range of scales, they represent a mix of interconnected landscapes, museums, and the world's newest skyscrapers.
Eric Baldwin
Senior Editor at ArchDaily based in Los Angeles.
Taking on Tanzania: Architecture at Play
Tanzania’s architecture is built to celebrate nature and everyday life. Representing a long history of diverse styles, from British and German to Arab influences, much of the country’s major buildings include mosques, churches and marketplaces. Today, Tanzania’s diversity is also rooted in its traditional architecture and structures that were shaped by both their functional use and culture.
3XN and Aspect Studios Design New UNSW Tower in Australia
3XN and Aspect Studios have been selected to design a new mixed-use tower for the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Made with a focus on resilience and environmental sustainability, the project aims to to create a welcoming campus gateway that will serve as a new entrance point to the UNSW campus.
LMN Designs New Ocean Pavilion for the Seattle Aquarium
Design practice LMN Architects have unveiled new details of the design for the Seattle Aquarium Ocean Pavilion. The $113 million project will include the 50,000-square-foot Pavilion sited adjacent to the existing Seattle Aquarium. The pavilion will link together the new Seattle Waterfront, downtown and the historic Pike Place Market.
Moreau Kusunoki and Genton Design a New Hyper-Platform for Sydney
Moreau Kusunoki and Genton have won the Powerhouse Parramatta International Design Competition. The project marks the largest investment in arts and culture in NSW since the Sydney Opera House. The Powerhouse Parramatta is designed to transform and renew the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, relocating one of Australia’s oldest and most important cultural institutions.
DesignClass Launches with Matthew Rosenberg's Course on Leadership in Architecture
DesignClass has launched their first interactive class by M-Rad Architecture founder Matthew Rosenberg. The new class aims to teach leadership in architecture, real estate development, and business. The class will focus on design, real estate development, partnerships, hiring, and more. Rosenberg will look at how a business is integrated with the process of real estate development.
Côte d'Ivoire: Modern Architecture Along Africa's Ivory Coast
The Ivory Coast is creating a new design language in West Africa. Located between Ghana and Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire is home to a range of modern architecture. Before colonization, the Ivory Coast was home to Gyaaman, the Kong Empire, and Baoulé, with ties that would shape its identity. Now, local architecture is rethinking past traditions to create a model for the future.
TED Talk: Ma Yansong Designs Mountains, Clouds and Volcanoes
Ma Yansong has come to represent a new generation of Chinese architects shaping a forward-looking architecture. Founder of the firm MAD Architects, Yansong was the first Chinese architect to receive a RIBA fellowship. Today, Ma continues to explore contemporary architecture that's grounded in traditional Eastern values of nature, bridging design between the East and West. His latest TED Talk explores his new projects and surreal designs.
Bjarke Ingels on New Spiral Museum for Swiss Watchmaker
The new museum by BIG for Swiss luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet is set to open to the public next May. As featured in WSJ. Magazine, the project was designed as an extension to their headquarters in Le Brassus, near Le Chenit. Conceived as a spiraling glass pavilion in the landscape, the design will take visitors on a narrative journey through the company's 139-year history.
Weiss/Manfredi Selected to Lead La Brea Tar Pits Master Plan
Weiss/Manfredi have been selected to lead the new La Brea Tar Pits master planning in Los Angeles. The team's ‘Loops and Lenses’ concept was developed to create new connections between "the museum and the Park, between science and culture, and envisions the entire site as an unfolding place of discovery." The team will work with NHMLAC on a multi-year process of public engagement, master planning, design and construction on the Tar Pits’ 13-acre campus.
2019’s Biggest Developments in Landscape Architecture
This year showcased how landscape architecture is shaping public life in the built environment. In the first two decades of the 21st century, landscape architects created vibrant resiliency plans, rehabilitation projects, and new urban parks. As these twenty years come to a close, 2019 embodied many larger ideas and trends that will continue to influence the next decade of landscape design.
MVRDV Wins Competition to Reimagine Seoul’s Waterfront
MVRDV has won the competition to redesign the Tancheon Valley and Seoul’s waterfront. Called “The Weaves”, the design was made to knit together pedestrian and bicycle paths, the natural landscapes, and public amenities. Commissioned by the government of Seoul, the design introduces a combination of natural and human activity in the midst of the city.
Building Boom: Qatar's Monumental New Architecture
Qatar has been radically reshaped by growth and development. The sovereign state transformed since the second half of the twentieth century after the discovery of the Dukhan oil field in 1940. Capitalizing on over 70 years of economic development, Qatar now has the highest per capita income in the world. Reflecting the country’s wealth, its modern architectural projects are being built at a monumental scale.
Kansas City Becomes First Major U.S. City to Make Public Transit Free
Kansas City has become the first major city in the United States to approve free public transit. Last week, the City Council voted unanimously to make the city’s bus system fare-free alongside the existing streetcar system that was launch in 2016. The Zero Fare Transit proposal aims to be a universal and system-wide fare-free scheme.
KÂAT Architects Designs New Beach Wildlife Center in Turkey
KÂAT Architects has won first prize in the national competition to design a new wildlife research and rehabilitation center for Iztuzu Beach in Turkey. Created to help protect one of the rarest natural ecosystems in the world, the competition was organized by the the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization of Turkey. The project aims to be an environmentally sensitive facility that will help ensure the cyclic continuity of the natural and cultural resources of Iztuzu Beach.
Discover Russia's Dagomys Sanatorium Tower Through the Lens of Luciano Spinelli
Photographer Luciano Spinelli recently captured the futurist Soviet elevator tower of the Dagomys sanatorium. Located in the microdistrict of Sochi, Russia, the project was part of a larger recreation and hotel complex belonging to the State Committee for Foreign Tourism of the USSR. Spinelli's photos document the atmospheric qualities of the tower and views out across the landscape.
Architectural Review Announces 2019 New into Old Award Winners
The Architectural Review has announced that Sala Beckett by Flores & Prats is the winner of the 2019 AR New into Old awards. The project was selected by a panel of judges for its inventive re-use, and it was awarded alongside two Highly Commended and three Commended buildings for sustainable alternatives to building anew. The AR New into Old awards celebrate the creative ways buildings are adapted and remodeled to welcome new contemporary uses.
South Africa's Waste to Wonder Pavilion Transforms Public Space with Upcycled Trash
Architecture studio theMAAK has unveiled a new installation as part of the 2019 experimental Design & Make program Follies in the Veld (FITV) in Cape Town, South Africa. The team worked with makers and the community to collectively design and build a large scale ‘Folly’. Each year, a specific site and a unique material is used as the departure point for the hands-on creative program.