The clever Italian artist, Federico Babina is at it again, and this time he's taking us around the world in 21 animated illustrations. Hear the ringing of Big Ben, sirens in New York, seagulls of Amsterdam, and Havana drums as you find yourself adding to your travel bucket list. You'll have to watch this animation more than once to catch all of the details Babina captures about an entire city culture in one illustration. Or view each illustration individually below.

Architect and Project Professor at The University of Tokyo, Fumio Matsumoto put together more than 30 iconic buildings into a single 3D printed object called, “Memories of Architecture.” Façades, exterior forms, interior spaces, and structures of significant architectural works were reproduced at 1:300 scale and merged together in order from old to new.

+ 20

“Lightness and transparency are very close friends. You start from something and then you take off, you take off, you take off... And at a certain point you have to stop taking off, otherwise, everything falls down. If you do this you find that there’s a kind of beauty there. It’s a beauty that is profound, it’s not cosmetic.”

In this video by Luis Fernández-Galiano, Italian architect Renzo Piano talks about his path to finding beauty in lightness and transparency. This clip is a part of a full documentary and interactive booklet series by Fundación arquia and produced by White Horse.

Due to rapid population and economic growth, Indonesia is facing issues such as land subsidence and rising sea levels. To combat these problems and more, SHAU Architects created a master plan for the Jakarta Jaya Foundation focused on large-scale land reclamation to integrate green space. By addressing impending challenges, SHAU Architects proposal, Jakarta Jaya: the Green Manhattan, won a Smart Cities prize at the World Architecture Festival 2017.

Germany’s first wooden high-rise, the “Wildspitze,” is being designed by Störmer Murphy and Partners. At 18 stories and 64 meters high, this residential tower will be one of Europe’s largest urban development projects.

Located in Elbbrücken, a peninsula neighborhood within Hamburg's HafenCity, Wildspitze will add 189 residential units on its riverside site. Each apartment will feature a loggia behind a double glass facade.

Successful communication is fundamental to the success of any project, especially in architecture and construction. The industry has moved from 2D drawings to 3D BIM with programs like SketchUp and Revit. At times, there is still a struggle to communicate in and through these 3D models. From InsiteVR comes a solution.

The newest innovation by InsiteVR is like screen sharing but for 3D. As virtual reality gets more affordable and portable, collaborative VR has the potential to be as common as a screen share meeting. Together or in separate parts of the world, InsiteVR meetings allow architecture and construction professionals to review their models in virtual reality. Features include a designated lead presenter, built in voice, collaborative markups, synchronized cloud models, scale and mute controls.

+ 2

Murat Tabanlioglu is modernizing the cultural center his father, Dr. Hayati Tabanlioglu, once designed in the 1960s, and again in the 1970s after his first design burnt down. The Ataturk Cultural Center will be the new centrally-located home for Istanbul's arts and culture scene. Not only will the new center have one of the largest opera houses in the world but it will also provide art galleries, libraries, cafes and restaurants for visitors.

+ 3

Videos

HOK's Mercedes-Benz Stadium is officially the first LEED Platinum certified professional sports stadium in the United States. The new home to the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons boasts the highest sports venue LEED score at 88 total points.

There is much more to learn from this stadium than just its unique retractable roof system. The two-million-square-foot venue is an unprecedented model for sustainability and performance innovation. Its notable design solutions conserve water, lighting, and energy.

+ 19

Creator of London’s Design Museum and columnist for CNN, Stephen Bayley named Le Corbusier’s Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau as one of, “20 designs that defined the modern world.” Before Bayley lays out the list, he gives a brief history and several definitions of design; culminating to his conclusion that design gives life meaning. Bayley writes, “Le Corbusier declared that design is ‘intelligence made visible’. That’s certainly true, but intelligence can take many forms…” [1]

Drones help us see architecture in new ways. Explore Moscow, Georgia, St. Petersberg, and Russian supertall skyscraper Lakhta Center through Timelab’s lense. With the help of drones, Timelab Production’s vimeo profile showcases a wide variety of professional video content. Travel to new places (and new heights) from the comfort of your own home by watching the videos below.

Bee Breeders announced the winners of the Modern Collective Living Challenge, one part of their Global Housing Crisis competition series. Participants conceived new types of accessible housing for rural China’s relocated farmers. China’s fast-paced urbanization is causing millions of rural folk to move to cities. With no designated site, successful projects need to be versatile enough to work in a variety of sites and even be adopted as a standard for addressing relocation. Winning projects were held to a high standard in their answering of the question: how can we create modern community living situations where relocated individuals are not forced into changing their way of life? Common themes in winning projects are modularity and green space.

The competition winners are listed below.

Only three years after President Xi Jinping declared, no more "weird buildings," in China, a giant mimetic crab construction on Yangcheng Lake's eastern shore, adds to the world's ever-growing list of "duck" buildings.

London-based publisher Blue Crow Media’s architectural guide series continues with Concrete Tokyo Map. A collaboration with design writer Naomi Pollock and photographer Jimmy Cohrssen, the map lays out 50 of Tokyo’s concrete wonders.

+ 5