Architect, researcher, assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning UTCN, Master’s Degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca and KU Leuven. Based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Renovation of Marcel Breuer's Robert C. Weaver Federal Building / Brooks + Scarpa. Image Courtesy of Brooks + Scarpa
Exploring architectural projects, competition entries and unbuilt works by renowned architects is an important step in fostering innovation and encouraging cross-cultural exchange and the development of diverse design approaches. Analyzing these unrealized concepts can offer insights into the evolution of architectural thinking, exploring a wider spectrum of approaches and design perspectives. This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights designs submitted by established architecture practices.
Featuring internationally recognized offices like Brooks + Scarpa, Penoyre & Prasad, Aedas, Pininfarina, and Opposite Office, this selection exemplifies the wide range of projects and interventions designed by architects at various scales and programs. From creative reimaginings of well-known architectural icons to art museums, urban insertions, and conceptual activist proposals, these projects demonstrate the variety of approaches architects take when designing within a specific context and in response to local constraints, challenges and opportunities.
The MPavilion represents one of the most important architectural events happening annually in Melbourne, Australia. Initiated and founded by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, the event was first launched in 2014 and has since brought internationally recognized architects to design a temporary structure in Melbourne's Queen Victoria Gardens in a system similar to London’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. From Sean Godsell's solar-actioned panels to Studio Mumbai‘s experimental bamboo structure, each pavilion explores craftsmanship and contemporary design while fostering a rich cultural program for several months before being disassembled and donated to one of the city’s parks. As the latest pavilion was recently inaugurated by Tadao Ando, we look back at the previous editions of Australia’s most famous annual structure.
Sir John Soane’s Museum has announced French architecture practice Lacaton & Vassal as the recipient of the 2023 Soane Medal. The award comes in recognition of the office’s work spanning over 3 decades. Through an honest design approach, the office became known for the resourceful repurposing of materials and existing structures to prioritize the needs of residents and local communities. For this approach, the office has been previously awarded as the 2021 Pritzker Prize 2021 Laureate.
A new set of images showcases BIG's One High Line development nearing completion. Located on the ‘Architecture Row’ in New York, the coupled twisting towers share the Hudson River skyline with neighbors such as Frank Gehry’s IAC building, Renzo Piano’s Whitney Museum of American Art, and Jean Nouvel’s The Chelsea Nouvel ('100 Eleventh Avenue'), along with future works by Thomas Heatherwick and other renown architects. The two condominium towers designed by BIG are organized to define a central public courtyard, activating the public space with retail and commercial facilities. The towers’ exterior and the majority of the interior are completed, with the courtyard expected to be finished by early 2024.
Studio Gang has revealed the design for a new theater for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF). Planned to become the first purpose-built LEED Platinum theater in the United States, the building located in Garrison, NY, will serve as the permanent home for HVSF. The structure, measuring over 13,800 square feet, or 1,280 square meters, is designed to become the central point of the 98-acre HVSF campus, aiming to emphasize the theater company’s commitment to sustainable principles and social engagement. The project is expected to break ground in 2024.
The 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia closed on November 26th. A total of 285,000 people visited the exhibition, making it the second most highly attended Architecture Biennale in its history. Named "The Laboratory of the Future," this edition led by curator Lesley Lokko, has been the first to focus on Africa and its diaspora, exploring the “fluid and enmeshed culture of people of African descent that now straddles the globe,” in the words of the curator, with themes of decolonization and decarbonization.
This edition has attracted a wide array of visitors, 38% of whom are represented by students and young people. Visitors organized in groups represented 23% of the overall public, with a large majority of groups coming from schools and universities. The numbers denote an event centered on the transmission of knowledge and circulation of ideas.
On November 30, 2023, the UN COP28 climate summit begins in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. The name stands for the Conference of the Parties under the UNFCCC, and symbolizes the annual meeting of world governments for the purpose of establishing strategies to limit the extent of climate change and its adverse effects. Last year’s summit concluded with several important measures, including the promise of a global fund aimed at providing financial aid to developing countries affected by climate disasters.
The main purpose of COP is to reinforce the commitments of the Paris Agreement, signed in 2015, which strives to keep the global temperature rise under 1.5C degrees. As the construction industry accounts for 39% of global emissions, architecture plays an important role in helping to lower our carbon footprint, making COP28 a crucial event for architects.
The built environment represents, for most of us, the background of everyday life, and yet, when we look at a building, we rarely understand what it is made of. In doing so, we also fail to understand its impact on us and on the larger systems of nature. Office Kim Lenschow aims to draw attention to this and to provoke critical thinking in relation to architecture and the materials that make it. By focusing on small-scale, mostly residential projects, the office seeks to reveal this hidden narrative of materials and cultivate more awareness and engagement with the structures surrounding us. For their involvement in the exploration of materials and sustainable development, Office Kim Lenschow has been selected as one of the ArchDaily 2023 New Practices. Every year since 2020, ArchDaily has curated and highlighted emerging offices that bring a new perspective to the field of architecture and design.
MVRDV and Orange Architects collaborate on the NUVO project, a new mixed-use complex to be built in Ukraine’s capital, the team of architects has revealed their design for three of the buildings that will become part of NOVO. Commissioned by Kovalska, the project is now restarting after work was put on hold due to the active conflict in Ukraine. The two firms are collaborating to refine the master plan initiated by APA Wojcehowski Architects.
Pono Colony - August 2022. Image Courtesy of Heritage Foundation of Pakistan
Following the extreme floods that affected Pakistan in 2022, architect Yasmeen Lari the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan pledged to help build one million resilient houses in the country. In 2022, 33 million people have been displaced, and an estimated 500,000 houses have been destroyed or severely damaged. In September 2022, Lari’s NGO launched a target program to start rebuilding and to help communities protect themselves against future disasters. The program is built on Lari’s expertise in working with the communities and employing vernacular and local building materials to achieve resilient and sustainable structures. According to the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, one-third of the goal has already been reached.
In a bid to explore new materials and methods for more sustainable construction, Henning Larsen opens the “Changing our Footprint” exhibition at the Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen. The initiative, open from November 17, 2023, until March 3, 2024, aims to showcase ideas for more climate-friendly architecture and to start conversations on architecture and construction’s role in mitigating the effects of climate change. This represents the second iteration of the exhibition, as the first version opened at the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin earlier this year.
While exploring the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, the ArchDaily team had a chance to engage in conversation with several curators of the national pavilions, along with Lesley Lokko, the curator of the entire exhibition. The discussions delved into the unique character of this year’s edition focused on an understanding of Africa as a “Laboratory of the Future.” Through this lens, the biennale became “a healing experience,” in the words of Lesley Lokko, reinterpreting and deconstructing the meaning behind ideas such as decolonization, decarbonization, resource management, or finding the hidden potential in vernacular forms of practice.
Following Lokko’s curatorial direction, the exhibitions presented at the national pavilions explored the specific conditions of their territories, striving to uncover and highlight the unique challenges and opportunities faced by their local cultural landscapes. During the interviews, the curators opened up in regard to their personal inspirations and the drive behind the choice of program, the messages embedded in the displays, and their hopes for the future of the profession.
Born in the post-war period in the United Kingdom, the Brutalism movement was first met with skepticism but has found a new appreciation in the last decade, capturing the imagination of new designers fascinated with the interplay between striking geometric shapes and the exposed raw materials in which they are rendered. From Britain, the movement spread throughout Europe, Southeast Asia, and Africa, gathering different variations influenced by the cultural and socio-economic status of each area. In this article, we delve into the particularities that define Italy's contribution to the Brutalist movement, exploring the style through the lens of Roberto Conte and Stefano Perego. The two photographers have also published a photographic essay on the subject, taking the form of a book titled “Brutalist Italy: Concrete Architecture from the Alps to the Mediterranean Sea”.
Left: ‘(Re)membering the See Monster’ by Eldry John Infante; Centre: The Archatographic Map of the Incomplete Landscape on Pedra Branca’ by Eugene Tan; Right: ‘Grundtvig’ by Ben Johnson. Image Courtesy of Architecture Drawing Prize
The Architecture Drawing Prize, now in its 7th edition, celebrates the art of drawing in three main categories: hand-drawn, digital, and hybrid. The Prize attracted nearly 250 drawings from around the world, a record for the competition, with the majority of entries being in the hand-drawn category. The winners of each category have been announced. The winning drawings, along with the shortlisted entries will be displayed at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore from 29 November until 1 December 2023, and at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London from 31 January to 3 March 2024. The Overall Winner will announced on 29 January 2024 as part of a webinar hosted by Sir John Soane’s Museum, ahead of the exhibition.
According to the jury, the technologies used by the entrants to find creative ways of depicting buildings generated probing discussions among the jury members, testing the nature and definition of architectural drawing. Sponsored by Iris Ceramica Group, the Architecture Drawing Prize is co-curated by Make Architects, Sir John Soane’s Museum and World Architecture Festival (WAF).
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has completed the restoration works for Lever House, one of New York’s Modernist landmarks. The building was completed in 1952, following SOM’s design. At that time, architecture critic Reyner Banham said of the building “it gave architectural expression to an age just as the age was being born.” Since then, SOM has retained a level of stewardship, revisiting the building and ensuring that the restoration works preserve the original image without compromising contemporary standards of performance.
OMA / Chris van Duijn won the competition to design a new campus for Hongik University in Seoul, South Korea. The proposal introduces a cluster of low-rise buildings interconnected by a network of public spaces molded on the existing topography of the site. The design aims to reemphasize the university’s connection to the city and its neighboring areas and to introduce greenery and various open spaces creating a seamless connection between roof terraces, outdoor courtyards, and sunken plazas. The winning proposal was chosen from the entries from established international practices, including SANAA, Herzog & de Meuron, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, and David Chipperfield Architects.
Heatherwick Studio has revealed the design of a new shopping district in the historic city of Xi’an in Shaanxi, China. The proposal aims to highlight the city’s rich heritage of ceramic-making and, through this, to create a sensory experience for visitors in opposition to the restricted act of online shopping. Spanning over 1115,000 square meters, the development features a mixture of functions, from offices, apartments, and a hotel, to a variety of green spaces, rooftop terraces, gardens, and a sunken terrace, all doubling as social spaces. The project is under construction and scheduled for completion in 2024.
