Considering our present time, the COVID-19 pandemic will likely have a lasting influence on the next era of building and design, shaping how we build at every phase, including design, materials, and building protocols. We may see architects and engineers continue to work remotely, reviewing designs and specifications virtually. Manufacturers may have to space production areas farther apart or even rely on more automation.
Lasting for over a year, the COVID pandemic has considerably changed the way we work. It has given a new meaning to “physical distance” and forced us to confront questions we can no longer ignore. It has crystallized the dormant social inequities we had known for years and yet somehow neglected. In response practitioners and educators have begun mobilizing themselves to confront questions and issues that lie in the pandemic’s wake. Their activities vary, from the micro architecture of the hand-held devices to the macro of global communities. They employ methods, from rapid prototyping, guerilla gardening to real time geolocational data analysis. They work in new patterns of collaboration, from medical professionals, policy makers to social activists.
The Orange County Sustainability Decathlon (OCSD23) is a new competition to build and market affordable, sustainable housing for the State of California. OCSD23 is seeking teams that are passionate, goal-oriented, and motivated to take action because they understand the urgent need for inventive thinking. Teams will design and build, from the ground up, model net zero-energy homes that demonstrate how innovative applications of building science and technology can help mitigate climate change and alleviate the housing crisis.
Celebrate the ground-breaking work and accomplishments of Mabel O. Wilson, the Nancy and George E. Rupp Professor of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University. Wilson is the 23rd recipient of the National Building Museum's annual Vincent Scully Prize. An architect, scholar, researcher, artist, writer, and curator, Wilson's work focuses on Black culture and history and the ways they intersect with the built environment. In a conversation with Steven Nelson, Dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Wilson will discuss her career and ongoing work to expand the narrative of African American contributions to the built environment.
1. Armin Linke, Lake Assal, extraction of salt, Djibouti, Africa, 2012. Courtesy Armin Linke and Vistamare / Vistamarestudio, Pescara / Milano.
Sophia Journal is currently accepting submissions on the theme of its third thematic cycle “Landscapes of Care”, addressing contemporary photography and visual practices that focus on how architecture understood in a wide sense can help to heal a broken planet. The concept of “Landscapes of Care” has increasingly been adopted by diverse areas of study, from health geography to the arts and architecture. It allows us to understand architecture, city and territory as living and inclusive organisms, constituted by multifaceted landscapes with complex social and organisational spatialities which embody the difference and the other, the strange, the unfamiliar, the indigenous, the human and the non-human. Our aim is to explore the ways in which the image can be used as a meaningful instrument of research about the multifaceted complex socioeconomic, political, historical, technical and ecological dimensions of architecture, city and territory that testify, question or emerge from those relationships of care.
The exhibition OASIS opened at the Estonian Museum of Architecture in Tallinn brings together different projects of designers/artists/architects who created contemporary micro-climates for survival in a hostile environment.
The BERKELEY PRIZE encourages undergraduate architecture students to expand their academic education by going into their communities and investigating how the built environment best serves and best reflects the everyday lives of those for whom we design.
Independence Library Apartments By John Ronan Architects
Join the Chicago Architecture Center as we celebrate 25 years of the Driehaus Foundation Award, which encourages quality design in Chicago’s neighborhoods. Our panel discussion will explore the impact of the award and the unique and inspiring partnerships it has fostered. This program is part of Open House Chicago 2021.
Archifest is back in October, as a bigger, better and more inclusive celebration of great design. With over 100 events spread out across the island and online, the month-long Architecture Festival - organised by the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) - promises to have something for everyone, appealing both to architecture enthusiasts, and to the general public.
Craft your ideal career as a young architect or designer. Learn from your mentors who have done it before.
The ArchiMentors Summit 2021 is a free online conference for young architects and designers which aims to inspire and educate through sharing journeys, experiences, and expertise of amazing speakers who have done it before and (often non-traditionally) created their ideal careers within the architecture and design industry!
In 2021, “Matter. The white conferences”, in partnership with Docomomo Internacional and the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto, among other institutions, celebrates the 100th anniversary of Mário Bonito’s birth (1921-1976), a modern architect from Oporto, linked to the inception of the renowned “Porto School of Architecture”, with a strong connection to cinema and active participation in theatre. Through a set of actions, we aim to discuss Mário Bonito’s lines of thought and multidisciplinary body of work, which we would like to expand and deepen through the pursuit of authorial readings on contemporary matters.
From October 15–17, 2021, the hybrid event Driving the Human presents 21 new visions for sustainable cohabitation on our planet, both through an on-site event in Berlin and an online broadcast. Coming from a variety of geographic and cultural backgrounds, these concepts suggest innovative and prescient ways to deal with some of the most pressing questions of our present moment. Exploring entanglements between technology and nature, artificial intelligence, circular economies, new modes of production, Indigenous knowledges and approaches, and more-than-human perspectives from the bacterial to the interplanetary, they reinforce perspectives where collaboration and interdependency become essential, determining factors for life and survival on our planet.
FutureNow 2021: Computational Thinking for a Changing World
Join the American Institute of Architects New York's (AIANY) Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA), the Future of Practice Committee, and a distinguished body of global computational design leaders on Saturday, November 6, for a one-day symposium and workshop to explore how computational thinking can be used to solve design problems.
A unique opportunity to get inside the mind of Bernhard Aebi from Aebi & Vincent Architects via their striking youth hostel project in Bern – supported by Swiss furniture manufacturer Horgenglarus.
Further questions such as ‘Can buildings help to regenerate the environment?’ and ‘Does quality of design matter?’ will be tackled at the Build for Life Conference 2021. Image Courtesy of Velux
From 15-17 November, leading roof window manufacturer VELUX will host its Build for Life Conference 2021, with the goal of developing more sustainable strategies for the building industry.
Seeking to deliver high visibility and recognition to the world's best designers, architects, and design-oriented companies, A' Design Award & Competition is the world's largest annual juried design competition. The A’ Design Awards are organized and awarded internationally in over 100 categories, ranging from industrial design to architecture. Each year, the winning projects receive public relations, advertising, and marketing services to celebrate their success, at no additional cost to them.
Early registration for the A’ Design Award & Competition for the period 2021-2022 is now open and you can register here. To encourage you to participate and recognize the awarded works in the 2020-2021 version, we present a selection of winners from the category Lighting Products and Projects Design.
