This article was originally published by Metropolis Magazine as "The Fascinating History of Le Corbusier’s Lost Barge."

This winter, France experienced some of the heaviest rains it has seen in 50 years. In Paris, the Seine flooded its banks, submerging parks, streets, and disrupting metro service. The deluge also claimed an architectural curiosity. On February 8th the Louise-Catherine, a concrete barge renovated by Le Corbusier, slipped below the murky waters of the Seine and came to rest on the bottom of the river by Quai D’Austerlitz on the east side of Paris.

As the floodwaters receded, the 100-year-old barge’s bow became stuck on the wharf, tipping it into the river, according to Le Parisien. Though firefighters were present and attempted to save the historic vessel, it filled with water and sank in a matter of minutes.

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This article was originally published by Amar Singh on Medium. Singh is also the author of "Why Open-Plan Offices Don't Work (And Some Alternatives That Do)."

The first few times I received negative feedback I was surprised about how I felt. I could feel my body getting tight, my temperature rising and a feeling of tension. For a brief moment, I felt as if the air had left my body and could feel myself getting defensive.

What if the one thing that makes BIG "BIG" was suddenly stripped away right at the apex of its potential? That's the question posed by the trailer for Kaspar Astrup Schrøder’s documentary BIG TIME, which ominously illustrated a possible problem with Bjarke Ingels’ health.

Schrøder's documentary highlights the intense journey of Bjarke Ingels, the founder of Bjarke Ingels Group, through the past few years of his life. This unique insight into what exactly it's like to be an architect on top of the world ultimately poses a question that needs to be answered by anyone seeking to reshape the world through design. How do you handle the responsibility of forming the future you want to live in?

Guangzhou-based multidisciplinary firm O-office Architects specializes in refurbishment projects. Founders Jianxiang He and Ying Jiang are known for exploring what architecture can do within the contemporary Chinese context, including a recent project in which they transformed an abandoned Shenzhen factory into a dynamic cultural and community center.

In this interview with ArchDaily, the founders of O-office speak about their philosophies regarding refurbishments and the current state of architecture in China.

In this video, architecture vloggers #donotsettle take us inside Ateliers Jean Nouvel's "museum city" in the sea: the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Filmed one month after the museum’s opening in November, Kris Provoost winds his way through the galleries to the much-talked-about mega-dome—with a diagrammatic key plan in the bottom corner of the video helping us to follow his path.

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Last Wednesday the world knew the name of the latest Pritzker Prize laureate: Balkrishna Doshi, the first Indian architect to receive architecture’s highest honor. The jury stated that "with an understanding and appreciation of the deep traditions of India’s architecture, Doshi united prefabrication and local craft and developed a vocabulary in harmony with the history, culture, local traditions and the changing times of his home country India".

While architects all in India are rejoicing and celebrating him, Anupama Kundoo, Professor at IE School of Architecture and Design, shared her thoughts on Doshi’s Pritzker Prize. "It is timely that there is recognition of a holistic understanding of the role of the architect, where the design of the built environment is seen as sensitive interventions that retain human scale in the man-made built landscape", stated Kundoo.

New York-based Stephen B Jacobs Group has almost completed construction on a pair of towers at 29-26 Northern Boulevard in Long Island City. Dubbed the QE7 for its adjacency to the Q, E, and 7 trains (not to mention its cruise ship-like amenities), the pair of towers will contain 467 units, including 13 floors dedicated to the largest co-living development in North America. What makes this building so unique, however, is how the architects and engineers devised a solution to overcome noise generated by the three neighboring subway lines.

Modern cities, especially New York, are always looking for ways to increase density, which often means building in locations that were once overlooked due to their particular site conditions. We spoke with SBJGroup principal Isaac-Daniel Astrachan to find out how his firm managed to reduce noise levels on this site.

At ArchDaily we want to see more women showing their projects to the world and receiving the recognition they deserve for their work. Today, we celebrate International Women’s Day and, with the help of our readers, we want to continue to give visibility to the valuable contribution made every day to the field of architecture by millions of colleagues.

This year’s Pritzker jury has selected Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi, often known as B.V. Doshi or Doshi, as the 2018 Pritzker Prize Laureate. Doshi has been a practitioner of architecture for over 70 years. Previously, he had studied and worked with both Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn. Doshi’s poetic architecture draws upon Eastern influences to create a body of work that “has touched lives of every socio-economic class across a broad spectrum of genres since the 1950s,” cites the jury. Doshi is the first Indian architect to receive architecture’s highest honor.

This article was originally published by Redshift as "Architect Sou Fujimoto Has Radical Ideas for Familiar Communal Spaces."

The destruction wrought upon Ishinomaki by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami damaged the city’s civic hall and cultural center beyond repair. To rebuild, Ishinomaki City wanted to create a landmark combining these two facilities into a new complex—one that would be like a city unto itself, serving the community.

In 2016, design proposals were screened in a process that included public presentations, with many locals participating. In the end, Sou Fujimoto, a leader among the next generation of Japan’s architects, was selected for his innovative design.

This article was originally published by Common Edge as "A Seattleite Reflects on the City in the Age of Amazon."

At first, it was just a crane or two, a little urban renewal down on Westlake, a rumor that Paul Allen was cleaning things up, wanted a huge park with bike trails. I thought that might be nice and didn’t think about it again for a while.

No park happened, but one day I went down to the new Whole Foods below where I work and noticed that a whole habitat had sprung up on Westlake, an expensive Mexican chain restaurant and an expensive Italian place and an expensive Thai place, and some expensive after-work bars. I also noticed small groups of men, all white or Indian and all wearing lanyards. These groups moved around the streets, talking animatedly, freshly out of their cubicles and going to lunch, oblivious to whomever else was on the street.

“The Nobel Prize in Architecture.” “The profession’s highest honor.” These are some of the terms used to describe the Pritzker Prize. One day before the 2018 Pritzker Prize winner is to be revealed, ArchDaily’s editors discuss whether the prize still lives up to its hype.

This article was originally published by Autodesk's Redshift publication as "Could Carbon Fiber Be the Superhero of Building Materials?"

On any weekday, Chicago’s downtown business district, the Loop, teems with harried humans crossing the street like herds of wild antelope fleeing a predator. Most scurry past the Field Building without considering its significance—or that of the historic building demolished in 1931 on the same site: the Home Insurance Building. Built in 1884, it was the first tall building erected on a frame made of structural steel—a light, affordable, and durable material that allowed structures to be built taller, stronger, and faster than those made of wood or stone.

Many children in Africa are forced to bear the brunt of attending schools with poor ventilation that can easily overheat under the African sun. WAYAiR’s proposal for a new school in Ulyankulu tackles the climate issue and provide an “educational village” respecting the local heritage and identity of the town. WAYAiR is a group of like-minded educators that for the last 25 years have developed their unique school program in Poznan, Poland using an art based educational program and now wish to share their expertise worldwide.

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Architecture photographer Marc Goodwin is continually adding to his world atlas of architecture offices. While photographing studios in Barcelona, Goodwin spent a little extra time at the post-World War I cement factory Ricardo Bofill transformed into his studio, gardens, and residence. After the cement-filled silos were uncovered, Bofill defined a new structure and program for his architectural fortress.

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There ought to be a word for this kind of film—halfway between a sequel and a reboot—but there isn't, so we just have to call it Blade Runner 2049. The film is perhaps more subtle in the way it refers to Ridley Scott's 1982 dystopian cult classic than some recent sci-fi restorations—Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I'm looking at you—but it isn't above a bit of blatant parallelism. For example, it's easy to see reflections of Blade Runner characters in 2049: private dick Rick Deckard is now the stoic, world-weary K; femme fatale Rachael is Joi, a hologram companion who straddles the line between mortal and machine; wacky Roy Batty is the single-minded, murderous Luv; not to mention a bevy of replicants passing for humans and cops with hidden agendas. In fact, one of the few prominent characters not recast is the city of Los Angeles, whose architecture is strikingly absent compared to the first film. The resulting movie feels curiously devoid of a civic soul, which is perhaps the point.

Joseph Rodota's new book The Watergate: Inside America’s Most Infamous Address (William Morrow) presents the story of a building complex whose name is recognized around the world as the address at the center of the United States' greatest political scandal—but one that has so many more tales to tell. In this excerpt from the book, the author looks into the design and construction of a building The Washington Post once called a "glittering Potomac Titanic," a description granted because the Watergate was ahead of its time, filled with boldface names—and ultimately doomed.

On the evening of October 25, 1965, the grand opening of the Watergate was held for fifteen-hundred guests. Luigi Moretti, the architect, flew in from Rome. Other executives came from Mexico, where the Watergate developer, the Italian real estate giant known as Societa Generale Immobiliare, was planning a community outside Mexico City, and from Montreal, where the company was erecting the tallest concrete-and-steel skyscraper in Canada, designed by Moretti and another Italian, Pier Luigi Nervi.

This article was originally published on Metropolis Magazine as "Ellsworth Kelly’s Last Artwork Was a Building."

Ellsworth Kelly died in December 2015 at the age of 92, less than a year after he announced a gift of one of his most lasting creative contributions: plans for the artist’s only building, which had been sitting in his New York studio since 1986.

Titled Austin, this 2,715-square-foot work on the grounds of the Blanton Museum of Art on the University of Texas at Austin campus would be his final—and perhaps greatest—effort, an immersive space whose artistic value matches that of the marble panels and sculpture within. Unlike the Rothko Chapel in Houston, in Austin the artist and architect are one, says Carter E. Foster, the Blanton’s deputy director for curatorial affairs.

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