Torre Velasca, the renowned 1950s skyscraper by BBPR in Milan, Italy, is currently undergoing an extensive renovation process led by Asti Architetti and developed by Hines. After completing the work on the facades and with the extensive restoration of the interiors under way, the office has made public the project for the redesign of the Piazza Velasca, the square surrounding the tower. By turning it into a meeting and social gathering place, the architects hope to restore the status of the complex as a symbol of Milan’s architectural heritage. Pedestrian access to the building, and the renovation of previously disused adjacent spaces will open up the area for public access and will restore the original meaning of “piazza,” or square. The project is scheduled for completion by early 2024.
EJS Presidential Center. Image Courtesy of Atelier Masōmī
Atelier Masōmī has just revealed its design for The Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development (EJS Center). President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf chose an all-female team to work on the project with lead architect Mariam Issoufou Kamara of Atelier Masōmī, exhibition's architect Sumayya Vally of Counterspace, and the local architect Liberian architect Karen Richards Barnes. The EJS Center, located in Liberia’s capital Monrovia, will provide digital access to former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s personal and professional archives.
Contemporary architecture in Portugal is a blend of traditional and modern elements that reflect the country's rich cultural and historical heritage. In addition, it reflects global trends and influences in the discipline. From the aesthetics, functionality, and preservation of stone houses to the richness of Portuguese tiles, projects in this small country serve as a reference for many other cultures because of their careful design and precise action.
One of Paulo Mendes da Rocha's main design gestures in the Pinacoteca renovation project was to create a new longitudinal axis for circulation, moving its entrance to the south face of the building. Metallic walkways, which cross internal courtyards covered by skylights, enable new dynamics of circulation between the rooms, transforming a neoclassical building into a museum with a contemporary program.
The ability to completely renovate a space by demolishing parts, making additions, altering functionality, and improving ambience is one of the most admired functions of the architect. In housing, this significance is even more apparent, since adapting housing to contemporary demands, through a well-thought-out plan, can drastically improve the quality of life of the occupants.
Throughout history, the functional essence of bathrooms has remained unchanged due to their design being shaped by biological parameters. Initially, the function of bathrooms was solely related to hygiene and waste management, resulting in the conception of bathrooms as unhealthy and merely utilitarian spaces. This led to their separation from the rest of the spaces designated for coexistence.
However, the implementation of water supply systems and general drainage networks has vindicated the role of bathrooms in living spaces. They have acquired a primordial role in design proposals for interior design and reflect the user's personality through the combination of colors, coverings, accessories and decorative elements. In the evolution of bathroom design, proposals that stand out for their formal cleanliness, multiple nuances, subtle coexistence of elements, and customization possibilities have emerged. Brands like antoniolupi have developed bathroom furnishings that integrate these proposals and take the limits of design much further by collaborating with renowned architects and designers like Paolo Ulian, Brian Sironi, Luca Galofaro, and Mario Ferrarini, just to mention a few. Continuing with this series of collaborations, Carlo Colombo was in charge of developing Borderline.
https://www.archdaily.com/998711/pushing-the-limits-of-bathroom-furnishing-through-tailor-made-designEnrique Tovar
Perkins&Will has been selected as one of the five finalists in the nationwide artistic ideas competition for the design of the new National Museum of the U.S. Navy. The other finalists are DLR Group, Frank Gehry Partners, Quinn Evans, and BIG. Organised by the Naval Heritage History and Command’s (NHHC), the competition’s aim is to create a modern museum for Naval veterans and the public, a new building and ceremonial courtyard to reflect the Navy’s values and legacy. The campus would consist of approximately 270,000 square feet, with 100,000 square feet of gallery space. The Navy’s preferred location for the museum is on a site adjacent to the Washington Navy Yard.
California High Speed Rail. Image Courtesy of Foster + Partners
Foster + Partners and Arup have chosen to work together to design the Merced, Fresno, Kings/Tulare, and Bakersfield stations that will service high-speed train passengers on the first 171-mile leg of California High-Speed train (CA HSR). The Central Valley stations will be the grand entrances to America's first high-speed rail stretch, marking an important step towards providing all Californians with sustainable, carbon-free transportation. Planning, architecture, and engineering for the four new stations, which will serve as design templates for stations planned for the whole 500-mile Los Angeles/Anaheim to San Francisco line, are being done jointly by Foster + Partners and Arup.
The California high-speed rail will connect the state's mega-regions, promote economic growth and a cleaner environment, foster job growth, and conserve agricultural and protected lands. With up to 200 mph speeds, the system can travel from San Francisco to the Los Angeles basin in less than three hours. The Authority is collaborating with regional partners to implement a state-wide rail modernization plan that will spend billions of dollars on local and regional rail lines.
In Spain, the implementation of integrated kitchens in homes has become increasingly common in contemporary architecture. Although there are various configurations and designs that are applied according to the customs and cultures of societies, as we saw in Argentina or Uruguay, the essence of conceiving the kitchen space as a hub of activities and a gathering space among its inhabitants and visitors is a common factor. This has led architects to try to find innovative ways, technologies, or materials that achieve an aesthetic and harmony capable of providing functionality, spaciousness, and flexibility to homes.
Christophe Levy, Scientific Director at Holcim and Lord Norman Foster. Image Courtesy of Holcim & Norman Foster Foundation
During the 2023 Architectural Biennale in Venice, Holcim and the Norman Foster Foundation will announce the start of their Essential Houses Research Project. Through this collaboration, the Norman Foster Foundation created necessary housing to give displaced communities safety, comfort, and welfare while allowing them to live in temporary settlements for over 20 years. To make sustainable buildings accessible to everyone, Holcim constructed these necessary homes using various green products, such as Elevate Insulation Boards and ECOPact low-carbon concrete.
When it comes to forward-thinking interior design, adaptability, and timelessness are two key factors that can guarantee a home will look just as current years from now as it does today. One interior style that makes use of them more than any other is: contemporary. By borrowing elements from several prominent styles and combining them into a harmonic whole, contemporary interiors stay current even as trends move on. But what are the components that remain constant even with this ever-changing fashion? We explore seven evergreen design elements that define contemporary interiors.
Part of the beauty of an architectural education is that it provides you with design skills that can be applied to a wide variety to jobs. So when it came time for Kharkov University Architecture School graduate Dinara Kasko to select a career path, she chose to pursue something a little bit sweeter: architectural pastry chef.
As the industry shifts towards a more sustainable model for construction, transparency becomes increasingly important. With a growing emphasis on building greener, architects, planners and other professionals want to make sure that the materials they are using have a minimal impact on the planet. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are an important tool to accurately measure that impact.
In January, Holcim Germany became the first company in Europe to publish EPDs for its entire cement portfolio. It is also the first German company to provide its customers with product-specific ready-mix concrete EPDs.
Library of Muyinga. Image Courtesy of BC Architects
Nowadays, the understanding of our building culture and the application of local construction methods may seem like a distant and obsolete concept given the role of industrialization and globalization in the construction industry. We can now obtain almost any material from around the globe just by searching the internet for a distributor in our region. But this practice has important implications for our society, from the loss of architectural identity to environmental costs related to high CO₂ emissions associated with the processes of extraction, manufacturing, transportation, and disposal of these materials.
The increasing global need to reduce our carbon emissions and use materials in more efficient ways has led us to research and learn about the origin of our region's resources, eventually leading to better understanding their applications within a circular economy approach. But why not look right under our feet? Soil is one of the most common materials on the planet, and when it is locally sourced, it does not generate considerable amounts of embodied CO₂. It seems that after industrialization, we have forgotten that building with earth was for many years a viable construction method for our ancestors in different parts of the world. We spoke with Nicolas Coeckelberghs, one of the four founders of BC Materials, a worker cooperative based in Brussels that has been working with earth, rediscovering its use, and sharing its knowledge on a global scale while working with a local conscience.
https://www.archdaily.com/999074/building-with-waste-transforming-excavated-earth-into-architectureEnrique Tovar
For the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Lithuanian Pavilion will present an exhibition titled “Children’s Forest Pavilion”, curated by Jurga Daubaraitė, Egija Inzule, and Jonas Žukauskas. The intervention aims to become a playscape, acknowledging the unique perspectives through which children observe and interact with their environment. The project strives to explain the ecosystem of the forest, bringing together works and findings developed in parallel to outdoor activities held with children in the woodlands of Lithuania and Finland. Environmental educators, activists, architects and foresters will discuss the idea of forests as negotiated spaces where all actors play an important role. The Pavilion will be open from May 20th until November 26th, 2023.
The Coachella Valley Music Festival, an annual music and arts festival held in the Colorado desert, opened on April 14th, 2023. Over the two weekends, April 14–16 and April 21–23, 2023, four emerging designers and artists worldwide will leave their stamp on the famous landscape. The festival will feature art installations made by a total of nine international designers, artists, and collectives. The newly-commissioned sculptural works by Kumkum Fernando, Vincent Leroy, Güvenç Özel, and Maggie West lend color, light, and alternate perspectives to the charged atmosphere and act as fresh, colorful, and architectural beacons that transform the iconic Coachella landscape at various times of day and night.
Art Deco is an artistic and design style that emerged in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, reaching its peak in the 1920s and 1930s. Although it's difficult to identify a single origin for Art Deco, it's believed that the style developed as a reaction against the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements, which emphasized craftsmanship and naturalistic ornamentation. The style quickly spread throughout the world and had a major influence on architecture, interior design, fashion, and visual arts during the first half of the 20th century.
Mar del Plata is an obligatory reference to the Argentine modern movement. At the same time, it is the setting for many architectural classics that have been victims of neglect for years.
Magalí Marazzo, director of the municipality's Department of Works and Urban Planning and member of the National Monuments Commission, has taken charge of the situation by completing the restoration project of a paradigmatic work of 20th-century architecture: The House on the River.
Designing building control systems for smart, flexible, and sustainable spaces is becoming more complex due to the changing contemporary home requirements. Pushing towards smart homes, electrical engineering has generated numerous advances that have improved performance while enriching aesthetics and lowering environmental impacts. In line with these global trends, JUNG’s systems for modern building technology are continuously delving into new possibilities in all areas of modern electrical installation, such as switching and control. Showcasing smart sustainability, the temporary installation INVISIBLE is a space where electrical engineering explores the hidden advantages of connections.
MVRDV has joined the Van Gogh Homeland Foundation to develop the first Van Gogh Homeland Biennale to bring awareness to the challenges faced by the Brabant region. At the initiative of Midpoint Brabant, the experience strives to combine knowledge of architecture, landscape design, and sustainability to reignite enthusiasm for the Brabant landscape, Vincent van Gogh;s native Dutch province. According to the organisers, the region is facing a number of threats, including the increasing number of floods and the limited availability of space, but, through an orchestrated effort, the landscape that inspired van Gogh 150 years ago can become more sustainable and greener in the future.
Saudi Arabia announced its participation at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, with an exhibition titled IRTH إرث,legacy in Arabic, exploring qualities of materials in relation to the Saudi landscape. The third round of participation the Saudi Pavilion will have at the International Architecture Exhibition, this year's edition is represented by architect AlBara Saimaldahar and curated by the duo Basma and Noura Bouzo. The Pavilion will be on display at the Arsenale – Sale d’Armi 2023.
Kagi Maldives Spa Island / Yuji Yamazaki Architecture. Image Cortesía de Kagi Maldives Spa Island
The Maldives is a sovereign island country located in the Indian Ocean, organized into 26 atolls. It comprises 1,200 islands of which 203 are inhabited; it is located 450 km from India and is considered a micro-state since its extension is only 298 square kilometers. Its capital and most populated city is Malé, with a population of 103,693 inhabitants. It has a tropical and humid climate and is the least populated country in Asia. The archipelago is composed of about 1,190 coral islands grouped in a double chain of 26 atolls, following a north-south direction, occupying an area of about 90,000km, making it one of the most dispersed countries in the world.
City night view of Abu Dhabi business district, United Arab Emirates. Image via Shutterstock | MDXB
Capital city of the United Arab Emirates, the city of Abu Dhabi is located on an island in the Persian Gulf, connected to the mainland by a short bridge. Home to the local and federal government offices, as well as to the President of the UAE, Abu Dhabi was formerly an undeveloped town with only local significance that transformed into a large metropolis, at a record speed of development and urbanization.
Japanese architect Katsuhiko Takahashi created the master plan of the city in 1967, with a target population of 40,000. Encouraged in the Abu Dhabi Plan 2030, tall skyscrapers symbolize nowadays its iconic architecture, as well as new developments of Al Maryah Island, and the Sheikh Zayed mosque initiated and constructed under the administration of the late President Sheikh Zayed, a pivotal figure in the development of the contemporary UAE.
The transparent space in between: as this rendering shows, Proline T from Solarlux can completely surround buildings with glass surfaces, with modules unfolding variably to save space. Image Courtesy of Solarlux
For city dwellers, balconies can be a real blessing. They mediate between space-saving stacked domiciles and the vastness and liveliness of the surrounding neighbourhood. They can be landscaped into small oases, and you can even take a holiday on a ‘balcony’. And for architects, they offer a welcome element for structuring the facade. They also, however, pose a challenge, because not every balcony faces a garden or a quiet side street.
Residential architecture in India is a direct reflection of the ethnic practices and lifestyles led by its diverse citizens. The earliest houses were developed as units of larger community-centric settlements. The architecture of Indian residences is deeply enmeshed with cultural values - usually centering on the ideas of family and community relationships. A single home often shelters a large joint family and meets the needs of various age groups under one roof. Multigenerational living demands a unique spatial syntax to foster connections.
