There is not enough that can be said about the benefits of incorporating plants in interiors or Plantscaping. Integrating vegetation indoors serves many purposes whether practical, aesthetic or psychological. Although there are basic requirements for incorporating greenery into Homes, well thought out plant selections and placements are characteristically different across the world. By going over recent interior works, a few recurrent plantscaping design patterns arose, each reflective of distinctive climates, building styles and traditional building techniques.
While the type of the chosen plants varies depending on favorable conditions for growth and local availability, the main distinctions are related to the direct environment and display method in which the vegetation is set, as well as its intended purpose. While plants are there to offer mental wellness to some, they are essential for cooling to other or could even be meant for small scale farming.
When you come to think of it, most of the food on your plate has a history behind it - a long journey that we are unable to describe. In her book Food Routes: Growing Bananas in Iceland and Other Tales from the Logistics of Eating (2019), Robyn Shotwell Metcalfe refers to the paradox of fish being caught in New England, exported to Japan, and then shipped back as sushi, revealing a large and complex network that nobody can see when they buy takeout Japanese food at the local grocery store.
Architectural education has always been fundamentally influenced by whichever styles are popular at a given time, but that relationship flows in the opposite direction as well. All styles must originate somewhere, after all, and revolutionary schools throughout centuries past have functioned as the influencers and generators of their own architectural movements. These schools, progressive in their times, are often founded by discontented experimental minds, looking for something not previously nor currently offered in architectural output or education. Instead, they forge their own way and bring their students along with them. As those students graduate and continue on to practice or become teachers themselves, the school’s influence spreads and a new movement is born.
Light — how we perceive the world around us — is an integral, emotive architectural element. Access to light is enhanced and limited in an architectural capacity globally, with architects of expensive tropical dwellings celebrating sunny vistas with expansive glazing, while a wide range of art galleries reject light in its natural form, eliminating it in adherence to the sensitive exhibit requirements of art pieces. Light in an architectural and urban sense is also highly symbolic, evident in the many metropolises of our world, but where this symbolism takes on an interesting dimension is in the archipelago of Zanzibar.
Heatherwick Studio has revealed their first public library design, planned for Howard County Libraries in Maryland, United States. The building will serve as a community center and was designed to reflect the changing and complex role of libraries within cities. The program expands beyond book lending services, providing spaces for cultural events, collective learning, workshops and lending of objects of use. Construction is expected to begin in 2024, and the library is scheduled to open to the public in 2027.
A place where “to create” and “to use” are united as one, Umaki Camp. Image Courtesy of dot architects, Yuma Harada
Japan's Pavilion has announced its exhibition “Architecture, a place to be loved – when architecture is seen as a living creature” curated by Maki Onishi, for the 18thInternational Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Centered around our post-pandemic reality of faceless developments taking over cities globally, the intervention's main question explores how people can once more find amazement in architecture and joy in shared physical spaces.
Gender is an undeniable layer of inequality in cities, which distinctly and effectively marks the experience and daily life of men and women in urban environments. Public lighting is crucial to ensure more inclusive and equal spaces, and often it is not planned from a gender perspective.
Poorly lit public spaces reinforce feelings of fear in these environments and must be rethought to promote safer cities, especially for women. With more than half of the world's population living in urban areas – a scenario expected to increase – how can we make public spaces safer and more comfortable so that they can be fully enjoyed and accessed by everyone?
With offices in Zürich, Barcelona and Majorca, the work of Gus Wüstemann Architects is a constant evolution between matter and context. From the strong heritage of timber and concrete construction in Switzerland, to the blurry boundaries of inside and outside found in Mediterranean architecture, Gus' work always put an emphasis on the core values of the local construction and craftsmanship, mixed with the cross learnings of working across different regions.
Currently working on projects such as A Barn, for Demna’s Atelier and Loïc’s Studio, and a mixed use hybrid concrete/timber in Feldmeilen, along with several residential projects in Italy and the Balearic Islands, Wüstemann's architecture can be seen as archetypical, essential or even raw. The interiors are a direct expression of these core concepts, with a brut aesthetic.
“How to give your home: Dark Academia vibes” reads the title of a popular YouTube video targeted at homeowners fascinated by the aesthetics relating to liberal education and the arts. A subculture born in the age of social media, Dark Academia is one of many internet aesthetics that have gained prevalence in the last decade. Image-based platforms like Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok have amplified internet aesthetics, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media allows users to support and create their own trends that rapidly amass a following. Today, the creation of aesthetic trends lies in the hands of the general public and will dictate the way interior design trends develop.
George Smart is an unlikely preservationist, almost an accidental one. The founder and executive director of USModernist, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation and documentation of modern houses, Smart worked for 30 years as a management consultant. “I was doing strategic planning and organization training,” he says. “My wife refers to this whole other project as a 16-year seizure.” Recently I spoke with Smart about his two websites, the podcast, the house tours his organization conducts, and why documentation is such a power preservation tool.
For those considering a career in environmental design –as an architect, landscape architect, urban designer, or city planner–, an immersive summer program in architecture and sustainable design might be the way to go before making a more long term commitment. Intensive summer programs are a great way to explore a career interest in architecture and environmental design. The College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley offers a variety of immersive summer courses, emphasizing hands-on studio design and teaching a multitude of relevant foundational design skills. By attending these programs, students gain professional clarity, competency, an increased network of peers and experts, and an empowering experience.
The Danish Pavilion has announced Josephine Michau as the curator of the exhibition “Coastal Imaginaries” to represent Denmark at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. The exhibition highlights nature-based design solutions to alleviate global challenges like rising sea levels and storm floods. The team behind the exhibition represents a collaboration between the landscape architectural firm Schønherr and researchers, artists, Danish trade organizations, and scientific institutions. The selected subject aligns with the biennale’s overarching theme of Laboratory of the Future, running from May 20th to November 26th, 2023, in the Giardini, at the Arsenale, and at various locations around Venice.
Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence Campus. Image Courtesy of MVRDV
MVRDV has won a competition to design the Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence (IPAI) Campus in Heilbronn,Germany. The campus will be transformed into a world-leading site for developing AI technologies. The design will include a variety of business campus laboratories, a startup innovation center, housing, a communication center, and many amenities, such as a restaurant and a kindergarten. Moreover, the scheme also embeds interactive touchpoints for curious visitors to see the development of these world-changing technologies firsthand and interact with the minds behind their creations.
Within various - if not all - architectural programs, there is a function that is an essential and common requirement: the bathroom. A residence, office, commercial space, theater, museum, religious space, park, or school can only be designed with it. In some countries, public toilets are part of urban infrastructure like public transport or waste collection. A fundamental human right, although denied to a considerable portion of the global population, the toilet follows a historical evolution. Modernity brought with it the separation between public and private, and the room became increasingly reserved in Western society.
As part of a new initiative of the multidisciplinary laboratory based in Mexico, dérive LAB presents "Shared Streets", a project with a focus on urban design that seeks to spatially transform the street so that it is governed by human relations, rather than using traffic control devices; this suggests that the street is not only a space for transportation and mobility but one in which many other social, economic and cultural activities take place.
Foster + Partners, working in collaboration with Petrolina Group, has revealed the design of a new master plan to transform the seafront of Larnaca, Cyprus, into a sustainable and enjoyable area for the city residents, future generations, and new visitors. The resort town of Larnaca aims to redesign one of its main arteries, the Larnaca-Dhekelia Road, to become more pedestrian-friendly, along with its seafront. Foster’s proposal aims to enhance the land’s ecological value and to double the length of the waterfront accessible to the public.
Exposed pipes highlighted in architecture are not a novelty. Classics like Centre Pompidou and Sesc Pompeia already adopted infrastructure elements as objects that helped compose the building's aesthetics. Solutions inspired by the industrial architecture of the 50s, urging to remodel industrial sheds for other uses, made their facilities apparent to make the work more cost-effective and less complex. After a few decades, we find this idea at different scales.
Boston City Hall. Image Courtesy of Reed Hilderbrand
It’s true that all trends are circular, and what was once seen as old and outdated becomes new and modern again- in fashion, music, art, and especially architecture. From the mid 20th century, brutalist architecture rose in popularity before reaching its peak in the mid-1970s, when it was disregarded for being too stylistic and non-conforming to the needs of clients who wanted their buildings to feel timeless. But the love for these concrete beasts is facing a resurgence, and a renewed appreciation for this architectural style is on the rise.
Laminates combine look, feel and function in a practical way. Image Courtesy of Egger
Playing with the balance between form and function, laminates enable architecture to perform a variety of tasks at the same time, being robust, flame-retardant, stain-resistant and antibacterial. With a wide range of applications in architecture, Egger has developed a range of products that can be applied to many of the spaces we inhabit daily, such as kitchens, bathrooms, offices, hotels and shops. Diving into the specifics of laminates and how they can be applied in architecture, we showcase how these materials are an ideal coating material with extra-wide format alternatives.
Prefabricated wooden houses date back to the 19th century, when so-called "kit houses" became popular in North America. Sold by companies like Sears, they offered affordable and convenient housing options, especially for people living in rural areas where labor was scarce and expensive. Customers could choose from a few designs and dimensions, and the kits usually included all the materials needed to build the house, including numbered and precut lumber, nails, shingles, and other necessary components. For some time, however, prefabricated houses were seen as constructions of lesser quality and prestige, and coupled with the lack of flexibility of these solutions, they went into decline.
Nowadays, thanks to the technologies available in the market, modular and prefabricated constructions have emerged as clean, sustainable, and energy-efficient construction solutions. In addition, innovations in engineered wood have emphasized its many uses, with the added benefit of aesthetic and structural possibilities. It was in this context that the office UNA BV developed the Modular 5.5 project, whose goal was to create flexible modular constructions that could be assembled in different arrangements, allowing the construction of houses with a variety of dimensions and needs in different terrains. We spoke with Fernanda Barbara and Fábio Valentim about this project:
For the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, the Bulgarian Pavilion will present the exhibition titled “Education is the movement from darkness to light.” Curators Boris Tikvarski, Bojidara Valkova, and Mariya Gyaurova, joined by Belgian photographer Alexander Dumarey, have chosen to focus the exhibition on the subject of depopulation, urban decline, and rural flight, expressed through the image of abandoned schools present in the country. The project was selected following a national competition organized by The Ministry of Culture, The Chamber of Architects in Bulgaria, and the Union of Architects.
Pearl Gallery Renders. Image Courtesy of CHYBIK + KRISTOF
CHYBIK + KRISTOF architecture studio has been announced as the competition winners for a new cultural landmark that will transform and re-activate public space in Ústí nad Orlicí, Czech Republic. This former textile factory will be converted into a multifunctional cultural hub available to the public. The newly revitalized building will contribute to the existing cultural infrastructure, located near the main square of the city.
Not all projects seek a constant connection with the outside, at least not in their front façade. Despite not being a usual appearance, there are several reasons for creating an opaque façade: privacy, security, reduced energy consumption, and protection against inclement weather. More common in government, cultural or religious buildings, this solution is also found in some residential cases.
