The Covid-19 pandemic has been going on for over a year now, so people have consequently been traveling less, and tourism has slowed down all over the world. But that doesn't mean we still can't get to visit faraway places. Since the beginning of the lockdown, several museums and organizations have been preparing virtual tours that allow users to explore their spaces through digital immersion. With that in mind, here are four different ways for you to explore places without leaving your home.
Cities we live in today have been built on principles designed decades ago, with prospects of ensuring that they are habitable by everyone. Throughout history, cities have been catalysts of economic growth, serving as focal points for businesses and migration. However, in the last decade, particularly during the last couple of years, the world has witnessed drastic reconfigurations in the way societies work, live, and commute.
Today’s urban fabric highlights two demographic patterns: rapid urbanization and large youth populations. Cities, although growing in scale, have in fact become younger, with nearly four billion of the world’s population under the age of 30 living in urban areas, and by 2030, UN-Habitat expects 60% of urban populations to be under the age of 18. So when it comes to urban planning and the future of cities, it is evident that the youth should be part of the conversation.
“Equity” is a moving target. We who create architecture want our devotion to have a true forum of objective Equity. But motivations are not outcomes. How we judge design inevitably carries the baggage of “Style” and that makes universal equity in design apprehension impossible.
The Pritzker Architecture Prize released a special ceremony video honouring the 2021 laureates Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal. Previously held in person, each time at a different architecturally significant venue around the world, this year’s ceremony is the second pre-filmed event in the history of the Prize, following the one in 2020. The ceremony features filmed remarks from various speakers, among which are several jury members, Jury Chair Alejandro Aravena, the 2020 Prize recipients Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell, as well as this year’s Laureates themselves. The video also pays tribute to the achievements of Lacaton and Vassal through footage of their built work.
Work has just begun on the late Christo's unfulfilled intervention for the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The first images by architectural photographer Jad Sylla highlight the wrapping up of the famous monument with 25,000 square meters of recyclable polypropylene fabric in silvery blue, and with 3,000 meters of red rope. Scheduled for September 18 until October 3, 2021, the temporary artwork ‘l’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped’ will only remain on display for 16 days.
The concept of prefabrication in construction corresponds to elements, parts or entire buildings produced in a factory and transported to a construction site for a quick installation. This represents numerous advantages over traditional construction methods, such as speed, precision in execution, efficiency, cleanliness of the work and, in many cases, cost. Considering that housing is a primary human need, using industrial methods for the construction of affordable and good quality housing has always interested architects, whether to house growing urban populations or for temporary or emergency settlements, on the most diverse scales. After many attempts throughout history, the question remains whether the popularization of prefabrication in the construction field can be a solution to provide greater equity in access to housing.
Why is 3D-printed architecture on the rise?
According to a July 2021 report by Grand View Research, the global 3D construction market is set to grow by an incredible 91% between 2021 and 2028. And, why is printed architecture seeing such rapid growth? Firstly, 3D printing is emerging as a possible solution to some of the challenges currently facing architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) – it can provide affordable housing, shelters for disaster-hit regions, and an answer to sustainable construction. Alongside these, one of the main advantages is the lower construction costs. It’s far easier to calculate the actual volume of construction material required, resulting in less waste.
Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava is rebuilding World Trade Center’s St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine in New York City. The church, which was destroyed during the 9/11 attacks, began its reconstruction process in 2015, and is finally reaching completion in 2022. The new structure's design is inspired by a mosaic of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, formerly the Church of Hagia Sophia, which was one of the fundamental factors in defining the original architecture of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.
Henning Larsen has revealed the design for Landehof, a new office building activating an underused plot along a railway in the city of Augsburg in Germany. As part of a masterplan meant to develop the area around the city's central train station, the contemporary addition to the complex and textured urban fabric unfolds on a long and narrow plot adjacent to the railway tracks. The design takes cues from the surrounding historical architectural styles, serving as a gateway to the city centre.
Curated by Spanish architect Izaskun Chinchilla Moreno, Cosmowomen. Places as constellations is an exhibition currently open at La Galleria Nazionale di Roma, Italy. Reflecting on the incorporation of women into architecture, Cosmowomen displays a series of projects developed by 65 Bartlett School of Architecture-alumni women architects from over 20 different nationalities.
Few cities combine history and contemporary culture like Prague. The so-called "Mother of all Cities" was spared from widespread destruction during World War II, and as a result, its diverse architecture dates back over a millennium. As a political, cultural and economic center of Europe, the city has become a significant metropolis balancing both its past and future as one of the world's most beautiful cities.
American architect Brian Mac grew up near Detroit. He graduated from the Architecture School at the University of Detroit in 1988 and for the next five years worked for a preservationist firm, Quinn Evans Architects in Ann Arbor. There he learned to love historic architectural detailing, and, while working at the firm, in 1992, became a licensed architect. Then followed a short period of disillusion with the profession and moving to Ohio to work in a residential treatment center for adolescent felony offenders.
Graphisoft, the leading Building Information Modeling (BIM) software solution developer for architecture, has announced the full speaker list and final agenda for the Building Together 2021 conference. Scheduled for September 14-16, the carefully curated online program will cover a range of topics of interest to today’s AEC professionals, including sustainability, integrated design, Building Lifecycle Intelligence, and the future of architecture education.
With Expo 2020 Dubai scheduled to debut in less than a month, new drone shots of the venue highlight water and garden features. Aiming to “explore the power of connections in shaping our world”, Expo 2020 Dubai will run from 1 October 2021 until 31 March 2022, under strict Covid regulations, after a year delay due to the worldwide pandemic.
During the first week of September, Milan Design Week opened its doors to more than 60,000 architects, designers, artists, and craftsmen from all around the world to explore new design innovations and exchange ideas about the interior design, furniture, and lighting. In parallel to the event hosted at the Rho Fiera, interventions by world-renowned architects were installed across the city as part of the Fuorisalone.
The Fuorisalone program took place under the patronage of the Municipality of Milan, and started last April with a digital edition under the theme of "Forms of Living", taking a view on the questions that inspire and influence the future of the furniture and design. Read on to discover the top 5 outdoor installations along with their description.
Foster + Partners revealed its design for a masterplan focusing on adaptive reuse and programmatic diversity meant to regenerate the site of a mid-century factory in the heart of Santiago. The practice's first project in Chile proposes the refurbishment of the existing factory building, La Fabrica, while adding a residential development on the adjacent site and introducing timber as a sustainable building material for the extensions.
Choosing a home's cabinetry and furniture is not only about function and storage space but also about visual appeal. Walk-in closets, which are normally located in the master bedroom, are a good example of this. These spaces were usually used only for storing clothes, but modern closets now incorporate more unique features, transforming them into more personal and functional amenities.
As material technology becomes more advanced and the importance of health and wellbeing is taken more seriously, sculpting sound is now a consistent part of specifiers’ briefs in all sectors, from echo-free hospitality to clear and functional meeting rooms, and even transforming home offices or music rooms into headache-free sound vaults.
The 7th edition of the International Architecture and Design Festival Concéntrico proposed new readings of public space through a series of temporary installations that re-imagined various places throughout the Spanish city of Logroño. Emerging architecture practices and artists from around the world shared their perspectives on the public realm and the spaces of social interaction by exploring various themes and experimenting with new ways of understanding urban spaces.
Five emerging architecture studio profiles from Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Austria, the UK, and Slovakia have been chosen by New Generations, a European platform that analyses the most innovative emerging practices at the European level, providing a new space for the exchange of knowledge and confrontation, theory, and production. Since 2013, New Generations has involved more than 300 practices in a diverse program of cultural activities, such as festivals, exhibitions, open calls, video interviews, workshops, and experimental formats.
Le Corbusier was a pioneer of the Modernist Movement in architecture. Throughout his career, he undertook an array of projects all around the world. See below for 17 of his works that have been named World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, as well as many more of his other popular pieces. Hopefully, someday you get to go and see them yourself!
In this video, Will Quam of Brick of Chicago takes us around the American city to question Louis Kahn’s adage that all bricks are motivated to be arches. Here, in the Logan Square neighborhood, we find bricks of all sorts, that — in addition to arches — take on other configurations and metaphors to describe their qualities; textile bricks and diapering, brushstrokes of a painting, butter joints and glazes, soldiers and bullnoses.
.jpg?1631531492 "Courtesy of Expo 2020 Dubai")
