Global architecture firm Perkins&Will, in collaboration with ARUP, Grimshaw Architects, EPS , AIM Consulting, and the City of Sacramento, have transformed the city's historic train station into a self-reliant and regenerative transportation hub, making it one of the most sustainable public areas in California. The design team worked alongside the local community to create a people-centric 31-acre master plan that reflects what the community envisions for a public train station and gateway to the city of Sacramento.
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Perkins&Will Transform Sacramento Valley Train Station into Regenerative Master Plan
Apartment New York / Reutov Design
Text by Reutov Design. The owners of the apartment are a young couple that completely entrusted me with the design of the apartments. They liked my non-standard approach to design. Having taken this project, I decided to create a bold project that will give you the opportunity to forget about the hard everyday life and help you take a break from the noisy metropolis. Light, gentle, slightly heady interior. Terracotta-pink walls add originality to the entire design.
Swiss Pavilion at the 2021 Venice Biennale Explores the Political and Social Implications of the Country's Border
Titled Oræ -Experiences on the Border, (oræ, Latin for “borders”) the Swiss contribution to the 17th Venice Biennale explores the spatial and political dimension of the country’s border, investigating the social implications of this inhabited territory. Created by a Geneva-based team of architects and artists comprising Mounir Ayoub and Vanessa Lacaille from Laboratoire d’architecture, as well as filmmaker Fabrice Aragno and artist sculptor Pierre Szczepanski, the exhibition details a series of participative processes performed along the Swiss border that investigate the frontier and its inhabitants, revealing the poetic character of the space.
Who Are We Making Hyper-Realistic Renders For?
The question may seem straightforward, but the answer can be very complex, leading to a whole series of issues related to the target audience of hyper-realistic architectural renderings, as well as to what their goals are.
Architecture as a Heterogenous Practice: What is to be an Architect Around the World
Although architecture itself is universal, the day-to-day practice still varies across the world, influenced by a wide range of factors, from the professional requirements and responsibilities of an architect, the local environment, history and building customs, to local priorities and challenges. In a hyper-connected world, where architecture seems to become more uniform, how do local contexts and characteristics shape the built environment? This article taps into the commonalities and the variations within the architecture profession.
The Art of Visual Communication: 12 Tips for Creating Powerful Mood Boards
Design projects rely heavily on visual tools that illustrate the project's features and overall atmosphere, and whether you are an architect, interior designer, furniture designer, or engineer, the term 'mood board' has definitely come up at some point during the early stages of the design process. Generally speaking, images have immense powers of influencing and inspiring their viewers, so putting together a powerful mood board can be a game changer for the architect, the visual artist, and the clients, and can amplify the project's story telling process. So what is a mood board and how can you create one?
SHoP Architects Unveils Mixed-Use Tower and Museum of Civil Rights in Harlem
SHoP Architects has designed a new mixed-used development and tower that will also house the Museum of Civil Rights in West Harlem. Combined, the project could total nearly one million square feet of office, residential, and retail space with the cultural program. SHoP submitted a draft scope of work for the project, dubbed One45, that was made in collaboration with Judge Jonathan Lippman and Reverend Al Sharpton.
Reappraising Chicago’s Most Endangered Building: The James R. Thompson Center
Perhaps no building is closer to a date with the wrecking ball in Chicago than the James R. Thompson Center. While those responsible for initiating this threat cite years worth of deferred maintenance and high costs of operation as the primary reasons for their decision, these are not the real reasons for the building’s demise. It suffers from a much more lethal ailment — treating it like a normal building. In this video, Stewart explains why the Thompson Center is definitely not a normal building and offers alternative ways to evaluate it. What if we considered it to be a piece of urban infrastructure or public plaza instead? Relating the building to Rem Koolhaas’ theory of ‘Bigness’, this video builds the case that the Thompson Center should be valued for how it brings people together in space rather than its colors, or material palette, or any other normal ways of appraising mere buildings.
Chicago Architecture Biennial 2021 Announces Contributors for its Fourth Edition: The Available City
The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) has announced the list of contributors for its 2021 edition The Available City, selected by Artistic Director David Brown. Bringing design perspectives from around the world, the list of 29 contributors includes the global perception of cities such as Cape Town, Caracas, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dublin, Paris, Basel, and Tokyo.
The US Pavilion at the 2021 Venice Biennale, Curated by Paul Andersen and Paul Preissner, Explores Wood-Framed Construction in American Architecture
Titled "American Framing", the United States pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, will explore the omnipresence and creative power of wood-framed construction in American architecture, an overlooked structural element. Curated by Paul Andersen and Paul Preissner, the exhibition will be on display at the Giardini della Biennale from May 22 through November 21, 2021.
MIRALLES Series of Exhibitions and Events Celebrates the Work of the Distinguished Architect
The Fundació Enric Miralles has launched MIRALLES, a series of exhibitions and events celebrating the work of the influential Catalan architect, whose passing marked twenty years in 2020. Curated by Benedetta Tagliabue and Joan Roig i Duran, the program will unfold over the course of this year in different emblematic venues in Barcelona. The first three exhibitions of the circuit inaugurated this month showcase the multiple facets of Enric Miralles through archival materials ranging from drawings and collages to photography and models, exploring his legacy in architecture and artistic creation.
Structural Details As Seen in Courtyards
The distribution of natural light, improved ventilation, and the propensity to connect living spaces with the outdoors while maintaining the privacy of the inhabitants have made courtyards a go-to in architectural design around the world over the centuries.
Courtyards are characterized as outdoor or semi-outdoor spaces that are enclosed within the walls of a house or building.
Converting Sunlight to Electricity with Clear Solar Glass
In today's climate, energy and how we use it is a primary concern in the design of built spaces. Buildings currently contribute nearly 40% to global carbon emissions and with a projected growth of 230 billion square meters in construction before the end of 2060, the focus on construction decarbonization efforts should be paramount.
I.M. Pei & Partners' Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Captured by Nipun Prabhakar
On the week commemorating American-Chinese architect I.M Pei’s birthday, Delhi-based photographer and photojournalist, Nipun Prabhakar, has shared with us a series of images of I.M Pei & Partners’ building, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. The firm was commissioned in 1968 by Cornell University to build the university’s museum that would also serve as a teaching facility and cultural center for the educational community. The building was completed in 1973 and was awarded the American Institute of Architects Honor Award in 1975.
Nathaniel Rich on Remaking Nature and Living with Uncertainty
This article was originally published on Common Edge
Two years ago, Nathaniel Rich published Losing Earth, his account of the pivotal decade from 1979 to 1989 when the political consensus around climate change somewhat miraculously formed and then collapsed, hardening into an impasse that’s now more than three decades old. Though not explicitly a sequel, Rich’s new book, Second Nature: Scenes From a World Remade, is a follow-up of sorts.
Winners of the Design Educates Awards 2021
The Design Educates Awards recognize, showcase, and promote globally the best ideas and implementations of architecture and design that can educate. DEAwards reach beyond the regular architecture contest priorities, it searches for something that will have a lasting influence beyond the ever-present effects of design and architecture.
KCAP Designs Gouda Station Mixed-Use Tower in the Netherlands
KCAP Architects & Planners have designed a new mixed-use building at the rail station of Gouda. The design takes the form of a public plinth with a program of hotel, apartments and amenities. Created for ABC Vastgoed, the project aims to enhance the areas surrounding the existing rail stop and its overall quality as the final piece in a larger redevelopment of the station's northern area.
Architects, not Architecture: Elizabeth Diller
As part of its first Virtual World Tour, Architects, not Architecture visited New York to meet Elizabeth Diller.
The international event format Architects, not Architecture is known for inviting some of the most influential architects of our time and asks them to talk about their path, influences, and intellectual biographies. With its new event series, „AnA“ brings the architecture community a bit closer together by taking attendees on tour around the globe to “visit” selected cities and virtually meet two of their renowned practices.
RSHP Architects and CNADRI Win Competition to Design New Green Portal of the Bao’an International Airport
In a competition organized by Shenzhen Airport, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) and China Northeast Architectural Design & Research Institute (CNADRI) have won a competition to design the Terminal 4 Bao’an International Airport in Shenzhen, China. The winning design offers a new 400,000 sqm building with connections to existing and new transport infrastructure, as well as a space that promotes passenger interaction and wellbeing, all while maintaining a safe post-pandemic environment.
The Slovenian Pavilion at the 2021 Venice Biennale Explores the Social Infrastructure of Local Cooperative Centres
Slovenia's contribution to the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale explores interior public spaces as vital social infrastructure through the lens of the local cooperative centre typology. Titled "The Common in Community", the exhibition curated by Blaž Babnik Romaniuk, Martina Malešič, Rastko Pečar and Asta Vrečko details the architectural spaces of social interaction built after WWII in rural and suburban Slovenia, which continue to serve their purpose as local community centres to this day.
Brazilian Houses: 10 Homes Using Rustic Wood
Wood is, without a doubt, one of the most versatile building materials there is. Treated lumber, boards, composites, or rustic hardwood, have structural and visual qualities that attract architects and clients searching for a wide range of possible applications and designs. Logs are one of the oldest ways of using this material since they require very little treatment and processing after the tree is cut and are the most natural form of lumber.
Rustic lumber is often used in vacation homes, but not only for this purpose. Below, we have gathered Brazilian houses that use rustic wood elements either in their structure or walls and finishings.