Architects and developers have always been on opposite ends of the construction world. While the first wanted to create dreamy spaces, the latter just wanted to cater to the basic needs. In these past few years, the world has witnessed significant changes, with the aggravation of climate-related issues, the evolution of technological solutions, and the newly acquired awareness and growth of the population.

While everything is transforming, building trends also evolved, mainly due to an alteration in people’s perceptions and priorities. However, one question remains unanswered: Could all these changes mean that the never-ending conflict between architects and developers reached some sort of common grounds? And could they finally be seeking one same goal, of a sustainable, resilient and inclusive future?

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The new museum by BIG for Swiss luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet is set to open to the public next May. As featured in WSJ. Magazine, the project was designed as an extension to their headquarters in Le Brassus, near Le Chenit. Conceived as a spiraling glass pavilion in the landscape, the design will take visitors on a narrative journey through the company's 139-year history.

Weiss/Manfredi have been selected to lead the new La Brea Tar Pits master planning in Los Angeles. The team's ‘Loops and Lenses’ concept was developed to create new connections between "the museum and the Park, between science and culture, and envisions the entire site as an unfolding place of discovery." The team will work with NHMLAC on a multi-year process of public engagement, master planning, design and construction on the Tar Pits’ 13-acre campus.

Archinfo Finland has announced the theme and curatorial team for the Pavilion of Finland at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of the 2020 Venice Biennale. Entitled New Standards, the exhibition conceived by Laura Berger, Philip Tidwell, and Kristo Vesikansa will explore Finland’s timber industry.

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The Board of Directors and the Strategic Council of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) have awarded renowned architect Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, with the 2020 Gold Medal. This prize credits an individual that had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture.

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This year showcased how landscape architecture is shaping public life in the built environment. In the first two decades of the 21st century, landscape architects created vibrant resiliency plans, rehabilitation projects, and new urban parks. As these twenty years come to a close, 2019 embodied many larger ideas and trends that will continue to influence the next decade of landscape design.

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Open More Doors is a section by ArchDaily and the MINI Clubman that takes you behind the scenes of the world’s most innovative offices through exciting video interviews and an exclusive photo gallery featuring each studio’s workspace.

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Sky Green, WOHA’s first project in Taichung, Taiwan has just been completed. Commissioned by the developer Golden Jade, with Feng Chia University as an advisor, the project is the first green and sustainable mixed-use development in the city.

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MVRDV has won the competition to redesign the Tancheon Valley and Seoul’s waterfront. Called “The Weaves”, the design was made to knit together pedestrian and bicycle paths, the natural landscapes, and public amenities. Commissioned by the government of Seoul, the design introduces a combination of natural and human activity in the midst of the city.

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Use the term ‘volume builder’ in front of an architect, and there’s a fair chance they’ll shudder. Conjuring a vision of homogenous, mass-produced boxes squished together, ruining the look of leafy suburbs traditionally populated by impeccably designed homes, volume building is often seen as the poor cousin.

However, not all volume builders are cut from the same cloth.

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More than 5.000 architecture projects were published in ArchDaily this year.  Year after year, we curate hundreds of residential projects, and as we know our readers love houses, we compiled a selection of the most visited residential projects published on the site. 

Set in various locations around the world, in urban, rural, mountain and beach landscapes; a variety of structural designs, from traditional masonry to the most technological prefabricated systems; from small dwellings to large houses and materials such as concrete, wood, and bricks as the most used. We also found their design and typology solutions were very much aligned with their specific settings and all of them share a strong dialogue between the house and nature, whether it is its direct surroundings or the introduction of green into a more condensed urban setting. 

This selection of 50 houses highlights the most visited examples during these twelve months and, according to our readers, were the most attractive in innovation, construction techniques, and design challenges. Check them out below:

Qatar has been radically reshaped by growth and development. The sovereign state transformed since the second half of the twentieth century after the discovery of the Dukhan oil field in 1940. Capitalizing on over 70 years of economic development, Qatar now has the highest per capita income in the world. Reflecting the country’s wealth, its modern architectural projects are being built at a monumental scale.

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Sasaki has been selected by the government of Ho Chi Minh City to conceive the innovation district in the eastern part of the city, in collaboration with enCity, an international planning practice based in Singapore and Vietnam.

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The Royal Institute of British Architects has released the names of the 2019 winners of the President’s Medals, the annual awards for the world’s best student architecture projects. To showcase these achievements, an exhibition will be held in London, from the 4^th of December 2019 till the 1^st of February 2020, before touring throughout the UK and internationally.

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Relatively unknown outside his home country, Clorindo Testa (December 10, 1923 – April 11, 2013) was one of Argentina’s most important 20th-century architects. Consistently defying categorization, Testa had a hand in two of Buenos Aires’ most iconic buildings, the Bank of London and South America, and the National Library, as well as many others throughout his long career. Characteristically enigmatic, Testa would only ever acknowledge Le Corbusier as an influence, saying, “I never paid attention to other architects.” As a former colleague Juan Fontana described, Testa spoke the language of brutalism with an Argentine accent.

Kansas City has become the first major city in the United States to approve free public transit. Last week, the City Council voted unanimously to make the city’s bus system fare-free alongside the existing streetcar system that was launch in 2016. The Zero Fare Transit proposal aims to be a universal and system-wide fare-free scheme.

Seeking international projects that combine sustainable construction practices with architectural excellence, the LafargeHolcim Awards are open for entries to their 6th cycle through February 25, 2020. The Awards offers a total of $2 million USD in prize money to projects and concepts from architecture, engineering, urban planning, materials and construction technology, and related fields.

Adolf Loos (December 10, 1870 – August 23, 1933) was one of the most influential European architects of the late 19th century and is often noted for his literary discourse that foreshadowed the foundations of the entire modernist movement. As an architect, his influence is primarily limited to major works in what is now Austria and the Czech Republic, but as a writer he had a major impact on the development of 20th century architecture, producing a series of controversial essays that elaborated on his own architectural style by decrying ornament and a range of social ills. Adolf Loos’s minimalist attitudes are reflected in the works of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and many other modernists and led to a fundamental shift in the way architects perceived ornamentation.

Forward-thinking architectural firms, infrastructure consultancies, and interior design businesses are increasingly leaning on real-time architectural visualization to explore, evaluate, and present designs. By affording clients and project stakeholders the opportunity to experience future spaces in interactive and immersive environments, real-time technology provides a compelling immediacy that 2D drawings cannot. 

Videos

Humans spend almost 90% of the time indoors; that's approximately 20 hours a day in closed rooms and 9 hours a day in our own bedrooms. The architectural configurations of these spaces are not random - that is, they have been designed or thought of by someone, and are at least slightly "guided" by the conditions of their inhabitants and their surroundings. Some people inhabit spaces specially catered to their needs and tastes, while others adapt and appropriate designs made for someone else, perhaps developed decades before they were born. In either case, their quality of life may be better or worse depending on the decisions that are made. 

Understanding the importance of carefully designing our interiors, particularly through the lens of access and enjoyment of natural light, was the purpose of the 8th VELUX Daylight Symposium, held on October 9 and 10 of 2019 in Paris. This year, more than 600 researchers and professionals attended and reaffirmed the importance of natural light, presenting a series of concrete tools that could help quantify and qualify light by designing its entry, management, and control with greater depth and responsibility.

Snøhetta was selected to design the latest landmark of Xingtai, one of China’s oldest cities that is undergoing rapid urban development. The Grand Theater, integrated into the master plan of the central and southern parts of the Hebei province, will become a new cultural monument.