Anna Heringer: The Latest Architecture and News

The Obel Award is an international prize seeking to highlight unconventional and original initiatives within the architectural profession. Supported by the Henrik Frode Obel Foundation, each annual award is centered around a specific theme. By exploring a different challenge of the built environment each year, the award remains open to a wide range of solutions and architectural innovations, honoring those contributions that have a positive impact on both people and the planet.

"Architectures WITH," the recently announced theme of the 2024 edition, explores participatory design, co-creation, and interdisciplinary collaboration, challenging traditional roles in architecture to foster inclusive, adaptable environments. It aims to empower all stakeholders and enhance collective intelligence in architecture.

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The Obel Award is an international prize for architectural achievement presented annually by the Henrik Frode Obel Foundation. Each year, the jury selects a specific theme and grants an award to a promising solution. For the 2024 edition, the prize that honors architectural contributions that positively impact both people and the planet will be focused on “Architecture With”.

Previous emphasis included Adaptations, Emissions, Cities, Mending, and Well-being. In 2023, the fifth cycle recognized ‘Living Breakwaters’ in New York, a green infrastructure project off the shore of Staten Island, by SCAPE Landscape Architecture and its founder Kate Orff. In 2022, the Obel was awarded to Seratech, a carbon-neutral concrete solution, in 2021, the concept of the 15-minute city received the prize for its value in creating sustainable and people-centric urban environments, and in 2020, Studio Anna Heringer was acknowledged for Anandaloy, in Bangladesh, an unconventional, multifunctional building that hosts a therapy center for people with disabilities on the ground floor and a textile studio on the top floor producing fair fashion and art. Finally, in its first edition, fixated on well-being, the Obel Award was granted to the Art Biotop Water Garden project in Tochigi, Japan, by Junya Ishigami & Associates.

The 2022 Biennale of FRAC in the Centre-Val De Loire Region, France, is exhibiting the work of 55 women for its third edition entitled Infinite Freedom, A World for a Feminist Democracy. The fair showcases pieces from the Center Pompidou and the Cité de l'architecture et du Patrimoine collection and brings special guests such as architect Anna Heringer and Journalist and Director Rokhaya Diallo. From September 2022 to January 1st, 2023, female artists, architects, and politicians will gather to discuss and create a new definition of inclusive and plural democracy in the city, architecture, design, and art.

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Hard times bring people together. In recent years we have seen how collective work can be a driving force to help those affected by natural or man-made disasters. After a disaster or displacement, a safe physical environment is often essential. Therefore, the need for coordination becomes a key factor in assisting people in times of need.

Architects, as "Shelter Specialists", play an important role in creating safe and adequate environments, whether it is individual housing, public buildings, schools, or emergency tent camps. But as architect Diébédo Francis Kéré says, "When you have nothing and you want to convince your community to believe in an idea, it may happen that everybody starts working with you, but you need to keep fighting to convince them."

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The Architectural Review (AR) has unveiled the candidates for its 2016 Woman Architect of the Year and the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture awards. Tatiana Bilbao, Jeanne Gang, Kazuyo Sejima and Charlotte Skene Catling are all being considered as the woman of the year for their impact and ability to inspire change within the profession.

Eleven women are being considered for the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture prize for their "use of innovative architecture to effect positive social change." Read on to see them all.