The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art's "Living Structures" exhibition, running from November 8th, 2024, to March 23rd, 2025, features Deep Forest, a new installation by Prof Claudia Pasquero and Dr. Marco Poletto founders of architecture and design innovation firm ecoLogicStudio, together with academic partner Innsbruck University. This immersive work challenges traditional architectural paradigms by embracing the naturalization of architecture and technology, a direct counterpoint to modernist attempts to mechanize nature. The exhibition represents the culmination of twenty years of research in bio-digital design, showcasing the potential of symbiotic relationships between technology and the natural world within built environments.
In the interview conducted by Louisiana Channel, architect Andrés Jaque discusses his foundational interest in architecture and his perspective on its role in shaping society. Jaque, founder of the Office for Political Innovation, emphasizes the creative potential of architecture to intervene in reality and reconnect all elements of the environment. He also goes into perspective on the political aspect of architecture, an interest from which the name of his office derives, as well as his perspectives on the true meaning of sustainability.
"A bathroom is a place where everyone is equal—there is no rich or poor, no old or young; everyone is part of humanity." This reflection was shared by Wim Wenders, exponent of New German Cinema and director of the filmPerfect Days (2023) when asked about the striking sets of his most recent work. Wenders selected Tokyo's public restrooms to craft a narrative that deeply explores themes of solitude, simplicity, and the beauty of everyday life.
The story follows Hirayama, a middle-aged man working as a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo. His life is simple and routine, yet filled with small pleasures and moments of reflection. This modest lifestyle contrasts with the technological, colorful, and innovative designs of the public restrooms he cleans every day.
Equipe do Estudio Guto Requena. Photo Courtesy by Guto Requena.
During July, we delved into the Design Process as our monthly topic. Inspired by practices that intersect various uncommon layers in their creations, we talked with architect Guto Requena. When designing, his studio experiments with different digital technologies through a sustainable lens and with a keen eye on social issues, aiming to deliver innovative and emotional experiences. Today, the architect boasts numerous national and international awards, including the ArchDaily Building of the Year and the UNESCO Prix Versailles.
In the interview, Requena shares his journey, highlighting the diversity of his team as a critical innovation point in his firm. He also addresses crucial questions about fostering innovation and creativity with new materials in architecture, among other topics.
What is architecture? Is it grand designs with complex structures, defying the laws of physics? Is it simple, everyday buildings that, when put together, create the urban fabric? In the mid-18th century, Laugier introduced the concept of the Primitive Hut, a structure, essentially a home, designed and built to meet the primitive man’s basic needs: shelter from the elements and nature. Any structure that meets these requirements would be considered authentic architecture. However, since then, our needs have evolved and are much more elaborate, especially when it comes to our homes. They need to provide shelter, security, thermal comfort, and space. Our homes have to be economical, environmentally friendly, and have access to the internet, among many other prerequisites. So what would the ideal modern human’s home, and thus true architecture, look like?
The Science of a Happy Home Report, carried out by Resi first in 2020 and then again in post-pandemic 2023, sought to discover exactly what elements people believed made up the ultimate happy home. The results were six prominent qualities: a home that is adaptable to meet our changing needs, a home that allows us to connect and build relationships, a home that mirrors our personality and values, a nourishing home that provides the conditions we need to thrive (i.e. air quality), a home that helps us relax, and a home that offers security and makes us feel safe. These needs, however, aren't being met for the majority of UK homes, and that's where Resi comes in.
MVRDV has revealed the master plan to expand the Noviotech Campus, a giant in Health & High Tech Innovation, in Nijmegen, east of the Netherlands. The concept combines the campus's already scattered buildings, adds new structures where there are gaps, and integrates the site within the city, putting ecology first. The municipality of Nijmegen, Kadans Science Partner, and NXP Semiconductors will collaborate with Noviotech Campus and MVRDV in the following months to develop and refine the master plan.
Steven J. Orfield's firm, Orfield Laboratories (OL), has spent 50 years in architectural design, research, and testing, dedicated to the premise that what matters in design is the end user, because design in the absence of user comfort, preference, and satisfaction is a failure. In this process, the firm has developed building performance standards for most commercial building types, and has now added to those standards the requirements for half of the world: people who are perceptually and cognitively disabled (PCD). The expense in doing this has been significant, but it has been one of the most important quests in Orfield's life.
https://www.archdaily.com/984212/when-it-comes-to-design-for-the-disabled-let-the-science-lead-the-processSteven J. Orfield
Robotic Collaboration. Image Courtesy of ETH Zurich
Digital spaces and fabrication technology have become as prominent as ever within the current state of our post-pandemic society, becoming increasingly more accessible and enabling quick and spontaneous acts of iteration and evolution. These technologies have resulted in the ability to mass-produce non-standard, highly differentiated building components within the same facility as their standardized counterpart, transforming how buildings and their respective components are conceived, designed, and represented, and how they are manufactured, assembled, and produced.
The beauty of digital fabrication is its ability to blend aspects of mass and artisanal production to the point where costs nearly disappear. Technology’s capacity to fabricate so simply and almost seamlessly raise the issues for its potential to significantly alter our current perception of architecture, thus producing the question: has the influence of mass production in architecture resulted in a loss of intentional design?
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Courtesy of ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart
Efficiency in the construction site by reducing waste and lowering costs, improving safety through better planning, and introducing machines to assist in the construction and design process. These benefits can be achieved through automation in architecture, but for technology to reach this point of empowering and supporting creativity while also improving efficiency, we have come a long way. To understand how automation developed and the prospects it offers for architecture, here is a brief timeline.
ESSAYS IN ARCHITECTURE: Analyzing, Imagining, and Reinventing
To the regular student of architecture, journalism may seem as a largely outlandish field. It is, however, largely untapped as a source of intellect. It is this source that Dayananda Sagar College of Architecture (DSCA), Bengaluru, India, one of the renowned architectural institutions of India is looking to explore through its venture of an essay writing competition.
Essays in Architecture organised by the institution is aimed at architectural students who have a flair for writing and display an ability to articulate ideas in written format. It has been conceived with the belief that the expression of thought and ideas can be
In 2016, Ecole des Ponts ParisTech has established an advanced masters program with a focus on digital fabrication and robotics. Currently recruiting for its fourth installment, the Design by Data Advanced Masters Program appeals to architects, engineers, and tech-oriented designers. Since its launch in 2016, the program’s director Francesco Cingolani has sought to shape the relationship between architecture and technology by creating a cross-disciplinary culture between the two.
As previously mentioned on Archdaily, students study the main components of the program - computational design, digital culture and design, and additive manufacturing and robotic fabrication - throughout the 12-month program to fulfill Design by Data’s main objectives while working with peers in a dynamic learning environment. While providing each participant with both technical skills and an aesthetic eye, the program ensures students will also gain critical knowledge of current innovative trends and ongoing research. By exposing them to technology through hands-on use of tools of digital fabrication, the program will teach students to approach design through a process-oriented lens.
Many contemporary design innovations have embraced the growth and expansion of new technologies. BREAKFAST, a Brooklyn-based rapid product and prototype company, has released ‘Brixel’ a product that combines the customizability technology can provide with the most fundamental building block of architecture - the brick.
The Brixel is an infinitely rotating brick controlled by a software app on your phone. The sleek design and variety of available shapes provide the designer or architect with the tools needed to create a 3-dimensional, interactive installation. Brixel’s design flexibility allows it to be used in many applications, such as dynamic wall installations, railings, facades, and sculpture. Andrew Zolty, BREAKFAST's Co-Founder and Head of Design described Brixel:
Portuguese photographer Francisco Nogueira captured the building's spaces in this comprehensive gallery of images. The MAAT proposes a new relationship between the river and the visitor through a building whose simultaneous power and sensitivity explores the convergence of contemporary art, architecture, and technology. As a structure in the landscape, the building becomes landscape by allowing visitors to walk over and on the museum itself. See here 70 stunning photos of MAAT's interiors and exteriors.
.jpg?1643423986 "Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier, 1929. Image © Flickr User: End User")
.jpg?1643425181 "Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier, 1929. Image © Flickr User: End User")
_V%C3%ADctor_Pati%C3%B1o_George.jpg?1643424298 "Villa Stein, Le Corbusier, 1927. Image © Víctor Patiño George")
