Designed by the architectural practices BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group and Carlo Ratti Associati, the mixed-use CapitaSpring tower in Singapore has been announced as the winner of the International High-Rise Award (IHA) 2024/25. The high rise stood out among the 31 projects considered in the competition. Measuring 260 meters in height, the tower officially opened in 2022, standing out for its strategy of integrating open and green spaces throughout the building.
Nestled in the heart of Southeast Asia, Singapore stands as a beacon of sustainable urbanization. According to the 2016 Green City Index, the city-state of Singapore was the greenest city in Asia at one point. Renowned as the "City in a Garden," Singapore has intertwined lush greenery, verdant parks, and new environmental policies into its urban fabric/ After gaining independence in 1965, the city-state stands as a testament to how urban life can integrate with nature.
From the futuristic marvels of the infamous Marina Bay Sands and Jewel Changi Airport by Safdie Architects to the iconic heritage of the former Supreme Court, now the National Gallery Singapore, the city showcases a rich tapestry of styles and influences. The city has also adopted its version of modernism, such as the Colonnade Condominiums, designed by architect Paul Rudolph, and the Pearl Bank Apartments by Tan Cheng Siong. Renowned architects such as Moshe Safdie, Norman Foster, and WOHA, have each left an indelible mark on the city with their innovative designs.
CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, in partnership with real estate group IPI, has revealed plans to transform the iconic modernist Palazzo Micca in Turin, Italy. Originally the headquarters of RAI, Italy's national broadcaster, the 19-story building will undergo a comprehensive adaptive reuse project. A significant feature of the redesign is the creation of an elevated public plaza at 26.5 meters, offering views of Turin's Baroque rooftops, the surrounding hills, and the Alps. The project also integrates sustainable design principles by converting parts of the office spaces into residential units and reusing existing materials.
Carlo Ratti, the curator of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, along with The President of La Biennale di Venezia, Pietrangelo Buttafuocco, have just revealed highly anticipated details for the upcoming edition. Titled “Intelligens,” the exhibition will be running from May 24th to November 23rd, 2025 in Giardini, the Arsenale, and various landmark locations throughout Venice.
Following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, construction group WeBuild, in collaboration with design office CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and engineer Michel Virlogeux, has revealed an updated design for a replacement bridge. The new cable-stayed design aims to redefine the entrance to the Baltimore Harbor and offer an improved version of this symbol of the city.
Milan Design Week has long been one of the most significant events in the global design sphere, showcasing groundbreaking concepts and visionary talent and fostering critical discourse in the design community. From the expansive trade fair Salone Del Mobile in Rho Fiera to design districts scattered across the city, Design Week brings together diverse voices, perspectives, and talent. According to Salone del Mobile's press statement, this year’s fair had 17.1% more visitors than in 2023, with a record turnout of 361,417 visitors overall.
With visitors from China, Germany, Spain, Brazil, India, Turkey, Japan, and many more, the design week showcases a plethora of exhibitions, installations, talks, and panels. As the week comes to a close, running from April 15-21st, 2024, this article highlights diverse installations throughout the city relevant for architects and designers globally. Whether it is Mario Cucinella’s exploration of regeneration, Google’s display experimenting with sensory and color, or MAD architects investigating the boundaries of natural and man-made landscapes, the week was filled with fruitful collaborations that showcase the future of design.
The Vitra Design Museum presents 'Transform! Designing the Future of Energy', an exhibition running from March 23rd to September 1st, 2024. As energy stands as the cornerstone of modern society, the subject encompasses political, social, and environmental dimensions. The exhibition aims to highlight design’s role in the effort to transform the energy sector into a more efficient, reliable, and sustainable one, relying more on renewable sources, smart mobility systems, and moving towards self-sufficient cities.
A global and cosmopolitan city, Milan is an uncontested mainstream fashion and economic center, widely coveted by worldwide visitors. The second most populated city in Italy, it hosts some of the world's major fashion and design-related events. Milan also houses prestigious educational institutions, many of which are renowned for heritage and conservationist specialties. Its cultural and design relevance cannot be understated as more and more creators are relocating and setting up shop in this booming creative hub.
The city's most recognizable tourist attractions are the renowned gothic Duomo di Milano, Santa Maria delle Grazia, or the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, amongst other classical and baroque sites. Milan also houses some of the boldest and most experimental modern and contemporary buildings that highlight the marriage of the beautifully crafted and often ornamental heritage with the modern, post-modernist, and contemporary monuments that make up its unique style.
Carlo Ratti Associati has just revealed its designs for a waterfront green energy park in Trieste, Italy. Initially a disused petroleum refinery, the initiative seeks to bridge the gap between the city’s industrial past and a sustainable future by repurposing oil storage tanks into renewable energy solutions. Dubbed “water batteries,” the repurposed oil storage tanks are linked to the Adriatic Sea.
French architecture studio Coldefy and Italian architecture practice CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati have unveiled ‘Theatrum Naturae’, or ‘Theatre of Nature,’ the project selected as France’s national pavilion at Expo Osaka 2025. The proposal welcomes both natural and artificial habitats, aiming to illustrate how design can connect human and non-human worlds while showcasing France’s contribution to culture and the natural environment. In the exhibition, the visitors will be invited to explore France’s multiple ecosystems and rediscover a connection to nature.
As we reflect on the tumultuous events of 2023, it becomes evident that the challenges posed by changing environmental conditions have left an indelible mark on communities worldwide. In response, architects and urban planners have set out, searching for the ways in which their actions can help create safer environments for communities worldwide, responding with both fast-to-deploy emergency architectures and long-term strategies to build resilience and mitigate risks.
Beyond merely responding to events like the devastating earthquakes in Turkey, Syria, and Morocco, or the widespread flooding in Libya or Pakistan, professionals are attempting to take proactive approaches, developing strategies that extend from predictive modeling to the application of re-naturalizing techniques or the ongoing research into the physics of safer and resilient structures.
The Board of Directors of La Biennale di Venezia has just announced Carlo Ratti as the next curator of the International Architecture Exhibition. The 19th exhibition will take place in 2025, from May 24 to November 23. The appointment was recommended by President Roberto Cicutto, and has the support of Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, President of La Biennale di Venezia for the four-year term March 2024-2027.
Carlo Ratti Associati has revealed the design transformation of Turin’s historic waterfront in Italy. The project’s main aim is to address the current climate crisis and leverage architectural solutions to create spaces that can withstand the recurring floods of the Po River. Throughout the scheme, many architectural elements are kinetic, allowing them to rise above the water. “Floating Above the Floods” creates new solutions for urban climate adaptations and provides insights into universal strategies for urban waterways.
Exploring unbuilt projects can offer insights into the design process and leading strategies employed by contemporary architecture practices, revealing unexpected solutions, experimental approaches and innovative design concepts. This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights designs submitted by established architecture practices. From a fjord-side regeneration project and oceanography research center to a headquarters building shaped to reflect company’s main focus or a restaurant adapted to extreme conditions, the compilation of unbuilt projects presents the variety of concepts, design philosophies and programs put forward by prominent global architecture studios.
Featuring internationally recognized offices like CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, Herzog & de Meuron, OODA, KCAP, and Aedas, this selection showcases worldwide interventions that illustrate architectural and civic interventions across diverse scales and programs. Whether tackling the restoration of monuments, interventions in public spaces or the transformation of a city’s waterfront, each of these projects aspires to deliver a fitting response to the spatial, functional, social and ecological requisite of its context.
Let’s talk. Good communication is key to building and maintaining working relationships, be they personal, romantic, business, or geopolitical. The importance of communication with and respect for one’s neighbors is a lesson that has featured heavily in many texts and teachings from all religions and cultures for millennia, possibly sparking civilization itself.
Some of the fastest growing economies are keen to shout from their garden rooftops about their growing environmentalism, infrastructure, attractive investment opportunities, and rising architectural scene, but also to keep alive the history and culture of their past, and build socially active environments.
These four building projects from across East Asia and Europe both visually and symbolically invite guests inside to see how they operate, building positive relationships with residents of the building and the city, and visitors from beyond.
Milan Design Week represents one of the biggest annual design events in the world, bringing together Salone del Mobile.Milan, the largest furniture and design trade fair worldwide, and Furiosalone, along with many other exhibitions, product launches, conferences, and design-related events. This year’s edition, held between April 17th, 2023 and April 21st, 2023, brought together architects, designers, manufacturers and enthusiasts, both Italian and international. Many architectural offices contributed by collaborating with various brands to develop architect-designed products and to create architectural installations to highlight not only furniture and object design but also the larger context of Milanese architecture and culture.
Featuring designs from internationally recognized architecture offices such as OMA, MAD Architects, Stefano Boeri Interiors and CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, the following selection showcases temporary interventions in both historical and contemporary contexts. The designs present several recurring themes, such as the interest and fascination with the properties of water, be it contained within man-made structures or in its natural state. Many of the participating companies chose to showcase not only their products but also the historical architecture of Milan, by using buildings such as Pinacoteca di Brera, Casa Maveri, or the deconsecrated church of San Vittore e 40 Martiri as a backdrop for their installations.
Kengo Kuma and Associates have just been awarded second place in an architecture competition to design the expansion and renovation of the Egyptian Museum in Torino, Italy. It served for many decades as the primary civic space in Turin, with its public areas closed off from the rest of the city. Kengo Kuma’s proposal aims to recreate the public plaza, a city center covered by a thin glass canopy. Founded in 1824 and is the oldest museum for Ancient Egyptian culture, the Egyptian Museum in Torino held a competition earlier this year and received entries by Pininfarina Architecture, Carlo Ratti Associati, and Snøhetta. The winning project by OMA / David Gianotten and Andreas Karavanas will transform the museum into a cultural space, creating one covered courtyard and a series of connected urban rooms within the existing settlement.
After another successful selection process, with over 150,000 votes cast during the last 3 weeks, the collective intelligence of our community has helped us to highlight and recognize the best recent architecture projects. The 75 finalists, which is already a winners list, are a testament to the innovative and diverse ways in which architecture responds to the challenges of our built environment.
The scale of this award is a reflection of how important architecture is today, as the deepening complexity of our world places increasing pressure and demands upon our built environment. To deal with issues such as the climate crisis, energy scarcity, population density, social inequality, housing shortages, fast-moving urbanization, diminished local identity, and a lack of diversity, architecture needs to open itself. We are happy to see how the question posed by this award has gained global attraction. Voices from outside of the architectural profession stated: “This is what we consider good architecture”, due to its impact and symbolism, as seen on Globo or El País. Architectural recognition goes beyond its usual professional borders, and is able to motivate, rejoice and excite an ever growing number of people who understand the importance of our built environment and its impact on quality of life.
The winners are a concrete example of what society recognizes as good architecture, but also of what it demands from it. We take the responsibility to continue building on the spirit of the award, strengthening the expert’s choice and the contribution that our community makes based on their preferences and selections throughout the year, together with the voice of a wider community.
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