Futurism: The Latest Architecture and News

NEOM, Saudi Arabia’s Mega Project, has just announced a new upscale coastal destination within the sustainable regional development in northwest Saudi Arabia. Positioned along the Gulf of Aqaba, Epicon aims to redefine hospitality and architecture standards. Featuring two pointed skyscrapers, it features a prominent hotel and luxury apartments.

The scheme compromises two towers at 225 meters and 275 meters, respectively, housing a premium 41-key hotel and 14 suites and apartments. Nearby, the Epicon resort includes 120 rooms and 45 beach villas, blending coastal living with luxury amenities. Epicon is designed to be a haven from everyday life, providing experiences varying from high-end cuisine to water sports.

After being awarded the prestigious Silver Lion for his contribution to this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, Brooklyn-based artist Olalekan Jeyifous shows no signs of slowing down. Currently in the midst of preparing his entry to the next Sharjah Architecture Triennial, he also recently celebrated the opening of Climate Futurism, a group exhibition that highlights the power and efficacy of artists’ methods and processes to imagine a more equitable future – and is working on a public monument to former United States Representative Shirley Chisholm as part of New York City's She Built NYC initiative, among other projects.

+ 3

Nowadays, the term “utopia” is used to describe an idea that seems unattainable —at least in the contemporary context— intrinsically related to philosophical, scientific, urbanistic, and architectural concepts, among others. The close connection between utopias and architecture is evident, as this discipline is often associated with imagination. Some notable examples include “The Unreliable Utopia of Auroville's Architecture” and “The City in Space: A Utopia” by Ricardo Bofill. In this context, architects and designers alike use design as a means to develop innovative and disruptive ideas through various elements.

Although considered an idealized concept that does not exist, some designers have ventured into exploring the notion of utopia. AXOR, in conjunction with the Valencia-based design studio Masquespacio, has turned the page by conceiving and bringing to reality a new bathroom concept for a unique hotel suite that embodies their vision of personal luxury. Titled “Utopian Dream”, this design response blends vibrant colors with unexpected details, a combination that this duo defines as a mystic experience above the clouds.

The Futuro House is a unique, futurist-style dwelling designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in the late 1960s. The house was envisioned as a portable, prefabricated structure that could be easily transported to remote or difficult-to-reach locations.The house has a distinctive flying saucer shape, with a circular floor plan and a domed roof. The outer shell of the house is made of reinforced fiberglass, with a high-gloss finish that gives it a futuristic look. It sits on four legs, which elevate it slightly off the ground and provide stability on uneven terrain.

+ 7

Commissioned for the exhibition “Casa Balla - From the house to the universe and back” at MAXXI museum in Rome, Italy, Bêka & Lemoine’s have released their latest film OSLAVIA. The cave of the past future, a tour inside the house-atelier where Giacomo Balla, prominent Futurist painter and major figure of the avant-garde of the early 20th century lived. The Futurist house where the artist lived and worked from 1929 until his death will be open to the public for the first time during the time of the exhibition.

+ 18

Radical neofuturist architect Jan Kaplický (18 April 1937 – 14 January 2009) was the son of a sculptor and a botanical illustrator, and appropriately spent his career creating highly sculptural and organic forms. Working with partner Amanda Levete at his suitably-named practice Future Systems, Kaplický was catapulted to fame after his sensationally avant-garde 1999 Lord's Cricket Ground Media Centre and became a truly innovative icon of avant-garde architecture.

This article was originally published on June 16, 2016. To read the stories behind other celebrated architecture projects, visit our AD Classics section.

Built in the early days of airline travel, the TWA Terminal is a concrete symbol of the rapid technological transformations which were fueled by the outset of the Second World War. Eero Saarinen sought to capture the sensation of flight in all aspects of the building, from a fluid and open interior, to the wing-like concrete shell of the roof. At TWA’s behest, Saarinen designed more than a functional terminal; he designed a monument to the airline and to aviation itself.

This AD Classic features a series of exclusive images by Cameron Blaylock, photographed in May 2016. Blaylock used a Contax camera and Zeiss lenses with Rollei black and white film to reflect camera technology of the 1960s.

+ 21

Vincent Callebaut Architectures has released details of their competition-winning “Metamorphosis of the Hotel Des Postes” in Luxembourg City. The Paris-based firm’s proposition centers on propelling the historic site into a contemporary era, and to “reveal the intrinsic heritage qualities of the building.”

The scheme, which centers on the historic stone and concrete Hotel Des Postes designed by State Architect Sosthène Weis between 1905 and 1910, will be transformed by the addition of a domed “chrysalis” volume in the heart of the building’s courtyard.

+ 21

Foster + Partners will detail its vision of life on Mars and the Moon at the UK’s Goodwood Festival of Speed 2018. Forming part of the festival's Future Lab event, the vision will be presented through a range of models, robotics, and futuristic designs exploring the future of life in space.

The firm's showcase will include a virtual reality experience, allowing visitors to explore the inside of a proposed state-of-the-art habitation pod.

The opening of the Century 21 Exposition on April 21, 1962 transformed the image of Seattle and the American Northwest in the eyes of the world. The region, which had been known until that point more for its natural resources than as a cultural capital, established a new reputation as a center of emergent technologies and aerospace design. This new identity was embodied by the centerpiece of the exposition: the Space Needle, a slender assemblage of steel and reinforced concrete which became—and remains—Seattle’s most iconic landmark.[1]

+ 2