A large seabird gazing towards the sky appeared in the Cortile d’Onore in Milan as a metaphor for life retaking its course in the post-pandemic world. Designed by MAD Architects, the installation titled “Freedom” is a nod to inclusiveness and borderless, as well as a playful symbol of hope. In addition, for the 2021 edition of Milan Design Week, the studio taps again into furniture design with two projects, “Meteor” and “Gu Table”, created in collaboration with Dior and Sawaya & Moroni, respectively.
Installation: The Latest Architecture and News
MAD Architects Reveals Art Installation and Furniture Designs at Milan Design Week
Kengo Kuma Creates Multisensory Bamboo Installation for Milan Design Week
For the 2021 Milan Design Week, Kengo Kuma Associates designed a bamboo installation that merges form, materiality and music, creating a multisensory experience. Created in collaboration with smart device manufacturer OPPO, Bamboo (竹) Ring :|| Weaving a Symphony of Lightness and Form answers the "Creative Connections" theme by merging architecture and music, as well as craftsmanship and technology.
Mystical Installation at the Zurich Design Biennale 2021 Invades the City's Old Botanical Garden
Design consultancy office AUTHOS and Swiss multidisciplinary Interactive Designer Stella Speziali have collaborated to create a unique spatial intervention at the Zurich Design Biennale 2021. Titled NEBULOSUS, the installation uses mist and augmented reality as an immersive and intangible 'structure' that changes the spatial boundary of Zurich's botanical garden and creates and explorative experience for visitors.
An Office Tower Turned into Housing in the US and a Circular School Design in Ethiopia: 10 Competition-Winning Projects Submitted to Archdaily
This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights different competition-winning designs submitted by the ArchDaily Community. From large scale urban developments to small interventions in the landscape, from commercial projects to public spaces and urban planning strategies with an environmental focus, this article showcases a variety of design approaches, programs and scales. The proposals featured are the results of local and international competitions, either creative concepts or projects currently in progress.
The award-winning entries include a range of different projects, designed by both young architects and established firms. An adaptive reuse project for office towers in New York, the redevelopment of an industrial site in China, an abstract installation for a Russian festival, or a masterplan focused on climate resilience and ecosystems protection are a few of this week's highlights.
ZHA Exhibits Modular Meeting Space at the 2021 Venice Biennale
Zaha Hadid Architects has been invited to exhibit at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Titled ‘High-performing Urban Ecologies', the installation responds to the theme of Resilient Communities by displaying the Alis Meeting Pod, a modular structure of ZHA’s Unicorn Island Masterplan that is currently under construction in Chengdu, China. The installation is on display at the Giardino delle Vergini at the entrance of the Italian Pavilion.
HHF Architects Reclaim the Playground at the 2021 Venice Biennale
Basel-based HHF Architects have been invited to exhibit at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia as part of the "How Will We Play Together?" exhibition. Titled "The Playful Eight", the 8-piece installation extends the biennale's brief to adults, and gives visitors "unsolicited elements that offer the possibility to escape control and productivity in order to play together".
"There is a Relationship Between Narrative and Architecture": In Conversation with Emilio Marín and Rodrigo Sepúlveda, Cuartors of the Chilean Pavilion
Among the many topics explored at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, the idea of community has been at the forefront, with several national pavilions exploring its many manifestations, evolution, and its relationship with the future of built environments. ArchDaily met with the curators of Testimonial Spaces, Emilio Marín and Rodrigo Sepúlveda, the Chilean Pavilion at the Biennale, and discussed how the project tackled the question of the future of living together and how they bridged the stories from Santiago to Venice. The interview was conducted in Spanish but is provided with English subtitles.
EFFEKT Architects Explore the Relationship between Future Communities and Natural Ecosystems at the 2021 Venice Biennale
EFFEKT Architects have been invited to exhibit their work at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Titled "Ego to Eco", the installation focuses on the future of communities and ecosystems, and presents a series of 7 miniature projects created by the architecture firm, nestled within a fictional landscape. Exhibited at the Corderie dell'Arsenale, the exhibition will be on display from May 22nd until November 21st, 2021.
Snøhetta Proposes "Manifestation of Technology" for Qianhai Design Competition
Snøhetta has proposed Lunar for the International Competition of the Landmark Design of Qianhai's New City Center. Inspired by the city's pioneering past and technology-driven future, the proposal is satellite-like structure that resembles landmarks in the era of data and technology. The proposal ranked second place in the competition alongside Sou Fujimito's floating tower.
"We are Not the Protagonists, Architecture is Just the Background": In Conversation with Alejandro Aravena
The 17th Venice Architecture Biennale invited architects to ponder the question “How will we live together”, eliciting a variety of answers, readings and interpretations. The International Exhibition unfolding in Giardini, the Arsenale and Forte Maghera presents 112 participants in the competition, coming from 46 countries, whose contributions are organized into five scales: Among Diverse Beings, As New Households, As Emerging Communities, Across Borders, and As One Planet. Answering “How will we live together as a community? “ is Chilean office ELEMENTAL and Archdaily met in Venice with Alejandro Aravena to discuss the idea behind the project KOYAÜWE, which creates a space that recovers the tradition of parleys, as a means to address the historical Chilean-Mapuche conflict.
A Cyclic Water System Connects Visitors, Senses and Surroundings at the Danish Pavilion in Venice Architectural Biennale 2021
For the 17th international architecture exhibition – la biennale di Venezia 2021, Denmark is creating a water cyclic system that connects people with each other and with nature. The national pavilion, titled “Con-nect-ed-ness”, is curated by Marianne Krogh and Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects, and will be on display from May 22nd to November 21st, 2021.
Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza Goes Green for the Summer
After several event cancellations due to the pandemic, Manhattan’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex have transformed their outdoor plaza into a green park and outdoor performance venue called The Green. As of May 10, the Restart Stages initiative will add fake grass across the 14,000-square-foot (1,300 sqm) Josie Robertson Plaza. The plaza, which was originally designed by Philip Johnson, Wallace K. Harrison, and Max Abramovitz, and renovated by award-winning architecture firm DS+R in 2010, will transform into a public urban space of gathering, leisure, and entertainment.
A 3D-Printed Majlis and Suspended Cliff Platforms: 10 Unbuilt Projects Submitted to ArchDaily
This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights cultural structures submitted by the ArchDaily Community. From pavilions to installations, this article explores the topic of cultural urban interventions and presents approaches submitted to us from all over the world.
Featuring a pavilion nestled in the sand dunes of the Persian desert, an afrofuturistic, interactive art installation proposed for the upcoming Burning Man event, and a new take on summer cinemas in Russia, this roundup explores how architects reimagined traditional gathering places and created urban interventions in all scales. The round up also includes a collection of structures in the United Arab Emirates, United Sates of America, France, and the United Kingdom, each responding to different contexts and topographies.
Torino Stratosferica Transforms Abandoned Tramway into Vibrant Urban Park
Ever since the tramline’s closure, the 800-meter-long strip in the center of Corso Gabetti and Ponte Regina Margherita in Turin, has been abandoned. To make use of the dead area and give residents an extra space outdoors following Italy's severe pandemic repercussions, non-profit cultural association Torino Stratosferica has transformed the tree-lined strip into Precollinear Park, a temporary public space fit for socially-distanced leisure.
The Mirrored Sight Shelter / Li Hao
Tomás Saraceno Designs Partially Mirrored and Suspended Sphere at Moscow’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
Argentine environmental artist Tomás Saraceno has recently unveiled his latest venture at Moscow’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. On view and remaining until February 14, 2021, the installation entitled Moving Atmospheres, is a partially mirrored sphere suspended midair in the museum’s atrium, made from ETFE.
The Urban Art of Social Distancing
Being in confinement has produced unconventional means of exploring architectural spaces and installations. Instead of putting everything on hold until life goes back to normal, designers and curators found inspiration from practices like performance arts and theatre, breaking down the walls between the subject and viewers but from a distance.
Ashley Bigham and Erik Herrmann of Outpost Office reimagined the theme of "mobility" by creating 1:1 scale drawings on the Ragdale campus using GPS-controlled field marking robots. Their unique urban installation, which addressed modern-day concerns such as public spaces, how we are engaging with them, and physicality, won first place in the 2020 Ragdale Ring competition.
Stefano Boeri Reveals Circular Wooden Installation, Bringing Nature and Humans Together
Stefano Boeri Interiors has unveiled images of his latest circular wooden installation, in an open-air setting of contemporary art. Entitled TREE-ROOM, the project in which “humans and living nature come together, between meditation and contemplation”, is designed for Arte Sella and is located in the garden of Villa Strobele in Val di Sella, in Northern Italy.