The 2019 CANactions International Architecture Festival focused on an exploration of a notion of "Hromada" — Ukrainian name for the 'community', which is embedded into the country's historic and cultural codes and reflected in contemporary social movements and architectural forms.
Architect Illya Rastvorov is one of the winners of this year’s CANactions Youth Competition presented in Kyiv, Ukraine. For his proposal, the architect transformed the railroad depot of the Copenhagen Railway Station in Denmark into the “Copenhagen Playground”, a recreational area that caters to people of all ages and enhances the social conditions of the city.
As technology moves forward, so does architecture and construction. Architects, designers, and planners around the world now have infinite tools and resources to design and build the cities of today and the future. As promising as this may sound, new construction is also consuming our world’s limited resources faster than we can replenish them.
This situation leaves architects with an important responsibility: the rehabilitation and reuse of the existing built environment. This means using creative thinking and design to save and incorporate old or historic buildings that currently exist, in the present and future of our cities, by adapting them through creative and sensitive treatments.
“The greenest building is the one that is already built." (Carl Elefante, FAIA)
The world’s urban population will double by 2050, and cities need to come up with sustainable ways to accommodate this mass movement. We often see projects being built as quickly as possible to support growth, however, rapid growth often leads to cities and buildings that lack originality.
A smarter and more sustainable solution is to increase the density of existing centers, as well as to recover existing structures through refurbishment and repurposing. But, turning something old into something new is a challenging process — it requires a bold vision and a rigorous commitment to design.
Although ancient buildings carry compelling architectural presence, demolition or radical change is often their fate. While some architects prefer to introduce thoroughly new structures, others choose to honor the works of historic architects, who built the basis and foundations of structures that helped shape up cities today.
For the refurbishment of Paris’ Hotel Fouquet Barrière, located one block facing Avenue des Champs Elysées, Edouard François was selected to renovate the entire property, including offices, spa services, façade, and courtyards. François’ design strategy was rather unambiguous, using only two keywords as reference: “COPY-EDIT”; a reinterpretation of the “old” through contemporary technologies and modified material.
Although the ability to install home automation in a practical way is associated with new projects, it is possible to adapt previously built buildings in a relatively simple way. In both small and large renovations projects these systems can deliver automated features that responds to the requirements and needs of its users. They can also improve the habitability and comfort of its spaces, increase their security and promote long-term energy and money savings. So, what considerations must be taken into account in order to transform an regular architecture project into an "intelligent" one?
This renovation project by Peter Ebner and friends ZT GmbH is about the history of a place and changing tastes and times. It is about not needing a large scale to radically improve the space around. It is about the beauty and character of the city with its reflected sparkling life, gloomy evening sky, raindrops and lights of passing cars. It is about people who are mostly in a hurry, but who still sometimes stop for a few seconds to take note of a special, glittering room.
Courtesy of International Union of Architects (UIA)
As part of Tripoli’s economic revival plan, the International Union of Architects (UIA), in collaboration with the Lebanese Federation of Engineers and Architects (on behalf of the Tripoli Special Economic Zone / TSEZ), the Union of Mediterranean Architects (UMAR), and the Lebanese Government, have launched an international architecture competition to create a Knowledge and Innovation Center in the northern city of Lebanon.
The proposed site is situated on an empty lot within Oscar Niemeyer’s abandoned Rachid Karami International Fair, a modernist exhibition complex that has yet to see the light of restoration. The objective of the competition is to create a technology and business hub which will foster and promote start-up businesses and entrepreneurs, attracting students, young graduates, local and international companies to Tripoli and the neighboring region.
In May 1985, an old theater and concert hall opened its doors to the public for the opening of a brand new nightclub in New York City. Located on 126 East 14th Street, the project was commissioned by entrepreneurs Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, owners of the also famous club Studio 54, and was conceived as a vibrant and luminous independent structure arranged inside a rather classic shell, which appears as a beautiful backdrop behind the clean geometry of Isozaki.
As The New York Times pointed out in its May 20, 1985 edition: 'Arata Isozaki is at once a great eminence of Japanese architecture and a source of some of its freshest thinking. And all sides of Mr. Isozaki are visible in the Palladium'.
As industry has shifted over the past century, in format, location, and type, the manufacturing and industrial spaces scattered across the western world have been repurposed. You have no doubt seen these structures, though perhaps without realizing. The large windows, high ceilings, and open floor plans optimized for factory work now mark the territory of the “creative class”. Such spaces have been disproportionately appropriated by creative industries such as arts and architecture; think of Herzog + de Meuron’s renovation of the Tate Modern (from a former power station) or the recent collaborative transformation of a locomotive yard into a library in the Netherlands.
https://www.archdaily.com/911719/lacaton-and-vassals-frac-dunkerque-is-an-architectural-echo-both-in-form-and-in-conceptKatherine Allen
The ‘interstitial volumes’ that lie beneath the central esplanade, interlocked with underground infrastructures.
Paris La Défense is seeking to vitalise the ‘interstitial volumes’ that lie beneath its central esplanade, interlocked with underground infrastructures. Located at the heart of La Défense, those spaces are very close to public transport and offer high potential due to their distinctive size and morphology. The aim is to use them to develop a new offering of activities accessible to the public – and see a lively and unusual destination emerge as a result. Paris La Défense, as the urban planner, developer and manager of the business district, is launching a competitive dialogue process. The purpose to this
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners have gained planning permission for the proposed extension and full refurbishment of the Grade II-listed Hammersmith Town Hall in London. A joint venture with Hammersmith & Fulham Council and commercial partners a2Dominion, the scheme seeks to promote “the creation of a new high quality civic mixed-use development” derived from the historic structure.
Through the demolition of a 1970s extension, the scheme will create a new public square that enhances the setting of the existing protected Town Hall, reinstating its presence on Kings Street. The main alternations seek to enhance the existing building through a glass box rooftop extension containing council office space.
https://www.archdaily.com/911692/rogers-stirk-harbour-plus-partners-gains-approval-for-hammersmith-town-hall-refurbishment-in-londonNiall Patrick Walsh
It is, once again, the time of year where we look towards the future to define the goals and approaches that we will take for our careers throughout the upcoming year. To help the millions of architects who visit ArchDaily every day from all over the world, we compiled a list of the most popular ideas of 2018, which will continue to be developed and consolidated throughout 2019.
Over 130 million users discovered new references, materials, and tools in 2018 alone, infusing their practice of architecture with the means to improve the quality of life for our cities and built spaces. As users demonstrated certain affinities and/or demonstrated greater interest in particular topics, these emerged as trends.
https://www.archdaily.com/910525/the-trends-that-will-influence-architecture-in-2019Pola Mora
For those in the northern hemisphere, the last full week in January last week kicks off with Blue Monday - the day claimed to be the most depressing of the year. Weather is bleak, sunsets are early, resolutions are broken, and there’s only the vaguest glimpse of a holiday on the horizon. It’s perhaps this miserable context that is making the field seem extra productive, with a spate of new projects, toppings out and, completions announced this week.
The week of 21 January 2019 in review, after the break:
With its historic but dilapidated waterfront, San Francisco has decided to restore the shoreline that could greatly influence the future of the city both environmentally and economically. The Port, contemplating between a piecemeal rebuilding pier-by-pier and a singular comprehensive construction of the waterfront, invited architecture and landscape firms to submit the reimagined proposals.
Global design firm HASSELL, known for their innovative recreational projects, envisioned an approach to preserve the significant history and culture of the pier while creating a sustainable green corridor in a playful manner. In order to activate the Embarcadero as an "interconnected greenway," HASSELL plans on developing the ecological areas along the waterfront as well as improving the accessibility between the recreational land with the surrounding transit hubs.
Inducing a surreal physical experience through minimal maneuvers, buildings with smooth concrete panels and simple geometric volumes instinctively hint at the work of Japanese architect Tadao Ando. At an ongoing exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, photographs of the headquarters of Fabrica, Ando's first European commission in 1992, are showcased. Located near the city of Treviso, the building was an old villa restored to become a thriving creative research center.
Villa Pastega Manera, built on an area of 51,000 square meters, went through a rigorous study of traditional construction techniques and material sampling to commence the redesign. The photographs feature the harmonious integration between the historical structure and seamless renovations.
The Fondation Le Corbusier has celebrated its 50th anniversary with the unveiling of a restored apartment originally designed by the famous architect. The studio apartment on Nungesser-et-Coli in Paris was designed by Le Corbusier in 1931 for his own habitation and was completed in 1934.
The apartment underwent two years of restoration following its listing as a classified world heritage site in 2016 and is now open to the public.
https://www.archdaily.com/904426/le-corbusiers-restored-parisian-apartment-opened-to-the-publicNiall Patrick Walsh
_5738.jpg?1556027783)
_5498.jpg?1556027648 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu")
_5957.jpg?1556027812 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu")
_5926.jpg?1556027680 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu")
_7973.jpg?1556027669 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu")
_5738.jpg?1556027783)
_Eric_Laignel.jpg?1551969702 "© Eric Laignel")
_comp.jpg?1551969713 "© Zooey Brown")
.jpg?1551956983 "Courtesy of TSEZ")
.jpg?1551957006 "Courtesy of TSEZ")
.jpg?1551957049 "Courtesy of TSEZ")
.jpg?1551956995 "Courtesy of TSEZ")
_7061.jpg?1550506965)
.jpg?1548884950)
.jpg?1542418264)
.jpg?1542418287 "Courtesy of HASSELL")
.jpg?1542418241 "Courtesy of HASSELL")
.jpg?1542418252 "Courtesy of HASSELL")
.jpg?1542418264)
.jpg?1540209301)
.jpg?1540209293 "© FLC/ADAGP/Mercusot")
.jpg?1540209287 "© FLC/ADAGP/Mercusot")
FLC_Beaux_Arts_Paris_4juin2018_FLC.jpg?1540209273 "© FLC/ADAGP")
.jpg?1540209301)