Riverbank: The Latest Architecture and News

International office MVRDV has been selected by the Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs to design the Hoowave Water Factory, a large-scale redevelopment of Huwei’s Beigang and Anqingzhen waterways. The project combines a strategic master plan with the landscape design in an effort to move beyond the mono-functional approach for controlling and distributing water. Besides storing and capturing water, the proposal also opens up access to the river and the natural ecosystem by integrating cycling paths, cultural amenities, and ecological systems. The master plan also includes a comprehensive strategy for flood resilience while improving the quantity and quality of available water. The project is expected to be completed in 2026.

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Today, at the eleventh session of the World Urban Forum in Katowice, Poland, the International Union of Architects (UIA), together with the UN-HABITAT, have announced the laureates of the UIA 2030 Award. Seeking to acknowledge the contributions of architects to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and New Urban Agenda through built interventions that demonstrate design quality and alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this first edition of a biennial awards program, selected winning projects from Germany, Hong Kong, Argentina, Bangladesh, and China, from 125 submitted projects in 40 countries.

Organized under six categories: Open Category, Improving Energy Efficiency, Adequate, Safe & Affordable Housing, Participatory, Land-Use Efficient & Inclusive Planning, Access to Green & Public Space, and Utilizing Local Materials, the jurors picked a winner per section, yet were unable to identify an overall winner in the open category and chose instead to recognize six projects as Highly Commended, honoring in total 5 laureates and 15 commendations.

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Rivers have long been considered as Earth’s arteries, serving as the essence of urban communities as human settlements developed their shelters and crop beds around them. Centuries later, riverside architecture remained vital as these areas expanded beyond residential typologies, and harnessed dynamic mixed-use developments and public functions. As valuable as they may seem though, these landscapes come with the risk of unexpected floods, increased water levels, or complete droughts, which has forced architects to design built environments that are able to respond to these abrupt changes. So how were these settlements built in the past, and how has today’s urban densification and technological advancements influence the way they are built?

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The Henning Larsen-designed Belfast Waterside development was officially granted planning approval by the Belfast City Council, after a year in the planning approval process. Located on the site of the former Sirocco Works, the project is set to “transform the 2.6-hectare area on the east bank of the River Lagan that has been disused for nearly two decades”.

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The SOCKEEL + OLGGA consortium have won a competition to design the new Tribut Stadium in Dunkirk, France. The historic stadium, in a prominent location on a canal bank in central Dunkirk, will be transformed into a 5,000 seat stadium seeking to maximize inclusiveness and accessibility.

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