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Daylight shapes the experience of a space like no other material and is a fundamental aspect for designing healthy and sustainable buildings. Good daylighting design can improve the health, mood, cognitive abilities and productivity of the occupants at home, school or work while reducing the energy consumption of buildings. 

Daylight Visualizer makes it easy to take informed decisions about architectural and daylighting strategies in your projects, and to evaluate compliance with requirements for daylight performance in building regulations and building rating systems.

Architectural renderings are a great way to showcase projects. They provide an impression of what your built environment will look like once completed. Thanks to real-time rendering software, you can now do more than present beautiful images.

We’ve highlighted five ways to optimize your design workflow by using real-time rendering. 

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With the kick-off theme "Precious Space", the Hansgrohe Group's design brand AXOR launched its new, digital platform AXOR Futures on November 9, 2021. The event series highlights new developments in architecture and design by bringing together renowned experts from various fields for an inspiring exchange on avant-garde topics. "With AXOR Futures, we offer exclusive insights into new ways of thinking about societal influences on interior design. The first edition on the topic of 'Precious Space' was very well received by the global architecture and design community. This is another reason why we are very much looking forward to 'The Long View' on April 20," says Anke Sohn, Head of Global Brand Marketing AXOR.

Pricing architectural project work is a complex issue that is not usually addressed during one's formative school years, and it usually takes time for professionals to develop a good system that works for them and their clients. Issues such as scope of work, hours worked, project area and project complexity will influence the final cost of a job. In addition, another thing that can keep project professionals awake at night is how to charge clients in a way that is sustainable for the business and comfortable for future users of the designed space.

The NextGen International Taskforce is a collaboration between IE School of Architecture & Design and CPA NextGen, bringing together international talent to exchange ideas on the real-estate industry and built environment. This group of NextGen professionals typically gathers on a bi-monthly basis to address topics such as sustainability, inclusivity, technology, cities and wellbeing.

These conversations look at the future of cities and how to build a better future for people and businesses. In this edition, held on January 25th, 2022, a group of 12 professionals came together to discuss the topic of sustainable mobility, also touching on the future of remote work and its impact on housing.

Ensuring that a project's construction team is working with the most up-to-date information is critical to its success; but this is not an easy task. Document management workflows are often disconnected or disjointed due to manual administrative processes and disparate systems. As a result, poor document management can result in schedule delays, quality issues, expensive rework, budget overruns, and litigation.

cove. tool's core mission is to fight climate change by helping architects, engineers, contractors, and developers use data-driven design through automation and cost optimization. Creating a competition premise that called attention to this critical issue was important. With the recently published landmark Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 2021 report that warned of increased extreme heatwaves, droughts, and flooding, as well as a key temperature limit on track to be broken in just over a decade, it further highlighted the urgency. As climate change intensifies, housing stability will be increasingly under threat. These two inextricably linked issues had the potential to spark innovative ideas from the international design community and community-at-large. With the sizeable grand prize of $50k, the goal was to solicit entries from all over the world and help facilitate more conversations about carbon positive, affordable housing that could be replicated in multiple neighborhoods, cities, and countries. Sustainability and affordability are often two topics that are at odds. However, this competition proved that there are creative solutions to complex problems.

Who Participated?

Climate change, the scarcity of resources, and urbanisation are hot topics in the building and construction industry. In this context, the importance of sustainability cannot be overemphasised: almost 40% of global CO₂ emissions and 36% of global energy usage is associated with building and construction. These figures clearly illustrate the increasing need for more sustainable solutions in the industry. 

Companies that play an active role in the building industry have a responsibility to pave the way toward a more sustainable future. This is why partners like Uponor, one of the leading international providers of solutions that move water for buildings and infrastructure, strive to help customers in Europe to choose the perfect solutions for greener building designs. 

Our environment influences how we feel; we have all experienced this. For students, it is easier to study in a bright place, artists look for inspiring atmospheres, and our mood can improve with the right color scheme. These aspects are also important for kindergartens, daycare centers and schools, because a child-friendly design can stimulate the curiosity and imagination of children, so that they learn in a playful way. The design of a room supports the learning and creativity of children. Daylight systems, for example, flood rooms with light, making them appear larger and friendlier.

Overtaking the Tour First skyscraper, the 48-story, 220-meter HEKLA Tower will be the tallest building in Paris’s La Défense business district, as well as the second tallest building in all of France. Currently under construction and designed by Pritzker prize-winning Jean Nouvel, it is set to become a powerful architectural statement. Due to complete this 2022 in the midst of the sector’s redevelopment program, the futuristic skyscraper spreads over 76,000 sqm of floor area distributed in offices, services, lobbies, an amphitheater, projection rooms, performance halls, restaurants, bars, gyms and loggias. All of this with the aim of providing a unique user experience with vast, flexible workspaces that promote interaction and well-being.

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Commercial building refurbishment projects present architects with design challenges. Transforming 18th century Bodmin Jail into a modern hotel meant an acknowledgement of restrictions in relation to the building’s infrastructure. Listed buildings often have construction regulations to preserve historic and architectural interests, impacting thermal comfort and how daylight is introduced to transform building spaces.

These design challenges can make architectural planning appear more complex, particularly when a building is being repurposed. Common challenges include sourcing materials to replicate or meet existing infrastructures. The adaption of floor plans, consideration of user comfort and introduction of technology in planning phases, also influence contemporary design. The Bodmin Jail Hotel required skylight installations that could work within an existing and iconic sloping roof.

Comfortable outdoor spaces are more desirable than ever. Over the past couple of years, people have been spending more time at home, connecting with nature from the relative comfort of covered balconies, patios, and pergolas. But even with pleasant views, cooling breezes, and the warmth of the sun, covered outdoor spaces can be uncomfortable. Temperature variations, glare, rain, and wind quickly create an unpleasant experience. In warmer climates, insects can be an additional a nightmare.

In recent years, there has been an increased focus on indoor lighting, especially in the context of the growing numbers of open-plan offices. In large parts of the world—and especially in Nordic countries—people can spend up to 80-90% of their time indoors. The light we are surrounded by affects both our circadian rhythm and hormones, making our indoor environment and its light an important factor of our well-being. Opinions on the optimal indoor lighting solution—and if one exists at all—are numerous and divided. To gain some more insight into this, the Danish lighting manufacturer Louis Poulsen set out to test the effects of various artificial lighting conditions in their own head office in Copenhagen.

Although computational design as a technique applied in the architectural field has been around for two decades, the infinite possibilities it presents are only just being discovered. The horizons of designing using programming software are expanding alongside the growing popularity of tools like Rhino 3D and Revit. What aspiring architects will hereon have to be mindful of as they train themselves for the industry is that computational design software is not to be treated as a ‘to-do item’ to be ticked off for only adding to one’s résumé. Rather, it’s an opportunity to delve deeper into one’s creative instincts.

The registration for the international ICONIC AWARDS 2022: Innovative Architecture is on. The awards of the German Design Council honour the best achievements in architecture, pioneering interior and product design, outstanding communication concepts and particularly innovative materials. The winners will be honoured at a festive awards ceremony on 4 October 2022 at the Pinakothek der Moderne and will have the opportunity to network internationally.

As part of a major initiative to modernise schools and educational facilities in the city of Düsseldorf, the Friedrich-Rückert grammar school renovation represents a first step towards the future. In addition to renovating the interior of the school, much work was done to make the exterior of the aging building look more modern, inspiring and inviting. The new 3,000 m2 facade made of glassfibre reinforced concrete panels from Rieder bridges the architectural gap to the here and now. The innovative concrete is a symbolic step towards sustainability, fit for a modern school building. The new texture twine was also used for the first time in this project for the colour-matched formed parts, skilfully highlighting the building envelope.

“I’ve always been quite interested in keeping up with what’s happening on a technical front,” said Nick Lawrence, a practice director at A&Q Partnership in London. The architect, who studied engineering in undergraduate school, leads the building information modeling (BIM) effort at A&Q Partnership and says his studies greatly influenced his interest in information modeling.

His interest extends beyond personal. Relying on BIM framework has been crucial for A&Q Partnership, who work on large, multi-building commercial and residential projects.

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Exterior doors provide a sense of security and define first impressions, which is beautifully demonstrated in the pivot door presented above (designed and crafted in Europe by Air-Lux). On the other hand, inside of a house, interior doors are capable of generating privacy, buffering noise, separating rooms and enhancing a room’s architecture. Therefore, in order to fulfill these needs – and considering that they are used multiple times a day – interior doors must be durable and timeless without sacrificing beauty and style. Among all the options that meet these criteria, pivot doors stand out because of their elegant movement, aesthetics and versatility. With a sleek contemporary design that exceeds the regular function of a traditional door, these swinging doors rotate on a vertical axis with nearly invisible hardware, taking on any type of décor, use and measurement with endless creative possibilities.