Urban Planning | Tag (page 24)

The Next Great Public Spaces Will Be Indoors. Are Architects Prepared?

November 10, 2016

This article by Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, the cofounder of Snøhetta, was originally published by Metropolis Magazine as "Opinion: The Next Great Public Spaces Will Be Indoors."

Maybe with the sole exception of railway stations, public space is generally understood as outdoor space. Whether in the United States or in Europe, especially now with heightened concerns around security, there seems to be this determined way of privatizing everything that is indoors, even as we are increasingly aiming to improve access to public space outdoors. But in the layered systems of our cities of the future, we will need to focus on the public spaces that are found inside buildings—and make them accessible.

Why a City's Mayor Has To Be Its Chief Architect

November 04, 2016

Elected in 2001, over eight years in office Miami's former mayor Manny Diaz oversaw one of the most dramatic urban transformations in the United States' history. Diaz was therefore invited to offer the opening remarks to the second day of the 2016 Design Matters Conference, presented by the Association of Architecture Organizations, which is currently taking place in the city. In his speech delivered at the Miami Center for Art and Design, Diaz explains how he developed the "Miami 21" zoning code to leverage the power of architecture and urban planning, ultimately turning Miami from a subject of jokes into one of the United States' most successful and admired cities. Below is an edited version of this speech.

Ron asked me to explain how a lawyer with no experience in elective office and with no training whatsoever in architecture, urban planning or city design ends up with land use and Miami 21 as the signature project of his administration.

Adjaye Associates Selected for San Francisco Shipyard Redesign

October 21, 2016

Adjaye Associates has been announced as the firm that will serve as masterplan architect and creative director for the second phase of revitalization of the San Francisco Shipyard, the waterfront neighborhood located at Hunter’s Point along the San Francisco Bay.

The project, developed by FivePoint Holdings, is envisioned as a state-of-the-art commercial district containing offices, labs, research facilities and housing, and will feature a mix of reclaimed heritage buildings and new constructions. The plan will center around acres of public spaces and sports grounds.

“I’m thrilled to be partnering with FivePoint to explore ways to reinvigorate this site’s unique infrastructure for the 21st Century,” said David Adjaye, firm principal. “This is a project with incredible transformative potential; to be given the opportunity to contribute to San Francisco’s urban fabric in such a significant way is a true honor.”

Moscow Satellite City to Become First Classical Russian City Built From Scratch in Over 100 Years

October 11, 2016

Maksim Atayants and Maksim Atayants Workshop have announced the construction of Laikovo, a new, large, classically-designed city in the Moscow Region that will be built from scratch – which, according to the architects, will be the first classical city to be built from the ground up in Russia in over 100 years.

Intended to embody the best practices of Russian and global urban planning, the city will be designed in the modern classic style in five districts, and will become Moscow’s nearest satellite city, located near Rublyovka, with easy access to the paid expressway, the M-1 double.

50 percent of the 116-hectare city will be dedicated to public space, including a two-hectare park and lake at city center, as well as a main waterway that will become the Moscow Region’s longest artificial channel.

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Knight Cities Challenge: Open Call for Civic Innovators around the Country for Their Best Idea

October 11, 2016

From Charlotte, North Carolina, to San Jose, California, cities around the country are looking to address major challenges and build more successful communities. The Knight Cities Challenge, which opens today, is an invitation to engage in that process. It asks civic innovators to answer the question: What’s your best idea to make cities more successful?

4000 Shades of Green: Transborder Studio's Redesign Proposal for the "Grey Belt" in St. Petersburg

October 07, 2016

Oslo-based Transborder Studios is one of nine international firms competing to transform St. Petersburg’s “Grey Belt,” a 4,000-hectare territory of inactive industrial buildings and open spaces. The firm, which just won a competition for the development of Oslo’s new “Agricultural District,” is proposing a green rejuvenation with four multi-performing landscapes, a productive buffer, and development hubs.

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KCAP & Kunst + Herbert Win Competition for “Garden City of the 21st Century” in Hamburg

September 30, 2016

KCAP Architects & Planners in cooperation with Kunst + Herbert have won the international Fischbeker Reethan competition to master plan the Harburg district of Hamburg, Germany. The 70 hectare site is being developed by the IBA Hamburg (International Building Exhibition) as a new residential and business district with the aim of creating a “Garden City of the 21st Century.” The design will accommodate a total of 2,200 apartments, 100,000 square meters (1,080,000 square feet) of small industry space and nearly 200,000 square meters (2,150,000 square feet) of diverse public landscapes.

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2017 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence: Call for Entries

September 27, 2016

The Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence (RBA) celebrates transformative urban places distinguished by their economic and social contributions to our nation’s cities. Winners offer creative placemaking solutions that transcend the boundaries between architecture, urban design and planning and showcase innovative thinking about American cities. One Gold Medal of $50,000 and four Silver Medals of $10,000 will be awarded.

Sasaki Wins Competition to Reshape Shanghai's Suzhou Creek

September 25, 2016

U.S.-based firm Sasaki has won the international competition to redesign Suzhou Creek—also known as the Wusong River—in Shanghai, China, which was historically one of the city’s most vital water routes, but which, in recent decades, suffered severe pollution and neglect. After receiving a grant from the Asian Development Bank, the waterway has been cleaned and is now in the process of becoming a new centerpiece for Shanghai.

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Schmidt Hammer Lassen Wins Competition for Mixed-Use Tower and Urban Plan in Stavanger, Norway

September 20, 2016

Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects has won an international competition for the design of an urban redevelopment plan and high-rise in Stavanger, Norway. Beating out entries from Snøhetta, UNStudio, Dark Arkitekter and Eder Biesel Arkitekter, the winning proposal, “Breiavatnet Lanterna,” features a dynamic scheme to support the proliferation of sustainable and creative work environments throughout the city.

The project encompasses a new public center, the transformation of an existing park and a new 101 meter (331 foot) tall tower that will contain 18,170 square meters (195,580 square feet) of highly-flexible space for offices, restaurants, conferences and exhibitions. Both the ground and top floors of the high-rise will be publicly accessible, ensuring the building will remain an asset for the entire community.

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MVRDV Wins Competition to Masterplan New Innovation Port in Hamburg

September 13, 2016

MVRDV with co-architects morePlatz have won a competition to design the masterplan of the Hamburg Innovation Port, a new 70,000 square meter waterfront development that will add to the high-tech hub of Channel Hamburg in Hanse City, Hamburg. The plan for the mixed-use development uses a fusion of existing port typologies and dynamic architectural interventions to create a network of buildings containing hotels, laboratories, research facilities, offices for start-ups and a conference center.

Photographer Raphael Olivier Explores the Suspended Reality of North Korea’s Socialist Architecture

September 08, 2016

North Korea is one of the few countries still under communist rule, and probably the most isolated and unknown worldwide. This is a result of the philosophy of Juche – a political system based on national self-reliance which was partly influenced by principles of Marxism and Leninism.

In recent years though, the country has loosened its restrictions on tourism, allowing access to a limited number of visitors. With his personal photo series “North Korea – Vintage Socialist Architecture,” French photographer Raphael Olivier reports on Pyongyang’s largely unseen architectural heritage. ArchDaily interviewed Olivier about the project, the architecture he captured, and what he understood of North Korea’s architecture and way of life.

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EFFEKT & karres+brands Win Competition to Transform Industrial Wasteland Into Vibrant Urban District in Roskilde

September 05, 2016

EFFEKT and collaborators karres+brands, WTM Engineers, ARUP and ALECTIA have won a competition to transform an industrial waste site into a new vibrant urban district and infrastructural hub in the historic center of the city of Roskilde, Denmark. Beating out seven other invited teams, the winning design will encompass 100,000 square meters of mixed-use development across existing railroad tracks, reuniting the city and “reinventing the station as an integral part of the city center.”

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Marwa Al-Sabouni Explains How Syrian Architecture Laid the Foundations for War

August 21, 2016

In 2014, Syrian architect Marwa al-Sabouni won the Syria category of the UN Habitat Mass Housing Competition for a housing scheme she developed for the city of Homs, her hometown. Now over two years later, Thames and Hudson has published her book Battle for Home: The Vision of a Young Architect in Syria. Throughout all of these events, al-Sabouni has remained in Syria. As the Guardian puts it: “As bombs fell around her, Syrian architect Marwa al-Sabouni stayed in Homs throughout the civil war, making plans to build hope from carnage.”

In this TEDSummit video, Al-Sabouni argues “that while architecture is not the axis around which all of human life rotates... it has the power to... direct human activity” She believes that the Old Islamic cities of Syria were once harmonious urban entities which advocated for co-habitation and tolerance through their intertwining. However, she posits that over the last century, beginning with French colonization, the Ancient towns were seen as un-modern and were gradually “improved” with elements of modernity: “brutal unfinished concrete blocks, aesthetic devastation and divisive communities that zoned communities by class, creed, or affluence.” This urban condition, she argues, is what created the conditions for the uprising-turned-civil war.

“Beyond the City”: A Captivating Look at the Design of the Hinterland

August 17, 2016

Felipe Correa’s latest book “Beyond the City: Resource Extraction Urbanism in South America” takes us to a region that architects and urban designers typically have neglected—the hinterland. The South American hinterland provides a unique subject of analysis as it has typically been urbanized for its natural resources, which are tethered back to the coastal cities where these resources are either consumed or distributed to global markets. Within this context, the hinterland is viewed as a frontier whose wilderness is to be tamed, put to work, and territorialized through infrastructure and urban design. Beyond the City provides an insightful look into these processes and the unique urban experiments that emerged in South America. Organized by five case studies, Beyond the City is tied together by what Correa has termed “resource extraction urbanism,” which he links to “new and experimental urban identities in the context of government-sponsored resource extraction frontiers.” Written as a lucid historical account that anchors the discussion within the political, economic, and social context, as well as within global design discourse, the book is also projective—setting the table for a series of questions on how design can act in these landscapes.

Architectural And Environmental Design Conference

August 03, 2016

The Architectural and Environmental Design (AED) is created to be a platform for all early career researchers, practitioners and students from all around the world, helping them to share ideas, and to expand networks for scholars.

AED is an international conference that focuses on Sustainability and how it is approached by Architectural and Environmental Designs. AED engages with real life problems that affect the buildings on all scales, cities, and environment where it also discusses the built environment, and the factors that assist in shaping the built environment and how it affects our lives and our activities. IEREK for International Experts for Research Enrichment and Knowledge Exchange welcomes the abstract submissions to our Early Career conference.

Seoul's Dramatic "New Towns" Are Captured in this Photoset by Manuel Alvarez Diestro

July 28, 2016

As Seoul’s population boomed, apartment blocks became commonplace. Photographer Manuel Alvarez Diestro spent 6 months exploring the city’s new towns, aiming to “reveal in visual terms the expansive nature of urbanization and the transformation of the landscape through the construction of these new housing developments of massive scale.”

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SOM Reveals Plans for New Urban District Around Philadelphia's 30th Street Station

July 18, 2016

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has released plans for a new mixed-use urban district for Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station Precinct. In response to projections showing significant increases in transit activity in the coming decades, the project calls for a transformation of the existing Beaux Arts train station and surrounding neighborhood of University City. The design will improve transportation throughout the city, and will activate the area with new shops, restaurants and public plazas.

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