festival: The Latest Architecture and News

“Another Breach in the Wall’ was the chosen theme for the main exhibition presented at Beta 2022, the Timișoara Architecture Biennial, which ran from 23 September to 23 October 2022. Curated by Daniel Tudor Munteanu and Davide Tommaso Ferrando, it aimed to explore the concept of loopholes, a term referring both to inadequacies in a set of regulations and an arrow slit in a defensive wall. The exhibition aimed to inspire action an empower citizens to appropriate the urban fabric by exposing submissive urban strategies. The projects and actions presented were selected based on their potential to create novel urban spaces by questioning the laws that regulate the use of public space.

The first full-size London Design Festival (LDF) for three years, and the event’s 20th anniversary year, this was meant to be a celebration. But life, as the saying goes, had other plans. Rocked by the news of HRH Queen Elizabeth II’s passing, the country, and indeed the world started the London Design Festival in a period of mourning. Having reigned over the densest period of design innovation in human history, however, her majesty was no stranger to change.

With long-running themes like sustainability, materials, economic crises, and digital futures never higher in the public’s consciousness, LDF ’22 wasn’t just a professional meet and greet, but a chance to share some much-needed positivity with design enthusiasts, as well as locals, just passing by. Here are the most interesting and talked-about installations and talks from nine days of reflection on the past and hope for the future.

Nevada's annual Burning Man has retured to the Black Rock Desert, after a three-year physical attendance hiatus due to the pandemic. From August 28 until September 5th, this year's festival explored the theme of "Walking Dreams", celebrating the dreamers who channel the power of dreams and imagination, both in literal and figurative ways. Similar to every year, the pavilions that were installed in the desert explored the theme in creative and unexpected ways.

This year, many of the installations approached themes of ecology and sustainability. Some of the installations were built with reused materials, including an interactive light sculpture made from plastic recovered from the ocean. Every year, the Burning Man festival issues a number of grants, funded from revenues from ticket sales, for the purpose of partially funding specific art projects.

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"Concéntrico wants to achieve a better city", says Javier Peña as he inaugurates the International Festival of Architecture and Design of Logroño in Spain. An event that since its first edition in 2015 has proposed rediscovering the spaces of interest in the historic center, reflecting on the urban environment through different proposals for installations and ephemeral exhibitions. This year, it celebrates its eighth meeting from the 1st to the 6th of September.

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After a three-year physical attendance hiatus due to the pandemic, Nevada's annual Burning Man is making a return to the Black Rock Desert. From August 28 until September 5th, this year's festival will welcome thousands of burners to celebrate music and art in a temporary metropolis dedicated to "community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance". Ahead of its 2022 inauguration, we are taking a look at some of the best installations to have been constructed during Burning Man's previous editions.

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With a mission to support, empower, and grow the city's design sector, New York's annual design festival, the NYCxDESIGN presented a selection of architectural installations, talks, and events to celebrate global creative accomplishments, share new ideas, and inspire through design. This year, the festival returned for its tenth edition, running from May 10th - 20th. Having been a special anniversary, this year showcased New York's creative diversity and talent, putting on display its designers, makers, manufacturers, innovative design businesses, as well as world-class cultural and academic design institutions.

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Syrian architects Marwa Al-Sabouni and Ghassan Jansiz bring an Arabic-inspired architectural element to the seafront of Hove as part of this year’s Brighton Festival. The temporary pavilion is built in the shape of the traditional arcade called The Riwaq. Conceived as a place that brings people together, the installation will host free cultural and community events, all organized as part of England’s largest annual multi-arts festival. Established in 1967, the Brighton Festival celebrates music, theatre, dance, art, film, literature, debate, and outdoor events in various locations across Brighton, Hove, and East Sussex.

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On the 5th of May, the first edition of Model. Festival of Architecture of Barcelona was inaugurated. An event organised jointly by Barcelona City Council and the Architects' Association of Catalonia (COAC) that brings us closer to experimental architecture and helps us to rethink how we want to live together through new city models and new imaginaries.

The new biennial event Architekturwoche Basel (AWB) will debut this May as a platform for discussing architecture and urban development through the lens of sustainable construction and the circular economy. The inaugural edition also marks the launch of the first Basel Pavilion, a temporary structure meant to showcase new possibilities for environmentally-friendly building practices. The winning design, “Loggia Basileana”, created by architecture practice isla, is made of reused building components and features a series of modules that form a continuous pedestrian passageway along the train tracks on the Dreispitz site.

The London Festival of Architecture (LFA), the world’s largest annual architecture festival is returning for its 13th edition this summer, transforming the city's neighborhoods into a public display of installations, exhibitions, talks, and special events. Following two years of digitalized editions, this year's LFA falls under the theme of ‘act’, and will see a return of physical events alongside digital realms across the capital.

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The term “mid-century modern” conjures up images of a sharp-suited Don Draper, slender teak cabinets, and suave chairs from Scandinavia. That is, at least, one perspective of the design movement and a view more of 1950s-era Manhattan offices than anything else. But in Britain, mid-century modernism manifested as something slightly different, coming in the form of schools, cathedrals, housing, and an era-defining festival, all eloquently described and illustrated by the prolific architectural historian Elain Harwood in Mid-Century Britain: Modern Architecture 1938-1963.

Etherea, the installation conceived by Edoardo Tresoldi for the Coachella festival in 2018, has landed in Rome for "Back to Nature”, an exhibition project curated by Costantino d’Orazio. The large transparent mesh sculpture will dialogue with the trees of the Parco dei Daini, in Villa Borghese, until December 13, 2020.

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The new Zoomed In virtual photography and architecture festival has launched this week. Running from 21st - 24th of April, the festival brings together a diverse international selection of architectural photographers and cross-disciplinary creatives in a series of online talks and discussions, short film screenings, image galleries, and a charity print sale to raise funds for those most in need during the current pandemic crisis.

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