Archstorming has announced the winning designs for a preschool in Mozambique. Participants were challenged to design a school for disabled children in Xai-Xai. and the winning proposal will be built with the help of the NGO Somos del Mundo and the local initiative Estamos Juntos. Judges selected the five winners and ten honorable mentions.

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Videos

It is only a matter of time until algorithms take the wheel. While the first autopilot system for vehicles was developed 3000 years ago by sailors attaching weather vanes to tillers, the last 10 years have seen unprecedented growth in interest and effort towards AV (autonomous vehicles). Today, autonomous vehicle tests are underway in 36 US states, while it is estimated that the technology could replace 90% of vehicles in cities such as Lisbon, Portugal and Austin, Texas.

The Inspireli Awards have announced the winners of the student competition for the Czech Embassy in Addis Ababa. The fourth year of the competition offered students a unique opportunity to design in Ethiopia. This special competition category was announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic in cooperation with the Faculty of Civil Engineering CTU in Prague, Department of Architecture.

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The New York City Planning Commission approved unanimously the design for 550 Madison Garden created by Snøhetta. The project that re-imagines the privately-owned public space will move forward, after also having received, earlier on, the approval from Manhattan Community Board.

British international studio Foster + Partners has won the competition to design the headquarters for Alibaba, in Shanghai. The newest building of the e-commerce giant will take a unique form generated by an algorithm that combines major aspects of the project.

Last April, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York announced plans to introduce a bill that would ban the construction of new all-glass buildings. Part of a larger effort to reduce citywide greenhouse emissions by 30 percent, other initiatives included using clean energy to power city operations, mandatory organics recycling, and reducing single-use plastic and processed meat purchases. The announcement came on the heels of the city council passing the Climate Mobilization Act, a sweeping response to the Paris Climate Agreement that included required green roofs on new constructions and emissions reductions on existing buildings.

Odile Decq was born in 1955 in Laval, France and studied at École Régionale d'Architecture in Rennes, Brittany. She graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure D'architecture in Paris-La Villette in 1978 and received her diploma from the Paris Institute of Political Studies in 1979. Decq set up her practice in Paris the same year and soon met Benoît Cornette who was studying medicine at the time but switched to architecture. By 1985 he received his architecture degree and the couple renamed their firm into ODBC. In 1996, ODBC won the Golden Lion in Venice for their drawings, selected out of a pool of invited emerging voices that included Zaha Hadid, Enric Miralles, and Liz Diller and Ric Scofidio. That was the beginning of the computer drawings, expressing movement, ambiguities, layering, and overall new dynamics that characterize Decq’s liberated forms and spaces.

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Jean Nouvel’s recently designed residential development, Aquarela, in Quito, Ecuador is under construction. In collaboration with local architectural developer Uribe & Schwarzkopf, the 136,580-square-metre organically designed project blends with the surrounding mountainous landscape.

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BIG unveiled its latest intervention, the Toyota Woven City, the company's first venture in Japan. Nestled at the foothills of Mt. Fuji, the project, in collaboration with Toyota Motor Corporation, is the world’s first urban incubator pushing forward the development and progress of mobility.

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Contreras Earl Architecture has designed a new tower along Broadbeach in Queensland, Australia. Dubbed "Sand", the project is designed to be an iconic landmark for the suburb drawing from the beachside and urban context. The mid-rise development includes a total of 15 boutique beachside apartments in the 18 story tower, with each floor designed as its own unit.

Known for his collaboration on the legendary Maison de Verre, French architect, and interior designer Pierre Chareau is a celebrated artist cited by Richard Rogers, Jean Nouvel, and more as a major influence on their work.

Completed in 1932, Maison de Verre—or “House of Glass”—has become a prime example of modern architecture, despite the fact that not many people have actually seen the hidden treasure, located on Paris’ Left Bank.

Although his work is currently viewed in high regard, Chareau had a tumultuous career, with large variances between his successes and his failures.

Drawing from a Cultured Magazine spotlight article on the designer, we have compiled a list of facts about Chareau’s life and career that showcase the rollercoaster of his success.

Continue reading for the 10 things you didn’t know about Pierre Chareau.

PLP Architecture and developer Provast have unveiled a new timber and concrete tower for Rotterdam. The project, dubbed “Tree House,” was designed to create an open and sustainable environment for residents and visitors in the city center. Rising 140-meters, the 37-story building will be sited next to the Central Station as the tallest hybrid structure in the country.

Jaeger Kahlen Partner is one of the joint winners of the international competition for the Bao’An Bay Industrial Investment Tower in Shenzhen, China. With a distinctive design approach, the landmark building will generate modern office spaces and enhance the surrounding urban fabric.

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Open Platform (OP) and JAJA Architects, together with Rama Studio and Søren Jensen Engineers, have won the open competition for a new parking house in Aarhus. In line with Denmark’s vision of becoming climate neutral by 2050, the structure will be the country’s first wooden parking house.

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World Heritage Site is the title given to specific places on the globe (landscapes, cultural routes, cities, or architectural structures) by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, as a way to recognize their natural or cultural relevance and to encourage their preservation. Up to 2019, 1121 places in over 167 countries have been declared World Heritage Sites, of which 869 are cultural, 213 natural and 39 are mixed category.

Used in Mexico City and in Reno, Nevada, Streetmix allows users to experiment and participate in the design of their streets. This bottom-up approach is a participatory tool that can include everyone in the decision making, without particular technical knowledge.

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Gone are the days when the kitchen was relegated to a service area. Following the traditional system of bourgeois residential tripartition (dividing the house into social, intimate, and service areas), the kitchen was originally designed as an independent and closed space. Today, more and more, projects seek to integrate and relate it to other rooms in the house, facilitating different interactions among its residents. Due to this transformation, the appearance of the kitchen also changed, and traditional ceramic and stone cladding gave way to new materials.

MEAN* or Middle East Architectural Network has proposed an intervention for Expo 2020 Dubai. The Boulevard Roundabout Pavilion, an 8-meter structure, will be an unmissable iconic proposal that welcomes the public to the world event.

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While we wait for summer 2020 and another chance to watch the medal counts climb and cheer on our home countries in the next Olympics, a different type of international contest has tallied its scores and the United States has taken the gold in the World Design Rankings, with China and Japan following for second and third place respectively. Sponsored by the international A’ Design Award and Competition, the world’s largest and most diverse design accolade, the World Design Rankings are compiled based on the number of designers from each country granted an A’ Design Award.

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Tonkin Zulaikha Greer have redesigned a historic hat factory in Sydney’s Surry Hills to become a new hotel. The design transforms the handsome Henderson Hat manufacturing warehouse building to act as a catalyst for connecting and reactivating the surrounding public domain. The hotel would add two additional levels to the existing six-story Edwardian building.

From hospitals and retail stores to large commercial facilities and school buildings, resilient flooring is a popular choice for its durability. Yet like any material, it is subject to human error and neglect; if not properly maintained, even resilient flooring may deteriorate (in aesthetics, function, or both) before its time. 

Throughout the last 12 months, the architectural community has responded in various ways to the Climate Emergency. From innovative proposals that tackle the sustainable design of healthy cities, to collective political action and lobbying, 2019 saw a continued mobilization of ideas, opinions, and actions on how architecture can be used as a tool to help the planet.

Seoul is considered one of the most densely-populated and over-priced cities in the world, reaching a staggering $ 80,000 per square meter. The extreme conditions of the city have forced local architects to operate, design, and build framing the city's urban issues, traditions, and history. This approach by architects has created the theoretical basis of “The Condition of Seoul Architecture”, a publication by multidisciplinary practice TCA Think Tank which sees the point of view of 18 innovative South Korean architects. In this interview, Pier Alessio Rizzardi, founder of the practice, interviewed Chi Min-suk of Mass Studies, explaining his point of view on ephemeral architecture and what influences the studio's work the most.