A guide from Graphisoft on how to create powerful design presentations with Archicad through the use of Archicad version 25.

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Burning Man, the annual festival taking place in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, has opened on August 27th, with thousands of festivalgoers gathering to create the Black Rock City, a ‘temporary metropolis’ complete with numerous installations, artworks, and pavilions that celebrate “community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance.” This year, however, the festival experience has been different, as heavy rains inundated the desert and festival site, creating thick, ankle-deep mud. The roads to and from the festival have been closed as large vehicles risk remaining stuck in the mud. While some people have left the site by walking out, the majority of the 70,000 campers remain stranded, as reported by CNN.

The photographic archive of landscape photographer and architect Alan Ward has been recently gifted to the Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF). The collection features 110 Portfolios composed of approximately 2,500 images of parks, estates, memorials, gardens, university campuses, cemeteries, museums, and botanical gardens, taken in 12 different countries, and captured by Alan Ward, a principal at the Boston-based firm Sasaki and a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

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Yucatán is a state located in the southeastern part of Mexico on what is known as the Yucatán Peninsula, bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, Quintana Roo, and Campeche. Within this state, there are 4 magical towns: Izamal, Maní, Sisal, and Valladolid. The architecture of this region is a blend of indigenous, Hispanic, Mexican, French, Italian, and American influences.

Last summer, Spain promoted cleaner transportation by offering free seasonal tickets for suburban and regional trains, which translated into roughly 48 million journeys per month. The initiative hoped to help citizens reduce fuel consumption and reduce the cost of living during the economic uncertainties and rising energy prices. In the summer of 2022, a 30% discount for municipal public transport was announced, with local governments in places like Catalonia topping up to a 60% discount. The program ran between the 1st of September and the 31st of December of last year.

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Architects such as Alvar Aalto and Tadao Ando showcase the ability of natural light to shape architectural spaces. Aalto's projects employ extensive glass elements, carefully positioned windows and skylights, harnessing the ever-changing characteristics of daylight. Meanwhile, Ando's Church of Light serves as a striking example of how light can hold profound spiritual significance within a space. Its concrete facade features a symbolic cross-shaped opening, which beautifully and symbolically illuminates the interior, creating a unique spiritual ambiance. In addition to being an essential element that enhances interior aesthetics, natural light profoundly impacts the overall quality of life, promoting better well-being and productivity. By taking advantage of the power of natural light, spaces can reduce their dependence on artificial lighting, leading to greater energy efficiency and a more sustainable design approach.

On April 15, 2019, a devastating fire occurred at the infamous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. The fire caused significant damage to the historic structure, which is a landmark in the city and a symbol of French Gothic architecture. The cathedral has been undergoing restoration works and is on course to reopen to the public in 2024. Throughout the process of restoration, its interior cleaning methodologies were debated, its carpentry was entirely replaced by medieval-skilled timber craftsmen, and the completion date for the cathedral is still on track for December 2024.

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The use of pigmented concrete in Latin American architecture is growing - and influencing contemporary architectural expression. This can be seen in recent built works ranging from the INES Innovation Center designed by Pezo von Ellrichshausen in Chile to the Teotitlán del Valle Community Cultural Center by PRODUCTORA in Mexico.

Iwona Blazwick has been appointed as the Curator of the 18th Istanbul Biennial, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Art (iKSV). The Biennial will occur in 2024, from 14 September until 17 November. The Istanbul Biennial is the most comprehensive international exhibition organized in Türkiye and the region, playing an essential role in promoting contemporary artists and artist collectives.

Iwona Blazwich OBE is a curator, writer, and art historian. She held the position of Director at the Whitechapel Gallery in London from 2001 to 2022 and previously worked with many renowned institutions in her practice. Currently, she is the curator for the Royal Commission’s Arts AlUla initiative in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, Blazwhich’s career as an independent curator ranges from exhibitions and public art projects across Europe, the United States, Japan, and China.

We are witnessing a major shift in the process of generating images. The recent influx and growth of machine learning and artificial intelligence raises questions about the way in which creative processes evolve and develop through technology. Systems like DALL-E, DALL-E 2, and Midjourney are AI programs trained to generate images from text descriptions using a dataset of text-image pairs. The diverse set of capabilities includes creating anthropomorphized versions of animals and objects, combining unrelated concepts in plausible ways, and applying transformations to existing images.

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Colors evoke specific feelings; therefore, they are used to elicit particular effects on the surface they appear on or in the minds of observers contemplating them. In architecture, color plays a fundamental role in defining shape. Materials in their natural state already possess inherent coloration, which is perceived in a specific manner. However, when dyed, the observer's perception is altered, giving rise to associations between different sensations related to the same object. This transformation brought about by color occurs in various visual mediums, spanning from three-dimensional contexts like architecture to static and mobile two-dimensional forms such as engravings, photographs, paintings, and films.

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Contrary to popular belief, Roman buildings were not as monochrome as previously thought. Recent discoveries indicate that statues and structures were, in fact, richly adorned with bright colors and exuberant decorations, following the tradition established by their Greek predecessors. This may be surprising, but it shows the presence of color in architecture much earlier than imagined. Color has always played a significant role in shaping the perception and experience of a space, and was prominent in the works of seminal architects such as Le Corbusier and Luis Barragán, for example. Another master of the use of color was Michael Wilford, who, together with his former partner James Stirling gained international recognition with notable public buildings, art centers, museums, and libraries located worldwide. The volumes present in Wilford's architecture are often remembered for their careful use of color, which highlights certain elements and adds other dimensions to the structures.

Construction has just begun on Snøhetta’s Charlotte Mecklenburg Library in North Carolina, USA. The new project is designed to become a significant destination in Uptown Charlotte. Last week, the main library organized a commemoration to celebrate the beginning of the demolition phase on site in anticipation of the upcoming construction. It is set to open in the spring of 2026.

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The Museum of Architecture and Design, Chicago Athenaeum, and the European Center for Architecture, Art, Design, and Urban Studies have just revealed the winning projects in their 2023 edition of the International Architecture Awards (IAA). Among these recognitions, the design by IDOM, Nikken Sekkei, and b720 for the Nou Camp Nou stands out.

Circles, as a fundamental geometric shape, possess a captivating and harmonious quality that has been seamlessly integrated into architecture and design across various eras and styles. From subtle accents to bold focal points, the use of circles in interior design transcends mere ornamentation, often symbolizing continuity, connection, and a soothing visual rhythm. With their endless and unbroken curves, they offer a sense of unity, movement, and balance that can transform spaces into inviting and aesthetically pleasing environments – an effect especially useful for interior design. In this article, we take a look at 27 projects from our ArchDaily database that illustrate circular forms in interiors across the globe.

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“Our fellows have shown courage, written books, founded mission-driven non-profits, created new coalitions, and disseminated new tools,” said Cindy Sanders, FASLA, CEO of OLIN, in her introduction of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership program at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.

Sanders highlighted the results of a five-year assessment of the LAF fellowship program and its efforts to grow the next generation of diverse landscape architecture leaders. The assessment shows that past fellows are shaping the future of the built environment in key public, non-profit, and private sector roles.

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Ten years ago, SPACE10 was born as a pioneering platform ushering in a novel approach to corporate innovation, consolidating itself for its ability to be open, democratic, driven by a playful purpose, and community-oriented. Composed of a small core team of around 23 people based in Copenhagen, their efforts have focused on combining the power of creativity, science, and technology to find solutions that address the accelerated climate crisis and social injustices.

As the fastest-growing metropolitan city in the Midwest region, Columbus is situated amidst Central Ohio’s exciting blend of infrastructure and natural landscape. Columbus and its surroundings are currently undergoing a significant phase of cultural expansion and anticipate a population surpassing 3 million by 2050. In collaboration with Columbus-based Moody Nolan, Gensler has just revealed their design for the new terminal at John Glenn Columbus International Airport in Ohio, a facility to grow the city and support it in reaching these goals of expansion.