Students at Woodbury University School of Architecture. One of Woodbury's graduate professional practice courses, focused on the Los Angeles region and the state of California, was named one of seven exemplary courses in sustainability-centered design. Image Courtesy of Woodbury University
For many years now, climate change has been a major concern for architects and engineers— and with good reason. After all, the built environment contributes to over 39% of all CO2 emissions and over 70% of all electricity usage in the United States. Several architecture and design-based initiatives aim to guide architecture away from environmentally harmful practice and towards a more sustainable approach. Architecture 2030, one such initiative, believes that to incite design change we must begin at its source: architectural education.
https://www.archdaily.com/799721/the-7-best-sustainable-design-courses-in-the-united-statesGretchen Von Koenig
Humanity is at a key moment in a larger story, one in which we are willfully manipulating both our global environments as well as our human bodies. The first is changing the makeup of the physical spaces we occupy and the second, the very body that perceives that space. At this intersection are the physical boundaries that define architectural space. Both our environments and our bodies are therefore open for design, and architecture has swerved in a new direction.
Created in response to these changes is a new podcast, “Night White Skies” w/ Sean Lally: A podcast about architecture's future, as both earth's environment & our human bodies are open for design. The podcast is about conversations with designers, engineers, and writers on the periphery of the architecture discipline, engaging in these developments from multiple fronts. Though the lens of discussion is architecture, it is necessary to engage a diverse range of perspectives to get a better picture of the events currently unfolding. This includes philosophers, cultural anthropologists, policy makers, scientists as well as authors of science fiction. Each individual’s work intersects this core topic, but from unique angles.
A 10-year project in the making, the gargantuan cultural beacon is made of biomorphically curved concrete walls that wind together like a knot of arteries, creating an otherworldly experience for arts patrons. It’s every bit the landmark project you’d expect from 2013’s Pritzker Prize Laureate, but its rapidly approaching completion triggered a vital question: Where to go from here?
Architecture depends on its time. It is the crystallization of its inner structure, the slow unfolding of its form. – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
In 1951, Mies van der Rohe designed the Core House, a participative design structure which could be completed by its inhabitants.
This flexible model challenged certain architectural concepts, explored new industrial technologies, and proposed a modular system to improve the quality and affordability of housing.
Fourteen projects have been announced as category winners of the The World Architecture Festival’s (WAF) 2016 awards on Day 1 of the festival. Winners in 32 categories will be named over the first two days of the conference, and will then go on to compete for the title of the World Building of the Year 2016, to be announced on Friday.
The world’s largest architectural awards program, the 2016 WAF Awards consisted of 343 projects from 58 countries around the world. Finalists projects will be invited to present their project live at the festival to a "super jury" that includes Kai-Uwe Bergmann (BIG), Louisa Hutton (Sauerbruch Hutton), David Chipperfield, Ole Scheeren, and ArchDaily's co-founder and Editor-in-Chief David Basulto, who will determine the grand prize winner.
You can check out the full shortlist here, and see which built and future projects took home awards after the break.
In this latest photoset, photographer Laurian Ghinitiou gives us a first look at BIG’s Transitlager, a new mixed-use arts complex located within and around an existing warehouse building in Basel, Switzerland. Now nearing completion, the renovation and expansion is characterized by its reaction to the existing geometries of the nearby industrial infrastructure, taking the form of two distinct buildings, one placed on top of the other. The complex will contain a series of multifunctional floors for art, commerce, working and living in becoming the center of the new arts district of Dreispitz.
"Gang style" bathrooms, in which rows of stalls are installed opposite rows of wash basins and designated only for males or for females, have been de rigueur in educational facilities for the last hundred years. They involve predictable plumbing, mechanical exhaust, and fixture costs. Short doors and divider walls allow for the passive monitoring of behavior.
Relinquishing this traditional bathroom model is daunting, since individual toilet rooms can significantly increase costs through additional plumbing, ductwork, ventilation, partitions, doors and hardware. These designs many times require additional space, trigger further ADA compliance, and invalidate some USGBC LEED points. Moreover, school districts typically have limited budgets, established facilities, and deep-rooted social practices.
https://www.archdaily.com/799401/how-to-design-school-restrooms-for-increased-comfort-safety-and-gender-inclusivityJoAnn Hindmarsh Wilcox and Kurt Haapala
Want to know how BIG's VIA 57 West was designed? Let Bjarke Ingels explain it you himself in this new 360 degree video from creative production house Squint/Opera.
Shot in incredible 4K video, the video uses motion graphics and CGI overlays to take you through the building's construction while Ingels provides commentary on the design of the"courtscraper," winner of the 2016 International Highrise Award.
Update: We've added links to help you find these books for purchase and, in 5 of 8 cases, tracked down a way you can read them online for free!
Quality over quantity, so the saying goes. With so many concepts floating around the architectural profession, it can be difficult to keep up with all the ideas which you're expected to know. But in architecture and elsewhere, the most memorable ideas are often the ones that can be condensed textually: “form follows function,” “less is more,” “less is a bore.” Though slightly longer than three words, the following lists a selection of texts that don’t take too long to read, but impart long-lasting lessons, offering you the opportunity to fill gaps in your knowledge quickly and efficiently. Covering everything from loos to Adolf Loos, the public to the domestic, and color to phenomenology, read on for eight texts to place on your reading list:
Launched in 2007, The Buckminster Fuller Challenge has quickly gained a reputation for being what Metropolis Magazine once called “Socially-Responsible Design’s Highest Award.” This year, for the first time, a Student Category was reviewed separately from the general applications, however still based upon the same criteria: comprehensiveness, feasibility, replicability, ecological responsibility, and how verifiable and anticipatory the project is. Students from the Centre for Human Habitat and Alternative Technology (CHHAT) claimed the prize with their adaptable and lightweight modular domes, made from natural, local or recycled materials.
Geography and climate are two important conditions that determine how people can live in a certain environment. When we add to this the cultural characteristics of a region, what appears, as Carl Sauer would say, is a "cultural landscape," a result of humankind’s settlement and adaptation to the territory. When architecture adopts a sensitivity to these conditions, and concerns itself with what the environment offers, living conditions take on a quality of lasting comfort.
Mental Canvas is not the first software that attempts to save the act of sketching--we have seen 3D "sketching" tools such as SketchUp, as well as applications that simply simulate sketching on paper, such as Morpholio's popular range of sketching apps. But what makes Mental Canvas revolutionary is that you have the ability to sketch freely in a three-dimensional space without the constraints of traditional CAD modelling; it’s what Julie Dorsey, founder of Mental Canvas, calls a "graphical media"; not fully flat but not fully 3D. The software will be released later this year on Microsoft Surface devices, including the recently announced Surface Studio, working with the hardware of the Surface computers and the Surface Dial to provide a natural sketching experience on a virtual canvas.
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.
BIG and French studio Silvio d'Ascia have been selected to design the new Pont de Bondy metro station in Paris. The station is the latest design to be announced as part of the Société du Grand París’ Grand Paris Express project, which is seeking to modernize the existing transport network through the addition of nearly 200 kilometers of rail lines and a series of architect-designed stations throughout the city.
Traditional 3D models made up of surfaces have for a long time aided us in visualizing buildings and spaces, but they often come at a cost: large models require a lot of storage and processing power, and can become incredibly complex to the point where they are difficult to navigate. As a part of our Selected by Sketchfab series, Sketchfab has their eye on a more efficient, increasingly common method of capturing architectural spaces; namely, point clouds. Point clouds are made up of a set of points located in a three-dimensional coordinate system, that when put together merely give an impression of the surface of an object, or the façade of a building.
The method is fairly simple. The collection of data points is generated by a 3D scanner that rotates while emitting a laser that measures the distance to points on surrounding surfaces. This data can then be converted into a polygonal model that can be rendered like any other 3D model. However, the advantages of keeping the scan in point form are what makes it great; the file sizes are much smaller, and the porosity of the point clouds make it possible to see through walls and surfaces, accessing "hidden" spaces and uncommon views of seemingly familiar surroundings. Read on to find out more about the possibilities and advantages that come with point cloud modelling.
This article was originally published by Metropolis Magazine as "Q&A: Steven Holl."
For twenty years, Maggie's Centres have been providing cancer treatment to patients within thoughtful, beautiful spaces designed by renowned architects like Rem Koolhaas, Frank Gehry, and Zaha Hadid. Steven Holl's Maggie's Center Barts, located adjacent to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in central London, is slated to open at the end of this year. While the design has been somewhat controversial in the UK due to its contemporary nature, the cancer care facility incorporates innovative lighting, sustainable materials, and a compact structure in a way that is—according to the architect—entirely complementary to its historical neighbors. We spoke with the renowned architect to learn more about the project and what it has meant to him over the past four years.
Completing a degree in architecture can be a long and arduous process, but also wonderfully rewarding. Despite this, many freshly graduated architects find themselves unsure about where to begin, or deciding that they actually don’t want to be architects at all. Here is a list of 21 careers you can pursue with a degree in architecture, which may help some overcome the daunting task of beginning to think about and plan for the professional life that awaits.
.jpg?1479192914)
.jpg?1479192822 "Basel Transitlager / BIG. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu")
.jpg?1479192791 "Basel Transitlager / BIG. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu")
.jpg?1479193093 "Basel Transitlager / BIG. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu")
.jpg?1479192869 "Basel Transitlager / BIG. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu")
.jpg?1479192914)
.jpg?1478776420)
