In a recent article published by the Financial Times, architect and public speaker Michael Pawlyn delves into how biomimicry can be applied to architecture in order to solve design problems and create a more sustainable future. Even in very early examples, biomimicry has been critical in the development of architecture, for example when Filippo Brunelleschi studied eggshells to create a thinner and lighter dome for his cathedral in Florence. In a modern example, biomimicry has been utilized—through the examination of termite mounds—to create cool environments without air conditioning in warm climates such as in Zimbabwe.
Earlier this year, we reported that 2016 Pritzker Prize winnerAlejandro Aravena announced that his practice, ELEMENTAL, released four of their social housing designs available to the public for open source use. A recent article published by Urbanisms in beta discusses what exactly “open source use” means to the architecture world, and how we may see these designs applied to projects in the future.
For European architects eager to expand their knowledge of contemporary architecture, SCI-Arc, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, has just announced the launch of a full tuition scholarship specifically for citizens of the European Union to study at the SCI-Arc campus in Los Angeles, California.
The Latin American Landscape Initiative (LALI) and the International Archive of Women in Architecture Center (IAWA) invites all its members to initiate a thorough search throughout our continent for the work of the pioneer women of Landscape Architecture.
IndyGo is currently in the process of designing the Red Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. As part of the overall system design, IndyGo is facilitating a design ideas competition to foster creative design solutions for 28 rapid transit stations along Phase 1 of the Red Line BRT route with possible replication of these stations along the two future phases.
MAKING - Alternative design for Factories (www.nonarchitecture.eu)
The aim of the “Making” competition is to develop a design proposal for the factory typology, intended as a place of creation and processing of goods of any kind. It is asked to the participants to create innovative and unconventional projects on this theme, questioning the very basis of the notion of factory. Recently many initiatives, such as fab labs and Makers fairs, have been proposing new interpretations of the functioning of factories, using on demand production and 3D printing to develop extremely successful models.
CityLab has recently published an article outlining Leonardo da Vinci's Town Plan of Imola, an "ichnographic" map from 1502, and the earliest of its kind in existence. Rather than utilizing elevations or oblique mapping methods like most other Renaissance mappers, da Vinci developed his own technique -- possibly using special hodometer and magnetic compass technologies that he invented -- to draw the city "as if viewed from an infinite number of viewpoints."
Building Trust are happy to announce that we will be working alongside We Yone Child Foundation to design and build a new hall space for a school that we have been working on for the last 2 years. Building Trust have a number of sustainable design and build projects around the World in 2016, ranging from schools and housing to wildlife conservation and healthcare.
We are offering a hands on participatory workshop where you will gain experience in sustainable building techniques and understand more about humanitarian design while building worthwhile projects that will have a huge benefit to the local community. You will gain an insight into a number of building techniques and architectural styles.
Known as Lajkó to his friends, Marcel Lajos Breuer (21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981) helped define first the interior contents, then the form, of the modernist house for millions; his influential approach to housing was one of the first to demonstrate modernism on a domestic, practical level. Beginning as a furniture designer at the height of Bauhaus, Breuer was hailed as one of the most innovative designers working in the 1930s, before moving to architecture and helping define the modernist vernacular—most notably as one of America's foremost Brutalist architects.
EFFIX Pavilion Contest for the Sea Garden in Varna
Devnya Cement AD, a member of Italcementi Group, and Varna Design Forum invite all students of architecture and design, and all young professionals up to 35 years old from all over the world to participate in the international contest for conceptual design of a small trading pavilion, to be situated in the Seaside Park in the city of Varna. The goal is to enrich the urban design of Varna through the realization of a contemporary and inspiring concept for a trading pavilion constructed with the innovative materials of Italcementi Group. The contest will finish with the announcement of a winner selected by a five-member Jury Panel. The winner will be awarded with monetary prize, visit to the "i.lab" research center in Italy and realization of their project as a real-size prototype.
The overriding purpose of this proposed monument is to honor and express deep gratitude for the millions of Americans and Vietnamese who fought side-by-side to stop communist aggression and give the South Vietnamese people a chance to live in freedom. To give meaning to this difficult struggle, it is important for many of the Vietnamese people who fled their country and escaped communist persecution, to show their appreciation to those that helped them during and after the war.
The Wienerberger Brick Award has offered a unique platform for the recognition of outstanding brick architecture of international quality since 2004. The award comprises 5 different categories, which may change depending on trends and current topics.
https://www.archdaily.com/787220/winners-of-wienerberger-brick-award-announcedSponsored Post
How is it possible to live in a society where changes occur in a fast and simultaneous way? These changes produce new family structures whose temporariness can change several times throughout the life cycle of a person. Therefore, currently there is no single housing prototype associated with a homogeneous sample of similar individuals who live in the same family structures.
It’s LIQUID Group, in collaboration with International ArtExpo, is selecting all interesting video art and performance art works, architectural and design’s projects to include in the next 2016 festival. During the event an amazing programme of video art screenings, live performances, architectural, design projects and installation/sculpture will be presented. Artists, filmmakers, video makers, associate groups and studios, performers, architects and designers are invited to submit their works of video art, performance art, installation/sculpture and their architectural and design projects.
Join us for this special live episode of The Urbanist at our Marylebone HQ, where Monocle editor Andrew Tuck hands over the floor to city-planners, policy-makers and urban leaders to discuss how to build a better London. How would you fix the capital? We’ll look at transport, culture, housing, business, the night-time economy and much more. Be part of the debate following the election of the city’s new mayor.
The Architecture Foundation is inviting applications to join a masterclass, which will be staged in the James Stirling-designed Florey Building at The Queen’s College, Oxford. Six studios will consider the typology of the university, through the development of a speculative design over the course of four days (Thursday September 8th-Sunday September 11th). The studio leaders will present lectures over the course of the masterclass while the Drawing Matter Foundation will stage an exhibition drawn from its holdings of 1960’s architectural drawings. On the evening of September 12th, the studios will present their projects at a public event at London’s Barbican Arts Centre.
Strelka KB announces the launch of an Open International Competition for Tverskaya Streetscape Concept Design. The design project covers Tverskaya Street (from Pushkinskaya Square to Triumfalnaya Square) and 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street in Moscow. The competition is aimed to attract young and emerging architects for the projects on the renovation of urban territories as a part of “My Street” programme. The winner will be announced on the 7th of July 2016.
FAVELAS, named after the Brazilian creeping plant ’favela’ have existed in Brazil since the late 19th century. Wretched areas of closely packed dwellings were planted in the cities, on the outskirts of the cities, and continued to spread rampantly, growing out of all control. The problem became worse around 1950 when the industrialization of Brazil led to mass migration from rural areas to the big cities. At first the municipal administration tried to resolve this problem by building social housing. Some of the favelas were bulldozed and their inhabitants were forced to resettle elsewhere. But areas of informal settlements have continued to grow. According to the Secretaria Municipal de Habitação the slum’s residents are already 22% of the population in Rio.
