What is architecture if it does not understand its context? Architecture is shaped and curated by the area it lives in, showcasing the culture it embodies. The more of this identity it embodies, the more meaningful (and sometimes prominent) it becomes.
December of 2018 was a month of prosperity for Lebanese architecture: Hashim Sarkis was announced curator of the 2020 Venice Biennale and Lebanese-born Amale Andraos and partner Dan Wood of WORKac were selected to build the Beirut Museum of Art. The museum, a dynamic assembly of contoured geometries (not entirely unlike their work at Miami's Museum Garage) located in the heart of Beirut City, will house permanent and temporary exhibitions across 12,000 square meters. WORKac's winning scheme was chosen for its ability to “reveal the cultural possibilities of integrating art, architecture, and landscape within a dense urban setting and as a means to re-imagine how we can live, learn and share together.”
Zinc is a natural element extracted from ores. Its symbol, which appears in the dreaded Periodic Table, is Zn. Through a metallurgical process of burning its impurities (reducing zinc oxide and refining), it assumes a much more friendly appearance, and later becomes the sheets, coils, and rollers used in construction. The main characteristic of this material is its malleability, which allows it to be worked easily, allowing to cover complex forms in facades and roofs of buildings.
The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects has presented 27 projects with 2019 Design Awards. AIANY announced the results after two days of deliberations by a a jury of independent architects, educators, critics, and planners. For each of the five categories, winning projects were granted either an “Honor” or “Merit” award, and were chosen for their design quality, innovation and technique.
The European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation have announced the 40shortlisted works that will compete for the 2019 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award. The Prize, for which ArchDaily is a media partner, has seen a jury distill 383 nominated works into a 40-project-strong shortlist, celebrating the trends and opportunities in adaptive reuse, housing, and culture across Europe.
https://www.archdaily.com/909537/shortlisted-projects-announced-for-the-eu-mies-award-2019Niall Patrick Walsh
As 2018 winds to a close, we've started to look ahead to the projects we're most looking forward to in 2019. Many of the projects listed here have been in the works for years, having experienced the frustrating false starts and lulls that come in a profession dependent on long-term and significant capital investment, not to mention changing politics.
Because, for all the inspirational works across the world, we would be lost without the photographers dedicated to sharing this inspiration with us. Here we present to you the 50 most influential architectural photographs of the year.
A new video by Milkbox NY showcases Steven Holl's Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. The gateway building has become a major art destination for Richmond at one of the nation’s leading schools of art and design. Designed to serve as an art center for students and the local community, the ICA prompts interaction and discussion around contemporary issues. The new video shows how the project is a forum for the diverse community of Richmond to come together.
Architects are often driven by forces which are stronger than aesthetics or even client whims and desires. To some extent we’re captive to the tools and materials we use, and the legal limitations placed on us as architects. Today a new code definition has changed one type of building in all of the ways architects usually control.
Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) has announced the six recipients of the 2019 cycle of the six recipients of their Richard Rogers Fellowship program. Inspired by Lord Richard Rogers’ “commitment to cross-disciplinary investigation and engagement,” the Fellowship established last year to support individuals “whose research will be enhanced by access to London’s extraordinary institutions, libraries, practices, professionals, and other unique resources.”
The 2019 winners were chosen from a pool of more than 140 applicants hailing from around the world. As in previous years, the fellowship allows the winners to spend a three-and-a-half month residency at the Rogers' Wimbledon House in London. The recipients also receive funding to cover their travel to London and $100,000 cash.
https://www.archdaily.com/907431/harvard-announces-the-2019-richard-rogers-fellowsKatherine Allen
In March 2016, when world-renowned architect Zaha Hadid died of a heart attack at age 65 in a Miami hospital, the news sent shockwaves through the architecture community.
The flamboyant British designer—born on October 31, 1950 in Iraq, educated in Beirut, and known as the “Queen of the Curve” for her swooping, elegantly complex designs—was a legend in her time. She had design commissions around the world, been awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2004 and the Royal Institute of British Architects’ gold medal in 2016, and transcended the old-guard strictures of a staunchly male-dominated profession.
Since the end of World War II, Russia’s cities have grown in a Modern Soviet style. This prolonged use and application of the principles of architecture’s modern movement heavily affected the country’s development and urban expansion. But now, the new generations of architecture professionals are seeking to make a change.
Following an extensive day of presentations, panels, critiques, and talks The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has announced the Day 1 category winners in their 2018 programming. Winners are recognized in over 35 categories over the first two days of the conference, which culminates with the announcement of the World Building of the Year 2018 on the third and final day of the conference.
While still early days, the world’s largest architectural award program, the WAF Awards is poised for its biggest year yet, with a total of 535 shortlisted projects from 57 countries across the world.
https://www.archdaily.com/906741/the-2018-world-architecture-festival-announces-the-day-one-winnersAD Editorial Team
I taught architectural history in two schools of architecture during the 1980s and 1990s. Back then it was common for students to get a full three-semester course that began with Antiquity and ended with Modernism, with a nod to later twentieth-century architecture. My text for the middle section was Spiro Kostof’s magisterial History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals. With many centuries to cover, he spent very little effort in dealing with the twentieth century. In the last third of the course, students read texts such as Towards a New Architecture by Le Corbusier and Reyner Banham’s Theory and Design in the First Machine Age. My colleagues and I felt that we offered students a pluralistic and comprehensive review of key developments in the history of the built environment.
The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center / REX. Image Courtesy of REX
The New York City-based architecture firm REX will be designing the new performing arts center for Brown University's campus in Providence, Rhode Island. Known for their portfolio of office and cultural projects - notably and recently including The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center - the firm aims to accommodate performances and events while serving as a hub for daily social interactions on campus within the 81,000 square-foot site. The building will become a central convening space of multimedia and performing arts for students, faculty, and visitors.
Forensic Architecture has been crowned overall winner of the Beazley Designs of the Year 2018, with their exhibition “Counter Investigations.” The firm has undertaken sterling work in recent years, uncovering miscarriages of justice and international war crimes through architectural analysis of imagery, from official news, satellite footage, and crowdsourced information.
The spatial investigation group, based in Goldsmith University London, is currently nominated for the 2018 Turner Prize. The interdisciplinary group of architects, filmmakers, journalists, lawyers, and scientists have devoted their energy to investigating state and corporate violations worldwide.
Surely every architect has wondered how the fluid but complex forms of the architecture of Zaha Hadid Architects are brought to reality. And it's beautiful to see how an initial conceptual idea –probably drawn as a quick sketch– materializes in precise and detailed planimetric drawings.
We have compiled a series of construction details from 9 projects developed by Zaha Hadid Architects that give insight into her distinct style and approach, showing us that, with a little ingenuity and a lot of expertise, even the most impossible-seeming dreams can be built.
__by_Karl_Henrik_Nostvik__1967-1973._Image_%C2%A9_Iwan_Baan__.jpg?1542624862 "© Iwan Baan")
__by_Henri_Chomette_and_Roland_Depret__1973-1978._Image_%C2%A9_Iwan_Baan__.jpg?1542624833 "© Iwan Baan")
.jpg?1542420077 "Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Brown University / Diller Scofidio + Renfro")
.jpg?1542420087 "Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Brown University / Diller Scofidio + Renfro")
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.jpg?1540930206 "MAXXI Museum / Zaha Hadid Architects. Image © Iwan Baan")
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