OMA / Chris van Duijn won the competition to design a new campus for Hongik University in Seoul, South Korea. The proposal introduces a cluster of low-rise buildings interconnected by a network of public spaces molded on the existing topography of the site. The design aims to reemphasize the university’s connection to the city and its neighboring areas and to introduce greenery and various open spaces creating a seamless connection between roof terraces, outdoor courtyards, and sunken plazas. The winning proposal was chosen from the entries from established international practices, including SANAA, Herzog & de Meuron, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, and David Chipperfield Architects.
OMA’s competition design for UniCredit’s new Headquarters in Munich, Germany, proposes a plaza lifted off the ground to increase public spaces and urban connectivity and to activate an otherwise overlooked area. The scheme aims to “retroactively attribute character to an area which may never have had one.” The site is located by one of the city’s main arteries, the S-Bahn, a strictly functional area lacking in public spaces or amenities. The building proposed by OMA is lifted off the ground, with its limited footprint allowing for more public space to be integrated while preserving the site’s natural features.
Memorium Nürnberger Visitor Center. Image Courtesy of Sebastian Brunke
Public spaces are the beating heart of our cities. They act as the hubs of social and cultural activity where people congregate, interact, and escape the clamor of the city. These areas are crucial in determining a city's identity, character, and citizens' well-being and standard of living. Public spaces can define our communities and significantly impact how we live, work, and interact with one another through their architectural designs, facilities, and activities. Furthermore, they provide leisure, exercise, and recreation opportunities, allowing individuals to escape the confines of their daily routines and connect with nature.
This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community showcasing different proposals made to enhance public space. Ranging from reimagining central squares to placing massive land art in the urban epicenter, these public spaces enhance the quality of life for the city's locals. In Germany, the redesign of the entire Memorium Nürnberger Trials reimagines this as a place to come together, grounded in its history, while in Havana, the new Cuban Square reimagines the metaphor of unity in the city center. The design and accessibility of public spaces significantly impact our well-being and quality of life. Thoughtfully planned and inclusive spaces with seating, greenery, and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure can promote physical activity, mental health, and community engagement in a city.
rati di Tivo Piazza at Gran Sasso . Image Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects
Steven Holl Architects has revealed a plan for the Gran Sasso area in Abruzzo, Italy, specifically in Prati di Tivo. The project aims to develop an area dedicated to tourists and mountaineers, complete with accommodation spaces, pools, spas, a restaurant, and a public plaza with views toward the mountain range. The designs and models of the project, along with the initial watercolor sketches, are presented at the Antonia Jannone Disegni di Architettura exhibition titled "Steven Holl: Half Earth," which will be available for viewing from May 26 to July 14.
Besides reflecting the aspirations of a society, public spaces also configure the scenarios in which new ideas of coexistence and the collective can emerge from their qualities. Thinking about the streets, squares, parks, and even nature is a way of dealing with common ideals and ensuring the social dynamics in the relationship between bodies and the environment.
Courtesy of Steelblue for the City of Sacramento / Perkins&Will
Global architecture firm Perkins&Will, in collaboration with ARUP, Grimshaw Architects, EPS , AIM Consulting, and the City of Sacramento, have transformed the city's historic train station into a self-reliant and regenerative transportation hub, making it one of the most sustainable public areas in California. The design team worked alongside the local community to create a people-centric 31-acre master plan that reflects what the community envisions for a public train station and gateway to the city of Sacramento.
The Green. Image Courtesy of Mimi Lien/Rendering by Timothy Leung
After several event cancellations due to the pandemic, Manhattan’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex have transformed their outdoor plaza into a green park and outdoor performance venue called The Green. As of May 10, the Restart Stagesinitiative will add fake grass across the 14,000-square-foot (1,300 sqm) Josie Robertson Plaza. The plaza, which was originally designed by Philip Johnson, Wallace K. Harrison, and Max Abramovitz, and renovated by award-winning architecture firm DS+R in 2010, will transform into a public urban space of gathering, leisure, and entertainment.
This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights cultural structures submitted by the ArchDaily Community. From pavilions to installations, this article explores the topic of cultural urban interventions and presents approaches submitted to us from all over the world.
Featuring a pavilion nestled in the sand dunes of the Persian desert, an afrofuturistic, interactive art installation proposed for the upcoming Burning Man event, and a new take on summer cinemas in Russia, this roundup explores how architects reimagined traditional gathering places and created urban interventions in all scales. The round up also includes a collection of structures in the United Arab Emirates, United Sates of America, France, and the United Kingdom, each responding to different contexts and topographies.
FOUN’TA’SY. Image Courtesy of Public Housing Enterprise J.S.C
Looking at the urban environment, this week’s curated selection of the Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights interventions in public spaces, submitted by the ArchDaily Community. Suitable for this monthly topic, the article underlines worldwide approaches that tackle the challenges of these areas through the introduction of innovative solutions.
Exploring a multitude of methods fitting for different contexts, this feature presents a tactical urban strategy implemented in a neighborhood in Kosovo and micro-mobility measures in Italy. Other projects evoke public approaches in private developments and enhanced historical and cultural connections between parks, buildings, and cities. In addition, this roundup showcases conceptual interventions that tackle social distancing and the challenges of the pandemic, in order to allow people to move freely and safely across space.
Sou Fujimoto Architects has unveiled its design for the top part of the tallest skyscraper in Japan“Torch Tower” in Tokyo, collaborating mainly with Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei, Inc. Standing tall at 390m, the highrise building planned to be ready by 2028, takes on a large plaza at around 300m, generating a space for people.
This June, the Global Cities program of the University of São Paulo (USP) carried out the research Emoções Momentâneas (lit. Momentary Emotions) to measure how the pandemic was changing the relationship of individuals with public spaces in São Paulo. Among the collected data, there was one that caught the attention of the group of researchers: 86% of the surveyed people wanted to spend time in green environments such as parks and squares.
"The research indicates a desire for reconciliation with the public space," explains architect Deize Sanches, one of the people involved in the research. "A desire to see the potential of green spaces to improve the quality of life in a way that was not being experienced before the pandemic."
Force Majeure - Futura. Image Courtesy of Jeanne Schultz Design Studio
Putting together competition entries from all around the world, this week’s curated feature for Best Unbuilt Architecture showcases inspiring approaches and concepts. Submitted by our readers, the selection highlights uncommon proposals, part of international contests. While some are winning projects, others received honorable mentions.
Serie imagines stacked timber pavilion-like offices, Schlaich Bergermann Partner, LAVA, and Latz + Partner design new pedestrian and cycle bridge over the Neckar River in Heidelberg, Germany and Aidia Studio create an Oculus in the Emirati desert. Other competition entries include a landscaped avenue by ZXD Architects in Hangzhou, a community school in Egypt by Hand Over, a winning pavilion for the Singapore’s Archifest 2020 by ADDP Architects and OWIU Design Studio; and a Baha’i House of Worship by SpaceMatters in India.
"Public space" is a legal terminology that tackles the notion of land ownership, suggesting that this type of parcel does not belong to anyone in particular, but to the state itself. Open, free, accessible to all, and financed by public money, these spaces are not only the results of planning, but the consequences of the public practices they hold. Actually, people define how public space is used and what it means.
Protests - powerful political tools for change - from the March on Washington in 1963, the Arab Spring in the early 2000s to recent Black Lives Matter Movements, are altering the world. In times like these, while people still need to "take their issues to the streets" to be heard and seen, public spaces have resurfaced as a topic of discussion.
Goettsch Partners (GP) has unveiled its design for a mixed-use project in Guangzhou, China. The 300,000-square-meter complex entitled Poly 335 Financial Center, scheduled for completion in 2023, features a landmark 335-meter tall tower.
The City of Sydney has chosen Adjaye Associates and contemporary Aboriginal artist Daniel Boyd to design a new public square, plaza building, and public artwork. The project attempts to uncover the lost history of the site, reconcile cultures and define identities.
The ROM Welcome Project aerial render. Image Courtesy of Hariri Pontarini Architects
The ROM or The Royal OntarioMuseum, an art, world culture and natural history gallery in Canada, inaugurated its newest additions, the Helga and Mike Schmidt Performance Terrace and the Reed Family Plaza. Designed by Siamak Hariri of Hariri Pontarini Architects (HPA), the latest add-ons create a lively space on the street level.
Architecture is powerful, and like nuclear energy, it all depends on how it is used. While it can create uninhabitable municipalities, it can also create safer cities that improve quality of life.
In various examples, urban design has provided a response to deteriorated or abandoned public spaces. It has shown that distribution and lighting are essential, but that it is also necessary to consider who will be using the space and how to make it an environment that generates community.
The City of Philadelphia’s Department of Public Property is requesting qualifications for the redesign of the Municipal Services Building’s Paine Plaza.
The City of Philadelphia is seeking a designer to give Thomas Paine Plaza a unique identity as a civic square for today’s Philadelphia.
The modernist Municipal Services Building and plaza were designed by Vincent Kling in 1961 as a symbol of a new government during a transformative era in urban planning, adjacent to City Hall on a site that had long been used as a public gathering space. Over the following fifty years, the plaza
(%C2%A9minorormajor).jpg?1612954566 "Oasis-Playground. Image Courtesy of Studio Minorormajor")
