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Today, at the eleventh session of the World Urban Forum in Katowice, Poland, the International Union of Architects (UIA), together with the UN-HABITAT, have announced the laureates of the UIA 2030 Award. Seeking to acknowledge the contributions of architects to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and New Urban Agenda through built interventions that demonstrate design quality and alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this first edition of a biennial awards program, selected winning projects from Germany, Hong Kong, Argentina, Bangladesh, and China, from 125 submitted projects in 40 countries.

Organized under six categories: Open Category, Improving Energy Efficiency, Adequate, Safe & Affordable Housing, Participatory, Land-Use Efficient & Inclusive Planning, Access to Green & Public Space, and Utilizing Local Materials, the jurors picked a winner per section, yet were unable to identify an overall winner in the open category and chose instead to recognize six projects as Highly Commended, honoring in total 5 laureates and 15 commendations.

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While walking through the city, have you ever felt afraid to be yourself? As strange as the question may sound to some, it is a reality for most LGBTQIA+ people, who at some point have been victims of hostility when they were noticed performing outside the "heteronormative standards" of public spaces. If violence comes from social layers that go beyond the designed space, this does not exempt the importance of thinking about projects that can integrate the physical sphere and insert a symbolic or representational factor to include and educate its citizens. This is the case of Homomonument, which for more than three decades, has become a platform for queer celebration and protest in the heart of Amsterdam.

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The Age of Digitalization began nearly 40 years ago with the rise of information technology. With it came massive changes in the way humans interacted and industries operated — that is, with the exception of the education field. For the longest time, in spite of continuously evolving technologies around us, classroom learning remained the same. A teacher stood addressing students, imparting knowledge through conventional methods of reading, orating, and chalkboard drawing. This has also been true for architecture education so far. But times are changing. Today’s students have grown up with digital technologies around them and therefore can benefit from new learning methods, such as gamification, to challenge their intellects. 

Heatherwick Studio, in collaboration with The Woolbeding Charity and the National Trust, have unveiled their latest project, a kinetic Glasshouse and Silk Route Garden set on the edge of Woolbeding Gardens, a historic estate in West Sussex. The unfolding structure serves as a focal point to a new garden that highlights how ancient Silk Route has influenced English gardens of today. The structure features ten steel ‘sepals’ with a glass and aluminum façade, which creates a 141 sqm space in the shape of a crown once it opens.

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The City of Rotterdam has selected Powerhouse Company, Atelier Oslo, Lundhagem to renew and extend the city’s Central Library, a landmark building from the early 1980s designed by Van den Broek & Bakema. The new design adopts the concept of radical reuse in order to transform a 1980s building into a contemporary library, well-adapted to the necessities of modern users. The team combines the expertise of Powerhouse Company, Atelier Oslo, and Lundhagem, the latter two offices being awarded in 2021 with the Public Library of the Year Award for their design of Oslo!s Deichman library. Construction is expected to begin in 2025 and be completed by the end of 2028, the year marking the building!s 45th anniversary.

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“Let me tell you what I think of the bicycle. It has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a sense of freedom and self-confidence. I appreciate every time I see a woman cycling... an image of freedom”. Susan Anthony, one of the most important American suffragette leaders, said this at the beginning of the 20th century, praising the libertarian power represented by women and their bicycles at the time.

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