Romania’s contribution to the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale showcases a new perspective on mass migration, a phenomenon with a wide array of causes, ranking high on the international public agenda. Titled Fading Borders and curated by architects Irina Meliță and Ștefan Simion, the exhibition explores the challenges and opportunities of migration and its consequences on the built environment. Using Romania as a study case, where three million people have left the country in the last decade in pursuit of a better life abroad, the curatorial project frames a conversation around the role of architecture in the successful management of the migration phenomenon, as territorial boundaries continue to fade around the globe.
Award-winning architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group has collaborated with lower-impact battery metals developer The Metals Company to reimagine a traditional metal production facility in a new contemporary and sustainable context. The firm designed a circular zero-solid-waste metallurgical plant that includes manufacturing, processing, and storage facilities, along with offices, visitor centers, and innovation facilities.
The Architecture Film Festival London, now at its third edition, fosters conversations around architecture, society and the built environment through the medium of film. Along with the International Film Competition, the 2021 programme, debuting on June 2nd and held online, will feature a collection of diverse thematic screenings, essays and events titled "Capsules", which offer a platform to multiple curatorial voices.
For its latest collection, London-based manufacturer CTO Lighting found inspiration in Belgium, and in particular the city of Antwerp, from where the collection derived both its aesthetic and its name.
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Toronto's Dundas and Ossington intersection, re-imagined as 1962 Baltimore by special effects studio MR. X for the film The Shape of Water. Image Courtesy of The Canadian Pavilion
Canada’s contribution to the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale explores Canadian cities’ established “career” in cinema as stand-ins for the world’s metropoles, raising questions of authenticity, architectural identity and the collective understanding of the built environment. Curated by David Theodore of McGill University and realized by Montréal architecture and design practice T B A / Thomas Balaban Architect, the exhibition Impostor Citieshighlights the diversity and versatility of Canada’s cityscapes as portrayed on film.
Carefully placed within the urban context and the product of searched perspectives and precise gestures, Ateliers Jean Nouvel's mixed-use project Tours Duo is set to become a landmark for Eastern Paris. Located close to the Paris ring boulevard and in the vicinity of a vast expanse of railway infrastructure, the project's site was the main driving point for the design, giving it its iconic shape. The project featuring two inclined towers nears completion, and photographer Jad Sylla shows the structures changing the Parisian skyline.
The International Union of Architects (UIA) has announced the UIA Gold Medal and Prizes winners. The UIA Gold Medal is awarded to Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha, president of the 27th UIA World Congress of Architects — UIA2021RIO Honour Committee. The architect will also participate in a keynote speakers session programmed for July.
Paulo Mendes da Rocha, now 92 years old, has been honored with important awards, such as the Pritzker Prize in 2006, considered to be one of the world's premier architecture prizes, and the Venice Biennale Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, in 2016. Mendes da Rocha was the first Brazilian to be awarded this prize.
Social media usage around the world is ever-increasing, and the social distancing inflicted by the pandemic over the last year has dramatically changed its role. Currently, there are around 4.2 billion active social media users - this is more than half the world's population! For this reason, companies are putting efforts into these channels to keep in touch with their customers and even build better connections with them.
https://www.archdaily.com/961845/how-to-promote-your-products-and-materials-through-instagram-storiesPola Mora
The Majlis undergoing construction at San Giorgio Maggiore. Image Courtesy of Caravane Foundation
Part of the official collateral events of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, Caravane Earth Foundation will bring a unique bamboo Majlis, to the gardens of the Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. Designed by internationally acclaimed bamboo architects Simón Vélez and Stefana Simic, the project will be on display from 22 May to 21 November 2021.
Titled "elephant", the Thai pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia answers the question of how architecture can promote the way human beings and other species live together naturally and culturally based on the culture of Kuy and their elephants. Curated by Apiradee Kasemsook and designed by Boonserm Premtada of Bangkok Project Studio, the Thai pavilion will be on display at the Sale d’Armi, Arsenale, from May 22nd to November 21st.
For this edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Irish Pavilion focuses on data technologies and their presence within the physical landscape, exploring the cultural end environmental implications of data production and consumption. Titled Entanglement and curated by the multidisciplinary research and design collective ANNEX, the exhibition challenges the presumed immateriality of the Cloud, highlighting the infrastructure of data production and its impact on everyday life while also examining Ireland’s role in the evolution of global communication.
OMA New York / Jason Long has revealed the design for The Terminal, a new performance venue serving as a cultural anchor for POST Houston, the office's redevelopment of the historic Barbara Jordan Post Office in downtown Houston. Integrated within the eastern wing of the mixed-use design, the 5,000 capacity music venue makes use of industrial materials and lighting effects to create a performative space on and off the stage.
A sneak peak of Uncertainty, the highlight of the Spanish Pavilion at the 2021 Biennale of Venice taking place from May 22 to November 21 of this year.
“Playground, Artifacts for Interaction” by Felipe Ferrer will be featured in the Peru Pavilion in the 2021 Venice Biennale of Architecture. The project was the winner of the Curatorial Competition held by The Cultural Patronage of Peru that aimed to highlight how fences and gates shape our understanding of public spaces.
Titled "Mapping Festivities", the Pakistan Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, explores the national wedding hall as an architectural typology of post-colonial Pakistan. Curated by Sara M. Anwar, the pavilion will be on display on the second floor of the Palazzo Mora from May 22nd until November 21st.
Kazuyo Sejima - Photo by Aiko Suzuki . Image Courtesy of La Biennale Architettura 2021
The Board of Directors of the 2021 Venice Biennale has appointed Kazuyo Sejima as president of the international jury, in charge of awarding mainly the Golden Lion for Best National Participation, the Golden Lion for the Best participant, and the Silver Lion for a promising young participant. In addition, they have also selected four other jury members from Peru, Lebanon, Ghana-Scotland, and Italy. The Awards Ceremony will take place in Venice on Monday, August 30th, 2021.
Overall view of a KTT apartment building; Hanoi, Vietnam – 2018. Image Courtesy of Christophe Hutin
The French pavilion at the 2021 Venice Biennale, “aims to reflect on the meeting between architectural know-how and the inhabitants’ own experiences of their living spaces”. Curated by Christophe Hutin, the intervention entitled “Communities at Work” will provide an immersive experience with the help of images in motion. Using five specific case studies on different continents: in Europe, Asia, America, and Africa, the exhibition presents a journey into a world where communities transformations their own living spaces, without following any formal schemes designed by an architect.
Rodrigo Escandón Cesarman and Ricardo Roxo Matias of APRDELESP. Image Courtesy of APRDELESP
The Architectural League of New York has announced the 6 winners of 2021 Prize for Young Architects + Designers Awards, the North American annual competition that celebrates the works of young architects and designers who have completed their bachelor’s or master’s degree within the last ten years. This year's theme was Housekeeping, which asked participants to explore how the domestic settings have changed over the past couple of years, changing the definition of "ideal residence".
The Serbian contribution to the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale explores the connection between a city's economy and its urban structure -that the curatorial team defines as the life-work relationship- investigating the prospective futures of mono-functional industrial cities. Titled 8th Kilometer and developed by MuBGD, the exhibition uses the mining town of Bor, located in eastern Serbia, as a study case for how economic activities have not only shaped the urban environment but the forms of collectivity connected to it.
With less than half a year to go until the opening, Expo 2020 Dubai released a series of images of the venues hosting the event, which intends to bring together 192 national pavilions, as well as businesses and educational institutions. As the program was delayed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the world expo site is mainly complete, awaiting its opening on October 1st.
