UNStudio has been announced as the winner of the international competition "Un Iași pentru Viitor" to design a new residential district in the historical center of Iași, Romania. For this competition, organized by Iulius company, four offices have been invited to participate, Foster + Partners, MVRDV, UNStudio, and Zaha Hadid Architects. The main challenge of the competition brief was designing a building well integrated into a complex urban environment marked by historic monuments of different ages, new archeological discoveries, and open public spaces and gardens. The winning proposal, titled „Bridging Time, Bridging Communities,” aims to offer a coherent response to the particularities of the site.

Hello Wood launches the Builder Method; an international collaboration to develop a presence and action-based educational methodology. Through the process of building, participants not only build an object but they build a community and develop themselves.

As part of the ideas competition organized by the Buenos Aires Institute of Technology (ITBA), Aisenson Arquitectos, together with associated firm MGHS, won first prize for the design of the institution's main headquarters building, to be located along the central axis of the Innovation Park in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.

Aedas has unveiled the design of the Hangzhou Yun He Wan International Tourism and Leisure Complex in Hangzhou, China. Located in the southern area of the Grand Canal New Town in the Gongshu District of Hangzhou, the site is the first phase of a larger project, starting off as a vibrant international tourism and leisure complex that highlights the waterfront of Yun He Wan and the historical remains of the nearby industrial pier.

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At the end of June, the exhibition marking the end of the First Stone program opened at the National Coach Museum in Lisbon, Portugal. Initiated in 2016 by the cultural association experimentadesign, the program involved 36 architects and designers from 15 different countries, including Michel Rojkind, Álvaro Siza, Amanda Levete, Bijoy Jain, Carla Juaçaba, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Elemental, João Luís Carrilho da Graça, Manuel Aires Mateus, Mia Hägg, Paulo David, Studio MK27, Vladimir Djurovic, Claudia Moreira Salles, Estudio Campana, Fernando Brízio, Frith Kerr, Ian Anderson, Jasper Morrison, Jonathan Barnbrook, Jonathan Olivares, Jorge Silva, Michael Anastassiades, Miguel Vieira Baptista, Pedro Falcão, Peter Saville, Philippe Starck, R2 Design, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Sagmeister & Walsh, Ai Weiwei, Alexandre Farto aka Vhils, Carsten Höller, Fernanda Fragateiro, Julião Sarmento, and Marina Abramovic.

The Antofagasta Public Space Design Guides, developed by Allard&Partners for CREO Antofagasta, aim to improve the quality of life for the city's inhabitants, “by gradually complementing and consolidating a coherent identity for the city that strengthens the character of each area and its communities.” The four volumes, corresponding to their respective neighborhood typologies—Commercial (Downtown District), Under Transformation (Station District), Mixed Residential (Brasil District), and Coastal Edge—are available on the CREO Antofagasta website for direct download and free use.

One of the most urgent problems faced by Ukrainians today is the unsettled situation faced by displaced citizens, along with the challenge of returning to the cities they were forced to abandon earlier this year. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has shared that efforts to rebuild Ukraine will require ‘colossal investments’, and as leaders gather to work out ‘Marshall plan’ to rebuild the country, local architects have already begun developing emergency housing, healthcare, and educational facilities in cities further away from the Russian border.

As a temporary solution to the displacement of north-eastern and eastern Ukrainians, Drozdov&Partners, together with Replus Bureau and Ponomarenko Bureau, have begun refurbishing shelters for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Lviv and its region, using school campuses and other large-scale facilities as temporary housing.

Architecture practice Grimshaw has revealed designs for the Futures Institute at Dollar Academy (FIDA) in Scotland, UK, an open-access learning platform developed by the Dollar Academy, one of Scotland’s leading independent schools. The Institute’s new building will receive the country’s first Living Building certification.

FIDA was launched in May 2021 to tackle fundamental challenges in education: providing equitable access and closing the poverty-related attainment gap; finding compelling alternatives to traditional teaching and exam systems; and addressing sustainability. The initiative invites young people across Scotland to participate in innovative projects rooted in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These challenges include workshops, skills-based courses, design challenges, and competitions, all offered in-person and via an online platform to enable the broadest possible participation.

The EPFL Innovation Park (EIP) has selected 3XN | GXN and IB (Itten+Brechbühl SA) to design and build a new "ecotope", expanding the university's Science Park and Innovation Square to a new site, west of the main EPFL campus in Ecublens, Switzerland. The Ecotope is set to be a vibrant and innovative marketplace for ideas, serving as an "ecosystem in which policymakers, researchers, investors, executives, students, and citizens can come together for open dialogue or debate.” The concept of the project not only brings together leaders in business, science, and technology, but also puts a high priority on access to green spaces and biophilic principles.

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The Outsider magazine and the City Municipality of Maribor have announced the winners of the international competition “Floating Pavilion on the Drava River.” The purpose of the competition was to obtain an innovative design for a floating pavilion that would have two main functions: a space for smaller events during the Lent Festival and a space for contemplation by the river. The City Municipality of Maribor will invite the winning candidate to participate in the implementation of the project.

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Canary Islands-born architect Fernando Menis has received the highest honor at the Faith & Form International Awards for Religious Art & Architecture in the United States, for his design of the Holy Redeemer Church of Las Chumberas in Tenerife. Co-sponsored by Faith & Form, Partners for Sacred Places, and Interfaith Design, the annual awards program has honored outstanding religious architecture since 1978.

As more smart cities make their way across the globe, whether it being in countries of the Far East, Latin America, or the Middle East, Toronto is stepping back from the smart city bandwagon, and reassessing its substantial contribution to the community. The Canadian city, which ranked 15th on Global Finance's ranking of the world's best cities to live in for the year 2022, plans on "killing the smart city forever", especially after Quayside's controversial cancellation reasons, questioning its lack of privacy, necessity on an urban scale, and whether people truly want to live in a tech-driven environment.

Initiated by EXMURO arts publics and the Ville de Québec, the 9th edition of Passages Insolites, or Unusual Passages, is open from June 25 to October 10, 2022, in the city of Québec. During this time, 17 works by 18 local, Canadian, and international artists will be placed along a 2.5 km circuit in the historic sectors of Place Royale, Petit Champlain, and the Old Port. This year’s edition creates spaces for artistic encounters and reflection on the environment, decolonization, and geopolitics. In the words of Vincent Roy, EXMURO’s executive and artistic director, this year’s programming will “help put Quebec City on the global art map as a venue for exhibiting art and promoting artists, both locally and internationally.”

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Now, more than ever, architects are working outside the office. Whether meeting with a client over Zoom, visiting a job site, or sketching on the train, design professionals aren’t tethered to their desks– and neither should their 3D tools.

SketchUp, one of the most popular 3D modelers in the world, set out to meet this “new normal” for designers by launching a new mobile app: SketchUp for iPad. With a simple UI, intuitive drawing tools, and a direct integration with the cloud collaboration platform, Trimble Connect, SketchUp for iPad empowers designers to work in 3D anywhere. Let’s take a closer look.

In its 2022 edition, the Colombian Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism celebrates 60 years of highlighting projects that preserve and enhance the urban, environmental, social, historical, and cultural values of the contexts in which they are built. Organized by the Colombian Society of Architects since 1962, the event has announced the 97 selected projects competing for the Biennial Award across nine categories covering different fields of architecture: Interior and Ephemeral Architecture; Urban Design and Landscaping; Dissemination; Social Habitat; Heritage Intervention; Research, Theory, and Criticism; Urban and Regional Planning; Architectural Project; and Single-family, Two-family, and Three-family Housing.

As part of the preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup—co-hosted by Mexico, the United States, and Canada—the remodeling proposal for Mexico City's Estadio Azteca has been unveiled. The historic venue has hosted countless milestone events over the decades and remains one of the capital's premier event spaces.

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Netherlands-based architecture, urban planning, and research firm Waterstudio.NL in collaboration with Dutch Docklands and the Government of The Maldives have revealed the design of Maldives Floating City (MFC), a first-of-its-kind “island city” that offers a new approach to modern sustainable living on the Indian Ocean. The project has been in development for over a decade, and will feature thousands of residences, floating along a flexible, functional grid across a 200-hectare lagoon.

The Chapel of St. Ignatius in Seattle, designed by Steven Holl Architects, has been honored by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) with its Twenty-five Year Award. AIA’s award is conferred on a building that has set a precedent, stood the test of time for 25 to 35 years and continues to set standards of excellence for its architectural design and significance. The Chapel of St. Ignatius finished in 1997, reflects the ideal of the Jesuit practice, a religious order of the Catholic Church, in which no single method of worship is prescribed. Instead, the sect recognizes that “different methods helped different people.” That idea is reflected in the Chapel of St. Ignatius, Seattle University’s main chapel, where differences in light unify to support the worship and ritual needs of the university community.

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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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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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Following two years of delays and cancellations, this year's Milan Design Week saw thousands of designers, artists, and craftsmen put their skills on display and present different solutions for the future of manufacturing, interior design, materials, and the environment. As every year, renowned architects also took part of the week-long event, using products, furniture pieces, and installations to share their professional angle and answer some of the biggest questions of the practice, showcasing how it can contribute to the betterment of the environment and society as a whole.

Focusing on sustainability and environmental awareness with respect to furniture production, this year's architectural contributions at Salone del Mobile saw innovative takes on “inclusive” design.

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Along with the participation of thousands of designers, artists, and craftsmen at this year's 2022 Salone del Mobile at Milan's Rho Fiera, renowned architects collaborated with some of the biggest local and international manufacturers to create installations, products, materials, and furniture pieces that explore the future of living, as part of the annual Fuorisalone.

This year's architectural contributions, which were on display across the busy streets of Milan, Brera design district and botanical garden, Alcova, BASE, and other cultural venues, highlighted this year's Milan Design Week theme of sustainability and environmental awareness with respect to furniture production.

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The School of Architecture, founded by Frank Lloyd Wright as the Taliesin Fellowship in 1932, is undergoing significant transformations. Two years after separating from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, TSOA landed at Arcosanti, an experimental desert community in Arizona owned and operated by The Cosanti Foundation. In line with the school’s values, the program at Arcosanti seeks to provide students with a contemporary design education based on immersive, experimental, and experiential learning. The curriculum offers 2 and 3+ year NAAB-accredited Master of Architecture degrees and a 1.5-year Master of Science in Design-Build.

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