Though Modernism is sometimes criticized for imposing universal rules on different people and areas, it was Richard J. Neutra's (April 8, 1892 – April 16, 1970) intense client focus that won him acclaim. His personalized and flexible version of modernism created a series of private homes that were—and still are—highly sought after, making him one of the United States' most significant mid-century modernists. His architecture of simple geometry and airy steel and glass became the subject of the iconic photographs of Julius Schulman, and came to stand for an entire era of American design.

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Marc Thorpe, New York-based architect and multidisciplinary studio, has designed the Dakar Houses for the workers of Moroso M’Afrique furniture collection. Located on the outskirts of the Senegalese capital in West Africa, the prototype houses are made from earth bricks.

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Designed by Sasaki in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team including Arup, JLL, and the Wuhan Planning Institute, the Wuhan Yangchun Lake Business District master plan was approved by the city. Imagining “a progressive yet realistic vision for the district”, the project, a landscape-forward urban blueprint, will define Wuhan’s next generation of growth.

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Harvard Graduate School of Design (Harvard GSD) has announced three shortlisted architects for the 2020 Wheelwright Prize. Now in its eighth cycle, the Wheelwright Prize supports innovative design research, crossing both cultural and architectural boundaries, with a $100,000 grant intended to support two years of study. The 2020 Wheelwright Prize drew 168 applicants from over 45 countries.

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Höweler + Yoon Architecture and Sasaki have announced the groundbreaking for new construction on 212 Stuart Street, in the historic Bay Village neighborhood in downtown Boston. The residential tower is a 19-story building containing 126 units with two townhouses and retail space on the ground level.

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On the 200th anniversary of Gregor Mendel’s birth, CHYBIK + KRISTOF will bring the historic St. Augustin Abbey greenhouse to life in Brno. As the location where the notorious scientist and father of modern genetics conducted his pioneering experiments, the greenhouse is located in the 14th-century Augustinian monastery’s gardens. After the original building was swept away by a storm in the 1870s, the team aims to return the significant site to Brno’s old city in 2022.

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With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing many architecture firms to quickly transition into a work from home, designers are having to discover new ways to work without everyone being in the same room. The casual conversations, overheard ideas, and site visits that were once an integral part of our jobs have been put on pause, and have left some architects wondering how everyone else is continuing project work.

Shift architecture urbanism developed micro-markets that can operate on a hyper-local scale during coronavirus shutdowns. The research elaborated on a scheme allowing traders to provide fresh food in a safe way to the self-quarantined inhabitants of the city. 

The Drawing Matter Trust has announced a new Drawing Matter Writing Prize for 2020. Over the next few months, Drawing Matter will be focused on encouraging writing about drawings for both architecture and design. The competition invites writers to consider what drawings reveal about the process of design, and the buildings or objects they represent. The hope is to make the prize an annual event.

UNStudio completed two remodel projects in the Netherlands rethinking traditional glazing techniques. Located in Eindhoven and on the P.C Hooftstraat in Amsterdam, the projects each draw from their context and take inspiration from local history and culture. Made to restore and connect the two existing structures to their respective cityscapes, the projects are designed to restore the urban fabric as they connect to passerby.

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Design and the City is a podcast by reSITE, raising questions and proposing solutions for the city of the future. In the final episode, Ravi Naidoo from Design Indaba discusses the purpose of design. Aiming to define the field, the founder of Interactive Africa, a company based in Cape Town, and the design platform Design Indaba shares his personal thoughts on empowering people to create a better future through creativity.

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As New York is facing unprecedented circumstances and as the numbers of infected people with the coronavirus are reaching new highs, officials are seeking fast and efficient solutions to generate useful spaces for patients. With a timeline of a few weeks, the city is looking into ways of altering the existing structures.

World Architecture Festival and World Festival of Interiors: Inside is scheduled for 2 – 4 December, in Lisbon.  Preparations for the event are going ahead in the typical way and architects from across the globe are continuing to submit their online awards entries.

Michael McKinnell, a British-born American architect, known for his work on the acclaimed Boston’s Brutalist City Hall, and co-founder of the Kallmann McKinnell & Wood architectural design firm, has passed away on March 27, 2020, at the age of 84, from COVID-19-induced pneumonia.

GWP Architects imagined a mixed-use development tower, reaching a height of 200 meters with a total construction area of approximately 81,000 square meters. Located in Guangzhou, the project entitled Fengsheng 101, includes hotels, offices, apartments, and commercial stores.

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The Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Inuit Art Centre (IAC) is set to open in Manitoba this fall. Designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture in collaboration with Cibinel Architecture, the 40,000-square-foot scheme will include new galleries, a lecture theater, research areas, and a visible art storage vault. The IAC is set to become Canada's largest gallery space devoted to Inuit art, culture, and history.

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Working since he was 16, Swiss architect Mario Botta (April 1, 1943) has become a prolific and well known crafter of space, designing a huge array of places of worship, private homes, and museums, perhaps most notably the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Church of San Giovanni Battista in Mogno, Switzerland. His use of traditional masonry over the streamlined steel and glass of so much modern architecture creates strong, self-confident buildings that pull together the contrast between the weight of his materials and lightness of his designs.

In times of quarantine, architects and designers are settling into a new remote working environment. In this process of implementing platforms and workflows to work from home, the risk of social isolation remains real, even for companies used to this environment, such as ArchDaily. As David Basulto, CEO of ArchDaily, wrote last week, the quarantine implies not just working online, but "staying connected and support each other."

Videos

Reparametrize Studio has followed up their ongoing research “Re-Coding Post-War Syria”, with a project that focuses on analyzing the damaged fabric of post-war cities through 3D scanning technologies. Taking a Street in Zamalka Town in Damascus, Syria as a case study, the investigation can distinguish the areas in need of reconstruction from the areas in useful conditions.

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Located in the sustainability zone of EXPO 2020 Dubai, the Czech pavilion, designed by Formosa AA and R/FRM, is an invitation for discovery. Raising questions concerning desert cultivation, it integrates and exposes the S.A.W.E.R. system cultivation plant. Visible technologies form the main formal and visual components of the pavilion.

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Chairman of the Indonesian Architects Association (IAI) Ahmad Djuhara died at the Infection Disease Hospital (RSPI) Sulianti Saroso last Friday afternoon. The news was posted by the IAI, though no cause of death has been confirmed. Djuhara founded the architectural firm Djuhara + Djuhara together with his wife, architect Wendy Djuhara, and was a major voice for architecture and design throughout Indonesia.

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Opposite Office has proposed to transform the new Berlin airport, under construction since 2006, into a “Superhospital” for coronavirus patients. In an attempt to prepare the healthcare system and increase its capabilities, Opposite Office presented an adaptive reuse alternative, drawing contextual solutions to fight the pandemic.