This guide covers a workflow that moves from project parameters to generated floor plans, 3D perspective views, exterior design exploration, and site context visualization, using AI tools in place of preliminary CAD and rendering work.

Construction work began for Herzog & de Meuron’s transformation of a former power plant building in San Fransico into a mixed-use project. Designed in collaboration with California-based practice Adamson Associates, the adaptive reuse of iconic Station A is part of the Portrero Power Station project, the redevelopment of a 29-acre industrial site into an extension of the Dogpatch neighbourhood. Herzog & de Meuron’s design retains and repurposes various features of the industrial building while adding a lightweight, steel-framed structure on top, thus giving new life to one of San Francisco’s landmarks.

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Industrial architecture usually requires fast installation, low-maintenance components, and flexible spaces that can be used for different purposes. Therefore, modular solutions are very common in this type of construction, also adding a powerful visual language to the building.

Known for projects situated at the intersection of research, design, biomimicry, and sustainability, Atelier Marko Brajovic recently developed a proposal for the Amazon Creative Laboratories, a series of biospheres composed of geodesic structures inspired by the internal geometry of the cacao fruit. The project aligns with the premises and goals of the Amazon 4.0 initiative, which aims to combine the economic potential of Amazonian socio-biodiversity with the new technologies and opportunities emerging from the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

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Talking to the Louisiana Channel, iconic Japanese architect Kengo Kuma discusses the many influences that have shaped his work - and also delves into the impact that the ongoing pandemic has had on the architectural field. In the interview, Kuma describes how influential his early upbringing was to his architectural career. Growing up in a small wooden house in the 1950s - originally built in 1942, would go on to guide his architectural perchance of using wood in his projects. Kuma also mentions Japanese architect Kenzu Tange as a key inspiration and cites Tange's Yoyogi National Gymnasium - constructed for the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo - as a project that would influence him towards an architectural career.

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Videos

"When we enter the restroom, we are never alone. Instead, we are entangled in a network of bodies, infrastructures, ecosystems, cultural norms, and regulations". Although restrooms are often overlooked facilities that cater to the needs of individuals, they are, however, spaces where gender, religion, race, hygiene, health, and the economy are defined and expressed. For the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia, Matilde Cassani, Ignacio G. Galán, Iván L. Munuera, and Joel Sanders designed two pavilions that exhibit how restrooms are political architectures, serving as battlegrounds for the world's disputes.

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Cobe’s winning design for the new library of the University of Gothenburg proposes a light, clean volume, whose slightly curved facades are a nod to the pages of an open book. The Danish architecture studio translates the concept of knowledge as the heart of a library into the interior spatial configuration of the project, while the architectural image evokes the idea of a lighthouse. Featuring a transparent and open ground floor, the new repository of knowledge creates a strong connection with the surrounding park, becoming a mediator between the city and the university.

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In a Design and the City episode - a podcast by reSITE on how to make cities more liveable – Mexican architect Michel Rojkind talks about running, coming from a musical background, and the responsibility of architects to create buildings that can “give something relevant” back to the community. The interview delves into Rojkind’s philosophy of making sure that architectural conversations are not insular, but instead conversations that take place within a multi-disciplinary context.

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Located in the Balvanera neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Manzana 66 is an example of community resistance and collective action. Its name originates from its designation in the Buenos Aires City Land Registry; the block is bounded by Belgrano and Jujuy Avenues, and Moreno and Catamarca Streets. This section of the city was a point of contention for several years, having been initially demolished to build an indoor arena for music events, destroying housing from the 1920s and displacing its residents.

From **September 24 to 26**, the seventh edition of Open House Madrid will take place, an architecture and urbanism festival that promotes architecture by opening the doors of various works of great cultural and heritage value to the public, aiming to bridge the gap between the public, professionals, enthusiasts, and the city.

A few weeks ago the photographer Aldo Amoretti launched an unusual call inviting his and ArchDaily's followers to share their favorite places so that he could later photograph them, in a sense of a collective perspective and with the objective of discovering places. Last week we showed the finalists and today Amoretti has already chosen the places that he will go to document, which will be published on ArchDaily in the coming weeks.

ZGF Architects, Wexford Science & Technology, and The University of Pittsburgh have revealed new details of the Ford Motor Assembly Plant adaptive reuse in Pittsburgh. Called The Assembly, the project aspires to become a hub of university research, entrepreneurial activity, and innovation programming. The six-story crane shed was used to hoist parts unloaded from the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks for assembly.

With the inauguration of the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, 60 nations from across the world showcased unique solutions to the question of “How will we live together”. Neither the pandemic nor its repercussions got in the way of the curators' creative process. Instead, they took it as a factor to explore how the notion of 'living together' has changed over the past year, and how they can reimagine better built environments. ArchDaily had the opportunity to meet with architect Wael Al Awar, one of the co-curators of the UAE Pavilion, to discuss how the pavilion's innovative material came to be and what it means for the future of architecture.

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Scottish architecture firm Kettle Collective has revealed plans for a 703-metre skyscraper in St. Petersburg, making it the second tallest building in the world after Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. The Lakhta Centre II will have the highest occupied floor, and while the exact site is yet to be confirmed, it will sit alongside Lakhta Centre, currently the tallest building in Europe and the headquarters of energy firm Gazprom.

Henning Larsen has won a competition to design Højvangen Church, the first church to be built in Skanderborg Parish in over 500 years. The new intervention, set to be completed and inaugurated by December 2024, will be a new public gathering point in the growing residential area of Højvangen in Skanderborg, Denmark.

The Dubai Crown Prince has issued a Resolution to form a Supreme Committee for the Urban Planning of Dubai. The decision aims to regulate, ensure, and implement all the required deliverables of the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, to make Dubai the "best city in the world to live in". The urban planning sector will overlook all major infrastructure and urban projects, as well as focus on addressing matters of housing and regulations of the real estate sector to improve the wellbeing of the city's residents.

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Last week, Apple opened its largest store in Europe, housed inside Rome’s 19th century Palazzo Marignoli. Designed by Foster+Partners, Apple Via del Corso celebrates the historic building by revealing its 1890s murals, frescos, and graffiti works from the 1950s, hidden from view for decades. The project creates a juxtaposition between the historical layers, the artwork and the signature minimalist aesthetic of Apple stores.

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Videos

Titled "Inbetween", the Australian pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale Di Venezia demonstrates architecture's "capacity to strengthen cultural connections and understanding between non-indigenous and first nations people". Curated by creative directors Tristan Wong and Jefa Greenaway, with Jordyn Milliken, Aaron Puls, Elizabeth Grant, and Ash Parsons, the pavilion will be on physical and digital display at the Giardini from May 22nd until November 21st, 2021.

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Videos

Tile brand Ceramic District’s premium-quality, German-made products explicitly address the needs of architects and interior designers, empowering the creation of first-class ceramic architecture.

Following it's closure in January 2021, the 150-foot monumental staircase in Hudson Yards have reopened to the public on May 28th, but with a ban on solo visitors. The closure was confirmed after three individuals committed suicide since its opening in 2019, all under the age of 25. The structure was “temporarily closed” amid consultations by the firm with suicide-prevention experts and psychiatrists about how to prevent more potential suicides.

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The City Council of San Jose recently approved Google’s “Downtown West” mixed-use corporate campus, an 80-acre net-zero environment, also set to feature the largest multimodal transit hub on the west coast. A departure from the tech campuses of Silicon Valley, the masterplan designed by San Francisco-based SITELAB urban studio is envisioned as an integrated part of the urban environment, an extension of Downtown San Jose open to the local community.

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Based on a survey of 32,000 people, Steelcase’s latest study – the ‘Work Better Report’ – discovers what workers expect and require from their post-pandemic working environment...

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Shade and continuous ventilation are some of the benefits that an elevated roof can provide. This is a climate control strategy that provides cooling and combats humidity, which is why Brazilian architects often opt for this solution when dealing with the tropical climate.

Mexican architecture firm gutarqs has been awarded an honorable mention in the International Architecture Competition for the Development of "Coziness Valley" in Murmansk, the largest city in Russia located above the Arctic Circle. Jointly organized by the Government of Murmansk and the ANO Urban Development Center of the Region, the open call invited participants from around the world to develop an ambitious project to transform the 23-hectare area into a major public space adapted to the polar climate, promoting comprehensive development and urban improvement in the region.

The Italian photgrapher, Aldo Amoretti created the initiative to invite people to share their favorite places around the world, with the objective of going beyond his vision and giving the chance to an audience to offer a different perspective of buildings and places.