Dorothea Dix Park. Image Courtesy of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
The largest park project in the United States is underway at Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, North Carolina. The city purchased the Dorothea Dix campus from the State of North Carolina in 2015 with the intent of creating a great destination park in the heart of the community. This year, Raleigh City Council adopted the Dorothea Dix Park Master Plan, and now an implementation plan is underway for Phase 1. Designed to span decades, the creation of the 300 acre park will include the site of North Carolina’s first mental hospital.
The Chicago Architecture Biennial has announced more than 40 citywide partner sites and organizations for the festival’s 2019 edition. Cultural organizations from across the city, such as the Art Institute of Chicago and Navy Pier, will be activated by independent programming in coordination with the Biennial, resulting in “a citywide exploration of architecture, space, the environment, history, and community.”
A large percentage of a city’s building stock is designated for housing. Considering that our way of life is changing significantly, housing in cities has also begun to follow these changes. This creates interesting challenges and opportunities for the materials suppliers in this industry.
https://www.archdaily.com/933309/trends-report-small-scale-homesPola Mora
Amazon Expansion at The Culver Studios. Image Courtesy of Gensler
Amazon has revealed more details of its new $620-million expansion in Culver City, California. Designed by Gensler to rethink the The Culver Studios, a 100-year-old film studio in Downtown, the project will become the new home of Amazon's Los Angeles area operations. Made for Hackman Capital Partners, the expansion broke ground last year building upon the film studio typology.
Courtesy of Malcolm Reading Consultants / Hawkins\Brown
Five finalist teams have been selected in the MK:U International Design Competition to create alternative masterplan visions for a proposed new model university in the United Kingdom. The proposed new university, will focus on digital economy skills and practical, business-oriented courses; it also plans to offer fast-track two-year degrees. MK:U, a partnership between MKC and Cranfield University, will use the new University Quarter and the wider city as a ‘living lab’ to test out new concepts and ideas while inspiring students and citizens.
Architects grapple with some of the world’s most pressing challenges in the twelfth edition of the World Architecture Festival, the world’s biggest architectural awards programme, which announces its shortlist today.
Following the establishment of ‘Architects Declare’ a collective of some of the most renowned practices who have come together to announce a state of climate emergency, this year’s World Architecture Festival shortlisted entries include designs that demonstrate how buildings can play a major role in a more sustainable future.
Architectural Record has released the 2019 edition of its annual list of the Top 300 Architecture Firms in the United States. Compiled by the publication’s sister site Engineering News-Record, the list ranks firms based on architectural revenue from services performed in 2018. Gensler remains at the top for the eighth consecutive year. For more insight and comments from the leading firms, see the Architectural Record's announcement.
https://www.archdaily.com/920391/top-300-architecture-firms-in-the-usa-for-2019Niall Patrick Walsh
2019 Dulwich Pavilion. Image Courtesy of Dulwich Picture Gallery, Pricegore and Yinka Ilori
The 2019 Dulwich Pavilion by Pricegore and Yinka Ilori has opened in London this June. Dubbed the “The Colour Palace”, the project was made for the Dulwich Picture Gallery as a a celebration of color, pattern, and light, drawing from European and African cultural traditions. Now you can step inside the pavilion with a 360° virtual tour by Nikhilesh Haval.
Construction company Bouygues Batiment International, in collaboration with their modular construction laboratory Dragages Singapore, has celebrated the completion of the tallest building tower ever built from modular construction, the Clement Canopy buildings in Singapore.
https://www.archdaily.com/920329/worlds-tallest-modular-buildings-completedNiall Patrick Walsh
Carlo Ratti Associati has unveiled the world’s first crowdsourced graffiti, designed by thousands of people and painted by a swarm of drones in the city of Torino, Italy. The UFO-Urban Flying Opera project was created by four UAVs flying simultaneously over two consecutive days. Each drone carried a tank of sustainable spray paint and sketched the individual designs on the canvas. The final painting was divided into three layers: a grey one to set the story, magenta one to represent Torino’s communities, and a light blue one to visually wrap the story.
https://www.archdaily.com/920311/carlo-ratti-associati-unveils-worlds-first-crowdsourced-graffitiNiall Patrick Walsh
Architecture practice Hamonic+Masson & Associés have designed a new neighborhood development to reimagine suburban Paris. As the winning entry in the Inventons la Métropole du Grand Paris 2 competition, the "High Garden" project was made to propose a metropolitan-scaled architecture on one of the sites proposed within the greater city limits. Responding to the brief, it was designed to be a dynamic and attractive neighborhood in a new eco-district.
Álvaro Siza and Carlos Castanheira have announced a new project for the Haishang Museum in the Jiading district of Shanghai. The proposal includes a building for the museum and three other smaller structures; a pavilion, a tea house and a bridge. As Castanheira says, the project will be many projects within one.
The Museum of London has unveiled the design for their new West Smithfield home. Designed by Stanton Williams, Asif Khan, and Julian Harrap Architects, the plans showcase the transformation of a campus of beautiful yet dilapidated market buildings into a 24-hour cultural destination. The scheme celebrates the historic buildings of West Smithfield, while creating a unique, memorable visitor experience.
"Hórama Rama" by Pedro & Juana (Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo & Mecky Reuss) has been inaugurated as part of The Museum of Modern Art and MoMAPS1’s 20th annual Young Architects Program. This year’s architectural installation is an immersive junglescape set within a large-scale cyclorama that sits atop MoMAPS1’s courtyard walls. Selected from among five finalists, Hórama Rama will be on view through the summer, serving as a temporary built environment for MoMAPS1’s pioneering outdoor music series Warm Up.
OMA Partner Jason Long has designed a new redevelopment of the historic Barbara Jordan Post Office in downtown Houston. Dubbed POST Houston, the 550,000 sf project will be re-used as a mixed-use cultural and commercial hub. Created for Lovett Commercial, the redevelopment rethinks the post building that was in use by the US government from 1936-2014. The new design aims to reinvigorate the city’s north downtown neighborhoods.
Sidewalk Labs has released the full 1,500 page development proposal for its Quayside neighborhood in Toronto. After announcing plans to create a model smart city, Sidewalk Labs has been working to pioneer a new approach to future urban developments. Plans for Quayside were first revealed last summer as an interconnected smart neighborhood for the city. The Master Innovation and Development Plan (MIDP) proposes a comprehensive planning and partnership model to set a new standard for urban development in the 21st century.
The remaining structure of Genoa’s Morandi Bridge has been demolished. The motorway bridge collapsed on Tuesday 14th August, when one of the bridge’s structural components, comprising of pre-stressed concrete stays and trestles, collapsed onto a railway line and warehouse 150 feet (45 meters) below. 43 people were killed in the incident.
https://www.archdaily.com/920125/remains-of-genoas-morandi-bridge-demolishedNiall Patrick Walsh
General Design Co’s house in Kamitomii, Kurashiki, Japan has been announced as the winner of the AR House awards 2019, joining two Highly Commended and three Commended house projects. Now in its tenth year, the awards are diverse and wide-ranging, often branching beyond the traditional remit of the dwelling to recognize originality and excellence in design of dwellings of all types.
https://www.archdaily.com/920123/winners-of-ar-house-awards-2019-announcedNiall Patrick Walsh
Opening on July 5th, “Architecture Speaks: The Language of MVRDV” will provide an immersive, diverse, multimedia experience for visitors to the Tyrolean Architecture Center (aut) in Innsbruck, Austria. The exhibition centers around a spatial intervention of 4 towers constructed inside the aut’s Adambräu Building, a former brewhouse. Each tower embodies a word that represents key concepts in MVRDV’s designs: stack, pixel, village, and activator. “Architecture Speaks” aims to present the concepts in an approachable, engaging manner, with the colorful towers enhanced by images, text, models, drawings, videos, audio, and interactive elements to present MVRDV’s projects.
Naci Topcuoglu Science Centre. Image Courtesy of Studio Vertebra
Istanbul-based Studio Vertebra has designed a new science center and technology park in Gaziantep, Turkey. Called the Naci Topcuoglu Science Centre, the project was made to add value to the region with a sustainable, holistic and integrated approach to architecture and landscape design. Located in one of the developing regions of the city, the project is made with a "planetarium orb" at its center.
A garden within a garden. Image Courtesy of Bee Breeders
Bee Breeders has revealed the winners of the 2019 Pāvilosta Poet Huts Competition. The project brief asked designers to submit proposals for a writers community in the small coastal fishing village of Pāvilosta, Latvia. The small writers retreat needed to accommodate selected poets with free board visiting for short periods to produce their work. The submissions included a range of building typologies, from isolated cabins scattered across the site, to single buildings focused on community experience, to towers offering views to across Pāvilosta.
Unique carpet designs by the two visionary architects will be offered at 20th Century & Contemporary Phillips Art Day Sale in London today, on June 28th.
Pritzker Prize-winning architects Toyo Ito and Rafael Moneo have been invited to design silk carpets, inspired by the Golden Ratio as a part of the eponymous project by an auction house Phillips and ARTinD (Art in Design) — a London-based cooperative that seeks to foster greater synergy between art, architecture, and design.