The Revit Importer converts families and building elements to SketchUp’s native tags and components. It optimizes geometry creating a lightweight and well-organized SketchUp file that is ready-to-use.

Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava has unveiled the design of the Qatar Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai, UAE. The design is inspired by the four elements represented on the Coat of Arms of Qatar and will include two main galleries and exhibition spaces, providing visitors with engaging, inclusive, and interactive environments.

+ 5

OMA / David Gianotten has revealed the design for a five-story office building in Amsterdam, replacing a 1980s bank headquarters. Located on one of the city’s main avenues among high-end offices, housing and luxury hotels, the architecture of the new project is shaped by the characteristics of its surroundings. Featuring interlocking glass volumes towards the boulevard and brick-clad facades towards the residential area, Apollolaan 171 creates a dialogue with both the green avenue of Amsterdam’s south district and the neighbouring 20th-century Berlage architecture.

As an architectural project comes to its last phases, it is time to put together the smaller details in bathrooms and kitchens, which means choosing finishes for the walls and floors, as well as the countertops, and picking the right fittings and fixtures. These elements are essential for a well-designed space, regardless of the style.

The Graham Foundation has announced the award of 69 new scholarships to individuals around the world who support architectural projects. The funded projects represent diverse lines of research with original ideas that advance our understanding of the designed environment.

Selected from more than 500 proposals, the funded projects include exhibitions, publications, films, and performances that promote rigorous academic study, stimulate experimentation, and foster critical discourse in architecture. Innovative projects are led by established and emerging architects, artists, curators, filmmakers, historians, and photographers, among other professionals.

When David Chipperfield was asked about what visitors should expect to see when he concludes the renovation of Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, he said: “Imagine a 1965 Mercedes. It looks fine, but it’s falling apart on the inside. We want to put it in the shop, take it apart and put it back together again, so when someone turns on the switch - the engine will work.” Due to the ongoing pandemic health regulations, the 2021 re-opening saw a limited number of journalists and visitors to tour alongside Chipperfield and explore the newly-renovated architecture. Editor and photographer Gili Merin had the opportunity to photograph the project during the pre-opening event and interview the world-renowned architect.

+ 19

Celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Fuggerei social housing in Augsburg, Germany, MVRDV has collaborated with Fugger Foundation to initiate a conversation about the future architectural and urban plans of Fuggereien, the world’s oldest social housing complex. Throughout the upcoming months, the Fugger Foundations are hosting interdisciplinary debates that highlight Fuggerei’s guiding urban principles and discuss challenges about the field of architecture, politics, culture, and sciences, by notable individuals in each respective field.

The House of Hungarian Music is taking shape within Budapest's City Park. With the structure and the design's distinctive roof completed, construction work is underway for the interior of the music hall. Nestled within the park's trees, the project designed by Sou Fujimoto features an extensive, horizontally uninterrupted glass volume topped by a perforated roof which allows natural light to penetrate all levels of the building.

+ 19

By some estimates, cities consume over two-thirds of the world’s energy, and account for more than 70% of global CO2 emissions: a figure sure to increase as the global migration from rural to urban areas continues. In the pursuit of exploring new models for how healthy cities could more effectively sustain these demands, Dutch design and research studio FABRICations has investigated how cities of the Netherlands can reduce carbon emissions through new design-led approaches.

Canada’s Queen City has become renowned for its housing boom. As the most populous location in the country, Toronto is also one of the world’s hottest luxury real estate markets. An hub for arts, business, and media, the city is sited on a sloping plateau with a unique ravine system. While it boasts incredible architecture and high-end designs, Toronto risks a housing correction. Rapid increases in home prices, overvaluation, and overbuilding have all attributed to the city’s mounting situation. Amidst these unstable conditions and uncertainty, new residential projects continue to be built.

+ 5

ArchDaily, Strelka Institute, and Strelka KB have selected a long list of 50 architectural projects from Armenia, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan for the second edition of The ArchDaily & Strelka Award. The open call invited emerging architects to submit their built projects that emphasize sustainability, research-based and participatory design, and the innovative use of materials. Architects and architecture and design firms that started their practice no more than 10 years ago could apply with projects that were built in the past five years.

Until August 26th, the readers of ArchDaily and Strelka Mag can vote for the projects that will make the shortlist.

+ 33

The world’s architects and interior designers do not simply design space. They take existing space and redefine and reinterpret it—along with its history, its surroundings and its culture. If the designer succeeds in capturing the very essence of a place, indoors or outdoors, and in filling it with new life, it can be described as outstanding design. And outstanding designs have won the iF Design Award again in 2021. Be they spaces for discovery or remembrance, for learning or for prayer, the iF Design Award has gone across categories and types of building to architectural and interior design projects that could hardly be more different, yet have “The CreatiFe Power of Design” in common. But what does that mean?

Oppenheim Architecture have unveiled the design of the Jali Hotel and Residences, a new luxury complex on Albania's southern coast. The project will nestle in the site's picturesque landscape and seaside, and provide visitors and residents with a public square, recreational amenities, and access to a vibrant beachside club that pay homage to traditional Albanian coastal structures.

+ 8

Following the recent evolution of the climate crisis, policymakers and private companies are getting behind the transition towards clean energy. California is set to mandate solar panels and battery storage for new buildings in a move towards establishing a 100% clean energy grid, while across the US, public schools are redesigned to operate on green energy. In Europe, the EU launched a call to establish an offshore renewable energies working group that would help define the framework for reaching the EU’s ambition of at least 300 GW of offshore wind and 40 GW of ocean energies by 2050. At the same time, furniture manufacturer IKEA announced it would start selling renewable energy to Swedish households.

+ 6

A wood-burning stove (or wood burner or log burner in the UK) is a heating appliance used for cooking. Food cooked on a wood-burning stove tends to have a more intense flavor since it requires a slow, artisanal process that results in more complex dishes. For this reason, these stoves are becoming a popular choice for people who want to create a unique environment for family and friends to gather at home for a delicious meal.

In this week's reprint from the Architect's Newspaper, author Karen Kubey, an urbanist specializing in housing and health questions if the invention of Public Space is "Invented Or Agreed Upon?" Basing her ideas on a book by Mariana Mogilevich, The Invention of Public Space, the article asks if public spaces are a product of negotiation in the city.

Videos

Deciding where a building should go is a complex negotiation of visible and invisible, objective and subjective forces. Architects perform site analysis in order to identify and choreograph all these factors, but which factors do they focus on? This video is a survey (pun intended) of what goes into locating where a building should go on the Earth’s surface. From legal requirements like lot lines and setbacks, to infrastructural concerns like service hookup locations and pedestrian ways, to environmental factors like sunlight and topography, the video goes through how architects and contractors position structures. In addition to reviewing general rules of thumb, the video also includes some important architectural examples like the Casa Malaparte and OMA’s Student Center at IIT to inspire unique ways to approach the subject.

The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design have presented Netherlands-based architecture firm Mecanoo with Europe's highest award of architecture for the year 2021. The jury awarded the firm for their human-centered approach that prioritizes the "enrichment of human life through a lens of generosity and freedom of use", benefiting the users socially, ecologically and economically.

Kengo Kuma & Associates has designed the Edogawa City Eiko Kadono Children's Literature Museum (tentative name), a new cultural venue where the young can experience the imaginary world envisioned by acclaimed Japanese children book author Eiko Kadono. Located on the banks of the Edogawa river and within the natural setting of Nagisa Park in Tokyo, the project features an array of volumes following the hill's slope and an overhanging roof that expands towards the landscape.