Five design teams have been selected to present their ideas for the Chicago O'Hare Airport Global Terminal and Global Concourse expansion. The designs are on display at an exhibition opened by Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the Chicago Architecture Center. Teams include Fentress-EXP-Brook-Garza, Foster Epstein Moreno, Studio ORD, SOM and Santiago Calatrava. Known as O’Hare 21, the project represents O’Hare’s first major overhaul in 25 years.
Sculptor and jewelry designer, Cydney Ross explores the architectural passage of time through unconventional ceramics and mixed media. By over-firing, freezing, and thawing her materials, she simulates the swaying, slumping, and even collapsing of structure.
Shanghai/London-based firm Neri&Hu has published details of their “Unfolding Village” installation, set to take center stage at the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair 2019. The exhibition, taking place in February, will see Neri&Hu depart from the traditional convention of furniture fairs, often purely focused on product design, and instead actively engage with pressing social issues unique to their base country of China.
Having recently studied the issue of disappearing villages and village cultures in China, the designers were alarmed by the impact of such a disappearance on community, family, and cultural roots. With many products centered on the ideas of nostalgia, dwelling, and “the individual’s relationship within a collective,” the firm created the “Unfolding Village” exhibition to capture the essence of traditional Chinese villages.
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A professional networking platform has been launched aimed at connecting early-career architects in the USA. Ticco admits architects with between 2 and 15 years of experience, with the goal of sharing smart design ideas for the future of the built environment. Developed by Katie Rispoli Keaotamai over a one-and-a-half-year timespan, the platform will now accept applications for its first 100 members until April, at a cost 31% lower than the fees paid for professional memberships.
Centered around dialogue, the platform offers access to ideas and opportunities that will positively shape the built environment, be it exchanging information, consulting on a project, or finding a new role in the profession.
New York City's famed Chrysler Building is up for sale for the first time in over 20 years. According to the Wall Street Journal, the art deco office tower’s current owners officially placed it on the market, though the building's value has yet to be released. Designed by William Van Alen, the building was bought by Tishman Speyer in 1997. As an iconic part of the New York skyline, the building is admired for its distinctive ornamentation based on Chrysler automobiles.
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Singapore’s creative community will soon be thriving as one of the city's buzziest projects, Design Orchard, nears completion. Designed by Singapore-based architecture firm WOHA, the 2350 sqm green project has been under construction since early 2018, and will officially be open to the public on the 30th of January, 2019.
Located on Orchard Road, the city’s most iconic shopping avenue, the project's publicly accessible sloped rooftop park will incorporate multiple services and public areas, accentuating the design and providing up-and-coming designers with a space to create, produce, and exhibit.
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The New Raw has launched the Zero Waste Lab in Thessaloniki, a research initiative where Greek citizens can upcycle plastic waste into urban furniture. Part of the larger Print Your City project, the project utilizes a robotic arm and recycling facilitates to create custom furniture pieces that close the plastic waste loop. The initiative aims to use flakes from recycled products to redesign public spaces within the cities.
The world’s longest 3D-printed concrete pedestrian bridge has been completed in Shanghai. Designed by Professor Xu Weiguo from the Tsinghua University (School of Architecture) - Zoina Land Joint Research Center for Digital Architecture, the 26.3-meter-long bridge was inspired by the ancient Anji Bridge in Zhaoxian, China.
The single-arch structure was created using a 3D printing concrete system developed by Professor Xu Weiguo’s team, integrating digital design, cost efficiency, smart technology, and architectural dynamism. Enclosing the 3.6-meter width, the bridge’s handrails are shaped like flowing ribbons on the arch, creating a light, elegant movement across the Shanghai Wisdom Bay pond.
Foster + Partners have released images of their proposed Mullin Automotive Park at Enstone Airfield, now submitted for planning permission. Intended as a “world-class automotive museum in the heart of the British countryside” the scheme will rehabilitate a disused airfield to support a growing community of classic automobile collectors.
Designed as a collection of buildings arranged in a crescent, the museum draws inspiration from the concept of a rural estate, with a journey through a carefully-considered landscape towards a main focal building. As well as reflecting on the history of the automobile industry over the last century, the scheme will house an open-ended collection charting the future of mobility.
Polish practice FAAB Architektura have created a new building for the Pawiak Prison Museum in Warsaw. Formed with a multi-level vertical park, the project is designed on the historic site of the former "Serbia" prison. FAAB's plan utilizes landscape architecture strategies to integrate and mark the layout of the complex within the city. The new structure was made to challenge the consciousness of visitors as they confront history itself.
Carlo Ratti Associati has teamed up with Makr Shakr, the world’s leading producer of robotic bartending systems, to design a driverless robotic bar which “aims to propose new on-demand ways to enjoy leisure in cities.” GUIDO (Italian for “I drive”) features two mechanical arms with the ability to precisely prepare and serve drinks in seconds, mounted atop an autonomous vehicular platform.
Self-driving technology allows GUIDO to weave through the built environment, responding to bookings from a customer app. As orders are placed through the app, GUIDO sources the cocktail’s components from bottles stored on the counter, and prepares the drink on site. GUIDO’s system also performs ID age verification and supports paying via mobile phone.
A team of Danish designers and architects have won the competition to design seven new landmarks for Amager Nature Park near Copenhagen City Centre. ADEPT, Møller & Grønborg, SNC-Lavalin Atkins and BARK Rådgivning submitted a proposal for a series of structures featuring wooden roof forms around outdoor activities and experiences. The new landmarks are designed to create a holistic experience of the urban nature reserve and contribute to the park’s future growth.
The viability of the Trump administration's border wall has come under fire as all eight prototype structures have failed at least one breach test. The eight border wall prototypes in Otay Mesa, California were assembled in early 2017 after an executive order directed the Department of Homeland Security to build the border wall. The news comes as the administration prepares to potentially declare a national emergency to jumpstart construction of the wall along the U.S.’s southern border.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of Boston City Hall in 1969, the brutalist icon is set to receive a major renovation by Utile Architecture + Planning and Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architects. The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture has already begun a series of small changes and updates to the building with the hope of bringing new life to the commanding structure.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected Venturi Scott Brown's Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery of London as the recipient of the 2019 AIA Twenty-five Year Award. Designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown in an international competition, AIA commended the project for its ability to “...make its context better than it found it” - a citation borrowed from Venturi himself.
The award is presented annually to a project that has "stood the test of time by embodying architectural excellence for 25 to 35 years."
A holographic pyramid by SYNDICATE Architects has been selected as the winner of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art's Summer Cinema Pavilion competition. The project was selected from six shortlisted competitors, and the competition organized by Strelka KB offered up-and-coming Russian architects the opportunity to design a multi-functional temporary pavilion that would be accessible and meet the museum’s standards of environmental responsibility.
White Arkitekter has unveiled its design for a mother and baby unit for the Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Scandinavian firm developed a new facility to be built onto the existing hospital, designed to improve the wellbeing for mothers and children. The project was highly commended at WAF 2018 in the Health-Future Project category.
The Panzi Hospital, set up following 20 years of war and devastation, has expanded its focus to treating survivors of sexual violence and serves over 400,000 people. The new unit will replace the overcrowded facilities at Panzi Hospital, which deals with up to 3500 births per year, and aims to reduce the maternal and post-natal mortality rate while providing more positive birth experiences.
Zaha Hadid Design has released images of its latest collection set to be featured at the Maison et Objet 2019 in Paris later this month. The collection, embodying Zaha Hadid’s inventive process, features a Swirl bowl in crystal glass, and a monochromatic marble collection from the Cell range.
The Maison et Objet festival is described as the international authority for home décor, interior design, architecture, and lifestyle culture, with its bi-annual Paris trade fair taking place from January 18th to 22nd 2019.
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture have won the competition to design the Shimao Longgang Master Plan that includes a 700-meter tall skyscraper called the Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Center. Set to become the tallest skyscraper in China, the project will be set between the foothills of Longcheng Park and Dayun National Park. The supertall is designed to be a new sculptural icon for the Shenzhen skyline.
Clément Blanchet Architecture in collaboration with Etienne Tricaud (AREP) have been shortlisted for the French pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. The winner will be announced in February. The proposal is intended to enhance both the virtual world and the real to support human communication, cultures and interactions. The pavilion will be built around the themes of Light and Mobility to create a hidden oasis with two vertical gardens facing one another.
OPEN Architecture has designed a 58,000 square meter campus for the Qingpu Pinghe School in Shanghai. Currently under construction, the educational project's thirteen buildings have largely topped out. The second primary and secondary school project to be completed by OPEN after the acclaimed Beijing No.4 High School Fangshan Campus, the School as a Village concept was made as a creative exploration of contemporary urban design. The project was designed as a model for new educational buildings and campuses in Shanghai and beyond.
Herzog & de Meuron has released details of their proposed Forum UZH, creating a new center for education and research on the city campus of the University of Zurich. The new building is a seen as a crucial element for ensuring the future viability of Zurich as a higher education hub, upgrading and consolidating an existing aging, dispersed campus.
Due to be completed in 2027, the Forum UZH will occupy a prominent corner site, combining expansive public space with the firm’s recognizable clean, contemporary language. Situated in the old city’s university quarter, dominated by stand-alone buildings set back from the street on below-ground plinths and terraces, the Forum UZH forms the 21st-century embodiment of the stately urban campus.
MVRDV have released images of their ambitious design for the Taipei Twin Towers, set to revitalize the central station area of the Taiwanese capital. The two towers are characterized by a “pile of blocks” that create a vertical urban neighborhood, complete with interactive media facades.
The site is currently occupied by the city’s main station, containing railway, airport lines, metro networks, and underused parks and plazas. Under the MVRDV scheme, the two towers will be built over the top of the station, offering retail, offices, two cinemas, two hotels, and the unification and redevelopment of surrounding plazas.
