Chilean studio Pezo von Ellrichshausen has erected a temporary wooden tower of “an ambiguous” scale in the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris. Named the “Deci Pavilion,” the structure is made up of ten stacked octagonal wooden drums of decreasing size. While in reality only large enough to hold one visitor at a time, the column’s form and relationship to its surroundings give it the presence of a much larger structure.
The Wall Street Journal has named Snøhetta their “Architecture Innovator of the Year” for 2016. Founded by 55-year-old American Craig Dykers and 58-year-old Norwegian Kjetil Trædal, Snøhetta rose to prominence with their competition-winning designs for the 20th-century successor to the lost wonder of the ancient world, the Library of Alexandria, and the National Norwegian Opera House in Oslo.
Zaha Hadid Architects has been announced as the winner of an international competition to design a new football stadium for the Forest Green Rovers in Stroud, UK. Following a seven month competition featuring over 50 entries from around the world, ZHA was selected over finalist Glenn Howells Architects for their all-wood proposal. When finished, the stadium will be the first in the world to be built entirely out of wood.
The $1.4 billion MGM National Harbor has started taking reservations. Nestled in the woodlands of Prince George's County, Maryland, HKS Hospitality Group's gaming resort is gearing up for its December 8th opening.
The hotel is slated as one of the "20 Most Anticipated Hotel Openings of 2016" (Forbes.com). In addition to suites, the hotel has a casino, two-story conservatory with horticulture and entertainment, and a dining and shopping complex.
BIG has completed their second building on U.S. soil, a 92,000-square-foot office building at 1200 Intrepid Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that also marks the firm’s first realized office building design. Located within the revitalized Philadelphia Navy Yard master plan (designed by Robert Stern), the four-story building features a bowing, double-curved facade and a supersized “periscope” inspired by the historic battleships docked a few blocks away.
BIG’s VIA 57 West has been unanimously chosen as the winner of the 2016 International Highrise Award (IHA) for the world’s most innovative highrise.
One of the world’s most important architectural prizes for tall buildings, the award is presented by Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) every two years to the project that best exemplifies the criteria of future-oriented design, functionality, innovative building technology, integration into urban development schemes, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness.
As a way to obtain a sample of participatory architecture from all over Mexico, last October, the Mexican Fine Arts Institute (INBA) published an open call for entries. Works by 31 teams—out of more than 200 registered—were selected to be part of Mexico’s Pavilion in the Venice Biennale, which was curated by Pablo Landa.
Among the teams selected are Arquitectos Artesanos and RootStudio, both based in the city of Oaxaca. Works by these offices stand out because they recover and adapt traditional building techniques for new contexts, and because they are often realized through the collaboration of architects and organized communities.
London-based firm Nex—Architecture has unveiled its plans for a new Royal Air Force (RAF) Museum as a part of the RAF’s 2018 Centenary Program. The new project will revitalize an existing RAF museum in North London that was created in 1972, transforming it into a visitor facility and promoting the airfield heritage of the museum’s location.
The new scheme will put emphasis on improving visitor experience by “establishing a clear route through the exhibition spaces.” A prominent new 40-meter-long entrance and visitor center will be placed inside the Hangar 1 building, acting as a welcome and orientation point.
The third and final phase of the Chicago Riverwalk is officially open to the public. Designed by Sasaki and Ross Barney Architects, the 1.5 mile long promenade revitalizes an underutilized industrial area into an active public space featuring restaurants, cultural activities and amenities while reconnecting the Chicago River to the urban fabric of the city.
Foster + Partners has released plans for a connected pair of skyscrapers that will provide 660 new luxury condos in the Miami’s Brickell neighborhood. Taking advantage of updated height limit regulations, "The Towers" will top out at 1,049 feet (320 meters), becoming one of 5 new buildings that will share the title of Miami's tallest tower.
Historically, building heights in Miami have been restricted due to proximity to the Miami International Airport.
Architecture is the scenography of real world.
In this latest set of illustrations from Federico Babina, the artist envisions set designs in the styles of 27 of history's greatest architects, using signature elements from some of their most notable works to "stage [architecture] as if it were an architectural play."
See the entire set of ARCHIPLAY illustrations, including takes on Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid, after the break.
Somatic Collaborative has unveiled its design for Neapolitan Housing and Co-working Complex, a new urban block typology located in Gravatai, Brazil, that contrasts the traditional landscape of repetitive housing types that dominate the urban peripheries of Latin American cities. Like a Neapolitan ice cream, the project’s buildings will be layered, housing a variety of residential units and co-working space.
In a drastic shift from typical low-rise residential enclaves, gates, and walled compounds, the project will create high-density urban blocks “that engage the street as a source of urban life” through porous borders that encourage new city centralities. A semi-porous perimeter block with retail and commercial space will allow the project to better interact with its surroundings while designating the distinction between public, semipublic, and private space through the buildings’ masses.
LOT has been selected as the winner of the third annual Flatiron Public Plaza design competition in New York, which called for proposals from 5 New York City firms to design a temporary installation to be located at the base of the iconic Flatiron Building.
The winning proposal, titled “Flatiron Sky-Line,” consists of a series of 10 large contiguous arches, constructed out of white powder-coated steel tubes housing LED lights, from which an array of hammocks will be suspended to allow visitors to rest and take in the surrounding landmarks such as the Met Life Tower and Empire State Building.
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The BRIT Awards has announced that the statuettes that will be given during their 2017 awards ceremony have been designed by the late Zaha Hadid.
Hadid had accepted the project in January of this year and developed concepts for the design before her sudden passing in March of this year. The work has since been led by Zaha Hadid Design Director Maha Kutay and the BRIT Awards Niamh Byrne.
“Zaha was truly excited to be doing this,” recalled Kutay. “Her vision was, being an architect, to focus our efforts more on the 3D element, as the statue had previously been used as a canvas for artists to paint on for the last few years. Our design expresses Zaha’s unwavering belief in progress and optimism for the future and a break from the norm. The biggest challenge was to create something different within certain guidelines, yet achieving a result recognisable to the public. You have to respect the existing to create something new.”
Elon Musk has revealed his company Tesla’s latest world-changing innovation: a solar roof system so fully integrated into a home’s architecture as to be indistinguishable from a traditional roof.
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Following an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale that struck central Italy this morning at 7:40 a.m. local time—the fourth to hit this part of the country in three months—a number of structures have collapsed entirely or been severely damaged. While no deaths have been reported at this time, the BBC suggests that twenty people have been injured.
This latest tragedy follows an earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter Scale which hit a nearby region in August of this year, killing 300 and causing widespread devastation to towns and villages. It is being suggested that the evacuation of buildings that were deemed vulnerable to the ongoing seismic activity in the region last week may have saved lives.
The Fundació Mies van der Rohe has announced the three winners of the inaugural Young Talent Architecture Award (YTAA) 2016. Established this year to “support the talent of recently graduated Architects, Urban Planners and Landscape Architects who will be responsible for transforming our environment in the future,” 9 finalists were selected from a shortlist of 30 projects, which was then narrowed down to 3 winners.
In memorial of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which resulted in the emigration of over 37,000 Hungarians to Canada, architectural studio Hello Wood has created Tunnel Through Time, a contemporary interpretation of the historic event that remembers the heroes of the revolution and especially honoring the Canadian people who welcomed Hungarian refugees.
Composed of 37,565 pieces—one for each Hungarian refugee accepted into Canada—the tunnel begins with a Hungarian flag with a hole in the middle, representing how protesters cut the communist coat of arms out of the Hungarian flag during the revolution. The tunnel then morphs—as a representation of the journey of the refugees—until it reaches an exit, which is shaped like the national symbol of Canada, the maple leaf.
From the Griffith Observatory to the LAX Airport, LACMA’s Urban Light installation, the Bradbury Building, Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Broad, and more, Los Angeles is full of inspiring architecture. In his new 10K x 4K resolution video, photographer and filmmaker Joe Capra of Scientifantastic captures the beauty of LA through panoramic footage. Over a span of two years, Capra stitched time-lapse footage from two synced DSLR cameras together resulting in a spectacular view of the city.
Find out more about Capra’s work here, or view his timelapse of Rio de Janeiro here.
Redsquare productions in collaboration with Think! Architecture has just produced new videos on two of the firms projects: the Jerome Robbins Theater and Pratt Institute’s Myrtle Hall. Both videos explore their respective project’s design strategies in addition to featured interviews with the architects.
Mangroves are vital for stabilizing shorelines, but their recent depletion presents impending doom for coastal habitats.
Aptum Architecture and CEMEX Research Group might have a solution. Their collaborative project, Rhizolith Island (Isla Rhizolith), is a prototype that explores the potential for floating concrete structures to revitalize deteriorating shorelines. The structure was just installed in Cartagena, Columbia as part of the RC 2016 (Reunion del Concreto), an international Expo and Academic Conference on Concrete.
Final renderings of BIG’s latest New York City project, 149 East 125th Street in East Harlem, have been revealed at the project’s groundbreaking ceremony. In contrast to original images showing a bright red facade, the undulating, rotating building will instead feature a gray exterior that Bjarke Ingels has referred to as “inspired by an elephant’s skin.”
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Arcaid has shortlisted 20 of the year’s best architectural photographs in the running for the 2016 Arcaid Images Architectural Photography Awards. The annual award presents prizes in four categories - Exteriors, Interiors, Sense of Place, and Building in Use - and judged by an esteemed panel on their atmospheric quality, composition, use of scale and more.
This year, judges for the award include Emily Booth, executive editor of The Architectural Review; artist and Sto Werkstatt curator Amy Croft; Katy Harris, director of communications at Foster + Partners; architect Kai-Uwe Bergmann of BIG and photographers Fernando Guerra and Ulrich Müller.
The photographs will be showcased at World Architecture Festival from November 16-18 in Berlin, Germany, where the overall winner will be announced. The shortlist of 20 images is as follows:
After two years of intensive planning, Trinity Church Wall Street revealed the design for its new building at 74 Trinity Place, in the Financial District of New York City. New York-based firm Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects designed the building to serve as both a ministry and community center for the church. Using open public spaces and multipurpose rooms, the structure will connect neighbors, workers, and families — reflecting the church’s aim for community engagement.
