Though born in Tehran and remaining deeply inspired by her native Iran, architect Yasaman Esmaili has worked on projects all around the world. These primarily include humanitarian and crisis intervention works that deeply engage the local communities in which they are situated. A recent article by Metropolis Magazine discusses these projects in depth, as well as Esmaili’s story and inspirations.
Herzog & de Meuron have released images of their proposed mixed-use office scheme in Munich, Germany. Reusing an old building south of Munich rail station, the project features a large courtyard garden accessible to the neighborhood at the center of the site.
Bee Breeders has revealed the winners of the 2019 Rome Collective Living Challenge competition. Teams were asked to to propose solutions for collective living in Italy's capital city. Participants were tasked with designing a concept for affordable co-living around affordability and community. Organizers sought ideas that could be implemented across Rome to increase the city's housing stock.
Dutch design practice Mecanoo has won 1st Prize in the Futian Civic Culture Center Competition. The proposal includes a new cultural tower for Shenzhen in one of the city's oldest and densest districts. The project is designed to house cultural programs and social spaces to stimulate urban activity in the neighborhood. Made with three theaters, a library and exhibition halls, the project aims to be open to the city and bring people together.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has advised planners to reject the Foster + Partners-designed Tulip Tower. As reported by the BBC, the mayor has highlighted a number of concerns raised in a London Review Panel report, and advised City of London Corporation (CLC) planners to reject permission, despite a previous endorsement of the scheme by the CLC’s chief planning officer.
GVL Gossamer has released images of their design for a 19 kilometer stretch of waterfront along the Jing River in Xi’an, China. The proposal, a finalist in an international design competition, celebrates the site’s history at the origin of the Silk Road through strategies that tap into ancient and enduring histories of traditional architecture, merchant trade, and agricultural innovation. These enduring histories are woven with contemporary influences such as responses to major climatic and environmental challenges.
It should come as no surprise that one of the most respected surveys about bicycle use comes from a Danish organization. This ranking by Copenhagenize Design Company uses a point system to compile a list of the cities looking to re-establish the bicycle as an accepted and practical mode of transportation.
Japanese architect Kengo Kuma won the closed contest to design the expansion of the gardens of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon and the new entrance of the Modern Collection of the Gulbenkian Museum. The result was announced last Saturday by the Portuguese newspaper Expresso.
Four finalist teams have been shortlisted to design a new cultural hub along Perth’s Cottesloe Beach in Australia. Developed by the Minderoo Group, 11 Australian architecture firms were invited to submit ideas to reimagine the Cottesloe foreshore and the Indiana Tea House site. The designs aim to open and activate the waterfront and provide a destination for locals and visitors that brings people together.
Architectural firm bauchplan has won first prize in the competition to revitalize a disused viaduct in London. Dubbed Fish n’Chips, their proposal includes a series of green houses, aquaponics and swimming pools to create a new High Line for the city. Sited in Hammersmith, the design was made to become a blue & green living room, with a recreation area and island of retreat for the neighborhood. The project aims to bring awareness to processes of waste management and urban food production in London.
NextOffice and Alireza Taghaboni have released images of their proposed Afarinesh Tower in Shiraz, Iran. The tower is formed as a regular, uniform core housing administrative spaces, which lose their rigid order as the floor levels change, and the program becomes recreational.
ARCVS has released details of their first place entry for a competition to design a multifunctional bridge in Novi Sad, Serbia. Spanning the River Danube, the “Elbow Shadow” bridge contains a hotel and office building alongside the pedestrian walkway. The scheme combines European influences such as the Ponte Vecchio and Rialto Bridge with vernacular responses to the river channels.
Canadian architecture practice Henriquez Partners has designed a series of ten towers for a new suburban development in Vancouver. The mixed-use project was made for developer Westbank to create a new 4.5 million-square-foot residential community for the city. Dubbed Oakridge, the towers will include housing, office and retail as a contemporary architecture for the Pacific Northwest.
“When we started out, our goal was to change the world, to do something that would really make a difference to the lives of people,” said Chad Hamilton, AIA LEED AP BD+C, Principal Architect of Hamilton + Aitken Architects (H+AA). “And education is one of the things that really determines how people live the rest of their lives. “So, for us it’s just a wonderful feeling, to improve kids’ educational spaces.”
The Botan Valley in eastern Turkey has been attracting thousands of tourists annually due to its unique rock formations and canyon-like topography.
To further promote the area's scenic landscape, Turkish architecture firm Fabric.a Architects have proposed the ‘Botan Visitor Center’, an observation pavilion and restaurant overlooking the rocky landscapes of the Botan Valley.
The Midnight Charette is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by architectural designers David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features a variety of creative professionals in unscripted and long-format conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and more personal discussions. Honesty and humor are used to cover a wide array of subjects: some episodes provide useful tips for designers, while others are project reviews, interviews, or simply explorations of everyday life and design. The Midnight Charette is available for free on iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, and all other podcast directories.
On this episode of The Midnight Charette, hosts David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet are joined by Architect David Briggs—Co-Founder of Gowanus by Design and Founding Principal of Loci Architecture—to discuss living in New York City during the 1980s, gentrification, urban preservation, the planning challenges of Gowanus, Brooklyn and its severely polluted canal, designing better cities, wastewater treatment and more.
Antakya Atatürk Stadium of Hatay, Turkey, was originally built in 1950 but closed recently due to its inability to meet growing demand. In a new public project titled Green Wings, ONZ Architects aim to transform this former urban center into a new park with a cultural hub.
Architects and designers, just like all citizens, have a responsibility to participate in global conversations regarding the environment. Their power, however, lies in the fact that they are able to make an impact through the conscious decisions they make with their projects, such as sustainable building materials or expressive artworks.
To shed light on the current climate crisis, artist Alicja Biala and architect Iwo Borkowicz have created Totemy, a series of 9-meter-tall sculptures that translate the state of the environment into an immersive architectural experience.
Olson Kundig is one of the quintessential Seattle-based architectural practices, with a focus on creativity, experimentation, and craftsmanship that has allowed them to expand on a global scale over the past few decades. This expansion has necessitated office improvements and renovations throughout the years, the most recent of which occurred in 2018. As explored in a recent article by Metropolis Magazine, this 2018 expansion reflected key values of collaboration and flexibility, expressed through the firm's unique visual and kinetic language.
In their recently completed thesis project, Sebastian Siggard, Neemat Azizullah, and Thomas Ron propose the revitalization of a 19th century Parisian water reservoir into a new cultural hub. Addressing growing social issues and inequality across Europe, the project, titled “New Parisian Stories,” promotes social interaction in an effort to create a more integrated and cohesive society. Two primary questions motivate their design: With the 2024 Olympics games coming to Paris, what role can architecture play in capturing the opportunities and potential of such events? And how can architecture better the lives of those lowest in society while also creating social and sympathetic spaces for people of all languages, cultures and ages?
Although small residential projects tend to be limited in spatial capacity, the design possibilities remain endless, especially if the project’s site is the biggest source of inspiration.
For a small family’s vacation home, Turin-based architecture firm Wafai Architects proposed a uniquely-designed luxury villa overlooking the picturesque Türlersee lake in Switzerland.
Danish architecture firm Henning Larsen created a new proposal for the Ostrava House of Culture in the Czech Republic. As the the second place winner in an international competition, the project's offset concrete frames set up the form of the new Ostrava Concert Hall as they join together with the existing structure. The design emphasizes openness and connection to the outdoors in the midcentury campus to craft a quiet icon for the city.
Steven Holl Architects and McCarthy Building Companies Inc. have celebrated the topping out of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas’ oldest museum. The 243,600-square foot building will house modern and contemporary art once completed in 2020.
Bryden Wood, Cast, and the Mayor of London have launched a new app to speed up the capital’s home building. The freely-available app, titled PRISM, is aimed at the design and construction of high-quality, factory-built homes to address the current demand of 50,000+ houses per year.
