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The Association of Arab Architects has announced the winners of the 2022 Arab Architects Awards. This year’s winning architectural projects highlight the importance of inclusive design, taking into account sustainability and designing with a sensible response to the local communities and landscapes they inhibit. The two-day ceremony was held in Amman, Jordan on November 16-17, 2022, and gathered hundreds of regional architects, urban planners, engineers, and designers of all demographics to explore and engage in discussions about architecture and the future of the built environment in the Arab region.

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Vishaan Chakrabarti
https://uncertain.substack.com/p/vishaan-chakrabarti-rough-transcript

One hundred years ago, design and architecture professionals of the Bauhaus and the modern movement broke with the traditional concept of housing, proposing new ways of building, distributing its spaces and furnishing it. Although many of their aesthetic and constructive approaches have had a great impact and development in the field of design since then, society, however, has gone at a different speed when it comes to adopting certain models of domestic space to which these movements opened the door. Since then, housing has been in constant revision, reformulation and even experimentation, having had a profound interest in design for most of the most important design and architecture professionals of the twentieth century, and so far in the twenty-first.

Four teams have been declared the finalists in the competition to design the Portland Museum of Art campus expansion located in Portland, Maine. The finalist teams are led by Adjaye Associates, Lever Architecture, MVRDV and Toshiko Mori Architect + Johnston Marklee + Preston Scott Cohen. The project includes a 60,000 square feet expansion in the form of a six or seven-story structure planned to accommodate an increase in the number of visits and a growing collection of art. The museum is now asking for public feedback on the designs, as the projects are on view at PMA until December 11^th.

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The international master jury of the 4th cycle (2020-2023) of the Abdullatif Alfozan Award for Mosque Architecture had their second and final meeting at Kuwait last 11-13 November 2022. The meeting was chaired by Architect Rasem Badran (Saudi Arabia and Jordan) and attended by all jurors: Architect Emre Arolat (Turkey), Architect Kashif Chowdhury (Bangladesh), Artist Ahmad Mostapha (United Kingdom) and Sociologist Sari Hanafi (France).

Foster + Partners has revealed the design for a new mixed-use development in the northern end of the central London high street. The building is located on Queensway, opposite the Whitley, the famous department store, which is also being transformed by Foster + Partners as part of a larger redevelopment scheme. Named The William, after William Whiteley, the eponymous founder of the famous Whiteleys, the project includes six floors of office space, shops, and 32 new homes, 11 of which will be affordable.

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Austin-based office HKS announced the design of the Wilson Tower, a high-rise of 315 meters in Texas' capital featuring 80 floors, 450 units, outdoor terraces, and gardens. The tower will be delivered in collaboration with Britt Design Group and Wilson Capital, and is expected to break ground in the summer of 2023. After completion will become the tallest residential tower in the USA outside of New York.

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The Dutch firm OKRA landschapsarchitecten has been awarded the European Prize for Urban Public Space 2022 for its project to restore the Catharijnesingel canal in the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Being an initiative of the Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB), this eleventh edition received 326 projects from 35 different countries showing those problems that European cities must face and proposing some solutions in the framework of a post-pandemic context focused on climate change and how to make cities more livable.

Along coasts and fjords, mountains, and waterfalls, Norway's National Tourist Routes traverse the country's most unique natural landscapes. They are 18 roads that are intended as alternative experiences to the main roads, with rest stops and remote viewpoints that were developed over nearly three decades by some 50 architecture and landscape offices.

ASPECT Studios won the international design competition for Alibaba’s Headquarters (Park C) Campus Project in Hangzhou, in the Zhejiang province. Based on the “BioHabiNet” concept, ASPECT's proposal focuses on an interconnected network of layered biodiversity, sustainable water systems, and community-orientated workplaces. The Xixi Campus will host over 30,000 Alibaba staff and aims to become a precedent for further corporate parks in support of China’s carbon-neutral target for 2060.

On November 3^rd, 2022, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) announced the decision to end the restoration works for elements of the campus designed by Louis Kahn with Indian architects Balkrishna V. Doshi and Anant Raje in 1962. The decision affects the faculty blocks, classroom complex, and dorms other than dorm D15. According to the statement, the institution plans to replace some of the buildings, as the complex is “facing structural damage, deterioration and have become uninhabitable, posing a safety concern for the campus's residents.” This represents a reversal of the decision to withdraw the first demolition plans following global protests, announced in January 2021.

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The DAAily platforms Designboom, Architonic, and ArchDaily held a unique storytelling space to feature curated talks about design and architecture during the Milan Design Week 2022. Dubbed the DAAily Bar, the set served as a new meeting point inviting renowned designers and exhibiting immersive art installations.

As part of the DAAily Bar Live Talks, ArchDaily's Founder and Editor-in-Chief David Basulto had the opportunity to talk with Jakob Lange, architect and partner at BIG, about the BIG Ideas project, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group’s latest endeavors, and the future of the company.

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After years of preparation, the 2022 World Cup, one of the most anticipated global events of this year, was finally launched. The quadrennial international men's football championship is being held for the first time in an Arab country, Qatar, from the 21st of November to the 18th of December 2022. Ever since FIFA announced that Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup back in 2010, preparations for a total of 8 stadiums have been in full force, especially since it will be held in a country with critical climate conditions.

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World Design Policy Conference, one of the Signature Events of Valencia World Design Capital 2022 and the World Design Organization®, was celebrated with huge success on the 3rd and 4th of November at the Palacio de Congresos de Valencia.

Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk, the hosts and producers of the Uncertain Things podcast, interview people from diverse backgrounds and a wide range of expertise to ask the question: “now what? What is happening and how did we get here?”. In this episode, they talk with urbanist, architect, and professor Vishaan Chakrabarti, founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, to seek to understand how the cities got so expensive. Together they delve into the affordability crisis, the detrimental effect of progress, and what we need to do to have better cities.

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Videos

BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group supports APM Terminals and Maersk in reimagining the shipping industry's future with a master plan for the Aqaba Port Terminal in Jordan, expected by 2040. Considered one of the most strategic ports in the country and an important gateway to the Levant region, the 3 square kilometers plan will merge different strategic approaches at the regional scale, starting from the terminal refurbishment, expansion of the logistics functions, and connecting to the broader port's community and natural environment.

The master plan for Aqaba Port aligns with the global net zero goal for 2030, to which BIG has actively contributed with projects such as the CapitaSpring Tower in Singapore with Carlo Ratti Associati and the recently announced 3d-printed community in Texas, co-designed with ICON.

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EUROPARC, a pan-European design collective, has been announced as the winners of the international competition to renew the Paul Henri SPAAK Building in Brussels, Belgium. The building housing the Parliament of the European Union has many shortcomings, yet the winners of the competition recognize that demolishing and replacing it might not be a responsible or sustainable solution. The existing building is, therefore, reimagined and adapted better to fit the needs and the identity of the EU. EUROPARC is made up of five architectural studios from five European countries: JDS Architects (DK/BE), Coldefy (FR), CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati (IT), NL Architects (NL), and Ensamble Studio (SP), with the support of engineering companies from UTIL (BE) and Ramboll (DK).

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Danish design studio CEBRA won the planning competition to develop the business district at Hannemanns Allé, in Ørestad Syd, Copenhagen, Denmark. With a project emphasizing urban quality, urban life, and area identity, the 150,000 square meters plan will define the framework for future design and completion of the area between the Royal Arena and the Øresund motorway. Expected for completion in 2024, the project is commissioned by Copenhagen Municipality and By&Havn, an organization tasked with developing Ørestad and the city's port.

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The inaugural MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission opened on the 6th of October, 2022, unveiling a large-scale installation by Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao, who explores the concept of clothing as a symbol of protection and the associated practices of domestic labor, gender, and community. The MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission is an annual series that invites an international female designer or architect to create a significant new space for the NGV Collection. As the first and only initiative of its kind in Australia, the Commission will create a platform for the presentation of world-premiere topical works that amplify the contribution of women designers and architects.

Milan-based architecture studio Peter Pichler has designed an eco-resort to develop a new concept of hospitality in the European Alpine region. Dubbed the YOUNA Nature Resorts, the complex follows the mountain’s silhouette to offer a maximized relaxation experience. The A-shape typology allows wide opens the front facade to connect with nature while reaching high-private interiors under the same roof. The resort is the last of the studio’s series of projects in the Italian rural area, including a hotel in Maranza and a prototype of a treehouse in the forest of the Dolomites.

A Foster + Partners and Buro Happold consortium has been announced as the winners of the competition to design the new CPK airport, situated between Warsaw and Łódź, in Poland. The project is envisioned as a 21st-century transport interchange, bringing together air, rail, and road. The design seeks to strike a balance between operational efficiency, environmental responsibility, and a symbolic expression that reflects the country’s national identity. Initially, the airport will serve up to 40 million passengers but is planned to easily expand to meet the 65 million passengers target in 2060.

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The Swedish architecture firm Tham & Videgård exhibits a broad selection of projects celebrating over twenty years in practice at the ArkDes—Centre for Architecture and Design in Stockholm, Sweden. For the first time, the studio’s work is being presented in its entirety, displaying in detail acclaimed buildings like the winning proposal for the Denfert art center in Paris and the 150-meter-tall +One Tower for the Swedish Exhibition in Gothenburg. From November 2022 to August 27, 2023, On: Architecture offers visitors a full-scale spatial experience involving models, new photography, and films – all set within a glass ground showroom.

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