To celebrate Earth Day, real estate developers Urban Villages and Studio Gang have unveiled and broken ground on "Populus", the first carbon positive hotel in the United States. Set to open in late 2023, the 265-room hotel in Denver features a rooftop restaurant and bar, designed as a significant milestone for the future of sustainable travel that meets the needs of travelers, the community, and the environment.
Under the theme Unknown Unknowns. An Introduction to Mysteries, the 23rd Triennale Milano International Exhibition will open to the public on July 15th until December 11th, 2022, with installations, interventions, and special projects that "question what we don’t know we don’t know". This year's exhibition will display an array of artwork and installations designed by notable architects and designers hailing from 40 countries, such as Francis Kéré, winner of the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize, who will design an installation that brings together the voices of Africa and its diaspora.
Una Mesa / AAA (Alejandro Lobo, Elías Martínez Ojeda, Federico Rodríguez). Image Cortesía de Concéntrico 08
From the 1st to the 6th of September 2022, the eighth edition of the International Architecture and Design Festival of Logroño, called Concéntrico, will take place, which invites us once a year to reflect on the urban environment and the city. Through installations, workshops, exhibitions, meetings and activities, it offers the opportunity to explore the city thinking about new collective uses that strengthen the character of community within public spaces.
Nestled in the heart of the jungle, in the village of Francisco Uh May resides the AZULIK residence, within the same compound as the AZULIK UH MAY, a cultural center for the arts. Heavily influenced by the natural forms of nature itself, Roth’s home takes a biomorphic approach to design, challenging architectural conventions and presenting a harmonious relationship with nature.
As the climate crisis continues to present itself as a significant threat to the future of the ecosystem and built environment, this year's IPCC report, titled Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, found that while adaptation efforts are being observed across all sectors, the progress being implemented so far is greatly uneven, as there are gaps between the actions taken and what is needed. On this year's Earth Day, we explore the progress being made by governments and architects to achieve net-zero operations within the next decades.
Norman Foster met with the Mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, on Monday to discuss the city's rebuilding, following discussions at the 2nd UN Forum of Mayors in Geneva. Since the onset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the city of Kharkiv suffered significant damage due to heavy shelling, losing much of its infrastructure, including housing, hospitals, schools, cultural institutions, and historic buildings. The second-largest city in Ukraine is already planning its rebuilding, with Norman Foster undertaking the task of bringing together the "best minds" to envision the city's future.
Büro Ole Scheeren has won an international design competition to build the 350-meter Nanjing Jiangbei New Financial Center Tower in China. The octagonal-silhouette skyscraper merges local tradition and culture within a mixed-use structure, aiming to become an iconic symbol of Nanjing’s new urban identity.
Big data and hybrid working models are the future of the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry, according to Álvaro González. Álvaro is a Global Master in Real Estate Development student and cofounder of Infinity Dimensions, a startup looking to accelerate digitalization in the sector.
Embodying IE University’s learning by doing philosophy, we spoke to him about how running a startup while earning a graduate degree is possible—with the right amount of entrepreneurial spirit.
Circular Dimensions x Microscape by Cris Cichocki. Photo by Lance Gerber. Image Courtesy of Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festvial
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2022, an annual festival held in the Colorado Desert in Indio, California, has opened to the public on Friday April 15th with immersive installations by 11 international architects, artists, and designers. Through explorations of scale, light, sound, and colors, the contextual installations explore global themes such as connectedness, environmental sustainability, immigration, social behavior and architecture, pop culture, and the community, and will be on display on April 15-17 and April 22-24, 2022.
Danish architecture practice Schmidt Hammer Lassen revealed the winning design of an international competition for the world’s tallest residential timber building. Located in the Swiss city of Winterthur, the 100-metre tall Rocket&Tigerli tower developed in close corporation with the local Swiss architecture studio Cometti Truffer Hodel echoes the 19th-century industrial architecture of the surrounding area through its facades of dark red and yellow terracotta bricks. The project proposes a variety of residential typologies and amenities that are set to create a vibrant neighbourhood.
A couple of years ago, MVRDV pioneered a system to involve the residents of Hamburg in an urban rejuvenation plan. The Grasbrook Maker was envisioned as an interactive, multi-user platform to democratize design. Architects set up the design framework within which participants could place public buildings.
Collecting inputs from multiple stakeholders is fundamental to architecture. In fact, architecture is one of the most collaborative disciplines in the world. Every project, from a residence to an urban masterplan, involves a team of clients, architects, engineers, contractors, financiers, and many more.
The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design have announced the winners of the "Europe 40 under 40" program for 2021-2022. The selection gathers emerging architectural and design talents spread across Europe from Albania, Austria, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, The Netherlands, and Turkey.
“During these challenging times, it is crucial to keep insightful visions alive. Presenting Europe’s most hopeful personalities in the fields of architecture and design is what gives us hope for a better tomorrow”, explains the official brief. Providing an insight into the architectural scene in Europe, the program initiated by The European Centre highlights the next generation of young architects, landscape architects, urban planners, and industrial designers currently under the age of 40, who will impact future living and working environments, cities, and rural areas.
Diriyah Biennale Foundation recently revealed the curatorial team of Saudi Arabia's inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale, highlighting the past and present art of the Islamic culture. Among the curators is Sumayya Vally, co-founder of Johannesburg-based practice Counterspace, responsible for designing the 2021 Serpentine Pavilion. Taking place in Jeddah in early 2023, the Islamic Arts Biennale will foster artistic exchanges and further establish Saudi Arabia's status within the art scene.
‘’In the background there is still invisible Japanese tradition’’, expresses Kisho Kurokawa, in an excerpt from the film ‘Kochuu’. He puts an emphasis on Japanese tradition, an architectural tradition that rejects symmetry despite the utilization of high-tech. He contemplates the Nakagin capsule tower (1972) a mixed-use residential and office tower located in Tokyo, Japan. The first of capsule architecture built for practical and permanent use.
Jesper Wachtmeister’s‘Kochuu’ is based upon the influence and origins of Modernist Japanese architecture. Through visions of the future, tradition and nature, it amplifies elements of Japanese tradition and its impact on Nordic design. The narrative tells us of how contemporary Japanese architects strive to unite the ways of modern man with old philosophies to create anew.
Pelli Clarke & Partners, in collaboration with Sichuan Provincial Architectural Design and Research Institute (SADI), won the international competition for the new Yibin Station Gateway Development masterplan. The project responds to the city's prospective status as a significant transportation hub, with two new high-speed rail lines planned to intersect in Yibin, making the city a crossroad between Western China's four major urban centres. The design takes inspiration from the neighbouring bamboo forest and its rhizomatic root system, focusing on resilience and interconnectivity.
Paul Clemence’s capture of Zürich’s MFO Park is an evocative photo series for Archi-photo, demonstrating the juxtaposition between the metal shell of the man-made and the wild nature of the park itself. Vines intertwining themselves upon the skeleton of the structure create an attractive destination, replenishing the brownfield land and replacing it with a renewed and captivating image.
Zürich’s MFO park is a vibrant parkscape in Switzerland, previously a site used for around a century by the Oerlikon Machine Works (MFO). Saturated with construction debris and pollution during a long period of industrialization, it has been transformed into a green paradise with the nearby wooded Oerliker Park brimming with ash trees. Offering a diverse area of open space it is available to the public for a wide range of activities and events, with the presence of ‘Park House’, a large open hall, and trellis enveloped with climbing vegetation.