Architecture News

At the age of just 21 and while she was still finishing her undergraduate degree at Yale, Maya Lin (born October 5, 1959) won the design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. The memorial went on to become among the most recognizable designs in the world, and heralded a sea change for memorial design, breaking with classical conventions and dramatically changing the discourse of a typology.

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A new application takes visitors into the virtual world of the Palace of Versailles. A first in the cultural scene, the VR application offers a detailed tour of the Royal Grand Apartments, the Chapel and the Opera amongst others. With photogrammetry, a 3-dimensional universe is reconstructed from 2D images of the 24 emblematic rooms of the palace.

The 528 meters CITIC Tower, was inaugurated, standing tall as Beijing’s highest building to date. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), the supertall innovative architecture remains culturally appropriate, drawing inspiration from the “zun”, a ritual vessel originating in Bronze Age China.

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Dublin-based Grafton Architects have been announced as the winners of the RIBA 2020 Royal Gold Medal, the UK’s highest honor for architecture. Recognizing the practice’s significant global contribution to architecture, the award is approved personally by Her Majesty The Queen. RIBA acknowledged that the people-centered practice has achieved global recognition and is known especially for its exemplary education buildings.

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Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s first venture in Milan is an adaptive reuse of an early 60’s building, originally designed by architects Gio Ponti, Piero Portaluppi and Antonio Fornaroli. The firm imagined a scheme that renovates the former Allianz Milanese headquarters while transforming the Corso Italia Complex into a modern office space.

Building / Prototype II is an experimental architectural pavilion designed by architect Marc Leschelier for the Feÿ Arts Festival in Burgundy, France. Created in the middle of the forest, in the park of the Château du Feÿ, the permanent installation is the first of an acquired collection to be always displayed on site.

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The Seattle Asian Art Museum renovation by LMN Architects and landscape architect Walker Macy is set to open in February next year. The project takes the original, early 20th-century building and brings it up to 21st-century standards. The renovation includes the preservation of the 1933 building and Art Deco front façade and a new glass-enclosed park lobby overlooking the Olmstead-designed Volunteer Park.

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels (born 2 October 1974) is often cited as one of the most inspirational architects of our time. At an age when many architects are just beginning to establish themselves in professional practice, Ingels has already won numerous competitions and achieved a level of critical acclaim (and fame) that is rare for new names in the industry. His work embodies a rare optimism that is simultaneously playful, practical, and immediately accessible.

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OMA's proposal won the competition for the new KaDeWe department store and hotel in Vienna’s Museumsquartier. Led by Ellen van Loon, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, and Laurence Bolhaar, the project will be OMA’s first venture in Vienna, upon its completion.

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Foster + Partners have released images for their proposal for the new Le Dôme winery in Saint-Émilion, the firm’s second winery in the Bordeaux area, the first being Château Margaux in 2015. Located in a UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Landscape, the design blends seamlessly with the topography.

Studio Gang and SCAPE have broken ground on the new Arkansas Arts Center (AAC) in Little Rock. The current facility will be transformed, and the project includes a landscape design that will connect the AAC with the surrounding MacArthur Park. The project was made to embrace the Arkansas Arts Center’s history and create a contemporary space for the future.

Expected to be completed in 2023, construction works have started on the campus of the Singapore Institute of Technology designed by WOHA. The 91,000 square meter project located in an existing forest, will create a “Campus in a Park” experience, where learning spaces and green spaces will be combined.

The construction industry has evolved throughout time, but always by way of builders. What happens when people are no longer part of building and construction? This is the question asked by British multinational infrastructure company Balfour Beatty, and they’ve published their answer in the 2050 Innovation Paper. The industry report has become a reference point to those looking at the evolution of buildings and design.

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Under the theme of “Science, Innovation, Art, and Creativity for Human Development. Creative Industries in Digital Convergence”, Buenos Aires will host the Expo 2023. Pablo Pschepiurca, Rodrigo Grassi, María Hojman, and Karla Montauti won the first prize in an international competition to create a bridge and a boulevard for the occasion.

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Commissioned by the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, and designed by Snøhetta, the installation entitled The Best Weapon, was first unveiled to the public at the United Nations Headquarters’ Plaza in New York City. This urban peace bench aims to honor “the past Nobel Peace Prize laureates and their efforts to bring people together to find effective solutions for peace”.

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Videos

A new video by AERIAL FUTURES explores how New York's Stewart International Airport could become a catalyst for urban regeneration. Situated 60 miles north of Manhattan, the city is aiming to create a transformation. The video proposes ways in which the airport could positively impact Newburgh’s economy, agriculture, mobility, and civic life, and expand on its function as a travel hub.

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Miami-based architecture office Arquitectonica, headed by Laurinda Spear and Bernardo Fort-Brescia, has been selected as the 2019 winner of the American prize for architecture. The firm, known for its “Trendsetting Modernist Miami Style”, was launched back in 1977.

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