Architecture News

Responding to the theme of Expo 2020 Dubai, “Beauty Unites People,” a team led by Dodi Moss imagined a multi-layered architectural experience evoking Italy’s history and identity. The design pulls apart the pieces that make up architectural space, separating the building into its structural volume and its tactile, material components. The proposal won third place in Invitalia’s competition to design the Italian Pavilion at the Expo, behind carlorattiassociati and Gianluca Peluffa & Partners.

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Danish studio Henning Larsen has won the competition to design a new four-star hotel in Tórshavn, the capital city of the Faroe Islands. The project centers on a new social commons and grand foyer made to create connections and give the hotel an active role in city life. The design taps into the Faroese landscape to create a heart of new activity in the city center. The project was made to be an inviting landmark for guests and an active commons for Tórshavn’s locals.

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Construction has begun on Zaha Hadid Architects’ Danjiang Bridge in Taiwan, the world’s longest single-mast, asymmetric cable-stayed bridge. At 920 meters in length, the bridge spans the mouth of the Tamsui River and is integral to the infrastructural upgrading program of northern Taiwan.

The bridge seeks to minimize its visual impact by using a single concrete mast to support its main 450-meter span with dedicated road, cycle, and pedestrian lanes. The scheme also accommodates future expansion of the Danhai Light Rail network across the Tamsui River.

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Snøhetta has announced the completion of Europe’s first underwater restaurant. Situated in Lindesness, on the southernmost point of the Norwegian coastline, the “Under” scheme serves as both a restaurant and a research center for marine life. Open to the public on March 20th, the half-sunken scheme forms a 34-meter-long monolithic break in the surface of the water, before resting on the seabed five meters below.

Situated at a point where sea storms from the north and south meet, and where marine species flourish in both briny and brackish waters, the Snøhetta scheme places itself at a unique confluence. Designed to fully integrate its marine environment over time, the scheme’s rough concrete shell will gradually transform into an artificial reef.

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Swedish creative firm Studio Esinam has launched a new package from their cutout shop, offering an aid to architects and designers seeking to enliven renders and visualizations. The studio’s products, including these print elevations of iconic landmarks, are made in Sweden with an emphasis on eco-friendly materials.

The digital package, containing a diverse mix of 1000 cutouts, was created to cover a range of scenarios in daily life, including people biking, families, kids, business people as well as people dressed for all seasons. This week, ArchDaily readers are being offered a discount of £400 on the package that costs £695 by using the discount code ARCHDAILYSPECIAL at checkout here.

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Arts & ecoculture festival Art WIth Me has announced the 2019 program in Tulum, Mexico. The community driven event combines art, music, cultural experiences and workshops while building awareness around environmental issues. The festival features over 100 art exhibits, large scale installations, and interactive art experiences. The program is focused around the core mission of bringing ecological awareness, sustainability, and waste management to Tulum and beyond.

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Videos

Los Angeles International Airport has broken ground on its Automated People Mover, an elevated train designed to carry passengers and connect to LA's light rail. Mayor Eric Garcetti joined city officials to celebrate the kick-off last week as LAX hopes the project will improve connections between terminals and cut down on auto traffic in and out of the airport. Linked to the new consolidated rent-a-car facility, the People Mover aims to provide congestion relief for one of the world's busiest airports.

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Anti Reality has designed a summerhouse for rocky coastal areas, seeking to engage with open surroundings. The one-story house with panoramic views of the sea was designed with seasonal recreation and rural retreats in mind. At 85 square meters, the triangular-based layout is divided into two principal parts: a living space, and a rooftop swimming pool.

The Odunpazari Modern Museum (OMM) by Kengo Kuma and Associates will open in June 2019, situated in Eskişehir, a university town in the northwest of Turkey. The OMM will feature an internationally significant collection of modern and contemporary art, showcased within a scheme designed by the architect behind the recently-completed V&A Dundee.

The 4,500-square-meter scheme is defined by a distinctive stacked timber design, drawing inspiration from Odunpazari’s traditional Ottoman wooden cantilevered houses that are synonymous with the district, and pays homage to the town’s history as a thriving wood market. Along with several other city museums in the surrounding area, OMM will create a museum square and public meeting place in the town.

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Greek architect Giannis Giannoutsos has created a new chapel design for a small church in western Greece. Sited in Stratos, the project explores the juxtaposition between an existing and a new religious structure in the same space. Rising next to the ruins of a 19th century country church called Asprocclesia, or White Chapel, the design creates a space of introspection and enclosure in the middle of an open field.

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New York City’s Hudson Yards has opened its doors to the public, and the reviews are flooding in. Built on Midtown Manhattan’s West Side, the project is New York’s largest development to date and the largest private real estate venture in American history, covering almost 14 acres of land with residential towers, offices, plazas, shopping centers, and restaurants. A host of architecture firms have shaped the development, including BIG, SOM, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Rockwell Group, and many others.

Read on to find out how critics have responded to Hudson Yards so far.

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Carlo Ratti Associati has published details of their competition-winning design for the Italian Pavilion at Expo Dubai 2020, designed in collaboration with Italo Rota, Matteo Gatto, and F&M Ingegneria. Inspired by Dubai’s marine tradition, the pavilion’s construction sequence will see three boats arrive in Dubai by sea, before being raised and turned upside down to become the roof of the pavilion.

Titled “Sailing Beauty,” the pavilion seeks to explore new ways in which “beauty connects people,” embodying the theme of Italy’s participation in Dubai Expo 2020. The pavilion also pays tribute to the long history of explorers throughout the centuries who “sailed the seas and wove together a shared Mediterranean cultural heritage.”

Albania’s capital city, Tirana, is slated to receive the country’s first Vertical Forest in a scheme designed by Milanese architecture firm, Stefano Boeri Architetti. Originating as part of the city’s new development master plan completed by the firm 3 years ago, the building will greatly increase the amount of greenery within and around the metropolitan area. Tirana’s Vertical Forest will contain 21 floors above ground with 4 more below and will be populated by 105 apartment units above a primarily commercial ground floor.

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With its flashbulb neighbor to the south taking much of the spotlight, few know the extent of Canada's involvement in the film industry. The recently announced Canadian Pavilion for the 2020 Venice Biennale, curated by Montreal based practice T B A and McGill academic David Theodore, aims to change that.

Cambridge-based design practice WOJR has designed House of the Woodland, a pyramidal house grounded in framing and symmetry. Designed around rituals of respite, the project utilizes a nine-square grid structuring four plywood trusses resting atop eight cinder block walls. Sited in the Berkshires, the design makes its grid organization visible through the roof's large-scale coffers. The project explores a series of dichotomies through materials, space and form.

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The Architecture Foundation has announced the winning design for Antepavilion, the annual installation program in London. Chosen from more than 200 entries and six finalists, Maich Swift Architects ‘Potemkin Theatre’ features “colorful panels of painted canvas, which will act as both a canalside theatre and a rooftop cinema.” The design perches on the rooftop of a warehouse along east London’s Regents Canal, creating a visible landmark in the low-scale neighbourhood.

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