Architecture News

The Royal Institute of British Architects has awarded the 2018 RIBA President’s Medal for Research to Chris Hildrey of Hildrey Studio for ProxyAddress: Using Location Data to Reconnect Those Facing Homelessness with Support Services. Hildrey’s project addresses one of the main causes of homelessness in the UK: the end of an ‘assured short-hold tenancy’, where a landlord is legally entitled to issue a possession order. ProxyAddress tackles this issue through collaborative research and real-world application.

The Royal Institute of British Architects have announced the winners of the 2018 President’s Medals for the world’s best architecture student projects. This year's winners were selected from 328 design projects and dissertations submitted by over 100 schools of architecture in 37 countries. Three medals were presented, as well as commendations to nine students of architecture from around the world. Each year, the medals are awarded to reward talent and promote innovation in architectural education.

Tokyo-based designer monde has created a series of bookends inspired by the narrow back alleys of Tokyo. As described by My Modern Met, the bookends convey the “dizzying feeling of wandering the city’s back alleys” through a mixture of laser-cut wood and lighting.

The results of the two-year project were debuted at the Design Festa arts and crafts event, where they caught the eye of outlets across Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.

As part of a global, interdisciplinary effort to tackle climate change, architects are devoting resources towards optimizing the energy efficiency of buildings old and new. This effort is more than justified, given that buildings account for almost 40% of UK and US emissions. As awareness of the issue of climate change becomes more apparent each year, so too do the architectural responses. 2018 was no exception.

In a year that saw wildfires rage across California, hurricanes in Florida, and mudslides in Japan, the architectural community has put forward a wealth of proposals, both large and small scale, which seek to mitigate against the role the built environment plays in inducing climate change. 

Ranging from a biological curtain in Dublin to a radical masterplan for Boston, we have rounded up six developments in the architectural fight against climate change that we published throughout 2018.

Sustainability startup Lendager Group have beat out BIG and Henning Larsen in a competition to design a new eco-village in Copenhagen, Denmark. With the project UN17 village, Lendager Group designed the first project in the world that will translate all 17 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into tangible action. After nearly 25 years of planning, the 400 new homes will complete the new city district, Ørestad South.

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Dutch architectural practice UNStudio have created a new urban vision for the City of the Future, a Central Innovation District (CID) test site in The Hague. Dubbed the "Socio-Technical City", the design covers a 1 square km area in the center of the city. The proposal aims to transform the site into a green, self-sufficient district of housing, offices, urban mobility and public spaces over the existing train track infrastructure.

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C.F. Møller Architects has unveiled new images of their proposed Carlsberg Headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. Construction of the scheme is well underway, with the topping out ceremony taking place in Spring 2018.

The new renders offer an insight into the scheme’s proposed external finish and interior atmosphere, including the central atrium overlooking the historic site where the famed brewery business began.

The Aarhus School of Architecture has revealed the winners of their drawing competition, Drawing of the Year 2018, which asked architecture students around the globe to submit their best digital, hand-drawn or hybrid drawings under the theme of “Shaping new Realities.”

Artist Leo Villareal and the London-based architecture firm Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands are working together to design and install the first phase of The Illuminated River Foundation's public art commission that will illuminate architectural elements of the existing bridges, redefining the riverscape.

This installation marks the initial stage of the project that was announced nearly two years ago. All stages are intended to be completed by 2022. In its entirety, it will include 15 central London bridges - creating a unified artwork connected across the flowing river from Albert Bridge in West London to Tower Bridge in the center of the city.

MVRDV co-founder Winy Maas has been named Domus’ 2019 10x10x10 Editor-In-Chief. The publication began the Domus 10x10x10 in 2018 as an initiative to bring new ideas and alternative editorial styles to the magazine. The 10-year initiative leads to Domus' 100th anniversary in 2028.

As much an architect as a researcher, Maas will provide an original editorial strategy founded on intellectual exploration and catalyzing creative ways of thinking about contemporary and future design efforts. In a manifesto titled “Everything is Urbanism,” Maas describes his primary goals for Domus 2019, a series of 10 publications over 10 months that explore contemporary design questions and theoretical problems, spark dialogue, and examine ongoing architectural research.

In Louisiana Channel's latest video, an interview featuring Norwegian architect Reiulf Ramstad takes place in the city of Molde as part of the Utzon Center exhibition 'In the World of an Architect – Reiulf Ramstad Architects.' An interdisciplinary collaboration of architecture, landscape, and design, the firm has done several large-scale civic works to smaller projects along tourist routes amongst other commercial and recreational buildings.

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This November, RIBA launched a national school program devoted to providing children between the ages of 4-18 access to architecture programs. This will be the UK’s first nationwide architecture program. The instructors, formally known as Architecture Ambassadors, are volunteer architecture professionals donating their time to partnering schools at which students participate free of charge.

Before launching the nationwide program, RIBA conducted a pilot version - gaging interest and success from students, school administrators, and ambassadors. The pilot phase visited over 200 schools in England and 18,000 students. Each school’s architectural workshop was highly individualized to the community and location, adding a personal aspect to the student’s introduction to the vast field of architecture. These tangible projects investigated local areas, assessing their needs, issues that affect the community, and their hopes for the future.

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Natural disasters continue to leave thousands of people homeless every year, forcing them to seek refuge without any alternatives. On many occasions, cities cannot cope with refugees, limiting their resources. In addition to this, the difficulties to sustain refugees in a dignified way, becomes increasingly complex, leading to the collapse of conventional strategies.

It is at this moment when innovation and creativity play an important role in construction practices, ultimately creating a quicker and more efficient construction model that can be replicated after natural disasters.

Undoubtedly, there are some principles that should be taken into account when designing a semi-permanent structure. Thus, we have gathered some tips and examples that you may find useful. 

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Herzog & de Meuron's M+ Museum of visual culture has topped out in Hong Kong ahead of its scheduled opening in 2020. Focusing on 20th and 21st century art, design, architecture and moving image, M+ will be the centerpiece of the West Kowloon Cultural District, and a key venue in creating interdisciplinary exchange between the visual arts and the performing arts in Asia.

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As 2018 draws to a close, accommodation website Airbnb has dived into their data to reveal the most creative cities and countries from the year. Based on the percentage of hosts who are in the creative industries, the list builds on a previous survey by Airbnb which found that one in 10 Airbnb hosts and one in three Experience hosts identify as members of the creative community.

Read on below for the list of top creative countries and cities according to the new Airbnb study. For architects already planning a New Year’s getaway, check out an article we published of ten projects previously featured by ArchDaily, now available for booking through Airbnb.

Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas will give the final keynote lecture today at the World Architecture Festival. ArchDaily will be streaming this keynote from our Facebook page.

Brazil-based Carla Juaçaba Studio has been announced as the winner of the AR’s Emerging Architecture Awards 2018 in Amsterdam. The firm will receive a £10,000 prize in recognition of exemplary projects such as their chapel for the Pavilion of the Holy See at the 2018 Venice Biennale, and the Casa Santa Teresa in Rio de Janiero.

The practice was chosen from a shortlist of 14 by a judging panel featuring Spanish architect Ángela García de Paredes of Paredes Pedrosa, finalists of the inaugural 1999 AR Emerging Architecture awards; Indian architect Gurjit Singh Matharoo commended in the 2009 edition; and Ronald Rietveld of Dutch practice RAAAF, winners in 2013.

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The 2018 World Architecture Festival has announced the second-day winners of this year’s edition, featuring works from such diverse firms as SeARCH, Sordo Madaleno, NextOffice, and Grimshaw.

The second day’s judging categories spanned a wide area, from future masterplanning visions to completed religious structures. The festival, held this year in Amsterdam, will culminate Friday 30 November with the World Building of the Year and Future Project of the Year Awards. These awards, selected from the festival’s list of category winners, will be selected by the festival’s “super jury”: Nathalie de Vries, Frederick Cooper Llosa, Lesley Lokko,Li Xiaodong, and Manuelle Gautrand. 

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