Architecture News

Update 11/9/17: We've added a gallery of items from the show to the post!

Diller Scofidio + Renfro have been selected to collaborate with The Costume Institute on a new exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art focused on the relationship between fashion, religious art and the devotional practices and traditions of Catholicism.

Titled “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” the exhibition will feature fashion and religious artworks from the Met’s collection, as well as more than 50 objects and garments from the Sistine Chapel sacristy, many of which have never been seen before outside of The Vatican.

Today, November 8, we celebrate World Urbanism Day. Created in 1949 by Carlos Maria della Paolera, a professor at the University of Buenos Aires, the day was meant to increase professional and public interest in planning, both locally and internationally. Paolera is also responsible for designing the symbol of World Urbanism Day, representing the trilogy of natural elements essential to life: the sun (in yellow), vegetation (in green) and air (in blue), referring to the balance between the natural environment and humans. Currently, the event is celebrated in thirty countries on four continents.

Bee Breeders announced the winners of the Modern Collective Living Challenge, one part of their Global Housing Crisis competition series. Participants conceived new types of accessible housing for rural China’s relocated farmers. China’s fast-paced urbanization is causing millions of rural folk to move to cities. With no designated site, successful projects need to be versatile enough to work in a variety of sites and even be adopted as a standard for addressing relocation. Winning projects were held to a high standard in their answering of the question: how can we create modern community living situations where relocated individuals are not forced into changing their way of life? Common themes in winning projects are modularity and green space.

The competition winners are listed below.

In his new series, “Corner Symmetry,” Hungarian photographer and printmaker Zsolt Hlinka captures some of his home city of Budapest’s most stunning buildings, manipulating them to make them appear as if they are perfectly symmetrical when viewed from the corner.

Overlaid on a variety of pastel-colored skies, the photographs are taken from extreme 2-point perspective, making the buildings appear to pop straight off the page. The study is a continuation of his Wes-Anderson-reminiscent series, “Urban Symmetry.”

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As Zaha Hadid Architects’ 1000 Museum residential tower in Miami continues toward its December 2018 completion date (tracked by this nifty countdown clock), the computer drawings for the structure have been revealed, showing the complex structure in section, elevation and detail.

Construction of the 62-story skyscraper is getting close to topping out as it rises past its neighbors on Biscayne Bay.

Check out the drawings below as well as the latest interior and exterior renderings in the gallery at the bottom of the page.

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Only three years after President Xi Jinping declared, no more "weird buildings," in China, a giant mimetic crab construction on Yangcheng Lake's eastern shore, adds to the world's ever-growing list of "duck" buildings.

According to Russian legend, "Potemkin Villages"—entirely fake urban conurbations made to appear real—can be traced to it's namesake, Field Marshall Aleksandrovich Potemkin. In 1787, this soldier faced an unusual request: Catherine the Great demanded the construction of swathes of artificial settlements along her route to the Crimea in order to disguise, or veil, the run-down face of the region.

In a new book, photographer Gregor Sailer documents versions of Potemkin Villages from around the world. From faithful replicas of European cities in China to vehicle test cities in Scandinavia, grand political gestures to combat training centers, Sailer’s images lend us access to "the world of fakes, copies, and stage sets."

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Ten projects have been selected as winners of 2017 AIA International Region Design Awards, honoring exemplary projects undertaken by architect members of the American Institute of Architects’ International Region, encompassing six of the seven chapters located outside of the United States: AIA United Kingdom, AIA Continental Europe, AIA Hong Kong, AIA Japan, AIA Middle East, and AIA Shanghai (not including the recently formed AIA Canada).

Projects were selected by an international jury led by Helene Combs Dreiling, FAIA, AIA Past President 2014, AIA IR Zone 1 (USA) and were presented AIA International Region Conference in Prague on October 7th.

Winners were chosen in five categories:

London's Royal College of Art (RCA) have submitted proposals by Herzog & de Meuron to Wandsworth Council for a new £108 million ($141 million) building in Battersea. The "flagship" project will form part of the RCA's ongoing transformation into a 'STEAM' (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) postgraduate university, facilitating the provision of ten new programmes focusing on computer and materials science, the impact of the digital economy, advanced manufacturing, and intelligent mobility.

Google has launched 'Tilt Brush', a powerful tool for designers available for Oculus and HTC Vive that allows artists to create 3D objects while fully embedded in Virtual Reality (VR).

Tilt Brush turns any room into the perfect canvas to capture all your creativity, allowing you to paint in real size with 3D brushes.

London-based publisher Blue Crow Media’s architectural guide series continues with Concrete Tokyo Map. A collaboration with design writer Naomi Pollock and photographer Jimmy Cohrssen, the map lays out 50 of Tokyo’s concrete wonders.

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The fourth annual Flatiron Public Plaza Holiday Design Competition winner has been announced--Flatiron Reflection by Future Expansion. In June 2017 non-profit groups Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership and Van Alen Institute invited ten design and architecture firms to submit proposals. “The initiative has become a valuable platform for launching new practices, a visible celebration of inventive, temporary designs that enliven public space during a chillier season, and an opportunity to understand how these spaces impact our minds and bodies” states David van der Leer, Executive Director of Van Alen Institute.

Of the ten design and architecture firms invited to submit proposals, Future Expansion with their Flatiron Reflection won the competition. Other participating firms include Annie Barrett, The Principals, Kyle May, Hive Public Space, Schaum Shieh, FIRM a.d. and Practice.

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With the 2017 World Architecture Festival less than two weeks away, the event has shared the program of Fringe events scheduled for attending architects to enjoy. Taking place in Arena Berlin in the German Capital from November 15-17, WAF 2017 will also provide opportunities for architect-led tours and parties throughout the city.

Following the Festival’s theme of ‘Performance,’ events will center on the performative quality of different architectural typologies and themes including housing, public spaces, festivals, cultural institutions and new technologies.

The Frank Gehry-designed Eisenhower Memorial has finally broken ground in Washington DC following a tumultuous years-long approval process.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held yesterday at the National Mall site, located at the intersection of Maryland and Independence Avenues and across from the National Air and Space Museum.

The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Technology in Architectural Practice (TAP) Knowledge Community has announced the winners of their 2017 Innovation Awards, honoring “new practices and technologies that will further enable project delivery and enhance data-centric methodologies in the management of buildings for their entire lifecycle, from design, to construction and through operations.”

Continue reading for this year’s winners.