Architecture News

A degree in architecture teaches you to see the world differently. For confirmation of this fact, look no further than the poor souls who have accompanied an architect on vacation—people who, at some point between being dragged far outside of their destination city to visit some apparently exemplary office buildings, and stopping for hours to photograph structural details, probably started to question their companion's sanity.

But what happens when an architect visits the Taj Mahal? The experience of being in the presence of this wonder of the modern world must surely be so humbling that even he or she can do no more than stand in awe like any regular person... right?

In this second episode of GSAPP Conversations, Amale Andraos speaks with Spanish architect and GSAPP Professor Juan Herreros about the relationship between teaching and practicing architecture, and how he has carefully designed a particular way of working globally. Herreros, who co-founded Abalos&Herreros in 1984 and currently leads estudio Herreros, offers insight into how working sensitively in foreign settings also helps to develop a robust local practice, and how he is bringing new models of emerging practices to his students in GSAPP’s Advanced Architecture Studios.

In 2014, midtown Manhattan received its first supertall (taller than 1,000 feet) residential building, Christian de Portzamparc’s One57. The following year, Rafael Viñoly Architects’ 432 Park Avenue surpassed the mark, confirming the trend of sky-shattering, pencil-thin skyscrapers rising along Central Park’s southern edge. In all, at least 10 supertall projects have been planned for the neighborhood, earning it the nickname of Billionaire’s Row.

Responding to this phenomenon, architect Ioannis Oikonomou of oiio architecture studio has proposed an alternate solution, called “The Big Bend,” that asks the question: “What if our buildings were long instead of tall?”

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Carmody Groarke’s competition winning design for a new hotel retreat on Burgh Island off the coast of Devon, UK, has received planning approval, clearing the way for the dramatic structure to begin construction. The cliff-top “Pool House” will join the Grade-II listed art deco Burgh Island Hotel in providing accommodation to adventurous visitors, offering panoramic views of the of the Bantham Estuary and the hotel’s Mermaid Pool, an outdoor seawater pool and private beach for hotel guests.

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International student architecture competition 120 Hours has announced the winners of its 2017 competition, “The Way of the Buiy.” For this year’s edition of the challenge, which gives participants just 5 days from the announcement of the brief to its deadline to conceive a project, students were asked to design a 100-square-meter building housing a canteen and library for the LiangMeng school complex, located in the rural area of Puan City, China.

This year’s competition saw 3024 participants from 79 countries across the globe, with winners selected by a jury consisting of Jan Olav Jensen, Chiara Sala, Tran Kinh Manh, Angela Gigliotti, Fabio Gigone and Christian Hermansen Cordua. For the first time ever, the winning project will be constructed, after further development alongside the 120 Hours team. The building is expected to be completed by the end of 2017.

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MVRDV’s public Art Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen has broken ground on the northern edge of Rotterdam’s Museumpark in the heart of the city’s cultural campus. The 15,000-square-meter reflective vessel will store the esteemed collection of over 70,000 art and design objects, adding a new cultural landmark to join the nearby Kunsthal, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Chabot Museum and Sonneveld House.

Officially breaking ground this past Friday, the BREEAM Excellent-planned “Collection Building” will combine restoration facilities, exhibition spaces, offices, logistics, a bar, restaurant, public roof terrace and private collectors facilities alongside a specially commissioned atrium that will allow visitors to experience 90% of the collection, including artworks in storage.

BIVAK Architecture and Design has won a competition to design a rowing arena in Hungary for a host of championships taking place in the country in the coming years. The competition, hosted by the Hungarian Rowing Association (MKKSZ) and Hungarian Academy of Arts, was open to architects under 40 years of age. BIVAK’s winning proposal, announced in February 2017, centers on a 90-meter-long tower ‘gliding’ above the water.

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This article is part of our new series "Material in Focus", where we ask architects to share with us their creative process through the choice of materials that define important parts of the construction of their buildings.

The architecture of Casa 28 shows itself as an extension of the arid and exuberant landscape of the Cerrado. A variety of perspectives unfolds as you walk through the house. A family looking for tranquility and connection with nature commissioned this urban refuge located 10 minutes from the National Congress in Brasilia. The elements have different heights that confirm a spatial hierarchy. Extensive walls, coated with polymeric mortar, define fluid spaces and openings placed in all directions integrate cohabitating areas. We talked with architect Samuel Lamas from Equipe Lamas to learn more about the choices of materials used in the project and the influence these choices had on the design concept. Read the interview below:

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The Barbican Centre in London is celebrating its 35th anniversary. Widely regarded as the pinnacle of the Brutalist movement, the mixed-use development is home to 4,000 residents, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Located in the heart of London, the Barbican is just one example of how Brutalist architecture forms a central part of our cities. To celebrate this progressive, modernizing, sometimes controversial style, GoCompare has created an online gallery illustrating Brutalist icons from across the world.

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Non-profit organization Art Jameel have announced a new Serie-Architects-designed Arts Center in Dubai that will partner with New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to acquire works by modern and contemporary artists from the Middle East.

The 10,000 square meter, three-story, multi-disciplinary space is designed to become a “hub for educational and research initiatives, while its wider programming embraces collaboration and partnerships with local, regional, and international artists, curators, and organizations.”

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The winning entries to the Kip Island Auditorium competition have been announced by Bee Breeders, which invited proposals for the addition of a new iconic auditorium addition to the Riga International Convention Centre, in Latvia’s capital. The competition asked for alternative approaches to the design of public and civic facilities, while “reinvesting an estranged program in the urban landscape."

Here are the three winners of the Kip Island Auditorium competition:

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In any city across the world, there are countless examples of unsung architecture – well-designed if inoffensive buildings that strive to please by not standing out from the crowd. For German photographer Paul Eis, these buildings provide the perfect canvas for his work. Displayed on his Instagram account, the_architecture_photographer, Eis captures these buildings in their best light, and then digitally adds in bright colors, elevating these structures from mundane to magnificent.

After a several year battle, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture has been approved to maintain its accreditation as an institute of higher learning. The school’s status had earlier been threatened due to new laws by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) that require universities, colleges and other institutions to be financially and administratively independent from "larger institutions with multi-faceted missions."

With the decision, the school will be able to continue to offer its 3-year Master of Architecture program, as well as its additional education programs such as its 8-week-long non-degree Immersion Program.

Competing against a shortlist of internationally acclaimed architects, the team led by newly established practice Vargo Nielsen Palle (in collaboration with ADEPT and Rolvung & Brøndsted Arkitekter) has been selected as the winners of the NEW AARCH competition, which sought designs for several new buildings for the Aarhus School of Architecture and the development of the surrounding area in Aarhus known as Godsbanearealerne.

The restricted competition consisted of three invited practices – BIG, SANAA and Lacaton & Vassal – and the three winners of the earlier open qualifying competition, Vargo Nielsen Palle, Erik Giudice Architects, and ALL (Atelier Lorentzen Langkilde). Vargo Nielsen Palle’s proposal was chosen as the unanimous winner.

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Sliperiet, Umeå Arts Campus has developed a new type of 3D printer that features increased printing flexibility at a lower cost. Called Hangprinter. The system is suspended by a series of thin fishing lines, it does not require a frame or rails, but rather, it can be attached to any stable surface, for instance, a ceiling.

As a part of the +Project innovation initiative, the Hangprinter is in the process of making a “Tower of Babel,” a project that currently measures almost three-and-a-half meters tall, making it the tallest object the system has made, as well as “much taller than the scope of any commercially available large format printer.”

Invented by Torbjørn Ludvigsen, who began the project while a student at Umeå University, the Hangprinter’s design was originally formulated to reduce costs. “The frame or box was almost half the cost of the final 3D printer, and I thought I could do without it,” said Ludvigsen. Hangprinter can be put together for about 200 Euros.

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Marrying the great expanses of the American west with a series of mirrored faces, MIRAGE is an installation situated in the Southern California desert and the work of Doug Aitken, an American artist, and filmmaker. An experimental adaptation of the traditional suburban ranch-style house, the sculpture hones in on architecture’s relationship with its landscape, manifesting itself as a life-sized kaleidoscope.

The California Ranch Style house was first designed by a small collective of architects in the 1920s and 30s, inspired by the spatial fluidity of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work and melded with the local single storey homes that belonged to ranchers. Following the Second World War, the simplicity of this housing typology resulted in its quick rise in popularity, adopted by commercial builders to match the rapid urbanization of the American countryside.

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Humor is a very rare quality in architecture, most architects are too serious
-Andreas Ruby, director of the Swiss Architecture Museum S AM, Basel

Since its founding in 1996, Slovenia architecture firm Sadar+Vuga has grown to become one of their country’s most influential architectural forces, with a range of projects covering interior design, to stadiums, to city master plans. In a new documentary by director Damjan Kozole, the firm’s history is being archived for the first time.

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Tesla has completed a massive, 55,000-panel solar farm on the Hawaiian island of Kauai that will allow them to experiment with medium-term energy storage at a utility scale. Hooked up to the farm are 272 of the company’s lithium Powerpacks, which are capable of storing of combined 52 megawatt-hours of power.