Architecture News

Fresh off winning the “Design of the Year” for their refugee housing solution, the “Better Shelter,” IKEA is again making waves for a pioneering, flat pack solution to societal needs. Developed by the IKEA innovation lab Space10 alongside architects sine lindholm and mads-ulrik husum, the spherical “Growroom” is a DIY garden structure intended to help people “grow their own food much more locally in a beautiful and sustainable way.” And now, plans for the structure have been made available online for free via Space10’s open source platform, giving anyone the opportunity to build their own 3-dimensional garden.

The World Architecture Festival has announced the launch of the 10th edition of the event referred to as the “Oscars of architecture” by launching the “WAF Manifesto,” which identifies key challenges the profession will face over the next ten years. Aimed at generated funding for architectural research, the manifesto outlines a range of topics where architects can use their influence to affect society as a whole.

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios has been selected as the winners of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) competition to design the new Faculty of Arts Building at the University of Warwick, in Coventry, England. Lauded for its flexibility and collaboration-fostering design, the winning proposal was selected over finalist entries from Foster + Partners, Grimshaw, White Arkitekter and Wilkinson Eyre.

One established 3D-printing technique is using laser to cure light-activated plastic, building up layers one at a time in a time-consuming process. But now tech start-up Daqri has discovered a way of speeding up that process: by using a 3-dimensional hologram.

The Glasgow City Council has selected a multidisciplinary team lead by MVRDV and Glasgow-based Austin-Smith:Lord to transform downtown Glasgow into a “more livable, attractive, competitive and sustainable center.” Titled (Y)our City Center, the strategy calls for a regeneration of the 400 hectare city center that would reorganize circulation and infrastructure while providing new residential options to support Scotland’s economic center.

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The Naomi Milgrom Foundation has selected Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of OMA for the design of Melbourne’s 2017 MPavilion. The announcement comes after this weekend’s closing of the 2016 MPavilion, designed by Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai, which welcomed more than 94,000 visitors to over 287 free events in its 139 day run. Now in its 4th year, the MPavilion program invites architects who have yet to completed a project in Australia to design and construct their first structure in the country.

Dutch studio Rietveld-Architecture-Art-Affordances (RAAAF) has unveiled its latest installation ‘Breaking Habits’ at the Mondriaan Fund for Visual Arts in Amsterdam. Breaking Habits envisages a domestic environment without chairs and couches, exploring a model of diagonal living through a system of flexible carpets.

London-based firm Tonkin Liu has released images of its competition-winning Trade Centre in Zhengzhou, China. The Cradle Towers of Zhengzhou will comprise of five mixed-use towers swooping out of a ring-shaped podium. Inspired by the nearby Songshan mountainscape, the scheme aims to celebrate the city’s origins as it rockets into a high-tech future.

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Of all its bells and whistles, the focal point of Herzog and de Meuron’s latest successful endeavor, the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, is arguably the central auditorium, as explored in this new article by WIRED. An incredible example of the possibilities of parametric design, the hall is comprised of 10,000 individual acoustic panels that line the walls, ceilings, railings and balconies. Each of the panels consists of one million “cells” of varying dimensions, created to help define the sound within the space.

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After its opening in September last year, the now completed Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture can be seen in full swing, thanks to this new photoset taken by photographer Brad Feinknopf. Designed by Freelon Adjaye Bond / SmithGroup JJR (a collaboration which included Perkins + Will's Phil Freelon, David Adjaye from Adjaye Associates, Davis Brody Bond, and SmithGroup JJR), the 420,000 square foot building houses numerous galleries and collections, as well as a theater. Maintaining a strong connection to America’s engrained African history and roots through its bronze filigree envelope, the museum asserts a subtle presence in the landscape, coexisting alongside the Washington Monument and National Museum of American History.

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WXY architecture + urban design has unveiled its design for The Peninsula, a five-acre mixed use development for New York City that aims to “create [an] instant [community] with jobs, training, education, and hundreds of affordable apartments.”

Created in conjunction with Body Lawson Associates (BLA) for the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and the Department of Housing and Preservation Development (HPD), the project will feature retail, light industrial, recreational, and residential space—all of which will be affordable—in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx.

Tadao Ando’s first residential building in New York City—152 Elizabeth—has topped out in Manhattan’s Nolita neighborhood. A collaboration with architect and designer Michael Gabellini of Gabellini Sheppard Associates, as well as developer Sumaida + Khurana, the project will feature Ando’s hallmarks, poured-in-place concrete, burnished, metal, voluminous glass, and a living green wall.

Conceived as an inner sanctuary within downtown Manhattan, the building highlights acoustics as a key consideration, with a façade system and exterior glass enabling a high OITC rating to “ensure a tranquil home environment in the center of this vibrant neighborhood.”

HHF Architects, in collaboration with landscape architects from Westpol, have won a competition with their design for Jardin Métropole, a 30-meter-tall apartment tower and neighboring green space. Located in Biel, Switzerland, the project is expected to become the symbol of the city and contribute to the area’s general enhancement through its angled cube massing and public element.

Based on the theme of a “city garden,” the building will constitute the beginning of a new, park-like passage to Rue du Moulin, and will feature access to gardens with private planting beds, a shared roof terrace, and landscaped loggains.

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Tod Williams and Billie Tsien have been selected of the recipients of the 2017 LongHouse Award for their “for their outstanding body of work in architecture.”

At Wednesday evening’s ceremony, the husband-wife team opened up about the conceptual ideas driving their yet-to-be-revealed design for the Obama Presidential Library. In a lively discussion with Vanity Fair architecture critic Paul Goldberger, the architects revealed the nature of their working relationship with the President and First Lady, and how their upcoming library may draw from what TWBT learned in designing the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.

Contrary to some beliefs, climate change is not simply some unidentifiable threat perpetually on the horizon, but a phenomenon that has already had real impact on real world places. To illustrate the effects of our changing environment, the New York Times has launched a new multi-media series called “Changing Climate, Changing Cities,” written by architecture critic Michael Kimmelman, that aims to expose how climate change is “challenging the world’s urban centers.

The first installment takes a look Mexico City, where environmental issues that have already wreaked havoc for centuries, such as water shortage and ground subsidence, are beginning to see their effects multiplied by the city’s changing climate. The piece explains the root of these problems, and their effect of an already fragile infrastructure and social fabric.

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Lumen by Jenny Sabin Studio has been named the winner of The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1’s annual Young Architects Program. Opening on June 27 in the MoMA PS1 courtyard, this year’s construction is an immersive design that evolves over the course of a day, providing a cooling respite from the midday sun and a responsive glowing light after sundown. Drawn from among five finalists, Jenny Sabin Studio’s Lumen will serve as a temporary urban landscape for the 20th season of Warm Up, MoMA PS1’s pioneering outdoor music series. Lumen will remain on view through the summer.

Now in its 18th edition, the Young Architects Program at The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 has offered emerging architectural talent the opportunity to design and present innovative projects, challenging each year’s winners to develop creative designs for a temporary, outdoor installation that provides shade, seating, and water. The architects must also work within guidelines that address environmental issues, including sustainability and recycling.