Architecture News

ADEPT Architects has won the commission to design a new masterplan for the Budapart neighborhood of Budapest, a project that will become the largest singular urban development in the city for nearly 30 years. Based on a distorted grid structure, the design will reference both historic and modern parts of the city, and will encompass 54 hectares of mixed-use space.

Located on the [‘Buda’] bank of the Danube River, the Budapart masterplan aims to create a green and human scaled neighborhood rather than just another new modern development. The fantastic location on the waterfront, the existing characteristic landscape qualities and the close vicinity to the central city are the main attractions that each generate huge potential to make the new neighborhood an epicenter of its own, described the architects in a recent press release.

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The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has named the winners of an international competition to redesign the city’s the Maharashtra Nature Park and the pedestrian/cyclist Bridge over the Mithi River. From 30 multi-discplinary teams from around the world, the expert jury selected a longlist of 8 teams, a 4-team shortlist, 2 finalists, and finally, an overall competition winner.

The winning team will now work with the MMRDA to develop their master plan to meet the environmental guidelines and construction regulations required to allow the project to be executed following approval from local authorities.

The U.S. State Department is moving forward with plans for a new Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. After awarding the commission to California architects Morphosis in 2013, the government has now granted the construction contract to to B.L. Harbert of Birmingham, Alabama, willing allow the project to get underway.

In addition to the 18 architectural projects selected as recipients of the 2017 Institute Honor Awards, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) have also named 5 projects as winners of the 2017 Institute Honor Awards for Regional & Urban Design.

To be certain, architecture students are required to perform a wide variety of skills to complete a project. But thanks to some guys named Gates and Jobs (among many others), we are now able to execute nearly all of our tasks on one magical machine: the computer. While things like sketching and model making will always be fundamental parts of our profession, the laborious task of hand drafting has already become the "walk to school uphill both ways" of architecture – that is, something most of us are happy to have moved on from.

Check out more of then vs. now below:

Eleven Magazine has announced the winners of the international design competition “Moontopia,” which asked architects to imagine a self-sufficient lunar colony designed for living, working, researching and space tourism.

From a pool of proposals from hundreds of applicants worldwide, 9 schemes were selected by an expert jury including space-architects, academics and NASA designers as the winners of the competition. Check out the winning projects below.

In this latest photoseries, architectural photographer Danica O. Kus takes her lens inside New York City’s SeaGlass Carousel, designed by WXY Architecture + Urban Design with artist George Tsypin. Completed in summer 2015, the 2,575 square foot nautilus-shaped pavilion has become a new attraction within a Piet Oudolf-designed landscape in Battery Park, drawing in visitors with an immersive LED and audio experience inspired by bioluminescent organisms found deep within the ocean.

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2016 was a defining year for ArchDaily. The change and uncertainty around the globe which emerged during the past year allowed us to double down on our mission to provide information, knowledge, and tools to architects, leveling the access to architectural knowledge and enabling a more diverse, equitable profession. As part of this, we now have a renewed focus on data-driven decisions and crowdsourcing architecture's understanding of its own work. The flagship of this crowdsourcing effort has always been our annual Building of the Year awards.

Now, for the 8th consecutive year, we are tasking our readers with the responsibility of recognizing and rewarding the projects that are making an impact in the profession, with ArchDaily's 2017 Building of the Year Awards. By voting, you are part of an unbiased, distributed network of jurors and peers that has elevated the most relevant projects over the past seven years. Over the next two weeks, your collective intelligence will filter over 3,000 projects down to just 16 stand-outs—the best in each category on ArchDaily.

This is your chance to reward the architecture you love by nominating your favorite for the 2017 Building of the Year Awards!

Full rules after the break.

The Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD U) has selected firms Morphosis Architects, Teeple Architects, and Two Row Architect to manage the design and execution of the university’s new Creative City Campus (CCC) expansion project.

The project aims to extend and reinvigorate the campus core along McCaul Street in downtown Toronto and will include approximately 55,000 square feet of new construction, in addition to the renovation of 95,000 square feet of existing campus space.

Belsize Architects has released the plans for 6 Pavilions, a new student accommodation project that will form a part of the University College’s larger masterplan in north Oxford.

To be built on the site of a Victorian residential home, the project will feature 30 units arranged within six pavilions around a central courtyard. Communal areas of the pavilions will be connected at the ground level.

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CAAT STUDIO has unveiled Organizing the Forgotten Urban Spaces, a design that revitalizes the Mirdamad Bridge in Tehran, Iran through the creation of an open anthropology museum.

Developed by studying the existing 7-meter-high and 14.1-meter-wide bridge, the design focuses on improving the pedestrian nature of the space. For example, in order to address issues of noise under the bridge, the project utilizes an arch- and dome-like geometry to create “an acoustic mode in the roof […] and body,” along with covered pillars.

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Designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, 'One River Point' is set to be the latest addition to Miami’s ever-growing luxury real estate market. Comprised of two 65-story-tall towers, the project is a mixed-use residential development situated along the Miami River, in the city’s downtown core.

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The Harvard Graduate School of Design has announced a new, free online course entitled "The Architectural Imagination." Taught by the school's Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory K. Michael Hays alongside Professor of Architectural History Erika Naginski and G. Ware Travelstead Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology Antoine Picon, the course is advertised as "introductory" level and described as teaching "how to 'read' architecture as a cultural expression as well as a technical achievement." It will be delivered through edX, a platform for high-quality massive open online courses (MOOCs) which was founded by Harvard and MIT in 2012.

Employing the latest in aluminum and metals innovation, Ben van Berkel and UNStudio have erected the ALPOLIC fair stand at BAU 2017, the world’s leading trade fair for architecture, materials and systems. Emphasizing the inherent strength of the ultra-light material, the parametric design utilizes geometric principles to create a self-supporting semi-private stand for gathering and the display of products.

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Videos

Continuing in her firm’s tradition of blurring the lines between architecture, art and environment, Elizabeth Diller, founding partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, is producing an opera for the High Line. Dubbed the “Mile Long Opera,” the production will be set along New York’s new favorite attraction, which was designed by DS+R with James Corner and Piet Oudolf and opened to the public in 2009.

Videos

A team composed of Feng Xue, Helen Chan, and Oscar Reyes (FOH) has won Director’s Choice Award in the AC-CA competition to design a contemporary footbridge in Dublin, Ireland. Entitled The Catalyst, the team’s proposal aims to become “a dynamic link which stimulates diverse urban activities and facilitates a spectacular cityscape.”

Designed around the idea of enhancing the surrounding Dockland neighborhood and Dublin as a whole, The Catalyst acts as both a physical link, as well as a new vantage point, encouraging passers-by to pause and reflect on the city.

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Architectural photographer Marc Goodwin has recently completed the third collection of his "ultra-marathon of photoshoots" – this time in Beijing. Following his unique insight into the spaces occupied by Nordic architectural offices (based in Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Helsinki) and his look at studios both large and small lived in by London-based practices, Goodwin has turned his lens to the burgeoning number of offices in the Chinese capital. From MAD Architects' magnificent old printing works to ZAO/standardarchitecture's purpose-built studio, here is a view into the places that architectural offices call home.

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