Artificial lighting plays an essential role in spatial quality. Badly thought-out lights can disrupt an architecture project and even bring harmful effects to occupants' health; while a well-balanced luminotechnic project can highlight positive aspects of the surroundings and make it much more enjoyable. Generally, however, projects tend to be too rigid and not in-tune with the flexibility of contemporary spaces. In addition, a badly made lighting decision can be complex and expensive to rectify. For example, electrical points in slabs, linings or walls are not easily modified if the distribution of a space is changed. At most, when this is resolved with hanging or free-standing lamps, we end up having to deal with bothersome electrical wires throughout the space.
The climate crisis has accentuated changes in the amount of rainfall, causing droughts or storms with large volumes of water, which result in floods that can cause great damage to urban infrastructure. To combat this, the sponge city is a solution that has a green infrastructure to operate the infiltration, absorption, storage and even purification of these surface waters.
There’s the iconic Cenotaph for Newton drawing, the evocative monochrome illustration by Etienne-Louis Boullée. There are the experimental drawings of Lebbeus Woods, evocative urban visions of a distant future. There are also the well-known drawings of Le Corbusier’s utopian Ville Radieuse. Drawing, and in turn architectural visualizations, have always been a useful medium with which to contemplate architectural concepts of the future. It is fascinating to look back at the architectural visualizations of the future done in the past.
The chance to reimagine a four-and-a-half-acre site containing both historic buildings to be preserved and lots slated for development in a major American city is rare. For the team behind 5M, a project on a nodal site in downtown San Francisco, this prospect came with exciting potential to engage with all aspects of community building and place making. Completed by SITELAB, KPF, and a host of other firms, 5M reveals a transformed, multi-use downtown site following a decade-long process.
Whether to mark a change of direction, to highlight its first steps or its own presence in a room, stairs that combine two or more materials tend to draw attention by establishing dialogs between particular characteristics of each material. Concrete, steel and wood are some of the most common choices to compose the structure of stairs due to their high strength and versatility. But, when combined, these different materials expand their individual possibilities and reveal how the design can be tailored to their peculiarities and connections.
The combination of textures, colors, and finishes among materials can provide a number of creative solutions for these elements used for vertical circulation, as shown in LÂM’s Home, by AD+studio and House 9A, by 23o5Studio, characterized by stairs with a sturdy and rough base that meets a light and sleek structure of steps. The opposite composition order, a lighter base that meets a robust set of steps, thrives ingeniously in Luis Carbonell's Casa Chulavista and messina | rivas' Angatuba House, where the light wooden stairs' base is followed by raw concrete steps.
Metaverse is the name used to name an immersive, collective and hyper-realistic virtual environment, where people will be able to live together using 3D customized avatars.
It was coined by writer Neal Stephenson in his science fiction book “Snow Crash”, published in 1992. The work tells the story of “Hiro Protagonist”, a character who in real life is a pizza delivery boy, but in the virtual world – called metaverse in the story – is a samurai.
Beyond hyper-realistic renders and accurate depictions of what projects look like once completed, visualizations have become tools to communicate atmospheres and emotions portrayed by architects. The use of mixed media, combined with architectural compositions, art, lighting, and oftentimes music, have generated a new genre of architectural storytelling, one that combines reality with imagination. And as the world immerses in NFT's and experimenting with cutting-edge technologies to create digital environments, visualizations might soon become "the new reality".
ArchDaily had the opportunity to talk to Visual Artist Ceren Arslan about branching out from the architecture practice, how she describes her creative process, her latest project EXIT, and what the future holds for architectural visualizations.
Model and Photograph. Image Courtesy of Duo Dickinson
We deal with buildings every day. We sleep in them, work in them, live our lives using their accommodation. But like a song or a painting, a person usually helps create them, with those who use and build them, then the world receives that work. But before they are built, buildings are just ideas.
What is the purpose of strategic planning? Why should we care as practice owners and what is the function of this effort? Perhaps we can begin to answer this question by defining strategy. Put simply, strategy is a set of goal-directed actions a company can take to gain and sustain a competitive advantage. A competitive advantage, however, is always relative. It defines the best way for a firm to create value for its internal and external stakeholders. Relativity is important. In the practice, profession, and business of Architecture, there are no absolute advantages. To paraphrase Simon Sinek: “Business is an infinite game in which the competitive landscape is always in flux.”
Torre Taikoo Green Ribbon / ARUP. Image Cortesia de ARUP
Discussing carbon neutrality in architecture should not only be based on local materials and new technologies, since there are many aspects that impact the construction production chain. From design to construction, without losing sight of the context and economic system of our society, the construction industry is responsible for a considerable part of the energy consumed worldwide. In order to interfere in this reality, it is necessary to expand the fronts of action, questioning the place of construction in our society.
The International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) and WantedDesign Manhattan will take place at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York from 15 to 17 May, 2022. Image Courtesy of ICFF
In the early days of the pandemic, MOMA curator Paola Antonelli and London-based design commentator Alice Rawsthorn started an Instagram Live series called Design Emergency. It documented the more phenomenal design solutions emerging from the Covid crisis – those tackling pressing health and societal needs with unprecedented focus, clarity and speed, often in a very local way. May sees the launch of the book that evolved from the conversations they had with the problem-solving protagonists and moves those conversations on to the next focus for the design world: how to build on the experience and be the agent of change. It’s apt then, as New York’s design shows, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) and WantedDesign Manhattan return to their regular springtime slot from 15 to 17 May, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, that Antonelli’s is a voice we will hear in the key talk 'Design Emergency: Building a Better Future'.
Founded in 1997, the São Paulo architecture firm Andrade Morettin Arquitetos Associados began with a partnership between Vinicius Andrade and Marcelo Morettin, which later included the architects Marcelo Maia Rosa and Renata Andrulis. Today, the office has more than two decades of history and a wide range of activities.
Furniture has a direct impact on the quality of interior design projects. Among other features, its presence blends with the function of the spaces, setting a boundary between them.
An internal space with neutral colors, for example, might highlight certain furniture that, beyond fulfilling their function, also assumes a contemplative profile. These pieces of furniture have become iconic by their design, which, in some cases, were created by great names of architecture that explored this field and drew pieces that represented their style.
The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.
A variety of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes are interviews, while others are tips for fellow designers, reviews of buildings and other projects, or casual explorations of everyday life and design. The Second Studio is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.
This week, David and Marina break down SCI-Arc's controversial panel "Basecamp: How to be in an office" and share their own advice on "how to be in an office”. The two discuss choosing the right office to work at; why the idea of committing to an office is right, but also wrong; why side hustles are not the solution to low fees and/or low pay; why just ‘getting shit done’ is not enough; why being underpaid is not just a ‘personal choice’; why the profession is struggling with low pay and long hours; and the nuances of SCI-Arc’s panel discussion.
https://www.archdaily.com/980293/the-second-studio-podcast-a-response-to-sci-arcs-basecamp-how-to-be-in-an-officeThe Second Studio Podcast
By digitizing architecture services, German firm baupal seeks to democratize sustainable and customized architecture, making design, energy assessments, permitting and cost evaluations more accessible and straightforward for private builders and smaller construction projects. Baupal is an online building application service that takes advantage of digital processes and efficient team structures to streamline design, planning and permitting processes for a range of small-scale projects.
Selected as one of Archdaily's Best New Practices of 2021, Baupal is a Berlin-based start-up co-founded in 2020 by Constantin Schmidt-Thomé, Justus Menten, and Max Schroeren with the purpose of "simplifying design and building application for everyday homeowners and their contractors. "With backgrounds in finance, entrepreneurship and architecture, the team set out to transform the design and planning approval process into a customer experience through digital and transparent workflows. The firm specializes in conversions, extensions and new single-family houses, while also providing building application services to construction companies.
Regardless of the design adopted for kitchen spaces, for some years now and with increasing frequency, many architects have been deciding to design kitchens by integrating them into other rooms in the home. Free of dividing walls or joinery, integrated kitchens are implemented with the aim of leaving the activities that take place there in full view of everyone, encouraging interaction and communication between the inhabitants.
When the estimable Blair Kamin stepped down as architecture critic of the Chicago Tribune in early 2021, it left the city without a daily critic at any of the local news outlets. That sad state of affairs was partially corrected recently, when the Chicago Sun-Times announced that Lee Bey would begin a monthly architecture column. The writer, historian, photographer, and critic brings a wealth of experience to the task: he was architecture critic for the Sun-Times for five years in the late 1990s, served as deputy chief of staff for planning and design in Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration, directed governmental affairs at SOM, and taught at IIT. His most recent book is Southern Exposure: The Overlooked Architecture of Chicago’s South Side. Last week I talked to Bey about the new role, how the city has changed since his last stint as a critic, and the unique importance of architecture to the city.
