Surfing is both a sport and a way of life. As the art of he'e nalu, it mirrors design as a play between spatial experience and environment. Today, the commercial and cultural architecture of surfing has become increasingly common, designs that break away from iconic seaside homes and waterfront retreats to create new connections between the public, surfers and the ocean.
Peru, with its varied geography and vast array of natural resources, renders an architectural style that makes itself one with the landscape. In the country's three principal terrains —coast, mountain, and rainforest— there is little variation in temperature and the climate can be defined as either tropical or subtropical.
Parpend, a design studio from Lagos, Nigeria, interviews every year a group of architects to discuss their favorite projects and how they created them. Believing firmly that design should be a fusion of function and expression, statements are compiled in a publication in order to highlight the designers’ creative process to achieving good design.
Entitled “PERSPECTIVE”, this edition of the report, destined for designers and non-designers alike, examines 4 projects with 3 designers: Seun Oduwole, Principal designer at SI.SA talks about the JK Randle Centre for Yoruba History and Culture, on Lagos Island; Tosin Oshinowo, Director at cmDesign Atelier discusses a Bahá’í temple competition and an art space for Victor Ehikhamenor, a prominent Nigerian artist. Moreover, James Inedu-George, Head of Design at HTL Africa explores a mosque contest.
In 1972 Unesco created the World Heritage Convention linking together the concepts of nature conservation and the preservation of cultural heritage. Based on the understanding that sites and monuments are threatened with deterioration or disappearance over time, the organization determines that those of outstanding universal value deserve special protection from the dangers they are facing. Therefore, the efforts to identify, protect, preserve, and value the sites included on this list are meant to safeguard and pass the world's cultural and natural heritage on to future generations.
If you are in a place impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, spending 20 minutes experiencing nature in a park, street, or even your backyard can significantly reduce your stress levels. Just be sure to follow federal, state, and local guidelines and maintain social distancing of 6 feet or 2 meters. But even if you cannot or are unable to go outside, taking a break by opening a window and looking at a tree or plant can also help de-stress.
Resilience seems to be the topic of much discussion within circles of urbanism today. Though, there is a slight problem. We can’t quite agree on what the term means.
Two definitions seem to be floating about. The first rooted in material science. The second, in ecology.
Whether by traditional windows, linear openings in the wall, or skylights, the manipulation and incorporation of natural lighting in architectural projects can render a radical change in interior spaces.
In a time where space grows more and more limited and people increasingly spend time at home, flexibility presents itself as an underutilized strategy of interior design. With flexible furniture, residents can optimize square footage and easily reshape configurations according to specific requirements and shifting needs. Below, we discuss the benefits and variations of furniture on wheels, closing with 7 example projects illustrating their creative and practical application.
Space has long captured our imaginations. Looking to the ocean above us, writers, scientists and designers alike have continuously dreamed up new visions for a future on distant planets. Mars is at the center of this discourse, the most habitable planet in our solar system after Earth. Proposals for the red planet explore how we can create new realms of humanity in outer space.
Four emerging architecture studio profiles from Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, and Poland were chosen by New Generations, a platform that analyses the most innovative emerging practices at the European level, providing a new space for the exchange of knowledge and confrontation, theory, and production. Since 2013, New Generations has involved more than 300 practices in a diverse program of cultural activities, such as festivals, exhibitions, open calls, video-interviews, workshops, and experimental formats.
The incorporation of the human figure is one of the most effective tools used in architectural photography: it helps the viewer decipher the scale of work and assess its amplitude. While it successfully communicates a rough idea of the measurements of the elements in the picture, it also helps architecture become more relatable and accessible. People engage better with the built environment when it is populated, mainly because the human sense of society and community is the cornerstone of our civilization. With this in mind, we are showcasing a selection of our favorite photographs where the human figure takes center stage, enhancing our reading of architecture.
Using and controlling light can change the perception of a place; users perceive and feel the space differently depending on factors such as the type of light switch, color variations, and combinations. When used in temporary installations, light can break the boundaries between art and architecture, and also between tangible and intangible, transforming the elements of the project and creating new shapes and patterns.
Spurred by disasters like Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy, cities across the United States have, over the past 15 years, learned to “live with water.” After more than a century of filling wetlands, damming rivers, and diverting streams and stormwater flows into concrete channels, public officials, influenced by a coterie of landscape architects and planners, have embraced the opposite strategy, investing in open space networks that use dynamic natural systems to slow, store, and absorb floodwaters.
More than 55% of the world’s population lives in cities, with that number only expected to increase in the coming decades. Despite the rising population in urban areas, local governments continue to raise flags about inadequate infrastructure and the declining quality of life that cities are facing. Perhaps the large scale problems that we typically categorize as urban innovation, inclusion, and infrastructure, can be solved if we get to the root of the smaller troubles, that we may not even know existed. It’s time to take urban issues off the back burner and improve cities not just for today, but for the long term future.
Some celebrate the failures of "Make It Right", Brad Pitt’s patronage in New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina wrecked New Orleans in 2005, celebrated architects like Frank Gehry, David Adjaye and Thom Mayne created art for a foundation set up by Pitt. A local architect, John C. Williams was hired to turn designs from those starchitects into buildings with a directive to use the best sustainable materials available.
The area surrounding a river, lake, lagoon or sea coast acts as a transition zone between water and land. Therefore, turning the water banks into dynamic and appealing public spaces helps to establish a certain balance between the stiffness of the built environment and the fluidity of water.
