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'Cities for Play' is a project whose main objective is to inspire architects and urban planners to create stimulating, respectful, and accessible cities for children.

Natalia Krysiak, its creator, is an Australian architect who believes that children's needs should be placed at the center of urban design to ensure resilient and sustainable communities. In 2017, she produced 'Cities for Play,' studying examples of cities that are concerned with providing environments that are capable of promoting the health and well-being – physical and emotional – of children through a focus on play and "active mobility” in public spaces.

Pritzker Prize 2020 Laureates, Irish architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara are known for their powerful yet delicate approaches. In this exclusive video for ArchDaily, Martha Thorne, executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and Dean of IE School of Architecture and Design, shares some of the reasons why Grafton Architects has won the Pritzker Prize 2020.

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“When you read Love in the Time of Cholera you come to realize the magic realism of South America.” Yvonne Farrell, Shelley McNamara and I were in a corner of the Barbican Centre’s sprawling, shallow atrium talking about the subject of their most recent accolade, the Royal Institute of British Architects inaugural International Prize, awarded that previous evening. That same night the two Irish architects, who founded their practice in Dublin in the 1970s, also delivered a lecture on the Universidad de Ingeniería and Tecnologia (UTEC)—their “modern-day Machu Picchu” in Lima—to a packed audience in London’s Portland Place.

Space Saloon and Designers on Holiday have announced DeSaturated, a week-long interdisciplinary community-in-residence design festival in California's Cuyama Valley. Following the success of the first two iterations, LANDING and FIELDWORKS, the team is returning to California once more. The community-in-residence program will bring together designers, artists and researchers to address issues of water scarcity.

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With residential developments offering ever-smaller housing units, the challenge for architects and interior designers to develop compact and multifunctional solutions for interior projects increases. From this perspective, it is increasingly common for professionals to focus on their clipboards in creating new solutions for joinery and multifunctional furniture that allow the space to transform completely in a few seconds, such as strategic cabinets and bookcases to supply the lack of storage space; sliding furniture on rails or pulleys; cabinets that turn into beds through vertical rotation; drawers in stairways, etc.

With more than 40 years of professional experience, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, partners and co-founders of Dublin-based Grafton Architects, are the first women to be jointly awarded the architecture’s highest honor, the Pritzker Prize. In addition to a very welcoming breath of hope towards greater female representation in the field, the selection also cast light over an equally urgent theme in the profession: recognizing architecture practice as a collective effort.

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Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara founded Grafton Architects in 1978, after they met each other at the School of Architecture at University College Dublin. The practice, named after the street where the duo's first office was located, has been awarded this year’s prestigious 2020 Pritzker Award. Grafton's built work reflects the continued search of architectural excellence, in buildings ranging from small scale housing to large public volumes.

Australian architecture is rooted in the land. From environmental and climatic concerns to the country's unique cultural background, the built environment down under is defined by a history of connections to local contexts. Today, Australian architecture has also come to embrace a multicultural identity, with a new class of cultural projects showcasing how contemporary buildings and structures are being designed for the future.

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Door handles are a ubiquitous part of daily life, being used constantly in almost every space but rarely given thought by the passing user. Nevertheless, the chosen material of each handle can vary widely in terms of aesthetics, durability, and sustainability, with good choices going noticeably right and poor choices going noticeably wrong. For objects that are seen and used multiple times every day without fail, it’s imperative that designers get the choice right.

To deepen this topic, FSB helps us to lay out the properties of four of the most common handle materials below, allowing you to make an informed decision on which material aligns best with your project’s needs.

Today marks the start of the registration phase for the international ICONIC AWARDS 2020: Innovative Architecture. These awards recognize the best of architecture and innovative interior and product design, as well as outstanding communication concepts and singularly innovative materials. The winners will be honored at the awards ceremony on 5 October 2020 at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, where they will have ample opportunity to network with other players on both the national and international scene.

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As one of the oldest building materials, dating back to at least 7500 BCE, brick is often thought of as a traditional, classic option for a building facade. Throughout its long history, however, the brick industry has changed and modernized to remain architecturally relevant. Innovations in brick construction continue to provide new opportunities for designs that combine the warmth and character of a natural material with the efficiency and aesthetics of a modern building. 

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Robotics and automation are a staple of any vision of how we will live in the future. Among architects and designers, this trend crosses a variety of scales, from smart cities to smart kitchens. As we outlined in our Trends That Will Influence Architecture in 2019, recent years has seen a strengthening in how interior spaces are being transformed by technologies, with searches for Domotics soaring by 450% in twelve months.

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Deception, concealment, camouflage. Nature's numerous examples of disguising as a strategy to survive have provided humankind with plenty of inspiration for military unobtrusiveness throughout history. Today, disguise appeals as a way to protect one's private life in the City with Eyes. In a time when monitoring and surveillance systems are increasingly pervasive, Monica Hutton reflects on concealment strategies that are being developed, and which agencies they can deploy as part of complex urban ecologies.

The stories of the buildings of the United States have been built by the undeniable culture that its inhabitants have been creating. That is why architecture is more than a physical object, it evokes moments that express the wishes of its inhabitants in different political and economic contexts. In all cases, these buildings represent the daily struggle that comes with a monumental legacy of those who lived there.

The Midnight Charette is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by architectural designers David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features a variety of creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions. A wide array of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes provide useful tips for designers, while others are project reviews, interviews, or explorations of everyday life and design. The Midnight Charette is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

This week David and Marina discuss strategies and share their stories about passing the AREs (Architects Registration Examination). The two cover everything from the best study materials, how to study and how much time to allow, why the exam is difficult, the best time to take the exams, what to do if you fail, what to expect the 'day of', tips for taking the exam, and more! If you have any questions call or text the hotline at 213-222-6950.

This article was originally published on Washington Post, courtesy of Common Edge.

Hundred-year floods. Record-breaking Antarctic heat. Wildfires and drought. The stories appear with numbing regularity. And though the details differ, they all point to the same grim conclusion. We’re failing to address climate change. With carbon emissions continuing to rise, what were once dismissed as worst-case scenarios now look like the best we can hope for.