Community & Content Editor at ArchDaily. Bachelor of Arts in Interior Architecture & Master's in Product & Business Development. Born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon.
Every year, France uses 66,600 tons of plant protection pesticides for its agriculture and produces 4.5 million tons of plastics, of which only 22% are recycled. Almost 48,000 deaths are attributed to fine particle pollution and automobile activity, and the planet is still expected to endure. In such grave situations, urban developments have become subject to new ecological criteria that focus on finding biodiverse solutions for both public and private sectors.
In compliance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030 that aims to find eco-responsible urban solutions, Studio NAB created Car Parks 2.0, an ecological parking space that rethinks commercial parking areas and transforms it into a more sustainable and humane place.
Every holiday season, architects, designers, and urban planners set up vibrant installations in cities around the world, to serve as beacons of joy and interactive points of attraction. On the 18th of November, Hou de Sousawill install Ziggy in New York City to celebrate the upcoming holiday season with vibrant hues and playful gateways.
Open More Doors is a section by ArchDaily and the MINI Clubman that takes you behind the scenes of the world’s most innovative offices through exciting video interviews and an exclusive photo gallery featuring each studio’s workspace.
This month, we talked with American architecture and urban design firm Studio Gang and how their Chicago office focuses on ecological biodiversity, collaborative multidisciplinary projects, and finding potential in historic structures.
People often find themselves physically and emotionally comfortable in specific public places. Whether one's reading a book on the terrace of a coffee shop, sitting on a cozy sofa at a hair salon, or waiting for the train at train station, some spaces tend to initiate a feeling identical to being in the comfort of one's home.
The field of environmental psychology has helped find the factors that achieve "human comfort", and now, architects and designers are working alongside the field's specialists to develop comfortable spaces.
"Mario Botta: The Space Beyond" is a 78’ architectural documentary on the life journey and works of internationally-acclaimed Swiss architect Mario Botta. The film, which provides a glimpse of the person behind the architect, is co-directed by Loretta Dalpozzo and Michèle Volontè, and produced by Swissbridge Productions.
On the 16th, 17th and 19th of October, the documentary will be screened in New York during the Architecture and Design Film Festival, in the presence of the architect himself and the directors. The film will also be screened during the upcoming Rotterdam Film Festival, Beirut Art Festival, Artecinema film festival (Naples Italy), Milan Deign Film festival, and ADFF in Toronto and Vancouver.
The Kurdish city of Kamyaran - which sits on the transit borders of Kurdistan and Iran - is a developing city that experienced a devastating earthquake a few years ago. The city is located in a district deprived of modern facilities, and the majority of the residents' income is acquired from the transit of products across the common border with Iraq and Turkey. Project developers in the area are faced with several challenges, one of which is the amount of projects needed to ameliorate the city's status.
Instead of designing two different projects on two separate sites, CAAT Studio proposed the Kamyaran City-School, a new concept which merges an elementary school and public space into one large facility that aims to improve the social and cultural life of its residents.
Situated between the Caspian Sea and Si Sangan forest, Iranian firm MADO Architects developed a private residential project dedicated to the clients' specific request of absolute privacy. The Sisangan Villa project focused on the site's layout, referral to typical vernacular architecture, and geometric manipulation to create a dynamic structure of intersecting concrete walls and glass facades.
Seoul is considered one of the most densely-populated and over-priced cities in the world, reaching a staggering $ 80,000 per square meter. The extreme conditions of the city have forced local architects to operate, design, and build framing the city's urban issues, traditions, and history. This approach by architects has created the the theoretical basis of “The Condition of Seoul Architecture”, a publication by multidisciplinary practice TCA Think Tank which sees the point of view of 18 innovative South Korean architects. In this interview, Pier Alessio Rizzardi, founder of the practice, interviewed whimsical architect Moon Hoon, explaining his unique take on architecture and how his work has the ability to inspire people into another dimension.
The Latvian city of Riga, the largest between the three Baltic states, is undergoing a cultural and urban renaissance. The city's pedestrian-only Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with several museums, cultural centers, and restaurants, attracting thousands of new visitors every year.
Videos
Courtesy of Richard John Seymour & 3RW Arkitekter
The various practices of mankind over the past decades have taken a huge toll on the environment. People of all nationalities, interests, and career backgrounds have been trying to find means to heal the wounded landscapes and shed light on the environmental crisis.
Directed by BAFTA-nominated film director Richard John Seymour and produced by Norwegian design firm 3RW arkitekter, Landscape Healing is a cinematic documentary that follows the journey of a diverse group of people who have been setting a paradigm for humanity's greatest challenge: the rewilding of our planet back to a sustainable level.
The Architecture Academy podcast is a new architecture and design podcast which has a focus on ideas and education. The team believes that through education and better conversations they can improve how people design their buildings and cities. The Architecture Academy has just completed their first series of podcasts with conversations with world experts on topics such as beauty, happiness, education, sustainability, vernacular architecture and housing.
Between New York's towering buildings and cramped streets, Atelier Ace developed a project unique to its surroundings. Located in Manhattan's Bowery neighborhood, the Sister City Hotel project included a four-floor extension to an existing 10-storey structure, as well as a complete renovation of the interior space. The interior design draws inspiration from Scandinavian and Japanese architecture, providing visitors with complete tranquility within New York's bustling neighborhood.
In an exclusive interview with ArchDaily, Kelly Sawdon, Chief Brand Officer and Partner at Atelier Ace/Ace Hotel Group describes her take on minimal design and explains the approach and inspiration behind the Sister City Hotel project.
ArkxSite has announced the winners of its international architecture ideas competition.The competition has invited all architecture students and young architects to develop innovative ideas for the design of a Site Mausoleum located in the Jaspe Quarry, ‘Serra da Arrábida’, Portugal. The site is of great natural power as the remains of an old quarry are carved into its landscape, along with massive cliffs that drop dramatically into the Atlantic Ocean.
The competition committee wanted participants to develop an intervention that emphasizes, respects, and celebrates the site, all while providing visitors with a unique experience of movement between enclosed and open spaces.
The city of Amsterdam is popular for its compelling architecture, interlaced water canals, bridges, and docks. However, alongside these water canals lay old guard cabins that have been left to defunct. A restoration project by Dutch architecture firm space&matter promises to bring together the historic city's tourists and water canals through a unique architecture project.
In all religions, prayer halls and religious buildings aim to separate the visitor from the chaos of daily life and provide serenity and peace, even for the brief moment in time when visitors are performing their prayers. In the Turkish city of Şanlıurfa, BeOffice Architects designed a circular, unbound mosque with a focus on nature, tranquility, and accessibility.
The Kharkiv School of Architecture is celebrating a prosperous year of academic and international achievements. In addition to hosting the nominated projects of the 2019 EU Mies Awards, the school has completed its first year of BA in Architecture. To celebrate these milestones, the school has organized a double exhibition showcasing the works of first-year students, as well as displaying the projects of Europe's most innovative architects.
By bringing together these two exhibitions, the school built a link between two generations of architects: The Mies Award, where the best works of the current European architects and designers are displayed, and the school's “Open/Work” exhibition, a glimpse into the innovations of future Ukrainian architecture.
In the midst of today's digital revolution, architectural representation is no longer solely based on high resolution photography. Architects are now collaborating with audiovisual professionals to transform their projects into cinematic experiences.
Earlier this year, German design firm 22quadrat founded 9sekunden, a new film studio specialized in short landscape and architecture documentaries. For Tadao Ando's Conference Pavilion, the studio take their viewers on a meditative journey, portraying the concrete structure's calm and restrained atmosphere in a short film.
