ArchDaily News Editor based in Los Angeles.
Architects Julie Smith-Clementi and Frank Clementi have changed the built environment of Southern California and Los Angeles for over three decades. Together, the duo recently launched Smith-Clementi, a new multidisciplinary design practice working at the intersection of urbanism, architecture and product design. Following a "plates to parks" design philosophy, the duo is transforming the built environment at multiple scales.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures by Renzo Piano Building Workshop is set to open this December in Los Angeles. Set along the Miracle Mile, the design consists of the renovation of the May Company department store located at the corner of Fairfax and Wilshire, as well as a new glass sphere addition that will house the 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater.
Australian practice ARM Architecture has begun redevelopment of the iconic Sydney Opera House's concert hall. The two-year renovation aims to better equip it for performances, enhance its acoustics, improve accessibility and create a safer working environment. Part of the biggest upgrade to the building since it opened in 1973, the project will include a new acoustic ceiling, new automated drapes, and a 3D surround-sound system for amplified performances.
The French Pavilion at the London Design Biennale 2020 will explore the theme of resonance through metronomes. The design team will comprise of designer Sebastien Servaire, Margot Myers and curator Anne-Laure Pingreoun. Up to 50 countries, territories and cities will exhibit at the third edition of London Design Biennale this autumn. They will respond to Artistic Director Es Devlin's call to action exploring how design can provide solutions to the major crises of our time.
Solar design in contemporary architecture is rooted in the profession's sustainable turn. The relationship between architecture and energy is tied to both passive strategies and performance via more recent innovations in technology. As one way to begin addressing the global climate crisis and greenhouse gas emissions, solar design is reshaping cities and architecture around the world.
New York City Council and the Van Alen Institute have announced a new design competition to reimagine the Brooklyn Bridge. The international competition seeks creative, unconventional designs that respect and enhance the bridge’s landmark status, think inclusively about mobility and access, and accommodate commuters, visitors, and vendors.
Foster + Partners have designed a new residential tower project for the Qianhai Talents’ Apartments in Shenzhen. The winning competition design takes aim at the city's rental market, formed as a building exclusively for ‘talents’ – professionals who would have an intensive work-centered lifestyle. Exploring themes of privacy and exclusivity, the project aspires to create modern layouts that redefine the residents’ living experience.
Architectural photographer Marc Goodwin recently visited Madrid to continue his journey documenting diverse architecture studios and design offices. He has visited many cities and countries around the world, including Brazil, Panama City, the Netherlands, Dubai, London, Paris, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, the Nordic countries, Barcelona, Los Angeles and Istanbul. In Madrid, Marc photographed 16 intimate office spaces and a range of studios.
Architecture practice LOT-EK's Triangle Stack #2 project is now open at Domino Park in Brooklyn. Designed for the Brooklyn Museum to support an urban-scale mural by the artist JR, and create an instant public space, the 60-foot tall triangular courtyard opens to the city and the sky. These "STACKS" are temporary large-scale installations that aim at creating sudden and powerful experiences in public space.
HENN has designed the first Sino-French aeronautics campus plan for Hangzhou, China. Supported by the French Government, the public project aims to welcome 10,000 students and researchers. Balancing contemporary design with traditional Chinese cultural heritage, the project was designed to integrate the masterplan with the natural topography of the site.
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.
A new executive order by Donald Trump has the potential to make new federal architecture in the United States follow the classical style. Called "Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again", the order would require rewriting the Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture, issued in 1962, to ensure that “the classical architectural style shall be the preferred and default style” for new and upgraded federal buildings.
Architecture theorist, historian, and curator Beatriz Colomina has been awarded the 2020 Ada Louise Huxtable Prize for Contribution to Architecture from the W Awards. As the Howard Crosby Butler Professor of the History of Architecture and co-director of the Program in Media and Modernity at Princeton, Colomina is an internationally renowned architectural historian and theorist who has written extensively on questions of architecture, art, technology, sexuality and media.
Last week, The School of Architecture at Taliesin announced the closing of the school after 88 years. Both the school and the Frank Lloyd Wright foundation issued statements on the closure, and now the Student Body has created their own statement outlining the impact of the decision. The news of closure followed the conclusion of a multi-year struggle back in 2017, when the school was approved to maintain its accreditation as an institute of higher learning.
Labor gives rise to design. As the aggregate of physical and mental effort used in the creation of goods and services, labor is tied to both what we create and our process. In a field shaped by production, architecture and design depend on labor from a broad range of professionals. But as workers increasingly put in longer hours and traditional measures of security change, questions of labor practices have arisen amid broader conditions of contemporary work culture.
China's Wuhan City has completed construction of the 1,000-bed Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital in under ten days. Built to treat coronavirus patients, the hospital aims to build off the previous construction of Beijing Xiaotangshan Hospital in just a week's time back in 2003. The final project was finished by a 7,000-member crew, and the hospital received its first patients on Monday morning.
Morphosis Architects designed a new conference center for the city of Nanjing in China. Located in the New Jiangbei District, the project is situated between China’s eastern coastal cities and the Yangtze River Delta region. The conference center design was made as a flagship project to embody a charter for sustainable and ecologically-sensitive development.
Sidewalk Labs have released their latest study, called Proto-Model X (PMX), investigating how tall timber buildings could work in cities. As a digital proof-of-concept for how to design and manufacture a tall timber building, the study follows the team’s announcement last June to design the world’s first all-timber high-rise neighborhood on Toronto’s eastern waterfront.
_-_Pavillion_for_France_at_London_Design_Biennale_(3).jpg?1581537631 "Metronome(s). Image Courtesy of London Design Biennale")
_-_Pavillion_for_France_at_London_Design_Biennale.jpg?1581537662 "Metronome(s). Image Courtesy of London Design Biennale")
_-_Pavillion_for_France_at_London_Design_Biennale_(4).jpg?1581537648 "Metronome(s). Image Courtesy of London Design Biennale")
_-_Pavillion_for_France_at_London_Design_Biennale_(2).jpg?1581537615 "Metronome(s). Image Courtesy of London Design Biennale")
