Senior Editor at ArchDaily based in Los Angeles.
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.
The Shanghai Cofco Cultural and Health Center by Steven Holl Architects has topped out. Designed in 2016, the project was designed to become a social condenser, fostering community among the residents of the surrounding new housing blocks with a public space and park along an existing canal. Centering on public space, the projects features an exoskeletal concrete construction.
The School of Architecture at Taliesin has announced the closing of the school after 88 years. The news follows 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. The decision was made by the Governing Board, as the school was not able to reach an agreement with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to keep the school open.
Veteran Italian film producer and CEO of Luce Cinecittà Roberto Cicutto has been appointed president of the Venice Biennale. Cicutto was appointed by the Italian minister of culture Dario Franceschini, and will replace Paolo Baratta, who presided over the Biennale for 8 years. Cicutto’s term will run for four years with a maximum of three renewals.
Architect and visual artist Mohammad Hassan Forouzanfar has been conceptually combining contemporary landmarks with traditional Iranian houses, palaces and monuments in a photo-series titled "Retrofuturism". In his latest exploration, Peace, the Persian architect looks to Iran's Persepolis cultural site, the former capital of the Achaemenid Empire.
The government of Wuhan City in China has decided to build a 1,000 bed hospital in six days to fight the recent coronavirus outbreak. The project aims builds off the previous construction of Beijing Xiaotangshan Hospital in just a week's time back in 2003. As the quarantined Wuhan City's existing hospitals are overwhelmed, they have turned to social media for medical supplies and have begun to turn away patients.
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Wood Design & Building Magazine has announced the winning projects for this year's Awards program. Launched in 1984, the awards program recognizes and celebrates the work of visionaries around the world who inspire excellence in wood architecture. Submissions included projects that weaved wooden architecture into the surrounding landscape in inventive ways.
OMA and designer Shohei Shigematsu have released the design for 10,000 sq. feet of new and renovated galleries for the Denver Art Museum (DAM). The project is part of the phased reopening of the newly renovated Gio Ponti-designed Martin Building. OMA's work is done within the building’s original footprint, and the project is part of an overall campus reunification and building renovation project led by Machado Silvetti and Fentress Architects.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is recognizing seven projects with its 2020 Interior Architecture Awards. The Interior Architecture program celebrates the most innovative interior spaces. As the AIA states, these building interiors make their mark on the cities, places, and spaces where we live and work.
Powerhouse Company has revealed a new design for Floating Office Rotterdam (FOR), the headquarters of the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA). As the team states, construction will start this spring, and the all-timber project will be both energy-neutral and self-sufficient. The GCA will be housed in the Rijnhaven in Rotterdam for a period of 5 to 10 years.
Stoss Landscape Urbanism is leading a 13-firm team creating the new Chouteau Greenway Framework Plan for St. Louis. The framework plan consists of a series of geographic, equity, economic, architectural, programming, art and design guidelines that will serve as the master plan for projects. As winners of the competition, the team is exploring how to incorporate connection, inclusion, and joy along the Greenway.
The Future Architecture Platform has announced the final list of Fellows for 2020. With 433 ideas from 53 countries, over 800 applicants in individual and group applications participated. Fellows will be invited to the 2020 Creative Exchange in MAO Ljubljana, exchanging ideas and networking to find avenues toward international recognition.
Architecture practice TERROIR has designed a new visitor center for Victoria’s Puffing Billy Railway in Australia. The $20 million project is sited within the Dandenong Ranges, 40 kilometres east of Melbourne. TERROIR were shortlisted from an open tender as one of five firms to compete in a design competition. The studio's strategy was to focus on creating a visitor experience anchored within the authentic sights, smells and sounds of the railway.
KPMB Architects and Suffolk recently broke ground on Boston University’s new Center for Computing and Data Sciences. The Center aims to be a striking new addition to Boston University’s central campus and its first new major teaching center in a half-century. As the tallest building at Boston University, the 19-story, 350,000-square-foot structure will bring the institution’s mathematics, statistics and computer science departments under one roof.
Harvard Graduate School of Design (Harvard GSD) has announced the six winners of the 2020 Richard Rogers Fellowship, a residency program at the Wimbledon House in London, the landmarked residence designed by Lord Richard Rogers for his parents in the late 1960s. Now entering its fourth cycle, the Fellowship is inspired by Lord Rogers’s commitment to cross-disciplinary investigation and engagement.
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