A bounty of technological innovations in the 21st century have led to the theorization and implementation of so-called "Smart Cities," urban environments driven by data, and designed for efficiency. Although most smart technology focuses on infrastructure, a new tech startup named UNSense has been launched with adopts a human-centric approach, focusing on health and wellbeing.

Founded by Ben van Berkel, Principal Architect of Dutch firm UNStudio, and based in an Amsterdam innovation hub, UNSense aims to use technical interventions in the urban realm to improve people’s physical, mental and social health. As an independent, sister company of UNStudio, UNSense will specialize in sensor-driven technology for user-focused architecture – a "software" approach offering a counterpoint to the "hardware" of UNStudio.

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has won an international competition for the design of the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA). A long-awaited infrastructural project for India’s largest city, the scheme addresses capacity issues for the existing Chhatrapati Shivaji International (CSI) Airport, which features a terminal designed by SOM.

ZHA’s brief will encompass the design and execution of new NMIA terminal building, an Air Traffic Control Tower, and associated access. The airport will be situated across Mumbai Harbor, connected to the city by a planned rail link, and access to national rail networks. ZHA's previous work in the airport sector includes the Beijing Daxing International Airport (pictured), which is slated to be the world's largest airport terminal.

Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) have won an international competition for the design of an enhanced urban district in Charenton-Bercy, on the eastern edge of Paris. Working with a team of urbanists, landscape designers and community think tanks, SOM have proposed a highly connected urban landscape incorporating a 180-meter energy efficient tower, and contemporary rotunda serving as a virtual reality hub.

In the 3rd Arrondissement of the French city of Lyon, construction has begun on Lyon Part-Dieu, an MVRDV-designed scheme seeking to transform the city’s main shopping center. Featuring partly-transparent glass and a public green roof, the MVRDV scheme will revitalize and integrate what was formerly an introverted complex built for an era dominated by the car.

At 166,000 square meters, Lyon Part-Dieu is the largest downtown shopping center in Europe, built in 1975. In order to improve the existing outdated complex, MVRDV worked with co-architects SUD to produce a design that offers a contemporary update to the existing façade and a re-organization of the interior program.

Zaha Hadid Architects has won an international competition for the design of a Central Hub for Aljada, a prominent masterplan for the UAE city of Sharjah. Regarded as the ‘cultural capital of the Arab world', Sharjah will play host to ZHA's unmistakeable brand of fluid, curving, sculpted urban design.

In an era defined by globalization, and ‘speed-driven economies,’ urban environments are becoming more entwined with airports, giving rise to an architectural phenomenon of the ‘Aerotropolis’ across the world. In Oslo, Norwegian firms Haptic Architects and Nordic Office of Architecture have aimed higher, seeking to design the world’s first energy-positive airport city for the Norwegian capital.

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Disparity between men and women in the workplace has long been cause for concern, both within the architectural profession and beyond. To raise awareness of the need for gender pay equality, the British government in 2017 demanded that UK-based organizations with more than 250 staff publish annual reports of the gender pay gap within their offices.

As one of the largest architecture firms in the world, and based in Battersea, London, Foster + Partners has released their report into gender pay issues, becoming one of the first architecture firms to do so. The report reveals significant under-representation of women at senior level resulting in a pay gap across the firm, and outlines a commitment to encouraging gender diversity at all levels of management.

Bee Breeders have selected winners of the Hong Kong Pixel Homes competition, seeking to address the pressures of expanding populations and urban growth on existing housing markets. The competition asked for solutions which would reconsider our entrenched conventional forms of housing with “formal, technological, and material strategies predicated on modularity and repetition”. In announcing the competition results, the jury applauded the exploration of density, amenity and public/private adjacency in the winning schemes, recognizing their consideration for novel approaches to domestic culture and tradition.

The competition winners, including noted ‘Green’ and ‘Student’ schemes, are set out below.

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Videos

Few architectural typologies are more centered around the human experience than a sporting arena. The design of sports stadiums often feature notable architecture firms, such as Herzog & de Meuron’s design for Chelsea’s football stadium in London, and Kengo Kuma’s 2020 Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. Recently, renowned design practice HOK tackled stadium design using an obvious yet untapped resource in the design of rugby stadiums –rugby players themselves.

John Rhodes, a director of HOK’s Sports + Recreation + Entertainment practice, met with legendary rugby players Jamie Roberts (Wales), Tim Visser (Scotland), James Horwill (Australia) and Danny Care (England) to capture their ideas, both as players and fans. The findings were collated into a video by HOK, which you can watch below.

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Social media is one of the most critical elements for a successful marketing strategy. For architecture firms, the bounty of online platforms supporting visual content can allow ideas, commissions, and buildings to reach millions of architecture lovers around the world with a single click.

Since its launch in 2004, Facebook has proven to be an enduring platform for sharing architectural ideas, with even ArchDaily taking the decision in February to make Facebook a primary avenue for reader comments. Below, we have rounded up the 20 architecture firms worldwide with the most Facebook followers, demonstrating how a well-maintained, engaging presence on social media can allow architectural ideas to be spread to millions of enthusiasts. Are you following all of them?

Denmark-based AART architects have been selected to design the country’s national rowing stadium, seeing off strong competition from prominent firms such as BIG and Kengo Kuma. Situated upon Bagsværd Lake on the outskirts of Copenhagen, the scheme seeks to allow the sporting elite and broader public to form a close interaction with picturesque natural surroundings.

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For over ten thousand years, cities have maintained an industrial infrastructure to transform local materials into basic necessities, such as clothing, food, and shelter. Even in the present day, with advances in science, construction, and commercial technology, a need still exists for structures dedicated to industrial-scale production, storage and distribution. However, in this more advanced, environmentally-conscious age, a challenge has emerged to create industrial complexes which are ecologically sensitive, responsible and sustainable.

Against this environmental backdrop, Istanbul-based GAD Architecture have unveiled Media City, a multimedia-based industrial complex to serve Istanbul’s future airport, projected to be the world’s largest upon completion. Recognized with a Future Project Award by the Architectural Review, Media City will incorporate industrial buildings in an urban setting inspired by QR codes, where artistic and cultural values co-exist with a celebration of environmental and technological progress.

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Art is not confined to gallery walls. The concept of art displayed on ceilings stretches back to the Renaissance, perhaps most notably the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo. The Renaissance tradition of Trompel’oeil ceilings went further, using an illusionary depth of perspective to depict a volume which doesn’t exist; be it a dome that was never built or an attic filled with angels.

Four hundred years later, New York and Los Angeles-based architecture firm FreelandBuck has elevated the concept with its upcoming installation ‘Parallax Gap’, which has been selected by the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum as the winning entry in a competition entitled ‘ABOVE the Renwick’. From July 2017 to February 2018, the 2,500sqft canopy will be suspended from the ceiling of the Renwick’s largest room, the Bettie Rubenstein Grand Salon, depicting an abstract catalog of American architectural icons.

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On a tree-lined avenue in Singapore, fittingly named Orchard Road, Apple has opened its first Flagship store in the city-state, highlighting its role as a global center for creativity and innovation. Designed by Fosters + Partners, in collaboration with the design team at Apple, the Orchard Road Flagship seeks to create a new social focus by working in tandem with nature, blurring the boundaries between inside and out.

Bee Breeders have selected winners of the Stone Barn Meditation Camp competition, seeking to create a place of refuge for individuals amidst the pristine natural beauty of one of Latvia’s most remote regions. In announcing the competition results, the jury applauded the respect and regard shown to the environment by submitted schemes, commenting that the most successful projects stood out for their simplicity, elegance, and balance with nature.

The competition winners, including noted ‘Green’ and ‘Student’ schemes, are set out below.

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As part of a global, interdisciplinary effort to tackle climate change, architects are devoting resources towards optimizing the energy efficiency of buildings old and new. This effort is more than justified, given that buildings account for almost 40% of UK and US emissions. Although sustainability is now a hallmark of many new architectural schemes, the energy inefficiency of structures from the 18th and 19th centuries still contribute to global carbon emissions on a vast scale.

In order to address the challenge of intelligently retrofitting existing buildings, the Harvard Center for Green Buildings (CGBC) at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, in collaboration with Snøhetta and Skanska Technology, are retrofitting the CGBC’s headquarters in a pre-1940s timber-framed building, aiming to create one of the world’s most ambitious sustainable buildings. HouseZero is driven by uncompromising performance targets, such as 100% natural ventilation, 100% daylight autonomy, and almost zero energy required for heating and cooling. The result will be a prototype for ultra-efficiency, reducing reliance on energy-intensive technology whilst creating a comfortable indoor environment.

Cairo-based architect Mohamed Elgendy has won an international competition for the design of a new community pavilion in Roseville, Michigan. The Pavilion at Utica Junction competition, organized by the Roseville DDA, sought to attract proposals for a public pavilion on the site of an old tavern, creating a gathering space for residents and visitors to stage events, socialize, and play. The vision behind Elgendy’s winning scheme was for a dialogue between three elements – a plaza, a ramp, and an indoor pavilion.

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Like many European urban districts, the Swedish city of Gothenburg is in the process of transforming old industrial areas along its waterfront into mixed-use public realms. Against the backdrop of urban regeneration in Gothenburg, Danish firm Henning Larsen has unveiled a masterplan for the Lindholmen urban district, which following its completion in 2025, will offer a diverse environment for engagement between students, entrepreneurs, and public citizens.

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