Jungwoo Ji (of EUS+ Architects), Bosuk Hur (of Folio:), and Suk Lee (a fourth-year student at Iowa State University) have won the Liberty Museum / New York competition with their speculative design for a museum at the site of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in New York City.

Inspired by the concept of civil candlelight marches against social injustice in Korea—the designers’ home country—the proposal is designed to be an architectural device that reflects human rights and social justice disparity in real time. When visitors send messages, namely tweets, about dire events in their cities to the museum with their phones, each unit of the proposal receives electronic signals and changes its position to point towards the region in question.

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Fine arts and commercial photographer Balint Alovits has released Time Machine, his latest photo series documenting Art Deco and Bauhaus staircases throughout Budapest, Hungary.

Shown from the same central perspective, the photographs “create a new dimension by splitting space and time, staying within the visual limits of the project’s concept, while the perception of the architectural details evokes the idea of infinity.”

“I have always liked Art Deco and Bauhaus buildings,” said Alovits. “Whenever I step into one of these caracoles, I feel a certain pulling energy looking up from the bottom or down from the top. I wanted to collect and showcase all the different shapes and colors that these stairways feature.”

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Gustafson Porter + Bowman has unveiled plans for Taikoo Place, a new public space for Hong Kong that will include lush native vegetation and sculptural water features. Encompassing 69,000 square feet, the landscape project will feature a variety of spaces, from small, intimate areas for conversation, to larger open areas suitable for special events like concerts and outdoor markets.

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The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced the winners of the 2017 Thomas Jefferson Award for service to public architecture, and the 2017 Collaborative Achievement Award for distinguished achievements of those who have had a beneficial influence on or advanced the architectural profession.

ANSKA has unveiled Spots, a series of temporary floating platforms to host micro-events for the Paris Olympic Games of 2024. Intended as an alternative to classic river typologies like barges or heavy structures, Spots are modular systems that can easily be assembled or disassembled, allowing them to become durable programmatic solutions.

While Spots was designed for the Paris Olympics, where modules would be hooked to the riverbanks to create a complimentary route for the Games, facilitating a greater exploration of the city, the micro-typology of the project could be applied “to any river and city,” as well as to Parisian suburbs and industrial areas.

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ADEPT Architects has won the commission to design a new masterplan for the Budapart neighborhood of Budapest, a project that will become the largest singular urban development in the city for nearly 30 years. Based on a distorted grid structure, the design will reference both historic and modern parts of the city, and will encompass 54 hectares of mixed-use space.

Located on the [‘Buda’] bank of the Danube River, the Budapart masterplan aims to create a green and human scaled neighborhood rather than just another new modern development. The fantastic location on the waterfront, the existing characteristic landscape qualities and the close vicinity to the central city are the main attractions that each generate huge potential to make the new neighborhood an epicenter of its own, described the architects in a recent press release.

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Belsize Architects has released the plans for 6 Pavilions, a new student accommodation project that will form a part of the University College’s larger masterplan in north Oxford.

To be built on the site of a Victorian residential home, the project will feature 30 units arranged within six pavilions around a central courtyard. Communal areas of the pavilions will be connected at the ground level.

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Videos

Ateliers 2/3/4/ has unveiled its design for Jardins de l’Arche Tower, a 200-meter-tall building in Nanterre La défense, Paris.

An effort to “extend the great historical axis of Paris,” the 65,000-square-meter tower will feature a series of hanging gardens around superimposed volumes.

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CAAT STUDIO has unveiled Organizing the Forgotten Urban Spaces, a design that revitalizes the Mirdamad Bridge in Tehran, Iran through the creation of an open anthropology museum.

Developed by studying the existing 7-meter-high and 14.1-meter-wide bridge, the design focuses on improving the pedestrian nature of the space. For example, in order to address issues of noise under the bridge, the project utilizes an arch- and dome-like geometry to create “an acoustic mode in the roof […] and body,” along with covered pillars.

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Videos

A team composed of Feng Xue, Helen Chan, and Oscar Reyes (FOH) has won Director’s Choice Award in the AC-CA competition to design a contemporary footbridge in Dublin, Ireland. Entitled The Catalyst, the team’s proposal aims to become “a dynamic link which stimulates diverse urban activities and facilitates a spectacular cityscape.”

Designed around the idea of enhancing the surrounding Dockland neighborhood and Dublin as a whole, The Catalyst acts as both a physical link, as well as a new vantage point, encouraging passers-by to pause and reflect on the city.

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The Center for Architecture and Design has announced Theaster Gates as the 2017 recipient of its Edmund N. Bacon Award, which honors one individual who has advocated for excellence in urban development, planning, thought, and design.

A Chicago-based artist and community developer, Gates is the founder of the Rebuild Foundation, which focuses on improving the quality of urban life by planning and designing active and engaged communities. “Under Gates’ leadership, the Rebuild Foundation currently manages projects in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood of Chicago. Program sites include the Stony Island Arts Bank, the Black Cinema House, the Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative, Archive House, and Listening House.”

TRIAS has created a speculative museum proposal for the MA | UA (Museum of Architecture | Utzon Archive), a permanent exhibition space for Danish architect Jørn Utzon’s archive in Sydney, Australia.

Jørn Utzon’s archive is buried in boxes and basements across Sydney. This rich body of knowledge—of original drawings, prototypes, photographs and models—is a valuable public resource, alive with thoughts and experiments. Yet, it remains inaccessible and intangible to most.

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The team of COWI A/S, Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects, Mikkelsen Architects, and STED Landscape has been selected to design Copenhagen’s new diabetes center, Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen. Based on the idea of creating a connection to nature, the Center weaves together the indoors and outdoors, in order to stimulate and nurture patients and visitors.

The main entrance to the project faces south to ensure natural lighting, and features a rolling landscape that leads inside, with an in situ poured concrete pathway and landscaped staircases that connect to a public rooftop garden.

On arrival, visitors are greeted by a luscious, rolling landscape leading inside. The area is designed with curiosity in mind – from the outset patients and visitors must feel welcome and enticed to explore.

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Herzog & de Meuron’s Chelsea Football Club stadium has been given approval by Hammersmith and Fulham council’s planning committee, reports BBC. The new £500 million stadium, which is estimated to be completed by 2020, will replace the existing stadium at Stamford Bridge, increasing the capacity of the space by almost 20,000 spectators to 60,000 seats.

The design of the new stadium is inspired by Gothic architecture, as well as nearby Victorian-era brick terraces, which will wrap around the entirety of the building.

Committee decision to approve the stadium plans does not mean that work can begin on site; various other permissions will be necessary before the final decision will be made by London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

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Digital Designer and Creative Director Joel Filipe has unveiled Geometry of Madrid Architecture, a series of photographs depicting the bold architecture of Madrid. Through the project, Filipe reveals varying “geometries within minimalist clichés that underline the lines of the buildings.”

Buildings photographed in the series include Ciudad BBVA, by Herzog & de Meuron, Museo ABC, by Aranguren & Gallegos Architects, Hospital Rey Juan Carlos, by Rafael de La-Hoz, and more.

“This project aims at challenging the viewer by exploring the intimate relationship between architecture and photography,” said Filipe.

Experience the geometry of Madrid, after the break.

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Herzog & de Meuron’s Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, Germany has opened after 16 years of planning and construction, which was held back by financial and legal issues. The grand opening of the concert hall, taking place on January 11 and 12, 2017, features inaugural concerts and a light display on the façade of the building.

As Hamburg’s newest cultural destination, the building was inaugurated by German Federal President Joachim Gauck, Mayor of Hamburg Olaf Scholz, architect Jacques Herzog from Herzog & de Meuron, and General and Artistic Director Christoph Lieben-Seutter.

More than 4,500 guests from Germany and abroad will take part in the opening concerts in the Grand Hall and Recital Hall today and tomorrow, including Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, various high-ranking political and cultural leaders from around the world, and 1,000 visitors who won tickets to the event, out of 220,000 entrants from 73 countries.

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Construction has begun on Foster + Partners’ Varso Tower, which will become Poland’s tallest tower upon completion. As a part of the larger Varso complex, which will include three additional buildings, the 53-story tower will reach 310 meters in height and will span 140,000 square meters.

The tower is expected to become a new hotspot for business, residents, and tourists, as it will house flexible office space, two restaurants, shops, cafés, covered internal streets, and an observation deck, which at 230 meters will become one of the highest in Europe. From here, building users, locals, and tourists will experience views of Warsaw’s skyline and the metropolitan area.

Architect Evgeny Didorenko has released his conceptual proposal, Thames River Museum, which aims to improve connectivity on the North Bank of the Thames River and create an exciting museum space in London.

The Thames Museum is currently a museum concept without permanent accommodation. Though not officially connected to the Thames Museum, Didorenko’s work suggests a location and design for the project that would not only work with the museum’s context, but that would also solve existing issues on the riverbank.

Therefore, the proposal’s site is an underused portion of London’s North Bank—Queen’s Quay. Historically, Queen’s Quay served as a transportation hub to deliver goods to city residents from the sea, but now lies abandoned, and stays dry during periods of low tide, when water levels drop up to eight meters.

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