Unproductive meetings attempting to work with drawings that have been printed at the wrong scale, not dimensioned, or in a unit of measurement you’re not comfortable with is a frustration we can all relate to. These frustrations are what inspired one designer to create the Smart Scale Ruler, a physical, digitalized ruler that changes to suit your chosen unit of measurement or even work to a scale that doesn’t exist.
Andres Gallardo, a self-taught photographer from Spain, captures the poetry and theatricality of MAD Architects' Harbin Opera House in a series of photos which display the building's undulating interiors and the sense of ethereal calm it takes on through the night—and through the snowstorm that took place between Gallardo's two photoshoots.
A winner of ArchDaily's Building of the Year Awards in 2016, the Harbin Opera House is inspired by the frozen wilderness of its surrounds and is saturated in local identity, culture, and art. The sculpted forms seem to grow and emerge from the snow, leading one into its poetic stillness within. Gallardo's photo series highlights the beauty in its stillness, as if the serpentine forms of the architecture have been frozen in time and are waiting to move once more.
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is opening a new landmark, Ureddplassen, along the Norwegian Scenic Route Helgelandskysten. Consisting of seating benches, a toilet facility and viewing terrace facing the open sea, Ureddplassen evokes a sense of poetic solitude as it complements the natural landscape of Norway.
The Statue of Unity, to be the world’s tallest statue when completed, has made significant headway with its construction. Designed by Michael Graves Architecture & Design, the Statue of Unity will be 182-meters tall and depict Vallabhbhai “Sardar” Patel, the first deputy Prime Minister of India. Standing at almost twice the height of the Statue of Liberty, the Statue of Unity project will also consist of a hotel, memorial garden, visitor’s center and miles of roadways and bridges to connect the statue to the town of Kevadia, India.
Harvard University Graduate School of Design (Harvard GSD) has announced the four finalists for the 2018 Wheelwright Prize, a $100,000 travel research-based grant available to early-career architects worldwide.
Selected from over 125 applications from nearly 40 countries worldwide, the four finalists are from Belgium, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States. This year’s jury includes 2014 Wheelwright Prize Winner Jose Ahedo, Edward Eigen, Frida Escobedo, K. Michael Hays, Mark Lee, Mohsen Mostafavi, and Michelle Wilkinson. A winner will be named in April.
Read more about the four finalists below:
John McAslan + Partners and Woods Bagot are the architectural partners delivering the Sydney Metro upgrade to Central Station, a key component of Australia’s largest public transport project. The multi-disciplinary, international design team have revealed a design that will preserve heritage qualities of the 112-year-old station while adding contemporary and innovative touches to create wider civic and commercial renewal within the space.
A speculative project, the “New York Super Slender” created by RB Systems, is a futuristic skyscraper that presents a potential new tower typology. With ever-diminishing land space in major cities and a vastly growing population, the project rises to the challenge of optimizing occupancy in a constrained and dense city center.
In recent years, many ambitious proposals have been brought forward to revitalize and improve the area around the Los Angeles River. The Lower Los Angeles River Revitalization Plan (LLARP), proposed by Perkins + Will Architects in conjunction with various community groups and public institutions, aims to connect residents to the river and improve the environment surrounding it.
A design team under the direction of Chybik + Kristof has won the international competition to design a new administrative center for the Czech Forestry Commission in Hradec Králové. The project focuses on a symbiotic relationship between the building and the adjacent forest, where the natural landscape outside begins to mingle with the office spaces within.
Currently under construction in Chongqing, China, Moshe Safdie's Raffles City Chongqing features an extraordinary engineering feat of erecting a 300 meter long “horizontal skyscraper” above four 250 meter high towers. An extensive urban district set at the meeting point between the Yangtze and Jialing rivers once constructed Raffles City Chongqing will hold the world record of the highest sky bridge linking the towers.
Humphreys and Partners, a Dallas-based architecture firm, presented a vision of future residential living at the 2018 International Builders’ Show earlier this year. Tackling current issues of affordable housing, sustainable design and how technology is changing the way we live, their futuristic vision Pier 2: Apartment of the Future consists of two soaring skyscrapers on the Manhattan waterfront.
AOR Architects, a young practice based in Helsinki, have won the commission to design Monio High School and Community Centre in Tuusula, Finland. The project explores an innovative use of timber log building and will be the largest timber log school building in the world after its completion. Consisting of a high school, music institute, and community college, AOR’s proposal combines these different programs in a multi-functional learning and community environment.
Designed and developed by Fiction Factory, a company of creative makers from Amsterdam, Wikkelhouse loosely translates to ‘wrapped house.' This sustainable modular house is uniquely created with cardboard as its main building material and is customizable in its size and function.
An international team of young architects based in Copenhagen have won first prize for their proposal ‘Finnskogens Hus’ in a competition for a new Museum of Forest Finn Culture in Svullrya, Norway.
The fourth largest architectural competition in Norway, the new museum aims to inform and educate visitors about the Forest Finns, Finnish migrants who settled in Swedish and Norwegian forests in the late 16th to 17th centuries.
The Vietnamese government has approved Chapman Taylor's Mui Dinh Ecopark for the east coast of Vietnam. Covering 1.4 million square meters, the extensive site contains 6 resort hotels and a boutique hotel, 500 ocean-facing villas, a theme park, casino, beach club and mountain clubhouse.
20 finalists have been announced for the Open International Competition for Standard Housing in Russia. With the plan to provide 30 million Russian residents with new homes by 2025, the competition aims to discover new innovative solutions to improve residential design and planning for the new developments. The competition was organized by the Government of Russian Federation, the National Institute for Housing Development Foundation, and the Russian Ministry of Construction working together to create a new standard for affordable housing.
An adaptive reuse project by P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S is currently under construction in North Hollywood, California. The project transforms an existing warehouse into a dynamic medical campus with Urgent Care, Elderly Daycare, Surgical Centre, Physical Therapy, Imaging Centre, Medical offices, café and a small shop.
Architecture is a collaborative discipline, where a day’s work often involves sharing files, emails, and information in the process of completing a project. Whether you are entering competitions, applying for jobs or getting your work published, being tech-savvy when sharing files is a crucial skill to have—while failing to be tech-savvy can lead to frustrated colleagues, wasted time, and even missed career opportunities.
To help you ensure you're not making any mistakes, we’ve put together a few pointers you can use to share work online more efficiently and effectively.
