Italian Architecture

The winning entries of the Siena International Photo Awards 2018 have been unveiled. The “Architecture and Urban Spaces” category winners offer a wide range of subjects, locations, and perspectives, from the relationship between the Moon and the Leaning Tower of Pisa to snow-capped “Toy houses.”

Amsterdam-based architect Angelo Renna has designed a 90 meter high artificial 'sponge mountain' made to absorb CO2 in Turin, Italy. Formed from soil excavated from the construction site of the railway tunnel connecting Turin to Lyon, the mountain aims to improve air pollution through engineered soil. Mixing sand and concrete, the man-made mountain is designed as a green landmark for the city.

The Basilica di Siponto by Edoardo Tresoldi has been awarded the “Gold Medal for Italian Architecture – Special Prize to Commission,” considered the most prestigious award in Italian architecture.

Carlo Ratti Associati has unveiled the "Greenary," a renovated farmhouse designed around a 10-meter-high tree in the countryside near Parma, Northern Italy. The scheme marks the first step of CRA’s winning 2017 masterplan for the Mutti tomato company, driven by a closer integration between nature and the built environment.

After carefully deliberating in their annual session, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee selected 19 new sites to inscribe on the World Heritage List in the city of Manama in Bahrain. Featuring 13 cultural sites such as Buddhist mountain monasteries in Korea, the industrial city of Ivrea in Italy, and the Caliphate city of Medina Azahara in Spain, alongside three natural sites and three mixed sites (classified as both cultural and natural heritage), the list now aggregates to 1092 sites in 167 countries.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the shortlist of four finalist projects in the running for the 2018 RIBA International Prize. A biennial award open to any qualified architect in the world, the International Prize seeks to name the world’s “most inspirational and significant” building. Criteria for consideration include the demonstration of “design excellence, architectural ambition, and [delivery of] meaningful social impact.”

Renzo Piano has offered to donate the design of a bridge to replace the one which tragically collapsed in Genoa on 14th August. Piano, who was born in Genoa, said he has been deeply affected by the tragedy which claimed the lives of 43 people.

More than 500 years after it was built, Filippo Brunelleschi's dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy, remains the largest masonry dome ever built. But the dome's construction methods are still a secret, as no plans or sketches have been discovered. The only clue Brunelleschi left behind was a wooden and brick model. While the dome has been plagued by cracks for centuries, new breakthroughs in muon imaging may help preservationists uncover how to save the iconic structure and reveal new ideas on its construction.

For those with $145,000 hidden down the side of their sofa, Zaha Hadid Architects has designed and released Lapella Chair, continuing their “investigations in structure and fabrication-aware tectonics by reinterpreting the iconic 1963 lounge chair by Hans J. Wegner."

39 people are now reported to have died following the collapse of the Morandi motorway bridge in Genoa, Italy. The incident happened on Tuesday 14th August, when one of the bridge’s structural components, comprising of pre-stressed concrete stays and trestles, collapsed onto a railway line and warehouse 150 feet (45 meters) below.