This guide covers a workflow that moves from project parameters to generated floor plans, 3D perspective views, exterior design exploration, and site context visualization, using AI tools in place of preliminary CAD and rendering work.

Paulo Mendes da Rocha often says that the function of architecture is nothing more than ‘supporting the unpredictability of life’. Spaces stand everyday life, meetings, landscape, art. Something like a frame, which is often also considered a supporting element of a work of art, since it highlights and, mainly, directs the viewer's gaze to the main object. The phrase of the Brazilian architect combines well with the way that the Lacaton & Vassal office works. The French couple's award raises some questions about how accurate their choices are for the current moment in the world. This includes the philosophy of their work, the design solutions adopted and the material palette generally adopted.

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The 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture’s highest honor, has been granted to Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, founders of Lacaton & Vassal, the French duo renowned for their multiple sustainable housing projects and for the Palais de Tokyo, a contemporary art gallery in Paris. In their three decades of work, Lacaton & Vassal always prioritized the “enrichment of human life”, benefiting the individual and supporting the evolution of the city.

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Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal founded their architectural studio Lacaton & Vassal in 1987, years after studying and working together at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et de Paysage de Bordeaux. The practice established in Paris has been awarded this year’s prestigious 2021 Pritzker Prize. Their built work leaves strong evidence of what they believe is relevant: sustainability, wellbeing, social responsibility, and the readaptation and the respect of the existing built environment.

Like natural systems, great architecture is the product of circular processes. For Jan Jongert, a founding partner and architect at Superuse Studios, sustainable design is rooted in a continuous cycle of creation and recreation, use and reuse. Viewing re-use as a circular design strategy, the studio is developing strategies for cities to connect different flows and integrate these systems into the existing urban environment.

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If you attended architecture or design school, there’s probably something you noticed about your fellow classmates- a majority of them were female. And if you have been working in the world of design for a few years, there’s probably something else you’ve noticed as well- that there are fewer women in leadership positions than men. There’s a crisis that architecture has been facing ever since the profession has existed, and it’s that women in leave architecture in high numbers. But what is causing this, and what steps are being taken to ensure that some of design’s best champions positioned to become future industry leaders?

"Successful, vibrant, happy cities arise out of the visions of many, not the powerful few." - Jane Jacobs.

While we've seen progress in female representation over the last century, women's perspectives and voices are still significantly marginalized. This year, the UN reported that women serve as Heads of State or Government in only 22 countries and that 119 countries have never had a female leader, despite the strong case that their leadership makes for more inclusive decision-making and more representative governance. Moreover, women occupy just 10 percent of the highest-ranking jobs at the world's leading architecture firms.

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Another year and another International Women’s Day. Although recently, the gender debate has taken considerable attention, the battle for equality is far from over. Even in the 21st century, architecture can still be a challenging profession for women. Progress is happening though, and in 2020, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara became the 4th and 5th women to receive the Pritzker prize, ever since its inception in 1979.

Not limiting our coverage to the 8th of March, ArchDaily recognizes every day the female force that is shaping the built environment around the world. In fact, Women in Architecture is one of the main pillars of our content strategy. This year, for International Women’s Day, ArchDaily has decided to feature a week of curated content, with exclusive interviews and thought-provoking editorials. Join us as we highlight women that deserve a seat at the table, and share tools to achieve an inclusive world.

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In theory and practice, in the modern era, the idea of spatial separation between home and work was related to the traditional sexual division of men and women, and of their role in life. Going back to the earliest feminist thinking in architecture, in western industrialized communities, we are elaborating in this article on women’s changing role in the 20^th century and its impact on the space we experience today. 

Because of the decrease in the availability of land area and the ever-increasing price per square meter, cities often tend to grow vertically. When we picture large metropolitan areas, we almost always imagine high-rise buildings, and the recognizable skyline becomes an icon that immediately evokes the places in which they are located.

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Memento mori is an ancient Latin expression that means "remember that you are mortal." The Roman people used it not to represent a fatalistic approach to death but rather as a way of valuing life.

A few centuries later, as we arrive at our current context and the world reaches the terrifying figure of 2 million deaths as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, memento mori is more relevant than ever.

The Un-Habitat or the United Nations agency for human settlements and sustainable urban development, whose primary focus is to deal with the challenges of rapid urbanization, has been developing innovative approaches in the urban design field, centered on the active participation of the community. ArchDaily has teamed up with UN-Habitat to bring you weekly news, article, and interviews that highlight this work, with content straight from the source, developed by our editors.

“During this pandemic, public spaces have played a vital role in the health and sustainability of urban communities around the world” states James Delaney, Block by Block chair. In fact, people need to go outside, now more than ever. In order to equip these public spaces to face the challenges of Covid-19, UN-Habitat with the Block by Block Foundation has been supporting ten cities, throughout this past year. With the help of local governments and the community, the initiatives helped covid-proof open urban entities, especially in poor neighborhoods, where there are few shared and green spaces. From creating mobile pop-up playgrounds for children in Hanoi, Vietnam, improving livelihood for street vendors in Dhaka and Khulna, Bangladesh to Covid Proofing of Public Spaces in Bhopal informal settlements, India, these responses have provided help to those who need it the most.

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As architecture has evolved to include advanced building envelopes, innovative structural systems, and hybrid programs, new boundaries have been drawn. Sustainable practices and passive strategies have led architects to re-imagine building skins and the relationship between interior and exterior. While different typologies are designed with varied levels of permeability, libraries demand rigorous attention to performative facades and protected programs. This holds especially true when libraries are placed within radically changing landscapes.

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How many changes have you done to your interior space during this past year? Whether it was a change of furniture layout, repainting the walls, adding more light fixtures or perhaps even removing them, after spending so much time in one place, the space you were once used to didn’t make sense anymore. We could blame the overall situation for how we’ve been feeling lately, but as a matter of fact, the interior environment plays a huge role in how we feel or behave as well. However, if you were wondering why some neighbors seem much more undisturbed and serene even in the midst of a pandemic, it could be because the interior is greener on the other side.

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The world is constantly changing, and our built environment is continuously evolving and adapting. As we find ourselves immersed with challenges, experts and thinkers are re-examining the approaches humanity has adopted so far, in order to set new ideas for a better tomorrow. 

“Cities are at the heart of the problem, and therefore also at the heart of the solution." Space 10, a research and design lab centered on people and the planet, has just released its latest publication, The Ideal City, in collaboration with gestalten. Gathering insights from around the globe, the book rethinks cities, investigating how to create spaces that support the well-being of the residents and contribute to a better world. Compiling projects and expert opinions, it highlights 5 main pillars that help in shaping the future of the urban realm.

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“There seems to be a public image of any given city which is the overlap of many individual images," American urban planner Kevin Lynch once said. "Or perhaps there is a series of public images, each held by some significant number of citizens,” he added.

Following this remark, in his book "The Image of the City" (1960), Lynch begins an analysis around the elements that constitute what he considers to be the image of the city. While introducing, describing, and illustrating these elements as physical, perceptible objects, Lynch considers that other non-physical factors such as history, function, or even the name of the city also play a significant role in the construction of this imageability.

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Do you feel vulnerable as you walk through public spaces? If you are a woman, the odds of answering yes to this question are certainly greater since men are less likely to choose a longer route only to avoid a dark section of the street, or to ponder on what clothes to wear so that they do not feel exposed in public. In this sense, it seems almost obvious that cities designed by men should be perceived as threatening environments, rather than a place where women feel welcome. So, to imagine egalitarian cities, should we persist in a reflection of a gender-oriented approach?

Looking at the urban environment, this week’s curated selection of the Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights interventions in public spaces, submitted by the ArchDaily Community. Suitable for this monthly topic, the article underlines worldwide approaches that tackle the challenges of these areas through the introduction of innovative solutions.

Exploring a multitude of methods fitting for different contexts, this feature presents a tactical urban strategy implemented in a neighborhood in Kosovo and micro-mobility measures in Italy. Other projects evoke public approaches in private developments and enhanced historical and cultural connections between parks, buildings, and cities. In addition, this roundup showcases conceptual interventions that tackle social distancing and the challenges of the pandemic, in order to allow people to move freely and safely across space.

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In Her, a 2013 film directed by Spike Jonze, a lonely writer develops a love affair with the virtual assistant of an operating system. Brave New World, a book written in 1932 by the English author Aldous Huxley, fabricates a dystopian society whose cult of efficiency and rationality creates a humanity that ignores hardship and pain but also represses love and freedom. In Mary Shelley's 1818 book Frankenstein, considered the first science fiction novel, a life is artificially created, producing a monster with human characteristics: wills, wishes, and fears. Whether describing the fear of artificial intelligence, the uncertainty produced by industrialization, or the limits of science, science fiction works reveal less about the future and much more about the moment in which they were created; they speak of the fears and hopes of their own time.

When we explore urban visions of the past anticipating the future, it is common to find exaggerated and even funny predictions. As for the promises of architecture and, consequently, of our cities, it is not an easy task to predict future developments clearly either. By looking at industry trends and using all of our imaginations, could we tell what cities will be like in tens or hundreds of years? Their materials, their appearance, their way of building and thinking? Will it be a more pristine and minimalist future or a more organic and complex future? How will new technologies and building materials affect the shape, aesthetics, and prosperity of the cities of tomorrow?