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Editor's Choice

How to Develop a Residential Design Concept

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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.

The 50 Best Houses of 2020 (So Far)

We've recently passed the halfway point of 2020, and to date, we've published hundreds of residential projects featuring distinct ways of living on ArchDaily. In a year marked by the worst health crisis that humanity has experienced in the last century, the Covid-19 pandemic, the house has gained new meanings and values, reiterating that no matter how diverse its program, a home's purpose is to shelter its inhabitants.

The right to the city's memory and the removal of statues of enslavers

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Architect Ayesha Luciano does not know much about her ancestors. Like other descendants of Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous populations, her family history was erased during the colonization of Brazil. This is what philosopher Sueli Carneiro calls epistemicide: the annihilation of knowledge and memories in countries with a history of slavery.

Yet the perpetrators of this genocide have their figures carved in stone, occupying central positions in the country's public spaces. Such is the case with the totemic statue of the bandeirante Borba Gato in the capital of São Paulo, or of Joaquim Pereira Marinho, a trafficker of enslaved people whose statue stands in the center of Salvador (BA). The architect comments:

A Guide to Design for Disassembly

The concept of Design for Disassembly (DfD for short) gained increasing traction in recent years, as it addresses the growing concern around the high consumption of resources and low recycling rate within the construction industry. The following article details on the method and features guidelines for a design process that facilitates the dismantlement of future buildings, with the scope of providing a better understanding of this principle within the broader framework of the current practice and circular economy.

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Amateur Architecture Studio’s Works on Contemporary Chinese Architecture with Recycled Materials

Over the past two centuries, cities in China have multiplied and expanded on a large scale, under accelerated urbanization. Mass demolition of the old city fabric, occurring everywhere, is leaving industrial debris and fragmented cultural artifacts buried forever, under shiny new skyscrapers. As old Chinese cities are collapsing and new urban centers are outspreading, a part of the city was lost, the old demolished landscape. Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, the first Chinese citizens to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize, responded to this past-present relation by working with recycled materials and traditional know-how. In the following, we explore some of this couple's renowned works such as Ningbo History Museum, Ningbo (2008), Xiangshan Campus of China Academy of Art, Hangzhou (2004), and Ningbo Contemporary Art Museum (2005), to examine his humanistic approach to the city.

"Representation is a Dynamic Act": Alexander Daxböck on Visualizing New Futures

Architecture is defined by stories. Told through diverse mediums, these narratives shape how we understand our built environment. At the same time, drawings and visualizations can be architecture in their own right, a way of discovering what we see or what could be. For Vienna-based urbanist, architect and illustrator Alexander Daxböck, drawings are a way to imagine new futures together.

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LGBTQIA+ Experience in the City and in the Architectural Field, According to Our Readers

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Architects in general are people who like to talk about how much they influence communities through their designs, and they are actually correct in saying that. After all, spaces together with various social factors influence how each individual feels when occupying the city or a building. But do these projects respond to all users in the same way? We propose to question the way architecture deals with the LGBTQIA+ community through an open call on our social media channels, bringing in our readers' testimonies on how they experience these spaces, and how is it possible to represent the LGBTQIA+ community in the architectural field.

Bamboo in Ecuador: Contemporary Projects Built with Cane

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Guadurnal Dining Hall / Al Borde + Taller General. Image © JAG Studio

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Due to its climate and territorial characteristics, Ecuador possesses an immense diversity of bamboos: it has 6 genera and 42 identified species, of which 11 are endemic. Among them, Guadua angustifolia cane is considered the most important species in terms of abundance and physical and mechanical properties. The indigenous term guadua was used by the native communities of Ecuador and Colombia to designate this species of "native bamboo," which was later renamed "Guadua angustifolia"—meaning "narrow leaf"—and taxonomically belongs to the Poaceae family and the Bambusoideae subfamily. The use of this material is so ancient that, according to the book *Nuevas técnicas de construcción en bambú* (1978), remains have been found in buildings in Ecuador estimated to be 9,500 years old.

6 Movies That Use Architectural Visualizations to Tell Stories and Create Atmospheres

Representation of the real world is, without any doubt, in the genesis of cinema, an art originated from photography, by creating a sequence to convey the impression of movement to the viewer. In fact, the earliest known film recording is from 1895, picturing the arrival of a train at Ciolat station in France, a trivial event in the daily life of 19th-century European cities.

However, even though tangible reality plays a big role in cinema, one cannot ignore that the fascination caused by this art comes, to a great extent, from its capacity to create imaginary worlds, to activate mental spaces, and to unleash emotions. In this sense, the real world may often provide insufficient fuel, inspiration, or background for the directors' and screenwriters' storytelling, so the art direction and scenic design teams are required to create other intangible realities that serve as a basis for the narrative.

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Kristin Feireiss on the 40 Years of Aedes, Women Empowerment and the Future of Architecture

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During the peak of Postmodernism, and the uprising of notions such as urban renewal and public participation, Aedes Architecture Forum, the first private architecture gallery in the world, opened in 1980 in Berlin. Founded by Journalist Kristin Feireiss and Helga Retzer, both neither architects nor regularly engaged with architecture at that time, Aedes aspired to encourage an international dialogue around the subjects of urban environment, space, and society.

Shortly after its inception, the center became an integral part of the contemporary international architectural scene, carrying out debates, seeking fresh ideas, showcasing the avant-garde, and highlighting young talents. Providing architects with a compelling space to present their architectural and urban ideas, Aedes hosted exhibitions for Zaha Hadid, Venturi Scott Brown, Cedric Price, John Hejduk, OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), Peter and Alison Smithson, and Bernard Tschumi to name a few.

From Backdrop to Spotlight: The Significance of Architecture in Video Game Design

We’ve asked our ArchDaily readers about which video game has impressed them most in terms of architectural visualization, and why. Hundreds of various answers later, it became evident that there isn’t one element that makes a video game stand out, but the virtually-built environment is almost always a key factor in how the game is experienced.

In video games, architecture plays a much bigger role than just being a backdrop of a virtual city or an authentic render of an existing one, it is, in fact, a fundamental component of transcending gamers into a virtual world that feels just as authentic as the real world does, but with extra adrenaline.

(WARNING: the videos and images featured in this article may potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy)

The Last Shall Be First: The Importance of Human Figures in Renders

In architecture, professionals must constantly deal with the challenge of representing a project clearly and understandably before it is built, making the space somehow more perceptible to people who are often not specialized in the field. Rendering is one of the most popular methods of three-dimensional representation among architects because it portrays the project more realistically. Reality, however, implies the presence of people and their ways of inhabiting spaces, which can be depicted through human figures, that must be coherent with the intended picture and interpretation of the architecture, the place it is located in, and the way it is inhabited.

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School of Architecture at Taliesin Changes Its Name and Moves to Cosanti

The Architect's Newspaper has learned that the college formerly known as the School of Architecture at Taliesin will change its name and move summer classes to Cosanti and Arcosanti, with plans to try to make Cosanti its permanent home.

The move comes after a protracted back-and-forth with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation that spilled out into public view earlier in January when the school announced it would be closing after 88 years. After an outpouring of support from alumni and funding commitments, the school reversed its vote to close at the beginning of March but will need to vacate both Taliesin campuses—West in Scottsdale Arizona and East in Spring Green, Wisconsin—and can no longer use the Frank Lloyd Wright or Taliesin name, though it will retain its accreditation and students. The last time the school changed its name was in 2017 after it split from the foundation as part of the accreditation process, and after July 31 of this year, any remaining association will be formally severed.

The Limits of Flexibility in Domestic Space: Determination vs. Indetermination

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This article by Jaime Coll López was originally published in the 10th issue of revista rita_ under the title "Determination vs Indeterminacy in Domestic Space." It is a critique of flexibility in housing, one of the primary paradigms of 20th-century domestic architecture.

Rebelarchitette Releases a New Public Women Architects World Map

Rebelarchitette has created a new tool that aims to detox architecture from inequalities, an interactive public world map showcasing 732 outstanding women architects from all over the world.

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Possibilities of Forms for Molding Exposed Concrete

Peter Zumthor, in one of his most emblematic works, gives concrete an almost sacred dimension. The work in question is the small Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, located in a small village in Germany, a construction that is both robust and sensitive. Built with white cement, which was mixed with stones and sand from the region, the chapel is composed of 24 layers of concrete that were poured day after day by local labor, and compressed in an unusual way. The building's flat and smooth exterior contrasts with its interior, which was initially made of inclined wooden logs forming a triangular void. To remove these internal forms, the logs were set on fire in a controlled process, reducing them to ash and creating a carbonized interior that varied between black and gray and retained the texture of the negatives of the logs. The result is a masterpiece of architecture, a space for reflection and transformation, in which the same material appears in diametrically opposing ways.

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Architecture post COVID-19: the Profession, the Firms, and the Individuals

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As the world is slowly reopening, easing lockdown measures, everyone is adapting to new realities. Imposing drastic adjustments to our lives, the coronavirus has introduced a new “normal”, changing our perceptions and altering our priorities. Driven towards questioning and evaluating our environment, we are constantly reacting and anticipating a relatively unknown future.

A casual conversation between two editors at ArchDaily generated this collaborative piece that seeks to investigate the current trends, predict the future, and offer insights to everyone/everything related to the architectural field. Tackling the evolution of the profession, the firms, and the individuals, especially young adults and students, this article, produced by Christele Harrouk and Eric Baldwin, aims to reveal what is happening in the architecture scene.

Ten Thoughts on the Future of Practice

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This article was originally published on The Architect's Newspaper.

In February of this year, I gave a short talk to our Yale students about the economy and their employment prospects, suggesting that while all indicators remained strong and jobs were plentiful, it had been quite some time since our last downturn. Having seen several during my career I suggested that they would likely see a recession sometime in theirs, but cast doubt on whether we’d ever see anything as serious as 2008. If only…

It’s too early to be making nuanced arguments about the future, as we face down what is undoubtedly going to be a much more serious situation in the second half of 2020. So, here are ten first thoughts about how our profession may be impacted, and potentially transformed, as a result. Choose two or three as prompts to consider the future once the crisis has passed.

Design in Armenia: New Architecture Building on History

The architecture of Armenia responds to both past traditions and the country's earthquake-prone geography. Known for medieval churches, Armenia has also become home to modern projects that reinterpret familiar construction methods and organizational principles. Acknowledging a reputation for sturdy concrete and stone structures, the country's contemporary architects are experimenting with different materials to create lighter and more open structures.

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