Fortyseven is a novel thermal wellness spa designed by the architect Mario Botta, nestled alongside the Limmat River in Baden, Switzerland. Baden, renowned for its rich cultural and wellness offerings, boasts a spa heritage that extends over thousands of years. The Fortyseven Thermal Wellness Spa has revitalized this historical legacy by presenting wellness culture through a modern lens. Designed by Mario Botta, this project offers an immersive encounter for the body, mind, and soul. The essence of the site and its design is captured by the lens of architectural photographer Paul Clemence, in his latest series.
The US Cities Forward program selects various municipalities in the Western Hemisphere requiring urban assistance based on environmental, economic, and social criteria, focusing on the concepts of "sustainability, inclusion, and resilience." The initiative recently announced the 24 cities that will participate from this year through 2026, engaging in peer-to-peer learning with US cities while gaining access to tools and funding to achieve their sustainability goals.
Cities across the globe are developing comprehensive action plans in order to create a coordinated response to the challenges of climate change. Targets and goals for consumption-based emissions are important for guiding strategic planning and decision-making, improving accountability, and communicating the direction of travel to businesses and the public. National and regional government officials are working with the private sector, international organizations, and civil society to create change at every level, from structural interventions in supply chains and industries to individual choices. This demonstrates a rising understanding of the role of cities in mitigating the adverse effects of rising temperatures.
Roof of the Ibirapuera gymnasium with aluminum panels. São Paulo, c. 1955. Credit: Hans Gunter Flieg / IMS
One of the leading names in Brazilian photography, Hans Gunter Flieg (1923) worked in the fields of industry, advertising, and architecture. His images document the country's industrial development and verticalization, particularly in the city of São Paulo, starting in the 1940s. Through highly technically sophisticated photographs, he documented industrial facilities, machinery, buildings, and objects, challenging the boundaries between the objectivity of documentary photography and formal rigor.
https://www.archdaily.com/1136036/records-of-industrialization-in-brazil-ims-paulista-opens-retrospective-of-photographer-hans-gunter-fliegArchDaily Team
blōma project by SPBR Arquitetos in Curitiba. Courtesy of SPBR Arquitetos
The "Kilometer Zero" concept has been gaining popularity in contemporary architecture, promoting environmentally conscious approaches to reducing carbon emissions. One application of this concept is the blōma project by SPBR arquitetos, led by Angelo Bucci. The São Paulo-based firm's first project in Curitiba, the residential building was designed to prioritize local resources and labor.
https://www.archdaily.com/1135911/spbr-arquitetos-designs-a-residential-building-based-on-the-kilometer-zero-concept-in-curitibaArchDaily Team
What we build can be metaphoric—often intentionally, sometimes subliminally. But architecture is seldom the intentional commentary of architects, crafting symbolism; more often it is a direct reflection of its time and the culture that made it.
From the top floor of the Hilton Hotel at Tucherpark in Munich, you could see the skyline of the city dotted with construction cranes, a reflection of its current state of development. With this backdrop of old meets new, this year’s edition of the Architecture Matters conference started its program under the title “Second City: The New in the Old.” While the title could have been fitting for a preservation conference, Architecture Matters actually brought together a diverse group of architects, urbanists, engineers, city planners, government officials, developers and technologists to discuss forward looking ideas for the built environment. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and the circular construction dominated the discussion across different scales, from city planning to new materials, and tech startups.
IKEA’s research and design lab SPACE10 has published The Healthy Home report, the second release in its Future Home report series. The report explores three main themes concerning domestic environments: how our homes protect us from harm, restore our bodies and minds, and enable us to grow through life’s stages. The research aims to evaluate the ways in which homes can positively contribute to and support the rhythms and flows of life. It was developed in collaboration with Morph to develop the visuals supporting the findings.
The city of Osaka, Japan, has won the bid to organize the 2025 World Expo, an international event expected to draw in millions of visitors. Set to commence on April 13, 2025, and conclude on October 13, 2025, this marks Japan's second occasion as host, the prior instance being in 1970. Throughout their history, World Expos have been the place where new technologies and products are showcased and popularized, leading to technological advancements and innovative designs. For this event, Osaka has chosen the overarching theme of "Designing Future Society for Our Lives," with three subthemes further developing the concept: Saving Lives, Empowering Lives, and Connecting Lives. Architect Sou Fujimoto was selected as the Expo Site Design Producer, taking on the responsibility of creating the master plan and providing guidance to designers from participating countries.
The Chicago Architecture Biennial has unveiled a phased opening plan for its fifth edition, CAB 5: This is a Rehearsal. The inauguration of CAB 5 will be on September 21, 2023, with installations and programs held all over city sites. This will build up to a citywide opening celebration on November 1st when all exhibitions will be unveiled at the Chicago Cultural Center and the Graham Foundation. CAB 5 is curated by the collective Floating Museum, a group of artists, designers, poets, and educators focused on building connections between art, community, architecture, infrastructure, and public institutions.
Panama presented its pavilion on "Stories Beneath the Water" at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Aimée Lam Tunon, the exhibition explored themes of division and integration, with a focus on three different areas within the former Panama Canal Zone. It is an analysis that addresses issues of division and integration: Divisive architectural structures and systems; erased identities of submerged communities; and Barro Colorado Island, critically examining and questioning the overlaps between notions of protection and control.
The firm gru.a, established in Rio de Janeiro in 2013 by Caio Calafate and Pedro Varella, has developed small-scale projects and installations, focusing particularly on the intersection of art, architecture, and infrastructure. Notable works include the installation La playa y el Tiempo and the Abrigo Alto and Academia shelters.
On Monday, August 14, the Di Tella Architecture Prize—organized by the School of Architecture and Urban Studies (EAEU) at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT) through its Center for Contemporary Architecture Studies (CEAC), and funded by a donation from the Instituto Di Tella—was awarded to this emerging practice.
An apparent fragility shapes the design of the set built for the exhibition Taib: A History of the Theater, about the Brazilian Yiddish Art Theater (Teatro de Arte Israelita Brasileiro), founded in 1960 and built in the basement of Casa do Povo, a cultural center in Bom Retiro, São Paulo. With exhibition design by the collective Goma Oficina — a transdisciplinary design, architecture, and art association — the theater is staged on the first floor, presenting the powerful history of survival and re-existence of Jewish poetry despite the persecution and violence of the Nazi regime until the end of World War II.
OMA’s competition design for UniCredit’s new Headquarters in Munich, Germany, proposes a plaza lifted off the ground to increase public spaces and urban connectivity and to activate an otherwise overlooked area. The scheme aims to “retroactively attribute character to an area which may never have had one.” The site is located by one of the city’s main arteries, the S-Bahn, a strictly functional area lacking in public spaces or amenities. The building proposed by OMA is lifted off the ground, with its limited footprint allowing for more public space to be integrated while preserving the site’s natural features.
