Architecture News

Serving as an emblematic construction for Copenhagen’s World Capital of Architecture and UIA World Congress of Architects, the Sustainable Development Goals Pavilions in Copenhagen, Denmark, will begin appearing this spring and summer, exploring how architects can respond to the UN’s development goals. Questioning future construction, in relation to one or more of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals, architects, engineers, material producers, science institutions, associations, and foundations collaborated to create each one of the different structures. The SDG Pavilions were created by numerous Danish architecture studios, including Schmidt Hammer Lassen, EFFEKT, Architects Without Borders Denmark, ReVaerk, LOKAL, Leth & Gori, Rnnow Architects, GXN, FORMA, Terroir, AART, Mangor & Nagel, NOAA Architects, Studio Coquille, Tan & Blixenkrone, ATENASTUDIO, and MAST.

+ 12

UNStudio has been commissioned to create a human-centric mixed-use destination on the waterfront of Nanjing, China. Developed by K.Wah Group, the new complex aims to enhance the working-living environment for the local community while contributing as a hub for culture and finance. The project, set along the central axis of the Hexi New District, introduces high-rise office towers, commercial and cultural functions, two serviced apartment buildings, a headquarters tower, a hotel, and various public amenities.

+ 8

Kengo Kuma and Associates have just been awarded second place in an architecture competition to design the expansion and renovation of the Egyptian Museum in Torino, Italy. It served for many decades as the primary civic space in Turin, with its public areas closed off from the rest of the city. Kengo Kuma’s proposal aims to recreate the public plaza, a city center covered by a thin glass canopy. Founded in 1824 and is the oldest museum for Ancient Egyptian culture, the Egyptian Museum in Torino held a competition earlier this year and received entries by Pininfarina Architecture, Carlo Ratti Associati, and Snøhetta. The winning project by OMA / David Gianotten and Andreas Karavanas will transform the museum into a cultural space, creating one covered courtyard and a series of connected urban rooms within the existing settlement.

+ 3

The Mendoza College of Architects (CAMZA) launched a Provincial Preliminary Design Competition for the refurbishment of its offices at the Central Regional and Board of Directors headquarters in the city of Mendoza. With a focus on functional, construction, and energy efficiency, the project aims to rethink the headquarters as a model space, keeping in mind everyone who inhabits and moves through these spaces.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill have been selected to design the New York Climate Exchange in partnership with Stony Brook University, a public research institute in New York. The new net-zero campus, located on Governors Island, New York, is planned to serve as an anchor institution for the development of new climate solutions. As a first-of-its-kind international center, “The Exchange” will also act as a regional hub for the green economy.

The Belgian Pavilion has announced its display for this year’s international architecture exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Bento and Venciane Despret, “In Vivo” concentrates on investigating the architect's new relationship with resources. The display challenges our extractivist production system by identifying and designing architectural alternatives using components obtained from live organisms and the imagery that goes along with them.

+ 3

Every year since its establishment in 1970, Earth Day aims to bring into focus not only the increasingly threatening effects of climate change but also highlight the effective measures and adaptation efforts that can improve the quality of our environment. This year’s event comes after a report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in March, which presented another warning on the magnitude of changes produced by human-induced global warming and its impact on people and ecosystems. The same report does offer some hopeful prospects as well, showing that adaptation measures can build resilience, but those urgent systemwide transformations are needed to secure a net-zero future. In response to these findings, the 2023 Earth Day is focused on the theme of “Investing in Our Planet,” as an encouragement for governments, institutions, businesses, and civil society to accelerate the change. Read on to discover several citywide initiatives aligned with these objectives of building resilience and a more sustainable future through legislation, civic involvement, and innovative systems.

+ 2

For this year’s annual architecture exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Pavilion of San Marino will present the Hosting Guest project. Curated by Michael Kaethler and Marco Pierini, this intervention is an authentic co-design workshop focused on hospitality-related issues, part of an international and multi-year research project based on real places and needs. Representing the oldest Republic in the world, Artist Vittorio Corsini will participate in the pavilion with the help of a research team of students, designers, and researchers from San Marino, Venetian, and international universities.

+ 1

Fortaleza, the capital of Ceará, has just implemented an intelligent lighting model for crosswalks. Installed at the Praça Portugal roundabout, in the middle of the intersection of two of the city's major roads, the system could help reduce traffic accidents.

Powered by artificial intelligence, the system is capable of detecting human presence based on movement. When the dynamic lighting is activated, light beams track pedestrians from the start to the end of the crosswalk. The light improves driver visibility, especially at this specific location, where vehicles navigate a curve.

The past week brought chaos and despair to thousands of Brazilian families living in the country's North and Northeast regions. Heavy rains hit cities in Pará, Maranhão, Acre, and Amazonas, flooding hundreds of homes while others were completely destroyed by currents.

A nature-based solution to clean up a tributary of the Capibaribe River will be implemented in Recife, Pernambuco. Known as filtering gardens, the system consists of a group of native aquatic plants that will filter the mouth of the Cavouco Stream. Considered a sustainable and low-maintenance technology, the filtering gardens will be installed along the section where the stream flows through Caiara Park in the western zone of the capital, where about 10% of the polluted water flow will be treated.

Danish Maritime Architecture Studio MAST, working together with the Municipality of Segrate, plans to transform a former sand quarry into a central park to reconnect the surrounding neighbourhoods and create a new destination for the residents of Milan, Italy. The abandoned quarry has left behind a unique landscape. The off]ice’s proposal includes a series of buildings along the lake’s perimeter linked by a public walkway and a cluster of islands in the centre of the lake. MAST is currently working with the Municipality of Segrate toward realising the project.

+ 4

Earlier this month, the Viva o Verde SP project was launched. The result of a partnership between the São Paulo Municipal Government and UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme), the initiative is set to guide new municipal public policies aimed at improving the quality of green public spaces.

Initially, improvements will be proposed for 111 parks across the city of São Paulo. The goal is to achieve equity in the spatial distribution and accessibility of public green areas. “This will be an ongoing effort, not just to expand the number of parks. They will conduct diagnoses starting with ten main parks, followed by a batch of 80 parks, eventually reaching all 111 parks, identifying the specific improvements that need to be made,” said Mayor Ricardo Nunes.

For this year’s 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Singapore Pavilion activates discussion on new methods of measuring and evaluating the intangible and asks explicitly: how much is enough? The exhibition explores a community’s interaction with its surroundings, suggesting that they are not currently measured within the same measurable, quantifiable and gradable standards that buildings and the built environment are designed and built to. Moreover, the pavilion suggests that connecting these two pillars of city architecture, it is essential to rethink innovation in design. The exhibition asks how architects can quantify the immeasurable values of architecture: agency, attachment, attraction, connection, freedom, and inclusion.

Torre Velasca, the renowned 1950s skyscraper by BBPR in Milan, Italy, is currently undergoing an extensive renovation process led by Asti Architetti and developed by Hines. After completing the work on the facades and with the extensive restoration of the interiors under way, the office has made public the project for the redesign of the Piazza Velasca, the square surrounding the tower. By turning it into a meeting and social gathering place, the architects hope to restore the status of the complex as a symbol of Milan’s architectural heritage. Pedestrian access to the building, and the renovation of previously disused adjacent spaces will open up the area for public access and will restore the original meaning of “piazza,” or square. The project is scheduled for completion by early 2024.

+ 8

Atelier Masōmī has just revealed its design for The Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development (EJS Center). President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf chose an all-female team to work on the project with lead architect Mariam Issoufou Kamara of Atelier Masōmī, exhibition's architect Sumayya Vally of Counterspace, and the local architect Liberian architect Karen Richards Barnes. The EJS Center, located in Liberia’s capital Monrovia, will provide digital access to former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s personal and professional archives.

Perkins&Will has been selected as one of the five finalists in the nationwide artistic ideas competition for the design of the new National Museum of the U.S. Navy. The other finalists are DLR Group, Frank Gehry Partners, Quinn Evans, and BIG. Organised by the Naval Heritage History and Command’s (NHHC), the competition’s aim is to create a modern museum for Naval veterans and the public, a new building and ceremonial courtyard to reflect the Navy’s values and legacy. The campus would consist of approximately 270,000 square feet, with 100,000 square feet of gallery space. The Navy’s preferred location for the museum is on a site adjacent to the Washington Navy Yard.

+ 2

Foster + Partners and Arup have chosen to work together to design the Merced, Fresno, Kings/Tulare, and Bakersfield stations that will service high-speed train passengers on the first 171-mile leg of California High-Speed train (CA HSR). The Central Valley stations will be the grand entrances to America's first high-speed rail stretch, marking an important step towards providing all Californians with sustainable, carbon-free transportation. Planning, architecture, and engineering for the four new stations, which will serve as design templates for stations planned for the whole 500-mile Los Angeles/Anaheim to San Francisco line, are being done jointly by Foster + Partners and Arup.

The California high-speed rail will connect the state's mega-regions, promote economic growth and a cleaner environment, foster job growth, and conserve agricultural and protected lands. With up to 200 mph speeds, the system can travel from San Francisco to the Los Angeles basin in less than three hours. The Authority is collaborating with regional partners to implement a state-wide rail modernization plan that will spend billions of dollars on local and regional rail lines.