Architecture News

Kengo Kuma and Associates, together with Bekim Ramku and OUD+ Architects, has recently been awarded first prize in the competition to redesign the Gërmia building into a concert hall and will lead the conversion of Prishtina’s architectural icon into a cultural landmark for Kosovo. The proposal preserves the existing structures and articulates the program within and around the modernist buildings. The design envisions a canopy weaving together the different volumes and creating a new layer of public space.

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The Chilean organization Ruta Pais Foundation has invited international architects and local artisans to design a series of architectural interventions in order to create 3 artisan routes in the Chilean Central Valley: Wicker Route in Chimbarongo, Clay Route in Pomaire, and Stone Route in Pelequén.

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The winners of the design contest for the Nervión Riverside Park in Galindo Este (Barakaldo, Spain) have been announced. Organized by BILBAO Ría 2000, the competition invited participants to submit proposals for a space along the banks of the Nervion River that Baracaldo residents could utilize. Currently, the majority of Galindo Este (Urban-Galindo) is developed, however, space along the riverbanks provided a number of opportunities for growth. The goal of the contest was to lay out an integral design that would blend with and build on the already-existing space around it.

Snøhetta has unveiled a new Central Campus Building for Ford Motor Company, part of the transformation of its Research & Engineering (R&E) Campus in Dearborn, Michigan. As the result of a 3-year research and planning process, the project was created in collaboration with IBI Group as the Architect of Record, Ghafari as the Engineer of Record, and Arup leading sustainability and engineering.

The United States Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm announced the winners of the 2021 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon, a competition that challenges architecture and engineering college students from around the world to design and construct high-performance buildings powered by renewable energy. 72 competing teams hailed from 12 countries and designed energy-efficient residential and commercial spaces, nine of which were constructed and presented in the Solar Decathlon Virtual Village on the National Mall, a first of its kind, in Washington, D.C.

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After an extensive renovation, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) completes the transformation of the Willis Tower observation deck and inaugurates a new interactive exhibition showcasing how architecture shaped Chicago’s identity through the city’s history. Now reopened to the public, the Skydeck is part of SOM’s ongoing design stewardship of Willis Tower, which started with the building’s conception and continued in 2009 with the addition of the Ledge.

France is investing in initiatives to combat climate change, including shifting to more sustainable modes of transport. Owners of older cars can now receive a government subsidy of up to 2,500 euros to trade in their vehicles for electric bicycles. 

“For the first time, it is recognized that the solution is not to make cars greener, but simply to reduce their number,” noted Olivier Schneider of the French Federation of Bicycle Users.

Design experts from the leading global bathroom-solutions and kitchen-fixtures manufacturer talk customer-centric and inclusive design, sustainability, and their new digital-experience platform, GROHE X.

Awarded second place in the “Earth Architecture Competition,” organized by the NGO C-re-aid, the primary school in Moshi, Tanzania, designed by a team of students from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, aims to promote education and sustainability as a means of spatial and social integration within the local reality. Varying heights and lengths of the horizontal planter beds enhance safety in the school environment while maintaining its connection to the street.

The school unfolds from a central corridor that reveals various distinct spaces, allowing children to develop creatively and connect with their surroundings, according to the project's authors: Ana Luísa Schoenell, João Victor Ortiz, Julia Stopasolla Copat, and Mariana Bruggmann Spricigo Pfleger. The program is divided into blocks, with classrooms and services connecting to this central corridor to foster physical and visual integration across all spaces. 

The project by IDOM and Rosan Bosch Studio for Markham College's primary school in Lima, Peru, proposes an open and flexible model designed to allow 750 students to continue their education even during a pandemic.

Glenn Howells Architects have won planning permission for a lakeside climbing center in Peterborough, England. The new Olympic standard climbing center aims to be a sustainable landmark for the 1,700-acre Ferry Meadows Park site. The center is made to be a central element of Nene Park Trust’s 2050 vision and 10-year masterplan. The indoor facilities are designed to complement the outdoor activities available across the Park.

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Paul Clemence has just released recent photos of Bjarke Ingels Group’s Spiral skyscraper, an under-construction 1,000 feet tall tower with a series of stepped landscaped terraces. Set for completion in 2022, the highrise that topped out in February of this year, is located at Hudson Yards in New York City.

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Barcode Architects and Tchoban Voss Architekten have landed the win of the Dresden City Public Administration Headquarters design competition. The proposed building will have a dynamic, three-layered façade that compliments Dresden's architecture and carefully embeds it with its surroundings. The 34,000m2 'Verwaltungszentrum' will be part of a larger urban transformation of the Ferdinandplatz, and is expected to be complete in 2025.

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Designed by 3LHD Architects, the new campus for the Croatian electric hypercar manufacturer Rimac brings together a wide array of programs and spaces, from production plant and offices to kindergarten, dormitory and even a sheep meadow. Located in the outskirts of Zagreb, within a natural landscape, the Rimac Campus is organized around two main volumes that follow the site’s natural topography, with several accompanying facilities tucked underneath a green roof that stretches out, meeting the surrounding landscape.

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Concéntrico, Logroño's International Architecture and Design Festival, has announced the winning proposals for their three open competitions in three locations in the historic center of Logroño, in Spain.

This edition of the competitions sought to create a Pavilion in the Plaza de Escuelas Trevijano and two interventions, one in the River Ebro walk and the other in Viña Lanciano by Bodegas LAN.

For total creative freedom in designing with glass, 3M has developed a diverse range of solutions for facades and interiors that change depending on the incidence of light.

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The 2021 AZ Awards have announced their finalists. Two Colombian projects are among the finalists in two of the twenty-two award categories. Both projects—the La Perseverancia Vertical Activation Installation and the La Concordia Amphitheater—emerged as architectural proposals for economic reactivation in Bogotá, developed by the firms Taller Architects, SCA, and Colab-19.

The results of the National Ideas Competition for the Development of Housing and Complementary Spaces for Urban Habitat / “Ex Pediátrico Urban Development” have been announced. Organized by the Professional Association of Architecture and Urbanism of the Province of Chaco (CPAUCH), promoted by the Provincial Institute of Urban Development and Housing (IPDUV), and sponsored by the Argentine Federation of Architect Associations (FADEA) and the Social Security, Insurance, and Loan Institute of the Province of Chaco (INSSSEP), the competition invited the country's architects to design urban and architectural proposals for dignified living, while also revitalizing an urban void in the city of Resistencia within a residential area with high development potential.