Construction has begun on MVRDV’s new 23-story mixed-use tproject at Mission Rock in San Francisco. One of four buildings in a multi-phase masterplan, the tower was designed alongside work by Studio Gang, Henning Larsen, and WORKac. The Mission Rock masterplan aims to turn 28 acres into a new neighborhood for San Francisco residents and visitors. The projects are made to connect to China Basin Park.
An extensive urban regeneration project is slated to take place in the town of Stockton in the United Kingdom. A 37-million-pound project, the proposal - drawn up by Ryder Architecture and backed by the Stockton Borough Council - will demolish half the high street in Stockton’s town centre and replace it with a riverside park.
Camino anillo de cintura. Image Cortesía de Cristian Boza
With the project Monte Trenzado, Cristián Boza Wilson was named a finalist in the Cerro Calán Observatory Park competition, a call for proposals seeking the best designs for the architecture, landscape, and technical disciplines of a new urban natural park in Santiago, Chile. Organized by the Municipality of Las Condes in collaboration with the Universidad de Chile and the Cerros Isla Foundation, the project will reclaim 45 hectares (111 acres) to construct a new metropolitan park open to the general public.
Dorte Mandrup has imagined ‘The Hinge’, a landmark transition between the new urban area Aarhus Ø and the historic town of Denmark’s second-largest city. The new city gate will put in place an innovative and sustainable urban focal point. Expected to open in 2026, The Hinge was designed in collaboration with landscape architect Kristine Jensen and Søren Jensen Consulting Engineers.
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Courtesy of Wood Design & Building Magazine
Wood Design & Building magazine has announced the winning projects from the Wood Design & Building Awards program. Launched in 1984, the awards program recognizes and celebrates excellence in wood architecture. Submissions included a mix of structures, from a library built against a rock wall in China, to a reconstructed heritage horse barn in Alberta and Canada’s longest clear-span bridge in Nova Scotia.
Considered an intangible cultural heritage by the State Council of Culture (CEC) of Alagoas, the sururu is a mollusk whose harvesting is the main source of income for several communities in the state. Around the Mundaú lagoon alone, in Maceió, five communities living below the poverty line produce approximately 300 tons of sururu shells annually—a massive amount of waste that previously had no use and ended up in the Alagoas capital's landfills.
Recognizing its significant economic and social engagement potential, designers Marcelo Rosenbaum, Adriana Benguela, and Rodrigo Ambrósio developed the Cobogó da Mundaú project, which incorporates sururu harvesting waste into the manufacturing of architectural screen blocks.
As we successfully launched our 12th Building of the Year Awards earlier this year, we want to thank you for being part of our community for over 10 years. Together we have been growing and contributing to the architectural scene, aiming for a better world.
By nominating and voting, you form part of an interdependent, impartial, distributed network of jurors and peers that has consistently helped us celebrate architecture of every scale, purpose, and condition, and architects of all profiles. Over the coming weeks, your votes will result in 700 Chinese projects filtered down to just 10 best projects in China.
A class photograph with a.o. Martha van Coppenolle at the Technisch Instituut van Sint-Maria in Antwerp, ca. 1930. Collection City of Antwerp, Letterenhuis.. Image Courtesy of Wiki Women Design
The Flanders Architecture Institute has been working to bring “women who have left their mark on Belgium's design heritage out of the shadows”, through Wiki Women Design. Using Wikipedia as a platform, the initiative aims to organize edit-a-thons or writing sessions, to make up for this backlog.
KCAP Architects & Planners have designed a proposal for three round, residential towers on the former Brabantbad site in the Netherlands. The team's project includes slender volumes atop transparent plinths adjacent to Prins Hendrikpark in 's-Hertogenbosch. The park embraces the IIzeren Vrouw, a former sand extraction lake, while also aiming to improve upon the current zoning plan.
Morpholio has just released “Smart Hatch”, a new addition featured in its Trace app, famous for sketching and drafting, as well as storing and organizing ideas by layers. Making drawing details, elevations, plans, and sections by hand way easier, Smart Hatch calculates the areas for the user and fills their drawings with the sketch style hatch they desire.
Scott Brownrigg's 1000 Discovery Drive has been granted planning approval from Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District Councils in United Kingdom. As the second building of the Biomedical Campus in Phase 2, the project includes 100,000 square feet of net internal area across laboratories and office space. The design aims to form a flexible and adaptable design to drive innovation within the scientific and medical community.
Canada Earth Tower is designed to rise 40 stories, and the wooden skyscraper would be the tallest of its kind in the world.. Image Courtesy of Perkins + Will / Delta Land Development
Tall timber buildings are on the rise. Design teams around the world are taking advantage of ever-evolving mass timber technologies, resulting in taller and taller structures. Building off our recent article exploring the future of high-rise buildings, we’re taking a deeper dive into new emerging timber technologies and the advantages of building taller with wood. This tutorial explores how to make tall timber structures a reality.
The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) and the Danish Arts Foundation (DAF) have selected Soil Lab as the winning project of a DAF Open Call for a major new commission in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. Responding to the biennial’s 2021 edition theme The Available City, led by Artistic Director David Brown, the proposal, chosen to represent Denmark at the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial, was imagined by an international design team that includes Eibhlín Ní Chathasaigh (Dublin), James Albert Martin (Dublin), Anne Dorthe Vester (Copenhagen), Maria Bruun (Copenhagen) and Chicago residents.
AutoCamp has announced an expansion of properties with HKS Architects leading the design for AutoCamp Joshua Tree and AutoCamp Zion National Park. Established in California with AutoCamp Yosemite National Park and Russian River locations, the outdoor lodging brand is effectively doubling in size to six bi-coastal locations in the next year. All the properties are designed to bring guests closer to nature.
Construction has been completed on the Ricard Ginebreda Sports Complex in Molins de Rei (Barcelona, Spain). Designed by the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) through the Public Space Services Directorate, this new facility brings together various sports under one roof—such as weightlifting, judo, climbing, and artistic gymnastics—which were previously scattered in venues ill-suited to their specific needs. The project was built around an existing soccer field belonging to a club in the El Canal neighborhood.
Arthaus, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates' first residential tower in Philadelphia has just topped out. The 47-story development with 108 residences, slated for occupancy in early 2022, is located along the famed Avenue of the Arts directly across the street from the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
The 50 Hudson Yards skyscraper by Foster + Partners has topped out in New York. As one of the largest office buildings in the city, the project has become the fourth-biggest office tower by square footage. The 58-story office tower includes very large floor plates for up to 500 employees on each floor. The tower is the latest in a series of projects rounding out the Hudson Yards on the western edge of Manhattan.
The 27th World Congress of Architects UIA2021RIO will be a hybrid event, featuring virtual sessions starting in March, and in-person activities from July 18 to 22 in Rio de Janeiro, broadcast live online to congress participants worldwide.
The first UIA2021RIO World Architects Week, featuring digital content, will take place from March 22 to 25. During this week, the content will be free to access; afterward, it will only be available to registered Congress participants. The theme chosen to open UIA2021RIO in March is one of the most pressing global concerns today: social vulnerabilities and inequalities.