Architecture News

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The Federal Urban Observatory (OFU) of the Ministry of the Interior, Public Works, and Housing of Argentina surveyed and mapped urban data for 16 cities across the country, which are home to 50% of Argentina's total population. Based on data collected over 28 years—between 1991 and 2019—this series of maps and graphs illustrates how each city's urban footprint expanded over time. Overall trends show a sharp increase in urbanized land area (77%) compared to moderate population growth (35%), resulting in a general 23% decline in population density. In other words, city growth has predominantly followed a pattern where land expansion far outpaces population growth.

Qatar has been radically reshaped by growth and development. The sovereign state transformed since the second half of the twentieth century after the discovery of the Dukhan oil field in 1940. Capitalizing on over 70 years of economic development, Qatar now has the highest per capita income in the world. Reflecting the country’s wealth, its modern architectural projects are being built at a monumental scale.

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Under the theme “The Rhythm That Connects the Future,” the Colombian government, in partnership with the country's public and private sectors, will participate in the global collaboration and business platform Expo Dubai 2020. The nation's pavilion was designed by Pacheco Estudio de Arquitectura in collaboration with the creative agency Buen Tipo Anchor.

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On June 5, 2019, the College of Architects of the State of Oaxaca, a member of the Federation of Architects of the Mexican Republic (FCARM), officially launched the call for entries for the First Oaxacan Architecture Biennale 2019. The initiative aimed to showcase and promote architecture developed within the state, elevating Oaxacan architecture to a national stage. For this inaugural edition, the jury consisted of architects Aldo Paul Ortega Molina, Victor Sánchez Ruz, Prometeo Alejandro Sánchez Islas, Miquel Adriá, and Andrea Griborio.

The São Paulo Association of Art Critics (APCA) announced yesterday the list of winners for the 2019 APCA Award. The awards are divided into ten categories, encompassing architecture, visual arts, cinema, literature, fashion, popular music, radio, theater, children's theater, and television.

Since 2010, APCA has included architecture critics, who this year presented seven awards: best architectural work; environmental resistance; promotion of architecture in public debate; appreciation of architectural heritage; career dedicated to public university and academic research; urbanity; and urban appropriation.

Sasaki has been selected by the government of Ho Chi Minh City to conceive the innovation district in the eastern part of the city, in collaboration with enCity, an international planning practice based in Singapore and Vietnam.

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The Royal Institute of British Architects has released the names of the 2019 winners of the President’s Medals, the annual awards for the world’s best student architecture projects. To showcase these achievements, an exhibition will be held in London, from the 4^th of December 2019 till the 1^st of February 2020, before touring throughout the UK and internationally.

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Kansas City has become the first major city in the United States to approve free public transit. Last week, the City Council voted unanimously to make the city’s bus system fare-free alongside the existing streetcar system that was launch in 2016. The Zero Fare Transit proposal aims to be a universal and system-wide fare-free scheme.

Adolf Loos (December 10, 1870 – August 23, 1933) was one of the most influential European architects of the late 19th century and is often noted for his literary discourse that foreshadowed the foundations of the entire modernist movement. As an architect, his influence is primarily limited to major works in what is now Austria and the Czech Republic, but as a writer he had a major impact on the development of 20th century architecture, producing a series of controversial essays that elaborated on his own architectural style by decrying ornament and a range of social ills. Adolf Loos’s minimalist attitudes are reflected in the works of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and many other modernists and led to a fundamental shift in the way architects perceived ornamentation.

On Friday, December 6, Chile's Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage announced the results of the first phase of the ideas competition for the curation of the Chilean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2020, themed How will we live together.

Snøhetta was selected to design the latest landmark of Xingtai, one of China’s oldest cities that is undergoing rapid urban development. The Grand Theater, integrated into the master plan of the central and southern parts of the Hebei province, will become a new cultural monument.

JKMM’s “Atlas” proposal won the international design competition for the new extension of The National Museum of Finland. Organized by the Finnish Heritage Agency, the National Museum of Finland and Senate Properties, the competition entitled “New National” or “Uusi Kansallinen” in Finnish, gathered 185 entries from all around the world.

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KÂAT Architects has won first prize in the national competition to design a new wildlife research and rehabilitation center for Iztuzu Beach in Turkey. Created to help protect one of the rarest natural ecosystems in the world, the competition was organized by the the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization of Turkey. The project aims to be an environmentally sensitive facility that will help ensure the cyclic continuity of the natural and cultural resources of Iztuzu Beach.

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As the founder of Steven Holl Architects, Steven Holl (born December 9, 1947) is recognized as one of the world's leading architects, having received prestigious awards for his contributions to design over the course of nearly forty years in practice, including the prestigious Alvar Aalto Medal in 1998, the AIA Gold Medal in in 2012, and the 2014 Praemium Imperiale. In 1991, Time Magazine named Holl America's Best Architect. He is revered for his ability to harness light to create structures with remarkable sensitivity to their locations, while his written works have been published in many preeminent volumes, sometimes collaborating with world-renowned architectural thinkers such as Juhani Pallasmaa and Alberto Pérez-Gómez.

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Photographer Luciano Spinelli recently captured the futurist Soviet elevator tower of the Dagomys sanatorium. Located in the microdistrict of Sochi, Russia, the project was part of a larger recreation and hotel complex belonging to the State Committee for Foreign Tourism of the USSR. Spinelli's photos document the atmospheric qualities of the tower and views out across the landscape.

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On display through December 8 at CCSP, the 12th International Architecture Biennale of São Paulo is organized by the IAB - São Paulo Department. This Saturday, December 7, the institute marks the close of this edition with discussions on the outlook for the new management cycle. The event takes place at the IABsp headquarters and is free of charge.

The World Architecture Festival invites shortlisted architects from around the world to present their projects in a range of categories, the winners of which are invited to present in front of a Super Jury for final selection.

In the 2019 version of the festival, LocHal Public Library by Civic Architects has been named the World Building of the Year concluding this year's three-day event in Amsterdam. This year's winner was selected from a strikingly broad shortlist that included works from offices such as Heatherwick Studio, CEBRA, Nikken Sekkei, and Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners.

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Heatherwick Studio offered a first look at the freestanding glass lobby pavilion at Lantern House, the firm’s first residential building in the United States. The project consists of 2 volumes, an east structure standing at 10-stories and a west structure standing at 22-stories, connected under the High Line.