The Council of Architecture and Urbanism of Rio de Janeiro (CAU/RJ) has launched two public calls for sponsorship proposals and one partnership call for the production of short films on urban policy. The sponsorships focus on projects relevant to the knowledge, strengthening, and development of the profession in the state of Rio de Janeiro, as well as projects supporting technical assistance for social interest housing (ATHIS).
Latin America's social crisis is centered in its informal settlements, the epicenters of the most urbanized and unequal region in the world. Approximately 104 million people live in these communities, where one in four lives in poverty within a slum, villa, favela, or informal camp. This has led organizations like TECHO to focus on this segment of the population, which subsists despite the ongoing violation of their rights and a grueling test of their resilience.
The iconic ESSO building (now the CAR Building), designed by New Yorker Douglas Lathrop alongside Martínez Cárdenas, and the Pan American building (now the Teusacá building) by Colombian architect Germán Samper—both located across from Bogotá's National Park—are included in the "CAR- Universidad Libre" Partial Urban Renewal Plan, which proposes their demolition.
In New York, activists and professionals have been working for many years to try to save 10 decommissioned tanks, from demolition by putting forward alternative usage of these structures. Partnering with STUDIO V, an architectural firm and landscape architects Ken Smith Workshop, they came up with an inventive proposal that reimagines these industrial relics as a 21st-century park, a novelty in the traditional definition and configuration of public spaces.
Architecture students at Portland State University have created a new stage fro Pickathon Music Festival from apple harvesting bins in Happy Valley, Oregon. The temporary performance venue was designed and built from reused materials with collaborators Howard S. Wright, Catena Engineers, and Pickathon. Dubbed the Treeline Stage, the venue features seven towers of varying heights to evoke an orchard of trees.
One of the greatest constraints in construction is the budget; great ideas and innovative proposals can easily hit financial barriers and remain there, never actually getting off the drawing board. To help architects, engineers, and builders better organize construction budgets, Antônio Fascio, an information systems graduate, founded OrçaFascio.
The Lisbon Architecture Triennale announced the long-awaited list of finalists for the third edition of the Début Prize, which aims to recognize offices and collectives whose artistic consolidation is still developing and whose thinking and approach are relevant to contemporary architectural scene.
Sasaki has released details of their Wuhu Urban Renewal project in China, spanning 67 hectares on the banks of the Yangtze River. The scheme centers on distinctive colonial buildings scattered throughout the city’s urban fabric, such as the Customs House, British Consulate, and St. Joseph’s Cathedral.
Architect and photographer Kris Provoost recently captured new photos of OPEN Architecture's Tsinghua Ocean Center in China. Designed as a laboratory and office building for the newly established deep-ocean research base of Tsinghua University, the project is located at the eastern end of Tsinghua graduate school campus in Shenzhen Xili University Town next to the main campus entrance. Provoost's images reveal details throughout the construction and showcase the project in its larger context.
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The Best Architecture Masters (BAM) platform presented the second edition of its ranking of the best architecture master programs in the world in the year 2019.
The Van Alen Institute and the City of North Miami have announced Department Design Office as the winner of the KEEPING CURRENT competition. The team has been awarded $80,000 to transform a flood-prone lot in North Miami into a community space and storm water management site. The competition aims to reduce the cost of flood insurance, reinvigorate underused communal areas, and promote climate consciousness.
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The Robinson Tower, a 24 000 m² boutique retail and office tower, was inaugurated in Singapore. Designed by the international firm KPF or Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, and executed in collaboration with Associate Architect A61, the building addresses the cultural and social aspects of the city, creating a singular and refined experience. The tower stands out from its context showcasing novelty in form and function, changing the city’s skyline.
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The Instituto Tomie Ohtake and AkzoNobel have announced the 12 finalist projects in the professional category, alongside three in the student category, which was introduced in this sixth edition of the Instituto Tomie Ohtake AkzoNobel Architecture Award.
Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center is relocating to a new building in the downtown area, designed by Rand Elliott Architects, a native firm of the city. This exhibition and educational center, originally a community-oriented arts center founded in 1989, will be open to everyone and free of charge, in order to facilitate the public access for art and education.
Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner (gmp) has unveiled its design for the China Telling Communications Building, recognized as the winning entry for an international competition. The two high-rise buildings are linked by a shared podium landscape, forming the concept of two floating cubes to symbolize different business sections of China Telling Corp.
West 8 has won the competition to revitalize the Middle Branch Waterfront in Baltimore, Maryland. The design competition managed and developed by the Parks & People Foundation on behalf of the City of Baltimore and facilitated in coordination with community-based organizations. Working with local partners Mahan Rykiel and Moffatt & Nichol, the team aims to recreate and redefine the blue green heart of Baltimore.
Fentress Architects announced the winners of the 2019 Fentress Global Challenge, the international annual student competition. For this 7th edition, under the theme of envisioning the airport of the future in the year 2075, students from more than 50 countries participated in the contest, and more than 500 applications were registered.
Yesterday, July 30, 2019, Cristiano Toraldo di Francia died at 78 years of age —56 years ago the architect founded - together with Adolfo Natalini - one of the most important offices of radical post-war architecture in Italy, Superstudio, which, during the 60's and early 70's, focused on the form of a strong critique of the production methods of design and architecture. All this analysis was reflected in a very different way of representing architecture, collages, experiments, manifestos, furniture, stories, storyboards, etc. This approach has unleashed multiple discussions that remained valid to this day among the younger generations, which have resumed these modes of criticism to apply them to new ways of producing and thinking about architecture.
_Tim_Griffith_(3).jpg?1564671392 "© Tim Griffith")
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_Tim_Griffith_(5).jpg?1564671417 "© Tim Griffith")
_Tim_Griffith_(7).jpg?1564671445 "© Tim Griffith")
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