Architecture News

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The artist and writer Jill Magid presents a documentary dedicated to the life of the "artist among the architects": Luis Barragán, who is one of the most famous architects of the 20th century. Upon his death in 1988, much of his work was locked in a Swiss bunker, hidden from view of the world. In an attempt to resurrect Barragán's life and art, the redefinition of "The Proposal" limits creates an audacious proposal that becomes a fascinating work of art in itself, a cable negotiation act that explores how far it will go an artist to democratize access to art.

Architecture is often described by architects themselves as an exhausting path of study, where pulling all-nighters is encouraged and sleep is sacrificed—in theory—in pursuit of project quality, yet at the expense of mental health.

The 20 shortlisted projects for the 2019 Aga Khan Award for Architecture have been announced. Located in 16 different countries, the shortlisted schemes will compete for a US$1 million prize fund that recognizes all parties involved in the conception, design, and realization of a built project.

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London-based firm Carmody Groarke and the National Trust for Scotland have celebrated the public launch and debut of The Box in Helensburgh. Designed for the Hill House by Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the project was made to conserve one of Scotland’s most important buildings. First announced in late 2017, the endeavor aims to preserve the building and its iconic facade from extensive moisture damage.

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Entries for the World Architecture Festival close on Friday 3^rd May. The 12th edition of the World Architecture Festival will take place in Amsterdam from the 4th to 6th December, where more than 550 architectural and design practices from over 68 countries are expected to compete for category and overall prizes. 

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This article was made in partnership with Design Indaba, a website and annual festival that uncovers innovation for good. Click here to learn more about the annual event.

Niger-born architect Mariam Kamara shared how she is shifting perceptions of her home country at the 2019 Design Indaba Conference in Cape Town. Founder of the architecture and research firm atelier masōmī, Kamara was a software developer for several years before joining united4design, a global collective of architects working on projects in the U.S., Afghanistan and Niger. At the Design Indaba Conference, Miriam discusses her work and what it means to put people at the forefront of practice.

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The Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao – founder of the architecture firm based in Mexico City Tatiana Bilbao Estudio – has been awarded the eighth Marcus Prize. This recognition has been given to different world-renowned architects as Jeanne Gang (2017), Joshua Ramus (2015), Sou Fujimoto (2013), Diébédo Francis Kéré (2011), Alejandro Aravena (2010), Frank Barkow (2007), Winy Maas (2005) and seeks to recognize architects from all over the world whose trajectory is on the rise.

odD+ architects have released details of their proposed Grove Tower in Quito, Ecuador. A 10,000-square-meter office building for one of the country’s most prestigious law firms, the scheme has been designed as a “monumental structure that represents the values of the firm on an extremely narrow terrain.”

The Statue of Liberty Museum is set to open on Liberty Island, New York. Designed by New York-based firm FXCollaborative led by Nicholas Garrison, the 26,000-square-foot scheme seeks to create the illusion of a structure lifted from the earth. To achieve this, the project incorporates angular design techniques and native materials to the island and statue, such as Stone Creek granite, copper, plaster, and native vegetation.

The competition challenged participants to design a kindergarten that could serve as many children as possible, aged 2 to 5, in an underprivileged neighborhood of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, as part of a charitable initiative organized by Teto and Archsharing.

Quito-based odD+ Architects have designed a residential skyscraper inspired by sunflowers for Ecuador. Taking cues from the rhythmic formations of the plant's seeds and petals, the tower is a direct response to the increasing urbanization of Quito. Aiming to address development patterns that threaten the natural landscape and its endemic species, the project was made to be a vertical ecosystem for the city.

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The Kingdom of Thailand has broken ground for its pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, becoming the first South East Asian country to begin the construction of its pavilion. The Thailand Pavilion will represent the country through its ‘Mobility for the Future’ theme to showcase transportation, logistics, digital connectivity and personal mobility. To help reduce the heat transmitting to the building, the pavilion will be draped in a curtain made from more than 500 artificial blossoms. Inspired by traditional floral garlands used to welcome guests, the design symbolizes hospitality, luck and respect.

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Architecture firm NUDES has released details of their proposed secondary school in Malawi, constructed from straw bales. Responding to a brief focused on modularity, incremental expansion, deployment, and sustainable technology, the scheme is formed of a modular “ladder” component deployed to create a structural system that houses the pedagogical intent of the school.

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MUDA-Architects has released details of their M50 Art Hotel project located in Pingle, Sichuan, China. Situated within an ancient town with strong musical heritage, the design process for the scheme involved exploring and activating local cultural genes, creating a landmark building that reflects its historical context, with an architecture that is forward-looking.

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Contemporary artist Yhonnie Scarce and Melbourne architecture studio Edition Office have been announced as the winners of the 2019 National Gallery of Victoria Architecture Commission. Occurring annually, the NGV Architecture Commission is an open national competition that invites architects to create a site-specific work of temporary architecture to activate the NGV’s Grollo Equiset Garden. The winning scheme, In Absence, explores the histories of Indigenous construction, design and agriculture, as well as the villages and dwellings of Indigenous communities.

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'A quien corresponda' is an exhibition at the Kirkland Gallery at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard, which emerges as a call within another. Being aware of the scarcity of opportunities for exhibition and appreciation of design in Mexico, an open invitation extended to practices dedicated to architecture, design and / or art interested in showing their work in an area of 0.0588m2 (the area of one leaf letter) within the space of the gallery, taking advantage of the opportunity to appropriate the gallery in a period of two weeks.

Nanjing Chengtian Bridge spans the Qinhuai River, crossing the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway to the south and running adjacent to the Ring Expressway to the north. Connecting the city's CBD with an ecological park, the bridge serves as a major gateway and urban landmark for the Southern New Town.

The Southern New Town occupies a unique geographical position, situated at the center of four mountains: Jiangjun Mountain, Fang Mountain, Qinglong Mountain, and Purple Mountain. The silhouettes of these four mountains converge here, inspiring the main structure of the bridge. Floating above the Qinhuai River, its flowing lines present a picturesque landscape from afar. Four triangular arches symbolize the converging mountains, giving the Chengtian Bridge structural stability and a dynamic, tension-filled presence.

The federal government's Minha Casa Minha Vida housing program risks running out of funding starting this June, Regional Development Minister Gustavo Canuto declared this week. The current budget of R$ 4.17 billion is one of the lowest since the program was created in 2009, during the administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.