Architecture News

Grimshaw can claim their horticultural Eden Project in Devon, South West England as being among their most iconic works. Nestled in a disused quarry, simultaneously acting as an embedded landscape feature and an alien spacecraft holding precious specimens and plants, the scheme has been celebrated as a successful modern interpretation of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome concept.

Having been speculated upon both in Qingdao, China, and loosely on the Planet Mars, the Architects Journal reports that Grimshaw has begun work on a new £100 million Eden Centre in Morecambe, on England’s north-west coast.

British architect David Adjaye has been selected to receive the 2018 International Humanities Prize from Washington University in St. Louis. Granted biennially, the prize honors the lifetime work of a noted scholar, writer or artist who has made a significant and sustained contribution to the world of letters or the arts. His work is noted for its ability to reveal stories and identities while embodying the human experience.

The Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing, China, has tapped award-winning Chinese architect Zhu Pei as its next dean of the School of Architecture. Zhu Pei founded his firm Studio Zhu-Pei in 2005 known for its cutting-edge integration of cultural roots and contemporary innovation in design. Zhu Pei has taught at Harvard GSD and Columbia University GSAPP, two of the leading graduate programs in the world.

Next month, American architect Denise Scott Brown will receive the 2018 Soane Medal, an award given to "architects who have made a major contribution to their field, through their built work, through education, history and theory." A powerhouse jury that included Sir David Chipperfield, Paul Goldberger, Farshid Moussavi, Alice Rawsthorn, Oliver Wainwright selected Scott Brown for the second edition of the award. The 2017 Soane Medal was given to Rafael Moneo.

Sir David Chipperfield, Trustee of Sir John Soane’s Museum, said: ‘The jury considered many outstanding candidates; however Denise Scott Brown stood apart and was the jury’s unanimous choice. Scott Brown’s contribution across architecture, urbanism, theory and education over the last fifty years has been profound and far-reaching. Her example has been an inspiration to many, and we are delighted to honour her with the awarding of the Soane Medal.’

UNStudio was selected by the Hilversum Municipality and Media Park Enterprise to develop an urban vision which could offer a roadmap for the transformation of Hilversum’s Media Park into a vibrant and leading destination for future media content creation. The urban vision was born out of the need to adapt to new technologies and shifting consumer demands and includes potential programmatic, spatial and infrastructural development models that will fully prepare the Hilversum Media Park for the future.

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Safdie Architects have released their design for ‘Quorner’, a new residential tower to be built in Quito, Ecuador. The 24-storey structure, a collaboration with Ecuadorean construction firm Uribe & Schwarzkopf, is to be one of Quito’s tallest buildings and Safdie’s first in Ecuador.

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Emily Rauh Pulitzer, curator of the St. Louis Museum of Art and Steve Trampe of Owen Development, are spearheading a plan to transform a block near St. Louis's theater and museum district in the area of Grand Center. This project, (according to a story published on a local news site in St. Louis) is "a blank palette” and "an opportunity to take an entire block and make it different.”

The project is currently led by local architects Axi: Ome. Tatiana Bilbao has also confirmed her participation, in what should be an interesting addition to St. Louis's local architectural heritage. In an interview with Vladimir Belogolovsky, she explained that she considers that the legacy of Mexican architecture should expand to other sites:

Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect and founder of the Rotterdam-based firm OMA, has been announced as the closing keynote speaker at the World Architecture Festival. The event will take place in Amsterdam at the RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre on from 28-30 November.

As part of our 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale coverage, we present the completed Kosovo Pavilion. Below, curator Eliza Hoxha describes the exhibition in her own words.

The ‘90s in Kosovo under the Milošević regime are known as times of repression, a time when ethnic Albanians were expelled from all state-run institutions and thereby removed from public life. Funded by the 3 percent income tax mainly from Albanian Diaspora, Albanians created a parallel system of education, culture and healthcare in their private houses, which citizens offered for free. These private houses provided space for public life for almost ten years in Pristina, the capital and other cities in Kosovo. In the ‘90s, life that the city center provided for everyone ended for Albanians, and all activity was dislocated to the periphery. The entire Albanian community shrank into private houses. The house became a school, a restaurant, a promotional activity space, an office, an art gallery, a hospital and a home at the same time.

Grimshaw Architects have created a prefabricated tiny house to address Australia's housing crisis. Made to raise money for the not-for-profit organization Kids Under Cover and support homeless youth, The Peak project provides an affordable option for young people priced out of the housing market in Australia's cities. Designed to go completely off grid or integrate with city infrastructure mains, the project was formed around IKEA furniture within a double-height volume. All profits from The Peak support Kids Under Cover in Melbourne and the state of Victoria.

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Work has started on Stefano Boeri Architetti's multifunctional building Blloku Cube, the first element of a larger masterplan in Tirana. Located at the intersection of Pjeter Bogdani and Vaso Pasha streets, the project is sited in a up-and-coming center of city life in Blloku district. Taking cues from the Albanese capital, the design combines a multifunctional program of commercial, office and rooftop garden space. The project features an anodized aluminum double-skin cladding, a pattern facade that becomes a signature piece of architecture within the surrounding post-communist developments.

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The international design competition to create a new high-rise tower in central Auckland has announced five finalists. The five teams include Warren and Mahoney, Cox Architecture, Zaha Hadid Architects, Elenberg Fraser and Woods Bagot. The landmark tower competition is run by Melbourne-based property development company ICD Property. Each of the teams were asked to complete two versions of their design, one following current city Unitary Plan rules and one version that could be built given more open planning parameters.

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Gehry Partners recently completed Facebook's new MPK 21 building in Menlo Park, California. Expanding the company's existing footprint, the design was built in less than 18 months as a highly sustainable building. Formed to bring the outdoors into the office space, the project centers on a sheltered green space with 40-foot-tall redwood trees and an amphitheater-style courtyard that connects to the original Gehry-designed MPK 20 building.

R. Buckminster Fuller remains, 35 years after his passing, one of architecture’s preeminent minds. His proposals in construction, housing, mapping, and even transportation have a continued influence in the fields of architecture and engineering today, despite many of them having been designed nearly a century ago.

The following is text is an open letter from the Institute of Brazilian Architects in response to the devastating fire that tore through Brazil's National Museum on Sunday evening.

The Institute of Architects of Brazil (IAB), fulfilling its mission of contributing to the technical-scientific and sociocultural development of the country and preserving the national cultural heritage, deeply mourns the irreparable loss of the National Museum, the central institution of culture and science located in the district of São Cristóvão, in Rio de Janeiro, that was consumed by fire on the night of September 2nd.

The fire in Quinta da Boa Vista not only left a an architectural ensemble declared national heritage in ruins but also destroyed millions of artifacts and historical documents belonging to its collection, which were of worldwide relevance and among the most representative of Brazilian history. It is, therefore, an irrevocable loss, which is being lamented by everyone who cares about Brazilian culture and memory, both in Brazil and abroad.

Experimental design practice Studio INI's has designed a kinetic installation to represent this year's Greek Pavilion for the 2018 London Design Biennale. Entitled ΑΝΥΠΑΚΟΗ (Disobedience), the installation responds to the Biennale theme of Emotional States. Selected for the central courtyard exhibit, the design is comprised of a 17 meter-long wall constructed from a steel spring skeleton built up with recycled plastic which flexes, morphs and breathes around the human body.

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Studio Gang 10-story Solar Carve Tower is nearing completion in New York’s Meatpacking District. Officially named 40 Tenth Avenue, the scheme responds to the Highline and surrounding site with a dramatic curtain wall and chiseled shape. Sculpted by the angles of the sun, 40 Tenth Avenue explores how shaping architecture in response to solar access and other site-specific criteria can expand its potential to have a positive impact on its environment.

Dame Zaha Hadid forever shaped the field of architecture and design. As an architect who ventured where few would dare, she left an indelible mark on practice. Now, Sotheby's has reportedly sold her Miami residence at W South Beach. The Pritzker-Prize winning architect's private retreat is 3 bedroom, 4 bath unit that opens out to the Atlantic Ocean. Personally designed by the late Zaha herself, the residence gives a glimpse into the life of one of history's greatest architects.

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