Architecture News

An urban opera performed by residents and a cyberfeminism project in a stigmatized neighborhood are among the initiatives comprising Imagina Madrid, a project where creators, organizations, and residents join forces to artistically intervene in deteriorated public spaces on Madrid’s outskirts.

Promoted by the Madrid City Council's Department of Culture and Sports and coordinated by Intermediae, Imagina Madrid has structured a decentralized, collaborative, and multidisciplinary methodology to define its interventions. This approach is grounded in Elinor Ostrom's research on the economics of the commons and what sociologist Saskia Sassen describes as the "operational and rhetorical" openings that slip into the global city.

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Recently, the award ceremony for the 2018 Prix Versailles world awards was held at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris. An annual recognition of commercial architecture worldwide, these awards aim to foster interaction between culture and economy. The Prix Versailles seeks to change how this seemingly opposing architectural duality is perceived, given that commercial venues are often associated with utilitarian functionalism and immediacy, whereas cultural sites are associated with beauty and experience.

We live in a society

A post shared by sssscavvvv (@sssscavvvv) on May 4, 2018 at 12:15pm PDT

In the modern age of sensationalism, consumerism, and widespread fake news, it's easy to understand why we feel the need to express ourselves through memes—the abstract photographs, video clips, and gifs that are manipulated in various ways to express thoughts on certain matters or situations that are relatable to people across the globe. Memes often expound complex yet concise sentiments which, in a way, closely resemble the way that we communicate in real life.

In the world of architecture, communication is often represented through critical essays, stunning renders and photographs, and hand-drawn analytical diagrams. In fact, architecture communication as we know it has mostly been a literal representation of the thing itself: Ideas are translated into plans, sections, elevations, details, form diagrams. But with the rise of memes and abstract expressions, why aren’t we popularizing our own personal thoughts with this form of widespread social media?

The work of Patricia Golombek is an architectural study developed from different perspectives, analyzing structural elements and design solutions by various architects from around the world.

An architect by training, the artist uses her work to highlight the language through which architects communicate and the creative process behind their designs.

The 2018 CEMEX Pavilion competition was established to offer Guadalajara's student community an opportunity and a platform to express their aspirations, interests, concerns, and critiques of the architectural profession. This is materialized through an intervention in the courtyard of a heritage home in the city's historic center, which currently serves as both a workshop and a cultural center.

Supported by CEMEX and the Arq. Marcelo Zambrano Scholarship, the first edition of the 2018 CEMEX Pavilion competition was launched. Aimed at the student community of the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, the competition invited participants to intervene in a heritage property in the city's downtown core, aiming to provide students with a fresh platform to express their concerns and passions about the profession through a built work, bridging the gap to professional practice.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced the winners of their 18th annual Housing Awards, which recognize the best in housing design for new constructions, restorations, and renovations. This year the five-person jury selected eleven projects to receive awards in four categories: one- and two-family custom residences; one- and two-family production homes; multifamily housing; and specialized housing.

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Chilean architect Smiljan Radic was announced the winner of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize 2018 Architecture Awards from The American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York.

The academy's annual architecture awards program began in 1955 with the opening of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize. The prize is given to an architect of any nationality who has made a significant contribution to architecture as an art. The program has since been expanded to include four Arts and Literature Awards for American architects that explore ideas in architecture through any medium of expression.

The European Commission and Europe Nostra announced the winners of the 2018 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage/ Europa Nostra Awards. The 29 winners from 17 countries have been recognized for their achievements in four categories: conservation, research, dedicated services, and education, training and raising awareness. The winners will be honored at an award ceremony at the first ever European Cultural Heritage Summit on June 22.

The curators of the 2018 Venice Biennale Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects have announced the winning contributions to the 16th International Architecture Exhibition. Selected with the help of jury members Frank Barkow, Sofia Von Ellrichshausen, Kate Goodwin, Patricia Patkau, and Pier Paolo Tamburelli, the winners of the Golden Lion for Best National Participation went to Switzerland. Meanwhile, in the Freespace exhibition curated by Farrell and McNamara at Venice's Arsenale, Eduardo Souto de Moura will take home the Golden Lion for Best Participant in the International Exhibition.

As part of the Brazilian contribution to the 2018 Venice Biennale, titled Walls of Air, Atelier Marko Brajovic presented the NSDC installation, which proposes redesigning city fences into street furniture, viewing the design process as a tool for transformation used to shape the urban landscape and its use.

The Chinese Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, themed "Building a Future Countryside", is endeavored to explore new technology and ideas to make better of China's rural areas. A digitally-fabricated outdoor pavilion "Cloud Village" has been set up in addition to the national exhibition at the Venetian Arsenale. The Cloud Village has a twisting form which creates a sequence of open and semi-enclosed spaces under its roof. It seeks to convey an abstraction of the everyday life in Chinese countryside where boundaries of private and public realms are not always defined.

The Cloud Village is structurally made possible by the robotic printing technology developed by Philip F. Yuan and his team. Read below for a detailed account of the project from the architects.

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On April, the continental ceremony of the Prix Versailles 2018 took place in the International Center of Conférences d'Alger with the announcement of the selected projects in shops, shopping centers, hotels and restaurants for the "Africa and West Asia" and "Europe" regions.

The 24 new projects are now incorporated into the list of 46 continental winners -from Central America, the South and the Caribbean; North America; Central Asia and the Northeast; and South Asia and the Pacific regions- resulting in 70 projects that will compete in the 2018 Prix Versailles World Final at the UNESCO Headquarters.

See the selected projects after the break.

The Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) has announced the 31 winning schemes for the “2018 Outstanding Projects” award, chosen from 200 nominations. Awarded on a biennial basis, the awards seek to recognize the most distinguished architectural works built on the continents of North and South America.

The 31 projects will now form a shortlist for the MCHAP Prize, with winners to be announced in July 2018. Hosted by the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), the winner will be honored in a grand prize ceremony at Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Crown Hall in October. In the last series, top honors went to SANAA's Grace Farms in New Canaan, Connecticut, USA.

With the opening of the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale comes a look at the first ever contribution by the Holy See, an exhibition that brings together architects to design chapels that, after the Biennale, can be relocated to sites around the globe.

Located in a wooded area on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore, 10 chapels by architects including Norman Foster, Eduardo Souto de Moura, and Smiljan Radic, are joined by the Asplund Chapel by MAP Architects. This 11th structure serves as a prelude to the other chapels, while reflecting on Gunnar Asplund's 1920 design for the Woodland Chapel.

While 2016's Golden Lion-winning project 'The Unfinished' surveyed architecture after the construction crisis, this year's Spanish pavilion will explore architecture's future through the eyes of researchers.

The 'becoming,' an exhibition curated by Spanish architect Atxu Amann, opens its doors to the works and productions of architecture students developed between 2012 and 2017. According to the curators, "becoming makes an allusion to a vector of the future, with a common educational background in the 'EscuelaS,' which extends to other learning experiences in space and time, in dialogue with other disciplines."

Selected along with nine other architects by the Vatican, Carla Juaçaba has shared images of her proposed chapel design as part of the Venice Architecture Biennial, which marks the city-state's first time participating in the largest architectural event in the world.

The proposed chapel design seeks a harmonious integration between the water and trees that surround Venice, with the nearby vegetation outlining the interior space of the chapel. The space between the treetops - which offers a view of the sky - functions as the ceiling of the chapel.

Videos

Louisiana Channel has released a new video interview with acclaimed architect Daniel Libeskind, in which he retraces the story behind his architectural career. In the interview, Libeskind unravels his view of architecture, and the architectural profession, drawing comparisons between architecture and music, while reflecting on the adherence to legislation and inherent optimistic outlook required to practice architecture.

In the 30-minute in-depth interview, Libeskind guides observers through his childhood, the roots of his architectural career, and reflects upon his most noted schemes, including the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the World Trade Center Masterplan in New York.

The New York City Public Design Commission and Mayor Bill de Blasio have announced the 11 projects selected as winners of their 2018 Awards for Excellence in Design. Established in 1983, the award has been bestowed annually to projects from the city’s five boroughs that “exemplify how innovative and thoughtful design can provide New Yorkers with the best possible public spaces and services and engender a sense of civic pride.”

The 2018 awards recognized projects which responded to the de Blasio Administration’s commitment to providing an “equitable, resilient, and diverse city for all New Yorkers.” All five New York boroughs feature in the awards, with schemes encompassing education, culture, art, and recreation.

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