Architecture News

Completed in 2016, MVRDV + ADEPT’s Ku.Be House of Culture in Movement has since become a beloved community amenity that encourages residents to participate in a wide range of activities including running, jumping, climbing, dancing, learning and meditating. Engagement in these activities is encouraged by the complex’s dynamic, playful architecture, where brightly colored wall surfaces meet concrete sliding areas meet suspended climbing nets.

This energetic spirit has been captured in a new photo series by Ossip van Duivenbode, where the center’s elements are being enjoying by people of all ages. Check out the full gallery below, and click here to learn more about the project.

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An important step in providing pedestrian access along downtown Monterrey’s main transportation routes, Torre Citica is a 25-storey mixed-use development designed by Austin-based Miró Rivera Architects and Mexican firm Ibarra Aragón Arquitectura (IAARQ) in Monterrey, Mexico. The project is the first of its kind situated over Venustiano Carranza, a significant thoroughfare that links Monterrey with the neighboring municipality of San Pedro Garza García.

Our first priority was the creation of a pedestrian-friendly experience that would enhance the level of activity at the street, said the architects. The project is intended to serve as a catalyst for a municipal plan to provide pedestrian improvements along major transit corridors radiating from downtown Monterrey.

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Herzog & de Meuron, in collaboration with Michel Desvigne Paysagiste, Inessa Hansch and executive architect Gensler, have revealed designs for a new “Scholars’ Campus” for global think tank the Berggruen Institute to be located in the Santa Monica Mountains overlooking the city of Los Angeles.

Inspired by the designs of traditional monasteries and hilltop villages, the scheme is rooted in the restoration and appreciation of the landscape. Along with the series of structures containing the Institue’s residence, meeting and study spaces, over 90% of the 447-acre site will be preserved as natural open space.

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Videos

After years of movie magic made hologram tables the objects of our futuristic affections, the technology to create our own Star Wars- or Minority Report-esque setup is finally here.

Australian company Euclideon has developed the world’s first multi-user hologram table, which allows four people to interact simultaneously with images projected onto the table surface. And unlike other AR technology currently available, the system operates without those clunky headsets that take you out of the immersive, real-world experience; instead, the company has produced sleek, motion-tracking glasses than look like a cousin of your favorite sunnies.

Mecanoo has been selected to design the renovation of the historically landmarked Perth City Hall in Scotland, transforming the building into a new cultural facility through a series of sensitive interventions and a reimagined space flow. Envisioned as a new gateway to Perth, the scheme will pull from the city’s history and culture to create a place that is accessible to all.

Sketch for Syria, a project initiated by by Marco Ballarin and Jacopo Galli at IUAV, Venice, has brought together 150 architects from 26 nations in a large-scale effort to "imagine, trace and share possible scenarios" for Syria, following the recent devastation of the lives of its citizens and a significant amount of its architectural heritage.

In response to the United Nations' (UN-ESCWA) drafting of an agenda on July 14th, 2016 to consider ways of reconstructing the country, this drawing project has attracted contributions from the likes of Álvaro Siza, Philippe Rahm, Peter Wilson, and Francisco Aires Mateus.

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Designed by London and Liverpool based practice shedkm, construction is underway on Circus Street, an exemplary urban design for a mixed-use innovation quarter in Brighton that aims to celebrate the diverse architectural styles and individuals that populate the city. Working with regeneration developers U+I, shedkm’s masterplan works with an existing abandoned fruit and vegetable market to create “a strong sense of place, distinct yet in tune with the unique city of Brighton and its people.”

The start on site is a major milestone in our journey to create a new urban quarter in Brighton, which, through the belief and dedication of all stakeholders and individuals, has become a significant placemaking venture in our portfolio, explained Hazel Rounding, director at shedkm.

Videos

Designs have been revealed of the latest, and most central soccer stadium being constructed for the 2022 World Cup tournament in Qatar. Designed by Qatari architect Ibrahim M Jaidah and design consultant Heerim, the Al Thumama Stadium will feature a woven-pattern exterior skin inspired by the traditional ‘gahfiya’ cap worn by Arab men.

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During the year of the 150th anniversary of his birth, Frank Lloyd Wright is having another glorious moment in the public consciousness. While many of Wright’s structures, including Fallingwater, the Guggenheim and Taliesin, are staples of the architectural canon, this renewed interest has given some of Wright’s other 380 remaining buildings the chance to step out into the sun.

Many of these other still-standing buildings are houses, and while some have been converted into museums, many remain on the market for prospective homebuyers with a knack for preservation – but not necessarily exorbitant wealth (according to the New York Times, the 1917 Prairie-style Meier House sold in 2013 for just $125,000). In total, 45 Wright properties have been sold in the last five years alone.

As urban areas develop, each city forms a unique structural logic. With this structure usually conceived on an ad-hoc basis, political terms such as “metropolitan area” and “neighborhood” are not always useful when analyzing and comparing the performance of cities. In a quest for new analytical tools, Robin Renner has devised an anatomically-based classification system in his new book Urban Being: Anatomy & Identity of the City. Through a thoughtful investigation of existing urban areas from around the globe using satellite images and personal experiences, Urban Being offers an insight into how transportation networks and streetscapes can be best organized to promote a healthy metropolitan environment.

Renner’s analysis ranges from macro-regions that can even cross country borders to the defined spaces between arterial roads in cities, which he calls "urban cells." As the neighborhoods and units in which inhabitants reside, urban cells are important when examining the identity and efficiency of a city. They are defined by both their physical properties and the actions that take place inside of them. Below is a small sample of how Renner analyzes urban cells from the book.

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After the Gomos#1 prototype and the exhibition at the Venice Biennale, SUMMARY studio unveils a new project using its modular building system.

Photographer Marc Goodwin—perhaps best known to our readers for his series shooting architectural offices in London, Seoul, Beijing, Paris, and the Nordic countries—recently travelled to Ningbo, China, on behalf of RSH+P (Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners) and Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects (SHL).

The resulting photo essay at once captures a series of projects currently under construction—including "Ningbo Gateway", a luxury residential tower by RSH+P, and a range of accompanying buildings by SHL—while simultaneously revealing a sense of the very particular atmosphere of this industrial port city.

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Studio Gang’s innovative fire station and training facility Fire Rescue 2 has topped out in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville. A little more than year since construction on the 21,000-square-foot facility began, all of its major concrete elements are now in place, with the red glazed terracotta panels surrounding the building’s opening next to be installed.

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Six teams have been shortlisted in a competition to restore and renovate the historic Clandon Park mansion in the county of Surrey, England, after the National Park property received heavy damage from a fire in 2015.

Organized by Malcolm Reading Consultants, the competition tasked teams with restoring and updating the interiors of the 18th-century Palladian house, as well as designing new flexible event spaces and visitor facilities within the existing building footprint.

Videos

As urban environments become denser, more expensive and, on occasion, less desirable, creative minds are creating novel ways to escape the hustle, bustle, and tumult of the city. Fernando Abellanas, a designer based in Valencia, has gone to new extremes in his search for solitude. Positioned beneath a traffic bridge somewhere in the Spanish city, a hidden studio comprises a shelf, a chair, and a small desk – all anchored to the concrete undercarriage of the bridge by means of rails and rollers. Movable, the "room" becomes both impenetrable and isolated by the turn of a hand crank.

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From the first moment you enter architectural education, tutors tell you repeatedly and often passionately that the learning never stops; this is how it is going to be from now on. Student platforms are an example of our efforts to share our discoveries, many emerging out of the tension between academia and independent learning. From the post-digital advocate KoozA/rch to university publications like The Bartlett's Lobby, AA files, or Yale School of Architecture’s Perspecta, research and media platforms represent the creative consciousness of our generation today. Volume64 is a recent newcomer born out of this tension, and behind it is a team myself and my colleagues have founded and run. Through ArchDaily, we’re sharing a little bit of our story so far.

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For Hamburg-based photographer Sebastian Weiss, buildings are dramatis personae, or "characters". Inspired by Ash Amin and Stephen Graham's 1997 book The Ordinary City, in which the authors described the city as the "theater of life", this photo-essay of architectural landmarks in the French cities of Arcueil, Nanterre, and Paris examines the personalities of public buildings.

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In many cities, rivers play an integral part in the formation of a local landscape and urban identity, contributing to economics, transport, and recreation, amongst other things. Unearthing the city's rivers to create new leisure spaces is one urban solution that is widely adopted by several cities around the world, in order to capitalize on the existing waterscape. In five years, the capital of South Korea resurrected its main river, the Cheonggyecheon, which had been buried under express streets and viaducts, restoring a sense of peace, green space, and national history to the city. Milan followed the same path: not long ago, the mayor of the Italian city Giuseppe Sala proposed reopening the navigable canals of Navigli for the public to interact with. 

And now the Architectural Office in Curitiba Solo Arquitetos suggests that Curitiba join the movement, reopening channeled stretches of the Belem and Ivo rivers, in the center of the city. The project was envisioned for the 2017 Architecture Exhibition for Curitiba, which brings together various proposals to rethink the city.