Articles

The showpiece of a planned new development at Edinburgh Park will be UK-artist David Mach’s first-ever building, named “Mach 1” by the project’s developers and investors, Parabola. Working with Stirling Prize-nominated architects Dixon Jones, Mach’s building will be created from over 30 shipping containers - but not in the modular, linear method to which shipping container buildings typically lend themselves. Instead its sculptural shape is meant to draw attention to the new quarter and catch the public’s eye, especially those traveling by on the nearby tram.

In the Negev Desert of Israel, SAGA Space Architects are collaborating with D-MARS to build a Mars Lab Habitat that will simulate the conditions of living in a confined space on the hazardous surface of the red planet. The laboratory structure they’ve designed is an addition to D-MARS' existing Mars simulation habitat and will be part of a larger experiment. This habitat will serve as a prototype for a longer mission scheduled for 2020.

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Videos

Directed by Isaac Niemand, the documentary Cholet: The Work of Freddy Mamani explores the architectural phenomenon of the self-taught Bolivian architect, who was chosen by ArchDaily as "one of the leaders who inspired us" in 2015.

Continuing our series of articles by Nikos A. Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés M. Duany, Michael W. Mehaffy, and Ernesto Philibert-Petit on the study of social housing in Latin America, we now present practical suggestions for implementing projects that address new solutions for the future of social housing. Read all the previous publications and the new article below.

Fifty years have passed since the publication of influential landscape architect Ian McHarg’s book, Design With Nature in 1969. Throughout the United States, an environmental movement was taking place, into the center of which McHarg’s book was thrust. The 1970s and ‘80s were a time of much landmark legislation surrounding ecological concerns, and McHarg argued that landscape architecture alone was able to integrate all the disparate fields involved.

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If a painting can trigger its viewers' emotions with just one observation, imagine the impact of a building-sized mural on an entire city.

Baltimore-based artists Jessie Unterhalter and Katey Truhn found a way to enhance people’s lives through art by adding visual playfulness to public spaces. Since 2012, they have been working on sculptures and large-scale murals, curving around building corners and spilling them onto the ground. The artistic duo explored themes of movement and symmetry by experimenting with bold color combinations, patterns in nature, and woven textiles.

Take a look at some of the lively murals created by Jessie and Katey that transform public spaces into colorful experiences.

Architecture, as a design discipline, relies heavily on visual communication. The advent of new technologies and the exploration of new digital graphic representation techniques reflect architects' growing interest in expressive fields. The need to convey a message and embody ideas, narrating the values and reflections that structure an architectural project, places graphic communication tools in a position of particular relevance.

If this intrinsic need to convey information exists within the architectural field, could comics, as a narrative medium, serve as a useful tool for design communication?

Past, Present, Future is an interview project by Itinerant Office, asking acclaimed architects to share their perspectives on the constantly evolving world of architecture. Each interview is split into three video segments: Past, Present, and Future, in which interviewees discuss their thoughts and experiences of architecture through each of those lenses. The first episode of the project featured 11 architects from Italy and the Netherlands and Episode II is comprised of interviews with 13 architects from Spain, Portugal, France, and Belgium.

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Ever since Manchester University first isolated Graphene in 2004, it has been widely referred to by its properties as a promising material through diverse research that focuses on reaching a range of uses in the most varied industries. Graphene is known to be one of the strongest materials known to science due to its composition of a single carbon atomic layer in a hexagonal mesh. It is also one of the finest materials known to mankind, 200 times stronger than steel yet 6 times lighter. Plus, it is an excellent heat and electricity conductor, aside from its interesting light absorption qualities. When combined with other elements, including gases and metals, it can produce different new materials with highly superior properties.

Felipe Camus, a photographer who has documented ELEMENTAL's project, shares his reflections on Ochoquebradas.

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Architects compete, and the internet provides unlimited opportunities for competition among all who wish to offer up something for consideration. None of this is news. But there’s been a change in both the expectations and the etiquette around all of those offerings.

Earlier this month, I was asked to submit to two small competitions. I had completed successful projects that matched each competition’s focus, so I dove in. We confirmed that our entries met the criteria and deadlines; we knew the day of jury deliberations and the release date of their decision. As usual, we lost (success only comes for those willing to accept failure); also, as usual, the verdict for us and for all other runners up was silence.

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A team composed of international and local studios and individuals—Agence Ter, rootoftwo, Akoaki, and Harley Etienne—was recently chosen to revitalize the 83-acre area.

Over the course of the 20th century, across a series of administrations and economic contexts, Midtown Detroit grew into one of America’s largest (or densest) cultural districts, with over 12 major institutions, such as the Detroit Institute for the Arts (DIA) and the College for Creative Studies. But you wouldn’t know it, even if you were there—the nine-block, 83-acre area is a mish-mash of styles spanning Beaux Arts, Modernism, and Brutalism, and has a certain sense of placelessness. The area feels architecturally disjointed, illegible, and fails to translate the vibrancy of each institution into the broader public space.

The first thing one notices about the houses and other projects of Fran Silvestre and his studio is their distinct atmosphere of elegance and luxury—extravagantly understated—which is as recognizable in its own right as the work of, say, John Lautner or John Pawson. While this first impression might seem somewhat superficial, it is actually indicative of an elusive quality in their work, something we might call an essential “geist” or “gestalt” deeply rooted in their architecture, and one that is far more complex and interesting than a mere matter of “style” or “brand.” 

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Media outlets and social networks have been abuzz with controversy surrounding the Chinchero Airport project, a new international air terminal in Peru. The project aims to replace the current Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport in downtown Cusco and improve direct connections to nearby destinations, most notably Machu Picchu.

As part of our monthly topic (travel), we invited several Brazilian and Portuguese architecture firms to suggest buildings and public spaces in their respective cities that are well worth a visit. In Brazil, projects in Brasília, Rio de Janeiro, Olinda, Fortaleza, Belo Horizonte, and Porto Alegre will inspire our readers to get to know the country better—or cross the Atlantic to visit works in the Portuguese cities of Guimarães, Porto, and Lisbon.

The Midnight Charette is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by architectural designers David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features a variety of creative professionals in unscripted and long-format conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and more personal discussions. Honesty and humor are used to cover a wide array of subjects: some episodes provide useful tips for designers, while others are project reviews, interviews, or simply explorations of everyday life and design. The Midnight Charette is available for free on iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, and all other podcast directories.

On this episode of The Midnight Charette podcast, hosts David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet are joined by Dong-Ping Wong, Founding Partner of FOOD to discuss the architecture design process, structuring a collaborative work environment, communicating with non-architects, starting +POOL (the world's first water-filtering floating pool), black tie personas and architectural education, rendering styles and more.

Modernism always wanted to have it both ways: on the one hand, modernist architecture was supposed to be, in theory, the same in all places; that's one reason why modernism in architecture was also called the International Style. If all modernist buildings look the same, when you see one you have seen them all: no need for further travel. Yet throughout the 20th century modernist culture and technology enthusiastically endorsed and favored travel. In the 60s we traveled to the Moon, and civil aviation made the world smaller. In modernist culture, travel was good. It made all travelers better, happier humans. It was good to learn foreign languages and to go see distant places. High modernist travel was not only good; it was also cool. The jet setters of the 60s were the coolest citizens of the world. Even later in the 20th century the general expectation was that borderless, seamless travel would keep getting easier and more frequent. Most Europeans of my generation grew up learning two or more foreign languages, and it was not unusual until recently to be born in one country, to study in another, and find one's first job in a third one. That was seen as an opportunity, not as a deprivation.

The recently-formed town of Sadra, Iran, is gradually evolving into a mega-city as a result of its geographical location and architectural potential. To improve the cultural standards of the town, several cultural centers were constructed, transforming the area into a major hub for people of all ages.

Keeping in mind that a newly-built town requires an adaptable space for potential expansions, NextOffice - Alireza Taghaboni architecture studio created the “Sadra Civic Center”, a town within a town built from its surrounding urban elements.

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