Articles

Many of the most compelling design solutions stem from site conditions—whether climate, local materials and labor, construction techniques, or, above all, the way these factors are addressed within the highly specific context of the plot. The plot is the ultimate space for putting these strategies into practice. As cities increasingly feature smaller land parcels, designing for narrow lots has become a recurring reality.

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Yona Friedman is a French architect and urban planner with more than 92 years of experience that has led him to participate in numerous events, including the Venice Biennial and the Shanghai Biennial. One of his most important works was published in 1958, entitled L'Architecture Mobile, which exposed one of his most ambitious projects named: "La Ville Spatiale", a utopia that recycled mega-structures of existing cities to provide citizens with the chance to live with complete flexibility in their decisions.

This article serves as a brief introduction to a way of thinking that I assume to be foreign and new to most of the readers. It is based on some observations I’ve made during the past 5 years as part of my PhD research into the comparison between two traditions of architectural representation, between China and Europe, under guidance of prof. Li Xiaodong at Tsinghua University in Beijing. With that in mind this article has no pretension, nor the proper length, to fully convey the complexity of the representations of architectural space in drawings from China, but should be seen as a first try to communicate some of these ideas to a wider audience.

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Architecture, in all its forms, has the innate ability to trigger our emotions and alter our perceptions. Consequently, a lot of light is currently being shed on the relation between architecture, landscape, and health.

In the 2018 edition of the Blank Space Fairytales Competition, Katie Flaxman from Studio 31 Landscape Architects, wrote a story of a father, Horace, an architect suffering from late-stage dementia and his offspring, Rowan. The fiction describes Horace’s journey in different healthcare institutions and how his presence in a building and landscape properly designed for well-being, improved his psychological and physical health.

Here are some excerpts from Flaxman's fictional story, illustrated by architectural artist Sam Wilson.

This article is an updated version of its original post on March 15th, 2016.
"In the ongoing debate about women in the architecture profession, you rarely hear an argument for why equal representation is important; it's generally assumed to be an unquestionable moral imperative. However, in this article originally published on the Huffington Post as "Why Women's Leadership Is Essential for Architects," Lance Hosey argues that, regardless of your position on equality as a moral imperative, better representation of women in architecture could benefit everyone in the profession—in very tangible ways.

Today, on International Women's Day (March 8) we want to share again the American Institute of Architects (AIA) publication "Diversity in the Profession of Architecture," its first diversity report in a decade. The release follows the creation in December 2015 of the AIA's "Equity in Architecture Commission," a panel of twenty architects, educators, and diversity experts to investigate diversity and inclusion in the profession. The new report documents a survey of over 7,300 professional architects and students, including men and women, 79% of them whites and 21% people of color.

When applying for an architecture job, you need to make sure you have the perfect portfolio. While a clever and attractive business card might help you initially get a firm's attention, and a well-considered résumé or CV might help you prove your value, in most cases it will be your portfolio that makes or breaks your application. It's your portfolio that practices will use to measure your design sensibilities against the office's own style and to judge whether you match up to the talents claimed in your résumé.

After launching a call for our readers to send us their own portfolios so that we could share the best design ideas with the ArchDaily community, this selection below shows the best of the nearly 200 submissions we received, which were judged not on the quality of the architectural design they showed (though much of it was excellent) but instead the design quality of the portfolio itself. In making the selection, we were looking for attractive graphics, a clear presentation of the work itself, the formulation of a visual identity which permeated both the architectural designs and the portfolio design, and of course that elusive and much-prized attribute: "creativity."

Brazil currently has 167,060 active, registered architects and urban planners with the Council of Architecture and Urbanism. The majority, 63.10% (105,420), are women, while 36.90% (61,640) are men (61,400). In 2018, these percentages were 62% and 38%, respectively. This predominance is expected to grow in the coming years, as the share of female students is significantly higher: 67%. 

Women think, plan and construct our buildings and cities, our living spaces. However, gender equality is not yet a reality in various social and professional practices. We see this in the face of physical and psychological violence suffered by women, lack of recognition, occupational impositions, wage differences, and so many others. This panorama concerns women from all over the world, but also within the architecture there are statistics that prove how women are still not socially and professionally valued.

Inside this framework of devaluation and inequality, black women face an even greater panorama of invisibility. The racial prejudice rooted in our society, as well as the still segmented opportunities generate a disparity of quantity and recognition of black professionals in the classes and areas of action of Architecture and Urbanism.

Arata Isozaki, the Japanese architect and winner of the Pitzker Prize 2019, is not only renowned for his fruitful portfolio of works built all over the world (more than a hundred) but also for his continuous input to the theory of urbanism, including texts and proposals. 

It is precisely in the field of urbanism, that he developed one of his most interesting non-built projects: the futurist master plan, known as City in the Air, in the Shinjuku neighborhood in Tokyo, Japan.

Do you have ideas on how to improve existing social housing to transform environmental conditions? That was the question posed by Proyectar a Conciencia 2.0, a competition open to students and faculty throughout Chile, aiming to intervene in the Family Heritage Protection Program (PPPF) of the Chilean Ministry of Housing and Urbanism (MINVU).

In May 1985, an old theater and concert hall opened its doors to the public for the opening of a brand new nightclub in New York City. Located on 126 East 14th Street, the project was commissioned by entrepreneurs Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, owners of the also famous club Studio 54, and was conceived as a vibrant and luminous independent structure arranged inside a rather classic shell, which appears as a beautiful backdrop behind the clean geometry of Isozaki.

As The New York Times pointed out in its May 20, 1985 edition: 'Arata Isozaki is at once a great eminence of Japanese architecture and a source of some of its freshest thinking. And all sides of Mr. Isozaki are visible in the Palladium'.

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The functional distribution plays a fundamental role in the contemporary design of offices and places for work. The study of the architecture plan shows an interesting form of approach; not only allows for proper logistics and circulation but find efficient variations and innovations that will enable better workspaces that adapt to the current needs.

We have selected more than 50 plans of projects that will inspire you, recognizing the different ways in which architects have faced the challenge to design offices, in all different scale ranges.

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During the professional life of an architect, the task of designing a residence can be a frequent occurrence. As the project develops, representing a vision in a determined space through a set of drawings is certainly one of the primary tasks of the design process. While the architect has a certain level of visual literacy, sometimes the client won't necessarily understand all the drawings. Going beyond the two-dimensionality of the plans, sections and elevations, axonometric perspectives are presented as an efficient instrument in the spatial representation of the project. When adding the notion of third dimension—and even though it’s presented by on a 2D sheet of paper—it gives a better understanding to those unfamiliar with technical drawings.

Lluís J. Liñán, from the ARKRIT Collective, invites us to reflect, in his article "Global Valdrada," on the consequences of humanity's increasingly close relationship with its media representations, to the point where the distinction between the two realities is no longer discernible: it shapes our way of thinking and behaving, and therefore, how we produce everyday reality. Does the same apply to architecture?

Think of a courtyard, just a courtyard. Naturally, the first thing that comes to mind is a courtyard defined by its frame. Thus, the designers created this frame to establish the atmosphere of a “home of knowledge”—yachaywasi—, as they have named their project. Yet, once again, do not lose sight of the courtyard. They also conceived a frame that not only defines the courtyard but integrates it with the surrounding volume, allowing it to transform, stretch, adapt, and complete or create what the school is missing. Shade, seating, panels, ventilation, green areas, a garden…even the facade.

This is what can happen when facing a competition with clear and defined parameters, yet with the freedom to let the imagination run wild—participating not just to win, but to propose and innovate. The result is an inspiring school. This proposal took second place in the First Social Infrastructure Projects Competition, organized by PLAN PISE, whose ongoing goal is to leverage the natural condition of a courtyard as an educational space for the Villa de Jesús IE 7216 school, located in Villa El Salvador, south of Lima. The project description from the design team follows.

Perhaps the most renowned 'skylight' ever built is the Pantheon of Rome commissioned by Marco Vipsanius Agrippa during the reign of Emperor Augustus (27 BC-14 AD) and rebuilt by Hadrian (117-118) around 126 AD. At the highest point of its dome (in this case, the oculus) the sunlight shines, casting its beams over the various statues of planetary deities that occupy the niches on the walls. The light that enters the space symbolizes a cosmic, sacred dimension. In projects around the world, natural light continues to fulfill this scenic role, especially in religious projects.

It is characterized as zenithal illumination as that which comes from above, from the sky (zenith). Very useful for large spaces that can not be adequately lit by windows, skylights are a widely used device for providing a pleasant, diffuse light. Generally, care is taken to prevent direct entry of sunlight; the openings must be well designed so that they do not overheat the space of allow water infiltration. Below is a collection of projects that make good use of this technique.

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2019 Pritzker Laureate Arata Isozaki has been designing for more than half a century; several of his works are considered architectural classics due to their influence and impact on international design.

His work combines a number of styles, from vernacular to high tech  and organic to brutalist, giving his projects a sculptural and undeniably photogenic appearance. With such richness in design, it is perhaps no wonder that people around the world are excited to photograph his work.

We've selected 23 of the most beautiful photos of Isozaki's work posted to Instagram by users across the globe. Our selection, after the break:

The prolific and varied career of 2019 Pritzker Laureate Arata Isozaki, which includes more than 100 works built on virtually every continent, gives us a huge amount of facts that are relevant to understanding his life and architecture. Considered the first Japanese architect to develop his work on a truly global scale, Isozaki took special care to respond to the context and the specific requirements of each project, expanding the heterogeneity of his work and resulting in a variety of styles from vernacular to high tech.

See below 20 fascinating facts that illuminate his particular genius: