Videos

As the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial prepares to open its doors, curators Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee (Johnston Marklee) introduce Make New History – the theme of the second edition of North America's largest architecture and design exhibition.

Understanding the trace of history is more important than ever. Maybe now it's a good time to take stock and reevaluate to see what architecture could do better, and there are certain issues that other disciplines address better than architecture itself.

In this short film, part of a four-part video series co-produced by Curbed and The Verge, the Bosco Verticale—the towering residential forest in the dense urban environment of Milan—is examined for its architectural prowess, as well as its botanical aptitude. In the film, architect Stefano Boeri and expert arborists explain what makes the skyscraper so unique, as well as it's very real potential effect on air pollution in the city.

On Thursday, July 29th, the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano's roof was officially completed. This new stadium, a renovation of the old Peineta athletics stadium, is the new home ground of Spanish football club Atlético Madrid.

In this video, FCC Construcción captures the intense work on the roof which was designed and constructed by engineers Schlaich Bergermann Partner. The milestone marks four months of intense work since the installation of the first of the 96 PTFE radial panels at the north end of the stadium.

Completed in 2013 on the western coast of Bornholm—a small Danish island located south of Sweden—the Hasle Harbour Bath by White Arkitekter is one of a number of waterfront bathing facilities appearing in Denmark. Structures such as the Hasle Harbour Bath, the Kastrup Sea Bath, also by White Arkitekter, and the Copenhagen Harbour Bath by BIG + JDS, evoke images of a bracing coexistence with natural elements. If hygge, the Danish art of cosiness, has been one of the country's most successful cultural exports in recent years, the idea of a refreshing dip in the Baltic Sea offers a counterpart—a ying to hygge's yang.

In the latest in their Daily360 series, the New York Times takes us inside BIG's recently completed TIRPITZ museum, located within a former Nazi bunker on the west coast of Denmark. The video gives a panoramic tour of the museum's light-filled subterranean spaces, along with commentary from museum curator Anne Sofie Vemmelund Christensen, who notes the most transformative changes from the spectacular renovation.

People can improvise the city; people can improvise architecture. That means the city shouldn’t resist [its] inhabitants, but obey [its] inhabitants… We need to get back to elasticity.

In this interview from the Louisiana Channel, architect and theorist Yona Friedman discusses the plight of the contemporary city, and how it is the responsibility of architects to design structures that can be inhibited for the widest range of individuals and purposes.

Unfortunately, I think that there is a big uniformity all over the world that makes everything very, very similar and very impersonal – very little imagination, I think. I guess it resembled me, this house, somehow.

This video from NOWNESS’ In Residence series features Swiss furniture designer Mattia Bonetti in his home on Lake Lugano. Bonetti is based in Paris but maintains this home in his birthplace: Lugano, Switzerland. Designing furniture since 1979, Bonetti is known for his vibrant designs, often full of historical allusions and in contrast to his subdued persona. In the video, the artist and designer mention that some of the home’s accessories were handmade by Bonetti himself.

Continue reading to learn about Bonetti's inspirations in restoring and adding to his lakeside home.

There is always something new to say about Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion. Sometimes we uncover an unknown detail, other times an intervention is revealed or we discover a new lens to observe it. The latter is the case with Spanish architect and audiovisual creator Fernando Ayuso, who wanted to pay homage to this historical work.

London-based artist, illustrator, and animator Patrick Vale, known for his panoramic drawings of cities, completed another complex mural at design company IDEO’s studio in San Francisco, California. Vale’s time-lapse videos such as “Empire State of Pen” and his drawing of Manhattan, show the process of creating his detailed illustrations that take from several hours to months to complete. Vale spent 13 days at the downtown San Francisco office to complete the drawing.

In this video, BBGK Architekci take you into their recently completed Katyn Museum in Warsaw, Poland, a space dedicated to the events of the Katyn Massacre during World War II. Selected as a finalist for the 2017 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture—Mies van der Rohe Award, the project bridges the divide between an existing historic structure and a new intervention through the use of material and the sequencing of sacred, powerful spaces.

In this film produced by Vice, Eyal Weizman—director of London-based research agency Forensic Architecture—explains how his team have developed methods of investigating bombings in areas of conflict across the globe. Using cellphone footage, examining floor plans, and utilising road maps, Weizman brings together scientists, journalists, and graphic designers in order "to analyze destroyed buildings for evidence of human rights abuses."

Berlin is city in which the past and the present often collide – a phenomenon particularly acute when it comes to the built environment. In this project by Japanese architect and artist Riku Ikegaya, the interior of St. Elisabeth-Kirche (Church of St. Elizabeth)—designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel—is transformed by means of a structural installation. Consisting of a scale model of Schinkel’s plans for the Rosentaler Vorstadt Church, the artist has composed a "three-dimensional architectural sketch."

Staircases can trigger conversations, provide a sense of arrival, and dazzle with ingenuity. As an architectural element, they are not just about circulation – so why are they neglected in the design of so many new projects? In this short film from Monocle, the breadth of ingenuity possible with the stair—from those of the Danish National Bank in Copenhagen to London’s Leighton House Museum—explore how they can come to embody the very essence of a good architectural project.

A relative newcomer to the material world, smart glass (also known as switch glass or electrochromic glass) has the ability to change its properties and appearance, allowing the environmental conditions of a space to be optimized according to the use and needs of its users. 

Electrochromic glass technology works by changing the electrical polarization between some of its components. Its most widely used variant, known as PDCL, consists of a thin film of liquid crystal that sits between two conductive transparent plastic layers (usually laminated glass). By changing the current running through the liquid crystal, the glass can take on different appearences.

"It's quite evident that you're prepared to abandon traditional ways of sitting," Bernard Keeffe exclaims as he collapses into a bright yellow beanbag in Norman Foster's home. "For years," he continues, "people have thought that if they sat down they would have to sit on a chair, but now you have demonstrated that this is not necessary!" In this lengthy 1971 interview with Lord Foster, drawn from the archives of Thames TV, Keeffe questions the practice's early hi-tech approach to architecture in the context of a landscape in which buildings were becoming "ever more complicated."

On Thursday 29 of June, Jan Gehl the Danish architect and urban planner, spoke at the Conference “Thinking urban: cities for people” organised by UN-Habitat and the Official Architects College of Madrid (COAM as it is abbreviated in Spanish) about the urban transformations that have occurred in Copenhagen as a result of the errors of the modernist movement and the challenges facing the cities in the 21^st century.

In a prior discussion with José María Ezquiaga (dean of COAM), and José Manuel Calvo (councilor of the Sustainable Development Area at the Madrid city council) at the Conference, Gehl highlighted the urban paradigm at the time of his student years, which is referred to as the Brasilia syndrome. 

The immense scales and geometric intricacies of Hong Kong have long held the fascination of the public consciousness, and has been further reinforced in recent years by mind-bending photography series such as Michael Wolf’s “Architecture of Density.”

In this new film from architect Mariana Bisti, this phenomenon is explored for the first time through drone videography. Not limited to vantage points accessible to humans, the video zooms and pans deliberately over, across and into the city’s enormous residential blocks, the cinematography bringing to mind that of Charles and Ray Eames’ seminal production, “Powers of Ten.” Special care to detail has been taken to align each composition to the Cartesian plane, resulting in mesmerizing experience that never breaks your attention.

In this video, drone Videographer Azeez Bakare takes us through BIG's recently-completed Grove at Grand Bay, a residential complex in South Miami featuring two twisting 20-story towers and a lush tropical landscape terrace designed by landscape architect Raymond Jungles.

Commissioned for the project by BIG, the video shows how the building transforms throughout the day: standing out as stark white sculptures during the day before turning an orange glow as the glass balconies reflect back the setting sun, and finally, lit up at night against the Miami skyline.