Driving the designs between his masterworks such as Villa Savoye and Unite d’Habitation, the writings of Le Corbusier are perhaps the most influential texts ever produced by an architect.

Now, these texts along with a comprehensive record of his buildings, projects and sketches are available for free download!

We now know that first, we form the cities, but then the cities form us.

Meet 81-year-old Danish architect Jan Gehl who, for more than fifty years, has focused on improving the quality of urban life by helping people to “re-conquer the city.” Gehl has studied the relationship between life and form since the mid-1960s, when he started questioning the modernist approach of looking at the architectural model from above instead of from the inside. The architecture of that time was very often "an obsession with architecture for architecture’s sake," and took very little interest in the inhabitants.

In this episode of GSAPP Conversations, Tomas Koolhaas—the director of the much anticipated documentary-biopic REM, a film about the eponymous founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Rem Koolhaas—discusses the movie at length. Among other topics, the conversation touches upon Koolhaas's specific tools and methods for filming architectural space, and the challenges of producing a film founded on a personal relationship.

Two large-scale US cultural projects have, this week, announced major updates relating to the renovation of existing buildings – and both involve, to a greater and lesser extent, American business magnate, media mogul, and philanthropist David Geffen.

One—the Lincoln Center's Geffen Hall in New York City—has scrapped plans for a $500 million renovation to be led by Heatherwick Studio and Diamond Schmitt Architects, while another—Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), for which a renovation is being led by Peter Zumthor—has seen a pledge by Geffen of $150 million toward its $600 million price-tag.

Proposals by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Adam Khan Architects, and UAB Paleko Archstudija with UAB Baltic Engineers have been revealed as finalists of the M.K. Čiurlionis Concert Centre in Kaunas, Lithuania. The building will form part of the regenerative project for the European Capital of Culture 2022, foregrounding the River Nemunas—the site—and revitalizing an area close to the city's Old Town.

A Hall for Hull with "Trois Points de Vue" by Chilean practice Pezo von Ellrichshausen and Swiss artist Felice Varini has been unveiled in the British city of Hull. Jointly commissioned by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and Hull UK City of Culture 2017, the "monumental" outdoor installation has "transformed" Trinity Square [Hull] with sixteen galvanized-steel columns, arranged in a grid formation in front of Hull Minster, to form a new civic room for the city.

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Nathan Yau collected US Census data between 1950 and 2015 to create a set of visualizations that demonstrate how the diversity of the workforce has evolved. "Naturally, men and women now work many of the same jobs, but many jobs are mostly men or mostly women," explains Yau. So how does the architecture profession fit into this narrative?

The British Council have revealed Island as the theme of the British Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. In the exhibition, Adam Caruso, Peter St. John (Caruso St. John), and Marcus Taylor will engage "with current political themes," and was submitted by means of an open call with reference to Shakespeare’s The Tempest:

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises; Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

In the entryway of ArchDaily’s Headquarters, there is a framed, handwritten note from a student in Australia, Alice McLeod. This is something that we have cherished as a company with a very specific mission. She writes,

I grew up in a country town in Victoria, Australia. I lived 3 and half hours drive from a city. My closest library has 5 books in the “architecture & design” category. I had no access to the world and history of Architecture. Your website opened that world up to me. I found my passion and education through ArchDaily. In January I moved to Melbourne to begin my first year of my Architecture Degree. I have never been happier.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has awarded its 2018 Royal Gold Medal to London-based artist and architect Neave Brown, a revered Modernist architect best known for his visionary Alexandra Road housing estate. Built by London's Camden Council in the 1970s the 500-home estate is, in Brown's own words, a "piece of city" containing shops, workshops, a community centre, a special needs school and children’s centre, a care home for young people with learning difficulties, and a 16,000sqm public park.

The medal is awarded in recognition of a lifetime’s work and is approved personally by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It is given to a person, or group of people, who have had a significant influence "either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture." The medal is being presented earlier than usual—in 2017 rather than 2018—owing to Brown's poor health.

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On the ground floor of the Chicago Cultural Center, Labyrinth—a cluster of installations and exhibitions occupying a warren of rooms as part the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial—serves as the visitor's introduction to participants' responses to the theme, Make New History. In this short film, architects including Jürgen Mayer H., Freek Persyn (51N4E) and Philip F. Huan (Archi-Union) present their projects and reflect on their work, process, and involvement in North America's largest architectural event.

ARCHMARATHON, an event that celebrates architecture and interior design from Canada, USA, Central and Latin America, has announced 42 finalist projects that will be presented during a three-day long gathering at the Faena Forum in Miami. The central theme of the event is the relationship between design and human beings. The organizers explain, "Before being a client, a user or broker, human beings are individuals who use, enjoy and experience the end result of the design and construction process, whether it be time at giving shape to a chair, an apartment, a building or a city."

"We are at a moment of great cultural transition," Jorge Otero-Pailos argues. "The kinds of objects that we look to to provide some sort of continuity in that transformation is often times architecture, [...] one of the most stable objects in culture." This short film, in which an number of participants of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial reflect on their work and those of others, tackles the theme conceived by artistic directors Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee: Make New History.

Horizontal City is one of two collective exhibitions (the other being Vertical City) at the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial. 24 architects were tasked by artistic directors Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee to "reconsider the status of the architectural interior" by referencing a photograph of a canonical interior from any time period.

Their challenge was in considering the forms and ways that their selection "might extrapolate out from the cropped photographic frame into a spatial and lifestyle construction across a larger, horizontal site" – in this case, a field of plinths, the size and positioning of which is a direct reference to the footprint of Mies van der Rohe's 1947 plan for the IIT Campus in Chicago.

With the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial in full swing and open to the public until January 7, 2017, we've scoured the galleries, halls and corridors of the Chicago Cultural Center to bring you our favorite fifteen installations. Documented through the lens of Laurian Ghinitoiu and assembled by our Editorial Team on location, this selection intends to shed light on the breadth, scope and preoccupations of Make New History – the largest architecture event in North America.

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Which programs in the United States are best preparing students for a future in the profession? DesignIntelligence emailed architecture and interior design professionals from around the US and asked them to answer this question, using their answers to rank schools from the perspective of those with the power to hire graduates. According to the report, DesignIntelligence surveyed "a total of 2,654 hiring professionals from 1,923 professional practice organizations" in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design.

What are the best construction materials and products on the market? Which are the most popular? Thanks to the activities of our readers, we're beginning to find some answers to these questions. Combining the use of two ArchDaily tools, many of our readers have saved their favorite architectural materials and products—directly from our catalog—into their personalized My ArchDaily folders.

We have investigated the data from the first 6 months of 2017 to identify and share the most popular products from our catalog with you. What do these products have that make them so popular? Would you apply them on your next project?

When a city really becomes one with the air, water and sun I am sure that people will feel the vitality of this. To create cities where this is not lost is a very important message I want to convey to the world.

In this video from the Louisiana Channel, Japanese architect Hiroshi Sambuichi reflects on the Japanese city of Hiroshima—his home town—and the ways in which it has undergone a radical transformation following the atomic bombings of the Second World War. Known primarily for his interest and work in the field of sustainable design and building, Sambuichi describes how "the power of nature"—allowing flora and foliage, water and air to rapidly reclaim swathes of the built environment—has been central to the city's recent urban success.