The philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre coined the notion of "production of space" in 1974, breaking with the vision of space as a container or scenario of objects and social relations, to move towards space understood as a process. From this vision based on the Marxist tradition, space is a product and a producer of social relations and processes.
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
This week, the Museum of Modern Art officially launches a new series of exhibitions entitled Architecture Now. According to MoMA, “The first iteration of the series, New York, New Publics, will explore the ways in which New York City–based practices have been actively expanding the relationship of metropolitan architecture to different publics through 12 recently completed projects.”
The exhibition will showcase public-facing work, such as parks, community gardens, and pools, by Adjaye Associates, Agency—Agency and Chris Woebken, CO Adaptive, James Corner Field Operations, Kinfolk Foundation, nArchitects, New Affiliates and Samuel Stewart-Halevy, Olalekan Jeyifous, Only If, PetersonRich Office, SO – IL, and SWA/Balsley and Weiss/Manfredi.
As part of the FUGAZ Greater Concepción Urban Interventions Festival, a team comprising Álvaro Parraguez, Beatriz Harriet, Bárbara Schumacher, Josefa Acevedo, and Luis Cambiaso developed an installation at the Villarrica coastal resort in Dichato (Concepción, Chile) that won the 2022 Ephemeral Installations Competition. The competition called for an ephemeral installation to serve as a functional venue for the festival, accommodating various daytime performances and activities across dance, theater, music, and other disciplines.
The TEMA Pavilion Competition was established to give young architects and students from the University of Guadalajara community the opportunity to design ephemeral projects that express ideas beyond the typical demands of an architecture or design school.
Selected from a shortlist of 10 proposals, David Chipperfield’s design won the competition for the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece. Housing one of the world’s most important collections of prehistoric and ancient art, the National Archaeological Museum, will undergo refurbishment and extension works, including a subterranean addition with a roof garden. The proposal was developed together with Wirtz International, Tombazis & Associate Architects, wh-p ingenieure, Werner Sobek, and Atelier Brückner.
With more than 900 projects in over 40 countries, every project that Zaha Hadid Architects designs and builds has an impact on the narrative of contemporary architecture. At ArchDaily, we know that each architectural project has a team of professionals behind it which makes it possible. In this edition of the ArchDaily Professionals Video Interviews, we talked to Johannes Schafelner, associate director at Zaha Hadid Architects, and Enrique Peiniger, founder of OVI-Office for Visual Interaction about their long-standing collaboration in projects merging design and lighting.
L.E.FT Architects, an architecture firm focused on examining the cultural and political intersections in the built environment, exhibited Jerba: Prototype 366, in the first edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale, taking place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Presenting a historical and contemporary exploration of Islamic heritage, the biennale, curated by Sumayya Vally, was located in the Western Hajj Terminal, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 1981.
The Design Center Baden-Württemberg has opened the call for submissions for the 2023 edition of its Focus Open International Design Award. As a non-commercial design prize, the Focus Open offers particularly low barriers to participation thanks to its moderate fees, while providing a high level of visibility from which, in the event of an award, smaller agencies, design studios and companies, in particular, can benefit. Entries can be submitted in a total of 14 categories including Bathroom, Kitchen, Light, Mobility, Investment products, Sport and Mobility.
After two weeks of voting in our 14th edition of the Building of the Year Awards, our readers have narrowed down over 4,500 projects to just 75 finalists across 15 categories, casting over 100,000 votes. This year's awards celebrate the very best in design, innovation, and sustainability from around the globe, with the shortlist featuring an exceptional range of projects, from a house in a favela to cutting-edge cultural centers and innovative public spaces that are sure to impress. As a crowdsourced award, we are proud to say that your selections are a true reflection of the state of architecture, and this year's finalists are no exception.
The ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards is brought to you thanks to Dornbracht, renowned for leading designs for architecture, which can be found internationally in bathrooms and kitchens.
On February 15, 2023, the Living Places / Simon Architecture Prize 2023 award ceremony was held in Barcelona. An initiative by Simon, with the support of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, the prize seeks to recognize excellence in architecture from the perspective of the inhabitant. In fact, "it distinguishes those works which strengthen the ability of adaptability of spaces to reach comfort and well-being to its residents".
Within the scope of construction, a budget is a technical planning tool that forecasts project expenses, combining materials, labor, monthly overhead, and indirect costs. Nevertheless, many risk starting a build without a detailed budget, often falling into the traps of an unplanned project—which is invariably more expensive and time-consuming than anticipated.
In civil construction, a budget is a document that outlines all the services to be executed during the project, totaling the necessary materials and required labor. In addition, the budget can factor in fixed monthly operational costs, such as utilities, or include an extra percentage for contingencies.
Walking down the streets of cities like Hanoi and Saigon in Vietnam, you might encounter houses with surprisingly narrow facades in contrast to the stacking of three to five floors, with windows for ventilation and natural light only on the front facade. These are the famous traditional Tube Houses. According to ancient popular culture, this type of housing emerged due to property taxes being based on the width of the facade, but the true reason is to optimize land use, allowing a larger number of plots in the same square.
However, this legacy is now being recreated in contemporary designs by Vietnamese architects. Old facades give way to innovative solutions featuring atriums for natural lighting and ventilation, courtyards and interior gardens, greenery incorporated into different environments, split-levels, etc., allowing for high-quality spaces. With that in mind, we have put together a selection of Tube Houses, together with their respective section drawings. Check out below:
In a conversation with Louisiana Channel, the founders of the international practice Helen & Hard Architects reaffirm their insistence on community and sustainability. The use of wood, in their practice, has become more than a building philosophy, it has turned into a philosophy. “Trees have a life of their own, and you feel a deep respect for the time it has taken to grow. We work with something alive, an organic material. We can’t do as we please with it. We must interact with the material.”
In August 2022, Siv Helene Stangeland and Reinhard Kropf, the founders of Helen & Hard, were interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at various locations in and around Stavanger, Norway. The area holds special importance for the architects, whose approach was influenced by the culture that permeates Stavanger and the west coast of Norway.
Aridly Abundant is the title of the body of research being exhibited at the UAE National Pavilion at the 18th annual International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. The Pavilion was curated by Faysal Tabbarah, Associate Dean and Professor of Architecture at the College of Architecture, Art, and Design at the American University of Sharjah. The exhibition explores the possibility of architectural possibilities in, with, and for arid landscapes.
I've been designing websites since 1997, and in that time, websites have changed quite a bit. With all the changes over the years, it's no surprise that I often find some firm owners don't understand how architecture website design really works. While you might know a bad website when you see one, you might not understand what makes a good site work. This article will change that.
Founded in 2002 by a group of architects with diverse academic backgrounds from both China and abroad, Verse Design has been deeply engaged in exploring various scales of design for over twenty years, including urban design, architectural design, community making, and residential product systems. Through years of practice, the firm has developed a systematic and continuous design logic and methodology. From programming and planning to urban design, and from schematic design to detail control, a "craftsman's spirit" permeates every phase of our work. We are dedicated to the process of identifying problems, refining solutions, and executing them, maintaining an exceptionally high standard for project implementation and completion. Our primary project types include cultural tourism resort towns, resort hotels, as well as cultural and community lifestyle amenities.
Verse Design maintains a boutique team size and a flat management structure, offering architects a highly autonomous working atmosphere. Here, you will engage in multi-dimensional, full-lifecycle projects ranging from early-stage programming and urban design to architectural design and detailing. We look forward to welcoming like-minded, exceptional architects to join us and grow together with Verse Design.
The firm's office is located in a historic garden villa at the intersection of Zhaojiabang Road and Wulumuqi Road in Shanghai. It is conveniently situated just 50 meters on foot from Zhaojiabang Road Station (Metro Lines 7 and 9), offering an easily accessible and comfortable working environment.
As if dealing with a culinary recipe, Cedric Price compared the evolution of cities to the multiple ways of cooking an egg, showing how the relationship between the yolk and the white (inherent to each preparation) resembled the configuration of different urban models that have emerged over the last couple of millennia. This evolutionary description moves from the almost perfect hard-boiled egg embodied by ancient cities (the result of walled settlements) to scrambled eggs, comparable to modern cities (sprawling shapelessly across the vast territory). It is a metaphor that exemplifies how, so often, the elements that make up the city resemble one another (like the yolk and the white) and yet, the way these ingredients intermingle is key to the final recipe—that which characterizes and explains them.
Envisioned by the architectural pioneers at Woods Bagot, the Sculptform Design Studio was the recipient of the prestigious Best Small Workplace Award at the recent World Architecture Festival 2022. The space is an immersive tactile experience and has become a gathering space for the wider architecture industry. The design evokes the bespoke timber and aluminium products, craftsmanship and the custom detailing they are known for.
Sculptform and Woods Bagot set a new standard for the reciprocity that can exist between client and architect and showcases the limitless potential when a design team is truly immersed in materiality. Blurring the line between retail space and installation, it is a brilliant ‘working showroom’ case study for just how impactful design can be when local manufacturing and quality craftsmanship come together.
The Zaha Hadid-designed Business Stadium Central has been granted approval by the City of Vilnius. In collaboration with Lithuanian developer Hanner, the project seeks to become a new gathering place for the city, creating a variety of new public spaces and amenities with flexible workplaces as well as health and wellness facilities for everyone in Vilnius. Construction is scheduled for the second quarter of this year.
BIG has won a proposal to design a 300 m tall residential tower and a 250 m tall office tower for the Guiwan district, located in the metropolitan city of Qianhai, what is most commonly known as the international finance city of China. Part of the new development plan for Qianhai Bay, the Prisma Towers aim to transform the greater bay area. The project will include workspaces, residences, and 20,000m2 of leveled public spaces.
Over 4% of deaths in European cities during the summer months are due to urban heat islands, and one-third of these deaths could be prevented if tree canopy cover reached 30%. These are the main findings of a study recently published in the journal The Lancet and conducted by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).
World Wetlands Day is celebrated every February 2nd to raise awareness of wetlands. This day also marks the anniversary of the Wetlands Convention, adopted as an international treaty in 1971. Its enactment is because nearly 90% of the world's wetlands have been degraded since 1700, decimated three times faster than the forests. However, they are essential ecosystems that contribute to biodiversity, climate mitigation and adaptation, freshwater availability, world economies, and much more.
"You’ve got a friend in me…" sings Randy Newman, in the Oscar-winning toy-box-fearing romp, Toy Story. But although the song refers to the relationship between a young boy and his favorite toys, it could equally apply to another of Pixar Animation’s most iconic characters, the loveable Luxo Jr, seen hopping around the studio’s production logo.
Combining a stable base with an independently moveable arm and head may make anthropomorphic desk lamps more functional, but while size, position, brightness, temperature, and the adjustability of all of the above are important features, what you really look for in someone to share a desk with, is a friend. Here are some of the friendliest desk light characters.
Castro Alves Square belongs to the people
as the sky belongs to the airplane
a new frevo, I ask for a new frevo
everyone in the square
and so many dull people in the ballroom
(Um Frevo Novo - Caetano Veloso)
For Caetano, true joy lies in the appropriation of the square, not the ballroom. However, this interpretation of Brazil's greatest cultural manifestation is not unanimous.
