BoConcept‘s Chelsea chair is designed by Karim Rashid, an industrial designer well known for his organically shaped products. With its rounded corners and simple format, it seems utterly natural and basic, almost like a non-design. Yet, obviously, a lot of thought and experimentation has gone into the process of creating such an unambiguous object.
Laura Foraster i Lloret is the Secretary General of DIPLOCAT, a public-private consortium aimed at connecting Catalonia with the rest of the world and promoting initiatives that project its image abroad. Its 38 members include key public institutions as well as leading organizations from the business, social, labor, academic, and sports sectors—ranging from Futbol Club Barcelona to the University of Barcelona.
During the Model Barcelona Architectures Festival, which took over the city in May—an event already paving the way for the city's designation as the 2026 World Capital of Architecture—she joined us to discuss how architecture serves as a fundamental tool for presenting and projecting the region abroad. Read Laura Foraster i Lloret's key reflections below.
An interactive showcase of design from around the world. This is how EXPERIENCE VALENCIA is presented, the international festival that will bring to Valencia the first design figures from the 13th to the 18th of June. In this very year, in which Valencia is the World Capital of Design, the city puts within the reach of all citizens privileged access to a unique event about design and its transformative power.
Built environments are a reflection of the social order and dynamic ideals of society. Neighborhoods and cities are cultural relics shaped by diverse communities, some of whose voices are heard louder than others. In the past few decades, Indian metropolitans have been booming with urbanization. Holding cities back from being Utopian hubs of growth is spatial inequality. The residential segregation that patterns the cities of India can be understood through the caste system. The issue, however, is largely intersectional. Forces rooted in class, religion, and gender also structure the country's social landscape.
Michele De Lucchi, Kengo Kuma, Eduardo Souto De Moura, and Stefano Boeri: these are just some of the names of the great Masters of Architecture whose interventions are juxtaposed to the installation of Anna Collatuzzo, Arezoo Mohebpour, and Paula Strieder, three Alumni of YACademy who designed The Journey in collaboration with the studio of Mario Cucinella.
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Miriam van der Lubbe, Creative Head of Dutch Design Week 2022 has announced during a live Q&A on Instagram with designer Pete Fung the theme of this year's edition. Titled Get Set, the theme highlights a shift in mentality - from preparation to action, that is deeply rooted in the idea of listening closely to the design community. The event will take place from October 22-30, 2022 in Eindhoven, and will help designers exchange ideas and solutions that create a meaningful impact.
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“And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food.”
This is how the Garden of Eden is portrayed in the first book of the bible, Genesis, which describes the origin of the universe and the heavenly place where Adam and Eve were placed. Such a paradise, despite being little characterized in the original words, has been inhabiting the imagination of the faithful and other enthusiasts of the matter for centuries. The scenes of this idyllic place, reinforced by the paintings and sculptures created over time, present a landscape considered ideal, an Edenic nature, expressed many times by the vibrant and contourless color – just like a painting by Monet –, probably emphasizing the representation of the spiritual world, where the image is seen through the contrast of colors, shadows and lights.
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Stand Up for the Seas! is an installation designed by Rozana Montiel Architecture Studio for the exhibition Terre! Land in Sight of the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine in the framework of the 2nd Edition of the Biennale d'Architecture et du Paysage d'Île-de-France (Bap, 2022) in Versailles. The piece is made of recycled materials (steel, nets and soil) and invites you to walk inside a seine fishing net to experience what it feels like to be trapped. Stand Up for the Seas! is presented as a stand against the conflict of pollution of the seas.
An online search away from any computer are eye-level views of many of the world’s cities. This technology is powerful – allowing people to have an in-depth look at the cities they might one day visit, live in, or work in. It’s a useful tool for understanding buildings on a more comprehensive level than photographs. This technology is, of course, Google Street View – which recently turned fifteen years old.
Thirty years ago, a contemporary classic was launched by Dornbracht: TARA. The bathroom series became the brand's best selling offering, as its versatility and timeless modernism allowed for its widespread use. As the German luxury fittings manufacturer celebrates thirty decades of its most popular bathroom series, it's looking ahead and introducing new product variants and finishes to the modern classic.
Architect and archivist. She designed the three buildings for the Antorchas Foundation in Buenos Aires. She carried out the assessment, adaptive reuse proposal, budget, and equipment study for the completion and commissioning of the National Library in Buenos Aires. She also served as Director of the ARCA Center (Civil Association for the Archive of Contemporary Argentine Architecture) between 1998 and 2002.
Set in the heart of one of the world's most arid deserts, the Nasca aqueducts form a hydraulic system that, for nearly two thousand years, has demonstrated advanced geological and hydrological knowledge. This system allows water to be sourced for both human consumption and agriculture, creating fertile oases in the desert. The Nasca Aqueducts represent a unique hydraulic system in the Americas, owing to their distinct design, construction technique, location, and function. They serve as an exceptional testament to the capacity of ancient societies to overcome adverse conditions, offering solutions that could be applied to the climate challenges of our time.
Where are we shaped as democratic subjects? Where do we become aware of the individual and the collective? Where do we forge the character needed for coexistence? These are just some of the questions that the architecture cooperative Coonvite seeks to address through this art installation, titled Ágora. Bringing together expressions and opinions about democracy, the project was curated by Víctor Muñoz and is on display until July 31 at the Arts Center of the EAFIT Library in Medellín, Colombia.
As humanity becomes aware of its impact on the environment, it has also sought ways to reverse some of the harm caused to fauna and flora, especially in cities. Our way of living, consumption and construction has caused severe damage to nature. In fact, according to a study from the Weizmann Institute of Science, we are at a point of inflection where the mass of all man-made materials is equal to the planet's biomass, and it should double by 2040. But not necessarily everything we build should have a negative impact. "The Tidal Stool" project is an example of this - part of a comprehensive revitalization project in Kuk Po Village in Shau Tau Kok in Hong Kong, which brings together two different ecologies, the anthropocentric and natural environment.
Choosing a career as soon as we leave high school can be somewhat challenging and even tormenting. Although it has been said that in the future it will be common to change careers or have various overlapping jobs, the fear of making the "wrong" choice causes many soon-to-be graduates to lose sleep. Having a good overview of what each profession entails is important to understand whether or not it is a good fit, especially in creative areas or newer and more dynamic professions. Architecture, for example, is a career that is well known for covering several areas - from mathematics to art history - but also for requiring many hours of dedication, critical thinking and mastery of computational tools. To give prospective students a taste of the experience of being an architect or an architecture student, Design Immersion Days (DID) is a four-week immersive summer program for future high school graduates to experience the world of design and architecture.
From the 7th until the 12th of June, the streets of Milan were overflowing with thousands of national and international architects, designers, manufacturers, artists, and craftsmen for its annual Design Week, exploring new design innovations, and exchanging ideas about interior design, furniture, and lighting. Much like every year, the Salone del Mobile, which takes place at the Fiera Milano | Rho, serves as "a laboratory for experimentation and a place for new opportunities for reflection on the world of design and designing". But with attendance of over 262,000 visitors in six days, along with over 3,500 accredited journalists from around the world, this year's event surpassed all expectations in terms of turnout, confirming that the exhibition is still a prominent influence on the architecture and design industry.
Harvard University Graduate School of Design (Harvard GSD) has announced Marina Otero as the winner of the 2022 Wheelwright Prize. The 100,000 USD grant funds two years of research and travel to support contemporary architecture's investigative approaches, with an emphasis on globally minded research. The winning proposal, “Future Storage: Architectures to Host the Metaverse”, examines a new architecture paradigm for storing digital data. The project looks at how reimagining digital infrastructures could provide answers to the unprecedented demands facing the world today. The field research, data collection, and prototype development will result in an open-source manual for data center architecture design containing examples of ecological, circular, and egalitarian data storage models.
In the current scenario of a climate crisis, thinking about an architectural project without defining ecological guidelines has become practically unacceptable. One of the main emitters of carbon dioxide and other pollutants, the construction sector is increasingly looking for new ways and means that can make works more sustainable and, in some way, mitigate damage to the environment. Thinking about ecological materials can be one of the fundamental steps, but, which materials are these?
The word “Gothic” often envokes a description of mysterious homes, or a modern-day group of people who have an affinity for dark aesthetics, but what the gothic architectural style historically brought to the built environment could not have been more opposite. Gothic designs were actually created to bring more sunlight into spaces, mainly churches, and led to the design and construction of some of the world’s most iconic buildings.
Located in the area between Sachsendamm and Berlin Südkreuz S-Bahn train station in Schöneberg, a new mixed-use complex, EDGE Suedkreuz Berlin, was completed last month by Berlin-based architect Sergei Tchoban and his firm Tchoban Voss Architekten with additional offices in Hamburg and Dresden. The complex comprises two freestanding structures—a larger Carré Building and a smaller Solitaire Building. Together they occupy their own block. The pair is now the largest hybrid-timber complex of buildings in Germany and one of the largest in Europe.
To start the day in a relaxed state of mind, it is good to have a natural sense of inner calm, or, failing that, a peaceful space to retreat to where stress can be left outside. In their first collaboration, Duravit and designer Sebastian Herkner transform the bathroom into a place of true well-being – for the restorative cleansing of body, mind and soul. Here, there really is nothing to remind one of everyday life, as the Zencha bathroom series transports us away, paying homage to the traditional tea ceremonies of Japan.
If we had to return to the beginning, which beginning would it be? The last two years have left a deep mark on all of us, like an incision on our skin. Yet at the same time, each of these marks is so unique and diverse that it would be impossible to say we have all gone through the same experience. At the UNAM Faculty of Architecture, these two years were defined by two key moments in our history: the COVID-19 pandemic itself, which introduced us to new ways of learning and teaching; and a student strike against gender-based violence—organized by female student collectives—which became the longest student strike on record at the school.
In 2013, Medellín (Colombia) was declared the most innovative city in the world as part of the City of the Year Competition, organized by the Wall Street Journal. It competed alongside metropolises like New York and Tel Aviv.
The Antioquian capital has become one of the most advanced technological and intellectual epicenters in Colombia, not to mention the important urban development that has occurred in the city since the beginning of 2010. The city’s mobility-orientated integrated infrastructure together with interventions of high social impact have turned Medellín into the center of the debate on the growth and development of Latin American cities.
The following projects tell you the story of a city that bet on urban consolidation through quality public spaces and projects that encouraged citizen management by supporting the development of marginalized areas in a process of social reconstruction, where architecture has played an important role as a spatial formulation tool.
One of Japanese architect Kazuo Shinohara’s iconic architectures, designed under the so-called "First Style" has now been reconstructed on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein. The Umbrella House, originally built in Tokyo in 1961, will serve as a venue for small gatherings on the campus, offering visitors insights on modern Japanese architecture. After the geodesic dome by Buckminster Fuller/George Howard in 1975, and a petrol station by Jean Prouvé in 1953, the project is the third historic building to be reconstructed on the Vitra Campus.
