This guide covers a workflow that moves from project parameters to generated floor plans, 3D perspective views, exterior design exploration, and site context visualization, using AI tools in place of preliminary CAD and rendering work.

Videos

On Sunday, May 15, 2022, the closing ceremony of the second edition of BARQ – Barcelona International Architecture Film Festival was held at the Disseny Hub Barcelona. The event was also hosted as part of the recent MODEL - Barcelona Architectures Festival.

During the ceremony, the winning films in the two competition categories, feature films and short films, were announced. Learn more about each of them below.

Looking ahead to the future of our built environment, a one-size-fits-all approach simply won’t do. Issues like rising sea levels, temperatures, and water scarcity in urban communities need localized solutions that take into account questions of sustainability, culture, and public health. Having investigated vernacular infrastructure across indigenous communities for her book Lo-TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism, designer Julia Watson is an expert in local, nature-based technologies that are inherently adaptable and resilient. We talk to her about the future of our cities, building materials, and her latest project for Our Time on Earth – a five year, world-touring exhibition that just opened at London's Barbican Centre to investigate how radical, collaborative ideas for the way we live can get us to a much improved place by 2040.

+ 8

Located somewhere between opacity and transparency, translucent surfaces allow rays of light to partially pass through them, creating a "blurred" aspect to what is seen on the other side. This is an effect widely used in art, as in the works of the Icelandic–Danish artist Olafur Eliason, for example, who works with optical illusions through light and colorful and transparent surfaces. But it is also admired by contemporary architects, such as the Japanese office SANAA, or European offices such as Barozzi / Veiga or Lacaton & Vassal, among many others.

In buildings, when using translucent surfaces with materials such as polycarbonate or glass, elements become visually lighter and highlight interiors or even the building's structure, without intruding on inhabitants' privacy. Chairs, lamps, pots: there are several everyday objects that use translucency for aesthetics and lightness. In the bathroom, however, this is not so common. Usually made of porcelain, the traditional pieces used in this space are opaque and at times are not so flexible to allow for a designer's vision.

With a mission to support, empower, and grow the city's design sector, New York's annual design festival, the NYCxDESIGN presented a selection of architectural installations, talks, and events to celebrate global creative accomplishments, share new ideas, and inspire through design. This year, the festival returned for its tenth edition, running from May 10th - 20th. Having been a special anniversary, this year showcased New York's creative diversity and talent, putting on display its designers, makers, manufacturers, innovative design businesses, as well as world-class cultural and academic design institutions.

+ 35

Haptic and Ramboll conceptualize a novel structure that hopes to eradicate the need for demolition. The timber high-rise construction is built for maximum flexibility and longevity, being able to change its configuration and, consequently, its functions to adapt to the city’s changing needs. The design concept is based on the idea of maximizing the potential of sites in inner-city neighborhoods. To exemplify the regenerative potential of this model, the architects have applied the concept to a tight urban area in the center of Oslo, Norway.

+ 5

Creating a showcase is more than just displaying products, just as designing a store goes beyond a showcase. Both charges reinforce the concept of a collection, attract customers and improve a brand’s image. It is no coincidence that many architects work in the Visual Merchandising area along with graphic and interior designers, retailers, and stylists, to design a spatial experience that generates a unique narrative and brings greater customer engagement to the store.

+ 15

Lisbon city counsil almost unanimously approved the proposal of free public transport for young people up to 18 years old, higher education students up to 23 years old and people over 65 years old.

This free pass, which should encourage the use of public transport, is valid for residents of the city. The decision was announced by the mayor Carlos Moedas.

The topic of cannabis can be rather taboo in some instances, as countries around the world have differing views on the legalization of marijuana products based on their cultural and religious beliefs. In the United States specifically, it’s been a long contended issue that each state has, for now, been left to decide on how they want to handle. Each year, more and more states (now totaling 18 and the District of Columbia out of 50), have legalized the recreational sale and use of a limited amount of cannabis, but it remains illegal on a federal level.

Cannabis tax revenue generated more than two billion dollars across legalized states in the last year alone and is expected to grow to nearly 12 billion dollars by 2030, exceeding tax revenues collected from the sale of alcohol, according to bond strategists at Barclays. For the states that do tax the sale of cannabis products, there have already been significant benefits that have helped further develop cities and smaller towns, making the streets safer, and increased funding for new municipal projects, local businesses, subsidies for low-income renters, improvements to public school systems, water and sewer line upgrades, and other significant infrastructure projects.

Today there are enormous application possibilities when it comes to textile technology, and as new developments emerge within the sector, this number will continue to grow. A current example from the world of architecture neatly demonstrates the improvements that can be realised in relation to the quality of air, work and life in general if one is prepared to explore alternative ways of doing things. The project involves a recently developed curtain-type textile facade that can not only reduce a building's solar cooling load by up to 78%, but can even gather nitrogen oxide particles from the air and convert them in an environmentally friendly way by means of a special coating.

The results of the Design Educates Awards 2022 have been announced. These annual awards recognize the best projects that address complex social and environmental contexts while offering educational value. The awards seek out designs that will have a lasting impact on users and the environment, highlighting the world's best ideas and realizations that can educate.

“Reading for Life” is the name of the pavilion of the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá designed by Yemail Arquitectura for this latest edition of the Bogotá International Book Fair (FILBO). Welcoming over 30,000 visitors, the pavilion made a significant impact by presenting a narrative that allowed visitors to understand the Colombian capital from different perspectives. It took into account the city’s rural composition while proposing a future with a more organic connection, where the diversity of the neighborhood, water, air, land, and all the cities found in reading, community, and nature coexist in a single space.

As part of an initiative by LIGA, an independent space founded in Mexico City in 2011 to promote contemporary Latin American architecture through exhibitions, publications, events, lectures, and workshops, the exhibition “Registro: Museo Tamayo” opened on April 21 as part of the LIGA-ARCHIVOS initiative. This iteration presents a reinterpretation of the building designed by architect Teodoro González de León and built in 1981 in the First Section of Chapultepec Forest.

When cities grow, fuelled by an expanding population, housing becomes an essential component of the urban character of a metropolis. Across the world, housing experiments have been propagated by governments and states, with mixed results, and undoubtedly mixed opinions. The Soviet-era housing estates of Central and Eastern Europe are particularly interesting in that regard. These mass housing projects have been dismissed as eyesores and viewed as unimaginative monolithic structures. The legacy of these developments, however, is a lot more complicated than that.

+ 5

At the touch of a button, the entire window front magically sinks into the ground, merging the interior with the exterior. This is the effect of the air-lux descending window, which acts not just as a glass front, but a highlight all year round that blends the indoors with the outdoors. So much so, that the descending window was awarded the German Design Award 2020 in the category "Excellent Product Design - Building and Elements".

Olson Kundig has announced the opening of its new Bob Dylan Center, a warehouse-turned-museum that gives visitors exclusive access to the cultural treasures found in The Bob Dylan Archive®. Led by design principal Alan Maskin, the center showcases Bob Dylan's worldwide cultural significance, featuring a collection of more than 100,000 items spanning nearly 60 years of Dylan’s career, from handwritten manuscripts and correspondence, to films, videos, artwork, and original studio recordings.

+ 22

Syrian architects Marwa Al-Sabouni and Ghassan Jansiz bring an Arabic-inspired architectural element to the seafront of Hove as part of this year’s Brighton Festival. The temporary pavilion is built in the shape of the traditional arcade called The Riwaq. Conceived as a place that brings people together, the installation will host free cultural and community events, all organized as part of England’s largest annual multi-arts festival. Established in 1967, the Brighton Festival celebrates music, theatre, dance, art, film, literature, debate, and outdoor events in various locations across Brighton, Hove, and East Sussex.

+ 8

The concept of aesthetics goes back to the Greek civilization and refers to perception through the senses. Despite being a philosophical concept, in architecture, aesthetics is used to translate architectural ideologies and concepts from the set of constructive elements, forms and materials, being intrinsically linked to the physical shape of a building and, therefore, bound to a social, economic and political context. In addition to a discussion of tastes, architectural aesthetics is a source of historical reading and analysis.

After a prolonged period known as the Middle-Ages, a growing desire to both study and mimic nature itself began to emerge, with an inclination to discover and explore the world. Between 1400-1600 A.D. Europe was to witness a significant revival of the fine arts, painting, sculpture, and Architecture. The ‘Renaissance’, meaning ‘rebirth’ in French typically refers to this period of European history, although most closely associated with Italy, countries including England and France went through many of the same cultural changes at varying timescales.

Prior to the dawn of the Renaissance, Europe was dominated by ornate and asymmetrical Gothic Architecture. Devoured by the plague, the continent lost approximately a third of its population, vastly changing society in terms of economic, social and religious effect. Contributing to Europe’s emergence into the Renaissance, the period ushered in a new era of architecture after a phase of Gothic art, with the rise of notions of ‘Humanism’. The idea of attaching much importance to the essence of individualism. The effect of Humanism included the emergence of the individual figure, greater realism and attention to detail, especially in depictions in art.

+ 7

“Good design deserves great recognition”. This statement encapsulates the A'Design Award and Competition, an award for designers, innovators and companies that wish to stand out and attract the attention of the media, editors and buyers. These aspects are especially important in the world of design, where millions of products and projects are launched, and often end up being swallowed up and not receiving due recognition. To address this, every year projects are submitted to the A' Design Award with a focus on innovation, technology, design and creativity. It offers a chance for recognition, with the valuable curatorship of a renowned jury and the possibility of a successful international launch. The A'Design Award contains a series of public relations, advertising and marketing services to celebrate the success of its winners. In addition, and unlike other design awards, it is completely free of charge.

Summer, carnival, and transit fare hikes: the beginning of the year in Brazil is typically when municipal and state governments announce increases in public transportation fares. While these fares were frozen in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, many cities have faced hikes once again in 2022. Understanding the impact of rising public transportation fares on our society is crucial.

The award-winning firm based in London, England, Jan Kattein Architects, works to realize the civic and spatial opportunities that architecture presents’ with their projects establishing a social and physical legacy, achieved by embracing an open, interactive design process that responds positively to the needs and aspirations of the clients.

Allowing the process to drive each individual project, their method stimulates innovative design, seeking to add benefits through education, economic growth, cultural activity, and greater community coherence.

+ 28

Videos

The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.

A variety of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes are interviews, while others are tips for fellow designers, reviews of buildings and other projects, or casual explorations of everyday life and design. The Second Studio is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

This week David and Marina are joined by Joe Fletcher, Architectural Photographer to discuss his transition from painting to photography; his experience with a formalized education in photography; how an architectural photographer can influence architects and architecture; his process; the distillation of architecture through photography; why photogenic buildings are not always comfortable to be in; and more.

+ 13

On the UNESCO International Day of Light, The Daylight Awards announced the 2022 Laureates: Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara from Grafton Architects (Ireland) for their use of light in architecture, and Anna Wirz-Justice (Switzerland) for her extensive daylight research. Releasing footage offering an insight into the winning works, The Daylight Awards present international excellence in daylight research and practice and the humanistic approach to celebrating light.

In interview with Anna Wirz-Justice she discusses her time working within a psychiatric clinic, uncovering connections between abnormal light exposure and the impact this has on overall mental health. In conversation with both Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell of Grafton Architects, they offer insight into the employment of daylight within the design process as a key and inherent quality, which can ultimately influence spacial arrangement.

Architectural visualizations have reached unthinkable levels, being a great source of inspiration and a fundamental part of the design process in architecture. This is why we are proud to announce the second edition of the ArchDaily Architecture Visualization Awards, where we will award the best of the year.