Tag: open-source | ArchDaily

Henning Larsen Launches OpenDetail as Digital Platforms Expand Carbon-Focused Tools for the Built Environment

Reyyan Dogan — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 07:30:00 +0000

As the building industry continues to account for a significant share of global carbon emissions, digital platforms are increasingly being developed to support carbon reduction across different stages of the design and construction process. These initiatives range from material-focused knowledge databases to project life-cycle guidance and early-stage embodied carbon assessment tools. While differing in scope and methodology, they commonly aim to improve access to technical knowledge, clarify responsibilities across the value chain, and facilitate more informed decision-making in the built environment. Recently, Henning Larsen launched OpenDetail, joining related efforts by Grimshaw and MVRDV to address decarbonization through shared digital infrastructure.

How Open-Source Toolkits Are Democratizing Built Heritage

Ankitha Gattupalli — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 07:30:00 +0000

For monuments worthy of sustained admiration, conservation practices have been selectively mobilized to reinforce their prestige and secure their place at the center of heritage narratives. Structures whose vernacular ought to be passed down miss the discerning eye of the experts. Rowhouses, shopfronts, and neighborhood structures that form the fabric of our cities are often left to deteriorate beyond repair. Much more is lost, apart from aesthetics.

MAD Architects Reveals Construction Progress at Tencent's Headquarters in Shenzhen, China

Maria-Cristina Florian — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 06:30:00 +0000

Tencent is developing its new headquarters campus on five parcels spanning over 80 hectares east of Da Chan Bay Island in Qianhai, Bao'an District, Shenzhen. MAD Architects, led by Ma Yansong, has designed LOT 04 East of Tencent's new headquarters, envisioning two biomorphic office towers, three interconnected buildings, and a raindrop-shaped building. This project covers approximately 72,000 square meters with a Gross Floor Area of 412,000 square meters. Currently under construction, Lot 04 East of the headquarters is expected to be completed and open for users in 2025. Other projects announced for the campus include Büro Ole Scheeren’s swirling design for the Tencent Helix, and MVRDV’s residential complex named Tencent P5.

"Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective": Carlo Ratti Announces Theme and Title for 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale

Nour Fakharany — Wed, 08 May 2024 05:30:00 +0000

Carlo Ratti, the curator of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, along with The President of La Biennale di Venezia, Pietrangelo Buttafuocco, have just revealed highly anticipated details for the upcoming edition. Titled "Intelligens," the exhibition will be running from May 24th to November 23rd, 2025 in Giardini, the Arsenale, and various landmark locations throughout Venice.

Democratizing Reality: Designing for VR, AR and the Metaverse

Eric Baldwin — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 07:30:00 +0000

Architecture shapes our lives every day, but how can it be decentralized? At the core of efforts to design extended reality (XR) environments is a desire to make these projects more human and more relatable. As technologists, architects, and users themselves develop new tools for the metaverse, as well as augmented and virtual spaces, new projects are increasingly democratized and open source. At the same time, the design process is being reimagined.

Is There a Future for Open Source Architecture?

Kaley Overstreet — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 04:00:00 +0000

In 2016, Pritzker Prize winner Alejandro Aravena announced that his firm, ELEMENTAL, had released the rights to four of their social housing projects, and all documents would be uploaded to their website for public use. Aravena’s goal was to start a movement in which architects would work together to tackle the world’s challenges around housing shortages and affordability, especially with increased migration. The shared drawing sets and a description of the project’s principles provide architects with the necessary documentation for building a low-cost home, encouraging designers to do the same with their work, contractors to assist in building these homes, and governments to shift their thinking of how they can approach mass urbanization. Six years later, how has the concept of open-source architecture progressed, and how has it impacted the architectural profession ever since?

Off-Site Construction is Radically Changing the Rules of Architectural Design

Valeria Montjoy — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 06:45:00 +0000

The popularity of pre-designed and pre-fabricated homes is growing, moving much of the construction process from the building site into factories. While countries like Singapore, Australia and the United Kingdom are increasingly adopting modular buildings to meet labor and housing shortages, Nordic countries like Sweden already build 90% of residential single-family houses in prefab wood. Despite the recent surge in interest, off-site building is by no means a new concept. In fact, the construction method has been present throughout history in many attempts to consolidate its use in construction: as far back as A.D 43, the Roman army brought with them prefabricated forts to Britain, while Japan has been building in wood off-site and moving parts in pre-assemblies for at least a thousand years.

How The Digital Revolution Will Make Cities Produce Everything They Consume… Again

Tomas Diez — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 02:30:00 +0000

This summer, July 11-13, the annual Fab City Summit will take place in Paris at the Paris City Hall and Parc de La Villette. The yearly event will gather the core team behind the Fab City Global Initiative together with city officials, innovation ecosystems from civic society and industry. Get your tickets with 30% discount using code FABDAILY30.

Will Open-Source, Technological Solutions Ever Lead to the Dream of Universal Affordable Housing?

Yiling Shen — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 09:30:00 +0000

The dream of universal affordable housing has been an idea tried and tested by architects throughout history. From the wacky Dymaxion House by Buckminster Fuller, an imagining of how we would live in the future, to mail-order houses able to be assembled like IKEA furniture, many proposals have tackled the challenge of creating affordable housing or dwellings which could be replicated no matter the time and place. However, although their use of techniques such as pre-fabrication and cheap materials seemed, in theory, to be able to solve pressing issues of homelessness and the global housing crisis, time and time again these proposals have simply failed to take off. But why?

Open Source Plan for a Modular Urban Gardening Structure Offers a Flexible Design for Locally Grown Food

Ella Thorns — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 08:00:00 +0000

As a response to the fast-paced city life, GrowMore is an urban gardening modular design with endless configurations to suit even the most unexpected of spaces. Designed by Sine Lindholm and Mads-Ulrik Husum, the modular building kit provides an opportunity for social interaction and locally grown vegetation, reminding people to pause and connect with nature.

The Construction Details of ELEMENTAL's Incremental Housing

José Tomás Franco — Sun, 18 Jun 2017 08:00:00 +0000

Good location, harmonious growth over time, concern for urban design, and the delivery of a structure that has "middle-class DNA" are the key points of the ABC of incremental housing, developed in detail by the Chilean architects ELEMENTAL. It's a question of ensuring a balance between "low-rise high-density, without overcrowding, with the possibility of expansion (from social housing to middle-class dwelling)."

How To Improve Your SketchUp Skills

Fabian Dejtiar — Wed, 24 May 2017 08:00:00 +0000

For decades, SketchUp has been one of the most well-known 3D modeling programs in the design world, owed to its intuitive working tools and labyrinth of user-generated accessories, from open source libraries to plugins. Quite often, SketchUp is the software of choice for engaging children with architecture, due to its availability, flexibility, and ease of use.

IKEA Lab Releases Open-Source Plans for DIY Spherical Garden

Patrick Lynch — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 16:20:00 +0000

Fresh off winning the “Design of the Year” for their refugee housing solution, the “Better Shelter,” IKEA is again making waves for a pioneering, flat pack solution to societal needs. Developed by the IKEA innovation lab Space10 alongside architects sine lindholm and mads-ulrik husum, the spherical “Growroom” is a DIY garden structure intended to help people “grow their own food much more locally in a beautiful and sustainable way.” And now, plans for the structure have been made available online for free via Space10’s open source platform, giving anyone the opportunity to build their own 3-dimensional garden.

10 Awesome Sketchup Plugins That Will Up Your Modeling Game (Explained With GIFs)

Nicolás Valencia — Fri, 25 Nov 2016 08:00:00 +0000

After the success of its 6th edition in 2007, Sketchup became one of the world's most widely used 3D modeling software products. This is thanks to its intuitive toolbar, interdisciplinary use within the creative industry (not just architects) and having a free version that doesn't use watermarks.

5 Initiatives That Show the Rise of Open Source Architecture

Rory Stott — Sat, 24 Sep 2016 13:30:00 +0000

In architecture, perhaps the most remarkable change heralded by the 20th was the radical rethinking of housing provision which it brought, driven by a worldwide population explosion and the devastation of two world wars. Of course, Modernism’s reappraisal of the design and construction of housing was one part of this trajectory, but still Modernism was underpinned by a traditional process, needing clients, designers and contractors. Arguably more radical were a small number of fringe developments, such as mail-order houses in the US and Walter Segal’s DIY home designs in the UK. These initiatives sought to turn the traditional construction process on its head, empowering people to construct their own homes by providing materials and designs as cheaply as possible.

Why Aravena's Open Source Project is a Huge Step Toward Better, Cheaper Housing for Everyone

Joana Pacheco — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 09:50:00 +0000

This article by Paperhouses founder Joana Pacheco was originally published by Metropolis Magazine as "Aravena's Small Step, Open Source's Big Leap."

Xten Architecture's Austin Kelly on Context, Flexibility and Open Source Design

Joana Pacheco — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Xten architecture is a California and Switzerland based practice lead by couple Monika Häfelfinger and Austin Kelly. Recently joining the open source architecture platform Paperhouses with the Box House, Austin Kelly spoke with Paperhouses founder Joana Pacheco about architecture, sustainability, construction and working internationally.

Why The Blueprint of the 21st Century Should Be Open Source

Anne Ishii & Joana Pacheco — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

It used to be that when an architect needed a physical facsimile of his/her project, a draftsman would individually draw the schematics by hand. Blueprints were revolutionary in that they streamlined reproduction through technology, yet they were based on a publishing model that was repetitive — not iterative. Computer Aided Design software, or CAD, streamlined the process even further; however, unlike blueprints, CAD was not based on publishing models, but rather on “technological science.” As such it evolved in a very different way. CAD technology that was initially developed in the 1960s as a proprietary tool for heavy industries—aerospace, automotive and super-computer processing centers— became consumer-oriented in the 1980s when it met the UNIX open platform. The key in its rapid development, dissemination and democratization was exactly this: open technology.