2016

+ 32

• Cash prizes: 20.000 €
• Subject: open architectural competition
• Target: Designers, Architects, Students, Professionals
• Location: Marzabotto (Bologna, Italy)

As the planet is quickening its pace towards 8 billion inhabitants and the effects of the anthropic action on the terrestrial ecosystem are becoming clear, a different environmental awareness is not an optional attitude anymore, but an urgent need that cannot be postponed.

In a society that consumes and pollutes at a quicker pace than the earth can stand, we need new ideas to face pointless alarmism and misguided scepticism. DISMECO srl -- a leading company in Europe in the disposal and recycling of electrical equipment -- has been pledging for years to create a more sustainable future through a more widespread action in reusing and treating complex waste.

+ 28

+ 4

+ 26

SCI-Arc’s “Close-up” exhibition is currently on display at the SCI-Arc gallery, featuring architectural details designed with the use of digital technology by top architects in the field. The exhibit, curated by Hernan Diaz Alonso and David Ruy, seeks to explore the impact of new computational tools not only on large-scale building analysis, but also on the “traditions of tectonic expression” associated with architectural detail.

“Out of the many critical shifts that the discipline has gone through in the last 25 years with the explosion of new technologies and digital means of production, the notion of the construction detail has been largely overlooked,” Diaz Alonso said. “This show attempts to shed light on the subject of tectonic details by employing a fluid and dynamic movement of zooming in and zooming out in the totality of the design.”

The 16 exhibitors include architecture firms like Morphosis, Gehry Partners and UN Studio – see preview images of them all after the break.

+ 32

The Architecture Foundation is inviting applications to join a masterclass, which will be staged in the James Stirling-designed Florey Building at The Queen’s College, Oxford.

Six studios will consider the typology of the university, through the development of a speculative design over the course of four days (Thursday September 8th-Sunday September 11th). The studio leaders will present lectures over the course of the masterclass while the Drawing Matter Foundation will stage an exhibition drawn from its holdings of 1960’s architectural drawings. On the evening of September 12th, the studios will present their projects at a public event at London’s Barbican Arts Centre.

+ 15

Strelka KB announces the launch of an Open International Competition for Tverskaya Streetscape Concept Design. The design project covers Tverskaya Street (from Pushkinskaya Square to Triumfalnaya Square) and 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street in Moscow. The competition is aimed to attract young and emerging architects for the projects on the renovation of urban territories as a part of “My Street” programme. The winner will be announced on the 7th of July 2016.

Competition Theme: Green – Eco - Future Building Systems and Lifestyle

The design intent is to create a system/network of eco-green elevated sky gardens within a soon to be realised super high-rise residential complex, with the aim of drastically improving the living environment and lifestyle of urban dwellers. This competition seeks young architects worldwide to provide innovative ideas to break the existing typology of the super high-rise and isolated lifestyles associated with high density urban living. 

+ 14

+ 34

FAVELAS, named after the Brazilian creeping plant ’favela’ have existed in Brazil since the late 19th century. Wretched areas of closely packed dwellings were planted in the cities, on the outskirts of the cities, and continued to spread rampantly, growing out of all control. The problem became worse around 1950 when the industrialization of Brazil led to mass migration from rural areas to the big cities. At first the municipal administration tried to resolve this problem by building social housing. Some of the favelas were bulldozed and their inhabitants were forced to resettle elsewhere. But areas of informal settlements have continued to grow. According to the Secretaria Municipal de Habitação the slum’s residents are already 22% of the population in Rio.

Today, a billion people across the world live in slums. There were 40 million more slum dwellers worldwide in 2012 than there were in 2010, according to the UN. By 2030 this number will have doubled.

+ 13

+ 17

+ 19

+ 46

+ 8