MVRDV has revealed the master plan to expand the Noviotech Campus, a giant in Health & High Tech Innovation, in Nijmegen, east of the Netherlands. The concept combines the campus's already scattered buildings, adds new structures where there are gaps, and integrates the site within the city, putting ecology first. The municipality of Nijmegen, Kadans Science Partner, and NXP Semiconductors will collaborate with Noviotech Campus and MVRDV in the following months to develop and refine the master plan.
From Thomas Edison's empty glass bulb to AI-controlled LEDs, hundreds of years of constant evolution have passed, which culminated in what we now know as artificial lighting. Edison could not have imagined how dependent we would become on his invention almost two centuries later. It led to a way of life where we spend up to 90% of our time in enclosed spaces deprived of natural light, such as shopping centers and offices. Places where artificial light remains constant throughout the day, without any variation of color temperature or luminous intensity are where artificial lighting practically eliminates day and night differences.
A new award from NASA will support ICON in developing construction technology that could be used on the Moon and Mars. Image Courtesy of ICON/BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group
From inflatable and 3D-printed structures to entire habitats, architecture plays an unprecedented role in space exploration missions. As NASA plans for long-term human exploration of the Moon and Mars under Artemis and CHAPEA missions, new technologies are required to meet the unique challenges of living and working in another world. In response, figures like Buckminster Fuller, Foster + Partners, SOM, and BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, in collaboration with emerging businesses such as ICON and SEArch+, have nourished the architectural catalog in outer space.
In the latest update, NASA awarded Austin-based company ICON a contract to continue ICON's Olympus construction system in partnership with BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group. The project will help build infrastructures such as landing pads, habitats, capsules, and roads on the lunar surface and Mars, using extrusion-based additive construction technology (3D printing) and local materials like lunar regolith. The contract runs through 2028 and supports Artemis, a mission for long-term human exploration of the Moon.
When a country becomes known for its most famous export, the two together can become synonymous with quality. Combinations such as French wine, Italian marble and German engineering are examples of the hallmark of excellence provided simply by a product’s geographic birthplace. While Portugal’s most famous and most passionate exports could equally be cork, football, or egg-based sweet treats, there’s far more to the Portuguese culture and economy than preening soccer players and custard tarts.
While Portuguese culture’s relationship with ceramics is known for the distinctively patterned plates, bowls, and jugs millions of tourists attempt to keep intact on the journey home, few are paying the extra baggage charge for 50 sqm of ceramic tiles. The country’s agreeable climate, however, along with a history of craftsmanship and the natural strength, durability, and pigment of Portuguese clay, means high-quality ceramic facades are an identifiable feature of Portuguese architecture. And the material is exported all over the world for both exterior and interior surfaces.
Primer Premio. Image Cortesía de PALO arq + WEST 8 junto a la asesoría de Lucia Bocchimuzzi y Manuela Garcia Faure
The National Ideas Competition for "Buenos Aires and the River – Costa Urbana Public Park" was organized by the Government of the City of Buenos Aires (GCBA) in collaboration with the Central Society of Architects (SCA) and sponsored by the Argentine Federation of Architecture Entities (FADEA). Given its non-binding nature, its primary goal is to reconnect the city of Buenos Aires with the river through an accessible waterfront designed to expand and link public green spaces, while fostering a sustainable relationship with the riparian environment.
Highly beneficial in climates with wide diurnal temperature ranges, where there is a significant difference between day and night temperatures, thermal mass is a key concept to consider when designing for optimal thermal comfort. As a passive strategy for temperature control, it eliminates the need for additional energy consumption, making the building more sustainable.
SAP Headquarters / Yashar Architects. Image Courtesy of Yashar Architects
In architecture, choosing the right construction materials is crucial to improve efficiency, ensure structural integrity and maximize performance, ultimately setting the standard for the finished product. But because any building – from its outer skin to its framing system – consists of many layers and parts, understanding how these fit and work can be just as important during design and manufacture. Technical specification of materials and constructive systems plays a key role in conveying this information, providing all of the necessary knowledge, properties and characteristics for any successful project. After all, the more you know about what lies between walls and behind finishes, the better your architecture will be.
Videos
Sia Task Chair. Image Courtesy of Boss Design
Choosing the appropriate working elements –such as furniture, lighting, flooring, and other equipment– is key for creating an optimal workplace environment. With a positive impact on productivity, as well as the comfort and well-being of team members, designing workplace elements that integrate sustainable, wellness and aesthetic qualities implies a deep understanding of the interactions between these three areas. Minimizing the environmental impact and prioritizing well-being throughout the design process, while also considering the resulting aesthetics, Boss Design’s Sia Task Chair defines a new standard for workplace design.
Architect William (Bill) Hellmuth, the chairman and CEO of HOK, passed away on April 6, 2023, after a long illness. Hellmuth was elected president of HOK in 2005, then CEO in 2016. He accepted the new role on the condition of remaining design principal for HOK’s Washington D.C. studio, as he enjoyed having a hands-on approach and working directly with clients and HOK project teams. One year later he was also named chairman of the firm, helping the office to raise its profile as an innovative and influential company within the design community.
The São Paulo Biennial Foundation has just announced details of the Terra project that will occupy the Brazil Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. With a curatorial effort by Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares, the Brazilian exhibition will feature a diverse group of collaborators, comprising Mbya-Guarani indigenous peoples, Tukano, Arawak and Maku indigenous peoples, weavers from Alaká (Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá), Iyá Nassô Oká (Casa Branca do Engenho Velho), Ana Flávia Magalhães Pinto, Ayrson Heráclito, Day Rodrigues with collaboration from Vilma Patrícia Santana Silva (Etnicidades Group FAU-UFBA), Fissura Collective, Juliana Vicente, Thierry Oussou, and Vídeo nas Aldeias.
Biophilic office design is not just a passing trend. It rather represents a seismic shift in how we design and build our office spaces and work environments, with every employer from multi-national giants of the industry to two-person bedroom startups getting on board. But this weighed-down bandwagon of empathetic, wellness-focused workspace still has plenty of room on the back.
Light is part of various disciplines, shaping the world as we know it. In physics, it serves as a measure of speed and makes vision, and the recording of images by the eye and camera lens possible. Throughout art history, the representation of light - or its absence - has guided secular movements in various manifestations with equally different techniques and supports. This means that light - and its derivative shadow - can create environments, atmospheres and sensations, which can be perceived in objects and spaces. Light is also a part of architecture.
Shawn Basler, a New York-based architect, founded his firm Basler Mosa Design Group in 2000; seven years later he merged with Perkins Eastman, one of the world’s biggest and most dynamically growing architectural practices. He is now co-CEO/Executive Director—with Nick Leahy and Andrew J. Adelhardt III—of this 1,100-strong global force headquartered in New York City and operating a total of 24 offices, seven of which are outside of the U.S., namely in Shanghai, Mumbai, Dubai, Singapore, Vancouver, Toronto, and Guayaquil in Ecuador. In addition to designing many international projects, Basler shares the responsibility for fostering the firm’s growth around the world.
Pérgola y Plaza de Acceso diseñada por Solano Benítez. Image Cortesía de BID
As perimeter walls are dismantled, a new layout is taking shape on the runway of Mendoza's former airfield. This adaptive reuse initiative, driven by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the municipal government, seeks to repurpose the vacant 72-hectare site to explore and develop a more open, inclusive, and carbon-neutral city. The master plan focuses on strategies addressing environmental and climate sustainability, efficient energy, water, and sanitation management, housing, mobility, and accessible public spaces, alongside social inclusion and local development. The plan envisions the integration of infrastructure, parks, green spaces, commercial and dining uses, a technology and innovation hub, and the development of new single-family and collective housing models: "the housing of the future."
The official presentation of the project to Mendoza government authorities, IDB representatives, students, and other guests took place on the site of the former airfield. For this occasion, renowned Paraguayan architect Solano Benítez was invited to design and construct an entrance pergola for the "city of the future." The structure aligns with the urban project's circular economy framework, blending craftsmanship and prefabrication to "transition from traditional construction dependent on high-embodied-energy systems toward reusing materials with lower energy expenditure," according to IDB architects and urban planners Felipe Vera and Matías Lince. Grounded in exploring the tectonic potential of brick—the quintessential material of Paraguayan construction—Benítez's work focuses on delivering efficient, local architectural solutions that prioritize the intelligent use of materials.
https://www.archdaily.com/1136107/solano-benitez-on-the-city-of-the-future-in-mendoza-to-build-with-the-least-amount-of-matter-and-energyFabian Dejtiar + Paula Pintos
“The world is full of obsolete, abandoned airports. Vast, vacant, centrally located sites in need of adaptive reuse. Several cities have successfully taken this on—San Francisco, Berlin, Caracas. The big question is: what will Mendoza do with its own prime opportunity?”. These words by architect and urbanist Felipe Vera introduce one of the most significant urban transformations in the City of Mendoza's recent history. On March 22, the former airfield officially hosted the presentation of a new adaptive reuse project. Led by the IDB and the local government, the initiative aims to reclaim the vacant 72-hectare site to explore and develop three core visions: a more open, inclusive, and carbon-neutral city.
https://www.archdaily.com/1136186/city-of-the-future-the-project-to-transform-the-former-mendoza-airparkFabian Dejtiar + Paula Pintos
Yasmeen Lari’s Pakistani Chulah - an outdoor stove used by women in South Asia- is a powerful intervention that highlights the architect's commitment to feminist and environmental activism. The project synchronically tackles issues of deforestation, pollution, and health hazards faced by women in rural areas. Her design is systemic, locally specific, and conscious of the needs of society’s most vulnerable - women and nature. Her vast body of humanitarian work elaborated on in Yasmeen Lari: Architecture for the Future, opens up a dialogue for viewing architecture through an eco-feminist lens.
Sevince Bayrak and Oral Göktaş, founders of the Istanbul-based studio SO? Architecture and Ideas, were selected as curators for the Pavilion of Türkiye in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia 2023, with an exhibition project titled Ghost Stories: Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture. The installation questions the accepted perceptions of unused buildings in order to discover more hopeful proposals for the future. The exhibition will be open from May 20th until November 26th, 2023, under the coordination of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV). The project team consists of Aysima Akın, Kevser Reyyan Doğan, Merve Akdoğan and the research team includes Taylan Tosun, Doğu Tonkur, Hatice Bahar Çoklar Berke Şevketoğlu, Duygu Sayğı.
Vertiport Terminal, Dubai. Image Courtesy of Foster + Partners
Foster + Partners has developed a provisional concept design for a Vertiport terminal, located next to Dubai International Airport, in collaboration with Skysports Infrastructure, the leading designer and operator of Vertiport technology for advanced air mobility.
Skyports Infrastructure and Dubai's Highways and Transport Authority are now considering four initial locations, with the DXB vertiport being one of them (RTA). The locations are envisioned as part of an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) infrastructure network that will link Dubai's most populated and well-known places and offer high-speed, zero-emission transportation. The RTA's Dubai Metro network and Dubai International Airport are just two existing transportation hubs with which the vertiport network will interact. By 2026, the RTA and Skyports Infrastructure intend to have a network of vertiports ready for use for air taxi services.
Foro Internacional de Tokio, Japón. Imagen de kazuhiro. Image via Shutterstock
Addressing diverse scales, users, and themes, Rafael Viñoly has been involved in numerous architectural projects ranging from museums and educational facilities to airports and skyscrapers. Beyond the economic, geographic, technological, social, or cultural variables he has faced, the wide range of works he has left us as a legacy is the fruit of a trajectory that we propose to go through from his beginnings in the profession to his most controversial and most recent projects.
Terra Building, Villa Devoto, Buenos Aires, Argentina . Image Courtesy of - Roberto Scaia arquitecto & asoc.
Over the past years, collective living has become a solution many city dwellers turn to. It is usually a stand-alone structure or a group of buildings that include both individual, private dwellings and common areas. Their main use is residential and they are often located in the center of the city, giving residents full access to a wide range of services. In today’s economy, many people prefer living in collective housing schemes where maintenance of the common areas is taken care of, while also having their individual spaces.
This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights visionary collective housing schemes submitted by the ArchDaily community. From a housing complex in Zurich that explores the boundaries of privacy, a pre-sale property development situated in the “Garden City of Buenos Aires,” and a suburban residence in Athens, this round-up of unbuilt projects highlights how architects are moving forward from conventional residential architecture, pushing the boundary of community, collaboration, and participation.
A minimal lighting framework for an open plan living space, Outline Ambient hosts a strategic combination of pendants and projectors. Image Courtesy of Reggiani
We are living in an era of active interiors where shifting perimeters, flexible set ups and agile activities are truly testing the limits of design; workspaces are hybrid, retail installations are ever-evolving and cultural spaces are multi-dimensional. Amidst changing scenarios, lighting is key to shaping interior spaces with just the right amount of mood, drama or practical spotlighting. To meet the demands of these cutting-edge interiors, lighting today must provide a solid framework that can embrace both changing dynamics and high quality consistency – offering flexibility, precision control and a timeless aesthetic.
Rising to the challenge is Reggiani's new lighting system ‘Outline’, designed for adaptability with minimalism, modularity and customisation. The system features an ultra-slim track available in linear and curved segments, ready to be tailored into endless freeform or geometric configurations. To this base, a choice of projectors, pendants and linear LED lighting fixtures can be added, so designers can model the experience and intensity of light with absolute control across spaces – from showrooms and warehouses to hospitality and retail.
Much has happened since countries met in Paris in 2015 and established an agreement to combat climate change. To date, more than 196 countries have ratified or otherwise joined the Paris Climate Agreement, representing more than 96% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Alongside this, 57 countries—including the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, and Mexico—have also developed long-term plans to decarbonize their economies.
https://www.archdaily.com/1136273/the-trajectory-of-the-10-largest-carbon-emitters-since-the-paris-agreementJohannes Friedrich, Mengpin Ge e Andrew Pickens
One of the most important factors when designing is the specific climate of the site. This can be a difficulty when dealing with extreme climates and it is necessary to use insulating materials that adapt to the changing conditions. However, when talking about Mexico and its particular climate this works in the architects' favor allowing them to create microclimates and spaces that blur the transition of what turns out to be indoors and outdoors.
The first image that comes to mind when we think of an office is a place with a table and chair. But it was not always the case. In the Middle Ages, monasteries were the main places for study and knowledge, with private rooms designed to help monks concentrate when researching. However, records state that such spaces were uncomfortable since scholars remained standing most of the time.
