Following an exciting week of nominations, ArchDaily’s readers have evaluated over 800 projects and selected 10 finalists of the Building of the Year Award. Over 20,000 architects and enthusiasts participated in the nomination process, choosing projects that exemplify what it means to push architecture forward. These finalists are the buildings that have inspired ArchDaily readers the most.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused an estimated 900 million people around the world to remain at home. Among them are architects and designers who have been asked to work remotely to prevent the virus from spreading through the workplace. For many architects, this is undoubtedly a new territory. However, for ArchDaily, it is not, and we can assure you that it is possible not only to work from home, but to use this time to greatly enhance your skills, knowledge, and development as an architect.
Over the past few decades, interior spaces have become increasingly open and versatile. From the thick walls and multiple subdivisions of Palladian villas, for example, to today's free-standing and multi-functional plans, architecture attempts to combat obsolescence by providing consistently efficient environments for everyday life, considering both present and future use. And while Palladio's old villas can still accommodate a wide variety of functions and lifestyles, re-adapting their use without changing an inch of their original design, today, flexibility seems to be the recipe for extending the useful life of buildings as far as possible.
How, then, can we design spaces neutral and flexible enough to adapt to the evolving human being, while still accomplishing the needs that each person requires today? An ancient element could help redefine the way we conceive and inhabit space: curtains.
Since the beginning of modernism, countless architects have expressed their architectural theories and concepts through the design of residential interiors. In Vanna Venturi House, Venturi exaggerated the scale of internal components to create a counterbalance to the small house, expressing complexity and contradiction. In Villa Mairea, Alvar Aalto built an ‘imperfect’ home, as a way of rebelling against the strict aesthetic standards of functionalism.
Conceptual and theoretical experimentation of housing interiors in China has had a delayed start due to political influences and differing pace of development. While the birth of communism lead to standardisation, rapid urbanisation and economic rebirth has provided the perfect catalyst for architects to challenge the status quo and conceptualise new definitions of interior and living.
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When architecture has been evolving within the context of “Chinese characteristics”, Shanghai as one of the national creative centers provides us with a glimpse of the transformations and the prospects of Chinese contemporary architecture. Based in Shanghai, architect Liu Yuyang, who was born in Taiwan and grew up in America, has conceived his personal architectural approach with the multicultural background and shared his visions with others by a number of built projects. In the following excerpt from a conversation between Liu Yuyang and the author, he talks about his design philosophy, origins of the practice, the attitude to the profession, and more.
China seems to be at the peak of a refurbishment fever. Not only hutongs in historic downtowns, but abandoned industrial factories are becoming new tech or cultural hubs, and even buildings in the risk of collapse are refurbished to extend their lifespan. Why is this happening? Who is investing? How could this happen in a country where you cannot buy properties?
In this edition of Editor's Talk, our editors from ArchDaily China share their thoughts on how in a fast-paced development process, such as the one China is going through, there is a refurbishment fever in its biggest cities.
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I Am Interested in Seeing the Future is an architectural exhibition, that, contrary to what you might expect, includes no models and no drawings. Instead, as soon as visitors arrive, they find themselves surrounded by text. The wall facing the entrance is covered by an installation of single words on posters, interview transcripts on colored paper, and mirrors that reflect the sentences on flimsy scrolls arcing down from the ceiling.
_%E5%B8%98%E5%B8%83%E5%9B%B4%E5%90%88%E7%91%9C%E4%BC%BD%E7%A9%BA%E9%97%B4.jpg?1576428895 "Yoga Space. Image © Fangfang Tian")
_%E7%91%9C%E4%BC%BD%E4%BA%AD%E5%8F%8A%E5%91%A8%E8%BE%B9%E7%94%9F%E6%80%81(1).jpg?1576428660 "Yoga Pavilion Nature . Image © Fangfang Tian")
.jpg?1571558638 "© Schran Images")
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.jpg?1560085099 "© Shengliang Su")
.jpg?1560085217 "© Tianzhou Yang")
.jpg?1560085172 "© Tianzhou Yang")
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