Architecture News: The Latest Architecture and News

Foster + Partners has broken ground on the new headquarters for Ferring Pharmaceuticals A/S in Copenhagen, Denmark. Located on the urban fringe of Copenhagen in Kastrup, the 39,000-square-meter project occupies a waterfront site along the Øresund crossing between Copenhagen and Malmö near the Copenhagen International Airport.

With this location and neighborhood of predominantly low-rise development, the new company offices will feature expansive views towards Malmö and the Swedish coast, where the company was founded.

Form4 Architecture’s project, Innovation Curve Technology Park, has been honored by the Green Good Design Awards presented by The European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design, and Urban Studies, in collaboration with The Chicago Athenaeum’s Museum for Architecture and Design.

The project, which recently broke ground in Palo Alto, California, “celebrates the creative process of invention” through its sweeping metal curves, which represent the highs and lows of exploratory research and development. The tall, two-story curves “rise to represent the crescendo of the creative spark and pragmatic analysis of ideas, and descend to transition into long, horizontal bands symbolizing the implementation phase of invention.”

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Instagram photo by Christopher Beckman * Aug 21, 2016 at 9:33pm UTC

Almost four months after going up in flames, the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava has begun the process of rebuilding in the Flatiron district of New York. On the night of May 1, a four-alarm fire blazed through the 1851 building by Richard Upjohn, burning the majority of the church.

In the time since the fire—which was caused accidentally by improperly extinguished candles—church officials have been working with city government agencies and have determined that the addition of metal beams and other small reinforcements will be sufficient to salvage the remaining structure of the church.

William McDonough + Partners and GXN together with 3XN Architects, BCVA and Urland have teamed up to develop a master plan for the Agro Food Park (AFP), a hub for agricultural innovation near Aarhus, Denmark. Aiming to serve as a benchmark for future global food industry development, the project will combine urban density with agricultural test fields in a collaboration of academic and commercial business.

Over the next 30 years, the current AFP—which was opened in 2009 and spans 44,000 square meters with nearly 1,000 employees—will expand by an additional 280,000 square meters.

We are privileged to have been chosen by GXN to collaborate on what will become an entrepreneurial ecosystem for addressing the future of food and plant resources, said William McDonough, founder of William McDonough + Partners and co-author of the text, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

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MOB Architects’ project Liaisons has been shortlisted for the 2016 World Architecture Festival in the Future Projects \ Residential category and has won the Residential category for the 2016 AR MIPIM Future Projects Awards.

Designed for the MOLEWA (Mount Lu World of Architecture) competition, Liaisons is a residential project in Ruichang, China near the “Flower Ocean Garden,” one of the world’s largest flower theme parks.

Inspired by the concept of blooming, the project centers on introducing a flourishing essence to the neighborhood by analyzing floral and vegetal properties in pixels and converting them into patterns, which are applied in arrangements and spatial organization principles.

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Studio Gang has been selected to design next year’s installation of the Summer Block Party at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. The temporary exhibition will be the latest in the Museum’s annual series, after this year’s ICEBERGS by James Corner Field Operations, and previous installations like Snarkitecture’s The BEACH in 2015, and Bjarke Ingels Group’s BIG Maze in 2014.

Maison Edouard François, in partnership with ABC Architectes, has won the competition for the requalification of the former Ray Stadium into housing, landscaped gardens, shops, sports facilities, and parking, beating other competing firms like Herzog & de Meuron and Rudy Riciotti.

Located in Nice, France, the project aims to provide its swiftly growing neighborhood with a “new green lung” by mimicking the form of a vegetated hill and incorporating elements of classic Niçois architecture like white stone and wood. The reinvented stadium becomes a bridge between the urban and natural landscapes, linking new constructions of the Boulevard Gorbella with the new Ray Park.

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TREDJE NATUR, AART Architects, and Arup have teamed up for a competition proposal to redesign Kronløbsøen, an island development marking the transition between port and city in Nordhavn, Copenhagen. Composed of 30,000 square meters of housing, six water-rooms, a houseboat colony, harbor bath, and multi-story underwater parking, the project aims to create an island celebrating all aspects of harbor life.

Taking into account the local port’s spirit, scale, material palette, and history, Kronløbsøen is “composed of eight porous monoliths shaped by physical connections, visibility, and microclimate, creating the optimal conditions for housing and urban life.” 

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Videos

New-York-based Big Foot Developers have unveiled speculative designs for The Floating Restaurant, a glass cube restaurant that could hang between two smokestacks at the historic Glenwood power plant over the Hudson River in the Yonkers neighborhood of New York City.

With forest on the riverbank, the water below, and green space inside the restaurant, the project aims to blend architecture and nature while having a minimal impact on the view of the site.

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From the skyline of the Financial District, to the Flatiron Building, Grand Central Station, the Brooklyn Bridge, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Kyoung Sop Choi from Jansoli Photography has captured New York City in spectacular 8K high-definition resolution. During a winter trip to the City, Choi filmed streets, buildings, and pedestrians in a series of time-lapses to express the colors of New York. Experience the bustle and vibrancy of the city by watching the video, above.

The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) has released the 2016 edition of its NCARB by the Numbers, an annual publication that provides insights into the number of U.S. architects, the pools of professionals working towards licensure, and diversity within the profession.

With recent streamlining and increased flexibility of architectural licensing programs, the time it takes to earn a license has decreased for the seventh year in a row, and the average age of licensure has concurrently dropped. On average, it takes just over 13 years to become an architect, from the time a student enrolls in school to the date they receive a license.

Videos

From architectural lectures to coverage of local projects and events, The Architectural League of New York presents a wide range of topics through its video series to further its goal of advancing the art of architecture. Through this presentation of some of the world’s most interesting and influential architects, designers, and works, The Architectural League draws international audiences to help shape the future of the build environment by stimulating discussion and provoking design-based thinking.

Watch some of The Architectural League’s videos—like a lecture by Annabelle Selldorf or Bjarke Ingels, documentation of a miniature library installation, or a musical heart sculpture in Times Square—after the break.

Tsao & McKown has designed the masterplan for a residential community outside of Taipei, with contributing designs from Annabelle Selldorf, Richard Meier, and Steven Harris, as well as landscaping by Margie Ruddick.

Named The Master Collection, the project will consist of 28 private residences in the Great Taipei New Town District.

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Form4 Architecture has won first place at the International Design Awards for its project, Sea Song, which additionally was honored by the Green Good Design Awards presented by The European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design, and Urban Studies, in collaboration with The Chicago Athenaeum’s Museum for Architecture and Design.

Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter and Dualchas Architects have unveiled their plans for the St Kilda Visitor Center, which will be located on a cliff-top site at Geodha Sgoilt in the Uig area of the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Through the project, visitors will be able to experience the drama of St Kilda without physically visiting the famous archipelago, which lies over 50 miles to the southwest.

A triple world heritage site, St Kilda is famous not only for its sea cliffs and marine life but more for the story of how a community survived at the remote location before being evacuated in 1930.

By telling the story of this abandoned community, the current community of Uig hopes to catalyze economic development and reverse the population decline they have been suffering.

Aedas has unveiled the plans for its Chongqing Xinhua Bookstore Group Jiefangbei Book City mixed-use project, a complex of retail, residential, office, and hotel space with a Xinhua Bookstore at its core. Based on an ancient Chinese prose that states “knowledge brings wealth,” the project aims to integrate the concept of a book with the cultural elements of Chongqing to create an interactive commercial space.

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Videos

Visiting Wortham Fellow at the Rice School of Architecture Michelle Chang has created A,B 1:2, a twisted “half house” installation in the university’s jury room. Built at a half scale, the project superimposes and bisects two simple cubes, playing with light and shade through skewed windows in order to demonstrate how architects and artists think about space, as well as how drawings and renderings translate into physical constructions.

Clark Nexsen has won the international Activate Urban Housing Design Competition with its proposal for an urban dwelling on South Mint Street in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. The design, entitled Mint, focuses on connectivity and neighborhood and includes residential, retail, and open green spaces.

Conceived as a catalyst for a culinary district, Mint aims to create a new urban living and working space, in which the connectivity of food-centered entrepreneurial enterprises fosters a sense of community.