Yucatán is a state located in the southeastern part of Mexico on what is known as the Yucatán Peninsula, bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, Quintana Roo, and Campeche. Within this state, there are 4 magical towns: Izamal, Maní, Sisal, and Valladolid. The architecture of this region is a blend of indigenous, Hispanic, Mexican, French, Italian, and American influences.
Last summer, Spain promoted cleaner transportation by offering free seasonal tickets for suburban and regional trains, which translated into roughly 48 million journeys per month. The initiative hoped to help citizens reduce fuel consumption and reduce the cost of living during the economic uncertainties and rising energy prices. In the summer of 2022, a 30% discount for municipal public transport was announced, with local governments in places like Catalonia topping up to a 60% discount. The program ran between the 1st of September and the 31st of December of last year.
The concept of a city can be viewed as a constantly evolving system where both architects and users contribute to its design and redesign. While its framework may start with planners or designers, the character of the urban fabric is ultimately shaped by the societies and generations that inhabit it. The question of "city authorship" often arises in the context of masterplan design. Can architects and urban planners determine the extent to which a city will evolve through its initial design? The answer is no. User authorship then acknowledges that city planning should not be approached like building design, where designers attempt to predict every aspect of shape, pattern, behavior, and culture. Instead, it recognizes the role that people play in shaping the urban fabric through their personal taste in architecture, the development of neighborhood personality, and ongoing redesign that contributes to the story and spirit of a place. These factors should be considered in the initial design by engaging ideas related to future expansion, adaptable infrastructure, and empowering citizens to contribute to the city's architecture, thus making the city design democratic. This article explores conceptual radical cities where designers embrace the ideas of user authorship and the constant evolution of ephemeral architecture.
On April 15, 2019, a devastating fire occurred at the infamous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. The fire caused significant damage to the historic structure, which is a landmark in the city and a symbol of French Gothic architecture. The cathedral has been undergoing restoration works and is on course to reopen to the public in 2024. Throughout the process of restoration, its interior cleaning methodologies were debated, its carpentry was entirely replaced by medieval-skilled timber craftsmen, and the completion date for the cathedral is still on track for December 2024.
The use of pigmented concrete in Latin American architecture is growing - and influencing contemporary architectural expression. This can be seen in recent built works ranging from the INES Innovation Center designed by Pezo von Ellrichshausen in Chile to the Teotitlán del Valle Community Cultural Center by PRODUCTORA in Mexico.
Iwona Blazwick has been appointed as the Curator of the 18th Istanbul Biennial, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Art (iKSV). The Biennial will occur in 2024, from 14 September until 17 November. The Istanbul Biennial is the most comprehensive international exhibition organized in Türkiye and the region, playing an essential role in promoting contemporary artists and artist collectives.
Iwona Blazwich OBE is a curator, writer, and art historian. She held the position of Director at the Whitechapel Gallery in London from 2001 to 2022 and previously worked with many renowned institutions in her practice. Currently, she is the curator for the Royal Commission’s Arts AlUla initiative in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, Blazwhich’s career as an independent curator ranges from exhibitions and public art projects across Europe, the United States, Japan, and China.
Tourist facilities are a significant architectural program as they not only provide essential amenities for travelers but also encapsulate the cultural essence of a destination. Resorts and hotels experiment with ideas of comfort and leisure, restaurants bring visitors into the local culinary culture, while wineries merge craftsmanship, tradition, and modernity. Visitor centers are another facility often provided for travelers, serving as gateways to exploring the city. Besides their flexible program, these architectural interventions most often strive to relate and harmonize with the local context to enrich the narrative of the space and create a memorable experience for every visitor.
This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community that showcase various amenities dedicated to tourists, from wine cellars, specialty restaurants, and visitor centers to isolated camping sites in the mountains or lavish spa hotels in the arid areas of the Middle East. Featuring projects from emerging and established architectural offices such as Melike Altınışık Architects, Lockhart Krause Architects, MUA, and OMBI Innovation Lab the selection includes a wide range of programs and scales, showcasing designs that rethink conventional tourist facilities while establishing a connection with their surroundings and cultural context.
Amidst the current wave of architectural globalization, the art of crafting designs attuned to specific contexts is fading. This concern is especially significant in countries in crisis, such as Ukraine, where the built environment's history is being eroded by war. In these conditions, the contribution of local architects with an innate grasp of the country's cultural nuances becomes imperative. Leading the charge in the rebuilding of Ukraine is prototype, a pioneering practice that challenges architectural conventions to push the country towards a promising future.
Recognizing their forward-looking vision, ArchDaily has featured prototype as part of the 2023 New Practices, a global annual survey. prototype's outlook on the future of architecture aligns with responsible design that addresses the environmental impact of construction and marries contextual and specific considerations for each project. Their recent accomplishments include the bookstore Readellion, and Ukrainian-Danish Youth House, epitomizing prototype's recurring design principles of mobility, adaptability, dynamic levels, and change of scenarios.
Contrary to popular belief, Roman buildings were not as monochrome as previously thought. Recent discoveries indicate that statues and structures were, in fact, richly adorned with bright colors and exuberant decorations, following the tradition established by their Greek predecessors. This may be surprising, but it shows the presence of color in architecture much earlier than imagined. Color has always played a significant role in shaping the perception and experience of a space, and was prominent in the works of seminal architects such as Le Corbusier and Luis Barragán, for example. Another master of the use of color was Michael Wilford, who, together with his former partner James Stirling gained international recognition with notable public buildings, art centers, museums, and libraries located worldwide. The volumes present in Wilford's architecture are often remembered for their careful use of color, which highlights certain elements and adds other dimensions to the structures.
Construction has just begun on Snøhetta’s Charlotte Mecklenburg Library in North Carolina, USA. The new project is designed to become a significant destination in Uptown Charlotte. Last week, the main library organized a commemoration to celebrate the beginning of the demolition phase on site in anticipation of the upcoming construction. It is set to open in the spring of 2026.
The Museum of Architecture and Design, Chicago Athenaeum, and the European Center for Architecture, Art, Design, and Urban Studies have just revealed the winning projects in their 2023 edition of the International Architecture Awards (IAA). Among these recognitions, the design by IDOM, Nikken Sekkei, and b720 for the Nou Camp Nou stands out.
Circles, as a fundamental geometric shape, possess a captivating and harmonious quality that has been seamlessly integrated into architecture and design across various eras and styles. From subtle accents to bold focal points, the use of circles in interior design transcends mere ornamentation, often symbolizing continuity, connection, and a soothing visual rhythm. With their endless and unbroken curves, they offer a sense of unity, movement, and balance that can transform spaces into inviting and aesthetically pleasing environments – an effect especially useful for interior design. In this article, we take a look at 27 projects from our ArchDaily database that illustrate circular forms in interiors across the globe.
“Our fellows have shown courage, written books, founded mission-driven non-profits, created new coalitions, and disseminated new tools,” said Cindy Sanders, FASLA, CEO of OLIN, in her introduction of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership program at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.
Sanders highlighted the results of a five-year assessment of the LAF fellowship program and its efforts to grow the next generation of diverse landscape architecture leaders. The assessment shows that past fellows are shaping the future of the built environment in key public, non-profit, and private sector roles.
There are several symbols that transcend language barriers and are easily recognized and understood by people from different cultures. Examples include the male and female bathroom icons, the cross symbolizing health, and the universal Wi-Fi symbol. Among these universal icons is the recycling symbol, conceived in 1971 by Gary Anderson, an architect and designer who was a student at the University of Southern California. Depicting a continuous cycle, it is a triangle with three arrows arranged clockwise, each of which represents the industry, consumers and recycling.
Central to the concept of the circular economy is the reintegration of materials typically viewed as waste back into the production cycle. This concept is particularly important for the construction industry, which has historically depended on the destruction and extraction of resources in order to exist. In this case, nothing is more symbolic than the brick, which not only represents the construction of new things, but is also the perfect example of how to apply the concept of circularity. Creative minds have embraced the challenge of circularity, devising solutions that transform discarded materials into high-value resources and generating a wide range of products, using raw waste materials that range from seaweed and plastics to human hair. These innovations not only address pressing environmental issues but essentially redefine the way we build and inhabit our spaces. In this article, we highlight seven initiatives that are turning waste into bricks.
During this year’s edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale, ArchDaily had the chance to discuss with Giacomo Ardesio and Claudia Mainardi of Fosbury Architecture, the curators of the Italian Pavilion together with Alessandro Bonizzoni, Nicola Campri and Veronica Caprino. The curatorial project, titled “Spaziale: Everyone Belongs to Everyone Else,” aims to provide a distinctive and original portrait of Italian architecture within the international context. The curators discussed the origins of their office, their sources of inspiration and the thinking behind the design decisions that led to the creation of the curatorial project for the Italian Pavilion.
Ten years ago, SPACE10 was born as a pioneering platform ushering in a novel approach to corporate innovation, consolidating itself for its ability to be open, democratic, driven by a playful purpose, and community-oriented. Composed of a small core team of around 23 people based in Copenhagen, their efforts have focused on combining the power of creativity, science, and technology to find solutions that address the accelerated climate crisis and social injustices.
As the fastest-growing metropolitan city in the Midwest region, Columbus is situated amidst Central Ohio’s exciting blend of infrastructure and natural landscape. Columbus and its surroundings are currently undergoing a significant phase of cultural expansion and anticipate a population surpassing 3 million by 2050. In collaboration with Columbus-based Moody Nolan, Gensler has just revealed their design for the new terminal at John Glenn Columbus International Airport in Ohio, a facility to grow the city and support it in reaching these goals of expansion.
Chilean architect Cazu Zegers has been chosen to design a memorial garden at the Red Cross headquarters. In the architect's own words, this project "aims to showcase the selfless efforts of those who have become martyrs of the Red Cross."
