Architecture: The Latest Architecture and News

March 9 marks the birthday of one of the most important Mexican architects worldwide. A pioneer of the Modern Movement in Mexico whose work has transcended geographical limits to be studied by different generations of architects who have rewritten his teaching to make it their own. Every year, this date represents the perfect excuse to rethink Barragan's legacy to architecture not only in Mexico but also in the world, and different projects have been carried out with this intention, awakening the interest of new generations. However, until a few years ago, the record of the architect's work was not very accessible since more than 50% of the projects he built remained anonymous due to the lack of a proper archive of his work.

These days, the architecture industry cannot disregard how significant the challenge of sustainability has become. One strategy for achieving sustainable development is a circular economy, based on a sustainable life cycle. This strategy minimizes resource usage and extends the useful life of buildings from a design perspective. Moreover, another challenge is how to increase the usability of the building itself, in addition to how we've incorporated building disassembly into the cycle. This requires that designers take the future into account when making design decisions, integrating the requirements of the present with the potential outcomes of what has not yet happened.

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

There’s no shortage of slippery slopes in the architectural lexicon: “architectural” and “architectonic” hover near the top of the list. Problems invariably arise when the modifier supplants the modified. This happens more than you’d think, especially of late. A wholly separate issue arises when owing partly to a linguistic slight of tongue, architecture is understood as something distinct from the building, eschewing physical inhabitation. 

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced that Professor Yasmeen Lari, Pakistan’s first female architect, will receive the 2023 Royal Gold Medal for architecture. The award, one of the highest honors for architecture and the first to be personally approved by King Charles III, recognizes Yasmeen Lari’s work in championing zero-carbon self-build concepts for displaced populations. The Royal Gold Metal will be officially presented to Yasmeen Lari in June 2023.

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Serving as an emblematic construction for Copenhagen’s World Capital of Architecture and UIA World Congress of Architects, the Sustainable Development Goals Pavilions in Copenhagen, Denmark, will begin appearing this spring and summer, exploring how architects can respond to the UN’s development goals. Questioning future construction, in relation to one or more of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals, architects, engineers, material producers, science institutions, associations, and foundations collaborated to create each one of the different structures. The SDG Pavilions were created by numerous Danish architecture studios, including Schmidt Hammer Lassen, EFFEKT, Architects Without Borders Denmark, ReVaerk, LOKAL, Leth & Gori, Rnnow Architects, GXN, FORMA, Terroir, AART, Mangor & Nagel, NOAA Architects, Studio Coquille, Tan & Blixenkrone, ATENASTUDIO, and MAST.

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"I am tolerant. But I revolt. I accuse. It is my obligation. I am alone. Behind me there's no dictatorship, no party, no group, nor any mafia — neither a collective intellectual scheme nor an ideology. The green revolution is not a political revolution. The base sustains it and is neither minority nor elitist. It is a creative evolution in harmony with nature and the universe's organic course."

The above paragraph was said in the mid-20th century by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian artist, and architect born in 1928. Hundertwasser marked architecture history with his distinct style of irregular and vibrant forms. His projects were a manifesto against rational and repetitive architecture. In them, there was a right to intervene in windows, irregular floors, green roofs, and spontaneous vegetation. As an architect, he always put diversity before monotony, believing in the right of each individual to modify their home and express their creativity. Above all, Hundertwasser believed in the importance of man's identification with nature and the world around him, addressing concepts related to community life and respect for the environment.

On April 6, SPACE10 will introduce a global design competition to reimagine home — using AI. Over the past year, generative AI tools have enhanced imaginative and creative capabilities, allowing millions of people to visualise worlds beyond those we ever thought possible. In a first of its kind competition, SPACE10 challenges participants to apply new AI tools to future homes and cities. Regenerative Futures is part competition, part open-source research, and open to everyone. The competition encourages play and imagination to create visual concepts of future homes, communities, and cities that help address some of the biggest challenges facing everyday life.

Providing an overview of the profession and discipline of architecture can be a complex task given the diversity of people's backgrounds, personal interests, and experimentation techniques. Therefore, many processes related to architecture are based on speculation and innovation, taking the initiative to reimagine established limits. Architecture schools, such as École des Beaux-Arts, Vkhutemas, and Paulista School, were progressive schools of their time that developed their style led by experimental and curious minds. Thanks to these experimental processes, each developed its architectural style, characterized by factors such as philosophy, location, and the era in which the school was born.

Since its creation in Santa Monica in 1972, the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) has been a world-renowned center of innovation and one of the few independent schools of architecture in the United States. It excels in challenging its students through various programs to stretch their imaginations by experimenting with non-traditional materials and approaches. Through the renowned Making+Meaning program, SCI-Arc provides an immersive introduction to students and creative professionals from diverse disciplines, who have the opportunity to explore the field of design and emphasize the fundamentals of experimentation and architecture. The return to face-to-face teaching this year infuses new energy into the program for both students and instructors, given the value of collaborating in a physical space for the development of studio-based projects.

UNStudio has been commissioned to create a human-centric mixed-use destination on the waterfront of Nanjing, China. Developed by K.Wah Group, the new complex aims to enhance the working-living environment for the local community while contributing as a hub for culture and finance. The project, set along the central axis of the Hexi New District, introduces high-rise office towers, commercial and cultural functions, two serviced apartment buildings, a headquarters tower, a hotel, and various public amenities.

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Kengo Kuma and Associates have just been awarded second place in an architecture competition to design the expansion and renovation of the Egyptian Museum in Torino, Italy. It served for many decades as the primary civic space in Turin, with its public areas closed off from the rest of the city. Kengo Kuma’s proposal aims to recreate the public plaza, a city center covered by a thin glass canopy. Founded in 1824 and is the oldest museum for Ancient Egyptian culture, the Egyptian Museum in Torino held a competition earlier this year and received entries by Pininfarina Architecture, Carlo Ratti Associati, and Snøhetta. The winning project by OMA / David Gianotten and Andreas Karavanas will transform the museum into a cultural space, creating one covered courtyard and a series of connected urban rooms within the existing settlement.

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What role does landscaping play in contemporary housing? In what ways can architecture and landscaping be integrated into a whole? Considering the incorporation of landscaping from the beginning of the architectural project has become a defining aspect and even a challenge for many architects, aiming to improve the quality of life of their inhabitants and contribute to the protection and care of the environment.

On numerous occasions and within the Latin American setting, nature appears as a protagonist or founding principle of the proposed architectural design, involving reasons related to promoting the relationship with the surrounding environment, incorporating native species of the site, and enhancing the connection between the interior and exterior, among others. Although there are different ways of planning, organizing, and arranging the layout of environments in contemporary housing, the dialogue between architecture and landscape can collaborate with the uses, activities, and circulations determined based on the needs to be met or the users to be accommodated.

Throughout the past decade, human civilization has become so ‘woke’ we’ve administered a new word for it. And while this new-found wokeness derives from the quest to spotlight the inherent, yet previously ignored by many, racial social, and political injustices and behaviors in our lives during the early #blacklivesmatter movement, in more recent times it has come to stand for the calling out of all categories of injustice.

The purpose of architecture, as the ArchDaily Guide to Good Architecture states, is to ‘give form to the places we live.’ The book’s first chapter, ‘Good Architecture is Considerate’, suggests in order to improve the quality of life provided by human-designed spaces, we need to employ a human and empathetic approach.

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“Economic shocks, climate change, and COVID-19 have changed transportation systems in a fundamental way. We can’t waste a crisis. We can increase access to transportation while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We can achieve more mobility with fewer impacts,” argued Ani Dasgupta, president of the World Resources Institute (WRI), at the 20th annual Transforming Transportation conference. For two days, global leaders reflected on the state of transportation systems worldwide at the hybrid event in Washington, D.C., which was also watched by tens of thousands online. The event was co-organized by WRI and the World Bank.

Transportation still accounts for 25 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and up to 30 percent of emissions in developed countries. Transportation is a diverse sector that includes sidewalks, bikes, cars, buses, trains, subways, ships, and planes.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill have been selected to design the New York Climate Exchange in partnership with Stony Brook University, a public research institute in New York. The new net-zero campus, located on Governors Island, New York, is planned to serve as an anchor institution for the development of new climate solutions. As a first-of-its-kind international center, “The Exchange” will also act as a regional hub for the green economy.

Several factors influence the architecture of contemporary stores, including the evolution of retail, changes in consumer expectations, and the rise of e-commerce. Creating the physical space of a brand is an opportunity to offer an experience that conveys the values and image that the brand wishes to be associated with.

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Brutalist Paris by Nigel Green and Robin Wilson is a book that expands upon their previous collaborative effort, the Brutalist Paris Map (2017). The text's insightful critique and sharp photography provide a detailed examination of Brutalism's historical, political, and cultural significance, with a particular emphasis on its innovative communal design. Through a meticulous analysis of the public spaces of the selected buildings, including their orientation, materials, and facades, Green and Wilson revisit the movement's legacy and its contribution to the field of architecture.