Perkins&Will has been selected as one of the five finalists in the nationwide artistic ideas competition for the design of the new National Museum of the U.S. Navy. The other finalists are DLR Group, Frank Gehry Partners, Quinn Evans, and BIG. Organised by the Naval Heritage History and Command’s (NHHC), the competition’s aim is to create a modern museum for Naval veterans and the public, a new building and ceremonial courtyard to reflect the Navy’s values and legacy. The campus would consist of approximately 270,000 square feet, with 100,000 square feet of gallery space. The Navy’s preferred location for the museum is on a site adjacent to the Washington Navy Yard.
California High Speed Rail. Image Courtesy of Foster + Partners
Foster + Partners and Arup have chosen to work together to design the Merced, Fresno, Kings/Tulare, and Bakersfield stations that will service high-speed train passengers on the first 171-mile leg of California High-Speed train (CA HSR). The Central Valley stations will be the grand entrances to America's first high-speed rail stretch, marking an important step towards providing all Californians with sustainable, carbon-free transportation. Planning, architecture, and engineering for the four new stations, which will serve as design templates for stations planned for the whole 500-mile Los Angeles/Anaheim to San Francisco line, are being done jointly by Foster + Partners and Arup.
The California high-speed rail will connect the state's mega-regions, promote economic growth and a cleaner environment, foster job growth, and conserve agricultural and protected lands. With up to 200 mph speeds, the system can travel from San Francisco to the Los Angeles basin in less than three hours. The Authority is collaborating with regional partners to implement a state-wide rail modernization plan that will spend billions of dollars on local and regional rail lines.
In Spain, the implementation of integrated kitchens in homes has become increasingly common in contemporary architecture. Although there are various configurations and designs that are applied according to the customs and cultures of societies, as we saw in Argentina or Uruguay, the essence of conceiving the kitchen space as a hub of activities and a gathering space among its inhabitants and visitors is a common factor. This has led architects to try to find innovative ways, technologies, or materials that achieve an aesthetic and harmony capable of providing functionality, spaciousness, and flexibility to homes.
Christophe Levy, Scientific Director at Holcim and Lord Norman Foster. Image Courtesy of Holcim & Norman Foster Foundation
During the 2023 Architectural Biennale in Venice, Holcim and the Norman Foster Foundation will announce the start of their Essential Houses Research Project. Through this collaboration, the Norman Foster Foundation created necessary housing to give displaced communities safety, comfort, and welfare while allowing them to live in temporary settlements for over 20 years. To make sustainable buildings accessible to everyone, Holcim constructed these necessary homes using various green products, such as Elevate Insulation Boards and ECOPact low-carbon concrete.
When it comes to forward-thinking interior design, adaptability, and timelessness are two key factors that can guarantee a home will look just as current years from now as it does today. One interior style that makes use of them more than any other is: contemporary. By borrowing elements from several prominent styles and combining them into a harmonic whole, contemporary interiors stay current even as trends move on. But what are the components that remain constant even with this ever-changing fashion? We explore seven evergreen design elements that define contemporary interiors.
Library of Muyinga. Image Courtesy of BC Architects
Nowadays, the understanding of our building culture and the application of local construction methods may seem like a distant and obsolete concept given the role of industrialization and globalization in the construction industry. We can now obtain almost any material from around the globe just by searching the internet for a distributor in our region. But this practice has important implications for our society, from the loss of architectural identity to environmental costs related to high CO₂ emissions associated with the processes of extraction, manufacturing, transportation, and disposal of these materials.
The increasing global need to reduce our carbon emissions and use materials in more efficient ways has led us to research and learn about the origin of our region's resources, eventually leading to better understanding their applications within a circular economy approach. But why not look right under our feet? Soil is one of the most common materials on the planet, and when it is locally sourced, it does not generate considerable amounts of embodied CO₂. It seems that after industrialization, we have forgotten that building with earth was for many years a viable construction method for our ancestors in different parts of the world. We spoke with Nicolas Coeckelberghs, one of the four founders of BC Materials, a worker cooperative based in Brussels that has been working with earth, rediscovering its use, and sharing its knowledge on a global scale while working with a local conscience.
https://www.archdaily.com/999074/building-with-waste-transforming-excavated-earth-into-architectureEnrique Tovar
The Coachella Valley Music Festival, an annual music and arts festival held in the Colorado desert, opened on April 14th, 2023. Over the two weekends, April 14–16 and April 21–23, 2023, four emerging designers and artists worldwide will leave their stamp on the famous landscape. The festival will feature art installations made by a total of nine international designers, artists, and collectives. The newly-commissioned sculptural works by Kumkum Fernando, Vincent Leroy, Güvenç Özel, and Maggie West lend color, light, and alternate perspectives to the charged atmosphere and act as fresh, colorful, and architectural beacons that transform the iconic Coachella landscape at various times of day and night.
Art Deco is an artistic and design style that emerged in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, reaching its peak in the 1920s and 1930s. Although it's difficult to identify a single origin for Art Deco, it's believed that the style developed as a reaction against the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements, which emphasized craftsmanship and naturalistic ornamentation. The style quickly spread throughout the world and had a major influence on architecture, interior design, fashion, and visual arts during the first half of the 20th century.
Mar del Plata is an obligatory reference to the Argentine modern movement. At the same time, it is the setting for many architectural classics that have been victims of neglect for years.
Magalí Marazzo, director of the municipality's Department of Works and Urban Planning and member of the National Monuments Commission, has taken charge of the situation by completing the restoration project of a paradigmatic work of 20th-century architecture: The House on the River.
MVRDV has joined the Van Gogh Homeland Foundation to develop the first Van Gogh Homeland Biennale to bring awareness to the challenges faced by the Brabant region. At the initiative of Midpoint Brabant, the experience strives to combine knowledge of architecture, landscape design, and sustainability to reignite enthusiasm for the Brabant landscape, Vincent van Gogh;s native Dutch province. According to the organisers, the region is facing a number of threats, including the increasing number of floods and the limited availability of space, but, through an orchestrated effort, the landscape that inspired van Gogh 150 years ago can become more sustainable and greener in the future.
Kagi Maldives Spa Island / Yuji Yamazaki Architecture. Image Cortesía de Kagi Maldives Spa Island
The Maldives is a sovereign island country located in the Indian Ocean, organized into 26 atolls. It comprises 1,200 islands of which 203 are inhabited; it is located 450 km from India and is considered a micro-state since its extension is only 298 square kilometers. Its capital and most populated city is Malé, with a population of 103,693 inhabitants. It has a tropical and humid climate and is the least populated country in Asia. The archipelago is composed of about 1,190 coral islands grouped in a double chain of 26 atolls, following a north-south direction, occupying an area of about 90,000km, making it one of the most dispersed countries in the world.
Residential architecture in India is a direct reflection of the ethnic practices and lifestyles led by its diverse citizens. The earliest houses were developed as units of larger community-centric settlements. The architecture of Indian residences is deeply enmeshed with cultural values - usually centering on the ideas of family and community relationships. A single home often shelters a large joint family and meets the needs of various age groups under one roof. Multigenerational living demands a unique spatial syntax to foster connections.
One of the most common decorative objects in projects, mirrors have existed since the Badarian civilization, around 4,000 BC. With several transformations in its material and manufacture, the mirror is a decorative object and can also serve as a design strategy.
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) was selected as one of the finalists in the Naval Heritage History and Command’s (NHHC) competition for the design of the new National Museum of the U.S. Navy. The competition’s aim is to create a publicly accessible modern museum for Naval veterans and the public, a memorial to the U.S. Navy’s heritage, and a center for education and cultural events. The other finalists are DLR Group, Frank Gehry Partners, Quinn Evans, and Perkins&Will.
MVRDV has revealed its design for the extensive renovation project of the Theater Koblenz, in Germany. The project includes an interior redesign and a significant backstage element makeover. The proposal, which operates within the confines of the existing structure, balances the many requirements of the brief: history preservation is taken into account alongside essential technical improvements and roof rehabilitation. Additionally, the operations building's façade on Clemensstraße will be renovated to give this backstage entrance a contemporary, expressive appearance that emphasizes its inclusion in the theater complex, clearly separating it from the building's original guest entrance. The repair preserved a significant portion of the structure for future use and used biodegradable materials as much as feasible to reduce carbon emissions.
How narrow can a space become without losing its habitability? What are the minimum dimensions that a dwelling must have to ensure the comfort of its inhabitants and the correct performance of their daily activities?
The city block is a typically urban element that, historically, has appeared in different forms and designs, structurally shaping city planning guidelines. When observing urban fabrics in cities such as Barcelona, Paris and Copenhagen, one can see significant variation between block models. This defines their landscapes and dynamics in countless ways. Style and format alterations, volumetric changes in the relationship between full and empty spaces, and modifications in connections to the surroundings are some examples of typological particularities that differentiate them. Blocks, therefore, are often emblematic and representative not only of certain urban planning models developed throughout history but also of their cities.
Cities need to prepare for a wave of declining houses of worship. While faith institutions, at least the Christian ones, have been asking WWJD (What would Jesus do?), municipalities need to get them to ask another question: WWJJD (What would Jane Jacobs do?). Doing so might lead to a new model for true community houses of worship.
