Architecture: The Latest Architecture and News

Shape Tomorrow, a new exhibition at AEDES Architecture Forum in Berlin, is a reaction to both staid, self-serious architecture shows and to the staid, self-serious architecture profession. Taking the form of a miniature city, it turns buildings into named characters, encourages visitors to populate structures with miniature people, and leaves space for them to fill the room with their ideas and criticism.

The exhibition, on view through January 13, is the brainchild of German architect Matthias Hollwich, founder of New York-based HWKN—a burgeoning firm known for both its research and its sense of whimsy. The show centers on nine, 16-foot-tall white plaster towers whose glowing bases take on the forms of some of the firm’s playful, kinetic projects from around the world. These include 25 Kent, a fractured office building in Williamsburg, and Die Macherei, a jutting and terraced mixed-use business district in Munich.

KCAP Architects and Planners have unveiled the ZIL-South masterplan, a new residential district in Moscow built on the basis of a 15-minute city. The masterplan will be built on the largest brownfield area of the former ZIL industrial zone, and will feature more than 100 hectares of commercial and residential landmarks, public spaces, parks, landscapes, and interconnect routes alongside the Moskva River, all inspired by the area's pre-industrial past.

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Benthem Crouwel Architects reveals competition-winning design for the Valley, a new mixed-use development comprising housing, workspaces and retail in Prague. Featuring a rooftop landscape designed by Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners, and a network of diverse public spaces, the project introduces high density and varied programming while establishing a strong connection with the surrounding neighbourhood.

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A masterpiece is often defined as the most remarkable work in an artist's career, one which highlights the height of their techniques and ideals. The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci; Michelangelo's Pietá; the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. There are many examples, which are not always unanimously agreed upon. But what if what many consider to be the masterpiece was started by someone else, the credited creator didn't live to see its completion, and almost all of its documentation was destroyed? Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and his world-famous Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família are examples of these complications. From a highly crafted stone construction to the most modern 3D printing techniques and high strength concrete, numerous technologies were and continue to be incorporated in the project's construction.

The Mies van der Rohe foundation presents “Never Demolish” a temporary intervention by curators Ilka and Andreas Ruby that explores the “Transformation of 530 dwellings in the Grand Parc Bordeaux” project by the Pritzker laureates Lacaton & Vassal architects, Frédéric Druot Architecture, and Christophe Hutin Architecture. Running until December 16th, the pavilion is transformed into a domestic space that allows visitors to "deepen the debate on housing and the rehabilitation model of the large-scale blocks of the 60s and 70s".

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Nowadays, many architects have been looking for inspiration in traditional techniques, adapting them to more contemporary designs. In this sense, floors with rustic stone such as quartzite and sandstone are becoming more and more popular in residential architecture. Although this material was usually used for external areas, to build traditional stepping stone garden paths, for example, today it is also used in interiors, as an element that disrupts the hardness of rectilinear layouts and, in some cases, creates a connection between interior and exterior, which is something many professionals seek to achieve.

Videos

The historic lion house has long been a central element of Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo. When global architecture firm Goettsch Partners (GP) set out to renovate and expand the structure, the aim was to preserve the original building while increasing the usable area and creating a new spatial experience. The facility is home to a pride of four African lions, as well as Canada lynx, red pandas and snow leopards.

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Renovation projects are often perceived as being more limited and therefore less exciting. In this article, we present renovation projects with unexpected solutions that show that it is possible to be creative when adapting and reusing an existing space.

Renovation projects - also called retrofitting, refurbishing, remodeling - are becoming increasingly popular in the market and the practice of architecture, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Provencher_Roy’s new downtown hub for HEC Montréal has neared completion and is set to open in 2022. The business school's new center for entrepreneurship and research aims to strengthen the ties between the school and the city's business community, as well as promote innovative solutions through collaborative programs for students and professionals. The facility will feature theoretical and professional development courses, as well as interdisciplinary and collaborative spaces that tackle new fields in the industry like Artificial Intelligence.

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Videos

The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.

A variety of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes are interviews, while others are tips for fellow designers, reviews of buildings and other projects, or casual explorations of everyday life and design. The Second Studio is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

This week David and Marina are joined by Peter Gluck—Founder & Principal of GLUCK+, an architect-led design-build office—to discuss the decline of the profession of architecture, architects having less responsibility and knowledge in construction, contractors having more design authority, the negative impacts of the AIA (American Institute of Architects) contracts, young architects working for contractors, the gap between academia and practice, the low pay level of architects, and why a design-build operation can be the solution to all of these issues.

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Carles Enrich Studio has been announced as the winner of the 2020 AR Emerging Architecture awards. Selected from a shortlist of 16 practices, the jury recognized the work of the Barcelona-based practice as one that "reconnects history with the future and understands heritage as infrastructure: something dynamic and appropriated rather than museumified". Khadka + Eriksson Furunes was also awarded with the Peter Davey Prize, and Taller Capital has received an honorable mention.

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Grimshaw Architects, Archipel Generalplanung AG, and landscape architects LAND have won the competition to design the masterplan for University of Bern's Muesmatt campus in Switzerland. The winning design was selected from a shortlist of 26 participants, and was commended for how it opens up Bern's quarter and re-establishes urban and visual connections.

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MVRDV has recently completed the Idea Factory, transforming a disused factory into a creative hub with an important community-oriented focus. Located in Shenzhen's urban village of Nantou, the adaptive reuse project refurbishes the existing structure to accommodate offices while adding a new layer of public space. The latter takes the form of a rooftop bamboo landscape packed with activities and amenities that provides a new leisure space for the historically disadvantaged neighbourhood.

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