UNStudio is part of the consortium that recently won the competition for a new congress and conference centre in the Netherlands, a project intended to further establish the Brainport Eindhoven region as one of Europe’s leading technology hubs. The Elysion Congress Centre expands an exiting, similarly programmed venue, striving for low impact on the surroundings while incorporating numerous sustainable features.
The Berlinische Galerie's exhibition Anything Goes? recounts how a global, contradictory Postmodernism took root on both sides of the Berlin Wall in the 1980s. Florian Heilmeyer in his piece originally published on Metropolis discusses the ambitious exhibition that was able to look simultaneously at both sides of the German city at that time.
Japanese studio Sou Fujimoto Architects alongside Chinese office Donghua Chen Studio have designed a large scale exhibition complex in the heart of Futian District. The Shenzhen Reform and Opening-up Exhibition Hall adopts the city's characteristics as a contemporary entrepreneurial hub, welcoming innovative international businesses in a garden-inspired structure wrapped with white perforated facades. The design proposal was the winning entry of an international competition in Futian, and will be a part of the Shenzhen Ten Cultural Facilities of New Era promoted by the Municipal Government, once completed.
RIBA and Network Rail recently announced the winner of the Re-imagining Railways design competition, which invited architects, engineers and designers to rethink small and medium-sized train stations to improve the travel experience. The winning design, signed by Edinburgh-based architectural practice 7N Architects, features a reinterpreted clock tower serving as a local landmark and a modular station layout that can be adapted to a variety of sites.
Art Gensler, the founder of one of the largest architecture businesses in the world, Gensler, has passed away at 85, as reported by the company’s Instagram Account. The architect and businessman founded Gensler back in 1965, in San Francisco, and in his 65 years of career, he managed to turn his practice into one of the leading worldwide firms with 50 locations across Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and the Americas.
Titled "Yuan-er, a Courtyard-ology: From the Mega to the Micro", the Chinese pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia answers the question of how architecture can contribute to equality, connectivity and unity by resorting to familiar Chinese residential typologies. Curated by Zhang Li, the pavilion will be on display from May 22nd to November 21st, 2021.
Led by Ma Yansong, MAD Architects have released their design for the Jiaxing Civic Center, a project that explores the relationship between city, nature, and people. The proposed center will be a new place of attraction for children, adults, and seniors, sitting on the city's central axis and surrounded by its South Lake, Haiyan River, and Central Park. The master plan will house three venues: the Science and Technology Museum, the Women and Children Activity Center, and the Youth Activity Center, all organized around a central green open space. The firm's latest public project in Jiaxing City, which is expected to be complete by the end of 2023, comes shortly after they unveiled their design for the Jiaxing Train Station earlier this year.
Philadelphia Museum of Art opened to the public earlier this month after completing an extensive four-year renovation and interior expansion project led by Frank Gehry. The intervention, dubbed the Core Project, focused on renewing the museum's infrastructure, creating galleries and public spaces while leaving the 1928 exterior untouched. The culmination of two decades of planning and design, the project led by the renowned architect creates a compelling vision for the future of the museum while honouring the landmark building.
Modern architecture, in its early days, was based on innovative technologies of construction and a rejection of ornament, which established the use of straight lines in building design. However, thanks to the plasticity of concrete and other materials, new patterns began to emerge, resulting in more organic and curvy lines.
Hawaii has become a place that defines paradise. From pristine beaches and a warm climate to natural scenery and active volcanoes, the islands are home to incredible landscapes and culture. With indigenous and modern building styles, the state’s architecture is intimately tied to the environment. Reinterpreting historic building techniques and traditions, contemporary Hawaiian architecture balances a desire to honor the past while celebrating new experiences and modern culture. This has led to the formation of incredible spaces to live and dwell.
The Italian Pavilion for the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale explores the capabilities for transformation and adaptation of Italian communities in an attempt to define tangible solutions to current global challenges. Titled "Resilient Communities", the exhibition curated by Alessandro Melis presents Italian research and innovation across many fields, exploring ideas for improving the conditions of the built environment and addressing climate change, with the hope of defining the building blocks for a sustainable future.
Germane Barnes has won the 2021 Wheelwright Prize from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. The $100,000 prize will fund two years of travel and research for Barnes’s proposal Anatomical Transformations in Classical Architecture, an examination of classical Roman and Italian architecture through the lens of non-white constructors. Barnes will study how spaces have been transformed through the material contributions of the African Diaspora while creating new possibilities within investigations of Blackness.
Titled "Containporary", the Kosovo Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, evaluates the role of global urbanization and the process of planning and creating sustainable environments. Curated by Maksut Vezgishi, the pavilion will be on display at the Arsenale from May 22nd to November 21st, 2021.
The Hungarian Pavilion at the 17th Venice Biennale explores the often challenging socialist architecture and looks at how this heritage could be reconsidered and given a new future. Titled Othernity – Reconditioning our Modern Heritage, the exhibition curated by Dániel Kovács presents twelve iconic modern buildings of Budapest and the visions of twelve architecture practices from Central and Eastern Europe for their reconditioning. The Hungarian Pavilion's project looks into how architecture can build on its past to foster resilience, sustainability and strong cultural identities.
Chicago’s most prolific architect, Helmut Jahn has passed away on Saturday afternoon in a cycling accident. He was struck by two vehicles while riding his bicycle in Campton Hills, in the Chicago suburbs. The German-American designer is best known for his postmodern Thompson Center, currently under threat of demolition and United Airlines Terminal 1 at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
In the last decades, architecture has embraced the medium of film to explore new readings of spaces and atmospheres. Crafting a visual narrative of the underlying design concepts while also establishing a connection with the viewer, architecture films use cinematic camera movements and carefully curated sound designs to convey emotion and create a compelling impression of the built object. The article looks into architecture films as a means of capturing the experience of a space, with films by 9sekunden, a team of young designers who combine their passions for film and architecture into an alternative means of exploring architectural atmospheres.
America’s central business districts suffered greatly during the COVID-19 pandemic through job losses and business closings, but they also have a good chance to recover if stakeholders can capitalize on trends that will shape the way people live and work in a post-pandemic economy. That’s the view of the author and urbanist Richard Florida, a professor at the University of Toronto and author of The Rise of the Creative Class and The New Urban Crisis.
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 episode is also available on iTunes, YouTube, and Spotify. This week David and Marina discuss the best strategies for getting the most from a design review. The two cover when not to listen to critics, the two essential parts to any critique, why design reviews are often a complete mess, crying at reviews, controlling a review, bad feedback, how to structure a productive review, and much more. Enjoy!
