GRAFT and Brandlab have created a prototype for an ultra-fast charging station for E.ON Drive in Europe. The extendable system of modules was made to adapt to different sites and parking conditions. Reimagining the stopover for the future, the project focuses on user experience and integrated design as filling stations evolve over time. The design features a steel skeleton roof structure that can be customized with diverse panel materials, photovoltaics and responsive lighting.
According to Pliny, Roman Emperor Tiberius’s doctors instructed their charge to consume a fruit of the Cucurbits family each day. To grow these melon and cucumber fruits year-round on his home island of Capri, Tiberius directed construction of specularia: “[He] had raised beds made in frames upon wheels, by means of which the Cucumis were moved and exposed to the full heat of the sun; while, in winter, they were withdrawn, and placed under the protection of frames glazed with mirror-stone.”
Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has won the design competition to build Tower C at Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base, in China. The winning design is a multi-dimensional vertical city of two naturally-lit towers that respond to the city's urban intersections.
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
I attended graduate school, in geography, in Tucson, Arizona, United States, in the late 1990s. Tucson draws fame from a number of things, including its Mexican-American heritage, its chimichangas, its sky islands, and its abundant population of saguaro cacti.
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (Harvard GSD) will no longer refer to a private residence at 9 Ash Street in Cambridge as the “Philip Johnson Thesis House.” Moving forward, the home, designed by and inhabited by Johnson while enrolled at the Harvard GSD in the 1940s, will now be known solely by its physical street address.
Skateboarding is often associated with the use of public spaces such as streets, squares, and sidewalks and has become a sport that blends into everyday life in the cities. Although skateboarding is sometimes considered marginalized, because of the dispute over public spaces, it allows underused places such as areas under or near overpasses to be revamped for practicing sports. Many sports centers have been incorporating skate parks into their programs, showcasing very unique designs.
World Architecture Day, celebrated on the first Monday of every October, was set up by the Union International des Architects (UIA) back in 2005 to “remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat”, coinciding with UN-Habitat's World Habitat Day.
Between 1950 and 2011, the world's urban population increased fivefold. In 2007, for the first time, the number of people living in cities surpassed the number of people living in the country. In 2019, the urban population had already reached 55% of the total population, and by 2050, it is estimated that just over two thirds of the population will live in urban areas. However, this growth is not constant in all parts of the world: according to the UN World Urbanization Prospects 2018 Report, the global urban population is expected to grow by 2.5 billion inhabitants between 2018 and 2050, with almost 90% of this increase concentrated in Asia and Africa. As populations in these areas increase, so will the demand for energy, food, and water, making resources more scarce. This scarcity will be compounded by the negative impact of urbanization on the climate and the environment.
The Un-Habitat or the United Nations agency for human settlements and sustainable urban development, whose primary focus is to deal with the challenges of rapid urbanization, has been developing innovative approaches in the urban design field, centered on the active participation of the community. ArchDaily has teamed up with UN-Habitat to bring you weekly news, article, and interviews that highlight this work, with content straight from the source, developed by our editors.
In this second collaboration with UN-Habitat, discover different examples on how to design with and for kids in marginalized areas. In fact, child-responsive planning leads to a vibrant and animated inclusive city. Focusing on spaces for children, this feature highlights cases in Bangladesh, Niger, and Vietnam. These public spaces implementation projects seek to promote environment-friendly livable cities, taking on participatory approaches and involving the youngsters from the beginning of the process. In the end, no one knows the needs of kids, more than the kids themselves.
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The Best Architecture Masters (BAM) platform presented the third edition of its ranking of the best postgraduate architecture programs in the world.
Based on a list of different postgraduate study programs from the best architecture schools selected in the QS Ranking by Subjects – Architecture / Built Environment, these were evaluated by 11 educational-performance indicators and 41 sub-indicators in relation to the teaching approach, the opportunities they offer, and the programs themselves.
The concept of “decarbonization” has been in vogue recently in political speeches and global environmental events, but it has not yet gained enough attention in the field of architecture to profoundly change the way we design and construct the world of tomorrow. Buildings are currently responsible for 33% of global energy consumption and 39% of greenhouse gas emissions, indicating that architects must play a significant role if we are to stop or reverse climate change. With carbon acting as a universally agreed upon metric with which the greenhouse gas emissions of a building can be tracked [1], one of the most important ways through which this goal can be achieved is therefore the decarbonization of buildings.
As a part of the XV Taller Social Latinoamericano architectural conference that took place in Puno, Peru, we visited the Iruito Tupi zone in Huancané province alongside Francisco Mariscal, Director of the Puno Cultural Center. For the conference, Mariscal gave a presentation on the history of putucos, pre-Columbian houses made with a mixture of earth and grass.
History has the habit of repeating itself; using the same script, just with different names, figures, and places. Some 10,000 years ago, the Altiplano and the Titicaca lake basin, wedged between modern day Peru and Bolivia, became home to hunters and gatherers who subsisted on the herds of llamas and vicuñas as well as the bounty of birds and fish.
With most of the world living in cities and growing villages, people tend to spend the majority of their time indoors. When not at home, we are working, learning, or even engaging in fun activities in enclosed, built settings. All in all, 90% of our time is occupied inside. It is therefore essential to ensure a comfortable, productive, and healthy indoor environmental quality by following well-regulated parameters and design practices that consider temperature, lighting, noise pollution, proper ventilation, and the quality of the air we breathe. The latter is especially important, since contrary to what we might think, air pollution is much higher indoors than outdoor.
