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Cities: The Latest Architecture and News

ODA Designs Mixed-Use District to Revitalize the Astoria Neighborhood, in New York City

New York City Council has approved Innovation QNS, a neighborhood-focused initiative in Western Queens, designed by ODA. The five-block master plan generates two acres of open space, community health & wellness facilities, hundreds of affordable apartments, and thousands of jobs. The project was initiated in 2020 as part of New York's effort to recover from the impact of the COvid-19 pandemic, and it aimed to revitalize a largely dormant block area in Astoria, Queens, and transform it into a vibrant, walkable, and diverse creative district.

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How to Build Public Spaces for Teen Girls

Teen girls are neither children nor adults, meaning they have specific needs and behaviours different from both these groups. Unfortunately, like many marginalized groups, these needs and behaviours have not been met or encouraged through our built environment as it has for others. For example, playgrounds are built for children to let off steam and sports courts that foster competition are targeted at men and teen boys. 

Accordingly, not building public spaces with the needs of teen girls in mind allows other groups of people, predominantly men who already take up 80% of public spaces, to continue to dominate them. Making teen girls feel ten times less secure in public spaces. Not only does this absence affect their social, physical, and mental development, but it also complicates how they see where they belong in public spaces.

Redefining Domestic Spaces of the Future: 14 Projects in Europe

Unconstrained by the dogmas of established offices, new architectural practices can often challenge building norms and redefine living standards. The Young European Architecture Festival (YEAH!) is an event dedicated to highlighting these new and emerging practices and bringing their contributions to the built environment into focus. Many of these practices are challenging and redefining typologies of residential architecture. They are building upon ideas such as cooperative housing schemes, community-initiated developments, and circular economy. Others are exploring local identities and resources as a way to reinvigorate the profession while creating respectful and regionally relevant works of architecture.

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Tradition and Innovation by aflalo/gasperini arquitetos

It was in the early 1960s that the young architects Plínio Croce and Roberto Aflalo joined Gian Carlo Gasperini to participate in the biggest international competition at the time, organized by the UIA (International Association of Architects). The challenge was to design the tallest office tower in Latin America, which would house Peugeot's headquarters in Buenos Aires. Winning the competition with the 55-story building was the incentive that was needed to create aflalo/gasperini arquitetos, betting on contemporary projects, focused on technological aspects and, as they define it, presenting a clear and honest language,

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Crystal City and the ‘Tallest’ Multipurpose Tower in the Metaverse

Felipe Escudero, founder, and principal of Quito-based Estudio Felipe Escudero (EFE), has unveiled Crystal City, his latest metaverse design for LEDY, one of the discipline's leading developers, and Decent Amusements, the district manager. In addition to a high-rise observation deck, an ice-covered marketplace, and a packed snow gallery, this new metaverse destination will feature Decentraland's tallest multi-purpose tower, Crystal Tower.

Revealing Seneca Village, the Black Community Displaced by Central Park

“Seneca Village was an important community. It was 40 acres, two-thirds African American, and had a church and school,” explained Sara Zewde, ASLA, founder of Studio Zewde and assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, during a session at the ASLA 2022 Conference on Landscape Architecture in San Francisco.

The 225 residents of Seneca Village were displaced by the New York City government in the mid 1800s to make way for Central Park, which is considered one of the masterpieces of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and architect Calvert Vaux.

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The Future of Mobility Has Two Wheels: Copenhagen’s Bike-Friendly Architecture

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Ambitious technologists have claimed for decades that self-driving cars are the future. Yet, looking at recent years, the biggest revolution has come from vehicles on two wheels, not four. Fueled by the pandemic, increased oil prices, climate change and the desire for healthier lifestyles, we are now living in the midst of a bicycle renaissance. But to understand how we got here, it is crucial to look back. When the automobile became more widespread in the early 1900s, it quickly became a symbol of progress along with all it entailed: speed, privatisation and segregation. Adopting a car-centric approach, urban planners had to reorganise entire cities to separate traffic. Cars took over public spaces that used to host dynamic city life and parking lots, highways and gas stations became common landscapes. Pedestrians that once ruled the streets were herded into sidewalks and children relegated to fenced playgrounds. Ironically, cities were being designed for cars (not humans).

New Orleans Architecture City Guide: 18 Sites to Empower New Generations

Home to architectural styles spanning almost three hundred years, the is no city like New Orleans. The meld of French, Spanish, and Caribbean architectural influences, in conjunction with the demands of the hot and humid climate, has impacted the urban fabric as much as the culture itself. Located along the Mississippi River and close to the Gulf of Mexico coast, the construction of ports, NOLA’s trading history, and forceful natural phenomena like Hurricane Katrina in 2005 illustrate how water has shaped the city.

Following Hurricane Katrina, Orleans adapted its values to respond to the changing needs of its recovering community. Although reconstruction is not only architectural responsibility, New Orleans public architecture has contributed to revitalizing and reinhabiting the city after the disaster. Museums, parks, and churches, each of these places connects people to each other in ways that define and support community.

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David Adjaye Reveals Design for the Cuyahoga Riverfront Master Plan in Downtown Cleveland

David Adjaye, in partnership with Bedrock and the city of Cleveland, unveiled the masterplan for the Cuyahoga Riverfront, a 15-to-20-year vision that will transform 35 acres of the riverfront to improve accessibility, equity, sustainability, and resilience of the downtown area. The design embraces the city’s rich history and connection to nature and creates a sustainable infrastructure that prioritizes pedestrian movement and activates open public spaces. David Adjaye, a British-Ghanian architect, has been awarded Britain’s Order of Merit, making him the fifth architect to be appointed the honor.

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Urban Design Keys to Achieving Real Authenticity: 12 Principles

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Authenticity seems impossible today, with places and the buildings in them assembled with products from the Industrial Development Complex that could be assembled almost anywhere else on Earth in a debauchery of placelessness, disharmony with nature, and meaninglessness that doesn’t age well. So how is authenticity in the built environment achieved?

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The Versatility of Reinforced Concrete in Five Architectural Uses

Fundamental for the development of large metropolises as we know them today, cement is a material used historically, whose technological advances have revolutionized construction technique and technology of civil construction, enabling the verticalization of construction and the densification of urban centers. Cement, both added to water and sand to make mortar and combined with steel and aggregate to form concrete, performs different functions in a work, from structure to finish.

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Questioning the Megalopolis in the Global South

As of today, over 50% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and by 2050, this urban population will almost double in size, and 7 of 10 people in the world will live in cities. As cities have continued to grow and expand throughout history, a new vocabulary has also emerged, often to better communicate the scale of urban living in a relatively contemporary context. One such example is the term megalopolis – typically defined as a network of large cities that have been interconnected with surrounding metropolitan areas by infrastructure or transportation. In effect, it’s a region perceived as an encompassing urban area, within which there is a constant flow of commerce and migration.

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Blair Kamin: ‘Who Is the City For?’

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Blair Kamin stepped down as architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune in January 2021, after a nearly 30-year run in the post. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for a body of work highlighted by a series on Chicago’s lakefront, including a story that documented the race- and class-based disparity between the city’s north and south lakefronts. He has previously published two collections of his work: Why Architecture Matters (2001) and Terror and Wonder (2010), both from the University of Chicago Press. His third collection, Who is the City For? Architecture, Equity, and the Public Realm in Chicago, was released last week. Recently I talked to Kamin about the new book, the state of post-pandemic Chicago, and the need for more mainstream architecture criticism. I will post the second of our conversations tomorrow, in which the critic pushes the need for a redefinition of the phrase “design equity.”

Queer Spaces: Why Are They Important in Architecture and the Public Realm?

The queer crowd has always been present, finding ways to exist, gather, and celebrate. Although their visibility hasn't always been highlighted throughout history due to the consciousness of having to submit to heteronormative and strict mass normality in the past, doesn't mean they previously didn't have their own spaces to call their own. Queer spaces, past and present, have been categorized as strong, vibrant, vigorous, and worthy of occupying their own place in history, filling in as safe places for identifying individuals, places of social gathering, entertainment, and even offering community housing; therefore, there will always be a need for queer spaces.

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What is Urban Gamification?

Everyone’s experience of a city is unique. Whether one is visiting a place for the first time or has lived there all their life, their experiences are shaped by their personal interactions with the built environment. Buildings, landscapes, and streets come together to offer an opportunity for sensory stimulation, however, most of them are unable to provide inspiration. While a city’s infrastructure accounts for livability, equal importance isn’t given to enjoyability. Play and games embedded in the city’s fabric can help improve user engagement with urban spaces.