1. ArchDaily
  2. Construction

Construction: The Latest Architecture and News

Deepen Your Understanding of Construction and Materials With These Online Courses

Subscriber Access | 

How much do you wish you knew about carpentry, solar energy or masonry? Leonardo Da Vinci said, "the noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding." Those who are open to learning and expanding their horizons are more likely improve their approach to design. If you've always wanted to understand more about construction processes, structures or materials, this list of online courses is for you. 

We scoured MOOC platforms and databases to highlight a series of online courses related to construction and building materials.  Many of the courses are permanently available and can be taken immediately; we've also provided information so that you may contact the universities or instructors to inquire about start dates, certificates, costs, course language and other relevant details.

Innovative 'Wooden Bricks' System Cuts Building Time to Just a Few Days

Subscriber Access | 

Brikawood is an intuitive and logical construction system of wooden bricks that allows the rapid construction of an entire house without the use of nails, screws or adhesives.

Each unit is totally recyclable and consists of four pieces of wood –two lateral elements and two transversal spacers– which are assembled to the general frames of the building by interlocking, achieving total rigidity when working together. The resulting structure presents thermal, mechanical, acoustic and anti-seismic properties and is designed to be used without cladding or membranes, adding only an anti-return valve specific to Brikawood, in order to increase the performance and tightness of the construction.

Innovative 'Wooden Bricks' System Cuts Building Time to Just a Few Days  - Image 1 of 4Innovative 'Wooden Bricks' System Cuts Building Time to Just a Few Days  - Image 2 of 4Innovative 'Wooden Bricks' System Cuts Building Time to Just a Few Days  - Image 3 of 4Innovative 'Wooden Bricks' System Cuts Building Time to Just a Few Days  - Image 4 of 4Innovative 'Wooden Bricks' System Cuts Building Time to Just a Few Days  - More Images

Call for entries MEDS Workshop 2018 - DiverCity

Update: The deadlines for this opportunity have been extended 

  • Call For tutors : Extended till January 28
  • Call for participants : Ends on February 28

MEDS workshop “Meetings of Design Students” is an international workshop that takes part each summer in a different country, focusing on various issues, themes, topics and settings that will help any designer expand their expertise. It is a chance to get in touch with diverse approaches to design, different building techniques, traditions and skills. MEDS workshop is both practical and educational because it focuses not only on creative theoretical designs, but actually compels participants to execute these designs during the 2-week span of the workshop. You can apply to MEDS as a tutor or as a participant.

Will Bamboo Ever Achieve Widespread Use in the Construction Industry?

Subscriber Access | 

After years of publishing projects and articles related to bamboo, we are strongly aware of its qualities as a construction material. But is it really an option that you would use into your next project? Despite widespread appreciation, bamboo seems to be a material that is rarely considered for use in everyday designs.

The team of Manasaram Architects and CGBMT asked themselves the same question. Together they are seeking to understand the current perceptions of bamboo and to discover its potential as a commonly-used material in the construction sector. To help in this pursuit, they have shared a survey with us which seeks to evaluate how often architects and building professionals use bamboo, the problems they face, and how informed they are about the material.

We would like to invite our readers to spare 10 minutes of their time to help us expand knowledge about the use of bamboo using the survey below. The results will be shared on ArchDaily once the study is complete.

YIMBY's 2018 Construction Report has Seen a Decrease in the Height of Buildings

2017’s building applications has seen a rise in both Brooklyn and the Bronx, according to YIMBY’s construction report on New York. Despite a drop within Manhattan and Queens, the number of new building applications over the five boroughs seems to be stabilising; 2016 saw the number of multi-family units decrease by over 40% to 19,356, a pattern which fortunately appears to have stopped as 2017 saw fillings for 19,180. After the last two years of massive drops, this couldn’t be more welcomed by New York.

See the Construction of Renzo Piano's Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre From Above

From Greek architect and photographer, Yiorgis Yerolymbos comes a book which captures the construction process of Renzo Piano’s Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre in Athens, Greece. Yerolymbos carefully documented every moment where the superfluous Olympic parking lot became a cultural center and sloping park with waterfront views. For almost a decade, and from every angle, the photographer watched the site transform. Birds-eye imagery proved to be some of the most captivating. As photographs, they manage to possess the characteristics of an architectural drawing.

Multi-Functional Lego-Like Plywood Building Blocks Create Limitless Design Solution

Out of 200 applicants, London-based Gilles Retsin Architecture won the Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2017 competition with their temporary outdoor installation. Participants were challenged to use the fabrication abilities of Estonian wooden house manufacturers in a new and creative way. Jury member Martin Tamke said the Retsin proposal is, “characterized by outstanding aesthetic and intellectually challenging, as it questions current beliefs and trends in architecture."

Multi-Functional Lego-Like Plywood Building Blocks Create Limitless Design Solution - Image 4 of 4Multi-Functional Lego-Like Plywood Building Blocks Create Limitless Design Solution - Image 1 of 4Multi-Functional Lego-Like Plywood Building Blocks Create Limitless Design Solution - Image 2 of 4Multi-Functional Lego-Like Plywood Building Blocks Create Limitless Design Solution - Image 3 of 4Multi-Functional Lego-Like Plywood Building Blocks Create Limitless Design Solution - More Images+ 18

Morphosis Hits Construction Milestones Around The World

This Fall, global architecture and design firm, Morphosis has their plate full as four of their projects reach significant construction milestones. From Africa to the Middle East, Europe and the U.S., Morphosis is creating international landmarks that display their values of sustainability and future development. Read on to learn more about what Thom Mayne's team is up to.

Learning Basic Bamboo Joinery With Indonesian Carpenters

Subscriber Access | 

The main objective of the BambooU build and design course is to promote bamboo as a green building material, and to provide tools to architects, designers, builders, engineers, and carpenters from all over the world to value this material and increase its use.

The 2017 version of the course invited its participants to be part of a basic carpentry workshop, in which Indonesian artisans—led by I Ketut Mokoh Sumerta—taught them to build the base of a simple structure in Bamboo, without using other materials and by experimenting with the cutting and joining of different pieces.

See the process of this construction below.

The World's Most Expensive Buildings

Subscriber Access | 

If the Great Pyramid were to be built today, it would cost between 1.1 and 1.3 billion US dollars, according to a cost estimate by the Turner Construction Company—not surprising, considering how that is roughly the same amount of money that it took to build the Trump Taj Mahal or the Petronas Twin Towers. Complicated structural requirements, delayed work timelines, complex building programs, the need for good earthquake or typhoon proofing, the use of advanced mechanical and electronic systems, and costly materials and finishes can all add up to the eventual cost. But sometimes—and especially in cases in which governments or powerful clients set out to beat existing records such as the “tallest building in the world”—money is spent for no real reason except for an unabashed display of wealth, power or strength.

Emporis, the renowned global provider for building data, has compiled a list of the top 200 money-guzzlers from recent years, and not surprisingly, a lot of high-rises have made the list. Read on to see the top 20.

Open Call: Cartasia International Paper Biennale

cartasia, the international paper Biennale, is looking for artists and designers from around the world to collaborate and create works of art, sculptures, exhibitions and performances, through the medium of paper and following the theme chosen for the next edition: Chaos and Silence. Cartasia takes place in the beautiful city of Lucca between August and September 2018.

How One Concrete Manufacturer Helps Architects Reduce Project Costs With An In-House Design Team

Subscriber Access | 

This article was originally published by Autodesk's Redshift publication as "Realizing Architectural Dreams Through Design-Assist and Precast Concrete."

Ancient Romans mixed lime and volcanic rock to form a mortar, a precursor to modern reinforced concrete. This made engineering marvels like Rome’s Colosseum possible—still standing more than 2,000 years after its construction.

Today, this versatile material is evolving further: Precast concrete, which is formed and cured in factories before being installed onsite, is bringing about a new wave of architecture that streamlines the building process while reaching toward big, complex ideas.

Agency2017: Australasian Student Architecture Congress in Sydney

The Australasian Student Architecture Congress (ASAC)—titled Agency 2017—will be held in Sydney from the 28th of November to the 2nd of December. It will be the first congress held in Sydney since 1999 and student-led by ASAC Inc., a non-profit student body based in NSW, Australia.

Zaha Hadid Architects Unveil Photographs of "World's Tallest Atrium" Under Construction in Beijing

Zaha Hadid Architects Unveil Photographs of "World's Tallest Atrium" Under Construction in Beijing - Featured Image
Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects and SOHO China

Zaha Hadid Architects have released new photos showcasing the ongoing construction progress of Leeza SOHO, a mixed-use office tower in Beijing's Lize Financial Business District. This twisting, contorted structural skeleton, which weaves together two separate sections of the tower and visually fuses them, will house the world's tallest atrium, rising the full height of the building.

Zaha Hadid Architects Unveil Photographs of "World's Tallest Atrium" Under Construction in Beijing - Image 6 of 4Zaha Hadid Architects Unveil Photographs of "World's Tallest Atrium" Under Construction in Beijing - Image 2 of 4Zaha Hadid Architects Unveil Photographs of "World's Tallest Atrium" Under Construction in Beijing - Image 3 of 4Zaha Hadid Architects Unveil Photographs of "World's Tallest Atrium" Under Construction in Beijing - Image 7 of 4Zaha Hadid Architects Unveil Photographs of World's Tallest Atrium Under Construction in Beijing - More Images+ 6

Greenbuild International Conference and Expo

Excitement is building as preparations take place for the 2017 Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, scheduled for Nov. 8-10 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, MA.

Greenbuild, owned and operated by Informa Exhibitions and sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is the nation’s largest conference and expo dedicated to sustainable building design and construction. The three-day conference attracts 18,000 attendees and over 500 exhibitors annually from across the green building sector, spanning commercial and residential professionals, architects, building owners and operators, students, advocates, and educators.

What Construction Can Learn from the Tech Industry's Economies of Scale

It’s one of the core tenants of manufacturing – first, build something useful, then, figure out how to build it cheaply.

Throughout the tech industry’s brief history, the philosophy of economies of scale have helped to achieve the widespread adoption of the latest gadgets across the globe; according to Wireless Smartphone Strategies’ Global Smartphone User Penetration Forecast, an estimated 44% of the world’s population are current owners of an iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, or other smartphone.

On the other hand, over the past 60 years building construction costs have essentially remained flat, despite the fact that the price of materials and components for nearly every other consumer object has dropped. Architecture is inherently a bespoke process, making streamlining its production difficult. But finally, technologists believe they may have found a solution.

This Device Attaches to Your Smartphone to Let You See Through Walls

Looking to mount something or make alternations to a wall, but worried about hitting something inside? A new device, the Walabot DIY, will end those fears forever by giving you the real-life equivalent of Superman’s X-ray vision.

Unlike a traditional stud finder, the Walabot is able to detect a variety of different materials and objects, including but not limited to pipes, wires, conduit, studs and even living creatures like mice. Additionally, the device can even find objects that aren’t directly touching the outer sheetrock or concrete surface, up to 4 inches deep.

II International Ideas Competition Chair CIMC

The Chair of Innovative Construction Materials (CIMC) with the Higher School of Architecture of Málaga and Financiera y Minera S.A. announce the II International Ideas Competition for architects and students of architecture in their graduation project.