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Culture: The Latest Architecture and News

Somali Architecture Students Digitally Preserve Their Country's Heritage—Before It's Too Late

Somali Architecture Students Digitally Preserve Their Country's Heritage—Before It's Too Late - Featured Image
via Somali Architecture

Since the start of civil war in 1991, the political and architectural landscapes of the East African country of Somalia have been unstable. While the country’s urban centers, such as the capital city Mogadishu, boast a diverse fabric of historic mosques, citadels, and monuments alongside modernist civic structures, the decades of conflict have resulted in the destruction of many important structures. And, while the fighting has substantially subsided in recent years, the future of the country's architectural heritage is still far from secure.

In response, Somali architecture students from across the UK, Italy, and the United States have banded together to form Somali Architecture, an ongoing research project archiving and digitally "rebuilding" iconic structures through 3D models. Their goal is “to preserve the identity and authenticity” of Somalia through its architecture—both existing and destroyed. “We want each iconic building of the past to be reinterpreted for a more coherent future,” they say.

See below for a selection of the structures Somali Architecture has uncovered and re-constructed so far.

Asia Pacific Youth Exchange Center of Fudan University / W&R GROUP

Asia Pacific Youth Exchange Center of Fudan University / W&R GROUP - Cultural Architecture, Facade, DoorAsia Pacific Youth Exchange Center of Fudan University / W&R GROUP - Cultural Architecture, Courtyard, Facade, DoorAsia Pacific Youth Exchange Center of Fudan University / W&R GROUP - Cultural Architecture, Door, Facade, LightingAsia Pacific Youth Exchange Center of Fudan University / W&R GROUP - Cultural Architecture, Door, FacadeAsia Pacific Youth Exchange Center of Fudan University / W&R GROUP - More Images+ 51

Cultural Architecture
•
Yangpu Qu, China
  • Architects: W&R GROUP
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  1338 m²
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2016

2018 Better Philadelphia Challenge: The Next Parkway

The 2018 Better Philadelphia Challenge | $5,000 First Prize

This international urban design competition for university students is now open for registration. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Philadelphia's iconic Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the Center / Architecture + Design seeks creative concepts for what a new 'Parkway' could be in a dense and developed 21st-century city, connecting neighborhoods with nearby natural and cultural resources.

Sweco's Kulturkorgen Offers Gothenburg a Basket of Culture

Growing like an outcrop amongst the hills of Gothenburg, the Kulturkorgen by Swedish firm Sweco Architects offers the public an opportunity to watch, engage, and perform. The scheme is a result of an architectural competition for a new Culture House in the city, run in collaboration with Architects Sweden. The winning proposal, who’s name translates to ‘Basket of Culture’, acts as both a building and a square – a social arena where flexible interior spaces act in tandem with a generous public green landscape for recreation and gathering.

Sweco's Kulturkorgen Offers Gothenburg a Basket of Culture - SustainabilitySweco's Kulturkorgen Offers Gothenburg a Basket of Culture - SustainabilitySweco's Kulturkorgen Offers Gothenburg a Basket of Culture - SustainabilitySweco's Kulturkorgen Offers Gothenburg a Basket of Culture - SustainabilitySweco's Kulturkorgen Offers Gothenburg a Basket of Culture - More Images+ 8

8 Models of Memorial Architecture from Different Cultures

In most architecture projects, the input of the end user of the space is an important consideration; but what if those users are no longer living? Memorial architecture for the dead is a uniquely emotional type of design and often reveals much about a certain culture or group of people. Especially in the case of ancient tombs, archaeologists can learn about past societies’ customs and beliefs by examining their burial spaces. The personal nature of funerary spaces and monuments conveys a sense of importance and gravity to viewers and visitors, even centuries after the memorials were created.

The list of 3D models that follow, supplied by our friends at Sketchfab, explores memorial spaces and artifacts that span both space and time, representing a variety of cultures and civilizations.

Call for Submissions: Artists Residency SPOT 13

The artist residency SPOT 13 offers the opportunity to artists from all the world to access the artistic and cultural scene in Cartagena, known by its human heritage (UNESCO) and main cultural and touristic district of Colombia. Cartagena has been the center of Colombian tourism and represents one of the main Colombian cultural heritage from colonial Spanish times.

The Seventh Sense - Powering the Creative Economy

As part of their commitment to enriching the Arab society through identifying and resolving cultural and creative development issues in the region, Nuqat will be launching their 7th annual conference in Kuwait – themed ‘The Seventh Sense – Powering the Creative Economy.'

SND Cultural & Sports Centre / Tianhua Architecture Planning & Engineering Ltd.

SND Cultural & Sports Centre / Tianhua Architecture Planning & Engineering Ltd. - Sports Architecture, FacadeSND Cultural & Sports Centre / Tianhua Architecture Planning & Engineering Ltd. - Sports Architecture, Facade, LightingSND Cultural & Sports Centre / Tianhua Architecture Planning & Engineering Ltd. - Sports Architecture, FacadeSND Cultural & Sports Centre / Tianhua Architecture Planning & Engineering Ltd. - Sports Architecture, Facade, StairsSND Cultural & Sports Centre / Tianhua Architecture Planning & Engineering Ltd. - More Images+ 24

Cultural Architecture, Sports Architecture
•
Suzhou, China

Call for Entries: How To Architecture!

How To Architecture! is a design competition which invites students to reflect on contemporary culture and to do it with architecture. Leafing through headlines, lists, captions, zooming in and out of feeds, bold fonts, and articles made of images: we participate in the age of the listicle. Culture flashes before us—an extension of ourselves: the superabundant reel. As the cycle of consumption whirs on, architecture still stands. What does architecture say; how does it feed you? Tell us what you think! Tell us

Call For Submissions: [TRANS-] lation

ABOUT :: [TRANS-] is a critically-reviewed academic journal published in print and online, inviting expressions of interest for submitting works of design, writing, or multi-media on the topic of design process and design communication for Vol. No. 2 to be published in May 2016.

TOPIC ::
In the second volume, [TRANS-] will explore the topic of [TRANS-]lation.
In a largely results-based society, how do designers evaluate process? How can a more thorough assessment of the translation that occurs during creative activities make us better communicators and collaborators with end users, consultants, clients, and all others we affect through design?

ELIGIBILITY ::
[TRANS-] accepts submissions from

What Urbanists Can Learn From Low-Income Neighborhoods

"For the most part, the way urbanists view black neighborhoods (and other low-income neighborhoods and communities of color) are as problems that need to be fixed. At the heart of what I want to say is what can we as urbanists learn from these neighborhoods?" So asks Sara Zewde, a landscape architecture student at Harvard's Graduate School of Design and this year's Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Olmsted Scholar, in a fascinating profile on Metropolis Magazine. Read more about Zewde and her work here.

American Architects Win International Competition for "Cultural Mall" in China

A looping mixture of culture and commerce has won Joel Sanders Architect and FreelandBuck first prize in the international competition hosted by the largest media and publishing company in China, Phoenix Publishing and Media Group (PPMG).

Their 80,000 square meter winning proposal for the new Kunshan Phoenix Cultural Mall divides a large urban block into four 'cultural cores,' each five stories high and respectively housing a theater, fitness club, education center, and exhibition halls. The podium, which sits upon the glass-clad cores, spirals the length of the perimeter (comprised of stores, restaurants and cafes) and ultimately plateaus at an open park where the public and Phoenix employees would share a common space.