Form4 Architecture: The Latest Architecture and News

This article is the eighth in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints. In this feature, architect John Marx interviews Heather Gallagher, an international expert in transformative events and the experience economy and former Head of Technology at Burning Man.

+ 6

This article is the seventh in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints.

In so many ways the introduction of AI software has created a sense that we live in a world predicted by science fiction novels. We commonly have rested on the assumption that computers will never be capable of designing. That time has now arrived, and with it comes an opportunity to confront the positives and negatives these new technologies offer.

+ 2

This article is the sixth in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints.

Artificial Intelligence is at the genesis of creating fundamental changes in the way we design and construct buildings and cities. Some of these changes will be abrupt and disruptive to normative practice.  Others will take more time to feel the effect of this new technology, but the change will be pervasive.  When combined with the Metaverse, AI will also offer vast opportunities for the profession to expand and grow.  The kinds of spaces and environments we design in the Metaverse will be, in some aspects, very different from what we currently design in the physical world alone. AI evolves every day, and we are compelled to learn while we innovate. AI has proven it is a powerful tool to assist designers and offers the potential to challenge us to alter our design process. Combining AI with narrative design is one of those challenges.

+ 3

This article is the fourth in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints.

Of all the attributes that will define the Metaverse the single most important is that of experience. As we move more deeply into the Anthropocene Era humans seem to be shifting their interests from collecting things to collecting experiences. As the demand for experiences grows more intense and detailed, the need for content, and the clever and effective use of that content, will rise exponentially.  From a more detailed perspective, the management and quality of those experiences will determine the initial success of the Metaverse. This is where the concept of a Responsive AI Concierge comes into play.

This article is the second in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints.

For architects, one of the most captivating aspects of AI and the Metaverse is that of placemaking. How do we create compelling places that bring people to this new world and enable them to enjoy their experience there, getting them to return once the novelty has worn off? How much of this digital world needs to connect back with our day-to-day physical environs for it to feel meaningful and how do these artificial cities, towns, and neighborhoods come to life?

+ 4

This article is the fifth in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints.

Science fiction writers inspire us with bold and provocative visions of the future. Huxley, Orwell, Assimov, and Bradbury easily come to mind.  They have imagined great advances in technology and oftentimes predicted shifts in social structure that were a result of the human need to open Pandora's Box. A large part of the charm and allure of science fiction is the bold audacity of some of these predictions. They seem to defy the laws of nature and science, and then, faster than you might have thought, the spectrum of human inventiveness makes it so.

+ 7

This article is the first in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints.

The Metaverse is currently hard to define. Try to think of it as the bringing together of the abundance of virtual communities we have created over the years on Facebook with the enormous range of leisure opportunities akin to shopping on Amazon. Yet, the Metaverse goes far beyond this and makes a new type of landscape possible by playing on the very qualities of placemaking we know from the cities, towns, and villages we inhabit worldwide. The Metaverse is a transactional space, and perhaps above all an experiential space where unexpected events take place and, importantly, shared events are enjoyed on an individual and communal basis.

+ 1

This article is the third in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints.

"I had lunch on the moon, took a swim in a shadowy lake on Mars, played croquet with the clouds, and chased rainbows under the sea, all in one glorious afternoon" ... how real and meaningful these experiences felt will be greatly influenced by how and where you interact with a Metaverse opening near you soon. While in a fundamental sense, the Metaverse can be seen as a series of overlapping economic intentions, there is a unique and important opportunity for architects and designers of space and place to influence the outcome of these efforts and to create a more humane and vibrant future.

+ 3

San Francisco-based Form4 Architecture have won the 2017 American Prize for Architecture, by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. Also known as The Louis H. Sullivan Award, the prize is awarded to outstanding practitioners in the United States that have “emblazoned a new direction in the history of American architecture” and “demonstrated consistent contributions to humanity through the built environment and the art of architecture."

These may well be the ultimate, true romantic architects, said Christian Narkiewicz-Laine, President of The Chicago Athenaeum. Form4 Architecture’s design philosophy conveys a ‘vision of the future’ and all the artistic possibilities of imagination, emotional meaning, and lyrical expressionism for a consequentially better and more enlightened world around us.

+ 12

The winners of the 2016 LEAF Awards have been announced. Founded in 2001, the awards ceremony honors innovative architecture projects in 14 different categories dedicated to various aspects of building, including best façade design and engineering, best future building, and public building of the year. The winning projects are recognized as “setting the benchmark for the best in the industry.”

This year's awards include projects by David Chipperfield Architects, Henning Larsen Architects and Ian Ritchie Architects, and a lifetime achievement award for Santiago Calatrava.

Continue reading to see the full list of winners.

Form4 Architecture’s project, Innovation Curve Technology Park, has been honored by the Green Good Design Awards presented by The European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design, and Urban Studies, in collaboration with The Chicago Athenaeum’s Museum for Architecture and Design.

The project, which recently broke ground in Palo Alto, California, “celebrates the creative process of invention” through its sweeping metal curves, which represent the highs and lows of exploratory research and development. The tall, two-story curves “rise to represent the crescendo of the creative spark and pragmatic analysis of ideas, and descend to transition into long, horizontal bands symbolizing the implementation phase of invention.”

+ 18

Form4 Architecture has won first place at the International Design Awards for its project, Sea Song, which additionally was honored by the Green Good Design Awards presented by The European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design, and Urban Studies, in collaboration with The Chicago Athenaeum’s Museum for Architecture and Design.