1. ArchDaily
  2. Green City Hall

Green City Hall: The Latest Architecture and News

8 Excellent Examples of What Innovative 21st Century Schools Should Look Like

If we think about how the educational system worked in the past, we can quickly see that both the teaching style in schools as well as the school’s infrastructure were very different from the current system. The educational model of the twentieth century could be defined as being similar to the "spatial model of prisons, with no interest in stimulating a comprehensive, flexible and versatile education."

However, we are now at a time when social, economic and technological developments have created a more global society and where information and learning are becoming more affordable. This radical change has transformed the societies in which we live, leaving the current educational model based on a rigid and unidirectional teaching obsolete. 

As such, there are schools that have not only broken the mold of traditional teaching but have formed new educational standards, exploring new paradigms and opening up new possibilities within the design of educational spaces. Since architecture and educational models often reflect the ideology of a society, how is the school of 21st century defined? 

8 Excellent Examples of What Innovative 21st Century Schools Should Look Like - Image 1 of 48 Excellent Examples of What Innovative 21st Century Schools Should Look Like - Image 2 of 48 Excellent Examples of What Innovative 21st Century Schools Should Look Like - Image 3 of 48 Excellent Examples of What Innovative 21st Century Schools Should Look Like - Image 4 of 48 Excellent Examples of What Innovative 21st Century Schools Should Look Like - More Images+ 26

The 10 Best Global* Architecture Projects of 2016 (*Asia, Africa and South America Not Excluded)

As the common phrase attests, “history is written by the victors.” We therefore know that the story of the West is that of Europe and the United States, while the other actors in world history are minimized or invisible: it happened to the Chinese and Japanese during World War II, to the Ottoman Empire in sixteenth-century Europe, and to racial majorities in the common reading of Latin American independence. The same thing happens in architecture.

The current boom of the Global South is based not only on new work, but rather on the recognition of an invisible architecture which was apparently not worthy of publication in the journals of the 1990s. The world stage has changed, with the emergence of a humanity that is decentralized yet local; globalized, yet heterogeneous; accelerated, yet unbalanced. There are no longer red and blue countries, but a wide variety of colors, exploding like a Pollock painting.

This serves as a preamble to consider the outstanding projects of 2016 according to the British critic Oliver Wainwright, whose map of the world appears to extend from New York in the West to Oslo in the East, with the exception of Birzeit in Palestine. The Global South represents more than 40% of the global economy and already includes most of the world’s megacities, yet has no architecture worthy of recognition? We wanted to highlight the following projects in order to expand the western-centric world view, enabling us to truly comprehend the extent of architectural innovation on a global scale.

Vo Trong Nghia Proposes Green City Hall for Bac Ninh City

Vo Trong Nghia Architects (VTNA) has unveiled a proposal for a Green City Hall in Vietnam’s Bac Ninh City. Designed as a vertical park, the 36,000 square meter proposal is meant to serve as a new symbol for a traditionally agricultural, but rapidly industrializing area of Northern Vietnam. The VTNA proposal is part of a larger plan to develop a new urban area on the edge of the old city, and is designed to be a catalyst for future green developments in the area.

Vo Trong Nghia Proposes Green City Hall for Bac Ninh City - Image 1 of 4Vo Trong Nghia Proposes Green City Hall for Bac Ninh City - Image 2 of 4Vo Trong Nghia Proposes Green City Hall for Bac Ninh City - Image 3 of 4Vo Trong Nghia Proposes Green City Hall for Bac Ninh City - Image 4 of 4Vo Trong Nghia Proposes Green City Hall for Bac Ninh City - More Images+ 3