Interview: The Latest Architecture and News

Among the many topics explored at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, the idea of community has been at the forefront, with several national pavilions exploring its many manifestations, evolution, and its relationship with the future of built environments. ArchDaily met with the curators of Testimonial Spaces, Emilio Marín and Rodrigo Sepúlveda, the Chilean Pavilion at the Biennale, and discussed how the project tackled the question of the future of living together and how they bridged the stories from Santiago to Venice. The interview was conducted in Spanish but is provided with English subtitles.

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Swiss architect Mario Botta is known for his geometrically imposing, spatially captivating structures that are invariably dressed in zebra-like horizontal stripes in either black and white or red and white combinations. These both traditional and strikingly modern villas, chapels, wineries, schools, libraries, museums, company headquarters, banks, and residential blocks are scattered throughout towns and mountainous villages in the architect’s native Ticino region in southern Switzerland, extend all over Europe and can be encountered in places as far away as China, India, South Korea, Japan, and the USA.

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Videos

The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.

A variety of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes are interviews, while others are tips for fellow designers, reviews of buildings and other projects, or casual explorations of everyday life and design. The Second Studio is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

This week David and Marina are joined by Archie Lee Coates IV, a Co-Founder of the extremely multi-disciplinary design studio PLAYLAB. Archie discusses the evolution and future of PLAYLAB, naïveté in design and art, social equity in design practices and design, believing in humanity, design office as permeable amoeba, working with Virgil Abloh for the Louis Vuitton Show, and more.

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Stefan Fuchs & Raphael Dillhof interview Adam Nathaniel Furman and discuss the role and importance of facades in today's urban fabric, "in the context of a broader range of social, economic, and political issues". Part of a more in-depth study examining the role of facades in the 21st century, this discussion also raises the question of why buildings always embody the values of their creators.

Vladimir Belogolovsky speaks with Antoine Predock about the soon-to-be-built Bahías, a community of 13 houses in Costa Rica, inspired by a vision of manmade foliage.

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Despite the emergence of collective and interdisciplinary practices, architectural entrepreneurship remains a vague discipline. As academic institutes focus on cultivating students' hard skills during their undergraduate years, their soft skills are often overlooked, left to be acquired or strengthened during their work experience. Stepping into the "real world", fresh graduates who decide to venture into their professional journey as freelancers or in start-ups, often find themselves overwhelmed with questions; 'How do I convince the client? Am I communicating my concept properly to the contractors? Am I charging the client enough? Why is the project not being executed like I designed it? Why is this project taking a lot more time than I intended it to? How can I run a successful business if I've never taken a business course in architecture school?'

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Exploring the question of slavery in Architecture, the building materials and the construction industry, Michael J. Crosbie interviews Sharon Prince, the women behind Design for Freedom, discussing the initiative's report "on the pervasive use of slavery in the design and construction industry, and how design professionals can respond".

"The house is among the first concepts shared by society and architecture", states André Tavares and Pippo Ciorra, curators of the exhibition called At Home: Projects for Contemporary Housing, on display at Garagem Sul / Centro Cultural Belém, in Lisbon. The show, which is the unfolding of another one previously held at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, gathers pieces from the huge collection of the Italian institution and seeks intersections with contemporary Portuguese architectural production. Its main topic – the house, the home – has never been more discussed than right now.

Bringing together houses of different scales, built in diverse locations by various methods and techniques, and designed by Italian, Portuguese and international architects, the exhibition gathers, in groups of three, projects from which it is possible to weave relationships that go beyond geographies and materialities and foster reflections about the future of housing and what the home of tomorrow will look like.

We had the opportunity to talk with Tavares and Ciorra about the exhibition, its motivations and expectations with its opening in the physical venue of Garagem Sul. Read below.

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Videos

Many architects and designers have highlighted the importance of taking into account all five senses during the design process, in order to create a successful user experience. Fortunately, many strategies have been implemented to facilitate the experience of those who are physically impaired, however, little is being done to aid those who feel helpless and restricted due to mental illnesses and traumatic experiences.

Healing from these experiences is a journey that requires a lot of effort from both the individual and everything and everyone around him/her. Oftentimes, victims of trauma are advised to spend more time in the outdoors, embracing the restorative qualities of nature. But what about interiors? Since people are now spending almost 90% of their time indoors, it is only natural that these spaces contribute to the healing process as well. And while these spaces can look beautiful with an abundance of natural light and neutral color palettes, are they truly beneficial to their mental health?

Desplans and KooZA/rch have revealed the three final winners of the #mycityscape competition. Inviting young creatives to this conversation, the open call questions the definition of the city, by asking “What establishes the identity of a city? What distinguishes one urban environment from the other? And What defines our relationship to the built landscape we inhabit?”

Trying to find the tools to map the city of the 21^st century, the competition encouraged young creatives to record the essence of their cityscape into one image. After selecting 12 shortlisted entries, the contest solicited a wider audience to decide the final winning designs, by voting for their favorites on social media. Following the release of the results, Christele Harrouk from ArchDaily had the chance to talk about the #mycityscape competition with both Desplans and KooZA/rch, discussing the theme and the whole process. Discover in this article the exchange as well as the final winning designs.