Architects have long explored the concept of integrating interior and exterior, smoothing out the physical and visual boundaries in an attempt to bring the landscape into the architecture. However, when visiting the site to develop the project, two distinct scenarios may appear: an urban terrain, lacking a view, or natural elements; or a green area with trees and bushes, for example. In the latter case, many projects rely on the on-site location of each tree to accommodate the architectural design, respecting them, and creating new views, through patios and connecting them with the new landscape design. However, based on studies of the species and their size, it is increasingly common for these trees to be incorporated into the interior space, either partially or completely enclosed.
The City of Montreal had launched a national, multidisciplinary landscape architecture contest, in order to generate an innovative scheme to reinstate natural habitats in the city. A team of four firms, civiliti, LAND Italia, Table Architecture, and Biodiversité Conseil, have won the competition, by creating a corridor that will enable the transition from a mostly asphalted, fragmented territory to a diversified urban landscape, connected to all living beings.
Bivouac #1 / Claudio Araya, Maria Valese, Natalia Kogia and Iga Majorek. Image Courtesy of YACademy
A characteristic feature of the classes of YACademy - the school of architecture founded by YAC in 2018 - is offering students interesting, hands-on workshops. In the school's curriculum, a key focus is the relational dynamics between natural and artificial, between anthropic intervention and landscape pre-existence. These themes prompted YACademy to create a High-Level Training Course in Architecture for Landscape: a program made up of lectures by renowned professionals, followed by internships in some of the most well-regarded firms in the world.
Design With Nature Now revisits Ian McHarg’s eponymous 1969 book and takes stock of current practices and projects of resilience in landscape design the world over, such as AECOM’s Weishan Lake National Wetland Park in Shandong, China. Courtesy AECOM
Moving away from its early exclusive focus on natural disasters, resilient architecture and design tackles the much tougher challenge of helping ecosystems regenerate.
Thirty years ago, as a high school student at the Cranbrook boarding school in suburban Detroit, I wrote a research-based investigative report on the environmental crisis for the student newspaper. I had been encouraged to do so by a faculty adviser, David Watson, who lived a double life as a radical environmentalist writing under the pseudonym George Bradford for the anarchist tabloid Fifth Estate. His diatribe How Deep Is Deep Ecology? questioned a recurring bit of cant from the radical environmental movement: Leaders of groups like Earth First! frequently disparaged the value of human life in favor of protecting nature.
We are heading for a scenario in which BIM technology will greatly help us to maximize the roles and skills of civil construction professionals, making room for us to plan, design, build and manage buildings and infrastructures much more efficiently, integrating all systems, structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing in a responsible, economical and sustainable way.
With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping through the world's urban centers, governments worldwide are urging citizens to hunker down at home in a bid to quell the virus' spread. For apartment dwellers under quarantine, balconies have become the new platforms for entertainment and social interaction, making now an opportune moment in rethinking how we design and build these outdoor urban spaces.
While public parks and gardens have closed down their doors around the world, in fear of the COVID-19 spread, Studio Precht has proposed a green space designed around the rules of physical distancing. Entitled “Parc de la Distance”, the project introduces an outdoor space that encourages social distancing and short-term solitude.
Designed by Sasaki in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team including Arup, JLL, and the Wuhan Planning Institute, the Wuhan Yangchun Lake Business District master plan was approved by the city. Imagining “a progressive yet realistic vision for the district”, the project, a landscape-forward urban blueprint, will define Wuhan’s next generation of growth.
A crowd of locals watch a movie at Discovery Green, Houston, TX, USA. Image Courtesy of PPS
This article was originally published by Project for Public Spaces as "What makes a successful place?", a brief guideline about how to develop great public spaces by following four qualities: Sociability, Uses & Activities, Access & Linkages, and Comfort & Image.
Great public spaces are those places where celebrations are held, social and economic exchanges occur, friends run into each other, and cultures mix. They are the “front porches” of our public institutions – libraries, field houses, schools – where we interact with each other and government. When these spaces work well, they serve as the stage for our public lives, but what makes some places succeed while others fail?
https://www.archdaily.com/914616/what-makes-a-great-public-placeProject for Public Spaces
Entitled Becoming Xerophile, Cooking Sections and AKT II have developed a zero-water desert garden, part of the first Sharjah Architecture Triennial in UAE, curated by Adrian Lahoud. The installation explores the introduction of desert landscapes in the urban fabric of the city and everyday life.
We are pleased to announce the launch of an annual international design competition: Low-cost House Design Competition. The competition is designed to challenge and seek creativity with ideas and concepts in architectural design, as well as landscape design or site planning. This competition aims to promote alternative solutions to housing, coming up with affordable and sustainable units with limited size and budget to the urgent demands for a house of urban poor.
The challenge is both multidisciplinary and multi-scale, a minimal housing capable of fulfilling the residents' requirements of thrift and sustainability. This year’s competition focuses on low-cost house, an affordable
Waterfront View. Image Courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron
The Grand CanalMuseum Complex in Hangzhou, China designed by Herzog & de Meuron reflects on the importance of this area in Chinese cultural and natural landscapes. The project illustrates the story of the Grand Canal, through a continuous dialogue between the water and the museum.
Does it make sense to design green parks in desert cities such as Casablanca, Dubai, or Lima? Ostensibly it does, because they contribute freshness and greenness to the urban environment. In exchange, however, they disrupt native local ecosystems, incur high maintenance bills, and begin a constant struggle to ensure water availability.
On 15 November, the International Competition for the Architectural Landscape Design Concept for the Tuchkov Buyan Park in Saint Petersburg will begin accepting applications from participants. Interested parties can submit their application at park-spb.ru/eng
Soil is the foundation of the Earth in which we all inhabit. We grow from it, prosper from it, build upon it, pollute it, and dichotomize it. Soil is an organic material providing a sustainable base for life. Yet, polarized as degrading and dirty. How is it that soil can unite nations, yet divide people? What power does it have in cultivating the built environment and defining its boundaries?
Dichotomy invites you to define what perspective grounds you in soil. Submissions should consider soil as a response to the growth, prosperous, developable, polluted, and/or divided earth that is the foundation
The landscape around the built environment can make all the difference in a project. Natural elements that are integrated into architecture or designed to compose it make a huge difference in the way we experience space. Therefore, designing landscape projects is no simple task. To bring some references for compositions with nature and other elements that help to configure a place, we have gathered fifteen contemporary Brazilian projects that explore simple solutions and the ones that expose the exuberance of the country's tropical flora.
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