Ghisellini Architects, in collaboration with Lucrezia Alemanno and Paolo Beniamino De Vizzi has unveiled the redevelopment and complete redesign project for the new Piazza Francesca Cabrini in Livraga, Italy. Located about 45 kilometers southeast of Milan, the municipality of Livraga set out to transform the currently degraded public space and transform it into an attractive gathering place with site-specific environmental and landscaping features. Construction is expected to begin in August 2023 and is scheduled for competition in 2024.
Landscape architecture is having a moment. The latest proof: last week, the US Department of Homeland Security decided to accredit the field with its prestigious STEM designation. As part of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational disciplines that fall under this category, landscape architecture students can now spend an additional 24 months seeking employment and training post-graduation in the United States after an initial period of a year granted to all graduates. The title also promises more prestige, higher entry salaries, and additional career flexibility. Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), calls the development a significant advancement for 'landscape architecture education and practice, and that is great for America and the global community.'
The news corresponds to a growing emphasis on landscape architecture as a pivotal practice around the globe in recent years – one that is closely connected to notions of public health, environmental design, biophilia, sustainability, and re-wilding. It also underlines the intimate relationship between technology and the discipline. Landscape proposals increasingly rely on advanced science and technology to predict how ecological interventions might alter an existing terrain and determine what measures will yield the highest benefit for both humans and nature. The contemporary ideal of wild meadows and biodiverse forests may exist free from external influence, but the path to get there requires assistance.
A healthy environment that is also visually appealing in our homes has become increasingly sought when it comes to designing houses and residential spaces, especially during the world’s current context. One of the most successful ways of achieving this is through a thoughtful design of the landscape that complements the built project. The art of landscaping is the arrangement of nature’s raw material elements, like vegetation and planting, combined with nonliving elements, such as exterior structures, paving, and decking, in order to create site-specific solutions that enhance the exterior spaces of a project.
Domesticity, curatorial Keyword of Taiwan Pavilion at Venice Biennale Architecture 2023. Image Courtesy of National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art
The 18th annual Architecture Exhibition La Biennale Di Venezia is taking place from May to November under the theme of “The Laboratory of the Future”. This year, the Taiwanese Pavilion, organized by the Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, announced that it will explore the intelligence embedded in surrounding landscapes. “Diachronic Apparatuses of Taiwan” displays how locals throughout Taiwanese history have used their intuition to shape their environment. Furthermore, the project also opens a dialogue about artificial and natural terrain to rediscover what we may learn from nature.
The Athens International Airport was decommissioned in 2001, leading to two decades of work for the local government to establish funding and a governance mechanism to transform the 600 acres of unused space into Europe’s largest coastal park. The site has a layered history, from prehistoric settlements to the construction of the airport in the 20th century and the site being used for as an Olympic venue in 2004. Architecture office Sasaki is leading the design to transform the site again and create the Ellinikon Metropolitan Park, a restorative landscape and climate-positive design that will serve as a park, playground, and cultural center for the city of Athens. Developers are planning to break ground early next year.
Ennead Architects has revealed the design for the Wuxi Art Museum in the historic port city of Wuxi, China. The competition-winning design proposes a new center for art and culture that builds upon the tradition of the Chinese gardens, a practice with a long legacy in the region. The complex is located in the Shangxianhe Wetland Park, a natural environment that informs and influences the museum experience. According to the designers, the architecture behind the Wuzi Art Museum is conceived as a Taihu Scholar Stone, a contemplative spatial structure sitting quietly in the broader natural context and inviting visitors to pause.
Scheduled to open in 2025, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park, reveals the latest details in the construction and addition of artwork. The first of its kind, the Lucas Museum, founded by filmmaker George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson, will be devoted to all forms of visual storytelling, including painting, photography, sculpture, illustration, comic art, performance, and video. Designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects with Michael Siegel of Stantec, the five-story and 27900 square-meter building will feature a gallery space, two state-of-the-art theaters, and dedicated spaces for learning and engagement, dining, retail, and events.
In parallel with the restoration works underway at the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral, the city of Paris has launched a design competition to redevelop the cathedral’s surroundings. On June 27, the jury announced the team led by landscape designer Bas Smets as the winner of the competition. The project, planned to start in 2024, will reimagine the square and the underground parking spaces beneath it, including the archeological crypt, the Jean XXIII square located behind the cathedral, the Seine riverbanks, and the adjacent streets. This extensive project aims to bring Parisians back to the heart of Paris and welcome the 12 million visitors coming each year in better conditions.
The history and culture of the Philippines are reflected in its architectural heritage, with numerous influences from other nations paving the way for the contemporary designs we see today, a mixité of cultural influences amongst Western-style buildings. Philippine architecture has grown along with the progress of the nation and its people, but memories of a glorious past are still embedded within the nation’s history.
The international horticultural exhibition Floriade Expo 2022 opened to the public yesterday on the site of MVRDV's arboretum masterplan in Almere. The concept features an alphabetical library of trees and plants arranged into lots on a rigorous grid across the 60-hectare site. The masterplan was conceived as a framework for the Expo, and at the same time, as a blueprint for a sustainable city district, given that the park will be transformed into a new residential area after the event. Held every ten years and running for six months, the Expo showcases the latest innovations in the field, from nature-inclusive agriculture to a sustainable pilot home made from 93 per cent recycled plastic.
Paris City Council granted final approval to Gustafson Porter + Bowman's landscape design for the Eiffel Tower site. The project is the result of a 2019 international competition that sought to redesign the 2-kilometre axis leading up to the Eiffel Tower, connecting Place du Trocadéro, Palais de Chaillot, Pont d'Iéna, Champ de Mars and the Military Academy. The landscape plan redefines this iconic green space in Paris by increasing green areas by 35% and adding over 200 new trees, in addition to pedestrianizing the Iena bridge.
World Architecture Festival has revealed the winners for this year’s categories, highlighting buildings and landscapes completed across the world between 2019 and 2021. Chosen from almost 500 shortlisted projects from 62 countries, the winning projects showcase exemplary contributions to the built environment reflecting this edition’s theme: ‘Resetting the City: Greening, Health and Urbanism’. In addition to the completed buildings categories, the annual award also announced Copenhill, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, as the 2021 World Building, while SLA was awarded Landscape of the Year for its design of Al Fay Park.
Canada’s Department of National Heritage has announced the five finalists for the LGBTQ2+ National Monument competition, a project meant to tell the story of generations of people who have been persecuted, specifically during the LGBT Purge period. Among the shortlisted designs is The Lens, a proposal that turns a symbol of oppression into an identity element and uses the landscape to express the community’s reverberation into society. Designed by a team comprising Canadian office Fathom studio, MVRDV and Two Row Architect, the proposal seeks to express resiliency, creating a space for memorialization and education while providing an inclusive space for the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community.
A new masterplan along the central Pailao River in Shenzhen proposes a climate-proof regeneration of the area, using nature and water retention ecological zones to mitigate the risk of flooding. Created by urban design and architecture practice VenhoevenCS, with landscape vision by Hope Design and water management plan by Huadong Engineering, the Pailao River Blueway Project capitalizes on the coexistence of the urban and the natural environment, ensuring resilience and enhancing the economic growth of the city district.
Within the Andes Mountains, the San Pedro Hot Springs is a place to press pause and contemplate, which interrupts a transnational highway between Chile and Argentina. Although these natural pools became a public landmark within the route, they eventually fell over time into a state of abandonment and deterioration as a result of the constant seismic movements in the region.
In response to this situation, Chilean architect Pia Montero sought to highlight the baths for her built-project thesis at the University of Talca in order to consolidate it as a landmark of tourist potential and symbol of the territorial identity of the Maule Region. Moreover, the project is a wake-up call to rediscover and rescue the value of the natural and cultural heritage of the area from the gradual abandonment into which it fell over the years.
Henning Larsen has been creating projects that address cross-cultural design, tackle diverse climatic zones, and try to achieve ambitious sustainability objectives. All of this wouldn’t be possible without the use of technology and specially crafted digital and generative design tools that allow architects to treat any element as a parameter in design.
In a special interview with ArchDaily, Jakob Strømann-Andersen, Partner and Director of Henning Larsen’s Innovation and Sustainability Department talks about digital tools and their incorporation in the design process. Focusing specifically in this conversation on Sandworm, a new modeling program that uses sandboxes, Anderson explains how they have achieved to scan and directly transfer manipulated landscapes into a 3D model.
This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights different competition-winning designs submitted by the ArchDaily Community. From large scale urban developments to small interventions in the landscape, from commercial projects to public spaces and urban planning strategies with an environmental focus, this article showcases a variety of design approaches, programs and scales. The proposals featured are the results of local and international competitions, either creative concepts or projects currently in progress.
The award-winning entries include a range of different projects, designed by both young architects and established firms. An adaptive reuse project for office towers in New York, the redevelopment of an industrial site in China, an abstract installation for a Russian festival, or a masterplan focused on climate resilience and ecosystems protection are a few of this week's highlights.
_Frans_Parthesius__-_02_Villa_Fifty-Fifty_Design_Studioninedots_Photography_Frans_Parthesius.jpg?1620679031 "© Frans Parthesius")
_Jeremias_Thomas_MeMo_House_IMG_2037_01.jpg?1620678960 "© Jeremias Thomas")
_Peter_Eckert_01_-_04_Hood_River_Residence.jpg?1620679227 "© Peter Eckert")
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