Masterplan: The Latest Architecture and News

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.

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PLP Architecture has unveiled plans for Tokyo Cross Park, an upcoming redevelopment of an entire district set to become the largest development site in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. The new 230-hectare "green heart of the city" will include four towers, two of which to be designed by PLP, a 31-metre-tall podium with an elevated green public realm, and a 2-hectare public plaza.

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MVRDV, together with Spanish practice GRAS Reynés Arquitectos, is transforming the iconic El Terreno neighbourhood in Palma, Mallorca, into a vibrant residential area, through renovations and new additions. After decades of decline, a series of neighbouring plots in Plaza Gomila are to be redeveloped through a public-private venture, with the aim of restoring the essence of the bohemian neighbourhood. Each executed in a different colour and material, the seven diverse buildings form a recognisable district with a variety of typologies.

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Foster + Partners has been chosen by Masterise Homes to serve as Architectural Advisors for the development of The Global City, an all-inclusive neighborhood in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and the first of its kind in the country for the architecture office. The practice will provide innovative and sustainable design solutions for a fully-integrated master plan that features a full range of facilities, residential units, and connections to highways, major roads, and metro lines.

3XN I GXN, Gehl Architects, and ConAm Management Corporation have been selected for the second phase of a new masterplan in San Diego, California. Titled Neighborhood Next, the 15-minute community proposes 5,000 homes for residents of all income levels, with cultural, commercial, and recreational spaces all weaved within green promenades and public parks.

MVRDV has been commissioned by the Armenian non-profit organization DAR Foundation for Regional Development and Competitiveness to develop a masterplan that will transform Gagarin Valley's 34,000-hectare area into a more sustainable and ecologically diverse land. With the help of over 10,000 plant species, innovative facilities, and additional 12,000 housing units, the valley is set to become an ideal community for sustainable agriculture and ecotourism.

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Snøhetta+Hassell were announced as the winners of an international competition to transform Sydney's Harbourside in Darling Harbour into a new mixed-use destination. The design was selected by the jury for how it envisioned a place that brings people together, featuring an all-inclusive shopping, hospitality, and entertainment center, an exclusive 42-storey residential tower, as well as a redesign of the public spaces on the waterfront.

Ronald Lu & Partners designed a new transit-oriented development (TOD) in Shenzhen, reshaping a former industrial zone near Chiwan Port. The project builds on the firm's extensive experience with green architecture and TODs, proposing a biophilic development that restores nature in the area. Featuring a mixture of residential, business, commercial, and educational facilities, the design is set to become a key urban environment within the Greater Bay Area connecting Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macau.

KCAP revealed its competition-winning design for the Keflavík Airport Area Strategic Masterplan in Iceland, comprising an area of 55 square kilometres around the country’s global aviation hub. Developed together with Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners, Kanon Arkitektar and a multidisciplinary team of professionals across a wide range of fields, the masterplan proposes a “collaborative development between public and private sectors”, seeking to transform specific areas around the airport into the hallmarks of the country’s sustainability and economic strategies.

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KCAP Architects and Planners have unveiled the ZIL-South masterplan, a new residential district in Moscow built on the basis of a 15-minute city. The masterplan will be built on the largest brownfield area of the former ZIL industrial zone, and will feature more than 100 hectares of commercial and residential landmarks, public spaces, parks, landscapes, and interconnect routes alongside the Moskva River, all inspired by the area's pre-industrial past.

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Grimshaw Architects, Archipel Generalplanung AG, and landscape architects LAND have won the competition to design the masterplan for University of Bern's Muesmatt campus in Switzerland. The winning design was selected from a shortlist of 26 participants, and was commended for how it opens up Bern's quarter and re-establishes urban and visual connections.

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MVRDV revealed plans for adaptive reuse of Berliner Union Film Ateliers (BUFA), receiving planning approval to redevelop the first two buildings. The project expands the scope of the site to address a broader user base, including all kinds of creative industries, as well as organisations and individuals involved in activism and social justice. Building on the site's heritage and spatial diversity, MVRDV proposes a series of sustainable transformations of the existing structures, reaffirming the adaptive reuse ethos.

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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.

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Foster + Partners revealed its design for a masterplan focusing on adaptive reuse and programmatic diversity meant to regenerate the site of a mid-century factory in the heart of Santiago. The practice's first project in Chile proposes the refurbishment of the existing factory building, La Fabrica, while adding a residential development on the adjacent site and introducing timber as a sustainable building material for the extensions.

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OMA’s mixed-use development for Morden Wharf has just been granted planning consent from the Royal Borough of Greenwich’s Planning Committee. The scheme created for developer U+I is located on a 2.4-hectare brownfield site, with an industrial past, on London’s Greenwich Peninsula facing the historic Greenwich and the millennial O2 Arena.

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Work on Bjarke Ingels Group's gateway for Milan's CityLife district has officially commenced. The new-generation office building marks the completion of the CityLife area in the Italian city, an urban regeneration project that has been restored to provide a livable environment characterized by sustainability, improved quality of life, and all-inclusive services. The structure is set to "stand as a new paradigm for the offices of the future, as the outcome of a new idea of workplace based on innovative design solutions that put quality of life at the center and redefine the concept of sustainability".

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UNStudio has won the competition to redesign Sochi Waterfront with a masterplan that creates the framework for a vibrant urban environment for the local community while shaping a new identity for the notorious leisure resort on the Black Sea coast. Dubbed SoCo, the proposal seeks to create a year-round destination that would provide visitors with new attractions within Russia’s most important holiday destination, building on existing natural and cultural resources. At the same time, the design strategy focuses on shaping a close connection to the landscape and natural environment, building the foundation for inclusive neighbourhoods that would bring together various social groups.

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MVRDV's Traumhaus Funari project, a residential master plan that redevelops parts of a former US Military barracks, has started construction in Mannheim, Germany. The project aims to combine affordability, individuality, and diversity by allowing residents to make their own ecological and spatial choices regarding their homes. The master plan consists of a catalogue of residential typologies with a variety of materials, sizes, finishes, interior layouts, and connections to the outdoors which future residents can choose from.

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