Zaha Hadid Architects has won an international competition for the design of the new Sverdlovsk Philharmonic Concert Hall in Yekaterinburg, Russia. A melting pot of Eastern and Western cultures, talents, and industries, the strategic Ural city hosts a Philharmonic Orchestra which has performed in more than 20 countries, while based in the existing 1936 Sverdlovsk Philharmonic building.
For the design of the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra’s new home, Zaha Hadid Architects “echoed the physical aspects of sound waves” to create an inspirational venue meeting the orchestra’s growing program, and to create a new public plaza for all citizens.
Artist Janet Echelman has unveiled her latest site-specific work of public art, with the activation of the first phase of “Pulse” in Philadelphia’s Dilworth Park. Pulse seeks to reshape urban space “with a monumental, fluidly moving sculpture that responds to environmental forces including wind, water, and sunlight.
Inspired by the square’s history as a water and transportation hub, Echelman’s work traces the paths and trolley lines of the subway beneath, with four-foot-tall curtains of colorful atomized mist traveling across the park’s fountain surface in response to passing trains underneath.
Hello Wood has revived its highly-successful POP-UP Park, bringing a touch of vibrancy to an underused square in downtown Budapest. Having built the structures in the summer of 2017, the park has returned one year later to provide “a democratic space for all social groups embedded within the everyday movement of the city.”
Open 24 hours per day, the park acts as a free-to-use space for people from all walks of life. Supported by the Municipality of Budapest, the scheme is situated in a frequented though empty spot beside the Budapest City Hall.
Apple’s Piazza Liberty Store, designed by Foster + Partners, has opened to the public in Milan, Italy. The scheme is located under an existing piazza close to the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, one of the most popular pedestrian streets in Milan.
The store is defined by a dramatic waterfall which surrounds the entrance while forming the backdrop to a large outdoor amphitheater. Piazza Liberty is the first Apple Store to be constructed in Italy following their retail design collaboration with Foster + Partners.
LOLA Landscape Architects, Taller Architects, and L+CC have released images of their competition-winning design for a 600-hectare forest and sports park in Guang Ming, Shenzhen, China. Commissioned in response to the exploding technology industry in the Shenzhen metropolitan area, the park will place an emphasis on health, sports, and nature to offer an ecological counterpoint to dense urban surroundings.
The winning collaboration saw off competition from JCFO, SWA, and TCL, with the competition jury praising the scheme for its “fresh approach and [for] being highly attentive to local ecology [while] meanwhile incorporating romantic techniques and realistic urban visions.”
Carlo Ratti Associati, working in collaboration with Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs, has unveiled their design for a modular paving system named “The Dynamic Street.” Intended to make streets “reconfigurable, safer, and more accessible to pedestrians, cyclists, and tomorrow’s self-driving vehicles,” the project will be on display at Sidewalk Lab’s office and experimentation space in Toronto throughout the summer of 2018.
Manifesting as a series of hexagonal modular pavers, the project explores the various patterns which can be created by reconfiguring modules, with a potential future “allowing a street to create an extra car lane during rush hour before then turning it into a pedestrian-only plaza in the evening.”
OOPEAA (Office for Peripheral Architecture) has won an invited competition for the design of the Allas Sea Pool Family in Helsinki, Finland. Constructed on floating platforms, and designed as a modular, flexible, adjustable system, the Allas Sea Pool Family is intended to be a new global typology for coastal sites, where building on land is not feasible.
The invited competition asked entrants to submit proposals which responded to varying environmental and seasonal conditions, with OOPEAA ultimately chosen for their “strong concept that places the floating spa in a central location in the city.”
Eduardo Souto de Moura, in collaboration with META architectuurbureau, has released images of a proposed urban renewal project in the Belgian city of Bruges. The Beursplein & Congresgebouw consists of a new exhibition hall and covered public square on the site of a recently demolished trade fair complex.
The $46million (€40million) scheme seeks to act as a catalyst for urban renewal at the center of Bruges, with a dual role of exhibition hall and conference center capable of receiving business delegates on weekdays, and tourists on weekends.
Brussels-based architecture firm 51N4E have won first prize for their Skanderbeg Square project in Tirana, Albania. The European Prize for Urban Public Space is a biennale competition that promotes creating, restoring, and improving public spaces within European cities, and have chosen this year’s winners for their impressive transformation of the city’s central square.
51N4E’s restructuring and renovation of the Skanderbeg Square is a result of winning an international architecture competition back in 2008. After the project was paused in 2010 for administrative changes, and resumed in 2015, the end result is a series of urban interventions, “inviting public and semi-public neighboring functions to spread into the exterior space”.
The Naomi Milgrom Foundation has released images of the MPavilion 2018, designed by Barcelona-based architect Carme Pinós of Estudio Carme Pinós, and situated in Melbourne, Australia. The fifth MPavilion in an ongoing series, the Estudio Carme Pinós design seeks to invite interaction at an intersection between people, design, nature, and the city.
The first Spanish architect to design an MPavilion, Carme Pinós follows on from past MPavilion designers such as OMA in 2017, Studio Mumbai in 2016, and AL_A in 2015.
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A team comprising Schauman & Nordgren Architects, MASU Planning, and Schauman Architects have been announced as winners of an invited competition for the design of a new exhibition, shopping, and housing scheme in an old customs area of Tampere, Finland. The “Tulli Halls” scheme is defined by a red brick materiality referencing the industrial heritage of the area, and a central tower forming a “beacon and focal point for Tampere.”
The scheme seeks to balance old and new, as well as public and private, with a form which has a “grounding in Tampere’s heritage as well as aspiring future” and public space to improve living conditions of residents and offer meeting places for the general public.
Zaha Hadid Architects has won an international competition for the Admiral Serebryakov Embankment masterplan in the city of Novorossiysk on Russia’s Black Sea coast. Connecting Russia with the Mediterranean, Atlantic Ocean, and Suez Canal, the industrial city is home to the nation’s largest shipping port, and the third busiest in Europe by turnover.
The ZHA masterplan, designed in collaboration with Russian studio Pride TPO, seeks to integrate new public space and amenities into the rich maritime history and traditions of Novorossiysk, achieved through careful consideration of building orientation, views, and landscape.
Mecanoo has released images of their proposed Taichung Green Corridor in Taiwan, set along a mile-long (1.7-kilometer) former railway line cutting through the city center. Once a valuable means of connection, the railway currently acts as a barrier due to its awkward position along a dyke, impeding circulation across the railway lines.
The Mecanoo scheme seeks to reuse the railway line to connect different parts of the city through a green corridor centered on biodiversity, cycling, and walking. Throughout the design process, Mecanoo addressed factors including urban regeneration, public participation, historic preservation, and green and water resources along the Green River waterfront.
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