So Il: The Latest Architecture and News

Update 1/23/18: The jury for the competition has been announced as the architects arrive on site for walkthroughs.

Six star-studded teams have been shortlisted in the Adelaide Contemporary International Design Competition, which is seeking to create a new contemporary art museum and public sculpture park on a significant site near the University of Adelaide and the Adelaide Botanic Garden in Adelaide, Australia.

Selected from 107 teams made up of over 500 individual firms, the six shortlisted teams were chosen through the “outstanding quality” of their initial submissions and for the complementary strengths of each of the team members.

 “This is an extraordinarily rich list of diverse creative partnerships of architects looking to complement their talents by working with both peers and smaller talented practices. The final decision was very demanding but these are the teams that convinced us through the outstanding quality of their submissions,” said Nick Mitzevich, Director, Art Gallery of South Australia.

ARCHMARATHON has announced the winners of their 2017 Awards Program as the event, which took place at Faena Forum in Miami from October 12-14, comes to a close. Now in its 4th edition, the Awards focus on architecture studios that have been actively practicing in USA, Canada, Central America and Latin America.

Winners were chosen by a jury consisting of Luca Molinari, Francisco Pardo, Sebastian Salvat, Alejandro Paredes Fontanals and ArchDaily’s David Basulto and David Assael in in 8 themed categories: MOVING, LIVING, DREAMING, WORKING, CHILLING OUT, CARING, VISIONING and RE-THINKING. This year’s overall winner was awarded to Rozana Montiel | Estudio de Arquitectura + Alin V. Wallach for their community space, Common Unit.

See all the winners below:

Today SO-IL, in collaboration with Ana Prvački, debuted L’air pour air on the occasion of the press preview of the second edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. The performance explores the art of performing behind a filter in an age where many cities suffer from the environmental impact of human habitation. Described as "part installation and part musical performance," the creators have drawn inspiration from abundant plant life and the interconnectedness of people and nature.

SO-IL and Laisné Roussel architects have been selected as the winners of an international competition to design a new masterplan for Place Mazas in Paris. Titled L’Atelier de l’Arsenal, the proposal seeks to integrate the historic fabric of the site into a new, flexible urban strategy organized around a variety of new buildings and public spaces.

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The Chicago Architecture Biennial and it's artistic directors, Johnston Marklee, have revealed a collection of Special Projects designed to harness the curatorial vision of the event—entitled Make New History—and bring it to a number of significant landmarks in the city and in it's surrounding area. Featuring a SO-IL and Ana Prvački collaboration, a Francois Perrin installation, a new performance artwork by Gerard & Kelly at the Farnsworth House, photographs by James Welling, and films by Gerard & Kelly, the projects will inhabit some Chicago's greatest "architectural gems."

CANactions seeks to enhance the creation of places and communities in Ukraine where people love to live and work. CANactions integrates the most relevant world experience in the sphere of architecture and urbanism to educate and inspire responsibility active change makers. For this moment CANactions is a member of Future Architecture Platform.

Cities around the world are facing a shortage of attractive housing options that use resources in a responsible, environmentally-positive manner. Looking to solve this challenge, New York-based firm SO-IL has teamed up with car manufacturer MINI to create MINI LIVING – Breathe, a “ forward-thinking interpretation of resource-conscious, shared city living within a compact footprint.

Now on display at the Milan Salone del Mobile 2017, the prototype structure is constructed of a translucent fabric membrane stretched across a modular metal frame that rises vertically from a previously unused 50-square-meter urban plot. Six rooms and a roof garden provide the space for flexible programmatic arrangements, adhering to the MINI LIVING principles of “Creative use of space” and “Minimal footprint.”

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The Chicago Architecture Biennial has announced the list of participants invited to contribute to the event’s second edition, which will be held from September 16 to January 7, 2018 in Chicago. More than 100 architecture firms and artists have been selected by 2017 artistic directors Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, founders of Los Angeles–based Johnston Marklee, to design exhibitions that will be displayed at the Chicago Cultural Center and throughout the city.

“Our goal for the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial is to continue to build on the themes and ideas presented in the first edition,” explained Johnston and Lee. “We hope to examine, through the work of the chosen participants, the continuous engagement with questions of history and architecture as an evolutionary practice.”

The Architectural Review (AR) has announced the shortlist of 9 female architects in the running for its 2016 Woman Architect of the Year and the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture awards. This year’s candidates come from a wide range of backgrounds, operating in UK, Mexico, France, the USA and Canada, and have been lauded by the AR for their “projects demonstrating exceptional design and awareness of geographical and political contexts.”

What influence do art and space have on the contemporary architectural design process? MoMA's most recent exhibition on architecture and design Conceptions of Space strives to answer this question. Themed under the umbrella of spatial relations, Curator Pedro Gadanho ruminates on the subject in a broad and philosophical sense. The exhibition delves into the topic using an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating research from French philosopher Michel Foucault on the subject of the expanded field. The exhibition aims to explore the relationship between the development of space and its deep-seated roots in the creative arts.

UPDATE: SO-IL has broken ground on UC Davis' new campus art museum. Completion is slated for 2016.

The University of California, Davis has selected emerging New York-based practice SO-IL to design a new campus’ art museum, which is envisioned to be a “regional center of experimentation, participation and learning.” SO-IL, selected from three finalists following an intensive five-month design competition, will collaborate with San Francisco-based Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and national construction firm Whiting-Turner to complete the project.

UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi believes the winning design has turned the traditional notion of museum design inside out, as SO-IL’s concept will engage visitors with a sequence of interconnected interior and exterior spaces that are defined by curved glass walls and capped with a 50,000 square foot steel canopy. At night, the “Grand Canopy” will illuminate from within, establishing a new focal point for the campus and beckoning drivers along Interstate 80 between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe.

Four international teams have unveiled their shortlisted proposals in the final leg of a highly anticipated competition to design a new “cultural hotspot” on the edge of the Rhine. ArtA, the “catchy” new name of what was previously known as “The Arts Cluster,” is part of a larger redevelopment project for the City of Arnhem which aims to reconnect the southern district of Rijnboog with its waterfront and establish a new home for the Focus Film Theatre and Museum Arnhem.

A sneak peak of the shortlisted proposals, after the break...