From undulating forms to breathable qualities and sustainable fabrication, the future of façade design is an ever-evolving topic in architecture. designboom and ArchDaily team up with Corian® Design for a webinar to discuss new possibilities of exterior cladding. Experts at leading architecture practices, including Zaha Hadid Architects, M3 Architectes and STARH, join this call on an exclusive yet free webinar - register here.
Hearing – one of the human body’s five senses – enables our interaction with sound, a crucial factor for daily communication and much more. One commonly hears people say a place is noisy, but what exactly is the definition of noisy? Known as situations with unwanted sounds that interfere with daily activities, noisy places also have the potential to negatively interfere in society’s development.
Sound is measured in decibels (dB), and humans are able to resist a maximum average noise level of 85 dB without risking hearing damage. While a conversation usually ranges between 60 and 70 dB, according to the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, workers at a construction site are exposed to an average of 90 dB during eight-hour periods.
Acoustical Surfaces, a company specializing in noise control, has developed a product guide for minimizing the transmission of sound, thus promoting healthier lifestyles.
The A’ Design Award was "born out of the desire to underline the best designs and well-designed products." The A' Design Award, recognizing the excellent and original talent from across the globe, is both a major achievement for designers and a source of inspiration for award-winning architects, brands, and design agencies. Entry and nomination are open to contestants from every country. Registration for the A' Design Award & Competition 2022-2023 period is now open. Register and upload your design here.
The real estate industry moves fast. It wasn’t so long ago that potential buyers narrowed their searches by driving around with a sheaf of printed listings, and designers and builders relied on CAD drawings and artist renderings to show yet-to-be-built spaces. Nowadays, advances in graphics technology have brought us interactive 3D renderings, making it easier for investors, buyers, and other stakeholders to truly understand the designs they’re looking at.
Following on from these advances, we’re also seeing technology that can excite and entice buyers, like sales configurators and interactive tours, where visitors can choose finishes and design their own spaces right before their eyes; virtual reality experiences, where architects can get feedback from investors on design at key stages of the process; shadow studies, where potential occupants can see how a space will be affected by sunlight at various times of day; and digital twins, where cities can get a true idea of a building’s usage, which leads to new ways to optimize efficiencies and design better spaces for residents.
Building performance is a hallmark of architecture in the 21st century. With buildings and the construction industry being significant contributors to carbon emissions, designers must do everything to reduce their buildings’ energy consumption and carbon footprints. Moreover, buildings need to contribute to a positive occupant experience, improving the health and productivity of their users through enhanced visual and thermal comfort and air quality. Today’s buildings are also expected to perform outside their physical boundaries and positively impact surrounding communities; by reducing their contributions to local heat islands and stormwater runoff, and supporting local green economies and sustainable systems.
With high-performance design goals becoming a standard benchmark for buildings, designers must identify the high-performance aspects they want to design for and set targets for key performance metrics. By tracking a building’s performance at each design stage through various simulations, building performance analyses provide a road map that gradually connects its predicted performance to its target values.
As a response to this rapidly changing world, flexibility has become a top priority in contemporary interior design. That explains, for example, the growing demand for spacious and multifunctional spaces over rigid, enclosed floor plans –as is the case of the open kitchen trend. This shift in spatial needs suggests that designing for the present and the future is about creating spaces that can easily adapt to many uses: one day, a room may be destined for a big event; another day, it may be needed for smaller, more private environments. Therefore, materials, products and other interior design elements must respond accordingly, integrating technology and innovation to create flexible, yet functional spaces.
Timber construction and its benefits is moving into the BIM space for even more sustainable uses. A new BIM-integrated web application, called Carbon Fixers (which expands on its Offsite Wood plug-in for Revit), pre-calculates the carbon-benefit of choosing timber and other bio-sourced materials in early design.
Carbon Fixers lets you rapidly build a scenario using only basic architectural program information, such as the type, size, and number of stories in the building. For advanced users, preferences can be saved for firms with a regional expert dashboard, side-by-side comparisons and detailed assemblies.
Architects are constantly diving into design strategies that aim to select the best products to create outstanding atmospheres inside their projects. The solutions adopted in projects, especially in interiors, are highly influenced by trends that mirror what society values most at the time. But how are interiors being designed nowadays? With a focus on natural interiors and the interaction with their context, architecture is prioritizing local materials and textures, natural light and the use of minimal furniture that allows continuity throughout space.
Below we present a selection of inspiring projects that, using products from Spanish brands, showcase these modern trends, from the use of natural materials to maximizing natural light.
The IV edition of the biennial Living Places – Simon Architecture Prize for architecture nominations and registrations is still open and will close on the 15th of September via www.simonprize.org. Inscription and participation are entirely free of charge and the winning teams receive a cash prize of 10.000 €. The vocation of this recognition is to distinguish those architectural projects (including interiors, public spaces and landscaping) whose excellence enhances the capacity of the spaces to ensure the comfort of its inhabitants. Architectures that turn into higher quality spaces for people in their day-to-day lives: to work, to learn, to wait, to play... Architectures to live in.
In architecture, the concept of daylighting refers to when buildings allow natural light inside to provide a number of benefits, from enhanced visual comfort and productivity, to improved health and higher energy savings. However, to reach optimum levels of sunlight, reaching a balance is key; while too much can produce an uncomfortable glare and tremendous amounts of heat, too little can lead to health deficiencies and a greater dependency on artificial lighting. In that sense, the qualities of polycarbonate panels are unmatched, becoming an attractive choice for facades and roofs by achieving a soft, diffused light with varying levels of transparency, brightness and opacity.
Real-time visualization is an excellent tool for creating beautiful renderings and streamlining workflows within architectural and design projects. It plugs into your CAD, enabling you to visualize as you design.
On top of the high-quality renderings it produces, its speed and ease of use are some of the reasons why many firms have added it to their workflows. See how real-time visualization has benefitted these three firms.
Architectural firm Iglesias Leenders Bylois Architects (ILB Architects) has begun to incorporate the use of building information modeling (BIM). The greatest advocate is architect Meindert Leenders, who believes every architectural office should be working with BIM:
“It doesn’t need to be a big project. Take an actual case, set yourself a few achievable goals, and try to work them out in BIM." ILB chose 'Bergerheide' as a trial: a project consisting of three park villas, designed in collaboration with the construction company Dethier. The rules for collaboration were clearly set out by project director Vlaanderen Bouwt vzw, providing the architects a sturdy framework for experimenting with BIM.
The benefits of prefabrication are by now well-documented: prefabricated construction is cheaper, faster, better for the environment, and more consistent than traditional forms of architectural construction. At the same time, it can be used for a wide range of unique designs, calculated to meet a client’s specific needs. To take advantage of these many benefits, however, the prefabrication systems and products themselves must meet a certain standard of quality and flexibility.
Below, we consider five architectural projects using custom glass windows and doors by Western Window Systems, each designed to maximize utility for prefabricated and modular construction logics. Beyond their suitability for prefabricated construction, these products also maximize views, aesthetics, and functionality, blurring the line between indoor and outdoor living.
The A' Design Awards - the world's leading annual international juried design competition - were established to promote and recognize the best design work in all countries and in all creative disciplines. The Award has 100 main categories, including Architecture, Building and Structure Design, Interior Space and Exhibition Design, and Furniture Design, in addition to others related to the world of Lighting, Landscape, Building Materials, and many others. This year's edition is now open for entries; designers can register their submissions here.
“Counting sheep” is a well-known mental exercise that people use when trying to fall asleep. It is thought to have been popularized by Miguel de Cervantes in Don Quixote, who is said to have been inspired by a twelfth-century Spanish tale. Whatever its origin, it is curious to think that falling asleep has been a problem for so long, even long before the invention of electric light or social networks on smartphones. In the early 2000s, the University of Oxford developed a study to prove the effectiveness of this sheep-related method. The conclusion: this tactic does not work.
Something that is scientifically proven, however, is the relationship between the body's production of melatonin and the feeling of sleepiness at the end of the day, which can in turn lead to a restorative night of sleep. This is directly related to the circadian rhythm, our daily biological clock. This inner "clock" synchronizes our body's functioning and is highly influenced by the wavelengths and intensities of natural and electric light we are exposed to during the day. As we continue to spend more and more time indoors, typically with inadequate visual stimuli from electric lighting during the day, and too much stimulation from electronic devices and overhead lighting after dark - it is essential to focus on the study of lighting in architecture and how it affects people and their well-being.
On June 23, 2022, the Prequalification Review Meeting of「Beyond YUE｜Jianhu Revival」Shaoxing Jianhu Planning and Design Competition was held at the Jianhui Hall of Mirror Lake Hotel, Keqiao District, Shaoxing City. After 6 hours of careful review, discussion and selection, 6 participating units stood out and were shortlisted for the conceptual planning & urban design and competition review stage of the competition from 46 valid application documents submitted by 89 international top planning and design units and firms, as well as 11 individuals.
Puerto Rico’s Local Redevelopment Authority for Roosevelt Roads (LRA) is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP #2022-004) through a Design Competition. The objective for this RFP is to obtain proposals from qualified architectural and engineering firms able to provide a full range of services – including studies, design, sustainability design, permits procurement and other services – for the development and construction of the Marine Business, Research and Innovation Center (MBRIC). Located in the eastern region of the island - specifically in the former Coast Guard Pier in Roosevelt Roads, Ceiba, municipality - the project will be developed in conjunction with Bluetide Puerto Rico, Inc., which collaborated with the LRA in the development of the program, as well as in establishing the needs and requirements necessary for the development of MBRIC. Bluetide will be responsible for overseeing the operation and maintenance of the facilities.
Global management consultancy McKinsey & Company in 2016 noted that the construction industry was ripe for disruption. Considered one of the world’s largest sectors, the forced advancement and adoption of innovative technologies have allowed the engineering and construction (E&C) industry to persevere in the last two years. In fact, a more recent report, also from McKinsey, noted that the construction industry is more likely to emerge from the pandemic leaner, more digitised, and with a greater eye toward sustainability.