Sponsored Post: The Latest Architecture and News

The A’ Design Award is an international award whose aim is to provide designers, architects, and innovators from all architecture and design fields with a competitive platform to showcase their work and products to a global audience. Among the design world's many awards, the A' Design Award stands out for its exceptional scale and breadth; over the eleven years the Award has been given, more than 12,000 awards have been bestowed across 110 categories and 180 nationalities. This year's edition is now open for entries; designers can register their submissions here.

+ 17

Safety and design are not mutually exclusive - especially when you choose EGGER products with certified antibacterial surface property. The wood-based materials manufacturer makes it easy for architects and fabricators in their projects with high hygiene requirements: the antibacterial property is included in products with the proven EGGER decor and material combination.

Malibu Crest, a 2019 remodeling of a 1949 International Style home, was a vital undertaking by the architecture firm Studio Bracket that aimed to expand the structure’s square footage and panoramic views of Malibu while retaining over 50% of the home’s original walls. The project was ultimately successful, not only in its refurbishment of the interior rooms and reconfiguration of the space, but in its enlargement of the windows to truly capture views of the surrounding lagoon and mountains. This expansion of the view was done in part through an open corner window scheme and floor-to-ceiling glass, manufactured by Western Window Systems. The uninterrupted glass walls afforded by this open corner technology is one of the most effective ways that architects can open an interior space to the stunning vistas of a natural environment. Yet an even more striking configuration increasingly being employed by residential architects is that of the open corner sliding glass door – a system that can even more completely open an interior space to the unobstructed outdoors. Below, we discuss this technology in more detail, alongside several examples of projects using the open corner glass door.

How do we define “home”? Although ideas about our homes are constantly being rethought, the careful examination of “home” has recently come to the attention of architects and nonarchitects alike. We’ve all had to confront our perspective of “home” as we have adapted workplaces, social gatherings, fitness routines, and everyday life in recent months. Not only do we now internalize a home, but we now look at how our homes can connect to the rest of the outside world.

For the past three years, The HOME Competition has challenged architects to rethink the “home”. Through the ages, architects have continuously investigated the role that homes play in our lives, like Peter Eisenman’s House VI or Kurokawa’s Nagakin Capsule Tower. Today, it may be more important than ever to consider the modern role that a “home” must play and the inherent connection that exists between a “home” and its residents.

Saratov, a Russian city on the Volga River, has launched an International Competition to determine the Best Integrated Spatial Development Concepts for the Development of the City Centre. Saratov is a city located in the southeastern European portion of Russia, a major cultural and economic centre of the Volga region. This open international competition will determine the best concept for integrated development of 5 sites in the central part of the city: the former Saratov-Tsentralny (Saratov-Central) Airport, the Park Pobedy (Victory Park) Memorial Complex on Sokolovaya Gora, Zeleny Island, Glebuchev Ovrag (Glebuchev Ravine) and the Pokrovskie Peski (Pokrovsky Sands) Island.

Epic Games is excited to announce the launch of The Pulse—a new series of interviews and live Q&As exploring the latest thinking on interactive 3D technology. In this presentation, David Basulto, Founder and Director of ArchDaily, will be joined by speakers from KPF, Squint/Opera, and Epic Games to discuss the many new ways collaboration is enhanced by the shift to real-time techniques.

In the last few decades, architecture and interior design have experienced a dramatic shift in the workflows that professionals consider standard. Hand-drafting is long gone; for many it’s nostalgic, and many more embrace the power incumbent to digital drafting tools. Some take it even further with BIM, embracing the process to lead their businesses into lasting success.

Architectural visualization company Brick Visual has been loading its most complex scenes into Chaos Group’s real-time 3D ray-traced engine, Project Lavina, since the private beta first launched. With the first public beta now available, Attila Cselovszki, CDO at Brick Visual, shares how adding Project Lavina to the architectural visualization (arch-viz) pipeline has revolutionized the way they work.

+ 4

It takes more than creativity to create exceptional designs. Effective collaboration is an essential element in any successful project, as well as in day-to-day business. Using the right tools can help architects and designers overcome project obstacles and elevate their designs. Real-time rendering tool Enscape has introduced a collaborative issue-tracking feature, aptly named Collaborative Annotation, in their latest software version 2.8. This new feature promises to provide architects and designers with a more collaborative workflow.

Videos

Hessenwald School in Weiterstadt, Germany, is an example of energy-efficient, contemporary architecture that offers a new teaching and pedagogical model. At the centre of both model and building stands a well-lit and well-ventilated three-storey atrium.

As ride-sharing services grow and personal ownership of automobiles declines, office building owners and developers are re-thinking the value of parking structures, and their capacity and ability to convert. As part of the total transformation of One Post Office Square (OPOS), located in the heart of Boston's financial district and designed by Gensler, a new automated parking garage will optimize the use of valuable leasable space, enhance the user experience and create long term flexibility.

The relationship between space and well-being has always been a key consideration at IE University’s School of Architecture & Design. As this concept becomes increasingly widespread, the boundaries of what’s possible are being pushed. By providing students with a global vision of architecture and design, they are able to create multipurpose spaces that boost well-being and remain flexible as needs evolve.

There’s a new kid on the block making noise in Brooklyn’s thriving Bushwick neighborhood. At 7-stories tall, 500 units, and occupying 489,000 square feet of real estate, The Rheingold is one of the most expansive multi-family developments in Brooklyn to date.

Using the new Light Mix in V-Ray 5, artists and designers can visualize ideas even faster and more effectively. Now, from just one single render, you have the power to create as many images as you can imagine, at a speed that simply wasn’t possible with earlier versions. 

We have all heard the term BIM within the fields of architecture and construction. But have you ever wondered why its use has grown so much in recent years? The BIM (Building Information Modeling) methodology has simplified the work of the different actors in the world of architecture and construction; it not only facilitates the design process but also simplifies the general analysis of the building, minimizing errors.

Thanks to the BIM methodology, it is possible to work collaboratively and maximize efficiency in the management and administration of projects of any size. Architects and engineers work with parametric plans and models, called 3D smart objects.

Architects don’t make buildings. Architects make drawings of buildings. But of course, someone has to make the building. The construction industry is one of the largest economic sectors and we all interact with the built environment on a daily basis, but the actual work of getting a building from drawing to structure has barely evolved over the decades. While the rest of the world has moved into Industry 4.0, the construction sector has not kept pace. Architecture has begun to embrace some digitalization. After all, not many of us work with mylar on drafting tables anymore. So with the architecture industry’s everlasting link to the construction industry, will the latter pick up some new technological tricks by association? And when it does, how will that change the role of the architect?

It's never too early to enter for a chance to showcase your work to a global audience; enter your design now for an A’ Design Award. The international competition was "born out of the desire to underline the best designs and well-designed products" of designers, architects, and innovators from all design fields. Among other design competitions and awards, the A' Design Award stands out for its exceptional scale with over 100 design categories.

+ 13

Architects have always been asked to breathe new life into ancient architectures inherited from the past or into historical –often monumental– artefacts that no longer respond to the customs and needs of the contemporary society. Nevertheless, the ancient architectures tell our story, therefore deserve to be restored with interventions that bring along a hint of modernity and show the trace of the design activity. The Architecture for Heritage course has been created on these premises.