Foster + Partners' newest office tower in Sydney has topped out, marking the completion of the highest point for the 55-storey building. Salesforce Tower will serve as a centerpiece of the urban district’s reinvigorated masterplan, featuring an array of pedestrian pathways, retail shops, and cafes and bars, further promoting Sydney's identity as a unique cultural destination.
The Art Gallery of New South Wales expansion designed by SANAA is set to open to the public on December 3rd, 2022. The project, dubbed Sydney Modern Project and first revealed in 2019, is the most significant cultural development in the city in almost five decades since the opening of the Sydney Opera house. The new building designed by SANAA, together with Australian practice Architectus as executive architect, features a series of pavilions of various sizes and gallery volumes cascading towards the harbour. The structure that opens toward its surroundings is designed to provide a backdrop for 21st-century art.
Global Finance's ranking of the world's best cities to live in, during 2022 has just been released. Centered on 8 different parameters that calculate and compare the quality of life of people living in urban areas such as economy, culture, population, environment, etc., this year’s edition also took into consideration Covid-19 deaths per thousand for each country, to reflect the new reality we live in. With data from the Global City Power index, Johns Hopkins University, Statista, and Macrotrends, the list seeks to have a complete vision, putting together traditional metrics with new factors.
Claiming the first position is London, U.K, a city that although didn’t get high rankings in its Covid-19 metrics, still topped the list, mainly due to its scores in culture, accessibility, and population growth. Tokyo was selected for the second position, showing weakness in one parameter, population, as its numbers have been declining for the past 10 years. Shanghai followed next, in the third position, because of relatively low Covid-19 death figures and strong population growth. Singapore and Melbourne came in 4th and 5th positions.
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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.
Valentino Gareri Atelier has been selected to design the pilot project for a circular economy village model that aims to redefine urban sprawl through sustainability and diverse programming. Comprising eight residential hamlets with co-working and entertainment spaces, The Spiral Village will be created using emerging 3D printing methods and will foster circularity through a waste-to-resources hub, a diverse regenerative agricultural system, a sustainable water management system and renewable energy.
Plus Architecture has designed a new building for student accommodation on the campus grounds of Moore Theological College in Newtown, Sydney, focusing on encouraging interaction. Through scale, morphology and materiality, the John Chapman House mediates between the university facilities and surrounding context defined by busy roads, heritage sites and tall buildings while providing students with a network of meeting spaces fostering collaboration and conviviality.
Time magazine has released the World’s Greatest Places Of 2021, selecting 100 destinations from around the globe. With revitalized riverfronts, affordable artistic incubators, and superlative city-states, the list is a tribute to the built and natural environment that found a way “to adapt, build and innovate”, amidst the challenges of the past year.
Encompassing the world’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge, London’s Design District, new repurposed spaces in Helsinki, Historic gems in South Korea, and Hanoi’s renewed life in the old quarter, the World’s Greatest Places Of 2021 has a considerable selection of architectural destinations.
Prolonged heatwaves have been increasingly common in recent years, and cities are devising various strategies for combating the urban heat island effect. As Sydney experienced blistering summer temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius, the authorities have recently banned dark roofs on new homes and mandated lighter-coloured alternatives to reflect solar radiation. In Europe, Athens has taken the example of Miami and hired a Chief Heat Officer, tasked with finding coping strategies as the city confronts with heatwaves and wildfires that prompted a large number of residents to vacate the capital.
For its latest design in China, the Australian firm Koichi Takada Architects takes inspiration from Shanghai's forest-rich landscape and creates a series of architectural "trees" that branch out, forming a canopy above a new marketplace. Through its open, biophilic design, the Solar Trees Marketplace will be an extension of the outdoor public space, reinterpreting the traditional Chinese market as a community place.
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