Today, interconnected and fast-paced lifestyles, future mobility trends and constant material innovation puts pressure on a slow-moving building industry. How can architecture keep up with this trend? Following dynamic and nomadic lifestyles, architects must explore new structural systems that should be able to reach multiple locations, as well as be adaptable and reusable in the future. By applying revolutionary technology for circular, scalable components and carbon-negative buildings, UrbanBeta –a spatial innovation studio designing strategies, building concepts, predictive tools and platforms for creating transformative spaces– has developed BetaPort, a robotic construction system powered by artificial intelligence and automation.
Based on the principles of a circular economy, Urban Beta and BetaPort create a sustainable construction plan, ready to grow and change over time. The studio conceives sustainable on-demand architecture systems for flexible buildings based on a kit of parts.
Gustav Düsing and FAKT have just won the competition to design an adaptive reuse project in Siegen, Germany. Following Gustav Düsing’s recent win of the EU Mies Award 2024, the NAS project was developed through a comprehensive participatory process involving students, faculty, staff, and community members. The New Architecture School (NAS) is an adaptive reuse proposal transforming the former printing facility into a new type of central campus. Aspiring to act as a dynamic urban entity, the design combines academic pursuits with cultural and public spaces.
When he was invited to design the 21st Serpentine Pavilion in London’s Kensington Gardens public park, Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates envisioned a calm space to offer respite and a subtle exploration into the power of sound and music in architecture. Created out of lightweight stained wood, the “Black Chapel” demonstrates more than just artistic and architectural sensibilities. In addition to the use of sustainable materials, the project also pays close attention to how the building materials are sourced, bringing visibility to the problem of modern slavery in the construction materials supply chain.
Powerhouse Company has revealed the design for the largest timber-built affordable housing complex in the Netherlands. “Valckensteyn” is a circular design featuring a 12-story timber structure and 82 homes. Situated within Pendrecht, a post-war neighborhood in Rotterdam, it sits on the site of a residential flat bearing the same name, demolished a decade ago. The timber structure seeks to be circular and sustainable in its design, creating a nature-inclusive environment that is accessible to all.
Henning Larsen and Ramboll have won the competition to design the new campus for the prestigious scientific research center,CERN. Designed to integrate science and nature, the B777 building uses biogenic materials and low-carbon methods to reimagine traditional laboratory settings. Situated on the border of France and Switzerland, in CERN’s Prévessin Campus, the scheme aims to foster a sense of community, collaboration, and well-being.
Studio Gang has revealed the design for a new theater for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF). Planned to become the first purpose-built LEED Platinum theater in the United States, the building located in Garrison, NY, will serve as the permanent home for HVSF. The structure, measuring over 13,800 square feet, or 1,280 square meters, is designed to become the central point of the 98-acre HVSF campus, aiming to emphasize the theater company’s commitment to sustainable principles and social engagement. The project is expected to break ground in 2024.
Wood, one of the oldest building materials, has been continuously reinvented throughout history. As contemporary architecture becomes more and more concerned with sustainability and environmental responsibility, the popularity of the material has also increased. As trees absorb carbon dioxide during their growth, their wood stores that carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere. The materials derived from wood are thus associated with less greenhouse gas emissions on the condition of trees being harvested from sustainably managed forests. But in order to capture the full potential of this material, a plethora of techniques and modifications have evolved with the purpose of adapting and customizing wood’s characteristics to the demands of modern design and construction. From thermal modification to engineered wood or versatile particle boards, these methods not only enhance wood’s suitability for the rigors of contemporary architecture but also expand the usability of this sustainable material to an unprecedented scale.
Timber, harvested and prepared for construction, is a durable material known for its strength and versatility. It serves as an architectural element in structural systems, framing, cladding, decking, and flooring. Although it possesses a warm and natural character that creates an aesthetic appeal, the inherent humidity of timber can cause wood deformation, leading to bending, mold, and rot once the moisture content reaches 23%. However, with the development of new products and production techniques, Thermowood –also known as Thermally Modified Timber– has emerged as a method for creating natural, chemical-free solutions made from certified raw materials.
By reducing moisture content, it does not rot or mold, it experiences no longitudinal shrinking, and ensures high dimensional stability, resulting in a minimum biological life span of 25 years. After analyzing how to apply these solutions in architecture and design, we will showcase indoor and outdoor spaces featuring Tantimber’s Thermowood products.
Timber has been a popular source of construction material for thousands of years. Through sawing, milling, and other engineered wood conversion processes, various wood forms have been created and applied in products, furniture, and architecture. However, these processes can sometimes alter the basic lines of wood structure. The stems can be split, grain patterns changed, and some woods, such as oak and cedar, are easily reduced while others can become intractable. This led to the exploration of whole timber forms in ancient structures, such as log cabins, which layered timber in different cross-sections to form home profiles. Through design, the use of trunks or branches of trees in their entirety can accentuate their innate mechanical properties for structural sustainability. Although these practices are fairly absent in contemporary building techniques, new technological innovations expand the prospects of timber construction in architecture.
In a conversation with Louisiana Channel, the founders of the international practice Helen & Hard Architects reaffirm their insistence on community and sustainability. The use of wood, in their practice, has become more than a building philosophy, it has turned into a philosophy. “Trees have a life of their own, and you feel a deep respect for the time it has taken to grow. We work with something alive, an organic material. We can’t do as we please with it. We must interact with the material.”
In August 2022, Siv Helene Stangeland and Reinhard Kropf, the founders of Helen & Hard, were interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at various locations in and around Stavanger, Norway. The area holds special importance for the architects, whose approach was influenced by the culture that permeates Stavanger and the west coast of Norway.
Perkins & Will has just begun construction on the Gateway Project for the University of British Columbia. The project will serve as the primary entrance point to the campus, as well as the new hub for the Nursing, Kinesiology, Language Science, and the university's health clinics. This project is inspired by the surrounding landscape and is informed by the Musqueam people, who have been occupying these territories for generations.
Gibsons Elementary, Gibsons, BC. KMBR Architects Planners Inc. Photo credit: Ed White Photographics. Image Courtesy of naturallywood.com
How does school design influence the process of teaching and learning? Understanding current educational design trends and methodologies is key to designing healthy spaces for students to develop their social and academic capacities.
If we look at the evolution of school design through time, we can see that each period has its own challenges and preferences. Today's main challenge in school design is to create spaces that can integrate open learning environments that incorporate diversity of learning spaces, social interaction and sustainability.
The architecture industry seems to constantly be on the lookout for new materials and methodologies that better incorporate sustainability. One material which has stood the test of time, while also finding space for innovation, is wood. In this context, British Columbia (Canada) stands out as one of the world's largest exporters of wood products, and has successfully applied a number of strategies to maximize its use in sustainable design. One notable example, which will be explored in this article, is the use of wood in schools.
Lac-Brome House - Art Massif Glulam Wood Structure. Image Courtesy of Carbon Fixers
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.
HA-HA, in partnership with BIK Bouw and Wooncompas Housing, will develop four social housing blocks for the community of Ridderkerk, near Rotterdam, Netherlands. The project uses materials from the existing social housing estate, built in the 1950s, and employs an innovative modular-timber system to create sustainable human-centered housing. The old buildings are planned to be disassembled and their components reused and integrated into the new development, which will increase the number of affordable units by 13%.
Haptic and Ramboll conceptualize a novel structure that hopes to eradicate the need for demolition. The timber high-rise construction is built for maximum flexibility and longevity, being able to change its configuration and, consequently, its functions to adapt to the city’s changing needs. The design concept is based on the idea of maximizing the potential of sites in inner-city neighborhoods. To exemplify the regenerative potential of this model, the architects have applied the concept to a tight urban area in the center of Oslo, Norway.
Henning Larsen Reims School. Image Courtesy of Henning Larsen
Henning Larsen has been selected among 40 international architecture firms to design NEOMA’s new French Business School, in Reims, France. The Danish firm's hybrid timber design combines innovation, environmental consciousness, and a focus on student life, setting to accommodate over 4,000 students across a 26,000 sqm campus. Construction is expected to start in spring of 2023, and is scheduled to be open for the start of the 2025 academic year. Along with Henning Larsen, the winning team includes Patriarche, Egis, Elioth, Etamine, Acoustb, and Creafactory.
Canada suffers no shortage of flatiron buildings, with historic examples dotting the provinces from Toronto to Vancouver to Lacombe, Alberta, and beyond. Canada also enjoys its status as a hotbed of mass timber construction with Quebec serving as an epicenter of sorts for the movement. However, these two things—flatiron building design and the use of engineered wood products—have never yet been combined.
The first wooden housing modules of Juf Nienke, a new circular prefabricated timber housing project by SeARCH, RAU, and DS landscape architects, has been installed in Amsterdam. The project will feature 61 rental homes made entirely of wood, and will sit at the entrance of Centrumeiland, a newly raised piece of land on Lake IJmeer that features 1500 housing units. It is set to be one of the most sustainable apartment buildings in the Netherlands, incorporating an innovative cross-laminated timber construction and utilizing recycled materials.