It is well known that exposure to more green spaces and cleaner air has profound impacts on human health and psychology. This kind of exposure has been linked to reduced stress, improved cognitive function, and enhanced creativity. These sanctuaries offer relief, allowing the human to reconnect with the natural world. These residential homes are often a refuge from busy city life, ranging from vacation homes to retirement homes. Moreover, as the global call for sustainable practices becomes more pressing, the role of natural elements in architecture becomes imperative.
Vectura CampusF / Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects. Image Courtesy of Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects _ By WAX
Exploring unbuilt projects can offer insights into the design process and leading strategies employed by contemporary architecture practices, revealing unexpected solutions, experimental approaches and innovative design concepts. This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights designs submitted by established architecture practices. From a fjord-side regeneration project and oceanography research center to a headquarters building shaped to reflect company’s main focus or a restaurant adapted to extreme conditions, the compilation of unbuilt projects presents the variety of concepts, design philosophies and programs put forward by prominent global architecture studios.
Featuring internationally recognized offices like CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, Herzog & de Meuron, OODA, KCAP, and Aedas, this selection showcases worldwide interventions that illustrate architectural and civic interventions across diverse scales and programs. Whether tackling the restoration of monuments, interventions in public spaces or the transformation of a city’s waterfront, each of these projects aspires to deliver a fitting response to the spatial, functional, social and ecological requisite of its context.
Sporting facilities can play a vital role in the lives of cities by providing multifunctional public spaces where the people can join in large-scale events providing entertainment and spectacle while also promoting well-being and enhancing community engagement. Additionally, well-designed sporting arenas can become icons for a city, creating a sense of pride and identity and attracting visitors and residents. One such example is the Grand Slam tennis tournaments, which take over cities like Paris, London or New York, attracting fans from all around the world. The Philippe Chatrier and greenhouse transformed into the Simonne-Mathieu Tennis Court in Paris have become architectural landmarks, serving as catalysts for urban development and cultural exchange.
Other small-scale venues also play a role in the lives of communities, acting as gathering places for people with shared interests, fostering a sense of belonging and contributing to the overall health of the neighborhoods. This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community that showcase both large and small scale sporting venues. From a ‘box in a box’ basketball pavilion in Greece, to a translucent multi-sports arena in El Salvador or a dune-line arena in Morocco, this selection features projects that encourage and celebrate movement, athleticism and fair play competition.
Courtesy of Foster + Partners | Bank of International Settlements (BIS) Headquarters Extension
Office spaces in design and architecture play a crucial role in shaping the way we work and interact in professional environments. They are thoughtfully designed to promote healthy output, encourage teamwork, and give workers a welcoming and motivating environment. After the Covid-10 pandemic, work lifestyles underwent a significant transformation. As a result, companies have been adapting and redesigning new ways of working, implementing flexible schedules and hybrid work policies.
This evolution in work lifestyles has father influenced office design, now more focused on prioritizing health, safety, personal space, and collaboration. Office spaces in design and architecture have been adapting to the changing work landscape for decades. As they evolve to meet the changing needs of the workforce, various design iterations are explored, promoting different values.
This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture showcases projects submitted by the ArchDaily community highlighting different office spaces. Ranging from a more formal bank headquarters in Switzerland to a mixed-use business center in Ukraine, these designs heavily influence the way in which people work in the spaces.
Memorium Nürnberger Visitor Center. Image Courtesy of Sebastian Brunke
Public spaces are the beating heart of our cities. They act as the hubs of social and cultural activity where people congregate, interact, and escape the clamor of the city. These areas are crucial in determining a city's identity, character, and citizens' well-being and standard of living. Public spaces can define our communities and significantly impact how we live, work, and interact with one another through their architectural designs, facilities, and activities. Furthermore, they provide leisure, exercise, and recreation opportunities, allowing individuals to escape the confines of their daily routines and connect with nature.
This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community showcasing different proposals made to enhance public space. Ranging from reimagining central squares to placing massive land art in the urban epicenter, these public spaces enhance the quality of life for the city's locals. In Germany, the redesign of the entire Memorium Nürnberger Trials reimagines this as a place to come together, grounded in its history, while in Havana, the new Cuban Square reimagines the metaphor of unity in the city center. The design and accessibility of public spaces significantly impact our well-being and quality of life. Thoughtfully planned and inclusive spaces with seating, greenery, and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure can promote physical activity, mental health, and community engagement in a city.
Architectural competitions play a crucial role in developing the architectural profession and in advancing the quality of the built environment. They are also an opportunity for architects to showcase their creativity and experiment with innovative or unexpected architectural solutions, be it for real or imagines contexts. This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights different competition-winning designs submitted by the ArchDaily Community.
From a spa and wellness center seamlessly integrated into the mountainous landscape of Austria to a refurbished city center that creates opportunities for social interaction in one of Bulgaria’s largest pedestrian city centers, the round-up spans various programs, scales, and attitudes toward the built or natural environment. The selected projects represent explorations in various design solutions, materials, and construction methods. They also showcase the broadness of possible responses ignited by site-specific conditions, from the volcanic landscape of Iceland, to the picturesque hills of the Kerala region in India or the lively central plaza in one of Israel’s largest cities.
The history of architects designing resorts is intertwined with the development of the hospitality industry and the concept of leisure travel. The origins can be traced back to ancient times when the Romans built luxurious villas and bathhouses as retreats for the wealthy. However, the modern notion of resorts emerged during the 19th century with industrialization and the growing middle class seeking recreational experiences.
At a very high standard of luxury, resort hotels provide an immersive and rejuvenating vacation experience. These resorts are frequently rooted in beautiful landscapes in remote locations, often containing full-service accommodations, offering escapism and complete disconnection. Architects have continued to shape the resort landscape in recent decades with their designs. Sustainability and integration with natural surroundings have gained importance as architects strive to create environmentally conscious and immersive resort experiences.
As repositories of knowledge and catalysts for innovation, museums represent an architectural typology filled with opportunities. They act as an intermediary between the general public and artists, historians, and researchers, creating the medium for the display of cultures and creativity while also striving to make knowledge accessible to all. Through careful curation and exhibition design, they provide a platform for education and research, fostering an understanding and appreciation of diverse cultures, histories, and ideas. For architects, they also present an opportunity to conceive spaces aligned with the exhibits on display to create an immersive experience for the visitors.
This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community that showcase art, technology, and innovation through the program of museums and cultural centers. Featuring projects from emerging and established architectural offices such as Hariri Pontarini Architects, Beyer Blinder Belle, Studio Saheb, RAMSA, and Ho Khue Architects, the selection includes a variety of scales and programs, from a museum dedicated to the commemoration of the Holocaust to a private sportscar museum in Austria or an intricately-shaped art gallery in Vietnam.
For many, schools and kindergartens represent the first contact with public architecture. They, together with every educational facility, serve as the foundation for learning and knowledge dissemination, playing an important role in shaping the formative years of children and young adults. In consequence, these buildings need to respond to the needs of different age groups, while creating functional and flexible spaces for learning, but also for play and unstructured interaction. Light and ventilation needs contribute to the complexity of these architectural programs. However, designing educational facilities presents opportunities for innovation and creative expression, as they are required to adapt continuously to the changing needs of students and faculty while creating a conductive environment for learning.
This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights designs submitted by the ArchDaily community dedicated to cultural institutions. From a learning center created to offer the girls in Mozambique an equal opportunity to learn, play and connect, to a naval station redesigned as a research center on the coast of Puerto Rico, this selection features projects created to encourage learning, curiosity, and the exchange of knowledge and expertise. The article includes designs from both established and emerging architectural practices, including Moore Ruble Yudell, C+S ARCHITECTS led by Carlo Cappai and Maria Alessandra Segantini, Hello Wood, and snkh studio.
Lake House, Hudson Valley, New York. Image Courtesy of RS Mannino
This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights visionary villas submitted by the ArchDaily community. From a modern lake house weekend retreat in New York, a Mediterranean Villa in Portugal that blends outdoor and indoor, and a rammed earth residential complex of five villas that fold into the Balinese landscape, this round-up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects are moving forward from conventional residential architecture, pushing the boundary of luxury.
Each project has a different vision, generated by unique site conditions, and has been designed specifically for the future users of the villa. Moreover, firms like Bittoni Architects, Lipman Architects, RS Mannino Architects have all presented work that plays with materiality, giving the houses unique characteristics.
The year 2022 was marked by several socio-cultural and economic crises across the globe, from the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the increasing cost of living worldwide, combined with a number of natural disasters such as the devastating floods in Pakistan and hurricane Ian in the US. In these difficult times, architects are stepping up and embracing their role in developing design-based solutions to humanitarian crises, ranging from temporary shelters and affordable housing schemes to centers for protecting at-risk groups such as homeless underage girls, children from low-income environments, or families in need of medical care.
This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community that engage with their local communities, offering safe spaces for disadvantaged and at-risk groups. From a sanctuary for homeless girls in Iraq to an affordable housing project in Prague’s first skyscraper, this selection features projects centered around people, their needs, and desires. Many of the projects employ local materials such as clay bricks to lower the construction costs. They also reuse existing buildings and hope to engage the local community in building and appropriating the proposed spaces.
In any city, cultural centers can play a significant role in preserving and celebrating the community’s heritage and history, officing space for a vast array of activities and initiatives to encourage social interaction and the sharing of ideas and memories. They are also institutions that promote education and learning, often offering classes, workshops, and lectures on various topics related to culture, history, and the arts. By fulfilling these crucial roles within a given community, they can also become attractive centers for tourists eager to learn about local identities, cultures, and traditions.
Sir David Chipperfield has been awarded with the 2023 Pritzker Prize, the highest distinction in the architectural profession. Known for his well-crafted, precise, and sensible response to complex environments, the architect became initially recognized for the skillful restoration and renovation of existing buildings, often cultural institutions, before expanding the range of projects to include new structures. While his built body of works demonstrates many of the core principles of good architecture, the ongoing projects reveal an equally relevant narrative: that of his direction moving forward and the way in which his approach to these principles evolves.
Many of the ongoing projects continue Chipperfield’s interest in museological and cultural institutions, yet he continues to work across a wide array of building types. The latest major project announced tackles one of the most prominent institutions in Greece, the National Archeological Museum. This represents yet another opportunity for the architect to present museums as institutions that offer a transformation of the urban life of the cities where they are located, while also bringing forward the historical layers that define its architecture. Other projects, such as the Santa Giulia Arena in Milano or the Elbtower in Hamburg, expand the range of programs and typologies addressed by Chipperfield.
Homes of the Future. Image Courtesy of Mossawi studios
This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights visionary homes by the ArchDaily community. From a prefabricated house to supporting Ukraine war victims, a modular multi-story house highlighted during the Dutch Design Week, and a villa "shaped" by the Dubai coastline wind flow, this round-up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects move forward from the conventional residence concept to project alternative habitational standards in responding to harsh environments, nature, and technology.
Baseball Dream Park / HAEAHN Architecture, Inc.. Image Courtesy of HAEAHN Architecture
Sport plays an important role in the life of every city, yet the buildings housing these activities pose a particular set of challenges to the architects. Scale and dimensions need to be adapted to allow for unrestricted movement, heights are adjusted to the force of an athlete’s throw, and lighting, surface, and finishes require careful consideration. The matter becomes even more complex if these activities become the center of large-scale events. The flow of people becomes an integral part of the design, as different types of users require separate circulation paths.
This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights the design of sports centers submitted by the ArchDaily community. From a tennis stadium in Italy, to a yoga pavilion on the cliffs of Portugal, this selection features projects centered around movement, practicing, following, and enjoying sports, be it tennis, baseball, yoga or football. The article presents projects from various counties, such as South Korea, Canada, Portugal, and Argentina.
Korean Museum of Urbanism and Architecture | South Korea. Image Courtesy of Atelier of spatial matters
This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights cultural centers by the ArchDaily community. From a spiral- gallery symbolizing the Jinju culture in South Korea, a building devoted to Irish culture to a gallery to serve as a cultural incubator for Indonesia, this round-up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects, community, and institutions team up to promote culture, arts, history, and reflection.
Master plans, or large-scale urban planning projects, are one of the main tools for shaping and structuring land use and development to ensure that the built environment is coherent and functional. The interventions vary in scope and approach. While some projects are extending the buildable area by creating floating neighborhoods off the coast of Florida, others are reusing the existing spaces and heritage to reimagine the future of their communities.
Tu Casa by Lutolli Architects + Partners. Image Courtesy of Lutolli Architects + Partners
Architects play an important role in creating healthy, functional and aesthetically pleasing environments. Interior design represents a natural continuation of the same prerogative, and its importance has been accentuated in recent years, from the lockdown forcing many people to remain indoors for extended periods of time, to the rise of remote work. The task of the interior designer is not decorating spaces, but planning for an effective use of space, understanding the needs of the user and highlighting the intrinsic qualities of a space. Acoustics, lighting, material properties and proportions all play a role in achieving a coherent and enjoyable interior space.
This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights interior design projects submitted by the ArchDaily community. From a pastel-colored library in Turkey to a renovated symphony hall in San Diego, US, this selection of unbuilt projects showcases how architects design interior spaces by integrating textures, materials, light, and color in well-proportioned spaces. The article includes projects from Turkey, US, Switzerland, Indonesia, UK, and Denmark.
