University: The Latest Architecture and News

The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Bruce Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.

A variety of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes are interviews, while others are tips for fellow designers, reviews of buildings and other projects, or casual explorations of everyday life and design. The Second Studio is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

This week David and Marina answer two questions from listeners: How to cope with the feeling of failure in architecture school and whether or not architecture is hard and stressful. The two cover why freshmen often have false expectations of success, embracing failure, not seeking approval from teachers or clients, dealing with ‘dumb’ design assignments, overcoming paralysis, the main reasons why being an architect is challenging, and more!

On November 3^rd, 2022, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) announced the decision to end the restoration works for elements of the campus designed by Louis Kahn with Indian architects Balkrishna V. Doshi and Anant Raje in 1962. The decision affects the faculty blocks, classroom complex, and dorms other than dorm D15. According to the statement, the institution plans to replace some of the buildings, as the complex is “facing structural damage, deterioration and have become uninhabitable, posing a safety concern for the campus's residents.” This represents a reversal of the decision to withdraw the first demolition plans following global protests, announced in January 2021.

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Snøhetta and Dartmouth have unveiled images of their upcoming expansion and redesign of the Hopkins Center for the Arts (the Hop) in Hanover, New Hampshire. The project aims to modernize the existing arts center and create a renewed gateway to the campus’s Arts District. The new architecture will feature new practice and performance spaces, increased connections to surrounding arts buildings, as well as upgraded accessibility and mobility throughout the master plan.

Indiana University inaugurated a new shared facility for the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design, which materializes a recently rediscovered design by Mies van der Rohe. The 1952 project intended for a fraternity house on the same IU Bloomington campus was entrusted to New York-based firm Thomas Phifer and Partners to be adapted to contemporary building codes and its current academic function while preserving the intended architectural aesthetic. The two-storey, 930 square meter building has officially opened to students and faculty.

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Henning Larsen won the competition to design a new university building for the Management Center Innsbruck (MCI), the studio’s first project in Austria. Founded in 1995, the MCI outgrew its facility in the city centre, and the competition was meant to establish a new unified campus, gathering together the many faculties now scattered on different locations throughout Innsbruck. The design consists of an isolated object with no back or front featuring multi-story voids carved into each façade, establishing distinct relationships with the surroundings and framing views of the Alps.

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Sanjay Puri Architects has designed a new building for the Prestige University in Indore, a stepped massing with green terraces that blends with the landscape. Currently under construction within the 32-acre university campus, the project echoes traditional Indian architecture through its use of red brick and contextual adaptation to the local climate. The morphology creates an outdoor amphitheatre for students and faculty, while the interweaving of indoor and outdoor spaces is meant to foster engagement and social interaction.

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Sou Fujimoto Architects has unveiled its design for the Hida Takayama University, a new academic institute tucked in a small rural area of Japan. The project aims to revitalize the rural areas which are often overlooked, especially by academic institutes, and nurture the sense of community and appreciation of the rich culture provided by nature. The design features an organic-shaped structure inspired the surrounding landscape and a walkable roof. The university is set to open in 2024, and will be followed by 11 other regional learning centers across the country.

Perkins&Will has revealed the designs of the second phase of Duke Kunshan University which reflect the natural context and local culture of Kunshan, China. The architecture blends nature and architecture, and highlights the university's ethos and education values through spaces dedicated for living and learning. The 189,334 sqm master plan includes 22 buildings of administration, educational, and recreational facilities.

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This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights educational architecture submitted by the ArchDaily community. From preschools to higher education institutes, this article explores how architects shifted towards fostering individual creativity, critical thinking, and exploration, and presents projects submitted to us from all over the world.

Featuring a secluded kindergarten in the Icelandic mountains, a vibrantly-colored playschool in the industrial city of Shenzhen, and a Florentine high school with a flow of natural sunlight, this round-up explores how architects prioritize student well being and comfort in spaces that promote productivity, learning, and creativity. The selection also includes preschools, high schools, and academies in France, United States, Egypt, Kazakhstan, and Israel.

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Trahan Architects broke ground on the new Chapel of St. Ignatius and Gayle and Tom Benson Jesuit Center at the Loyola University in New Orleans. The new spiritual site and the community gathering space draw on elements of the Jesuit tradition, central to the University's heritage. Through the circular design, the light-filled interior space and the predominance of natural materials, Trahan Architects creates a space of universal spirituality at the heart of the campus.

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A new shared facility for Indiana University's Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design, materialises a recently rediscovered design by Mies van der Rohe. The 1952 project was intended for a fraternity house on the same IU Bloomington campus where it is currently being built, and the design incorporated the same white steel frame and expansive glass panes aesthetic as the Farnsworth House, created around the same time. After being forgotten for six decades, the design resurfaced in 2013, and the two-storey building will open its doors this fall.

In his book “The New Brutalism in Architecture: Ethical or Aesthetic?,” Reyner Banham establishes what he deems the semantic roots of the term 'Brutalism,' explaining that it comes from one of the " indisputable turning points in architecture, the construction of Le Corbusier's concrete masterpiece, la Unité d'habitation de Marseille. It was Corbusier's own word for raw or rough-cast concrete, "Béton brut," that made Brutalism a mainstay in architectural jargon and, in many ways, the term, as well as the architecture it described, flourished." In the book, Banham highlights the historical milestone marked by Corbusier's Unite d' Habitation and the socio-political context that shaped it. In steel-starved post-World War II Europe, exposed concrete became the go-to building material within the burgeoning Brutalist movement, which quickly defined itself by its bare-bone, rugged surfaces and dramatic, geometric shapes.

Barcelona-based studio Barozzi Veiga has completed its first UK project, which will house Ravensbourne University’s Institute for Creativity and Technology. The building, whose interiors are designed by Brinkworth, is also the first to be completed within the Design District, London’s new purpose-built creative hub at the heart of the Greenwich Peninsula. Featuring a polished aluminium-clad façade that reflects the neighbouring buildings, the design engages with the surrounding context, while also referencing the area’s industrial past.

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Cobe’s winning design for the new library of the University of Gothenburg proposes a light, clean volume, whose slightly curved facades are a nod to the pages of an open book. The Danish architecture studio translates the concept of knowledge as the heart of a library into the interior spatial configuration of the project, while the architectural image evokes the idea of a lighthouse. Featuring a transparent and open ground floor, the new repository of knowledge creates a strong connection with the surrounding park, becoming a mediator between the city and the university.

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This week’s curated selection of the Best Unbuilt Architecture focuses on projects related to learning, research and culture submitted by the ArchDaily Community. From kindergartens to libraries and universities, the article explores how different spaces of knowledge around the world are designed to inspire their users.

Featuring an array of scales and architectural programs, the list of projects includes a circular library in South Korea, a bridge-like kindergarten in Poland, as well a university in Tel Aviv that creates a series of opportunities for unmediated interactions and unscripted learning. The following are architectural programs that cater to the dissemination of knowledge in all its forms and to all age and social groups.

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As reported in The Times of India, the board of governors for the Indian Institute of Management, in Ahmedabad, India has canceled the proposal to demolish Louis Kahn’s buildings on campus and replacing them with new structures, after a worldwide pushback from the international architecture community.

The board of the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad (IIMA) has announced that the dormitories, built by Louis Kahn and part of the overall campus design, will be demolished and replaced. In fact, the administration plans to “bring down at least 14 of 18 dorms which were built between 1968 and 1978" for showing "problems of leakages from the roof, dampness in walls, leakages in toilet walls, slabs, etc.”, according to the Indian Express.

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