Every year in March, the QS World University Rankings reveal the top universities to study each profession, covering 51 different subjects. Grading schools based on academic reputation, employer reputation, and research impact, the annual QS- Quacquarelli Symonds has unveiled that for the second year in a row, in the 2021 Architecture/ Built Environment division, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is still in the first position.
Architects around the world have put their knowledge to use in the fight against the coronavirus. While some designed alternative facilities to increase the capacity of hospitals, others imagined different types of face protection gears to help with the world-wide shortage of masks. Using 3d printing technology, easy to assemble techniques, and low-cost material, firms, universities, and individuals have mobilized their expertise to create face shields for citizens and medical staff.
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Global higher education analysis firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has revealed its rankings of the world’s top universities for the study of Architecture / Built Environment for 2018. The eight edition of the survey compared 2,122 institutions across the globe offering courses in architecture or the built environment, narrowing down the list based on criteria including academic and employer reputation.
For the fourth straight year, MIT has topped the rankings, once again coming out ahead of the Bartlett School of Architecture and the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Read on for the full rankings.
Homerton College, Cambridge and competition-organizers Malcolm Reading Consultants have announced that emerging practice Feilden Fowles has been selected as the winners of the competition to design a new £7 million showpiece dining hall for Homerton College, the newest constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Unanimously selected by the competition jury, Feilden Fowles’ scheme was chosen over a shortlist of entries from 2016 Stirling Prize winner Caruso St John, dRMM, Hall McKnight and Walters & Cohen Architects.
“Feilden Fowles’ concept design for the dining hall subtly relates to the existing ensemble of buildings and the garden setting, and yet has the poise to convince as a showpiece,” said Professor Geoffrey Ward, Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge.
“What appealed so strongly about the team’s particular approach was their openness to creating many opportunities for dialogue. We are looking forward to working with them as they develop the detailed design.”
Professor Alan Short of the University of Cambridge has published a book advocating for the revival of 19th-century architectural ideas to address the crippling energy use of modern skyscrapers. The Recovery of Natural Environments in Architecture proposes an end to the architectural fetish for glass, steel, and air conditioning, instead drawing inspiration from forgotten techniques in naturally ventilated buildings of the 1800s. The book is a culmination of 30 years’ research and design by Prof. Short and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge.
_Paolo_Rosselli_DSC_8101.jpg?1489090441 "Professor Short argues that skyscraper design must depart from its current reliance on glass and steel, and begin to harness natural ventilation. Boeri Studio's Bosco Verticale. Image Courtesy of Paolo Rosselli")
The key to engineering wood strong enough to support skyscrapers may lie in the interaction between molecules 10,000 times narrower than the width of a human hair.
A new study by researchers at the Universities of Warwick and Cambridge has solved a long-held mystery of how key polymers in plant cells bind to form strong, indigestible materials such as wood and straw. By recreating this ‘glue’ in a lab, engineers may be able to produce new wood-based materials that surpass current strength capabilities.
Homerton College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, announced today the five firms shortlisted in the competition to design a emblematic £7 million ($8.5 million USD) centrepiece building to house a 300-person dining hall for the school. The finalists were selected from an original pool of 155 architects, from which 24 were selected for the longlist.
The competition, organized by Malcolm Reading Consultants, is a part of the College’s wider plan to improve and expand school facilities. Homerton boasts one of the largest student communities at Cambridge, and is one of a few of the University’s colleges capable of housing all undergraduate students in on-site facilities for all four years. To be located on an attractive wooded site, the commission has the potential to determine the character of the school for years to come.
The 5 finalists are:
QS has released its 2016 rankings of the top 100 schools for architecture in the world. The company has produced an annual survey of universities since 2011, now comparing including over 800 universities worldwide across 42 subjects, and rating the top universities based on academic reputation, employer reputation and research impact. As they did last year, MIT came out top of the list in architecture. Read on for the full rankings list for architecture, and be sure to visit QS's site for the full rankings list which is sortable by subject, country or continent.
Dalibor Vesely, a celebrated architectural historian, philosopher and teacher, died this week in London aged 79. Over the course of his teaching career, which spanned five decades, he tutored a number of the world’s leading architects and thinkers from Daniel Libeskind, Alberto Pérez-Gómez and Robin Evans, to Mohsen Mostafavi and David Leatherbarrow.
Vesely was born in Prague in 1934, five years before the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. Following World War II, he studied engineering, architecture, art history and philosophy in Prague, Munich, Paris and Heidelberg. He was awarded his doctorate from Charles University (Prague) having been taught and supervised by Josef Havlicek, Karel Honzik, and Jaroslav Fragner. Although later he would be tutored by James Stirling, it was the philosopher of phenomenology Jan Patočka who, in his own words, “contributed more than anyone else to [his] overall intellectual orientation and to the articulation of some of the critical topics” explored in his seminal book, Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation, published in 2004.
Earlier this year the University of Cambridge announced an ambitious new urban extension in the north west of the city in order to create a framework for a new district centered on a mixed academic and urban community. The development, planned by Aecom, has aspirations of achieving urban space that is well balanced, permanent and sustainable. Containing 1,500 homes for its key workers, accommodation for 2,000 postgraduate students, 1,500 homes for sale, 100,000 square metres of research facilities and a local centre with a primary school, community centre, health centre, supermarket, hotel and shops, proposals from Mecanoo and MUMA are now entering the planning phase. Future lots are expected to be filled by the likes of Stanton Williams, Alison Brooks Architects and by Cottrell and Vermeulen working with Sarah Wigglesworth and AOC.
The University of Cambridge Library, with the Department of Architecture, recently launched a landscape design competition to transform the space surrounding Cambridge University Library. Open to professionals and non-professionals alike, they are looking for bold submissions that reimagine the open spaces and environment of the iconic Giles Gilbert Scott building. A monumental presence both within the University and the city, entries to the competition will be judged on their innovative interpretation of the site, its context, use and history – as well as their ability to integrate contemporary ecological research. Entries should also promote new visibility for the Library and encourage people to think about the role of the site on the western edge of the city. The registration deadline is September 30, and the deadline for submissions is November 30. For more information, please visit here.
They organize the Life Drawing Classes as well as the ArcSoc lectures, which invite practising architects to show off their latest work.
