Design and the City a podcast by reSITE, on how to make cities more livable and lovable, raising questions and proposing solutions for the city of the future, kicks off its second season, with Winy Maas. In this first episode, the co-founder of MVRDV and The Why Factory discusses ideas that are seemingly larger than life, pushing the boundaries of our urban potential.
The COVID-19 Pandemic is a disruptive moment for our world, and it’s poised to spur transformative shifts in design, from how we experience our homes and offices to the plans of our cities. The webcast series Design Disruption explores these shifts—and address issues like climate change, inequality, and the housing crisis— through chats with visionaries like architects, designers, planners and thinkers; putting forward creative solutions and reimagining the future of the built environment.
MVRDV has revealed the first images of Chengdu Sky Valley, the firm’s competition entry for the Future Science and Technology City in Southwest China. Fusing technology with nature, urban with rural, and modernity with tradition, the proposal introduces “a liveable city into the Linpan Landscape”. Located in one of China’s emerging cities, the project balances the competing needs of the area, through a computational workflow developed by in-house tech taskforce MVRDV NEXT.
MVRDV’ s entry, Shenzhen Terraces, has been selected from 27 projects as the winner in a competition to design a 101,300-square-metre mixed-use Shimao ShenKong International Center. The multi-level urban living room is located in Universiade New Town, Longgang District, Shenzhen, China.
MVRDV has won the competition to redesign the Tancheon Valley and Seoul’s waterfront. Called “The Weaves”, the design was made to knit together pedestrian and bicycle paths, the natural landscapes, and public amenities. Commissioned by the government of Seoul, the design introduces a combination of natural and human activity in the midst of the city.
In December 2019, the Chinese city of Shenzhen will host the world’s only Biennale focused exclusively on the topics of urbanism and urbanization. The 2019 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture will explore new phenomena brought about by the digital revolution, and the ability of citizens to become involved in shaping cities. The Biennale curator, Carlo Ratti, exemplifies this intersection between natural and artificial, championing the power of new technologies to transform how we live and design through his work at Carlo Ratti Associati and the MIT Senseable City Lab. In the “Eyes of the City” section of the Biennale, he is joined by MVRDV, and its co-founder Winy Maas, in shaping an experience that invites visitors and observers to question how technologies such as facial recognition can be integrated into urban life.
Opening in December in Shenzhen, China, the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture (UABB), organized by the cities of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, will discuss the theme of “Urban Interactions”. First to use Facial Recognition and Artificial Intelligence, the public exhibition will test new grounds to reflect on the impact of digital technologies on the urban environment.
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In 2020, the French city of Marseille is set to host Manifesta 13, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art. In preparation for the event, MVRDV has collaborated with thinktank The Why Factory (directed by MVRDV co-founder Winy Maas) in unveiling “The Grand Puzzle,” a 1200-page interdisciplinary pre-biennial research study of the urban potential for Marseille.
MVRDV produced the study through deep analyses of the city, such as interviews and spatial data, culminating in suggestions for possible urban interventions. As part of this engagement, the firm worked with The Why Factory, founded as “the think tank on the future city” at Technical University Delft, who collaborated with local architecture and design schools on the study. Having received overwhelmingly positive feedback, the work will now be “contextualized, analyzed, and refined as it becomes a tool for Marseillais to imagine possible futures for their city.” In addition, the study will serve as a point of inspiration for artistic and cultural interventions both before and during the Manifesta biennial.
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MVRDV co-founder Winy Maas has been named Domus’ 2019 10x10x10 Editor-In-Chief. The publication began the Domus 10x10x10 in 2018 as an initiative to bring new ideas and alternative editorial styles to the magazine. The 10-year initiative leads to Domus' 100th anniversary in 2028.
As much an architect as a researcher, Maas will provide an original editorial strategy founded on intellectual exploration and catalyzing creative ways of thinking about contemporary and future design efforts. In a manifesto titled “Everything is Urbanism,” Maas describes his primary goals for Domus 2019, a series of 10 publications over 10 months that explore contemporary design questions and theoretical problems, spark dialogue, and examine ongoing architectural research.
Dutch practice MVRDV has broken ground on Radio Tower & Hotel, a 21,800-square-meter mixed-use high rise located in the Washington Heights area in northern Manhattan. The 22-storey building is MVRDV’s first major project in the United States and combines hotel, retail, and office functions in vibrantly stacked blocks. The project was designed to reflecte the vivacious character of the neighborhood and set a direction for future development.
For the last eight years, Moscow has hosted the Moscow Urban Forum, a yearly gathering for experts to reunite to discuss pressing issues of today’s metropolises. Some of the most renowned architects and urbanists, city mayors, government officials, economists, developers, academics, citizens and professionals from diverse fields and nationalities come together in the iconic Russian city and its important venues like Menage or VDNKh. But it was the presence of two of the world’s most influential men in their respective areas of influence which marked the importance of this year Moscow Urban Forum: Rem Koolhaas and Vladimir Putin.
The event is part of a long-term, comprehensive urban process in which a series of coordinated projects have changed the face of Moscow, putting it on par with other European capitals. Ahead of the 2018 World Cup, many of these projects reached completion, making this edition of the Moscow Urban Forum a special one. The Garden Ring, the Krymskaya Embankment, the renovated Luzhniki Stadium, the Gorky Park renovation, the Garage Museum, the My Street Program, the Moscow Central Circle, and the Velobike Public Bike System, among many other initiatives, show the commitment of the city to improving the quality of its public spaces. Upcoming projects such as the new Hermitage Museum by Asymptote, the V-A-C Foundation in Red October by Renzo Piano, the Moskva River Embankment by Project Meganom, and the renovation of the Tretyakov Gallery by OMA show that this responsibility extends beyond the World Cup.
With a presentation by Dutch architect Winy Maas (MVRDV), the third edition of "Living Environment," organized by Russian Ministry of Construction Industry, Housing and Utilities Sector, DOM.RF and Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, was inaugurated today in the city of Kaliningrad, Russia. Also participating on the opening day are Martin Sobota (Holland), Elliot Eisenberg (United States), and Brian Mark Evans (United Kingdom).
On May 18-19, the city of Kaliningrad, capital of the westernmost part of Russia, will host the Living Environment: All About Housing Forum. The Forum includes a business program and the Urban Weekend outdoor public festival.
Besides sessions and roundtables, the ambitious program of the event includes the shortlist presentation of the projects submitted for the Open International Competition of Architectural Concepts for Standard Housing and Residential Buildings. Architects and bureaus from 39 countries took part in this prestigious competition with their projects of innovative residential housing for future generations of Russians. The competition announces a remarkable prize fund: 20 finalists will receive 1 million roubles (about € 13 300) each, up to five winning projects will be awarded 2 million roubles (about € 26 600) each, and up to five runners-up will receive 1.5 million roubles (about € 19 900) each.
The competition to design a new flagship factory and bottling plant for San Pellegrino has been narrowed down to two firms: BIG and MVRDV. Searching for a “truly innovative project that not only conveys an artistic vision, but also sets new standards in terms of efficiency and compliancy to environmental sustainability,” the jury committee selected the two final proposals from a 4-firm list which also included designs from Snøhetta and aMDL Michele De Lucchi.
“The judging committee were so impressed by the four proposals that they decided to narrow their selection to a shortlist of two and deliberate further before announcing the winning project early next year,” explained San Pellegrino in a press release.
San Pellegrino also released video proposals of the designs, explained by firm founders Bjarke Ingels and Winy Maas.
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A little over a month since Rotterdam-based practice MVRDV announced a new temporary urban structure—a 180-step staircase, 29 meters tall and 57 meters long—for the heart of city of Rotterdam, the project has been officially opened. Those who ascend the staircase will find a temporary observation deck looking over Rotterdam Centraal, a rooftop bar, and the temporary reopening of the Kriterion cinema that was last active in the 1960s.
