Tag: world-war-ii | ArchDaily

The European Prize for Public Urban Space Announces Warsaw Park and Porto do Son Beach Design as 2024 Winners

Maria-Cristina Florian — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 06:30:00 +0000

The 2024 European Prize for Urban Public Space has announced the overall winners for the 12th edition: For the General Category, the "Park at the Warsaw Uprising Mound" in Poland by studios topoScape and Archigrest received recognition its ability to honor the site's historical significance; while the Seafront Category prize was given to the "Beach Improvement and Redevelopment of the Harbour Edge" in Porto do Son, Spain, designed by CREUSeCARRASCO and RVR Arquitectos for its careful integration of natural and manmade elements. Selected from a list of 10 finalists, the projects were appreciated for their sensible response to local memory and an understanding of the interplay between various elements that interact with urban life.

The Lawn as Battleground: How Domestic Landscaping Became a Symbol of American Identity

Maria-Cristina Florian — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 07:30:00 +0000

The almost cliché image of the white picket fence has become synonymous with the ideals of the American Dream. Behind the fence, there is invariably a perfectly manicured lawn, a green carpet upon which life can unfold. This image and its associations are not, however, accidental. In her book, "Domesticity at War", Beatriz Colomina notices that, since the Second World War, the lawn has taken a central space in the imagination of the country, becoming first a in order to make space for diversity, both social and ecological. symbol of the stability of the homes soldiers were hoping to return to, offering a space where those at home could still perform duties for the nation, and, after the war, propagating the image of an idealized lifestyle, one maintained with hard work and dedication. In recent years, the lawn has emerged once again as a site of conflict, this time between those hoping to preserve this idealized image, and those seeking to break the uniformity in order to make space for diversity, both social and ecological.

The St. Pauli Bunker Reopens as a Green Destination in Hamburg, Germany

Maria-Cristina Florian — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 06:30:00 +0000

Dating from the1940s, the air raid shelter in Hamburg’s St. Pauli district has been reimagined as a „green mountain,” with expansive gardens covering the top of the wartime structure. Known as the Hochbunker, translated as ‘high bunker,’ the location has undergone a substantial restoration and refurbishment process introducing restaurants, event spaces, and a hotel, together with a rooftop urban park. The bunker has opened to the public on July 5, 2025, with the purpose of reconnecting the community with the iconic structure and its complex history.

Heneghan Peng Architects Wins Competition for Transforming the Ruins of a Historical Berlin Church

Maria-Cristina Florian — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 06:30:00 +0000

The design by heneghan peng architects, Dublin, with Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Berlin, was awarded 1st prize in the international competition for the replanning and expansion of the Old Tower of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. The competition’s purpose was to redesign the original West Tower, which was partially destroyed during a bombing by the Allied Forces in 1943, and return it to the tourist circuit as a war memorial and exhibition space.

WXCA Wins Competition for the Reconstruction of Warsaw's Saxon Palace, a Pre-World War II Landmark

Maria-Cristina Florian — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 06:30:00 +0000

WXCA Architectural Design Studio has won the international competition for the reconstruction of the Saxon Palace, a heritage site located in the historical city center of Warsaw, Poland, that was significantly damaged during the Second World War. The competition, organized by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in cooperation with the Association of Polish Architects, aimed to create a concept for the restoration of the monument, which is set to be rebuilt in its external Neoclassicist form of 1939.

Textures, Skyscrapers, and Urban Landscapes: When Anime Meets Architecture

Enrique Tovar — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 04:00:00 +0000

World War II left a profound influence on the evolution of society, introducing significant changes in the fields of urban planning and architecture. During the 1930s, the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) promoted modernism on an international scale. After the war, this architectural movement became firmly established as the dominant one, driven by the imperative of reconstruction and technological advancements. Influential figures like Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto spearheaded this movement.

From Rubble to Rebirth: Unveiling the Transformation of Warsaw's Urban Fabric

Nour Fakharany — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 05:30:00 +0000

The exhibition “Warsaw 1945-1949: Rising from Rubble” took place this year at the Museum of Warsaw, exploring the postwar reconstruction and rebuilding process that took place after the war. After the Second World War, Warsaw’s entire urban fabric, architecture, and social and economic status had to be rebuilt from the ground up. Curated by Adam Przywara, the exhibition “offered a new perspective on the myth of the postwar reconstruction of the Polish capital city and one of the most interesting pages in its history.”

The Iconic Gallaratese Complex in Milan Through the Lens of Kane Hulse

Nour Fakharany — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 05:30:00 +0000

In the aftermath of the Second World War, a drastic housing shortage spread across Europe, and Milan was no exception. Various plans and solutions were conceived to address this crisis, outlining satellite communities for the city to accommodate between 50,000 and 130,000 residents each. The first of these communities began construction in 1946, just one year after the war's end: the Gallaratese project.

Unraveling the Urban Planning Mysteries behind the Manhattan Project

Kaley Overstreet — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 07:35:00 +0000

In 1942, less than a year after the United States was pulled into World War II, the U.S Army Corps of Engineers quickly and quietly began acquiring large parcels of land in remote areas in three states. Soon after, thousands of young designers, engineers, planners, scientists, and their families, began arriving at these sites that were heavily shielded from public view. Workers there constructed hundreds of buildings including houses, industrial structures, research labs, and testing facilities at unprecedented speed and scale.

Overlooked Concrete Suburbs of Central and Eastern Europe

Dima Stouhi — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Post World War II, Brutalism found its way across Europe, redefining modernist architecture and establishing a new style for mass housing and communal buildings. Although most of the light was shed on concrete landmarks in major cities, European suburbs have also housed many exceptional brutalist buildings such as the 'Hammer-shaped Tower Blocks' or the 'Houses on Chicken Legs'.

Berlin in Miniature: Tilt-Shift Video Transforms Perspective on the German Capital

Megan Schires — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 13:00:00 +0000

When we get wrapped up in everyday life, it can be easy to take the place we live for granted. In the MiniLook Berlin video, Okapi Creative Studio takes a step back to show the beauty of daily life in the city of Berlin via a stop-motion, tilt-shift technique that makes the city appear as if in miniature. The video highlights everyday street scenes and picturesque shots of nature, while some famous buildings make appearances as well.

This Medieval Walled Town with a Storied History Shows How Traditional Urbanism Can Support High Density

Kaley Overstreet — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 09:30:00 +0000

The protective fortress, winding cobblestone streets, and medieval urban layout are all characteristics of many coastal European towns. But when exploring the French town of Saint-Malo, it is difficult to believe that this is hardly the original city. What separates Saint-Malo from many other European towns located by the sea—aside from its striking location jutting out from the coastline—is the complex history of how it was heavily destroyed in World War II, but rebuilt to its original aesthetic.

Dorte Mandrup Wins Competition to Construct Heritage Center Atop a WWII Bunker

Evan Pavka — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Danish firm Dorte Mandrup A/S has been announced as the winners of a competition to design the new Trilateral Wadden Sea World Heritage Partnership Center on a historic UNESCO naval site in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Selected from 14 entries, the firm’s winning proposal will seemingly float atop an existing World War II bunker and house the offices of a joint Danish, German and Netherlandish corporation working to protect the Wadden Sea area.

Exhibition: "The Evidence Room" at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto

Rene Submissions — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 18:14:00 +0000

Widely acclaimed as a critically important work on its debut at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition of the 2016 Venice Biennale, The Evidence Room examines the chilling role architecture played in constructing the Auschwitz death camp.

AD Classics: Trylon and Perisphere / Harrison and Fouilhoux

Luke Fiederer — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 04:00:00 +0000

With the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the great World’s Fairs that had been held around the globe since the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851 lost much of their momentum. With the specter of another global conflict looming like a stormcloud on the horizon in the latter half of the decade, prospects for the future only grew darker. It was in this air of uncertainty and fear that the gleaming white Trylon and Perisphere of the 1939 New York World’s Fair made their debuts, the centerpiece of an exhibition that presented a vision of hope for things to come.

This 3-Mile-Long Nazi Resort is Being Resurrected as a Luxury Getaway

Chris Weller, Business Insider — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 09:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Business Insider as "Hitler's 3-mile-long abandoned Nazi resort is transforming into a luxury getaway."

2016 Venice Biennale Exhibition to Examine the 2000 Irving Trial and the Architecture of the Holocaust

James Taylor-Foster — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 06:00:00 +0000

In 2000, in a trial held in London, the notorious British Holocaust denier David Irving sued an American historian and her publisher for libel. He posited that the Holocaust didn't really happen – "was the planned and systematic murder of six million European Jews an elaborate hoax?" The battle over the meaning of the architectural evidence took centre stage. Ultimately, forensic interpretation of the blueprints and architectural remains of Auschwitz became crucial in the defeat of Irving, in what remains to date the most decisive victory against Holocaust denial.

Incredible Color Video Shows Life in Berlin at the End of WWII

Nicolás Valencia — Fri, 08 May 2015 09:00:35 +0000

May 8th marks the 70-year anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, when Germany’s Third Reich surrendered to the Allied forces. To commemorate the anniversary, Konstantin von zur Muehlen has released “Spirit of Berlin,” a short color film with historic footage showing everyday life in the German capital in July 1945 -- just two months after the end of the war.