The facade of a building often serves as a reflection of both the urban fabric it is set in, as well as what lies behind it. Beyond aesthetics, facades hold important functional, cultural, and sustainable significance, especially in relation to the interior design. Although natural light, views, and spatial organization are influenced by the facade, architects have been prioritizing the relationship between the building's envelope and the quality of the interior, keeping in mind current cultural, economical, and environmental changes influencing the way people design their living space. So responding to these ever-changing needs and habits, along with the focus on overall wellbeing, architects offset the facade and ceiling - and in some particular cases, floors - to create interiors within interiors; secondary envelopes that protect the interior space from the outside environment.
Around the globe, today’s architects face several rising challenges. The demand for affordable housing is increasing significantly, but so is the urgent need to save the planet’s resources and reduce carbon emissions. At first glance, these two goals might seem mutually exclusive. However, the history of architecture is one of great minds overcoming challenges through creativity and innovation.
In 2004, wienerberger, a leading provider of innovative and ecological solutions for the entire building envelope in the areas of new construction and renovation, as well as infrastructure for water and energy management, launched the biennial Brick Award to recognize and, more importantly, support such innovative solutions and the people who create them. In June 2024, for its 11th iteration, the prize will once again be awarded to extraordinary feats of brick architecture from around the world.
Brooklyn-based firm SO-IL has revealed the design for a new campus art museum at Williams College in Massachusetts, created to become a primary teaching resource for the institution renowned for its art history program. Since its inauguration in 1926, the Williams College Museum of Art has gathered an expansive collection of over 15,000 works. Through the design of SO-IL, the museum will be able to move into its first freestanding purpose-built home. In May 2024, the museum will present an exhibition on SO-IL’s design.
São Paulo. Image by joao batista Shimoto licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Considered the fifth most populous city in the world as of 2022, São Paulo is confronted with a multitude of challenges befitting its over 22 million inhabitants. Among the numerous urban issues faced, the depopulation of the city's historic center has been a recurring topic for at least four decades, with governments announcing measures that could potentially reverse the situation. In the meantime, the same center has witnessed a rise in housing occupations in abandoned buildings, highlighting the importance of its redefinition and residential potential.
Even within the world of design media, it was easy to miss the news: In late January, Notre Dame’s School of Architecture announced that Peter Pennoyer, a New York–based architect and author, had won the 2024 Richard H. Driehaus Prize. The Driehaus is architecture’s traditional/classical design version of the Pritzker Prize. Although it comes with a hefty $200,000 check—twice the size of the Pritzker’s honorarium—and previous winners include such luminaries as Robert A.M. Stern, Michael Graves, Leon Kier, and Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, the award still exists in a sort of media vacuum.
The Sacred Grove Burning Man Temple / DIALOG. Image Courtesy of DIALOG
In the world of architecture, competitions serve as catalysts for innovation and creativity. By promoting the architectural community to contemplate a given theme and intervene in well-defined spaces, they provide some of the best platforms for experimentation, allowing architects and designers to explore new concepts, challenge conventions, and address pressing societal needs, all while comparing the wide variety of emerging solutions. This week's curated roundup gathers examples of worldwide competition proposals submitted by the ArchDaily Community.
The selected projects vary in size and program, from world-renowned competitions such as those hosted for the national pavilions at the next World Expo in Osaka, or the Temple at the center of Black Rock City at Burning Man, to local interventions that highlight unique spaces such as the creative reimagining of a popular market space in the historic center of Sibiu, Romania, or the subtle presence of a villa in the Mediterranean wilderness.
The Norman Foster Institute is now accepting applications for its Programme on Sustainable Cities, taking place in Madrid from January to December 2025.
The Programme on Sustainable Cities blends hands-on experience with academic insights from the Norman Foster Foundation’s global network of experts, led by Co-Directors Norman Foster and Kent Larson. Each year, participants will immerse themselves in three pilot cities, engaging directly with local planners and managers. The 2025 academic year will focus on African cities, one of the most challenging territories that also presents one of the greatest opportunities for urban development.
BIG and HNTB have just won the competition to design an Athletics ballpark in Las Vegas. Situated along the iconic Las Vegas Strip, the ballpark for the Athletics Major League Baseball team promises to uphold the values of the “Entertainment Capital of the World.” Nestled between Tropicana Avenue and Reno Avenue on Las Vegas Boulevard, the ballpark boasts 33,000 seats in an open-air stadium sprawling across nine acres.
Throughout history, numerous cities worldwide have been settled and built on hillsides, where one can observe the myriad urban challenges they face due to their topographical conditions. However, beyond issues related to their urban infrastructure or transportation systems, which can become more complex due to the geography, hillside urban occupation typically involves various intersections of social, environmental, and economic issues.
These settlements are often inhabited by vulnerable and low-income communities, driven by a variety of motivations. Frequently, the lack of information about certain hazards, coupled with the scarcity of adequate housing policies, leads to decisions and actions that place these communities in high-risk situations, especially during the rainy season, resulting in a cycle that disproportionately affects the most marginalized residents.
Future University of Hakodate (2005). Image Courtesy of Isao Aihara
Transparency, integration and boundaries are key words for understanding the work of Riken Yamamoto. Winner of the Pritzker Prize in 2024, the Japanese architect's work can be recognized for its ability to establish and challenge conventional spatial concepts of materiality, creating spaces that promote interactions and connections between people and their surroundings. Transparency, whether in the physical configuration of the buildings, the choice of materials used or the underlying philosophy applied to all his works, emerges as a central element throughout his career.
Comuna 13 of Medellín_via Shutterstock. Image Courtesy of CityMakers
CityMakers, The Global Community of Architects Learning from Model Cities and Their Makers is working with Archdaily to publish a series of articles about Barcelona, Medellin, and Rotterdam. The authors are the architects, urban planners, and/or strategists behind the projects that have transformed these three cities and are known in the "Schools of Cities" and "Documentary Courses" made by CityMakers.
There is currently a broad consensus on the importance of public space in the city. Although it may seem quite logical, its significance is not as old as human settlements, which have existed for millennia. The Athens Charter, written just 91 years ago, did not speak so much about the city as a place to live but as a functional machine. Almost a century later, the paradigm has shifted: the city is, above all, its public space. But what happens when public space is threatened by car proliferation, insecurity, or even water?
Last Monday I got on a Berlin to Doha flight, a usual route given how Qatar has positioned itself as an effective hub connecting east and west. But this time Doha was not the connection, it was the destination.
In the coming decades, it seems inevitable that architects will increasingly focus on renovations and rehabilitations –especially in established urban centers–, whether to modernize outdated structures or adapt to new uses and demands by contemporary society. A main challenge when executing these types of projects is obtaining a truly reliable working base, including accurate and true-to-life 3D models. Conducting surveys can be a herculean task, requiring extensive hours or days of on-site work and considerable effort to organize and interpret the collected information, often resulting in data that lacks adequate precision.
To simplify these processes, technological advancements have provided a solution: site surveys based on point clouds and 3D scanning, which have the potential to revolutionize the design process. Point clouds are collections of millions or billions of individual measurement points on the surface of objects, which can be obtained through laser scanners, drones, or 3D cameras. Each measurement point contains X, Y, and Z coordinates, as well as other optical properties (reflectance, color). Multiple scanning positions are registered (stitched) to create point clouds of an entire scene, which can be loaded into virtually any CAD platform for standard fieldwork.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) with a team led by Charles Renfro has broken ground on Rice University's New Arts Building named the Susan and Fayez Sarofim Hall. The new building envisioned as a gateway to the university's campus will incorporate exhibition areas, labs, studios, shops, faculty offices, and other facilities. To create adaptability over time, the structure uses an expandable prefabricated system, thus incorporating interdisciplinarity and experimentation within the design. The building located in Houston, Texas, is expected to open in the fall of 2025.
MVRDV has just released a new design study exploring how co-living can help shape the future of housing. Created in collaboration with developer HUB and sustainable investor Bridges Fund Management, the study introduces a comprehensive study exploring diverse typologies, aiming to revolutionize communal living and vibrant neighborhoods. It addresses modern housing needs, including flexibility, sustainability, and community, while tackling climate crisis and affordability issues. The endeavor offers tailored solutions for various co-living projects, catering to many demographics and lifestyles.
How do we give new meaning to degraded public spaces? Vibrant colors, geometric patterns, and community collaboration. That could describe the approach of Rio de Janeiro artist Antonio Ton. Drawing inspiration from interactions he finds on the streets and engaging in dialogue with local communities, his works extend beyond revitalizing sports courts and skate parks. Ton demonstrates how art fosters the creation of a space for gathering and leisure. We spoke with him to delve into his artistic process and explore the outcomes his paintings offer.
Several events have shaped Morocco since its independence. One of them is the Architects’ transition from serving the declining French empire to serving the newly independent Moroccan nation. Upon gaining independence in 1956, young Moroccan and foreign architects were tasked with constructing a self-sufficient Morocco. The demand for modern infrastructure, new administrative buildings, and improved education and health facilities led to a construction boom. This boom provided architects and planners the opportunity to express their vision.
Inspired by the popularity of modernism in Europe, architects experimented with buildings that embodied brutalism. This architectural style was not only a rebellion against the colonial vision of urban design in Morocco, but also a symbol of architectural unity in the urban landscape. Buildings were created in various typologies with the characteristic of exposed concrete, showcasing its inherent qualities of strength, durability, and functionality. These buildings, which can be seen in cities such as Agadir, Casablanca, Tangier, and parts of Marrakesh, represent a dialogue between brutalism and Moroccan culture, environment, and climate.
On April 4 – 6, the international conference FABRICATE 2024will be held at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen. Since its inception in 2011, FABRICATE has established itself as a global forum for new radical possibilities for architecture and welcomed thousands of participants from practice, industry, and research.
In this second article, we meet architectIndy Johar who is the director of WikiHouse Foundation and CEO and founder of Dark Matters Lab working with institutions around the world, from UNDP, the European Commission on Net Zero Cities, the European Environmental Agency, and various national agencies and cities. The text is an excerpt from the upcoming FABRICATE 2024 book and is based on an interview conversation led by Co-chair Phil Ayres between Indy Joharand Professor Philippe Block, Head of the Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA), ETH Zürich. The book will be published on the opening night of the FABRICATE 2024 conference.
Tianjin Library (2012). Photo courtesy of Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop.
Riken Yamamoto's receipt of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2024 is met with pleasant surprise. Characterized by a profound commitment to community engagement and a keen awareness of local dynamics, the 9th Japanese architect to receive this accolade has an architectural portfolio that exemplifies the transformative power of architecture in society. From addressing the needs of the children to the needs of the elderly, Yamamoto's work underscores the profound impact architecture can have on the lives of individuals across all age groups. To provide insight into the architect's educational journey and career trajectory, here are 16 key facts to learn more about the 2024 laureate.
For most people, modern living requires spending most of the day in interior spaces - in fact, according to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency, the average person spends around 90% of their life indoors. As a result, this implies missing out on health benefits associated with sunlight exposure, such as vitamin D absorption, regulation of circadian rhythms, higher energy levels and even improved mood. Thus, one option is to increase the amount of time we spend outdoors. But because most daily functions are carried out inside buildings, it is crucial to incorporate and prioritize natural lighting in interiors.
In the ever-evolving landscape of technology and creativity, staying at the forefront is imperative. During its recent Chaos Unboxed Live virtual keynote, participants such as CEO Christian Lang and Co-founder and Head of Innovation Vladimir “Vlado” Koylazov showcased a plethora of advancements poised to redefine the creative process.
At the heart of Chaos’ strategy lies a dedication to three fundamental principles: accelerating creativity, delivering fully interconnected solutions, and ensuring accessibility across platforms. Through seamless integration and cutting-edge tools, Chaos can empower architects and artists alike, revolutionizing industries and shaping the future of design.
The announcements during the keynote laid out innovations that can redefine the realm of visualization — and beyond.
Luxe Lakes Arts Center, Chengdu, China. . Image Courtesy of Wide Horizons Development
Internationally recognized architect, writer, and professor Antoine Predock passed away in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on March 2, 2024, at the age of 87. Throughout his career, Predock developed a unique style, working outside of urban centers and seeking to find a connection between the landscapes and the human experience of space. In addition to serving as a long-term faculty member at the University of New Mexico, he is also the architect behind some well-known projects, including the Nelson Fine Arts Center, the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
