Courtesy of KARL LAGERFELD, Sierra Blanca Estates and One Atelier
During the past couple of years, luxury and fashion brands began venturing into architecture. Some built museums, foundations, and cultural organizations while others shaped residential structures that translated their identity into space. Following this same concept, KARL LAGERFELD, along with Spanish Developer Sierra Blanca Estates and the Design and Branding Firm The One Atelier, have developed the fashion house’s first “luxury architectural project”, the Karl Lagerfeld Villas in Marbella, Spain. Designed by The One Atelier, of which Andrea Boschetti is Head of Design, the project has low carbon impact, aligned with the brand’s commitment to the Fashion Pact - a global sustainability initiative that seeks to transform the fashion industry through objectives in climate, biodiversity, and ocean protection.
Asking what is “luxury architecture” and questioning why fashion brands are expanding into architecture, ArchDaily met with Andrea Boschetti to further understand the architect and urban planner’s take on the subject.
Concrete and sustainability are two words that are often considered incompatible. Used as early as the Roman era, concrete has shaped much of our built environment, being the most widely used manufactured material in the planet thanks to its resistance, versatility, cost-effectiveness, and accessibility, among other inherent benefits. Its popular use in buildings and infrastructure forms the foundations of cities, connects communities, and will continue to play a vital role in providing solutions to the challenges of the future – especially as cities must respond to a growing global population. But with cement as its key ingredient, it also comes with several environmental costs, being responsible for at least 8% of the world’s carbon emissions in a climate-change context. However, it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. With the rise of innovative technologies and products, there are many ways to make concrete greener.
There are several reasons why Quintana Roo —a state located in the southeastern region of Mexico— has an important cultural wealth. One of them is because of world-class tourism which has led it to have one of the eight international airports in Mexico in addition to being praised by the World Tourism Organization.
"Under The Zhengyangmen". Image Courtesy of DRAWING ARCHITECTURE STUDIO
Architecture has never been limited to building and construction; some notable architects have contributed numerous fantastic works to the domains of fashion, furniture, jewelry, and other design. The names of young Chinese architects active in the construction industry appear in numerous fields. Crossover, extension, and exploration, young Chinese architects seek to work beyond the boundary of architecture.
The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David 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 are joined by Eric Johnson, Founder and Principal of EJA Lighting Design, to discuss the role and value of the lighting designer, common lighting flaws, working with architects, lighting different types and styles of architecture, lighting technologies, key qualities of a good lighting designer, and more.
Buildings around the world are getting taller. Since the year 2000, global skyscraper construction has increased by 402%. Cities like Dubai are home to nearly 1000 high-rise buildings, and New York’s vibrant luxury real estate market has shown no signs of slowing down, with more high-rise additions slated to be added to its already towering skyline. There’s good in this – high-rises create much-needed space in already dense cities and can reduce urban sprawl in city centres, allowing for better preservation of natural areas.
Winston Churchill once said: "We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us." This quote almost seems written specifically for the architecture design firm Kwong von Glinow. Alison von Glinow and Lap Chi Kwong are married and partners in practice. For the last couple years, they’ve been designing and building their own live/work building in a northern neighborhood of Chicago called Edgewater. A model of the house lived in their dining room for months as they conceived of the house, making daily changes until it was constructed and they could move in. They shaped the design, now it shapes them. In this video, Kwong von Glinow takes us through this building — called the Ardmore House — and they explain how they designed it, what it’s like to live in, and how it has shaped their work since.
By definition, architecture and urban planning operate within a certain degree of indeterminacy, using present context to find viable answers for an unknown future. As a result, design is a constant search for a balance between prescribing and taking a step back to make room for alternate yet unforeseeable scenarios. Uncertainty is an inherent condition in present-day society, and recent rapid social, economic, and even environmental changes prompt a closer look at how architecture can incorporate indeterminacy. The following reviews some precedents and contemporary examples that programmatically operate with indeterminacy, highlighting several strategies for designing for uncertainty and change.
Shortly after the millennium, Vanity Fair, a magazine that purports to follow every kind of cultural milestone, asked a select group of 52 “experts” to pick the five best buildings since 1980. The selections were bizarre; almost every building was by one of the chosen architects, which made up the vast majority of those asked for their picks. Few choices received more than five votes.
https://www.archdaily.com/972957/where-are-the-architectural-masterpiecesMark Alan Hewitt
MAIO is currently building a five-story building with 40 social housing units in the Sant Feliu de Llobregat district, Barcelona. The project design urban connectivity, social equity, and sustainability. As the winner of a two-phase competition, the building will house hierarchyless, generic, flexible spaces to fit the inhabitants' needs.
On November 17th, 2021, as a part of the second season of the Virtual World Tour, Architects, not Architecture had the honor to have as guest the 2013 Pritzker Prize Toyo Ito.
We all might be familiar with his works, but how much do we know about his biography and about the vicissitudes that shaped him?
ArchDaily Professionals is an initiative that focuses on all of the collaborators involved in architecture and construction, who participated and are credited in the projects we have carefully curated and published. This project aims to recognize and highlight the best collaborators responsible for delivering the best architecture, by delivering valuable knowledge related to the different disciplines within our community. Today, we are launching a series of video interviews between architects and collaborating professionals, to learn more about their work and to understand the importance of these relationships to deliver high-quality architectural projects.
For this first interview, ArchDaily’s Managing Editor, Christele Harrouk, met with lighting design firm L’Observatoire International’s founder, Hervé Descottes, and American architect Steven Holl. In this moderated talk, we had the chance to speak to Hervé and Steven about their collaboration in three cultural projects in the United States: the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, the Winter Visual Arts Building, and Nancy and Rich Kinder Museum. In this conversation, we learned more about what lighting in architecture means to them, how space and light should be conceived and why a close collaboration between architects and lighting designers is crucial to architecture projects.
A masterpiece is often defined as the most remarkable work in an artist's career, one which highlights the height of their techniques and ideals. The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci; Michelangelo's Pietá; the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. There are many examples, which are not always unanimously agreed upon. But what if what many consider to be the masterpiece was started by someone else, the credited creator didn't live to see its completion, and almost all of its documentation was destroyed? Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and his world-famous Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família are examples of these complications. From a highly crafted stone construction to the most modern 3D printing techniques and high strength concrete, numerous technologies were and continue to be incorporated in the project's construction.
As our world evolves at an unprecedented pace, the challenges that come with it are becoming more and more complex. The questions faced by the cities and networks of our global world, the physical and virtual environments where our evolution takes place, are making architecture more relevant than ever.
The issues of the built environment are no longer exclusive to the incumbents who build and design it and have become transversal questions in our society. From the citizens who question the quality of their public spaces to the self-trained builder erecting a tiny house in the woods, to the homeowners using an app to codesign their interiors during lockdown, we want to have a saying and we want to take action. Why does architecture have to be so uncertain, so distant?
Nowadays, many architects have been looking for inspiration in traditional techniques, adapting them to more contemporary designs. In this sense, floors with rustic stone such as quartzite and sandstone are becoming more and more popular in residential architecture. Although this material was usually used for external areas, to build traditional stepping stone garden paths, for example, today it is also used in interiors, as an element that disrupts the hardness of rectilinear layouts and, in some cases, creates a connection between interior and exterior, which is something many professionals seek to achieve.
https://www.archdaily.com/972637/brazilian-houses-10-designs-with-rustic-stone-flooringEquipe ArchDaily Brasil
The historic lion house has long been a central element of Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo. When global architecture firm Goettsch Partners (GP) set out to renovate and expand the structure, the aim was to preserve the original building while increasing the usable area and creating a new spatial experience. The facility is home to a pride of four African lions, as well as Canada lynx, red pandas and snow leopards.
People spend hours at work every day. Offices still fail to recognise the difference lighting can make to their workspaces. Lighting is an important matter when talking about visual comfort and productivity. Optimized lighting can help to improve performance and there are determined practice guidelines on which lighting systems work best for your work environment.
The building construction industry currently accounts for 40% of annual greenhouse gas emissions, due to its high carbon embodiment and carbonated energy demands. Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is a sustainable solution to address these concerns and to contribute to a net-positive world. This advanced technology can be utilized in solar building envelopes, skylights, windows, and balcony railings to produce green energy.
Renovation projects are often perceived as being more limited and therefore less exciting. In this article, we present renovation projects with unexpected solutions that show that it is possible to be creative when adapting and reusing an existing space.
Since its inauguration in the 1960s, every year more than 10 million tourists visit the Hollywood Walk of Fame in hopes of experiencing the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles’ most famous attraction. To this day, its 18 blocks of terrazzo floors remain in a good state, revealing the longevity and durability of a material able to withstand heavy foot traffic over the course of the century.
Throughout history, architectural styles, have experienced numerous movements throughout time, giving us various expressions of interior and exterior spaces. These movements are often created out of dissatisfaction with the status quo, shifts in religious ideologies, or the emergence of new building technology. Perhaps one of the most famous instances in history was the precedent set by Adolf Loos and his desire to break away from Viennese tradition with his strong dissent of ornament in architecture in favor of simplicity, and his literary discourse that lay the cornerstone for the modernist movement in architecture.
The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David 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 are joined by Peter Gluck—Founder & Principal of GLUCK+, an architect-led design-build office—to discuss the decline of the profession of architecture, architects having less responsibility and knowledge in construction, contractors having more design authority, the negative impacts of the AIA (American Institute of Architects) contracts, young architects working for contractors, the gap between academia and practice, the low pay level of architects, and why a design-build operation can be the solution to all of these issues.
The built environment we all inhabit is part and parcel of global, interconnected processes and systems. When we appraise the historically significant architecture of our cities, the structural integrity and aesthetics of a building merits equal consideration with factors such as the labour conditions of its builders to the existing power structures of its time. Examples of ItalianModernism in Eritrea, for instance, might be worthy of aesthetic praise – but intertwined with the legacy of these buildings hailed as Modernist icons is the sobering fact that they were built to further an imperial project. In the complex fields of architectural conservation, preservation and cultural heritage, democratisation should always remain a key priority.
Today, a new generation of architects is trying to tackle the challenges of contemporary society while navigating different hurdles within the profession. Emerging architects are redefining the values and focus of design in response to the various issues facing the contemporary built environment, such as sustainability, affordability and equity. At the same time, new practices are operating a within rapidly changing field in which the architect's role is increasingly more ambiguous. The following explores the issues faced by young architects in their practice, as well as what they see as being architecture's most significant challenges, that inherently shape their work in a contrasting way to that of their older peers.
.jpg?1635893302 "House Between Trees / AS Arquitectura. Image © David Cervera")
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.jpg?1637861666 "Casco Viejo - Panama City, Panama. Image © Wikimedia User David Broad under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.")
