The relationship between art and humanity goes back to the origins of civilization. Museums have become places where endless collections of art and artifacts tell the history of time, humankind, cities, and thousands of other stories about cultures and societies. The role of the museum has evolved throughout the years, taking various forms and scales, of which is the modern-day art gallery.
The importance of art and culture in contemporary cities and neighborhoods is indisputable, however, there are various roles that galleries play in introducing art and culture into everyday life. Why are these spaces valuable for communities? How do they foster emerging artists? How can galleries revitalize neighborhoods?
The House of Music Hungary is one of the biggest cultural investments in the European Union. Designed by Sou Fujimoto Architects, it is becoming a hub for city dwellers and worldwide visitors wishing to attend concerts, visit the exhibition or record music in the building's open studios.
ArchDaily editors first got in touch with the Liget Budapest Project in the summer of 2021 and were treated to an impressive site visit at the House of Music Hungary. We were among a few select invitees that caught a glimpse of the finishing phases at one of the city's major projects located in its 200-year-old park. Developers and contractors were racing to catch up on the time they’d missed due to the pandemic – a challenge they certainly fulfilled, with the project completed in less than six years and being opened to the public in December 2021.
Usually, a window is an exterior opening that provides lighting and ventilation to the interior of a building. This connection with the context, added to appropriate lighting, makes it fundamental in the house. It is possible to improve your design so that it has different uses. Therefore, we have compiled some tips on how to take advantage of the sill to assign new functions to a room.
In the mid-twentieth century, a set of South Asian countries collectively experienced a catharsis from colonizers’ rule. The period that followed sparked an era of ideas and philosophies for a new future. During this time, architects were pivotal in creating modernist structures that defined the countries’ post-colonial, post-partition and post-imperial identities. South Asian architects used design as an expression of hopeful societal visions, most of which have been actualized. With this success in nation-building, there has been a lack of accreditation for women architects in shaping South Asian histories.
Sustainable cities demand sustainable solutions, which imply the development of a new mindset for the reformulation of conventional creation processes. Within the fight against climate change, the circular economy concept is known as a key factor for the sustainable solutions of the future. Part of this concept is known as circular design, which aims to transform the traditional paradigm of ‘using and throwing away’ into a commitment to reusing existing materials.
Circular design rethinks the creation process of products from the first steps, guiding architects and designers to create products that can be reused, recycled or transformed. Applying circularity in architecture opens the debate of rethinking the life cycle of construction materials. In this manner, fiber cement cladding –a combination of basic earth elements, mineral materials, water, air and fire, in a simple filtration process– proposes a design solution that meets the basic principles of circular construction. In addition to its composition, strength and durability, these products are designed as a system that can outlast a building's lifecycle.
What are the stories of the first Ibero-American women architects? This is the main question we seek to answer in celebration of ArchDaily's theme: Women in Architecture.
Seeking to put their motivations, inspirations, and trajectories on the table, we carried out a research project to make visible and highlight some names that have not had their deserved recognition. Meet Doris Clark Núñez, Guadalupe Ibarra, Matilde Ucelay Maórtua, Filandia Pizzul, Dora Riedel, Luz Amorocho, María Luisa Dehesa, Arinda da Cruz Sobral, and Julia Guarino, below.
Urban public spaces can transform the life of neighborhoods and cities and, therefore, need to be open to the social, cultural and technological changes that occur in society. From urban vegetable gardens to pet spaces, from rain gardens to art pavilions, life in today's cities has created new demands and ways of using and appropriating public spaces.
It’s finally time to write this down. For years—in meetings, on-campus tours, and informal conversations—I have talked about the University of California Berkeley’s Wurster Hall, now Bauer Wurster Hall, encouraging people to see and appreciate the significance, and beauty, of this building. It hasn’t been an easy case to make.
Bauer Wurster Hall is the home of the school’s College of Environmental Design (CED). Originally, it housed the departments of architecture, landscape architecture, planning, and design. The building was purpose-designed and built for the CED, a new college founded in 1959 that brought these departments together for the first time. William Wurster, for whom the building was originally named, was the college’s founding dean and the building’s visionary client.
https://www.archdaily.com/994658/theres-more-than-one-way-to-define-contextEmily B. Marthinsen
As the new year begins, we look forward to the most exciting projects planned to open in 2023. The world's second-tallest tower is currently under construction in Malaysia; Egypt is almost ready to open its largest archeological museum, while MVRDV is currently renovating a large-scale brutalist landmark in Albania. Featuring internationally renown architectural offices such as Snøhetta, OMA, Studio Gang, Zaha Hadid Architects, BIG, along with the latest winner of the Pritzker Prize, Francis Kéré, the following selection presents projects from all around the world. They also range in scale and program, from international airports to sculptural arts galleries or museum expansions.
Several projects presented here have also featured in the previous year's compilation. Resource availability and labor issues generated by the pandemic have also continued to influence opening schedules, but with a diminishing impact. Following the predicted trends for 2023, more and more projects involve the adaptive reuse of existing structures. An underlying theme is visible in the increased interest in expanding artistic and cultural venues and integrating historical heritage into the expression of contemporary architecture.
When we google 'housing in Copenhagen', the first thing that pops up are the most common questions asked by users: how much does it cost to live in Copenhagen? Is it difficult to find housing in Copenhagen? It's true, living here is significantly more expensive than the European average, especially in its most central district: Indre By. Although the housing prices are adapted to the salaries of its citizens –and the quality of life index is consistent with this high cost–, it's still complex for a foreigner to settle permanently in the city.
However, there is a serious commitment from the authorities and stakeholders to kindly open the city to new inhabitants, offering affordable housing designed by its best architects –both in suburbs and in refurbished downtown areas. In 2023, Copenhagen will be the UNESCO-UIA World Capital of Architecture and the host of the UIA World Congress of Architects, so a large number of people will be able to see firsthand what it's like to inhabit the city in projects of great architectural quality, which not only integrate wisely into its vibrant urban life, but also propose innovative ways of living.
A few months ago, French architect Renée Gailhoustet was awarded the 2022 Royal Academy Architecture Prize. As housing challenges continue to embattle Paris and other French cities today, Gailhoustet was a timely choice, her body of work in the Paris suburbs – stretching back to the 1960s – still functioning today as compelling case studies to a social housing approach that concurrently embraces community and has a uniqueness of form.
Besides changing our perception of interior spaces, colors are an excellent device for architects. With them, it is possible to highlight some elements or areas, create rhythm in the environment and give possible hints on how the eye can travel through it. One of the alternatives to achieve these goals is to paint the structures, which can bring a solid identity to the project since its components stand out and make the spatial notion even more playful.
The demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project will be 50 years old in 2022. Many ideas of how to live collectively have changed since then. Check out some housing projects in which the placement values encounters and community living.
The Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project, designed by Minoru Yamasaki, is considered a landmark of modernist architecture. Its high towers, inspired by Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation, which totaled almost 3000 units, set out to fill about half of the government-indicated housing deficit in the 1950s in St. Louis, USA. Besides the innovative architectural project, the government also bet on an interracial coexistence that involved poor and vulnerable strata of society - in the middle of the segregationist period in the United States.
2022 brought with it what is now known as the triple ‘C’ crises – COVID, Climate, and Conflict, with new environmental challenges, boiling disputes, and an ongoing health emergency, fueling a growing inequality, creating wider gaps, and contributing to more poverty. However, 2022 wasn’t only a year of difficulties, it actually opened up a closed-off world, allowing people to come together through traveling, events, and lesser health restrictions, to reflect on how to build “more resilient, sustainable, and healthy societies” that can survive current and future threats.
Always true to our vision of "empowering everyone who makes architecture happen to create a better quality of life", the 2022 ArchDaily's Best Articles selection highlights a huge spectrum of topics. Tackling past, present, and future, the themes explored ranged from the architecture of the metaverse and AI to history and theory 101, retracing stories, adjusting common misconceptions, and projecting a future that is already here. Moreover, this year, editorials offered more tips and ideas for everyone’s living spaces while also investigating the multidisciplinary aspects of the field, in order to broaden perspectives and present new notions. The very diverse ArchDaily team delved into territories, not commonly portrayed in the media, to tell the architectural story of every typology, community, and movement. Believing in contextuality and locality, inclusiveness, and leaving no one behind, our articles reflected our vision for a better world.
What kind of city is a people-oriented city? This is a difficult question to answer because humanistic cities evaluate the city by "people”, and people are extremely diverse, producing individual different evaluation standards. For example, a city that is friendly to car drivers, may not be so friendly to pedestrians.
Nonetheless, there is a general perception that some cities seem to be more friendly to people than others. Why is this the situation?
Every “Year In Review” assessment of anything is both myopic and timely. That being said, 2022 was a "Boom" time for architects (and the building industry in general). This snapshot will change in 2023 when this year’s manufactured interest rate jumps will crib death this short and intense boom.
But some things have more meaning than can be found in the moment. 2022 proved that the “Mad Men” model in the profession as a white male clubhouse is over. Gender and race inequalities remain in architecture, but they are acknowledged flaws in urgent need of correction. Beyond these evolutions and revolutions, a new generation of architects is changing the profession.
The promise of the metaverse is proving to be a fertile ground for research and experimentation for architects. This new realm is currently undefined, consisting of many narratives, explorations, and opportunities for architects and designers to shape a new type of environment. Generative engines, such as AI image-generators, are contributing to the feeling of open possibilities. While they are not yet part of the standard practice, they bring the promise of a shift in the production of architecture. Conceptual projects such as the ones presented in this list serve little to no external purpose. Still, they are essential in conducting an understanding of the possibilities of the new technologies which are likely to have a significant effect on the profession.
This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community that experiment with a new medium and integrate novel technologies. From abstract buildings created to be experienced through virtual reality in the metaverse to investigations into the ability of AI image generator engines to develop innovative architectural expressions and even research into planimetry, the following projects are pushing the boundary of what architecture could look like in the new age of technological developments.
Nearly 40% of the energy produced in the U.S. is used for building operations. The near-central role of buildings in the global climate and energy scenario makes it crucial for architects, engineers and building owners to take appropriate action. These stakeholders can help reduce the carbon footprint of the building through strategic design decisions.
Conventionally, the active modes of heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting utilize energy-intensive electrical processes. On the other hand, passive measures help maintain indoor thermal comfort using the inherent physical and thermal properties of the building envelope and its surroundings
Typically, a well-designed and well-operated building uses envelope-level passive measures to minimize the thermal loads first. Then, it uses energy-efficient active modes of heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting. This article highlights 4 key envelope-level passive strategies to implement for decarbonizing building systems.
The scene is almost identical, no matter which borough of New York City you’re in. Narrow sidewalks are lined by mountains of trash bags and other large objects, waiting for their turn to be taken away by the fleet of sanitary workers and trucks who will dispose of them. Large rodents seek shelter in their temporary plastic homes, feeding on discarded scraps, becoming a regular sighting for New York City residents. The City That Never Sleeps has a bigger problem than the flashing lights and noisy streets- it’s all of the trash that’s left to sit out on the sidewalks.
Cartography, or map making, has played a critical role in representing spatial concepts for thousands of years. While the earliest forms of maps displayed geographic information carved into clay tablets and etched onto cave walls, the maps we use today have significantly evolved to creatively show a range of different information. These visualizations draw conclusions about population sizes, historical events, cultural shifts, and weather patterns to help us understand more about our world and how we impact it.
From the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial to the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, architecture exhibitions are ever-increasing fixtures on cultural calendars around the contemporary world. New editions of architecture exhibitions rest on a foundation propagated by exhibitions of the past – and these historical expositions, to a great degree, have shaped the architectural discourse we have today. But as these exhibitions were born out of a western framework, African historical representations on the biennial and triennial architectural stage have often been reductive, with an assortment of cultures flattened into one, and distinct architectural styles meshed in an incoherent manner.
Created by the American architect Ron Mace in the 1980s, the concept of Universal Design deals with the perception of the projects and environments that we design and inhabit, considering the possibility of its use by different user profiles: from children to the elderly, including language limitations and people with disability or temporary limitations.
Japanese architect and theorist Arata Isozaki, winner of 2019's Pritzker Prize, passed away at the age of 91. Since the 60s, Isozaki has been showing outstanding innovative ideas in his works, influencing eastern professionals with a forward-thinking approach that takes its roots from Japan. In a special tribute to the architect's achievements, ArchDaily highlights the immense list of Arata Isozaki’s projects and recreates the architect's professional development path since his very first works.
In the 19th century, many Americans living in up-and-coming cities and towns oftentimes found themselves strolling through the winding paths of curated gardens, stopping to rest under the shade of a tree and share a picnic with family and friends. Dotted across the grassy areas were headstones, marking the burial locations of those who were laid to rest. While the concept of relaxing in a graveyard seems a bit taboo in the present day, it was sometimes the only option for people to find space for recreation and leisure and was one of the earliest examples of a public park. Many of the parks we have today were actually caused by the evolution and planning of historic cemeteries.