Blending in with its urban context or standing out to draw attention, a façade tells a building’s story. It is an expressive medium through which we engage with architecture, defining first impressions and setting the tone for the interior by experimenting with transparency, movement, texture and color, among other aesthetic possibilities. Of course, the envelope also plays a crucial functional role, acting as a protective barrier against extreme weather conditions and directly impacting light transmittance, energy efficiency and acoustic comfort. Architects therefore face an important challenge: to achieve a balance between an attractive look and performance. To do so, it is pivotal to specify the right materials during the design stage.

The noisier the environment, the harder it is to concentrate on the sounds we really want –and need– to hear. We spend about 90% of our time indoors, either at home or at work, often with little concern for acoustic qualities, making our body remain in a constant warning state. In offices this is an even more critical issue. While traditional open plan working spaces encourage teamwork and effective communication, many professionals face the challenge of being able to concentrate with the frequent noises, whether from a nearby conversation, the construction site next door, or a noisy espresso machine. Among the problems that noise pollution can cause in the human body are stress, accelerated heartbeat, increased blood pressure, insomnia, and a constant state of vigilance. Studies also show that poor acoustics negatively affect productivity.

This can be further amplified by the environment itself, often composed of "hard" surfaces (masonry, concrete, glass) that reverberate sound several times over, making it necessary for people to raise their voices to be understood. Furthermore, acoustic devices are generally perceived as accessories that are not very aesthetically pleasing, often with clumsy designs and with little or no flexibility.

From smartphones to space rockets and self-driving cars, the power of technology in this modern digital era is enormous (and practically limitless). It has impacted every aspect of our lives and will continue to open up endless possibilities that today we cannot even begin to fathom. When applied in a socially and environmentally responsible way, technology has the power to enhance productivity, communication and sustainability, enabling global communities to function efficiently, addressing people’s everyday needs and improving their quality of life. Simply put, good technology serves humanity. And just as the healthcare or manufacturing industries have taken advantage of this, the architecture, design and construction world cannot fall behind.

The global pause of the COVID pandemic has provided an opportunity to assess present-day globalism and the architecture that has emerged alongside it. Stemming back to the broad expansion of free trade in the 90s at the end of the Cold War, globalism’s cultural promise was simple and aspirational: integrating markets globally would increase the interaction between and learning of different cultures. By normalizing such experiences in our daily lives, we would become global citizens liberated from our previous prejudices–all well-intentioned objectives.

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Architecture is human. So when I entered Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning in 1973 and the entire faculty were as white and male as I was, it made no sense to me but reflected the end times of the full-on male dominance in my chosen profession. In that world, a few professors would often comment on how female students looked at juries, and some sexually victimized some students (none of whom were male).

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The A' Design Awards - the world's leading annual international juried design competition - were established to promote and recognize the best design work in all countries and in all creative disciplines. The Award has 100 main categories, including Architecture, Building and Structure Design, Interior Space and Exhibition Design, and Furniture Design, in addition to others related to the world of Lighting, Landscape, Building Materials, and some "Super Categories" such as Good Industrial Design, Good Architectural Design, and more. Next year's edition is now open for entries; designers can register their submissions here.

With the construction sector getting back into full swing and major upcoming projects being announced, a larger workforce is getting ready to take on these colossal works. Accordingly, on-site presence and inspections are critical and essential to creating good architecture and constitute significant learning instances for architects or engineers looking to build expertise. But despite all these new endeavors that promise new technologies, a more sustainable future, and better ways of living, one old issue prevails the presence of gender discrimination on the construction site. 

In many countries around the world, October is dedicated to raising awareness for breast cancer. Pink ribbons that represent this cause, are a tribute to Susan G. Komen, responsible for the Cure's 1990 campaign in the USA. To celebrate this month and add spread awareness efforts, ArchDaily selected some projects that incorporate the color pink into façades, interiors, and details.

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Cinemas mirror architecture. While the coronavirus pandemic shuttered theaters across the world for months, the industry is looking to the future as it aims to rethink the movie-going experience. As crowds flocked to the cinema after the 1918 pandemic, so too will the industry change shape again as it respond to new modes of watching films together.

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Data centers, automated assembly lines, telecommunications facilities, and warehouses represent a very utilitarian aspect of the built environment, and yet they compose a particular kind of infrastructure within contemporary society, one that is fundamental to the development of everyday life. Rarely discussed within the profession, these new typologies have more recently penetrated the architectural discourse, raising questions about the architectural significance and design potential of the spaces sustaining the mechanics of today's world.

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Although there is much conflict surrounding the term Brutalist, there are certain constants and patterns within the movement that offer a concrete idea of the movement and its place in contemporary architecture.

The buildings that adhere to Brutalism—an off-shoot of the Modern Movement that erupted between 1950 and 1970— stand out in part to their constructional sincerity- that is, keeping no secrets about the materials that went into their creation, their bold geometry, and the asperity of their textures and surfaces. Reinforced concrete is the predominant material in Brutalist works thanks to its prominent and dramatic texture, which is put on full display.

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When building near the sea, a project’s design strategy must pay special attention to the effects of marine corrosion. The salt content in the environment provokes a chemical and physical process which incites a material breakdown or degradation, compromising the durability of the building’s infrastructure. 

As a response to the demands for ocean-side buildings, and the corresponding façade components that go along with them, air-lux has developed a system that aims to perform reliably in maritime conditions. By virtue of its corrosion-resistant materials, improved surface coatings, and technically optimized components, the system withstands marine climates and minimizes salt water damage.

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Writer Eva Hagberg and I have known each other for a long time. Way back, in a year I can’t remember, I assigned her one of her first magazine assignments. Literally, dozens of other assignments followed. So it was with some anticipation, and a bit of surprise, that I received her new book When Eero Met His Match: Aline Louchheim Saarinen and the Making of an Architect (Princeton University Press), an intriguing hybrid text, one-part Aline and Eero biography, one part memoir of Hagberg’s experiences as a design writer and publicist. (I am briefly mentioned in the book.) The book’s main argument is that Aline Saarinen largely invented the role of the architectural publicist. Recently I traveled out to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to talk to a very pregnant Eva about the impetus for her new book, its dual structure, and the journalistic ethics of Aline Saarinen.

From the first traces of a sketch to the ribbon cutting at the official inauguration, a building and its construction process goes through numerous steps. From understanding client demands, complying to local regulations, staying within budget, getting the necessary approvals for development and construction details, a lot of time, resources and decisions are involved. To this end, it is essential to have a workforce that knows and understands the correct processes inside-out, are well informed and have experience and availability. Finding and training this workforce isn't always easy though, and this is where Aligned Studios comes in: a service that creates and manages teams composed of qualified designers for US architectural and construction companies.

Although we usually think of climate change as something that should be addressed by research institutes, governments or official reports, private companies also play a key role in affecting change, as they are on the front lines of production and innovation. This is especially true in the field of construction, as it is an industry that moves a significant amount of resources and people, but also exerts a huge impact on the environment. Unfortunately, not all companies take on this challenge, although this is slowly changing and can be seen in a number of successful examples. One of these is the case of Rieder, which embarked on a journey to become “Climate Positive” by 2030 and, more notably, set the example when building its new headquarters.

The Global Challenge is an annual competition organized by A--D that recognizes the most sustainable architectural projects around the world, and helps accelerate their development.

Much more than a merely utilitarian and functional space, the bathroom can be a relaxing place of privacy, solitude and self-care. It can be approached as an oasis of tranquility within one's home, a space to create bold combinations and highlight originality, or even as a room to surprise visitors and escape the usual designs, with different textures, colors and accessories. To achieve the desired effect of each project, specifying the most appropriate parts for each bathroom accessory is essential, which includes toilets, storage devices, walls and fittings such as taps and showers.

Catalonia's National Theatre, known by the abbreviation TNC, is a public theatre located in the Plaça de les Arts, near Plaça de Glòries, in Barcelona. It is one of the city's most prestigious buildings and one of the most important cultural institutions in Catalonia.

As the post-pandemic generation of the workplace takes shape, office comfort is fast becoming its main selling point. But that can’t just mean big, comfy ‘working’ sofas and a few scatter cushions. With the hybrid options of home, office, or third space on the table, the majority of employees still choose to spend a large proportion of their working time together, benefitting from the community feeling and creative atmosphere, but most of all the professional working environment and interior. So while comfortably cozy spaces help them feel at home, the traditional set-up with individual desks and chairs for quiet focus, can’t be underestimated

With rising rental rates and major firms already in the process of downsizing to survive the digital work era, only flexibly and adaptably designed workplaces can provide both comfortable and focused typologies.

Videos

If you're looking to take your SketchUp skills to the next level, learning how to render animations can be a great way to showcase your designs. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a professional animation using SketchUp and the photorealistic rendering plugin V-Ray. Our first step will be to create a simple camera animation and then animate the sunlight changing throughout the day. After that, we'll animate the clouds to make a time-lapse sky and learn how to share our final rendered clips with others.

Square shapes convey a sense of reliability and safety, while triangles represent stability, balance and movement. Circular forms, in turn, tend to be more "friendly", as they encompass all other shapes. This is known as the psychology of shapes, a science that studies the influence of shapes on people and their meaning and effects on our minds. In fact, geometric shapes are almost naturally familiar to us, even if we have no formal studies or mathematical references specific to them, as this study showed. In architecture, basic geometric shapes are also widely explored through playing with volumes, subtractions and intersections in floorplans and façades. The shapes may also appear in their truest forms, in interior elements and accessories. This is the case of AXOR Universal Accessories, which comprises three product lines, each representing a basic shape: rectangular, round and with rounded corners, reinterpreted into bathroom accessory products.