Architect, researcher, assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning UTCN, Master’s Degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca and KU Leuven. Based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
The Sydney Opera House has reopened its largest performance space, the Concert Hall. Since the venue closed for renovations in February 2020, the space has undergone extensive renovations to improve the acoustic performance, enhance access for people with mobility needs, and upgrade the staging systems. The renovation process respects the original interiors, while better equipping the hall to present a wide range of performances. This is the largest and final project in the Opera House’s Decade of Renewal, a 10-year program of renovation works totaling almost $300 million to upgrade the World Heritage-listed monument ahead of its 50th anniversary in 2023.
KPF and Heatherwick Studio have revealed the design for the fifth terminal of Changi Airport in Singapore. The concept behind it revolves around the concept of “airport as a city”, presenting itself as a social extension of the namesake district of Changi, at the eastern end of Singapore. The terminal is planned to add a capacity of 50 million passengers per year. Instead of a single monotonous structure, the terminal is comprised of a series of human-centered social spaces, offering different qualities of light, atmosphere, and experience to both visitors and residents of Singapore.
The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies have announced the over 150 winners of the International Architecture Awards. This event takes place every year to recognize the most significant and inspirational buildings and urban planning projects around the world. Founded in 2005 by The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre, the awards aim to set a global standard for architectural achievement worldwide.
This year’s winning projects focus on inclusive design, sustainable solutions, and finding a sensible response to the surroundings and local cultures. Restorations, renovations, and adaptive reuse solutions are also well represented among this year’s winners. projects range from significant cultural destinations such as Fuzhou Strait Culture and Art Centre China to new city infrastructure such as the Eleftheria Square in Nicosia, Cyprus; a UNESCO cultural building in Greenland to a Modularized COVID-19 Epidemic Prevention Hospital in Shanghai.
CHYBIK + KRISTOF have unveiled the design for a Public Art Gallery clad in movable copper plates. The conceptual project is located in a new public square, near a riverbank with access to the water. The cultural function marks the heart of the new development. The cylindrical volumes are inspired by past functions of the area: mining, smelting, and minting. Toward the public square, the cylinders are elevated with the purpose of connecting the interior of the building with the surrounding public space.
Grimshaw Architects has revealed the design for a 16-soundstage studio production campus for the independent company East End Studios. Located on a 15-acre former industrial site in the Arts District in Los Angeles, the campus will provide creative workplace buildings and production support spaces connected via a series of outdoor terraces and walkways. The project responds to its location and context by moving away from the traditional studio layout and instead opting to create a “vertical campus”. This composition creates a more open public relationship with the downtown neighborhood while ensuring that all campus facilities are well connected.
Boston is the latest city to announce a city-wide plan that, if passed, would eliminate the use of fossil fuels in new constructions and major renovation projects. This measure expands upon the commitment to enact climate action and make Boston a Green New Deal city. Other US cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, and Berkeley have all imposed similar measures in recent years. Seven European cities - Bilbao, Bratislava, Dublin, Munich, Rotterdam, Vienna, and Winterthur - have also developed a project to phase out fossil fuel from urban heating and cooling.
Landmark Project 'Swivel' by Sabine Marcelis. Image Courtesy of Sony Design
The London Design Festival is an annual event that brings together designers, practitioners, retailers, and educators from across the globe. This year’s program of events, exhibitions, and installations invites creative leaders to exchange ideas and solutions for some of the most pressing issues of our time, like climate change, pollution, and resource depletion. The festival includes the Landmarks Projects. As part of this initiative, Rotterdam-based designer Sabine Marcelis has created “Swivel”, an outdoor installation in central London. Other installations like Sony Design’s “Into Sight” pavilion or Sou Fujimoto’s “Medusa” exhibition explore visual and sensorial effects through physical and virtual mediums.
The metaverse promises to revolutionize our way of life. By integrating immersive technologies like virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), it hopes to add another layer to the way we experience everyday life. It is suggested that the metaverse will create virtual spaces where people can meet and share experiences regardless of geographical constraints. The possibilities seem endless: exchanging knowledge, encouraging professional collaboration, developing and democratizing art, education, culture, and even enabling political engagement. Social interactions are at the core of the idea of a metaverse. This raises the question: how can the new, virtual spaces acquire the properties of public spaces?
Bjarke Ingels Group has unveiled the vision for the Masterplan Esbjerg Strand, which will form the framework for a campus environment that aims to bring a new approach to education. The Education Esbjerg project will accommodate an innovative educational platform that rethinks the traditional education system in the country. BIG’s concept is to recreate an entire city in one building. Education and development will create a frame of life for the new communities, while the island will welcome a varied array of functions to create a sustainable, human-centered ecosystem.
Michael Heizer’s immense sculpture the City, an ambitious artwork of an extraordinary size, will begin to accept visits from the public beginning September 2, 2022. The announcement was made by the Triple Aught Foundation, the not-for-profit organization responsible for managing the long-term oversight and maintenance of Michael Heizer’s immense sculpture. The artwork, a mile and a half long and nearly half a mile wide, is located in a remote stretch of the high Nevada desert. Work on the structure began in 1972 when the artist was 27 years old.
The new apartment complex designed by Venhoeven CS and DS Landschapsarchitecten is characterized by the intention to stimulate biodiversity. Located on a four-acre plot in the Sluisbuurt on the Zeeburgereiland in Amsterdam, the complex will include 82 homes, a parking garage, and spaces for shops and businesses. The nature-inclusive project pays special attention to the design of green roofs, terraces, and facades to create micro-environments for local flora and fauna and to optimize energy consumption.
One Brickell City Centre by Arquitectonica. Image Courtesy of Swire Properties Inc and Related Companies
Arcquitectonica unveiled the design of One Brickell City Centre, an approximately 1,000-foot (approximately 300 meters) office tower planned to become the tallest commercial tower in Florida. Located in Miami’s financial district on Brickell Avenue, the office building represents the second phase of Brickell City Centre, a 4.9-million-square-foot (450,000 square meters) mixed‐use development that opened in 2016. One Brickell City Centre is developed by Swire Properties Inc. and Related Companies. Construction it set to begin in 2023.
Adam Neumann, the co-founder of co-working company WeWork, is launching Flow, a new venture that hopes to transform the residential rental real estate market. While the details are still unclear, the company seems to be focused on creating a branded product with a focus on community features, as reported by The New York Times. The company received financial support, approximately $350 million, from Andreessen Horowitz, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm and one of the early investors in Facebook and Airbnb. Flow is expected to launch in 2023.
Snøhetta has unveiled the design of its largest project in Japan to date, the Shibuya Upper West Project for Tokyu Corporation, L Catterton Real Estate, and Tokyu Department Store. The project aims to offer cultural experiences in tune with the vibrant Shibuya district of Tokyo, known for its bustling crowds, big screens, and the crossing in front of the Shibuya Station Hachikō. The 36-story tower will include a cultural complex, retail spaces, a contemporary hotel, and rental residencies.
The former Berlin-Tegel Airport is set to be redeveloped. The master plan includes the Schumacher Quartier, a new residential district with 200 hectares of landscaped area, and a research and industrial park for urban technologies, Berlin TXL – the Urban Tech Republic. Besides creating a space for industry, business, and science, the innovation park aims to research and test urban technologies. The park will focus on major themes in the development of cities: the efficient use of energy, sustainable construction, eco-friendly mobility, recycling, networked control of systems, clean water, and the application of new materials.
“Sick Architecture” opened on May 5th at CIVA in Brussels. Co-curated by Beatriz Colomina, the exhibition investigates the intrinsic relation between architecture and sickness. The architectural discourse always weaves itself through theories of body and brain, constructing the architect as a kind of doctor and the client as the patient. Architecture has been portrayed as a form of prevention and cure for thousands of years. Yet architecture is also often the cause of illness, from the institution of hospitals to toxic building materials and sick building syndrome. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted this topic.
Japanese digital consultancy Gluon plans to preserve the Nakagin Capsule Tower Building in Tokyo, one of the most representative examples of Japanese Metabolism by Kisho Kurokawa. The “3D Digital Archive Project” is using a combination of measurement techniques to record the iconic building in three dimensions and recreate it in the metaverse. The tower is currently being demolished due to the structure's precarious state and incompatibility with current seismic standards, as well as the general state of decay and lack of maintenance.
