Maria-Cristina Florian

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.

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A Floating Pavilion in Slovenia and a Bicycle Route through the Tree-Tops in Italy: 10 Unbuilt Public Space Projects Submitted to ArchDaily

One of the central responsibilities of urban planners and designers is to create places within the city for gatherings, demonstrations, leisure, and relaxation. The following list of unbuilt public spaces presents projects that expand these spaces beyond the shores or riverfronts, return misused spaces back to the local communities and seek to optimize otherwise overlooked areas. These types of interventions are essential in improving the quality of life of the citizens and in making cities more enjoyable to live in.

This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community. Located near a UNESCO heritage site in Italy, on top of an illegal dumping site in Dallas, Texas, or in a medieval city in northern Spain, this round-up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects and urban planners recognize the potential of urban places.

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Grimshaw Launches a Charitable Foundation Focused on Creative Education

The Grimshaw Foundation is a charitable organization aiming to bring access to creative learning tools to a diverse range of young people. The organization was established by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, in partnership with the partners of international architecture practice Grimshaw. The central purpose is to bring together a globally linked educational community of artists, architects, and designers to support and empower young people. It hopes to reach them at the stage of navigating their career options and help them discover the varied options and opportunities that the creative industry can offer. The Foundation officially launched on 6 July 2022 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

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Vantem, a Startup Founded by Bill Gates, is Building Cost-Effective Net Zero Housing

Vantem is a startup construction company manufacturing high-efficiency, net-zero homes at competitive costs and low embodied carbon. The company recently raised a Series A round of investment from the Bill Gates-founded firm Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Net-zero homes, buildings that produce as much energy as they use, are typically cheaper to own than standard housing. Still, they often involve high construction costs since they require advanced building technologies and engineering. Vantem aims to change this dynamic by employing modular construction technology.

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Ai Weiwei’s Arch Installation Opens in Central Stockholm

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei unveiled the Arch, a cage-like sculpture in front of the National Museum of Stockholm. The 12-meter-tall stainless steel structure features at its center silhouettes of two people holding one another, appearing to break through the steel bars of the cage. The artwork was created to symbolize refugee stories and is seen as an ode to freedom. The sculpture is installed outside Nationalmuseum national gallery on the Blasienholmen peninsula in Stockholm’s archipelago. It will remain there for one year, after which, it will be moved to a yet undisclosed location in the city.

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World Architecture Festival Reveals the 2022 Shortlist

World Architecture Festival Reveals the 2022 Shortlist - Featured Image
The Rajasthan School by Sanjay Puri Architects, Ras, India. Image © Dinesh Mehta

The World Architecture Festival (WAF) revealed the 420 shortlist for this year’s festival, with entries from all around the world, including Portugal, Malaysia, Finland, Mexico, Turkey, Australia, Japan, India, and the UK. The awards program celebrates the best new completed buildings and landscape design projects, ranging from rural villas to contemporary religious buildings and healthcare facilities built during the pandemic.

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UNDP and Tosin Oshinowo Reveal Rebuilt Nigerian Village for a Community Displaced

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is working with the Nigerian Government to develop Rebuilding Ngarannam, a stabilization program in Northeast Nigeria that offers a new village to a community displaced by Boko Haram. The new urban plan and infrastructure were designed by Nigerian Consultant Architect Tosin Oshninowo, who consulted with the community to create a settlement that reflects and speaks to their culture. The first phase, which includes housing and essential services like education and healthcare facilities, is set to be complete in the summer of 2022.

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Notre Dame to Receive New Landscape Design: Bas Smets Wins Competition to Reimagine the Cathedral's Surroundings

In parallel with the restoration works underway at the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral, the city of Paris has launched a design competition to redevelop the cathedral’s surroundings. On June 27, the jury announced the team led by landscape designer Bas Smets as the winner of the competition. The project, planned to start in 2024, will reimagine the square and the underground parking spaces beneath it, including the archeological crypt, the Jean XXIII square located behind the cathedral, the Seine riverbanks, and the adjacent streets. This extensive project aims to bring Parisians back to the heart of Paris and welcome the 12 million visitors coming each year in better conditions.

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New Web-Based Tool Assists Architects in the Early Phases of Planning Climate Positive Buildings

EHDD has recently launched the Early-Phase Integrated Carbon (EPIC) Assessment tool, a free new web-based application developed to designers set goals and strategies to reduce carbon emissions from building and construction projects. The tool aims to fill a gap in the life-cycle assessment process and allow designers to identify the most impactful measures early in the project process. At the same time, other resources like Tally and EC3 are seen as crucial later in the design.

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UNStudio Wins Competition to Design a New Residential District in Iași, Romania

UNStudio has been announced as the winner of the international competition "Un Iași pentru Viitor" to design a new residential district in the historical center of Iași, Romania. For this competition, organized by Iulius company, four offices have been invited to participate, Foster + Partners, MVRDV, UNStudio, and Zaha Hadid Architects. The main challenge of the competition brief was designing a building well integrated into a complex urban environment marked by historic monuments of different ages, new archeological discoveries, and open public spaces and gardens. The winning proposal, titled „Bridging Time, Bridging Communities,” aims to offer a coherent response to the particularities of the site.

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Grimshaw Reveals Design for Futures Institute at Dollar Academy in Scotland, UK

Architecture practice Grimshaw has revealed designs for the Futures Institute at Dollar Academy (FIDA) in Scotland, UK, an open-access learning platform developed by the Dollar Academy, one of Scotland’s leading independent schools. The Institute’s new building will receive the country’s first Living Building certification.

FIDA was launched in May 2021 to tackle fundamental challenges in education: providing equitable access and closing the poverty-related attainment gap; finding compelling alternatives to traditional teaching and exam systems; and addressing sustainability. The initiative invites young people across Scotland to participate in innovative projects rooted in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These challenges include workshops, skills-based courses, design challenges, and competitions, all offered in-person and via an online platform to enable the broadest possible participation.

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Federico Fiorino’s Ethereal Design Wins Competition for the Floating Pavilion on the Drava River in Maribor, Slovenia

The Outsider magazine and the City Municipality of Maribor have announced the winners of the international competition “Floating Pavilion on the Drava River.” The purpose of the competition was to obtain an innovative design for a floating pavilion that would have two main functions: a space for smaller events during the Lent Festival and a space for contemplation by the river. The City Municipality of Maribor will invite the winning candidate to participate in the implementation of the project.

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Passages Insolites, the Public Art Circuit Explores Unexpected Public Spaces in the City of Québec

Initiated by EXMURO arts publics and the Ville de Québec, the 9th edition of Passages Insolites, or Unusual Passages, is open from June 25 to October 10, 2022, in the city of Québec. During this time, 17 works by 18 local, Canadian, and international artists will be placed along a 2.5 km circuit in the historic sectors of Place Royale, Petit Champlain, and the Old Port. This year’s edition creates spaces for artistic encounters and reflection on the environment, decolonization, and geopolitics. In the words of Vincent Roy, EXMURO’s executive and artistic director, this year’s programming will “help put Quebec City on the global art map as a venue for exhibiting art and promoting artists, both locally and internationally.”

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Steven Holl's Chapel of St. Ignatius in Seattle Receives AIA's Twenty-Five Year Award

The Chapel of St. Ignatius in Seattle, designed by Steven Holl Architects, has been honored by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) with its Twenty-five Year Award. AIA’s award is conferred on a building that has set a precedent, stood the test of time for 25 to 35 years and continues to set standards of excellence for its architectural design and significance. The Chapel of St. Ignatius finished in 1997, reflects the ideal of the Jesuit practice, a religious order of the Catholic Church, in which no single method of worship is prescribed. Instead, the sect recognizes that “different methods helped different people.” That idea is reflected in the Chapel of St. Ignatius, Seattle University’s main chapel, where differences in light unify to support the worship and ritual needs of the university community.

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Powerhouse Company, Atelier Oslo and Lundhagem Win the Competition for the Rotterdam Central Library

The City of Rotterdam has selected Powerhouse Company, Atelier Oslo, Lundhagem to renew and extend the city’s Central Library, a landmark building from the early 1980s designed by Van den Broek & Bakema. The new design adopts the concept of radical reuse in order to transform a 1980s building into a contemporary library, well-adapted to the necessities of modern users. The team combines the expertise of Powerhouse Company, Atelier Oslo, and Lundhagem, the latter two offices being awarded in 2021 with the Public Library of the Year Award for their design of Oslo!s Deichman library. Construction is expected to begin in 2025 and be completed by the end of 2028, the year marking the building!s 45th anniversary.

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The School of Architecture Develops Design-Build Learning Program at Arcosanti in Arizona, USA

The School of Architecture, founded by Frank Lloyd Wright as the Taliesin Fellowship in 1932, is undergoing significant transformations. Two years after separating from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, TSOA landed at Arcosanti, an experimental desert community in Arizona owned and operated by The Cosanti Foundation. In line with the school’s values, the program at Arcosanti seeks to provide students with a contemporary design education based on immersive, experimental, and experiential learning. The curriculum offers 2 and 3+ year NAAB-accredited Master of Architecture degrees and a 1.5-year Master of Science in Design-Build.

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Dorte Mandrup Opens New Exhibition at Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin

A new traveling exhibition by Danish architecture studio Dorte Mandrup opens at Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin on 8 July 2022. The exhibition entitled PLACE delves into the strong interrelation between place and architecture and explores the role of the context ties in the quest for sustainable solutions for the future. In September, the exhibition will move to Le Bicolore – Maison du Danemark in Paris.

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