Oscar Niemeyer’s latest work generated a spherical extension for the Kirow plant’s canteen in Leipzig, Germany. The architect was first approached by the factory’s owner in 2011, and following Niemeyer’s death in 2012, his sketches were further developed by assistant Jair Valera, and executed by Harald Kern Architects.

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Ronald Lu & Partners has created in collaboration with BEHAVE, a blueprint for future-ready offices that meet the new needs of the post-pandemic workforce. Reimagining tomorrow’s office and embracing a new working style, the partnership generated “Mindplace”, an office concept that will “improve work efficiency, focus on sustainability and cater to the holistic needs of employees”.

David Chipperfield Architects has received planning permission for Hertogensite residences in Leuven, a new 14-story residential tower in Belgium. Part of a global vision to redevelop a former hospital campus, the project is connected to nine townhouses and a four-story apartment building.

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Videos

The Pritzker Architecture Prize has released a special video to honor 2020 Laureates, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, the 47th and 48th Laureates of the award, and the first two Irish citizens to receive the distinction. For the first time in the 42-year history of the award, an in-person ceremony could not be held, therefore organizers created a film, discussing the meaning of the Prize and revealing the Laureates’ intimate reflections on architecture.

Regeneration specialist U+I submitted plans for Morden Wharf in June 2020, comprising 1,500 new homes, employment spaces, and a landscaped park along 275m of the River Thames. Located on Greenwich Peninsula in London, the mixed-use scheme designed by OMA includes more than six acres of the high-quality public realm, 12 high quality, and tenure-blind residential buildings, as well as commercial, retail, and community spaces.

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Fentress Global Challenge (FGC), an annual international student design competition, launched in 2011 by Fentress Architects, has released its results for the 2020 edition. Reimagining airport mobility in the year 2100 for one of the 20 busiest airports in the world, this year’s contest gathered over 100 submissions from students in over 15 countries. The winning project, “the Green Gateway” is a zero-emission, highly sustainable multimodal hub.

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Designed by 3XN, in partnership with GXN, 2 Finsbury Avenue is a 12 story podium with a 35-story East Tower and 20-story West Tower. Located at Broadgate campus, the largest pedestrianized neighborhood in Central London, adjacent to the busy transport hub of Liverpool Street station, the firm’s first project in the city is part of a bigger vision to transform the area into a new mixed-use destination.

Team V Architectuur, an architecture office based in Amsterdam, is designing the new Dutch timber hybrid head office for DPG Media at the Amstel Business Park in the Netherlands. In collaboration with DELVA Landscape Architecture/ Urbanism for the landscape and outdoor space, the project will generate a 46.000 square meter of healthy and sustainable working environment.

With one year to go until Expo 2020 Dubai, the organizing committee of the event has revealed new images of the main pavilions under construction. While the majority of the work in 2020 was focused on landscaping and the main Expo buildings, the construction of the 192 national pavilions is back on track, to conclude by the end of the year.

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Dominique Perrault Architecture has won the competition to design the new retractable roofing of the Suzanne Lenglen Tennis Court. Bringing additional value to the “French Open” site, the “architectural intervention not only creates a roof but also proposes a large-scale architectural ensemble whose silhouette dialogues both with the surrounding landscape and the architecture of the existing building”.

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Chapman Taylor has unveiled a masterplan for an 80-hectare World Horticultural EXPO in Łódź, Poland’s third-largest city. Also known as Green EXPO, the international exhibition devoted to the use of greenery and landscaping in urban environments will be located in the heart of the city center, in proximity to the main railway station, and surrounded by the urban fabric.

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MVRDV was commissioned the design of Glass Mural, a new 3,716-square-meter office and retail building with a custom glass façade that integrates colorful murals by artists DENIAL and Sheefy McFly. Located in Detroit’s Eastern Market neighborhood, the project will be MVRDV’s third mixed-use project in the United States and first in the Midwest.

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BIG has unveiled its design for AI CITY, the future home for Terminus Group, a smart service provider. Imagined as the new center of innovation for China, the project will be dedicated to "artificial intelligence, robotics, networking, and big data”. Located in Chongqing, in southwest China, known as the “mountain city”, the project is set within the Chongqing Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone.

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Part of New York’s Recovery Agenda, to keep the city safe and healthy, the Open Restaurants program established in June of this year was extended year-round, to be made permanent. In fact, Mayor de Blasio has allowed restaurants to use heating and enclosures, and expand seating to adjacent properties with neighbors’ consent. This extension will also apply to Open Streets: Restaurants, “which currently offers restaurants expanded space on 85 car-free streets citywide on certain days”.

ODA-Designed Hunter’s Point South, the newest development by TF Cornerstone, and the largest affordable housing project in NYC has launched its housing lottery. The master-planned, mixed-use and mixed-income community, park, school, and playground, situated along the East River in Long Island City, Queens, the first of its kind to hit the market since COVID-19, brings 1,194 rental units and a new park to Long Island City waterfront.

The sustainable mixed-use K8 tower, designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen moves forward with final approval from the Stavanger City Council in Norway. The proposal aims to encourage future urban developments in the city and generates a new benchmark for sustainable and creative work environments.

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