Patrick is ArchDaily's News Editor. Prior to this position, he was an editorial intern for ArchDaily while working full time as an assistant for a watercolor artist. Patrick holds a B. Arch degree from Penn State University and has spent time studying under architect Paolo Soleri. He is currently based in New York City.
3XN Architects has revealed new renderings and photographs of the in-progress headquarters for the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland. Selected as the winner of an international competition in 2014, the design features sinuously curving forms evocative of the “movement of an Olympic athlete” to embody the three core principles of movement, flexibility and sustainability.
New renderings have been revealed of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop-designed Academy of Motion Pictures as the project races toward its 2019 completion date. Located along LA’s Miracle Mile, the museum is striving to become “the world’s premier institution dedicated to the art and science of movies.”
The Studio Libeskind-designed Canadian National Holocaust Monument has opened to the public in Ottawa, honoring “the millions of innocent men, women and children who were murdered under the Nazi regime and recognize those survivors who were able to eventually make Canada their home.”
Located on a .79 acre site across from the Canadian War museum, the cast-in-place concrete monument evokes the form of the 6-pointed star of David, deconstructed to create an “experiential environment” laced with symbolism throughout.
Foster + Partners have revealed designs for the sustainability-minded new headquarters of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Group in southern Budapest. Known as MOL Campus, the plan will center on an environmentally-progressive structure located within in a park-like setting. When completed, it will become this city’s tallest building.
“This is a landmark project for several reasons, not only for MOL but also for Budapest,” said Nigel Dancey, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners. “It presents a unique challenge – to ensure that the building meets the functional needs of the organisation, follows the highest standards of sustainability, and is respectful of its historic surroundings.”
In the latest in their Daily360 series, the New York Times takes a look at this past weekend's demolition of the old Kosciusko Bridge on Newton Creek between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. Built in 1939, the steel truss bridge had become a major bottleneck for traffic over the past 8 decades, prompting the state government to invest in a new cable-stayed design. The first span of that bridge opened in April, with a second span to be built over the path of the former bridge.
“This is an area that was polluted from the industrial manufacturing economy,” said New York State Governor Cuomo. “We’re cleaning it up, but I think the crown jewel is going to be that new Kosciuszko bridge.”
Arcaid Images has revealed the shortlist of 20 images in the running for the title of World’s Best Building Image in their 2017 Arcaid Images Architectural Photography Awards. The annual award selects photographs in four categories - Exterior, Interior, Sense of Place, and Building in Use - which are judged by an esteemed panel of designers, photographers and journalists based on their atmospheric quality, composition, use of scale and more.
“More than just informing people about the existence of such places, the best photos go beyond that and entice people to learn more about the buildings, cities, and landscapes – maybe even booking a flight to see them firsthand. That feeling hit me on numerous occasions,” said jury member John Hill, Editor of the World-Architects eMagazine.
The 2017 MPavilion, designed by Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of OMA, has opened to the public in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens.
Inspired by the design of ancient amphitheatres and embedded into a raised landscape of native plantings, the project represents OMA’s first-ever completed project in Australia. The 19x19-meter, aluminum-clad structure will feature a rotating grandstand to allow the space to be reconfigured for the variety of events planned for the summer MPavilion program, as well as a two-meter-deep floating roof structure to offer shade and provide support systems for the programming below.
A new space has been given a retro makeover while a historic one is racing towards modernization as work continues on the transformation of Eero Saarinen’s iconic TWA Terminal into a luxury hotel and event space.
Just completed is the TWA Lounge, a satellite space for the hotel located on the 86th floor of One World Trade Center. Part gallery, part mock-up, the Lounge space recreates the look and feel of the original terminal down to the smallest detail.
At this morning’s International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia, SpaceX founder and Lead Designer Elon Musk announced the most ambitious plans yet for the colonization of planets and satellites beyond Earth, including the establishment of a lunar base and a permanent Mars colony by 2022.
“The future is vastly more exciting and interesting if we’re a space-faring species than if we’re not,” said Musk during his keynote. “It’s about believing in the future and thinking the future will be better than the past.”
The BIG-designed, 12,000-square-meter LEGO visitor experience center known as the ‘LEGO House’ has officially opened to the public, inviting people of all ages to learn more about the ubiquitous plastic brick and practice their creativity and problem-solving skills through play.
“It has been a dream for me for many years to create a place that will give our visitors the ultimate LEGO experience. With LEGO House, we celebrate creativity and the strength of learning through play. When they play, children learn the basic skills that they need, such as creativity, collaboration and problem-solving abilities,” said former president and CEO of LEGO, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.
Arena International and pioneering technology leader ABB have announced the winners of the 2017 ABB LEAF Awards, celebrating the “projects and personalities that have made the biggest impact upon our built environment, and the international design community, over the last 12 months and beyond.”
This year, awards were given out across 19 categories dedicated to various aspects of building, including best façade design, best future building, and public building of the year, as well as a lifetime achievement award, this year given to Sir Peter Cook.
“To be given a Lifetime award by the ABB Leaf organisation is serious stuff,” said Cook. “It makes me look again at my work and realise that - since it is being taken seriously - I should reiterate again and again its espousal of the experimental, the investigatory and - sometimes- the audacious in architecture. Even at the age of 80 I regard my next building as potentially my best, my next book as my most readable and my next lecture as my naughtiest. I feel truly honoured.”
San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum has unveiled plans for a $38 million renovation and addition project that will transform the institution’s exhibition and educational programs while reconnecting the building to its Civic Center location. Designed by architect Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY, the project consists of a new 13,000-square-foot exhibition Pavilion and Art Terrace clad in a rusticated gray terracotta facade that echoes the design language of the original beaux arts building.
Blossoming from the rugged terrain of the California desert, Whitaker Studio’s Joshua Tree Residence is taking shipping container architecture to the next level. Set to begin construction in 2018, the home is laid out in a starburst of containers, each oriented to maximize views, provide abundant natural light or to create privacy dependent on their location and use.
The government of the United Arab Emirates has announced the launch of the Mars Science City project, a $140 Million USD (AED 500 million) research city that will serve as a “viable and realistic model” for the simulation of human occupation of the martian landscape. Designed by a team of Emirati scientists, engineers and designers from the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in partnership with Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the 1.9 million-square-foot domed structure will become the largest space simulation city ever constructed.
Following the announcement of Nouvelle AOM as the winner of the competition to redesign Paris’ Tour Montparnasse, runner-up proposals have been revealed from the six finalists: Architecture Studio, Dominique Perrault Architecture, MAD Architects + DGLA, OMA, PLP Architecture and Studio Gang.
The competition sought proposals for the transformation of the Montparnasse Tower, which has been one of the city’s most controversial buildings since its completion in 1973. The new project was required to be “capable of giving a powerful, innovative, dynamic and ambitious new identity to the famous Parisian landmark, whilst integrating the challenges of usage, comfort and energy performance to the highest levels.”
See the finalist entries, below.
The Canada Council of the Arts has selected Indigenous design project UNCEDED to represent Canada at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Led by Canadian architect Douglas Cardinal, the exhibition will bring attention to and analyze the architecture of Indigenous cultures from across Turtle Island (the Indigenous name for North America).
The architectural consortium of Nouvelle AOM has been announced as the winner of the international competition for the renovation and redesign of Paris’ Tour Montparnasse, beating out finalist Studio Gang and a shortlist of top firms.
Lauded by the jury for its “powerful, dynamic and bold new identity,” the winning entry will introduce an entirely new vegetated facade system that will improve both the tower’s immediate surroundings and the neighborhood as a whole.
"This was a huge challenge, as the Tower isn't like any other," the jury explained. "Nouvelle AOM's project perfectly captures the spirit of the 21st century, giving the Tower a multifaceted identity revolving around attractive, innovative new uses. The Tower will breathe new life into the Montparnasse neighbourhood."
The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) has announced Tezuka Architects’ Fuji Kindergarten in Tokyo as the winner of the 2017 Moriyama RAIC International Prize. Established by Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama and the RAIC in 2014, the $100,000 prize is awarded every two years to recognize a single work of architecture from around the globe “that is judged to be transformative within its societal context and promotes the values of social justice, equality, and inclusiveness.”
"I feel now there is someone who understands this project well. I think it's quite a unique prize because it's about contributing to society,” commented Takaharu Tezuka. "It looks like a simple structure. But it's a layering of many ideas combined."
