Diller Scofidio + Renfro: The Latest Architecture and News

Columbia University’s Manhattanville Campus expansion has ushered in a crystalline district of glass-clad buildings amid the masonry vernacular architecture of Harlem. The latest additions to the 17-acre, $6.3 billion campus, which was master-planned by SOM, are two buildings designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) in collaboration with FXCollaborative that provide a new home for the Columbia Business School. Set to open in early 2022, Henry R. Kravis Hall and the East Building rise 11 and 8 stories, respectively, and provide 492,000 square feet of classrooms, public space, and faculty offices.

+ 1

Led by OUTCOMIST, an international design team including Diller Scofidio + Renfro, PLP Architecture, CRA - Carlo Ratti Associati, and Arup won the competition to revitalize the Porta Romana Railway Area, transforming the industrial site into a diverse green neighborhood in Milan. Rehabilitating a disused railway yard into a connective tissue that links the southeast area of the city to the center, the development will generate a rich biodiverse public space, including a large urban park.

+ 3

A design team comprised by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Gustafson Bowman + Porter y B720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos has been chosen to lead the transformation of Madrid’s AZCA district.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Woods Bagot have unveiled their design for the new Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre (AACC) in Adelaide, Australia. Designed around a "deep Aboriginal connection to Country, place and kin" as the project's foundation, the cultural project aims to become a platform for honoring and developing Australian culture. The AACC concept originates from the Aboriginal conception of the elements linking people to place: earth, land and sky.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS + R) and Stefano Boeri Architetti have won the international architectural competition for the renovation of Pirelli 39 in Milan. Launched on 25 November 2019, the contest organized by COIMA SGR and the municipality of Milan, gathered 70 submissions made up of 359 studios from 15 countries.

The RENAZCA international competition has released a shortlist for the design of the financial district of Azca in Madrid, Spain, according to El Pais. Directed by IE School of Architecture and Design Martha Thorne and Edgar González, the competition aims to transform the district into the most important economic and cultural node in the Spanish capital. The winning team will be chosen at the end of January 2021 and will have the task of transforming the sector into a "new, open, sustainable urban space connected to the city."

A new 550-ton steel bridge has been placed next to the new United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs. The bridge was designed by the same team as the adjacent Olympic & Paralympic complex - Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Anderson Mason Dale, and KL&A - while taking inspiration from the motion of athletes. The design features a 250-foot curved steel structure that was made to float above the rail yard.

+ 5

The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia has announced three finalists in the competition to create a new gallery along the Halifax waterfront. As a central component of a new arts district, the design will be part of a larger public gathering place along the Salter Block that showcases contemporary art and public programs. The design aims to increase opportunities to access and experience art, celebrate diverse stories through the arts, and enhance the waterfront experience.

+ 5

With society's needs and aspirations shifting, spatial typologies and architectural programs are continually being questioned, and this re-evaluation creates the premises for innovation. The following is an exploration of how architecture is metabolizing society's fundamental changes throughout several aspects of everyday life, challenging the existing assumptions regarding program and space.

+ 6

The Hungarian Government has decided to continue the design process for Diller Scofidio + Renfro's new Museum of Transport in Budapest. During the past few months, the COVID-19 pandemic cast doubt on the continuation of the project, and this latest news is a sign of support for the team's planning, design and preparatory work necessary for starting construction.

+ 1

The Arquia Foundation signs an agreement with Architect-US to expand its program to the United States and adds 2 scholarships in New York to their XXI Arquia Scholarships 2020 Call.

Highlighting and promoting architecture and design that impacts the educational field, the Design that Educates Awards revealed its list of winners for 2020. A collaboration between Laka Foundation and Solarlux GmbH, this year’s competition theme was inspired by the “Educating Buildings” research paper of Dr. Peter Kuczia.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro have been selected to renovate Frank Lloyd Wright's Kalita Humphreys Theater in Dallas. Home to the Dallas Theater Center since its opening in 1959, the renovation project will include a master plan for the nine-acre Kalita Humphreys site, which will include new theater spaces and a connection to the Katy Trail.

City of the Future is a bi-weekly podcast from Sidewalk Labs that explores ideas and innovations that will transform cities.

In the final episode of season 2, hosts Eric Jaffe and Vanessa Quirk discuss the past, present, and future of responsive architecture with Sidewalk Labs’ director of public realm Jesse Shapins, engineer and microclimate expert Goncalo Pedro, Bubbletecture author Sharon Francis, and renowned architect Liz Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

Follow along during the twelfth edition of the World Architecture Festival through ArchDaily's Live Stream. As the world’s biggest architectural awards program, WAF brings together more than 2,000 architects and designers to Amsterdam for three days of conference programs, awards, and exhibition events from December 4-6. Tune in to our Facebook live streams for a selection of lectures.

Videos

The complete Museum of Modern Art expansion by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Gensler is set to open in New York. The expansion adds more than 40,000 square feet of gallery spaces for exhibiting art. Launched in 2014, the first phase of renovations on the east end was completed in 2017, and the second phase of expansion on the west end is now complete and ready to open to the public.

+ 15

For Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki and David J. Lewis, the section “is often understood as a reductive drawing type, produced at the end of the design process to depict structural and material conditions in service of the construction contract.” A definition that will be familiar to most of those who have studied or worked in architecture at some point. We often think primarily of the plan, for it allows us to embrace the programmatic expectations of a project and provide a summary of the various functions required. In the modern age, digital modelling software programs offer ever more possibilities when it comes to creating complex three dimensional objects, making the section even more of an afterthought.

With their Manual of Section (2016), the three founding partners of LTL architects engage with section as an essential tool of architectural design, and let’s admit it, this reading might change your mind on the topic. For the co-authors, “thinking and designing through section requires the building of a discourse about section, recognizing it as a site of intervention.” Perhaps, indeed, we need to understand the capabilities of section drawings both to use them more efficiently and to enjoy doing so.

+ 10

The Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC) have unveiled three new concepts for a master plan of the La Brea Tar Pits. The proposals were designed to improve the entire 12-acre site, which has not been renovated or considered comprehensively since it opened more than forty years ago. The three proposals were made by Dorte Mandrup, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and WEISS/MANFREDI. The concepts aim to create a more integrated experience of the museum and the landscape in Hancock Park.

+ 13