The following interview with Adrian Lahoud was first published by Volume Magazine in their 48th issue, The Research Turn. You can read the Editorial of this issue, Research Horizons, here.
The political left has had a rough few decades; everything just seems to be going in the other direction. Instead of romanticizing what it would be like "only if," we’d better get to work on figuring out how to turn the engine of progress around. Volume spoke with Adrian Lahoud about the stakes of architectural research within the academy today and how it might contribute to moving towards the horizons of the left.
The Museum of London has released a shortlist and designs for the West Smithfield International Design Competition, organized by Malcolm Reading Consultants. The site, which will be the museum’s future home after outgrowing its place at the Barbican, is part of London’s Smithfield Market and includes the Smithfield General Market building, the Fish Market, the Red House and the Engine House. Welcoming over a million annual visitors at its current home, the museum’s new facility would allow attendance to double and enable the display of never-before-seen artifacts from the historic collection. The competition was funded by the Mayor of London through a £200,000 grant.
Foster + Partners' Craft + Manufacture: Industrial Design exhibition is currently on display at The Aram Gallery in London. It is the firm’s first exhibition dedicated to the industrial design work they have created over the past fifty years. It shows how “the science, art, and craft of making things” has been the foundation of the firm, and how the “collaborative nature of the design team pioneered by Norman Foster” has been translated into their architectural practice.
The Victoria and Albert Museum has unveiled its latest installation: the Elytra Filament Pavilion, a project displaying the culmination of four years of research on the integration of architecture, engineering, and biomimicry principles, in an exploration of how biological fiber systems can be transferred to architecture.
The 200-square-meter structure is inspired by lightweight construction principles found in nature, namely "the fibrous structures of the forewing shells of flying beetles known as elytra," states a press release.
In their semester-long project at Zaha Hadid’s final studio course at the Yale School of Architecture, students Lisa Albaugh, Benjamin Bourgoin, Jamie Edindjiklian, Roberto Jenkins and Justin Oh envisioned a new a high density mixed-use project for London's Bishopsgate Goodsyard, the largest undeveloped piece of land still existing in central London.
Join us for this special live episode of The Urbanist at our Marylebone HQ, where Monocle editor Andrew Tuck hands over the floor to city-planners, policy-makers and urban leaders to discuss how to build a better London. How would you fix the capital? We’ll look at transport, culture, housing, business, the night-time economy and much more. Be part of the debate following the election of the city’s new mayor.
This week, OMA has unveiled their latest project in London, Holland Green. Working alongside Allies & Morrison, the firm has created three new luxury residential buildings on a site of significant cultural importance: the former home of the Commonwealth Institute, designed by Sir Robert Matthew, one of the founding partners of RMJM. As a result, OMA and Allies & Morrison’s Holland Green project involved much more than just adding fuel to the fire of London’s booming luxury residential market—it also involved an extensive conversion to the original 1962 Commonwealth Institute exhibition hall, funded through the scheme’s profitable residential offering, to prepare the heritage building for its new tenants the Design Museum.
ArchDaily spoke with Reinier de Graaf, the partner in charge of the project at OMA, to discuss the development’s social aspirations, the challenges of the London context, and the story behind the project.
Zaha Hadid Architects Vision. Image Courtesy of Heathrow Media Centre
Heathrow Airport is offering a first glimpse at commissioned expansion proposals by Zaha Hadid Architects, Grimshaw, HOK, and Benoy, that will shape the future of the global hub in London. The project brief called for "bold ideas to create a world-class sustainable airport that [will] deliver innovations in passenger service, integrate local communities, and showcase the best of British design." Challenging the architects to push the boundaries of what is the current airport typology, the proposals are meant to drive a step change in global airport design.
In Granary Square, located in London’s King’s Cross, there is a fragment of the poem Brill by Aidan Dunn set into the ground, which reads: “King’s Cross, dense with angels and histories. There are cities beneath your pavements, cities behind your skies.” Anchored by the converted granary building and a rejuvenated stretch of canal, Argent’s ongoing King’s Cross development is an appropriate setting for Building on the Built, an exhibition which presents the work of London-based practice Jonathan Tuckey Design.
Crossrail Limited has released new renderings of stations set to open on the Elizabeth Line in London. Notable features of the new stations include step-free access from train to street, and seamless integration into the existing Transport for London (TfL) network. Seating, signage and full-height platform screen doors emulate precedents within the system to promote ease and familiarity. The designs strive for simplicity and clarity with reduced visual clutter and clear sight lines along platforms. Additionally, there will be permanent artworks installed and fully-integrated in many of the central London stations. The stations depicted – Paddington, architect Weston Williamson, Bond Street, architect John McAslan + Partners, Tottenham Court Road, architect Hawkins\Brown, Farringdon, architect Aedas, Liverpool Street, architect Wilkinson Eyre, Whitechapel, architect BDP, and Woolwich, architect Weston Williamson – are scheduled to begin service in December of 2018.
The 2016 Venice Biennale will see the inaugural collaboration between La Biennale and London's Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) with an exhibition located in the Sale d’Armi (Arsenale) entitled A World of Fragile Parts. The show aims to explore the threats facing the preservation of global heritage sites and how the production of copies can aid in the preservation of cultural artefacts.
https://www.archdaily.com/787177/londons-victoria-and-albert-museum-to-present-a-world-of-fragile-parts-in-2016-venice-biennaleAD Editorial Team
From a shortlist of 68 buildings, 36 London projects have been awarded the 2016 RIBA LondonAwards for architectural excellence, the city's most prestigious design honor. The winners include a home for ravens, a Japanese-inspired London terrace home and a historical restoration. All of these designs will be further considered for the RIBA National Awards, to be announced in July. The winners of the national award will then create a shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize – the highest award for architecture in the UK.
Architectural disAssociation - A reflection on the state of the education of architecture at the AA. Open discussion inviting everyone with an opinion of the school - students, tutors and alumni alike to retrospectively reflect on the state of the AA's unit system and speculate the possible future of its education. This discussion will have no panel as it is an open floor discussion.
The Parliament of the United Kingdom has announced a series of renovations that will take place on Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben in London, starting in early 2017. During the renovation period, the tower and clock will be partially covered with scaffolding, which will be removed as the work progresses. Moreover, the clock mechanism will be stopped for several months, during which there will be no chiming or striking of the iconic bells.
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