Office for Political Innovation: The Latest Architecture and News

Architecture this week reflects the intersections of legacy, authorship, and social responsibility, as practices navigate questions of identity, recognition, and public engagement. Legal rulings, major competition shortlists, and large-scale urban proposals illustrate how architecture continues to operate across cultural, institutional, and environmental arenas. From sustainability-driven landmarks and transformative waterfront developments to iconic commercial towers, projects demonstrate approaches to ecological strategies and public programming. At the same time, global observances such as World Hearing Day highlight how spatial design shapes inclusion and accessibility, reminding the profession that the built environment can influence participation, learning, and well-being for diverse communities.

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Shift, a company offering digital programs to reduce carbon emissions through individual behavior change, has announced the five finalist teams advancing to Stage Two of its international architecture competition. Launched in January 2025, the Shift International Architecture Competition called for proposals to design "the Shift Landmark": a 25,000 to 30,000 m² building in Waterkant, a new waterfront district in southern Rotterdam. The project includes a hotel, a conference and meeting center, and a sustainable food court. Its objective is to set a new standard for a purpose-driven destination that turns circular living into "something individuals, companies, and organisations can feel, experience, and act on." The five shortlisted design concepts reflect different visions of sustainability and climate action, developed by teams led by the European offices of MVRDV (Netherlands), Heatherwick Studio (United Kingdom), Office for Political Innovation (Spain), Mecanoo (Netherlands), and Ecosistema Urbano (Spain).

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In the interview conducted by Louisiana Channel, architect Andrés Jaque discusses his foundational interest in architecture and his perspective on its role in shaping society. Jaque, founder of the Office for Political Innovation, emphasizes the creative potential of architecture to intervene in reality and reconnect all elements of the environment. He also goes into perspective on the political aspect of architecture, an interest from which the name of his office derives, as well as his perspectives on the true meaning of sustainability.

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Design stems from nuance, empathy, and understanding. The best solutions address the needs, identities, and context of a client and place. A designer's response needs to be informed by these different realities. Intersectional Design is a method of designing by thinking through how factors of identity (gender, race, sexuality, class, and many more) interact with one another. In understanding how these factors combine, we can more deeply understand the context of use and an individual user's priorities.

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Babyn Yar, a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, witnessed the killing of more than 33,000 Jewish men, women, and children, on September 29 and 30, 1941. The site of one of the largest single massacres perpetrated by occupying German troops against Jews during World War II, Babyn Yar became a symbol of the Holocaust by Bullets.

While the main tragic event took place in 1941, throughout the occupation, the site was used as a killing location by the German forces. In fact, it is reported that 70 to 100 000 people lost their lives in Babyn Yar. With no architecture to the tragedy and only a remaining “broken” landscape, people struggled with achieving memorialization and public recognition. 

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Architectural photographer Marc Goodwin recently visited Madrid to continue his journey documenting diverse architecture studios and design offices. He has visited many cities and countries around the world, including Brazil, Panama City, the Netherlands, Dubai, London, Paris, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, the Nordic countries, Barcelona, Los Angeles and Istanbul. In Madrid, Marc photographed 16 intimate office spaces and a range of studios.

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Storefront for Art and Architecture in 97 Kenmare St, New York, opened yesterday “Sex and the So-Called City,” an alternative version of Sex and the City (SATC) made by the architect Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation with Miguel de Guzmán (Imagen Subliminal) on occasion of the show’s 20th anniversary.

We are pleased to announce a new content partnership between ArchDaily and Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) in New York City.

GSAPP Conversations is a podcast series designed to offer a window onto the expanding field of contemporary architectural practice. Each episode pivots around discussions on current projects, research, and obsessions of a diverse group of invited guests at Columbia, from both emerging and well-established practices. Usually hosted by the Dean of the GSAPP, Amale Andraos, the conversations also feature the school's influential faculty and alumni and give students the opportunity to engage architects on issues of concern to the next generation.

Spanish, New York-based architect Andrés Jaque (Office for Political Innovation) has been awarded the 10th Kiesler Architecture and Art Prize by the Mayor of Vienna, citing Jaque’s "capacity to go beyond assumptions about traditional practice and urban life." In 2015 Jaque was declared the MoMA PS1 YAP (Young Architects Programme) winner for COSMO – a complex, and beautiful, water purifying prototype that has been installed in Brooklyn. He and his office are also collaborating with Mark Wigley and Beatriz Colomina on the design for the upcoming Istanbul Design Biennial, Are We Human?

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In the grand tradition of MoMA PS1's Young Architects Program winners, Andrés Jaque's plan for "COSMO" addresses an ecological need through installation architecture. While 2014's "Hy-Fi" by the living explored organic bricks and 2012's "Wendy" by HWKN addressed airborne pollution, Jaque has set his targets on something that is apparently much more political: water. This article, originally published by Metropolis Magazine as "The Politics of Water: Andrés Jaque on His 2015 MoMA PS1 YAP Winning Design," examines how Jaque hopes to turn his installation into a political talking point.

At first glance, Bill Gates’s robotic Janicki Omniprocessor and Andrés Jaque’s winning proposal for the 2015 MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program (YAP) share a similar goal—they each tackle the problem of global water scarcity, which has become exacerbated by climate change, political strife, and a host of other factors. But while the Omniprocessor looks like a cement factory in miniature, Jaque’s project melds its profoundly social objective—to change the way we understand contemporary water infrastructure—to an almost psychedelic aesthetic.

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Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation’s project COSMO has been selected by the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 as winner of Young Architects Program’s (YAP) 16th edition in New York. Scheduled to open in late June, just in time for MoMA PS1’s 2015 Warm Up summer music, COSMO will serve as a “moveable artifact” with a mission to provide clean water for the world’s population.

“This year’s proposal takes one of the Young Architects Program’s essential requirements - providing a water feature for leisure and fun - and highlights water itself as a scarce resource,” said Pedro Gadanho, Curator in MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design. “Relying on off-the-shelf components from agro-industrial origin, an exuberant mobile architecture celebrates water-purification processes and turns their intricate visualization into an unusual backdrop for the Warm Up sessions.”

MoMA P.S.1 has announced five finalists to compete in the 2015 Young Architects Program (YAP). Now in it’s 16th edition, the competition will challenge a group of emerging architects to design a temporary installation within the walls of the P.S.1 courtyard for MoMA’s annual summer “Warm-Up” series.

The 2015 shortlist includes Office for Political Innovation (Andres Jaque; NY), brillhart architecture (Jacob Brillhart; Miami, FL), Erin Besler (LA, CA), The Bittertang Farm (Michael Loverich; NY), Studio Benjamin Dillenburger (Benjamin Dillenburger and Michael Hansmeyer; ONT, Canada). The winners will be announced in early 2015.

Previous winners include The Living (Hy-Fi), CODA (Party Wall), Interboro Partners (Holding Pattern), Work AC (Public Farm 1), MOS (Afterparty) and SO-IL (Pole Dance).

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