Czech practices UNIT Architekti, A69 - Architekti, and British firm Marko & Placemakersproposetransforming the largest brownfield site neighbouring Prague's historic city centre into a dynamic urban hub. The masterplan, selected within a 2-stage international competition comprising 57 entries, envisions "a multifunctional urban framework" that mediates the infrastructural complexity of the site, establishing a new identity for the area.
Hotel sign in downtown São Paulo. Image via Giovana Martino's collection
Sex Day is an unofficial holiday created by marketers celebrated on September 6th in Brazil, highlighting one of the greatest taboos in modern society: sexuality. From an architectural and urban point of view, the immorality associated with sexual activities, especially in exchange for payment, deeply impacts our society and also affects the territory.
While sometimes considered morally wrong, sinful, forbidden, and impure, sex, sexuality, and pleasure are all inherent to human physiology. Prostitution is sometimes referred to as "the world's oldest profession," playing a fundamental role in our societies, as well as in our territory, in the spatial organization and dynamics of cities. This practice is at the margins of modern society and therefore has ended up occupying segregated spaces in the cities.
Foster + Partners revealed its design for a masterplan focusing on adaptive reuse and programmatic diversity meant to regenerate the site of a mid-century factory in the heart of Santiago. The practice's first project in Chile proposes the refurbishment of the existing factory building, La Fabrica, while adding a residential development on the adjacent site and introducing timber as a sustainable building material for the extensions.
OMA’s mixed-use development for Morden Wharf has just been granted planning consent from the Royal Borough of Greenwich’s Planning Committee. The scheme created for developer U+I is located on a 2.4-hectare brownfield site, with an industrial past, on London’s Greenwich Peninsula facing the historic Greenwich and the millennial O2 Arena.
The Xiangshan campus of China Academy of Art was designed by the recipient of the 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize, Shu Wang and Wenyu Lu from Amateur Architecture Studio. The studio was responsible for the overall project completion from master planning to architectural design and landscape design. On the north side of Xiangshan is the first phase of the campus. It was designed in 2001 and completed in 2004. It is a complex of ten buildings and two bridges, with a construction area of about 70,000 square meters. The second phase of the campus is located on the south side of Xiangshan, and it was designed in 2004 and completed in 2007. It consists of ten large buildings and two small buildings with a construction area of nearly 80,000 square meters.
The construction period of the two phases was 14 months each. A large number of craftmanship during the construction has produced many problems that could only be solved on-site, therefore the site was repeatedly touched and shaped by countless hands. In 2007, the photographer Iwan Baan recorded the campus after completion. In 2021, photographer Sai Zhao used the lens of original focal length to take pictures of the campus at the same location. Over the course of more than ten years, green plants have covered and sheltered the structure, and the building now has its own life.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that Adjaye Associates and Studio Zewde's proposals have been selected to redevelop the unoccupied part of the Kingsboro Psychiatric Center campus in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn. The $400 million project is part of the $1.4 Billion Vital Brooklyn Initiative, and will transform 7.2 abandoned acres in central Brooklyn into an ecological development with residential and commercial facilities.
Studio-MLA is adopting lessons learned from their Los Angeles River design project design, shown here, to the River-Side Gateway master plan. Image Courtesy of Studio-MLA
Following a lengthy search, the California city of Riverside and its Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Department have selected Studio-MLA as the lead designer of the River-Side Gateway Project Suite, a string of nine sites along a seven-mile stretch of the Santa Ana River. Funded by the California Coastal Conservancy, the search committee sought a design team that could best revitalize the open spaces and trails along the northern edge of Riverside, the largest city in the Inland Empire region of California with a population of over 300,000.
In a piece, originally published on Metropolis, author Lauren Gallow highlights an urban transformation in California, led by a group of local organizations and designers. The project "replaces a previously hazardous alley with play areas, public art, and native plantings", in order to reveal the untapped potential of the overlooked public realm.
ODA has just launched its latest project, an urban vision for the future of the streets of New York. The project titled Beyond the street- Reimagining the flower district proposes to transform a city block from the outside in, altering the pedestrian experience and introducing new zoning changes that would give landowners air rights or tax credits in exchange for handing over their inner courtyards to be transformed into public/private spaces.
ArchDaily had the chance to talk with Eran Chen, founding principal and executive director of ODA, about the firm’s very special proposal that seeks to improve our urban environment. Check the interview and watch ODA’s explanatory movie.
People are the purpose and scale of the city. What does a people-oriented city look like? On April 8, 2021, sponsored by "LIFE WEEK ", the first Sanlian “City for Humanity Award” Ceremony was held in Chengdu. It takes "Rebuilding Connections" as its first theme, and hopes to promote a discussion on social values and humanistic care in Chinese cities through a professional and communicative approach, such as awards at this special moment after the epidemic.
An extensive urban regeneration project is slated to take place in the town of Stockton in the United Kingdom. A 37-million-pound project, the proposal - drawn up by Ryder Architecture and backed by the Stockton Borough Council - will demolish half the high street in Stockton’s town centre and replace it with a riverside park.
The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture, the Mies van der Rohe Award has just announced the first 449 works competing in its 2022 edition. Selected from 279 cities in 41 countries, the projects have been nominated by European independent experts, the national architecture associations, and the Prize Advisory Committee.
Courtesy of DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO AND STEFANO BOERI ARCHITETTI
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.
MAD Architects has just unveiled its design for the “Train Station in the Forest.” Under construction and scheduled for completion by July 1st, 2021, the project is located in the center of Jiaxing, in southeast China, in close proximity to Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Suzhou. Covering an area of 35.4 hectares, the intervention consists of rebuilding the historic station while creating a new infrastructural annex underground. It also includes the creation of plazas to the north and south and the rehabilitation of the adjacent People’s Park.
Zaha Hadid Architects has designed the future of Huanggang Port Area, creating a hub of scientific research and collaboration in industries in Shenzhen, China. The new proposed master plan puts in place “an important node of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Science and Technology Corridor”, through the reconstruction of the port building as well as the transformation of its empty lots into the national center for technology innovation.
Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects and BOGL were selected by the municipality of Albertslund and Freja Ejendomme to re-imagine Vridsløselille, a facility that housed once a state prison, and transform the site into an attractive, green district with a distinct identity derived from its unique heritage. The scheme was chosen alongside another project by COBE to create a combined vision for the future development of the area.
Snøhetta has revealed its first built project in Hong Kong, Airside, a 176,000 square meters mixed-use building. Located in the center of the former Kai Tak airport, the project commissioned by Nan Fung Group comprises a 200-meter tower merged seamlessly with its base.
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.