TRANSFER Architecture Video Award 2023 has just announced the winners of this year's edition of the innovative architecture short film competition. Due to the high quality and the diversity of the entries, the jury has decided to award 4 winners ex aequo and 2 honorable mentions.
The TRANSFER Architecture Video Award 2023 ceremony took place on February 22 in Lausanne, as part of the film festival Écrans Urbains. You can discover the winning, finalist, and shortlisted videos in TRANSFER.
From the changing seasons to the users' interactions, there is almost an infinite set of facets of the architectural project that can be represented through film, and many photographers have entered into this dimension in different formats: documentaries, fixed camera, scripted performances or time-lapses, among others that you can browse in our video section.
Another year comes to an end and with it, another round up that explores the most important events that took place over the past twelve months. In this article, we look into the photos that received the most interactions (likes, comments, shares, and saves) on ArchDaily's Instagram.
The team at Cazú Zegers Arquitectura gave us an inside look at their three Chilean projects--Ye house, Llu House, and Fire House. The film, completed by ClaraFilms, seeks to capture the human dimensions of the homes and centers on how spaces are inhabited throughout time.
Clara Larraín, one of the team members, wrote the following text to accompany the architect's vision of encapsulating the feeling of the three videos into one poetic montage:
Chilean architecture has a strong relation to the unique geography and climate of the country. Germán del Sol is recognized as one of the most prolific Chilean architects working with these demanding conditions, with projects across the country that enhance and rediscover the natural landscape, through architecture that uses natural materials, local techniques, and a profound sense of the place.
Photographer and filmmaker Pablo Casals-Aguirre revisits the Remota Lodge in Patagonia, one of the most celebrated projects by Germán del Sol, in a video that is able to transmit not only the static relationship with nature, but also the experience of inhabiting the landscape from the building.
The wild landscape of the Patagonian plains covers also the roofs of the buildings. The roofs concrete slabs are coated with the same synthetic asphalt membrane and a carpet of wild grasses 2 feet high [...] The ever changing light of Patagonia enters the building through the sequence of vertical cuts of the windowpanes. Then it surrounds big concrete or wooden pillars, and slides along the ceilings wooden trellises that hang well under the concrete slab. - Germán del Sol
In the second film from this year's series of PLANE—SITE's Time-Space-Existence videos, Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao shares her philosophy of how architecture should be designed with the user’s experience in mind, rather than for standalone aesthetic qualities. In the video she discusses how architects should to some extent let go of their artistic intentions for a more practical approach to serve the needs of people, discussing how architecture has become detached from its key purpose over the last fifty years due to the influence of capitalism.
In this extended interview from the Louisiana Channel, Japanese architect and experimentalist in sustainable architecture Hiroshi Sambuichi explains how he integrates natural moving materials—sun, water and air—into his architecture. A rare symbiosis of science and nature, each of his buildings are specific to the site and focus on the best orientation and form to harness the power of Earth’s energy, particularly wind. Two of his projects displayed in the video, the Inujima Seirensho Art Museum and the Orizuru Tower, force a contraction of air to make it flow faster and circulate with you through the building, while the Naoshima Hall takes a more sensitive approach due to the nature of the building, reducing the wind’s velocity as it passes.
Diverse, green and dynamic, in this video Singapore is shown through a new kind of lens, one that exists above the city, pans down it, rolls over it and offers a view of its architecture from an alternative angle. André Eckhardt's drone hyperlapse video takes us onto the street, up in the air, and down by the sea as the weather shifts and changes, and as people go about their day to day lives. Using clever speed adjustments, Eckhardt switches between the fast-paced movements of the city up-close and moments of pause as he takes us up over it. Picking out architectural works including the iconic Bayside projects of Moshe Safdie, PARKROYAL on Pickering and the Oasia Hotel by WOHA, the Gardens by the Bay, and the Helix Bridge, Eckhardt brings Singapore's colorful skyline to life.
In this video, British YouTuber Tom Scott explores Thyssenkrupp’s potentially disruptive new "MULTI" elevator system,” which the company revealed in detail this week. Though only in its beta stage of development, being tested within the confines of ThyssenKrupp’s 246-meter tall “innovation” tower in Rottweil, Germany, Multi aims to transform high rise building design with horizontally moving elevator cabs.
The German firm’s cable-free system utilizes vertically mounted tracks, in-cab braking systems, and pivoting elevator tracks to whisk occupants up and across buildings faster and safer than traditional shaft based systems.
Justin Davidson: Why glass towers are bad for city life -- and what we need instead
There's a creepy transformation taking over our cities, says architecture critic Justin Davidson. From Houston, Texas to Guangzhou, China, shiny towers of concrete and steel covered with glass are cropping up like an invasive species.
“That person sitting right next to you might have the most idiosyncratic inner life, but you don’t have a clue because we’re all wearing the same expression. That is the kind of creepy transformation that is taking over cities.”
Shiny, bland and homogenous. These characteristics are increasingly encapsulating the nature and identity of our cities through the use of glass as a dominant building material, says Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Justin Davidson. In this TED Talk, Davidson stresses the importance of the use of a varied palette of materials that evoke texture, color, roughness, and shadow, in order to create architecture of individuality and character to define and populate the world’s cities. The rapid growth of glassy skylines, which express a disdain for communal urban interaction, can be curbed through a combination of new and old building and material techniques, creating architecture that absorbs history and memory as a reflection of the diverse society it lives in.
With rapid advancements in technology and crystal clear imagery, drones have allowed us to experience our cities and landscapes from unimaginable vantage points and perspectives. In its series of videos, YouTube channel Mingomatic uses drones to capture the sights and scenes of predominantly American cities and various locations from above, offering glimpses of skylines, oceans, highways and terrains (and seals!). Check out the 10 videos below for some spectacular views, and find Mingomatic’s full selection, here.
IFC has announced the release of their latest documentary, Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, which will dive into “the enduring legacies of one of the most prominent figures of modern urban planning, Jane Jacobs, and talks about her David-Goliath fight to save NYC.”
Architecture and music are two very different art forms – one is visual, tactile and logical; the other audial and emotional. So what happens when you bring these two artistic media together?
This is the idea explored by Chilean web series Insigne Sesiones, which aims to “[expose] he ideal mix between contemporary architecture and music, generating the first audiovisual project worldwide that officially joins these two disciplines.” For their first season, Insigne Sesiones invited six world-renowned musicians to perform their music in the intimate settings of some of the most celebrated works of Chilean architects across the country.
Check out the full first season below.
In the upcoming years, Dubai may become home to one of the world’s newest radical architectures—the first ever, rotating skyscraper. Designed by Dynamic Architecture’s Davis Fisher, the 80-story, 1,273-foot tower proposal features independent floors that can rotate 360 degrees in both directions, in order to provide more comprehensive views.
A static central core will connect the rotating floors together, each of which will be prefabricated off-site and attached to the tower afterward.
Artist and photographer Rob Carter shared with us a video in which, through montages and digital collages, shows the urban growth of the city of Charlotte, in the state of North Carolina, USA. The video, titled Metropolis, is "an abbreviated city narrative [...] that uses stop-motion animation to physically manipulate aerial imagery, creating a landscape in constant motion."
Charlotte is one of the fastest growing cities in the US and Carter's production features the changes that have taken place in recent years in its central region. Verticality and density of buildings (not necessarily people) continue to mark the urbanization of the city.
Caution: This video may induce vertigo.
As the final segment of the One World Trade Center was hoisted into position – topping the structure out at a patriotic 1,776 feet – Curbed NY captured its journey via a small Go-Pro camera to reveal its fascinating, and somewhat nauseating, view of Manhattan.
While the US rejoices this monumental feat, a debate amongst architects, engineers and city officials lingers on whether or not the 408-foot spire will count towards the One WTC’s overall height and allow it to officially claim its title as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. Although the Port Authority argues that the spire doubled as a radio antenna is considered as non-essential telecom equipment and therefore should not be considered as part of the “architectural top”, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat will make the final call in October.
The Creators Project released two new documentaries this week which feature the brightest new minds in design and architecture. The first piece investigates the work of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and interdisciplinary design firm behind NYC’s High Line and Lincoln Center, and more. The second piece introduces us to the digital deviants OKFocus behind their new alpha-channel video experience for Tanlines’ “Not The Same.” The first video is above and the second video can be viewed after the break.
