Author: Niall Patrick Walsh

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Courtesy of Vincent Callebaut Architectures Vincent Callebaut Architectures has released details of their competition-winning “Metamorphosis of the Hotel Des Postes” in Luxembourg City. The Paris-based firm’s proposition centers on propelling the historic site into a contemporary era, and to “reveal the intrinsic heritage qualities of the building.”

The scheme, which centers on the historic stone and concrete Hotel Des Postes designed by State Architect Sosthène Weis between 1905 and 1910, will be transformed by the addition of a domed “chrysalis” volume in the heart of the building’s courtyard.

Courtesy of Vincent Callebaut Architectures

The fruits of a design process begun in 2016, the team has produced a chrysalis covered with a solar dome, “conforming to the contours of the inner courtyard” creating sheltered, airtight, naturally bioclimatized spaces. Sitting at an intersection between history and modernity, the metamorphosis seeks to reinforce the existing identity of place, while “transforming the historic

Continue reading "Vincent Callebaut Architectures Creates a Futurist “Metamorphosis” of Luxembourg’s Hotel Des Postes"

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Courtesy of MVRDV MVRDV has released details of their proposed renovation of a 19th-century listed building on Slodowa Island in Wroclaw, Poland. The “Concordia Hub” will see the retention of the existing façade, with the addition of a contemporary rear extension to “create a focal point” for the general public and visitors. The site’s former use as a German artillery base in 1945 means almost all of the island’s structures were destroyed in the closing months of World War II. The Concordia Hub scheme seeks to preserve one of the only surviving heritage structures on the island, while transitioning the building into the modern age.

Courtesy of MVRDV

Under the MVRDV proposal, developed in collaboration with local architect Q2, the “formal” side of the building will focus on retention and renovation, while a contrasting rear section will offer a transparent, modern, inviting presence overlooking an existing park. Both ends

Continue reading "MVRDV Proposes Respectful Renovation for 19th Century Heritage Building in Wrocław, Poland"

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Asif Khan's Vantablack Pavilion at the Pyeongchang Olympics. Image © Luke Hayes Following the announcement by SpaceX founder Elon Musk that Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa would be the first paying customer to visit the Moon, the retail tycoon generated further excitement by declaring he would bring between six and eight artists to accompany him. The “Dear Moon” project would see a painter, musician, film director, and others, accompany Maezawa in order to “dream dreams that have never been dreamed…to sing songs that have never been sung, to paint that which has never been seen before.” In response, The New York Times spoke to a group of high-profile names from the world of art and architecture, asking them to speculate on what life on the moon could look like. The full answers can be found via The New York Times article here, with a condensed summary outlined below. The Continue reading "Life on the Moon, According to 8 Architects and Artists"

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Courtesy of Caruso St John / G+J Caruso St John has won an international competition for a new headquarters for German publishing giant Gruner + Jahr in Hamburg. The winning scheme, chosen over RIBA Gold Medal winners O’Donnell + Tuomey, and Berlin-based ROBERTNUEN Architekten, features “striking green-enameled ceramic struts and three partially covered interior courtyards.” The 60,000-square-meter scheme will be located in the Lohsepark area of the city, where it will form part of the HafenCity ensemble of office, commercial, and residential buildings.

Courtesy of Caruso St John / G+J

The jury, comprised of Gruner + Jahr, city representatives, architects, investor Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate, and project developer HIH Real Estate, was impressed by the “clean composure and high quality” of the scheme, drawing connections with the restrained Hamburg Kontorhaus office typology of the late 19th century. The scheme features a row of green-glazed ceramic struts soaring

Continue reading "Caruso St John’s Ceramic Proposal Wins Hamburg Publishing Headquarters Competition"

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Long Museum West Bund Shanghai China by Atelier Deshaus. Image © Pawel Paniczko The shortlist for the 2018 Architectural Photography Awards have been revealed, bringing together 20 atmospheric images of the built environment. Categories this year ranged from a “portfolio of an individual building to a single abstract: with a professional camera or on a mobile phone.” The 2018 edition saw a record number of entries, with photographs from 47 countries, including the UK (28%), USA (20%), Germany (6%), and China (5%). The 20 photographs were selected from four categories: exteriors, interiors, sense of place, and buildings in use. The images will be exhibited at the World Architecture Festival in Amsterdam from 28th-30th November, where visitors can cast their vote for the winner, to be announced at the WAF Gala Dinner. Public voting for the Mobile category is open until Friday 30th November. The awards are supported by the

Continue reading "Shortlist for the 2018 Architectural Photography Awards Revealed"

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© Zaha Hadid Architects Zaha Hadid Architects has won an international competition for the design of the new Sverdlovsk Philharmonic Concert Hall in Yekaterinburg, Russia. A melting pot of Eastern and Western cultures, talents, and industries, the strategic Ural city hosts a Philharmonic Orchestra which has performed in more than 20 countries, while based in the existing 1936 Sverdlovsk Philharmonic building.

For the design of the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra’s new home, Zaha Hadid Architects “echoed the physical aspects of sound waves” to create an inspirational venue meeting the orchestra’s growing program, and to create a new public plaza for all citizens.

© Zaha Hadid Architects

The Zaha Hadid Architects proposal is based on the “properties of musical sound resonance creating wave vibrations in a continuous smooth surface,” translating as a fluid, suspended auditorium element floating above a new civic space, all contained under a large canopy.

© Zaha Hadid

Continue reading "Zaha Hadid Architects Reinterprets Sound Waves for the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic Concert Hall"

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“Architects don’t even look at it as an opportunity to put any living experience there…we can open that up” muses Sankarshan Murthy, former Tesla and Apple Watch engineer. As humans inhabit ever-tighter living arrangements, Murthy’s start-up “Bumblebee Spaces” takes a novel approach: put everything in the ceiling.

© Jason Henry for The New York Times

Recently featured in The New York Times, Bumblebee Spaces breaks the third dimension in pursuit of comfortable, efficient living, creating what they describe as “a robotic A.I. butler furniture system that deploys down from overhead by tapping a control pad or by voice command.” Drawing inspiration from minimalism and the KonMari anti-clutter movement, the Bumblebee system also creates a log of items kept in its timber storage cubes for long periods of time, gently reminding the user of when it may be time to let go of their long-forgotten possessions.

© Jason

Continue reading "Robotics Start-up Proposes Smart, Motorized Ceiling Furniture"

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NIKKEN SEKKEI - W350Project. Image © Nikken Sekkei The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has announced the ten winners of the WAFX prizes, awarded to “future projects that identify key ecological and societal challenges which architects are actively seeking to address over the next ten years.” This year, participants tackled issues such as climate change, water waste, and aging populations, with winning proposals including river parks in Colombia, a transformed coal plant in the United States, and solar panel fields in the Netherlands. We’ve rounded up the winners below, along with further information about the upcoming 2018 World Architecture Festival taking place in Amsterdam this November. Tickets for the festival are available online now, with a 20% discount available for ArchDaily readers who enter the code ARCHDAILY20 at checkout. Our site will also have news coverage and live-streams of festival events.

WAFX Re-Use Winner

Beloit College Powerhouse

Continue reading "World Architecture Festival Unveils WAFX 2018 Prize Winners"

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Courtesy of Es Devlin Award-winning artist and designer Es Devlin OBE is set to design the UK Pavilion for Expo 2020 in Dubai. The scheme, titled “Poem Pavilion” will highlight “leading British expertise in Artificial Intelligence and Space,” and will be produced in collaboration with global brand agency Avantgarde. The Poem Pavilion will feature an illuminated “Message to Space,” with each of the Expo’s projected 25 million visitors invited to contribute.

Courtesy of Es Devlin

For the pavilion’s design, Devlin will draw on previous experience with artificial intelligence, such as her luminous red “Fifth Lion” sculpture during the 2018 London Design Festival, and her design for the London Olympics Closing Ceremony. Renderings of the proposition depict visitors arriving through “an illuminated maze featuring augmented reality-enriched exhibits on British advances in Artificial Intelligence and Space.” Devlin will also be the first female designer of a UK Pavilion since its inception

Continue reading "Es Devlin to Design the UK’s “Poem Pavilion” for Dubai Expo 2020"

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© Rick Roxburgh Sir Nicholas Grimshaw has been awarded the 2019 Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects. Having played a leading role in British architecture for more than half a century, Grimshaw’s acclaimed works include the landmark International Terminal at London’s Waterloo station and the visionary Eden Project in Cornwall. The medal is awarded in recognition of a lifetime’s work and is approved personally by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It is given to a person, or group of people, who have had a significant influence "either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture." Previous winners include Neave Brown (2018) and Paulo Mendes da Rocha (2017).

The Eden Project in Cornwall. Image © Sealand Aerial Photography

I am thrilled to hear about the Gold Medal and would like to thank those who supported my nomination. My life, and that of the practice has always been involved in experiment

Continue reading "Sir Nicholas Grimshaw Wins the RIBA Gold Medal 2019"

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Courtesy of TEN Arquitectos TEN Arquitectos has released images of their proposed NASA Research Support Building at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Marking the Agency’s diamond (60th) anniversary, the research center is to serve as “a new and contemporary public face for the home of the country’s most prolific aeronautic and aerospace innovations.” The two-story, 60,000-square-foot research center consists of a series of rectilinear massings positioned to optimize program adjacencies, creative interaction, and to accommodate public green spaces both indoors and out.

Courtesy of TEN Arquitectos

Airy volumes of glass and corrugated metal will host both dedicated and fluid work areas, with a series of open and private offices, conference rooms, training rooms, and an exchange store spread across two floors. Natural light will be drawn deep into the building through double height, landscaped internal courtyards, which also serve as additional places to gather.

Courtesy of

Continue reading "TEN Arquitectos’ Research Building Celebrates NASA’s 60th Anniversary"

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© Steelblue Pelli Clarke Pelli’s Salesforce Transit Center was abruptly closed on Tuesday due to the discovery of a cracked steel beam. As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the cracked beam was spotted by workers installing ceiling panels at the center’s eastern third-floor bus platform, with safety concerns resulting in the terminal’s closure. Designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli, and located adjacent to the firm’s Salesforce Tower, the $2.2 billion transportation hub broke ground in April 2013, and was opened earlier this year.

© Steelblue

The crack is reported to be on a 6.5-foot-deep steel beam on the third floor, one of many that support the park above the bus station. In response, authorities stated they would inspect all steel beams in the center, though Mark Zabaneh, Executive Director of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, believes the crack is a “localized issue” with “no information that

Continue reading "Cracked Beam Forces Closure of Pelli Clarke Pelli’s Salesforce Transit Center"

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Morpholio Trace and Shapr3D have joined forces to imagine a new workflow for iOS 12. Their new feature named “Drag’n’Fly” allows users to “literally put a live 3D model into their Trace sketches, create infinite views and then, automatically generate the perspective grids to draw over.” Designed for the iPad Pro, Drag’n’Fly seeks to streamline the existing process of architects exporting one view at a time to sketch over. The new feature offers an infinite number of views to draw over, allowing designers to navigate around a 3D model from sketch to sketch to create a narrative, or zoom in on spatial details.

The iPad Pro has now become as powerful as our computers and has made it effortless to work between apps. This opened up the gateway for Shapr3D and Morpholio Trace to rethink the design workflow, finally fusing together sketching and 3D modelling.
- Anna Kenoff, Co-Founder,

Continue reading "Morpholio Trace and Shapr3D Create “Drag’n’Fly” to Streamline Sketching and Modeling"

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© Senator Windows How much of our utility bills are devoted to heating and cooling? What is the R Value of fiberglass? In fact, what is an R Value? Senator Windows answers these questions with a new infographic driven at “reducing heat loss in your home.” Aimed at both designers and home users, the infographic features a blend of statistics, diagrams, and definitions outlining how heat loss occurs, and how to mitigate against it.

We have republished the infographic below, offering a useful introduction to an almost universal issue in both the design and occupation of buildings.

© Senator Windows

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via NCCA Heneghan Peng’s proposal for a new National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA) in Moscow has been abandoned. As reported by the Calvert Journal, public officials were unwilling to foot the $240million bill for the flagship project, which Heneghan Peng were selected to design in late 2013. Speaking to the Art Newspaper Russia, the head of the NCCA Sergey Perov confirmed that the project has been officially scrapped due to lack of funding.

via NCCA

Designed as a vertical museum in the center of a former airfield, the Heneghan Peng scheme featured vertically-stacked exhibition spaces organized as exhibition “trays” to maximize accessibility, and to visually connect the NCCA’s activities to the surrounding landscape.

via NCCA

The 65,000-square-meter scheme, designed in collaboration with associate architect Archstruktura, was envisioned as a “series of stacked galleries allowing people to either visit a particular gallery of interest or browse through

Continue reading "Heneghan Peng’s Moscow Contemporary Arts Center Scrapped Due to Funding Shortage"

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Courtesy of Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is celebrating a significant environmental milestone, having become carbon neutral five years ahead of schedule. For reducing its carbon dioxide emissions through efficiencies in waste and energy management, the Opera House was awarded certification from the Australian Government’s National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS). The sails of the Sydney Opera House were illuminated green on the night of Monday 24th September to celebrate the carbon neutral certification.

© Prudence Upton

To reduce electricity use by 14%, the Concert Hall’s incandescent bulbs where replaced with custom LED lights to achieve a 75% reduction in electrical consumption, while a new building management control system was installed to monitor energy and water use. Chiller units connected to the Opera House’s pioneering seawater cooling system were also replaced to achieve a 9% energy reduction. To increase recycling rates from 25% to 60%, the Opera House implemented

Continue reading "Sydney Opera House Becomes Carbon Neutral"

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Aerial view of Star Metals Offices and Residences. Image © Luxigon Oppenheim Architecture has released an update of their proposed Star Metals development in Atlanta, Georgia. Spread over two schemes, the project seeks to “shift the paradigm of what’s possible for new urban environments” through a 1.36 million-square-foot masterplan. The Oppenheim scheme consists of a 14-story “Star Metals Offices” building, accommodating offices, terraces, parking, and retail, and a nine-story “Star Metals Residences” building with over 400 residential units.

Street view of Star Metals Offices and Residences. Image © Luxigon

The 14-story Star Metals Office building contains mixed-use office and retail facilities within a concrete frame structure, and metal panel / curtainwall glazed façades. A total of 225,000 square feet of offices and 23,000 square feet of retail are contained within the 1.8 acre site, with tenants availing of communal outdoor terraces, and a rooftop restaurant with sweeping

Continue reading "Oppenheim Architecture’s Vast Star Metal Project Begins Construction in Atlanta, Georgia"

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Pleats till now were considered to be garments’ element. However, pleating in architecture creates unconventional forms such as the Reggio Emilia train station in Italy designed by the famous architect Santiago Calatrava. Image Courtesy of Viktoria Al. Lytra Greek architect Viktoria Lytra has created a set of images exploring the relationship and interaction between architecture and fashion. FormFollowsFashion investigates the common purpose of architecture fashion, to create shelter for the human body, placing aesthetic as a common factor in novel approaches to the design of clothes and buildings. Lytra’s series features various movements and styles, such as minimalism, deconstructivism, and postmodernism, playing on common geometric characteristics such as folks, pleats, curves, prints, and twists.

The conical shape used for different reasons, both by Frank Lloyd Wright at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and by Hussein Chalayan in the Table Dress AW2000, created two iconic examples of

Continue reading "Does Form Follow Fashion? Viktoria Lytra’s Montages Keep Iconic Architecture In Vogue"

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© Melvin Epps Artist Janet Echelman has unveiled her latest site-specific work of public art, with the activation of the first phase of “Pulse” in Philadelphia’s Dilworth Park. Pulse seeks to reshape urban space “with a monumental, fluidly moving sculpture that responds to environmental forces including wind, water, and sunlight. Inspired by the square’s history as a water and transportation hub, Echelman’s work traces the paths and trolley lines of the subway beneath, with four-foot-tall curtains of colorful atomized mist traveling across the park’s fountain surface in response to passing trains underneath.

© Sahar Coston-Hardy

Following the footprint of passing subway trains, “Pulse” emits an ultra-fine, fog-like, cool mist by way of a high-pressure misting system of specialized pumps. To make the installation accessible to children, “Pulse” uses a mist made of filtered, softened water, onto which lighting is projected.

© Sahar Coston-Hardy

Described by Echelman as “a living X-ray

Continue reading "Janet Echelman’s Moving Sculpture Creates a “Living X-Ray” of Philadelphia"

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Courtesy of OOPEAA OOPEAA, working in collaboration with Lundén Architecture Company, has won a design and build competition for a timber housing development in Kivistö, Vantaa in the Helsinki metropolitan area of Finland. Organized by the City of Vantaa, the competition asked entrants to design a district of wooden housing, part of a commitment “to provide climate-conscious development in housing.” Titled “Upstairs – Downstairs, Living Together on Three Levels,” the OOPEAA and Lundén scheme will form part of the broader sustainable district, creating a link between natural forest, active streets, and railway infrastructure.

Courtesy of OOPEAA

A comprehensive brief called on joint entries with two architectural offices, a contractor, and a developer to be situated on one, or both, of two plots in Kivistö. Teams were required to respond to the “needs of a diverse population in the fast-growing newly developing areas” while addressing the needs for

Continue reading "OOPEAA + Lundén Architecture Company Design Charred Timber Housing District in Helsinki"