Archinect - News

BIG Wins EuropaCity Competition

2013-04-17T17:56:00-04:00

BIG, along with fellow team members Tess, Transsolar, Base, Transitec, and Michel Forgue, has been selected to design EuropaCity, an 80-hectare cultural and commercial destination in the heart of France.

Shedding its Fusty Architectural Past, Philly Welcomes Nordic Starchitect Snøhetta

2013-03-28T19:40:00-04:00

The latest evidence of Philadelphia’s architectural comeback? The Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta is coming to town for a project at Temple University. “We have a fantastic tradition of quality architeture and urbanism in Philadelphia, but we do go through low ebbs in that tradition,” says Harris Steinberg, the executive director of PennPraxis, the clinical arm of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design.

The Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta has designed some of the most notable buildings and public spaces in the world over the last 15 years. The new Oslo Opera House. Egypt’s Bibliotheca Alexandrina. A reconfigured Times Square in New York, and a massive expansion of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Next up? Temple University’s library, on a still-gritty stretch of Broad Street between Montgomery and Norris in North Philadelphia. Snøhetta director and co-founder Craig Dykers is delivering a lecture on campus next week, sharing some of his firm’s work with Temple students and a general audience of designers, architects and urbanists.

Dykers might shed some light on Snøhetta’s early stage thinking for the library project, but design work has not yet begun, so don’t expect any renderings.

Even so, Dykers is likely to address a full house. The Oslo-based firm, which was featured in a glowing 5,400-word New Yorker profile in January, is very much in vogue. Plenty of its...

Finalists Announced for Breathe, The New Urban Village Project in New Zealand

2013-03-05T16:50:00-05:00

Four finalist entries have been unveiled in the Christchurch, New Zealand urban design competition, Breathe - The New Urban Village Project. The brief called for innovative medium-density housing development designs from collaborative groups containing a designer and a property developer.

In cramped Hong Kong, a home under the bridge

2013-02-28T16:12:00-05:00

It is in empty spaces like [under Hong Kong's overpasses] that a group is campaigning for the government to build youth hostels, arts performance venues, offices for small- to mid-sized businesses and, most intriguingly, temporary housing. The group sees this unused land as an opportunity to alleviate Hong Kong’s problem of young people not being able to afford to rent in the world’s most expensive property market.

Sydney’s New Icon | Barangaroo?

2013-02-15T15:06:00-05:00

Billionaire businessman, James Packer has shortlisted four of the world’s best architects (Adrian Smith + Gill Architecture, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, Renzo Piano and Wilkinson Eyre Architects) to bid to design and build the urban masterpiece that will be Crown Sydney. The proposed $1 billion six-star Crown Sydney resort will be a dramatic addition to Sydney’s skyline and be built across a giant 6,000 square metre site in Barangaroo.

District//S by Allies and Morrison Architects Wins at National Urban Design Awards

2013-02-07T17:02:00-05:00

The residential development District//S in Beirut, Lebanon has been awarded the Francis Tibbalds Prize for best Practice Project at the UK's National Urban Design Awards 2013. The prize was presented to the designers of the project, London-based Allies and Morrison Architects, at a ceremony held last night at London’s Royal Overseas League.

Five Teams Shortlisted in Syracuse’s “Movement on Main” Competition

2013-01-09T15:11:00-05:00

Five design teams have been named to receive $15,000 grants to revitalize Syracuse's Near Westside neighborhood as part of the "Movement on Main: Designing the Healthy Main Street" competition. The initiative, sponsored by Syracuse University, plans to redesign the area around Wyoming Street to once again make it an important agent of the community's social and recreational life.

Three teams were chosen from the submissions in the first round of the competition:

Coen + Partners, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN)
Stoss Landscape Urbanism (Boston, MA) with Höweler + Yoon Architecture, LLP, Nitsch Engineering, Inc., and Dr. Angie Cradock, Sc. D.
King and King Architects (Syracuse, NY) with Urban Movement Design and The Alchemical Nursery

Two teams had previously been invited as preselected participants:

Marpillero Pollak Architects (New York, NY) with Arup, Consulting Engineers, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, and HealthxDesign
peg office of landscape + architecture (Philadelphia, PA) with Sp(a)de Architecture and Barton & Loguidice, P.C. Engineering

The TMH/Nowell's Architecture Movie Series Presents "The Pruitt-Igoe Myth"

2012-12-18T13:04:00-05:00

“Pruitt-Igoe has lived on symbolically as an icon of failure. Liberals perceive it as exemplifying the government's appalling treatment of the poor. Architectural critics cite it as proof of the failure of high-rise public housing for families with children. One critic even asserted that its destruction signaled the end of the modern style of architecture.”

December 16, 2012 (Raleigh, NC) -- Triangle Modernist Houses’ Nowell’s Architecture Movie Series continues in January with a special screening of “The Pruitt-Igoe Myth” on Thursday, January 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the Raleigh Grande.

Pruitt–Igoe was a 33-building urban housing project in St. Louis, Missouri, designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki, who also designed the former World Trade Center towers. It was named for Wendell O. Pruitt, an African-American fighter pilot in World War II, and William L. Igoe, former U.S. Congressman. Costing $36 million, 60 percent above the national average for public housing at the time, the design was heralded as a transformative tool for the disadvantaged; the architects and city planners sold the project to the public on the belief that good design would make a hugely positive difference in people’s lives.

However, living conditions in Pruitt–Igoe began to decline very soon after completion in 1956. By the late 1960s, the complex was internati...

Architects Issue Report Documenting the Connection Between Design and Public Health, Press Releases

2012-12-11T12:33:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) today issued a report: Local Leaders: Healthier Communities Through Design that provides a roadmap for towns and cities looking to help their populations stay healthy by employing design techniques that encourage residents to increase their physical activity.

The report, which was released today at Governing Magazine’s “Summit on Healthy Living,” demonstrates how active lifestyles aided by positive design choices lead to a healthier population. Individuals who live in livable, mixed use communities, with options for transit - weigh less, are more physically active, and experience less chronic disease.

“Architects play a key role in designing healthy environments,” said AIA CEO Robert Ivy, FAIA. “This report shows the benefits our profession can bring to establishing a built environment that encourages exercise and discourages a sedentary lifestyle.”

Key barometers of health suggest America is heading in the wrong direction, namely toward physical inactivity, obesity, and chronic disease. Studies, highlighted in the report, demonstrate that the median improvement in some aspect of physical activity for livable urban communities can be over 160 percent. Studies also show that a community designed for exercise can prevent 90 percent o...

Winner of Austin’s Waller Creek Design Competition

2012-11-30T18:39:00-05:00

The multidisciplinary design team led by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and Thomas Phifer & Associates was recently named winner of Design Waller Creek: A Competition. Organized by the Austin, TX-based Waller Creek Conservancy, this international design competition called for ideas to revitalize a 7-mile stretch of Waller Creek, a neglected Austin urban ecosystem, and thus turning a "currently fragmented and undervalued section of the city into a vibrant, livable, and workable district."

Broad Minded City Documentary Film looking for a venue

2012-11-29T14:59:00-05:00

Broad Minded City is a Documentary about Urban Planning, Design and Architecture focusing on the current issues facing cities in development, issues like sustainability, culture identity, infrastructure, transportation and preservation. It's a multidisciplinary approach loosely based on Frank Lloyd Wright's urban model "Broadacre City" to show the difference between Broadacre City and Urban Sprawl as we know it today.

Right now, we are looking to share a 10-15 min short film of Broad Minded City to the public in a venue. The initial screening will mostly happen in the Los Angeles area, but not against screening on other cities interested in this subject matter. The hope is to make the documentary into a full-feature film (90 mins. or longer).

If anyone is interested in screening in their gallery space or movie venue, please contact or you have different suggestions on a idea venue. The documentary is not only for the architect, developer, planner & designer, but to the broader audience who have an interest or a belief that cities and the urban environment should have better planning, transparency & design, that the design of buildings and spaces should be an everyday experience.

Prince Arthur’s Landing by Brook McIlroy

2012-11-28T17:14:00-05:00

Canadian architecture, landscape and urban planning firm Brook McIlroy has shared with us Prince Arthur's Landing, an expansive downtown waterfront revitalization project for Thunder Bay, Ontario. The award-winning development opened in December 2011 and was designed by Brook McIlroy as lead consultant.

City of paper urbanism: how Mumbai can make plans it may actually implement

2012-10-30T18:58:00-04:00

Problems...will continue to plague Mumbai as long as the government continues to pretend to put all its faith into a thoroughly planned city-wide manifesto that is ultimately tossed aside... In rethinking the grandiose nature of the Development Plan, perhaps the government can engage in smaller scale implementations and allow new regulations and ideas to...move beyond its paper urbanity.

Audi Urban Future Award 2012 Goes to Höweler + Yoon Architecture

2012-10-23T15:04:00-04:00

Eric Höweler and J. Meejin Yoon of Boston firm Höweler + Yoon Architecture are the winners of the Audi Urban Future Award 2012. The team won with the project "Shareway," a proposal calling for the reinvention of the Boston-Washington, D.C., metropolitan region called Boswash. The Audi Urban Future Award 2012 is an international architecture competition that focuses on specific mobility scenarios in five metropolitan, regions Boston/Washington, Istanbul, Mumbai, Pearl River Delta, and São Paulo.

MVRDV’s Almere Plan Wins Floriade 2022 Competition

2012-09-25T14:32:00-04:00

The Dutch city of Almere has won the bid for the Floriade 2022 and will host the prestigious world horticultural expo in the year 2022. The exposition takes place once every ten years in the Netherlands and is currently ending in Venlo. The MVRDV-designed plan for Almere seeks to be not a temporary expo site but a lasting green Cité Idéale as an extension to the existing city center.

The Almere/MVRDV concept beat out fierce competition from Boskoop with OMA/Rem Koolhaas, Groningen with West 8, and Amsterdam Bijlmer with MTD Landscape Architect.

Moscow Expansion Competition - Winning Entry by CCPG

2012-09-11T15:04:00-04:00

Capital Cities Planning Group (CCPG), an Anglo-American team including Gillespies, John Thompson & Partners and Buro Happold, has won a prestigious competition to plan the future expansion of the City of Moscow, Russia. The international jury [...] awarded two prizes; one to CCPG led by US-based Urban Design Associates for the design and planning of the new Federal District, and the second to Antoine Grumbach & Jean-Michel Wilmotte of Paris for the overall planning of Moscow.

Olympics 2012: What happens next?

2012-08-08T13:18:00-04:00

London’s surprising win that morning was attributed to its focus on urban regeneration and legacy: perhaps the first time an Olympic bid had specifically presented the Games as merely the warm up for a longer-term rejuvenation.

ONE PRIZE 2012: FROM BLIGHT TO MIGHT - Finalists Announced

2012-08-06T18:58:00-04:00

Terreform ONE has announced twenty finalists of its open international design competition, ONE PRIZE 2012: FROM BLIGHT TO MIGHT. The competition drew 115 teams and 655 team members from more than 20 countries and five continents. Many questioned the American Dream and offered new 21st century possibilities. Several projects called for a rethinking of the boundary between the derelict area and its adjacent urban fabric.

Dongjiang Harbor Master Plan Entry by HAO and Archiland Beijing

2012-07-10T13:01:00-04:00

Danish HAO / Holm Architecture Office has sent us their latest competition entry—designed in collaboration with Archiland Beijing—for an ocean front project near the city of Tianjin, Northern China. “With the Dongjiang Master Plan we aimed to develop a housing typology that allows for high density while emulating the natural surroundings of the site," said HAO founder Jens Holm.

Los Angeles Metro Approves Gruen/Grimshaw for Union Station Master Plan

2012-06-28T21:22:00-04:00

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Board of Directors today approved LA-based Gruen Associates, in association with London's Grimshaw Architects, as the consultant team for the creation of a master plan for the historic Union Station and its surrounding 40 acres. Metro CEO Art Leahy was authorized by the board to execute a firm fixed price contract not to exceed $4,150,000.

Klaksvík City Center Entry by Group8

2012-06-15T13:33:00-04:00

We have received another entry for the city center redevelopment competition in Klaksvík, Faroe Islands: the proposal "RE-CONNECT, RE-INVENT, RE-INVEST KLAKSVIK" by Swiss firm Group8 received the 2nd prize in this open, international competition.

FLIP/CITY SHANGHAI by PinkCloud.dk

2012-06-12T17:47:00-04:00

Copenhagen firm PinkCloud.dk has shared with us the concept FLIP/CITY, a recent shortlist entry in the 2012 Rethinking Shanghai competition. Design team members Nico Schlapps and Fabian Busse decided to literally flip a flat cityscape vertically to create, explore and grow new types of spaces.

Klaksvík City Center Entry by Kubota & Bachmann

2012-06-12T17:41:00-04:00

In our last post, we published Henning Larsen Architects' winning competition entry for the city center redevelopment in Klaksvík, the second-largest city in the Faroe Islands. This post now features the urban design submission of Swiss practice Kubota & Bachmann Architects.

Henning Larsen Architects Wins City Development Competition in the Faroe Islands

2012-06-06T13:09:00-04:00

Copenhagen's Henning Larsen Architects has won the competition for developing a 150,000 m2 (1.6M sq ft) area in the second-largest city in the Faroe Islands, Klaksvík. The area will comprise a cultural house, a museum, residences, offices and shops. [...] On the basis of the winning proposal, the Municipality of Klaksvík will prepare a new district plan for the development of the city. The plan is expected to be ready during 2012.

UA architecture students look to revitalize downtown Tucson

2012-05-31T14:49:00-04:00

For years city planners have looked at ways to revitalize downtown, now some University of Arizona architecture students may have the answer. For the past couple of years the grad students have been working on a project called "The New Old Pueblo". "We did a lot of research on successful strategies used in other cities," UA Grad Student Julia Roberts says. Roberts is one of 17 students who worked with Architecture Professor Mark Frederickson to design the plan.

In Detroit, half the street lights could go dark

2012-05-25T14:02:00-04:00

The city is deep in debt; it's got a state-appointed board managing its finances, so it's gotta cut services it can't afford. Services that it can't afford in part because it's a city built for two million people that's now home to just over 713,000. So street lights could be a luxury Detroit can't completely afford.

ABF Proposal ‘In-Closure’ Wins Seattle’s Urban Intervention Design Ideas Competition

2012-05-17T18:09:00-04:00

A jury of internationally recognized design professionals and Seattle civic leaders have declared a winner among three semi-finalists in Urban Intervention: The Howard S. Wright Design Ideas Competition for Public Space. The winner is ABF, of Paris, France, for its design, In-Closure, which envisions an interactive wall around a forested landscape that is both flexible and dynamic, embracing social life in the city at multiple scales.

HAO and Archiland Beijing Win Qingdao Master Plan Competition

2012-05-11T17:07:00-04:00

Danish HAO / Holm Architecture Office together with Archiland Beijing has won the competition to design a master plan within the city of Qingdao, China. In addition to its famous Tsingtao beer, the city of Qingdao has long been a key tourist and film production destination in northern China.

Three Entries Share First Prize in Istanbul’s Yenikapı Design Competition

2012-04-13T17:50:00-04:00

In the international design competition for Yenikapı Transfer Point and Archaeo-Park Area in Istanbul, Turkey, three First Prizes have been announced this week. The jury selected the top project teams Eisenmann Architects/Aytaç Architects, Atelye 70/Francesco Cellini/Insula Architettura E Ingegneria, and Cafer Bozkurt Architects/Mecanoo Architects from nine shortlisted teams, including MVRDV and other international firms.

Finalists Announced for Urban Intervention Design Ideas Competition

2012-03-14T19:22:00-04:00

Urban Intervention: The Howard S. Wright Design Ideas Competition for Public Space has selected 3 finalists and 7 commendations. In the spirit of the 1962 World’s Fair, Seattle Center and AIA Seattle invited multidisciplinary design teams to compete in an international design ideas competition to re-envision a nine-acre site in the heart of Seattle Center and use it to explore innovation in public space in the coming century.