Archinect - News

Heatherwick Studio previews first South American project in Bogotá, Colombia

2024-03-21T16:45:00-04:00

Heatherwick Studio has made public details of a new project in Bogotá, Colombia, for a client in the higher education industry. The studio’s first South American design will be realized as a seven-story academic building and makerspace with a uniquely colorful facade composed of setbacks, free columns, planting, and small circular outdoor terraces.

The client is Bogotá’s Universidad Ean Design School, a 56-year-old private institution founded to provide "comprehensive training of people and stimulate their entrepreneurial aptitude so that its action contributes to the economic and social development of people."

Image: Heatherwick Studio/NOD

Traditional Werregue basket-making practices serve as the inspirations for the design, tipping off Heatherwick’s war on blandness and desire to elevate craft into a primary role in his building practice.

This homage to Colombia's Wounaan Indigenous community will serve as the new centerpiece of the campus, complementing the architecture of the su...

RAMSA’s new Raclin Murphy Museum of Art opens at Notre Dame this December

2023-11-17T18:34:00-05:00

The University of Notre Dame’s new Raclin Murphy Museum of Art from Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) has announced an opening date of December 1st, completing the first phase of a multi-year plan that will advance research and foundational arts education offerings for students in South Bend, Indiana.

The design consists of a 70,000-square-foot neoclassical style building to house the university’s 31,000 object collection. A rectangular layout of 23 separate gallery spaces centers around a circular multi-story atrium and sculpture court, with the exhibitions of different world cultures stitched together into one “dialogue” connecting to an art historical timeline that totals approximately 4,000 years.

Image rendering courtesy of RAMSA

Notre Dame is, similar to Brown University, pursuing the project in the interests of re-affirming the role of arts education in its undergraduate curricula. The school says the new museum brings it on par with Yale, Stanford, and other comparable ins...

Moody Nolan reveals design for $342 million research complex at Morgan State University

2023-11-17T13:11:00-05:00

Moody Nolan has shared an update to its previously announced Science and Research Complex project at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

The new, 246,000-square-foot complex comes equipped with the industry’s latest technological features and will be designed to achieve R1 (very high research activity) Carnegie classification, aiming to bolster the school’s STEM education offerings and national position as a research university.

New renderings released by the firm showcase the direction of the project, whose programmatic elements include Collaborative Teaching and Research Spaces, Information Technology and Computer Labs, Tutoring and Learning Centers, a 3,000-square-foot Environmental and Botanical Rooftop Greenhouse, and space for Remote and Hybrid Technology Integration.

Image courtesy of Moody Nolan

The building will house MSU’s School of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (SCMNS) and be constructed alongside pre-set minority business enterprise (MBE) goals of 47.75%...

UK academics decry ARB's new annual fee for architecture schools

2023-11-13T19:22:00-05:00

The British Architects Registration Board (ARB) has announced a new £9,200 ($11,300 USD) yearly fee, which will begin being asked from all 60 accredited schools of architecture in the UK next year. The move has sparked criticism that they are “crippling” education efforts in the country’s smaller and underfunded degree programs.

The announcement was made at the beginning of November, just months removed from the organization’s proposal of “fundamental” overhauls to higher education that eventually drew criticism from RIBA and academic organizations.

The scheme is reportedly expected to haul in an extra £550,000 (around $675,500 USD) in funds annually. Fees of £3,000 will also be assessed for any new applications for qualification from schools, along with an annual £2,000 renewal fee requiring a “periodic review” of their credential.

The ARB has been hiking fees lately in addition to pursuing those educational reforms, though the latest news still comes as a “shock” to many, accordi...

ACSA issues joint statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion censorship in education

2023-09-21T17:39:00-04:00

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) has joined its sibling organizations in landscape architecture and planning in opposing the concerted efforts of far-right lawmakers to prevent the inclusion of race and racism topics into curricula in states including Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, South Dakota, and Virginia.

"This united declaration stands as a strong objection to the legislation that silences educators from sharing the histories of the architectural profession. Practitioners, educators, and students must be granted access to the complete narrative. Being privy to only a portion of the story significantly disadvantages us all," Mo Zell, the 2023-24 ACSA President, said in a statement.

"The boards of directors of the three organizations representing university programs and educators in architecture, landscape architecture, and planning — ACSA, CELA, and ACSP, — jointly communicate our opposition to any legislation that prevents educators from teaching and shari...

Town over gown: Local zoning holdups could be preventing the expansion of America’s elite colleges and universities

2023-08-09T17:59:00-04:00

[The] quintessential local issue of zoning squabbles ends up generating a national scarcity of elite college admissions slots, fueling zero-sum competition and ultimately reducing America’s ability to increase global “exports” of its best-in-class high-end higher education product.

The Washington Post has a useful primer on the zoning hangnail stimying elite American higher-ed institutions from expanding their enrollment in response to societal outcries and prospective applicants' increasingly high standardized test scores.

The issue dates to the mid-1990s when municipal planning began to disfavor most top-tier institutions. Author Matthew Yglesias then goes on to argue that officials in states like Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, and Connecticut ought to curtail their parochialism in deference to the overall economic betterment of the country.

This year was supposed to offer a turning point in the delivery of student housing nationwide, according to prognosticators looking at overall decreases in enrollment. The University of California and other state systems, meanwhile, are still very much in the throes of their own deepening crises despite the sector's reputation as a "bright spot" for investors.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro to design a new hybrid arts and technology center for the University of New Mexico

2023-08-08T16:48:00-04:00

Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) has been announced as the architects of a new $65 million arts and technology facility for the University of New Mexico’s main campus in Albuquerque.

Working alongside local practice ROMA Architecture, the firm expects to break ground next summer on the new Center for Collaborative Arts and Technology (CCAT) in line with the university’s two-year-old UNM College of Fine Arts Framework Plan.

DS+R’s Partner-in-Charge for the project, Benjamin Gilmartin, said it will be a "catalyst for the advancement of the arts in New Mexico." His team's collaborative design will reportedly meet the standards for LEED Silver certification while providing students with exhibition spaces, rehearsal areas, and a large concert hall.

The project will be enacted on a vacant site bordering the city’s Central Avenue, therefore creating a new gateway onto the 769-acre campus similar to several other recent arts-focused higher education projects at UPenn, Williams, and Dartmouth...

Incorporating Indigenous principles, Seneca College's new Health and Wellness Centre proposes an 'architecture of reconciliation'

2023-05-01T11:56:00-04:00

A new collaborative higher-ed project from Two Row Architect and DIALOG has been proposed for Canada’s Seneca Polytechnic College in Toronto.

The proposal calls for a new Health and Wellness Centre to be delivered at the eastern edge of the school’s Newnham Campus, transforming an aged sports center structure into a multi-level complex that serves the academic community of more than 30,000.

“There are a number of big ideas that have inspired this design. One is the idea that this building will be an intimation of what an 'architecture of reconciliation' could look like,” DIALOG Partner Craig Applegath said in a statement. “And such a wonderful way of not only connecting and reconciling Indigenous and settler cultures but also of providing a gateway for potential new Canadian students to imagine what the reconciled future Canada might look and feel like. Another is that this is intended to be a truly environmentally responsible building: with plans for net-zero carbon, and sustainab...

Ontario's first mass timber higher education building is taking shape at Centennial College in Toronto

2022-01-10T14:04:00-05:00

The first mass timber academic building in Ontario is taking shape at Toronto’s Centennial College. Located at the college’s Progress Campus in Scarborough, the A-Block Expansion Building will have the potential to be the province's first net-zero carbon, mass timber, LEED Gold higher education facility when completed in 2023.

Image: Dialog

First unveiled in February 2020, the $82 million building was designed by Canadian architecture firm Dialog, in collaboration with Smoke Architecture, and EllisDon as contractor. The design for the expansion was based on the Indigenous concept of “two-eyed seeing,” in which people view the world through an Indigenous lens with one eye or perspective, while the other eye sees through a Western lens. The new campus building aims to embody the college’s commitment to truth and reconciliation, Indigenous education, and sustainable design.

Image: Dialog

“The two perspectives amplified each other,” said Craig Applegath, Principal-in-Charge at DIALOG. “F...

ZAS Architects unveils design for new undulating learning oasis in Toronto

2020-08-14T11:48:00-04:00

ZAS Architects, in collaboration with Denmark-based CEBRA Architecture, has unveiled the design for a new student-centered learning and support hub at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus (UTSC). The new facility is a "learning landscape" that encourages flexible education through an authentically complex arrangement of rooms and public space.

"We envisioned a truly flexible environment that broke down traditional pedagogies and instead, encouraged a fluid learning experience unconfined by the walls of the classroom," said Paul Stevens, Founder, and Senior Principal at ZAS Architects in a statement. "Peer-to-peer learning is emulated in all aspects of the design."

The design embraces an expansive use of multiple levels, with clear vertical views throughout the building, allowing users an interconnected sense of fluidity. The program consists of 21 classrooms of various sizes and configurations ranging from a 500-seat auditorium to more intimate 24-seat learning environments...

Leo A. Daly publishes white paper on returning to school post-pandemic

2020-06-09T13:56:00-04:00

In an in-depth exploration, a group of planners, architects, and engineers specializing in higher education led by Leo A. Daly have convened to study the facility impacts of physical distancing and work through possible solutions for faculty and students returning to school.

The group referenced the available guidelines provided by government health and academic institutions on reopening in Fall 2020.

Through that investigation, three key areas were addressed. First, the team looked at how exposure to the virus could be mitigated on the campus as a whole. Second and thirdly, the team conducted a detailed study of two building types: a general purpose academic building and a "traditional" residence hall with shared toilet and shower facilities.

Check out the full white paper here.

Grimshaw unveils design for new Santa Monica College arts complex

2020-06-05T12:27:00-04:00

Grimshaw, in collaboration with Little Diversified Architectural Consulting as architect of record has unveiled the initial designs of the new 21,000-square-foot arts complex for Santa Monica College (SMC) in Southern California. The building will replace an existing car park and serve as the western "gateway" for the school.

Grimshaw worked closely with SMC arts faculty to create an open program that encourages cross-disciplinary discovery and engagement. "Working alongside the arts faculty of SMC to design a building that bolsters their visionary take on the importance of the arts in an evolving entrepreneurial landscape has been inspiring and energizing," said Andrew Byrne, a Managing Partner at the Grimshaw LA studio in a statement. "We are excited to work with such a supportive college to create this landmark building for the community."

The design is composed of three distinctive volumes that are linked by overhead exterior shaded spaces. The external circulation of the comple...

Yazdani Studio's Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine in Pasadena set for July 2020 completion

2020-05-08T12:18:00-04:00

The new Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine building in Pasadena, California is nearing completion.

Back in February of last year, the medical giant released renderings and a virtual tour of the new structure, which was designed by Yazdani Studio. The four-story building is due to be completed in July of this year and, according to UrbanizaLA, is expected to start with an initial class of 48 students, eventually enrolling up to 192 students by 2022.

Introducing Architecture for Landscape: YACademy's higher education course

2018-05-14T08:00:00-04:00

YACademy’s higher education course offers 8 scholarships, and internships in internationally-renowned architectural firms.

110 hours of lessons, a 60-hour workshop, and special lectures from and internships in internationally-renowned architectural firms like JEAN NOUVEL DESIGN, EDUARDO SOUTO DE MOURA, SNOHETTA, HHF, DUQUE MOTTA & AA.

From Stonehenge to Greek temples, architecture is the signature of humankind on landscape, the artificial element that has always been connected to the natural environment. Architecture and landscape are linked by a fundamental continuity that is now starting to fade, damaging the quality of the space we dwell. More than ever today, landscape is a precious heritage that architecture can and must enhance, while protecting it to pass it on to future generations: architects must not give up on working on landscape, instead they should be able to design architecture that responds to each landscape’s specific feature and generates wonderful and unique space...