Archinect - News

Norman Foster Foundation and Holcim unveil Essential Homes prototype designs for Latin America

2024-06-14T13:24:00-04:00

The Norman Foster Foundation has unveiled details of its new Essential Homes prototype design with Holcim that will deliver low-cost options for emergency shelter in Latin America using low-carbon concrete and cement products in demonstration of the principles of a circular economy.

Image: courtesy Norman Foster Foundation

The prototypes, which are currently being displayed as part of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London, expand on a presentation made during last year's Venice Biennale and incorporate research performed by the Swiss materials manufacturer. The design has since morphed into a better scalable row house version that will be rolled out next year. The homes are said to be fully recyclable and showcase Holcim's proprietary ECOPact low-carbon concrete and ECOPlanet low carbon cement products.

Image: courtesy Norman Foster Foundation

Foster describes: "This project grew out of a workshop organized by the Norman Foster Foundation for young graduates devoted to the iss...

Jacques Herzog previews the Royal Academy exhibition with Christopher Hawthorne

2023-07-11T13:42:00-04:00

Actually, the reason we curate the shows ourselves is not because we want to control how people think, but quite the opposite. I don’t want to be too defensive. I’m not a moralist. If I would to try to control everything, I would have chosen the wrong job.

Back in May, Hawthorne met with Jacques Herzog at the opening of the Venice Biennale to discuss the upcoming exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London as well as several prevailing industry trends that have impacted his firm’s size and projects in the United States and abroad. He says that, among other project types, “neglected” hospital design offers architects the most potential. The 73-year-old Herzog then offers some insights into the firm’s reluctance to work in Russia after last year, the limits of adaptive reuse, curation, and the perception of his counterpart's role as a firm leader vis-à-vis his own.

Previously on Archinect: Herzog & de Meuron’s first London exhibition in 20 years to be hosted by the Royal Academy of Arts

“Pierre has always organized the business, going back to when we were starting out. But it’s not fair to say that Pierre is the business guy and I’m the artist,” he tells the former LA Times critic. “Ideally, we look into projects together and we di...

David Adjaye elected to join the Royal Academy of Arts

2017-03-21T10:10:00-04:00

The Ghanian-British architect David Adjaye, founder of Adjaye Associates, named as the new Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts together with artist Gilbert & George. Sir David Adjaye RA is conceived as a leading architect of his generation. ''David Adjaye joins us at a time when the Royal Academy architects currently comprise a more distinguished group than at any time in its long history'' - Christopher Le Brun, President of the Royal Academy.

Sir David Adjaye becomes the newest addition to a long list of esteemed designers and architects, including Peter Cook, Frank Gehry, and Norman Foster, recognised for their continuing contribution to the field. Adjaye, who founded his firm Adjaye Associates in 2000, was knighted earlier this year, for his work which spans the globe and all sectors; from the National Museum of African American History, to the recently announced 760-acre masterplan for the San Francisco Shipyard Adjaye is known for his passion for considered designs, and his engagement in architectural discussion; qualities which drive his practice towards greater and greater heights.

Honoring the "Maverick" British architects

2016-01-26T13:15:00-05:00

Is there no architecture that can bare its soul without simultaneously crushing you with its ego, that stirs, moves, troubles, provokes, inspires? [...] A glimmer of an alternative is suggested by Mavericks: Breaking the Mould of British Architecture, an installation opening next week [...] The installation is designed by the architect Alex Scott-Whitby, previously best known for proposing that the spires of City of London churches be adapted to make creative workspaces.

"Mavericks: Breaking the Mould of British Architecture" runs at London's Royal Academy of Art from January 26 through April 20, and features the work of FAT, Robert Smythson, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Zaha Hadid, James Stirling, and many others.

Sensing Spaces indulges architecture's vaulting ambition

2014-01-21T13:59:00-05:00

Architecture is usually the product of multiple, conflicting constraints, so how does it fare in the context of a gallery? Shielded from the realities of climate and context, client and user, planning and building regs, what of architecture is left? Liberated from the obligations and contingencies of a real building, can it jump free and take on a greater sensory power – or is it hollowed of all meaning and left to fall flat?

"The results in the Sensing Spaces exhibition lie somewhere between these two camps."

The Four Quadrants of Architecture at the RA Summer Exhibition

2011-06-22T13:52:00-04:00

If you're in London this summer, don't miss to check out this year’s Architecture Room at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition, curated by Piers Gough of CZWG and Alan Stanton of Stanton Williams. The exhibition opened on June 7 and runs through August 15, 2011.