Archinect - News

Bjarke Ingels' recent TED Talk discusses architectural forms of the future, the LEGO House, and plans to face climate change with architecture

2019-06-05T14:30:00-04:00

Whether you're a fan or not of the influential Danish architect, Bjarke Ingels has designed some of the most distinct architectural structures. Aiming to push the limits of structural design through materials and sustainability approaches, Ingels spoke at a recent TED conference in April sharing his team's most recent projects, discussed the LEGO House, and his plan for future forms in architecture.

With his most recent project teetering on ambitious design approaches and utopian plans, Ingels shares his approach to Floating Cities with the audience. He speaks of creating sustainable cities that can adapt to climate change by designing buoyant modular "coastal additions," each having their own unique coastal landscape. As ambitious as this may sound, Ingels' focus and enthusiastic approach to these human-made ecosystems excited the crowd and provided a sense of possibility.

"...if the whole world woke up tomorrow and became carbon-neutral over night, there are still island nation...

All-star line-up revealed for Vision 2017: UNStudio, Zaha Hadid Architects, Gensler, Foster + Partners and more

2017-05-17T06:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Vision 2017.

Vision 2017 has announced its programme, including some of the biggest names across the built environment industry, alongside the brightest start-ups and world-renowned experts. A series of talks, debates and presentations will address the main issues facing the profession, both in the UK and in a global context. New technologies, materials, products and approaches will be explored across five lecture theatres on the 6-7 June, with Vision as the official trade partner of the London Festival of Architecture. The event is also affiliated to other key industry partners, such as the RIBA, New London Architecture, the Museum of Architecture and BRE.

Alongside the extensive programme, Vision has also partnered with various international trade authorities, including Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Latvia and the Czech Republic, represented at the event through a number of pavilions, each housing multiple participants.

As al...

The best UK and international architects and researchers gather for Vision 2017

2017-04-19T04:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Vision 2017.

Aimed at architects, designers, specifiers and their clients, Vision 2017 provides an international focus for innovative products and building solutions, bringing together some of the best designs and leading figures from across Western Europe. Across two days in June, the CPD-certified show will host the best and brightest from established practices and start-ups, with new ideas and technological innovation at the heart of the event.

Vision 2017 Speaker Studio Saxe Canopia

All the talks and presentations at Vision will take place under the umbrella topics: Materials Innovations, Technological Insight and Architectural & Design Evolution. This framework will help delegates rethink the built environment and the manner in which we can shape places and spaces. Speakers have been sourced from the best practices in the country and around the world, both small and large. Caroline Bos of UNStudio will talk about their research into the circular eco...

Hyper-Reality: Artist envisions our near-future existence submerged in augmented reality

2016-05-26T15:05:00-04:00

Hyper-Reality is a concept film by Keiichi Matsuda. It presents a provocative and kaleidoscopic new vision of the future, where physical and virtual realities have merged, and the city is saturated in media.

"Our physical and virtual realities are becoming increasingly intertwined. Technologies such as VR, augmented reality, wearables, and the internet of things are pointing to a world where technology will envelop every aspect of our lives. It will be the glue between every interaction and experience, offering amazing possibilities, while also controlling the way we understand the world. Hyper-Reality attempts to explore this exciting but dangerous trajectory. It was crowdfunded, and shot on location in Medellín, Colombia."

Here are some stills from artist Keiichi Matsuda's HYPER-REALITY concept film, a fascinating (and slightly disturbing) vision of the near future of the city, of the media, of ourselves, and the blurred sense of 'reality.'

Watch the video below to dive right in.

Zaha on Zaha: "I always thought, you know, I should do well because the work is good."

2016-03-31T14:09:00-04:00

What was it like to be Zaha Hadid? From teaching to developing her vision to turning down an opportunity to work with Rem Koolhaas, in this remembrance we collect a few of Zaha's first-person writings and interviews about her life and work from her unparalleled, groundbreaking career.

On being a woman and an Arab, excerpted from The Guardian, 2012:

Being an Arab woman and a modern architect certainly don't exclude each other – when I was growing up in Iraq, there were many women architects. You cannot believe the enormous resistance I've faced just for being an Arab, and a woman on top of that. It is like a double-edged sword. The moment my woman-ness is accepted, the Arab-ness seems to become a problem.

I've broken beyond the barrier, but it's been a very long struggle. It's made me tougher and more precise – and maybe this is reflected in my architecture. I still experience resistance but I think this keeps you on the go.

As a woman in architecture, you need confidence. Sometimes, w...

They're promising us jetpacks again (and deeper basements)

2015-05-26T17:02:00-04:00

Floating cities and high rise farms are also predicted to shape Britain’s landscape for future generations, according to some of the country’s leading experts. In new research they outline the future form of the places where people will live and work. Spaceports for travel to the Moon and Mars are also expected to become a reality within the next 100 years, they say.

What People Cured of Blindness See?

2014-08-29T00:35:00-04:00

The absence of these rules can frustrate the newly sighted, whose visual world can be both blurry and two-dimensional—paintings and people are often described as “flat, with dark patches”; a far-away house is “nearby, but requiring the taking of a lot of steps”; streetlights seen through glass are “luminous stains stuck to the window”; sunbeams through tree branches collapse into a single “tree with all the lights in it.

Now, go ahead and incorporate some of these images into your architectural visualization...

What The Future Looks Like To North Koreans Who Have Never Left

2014-07-28T17:47:00-04:00

[...] One of its latest projects: Inviting a North Korean architect to imagine the future of local design for travel. The Jetsons-style results include hovercraft hotel rooms and cone-shaped mountain villas connected by ski slopes. Nothing looks like it would be that out of place in a 1950s magazine, down to details like an old-fashioned rotary phone. This is what the future looks like to someone living in a place that's been cut off from the rest of the world since 1948.

The project Utopian Tours, initiated by English-born landscape architect turned Beijing-based North Korea tour operator Nick Bonner, was part of the Korean Peninsula’s “Crow’s Eye View” pavilion for the 2014 Venice Biennale (previously on Archinect).

See New York radically transformed in the “Building Tomorrow” exhibition, opening April 4 in NYC

2014-04-03T20:04:00-04:00

Already making weekend plans? If you're based in New York, maybe you ought to stop by the "Building Tomorrow" exhibition opening tomorrow April 4 until April 6 at 168 Bowery in NYC. Presented by BBC.com Future and Terreform ONE, the limited-time public exhibition invites New Yorkers to catch a glimpse of what their city could look like in the next few decades.

The exhibition will be on display at 168 Bowery (corner of Bowery and Kenmare) as follows:

Friday, April 4 from 12pm-9pm
Saturday, April 5 from 12pm-9pm
Sunday, April 6 from 12pm-6pm

See more on Bustler.

A recap on the Unbuilt Visions Exhibition in Ankara, Turkey

2014-01-22T15:51:00-05:00

Shortly after the 2013 Unbuilt Visions competition concluded, d3 hosted the Unbuilt Visions exhibition showcasing some of the winning entries at the TSMD Turkish Architectural Center in Ankara from Jan. 7-21, 2014.

If you didn't get a chance to be there in person, here are a few photos and a video from the event:

Related: Winners of the d3 Unbuilt Visions 2013 Competition

Find out more on Bustler.

Norman Foster unveils plans for elevated 'SkyCycle' bike routes in London

2014-01-02T19:25:00-05:00

Gliding through the air on a bike might so far be confined to the fantasy realms of singing nannies and aliens in baskets, but riding over rooftops could one day form part of your regular commute to work, if Norman Foster has his way. Unveiled this week, in an appropriately light-headed vision for the holiday season, SkyCycle proposes a network of elevated bike paths hoisted aloft above railway lines, allowing you to zip through town blissfully liberated from the roads.

Rio de Janeiro Cityvision Competition Winners Announced

2013-08-05T15:08:00-04:00

Rio de Janeiro remains the hottest subject for architectural ideas competitions around the world right now. Just last week, we published the winners of the [RIO DE JANEIRO] Symbolic World Cup Structure competition, hosted by British organizers [AC-CA], and today we have received the results of the latest challenge by Italian architecture publication Cityvision, Rio de Janeiro: Two Presents, One Future.

d3 HOUSING TOMORROW - The 2013 Competition Winners

2013-03-14T15:41:00-04:00

The winning entries of the 2013 Housing Tomorrow competition have just been announced, awarding three prizes and sixteen special mentions to design concepts that "explore, document, analyze, transform, and deploy socially‐ and environmentally‐engaged approaches to residential urbanism, architecture, interiors, and designed objects." This year's first prize was presented to Die Hu, Boji Hu, and Yang Zhou for their extreme environments housing proposal, 'Life on the Ropeway.'

POST+CAPITALIST CITY 3#Live - Winning Projects

2013-02-27T15:01:00-05:00

Just a few months ago, we had published the winners of episodes #1 Shop and #2 Work of the international ideas competition series, POST+CAPITALIST CITY. Here are now the three winning proposals of the third installment, #3 Live. The brief invited architects to imagine how a post+capitalist society could affect our daily lives and the way we envision housing.

If you are interested in participating in the most current competition cycle of POST+CAPITALIST CITY, #4 Move which launched last month, click here for more details. Submissions for #4 Move are due by April 15, 2013 (early birds registration: March 1, 2013), and the results will be announced in mid-May on Archinect & Bustler.

Winners of Transiting Cities - Low Carbon Futures Competition

2013-01-21T14:42:00-05:00

A few days ago, we published one of the finalist entries of the international design ideas competition, Transiting Cities - Low Carbon Futures. The competition was open [...] to develop innovative visions for Latrobe City, in eastern Victoria, Australia to make the transition from a singular economy dominated by the power industry (coal mining and electricity generation) into a diversified economy and prosperous low carbon regional city.

Transiting Cities - Finalist Entry “Networked Ecologies: Rethinking Remediation”

2013-01-11T14:01:00-05:00

Last fall, the international research project and design ideas competition, "Transiting Cities - Low Carbon Futures," had invited designers and academic institutions from various fields to envision new, innovative and alternative cities of the near future by defining opportunities for transition into low carbon, prosperous, and vibrant communities. One of the finalist entries [...] is the concept "Networked Ecologies: Rethinking Remediation" by Arizona-based team Studio One.