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Mecanoo's Francine Houben is the ABB LEAF Awards 2020/21 Lifetime Achievement honoree

2021-10-19T12:54:00-04:00

Mecanoo founder Francine Houben has been honored with a prestigious ABB LEAF Lifetime Achievement Award during a ceremony at London’s stylish Nobu Hotel last Thursday.

The honor is in recognition of the architect’s tremendous cultural output, which has included recent projects at the New York Public Library and University of Cambridge, in addition to works such as and the Montevideo in Rotterdam (2005) and the Library of Birmingham (2013) that have set the firm apart with an innovative combination of different practice areas united by a philosophy of “People, Place, and Purpose.”

"I am a specialist in things I haven't done before," Houben told Archinect in a 2017 interview. "I always search for the balance between analysis and intuition."

Related on Archinect: The Proust Questionnaire: Francine Houben

Houben’s career began at a time when only 10 to 15% of her university peers were women. She began practicing in 1984 after completing her studies at TU Delft the same year. From there, ...

MVRDV and The Why Factory present urban study of Marseille in new book

2020-08-31T13:35:00-04:00

MVRDV and The Why Factory at TU Delft have announced the release of Le Grand Puzzle, a book showcasing the result of intensive research of Marseille. The project was made from 2018 to the beginning of 2020 by an international team of architects and urbanists from MVRDV and The Why Factory in collaboration with Manifesta 13.

"Le Grand Puzzle shows the incredible urban possibilities and impossibilities of Marseille, through conversations, analyses, maps and ideas," said Winy Maas, co-founder of MVRDV and director of The Why Factory in a statement. "It forms an urban portrait of Marseille; a constructive mirror to Marseille."

The study was commissioned as the foundational base of the Manifesta 13 Marsielle art exhibition. "Marseille is a city of flux, transit and trade. It responds to a diversity of contradictory connotations. So it offers a rare prism we can use to investigate multiple questions that are crucial to Europe’s future and current crises," Maas added. "Our research was a...

Work on Europe's first hyperloop test facility in Delft has been completed

2017-06-08T15:24:00-04:00

Back in February, TU Delft won the first phase of SpaceX's Hyperloop Competition, beating out MIT and the Technical University of Munich, for their design of a human-scale Hyperloop pod. Well, last week, Europe's first hyperloop test facility on the TU Delft campus was unveiled.

Hardt, which was founded by some of the winners from Elon Musk's hyperloop competition, is the first European company to work on developing the futuristic transport system. They have been working in conjunction with the construction company BAM to build the 30-meter long test facility revealed last Thursday. The facility consists of a tube with a length of 30 meters and an external diameter of 3.2 and will allow Hardt to try out all the important systems at low speeds. Testing will focus on examining the safety, the propulsion, the gliding and the stabilization of the hyperloop vehicle. In addition, the company is also interested in looking into potential social issues concerning the new form of transportatio...

TU Delft wins overall for first phase of SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition

2017-02-02T12:37:00-05:00

TU Delft recently won the overall winning title in the first phase of SpaceX's Hyperloop Pod competition, which the aerospace company launched in 2015. Students and independent engineers worldwide were invited to design a human-scale Hyperloop pod, as a way to help accelerate SpaceX's development of a functional Hyperloop prototype.

This past weekend, SpaceX held the first Competition Weekend at their headquarters in Hawthorne, California. After various performance tests, only three student teams were qualified to test their pods on the 1.2 kilometer test tube: TU Delft, the Technical University of Munich, and MIT.

Delft Hyperloop pod at the SpaceX competition in Hawthorne. Photo via TUDelft/Twitter.

Their pod wasn't the fastest one, but TU Delft achieved the highest overall score and won best innovative design. The Technical University of Munich came in second and won the fastest pod award, while MIT placed in third overall and won best safety and reliability.

Speed wasn't the main pri...

TU Delft appoints Peter Russell as new architecture dean

2015-03-11T14:15:00-04:00

After a careful international recruitment process, the Executive Board has appointed Peter Russell as dean of TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment effective 1 May 2015. Peter Russell is currently Professor of Computer Supported Planning in Architecture (CAAD) at the RWTH Aachen University. He also serves as Rector's Emissary for Alumni Affairs at the RWTH where he has been Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and chaired the Dean's Council.

Saving face: Prêt-à-Loger designs solar-powered skin to preserve Dutch row houses

2014-02-26T18:13:00-05:00

How do you transform over 2 million Dutch terraced houses into more spacious, neutral-energy homes while they're still being inhabited? According to a team of TU Delft students, a solution to that is Prêt-à-Loger.

Translated to "ready to be lived in," the Prêt-à-Loger model was developed to preserve the historic Dutch row house, which was mass-produced for the middle class during the post-war period. The row house remains as the most common house typology in The Netherlands and is a cultural icon for many Dutch residents.

Trying to preserve and sustainably enhance the houses to modern-day standards, the Prêt-à-Loger team designed an adaptable "skin" made of solar panels and smart technology that can be applied to the house's facade. The skin can be customized to the various shapes and sizes of the homes.

The team recently celebrated the official kick-off of Prêt-à-Loger. With the support of partner organizations, they plan to implement the concept to a local neighborhood in Honselersdi...

Get Lectured: TU Delft Fall '13

2013-11-11T15:46:00-05:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2013

Here on Archinect we recently launched "Get Lectured", where we'll feature a school's lecture series--along with their snazzy posters--for the current season. (UPDATE: We've begun adding international schools!) Check back regularly to stay up-to-date and mark your calendars for any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Today's featured poster comes from the The Berlage Center, a post-graduate department of the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.

A little history: The Berlage Center was established after the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam closed in 2012 when all funding ceased for post-academic institutions in The Netherlands. The Institute's deans included one of its founders Herman Hertzberger, Wiel Arets (1995), and Alejandro Zaera-Polo (2002). Since 2012, the Berlage Center continues to operate as a research, discussion and cultural platform for architectural, urban, and landscape issues.

Want...

MVRDV Builds “Porous City” Exhibition with LEGOs in Cannes

2013-02-04T15:24:00-05:00

If you happen to be in the South of France this March, make sure to attend MIPIM’s first edition of the Innovation Forum in Cannes, March 12-15th, where MVRDV and Delft-based innitiative The Why Factory (T?F) present the exhibition, Porous City – Open the Tower. The event is part of their ongoing research on the design of skyscrapers and the potential of porosity as a European approach to urban density.