Archinect - News

BIG teams up with University of Kansas students and faculty to deliver the new Makers’ KUbe design

2024-04-22T15:24:00-04:00

BIG in partnership with BNIM and the University of Kansas have unveiled plans for a new six-story creative academic space that will help consolidate formerly separate learning environments for students in the School of Architecture & Design. Comprising a diagrid frame, the Makers’ KUbe is a 50,000-square-foot mass timber cube structure connecting the school’s renovated Marvin Hall and Chalmers Hall buildings from 1908 and 1978, respectively.

Mahbub Rashid, the new Dean of the University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design, said: "BIG’s willingness to both listen to us and push us has conceived a project that celebrates our history and embodies the ambitious optimism that animates our academic mission."

Image by Kilograph

As Rashid mentioned, the design is the product of a collaborative effort that brought together students, faculty, and board members in order to create a hub-like embodiment of KU’s four primary principles: "to become an emblem of creativity; to create a connec...

Autodesk launches VR tool for reviewing BIM models with Workshop XR

2023-11-16T19:24:00-05:00

Autodesk has unveiled a virtual reality tool described as an “immersive design review experience for the AEC industry.” Named Autodesk Workshop XR, the tool offers multiple users the ability to explore design models in real-time using Meta virtual headsets, including abilities to flag and update issue items.

“Workshop XR will transform how architects and building engineers plan and review projects,” said Nicolas Fonta, Senior Director & General Manager, XR at Autodesk, in a statement. “Most building projects that go over budget do so because issues are discovered once construction has begun. We’ve heard many customers share the challenges of reviewing designs across dispersed teams.”

Image credit: Autodesk

In the Workshop XR environment, multiple users will be able to track issues, catch errors, and explore working BIM models linked to the Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC). “With automatically connected data from ACC, no-prep model loading, and synced issue tracking, Workshop XR make...

Multistudio begins work on special infill housing project designed with the help of local schoolchildren

2023-08-31T12:12:00-04:00

Multistudio has broken ground on a noteworthy new four-residence supportive housing project in Lawrence, Kansas, which they say is evocative of their goal of pushing the limits of what’s possible within their community and the industry as a whole.

The project involved collaborating with clients of the nonprofit Tenants to Homeowners and two classes of local elementary school students from the Limestone Community School who sourced materials for the construction with help from the Parsons School of Design.

Image: © Multistudio

The project was enacted to create infill housing on a lot connected to an adjacent bike loop. The first home design features two bedrooms and an open-concept kitchen and living area in addition to a covered patio and bathroom that can be used as an emergency shelter in the event of a tornado. A solution involving a pair of donated solar panels that helped to make the home’s functioning all-electric is likely to be enacted later. Further donations to the project...

Lucien Kroll, paragon of progressive architecture, passes away aged 95

2022-08-15T17:43:00-04:00

An influential figure in the realm of ecological design is being mourned after Le Monde reported the death of Belgian architect Lucien Kroll in Brussels on August 2nd at the age of 95.

The Atelier Kroll co-founder will be remembered for his foundational work in the arenas of green building and participatory architecture. Kroll is best known for his highly-collaborative 1976 La Mémé design on the campus of Belgium’s Catholic University of Louvain in addition to over 100 other projects he and his wife Simone Pelosse completed through the studio after its inception in 1958.

A 1966 residential project in Embourg, Belgium. Image: GAR-Archives d'architecture

A 1951 graduate of La Cambre (where he preceded Maurice Culot by a decade), Kroll’s early commitment to designing spaces “with” rather than “for” their users continued throughout his long career, eventually leading to them being named the Brussels Architecture Prize Lifetime Achievement Award winners just last year. His early-career d...

Mississippi State University studio teaches the value of collaboration between its architecture and building construction science students

2022-05-20T13:27:00-04:00

Earlier this week, we explored the relationship between architecture and construction science disciplines through the lens of a Building Scientist position at Payette. While the two fields are commonly intertwined within professional practice settings, they are also being implemented in a collaborative design studio taught at Mississippi State University (MSU). Students from the school's architecture and building construction science departments worked together in a unique studio called the PCI Foundation Studio.

After receiving a special grant from the PCI Foundation in 2020 to incorporate "precast concrete into the classroom," MSU Architecture's Associate Professor Alexis Gregory allocated the $100,000 grant to be utilized within architecture courses at the school. This funding was used to develop the Spring 2021 PCI Foundation Studio.

Under Gregory's direction, sixteen teams of students from both departments worked together to develop a collaborative design-build project benefitt...

MVRDV's mixed-use The Canyon is ready to play ball in San Francisco

2022-04-20T16:28:00-04:00

The pivotal first residential development that will eventually form the cornerstone of San Francisco’s new Mission Rock neighborhood topped out last week, representing a milestone for the city and designers MVRDV.

Previously: Construction begins for MVRDV's latest 'rocky' mixed-use tower in San Francisco. Street view. Visualization © Pixelflakes/Courtesy of MVRDV

Featuring a suite of ground-floor retail spaces and 50,000 square feet of offices in addition to its 283 residential units (of which 102 are considered below market rate), The Canyon is the first of four buildings comprising the initial phase of a comprehensive masterplan developed by the San Francisco Giants baseball team and Tishman Speyer that will deliver a new 28-acre mixed-use neighborhood to the area south of Oracle Park.

Image © Barry Fleisher courtesy MVRDV

The culmination of a 14-month construction period that began in late February of last year, the new development is defined by a topographically-inspired design d...

NFTs will be at the (i)heart(blob) of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale

2021-12-17T11:49:00-05:00

The hot new trend sweeping the art and design communities will be at the center of next year’s Tallinn Architecture Biennale. The festival released its 2022 list of exhibitors on Thursday, which includes an installation program highlighted by a virtual metaverse space from the web-based studio iheartblob.

Touted as the world’s first-ever blockchain-funded pavilion, the installation "Fungible Non-Fungible Pavilion" has a specific focus on the concept of slowness similar to the overall theme of the biennial, which this year is “Edible; Or, the Architecture of Metabolism.”

Image courtesy iheartblob

The installation was named the de-facto winner of this year’s installation competition after another exhibitor, the fungi-inspired team called Simulaa (previously on Archinect), dropped out due to unforeseen circumstances. iheartblob nonetheless won for its crowdfunded and sourced entry that they say will empower local communities towards craftsmanship in specifically AI and NFT-based hybrid...

“We don’t ever want it to be finished” - Museum of Making opens at Derby's UNESCO site

2021-06-07T13:22:00-04:00

A new museum in England has given new life to a 300-year-old factory building after an £18 million capital campaign.

The aptly named Museum of Making is now open and operational inside a repurposed former factory space at the Derwent Valley Mills, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001.

MoM Exterior 5 – Credit Derby Museums & Art Lewry, Culture Communications Collective

Leeds-based Bauman Lyons has partnered with Derby Museums since 2011 to spearhead a redesign of the historic mill using an innovative hands-on approach that meant working with community members to collaborate on a model for what eventually became the first DIY museum in the country.

A 2015 ground floor refurbishment left an open space for volunteers to "fit-out" with the help of makers-in-residence, which led to an expanded effort the firm credited to the "maker" movement.

The Gateway at the Museum of Making - Speller Metcalfe-Derby Museums

The Museum, now a Grade II Listed Building, is unique bot...

A call to embrace automation in the job market with a collaborative vision

2018-07-18T17:17:00-04:00

This partnership between human and machine is what lies ahead as automation tools permeate our lives at a quickening pace. As many worry about the potential for robots to steal our jobs (or lead a violent overthrow of society), the reality may be more nuanced: They may end up being something more like creative collaborators [...] We must re-tool the workforce, be ever learning, and open to rapid change to reduce the negative impact.

Brooks Rainwater asserts urban spaces as the testing grounds for the impending automation revolution and asks whether this will simply eliminate jobs or create new, better ones. While job displacement estimations vary, there is no denying the tremendous impact emerging technologies will have on our future workforce. Rainwater empowers present decisions of embracing these inevitable changes through forming collaborative partnerships with automation.

The RAIC shares report on co-designing as reconciliation with Indigenous communities

2018-07-16T15:56:00-04:00

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) has created a free, public report as a resource for architects, designers, clients, funders, and policy-makers involved in the creation of new infrastructure facilities and housing in First Nation, Inuit, and other Indigenous communities. The report focuses of four case studies located in Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec which exemplify the best architecture practices of co-designing as reconciliation.

In these four case studies, the community vision was developed through architects engaging in a shared design process in order to address injustices and give agency back to Indigenous people groups. You can read the full RAIC report here.

China's new Design Society launches with V&A collaboration

2017-12-04T14:42:00-05:00

The Design Society, China’s first dedicated cultural design hub, opened its doors this weekend in Shenzhen. Established by China Merchants Shekou (CMSK), the group aims to create a platform for global collaboration and creativity giving China a center point for design and innovation. The opening also launched The Sea World Culture and Arts Center (SWCAC) working in tandem with the Design Society. China's new center is designed by Fumihiko Maki and features a roof park, several public plazas, and a range of horizon views.

Design Society, Shenzhen, China. Photo: Design Society.

This opening is the result of a collaboration with the Victoria & Albert Museum, a partnership consisting of professional training, concept design, and the center's site-specific inaugural exhibition, Values of Design, along with two major touring V&A exhibitions. In sync with this initiation, The Design Society has an open invitation for future collaborations and partnerships as part of a larger effort to pr...

100+ artist-collective Meow Wolf brings their unique combination of architecture, art and technology to the Life is Beautiful festival in Vegas

2017-09-25T15:17:00-04:00

Meow Wolf is a unique collaboration of more than 100 artists and designers. They use architecture, painting, sculpture, video and audio engineering to create immersive multi-sensorial environments. The works of art they create can be walked in, climbed on and played with.

Truly multidisciplinary, Meow Wolf mixes architecture, art and entertainment to create fantastical environments.

Kate Russell courtesy of Meow Wolf

In 2016, they opened their first permanent exhibition, called “The House of Eternal Return” in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Meow Wolf transformed a former bowling alley in the industrial area of Santa Fe, into a 20,000 square foot fantastical immersive environment. The exhibition is composed of dozens of rooms and secret passages for kids and adults.

House of Eternal Return, Santa Fe. Lindsay Kennedy courtesy of Meow Wolf

House of Eternal Return, Santa Fe. Kate Russell courtesy of Meow Wolf

House of Eternal Return, Santa Fe. Lindsay Kennedy courtesy of Meow Wolf

Meow Wolf also r...

Art collective Meow Wolf's cool new model for artists to make an excellent living

2017-07-13T13:53:00-04:00

Full-time creative positions, like architects and sound engineers, come with considerable salaries and benefits. “We have 20-year-olds making $50,000 a year with us,” remarks Everett.

Meow Wolf may have put the starving artist trope to rest in the form of a magnificent new business/installation model.

Photo by Kate Russell. Courtesy of Meow Wolf.

As this article explains:

Since the Santa Fe-based art collective Meow Wolf opened its permanent installation, the House of Eternal Return, in March 2016, the project has been an unmitigated success in terms of viewership and profits. Housed in a 20,000-square-foot former bowling alley, the sprawling interactive artwork welcomed 400,000 visitors in its first year—nearly four times as many as expected—and brought in $6 million in revenue for the collective’s more than 100 members.

Founding members of Meow Wolf: Corvas Brinkeroff, Sean Di Ianni, Vince Kadlubek, Caity Kennedy, Matt King. Courtesy of Meow Wolf.

In even better news: at this time of this report Meow Wolf is currently hiring!

Designing Together in the Cloud: How architects and engineers use cloud collaboration to increase productivity

2017-02-13T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BIM 360 Team

Your latest building design project is moving forward quickly. But you discovered a small hitch yesterday: the MEP engineers referred to an old version of the structural model while modifying the duct work. Luckily, the team spotted and resolved the issue before it created serious problems or caused more than a couple hours of rework. Not a big deal, but it could have led to the kind of design error that 21% of architects consider to be a top cause of uncertainty and potential issues on projects. Working in the cloud delivers the power to prevent those kinds of errors.

According to the Construction Industry Council, cloud computing is on track to become the leading way firms store and share design models. That’s because when design teams work in the cloud, they get anytime, anywhere access to the latest design information. They can also quickly review any up-to-date changes without even opening the latest version of the model in their Build...

Sou Fujimoto to design immersive "Forest of Light" for Salone del Mobile 2016

2016-03-24T15:08:00-04:00

'I envisage to make a forest of light. A forest which consists of countless light cones made from spotlights above. These lights pulsate and constantly undergo transience of state and flow.' “People meander through this forest, as if lured by the charm of the light. Light and people interact with one another, its existence defining the transition of the other.”

In another collaboration with top-notch designers, fashion label COS has teamed up with Sou Fujimoto to create a nature-inspired installation for Milan's Salone del Mobile 2016 next month. For COS' fifth year of taking part in the design fair, Fujimoto is creating a "Forest of Light" that will exhibit the brand's collection in what could be a mesmerizing combination of light and sound.

"Forest of Light" draws inspiration from the experience of walking through a forest at twilight, which Fujimoto relates to his growing up in Hokkaido, where he was surrounded by nature. Set inside the now-derelict Cinema Arti theater, the installation will comprise of a darkened space illuminated by numerous towering cones of light produced from spotlights shining from above.

As visitors go about the space, the cones of light will pulsate and respond to their movements. Mirrored walls will create a seemingly infinite landscape of "abstracted trees, joining together to form a shifting forest of light." F...

Building a collaborative practice: Caroline Bos of UNStudio lectures at LACMA

2015-10-30T16:00:00-04:00

Students and professionals nearly filled up the Bing Theater at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Tuesday night to listen to guest lecturer Caroline Bos, co-founder and principal urban planner of UNStudio. Bos spoke about UNStudio’s design process that continues to shift even after her 27 years of practice with co-founder Ben van Berkel and their growing international office. In highlighting a selection of the firm's projects, she outlined their focus on collaborative, research-driven design, with the ultimate goal to consistently create inventive, inclusive and “socially aware” architecture.

↑ Caroline Bos and Ben van Berkel of UNStudio.

To frame the discussion of UNStudio's design methods, Bos began her lecture by quoting from Richard Sennett’s 2008 book, The Craftsman. “Knowledge is gained in the hand through touch and movement," and, "Technical understanding develops through the powers of imagination”. According to Bos, the quotes in an architectural context describe the int...

Toshiko Mori designs pro-bono a new artists' residency in Senegal

2015-01-15T15:45:00-05:00

The rural village of Sinthian in southeastern Senegal is home to the THREAD arts center, a new artists' residency and cultural community space set to open this March. The idea for the arts center originated from the long-term efforts of doctor and local Sinthian leader, Magueye Ba, who spearheaded the project with environmental sustainability expert Moussa Sene and The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. The project has already gained deserved recognition with a selection for the 2014 Venice Biennale and an AIANY award.

Designed pro-bono by New York-based Toshiko Mori Architect, the art center's design incorporates local materials and building customs. While local masons and villagers provided their expertise on working with bamboo, brick, and thatch, Mori rendered those materials into a contemporary geometric design that complements its surrounding flat landscape. The structure's most notable feature is its inverted roof that can collect and retain rainwater to provide for 40% of the ...

How to depict the rules of attraction, according to the PARADOR film

2014-12-11T18:07:00-05:00

PARADOR is a collaborative project by Paris-based architect David Tajchman and filmmaker Benjamin Seroussi that fuses each of their signature styles and specialties. Starring dancer Olivier Mathieu and model Katya Pushkina, the short film's theme touches on the "complex rules of attraction and repulsion that end up creating energy, shape evolution, and anti-gravity," as mentioned on Tajchman's website.

Seroussi's experience in fashion film and music videos is obvious in PARADOR, which uses strong angles and slow-paced panning techniques seen in high-end fashion ads on TV. Mathieu and Pushkina, in all their conventionally attractive physical features, are decoratively armored in tetrahedral structures as they dance and pose around each other like two birds engaged in a courtship display. The futuristic structures they wear — which Tajchman and the design team created — hint at Tajchman's work methods of using digital tools and handcrafted models.

Watch the film in its entirety right b...

Building a collaborative jig-saw pavilion at the Media and Architecture Biennale in Aarhus

2014-12-09T20:51:00-05:00

"Programming Natural Affect" was one of the collaborative workshops during the Media and Architecture Bienniale 2014 last month in Aarhus, Denmark. Organized by Anna Ulak and Philipp Rahlenbeck of openconstructs, the workshop focused on fusing the organic properties of nature and the built urban environment through new media and architecture.

Participants learned about combining analog and digital production methods as they worked with each other and the organizers in building a small prefabricated pavilion. At the end of the workshop, the pavilion was displayed in the Main Exhibition during the Bienniale.

Ulak shared further project details below:

"Rather than trying to fully control/manage the relationship between the natural and built environment with computation (and its metaphors), this proposal sets out to augment the natural world. Thus creating artificial environments that evokes the organic. An architecture that artificially amplifies the experiences of nature that is diminish...

10x10 London auction renders 100 drawn perspectives around The Shard

2014-10-30T18:14:00-04:00

10x10 Drawing the City London is an annual fundraising event established by British architect Tim Makower and organized by charity group Article 25 that gets its name from the 100-square grid that captures one particular area in the city of London.

Each square of the grid is assigned to 100 participants, who are typically some of the U.K.'s most well-known and emerging architects, designers, and artists. Participants will then create and donate an original work of art inspired by the buildings and public spaces within their assigned square. For 2014, The Renzo Piano-designed Shard will be the center of the grid.

This year's set of participants include notable names and 10x10 favorites like Norman Foster, Ivan Harbour, Sheila O'Donnell, C.J. Lim, Piers Gough, Chris Wilkinson, textile designer Celia Birtwell, artists Norman Ackroyd and Roger FitzGerald, and 10x10 founder Tim Makower himself.

Online bidding for the art begins November 4 through November 25, followed by an exclusive evenin...

AA Athens Visiting School 2014 challenges the static built environment with “Kinetic Haze”

2014-09-12T21:03:00-04:00

Students and professionals had another opportunity to take part in the third cycle of the AA Athens Visiting School program, "Cipher City: Revolutions". Taking place at the National Technical University of Athens this past spring, participants focused on addressing the roles of change, adaptation and interaction through scripting and digital fabricating techniques at large scale models.

The program set out to challenge the motionless built environment in the collaborative creation of a kinetic pathway prototype called Kinetic Haze. Participants applied the basic design elements from their own proposals in creating the project in less than five days.

Here's a glimpse of the project

Find more project photos and details on Bustler.

"Constructing Holden Caulfield": Learning to build character through literary architecture

2014-06-12T18:22:00-04:00

The writer and the architect aren't so different from each other when you consider each one as builders of an environment, and what better way to introduce that concept than to a class of high school students. After reading about Matteo Pericoli's "The Laboratory of Literary Architecture" course in The New York Times, English teacher George Mayo was inspired to teach it to his 10th grade class at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, MD.

Matteo Pericoli created and taught the workshop in the Scuola Holden creative writing school in Turin, Italy and then in the M.F.A. writing program at Columbia University's School of the Arts. Students picked a literary work they closely understood and then broke it down to its core elements, from which they based their architectural designs.

The goal was for students to avoid literal representations and instead design literary representations that symbolize "the essential ideas of the narrative structure in a spatial form," as described in P...

Over 100 urban artists repaint a soon-to-be-demolished tower in Paris

2013-11-27T14:19:00-05:00

In the 13th Arrondisement in Paris, the brightly painted "Tour Paris 13" building -- is easy to spot from a distance. Described as the largest group exhibition of street art, Gallery Itinerance gathered over 100 urban artists representing 16 nationalities to use their artistic skills to repaint just about every corner of the old 9-floored tower right at the brink of its demolition -- making a vivid statement that "in the end, everything will just disappear in the rubble."

The completion of the Tour 13 project happened not long after the controversial decision to redevelop the historic 5 Pointz "graffiti mecca" in New York.

Here are more details of the project:

"For many months, the project voluntarily remained conﬁdential. Coordinated by
Mehdi Ben Cheikh, Director of Gallery Itinerance, with the support of the 13th Arrondisement City Hall and the consent of ICF Habitat La Sabliere, the building’s landlord, decided to appeal to more than one hundred street-art artists from ...

SO-IL and Gensler to design creative cultural incubator for New Museum

2013-11-01T18:06:00-04:00

The New Museum will be opening an incubator for art, technology, and design next summer in the institution's adjacent building at 231 Bowery in New York. SO-IL architects in collaboration with Gensler will design the new 11,000 sq.foot facility, which will be located inside a 19th-century structure that formerly belonged to artists like James Rosenquist and Tom Wesselmann.

Developed by Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis Director of the New Museum and Deputy Developer Karen Wong, the incubator will serve as a collaborative platform of shared educational and professional workspace for more than 60 start-up companies and creative entrepreneurs. The project is the latest addition to program series that aims to challenge the boundaries and relevance of museum practice in the 21st century.

Prospective members will go through a rigorous application process before being selected by the incubator's Director and staff committee. Incubator members will then pay a monthly fee in exchange for...

"On the Fence": A colorful collaboration at Citizens of the World Hollywood

2013-09-25T12:24:00-04:00

It's hard to miss the vibrant 3-D mural at the front entrance of the Citizens of the World Charter School - Hollywood. The mural, known as "On the Fence", was created by students, teachers, staff, and parents of CWC-H and Le Conte Middle School as a collaborative project. Both communities gathered together in a series of informal events to gradually bring the colorful mural to life.

The project was created by architect Dana Bauer, a parent at CWC-H. Bauer works as a partner for landcraft, an LA-based landscape design practice, and is a faculty member at USC's School of Architecture. The "On the Fence" mural is a representation of her emphasis on cross-disciplinary practice and collaborative creativity.

Over 300 students from ages 5 to 13 years helped produce the mural, which was "woven" onto the fence with strips of UV-resistant fabric. The mural's woven appearance was inspired by techniques used to create hook rugs and Rose Bowl floats. Since its completion, the mural has bec...

Interview: The Principals (Part I.)

2013-06-21T20:35:00-04:00

Can we start by exploring your process of developing an initial idea for a project? You all have very different backgrounds, specialising in metalwork, industrial design and architecture. How do these backgrounds integrate? Can this culmination of different abilities become challenging? It is extremely challenging integrating our different perspectives – based on our specialties, you can encounter all phases and scales of project development simultaneously