Archinect - News

Africa will hold the key to the future at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale

2022-06-01T15:36:00-04:00

The theme and title of this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale have been announced as The Laboratory of the Future, vetting a decolonized vision of Africa as a petri dish for the hopes of the broader world to come. As the Biennale’s curator, architect and academic Lesley Lokko, explains: “At an anthropological level, we are all African. And what happens in Africa, happens to us all.”

Under the direction of Lokko, the 18th International Architecture Exhibition will focus on the continent’s past history and potential to be a ‘workshop’ (in historian Richard Sennett’s understanding of the word as a ‘laboratory’) wherein the shared fate and destiny of mankind are being forged in areas of urbanization, public health, resilient design, and social justice.

Lokko pointed to models of African history as forerunners of change that ushered into this world institutions like the Tuskegee Institute and social causes such as the Civil Rights movement to the overall betterment of society. The exh...

Is the BioVYZER air-filtration protective shield a peek into our future?

2020-05-07T14:36:00-04:00

The patent-pending BioVYZER has already raised $124,341 in funding on Indiegogo which is significantly higher than the original goal of $7,104. The protective shield uses powered air purifying technology through N-95 filtration and offers protection to the users entire face. According to VYZER Technologies, the developer of the offering, the product can filter out 95 percent of particulate matter.

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...

Conceptual proposal by Humphreys & Partners envisions futuristic mixed-use NYC project with micro units and drone landings

2018-02-21T13:28:00-05:00

Although Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last year new mandates to force building owners to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as a way to fight climate change, a Dallas-based architecture firm has taken the idea of sustainable design to the next level. During last month’s International Builder’s Show, Humphreys & Partners presented a conceptual plan for a mixed-use project on Manhattan’s waterfront. In Pier 2: Apartment of the Future, the architects tackled major issues prevalent in many cities, like affordability and energy efficiency (h/t Curbed NY). The futuristic proposal includes two towers with modular and micro-units, which would boast futuristic amenities like artificial intelligence, drones, home automation and more.

The proposal cites Elon Musk’s Hyperloop proposal as a look into the future of transportation. The firm incorporates the concept of autonomous transportation by including automated parking systems, areas to land drones and energy-generating walkways. On the ground...

U.S. Transportation Secretary Foxx on the future of transportation: "We had to do something different."

2016-10-28T13:49:00-04:00

Car and Driver caught up with Foxx in Pittsburgh. The DOT chief, previously mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, reflected on the promise of autonomous and connected cars, the recent Smart City Challenge, the massive increase in traffic deaths, the potential of the shared vehicles unfolding right outside the window, and more. What follows is a transcript of our conversation, lightly edited for grammar and brevity.

Airbus promises autonomous flying taxis in the (very) near future

2016-08-26T14:12:00-04:00

Airbus appears to be serious about its "Vahana" project, aimed at creating an autonomous passenger drone network, and thinks testing can begin as early as 2017. [...] Airbus is also working on a drone delivery service [...] and plans to start testing it at a Singapore university by mid-2017. The cargo-laden vehicles fly automated routes in "aerial corridors," then drop them off and send delivery notifications to customers.

Airbus engineers are dreaming up no small endeavor as laid out in the company's Future of Urban Mobility vision:

"Imagine landing at a major international airport after a long flight in an A380. Instead of suffering through a 90-minute taxi ride in the megacity’s gridlocked traffic, you hop into an electrically operated aerial vehicle from zenHOP, which brings you to your destination – landing on your chosen zenHUB – in just nine minutes. Too expensive? No, zenMOVE has found three other travellers who also want to get to the city centre. As a result, the flight costs no more than a taxi ride. On top of that, no need to worry about your luggage – zenLUGGAGE takes care of that – or your security, as zenCYBER protects your flight against hacker attacks."

↑ Illustration of Airbus' Skyways drone parcel delivery service, which will enter test mode on the campus of the National University of Singapore in mid-2017.

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.

How prepared are American cities for the new reality of self-driving cars?

2016-04-07T19:51:00-04:00

Everything from sidewalks and curbs to streets, building designs, urban layouts, and living patterns will change as computers take the wheel. “We’re looking at the broader urban effects—and urban opportunities—of this technology,” says Illinois Tech architect Marshall Brown, one of the team members in the Chicago school’s Driverless Cities Project. “It’s in the news a lot, but nobody’s been discussing what it will actually do to cities.”

Imagining a museum without walls

2015-12-01T11:42:00-05:00

The new museum won’t be defined by architectural glamour or by a market-vetted collection, though it may have these. Structurally porous and perpetually in progress...where walls are dissolvable, access is open, and art is invited to tell us who we are as an arrogant, exclusionary but possibly teachable culture — is still awaited

15 years into the new millennium, Holland Cotter outlines the need for a new version, for the 21st century, museum. She begins by criticizing the Bilbao era, and the entities resulting from a "love of gigantism in architecture and art". Then goes on to outline the possibilities of a 21st-century institution, "Experimental — interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, self-critical, heterodox".

The world in 2065: what do social scientists think the future holds?

2015-11-13T11:36:00-05:00

There were great ideological battles in the past about work-life balance, but that was before ubiquitous streaming. I think happiness matters more than bitcredit, care dollars and the million other point schemes you could choose. Anyway, while I’m on holiday, as long as the geo-climactic conditions and my exertion levels show positive alignment, I get professional development credit and a dopamine rush! Everyone’s happy!

Sounds all sad.. Oh.., scratch that. Sounds bleak.

Bernard Tschumi hopeful about future of architecture: "Nobody else can really think like architects do"

2015-09-08T13:58:00-04:00

[...] Tschumi expresses his hopes for the future of architecture, “I’m very optimistic about the future of architecture because I think nobody else can really think like architects do: combining the most abstract and the most material, being able to deal with extremely complex constraints while having to arrive at a precise and articulate response. Architecture has a long way to go and will always carry excitement for future generations.”

Bernard Tschumi in the Archinect news:

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.

Future cities of the past

2015-04-29T18:17:00-04:00

But supplementing that aesthetic of “the future” sketched in imaginary edifice, the full SF vision of the future city is a mosaic, constructed from fragments of the cities that we recognize, including symbols that are decidedly from the past. [...] If SF functions by taking the world we know and altering it with a constructed future fantasy, the Statue of Liberty serves as the junction point, the axis where the speculative fantasy begins and ends.

Los Angeles envisions the first "decentralized" World's Fair (yes, including Hyperloop)

2015-04-17T19:51:00-04:00

A group of venture capitalists, architects, engineers, and marketing gurus, under the name Los Angeles World's Fair (LAWF), are brewing plans for a two-year fair showing off the technology and culture of the future—including a Hyperloop, “3D-printed gourmet delicacies,” and self-driving cars. Theme: "The Connected City." Right now, they're trying to pull together $100,000 on Indiegogo to support economic and architectural feasibility studies for their plans [...].

Visit (and support if you're so inclined) the initiative's Indiegogo campaign here.

There's still hope: Blighted New Orleans lot will become playground that gets kids excited about architecture

2015-04-08T17:44:00-04:00

Students at several Central City schools soon will have a permanent place to learn about architecture, design and city planning after officials from PlayBuild, a nonprofit focused on architecture education, broke ground Tuesday on a “design playground” in New Orleans. The 2-year-old organization, along with Palmisano Contractors, is converting a vacant lot at Thalia and Willow streets into a space for children to play and learn.

Learn more about Playbuild NOLA (or find ways to get involved) here.

WIRED on the 'Future' of Architecture

2015-04-06T13:42:00-04:00

As Kushner sees it, the advent of social media changed architecture in the same way it has changed other industries. It’s a real time barometer for how the public feels about any given project. He sees this as a good thing. The beauty and frustration of architecture is that it’s unavoidable; we’re all stakeholders, even if we don’t want to be. In the past, the voices of only a select group of these stakeholders would be heard. Today, anyone with an internet connection can be a casual critic.

Are driverless pods the future of public transportation?

2015-03-18T17:34:00-04:00

Driverless pods, gliding above city streets using a network of elevated guideways. This is SkyTran -- but is it the future? SkyTran wants to do away with train schedules and central stations to develop a grid system above the ground with multiple "off ramps" acting as stations where users can board pre-booked pods – a cab service for the skies. Call for SkyTran on your smart phone and a computer-controlled, magnetically levitating pod arrives. It will whisk you across the city...

SkyTran claims the pods, weighing just 300 lbs, would consume about a third of the electricity used by today's hybrid cars. And the infrastructure can be built for $10 million per mile, at least according to the CEO Jerry Sanders.

Later this year, the company plans to complete its first pilot project at the campus of Israel Aerospace Industries in Tel Aviv.

Dubai unveils plans for its flashy Museum of the Future

2015-03-06T14:20:00-05:00

Dubai continues to treat city planning like a simulation game with the cheats turned on, unveiling its latest architectural wonder: the Museum of the Future. The building is set to open in 2017, and while we're not quite sure how to describe its shape (a lopsided torus? An aerodynamic donut?) it serves an interesting dual purpose as both museum and research lab.

"The future is in the past" – Christopher Hawthorne looks at Architecture trends in 2014

2014-12-19T13:23:00-05:00

These were the words of the year in architecture: Basic. Fundamental. Primitive. Ancient. If fashion had normcore — the flaunting of a bland, practical and Gap-like aesthetic, the plain sweatshirt as statement of principles — architecture reset itself this year in an even more fascinating (if occasionally desperate) way. In a culture and an economy being dizzyingly remade by technology, architecture chose to embrace not the future, where architects [...] can seem superfluous, but the past.

For more Christopher Hawthorne listen to episode 10 of Archinect Sessions.

David Adjaye: Contextualizing Approaches to Urbanization

2014-12-12T13:31:00-05:00

The undoing of the master narratives of modernism should not be taken as an opportunity for an architecture of spectacle and fantasy, but instead one that, utilizing the lessons of the past, speaks to the complexities of the present and the forces that shape us. It is crucial to deconstruct the idea that design can be universal and instead, to think in terms of an architecture that derives inspiration from the specificity of geography, culture and place.

Is Jan Gehl winning his battle to make our cities liveable?

2014-12-09T15:24:00-05:00

Ahead of a special Guardian Cities event, the renowned urban ‘rethinker’ says cities should be six or seven storeys high, Helsinki is on the verge of revolution, and that he’s sceptical of London’s cycle superhighway plans [...] Practice partner Søholt puts forward one way of improving a city’s liveability: “Mix the city and assemble the people rather than dispersing them.”

11 Futuristic Ways to Improve Our Cities, From Robotic Rats to Talking Trash Cans

2014-11-20T15:42:00-05:00

City Hall. It's traditionally the place where technology gets stuffed into a drawer and forgotten. But as budgets recover from the Great Recession and smartphone-toting citizens prod municipal officials, cities are now more Boston Dynamics than Boss Tweed. Soon the pols will be promising sensor-driven pots that cook the chicken for you, just the way you like it.

Here's What The Manhattan Skyline Will Look Like In 2018

2014-11-10T14:03:00-05:00

City Realty made the rendering above, which they say gives us an idea of what the city will look like in 2018 based on projections for buildings currently being planned or already in construction: "New York City skyline circa 2018 2,500 feet above Central Park. Image features upcoming supertall skyscrapers such as One Vanderbilt, 53W53, 432 Park Avenue, 225 West 57th, and 111 West 57th Street are completed."

Predicting the jobs of the future

2014-10-27T11:32:00-04:00

As technology evolves, what today seems science fiction may become the job market of tomorrow. Experts predict that 60% of employments in the next 10 years haven’t even been invented yet.

A preview of “The Future Is Not What It Used To Be”, the 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial

2014-10-23T13:58:00-04:00

In the upcoming 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial, "The Future Is Not What It Used To Be" questions the role of design, its relationship to society, and how it can potentially bring change. Curated by Zoë Ryan and spanning all five floors of the Galata Greek Primary School from Nov. 1 to Dec.14, the biennial will showcase a designers' exhibition of over 50 projects that ask who defines the future and how it is defined. But the crucial aspect it explores is whose future could be affected.

In an area of approximately 2,300 square meters at the Galata Greek Primary School, the exhibition will feature more than 50 projects by designers worldwide. The event will also host various creative academic workshops, panels, and film screenings.

N°40 Workoutcomputer by Desireee Heiss and Ines Kaag.

Fruit of the Polish Turkish culinary workshops

Learn more about the event on Bustler!

Larry Page wants a Google 2.0 that will build cities and airports, report says

2014-09-22T20:21:00-04:00

The Information reports that Page started up a Google 2.0 project inside the company a year ago to look at the big challenges facing humanity and the ways Google can overcome them. Among the grand-scale plans discussed were Page's desire to build a more efficient airport as well as a model city. To progress these ideas to fruition, the Google chief has also apparently proposed a second research and development lab, called Google Y...

Foster + Partners and FR-EE collaboration to design new Mexico City International Airport

2014-09-04T18:53:00-04:00

A collaboration consisting of Foster + Partners, FR-EE (Fernando Romero Enterprise), and NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants) won the international competition to design the new Mexico City International Airport in Mexico. The airport's design is surely aiming to set the standard for the airport of the future. Not only is the new structure expected to be one of the world's largest airports at 555,000 sq. meters, it also aims to be the world's most sustainable airport.

Get more details on Bustler.

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).

A glimpse of eVolo's latest book, "Digital & Parametric Architecture"

2014-07-22T18:09:00-04:00

From the creators of the popular Skyscraper Competition, you can now get your hands on a copy of eVolo's latest book, "Digital & Parametric Architecture".

This 312-page book dives into the "architecture of the future" — from the development of the latest digital tools to how they are utilized in a variety of digitally designed and fabricated projects.

"Digital & Parametric Architecture explores the development of the latest digital tools including advance-modeling software and computer aided design in the production of architecture. It is a journey through the most fascinating projects, digitally designed and fabricated, during the second decade of the 21st century. "

"The book highlights the use of these technologies to explore tectonic operations such as sectioning, folding, contouring, and tessellating. A wide variety of projects that range in scale and location offer an insight into the architecture of the future."

You can purchase the book here.

Illustrator Renders New York Skyline in 2020

2014-07-17T14:55:00-04:00

While YIMBY recently revealed Extell’s Nordstrom Tower, the first glimpse lacked a perspective of the structure’s impact on the broader Midtown skyline. Now, with the help of illustrator Armand Boudreaux, YIMBY has fresh images of the skyscraper’s position on the skyline, including nearby developments like 220 Central Park South, 111 West 57th Street, 432 Park Avenue, and 53 West 53rd Street.