Archinect - News

BIG unveils design for new Freedom Plaza development along Manhattan's East River

2024-02-12T19:35:00-05:00

Plans for a four-tower scheme designed by BIG for the east side of Manhattan have been announced by developers Soloviev Group and Mohegan in advance of its commencement in Midtown.

Their transformative Freedom Plaza project will be realized on a 6.7-acre plot near the United Nations complex overlooking the FDR Drive and East River between 38th and 41st Street at First Avenue.

Rendering by Negativ

The program calls for two pairs of hotel and condominium towers connected via a skybridge, and addressing the Queens shoreline with a landscaped park and small Museum of Freedom and Democracy forming in the ground-level plaza underneath. A total of 4.77 acres of publicly accessible space will be included therein, flanked by the 1,325-unit residential component to the southern orientation. Nearly half (40%) will be dedicated to affordable housing, according to the project announcement.

Rendering by Negativ

A casino space tied to the developer's bid for one of three available gambling license...

Further action on decarbonization in the construction sector is needed, urges UN/Yale study

2023-09-15T17:21:00-04:00

A new report driven by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Yale University's newly-formed Yale Center for Ecosystems + Architecture (Yale CEA) has recommended drastic reductions in the industry’s use of certain construction materials as it faces the environmental headwinds of sector-wide change.

While heeding a "back-to-the-future revolution" in methods and products/technologies used for building, the authors say the worldwide growth of urbanization has necessitated an overabundance of new buildings constructed using an unacceptable amount of concrete and other harmful materials. The findings of the report suggest the efficacy of reusing existing buildings at a larger scale while at the same time concentrating more resources toward the production of adequate alternatives in addition to adopting a "circular economy" and policies that help to curb the industry's 37% share of global emissions.

Where the report recommends a three-pronged solution toward reducing embodied concrete e...

UN Secretary-General calls for significant changes to the cement industry ahead of 2050

2023-06-15T19:38:00-04:00

In an address to the Global Cement and Concrete Association in Zurich on Tuesday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres laid out his vision for changes to the industry he says are “fundamental to building a better world.”

Speaking to executives assembled in a “call to action,” Guterres asked for “concrete pledges from the concrete industry” before laying out his trifold ambits to ban coal-fired power in cement production, induce governments and industry to accelerate decarbonization efforts, and the furtherment of loftier emissions reduction targets and other plans in line with UN policy guidelines.

Seconding the Secretary's vision, the CEO of the Global Cement and Concrete Association, Thomas Guillot, added: “We applaud all the action our members are taking to implement carbon-cutting measures, and the latest data shows emissions are coming down. But many challenges remain, which we must overcome, if we are to achieve net zero, including enabling polices and regulations...

UN rights experts weigh in on Saudi Arabia’s planned execution of three NEOM opponents

2023-05-05T17:28:00-04:00

UN rights experts have denounced the pending execution of three members of a Saudi tribe, reportedly in connection with their opposition to a planned Red Sea megacity. [...] The three men – Shadly Ahmad Mahmoud Abou Taqiqa al-Huwaiti, Ibrahim Salih Ahmad Abou Khalil al-Huwaiti and Atallah Moussa Mohammed al-Huwaiti – were reportedly sentenced to death on 5 August last year and their sentences were upheld on appeal on 23 January, the statement said.

The men were originally charged under a 2017 anti-terrorism law. The Saudi government has also reportedly plagued their tribal group with drone surveillance, bribery, and even threats of violence since the announcement of the project the same year. Other opponents inside the development’s massive 105- by 200-mile master planning area have been imprisoned as well.

Previously on Archinect: Opposition to NEOM displacement leads three Saudi tribesmen to death sentences

UN rights experts say their planned deaths cannot be justified by international standards. Saudi Arabia alarmingly executed nearly twice as many citizens between 2015 and 2022 as it did in the four-year period prior, despite Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's attempts to present himself as a liberal reformer.

ASLA will send two observer delegates to UN's COP27 for the first time

2022-11-03T17:51:00-04:00

A two-person delegation from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) will be present as observers of next week’s COP27 summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in an unprecedented move first announced yesterday by the organization.

Landprocess founder Kotchakorn Voraakhom and Climate Positive Design founder/CMG Landscape Architecture principal Pamela Conrad will travel to the conference in order to present the ASLA Climate Action Plan to attendees, which is set for publication on November 12th.

The plan is an extension of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) Climate Action Commitment that was announced at last year’s summit. The 27th edition is taking place under a rather unique set of circumstances colored by an ongoing land war and a recent UN report that called for up to $6 trillion in annual green investments in order to combat its updated prediction indicating the world is now on track to warm between 2.1 to 2.9°C by the end of the century.

Related O...

Tosin Oshinowo-designed village reconstruction completes first phase in conflict-torn northern Nigeria

2022-11-03T15:43:00-04:00

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has released images of its just-completed first phase of the Tosin Oshinowo-designed Ngarannam village reconstruction project in Northeast Nigeria.

The project to resettle villagers displaced by Boko Haram was begun last year as part of the UNDP’s Regional Stabilisation Facility Initiative, which will rebuild a total of six communities in three of the country’s northeastern states profoundly affected by conflicts with the insurgent group in order to "quickly mend trust between the people and government."

Image courtesy UNDP/Tolulope Sanusi

The new Ngarannam village includes a total of 564 units of housing, a primary school, police station, community health center, shaded market, security forces barracks, government offices, and 16 small shops. Additional defensive trenches were enacted around the perimeter of the site to provide extra security in the case of emergency, and another 240 housing units wil...

Norman Foster unveils San Marino Declaration of sustainability principles ahead of COP27

2022-10-04T17:40:00-04:00

Norman Foster is in San Marino this week to present what he says is a new set of sustainable urban design principles to the 83rd meeting of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s Committee on Urban Development, Housing, and Land Management.

The so-called San Marino Declaration appears as a sort of guidebook around which architects and urban planners can build cities that are “climate-neutral, safer, more inclusive, and resilient.” In it, a set of eleven interrelated principles are floated for universal adaptation based on past actions and directives taken by the UN Secretary-General that carry broad and direct implications to the built environment and ascending migration of populations into urban centers across the globe.

Previously on Archinect: At COP26, Norman Foster speaks about the primacy of cities in the fight against climate change

Speaking to Dezeen recently, Foster compared the plan to the Hippocratic Oath Western medical professionals typically sign, adding th...

Updated design emerges for BIG’s floating city in Busan, South Korea for OCEANIX

2022-04-27T11:06:00-04:00

Further details have been revealed for the design of OCEANIX Busan, described as the “world’s first sustainable floating city.” Designed by lead architects BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) and SAMOO (Samsung), the project will be constructed in the South Korean city of Busan by advanced maritime company OCEANIX in collaboration with UN-Habitat.

Potential scaled-up version of the scheme. Image by OCEANIX / Bjarke Ingels Group

We first covered the project in 2019, when BIG unveiled the project as a utopian plan for floating cities, sparking extensive debate among our community. Late last year, it emerged that the city of Busan would take the lead on realizing the project. Now, new renderings of the scheme offer further insight into how the original utopian plan may manifest.

Initial phase of OCEANIX Busan, accommodating 12,000 people. Image by OCEANIX / Bjarke Ingels Group

The current proposal would see interconnected platforms create a 15.5-acre city capable of accommodating 12,000 people. T...

IPCC report says architects need to drastically change their ways to curb emissions

2022-04-08T17:32:00-04:00

Here’s a sobering fact: The building sector is dragging down global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. [...] The good news is that, according to the report, up to 61% of building emissions could be cut by 2050, and we have all the solutions at our disposal today, from passive cooling technologies and denser multifamily homes to retrofits. All we need to do is implement them—or better yet, introduce regulations and policies to will them into implementation.

The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that emissions from buildings doubled between 1990 and 2019 despite the widespread adaptation of environmentally-friendly construction methods and materials like recycled concrete. Increases in population and the total floor area per person (especially in the global north) accounted for nearly three-quarters of the emissions jump.

An overall lack of regulations on new developments in those countries is the primary cause according to lead author Yasmina Saheb, who also took the (increasingly popular) stance regarding the greater need for adaptive reuse projects where applicable.

“Each time you have a heating or cooling system that consumes energy, this means the building was wrongly designed,” she told FastCompany about flaws laden in the creature comforts typical to Western design. “A good building is a building that doesn’t need an active heating and cooling system.”

Read the full Climate Change 2022:...

Busan to take the lead in trying on Bjarke Ingels' floating OCEANIX CITY prototype in 2025

2021-11-30T09:00:00-05:00

In an effort to mitigate the impending effects of sea-level rise on coastal populations through architecture, UN-Habitat and OCEANIX are once again taking the lead with a new prototype for a floating settlement in the South Korean city of Busan.

The buzzworthy pair had previously made waves with a Bjarke Ingels-backed 2019 proposal for a floodproof habitat which has now officially found a home thanks to a groundbreaking agreement with the city’s government.

Now, with almost 50 centimeters of sea-level rise expected for the southern peninsula by mid-century, leaders in South Korea look to the prototype as a guide to extreme adaptation efforts that could help circumvent the challenges caused by an influx of coastal city dwellers overrunning a country of 52 million whose total land area is roughly equivalent to the state of Indiana.

Previously on Archinect: Bjarke Ingels presents utopian plan for sustainable floating cities to UN

The city proposal claims to be designed to withstand a...

Penn State Architectural Engineering professor recognized by UN for work in sustainable buildings

2021-11-08T14:07:00-05:00

A professor of architectural engineering at Penn State by the name of James Freihaut has been recognized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Committee on Sustainable Energy for his work in improving sustainability and safety in buildings. During the committee’s 30th Jubilee session on September 22, Freihaut was honored for his contributions over the past 30 years.

Freihaut’s research focuses on building mechanical systems, with specific interests in indoor air quality and building science, combined heat and power systems, distributed energy systems, enclosed space air quality issues, and system constraints on air treatment/filtration solutions.

The UNECE Committee on Sustainable Energy’s work is designed to improve access to affordable and clean energy and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint of the energy sector. The focus is on energy efficiency, cleaner electricity production from fossil fuels, renewable energy, natural gas, and ...

World’s first 3D printed raw earth house to be showcased at COP26

2021-10-26T12:54:00-04:00

TECLA, the world’s first raw earth house constructed using 3D printing, is to be exhibited as one of 17 projects in the Build Better Now virtual exhibition at COP26. As we previously reported, the exhibition will also feature a sustainability-focused 360-degree virtual pavilion designed by Make Architects, forming the exhibition’s centerpiece.

Image: Iago Corazza

Originating in Italy, and designed by MC A (Mario Cucinella Architects) and WASP (World's Advanced Saving), TECLA features an innovative circular housing model that combines vernacular architectural principles with advanced building technology. The scheme also takes inspiration from one of Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities,” with its attention to whole life cycles evoking the idea of a city in continuous construction.

Image: Iago Corazza

“It is an almost zero-emission project,” explains MC A. “Its envelope and the use of a locally sourced material have made it possible to reduce waste and scrap. The local clay is quarried...

Virtual climate pavilion to be launched for COP26 with free public events and exhibition of exemplary projects

2021-10-07T11:24:00-04:00

In advance of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) taking place in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2021, the UK Green Building Council has announced 17 sustainable projects to be displayed in an online exhibition. The exhibition, titled Build Better Now, will take place in virtual reality, and will also feature a sustainability-focused 360-degree virtual pavilion designed by Make Architects, forming the exhibition’s centerpiece.

Heart of School, Green School Bali, Bali, Indonesia, by John Hardy, PT Bambu, Heru Wijayanto, Joerg Stamm, Gadjah Mada University

Alongside the exhibition of the 17 exemplar projects, the Build Better Now virtual pavilion will host an events series comprising of tours and talks, keynotes, panel discussions, and other downloadable content aimed at highlighting the impact of the built environment on climate change, and potential mitigations or solutions. The events will be free and open to a global audience, running from October 31st to November 12th, 2021.

F...

'Countryside at the United Nations' by Rem Koolhaas + AMO opens in New York

2021-06-16T12:40:00-04:00

AMO, the research, branding, and publication studio of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), has taken over the fences of the United Nations headquarters in New York for a public exhibition that serves as a continuation of Countryside, The Future.

Curated by architect and OMA founder Rem Koolhaas and AMO director Samir Bantal, Countryside was originally presented in February 2020 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The exhibition presented research gathered by AMO over five years, bringing together discussions from scientific, sociological, artistic, and political spaces. It set out to define and explore the contemporary “countryside” of the “98% of the Earth’s surface not occupied by cities.” Countryside, The Future was unfortunately shut down just three weeks after its opening due to the coronavirus pandemic but continued after the museum reopened.

Previously on Archinect: See photos from "Countryside, The Future" at the Guggenheim Museum

This new showcase, informed by ...

A legal future for climate refugees begins to take shape

2020-01-20T18:30:00-05:00

It is unlawful for governments to return people to countries where their lives might be threatened by the climate crisis, a landmark ruling by the United Nations human rights committee has found. The judgment – which is the first of its kind – represents a legal “tipping point” and a moment that “opens the doorway” to future protection claims for people whose lives and wellbeing have been threatened due to global heating, experts say.

The Guardian reports that the United Nations human rights committee has issued a landmark ruling that could establish a precedent for granting asylum rights to people displaced by climate change. The non legally-binding ruling is poised to inform how the global community handles up what could become one of the defining human rights struggles of the 21st century.

Estimates vary widely, but a recent study from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change posits that between 25 million and 1 billion people could be displaced due to climate change globally by 2050. Other estimates put the figure at 2 billion or more by 2100.

US withdrawal from UNESCO, based on perceived anti-Israel bias, becomes official

2019-01-02T14:02:00-05:00

Made official yesterday at the beginning of the new year, the US has now withdrawn from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Along with Israel, the two countries first announced that they would be leaving the organization in October of 2017, citing anti-Israel bias.

UNESCO—the UN agency that oversees the preservation and protection of culture, communities and architecture—has been at odds with both countries since granting full membership to Palestine in 2011. Due to a 15-year-old amendment that mandates a complete financial cutoff to any United Nations agency that accepts Palestine as a full member, the US stopped funding the organization it helped cofound after World War II.

Since, UNESCO has remained critical of Israeli occupation in the West Bank and more recently, controversially listed the hotly contested core of Hebron as a Palestinian World Heritage site. In a tweet celebrating the United States' official withdrawal, former USUN Ambassador ...

Projected statistics on building for massive urban density in 2050

2018-08-27T13:28:00-04:00

If you live or work in a city, then you probably see the impact of growing urbanization every day—gridlock traffic, construction cranes peppering the skyline, soaring housing costs. Sure, these are major challenges and annoyances for city dwellers, but they also represent a huge opportunity for the global architecture, engineering, and construction industry: one that requires building the future for a 10-billion-person planet.

According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 68% of the world population are projected to live in urban areas by 2050. Autodesk explores the implications for architectural growth in this timeframe with market research firm Statista. Take a look at the projected statistics on building for this massive upcoming urban density.

Aecom and SOM to revamp United Nations Geneva HQ

2018-08-09T15:26:00-04:00

Aecom has been appointed by the United Nations to work on the renovation of its European headquarters in Geneva. [...] The UN is looking to upgrade the systems at its 100,000 sq m Palais des Nations complex, much of which was built in the 1930s. Aecom will work with architects SOM and Burckhardt+Partner to renovate the power, cooling, security and IT systems.

Completed in 1938 as the League of Nations HQ, the expansive Palace of Nations building complex has been the home of the United Nations Office at Geneva since 1946 (Switzerland actually did not join the UN until 2002).

The Aecom/SOM team is joined by Swiss firm Burckhardt+Partner.

Citing anti-Israel bias, the U.S. withdraws from UNESCO

2017-10-12T13:46:00-04:00

The United States plans to withdraw from UNESCO, citing financial reasons, as well as what it said was anti-Israel bias at the U.N.’s educational, cultural and science organization.

This morning, the U.S. notified the organization of their intention to withdraw at the end of 2018. Unesco, the United Nations cultural organization, supports a variety of programs promoting education, natural sciences, social/human sciences, culture and information around the world, but is perhaps best known for its designation of World Heritage Sites, of which there are 23 in the U.S.

The decision was made by the State Department, headed by Rex Tillerson, though the country has been at odds with the organization since we stopped funding in 2011 in protest of the admission of the Palestinian Authority as a full member. Since this withdrawal of funding, the U.S. has run up arrears to $550 million, another issue leading to the decision to pull out along with claims of anti-Israel bias.

The organization controversially listed the hotly contested core of Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as a Palestinian World Heritage site back in July. The designation was fast-tracked on th...

Liverpool waterfront heritage status at risk as mayor rejects UN plea

2016-07-18T13:08:00-04:00

The world heritage site status of Liverpool’s waterfront is in jeopardy after the city’s mayor, Joe Anderson, rejected a plea by UN cultural chiefs to halt development in the city [...] Anderson said he would be writing to the UN body informing it that the city would not be complying with its request [...] Heritage campaigners recently went to court in a fight to stop the demolition of 10 historic buildings near Liverpool Lime Street station in the buffer zone.

More Liverpool-related architecture news on archinect:

RIBA set to open national architecture centre in Liverpool

Turning the “ugliest building in Liverpool” into an exemplar of public health

Assemble wins Turner Prize, becoming first architects to win "UK's most prestigious art prize"

"Stop the unpermitted demolition": Roche Dinkeloo's shiny UN Plaza Hotel lobby might be remodeled

2016-01-21T14:35:00-05:00

The more period commentary on these spaces you read...the more you see the hotel's owners are falling into the very trap the interiors were engineered to escape: banality, anywhere-ness, the flimsiness of changing fashion...Are the current going to rip out the mirror and replace it with barn wood and mason jars? Just wait. Stop the unpermitted demolition. Landmark this interior and, in doing so, remind people of its undated and undateable wonder.

Alexandra Lange writes about the Ambassador Grill & Lounge and Hotel Lobby at the United Nations Plaza Hotel (now known as ONE UN New York), which is currently planned for reconstruction and where illegal exploratory demolition has reportedly begun. The remodeling plan has sparked outcry from advocates, who recently filed a Request for Evaluation with the Landmarks Preservation Commission to grant landmark status to the iconic Roche Dinkeloo-designed interior.

United Nations housing rapporteur expresses dire need for "a human rights framework" in global urban development

2015-10-28T14:02:00-04:00

On 22 October, [United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing Leilani] Farha challenged the General Assembly to promote urban development through the lens of human rights. “Human rights can be transformational,” she said. “A human rights framework can provide the coherence and consistency sorely needed to achieve sustainable, inclusive cities for all.” [...] “Human rights have been largely absent from discussions of urban development,” Farha cautioned.

A "special rapporteur" is "an independent expert appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme." In a recent report to the U.N.'s Human Rights Council, which you can read in its entirety here, rapporteur Leilani Farha explains the pressing need for governments to champion their citizens' rights to housing, especially in advance of the U.N.'s 2016 "Habitat III" urbanization conference – a gathering that only takes place once every twenty years.

In her report, Farha is not optimistic about the direction urban development is headed: “Cities are on an untenable path, one that is encouraging vast inequalities which ultimately segregate those who have means from those who do not ... Urbanization can too often focus on wealth accumulation at the expense of the most vulnerable populations.”

MASS Design Group to propose "Bauhaus of Africa" at U.N. Summit

2015-09-24T18:59:00-04:00

On September 27th, the MASS Design Group will officially present their idea for a Bauhaus-type school for Sub-Saharan Africa at the United Nations Solutions Summit. The proposed program would be based in Kigali, Rwanda and would purposefully "incubate local innovation towards tackling the biggest building boom of the next quarter century" according to a press release issued by MASS.

This building boom refers to the estimated addition of one billion Africans over the next two decades, while the project's name refers to the infamous 20th century Bauhaus school, which encouraged not only theory, but actual practice, resulting in a widespread adoption of modernism. This practice element will be crucial in a nation which will require massive amounts of new (and hopefully, artfully designed) infrastructure.

Massive renovation of U.N. Headquarters improves security but sacrifices Hammarskjöld Library

2015-09-02T13:46:00-04:00

When the 70th regular session of the General Assembly convenes on Sept. 15, it will do so in a complex of buildings that hasn’t looked so good or felt so secure in generations. “We now have a very safe compound,” said Michael Adlerstein, [...] executive director of a seven-year, $2.15 billion renovation, known as the capital master plan, that is nearing completion. More visible than anything else is the robust yet crystalline new glass facade of the 39-story Secretariat building.

Nation Building

2014-03-18T17:15:00-04:00

New York’s United Nations Headquarters, completed in 1952, pioneered the global workplace. Now nearing the end of a $2.1 billion makeover, it’s again in the vanguard. [...] It might have been easier -- and possibly cheaper -- to tear the whole structure down and start from scratch. However, for an organization for which precedent and symbolism govern every handshake, the historical meaning of the UN’s architecture still resonates.

3XN-Designed UN City in Copenhagen Inaugurated

2013-07-03T18:38:00-04:00

The new regional head office of the United Nations in Copenhagen, designed by 3XN, has just been inaugurated. Check out the very impressive sculptural staircase in its core which, according to the architects, is designed to reflect the UN’s work to create global dialogue.

Dutch Treat: The U.N. Hires Rem Koolhaas to Remodel Its Watering Hole

2011-12-21T17:00:29-05:00

Koolhaas, who once proposed his own unrealized plans for the Secretariat building decades ago, will be joining 3-D designer Hella Jongerius, graphic designer Irma Boom, and artist Gabriel Lester on a team selected by the Dutch government to redesign the North Delegates' Lounge, an informal meeting space where major policymakers and representatives go for a drink at the end of the day.