Archinect - News

Details emerge for billionaire-backed startup community plan northeast of San Francisco

2024-01-24T19:14:00-05:00

The once-secretive plan for a startup new community in Solano County, Northern California, is beginning to materialize as the company known as California Forever has begun publicizing details for their proposed development ahead of a potential November vote to determine its future.

Details made public with the start of a requisite petition drive showed a preliminary map, renderings, and area plan for the project, which would notably be the first large-scale demonstration of the "walkable city" concept designed entirely from scratch in North America.

Image courtesy California Forever

Billed as a future "amazing success story" by the company’s founder Jan Sramek, the development intends to construct some 20,000 new affordable residences plus a solar farm and network of public parks before 2040. The plan reportedly allows for further growth to support a population of up to 400,000. As the announcement post notes, much of the preliminary proposal is focused on creating missing middle ho...

MVRDV plans a new 'Green Heart' in the center of Düsseldorf

2024-01-10T20:30:00-05:00

MVRDV has released updated renderings and other details about its forthcoming Grüne Mitte (or “Green Heart”) plan that calls for a redesigned new green district in the culturally rich German city of Düsseldorf.

The firm’s plan, which entails the construction of a colorful residential component totaling 500 units (half of which are considered social housing) around a small landscaped public space from fellow Dutch designers LOLA, was the product of an intensive community input process that included members of the diverse Flingern-Süd community.

The area has been considered a "hot spot" for squatting since the end of the 1980s and features equally popular shopping spaces and a parking structure that was built only 11 years ago before the land was acquired by the developers Cube Real Estate.

Image © MVDRV

As part of that process, residents selected the Green Heart proposal from a trio of outline primers. Their solution calls for a 36% reduction in paved areas, with a new...

BIG's ‘Mindfulness City’ concept seeks to deliver new forms of prosperity to southern Bhutan

2023-12-20T20:00:00-05:00

Details of a new master plan from Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) for Bhutan’s future Gelephu Special Administration Region have been made public this week in the South Asian country.

‘Mindfulness City’ is a multifaceted economic hub designed by the firm’s Landscape and Urban Design Team to coincide with sustainability principles and the pioneering Gross National Happiness Index (GNH) concept that has been championed by King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and the Bhutanese government since 2008.

Rendering: Brick Visual

The 1,000-square-kilometer (386-square-mile) plan calls for the construction of a new international airport, hydroelectric dam, railway infrastructure, and university campus near the southern border with India. Ribbons of neighborhood-scale developments will run like tendrils influenced by the confluence of 35 different rivers and streams that pulse through the site, with densities increasing along the gradient from its northern rural highlands to mor...

China unveils ambitious plan to construct 245 new museums in Beijing by 2035

2023-02-24T16:42:00-05:00

China is pushing forward a draft development plan to construct some 245 new museums in its capital by the year 2035, according to reports coming out of Beijing last weekend.

The plan from the Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau calls for there to be a total of 460 museums by the end of the building frenzy, enough, it says, for two per every 100,000 inhabitants in the city of 21.5 million.

The push comes in anticipation of Beijng’s expected tourism influx. Recent research from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) suggested that it could soon overtake Paris as the world’s most frequented tourist destination, with a projected annual value eventually topping out at $77 billion. Museums, therefore, make up the core component of this effort, with a special focus on those promoting Chinese culture and history in line with the Communist party’s nationalist agenda.

OMA's first office development in Japan is now complete

2021-10-11T18:15:00-04:00

Thirty years after their first project in the Japanese city of Fukuoka, OMA has announced the completion of its plan for the Tenjin Business Center development that will bring a “new urban lifestyle” to the country’s seventh-largest city.

The Tenjin Business Center's pixellated corner facade. Photography by Tomoyuki Kusunose.

The center is the first realized part of the Tenjin Big Bang Initiative, which will create a sprawling, multi-use hub that’s meant to serve as a catalyst for Fukuoka’s transformation into a high-tech startup capital.

The Tenjin Business Center's activated lower corner soffit lighting. Courtesy Fukuoka Jisho.

“It’s been a remarkable experience to build in my hometown where the city’s unique culture and identity are held close by its community, but in a moment of transformation catalyzed by an openness to new ideas and people,” OMA Partner Shohei Shigematsu, who is a native of Fukuoka, said in a statement.

Located at the intersection of two of the...

Featuring a gigantic solar panel-covered canopy, work begins on BIG’s CityWave bookend in Milan

2021-09-15T20:11:00-04:00

Construction has begun on BIG’s CityWave, the building that will complete Milan’s revitalizing CityLife development after previously being announced as a participant in 2019.

The Danish studio’s contribution to the €2.5 billion ($2.95 billion) development comes in the form of an East-West duo of low-rise office buildings connected by a sloping, solar panel-covered canopy that also gives protection to one of Italy's largest outdoor urban parks.

Image courtesy BIG

The development already showcases a trio of towers by Studio Libeskind, Zaha Hadid Architects, and Arata Isozaki, respectively. It was originally awarded to the group in 2004 and now has the added bonus of another big name in the form of Ingels, who will bring some variety to the site in the form of an uneven horizontally-oriented mass with greenspace and 11,000 square meters (118,000 square feet) of photovoltaics.

Image courtesy BIG

Per the architect: “Like a contemporary interpretation of the massive covered public space of ...

Ian Volner on the changing face of Los Angeles

2021-09-07T18:21:00-04:00

The rude stop-start of the pandemic economy has meant that scads of new marquee developments—new infrastructure, new performance venues, new housing, new museums, new everything—are now hurtling toward completion almost simultaneously. Five days spent crisscrossing from the hills to the beach and back, occasionally by car but also by bus, by train, and, yes, by bike, revealed a city seized by startling, epochal changes. For Los Angeles, it has been a long time coming.

The city is starting to ramp up for a development spree spurred on by attendant social and environmental issues that will fundamentally change the urban landscape of the city in a building boom which may also herald the end of Christopher Hawthorne’s “Third Los Angeles.”

Recently published on Archinect: Reyner Banham Is Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies at 50

LA has set very ambitious goals for development during the coming decade of transition. Ian Volner gives us a scope of some of the architectural changes coming to the city here.

In Jakarta residents are living in a "suburb in the sky"

2019-08-06T10:07:00-04:00

It is a surreal urban bubble, where normal life unfolds at an abnormal altitude. To access ground level, residents drive their cars down a ramp. A tall metal fence runs around the perimeter to make sure no one falls or drives off. Peer beyond the fence and you can spot the city’s landmarks below.

In Jakarta, Indonesia exists a suburb, unlike any other. Cosmo Park is unique because it can be found ten stories above ground on top of a shopping mall. At ground level, Jakarta is a city that succumbs to many issues. Many cities around the world suffer from their fair share of obstacles. However, Jakarta has experienced a series of challenges.

The Indonesian capital has had experienced a rapid increase in urban growth resulting from flooding and other natural disasters. Congestion, gridlocked traffic, and a breakdown in the city's ecology are other factors that would beg to question, perhaps the idea of Cosmo Park is a viable option for alternative urban developments?

Image © The Jakarta Post | foto.tempo

In a recent post from The Guardian, the development of Cosmo Park was relatively unknown and out of the public eye for many years. However, thanks to a recent Twitter post from @shahrirbahar1, the photo caught the attention of many. Accumulating nearly 27,000 retweets many began...

Architect Alejandro Aravena receives 2019 ULI J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development

2019-07-23T20:35:00-04:00

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on education and research initiatives supporting responsible land use and sustainability practices. This year the J.C. Nichols Prize has been awarded to Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena.

In a recent press release ULI trustee Jodie W. McLean shares, "One of Alejandro's greatest accomplishments is the process in which he's connected architecture and working with communities, taking care to include people's ideas on how to make a better environment to improve all parts of the community. He doesn't just draw solutions, he strives (for his work) to be part of the solution."

UC Innovation center - Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago. Image © Nico Saieh

Founder of the Santiago-based architecture firm ELEMENTAL along with Gonzalo Artega, Juan Cerda, Victor Oddo, and Diego Torres, many of Aravena's projects, have reflected a simplistic and holistic design approach. Aravena has shared with the UCI, "When we crea...

The fate of Chinatowns: Can they survive displacement and gentrification?

2019-05-29T09:00:00-04:00

The specter of unwanted change has loomed over a quiet corner of Seattle’s Chinatown-International District for nearly the past four years. [...] Displacement is a genuine concern in Network cities, which, in addition to Seattle, include Boston, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Toronto.

Several city staples like Chinatowns are facing the effects of gentrification and urban displacement. "White populations in Chinatowns grew faster, for example, than the overall white populations in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, according to a study by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. The study also found that, though Asian Americans remain the largest ethnic groups in those Chinatowns, they no longer represented a clear majority."

Pacific Herb & Grocery, Chinatown International District, Seattle. Image © Curtis Cronn

Demographic transformations are rapidly growing throughout these "Network cities," which result in areas like Chinatowns to be vulnerable to gentrification, luxury development, and displacement. Using the city of Seattle as an example, a city study revealed that in 2016 the Chinatown-International District plus Little Saigon to the east had experienced redevelopment in some way. Already surrounded by an influx of transit hubs and sports stadiu...

9 More Firms Offering Architecture and Urban Planning Job Opportunities at Female-Led Firms

2019-03-15T11:54:00-04:00

Urban planners play critical roles in creating and developing the success and feasibility of the built environment. From pioneers like Octavia Hill and Norma Sklarek to women like Amanda Burden and Maya Lin, their work and contributions have shaped cities of our past, present, and future.

Following up from last week's job roundup, we continue to highlight the success and continued progress of women during National Women's Month, Archinect has selected 9 firms whose practice focuses on urban planning, architecture, design, and development initiatives with prominent female leads and members.

Do you know of a female-powered firm that is currently hiring on Archinect Jobs? Let us know by sending us an email to jobs@archinect.com

Olivewood Village Model by AuWORKSHOP

AuWORKSHOP is currently seeking a Junior Designer
Location: Fort Collins, CO
[au]workshop | architects+urbanists located in Fort Collins, Colorado is seeking a well-rounded Architectural Intern / Designer t...

France is cooling their streets with pavers made with shellfish waste

2018-12-05T17:27:00-05:00

In the main axis of the new multimodal hub in the French city of Nice, for the first time in Europe, a large expanse of urban cooling paving is being installed.

It corresponds to the areas of most intense pedestrian presence (bus stops, pavements, etc.) and represents an attempt to improve the thermal conditions of the urban space in a hot climate such as that of Nice.

It consists of an underground irrigation system controlled by exterior sensors that cool special breathable pavers, manufactured experimentally using mollusc shells.

Via

Bjarke Ingels Joins WeWork as Chief Architect, to Start Developing Neighborhood-Scale "Campuses"

2018-05-08T11:12:00-04:00

Neumann says that in 2018, that will mean WeWork will build more buildings, some that reimagine what’s already there, like the Lord & Taylor project, and others that WeWork and Ingels will design in their entirety. Then, in 2019, the company plans to start creating “campuses”–essentially, WeWork on a neighborhood scale. That could look like a several-block radius where there’s a coworking space, coliving residence, and a school all clustered together, all operating under the WeWork umbrella.

BIG has shared with Archinect the following press release:

WeWork announces Bjarke Ingels as Chief Architect to advise and develop the firm’s design vision and language for buildings, campuses and neighborhoods globally. Bjarke will maintain his role as Founding Partner and Creative Director at the New York, London and Copenhagen-based architecture firm, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group.

“WeWork was founded at the exact same time as when I had arrived to New York. In that short amount of time – the blink of an eye at the time scale of architecture – they have accomplished incredible things and they are committed to continuing their trajectory to places we can only imagine. WeWork’s commitment to community and culturally-driven development is perfectly aligned with our active, social and environmental agendas. As WeWork takes on larger and more holistic urban and architectural challenges, I am very excited to contribute with my insights and ideas to extend their community-oriented vision to ...

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...

Steven Fleming's Velotopia paints a city built for cycling

2017-08-15T13:00:00-04:00

No disciples of Le Corbusier, Harvey Corbett, Robert Moses or Norman Bel Geddes have been to Velotopia. That means there are no highways and no racks of car-parking stations. Neither have any disciples of Ebenezer Howard been there to suggest that development be clustered around satellite towns with train connections back to the core.

Steven Fleming (previously featured in our Working Out of the Box series), founder of the Dutch bike-centric planning consultancy Cycle Space, recently published a new book that lays out an utopian city built around bicycles as the main form of transportation. In Velotopia people enjoy their daily commutes, the flow of traffic is smooth and the development is mixed use and compact.

Velotopia Photograph: Courtesy of cycle-space.com

Indoor bike parking spaces match the anticipated number of beds allowing trips to start inside the home. Photograph: Courtesy of cycle-space.com

An edited excerpt in The Guardian showcases Fleming's wry thought experiment. Velotopia is as circular as the topography has allowed, for the usual reason that citizens are always clamouring to live near the civic centre.Development has been restricted to level ground and city limits have been restricted to a diameter of 15km. That ensures average commuting distances of less than 7km and average trip times of less th...

Neurosurgeon Ben Carson officially confirmed to run HUD

2017-03-02T13:09:00-05:00

Urban policy experts and progressive activists have expressed intense concern that Carson, in keeping with his strong conservative positions, will seek to cut money for government assistance programs and wear down the social safety net. The Trump administration has recently signaled that many government agencies can expect budget reductions in favor of increasing defense spending.

Realizing the latent dream of every neurosurgeon to one day run the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson has been officially confirmed by the U.S. Senate to start operating on the HUD. Although his plans for the agency are vague, Carson has spoken of being against granting "extra rights" to any community.

Senator Elizabeth Warren voted to support Carson's confirmation in committee before voting against his actual confirmation, explaining in a written statement that "Dr. Carson’s answers weren’t perfect. But at his hearing, he committed to track and report on conflicts of interest at the agency. If President Trump goes to his second choice, I don’t think we will get another HUD nominee who will even make these promises — much less follow through on them.”

‘Meowtropolis’: In ‘Kedi,’ A City of Cats Reveals Secrets of Urban Development

2017-02-28T17:32:00-05:00

Everyone in the neighborhood has a favorite cat—they give them names, personalities, entire narratives.

The story follows the saga of seven stray street cats in the city of Istanbul: Siri (the Hustler), Psikopat (the Psycho), Bengü (the Lover), and so on. Following these feline urbanites, who occupy a liminal space—not “in the wild” but certainly not tamed—we re-discover the essential qualities of grace, tenacity, perception, friendship, and independence that define the soul of the cat—and, it turns out, nurture the soul of a city and its residents as well.

Donald Trump, usher of America's postindustrial urban blight

2016-08-05T18:10:00-04:00

Casinos like the Taj Mahal have destroyed Atlantic City’s public space. Gambling’s arrival replaced the outward-looking hotels, shops, and promenades of the mid-century boardwalk with clusters of dark, labyrinthine resorts, set back from the street and enclosed behind monitored security gates. [...] Atlantic City’s model of a plush, self-contained casino abutting a ruined neighborhood has become a synecdoche for the last forty years of American urban development.

To dissect the urban effects of Trump's Atlantic City casino, Sam Wetherall traces the city's history as a booming resort town through the early 20th century, and into its current economic crisis:

In 2014 alone, casino closures cost Atlantic City more than ten thousand jobs, a staggering figure for a city with a population under forty thousand. Atlantic City’s unemployment rate sits at almost 14 percent, and it suffers from the highest home foreclosure rates in the country.

Donald Trump may herald a radical new force in American politics, but his background illuminates trends that have been unfolding in American cities for more than fifty years. As deindustrialization hollowed out cities’ economies, many have responded by wrapping their public spaces in glittering property developments and legalizing gambling to survive.

Atlantic City provides a potent, and foreboding, example of the kind of urbanity that Trump's business agenda has wrought:

While the media has dissected the failures of...

Another speedy “Pyonghattan” skyscraper project is underway

2016-06-29T14:55:00-04:00

Hoping to show the world his country is doing just fine despite sanctions and outside pressure over its nuclear weapons program, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has put his soldier-builders to work on yet another major [skyscraper] project Pyongyang’s new Pyonghattan, officially called “Ryomyong Street,” is to have the country’s tallest apartment building, at 70 stories, along with a 50-story building and a handful of smaller ones in the 30-40 story range.

“[Kim's] soldier-builders are now putting up the frames for each new floor at the reportedly breakneck-pace of 14 hours to get it all done by the end of the year.”

Is Los Angeles becoming a "real" city?

2016-06-23T13:35:00-04:00

Could Los Angeles grow to become a “real city” like New York or London? Last year, LA gained at least 50,000 people, according to a recent report from the California Department of Finance, pushing the population to more than 4 million people for the first time in the city’s history.

Part of the appeal of Los Angeles has been its refusal to be like other cities. For years, its objective "center" was a forbidding cluster of office towers with near zero street life, while in outlying, low-density neighborhoods, people partied in back yards that ran up against wildlife preserves, hiking trails, and quaint man-made lakes.

However, as other big, traditionally urban U.S. cities gradually became stupidly unaffordable (looking at you, New York and San Francisco) and Moby wrote that one Op-Ed, a sizable number of creative-class types decided to try their luck in a place with what then had half the rental costs and much more temperate weather.

Now, with a rapidly growing subway system and a still undaunted, ebullient vibe, L.A. may be starting to take itself seriously as a city, which ironically could be its undoing, or the impetus for spectacular urban development. If history is any guide, it will be both, creating the newest weird, beautiful, idiosyncratic iteration we co...

Is Pyongyang's eccentric architecture only skin deep?

2016-05-20T14:09:00-04:00

Some Pyongyang-watchers believe the changes are merely skin deep, and do not portend or reflect deeper political or economic changes. ‘There is still all this state influence. There is no free development [...] The production of the city has not yet changed. Only the shapes of the buildings have changed.’ ‘There is this thing among North Koreans about developing...an architecture that is reflective of their society. So what is an architecture that reflects their society?‘

Frank Gehry's unsolicited plan for Beverly Hills mixed-use campus awaits city council agreement

2016-03-02T15:11:00-05:00

Earlier this month, developer Townscape Partners and Gehry Partners presented an unsolicited plan to the Beverly Hills City Council to build a huge mixed-use campus that would include hip office space, a five-star hotel, retail, and a three-acre public park on about seven acres of land...the council is expected to approve an agreement at their meeting tonight that should help this unexpected and enormous project take a big step forward.

You can find the full project staff report here.

More recent news about Frank Gehry:

Mayor Eric Garcetti on Frank Gehry's plans for the LA River: "a cooperative, collaborative, regional approach"

Frank Gehry is the first architect to be awarded the Harvard Arts Medal

Frank Gehry and Maya Lin find their ancestral roots on PBS

Selling Cuba (Gehry's already there)

What Makoko can teach about "organic" urban development

2016-02-25T14:53:00-05:00

'Why can’t communities simply be communities and develop in the organic way that we allow other communities to develop?'...'They are inspirational in that people have developed them themselves, without government and real estate types pushing them around. Without a doubt, they still have problems. But they are stabilising themselves and, over time, knitting themselves into the fabric of their cities. This is a true marvel of global urbanism.'

A trip in Lavasa, India's developing corporate-built town

2015-12-08T18:37:00-05:00

When fully built, [the New Urbanist, corporate development] Lavasa intends to consume 100 sq km...and will cater to a total population of up to 300,000 in five 'towns' built on seven hills...[But] how does it turn itself from a quirky weekend getaway into a fully fledged 'smart city' where people live and work full time?

Previously on Archinect: Lavasa a new orderly, high-tech "city"

A New "Capital" for Cairo?

2015-03-24T18:01:00-04:00

...last week at an economic development conference, the Egyptian government announced it was planning a giant new building project to the east of Cairo. The new city, which could eventually cover 700 km sq, doesn't currently have a name, and is being referred to simply as "The Capital"...If all goes to plan, the city will serve as the new administrative and financial capital of Egypt.

Arup Germany/SolarLeaf, Studio Tamassociati, and Elemental win in 2014 Zumtobel Group Award

2014-09-26T21:12:00-04:00

The winners for the 2014 Zumtobel Group Award were recently honored at an awards ceremony in London...According to jury chairman Winy Maas (MVRDV principal), although voting for the winners was very close in all three categories, the jury distinguished the winners based on the key factor of innovation — in regards to technicality, planning, and ecological and social challenges.

From 356 submissions to 15 nominated projects, three winners were selected in the categories: BUILDINGS; URBAN DEVELOPMENTS & INITIATIVES; and the newly added APPLIED INNOVATIONS.

BUILDINGS winner: Port Sudan Paediatric Centre by Studio Tamassociati, Italy

URBAN DEVELOPMENTS & INITIATIVES winner: PRES Constitución by Elemental, Chile

APPLIED INNOVATIONS winner: SolarLeaf with Arup Deutschland GmbH

More photos and other details of each project on Bustler.

You can also watch jury commentary videos on each winner right below.

Construction update: Zhongxun Times by 10 Design in Chongqing

2014-04-04T17:35:00-04:00

Construction has been underway for 10 Design's Zhongxun Times in recent months in the historic city of Chongqing, China. Commissioned by the ZhongXun Group, the mixed-use office and retail development is phase one of the Danzishi Central Business District, which 10 Design masterplanned.

Corporate investors NVC-Lighting Chongqing, Energy Investment Real Estate, Sinosteel Investment Group, and ZhongXun Group developed the 14-plot scheme of the Danzishi CBD seeking economic enhancement for Chongqing -- China's largest municipality.

Zhongxun Times is expected to be complete by spring 2015.

Here's more project info from 10 Design:

"This mixed use office and retail development sits centrally within the new Danzishi Central Head Quarters in Chongqing, that sits on the banks of the Yangtze River.

The brief was to create an interactive retail environment that would interact and reflect with the rich topography that Chongqing is renowned for."

"The site set many challenges with a level difference o...

Joint runner-up entry “COMPLETE SCHIEDAM” connects history and industry in Europan Netherlands

2014-01-06T19:23:00-05:00

Our next Europan 12 proposal comes from the Netherlands competition for the Schiedam site. As one of two runner-ups, "COMPLETE SCHIEDAM" by Team BASIC CITY A+U / Felixx was designed to connect the historic core and industrial zones of Schiedam, reinventing the city's identity over time.

Find more proposal details on Bustler.

“OPEN” - winning entry by Ramon Bernabe Simo + Tomas Labanc for Amstetten in Europan 12 Austria

2014-01-06T18:53:00-05:00

Shanghai-based architects Ramon Bernabe Simo and Tomas Labanc collaborated to create "OPEN", the winning entry for the Amstetten site in the Europan 12 Austria competition. As suggested by its name, their team's proposal is a response to improve connectivity, livability, and "opening up" the city to leave room for potential urban expansion.

Take a peek at their proposal:

Renderings by idealarch.com

Office Jarrik Ouburg + laura alvarez architecture wins second-prize for Ås in Europan Norway

2013-12-27T15:19:00-05:00

Architects Jarrik Ouburg and Laura Alvarez sent us their "Hortus conclusus" scheme in the recently concluded E12 of the Europan Norway competition. This year's theme focused on the future development of three Oslo-region municipalities projected to grow within the next 25 years: Bærum, Asker, and Ås. Alvarez's and Ouburg's collaborative entry won second prize in the Ås category.

The municipality of Ås, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, and the architects will discuss the proposal in early 2014 to develop a new and more detailed masterplan of the specific site.

Here's a glimpse of the proposal: