Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
More cities are incorporating biophilic design approaches for several reasons. While some firms genuinely practice regenerative and sustainable design methods, others could be placed into the category of "greenwashing" to satisfy trends and bolster their firm's PR efforts. However, according to... View full entry
Today's featured virtual event happenings, from Archinect's Virtual Event Guide, address issues from the climate crisis, resilience, health and wellness, and diversity and inclusion to equity, economy and environment and much more. Are you hosting a virtual lecture? Presentation? Tour?... View full entry
Under a plan announced last week by Mayor Anne Hidalgo, thickets of trees will soon appear in what today are pockets of concrete next to landmark locations, including the Hôtel de Ville, Paris’s city hall; the Opera Garnier, Paris’s main opera house; the Gare de Lyon; and along the Seine quayside. — citylab.com
"Islands of freshness" are on the way to Paris, according to a recently-unveiled plan by mayor Anne Hidalgo. The environmentally-aggressive mayor is aiming to have 50 percent of the city's land area taken up by permeable surfaces and planted areas, Citylab reports, and so, she is turning spaces... View full entry
Kiley was among the most important, influential, and idiosyncratic landscape architects of the 20th century and the designer of more than 1,100 projects. Yet today his work is not well known outside of the field of landscape architecture and, to a lesser extent, the architecture profession. Despite his renown and importance, his legacy remains fragile. — Metropolis
There are many amazing architects and designers whose work sadly remains unnoticed due to the lack of exposure and presence outside of certain circles. With Modernism Week well underway the traveling exhibition "The Landscape Architecture Legacy of Dan Kiley" makes its debut in California's... View full entry
Mexico and Sweden-based architectural practice MAIN OFFICE has recently completed CASA LT, an expansion and restoration of a residential complex located on the coast of Mexico. CASA LT by MAIN OFFICE, located in Sayulita, MX. © Rafael GamoCASA LT by MAIN OFFICE, located in Sayulita, MX. ©... View full entry
Eunpyeong Hanok Village was selling locals hanok, the traditional Korean tile-roofed residences that have, after hundreds of years, increasingly been destroyed and replaced by towering steel structures; indeed, not since the 1930s have hanok been constructed in significant numbers.
The decline of vernacular architecture in the face of global urbanization is, of course, hardly new, though traditional Korean hanok are a particularly stark contrast to modern city living.
— The New York Times
A new housing development, Eunpyeong, in northern Seoul is solely dedicated to constructing traditional Korean hanok houses. The design adheres to certain guidelines on proportion and design, with a low center of gravity, a courtyard, and an orientation towards nature. The hanok's popularity... View full entry
MAD Architects have restored Japan's historic Kiyotsu Gorge Tunnel as a permanent art installation, “Tunnel of Light”, coinciding with the 2018 Echigo-Tsumari Triennale. The art event hosts approximately 160 artworks across 200 villages, inhabiting abandoned spaces as sites for interaction... View full entry
MAD Architects' new China Entrepreneur Forum Conference Centre has broken ground in the rugged, snow-capped mountains of Yabuli, located in northeastern China. China Entrepreneur Forum Conference Centre by MAD Architects, located in Yabuli, CN. Image: MAD Architects. The new centre will act as... View full entry
Spider silk has long held the title of strongest natural biomaterial, so scientists have been trying to harness it, mimic it and even improve on the recipe for years. Now, researchers at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed a new biomaterial out of wood nanofibers that steals the strength record. — New Atlas
A new material called "super wood" is eight times stiffer than silk, which has been considered one of the strongest bio-based materials. KTH researchers found a new technique to "densify" wood where fibers assemble to make the cell walls stiff and strong, a process called cellulose nanofibrils... View full entry
Scientists at Georgia Tech were trying to figure out how ants built themselves into towers to escape confinement or danger. They put a small pole in the middle of a dishful of ants and filmed what happened. The ants, they found, climb upwards, on top of each other, until they find an empty spot. Then they stop. The next one does the same, and so on. — Quartz
Alexander McQueen, rebel of the fashion world renowned for his wildly imaginative designs, always said that there is no better designer than nature. Through billions of years of evolution, life's products, so to speak, have been extensively prototyped, market tested, upgraded and refined. So, it... View full entry
Landscape architect and innovative urbanist Diana Balmori has died at age 84, as announced by her firm's website. The Spanish-born Balmori, who founded her own firm in New York City at age 58, was known for her site-defining and inventive landscape architecture works, including the Abandoibarra... View full entry
As luxury condominiums go, 152 Elizabeth Street displays an unusual rigor and finesse: this is not an exercise in overindulgence, but in refined balance. With its 32,000 square feet split between seven individual residences, Tadao Ando's floor-to-celling windowed, burnished... View full entry
In Archinect's latest book giveaway, readers had the chance to win a copy of "Hypernatural: Architecture's New Relationship with Nature" authored by Blaine Brownell and Marc Swackhamer from the University of Minnesota. Published by Princeton Architectural Press, Hypernatural highlights... View full entry
The growing presence of biomimicry in architectural design takes the spotlight in Hypernatural: Architecture's New Relationship with Nature, authored by architecture and materials academic experts Blaine Brownell and Marc Swackhamer from the University of Minnesota. Published by Princeton... View full entry
Up in the slopes of the Swiss village Verbier in the Alps, BUREAU A's "Antoine" is a little wooden cabin hidden inside a concrete rock that camouflages with its environment. Inspired by Swiss cultural elements like the literature of iconic writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, hidden bunkers, and the... View full entry
