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OMA's Axel Springer building, which received the official launch from its namesake company today, visually confronts the disparate nature of modern office work. The 30-foot tall atrium with 3D facade elements creates a stage for unscripted interaction, while the more discreet sections of the... View full entry
This post is brought to you by BAU 2017. On about 185,000 m2 of exhibition space, BAU will be presenting a display of architecture, materials and systems for commercial and residential construction and interior design, for both new-build and R&M projects. This next edition of the show, which... View full entry
This post is brought to you by WAF. 2,500 architects, designers and allied professionals346 sqm of project galleries411 shortlisted projects presented in live crits100 international judges giving live critique on shortlisted schemes58 countries represented50 inspirational lectures and seminars... View full entry
Since August of 2015, Germany has become home to more than 1.1 million refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers. This influx has German architects and urban planners asking the question: “Do we have a refugee crisis on our hands? Or a housing crisis combined with huge challenges to the ability of cities, job markets, and schools to integrate the newcomers?” — the Atlantic
[Doug Saunders] cautions that arrival cities are “where the new creative and commercial class will be born, or where the next wave of tension and violence will erupt.” The difference, he adds “depends on how we approach these districts both organizationally and politically, and, crucially... View full entry
Donald Trump has made a wall on the US-Mexico border a controversial centerpiece of his presidential campaign, and EU countries have erected fences to keep migrants and refugees out. But the Berlin Wall anniversary should be a stark reminder: Walls can only contain people for so long. [...]
Almost 28 years after the wall came down, Germany’s capital remains economically disadvantaged from its divided years, while buildings in the former East still show the scars of neglect under Communism.
— qz.com
Related on Archinect:Design a wall that separates Trump from the U.S. in this call for ideasThe Problem With Designing Trump’s Border WallUS/Mexico border wall competition provokes controversyBerlin After the Wall: A Microcosm of the World’s Chaotic Change8,000 Glowing Balloons Recreate the... View full entry
Noah's Ark will be brought to life once again in the upcoming Children's Museum on the Jewish Museum Berlin campus. The Jewish Museum Berlin Foundation launched an invite-only international competition this past January wherein participants added their own spin in incorporating the biblical story... View full entry
The Elbphilharmonie, a massive building complex by Herzog & De Meuron, will open in early January 2017. Set on the banks of the Elbe River in Hamburg, the complex contains three concert halls, a hotel, 45 private apartments, and "the Plaza," a public viewing area.The main attraction of the... View full entry
On a recent afternoon, the historian Robert Jan van Pelt was standing in a quiet room at the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, explaining the significance of an unassuming steel-mesh column that visitors to this sprawling survey of global design might walk right past.
“This is one of the most deadly things so far created,” Mr. van Pelt said. And it was the handiwork, he noted, of an architect.
— the New York Times
"The column — painted, like everything else in the room, a pristine white — is a reproduction of one of the eight chutes used to lower Zyklon B poison pellets into gas chambers at Auschwitz."For more from the 2016 Venice Biennale, check out these links:Dispatch from the Venice Biennale: a... View full entry
Only a few days left to submit your work to the anticipated World Architecture Festival 2016! Entries are due this Friday, June 10.After four successful years in Singapore, WAF is making its way back to Europe in Berlin. The festival will take place on November 16-18 inside the Arena Berlin, which... View full entry
A large fire has broken out at a convention centre in the western German city of Duesseldorf.
The centre acts as an accommodation hub for refugees waiting to be sent elsewhere in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Everyone inside hall 18, where 180 refugees were staying, was brought to safety, according to reports.
As the fire raged, a thick, black plume of smoke could be seen across Duesseldorf.
— BBC
In related news:What Does the Syrian Refugee Crisis Mean to Architecture?Ai Weiwei's latest works focus on refugee crisis in GreeceNew MoMA exhibition explores the architecture of displacementOlafur Eliasson's 'Green Light' responds to the refugee crisis in Europe View full entry
May 26, 2016Aravena’s Biennale for architecture to give a damn might imply a specific kind of project, but, after one day on the ground, it is clear that there is no one way for it to respond. For one thing, there is a truly incomprehensible quantity of material to cover. The volume alone speaks... View full entry
Germany has announced new legal measures requiring migrants and refugees to integrate into society in return for being allowed to live and work in the country.
Under the coalition government’s measures, announced on Thursday morning, asylum seekers face cuts to support if they reject mandatory integration measures such as language classes or lessons in German laws or cultural basics.
— the Guardian
"According to the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the aim of Germany’s first ever integration law is to make it easier for asylum seekers to gain access to the German labour market, with the government promising 100,000 new 'working opportunities', expected to include low-paid... View full entry
A group of German architects and planners has started a campaign to rebuild the Wolf House, widely seen as a link between van der Rohe’s early, more conventional designs and his later buildings, like the Barcelona Pavilion and the Farnsworth House, that would redefine modern architecture. [...]
But the plan has run into resistance from other architects and scholars who say that the Wolf House would be too hard to reconstruct [...].
— nytimes.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:Two of a kind: photographer Robin Hill contemplates the Farnsworth House and Glass House simultaneouslyRedesign of DC's main Mies library tip-toes around the good and the badDavid Chipperfield pledges to carefully "optimize" Mies van der Rohe's Neue... View full entry
"Does the Bauhaus really offer total liberty, or is it a place of oppression where all intimacy in banished, and the group triumphs over the individual?" asks the narrator midway through the English version of the acclaimed documentary The Dessau Bauhaus. The 28-minute film about Walter Gropius'... View full entry
The newly opened portion is just 5km (3 miles)— but the completed highway is set to span over 100km and will connect 10 cities and four universities .... Almost two million people will live less than a mile from the new cycling autobahn [...]
the bicycle highway will be 13-feet wide—or almost double the width of normal cycle paths—and have no crossroads or traffic lights. [...]
it’ll also be greener. RVR estimates that the route will take 50,000 cars off the roads every day.
— qz.com
More on cycling infrastructure:As bicycle ownership in North Korea rises, Pyongyang introduces bike lanesBoris Johnson greenlights London's "Crossrail" bicycle superhighwayGensler proposes "Underline" bike paths in London's abandoned tube tunnelsAtlanta plans big for bikes, and Atlantans turn out... View full entry
