Archinect - News

10 kitchen designs we liked this week

2024-05-18T08:00:00-04:00

In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.

Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Kitchen Spaces.

Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles.

↑ Forest Retreat in Sea Ranch, CA, by Koch Architects; Original Architect: William Turnbull Jr.; Photo: Joe Fletcher

↑ The Glass Cabin in Polubný, Czech Republic, by Mjölk architekti; Photo: BoysPlayNice

↑ Blodgett-Calvin Residential Compound in San Marino, CA, by Fung + Blatt Architects; Original Architect: Calvin Straub; Photo: Mark Mahaney

↑ Damnak Soriya in Kampot, Cambodia, by Re : Edge Architecture; Photo: Robert Kleiner

↑ Liminal House in West Vancouver, Canada, by Mcleod Bovell Modern Houses; Photo: Hufton + Crow

↑ Amagansett in Amagansett, NY, by Guerin Glass Architects

↑ CAMPout in Lake Tahoe, CA, by Faulkne...

BIG's NOT A HOTEL Setouchi weds Danish and Japanese design

2024-05-17T12:59:00-04:00

BIG has designed a new remote hotel concept on Sagi Island, Japan, for the NOT A HOTEL brand, its sixth property overall. The new Setouchi project follows other hospitality designs from the firm, including the new Hôtel des Horlogers in Switzerland and Vollebak Island in Canada.

Rendering: MIR

Rendering: LIT design

A ribbon-like footpath stitches together the mossy archipelago’s natural landscape with the residential portion of the design. Three villas (‘360,’ ‘270,’ and ‘180’) form a sequence staggered at different elevations on the approximately 323,000-square-foot site overlooking the southwestern cape of Sagi Island. Each features its own unique characteristics and corresponding panoramic views of the sea and inner harbor area, with accommodations that vary between three and four bedrooms.

Rendering: MIR

BIG’s founder, Bjarke Ingels, says: "Our design approach for NOT A HOTEL Setouchi wasn’t about imposing our ideas on the site; instead, it...

Ayers Saint Gross designs new Charlotte innovation district

2024-05-17T08:00:00-04:00

Ayers Saint Gross has shared renderings of its new design in Charlotte, North Carolina, ahead of its opening in 2025. Dubbed 'The Pearl,' the scheme is a 3 million-square-foot mixed-use innovation district intended to aid the Wake Forest School of Medicine's expansion and mission to become a new civic hub for around a million Charlotteans.

Rendering courtesy Ayers Saint Gross and CO Architects

Located at the edge of Uptown, the program includes the anchoring 393,000-square-foot Howard Levine Center for Education building and a smaller ten-story neighboring research facility developed in partnership with Atrium Health and Wexford Science & Technology. CO Architects is a collaborator on the project.

Rendering courtesy Ayers Saint Gross and CO Architects

The Levine Center includes a 250-seat feature conference area called ‘The Forum.’ The Center was developed through a series of s...

Herzog & de Meuron's FORUM UZH design moves forward in Zurich

2024-05-16T18:36:00-04:00

Herzog & de Meuron is advancing on the construction of its new FORUM UZH design at the University of Zurich following a permit issuance for the project whose bid was born out of a 2018 international competition.

Preparatory site work will begin in August for the new building, which replaces former gymnasium structures with a facility for research and education at a capacity of 6,000 people. Included in its program are over 700 individual workspaces, a central library, seminar rooms, and sports halls.

This is their first design for the university. The firm also recently broke ground on another academic building project, the new UCSF Health Helen Diller Hospital at the University of San Francisco, a 15-story hybrid healthcare facility and academic medical complex that is expected to be completed in 2030.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Herzog & de Meuron (@herzogdemeuron)

Converted grain silo opens as new art destination in southern Norway

2024-05-15T17:02:00-04:00

Norway’s new Kunstsilo Museum has opened to the public in the southern port city of Kristiansand.

The new home for the private collection of Nicolai Tangen is the product of a six-year transformation authored by Spanish studios Mestres Wåge Arquitectes, Mendoza Partida, and BAX in a former grain silo (hence the name) and integrates the Southern Norway Art Museum’s holdings seamlessly into one space that covers three floors and yields a total of 3,300 square meters (35,520 square feet) for exhibitions and cultural programming.

Photo: Alan Williams Photography, image courtesy Kunstsilo.

The overhaul of Arne Korsmo and Sverre Aasland’s original 1935 functionalist design evokes both the Tate Modern in London and Thomas Heatherwick’s popular 2017 reimagining of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa.

Photo: Alan Williams Photography, image courtesy Kunstsilo.

Inside, the collection of around 5,500 objects is presented in 25 galleries surrounding a large (6...

Sou Fujimoto's wooden Grand Ring for Expo 2025 Osaka is taking shape

2024-05-15T12:42:00-04:00

The Sou Fujimoto-designed wooden Grand Ring roof for the upcoming Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, is coming together just under a year before the fair officially opens to the public on April 13th, 2025.

As detailed in an earlier construction update, the structure will be realized at 1,969 feet (600 meters) in diameter and serve as the main circulatory route for visitors to access the exhibition’s 161 total participating countries and locations.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Expo2025 大阪・関西万博 (@expo2025japan)

A recent press announcement mentions: “With one year to go until Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai Japan welcomes the world to Osaka on 13 April 2025, Japan is ready to bring the international community together for six months of collaboration, creativity, innovation, wisdom, dialogue, and action. In an age where humanity is facing a myriad of unprecedented challenges, the need to unite and cooperate, to make genuine, positive, and sustainable change has never...

Rowan Moore pleas to end the time-wasting for Glasgow’s lost Mackintosh library rebuild

2024-05-15T12:05:00-04:00

Much though the school’s director Penny Macbeth insists that “our commitment is not diminished in any way shape or form”, an implication of their current approach is that the building’s renewal has to be justified in terms of regeneration and tourism. It seems to reopen the question whether the rebuild should happen at all. Lacking here is a conviction that the building must be brought back, whether or not it’s good for business on Sauchiehall Street.

Moore also claims “the responsibility to bring back a national treasure should not be theirs alone” (meaning the school’s) in support of his view that setting up an SPV for development would be, for now, the best way to go in order to meet the original promises issued in 2018.

Next Saturday (May 25th) marks the tenth anniversary of the first devastating 2014 fire. A new insurance dispute is further delaying the process even after The Glasgow School of Art announced a second tender for the proposed restoration project could come by the end of next month.

Lloyd Wright's landmarked Wayfarers Chapel to be disassembled due to landslides

2024-05-14T18:42:00-04:00

Lloyd Wright's historic closed Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, will be disassembled in the face of irreparable landslide damage, the group responsible for its stewardship announced via a press release Tuesday.

Architectural Resources Group will handle the disassembly work with great care, as the LA Times and other outlets have reported its structure is rapidly deteriorating from the movement underneath its foundation, which is now occurring at rates 2–3 times more severe than was recorded back in February.

The firm's principal, Katie Horak, told the outlet: "With each passing day, more of this material is lost or irreparably damaged. Our team is working against the clock to document and move these building components to safety so that they can be put back together again."

Previously on Archinect: Lloyd Wright's landmark Wayfarers Chapel closes indefinitely due to landslide threat

"The chapel will not be able to withstand much more damage before it becomes imposs...

David Chipperfield’s K-Project corporate headquarters breaks ground in Seoul

2024-05-14T12:53:00-04:00

David Chipperfield Architects has just broken ground on a new corporate headquarters project for a South Korean IT company in Seoul. Construction for the new K-Project will advance toward a late 2027 completion and culminate in a new highly adaptable design that doubles as a piece of “social infrastructure” for the city’s Seongsu district.

Chipperfield says: “The energy and culture of the company occupying the building, and that of the diverse neighbourhood in which it is located are used to define a strong identity for the headquarters both visually through its dynamic façades and programmatically through a multi-use atrium.”

Rendering: Artefactory Lab, DCA, Brick

Programmatically, the concept works by traversing ‘Hardware’ and ‘Software’ layers vertically supported by eight vertical cylindrical cores, which lift the office component above a two-level ‘multiplex’ for retail and culture. This is the firm’s second corporate commission in Seoul after the completed Amorepacific Headqua...

OMA Conversations

2024-05-13T21:09:00-04:00

the drawing for (Parc de) la Villette...was based on very definite sources...Of course...it was no gigantic leap if you were familiar with those Belgian cartoons. Willem-Jan Neutelings would always draw these little cartoons for the buildings he made, certainly when he opened his own office...The other inspiration was a painter in Chicago named Roger Brown, who made these tip-up paintings—all his scenes were using that perspective—and he was influenced by Italian 13-14th Century painting.

In collaboration with Drawing Matter, Architect Richard Hall is publishing a 6-part series based on twenty-three in-depth conversations with key collaborators working with OMA during its formative years. Most of the image material is from the in-house project archive of OMA at the Rotterdam office and/or the personal archives of its previous members and the Drawing Matter Collection.

Rafael Pelli and Gruen Associates push to restore father César’s masterwork San Bernardino City Hall after 52 years

2024-05-13T17:21:00-04:00

César Pelli was a rising architect when he got the job of designing a new City Hall for San Bernardino. [...] a push is on to renovate City Hall and restore it to use. The lead architect: Rafael Pelli, son of César Pelli. [...] “The idea is to preserve what’s great about it and make it better,” Pelli said of the building. “The bones of it are very good. We just need to bring it forward.”

Chief of among the estimated $60 million renovation tasks is the work of replacing the building’s over 6,000 original windows, which Rafael Pelli says will now be double pane for improved insulation against the heat. The City of San Bernardino, California, shut down operations in the building in 2017 due to seismic concerns. The design features an early version of the same glass curtain facade solution later used in the Pacific Design Center. As the San Bernardino Sun reported, a decision to finance the expected four-year restoration could come as soon as late May.

Ennead and Dattner share first SPARC Kips Bay images ahead of 2031 completion

2024-05-13T17:01:00-04:00

Ennead and Dattner have shared preliminary project visuals to accompany the latest announcement of their winning bid to deliver the Science Park and Research Campus (or SPARC) Kips Bay to the East Side of Manhattan.

The project for the New York City Economic Development Corporation will culminate with a new 700,000-square-foot academic building to be used by three separate CUNY schools and a new high school for STEM careers. Close to two million square feet of educational spaces are being planned overall, and the project development will be complete with a new pedestrian bridge that fosters a connection to the East River waterfront.

Preliminary project visual. Image courtesy Ennead Architects + Dattner Architects

Ennead Partner Thomas J. Wong (the project's Design Lead) shared: “We bring a commitment to civic space, along with deep experience creating leading healthcare and education facilities to our work for SPARC Kips Bay, where, together with Dattner, we will develop an innovati...

Hotels surmount offices for residential conversion projects for the first time

2024-05-13T13:43:00-04:00

The balance of power in the market for residential conversion projects in the United States has shifted from offices to hotels for the first time, according to new statistics included in RentCafe’s latest market snapshot report for 2023.

Per their analysis of Yardi Matrix data, 4,556 of the 12,700 new apartments that were converted in 2023 were hotels. Office buildings were only slightly behind, with 3,587 converted units, representing 28% of the overall total. New York City led all markets with 733 conversions, followed by Albuquerque and Richmond, Virginia. A total of 151,000 conversion projects are in the pipeline currently across all 50 states, with a 17.6% increase being recorded year-over-year. The number of hotels being converted was up another 38.8% over the previous year.

Three rural renovations by Murdough Design: Your Next Employer?

2024-05-13T12:07:00-04:00

Following our previous visit to California-based Walker Warner, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to Massachusetts this week to explore the work of Murdough Design.

From their studio in Concord, the firm has built a portfolio specializing in residential and small institutional projects. “We merge practical requirements with intangible qualities distinct to each design problem,” the firm says about its design outlook. “Our approach considers relationships between landscape and architecture, space and light, material and form.”

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for an Emerging Architect / Designer to join their Concord team. For candidates interested in applying for the position, or anybody interested in learning more about the firm’s output, we have rounded up three rural renovation projects by Murdough Design that exemplify the firm’s ethos.

Reclaimed Barn. Image credit: Chuck Choi

Reclaimed Barn, Central Harbor, NH

Murdough Design led the restoratio...

MVRDV reveals tribune-shaped, mixed-use design with communal terraces

2024-05-13T11:46:00-04:00

MVRDV has unveiled its design for a tribune-shaped, mixed-use building in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. Located in the city’s revitalized Strijp-S neighborhood, the project, called the Strijp-S Tribune, includes a mixture of social housing, mid-sector rental units, commercial spots, and outdoor spaces organized through large, stepped terraces.

The building will stand along the Ketelhuisplein, a lively public square that hosts a range of events and recreational activities throughout the year. Formerly defined by its industrial presence, the area has transformed into the cultural heart of Eindhoven, with a mixture of creative companies and residents now inhabiting repurposed factories and newly constructed high-rises. This history has informed the shape of the Strijp-S Tribune.

Image: MVRDV

At its tallest, the building stands eight stories tall. It steps down to two stories alongside the plaza of the Ketelhuisplein. The stepping shape allows the structure to fit neatly with its surroun...

Floating house from Pixar’s ‘Up’ is now available to rent on Airbnb

2024-05-11T08:00:00-04:00

Airbnb has added a replica of the floating house from the popular 2009 Pixar film Up and other unique pop culture-inspired stays to its inventory. The experience is part of Airbnb's new Icons line of vacation rentals, which CEO Brian Chesky recently unveiled to the public in Los Angeles.

Image courtesy Airbnb

The sure-to-be popular Up home will be located in Abiquiu, New Mexico, and, thanks to a crane, is intended to appear as though it were floating. An Airbnb spokesperson told KRQE News 13: “Our community’s safety is incredibly important to us, so guests will not be inside the house while it is lifted. All guests will remain 100 ft away from the house while the house is lifted. The house will not exceed the height of 50 ft designated by engineering and crane operators as safe for lifting.”

Image courtesy Airbnb

Other Icons stays include a replica of Shrek’s home in the Scottish Highlands, Christina Aguilera's Las Vegas mansion, and the three-bedroom style house in Minneapolis made ...

Oceanwide Plaza, LA's unfinished high-rise graffiti mecca, faces impending sale

2024-05-10T12:00:00-04:00

The Chinese owners of the stalled residential, hotel and retail complex towering over Crypto.com Arena have hired real estate brokers to sell the property to buyers who could restart the project after work stopped in 2019. Taggers recently covered its outer walls with graffiti visible from far away.

The LA Times also reports the brokerage firm Colliers to have submitted an application estimating the property’s current value at $485 million and stating it is still just 60% completed. Another $865 million would be required to finish the block-scale development designed by CallisonRTKL. Some had speculated it could be demolished. Costs for the cleanup of possibly the greatest graffiti takeover of recent memory have been reported at $3.8 million.

Álvaro Siza completes sculptural extension to Porto monastery

2024-05-09T17:24:00-04:00

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Álvaro Siza has completed an extension to the Monastery of Leça do Balio outside Porto, Portugal.

The recently renovated monastery will now serve as the headquarters for the Livraria Lello Foundation, offering a space for “exhibitions that will champion literacy and critical thinking.”

Photo: Alexandre Delmar

Located near Siza’s hometown of Matosinhos, the scheme draws on the architect’s early childhood dreams of being a sculptor. Among the contributions by Siza to the extension is a stand-alone sculpture ‘Viandante’ which acts as a “poetic tribute to the pilgrim’s journey, offering a serene space for visitors to reflect and forge deeper connections.”

Photo: Alexandre Delmar

The extension, due to open on June 22, follows weeks after Siza's self-named Serralves Museum expansion in Porto opened to the public. The 45,000-square-foot expansion is the fifth building designed by Siza for the Serralves Foundation after the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Ar...

HWKN to design new Keith Haring Wing expansion for Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard

2024-05-09T15:48:00-04:00

The Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS) at Bard College in New York is about to begin work on a new expansion of its CCS Bard Library and Archives, thanks to a $3 million gift from the Keith Haring Foundation. The funds will help advance the HWKN Architecture-led $10 million capital project towards a late 2025 completion.

Image courtesy of HWKN Architecture

The project was announced as a 6,000-square-foot expansion and will help house the CCS Library and Archives and related Hessel Museum collection, both of which have been added to by recent donations from the art dealer Gavin Brown and former MoMA chief curator Robert Storr. HWKN says their design is “aimed at enhancing the educational and community aspects of this unique venue.”

Image courtesy of HWKN Architecture

Work will begin later this summer and result in a new wing with a 30-person classroom and space for 30,000 volumes adjacent to six new offices for academic departments and 6,000 feet of below-library storage. C.T. Male As...

New U.N. report warns of potential decades-long rebuild for Gaza

2024-05-09T12:02:00-04:00

A new report on the socio-economic situation in Gaza from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has established a baseline for rebuilding as a cease-fire deal that would end the seven-month Israel-Hamas war continues to be up in the air. The findings lay out the most realistic timeline for recovery, which first requires an estimated 37 million tons of debris removal and the construction of temporary shelters for Palestinians who have lost more than 80,000 of their homes since the fighting began in October.

Israel will have to allow five times the volume of construction materials as it had after its two most recent incursions in order for Gazans to regain "normalcy" by 2040. The UNDP stated it would likely take another four decades to rebuild entirely, given the number of damaged residential structures. Around 25,000 buildings have been reported destroyed in Gaza, with 32 hospitals now knocked offline and another 100 schools or universities being completely destroyed, accordi...

Owners of Marilyn Monroe's last residence sue Los Angeles for right to demolish it

2024-05-08T18:27:00-04:00

Alleging an "abuse of power" by Los Angeles city officials, the owners of Marilyn Monroe's former Brentwood home are suing the city to block an effort to have the structure declared a historic-culture landmark, which would prevent its demolition. The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit [...] alleges "illegal and unconstitutional conduct" by the city "with respect to the house where Marilyn Monroe occasionally lived for a mere six months before she tragically committed suicide 61 years ago."

The LA Times (which has been reporting on the story since January of this year when the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission recommended landmark status for the former Monroe residence) writes that the lawsuit was filed by billionaire heiress Brinah Milstein and her TV producer husband Roy Bank, who also own the home next door and purchased the contested mansion in 2023 with the intent to demolish it and merge both properties.

The preservation fight involving the Marilyn Monroe house follows the public uproar over the demolition of Craig Ellwood's 1950 Zimmerman House in Los Angeles by its new owners, actor Chris Pratt and his wife Katherine Schwarzenegger, last month.

New interlocking tower blocks by Foster + Partners open in Dubai

2024-05-08T15:47:00-04:00

A pair of interlocking high-end residential and hotel towers designed by Foster + Partners recently held its official opening ceremony in Dubai.

Rising to 30 and 31 stories, respectively, The Lana and The Lana Residences demand their presence on the skyline of the Marasi Marina waterfront, located between downtown Dubai and the Dubai Design District.

Photo: Nigel Young / Foster + Partners

The concept behind the scheme is driven by seven vertical gardens throughout the development, which aim to act as social hubs for guests and residents. The architectural language will be echoed in the design of two more upcoming residential towers nearby, called VELA and VELA VIENTO, which we recently published on Archinect.

Photo: Ahmed Alnaji

"The idea behind the design was to create a building that responds to its surroundings with a unique sense of place derived from its interlocking gardens," said Gerard Evenden, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners. "The fluidity of spaces and the relationship t...

AIA presents plans for Global Campus for Architecture & Design at reimagined D.C. headquarters

2024-05-07T17:06:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects has issued an update on the EHDD-led campaign to redesign its Washington, D.C., headquarters. The organization this week announced a new initiative aimed at bringing different community members together to better professional practice and advance discourse within the field.

According to the press announcement, the complex will reopen as the AIA Global Campus for Architecture & Design in 2025. The new "home base" for design professionals, students, and civic leaders in architecture aims to increase collaboration and serve the "holistic new vision" outlined by EHDD partner Rebecca Sharkey at the project's April 2022 remodel announcement. AIA EVP/CEO Lakisha Ann Woods says it will become a "place where the public can be inspired by the power of design."

Previously on Archinect: AIA announces energy-efficient redesign scheme for its Brutalist D.C. headquarters

Hartman-Cox, Hood Design Studio, and Point Energy Innovations are serving as consultants for...

Researchers debut mycelium glamping cabin prototype

2024-05-06T17:04:00-04:00

A new experimental demonstration glamping concept that represents likely the first building project made using mycelium in the Czech Republic has debuted from the home reconstruction financier Buřinka with a cross-disciplinary team from Mykilio and the Czech Technical University called MYMO.

Rendering courtesy Buřinka and MYMO

The SAMOROST concept is the latest example of sustainable construction using mushroom-based compounds as an alternative material to insulate external walls, roofs, and floors, as well as other non-load-bearing components. The cabins were designed using special proprietary mycocomposite, which they claim has been proven in lab testing over the past two years to have suitable qualities for residential structures. The experiment sought to improve usability for campers and is being pursued with support from the country’s Minister of the Environment, Petr Hladík.

Rendering courtesy Buřinka and MYMO

Design author Tomasz Kloza, a final year Master's in architecture and...

Herzog & de Meuron breaks ground on new $4.3 billion UCSF Health Helen Diller Hospital project in San Francisco

2024-05-06T17:04:00-04:00

A groundbreaking was held recently for Herzog & de Meuron's new UCSF Health Helen Diller Hospital in San Francisco. The $4.3 billion project that will tie together two existing buildings with a new 15-story facility is expected to culminate in 2030 at 880,000 square feet and serves as a new connector to the campus as the lynchpin for the university’s 30-year Parnassus Heights master plan.

UCSF says this is necessary to maintain its presence in various fields of biomedical research, patient care, and medical teaching. The design includes 682 total beds and features a “holistic focus” on the needs of patients bolstered by the latest medical technologies and the ability to increase collaboration between scientists, staff, and students of the highly competitive UCSF School of Medicine. HDR and Field Operations are contributing to the project as collaborators.

Dirk Lohan proposes domed Soldier Field renovation as Bears new stadium talks take off

2024-05-06T13:01:00-04:00

A proposed redesign of Chicago’s soon-to-close Soldier Field stadium from architect Dirk Lohan gained some press recently after the Bears NFL franchise debuted Manica Architecture’s $4.7 billion design for its new lakefront home. Lohan is the architect of its modern 2003 renovation (in association with Wood & Zapata), a project that ultimately cost Soldier Field its landmark status. He says the design alternative is at once cheaper and more sustainable than the current proposal that’s been targeted by critics but still backed by team owners and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Image: Lohan Architecture via LinkedIn

The proposed plan calls for a lightweight domed roof to be constructed over the structure, with 20,000 new seats added underneath and upheld by cables connecting to four exterior columns. Lohan, who also designed the master plan for the surrounding Museum Campus, says it "remains] true to the values reflected in the Burnham and Bennett Plans and the Chicago Lakefront Ordinan...

10 living room designs we liked this week

2024-05-04T08:00:00-04:00

In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.

Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Living Spaces.

Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles.

↑ Villa Messenia in Messeni, Greece; Interior architecture, design and styling: block722; Photo: Gaelle Le Boulicaut

↑ The Glass Cabin in Polubný, Czech Republic, by Mjölk architekti; Photo: BoysPlayNice

↑ Walters Cassar Residence in Palm Springs, CA, by Studio AR&D Architects; Photo: Lance Gerber

↑ Rustic Canyon in Los Angeles, CA, by Walker Workshop; Photo: Joe Fletcher

↑ Reclaimed Barn in Center Harbor, NH, by Murdough Design; Photo: Chuck Choi

↑ Blodgett-Calvin Residential Compound in San Marino, CA, by Fung + Blatt Architects; Original Architect: Calvin Straub; Photo: Mark Mahaney

↑ Low Energy House in London, UK,...

Paris Olympics Athlete's Village to cool without AC during summer games

2024-05-03T17:30:00-04:00

To combat the intense summer heat in France, a geothermal energy system will cool the athlete apartments in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb. This technology utilizes natural resources and is expected to reduce carbon impact by 45 percent compared to traditional air conditioning systems. The system will maintain a temperature below 79 degrees Fahrenheit during the night, even in the event of a heatwave, according to Laurent Michaud, the director of the Olympic and Paralympic Villages.

The planned alternative system will distribute cold water from underground to cool through the floors of the apartments, which will later become home to more than 6,000 permanent residents after the more than 15,000 Olympic and Paralympics athletes vacate in September. The buildings all have green roofs and will reportedly be powered completely by renewable energy in line with Paris' 2050 principles. Their construction achieved a 30% reduction in its carbon footprint compared to other modern projects.

Other countries, meanwhile, have promised to bring their own portable systems as a backup as experts have forecasted another unusually hot summer for the continent.

Chicago's Thompson Center begins demolition ahead of $280 million Google takeover

2024-05-03T17:12:00-04:00

NBC Chicago is reporting on the start of planned demolition work for the Thompson Center in advance of a $280 million makeover that will turn the famed Helmut Jahn-designed building into a new office space for Google for 2026. Work will cover the exterior glass curtain facade and interior atrium. The 39-year-old former state office building had become a $17 million-a-year liability for Governor JB Pritzker before the property was offloaded for $105 million in July of 2022.

“These types of improvements take several years to complete; we’re excited about what this project symbolizes for the greater Chicago community and will share more about our plans in the future,” Karen Sauder, Google's Chicago Site Lead, said in a December update.

Jean Dubuffet's 29-foot 'Monument with Standing Beast' sculpture is also being evacuated to the Art Institute of Chicago.

In rural Ontario, a timber cabin by Dubbeldam Architecture + Design creates a ‘quiet haven in the trees’

2024-05-03T15:03:00-04:00

Toronto-based Dubbeldam Architecture + Design has offered an insight into their completed cabin in rural Ontario, Canada. Named Bunkie on the Hill and described as a “quiet haven in the trees for family members to retreat and re-connect with nature,” the cabin sits at the top of a steep slope overlooking a collection of family cottages below.

Image credit: Riley Snelling

The 1,000-square-foot cabin by the Dubbeldam team, who was recently honored at the 2024 RAIC Annual Awards as the Architectural Practice winner, sees a contemporary interpretation of the traditional A-frame shape. Inspired by overlapping layers of shale rock in the surrounding landscape, the split roof features two intersecting gables that allow for window openings where the roof volumes split.

Image credit: Riley Snelling

“These geometric windows allow for curated views of the treetops on one side and lake below on the other and invite natural light to flood the...