COVID-19 & the Future of Architectural Education

• Written by The Midnight Charette

The Midnight Charette is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by architectural designers David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features a variety of creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions. A wide array of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes provide useful tips for designers, while others are project reviews, interviews, or explorations of everyday life and design. The Midnight Charette is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

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This week hosts David and Marina are joined by Marc Neveu—Chair of Architecture, The Design School, Arizona State University and Executive Editor of the Journal of Architectural Education; Renée Cheng—Dean of the College of Built Environments, University of Washington; and Kiel Moe—Gerald Sheff Chair in Architecture, School of Architecture, McGill University to discuss how COVID-19 has impacted teachers and students, the future of education (changing studio, reviews, and lectures), and more. Enjoy!

HIGHLIGHTS & TIMESTAMPS

How the different universities managed the quick transition from ‘normal’ teaching to teaching remotely (00:00)

How the change has impacted students (10:31)

• I don’t think we really fully realized how many of our students were right on that edge of being food insecure or housing insecure. We’re dealing with really difficult issues, not just about internet access, but about things impacting their families. [. . .] We’ve been finding out more about our students in detail; things that we didn’t use to know or ask about and that has really shown us how they’re not able to be as resilient as we would love them to be, because there’s a lot of risks in their lives. – Renee Cheng (10:59)

How in education should change during and after COVID-19 (15:42)

• I think one emblematic example would be the absurdity of the jury system. The idea that we have a tyrannical metaphor as a way of evaluating architectural knowledge at the end of the semester and that this is the primary assumed tradition is bizarre to me. It remains bizarre to me… the kind of juvenile behavior of a lot of reviewers on those panels, the crazy power geometries that emerge. I think there are a lot of better ways to evaluate one’s progress, one’s contributions to discipline, one’s understanding and capacities. We’re starting to see some much more interesting methods of delivering feedback on student work. In the worst cases, I think it is just trying to reproduce the jury system via Zoom, which is always a disaster and I think a kind of failure pedagogically. – Kiel Moe (16:14)
• Overarchingly, the shift from having me being the one who produces knowledge and gives it to the student to a model where people are co-learners or co-developers of information and knowledge. If you look at that across a class-like studio, it changes the review system. I don’t do final reviews in the same way most people do. I don’t give it individual desk crits ever in the studio. And students are a bit shocked at some point when I introduce that. [Instead], we set up different group situations and games, really. Those games then translate to people developing a sense of studio culture that’s sort of lost now because we don’t have to be in the studio all the time. So we really have to be intentional about how we create studio culture. I think a lot of peer to peer learning can lead with or help with that. – Marc Neveu (17:41)

Rethinking the lecture format and online learning (25:36)

People need space. That’s what we are seeing for sure in these Zoom 50-minute classes. If you use the entire 50 minutes, it’s really hard. Whereas, if you did 20 minutes and had some discussion and then did another 10 minutes, I bet those students would be a lot less tired and a lot more engaged and a lot happier. [As a teacher], you have to say, “I’ve got 50 minutes of stuff I want to cover but, students only going to hear 10% of that.” Do you want to choose the 10% [students learn]? Or you want the students to do choose it? -Renee Cheng (33:21)

• I teach history theory and studio and one of the problems with history is that we end up teaching the masters because that’s the amount of time we have: We had four semesters, now it’s two semesters… We keep condensing the amount of information we can give to students. I’m not saying that I think we should just break up those [longer] lectures into 20-minute segments. But if we rethought how history is understood, what the value of it is, and who is history, who are those stories? We could actually have students be co-creators in creating a kind of narrative. That is extremely powerful. I don’t need to tell students about the six projects by Corbusier that are on top of my list because ‘I need to tell them’ or because they’re iconic and they’re important and etc.. But if there was a baseline of understanding of history… if we could open that up and have students actually co-create around those things, it’s much more powerful. – Marc Neveu (35:03)

The challenge of creating rubrics in architectural education, when student work and outcomes are difficult to predict (37:22)

Demounting the design studio be the most important class and the hurtful power-dynamics in the studio (42:11)

• We’re definitely trying to break down those distinctions and demount studio as a quasi-holy thing in an ostensibly secular discipline. I think that’s really important because that just doesn’t reflect how practice works. It doesn’t reflect how our experience of architecture works. There are so many different types of people in architecture, within the building industry. There are so many other ways that architects need to develop [in terms of] intelligence and agency in this century beyond just debates about representation or this facade or that plan, etc.. I still value all that knowledge, but there are ways of teaching that, gaining those skills, and having those conversations in a lot of different formats. [. . .] How can you run a normal studio if it’s all remote? It seems like it’s better to break up some of those exercises into smaller chunks that are more manageable and teachable and have clearer learning outcomes, etc.. All of that is part of the democratization that Renee mentioned earlier. I’m all for that primarily because I see it as a flattening of some really disgusting power dynamics that I think haunt schools of architecture even today. -Kiel Moe (43:15)

Working outside of the studio setting (57:18)

• How do you find a way to discipline yourself to drop into that zone of intense creativity that often it happens at two in the morning in the studio? I’m mentoring this student who’s coming from community college and starting in architecture. He has two jobs and really limited time, so he is not going to stay up all night in the studio. He was asking me, “What am I missing? Because I hear about the studio culture and I have classmates who are [working all night in the studio], but I can’t do that.” I explained to him, if you know what that feeling feels like, to be in the flow—and for students who are starting, that will often happen at two in the morning—then you can train yourself to drop into that [flow] at two in the afternoon. Figure out what that creative flow feels like and be able to trigger it. -Renee Cheng (57:18)

Students dropping out and the challenges of teaching different levels of students (01:00:43)

Broadening architectural education to better prepare graduates for the world (01:06:44)

• The idea that we’re just graduating top designers who are going to be designing plans and facades or something like that is pretty crazy at this point, as a position to take. So how we support these students who are going to be doing all kinds of work in a variety of related disciplines is part of the task at hand. [. . .] We’ve been under characterizing what the discipline of architecture is and does in this world. We’ve somehow, in modernity, narrowed this kind of purview of what we consider to be architecture to be incredibly narrow with its apotheosis and various believers of autonomy where we actually only do a couple of things and if you’re not doing that, you’re not an architect. – Kiel Moe (01:06:10)

Preparing for the Fall semester/quarter (01:12:58)

We invite you to check out ArchDaily’s coverage related to COVID-19, read our tips and articles on Productivity When Working from Home and learn about technical recommendations for Healthy Design in your future projects. Also, remember to review the latest advice and information on COVID-19 from the World Health Organization (WHO) website.

CONTEMPORARY KITCHEN / MDF / LACQUERED / WITH HANDLES MADISON

Characteristics

• Style:

  contemporary

• Material…:

  MDF

• Other characteristics:

  lacquered, with handles, matte

Description

Madison is the new timeless kitchen collection by GD Arredamenti. A modern approach to a classic shaker-door style kitchen, with clean and simple lines that define the style of Madison.

The 25mm thick door panel, is built with a symmetric 50mm door frame all around; the collection is available in any of the 28 matte lacquer by GD Arredamenti. RAL/NCS colors are also available as custom lacquer solutions.
You can choose from two alternative opening systems: a recessed pull-profile or a more traditional external handle.
In these images, Madison timeless kitchen collection is combined with a custom-size open-shelf upper cabinet in wood oak veneer; a tall cabinet with Madison glass door is added on the pantry side wall, adding an elegant niche with exposed oak wood interiors and LED lights.

View the catalogGo to the GD Arredamenti website for more information

10 DESIGN Proposes an Expo Pavilion Entitled “A Country without Walls a Future without Limits”

Courtesy of 10 DESIGN

• Written by Christele Harrouk

“A Country without Walls, a Future without Limits” is a proposal for an expo pavilion imagined by 10 DESIGN. Based on the ideas of communication, openness, hospitality, and change, the project puts in place a memorable experience for visitors.

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Courtesy of 10 DESIGN

“By imagining, making, communicating, and sharing within the pavilion’s activity spaces on the ground, a bright and open future is revealed in the clouds above”, explains the official statement of the pavilion. Created by international practice 10 DESIGN, known for their innovative design solutions, focusing on physical and social context, the project is dedicated to an incognito country. Presenting the rich history and culture of the nation in question, the proposal is organized in order to allow visitors to connect directly to the subject, experiencing its hospitality and landscape.

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Courtesy of 10 DESIGN

10 DESIGN’s vision was to create a memorable pavilion that celebrates the country today, and shares the hopes, achievements, and creativity of the future.  By removing the pavilion walls, we are removing barriers to interaction, allowing spaces to flow and movement to be fluid and relaxed. — Paul Rodgers, Design Partner.

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Courtesy of 10 DESIGN

Inspired by nature, the pavilion highlights a journey without walls where visitors can experience the country through an undulating landscape. Reflecting both its topography and geology, the project holds a discovery hall with spaces for innovation, creation, and contemplation. The wave-like form also includes activities for children and chilling areas. Organized around a ‘Hakawati’ zone, the pavilion also reflects the ancient tradition of storytelling, emphasizing conversation, and connection.

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Courtesy of 10 DESIGN

Finally, shaded by a dream cloud, the pavilion gently rises towards the structure, “leading visitors upwards and creating a fluid link between the present and the future”. Including 4 areas themed around the senses of sight, scent, sound, and touch, the cloud will project constantly imageries and graphics.

• Project Name: EXPO Pavilion
• Type: Cultural & Civic
• Site Area: 7,070 sqm
• GFA: 4,922 sqm

CLASSIC KITCHEN / SOLID WOOD / ISLAND / LACQUERED FORTUNA BY LUCIANO DAL BELLO

Characteristics

• Style:

  classic

• Material…:

  solid wood

• Configuration:

  island

• Other characteristics:

  lacquered, with handles

Description

Fortuna is a collection of classic furniture designed by Luciano Dal Bello for GD Arredamenti.

One of the places par excellence in Venice features a 17th century building crowned by a tower that holds a golden globe. The gilded bronze sphere, held up by two “atlases”, represents the world overlooked by the goddess of fortune, sculpted by Bernardo Falconi.
The statue rotates, indicating to the Venetians the direction of the wind and the variability of life’s events. Like the interiors of the ancient buildings that are reflected on the Grand Canal, GD Arredamenti presents this collection which takes its inspiration, just like the wind, from the most sophisticated and elegant of styles.
The furniture of the Fortuna collection is made from solid Lime wood, with either a natural or lacquered finish. This collection features 35 mm pillars that interrupt the continuity of the units, defining precise sections of furniture.

The Fortuna collection can be used to create bespoke kitchens, living room furniture, bookcases and wooden panelling.

View the catalogGo to the GD Arredamenti website for more information

This 125-year-old Swedish Town Has Relocated, Buildings and All

Kiruna, a Swedish town within the Arctic Circle, has had to relocate owing to geological instability brought on by mining. This unusual circumstance is the focus of Kiruna Forever, an exhibition at ArkDes. Ingenjörsvillan, a house in Kiruna, was one of the structures moved. In the town’s new location, a circular city hall designed by Henning Larsen plays centerpiece. Courtesy Jessica Nilden

• Written by Molly Butcher

Kiruna Forever, an exhibition at ArkDes, traces the town’s relocation due to geological instability.

“Kiruna is on the move,” says Carlos Mínguez Carrasco, curator of the new exhibition Kiruna Forever. Kiruna, a 125-year-old Swedish town that sprouted around the iron mine of the same name, started an official relocation process in 2018 after decades of discussion with the state-owned mining company LKAB. Today, as the expansion of the mine destabilizes the ground surrounding it, nearby buildings are being demolished or loaded onto flatbed trucks and moved to the new city center nearly two miles east.

Despite Kiruna’s remote location (the northernmost town in Sweden, it lies in the Arctic Circle), the value of iron on the global market defines the town’s choreographed retreat eastward. As the price of iron goes up, the speed of extraction increases. And as the mine removes the equivalent of a 12-story building of material from the ground each day, the city sinks at a rate of two inches each year.

Kiruna’s beloved city hall cracked under this pressure. A chunk of the stunning (now demolished) wood-and-brick building was relocated to the warm halls of ArkDes, Sweden’s national architecture museum in Stockholm, for Carrasco’s exhibition, which runs through the end of 2020. Visitors stand behind the hall’s podium and, in a brilliant moment of curatorial anachronism, come face-to-face with a contemporary video work by Ingela Johansson, which remixes archival footage taken at the same location during the 1969–70 miners’ strikes.

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The New City Hall Pulls The Next Phases Of Kiruna’s Bold Move Eastwards As If By A Magnet. Courtesy Arkdes

Surveying the scene and the screen, one understands that this symbolic building, which townspeople called the “living room of Kiruna,” was sacrificed, says Carrasco, “in order to keep on mining.”

But demolition and subsidence are just some of the ways the land is moving. Global Kiruna, an exhibited research and photo project by Iwan Baan, Anne Dessing, and Michiel van Iersel, “follows the iron.” Tracing ore from the mine along transportation routes and to buildings around the world, the project sheds light on opaque global material flows and reveals the reach of Arctic iron. At a time when short-form reigns, Kiruna Forever offers a refreshing counterpoint: a long engagement with complexity.

This article was originally published on Metropolismag.com.

Architecture post COVID-19: the Profession, the Firms, and the Individuals

© Szabó Viktor

• Written by Christele Harrouk

As the world is slowly reopening, easing lockdown measures, everyone is adapting to new realities. Imposing drastic adjustments to our lives, the coronavirus has introduced a new “normal”, changing our perceptions and altering our priorities. Driven towards questioning and evaluating our environment, we are constantly reacting and anticipating a relatively unknown future.

A casual conversation between two editors at ArchDaily generated this collaborative piece that seeks to investigate the current trends, predict the future, and offer insights to everyone/everything related to the architectural field. Tackling the evolution of the profession, the firms, and the individuals, especially young adults and students, this article, produced by Christele Harrouk and Eric Baldwin, aims to reveal what is happening in the architecture scene.

The Profession

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Related Article

Ten Thoughts on the Future of Practice

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While we cannot foresee the future, we can create logical analogies that are based on the current situation and our first responses. Architects around the world have put their knowledge to use in the fight against the coronavirus and have created innovative solutions that might stick around for a while. Some are designing facilities, while others are rethinking the city. In the following section, we will elaborate on how the profession can evolve, on the focus of future projects, and on our adaptable cities.

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via Shutterstock/ By aiyoshi597

Interdisciplinary approaches: One thing that the pandemic has taught us is that architecture cannot save the world, at least not on its own. As the industry resumes, our take on the built environment will become different. In fact, interdisciplinary approaches are already building up, bringing new expertise and views to the practice, to address more efficiently these urgent global issues. The collaborative take on “shared” world-wide challenges, will integrate notions of public and personal health, mobility and transportation, environmental psychology, biophilia, and even agriculture, to name a few.

Future Projects: Emergency architecture and crisis architecture are topics that will start taking center stage as the world changes. Oriented towards war-related displacement and camps, in earlier times, these themes will be more focused in the near future on mitigation of diseases and natural incidents. Sustainability will further consolidate its status as an integral part of every approach, and projects will become more self-sufficient. On another hand, as we look to establish fast responding structures, we are transforming existing underused spaces. Adaptive reuse approaches are becoming vital in our emergency responses allowing for rapid action. Considered the most effective form of sustainability, this field will improve furthermore, as the world economy is suffering.

Rethinking the concept of home: As we move forward in the different phases of the pandemic, we will focus again on our intimate spaces. In fact, new configurations and new plans are starting to emerge. The quality and comfort of our homes will become at the top of the list. While we are confined in our houses, we are rethinking our requirements and needs, along with the “new normal”: from green areas and gardens, exploitable rooftops, natural light, and ventilation, balconies, and terraces, minimal and wholesome indoor environments, transitional and filtered entrances, etc.

New parameters: Focusing on health-oriented approaches, new standards are going to be set. Design and material are rethought according to the current situation, generating new forms of living. While notions of modular design, prefabricated elements, flexible partitions, and lightweight structures will keep on growing, architects will start planning new configurations with social distancing measures in mind. Surfaces will be covered with materials that prevent the proliferation of diseases and the design will be oriented towards eliminating risks of transmission.

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Emergency Quarantine Facilities by WTA . Image Courtesy of WTA

The Adaptable City

Cities, the epicenter of transmission of diseases, have been hit the hardest by the coronavirus. Re-questioning their systems, they are adapting to new realities, innovating, creating, and experimenting along the way.

Public spaces: While popular public spaces have always been the most engaging and the most crowded, the pandemic has taught us that sharing can also be possible under strict social distancing measures. As these norms of personal space keep on evolving every day, public spaces are set to become more flexible in terms of physical engagement. Projects are already dispersing people in wider spaces and are generating different and parallel journeys. Natural elements are creating buffer zones to highlight safe areas and to mark personal unapproachable spaces. For example, Studio Precht has proposed the “Parc de la Distance”, an outdoor space in Vienna that encourages social distancing and short-term solitude, inspired by French baroque gardens and Japanese Zen-gardens.

Density: For a while now, urban designers and policymakers have been advocating for densification as a sustainable process to expand the city, rather than relying on devastating urban sprawls. With the pandemic hitting crowded cities the hardest, these strategies are re-questioned. Richard Sennett raises the issue of the architecture of density in Domus, stating that “concentration of people is also a good ecological principle in dealing with climate change, by saving on infrastructure resources […] Yet to prevent or inhibit future pandemics, we may need to find different physical forms for density, permitting people to communicate, to see neighbors, to participate in street life even as they temporarily separate”.What can be the alternatives?

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PARIS, FRANCE March 22th 2020 : The Cyclist with medical mask on Champs Elysées empty during the period of containment measures due to the Covid-19 Coronavirus.. Image via Shutterstock/ By Frederic Legrand – COMEO

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The Gastro Safe Zone by HUA HUA Architects . Image Courtesy of Hary Marwell Photography

Transportation/Mobility: One of the biggest challenges during this pandemic has been transportation. With a high concentration of people, these public networks do not conform to the new social distancing norms. In fact, many cities around the world are already planning for an alternative future, replacing traffic lanes with pedestrian paths. Ensuring social distancing and reducing reliance on cars and public transport, citizens are encouraged to walk and cycle. With less pollution and more physical movements, cities are pushing their residents to develop a healthier lifestyle, essential in fighting diseases. In Paris, Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced plans to maintain the anti-pollution and anti-congestion measures by introducing new, fully protected bike lanes from the city’s heart to the suburbs. Moreover, in Milan, the Strade Aperte plan or “Open streets” plan will repurpose 35km of roads, over the summer, transforming them into people-friendly streets.

Economy: Opening the streets to people, can also mean opening the realm for their businesses. While the economy is hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, cities are mobilizing their creativity in order to prevent further damages and help business owners bounce back. In fact, the Lithuanian capital Vilnius has allowed gastro businesses to put their tables in public spaces, free of charge, in order to support bar and restaurant owners and guarantee that physical distancing and safety measures are respected. In the Czech Republic, HUA HUA Architects has imagined The Gastro Safe Zone program, aiming to awaken stagnant gastronomic businesses by regulating outside eating and ensuring the required social distancing measures. Finally, MASS Design Group has released a guideline for restaurants in response to the coronavirus pandemic, to help these businesses reopen safely, viably, and vibrantly, based on world health recommendations.

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New York City. Image via Shutterstock/ tetiana.photographer

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Paris, France – April 17, 2020: Restaurant brasserie on Boulevard Saint Germain is closed due to epidemic of coronavirus COVID19 in Paris. Image via Shutterstock/ By Jerome LABOUYRIE

The Firms

As businesses begin opening back up, architecture firms are looking at how to manage their offices while students and recent graduates take their first steps into a new job market. Offices are trying to anticipate workload, especially as specific building types like commercial offices and sectors of the market shrink. There are a number of resources for firms as they consider business continuity, as well as new office structures and work models.

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Co-Working Office by APPAREIL. Image © José Hevia

Business Continuity: In the United States, The American Institute of Architects (AIA) released the Architect’s Guide to Business Continuity to assist firms in trying to manage their business. Aiming to help offices continue providing services and generating revenue, the guide provides firm leaders with insights into managing staff, premises, technology, information, supply chains, stakeholders, and reputation. It builds on best practices and incorporates lessons learned from firms impacted during previous events.

Office Structure: As offices begin to pivot and take a deeper look at their existing service offerings, they should also look to how their office is structured to take on work, from technology to management and recruiting. With advancements to BuildTech, 3D printing, and fabrication, as well as generative design, now is the time for firms to embrace new ways of working to create value. This can help protect profits and reduce risk, as well as identify actions that reduce vulnerability, minimize disruption, and potentially create new earnings. This is directly related to hiring, from looking to new skills to managing existing teams and how they are staffed to leverage individual talent.

Work Models: Across the world, firms implemented remote and digital working methods practically overnight. For those that didn’t already have these in place, the move has tested the normative model of where and how work is completed. For the long-range impact, some of the immediate changes point to smaller physical workplaces where fewer desks and workspace is needed per employee, and further, how the rise of the gig economy may be more widely adopted in the design professions. This will directly impact employee communications, potential worker classifications, as well as individual job benefits and competitive hiring. The effects will also shape facilities management, information technology, and human resources.

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© Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

The Individuals

While the impact of COVID-19 continues to evolve, it is clear that the job market for recent graduates and young professionals has changed. Yes, there are still new jobs, but as firms look to cut costs and leverage existing reserves, the market has become more competitive, not unlike the last recession. Graduates and young professionals can adapt by understanding that architecture builds critical thinking, applicable across fields. They should leverage their interests and talents to explore what avenues are available, even if they fall outside traditional practice.

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© SolisImages – stock.adobe.com

Students and Recent Grads: Depending on where in their education a student is, the impact of COVID-19 will have a different impact. New students should focus on the long term, as economic recovery is likely, especially within the next four or five years. As more schools transition to online learning, this will also shape how education is delivered, and students will likely need to adapt to new learning modalities. For recent graduates, it’s important to have a strong portfolio that showcases diverse talents and skillsets. These may also apply to fields outside architecture. Utilize school-specific advisors, outreach, and career directors, as well as free resources and guides to improve your portfolio. The Royal Institute of British Architects also published resources specifically for Part 1 and Part 2 students, as well as Part 3 candidates. These larger ideas can apply to students globally as well. Take the time to research scholarships and competitions, check university job boards, consider alternative work experiences, and be aware that if you have federal student loans, you may be eligible for student relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Young Professionals: Young professionals in architecture face specific challenges in the current job market. To help, the AIA has created a COVID-19 portal for individual architects and designers covering a range of topics, from business and career resources to health insurance and relief. The page is intended to provide guidelines, policies, and tools for our members and is updated as new resources become available. Young professionals should maintain open communication with firm managers, continue working towards licensure in countries where applicable, and find ways to utilize their interests to either benefit their current office or expand their job potential. In terms of relief, in the United States, the CARES Act includes a provision that enables employers to provide a student loan repayment benefit to employees on a tax-free basis. It’s important to remember that there are many different pathways available both within the practice and outside of it.

We invite you to check out ArchDaily’s coverage related to COVID-19, read our tips and articles on Productivity When Working from Home, and learn about technical recommendations for Healthy Design in your future projects. Also, remember to review the latest advice and information on COVID-19 from the World Health Organization (WHO) website.

Slovak Architect Vladimír Dedeček Passes Away at 91

© Peter Kuzmin

• Written by Eric Baldwin

Slovak Architect Vladimír Dedeček passed away on April 29, 2020 at the age of 91. Over the course of his career, he created a portfolio of over 100 projects, ranging from private homes to large modernist complexes. Known for his monumental and controversial buildings, Dedeček influenced both regional and international architecture alike.

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Architecture historian Peter Szalay has said that, “In Slovakia, we had and still have only a few architects who have left such an unmistakable mark and such a consistent portfolio of works as Vladimír Dedeček created.” Born in 1929, he studied architecture at the Slovak Technical University under professors Emil Belluš and Vladimír Karfík. After graduating, he joined Bratislava’s Stavoprojekt, where he worked until 1995, and later ran his own studio. He is known for work like the Slovak National Gallery and his Boarding School project in Modra.

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© Peter Kuzmin

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© Peter Kuzmin

In 2015, the Association of Slovak Architects awarded Dedeček the Emil Beluš Prize, recognizing a lifelong practice of design and an architect who, with his projects based in Slovakia, also gained international recognition.

News via Pravda

A City for E-Commerce is Under Construction in Dubai

Courtesy of P&T Architects and Engineers

• Written by Christele Harrouk

P&T Architects and Engineers have designed a free zone development, “dedicated to the growing e-commerce market in the Middle East”. Entitled Dubai CommerCity, the award-winning project puts in place three main clusters spread over 530,000 square meters: business, logistics, and social.

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Courtesy of P&T Architects and Engineers

 

Winner of the 2019 International Property Award Dubai for Best Mixed-use Architecture Dubai, the Dubai Commercity takes on an innovative design in order to draw international companies to establish their regional headquarters in its premises. Generating a smart & quality-focused business environment, the project “provides a unique e-commerce ecosystem to global and regional brands to help them set up and operate their e-commerce business in the MENA region”.

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Courtesy of P&T Architects and Engineers

 

Divided into three different clusters with distinct experiences, the Dubai CommerCity implements state-of-the-art technologies. Aiming for environmental and investment sustainability, the business cluster features 12 buildings, with indoor and outdoor experiences, encouraging people to adopt an active approach while doing business. On the other hand, the logistics cluster consisting of 108 logistics units, is designed with rooftop PVC solar panels to generate clean energy; and the social cluster, the heart of Dubai CommerCity, includes art galleries, restaurants, cafés, and vibrant facilities.

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Courtesy of P&T Architects and Engineers

 

Committed to UAE’s sustainability goals, the project adopts non-traditional methods in accordance with global standards for a sustainable environment and a green economy. In fact, “Dubai CommerCity plans on reducing electricity consumption by using solar energy and lowering water wastage by 40 percent through the treatment of polluted water and the collection and reuse of rainwater”. The strategies also include the implementation of global environmental standards for the construction of light industrial units and buildings, as well as the use of environmentally friendly building materials and recycled resources.

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Courtesy of P&T Architects and Engineers

 

• Project Name: Dubai Commercity
• Architecture Firm: P&T Architects and Engineers Limited
• Gross Built Area: 530,000 sqm
• Project Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Clients: Developer – Dubai Commercity LLC
• Engineering: P&T Architects and Engineers Limited
• Landscape: Cracknell Landscape Design LLC

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Courtesy of P&T Architects and Engineers

 

• Structure Engineer: P&T Architects and Engineers Limited
• MEP Engineer: P&T Architects and Engineers Limited
• EOR: P&T Architects and Engineers Limited
• Façade Consultant: Aurecon
• Infrastructure Engineer: Jouzy Consulting engineers
• Main Contractor: For Business and logistic clusters – Aroma International Building Contracting LLC
• Interior Design: Broadway Interiors LLC
• Traffic Engineer: Reza Mohammadi Consultancy
• Fire & Life Safety: WarringtonFire Consulting ME.Ltd
• Cost Consultant: River Levett Bucknall

RMK Headquarters by Foster+Partners to be Completed this Year

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Courtesy of Foster+Partners

• Written by Andreea Cutieru

Foster + Partners first built project in Russia is set to be completed later this year, as construction work for the RMK headquarters in Yekaterinburg nears finalization. The 15-storey building designed for the leading copper producer rethinks the conventional office space, bringing about a domestic scale to the interior layout.

The project abandons conventional, large, open-plan workspace and re-shapes the work environment around a modular system tailored to the client’s needs. The building is split into two-storey modules, each containing two levels of office spaces. The modular units are arranged on either side of a central double-height hallway, which functions as a lounge area.

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Courtesy of Foster+Partners

The facade features triangular panels of bronze-colored steel, each spanning the height of an interior module. As the design team states, “the triangulated form draws inspiration from the chemical structure of copper, and the crown of the building integrates RMK’s new logo – a rebranding which has, in turn, been inspired by the architecture”. The alternating opaque and glazed areas are a response to Yekaterinburg’s climate, with significant temperature variations between seasons.

The headquarters’ adjacency to a public park determined the design decision to extend the green area on the site, creating a private garden for the office’s staff. The landscaping echoes the internal office layout through a series of “external rooms”.

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Courtesy of Foster+Partners

• Foster + Partners Design Team: Norman Foster, David Nelson, Spencer de Grey, Luke Fox, Angus Campbell, Lee Hallman, Jeremy Kim, Anton Khmelnitskiy, Armstrong Yakubu, Vincent Westbrook, Andy Lister, Maria Mallalieu, Dina Timartseva, Aleksejus Nevedomskis, Paul Kennedy, Louise Clausen, Dimitri Chaava, Yuen Nam Connie Luk, Annabel Knightley
• Collaborating Architect: P. M. VostokProekt
• Structural, Mechanical and Electrical Engineer: Foster + Partners / P. M. VostokProekt
• Façade Engineer, Security and Vertical Transportation: WSP
• Lighting Consultant: Jason Bruges Studio
• Acoustic Engineer: Sandy Brown
• Landscape Consultant: Hyland Edgar Driver

Material of the Future: 4 Architects that Experiment with Cross Laminated Timber

Gilles Retsin and Stephan Markus Albrecht’s Nuremberg Concert Hall proposal takes advantage of the project’s location in the Bavaria region a Germany, an area known for its abundance of timber. Image© Filippo Bolognese

• Written by Shane Reiner-Roth

This article was originally published on The Architect’s Newspaper as “Architects apply the latest in fabrication, design, and visualization to age-old timber.”

Every so often, the field of architecture is presented with what is hailed as the next “miracle building material.” Concrete enabled the expansion of the Roman Empire, steel densified cities to previously unthinkable heights, and plastic reconstituted the architectural interior and the building economy along with it.

But it would be reasonable to question why and how, in the 21st century, timber was accorded a miracle status on the tail-end of a timeline several millennia-long. Though its rough-hewn surface and the puzzle-like assembly it engenders might seem antithetical to the current global demand for exponential building development, it is timber’s durability, renewability, and capacity for sequestering carbon—rather than release it—that inspires the building industry to heavily invest in its future.

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Cross-laminated timber (CLT), a highly resilient form of engineered wood made by gluing layers of solid-sawn lumber together, was first developed in Europe in the early 1990s, yet the product was not commonly used until the 2000s and was only introduced into the International Building Code in 2015. While mid-to-large range firms around the world have been in competition to build the largest or the tallest timber structures to demonstrate its comparability to concrete and steel, a number of independent practitioners have been applying the latest methods of fabrication, computational design techniques, and visualization software to the primordial material. Here, AN exhibits a cross-section of the experimental work currently being pursued with the belief that timber can be for the future what concrete, steel, and plastic have been in the past.

AnnaLisa Meyboom

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The Wander Wood Pavilion was fabricated and assembled over three days to demonstrate the wide range of forms and applications timber can have when applied to robotic fabrication methods. Courtesy of David Correa

In the Fall of 2018, 15 of professor AnnaLisa Meyboom’s students at the University of British Columbia (UBC), along with David Correa at University of Waterloo, Oliver David Krieg of Intelligent City, and 22 industry participants designed and constructed the third annual Wander Wood Pavilion, a twisting, latticed timber structure made up entirely of non-identical components.

By taking advantage of the advanced fabrication resources available at the UBC Centre for Advanced Wood Processing, including a CNC mill and a multi-axis industrial robot, the project was both a learning opportunity for its design team and a demonstration to a broader public that timber is a more than viable material to which contemporary fabrication technologies can be applied. The pavilion forms a bench on one end that’s large enough for two people, a public invitation test the structure’s strength and durability for themselves.

While the pavilion only required three days to fabricate and assemble on-site, a significant amount of time and energy was spent ensuring its quick assembly when the time came. A rigorous design workflow was established that balanced an iterative design process with rapid geometric output that accounted for logical assembly sequencing. Every piece of the pavilion was then milled to interlock into place and be further secured by metal rivets.

The project was devised in part to teach students one strategy for narrowing the gap between digital design and physical fabrication while applying a novel material. In this vein, a standard industrial robot was used throughout the fabrication process that was then “set up with an integrator specifically to work on wood,” according to Meyboom.

Gilles Retsin

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Gilles Retsin and Stephan Markus Albrecht’s design for Nuremberg Concert Hall expresses the lightness of timber using 30-foot overhead CLT modules visible from the exterior.. Image© Filippo Bolognese

While Gilles Retsin, the London-based architect and professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, has long experimented with both computational design and novel methods of fabrication, a recent focus on timber has propelled his practice into a bold new direction. A giant wooden structure installed at London’s Royal Academy in early 2019, for instance, was the architect’s first attempt at applying augmented reality to modular timber construction through the use of Microsoft’s Hololens. “We used AR to send instructions directly from the digital model to the team working on-site,” Retsin explained. “AR, therefore, helps us understand what a fully-automated construction process would look like, where a digital model communicates directly with people and robots on site.”

In a recent international competition set in Nuremberg, Germany, Retsin set his sights on a much larger scale for what would have been the world’s first robotically prefabricated timber concert hall. Designed in collaboration with architect Stephan Markus Albrecht, engineering consultancy Bollinger-Grohmann, and climate engineers Transsolar and acoustic specialists Theatre Projects, the proposal takes advantage of the site’s location in a region with an abundance of timber while envisioning the material’s application to a uniquely challenging building type. The building’s form exhibits the material’s lightness using 30-foot sawtooth CLT prefabricated modules over the main lobby spaces, which are exposed from the exterior thanks to a seamless glass envelope.

“Designing in timber not only means a more sustainable future, but also has architects profoundly redesigning buildings from the ground up,” said Retsin. “It’s a challenging creative task, we’re really questioning the fundamental parts, the building blocks of architecture again.”

Casey Rehm

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A worm’s eye view of NN_House 1 reveals the back and forth between 3D neural network design and the limits of timber construction. Courtesy of Casey Rehm

For SCI-Arc professor Casey Rehm, working with timber has meant challenging many issues in the field of architecture at once. Timber is a rarely-considered building material in Los Angeles given the high time and material costs associated with its transportation and manufacturing. “Right now,” Rehm said, “the industry is manually laying up two-by-sixes into industrial presses, pressing them into panels, and then manually cutting window openings.” But if timber waste itself was adopted as a building material, he argued, the material could be far more globally cost-efficient.

While timber has been used in the construction of increasingly large structures around the world, such as multistory housing developments and office buildings, Rehm believes the material can be reasonably adapted to a smaller scale for quick deployment. In this vein, Rehm has been researching strategies with his students for producing inexpensive CLT panels for the construction of homeless housing and accessory dwelling units in Los Angeles, a city with a, particularly conspicuous housing shortage.

But aside from its potential as a cost and material-efficient material, the architect has applied timber to even his most exploratory design work. NN_House 1, a sprawling single-floor home Rehm proposed in 2018 for the desert plains of Joshua Tree, California, was designed in part using a 3D neural network to develop ambiguous divisions between rooms, as well as to blur the divide between interior and exterior. The AI was trained on the work of modernist architects—while producing idiosyncrasies of its own—to develop a living space with multiple spatial readings.

Kivi Sotamaa

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The design of the Meteorite allowed for both a monolithic exterior and an intimate interior and room for secondary spaces for installation and storage. Courtesy of Kivi Sotamaa

As an architect practicing in Finland, Kivi Sotamaa is certainly not unique in his community for his admiration of the far-reaching possibilities of timber construction. He is, however, producing novel research into its application at a domestic scale to reimagine how wood can be used as a primary material for home construction.

The Meteorite, a three-story home the architect has designed near Helsinki constructed entirely of locally-grown CLT, was designed using an organizational strategy the architect has nicknamed ‘the misfit.’ This system, as Sotamaa defines it, creates two distinct formal systems to generate room-sized interstitial spaces that simultaneously act as insulation, storage space, and housing for the building’s technical systems. “Aesthetically,” Sotamaa elaborated, “the misfit strategy allows for the creation of a large scale monolithic form on the outside, which addresses the scale of the forest, and an intricate human-scale spatial arrangement on the interior.” Altogether, the architect estimates, the home’s CLT slabs have sequestered 59,488 kilograms, or roughly 65 tons, of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The Meteorite was developed and introduced to the client using virtual reality, and Sotamaa hopes to apply other visualization technologies to the design and production of timber architecture, including augmented reality that could allow builders to view assembly instructions in real-time on site. “When the pieces are in order on-site and [with clear] instructions,” Sotamaa explained, “the assembly of the three-dimensional puzzle can happen swiftly and efficiently, saving energy and resources when compared with conventional construction processes.”