Articles by Maria Erman

As an aftermath of natural disasters, viruses and wars, in society, we often require emergency architecture. In this round-up, we explore how emergency architecture can accommodate educational needs and how it can bring together a community that has suffered social and economic hardship. 

3XN has won a competition for the design of an innovation center for health and life science companies, called “Forskaren”. Providing office spaces, restaurants, cafes, and an exhibition area, the 24,000 sqm building is designed with the highest sustainability standards in mind and will pursue LEED Platinum certification.

Zaha Hadid Architects has won a competition to design and build the new Shanghai headquarters of the China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group (CECEP). The 218,000 sqm project will be the ‘greenest’ building in the city with sustainability embedded into every aspect of its design and construction to achieve more than 90 credits in China’s exacting Three Star Green Building Rating system – the highest score for any building in Shanghai.

The opening of the 20th Serpentine Pavilion, designed by South African Studio Counterspace, has been postponed to summer 2021. “Counterspace, directed by Sumayya Vally, Sarah de Villiers and Amina Kaskar, will collaborate with the Serpentine on a series of off-site and online research projects throughout 2020, which will culminate with the opening of the Pavilion in Summer 2021,” the Serpentine Galleries announced.

While the world is on pause and we are all learning how to work from home trying to keep up with our usual productivity levels and fighting the lack of focus, we at ArchDaily want to help our readers keep their minds sharp through this challenge. One of the ways not to get absorbed in your daily routine is to make sure you have enough mental activity every day, and we have just the thing for you!

In the middle of February, we were invited to visit Ljubljana and attend the Matchmaking Conference organized by Future Architecture Platform — an organization, coordinated by Ljubljana’s Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO), that provides young talents with the opportunity to share their ideas — practical or conceptual — and meet fellow emerging architects. The three-day event gathered 25 teams from all over the world to present their projects and discuss potential collaborations.

Venice Biennale 2020, curated by Hashim Sarkis, has been postponed and will be held from August 29th through November 29th, as announced on the event’s official website. “The new dates for the Biennale Architettura have been established as a consequence of the recent precautionary measures in the matter of mobility taken by the governments of a growing number of countries around the world, which will have a domino effect on the movement of people and works in coming weeks,” states the announcement.

Seoul is considered one of the most densely-populated and over-priced cities in the world, reaching a staggering $ 80,000 per square meter. The extreme conditions of the city have forced local architects to operate, design, and build framing the city’s urban issues, traditions, and history. This approach by architects has created the the theoretical basis of “The Condition of Seoul Architecture”, a publication by multidisciplinary practice TCA Think Tank which sees the point of view of 18 innovative South Korean architects. In this interview, Pier Alessio Rizzardi, founder of the practice, interviewed Chi Min-suk of Mass Studies, explaining his point of view on ephemeral architecture and what influences the studio’s work the most.

Public Spaces are an issue all over the world — approaches to designing them differentiate across countries, while successful examples always involve heavy research and working closely with communities. At ArchDaily, we always try to explore different opinions on common issues, hoping that our input will add to the clarity of architecture debates. Read on for our best articles on the topic.

This summer, on the occasion of the annual Moscow Urban Forum, ArchDaily’s CEO David Basulto visited the Russian capital to give a talk at the event and meet with some friend of ArchDaily. Among others, David visited Strelka Institute, our dearest longtime partner and companion, and spoke with its CEO Varvara Melnikova.