A Hospice in Belgium and an Airport in NEOM: 8 Unbuilt Structures That Feature Organic Shapes Submitted by the ArchDaily Community

A Hospice in Belgium and an Airport in NEOM: 8 Unbuilt Structures That Feature Organic Shapes Submitted by the ArchDaily Community

Courtesy of VINCENT CALLEBAUT ARCHTECTURES | HospiWood

• Written by Nour Fakharany
• Published on February 05, 2024

In constantly changing industry of architectural design, the rebirth of organic shapes stands as a testament to the power of design. “Following years of linear, clean-cut, and refined spaces, curved silhouettes were revived, became one of the dominating interior design trends across the world.” Aiming to redefine the boundaries of physical spaces and conventional forms, these curves are often times inspired by nature. In fact, organic architecture symbolizes a departure from the static, reflecting the essence of our technological age.

This curated selection of the Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community that demonstrate the use of organic shapes in various forms of architecture and program use. Many times, organic architecture stands as a testament to what we are able to make in 2024, innovating in structural and material technology. From Vincent Callebaut’s HospiWood to Zomorrodi & Associates’ Cadence Art Center, these instances showcase this shift in desigin thinking. Whether its a residential villa in the United States or a resort centered around a curved pool in the Netherlands, organic architecture has been trending globally.

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Read on to discover designs that champion organic architecture submitted by the ArchDaily community, along with descriptions from the architects.

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Hospiwood

Vincent Callebaut Architecture | Belgium

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Hospiwood is a neologism composed of the Latin word “hospes” (which corresponds to the first syllable of the word hospital but also of hospitality) and the English word “wood”, considered not only as the main biobased building material for the project (designed in CLT – Cross Laminated Timber) but also as an inhabited urban forest, green and blue matrix of a new eco-district in the making.

Cadence

Zomorrodi & Associates | Saint Kitts & Nevis

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The Cadence Art Center in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis, is a recreational, commercial, and cultural project that integrates with the island’s unique culture and nature. The wavy curved shell design features various spaces, including an outdoor music hall, an amphitheater, and a gathering spot. The modular system adapts to the land shape and rotates based on the site’s orientation. The iconic open amphitheater in Saint Kitts and Nevis symbolizes the vibrant identity of the island.

NEOM Airport

Kalbod Design Studio | Saudi Arabia

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Neom Airport City embodies a visionary perspective strategically positioned to establish a robust connection between Saudi Arabia’s Neom project and the global arena. In response to the region’s communication needs, Neom Airport engages in a strategic dialogue with Saudi Line, forging a symbiotic relationship regarding accessibility and economic integration. Distinguished by its multifaceted functionality, this project is meticulously curated to align with the region’s emphasis on tourism. Beyond its primary role as an airport, Neom Airport City stands as a distinctive tourist attraction. Its museums, galleries, and exhibitions serve as compelling destinations, captivating tourists and visitors to Neom alike.

Discovery of Body: An Ode To Water

B Too | The Netherlands

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Lightly resting atop flooded polders, this semi-remote boutique hotel is characterized by its sinuous dipping wooden forms that at times flow into the water and landscape and at times arch to shelter the visitors. The overall form of the hotel is inspired by a razor-clam, a common species found in the Netherlands, and specifically the way in which it’s hard-distinct shell rests on sand and dunes, sometimes jutting out and sometimes blending with the sand.

Haven Villa

Vangood Designs | United States

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The Haven Villa, nestled by the canal, amidst lush greenery, and designed with climate-consciousness, offers an exceptional Florida living experience. This modern architectural marvel redefines contemporary living through its creative use of curved lines, expansive windows, a stunning pool, travertine accents, a cascading waterfall wall, and an embrace of nature. More than a mere residence, it’s a masterpiece beckoning residents into a realm where modernity and nature harmoniously coexist.

Toronto Innovation District

Kalbod Design Studio | Canada

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Located in the district-based developed city of Toronto, the Media and innovation center is carefully sited close to similar culture and entertainment-based districts to connect with the existing buildings in functional and physical ways. By addressing social resiliency in this area, the project is designed to become a suitable place for everyone, providing an exciting space for learning, practicing, performing, and exploring. To ensure this concept will extend to the form of the buildings and evoke a sense of curiosity, they are designed organically to become an eye catcher among the cube-shaped neighboring buildings. Inspired by the cross sections of nationally loved maple trees, the buildings take organic forms with open and green spaces on the upper levels mimicking the dark spots visible on cross sections of dead maple trees. These shapes get reduced by the size as they get closer to the sea surface where they will be placed on bearing pilots reaching deep into the water.

Saya Villa

Team Group | Iran

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A culture of behavior was formed that is very simple, governed and limited in relationships outside the family, and very bold, dynamic and homogenous within the family. The process of forming the project is such that with the external layer of the project, it observes a calm and regular relationship with the audience, and the central core of the project induces intimacy, dynamism and companionship through filing and emptying as well as soft curves.

Villa Earth

Vrantsi Architects | Greece

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The Villa provides an unparalleled experience, where the private harbor seamlessly intertwines with the pool, creating a unique typology that sets it apart. The innovative design not only captivates with its futuristic yacht-like structure but also immerses residents in a one-of-a-kind aquatic ambiance. Imagine enjoying the azure waters directly accessible from your private sanctuary, blurring the boundaries between luxury living and the natural beauty. The inclusion of lush rooftop greenery elevates eco-consciousness and overall aesthetic appeal.

HOW TO SUBMIT AN UNBUILT PROJECT

We highly appreciate the input from our readers and are always happy to see more projects designed by them. If you have an Unbuilt project to submit, click here and follow the guidelines. Our curators will review your submission and get back to you in case it is selected for a feature.

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Changing Iconography of Ecclesiastical Architecture: 20 Examples of Contemporary Stained Glass in Churches

Changing Iconography of Ecclesiastical Architecture: 20 Examples of Contemporary Stained Glass in Churches

Luoyuan Anglican Church. Image © Shikai, Dengxie Xiang, INUCE

• Written by James Wormald
• Published on January 31, 2024

Whatever religion we classify ourselves as – or even if we actively renounce or denounce organized religion in all its forms – the one aspect of Christianity those in predominantly Christian countries are touched by at some point in their lives, is the classical aesthetic of church architecture.

Whether we actively attend church multiple times a week, begrudgingly once or twice a year, or once every ten years for one of life’s trinity of events: births, deaths, and marriages, while there we’re struck by the soaring arches, intricate stonework, and, on a sunny day, the spiritual beauty and colorful rainbows of light that stream through stained glass windows.

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Intended to represent the light of God entering our lives, the design and placement of a church’s windows are key to the palpable spirituality in the cavernous interior of an ancient church interior. Meanwhile, church windows that feature colorful ‘stained’ glass combine light with artistic beauty and movement, further highlighting this comforting presence.

With huge walls and equally oversized pillars required to bear their weight, early stained glass windows in churches were relatively small. However, when the soaring arches and wide buttresses we identify with church and cathedral architecture today became more prevalent, windows far larger in size gave light a more commanding presence.

Rather than a gloomy, suffocating scene, a brighter and more joyful nave made churches more welcoming settings for anyone in search of either spiritual or physical assistance. So when glass-makers found that the electrons of various oxides added to the glass mixture would absorb light at different wavelengths, they began to form recipes for casting glass sheets in a full spectrum of colors.

By cutting these sheets of colored glass into shape, placing them onto a sketched drawing (vidimus), connecting them together with the strength and flexibility of lead, and finally by painting black enamel onto the glass as detail and shading to accurately depict hands, faces, and fabric – complex scenes could be illustrated in glass.

With churches across Europe gradually aging close to 1,000 years a variety of architectural vulnerabilities like crumbling walls, weather-damaged roofs, and ineffective heating systems mean many are in urgent need of restoration if not full renovation. However artistic features like the ornate stonework and stained glass windows are more regularly restored and/or replicated rather than replaced.

With church attendance in a gradual but steady decline across the past century in both the US and across Europe, many restored, renovated, or newly built churches and their leaders have chosen to focus on the areas of the Christian faith that align with the modern world like wellness and inclusivity. By omitting much of the religious iconography and bible-based depictions evident in traditional stained glass artworks while retaining the bright and engaging colors, contemporary church interiors are rebranding themselves for younger, more humanist-leaning churchgoers. Highlighting their position as spaces where everyone regardless of age, wealth, gender, and even religion and faith are welcomed and treated equally.

The original stained glass windows used lead to hold multiple sections together, protecting against the extremes of weather and temperature by rubbing a mixture of lead, lime, and linseed oil into the joints. But instead of relying on ancient stonework and other materials to retain their airtight seal across centuries, church buildings can ensure they provide welcoming communal spaces that are bright, dry, and warm by encasing their colorful stained glass behind stronger glass panels or facades. The use of a double-skin facade also means additional light sources directed through stained glass windows can bring the church interior to life, even at night.

Instead of using the color of stained glass, meanwhile, it’s worth pointing out other ways in which architects can creatively shape light entering a church, while still highlighting its presence. By changing the shape and formation of the windows where the sun enters the building during services, church interiors can either be filled with soul-grabbing iconic representations such as crosses, or recreate the dappled effect of organically filtered light with perforated facades.

These newly-built, renovated, and restored church buildings are filled either with colorful or sculpted light:

Churches with Small Stained Glass Windows

Ancestral Church of Fraião / Nuno Ferreira Capa | arquitectura e design

Meditation Chapel / Lee Eunseok + Lee Eunseok + Atelier KOMA

M. Y. Village Baptist Church / JYCArchitect + DVDAssociates

Mary Immaculate Parish Hall / Equipo Olivares Arquitecto

Restored, Renovated or Replicated Stained Glass Church Windows

Church of the Major Seminar of the Pontifical University of Comillas Integral Renovation / Fernandez-Abascal + Muruzabal + Alonso and Barrientos + UP Arquitectos

Renovation of St. Martha’s Church in Nürnberg / Florian Nagler Architekten

Canadian Museum in a Church / Provencher_Roy

Church of St. Georg in Hebertshausen / Heim Kutscher Architekten und Stadtplaner

Modern Churches with Contemporary Stained Glass Window Artwork

Jinan Changzhuang Church / Archipoetry Studio

Church St. Fidelis in Stuttgart / Schleicher ragaller Architekten

Bethnal Green Mission Church / Gatti Routh Rhodes Architects

Liulin Catholic Church / Leeko Studio

Domenico Albasini Santander – MJA Arquitectura y construcción

Double-Skin Facades Bringing Churches to Life

Luoyuan Anglican Church / INUCE • Dirk U. Moench

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Team / atelierjones

Mortensrud church / Jensen & Skodvin Architects

Using Natural Uncoloured Light to Fill Churches with Modern Beauty

Pueblo Serena Church / Moneo Brock Studio

Parish Church in Brácana / Fresnel & Zamora Arquitectura

The Holy Redeemer Church and Community Centre of Las Chambers / Fernando Menis

Parish Church of the Celestial Queen / 4 plus Építész Stúdió

Find these church buildings with stained or shaped glass and facades in this ArchDaily folder created by the author.

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Nelson Mandela’s personal items under the hammer in New York? Why it outraged some, and what’s at stake

Published: January 30, 2024 12.25pm SAST

Author

1. Duane Jethro Lecturer Department of African Studies and Linguistics, University of Cape Town

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The Conversation is funded by the National Research Foundation, eight universities, including the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Rhodes University, Stellenbosch University and the Universities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Pretoria, and South Africa. It is hosted by the Universities of the Witwatersrand and Western Cape, the African Population and Health Research Centre and the Nigerian Academy of Science. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a Strategic Partner. more

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Nelson Mandela revisiting his cell at Robben Island prison. The image was sold to support his charitable causes. Louise Gubb/Corbis via Getty Images

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An identity document, a pair of reading glasses, a hearing aid and a pair of worn shoes. These are just some of Nelson Mandela’s personal items that were due to go on auction on 22 February 2024. A month before the auction was due, the New York-based Guernsey’s auction house put a notice on its website that it was suspending the sales. No explanation was given.

The initial news of the auction caused outrage. South African government officials, commentators on South African social media, and even members of the family of South Africa’s late former president expressed shocked disbelief.

In December 2021 the auction published an auction catalogue – subsequently removed on 30 January 2024 – promoting many personal items, as well as the key to Mandela’s cell on Robben Island, where he was imprisoned for 18 years for his opposition to apartheid. Makaziwe Mandela, Mandela’s daughter, who consigned the items for auction, stated that proceeds from the sale would go towards the building of a memorial garden in Qunu, the rural settlement where he was born.

On 23 December 2021, the UK Daily Mail published a sensational news item reporting that the key was expected to fetch £1 million (US1.27 million).

Our mission is to share knowledge and inform decisions.

The South African Heritage Resources Agency, which coordinates the identification and management of national heritage, learned of the auction through the report. It contacted the auction house, ordering it to stop the auction immediately. It claimed that the items were heritage objects and that they had been exported from South Africa without the relevant permits.

Makaziwe Mandela responded, arguing that the items were her private possessions.

The South African Heritage Resources Agency, the Robben Island Museum and the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture took the case to the Pretoria High Court. The court found that the items weren’t heritage objects because, among other things, the language that describes a “heritage object” that the state was arguing for was too broad.

Heritage is always contested. The state, the nation, private individuals and the market often have competing stakes in making claims to – and about – the cultural value that heritage holds. At times courts are enlisted to mediate such disputes.

Many South Africans have a strong personal relationship with Mandela. The outrage directed against the proposed auction can be traced to the personal and intimate nature of the items. And the fact that their sale feels like transgressing a moral boundary of familial respect.

In addition, given his political stature at home and globally, there are many who feel the auction crossed a cultural boundary. The items being put on the block are special for the nation and are tied to the post-apartheid story of the struggle for freedom and democracy.

This value is intuitively understood as heritage.

As a scholar of the cultural construction of heritage and contested public culture, I find this dispute a fascinating illustration of the shifting dynamics of heritage adjudication after 30 years of democracy. Where once heritage was about reconciliation and nation building, it is ever more about struggles over ownership, private property, cultural value and economic gain.

Judgment

The Pretoria High Court handed down its judgment on the basis of the facts brought before it.

In its arguments before the court the South African Heritage Resources Agency quoted sections of, among others, the National Heritage Resources Act, which protects heritage objects, or things deemed as such on the basis of their

association with political processes, events and figures and leaders in South Africa.

But in its judgment, the court found that definition the state wanted for heritage status was

so overbroad that just about anything that President Mandela touched or is associated with, or related to him, can be considered a heritage object.

It asked how these items could be termed heritage items while the “tens of hundreds of Springbok Rugby jerseys or ruling party attire autographed by Nelson Mandela on the campaign trail” were not.

The justices also inferred that items should have extraordinary qualities of great national significance for them to be registered as heritage objects. The Mandela items, many of which were as ordinary as reading glasses and his hearing aids, did not seem to meet that criterion.

Yet, there is a precedent for such use, such as Mandela’s red Mercedes displayed at the Apartheid Museum. Objects telling meaningful stories have also been curated and displayed at the museum marking the place at which Nelson Mandela was once captured.

Nevertheless, it was for these reasons that the items were not declared heritage objects.

Contested terrain

Concern about the heritage value of the items is well founded. By definition it raises questions about the South African Heritage Resources Agency and its role as a custodian of national heritage.

Possession comes with all kinds of responsibilities of care and public education. In making its case, the agency did not present a custodial plan including an assessment of the items, the museums to which they would go once they were repatriated and the exhibitions and educational projects they would potentially be used for.

There was also no mention of how costs for this curatorial custodianship would be carried.

Without any of this the question arises: if we believe that these objects do belong to the nation under the South African Heritage Resources Agency’s care, what benchmarks can be used to assess its ability to effectively manage and publicise Nelson Mandela’s legacy?

On the other hand, it’s not entirely clear that these items should be available for private sale either, even if it is to contribute to the social good of memorialisation. Could they not have been better used as displays in the memorial garden in Qunu, and then create a sustainable heritage tourism attraction, for example?

After Mandela’s death in 2013, the organisations responsible for managing his legacy continued to endorse commercial ventures of a charitable kind or with some form of social good.

The case shows how the dynamics of struggle and dispute have shifted in ways that lean more towards narratives that privilege the idea of heritage as private property linked to public good. No more is the struggle so much about transformation of the heritage landscape.

This trend can be traced back to Nelson Mandela’s own participation in the marketing of his legacy for charitable ventures. During his life he used his legacy for charitable causes, endorsing products, producing artworks and donating personal items for a variety of charitable ventures.

This change is also connected to the attrition of the state’s authority to articulate persuasive claims over things that belong to the nation. And its unclear role in promoting them for deepening the national story. For if these objects were of great national significance then surely the South African Heritage Resources Agency would have registered and classified them a long time ago. And they would be put to good use in commemorative projects befitting Nelson Mandela’s legacy in Qunu and beyond.

• South Africa
• Nelson Mandela
• Robben Island

Ghana’s looted Asante gold comes home (for now) – Asante ruler’s advisor tells us about the deal After 150 years, 39 artefacts that form part of Asante’s royal regalia are due to return to the Asantehene (ruler of the Asante people) in Kumasi, Ghana, in February and April this year. The Asante empire was the largest and most powerful in the region in the 18th century and controlled an area that was rich in gold. Many of the gold royal artefacts were looted by British troops during the third Anglo-Asante war of 1874 (Sagrenti War).

https://images.theconversation.com/files/572107/original/file-20240130-19-kktxv0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop

The first collection of seven objects is expected from the Fowler Museum at the University of California in Los Angeles. The second collection of 32 will arrive from the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum in the UK. These artefacts are being loaned to the Asante people for six years. Archaeologist and Ghana heritage specialist Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann spoke to the Asantehene’s technical advisor for the project, historian and museum economist Ivor Agyeman-Duah, about the journey to return the items and its implications for cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums.

What are these objects and how did they leave Asante?

They were royal regalia that was looted in 1874 from the palace in Kumasi after the sacking of the city by British colonial military troops. There was another a punitive expedition in 1896 which led to further looting. They included ceremonial swords and ceremonial cups, some of them very important in terms of a palace’s measurement of royalty. For instance, the Mponponsuo sword, created 300 years ago, dates back to the legendary Okomfo (spiritual leader) linked with the founding of the empire, Okomfo Anokye. This sword is what the Asantehene used to swear the oath of allegiance to his people. Chiefs used the same sword to swear their oaths to the Asantehene.

Some of the items were sold at auction on the open market in London; art collectors bought them and eventually donated some of them to museums (some were kept in private collections). The British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum also bought some of them.

Our mission is to share knowledge and inform decisions.

However, not every item you see at the British Museum was looted. For instance, there were cultural exchanges between the Asantehene Osei Bonsu and T.E. Bowdich, an emissary of the African Company of Merchants who travelled to Kumasi in 1817 to negotiate trade. Some gifts were given to Bowdich, who deposited them at the British Museum later on. There were 14 of these items.

How was the agreement reached?

The issue has been on the drawing board for half a century. It’s not just an immediate concern of the current Asantehene. It has been a concern of the last three occupants of the stool (throne). But this year is critical because it marks 150 years since the Sagrenti War. It also marks 100 years since the return of the Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh after his exile in Seychelles and 25 years since the current Asantehene, Oseu Tutu II, ascended the stool.

So, while in London in May 2023, after having official discussions with directors of these museums, he reopened discussions and negotiations. He asked me and Malcolm McLeod, former curator and scholar at the British Museum and vice-principal at the University of Glasgow, to help in the technical decisions that would be made. We’ve been working on this for the past nine months.

Why is it a six year loan and not an outright return?

The moral right to ownership does exist. But there are also the laws of antiquity in the UK. The Victoria & Albert and the British Museum are national museums. They are governed by very strict laws which do not permit de-accessioning or permanently removing a work of art or other object from a museum’s collection to sell it or otherwise dispose of it.

That had always been the constraining factor over the last 50 years. But there was also a way that we could have these items for a maximum of six years. Not all the objects are being exhibited at the British Museum. Many have never been exhibited and lie in storage in a warehouse.

Based on the circumstances and the trinity of anniversaries, we came to an agreement. Discussions will however continue between us and these museums to find a lasting agreement.

Of course, the Ghana experience will be important for restitution claims from other countries in Africa.

What does this mean to the Asante people – and Ghana?

The fact that over the last couple of months we were able to reach some form of agreement for this to happen is testimony of the interest in multicultural agreements.

Any set of objects that is 150 years old (or older) will be of interest to many people. Such artefacts help us to connect the past with the present. They are significant for how our people were, in terms of creativity and technology, how they were able to use gold and other artistic properties. They are also something that will inspire those who are in the craft of gold production today.

Manhiya Palace Museum reopens this year in April. The exhibition of these objects is going to increase visitor attendance at the museum. It receives about 80,000 visitors a year and we estimate that it could rise to 200,000 a year with the return of these objects. This will generate revenue and allow us to expand and develop our own museums.

• History
• Art
• Britain
• Gold Coast
• Ghana
• Artefacts
• Art collectors
• British Museum
• Museum
• Colonial history
• Kumasi
• Looted artefacts

How AI Will Make Everyone a Better Designer: For Better or Worse

How AI Will Make Everyone a Better Designer: For Better or Worse

The Museum of Temporal Delight. This image was created, in Midjourney, using 5 language prompts and a few small refinements. Image Courtesy of John Marx/ Form4 Architecture

• Written by John Marx, AIA
• Published on January 24, 2024

This article is the seventh in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints.

In so many ways the introduction of AI software has created a sense that we live in a world predicted by science fiction novels. We commonly have rested on the assumption that computers will never be capable of designing. That time has now arrived, and with it comes an opportunity to confront the positives and negatives these new technologies offer.

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AI-based design software has the potential to dramatically increase design quality produced by the profession of architecture, it will be especially effective in elevating the average design firm’s quality due to three trends that have evolved in the way we design over the past 60 years.

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First, we have deepened our reliance on and confidence in language-based conceptualization in design. Second, we have, as a profession, moved with great effort towards collaborative design practice models. Third, there is a greater demand for design that responds to human needs for emotional resonance. Currently available AI software is particularly strong in supporting these trends in design, and we can reasonably expect future software to be an even more powerful accessory.

What remains to be seen is if this is ultimately a good or a bad thing. There will be significant tradeoffs. How we, as a profession, prioritize or even define “design quality”, the role of the human touch, or the importance of vision, will very much be central to an analysis of how we use these tools, and how we want to evolve further as a profession in the service of humanity, and perhaps in the service of all living things and systems. This applies to both the tools and the trends.

1- Language-Based Design

There was a time when the balance between concept and form favored the subjective. Architects saw themselves as artists or as an applied art. Modernism fundamentally challenged this by placing a much-needed emphasis on concept and “the big idea”.

Venturi criticized “picturesque” designs in Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture as superficial. We raised the priority of problem-solving. In this sense, we might see the first hundred years of modernism as moving towards an architecture of abstraction and ideas. This rebalancing vastly improved the profession’s ability to deliver practical and useful buildings. But along the way, we moved towards a language-based design process, and away from a form-based visual process. We now rally around “Giving form to ideas”.  This shift has also resulted in a greater emphasis on objective analysis and values while downplaying if not being deeply suspicious of subjective values. The verbal is a natural format for AI-based design.

We have also shifted our design process from a handmade analog one utilizing sketching, physical models, and perspectives towards a nearly digital one embracing 3D modeling (e.g., FormZ/Revit) and rendering (e.g., Lumion/V-Ray). In all of these a human still crafts form. Recently Generative Design software (e.g., grasshopper) allowed for equation-based form-making, which initiated a curation-based process. This has now evolved into Ai (e.g., Midjourney) sketching, where Ai crafts the form, based on natural language prompts. One can see a future coming very soon where Ai crafts form in a 3D model format and the design team’s role is primarily one of curation.

Currently, there is a wide disconnect between the words we conceptualize and the forms we create. An AI-based design process will challenge us to ensure a greater “fit” between these two, as we will be able to immediately see the results when we change or refine the words we use to prompt a design outcome. In an AI-driven process, we will only be as good as the words we use to dream, and the resulting forms we curate. Words and concepts are much easier to collaborate on than the subjective aspects of form.

2- Collaborative Models

For the last many centuries architecture has largely followed a “Heroic” model, of the sole visionary, most often male, who creates inspiring forms without the help of others. In truth it has never been this simple, considering the legions of people required to design and construct buildings and cities. Over the last 60 years, we have philosophically shifted towards collaborative models.

I sense that we are in the middle phase of understanding the potential of collaborative models. There is still much work to do. Ultimately, we may want to explore the efficacy of embracing Vision + Collaboration, through understanding the value and constraints of each approach. In a horizontal collaborative model, everyone wants to participate, and anyone can be a designer. There are limitations to this goal, but AI may be able to provide significant assistance here.

One of AI’s great strengths is that it can function as “A pencil without an agenda”. Even within a highly collaborative setting, “The person who holds the pencil, or the mouse, controls the design”. When a human holds this agency there is an implied or implicit agenda. There is no personality conflict with an Ai pencil, an Ai pencil does not have a dominant or submissive personality. AI functions to provide as many options as requested, and it has proven to be able to do this at rates that far exceed those of a human. In highly collaborative settings, generating multiple options quickly and cost-effectively is critical to getting appropriate feedback from the group. In an analog setting, one might expect 1-3 ideas to be explored over 1-2 weeks, depending on team size.

An AI-based design process can generate 20-30+ options in that same time frame. This allows a wider range of voices and ideas to be considered, and with greater detail, before the design window closes. This will reinforce a culture of curation, which is already a fundamental aspect of a collaborative process. At the same time, this will create a significantly wider gap between “human” vision and the form-making abilities of the machine.  It will call into question what is “Original Content”, but in a collaborative setting, that concept is inherently set aside.  We will need to judge whether building as a machine concept, rather than the quirky eccentricities of human touch, is a good or bad thing.

3- Emotional resonance

• AI can help raise the quality of the average architect’s ability to be an effective designer.
• AI draws on a wider database and can be programmed to value and prioritize specific cultures and their formal references. It can “pander” or be more disciplined, depending on the words that are input.
• AI synthesizes form based on the library of images that are provided to it. It currently does not make qualitative judgments, but rather the quality is affected by the level of curation given by the people who assemble the database. 
• AI draws primarily on these references. Imagine a deep rich library of design references that include items you have never seen but are of a very high quality. AI can draw on those references and create what is unexpected to you and perhaps the whole team.

The downside is AI currently does not “innovate” in the same way humans do. Many people have challenged whether Ai can create “original” content. It does however create odd and eccentric combinations that in some ways mimic human design patterns. My experience with AI-driven content is that it can be consistently “lovable” to the general public, it generally creates emotionally resonant designs. Often in ways that an average designer might not think of. Most of the 50s and 60s-based futuristic designs I have seen from programs like Midjourney are quite compelling and are intensely popular on social media. This will allow us a better set of tools with which to design towards the public’s interest.

4- The Human Touch

This discussion about AI provokes many additional questions of profound importance. Perhaps, relative to the design of architecture, one of the most salient is the issue of “Vision”. Currently “vision” is often seen as the quirky and uniquely human synthesis of form and ideas that are unusual and unexpected, they create innovation (something not seen before) or the brilliant harmonizing of disparate things compellingly (things combined in a way not done before).

I tend, as an artist, to look at Art as the act of sharing your humanity through an expressive medium. Others might take the view that Art is the experience of content in an expressive medium.  Most critically, the viewer is important to both statements. This is a variation of a time-honored philosophical paradox: “If the viewer cannot tell the difference, does it matter how the design was created, or which one is more valid?”

On a deeply personal level, it still matters to me. I still crave the human touch. I am still inspired by the visionary, by the unexpected, and value the poetry of the human condition, in all of its compromised glories. It is in how we navigate and respond to the human condition, where the sweet spot happens, where memorable art and architecture are created. In most things that get built, we don’t allow ourselves the indulgence, to express this in architecture. Until we are willing to return to that, perhaps AI can help.

How Ai Will Make Everyone a Better Designer: For Better or Worse is written by architectJohn Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, an award-winning San Francisco-based firm that designs prominent buildings, campuses, and interiors for Bay Area tech companies such as Google and Facebook, laboratories for life-science clients, and workplaces for numerous other companies. In 2000-2007, Marx taught a course on the topic of placemaking in cyberspace at the University of California, Berkley, and in 2020 he designed his first project in the Metaverse for Burning Man: The Museum of No Spectators. The following year, John Marx led a design team charged with creating a $500B portal to the Metaverse.

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10 of Archello’s most read Detail articles of 2023

21 Dec 2023  •  News  •  By Gerard McGuickin

Archello’s editorial pages showcase a vast array of architectural projects, in all categories, shapes, and sizes, from across the world. For Archello, architectural detailing is a key aspect of the platform’s approach to understanding both architecture and design. Archello’s “Detail” news section offers the reader an insight into the nuances behind a project’s design and execution. The articles, in the main, focus on materiality — the materials used in the construction of a building — and explore a range of material innovations, technological advances, and construction systems. These thoughtful and informative pieces seek to uncover the architect’s thinking behind a project, asking why a particular material was chosen and what makes it unique, how it was utilized and what problems it was attempting to solve.

Here, we present ten of Archello’s most read Detail articles in 2023. They provide an example of the scope of the platform’s exacting approach to architecture and design. With the festive season upon us, it’s an opportunity to catch up on pieces you might have missed or to explore new projects.

A balanced carbon-based design for The Arbor House

Jim Stephenson

Designed by Aberdeenshire-based architectural studio Brown & Brown, The Arbor House combines conventional, low-emission, and bio-based building materials to achieve an effective reduction in embodied and operational carbon. Read more.

Bamboo structure of the Arc at Green School Bali

Tommaso Riva

Bali-based architectural studio Ibuku completed a billowing lightweight shell that covers a multipurpose sports court on a school campus in Abiansemal, Indonesia. The intricate roof is made entirely from bamboo. Read more.

Cork facade of Corkscrew House, Berlin

Gui Rebelo

Berlin-based rundzwei Architekten designed a private home with a facade and roof clad in panels of cork sourced from Portugal. Read more.

Engineered timber structure of The Black & White Building

Ed Reeve

London-based Waugh Thistleton Architects designed The Black & White Building. Described as an expression of “pure modernism”, it is London’s tallest engineered timber office building. Read more.

Mass timber of Lea Bridge Library, London

Jim Stephenson

London-based Studio Weave completed a single-story, 250-square-meter public library extension that makes use of a mass timber primary structure. The post-and-beam system partially cantilevers over a protected site and supports a full-height glass facade. Read more.

Mass timber structure of the Bjergsted Financial Park

Sindre Ellingsen

A bank headquarters in southern Norway, designed by Norwegian architectural studio Helen & Hard, is one of the largest wooden buildings in Europe. The primary mass timber structure of 13,200 square meters is a holistic composition of several wood products and species, chosen on the basis of their geometries and structural capabilities. Read more.

Photovoltaic roof of Google Bay View Campus, Mountain View

Iwan Baan

International firm BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group and London-based Heatherwick Studio completed a triplet of lightweight, long-span structures for the technology company Google. The buildings feature concave roofs clad in 50,000 photovoltaic panels. Read more.

Planted facade of Jakob Factory Ho Chi Minh

Oki Hiroyuki

Architectural studios rollimarchini and G8A designed a factory in Vietnam with three linear kilometers of stacked, green planters about its perimeter to naturally cool the building. Read more.

Rammed earth walls of Casa Ballena, Los Cabos

Rafael Gamo

Mexican architecture firm RIMA Design Group completed a design-build project for an arts center consisting of several connected structures made from rammed earth. (Casa Ballena is also pictured in the top image.) Read more.

Red brick and vaulted ceilings scrum together in the International Rugby Experience

Nick Kane

Designed by London-based Níall McLaughlin Architects, the International Rugby Experience in the Irish city of Limerick is a seven-story predominantly brick building. Its architecture reflects some of the forces found in the game of rugby. Read more.

Vinyl Flooring: An Affordable and Versatile Option for Your Construction

Vinyl Flooring: An Affordable and Versatile Option for Your Construction

JS Apartment / EB Arquitetos. Image: © Joana França

• Written by ArchDaily Team | Translated by Diogo Simões
• Published on January 01, 2024

One of the most popular choices in the construction market, vinyl flooring has various characteristics that have elevated it to this level. Composed mainly of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) – and with other additives, depending on its production, such as plasticizers, fiberglass, resins, and/or minerals – it is a durable, affordable, and easily installable material that can be applied in a variety of environments.

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Vinyl flooring is available in tiles, planks, and rolls, which can be installed either as floating (without adhesive) or directly glued to the floor surface – be it concrete subfloors, plywood, or other existing floor types – as long as it is leveled and smooth, which ensures a quick and cost-effective installation process.

Depending on the quality of the material, vinyl tends to exhibit good resistance to impacts, stains, and scratches. These qualities enhance its cost-effectiveness compared to other flooring options such as porcelain tiles or wooden planks. Ensuring enduring durability and optimal performance requires a focus on the quality of the material and a meticulous installation process.

Regarding comfort, vinyl flooring offers a warmer and softer feel underfoot compared to other flooring types like tiles or stones. Additionally, it tends to absorb sound, reducing noise and providing a quieter acoustic experience. Another noteworthy aspect is its water resistance, allowing for use in kitchens and bathrooms. However, it’s important to note that these areas should have good ventilation and natural light to prevent the material from molding.

Moreover, vinyl offers a variety of styles, patterns, and colors, allowing it to simulate the appearance of natural materials such as wood, stone, or ceramic, and even various graphic designs, which provide numerous options to complement the environment and create a unique atmosphere.

For sustainable purposes, it is essential to investigate the specific type of vinyl flooring chosen and its production methods. The production of PVC, its main component, may involve chemicals and processes that raise environmental concerns. Nevertheless, recycling options for the product exist, although they may not be widely accessible or straightforward at present. Therefore, it is crucial to seek manufacturers with environmental certifications and ensure that the material has good durability and a long lifespan, reducing the need for frequent replacements.

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The Bathroom Behind the Bed: 8 Bedrooms With Integrated Bathrooms

The Bathroom Behind the Bed: 8 Bedrooms With Integrated Bathrooms

Casa Hualle / Ampuero Yutronic. Image © Felipe Fontecilla

• Written by José Tomás Franco
• Published on December 02, 2023

Unlike classical architecture, characterized by a series of rooms with very defined functions and spaces, the current architectural design seeks to integrate spaces to achieve high degrees of adaptability and flexibility. In this way, the boundaries of the enclosures are blurred and new solutions appear that are worth analyzing. In the case of bedrooms, bathrooms are often no longer a small and secluded adjoining room – instead, they are now integrated to form a multifunctional space that is subtly concealed. Just like Mies van der Rohe, who used to group services in strategic areas to create open floors, let’s review some cases that have adopted the specific solution of the hidden bathroom just behind the bed.

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In the case of the Casa Hualle by Ampuero Yutronic, the same wall that faces the bed allows the bathroom to be hidden with double access, serving as support for the sinks and the mirror, located at the back. Clad in light wood, like the rest of the room, the bathroom remains concealed but highly integrated, including a bathtub with views of the landscape, a shower, and a private toilet. The separating wall doesn’t reach the ceiling and the floor is made of the same material, integrating even more all the designed spaces.

The Wilderness House by Archterra Architects features a continuous circulation around its perimeter, hiding the bathroom behind the low wall that faces the landscape with its back to the main bed. Unlike the previous case, this white wall is separated into two parts: a storage area and a curved space that includes a shower and a bathtub. Behind, the sinks and other supporting furniture are located, while the WC has been separated into a small adjoining cabin, to prevent odors from infiltrating into the bedroom.

The project for the AW Residence by andramatin includes two mirrored bedrooms with hidden bathrooms behind their beds. In this case, the wall allows the installation of sinks and storage, and the toilet and shower have been separated in an opaque glass cabin. Here, the wall is much thinner than those used in the previous cases, but it reaches the full height of the space.

Hufft Projects’ Heavy Metal house takes advantage of the space behind the bed to create a large bathroom space, including a sink, a walk-in closet, and a shower that opens into an interior patio. The wall that separates them reaches the full height of the space and is cladded with wood towards the bedroom. The WC is also located separately, in a closed cabin.

MAPA’s MINIMOD Catuçaba project, as a prefabricated and minimal-scale house, uses this solution to make the most of the square meters of the house. The bed has its back to a volume that contains storage, a sink, and a toilet, and that separates the bedroom from the kitchen and the living room. To avoid unwanted odors, two sliding doors have been arranged that allow the bathroom to be opened and closed, providing greater privacy to its users.

Taking advantage of the freedoms that hotel design provides, at the VISAYA Hotel by ATDESIGN this strategy has been pushed to the limit. The white wall facing away from the bed conceals the sink, storage, a WC, and a glazed shower, while a sculptural bathtub is fully freed and arranged in a corner of the room, providing spectacular views of the surrounding landscape.

In Substance Architecture’s 322 Reinvented home, the entire wall is transformed into a multifunctional space, including storage, a glass shower in the center, and a mirrored sink on the backside. The bathtub and toilet are located in two separate cabins, one on each side of this central wall.

For the mixed-use project Nanyang 5Lmeet by DAGA Architects, three micro-apartments have been designed using the same strategy as the previous cases. Here, the warm wooden wall allows luminaires to be incorporated towards the bed while hiding a WC and a shower in the center, and a sink and furniture on its sides, both of which are visible.

Check out more open restrooms here.

MYJ House / BodinChapa Architects

MYJ House / BodinChapa Architects

© Rungkit Charoenwat

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• Curated by Hana Abdel

Houses

•

Bangkok, Thailand

Architects: BodinChapa Architects Area:  300 m² Year:  2021

Photographs:Rungkit Charoenwat

Manufacturers:  Ekoblok, Lamptitude, SCG, SYS, Thai metal aluminium, Tostem, itdang

• Lead Architects: Bodin Mueanglue, Phitchapa Lothong
• Contractors: CHANITAT Co.,Ltd

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Text description provided by the architects. This city home is in a residential area in Prawet district, Bangkok. It was designed in a relatively limited land area. The form of the land is at the corner of the road, which helps make the house in the south and east-ventilated areas. However, it opens up perspectives that neighbors can easily look into because it is an area with quite dense housing. The building’s form must help reduce heat from the sun’s rays on the south side, which is on the left side of the land and must be able to create privacy from neighboring buildings surrounded by surrounding buildings so that the homeowner’s lifestyle is private and meets the owners’ usability requirement as much as possible.

Basic designs are based on the direction of the sunlight. The heat and seasonal wind affect the building and are the starting point for organizing the inside function. The architects created this unique architectural style that would block the heat from the south to entering the main living space, selecting the kitchen, laundry room, and staircases as the areas that receive the natural light and help to reduce the heat entering the central resting area of the house as much as possible, including designing the space to be able to be used to the maximum in a limited area and according to the legal principles, resulting in a design to push the wall in some parts as necessary to be able to legally open the light way. Set back from the land’s line, every house function can receive the natural light and ventilation well.

The building’s shape on the south side is influenced by the oblique lines from the angle of the stairs to the second and third floors inside the house. Therefore, the architects designed the roof’s angle to match the stairs’ angle, creating a unique building shape from the lines. The slanted wall is sharpened by exposed brick material, which is designed to have a façade wall of exposed bricks arranged in a semi-opaque, semi-transparent pattern connecting the brick wall on the south side, bordering the pool area and the edible garden that the architects have arranged on the ground floor to meet at the front of the house in the east side to reduce views from neighbors on both sides and help to prevent the heat entering the inside spaces. It completes the building style and meets the owners’ requirement to use bricks as the main material of their home.

The architects picked these materials into materials that tell the identity of the owners and chose to use bricks in areas that can best convey the special qualities of the materials inside and outside the building. In addition, the stairs help to create the overall shape of the building. They also help protect it like a heat barrier. The interior of the stairwell was designed so that the stairs have solid sections at the entrance to the 2nd floor and chose to use translucent materials at the steps to the 3rd floor to allow natural light from the translucent roof above the stairs to shine on the lowest set of stairs. To help keep this part of the walkway bright during the daytime, greatly reducing energy use.

The inside of the house was designed to be open and airy. The function on the first floor is the living room. The dining area and kitchen are designed so that each function is an open area connected to each other by lowering the floor level. The living room helps to separate the space from each other. The central area of the house corresponds to the dining area. There is an open floor on the 2nd floor to connect the spaces on each floor so that they can be connected, yet each zone still creates privacy for those who use that area. Because the two homeowners have different lifestyles and hobbies, they need a private corner when they want to separate and do their own missions and can connect at the desired time. The top wall on the third floor that corresponds to the central hall and the master bedroom on the west have a horizontal skylight design that makes the central area of the house look like a sundial in the afternoon until just before sunset. Light drives the space to have movement and playfulness that changes momentarily. It can be said that this house was designed with a balance in planning for using the land area to suit the building area, including choosing to both protect and make appropriate use of nature.

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Beyond Red: Architecture With Gray and Black Bricks

Beyond Red: Architecture With Gray and Black Bricks

China Resources Archives Library / Studio Link-Arc. Image © Shengliang Su

• Written by Eduardo Souza
• Published on November 12, 2023

Pink Floyd’s song “Another brick in the wall” criticizes an alienating and demotivating educational system. People, or children, are portrayed as bricks due to their homogeneity, whether in the way of living or thinking in a society that is not very fond of opposition. Bricks work very well in this comparison, having changed very little throughout history and around the world in their rectangular shapes. But that’s not true of their colors. Although we tend to think of red when we talk about bricks, there are infinite possibilities of shades, depending on the composition and manufacturing process of the pieces.

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The term brick refers to a block composed of dry clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured rectangular building blocks. The composition of clay bricks, the most traditional, as Tahsina Alam points out in her article for the Civil Engineering website, contains the following ingredients:

• Silica (SiO2) 55%
• Alumina (Al2O3) 30%
• Iron oxide (Fe2O3) 8%
• Magnesia (MgO) 5%
• Lime (CaO) 1%
• Organic Matter 1%

Clay is a hydrated aluminum silicate that contains alumina and silica. The color of bricks is influenced by the chemical and mineral content of the raw materials, and by the temperature and type of kilns used. This is why it is common for there to be slight variations between lots of solid bricks, which often aesthetically appeal to designers. The more iron oxide in the composition, the redder the final piece. The more lime, the whiter it will become. As discussed in this article, “iron oxide gives the brick a red color upon burning when there is excess oxygen available, and dark brown or even black when oxygen is insufficient.” Below, we have separated some examples of projects that use unconventional shades of bricks.

Black Brick

Black bricks are appealing due to their sober and minimalist aesthetic. Their story is odd. In London, solid brick buildings are quite common, built mainly during the 19th century. Because of the soot present in the highly polluted London air at the time, the bricks ended up with a grayish or even black hue. As conditions improved after 1956, the buildings that were cleaned returned to their original color.

But there is also a way to add pigments to the mix, to make the brick naturally black. This brick pigment is also known as black ceramic oxide, black clay oxide or simply K37. K37 is classified as a ‘ferric manganese umber’ stain, mainly composed of iron oxide, a non-toxic, stable and long-lasting material.

Housing BO / LRARCHITECTES

J House / Christoffersen & Weiling Architects

Seoho-dong Residence / a round architects

Wing House / Urban Terrains Lab

Bruksgården / Petra Gipp Arkitektur

N House / SOSU ARCHITECTS

Dutchess County Studio / GRT Architects

Casa Caté / S-AR

House Embracing Sky / ArchiWorkshop

Gray Brick

As for grayish bricks, they are generally blocks that do not use clay in their composition. There are three main types: concrete, sand-lime and fly ash bricks. In the case of concrete blocks, they can adopt several different formats, with a characteristic color due to the cement in the mixture. In sand-lime bricks, a mixture of lime, sand and water is pressed and hardened in ovens under steam pressure. In this case, the blocks turn to a light gray color. Fly ash bricks are formed from by-products of coal burning and other industries, consisting mainly of fly ash and cement. They weigh less than concrete and clay bricks and, due to their low absorption rates, withstand heat well. Their color and homogeneity are extremely pleasing visually.

Wildernesses Mews / Morris+Company

Projeto 03 / Kiko Salomão

Unyang-dong Ria’s Two-Family House / Seoga Architecture

De Zonnepoort / evr-Architecten

Brick House in Unjung-dong / Architects601

China Resources Archives Library / Studio Link-Arc

ARI Apartments / Ola Studio

Casa VIB / Estudio BaBo

Jinlin Royal Park / Do Design Group

See other examples of exposed brick buildings in this My ArchDaily folder.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on  October 05, 2021.