Best of 2020: 8 urban stories from China to the Italian Alps
Top 8 urban stories of 2020: Stockholm’s underground art trail, transparent Tokyo public toilets and a sport campus hidden under a green hilly landscape in China.
3deluxe’s V-Plaza in Kaunas, Lithuania, was conceived as a fluid urban hybrid space
3deluxe’s V-Plaza invites pedestrians, cyclists and skaters to enjoy organically curved levels, oases of tranquility and water features – all surrounded by buildings reinterpreting Lithuania’s architectural heritage.
‘Can Sau – Emergency scenery’ facade project: from urban void to social plaza
The ‘Can Sau – Emergency scenery’ project by unparelld’arquitectes in Catalonia transforms the ruins of a building into a new public space for various cultural activities and social interactions.
Niederhafen River Promenade: Zaha Hadid Architects transforms Hamburg’s flood barrier into a sculptural public space
Zaha Hadid Architects’ Niederhafen River Promenade transform Hamburg’s flood protection barrier into a riverwalk carved with white amphitheatres.
BIG’s MÉCA hub “brings the arts into the city and the city into the arts”
BIG and FREAKS freearchitects have inaugurated MÉCA, a new art-filled public space and innovative urban room overlooking Bordeaux’ waterfront.
IN STATU QUO: Israel Pavilion’s exhibition at Venice Biennale 2018 unravels the Geopolitics of Holy Spaces
The busy timetable of functions of the many Christian communities sharing the Holy Sepulchre, visionary and never-realized masterplans for the Western Wall Plaza and the unique routines of a site switching from mosque to Jewish worshipping venue within 24 hours. The In Statu Quo exhibition at Israel Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2018 shows the fragile system of co-existence of 5 iconic holy sites.
The City is Everywhere: Kosovo Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2018 shows how private homes became a substitute for the city under Milošević
What if school was in your aunt’s flat, your favourite restaurant in a neighbour’s living room and the hospital at the end of the corridor? Under Milošević’s regime, Albanians’ public spaces in Kosovo were in people’s homes. The exhibition The City is Everywhere at Venice Biennale 2018 explores how private and public overlapped in the ‘90s.
The School of Athens: Greece Pavilion in Venice explores the architecture of academic free spaces across the globe
3D-printed models of internationally renown educational spaces populate ‘The School of Athens’ exhibition at the Greek Pavilion to create a stepped symposium for learning free space.
5 Brutalist buildings screaming for justice at Venice Architecture Biennale 2018
Venice Biennale 2018 – While the Robin Hood Gardens in London are being demolished, 4 other Brutalist buildings screaming for justice show that even concrete giants have ha chance to redeem.
V&A brings to Venice the vision and fate of London Robin Hood Gardens
The Victoria & Albert Museum saved a large part of the iconic Robin Hood Gardens from bulldozers and re-assembled it at Venice Biennale 2018 as part of a contested exhibition about the Brutalist building which many have have praised while others have described as “a failed social experiment of inhuman Modernism, not to be funded with public money”.
Unbuilding Walls: the German Pavilion imagines a borderless world starting from Berlin’s urban regeneration along the city’s former death-strip
Germany Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2018 features a black wall which unfolds as visitors walk in. The Unbuilding Walls exhibition responds to current debates on protectionism and explores the effects of division and the process of healing as a dynamic spatial phenomenon. On show how Berlin’s former border zone was transformed into culturally vibrant spaces and how people deal with ‘infamous’ border walls across the globe.
Holy, holistic, resilient, rebellious and on-the-border: 5 recurring keywords at Venice Biennale 2018
5 recurring keywords at Venice Biennale 2018. National pavilions respond to to the FREESPACE main theme with visionary masterplans for Jerusalem Western Wall, a Trump defying US-Mexico border, the millennials’ occupation of Budapest’s Liberty bridge and more…
Emptiness reigns at Venice Architecture Biennale 2018
Switzerland wins the Golden Lion at Venice Architecture Biennale with a pavilion focused on the average empty apartment while Great Britain gets an honorable mention for a Brexit-themed exhibition and with a hollowed out pavilion too. Is emptiness the key to create free spaces that can improve our lives?
Public, free and generous. Architecture is a gift, say to Archipanic Venice Biennale curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelly McNamara
Curators of Venice Biennale 2018 say to Archipanic that architects can contribute to improve our lives through the design of public and free spaces… “Because architecture is a gift and this planet is our client”.
BIG designs a bow tie-shaped architecture for the National Theatre of Albania in Tirana
Bjarke Ingels’ architecture firm conceived a prismatic architecture open the city for the National Theatre of Albania in the country’s capital. The design arches up from the ground creating a public space for impromptu performances or other cultural events.
Memphis Group-inspired basket court by Katrien Vanderlinden sparks social interaction
Muralist Katrien Vanderlinden transformed an old and dull basket court in Belgium into a vibrant playground merging sport and street art.
Passages Insolites 2017: 9 art and architecture installations in Quebec City
A pink tunnel, woven boats floating mid-air and a giant paper airplane. Art and architecture installations at 2017 Passages Insolites aim to make us reflect on how we relate with urban spaces.
SHAU’s Microlibrary Bima tackles illiteracy with 2.000 upcycled ice cream buckets
Architecture studio SHAU completed the Microlibrary Bima to tackle illiteracy with a social-driven structure tuning with the local motto “books are the windows to the world’.
Vestre urban design: setting the attitude for future cities, one square at the time
Archipanic meets young CEO of Norwegian urban furniture company VESTRE who shares his mind on a responsible and sensible approach to design public spaces.