Month: November 2020

In his book Breve Historia del Urbanismo (Brief History of Urbanism), Fernando Chueca Goitia states that the medieval city appeared at the beginning of the 11th century and flourished only between the 12th and 13th centuries. According to the author, this growth was closely linked to the development of commerce that allowed permanent occupations, resulting in a city no longer composed mainly of travelers. In other words, the bourgeoisie was formed thanks to the most diverse activities – craftsmen, tradesmen, blacksmiths, longshoremen – which stimulated the development of the medieval city.

In recent years, with the accelerated urban development of public spaces in China, public washrooms have been assigned numerous new roles. Designers have come up with a variety of proposals which suggest turning public washrooms into a place where social gathering can be redefined, and temporary stay can be more engaging. Although the scale of public washrooms is significantly smaller than that of any other type of architecture, Chinese architects have been working innovatively on fitting the public washrooms into the changing social contexts. Below are a few examples that demonstrate some current architectural experiments with public washroom design in China.

During the 20th century, Miami Beach reinvented itself several times, from Gilded Age mecca to Art Deco capital, to glamorous 1950s destination, only to become a faded has-been resort by the 1970s. The preservation movement that began in the 1970s and 1980s became its saving grace. By the 1990s Miami Beach, especially its South Beach neighborhood, was one of the hippest communities in the United States, drawing notable European residents like Gianni Versace.

American photographer Kurt Hollander’s latest photo series focuses on the aluminium-clad homes in the Colombian city of Quibdo, which he has termed shimmering architecture. The collection of photos documents a series of buildings in the city of Quibdo, located within the rainforest in west Colombia, that are clad with self-adhesive aluminium sheeting to protect them

The post Kurt Hollander photographs “shimmering architecture” in Colombian rainforest city appeared first on Dezeen.

YAC –Young Architects Competitions–, BT Group​, and Marina di Loano launch LEISURE HARBOR, a competition of ideas aiming to re-design one of the 10 most important marinas of Europe. The cash prize of € 20, 000 will be distributed to the winning proposals selected by an international jury panel made of, among the others: Manuel Aires Mateus, Patrick Lüth (Snøhetta), Huang Wenjing (OPEN Architecture), Paolo Matteuzzi (Zaha Hadid Architects).