Articles by Eric Baldwin

Interdisciplinary design practice Sasaki has unveiled new details of the 660-acre Greenwood Community Park and Baton Rouge Zoo Master Plan. The Parks and Recreation Commission of East Baton Rouge Parish (BREC) approved the first phase of the plan to move into design and implementation, and since then the team reached out to over 4,000 Baton Rougians over the course of nine months. The masterplan and park proposal aims to be reflective of the community’s needs as they imagine a new future together.

The Initiatives for Development of Armenia (IDeA) Foundation has announced the winners of the Friendship Park competition for Gyumri, Armenia. Based on results of the second round, the jury selected 19 finalists in three categories. Located in the northern part of the city, the renovated park aims to become the first modern green area for locals and tourists alike through a series of design interventions.

ZJA Architects has designed a project for an underwater museum around a ship previously beached in the English town of Hastings. The proposal would see the shipwreck preserved and moved to the city of Amsterdam, its namesake, within a fully enclosed dock with transparent windows. The proposal would allow researchers to investigate the wreck, and at the same time, the public could experience the ship and treasures within.

Architects and urban designers CHYBIK + KRISTOF have announced the ground-breaking of their redesign of Brno’s Zvonařka Central Bus Terminal in the Czech Republic. Self-initiated by the architects in 2011, the project involved preserving the existing Brutalist heritage structure while addressing the need to rethink the terminal for contemporary needs. The project reimagines an iconic landmark and its role within the city.

Lego China has teamed up with CAA Architects to create a vision for a modular city in space. Designed by Liu Haowi, the city is made with a spacecraft below and a larger urban center above surrounded by an artificial gravitational field controlled by AI. Called “Crystal Space City”, the project is constructed by modules and combines a city, oasis and an energy power system all together.

Building more equitable futures begins with community. For international practice Woods Bagot, the firm’s three US studios are now each run by women, and their combined leadership is creating more inclusive and dynamic designs that rethink past traditions. Each Director has taken the reins before the global pandemic was underway, and now the trio is working to rethink how the practice can address diverse challenges in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The iconic design conference and event Design Indaba has announced it will use 2021 as a year to plan and execute multiple Do Tank projects. In turn, they will be launching the Design Indaba Inside offering. The Design Indaba Conference and Festival will not take place in February 2021; instead, organizers will take the time to plan for 2022. Social distancing requirements combined with the physical limitations of Artscape Theatre Centre in Cape Town made the event unfeasible.

The new Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center by MAD Architects is nearing completion in Northeastern China. Surrounded by snow-covered mountains, the project was commissioned by the Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum (Yabuli CEF). The team designed the center to become an iconic landmark embodying the Congress members’ entrepreneurial spirit in the shape of a tent sitting at the foot of a mountain.

Architecture and design practice Mecanoo has created a new vision for an iconic Maritime Center along the Rijnhaven in Rotterdam. Located in the middle of the water, the project includes an undulating, organic building form made to contrast with the industrial nature of the surrounding port. Partly underwater, the design features a triple helix and is made as a place for maritime entrepreneurs, science and culture.

When architects Guylee Simmonds and David Schnabel bought a Scottish survival lifeboat for a voyage to the Arctic, they dreamed of setting sail to Norway and beyond. Called Stødig, the 100-man vessel was purchased in 2018 and converted over a one-year period. Capturing their inspiring journey, filmmaker Jonny Campbell created a feature film that explores the expedition and what it means to discover adventure in the everyday.