Articles by Niall Patrick Walsh

The Aarhus School of Architecture has revealed the winners of their drawing competition, Drawing of the Year 2018, which asked architecture students around the globe to submit their best digital, hand-drawn or hybrid drawings under the theme of “Shaping new Realities.”

As 2018 draws to a close, accommodation website Airbnb has dived into their data to reveal the most creative cities and countries from the year. Based on the percentage of hosts who are in the creative industries, the list builds on a previous survey by Airbnb which found that one in 10 Airbnb hosts and one in three Experience hosts identify as members of the creative community.

Brazil-based Carla Juaçaba Studio has been announced as the winner of the AR’s Emerging Architecture Awards 2018 in Amsterdam. The firm will receive a £10,000 prize in recognition of exemplary projects such as their chapel for the Pavilion of the Holy See at the 2018 Venice Biennale, and the Casa Santa Teresa in Rio de Janiero.

IKEA and Tom Dixon have collaborated to investigate the future of urban farming, “making homes the new farmland.” In an upcoming entry to the Chelsea Flower Show, the UK’s most popular landscape event, the team will share their first ideas on how “affordable, forward-thinking solutions can be used to grow plants and vegetables at home and beyond.”

Carlo Ratti has been announced as Chief Curator for the 2019 Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture. He will join Academic Curators Politecnico di Torino and South China University to critically explore the impact of artificial intelligence on communities and urban space.

The design of the USA Pavilion for the Expo 2020 Dubai has been revealed, designed by Curtis W. Fentress and Fentress Architects. Destined to represent more than 325million Americans, the pavilion seeks to “provide a unique platform for [the United States] to come together to showcase the very best of [their] cultural and commercial achievements.”

Lima-based architect Karina Puente has created a new series in her personal project: to illustrate each and every “invisible” city from Italo Calvino’s 1972 novel. Her collection, which ArchDaily published in 2016, and again in 2017, consists of mixed media collages, drawn mainly using ink on paper, brings together a sequence of imagined places – each referencing a city imagined in the book.

UNESCO and the International Union of Architects (UIA) have announced the launch of a “World Capitals of Architecture” initiative, seeking to create a “synergy between culture and architecture in an increasingly urbanized world.”

New photography by Hervé Hôte has been released, showcasing the Frank Gehry-designed Luma Arles complex as construction continues in the French town of Arles. The arts center, situated on a former SNCF rail yard, will offer exhibition, research, education, and archive space within a 46-meter-tall, aluminum tile-clad tower.

By 2050, the world will be home to almost 10 billion people, two-thirds of which will live in cities. As the transition from rural to urban continues, a network of metropolises across the world is rapidly expanding. Today, the world’s 20 largest cities are home to almost half a billion people, a number only set to rise as urban centers become taller, more expansive, and more dense.