Like firewood and pasture, snow and ice have since time immemorial been economic resources of humankind, whether for the conservation of food and medicines or for the luxury of making sherbets and ice-creams. Pliny the Elder mentioned an active trade
Drawing inspiration from the continuous elliptical movement of the stars, the new cultural sight of the city of Douai, in northern France, is located between the river Scarpe and the Arkéos archaeological museum. The composition of curved lines envel
Surrounded by the Arkéos museum, the river Scarpe, a major road axis, and a small residential area, the new Planetarium and Observatory of Douaisis is designed to be a visual signal while keeping the natural aspect of the site. The dome of the planet
Guided both by tradition and common sense, over the centuries the people of Los Pedroches Valley – a protected area between Extremadura, Andalucía, and Castille – have cherished the holm oaks that cover the valley’s meadows as if they were sacred tre
Located in Riviera, a Johannesburg suburb, the new library is to be a space for learning, investigation, and cultural exchange from the perspective of the African continent. Apart from the usual library program – including reading rooms and archives
The design unveiled by the British architect Norman Foster shows a desire for it to respectfully blend in with the gently rolling hills around. The tarracotta-tiled vaulted roof presents a timber structure with a 40-meter...
A tower containing unobstructed spaces is the solution adopted on a small plot from which a ‘fab lab’ seeks to take part in revitalizing the port area of the city of Caen. The brief left the program largely undefined, which gave rise to a series of s
Located close to the center of Son La City and surrounded by mountains covered with dense tropical vegetation, this series of pavilions inspired in traditional Vietnamese architecture completes a touristic resort with a new multipurpose space. The pr
On the famous Miracle Mile of Los Angeles, Renzo Piano is finishing the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, a project of almost 28,000 square meters on the campus of the LACMA, next to the three buildings designed by the Genoan architect to extend the
The concrete petals that make up the pavilion function as a rain catchment system. The geometry allows the water to be collected and channeled to the collectors under the supports, from where it is derived to a tank for its later use in irrigation...
Oliver Wainwright Hovering above the sandy shores of Saadiyat Island like an upturned colander washed up on the beach, the metal-domed roof of the Louvre Abu Dhabi doesn't give much away from the outside. A cluster of white blocks spreads out from be
Located inside the iconic Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome in the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, the Camper Pop-up Shop pioneers a new form of retail shopping by combining the best attributes from in-store and online shopping through a mix of virtual
With their simple thatched roofs and intricate bamboo structures shaped like baskets, the pavilions together evoke the image of a traditional Vietnamese village.
Combining different functions and suggesting with its form the idea of a primitive hut or chapel, this small center for older people has been designed using innovative ergonomic strategies.
On Iceland’s east coast, Tvisöngur is a sound sculpture consisting of five inteconnected concrete domes with heights between two and four meters. Each dome has a resonance that corresponds to a tone in the island’s five-tone harmony tradition... [+]
As a result of an agreement between the United Arab Emirates and France in 2007, the Louvre Abu Dhabi seeks to embody a spirit of openness and dialogue between cultures; thus, in its 8,600 square meters of galleries it will display artworks with a hi
The project designs the access and route to the museum, where a narrow, buried corridor leads to the dome-shaped reception area that, pierced by another dome in the opposite direction, offers views of Málaga’s Convento de la Trinidad...
This project that has the ability to turn to compost, leaving no remains, is formed by a multifunctional room, a surrounding bench and a timber structure that has enough depth to form niches, an alcove and colorful windows with solid frames...
The project wishes to reflect the cultural identity of the place; hence, the traditional ceramic of the region inspires the rounded forms of the building, imitating the typical vessels and building materials used. The walls are built with rammed eart
Surrounded by an artificial lake, the dome, measuring ten meters high and fifteen meters in diameter, is topped with an oculus of 1.5 meters in diameter that ensures the release of hot air from the bar, cooled by the adiabatic evaporation of the peri
En los países de habla alemana, las ciudades balneario suelen llevar el prefijo Bad (baño). La mayoría se desarrollaron durante el siglo XIX alrededor de fuentes termales con propiedades curativas. Al oeste de Rosenheim, a unos 60 kilómetros al sures
En la realización de este proyecto se partió de dos ideas básicas: una es que los espacios destinados a la infancia no deben estar delimitados por planos sino que, a ser posible, deben enriquecer su imaginación visual; la otra idea es la importancia
El nuevo recinto para los elefantes se sitúa al norte del Zoo de Copenhague, con vistas hacia los jardines reales de Frederiksberg. Sustituye a la antigua instalación, de la que hereda el nombre: la Casa de los Elefantes. Consta de dos partes, una al
From the great greenhouses of the 19th century to the ‘climatops’ proposed by Richard Buckminster Fuller in the mid-20th century, taming nature to reproduce it in artificial environments has been one of the major impulses of modernity. So has it been
The bombastic voice of the Millennium Dome publicists alerts sceptical listeners to insecurity. Like tour guides from the former Eastern European dictatorships, they insist that, irrespective of other hard-to-refute complaints, their big tent is far,
After the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, German unification followed, and soon the decision was taken to move the capital back to Berlin. The old Reichstag (a clumsy 19th century building damaged during the war, and scantily used since, associated
Stansted airport (1981-1991) takes from Renault the modular forest of masts, and from Hong Kong the shafts of four cylindrical steel pillars; but the exposed fan of cables of the distribution centre is here a knot of braces that hold together the bra
Reconstructed by the British architect Norman Foster, the new Reichstag is the solemn, optimistic and amiable symbol of the Berlin Republic.
It is not surprising that the British feel a sort of proprietary interest in the passage of time: with Greenwich as the home of the prime meridian, they tend to see keeping track of time as a housekeeping duty they have to perform for the rest of the
The Reichstag in Berlin was built by Paul Wallot 104 years ago. It was no great architecture for the Parliament of the German Empire, and the building raised controversy it its day, as did its location on a curve of the river Spree, close to the olde
