Top 10 Favorite Projects and Moments in Architecture for 2022

Image Credit: Education Above All Foundation

Zaha Hadid Architects converts World Cup tents into refugee shelters

Zaha Hadid Architects, in partnership with Education Above All (EAA), donated 27 modular tents designed for the FIFA World Cup for refugee communities in Syria, Turkey and Yemen.

Article: https://www.zaha-hadid.com/2022/12/20/education-above-all-foundation-to-place-27-tents-designed-by-zha-as-schools-clinics-and-emergency-shelters-for-displaced-communities/ 

Interesting Facts:

The tents allow for natural daylight and are weather-proof

Modular structures (can be moved and re-assembled and upcycled)

Image Credit: Actar.com

Release of "African Fabbers Atlas: Manual Of Synthetic Vernacular Architecture" by Paolo Cascone (Author)

Purchase Today: https://actar.com/product/african-fabbers-atlas/

"Based on almost ten years of applied research of Paolo Cascone and his CODESIGNLAB practice in Africa, the book investigates the potential role of indigenous and spontaneous architecture in the contemporary debate on sustainability in architectural design.

How to respond to climatic changes reconciling nature with tekné? What is the social role of technology? How architects would reconsider their practices supporting community-oriented projects?
These questions are discussed through a number of paradigmatic projects and conversations between the author and a panel of experts from different backgrounds in order to shape an interdisciplinary approach that bridges different knowledges.
The theoretical assumption for this investigation is based on the observation of cause-effect relations, between different urban and architectural configurations and their performances: social, environmental, structural etc. in both pre-colonial and informal cultures around Africa.

The diachronic approach intends to generate, after many years of post-colonial studies, an operative agenda of possible strategies, which is in accordance with different conditions starting from the anthropological and the climatic ones. Such an agenda responds to a global cultural need for an ecological shift in the contemporary design and manufacturing processes, which should bridge high and low-tech cultures. Therefore, the book is conceived also as a sort of manual that is articulated around emergent principles inspired by traditional and informal African practices and architectures: self-similarity and diversified typologies, material optimisation and circular economy, self-sufficiency and responsive dwellings.
Size: Each principle is confronted also with the work of pioneers such as Hassan Fathy, Fabrizio Carola etc. with the aim of sharing and evolving such tremendous heritage by introducing the case studies realized in the frame of the [AF] African Fabbers project over the last decade.

The [AF] project has been developed in the last decade as a research platform and an itinerant school for training programmes and community-oriented initiatives that bridges digital and traditional manufacturing for sustainable living. This approach responds to the lack of schools of architecture in the region, despite the economic growth of these countries and their need for social housing and basic infrastructures. For this reason, the book aims at declining such on-site experience and its theoretical background into a decolonised approach to architectural education. This drives to the conclusion that we should probably start to take into serious consideration African solutions for global problems."

Professor Edwards at the 2022 Women in Architecture Awards ceremony | Image Credit: Thedig.howard.edu

Howard University Architecture Professor Hazel R. Edwards Receives 2022 Architectural Record Award

Article: https://thedig.howard.edu/all-stories/howard-university-architecture-professor-hazel-r-edwards-receives-2022-architectural-record-award 

"Howard University architecture professor Hazel Ruth Edwards, PhD., FAIA, (B.Arch. ’86) recently received Architectural Record's 2022 Women in Architecture Design Leadership Award in the category of educator.

Now in its ninth year, the leading architectural news outlet’s award program honors women architects who break barriers and lead their field into a newly designed equitable and sustainable future. Across the five categories of design leader, new generation leader, innovator, educator, and activist, this year’s winners represent leadership, research and practice with more depth and diversity.

"We are training people for a field that impacts so much of our lived experience, yet this is often done through limited perspectives.  Architectural pedagogy has to better represent the diverse voice of those who have impacted our communities, as well as those who are affected by those places," said Edwards."

Image Credit: Iwan Baan

Completion of Google HQ 
Mountain View, United States
Client: Google
SF: 3.7 Million

https://big.dk/

Interesting Facts:

On a mission to operate on carbon-free energy 24 hrs/day, 7 days/week by 2030

Guided by 3 themes: Innovation, Nature, and Community

Largest LEED v4 BD+C: NC Platinum Certified project in the world

Largest facility ever to attain the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) Living Building Challenge (LBC) Water Petal Certification

Lesley Lokko Appointed Curator Of Venice Architecture Biennale 2023

Photo Credit: Labiennale.org

Article: https://www.labiennale.org/en/news/lesley-lokko-appointed-curator-biennale-architettura-2023

Article: https://www.dezeen.com/2021/12/14/lesley-lokko-venice-architecture-biennale-2023/ 

"A new world order is emerging, with new centres of knowledge production and control," stated Lesley Lokko. 

Interesting Facts:

The Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 will be held from Saturday 20 May to Sunday 26 November, 2023

Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic, and novelist Professor Lesley Lokko is the first black architect to curate the biannual Venice Architecture Biennale, and is the third woman to lead the exhibition, following Kazuyo Sejima's appointment in 2010 and Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara in 2018.

Image Credit: Ossip van Duivendbode, found on ArchDaily.com

Completion of Radio Hotel and Tower 

Upper Manhattan, New York, United States

Client: YoungWoo & Associates

https://www.mvrdv.nl/projects/353/radio-hotel-and-tower 

Interesting Facts:

First completed building by MVRDV in the United States

Clad in eight different colours of glazed brick

Hotel, office, and hospitality amenities

Image Credit: Mona Ghandi, found on news.wsu.edu

Mona Ghandi receives World Architecture Award

Article: https://news.wsu.edu/news/2022/09/13/mona-ghandi-receives-world-architecture-award-2/ 

"A project that introduces behavior-based energy efficiency strategies by interpreting real-time biological and emotional data of a room’s occupant has earned a World Architecture Award for WSU’s Mona Ghandi.

This international award from the World Architecture Community (WAC) recognizes remarkable projects that have the potential to inspire contemporary architectural discourse, according to the WAC website.

Ghandi, an assistant professor of architecture in the School of Design and Construction, calls the project Stomata. It is a smart dynamic heating and cooling system that uses artificial intelligence to respond to an occupant’s current comfort level and emotional state. The project’s name is an ode to the tiny pores in plant leaves that play an important role in photosynthesis and respond to various environmental circumstances to allow a plant to grow."

Image Credit: Iwan Baan, Found on taschen.com 

Release of "The Office Of Good Intentions. Human(S) Work" by Florian Idenburg (Author), LeeAnn Suen (Author), Iwan Baan (Photographer)

Purchase Today: https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/architecture/all/04696/facts.the_office_of_good_intentions_humans_work.htm 

"Take a trip through American office design, from Marcel Breuer’s IBM campus to Lil Miquela’s Instagram profile. This book is a refreshing take on the forms of workplaces, from the 1970s into the future. In a collection of 12 essays with photos by Iwan Baan, explore the global trends that have defined the modern office space."

Image Credit: Dezeen.com

Muyiwa Oki became the first black president of the Royal Institute of British Architects for its 2023-25 term

Article: https://www.dezeen.com/2022/08/02/muyiwa-oki-black-president-riba/ 

Interesting Facts:

He is the youngest president of the 188-year-old council

Read about what he looks to implement during his tenure: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/oct/12/muyiwa-oki-black-president-riba- 

Image Credit: Hufton+Crow, on Zaha-Hadid.com

Zaha Hadid's final designs opens in the UAE

Sharjah, UAE

Client: BEEAH Group

Size: 96,875 sf

https://www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/beeah-headquarters-sharjah-uae/ 

Interesting Facts:

This was one of Zaha Hadid's final designs

Powered by a solar array and meets LEED Platinum standards

the form of the Beeah Headquarters is also designed and oriented to withstand extreme weather conditions experienced on the site.