Metropolis Magazine

In the belief that humans are a part of nature, not distinct from it, Canadian architect Michael Leckie designs architecture that restores us to the wilderness and the wilderness to us. Arcana is the pilot site of a micro-hospitality project located two hours north of Toronto. It contains three prototype guest cabins clad entirely in mirror-polished steel to reflect the surrounding forest as if they were wearing camouflage. Arcana’s goal—to reconnect people with the “super natural powers” of the outdoors—reflects Leckie’s own love of nature, activity, and stillness, from meditation to sound healing and adventurous travel. https://lnkd.in/euW-URWg

Farshid Moussavi’s Open-ended Architecture Comes to the U.S. The London-based architect keeps both her design process and her built projects fluid and ever-changing. In her ecological horror novel Paradise Rot, author Jenny Hval viscerally blurs the boundaries between building and body; a similar intrigue in the affective and embodied experience of architecture drives the work of Iranian-born, London-based architect Farshid Moussavi. Moussavi has run her eponymous practice, Farshid Moussavi Architecture (FMA), out of east London since 2011. With projects spanning a flaneur-friendly port terminal in Japan, a shimmering cloud-shaped housing complex in France, and a soon-to-be-completed cultural and religious center in Houston, the architect is known for her innovative work that blends theory, politics, and practice.  Prior to establishing FMA, Moussavi—an elected member of London’s Royal Academy since 2015, a professor in practice Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and a recipient of the 2022 Jane Drew Prize for women in architecture—ran a collaborative practice called Foreign Office Architects (FOA). Earlier works completed in this partnership, like the Yokohama International Port Terminal (2002), reveal both a striking material sophistication and a deep understanding of the aliveness of architecture, qualities that have flourished in her later practice. https://lnkd.in/eQXnDr-j

How do urban architects engage rural communities? That was the question asked by Shenzhen-based Atelier XI when tasked with building a structure aimed at providing a place for art and education for the residents of the vast Xiuwu County in China’s Henan province. Instead of just one building, architect Chen Xi executed a series of cast-in-place concrete pavilions for the scattered villages, a decision further influenced by the wide range of landscapes and topography. “We proposed a design approach to break the original 300-square-meter design brief into several miniature pavilions across the county,” he says. His latest project, Library in Ruins, is located in Sunayo Old Village, one of seven sites chosen for the pavilions. “Since 1996, villagers have moved into the newly built brick-concrete houses in the new village next door one after another, leaving behind many aged adobe houses and cave dwellings,” he notes. Inspiration came from the unique site and Xi hopes it will help locals rethink quality of life, as well as “alleviate isolation and poverty.” https://lnkd.in/eQHHMZGn

Landscape Forms and Landscape Architecture Foundation hosted students for a three-day charrette at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) for the tenth edition of Xtreme LA. Held in collaboration with the university’s landscape architecture department, the intense sessions deeply considered the past and future of nearby Morro Bay and the sacred Indigenous site of Morro Rock, an ancient volcanic plug that guards the harbor. Two teams of of 11 young landscape design professionals and students were paired with landscape architecture mentors Sarah Kuehl of EINWILLER KUEHL, INC. and Maura Rockcastle of TEN x TEN. https://lnkd.in/e-UvRbgj

Located just south of Todos Santos, Mexico, and half a mile from the Pacific Ocean in the small agricultural village of El Pescadero, the El Perdido Hotel utilizes traditional construction materials to pay homage to the regional culture. Over the last decade, the area has quickly developed; however, there are still many spots with secluded wilderness, beaches, and rich farmland. @estudio_ala first hospitality project is one such oasis. For the new hotel project, ESTUDIO ALA cofounder Armida Fernández began with a climate analysis. “We always try to be sustainable, conscious, and responsive to the location,” she says. To accommodate the site’s varying geographic conditions, wind, precipitation, and heat, the main building and guest villas are laid out for maximum efficiency, while the communal areas, such as the central house with sunken conversation pit, have no walls to allow for natural ventilation. The hotel also has a water treatment system, saltwater pool, and has eliminated all single-use plastics. https://lnkd.in/gYXquMF4

“We have been entrusted in both this company and our planet, and must pass them along better than we received them,” says Tom Pendley, President and CEO, Mannington Mills. Learn more about how they craft with purpose in their ESR Report: Values in Action. Mannington Commercial CorporateResponsibility #Sustainability #Sponsored Learn more at https://hubs.la/Q02D2sQF0

The Tenjo-based organization was recently awarded a grant from the architecture philanthropy platform re:arc. Established in 2022 in Copenhagen, re:arc aims to take a deeper look at what sustainability and circularity mean in architecture.  “Terms like sustainability and circularity have gotten so overused,” says Alice Grandoit-Šutka, a research-based designer, cofounder of Deem Journal and re:arc’s director of public discourse. “We need to start thinking about how these approaches are actually being implemented on the ground in different communities. Through this funding program, we look to resource projects that are working with biodiversity and climate care, social participatory education, and models of collective ownership.”  https://lnkd.in/eUFn6WvP

Terry and Terry Architecture put DeafSpace concepts into practice with plenty of space, even lighting, and clever visual cues. Streamlined, partition-free spaces are a hallmark of modern architecture. But for those who are Deaf, they’re more than just aesthetically pleasing: Clear sight lines are critical for communicating in sign language. So when San Francisco Bay Area architects (and brothers) Alex and Ivan Terry of Terry and Terry Architecture designed a house for Deaf clients, they strove for exceptional clarity. Located in Palo Alto, California, the 3,000-square-foot home for Gabe Leung and Susie Lai, a Deaf couple with a seven-year-old son, and their extended family, embodies DeafSpace concepts. Developed in 2005, the guidelines highlight the importance of allotting ample space—specifying 3 to 10 feet of space between people—for good visual communication. https://lnkd.in/eYHnN9Pa

Pélissanne is a small community in the South of France with about 10,000 inhabitants. Many of the historic townhouses and their gardens are well preserved and cared for. In 2015 Pélissanne held an architectural competition, which was won by Dominique Coulon & associés, a French architect based in Strasbourg whose design aimed at preserving as much of the historic park as possible. While most of the other participants in the competition placed the extension in front of the existing building, Coulon moved it to the eastern side. This makes the transition from old house to new extension a bit more difficult but preserves almost the full view of the historic facade and thus the connection between the old house and the park. At the same time, the extension creates a lively new public square which connects to the town’s main square in front of the church and the town hall to the West. The gesture of moving the extension to the side also preserved a hundred-year-old plane tree, around which the new building forms a gentle and expressive curve. https://lnkd.in/e9g8u8Ft

In 2017, the executive director of the The Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, Nicholas Fox Weber, launched a competition to design an extension to a pediatric hospital in Tambacounda, Senegal. Initiated by Le Korsa, a philanthropic arm of the Albers Foundation that has been active in eastern Senegal since 2005, the project was aimed at radically transforming the conditions under which mothers and newborns receive care in the region. An invitation found its way to Switzerland-based architect Manuel Herz, who has done extensive research on African architectural contexts. In 2015, he authored the first volume of African Modernism, which explored Modernist architecture throughout Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Zambia. (A second volume is currently in the works.) One year later, he presented his research on the refugee camps of the Western Sahara, which host the Sahrawi population in the border zone of southwestern Algeria, at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, marking the first time a nation in exile was represented at the event. https://lnkd.in/eTKsKc2E