Articles by Yiling Shen

When we think of Istanbul, opulent mosques and bustling bazaars often come to mind. Architect and photographer Yener Torur focuses on a different side of the city, targeting lesser-known neighborhoods to capture stunning images of a hidden, rainbow-colored Turkey.

Graveyards full of names that have long been forgotten, plaques etched with portraits that you ignore on your morning jog, monuments with friezes that depict the triumphs of war—all these are examples of memorial architecture, which once held intense emotional meaning for certain individuals or groups of people, but have now gradually become tourist attractions or anachronistic sites within a changed landscape.

Architecture is often seen as something which provides a place-marker in history, reflecting the zeitgeist of an era. But how do we design architecture in a world that is changing faster than ever before, where entire types of buildings disappear seemingly in a flash? Here, we round up six types of buildings that came into existence in modern times and are fading as fast as they appeared. Mostly banal and previously ubiquitous, the nostalgia associated with the disappearance of these buildings taps into something emotional, rather than intellectual admiration.

As architects, we often use a niche set of words that are sometimes unnecessarily complex and confusing to our non-architect friends. In 2015 we compiled a list of these, ranging from “typology” to “Blobitecture.” Here we’ve rounded up 50 urban planning terms that might be a bit less familiar but just as important to know. 

There is something about water that continually captures our imagination. Tranquil, dramatic, or ever-changing, the architecture of public baths and swimming pools can enhance the inherent qualities of water. Bathhouses were traditionally meeting-spaces where social differences bled away into skin and steam. Even in contemporary architectural projects, spaces for swimming and bathing often feel like a separate world, therapeutic and intimate. 

Architect Kris Provoost, who lives and works in Shanghai, has captured Atelier Deshaus’ new Shanghai Modern Art Museum through a series of photographs, displaying both the details of the building as well as its context on the Shanghai riverfront. The Shanghai Modern Art Museum is an adaptive re-use project on the old Laobaidu coal bunker, its industrial exterior kept and re-interpreted into a contemporary architectural project. Provoost captured the beautiful detailing of the project, as well as how it transforms during the cherry blossom season. 

Contreras Earl Architecture, in collaboration with the Sunland Group, designed a 44-story residential tower in Queensland, Australia. The “Hedges Pedestal,” a two-story base and communal areas for residents, was conceived by Contreras Earl Architecture and draws inspiration from the coastal location of the site, its curving exterior façade which includes a sculptural anodized aluminium, resembles the curves of wind erosion on the sand. 

The Sharjah Architecture Triennial will open in November 2019 as “the first major platform for dialogue on architecture and urbanism in the Middle East, North Africa, East Africa and South Asia.” Curator Adrian Lahoud has announced the theme of the Triennial as the Rights of Future Generations, aiming to fundamentally challenge traditional ideas about architecture and introduce new ways of thinking that veer from current Western-centric discourse.

Fologram has recently built the world’s first pavilion-scale steel structure using the HoloLens, displaying the possibilities of integrating standard CAD workflow with augmented reality. By displaying the generative design model through holographic instructions rather than traditional 2D drawings, it explores the potential of revolutionizing the bridge between design and construction.

For the 2018 Venice Biennale, Stefano Boeri Architetti presents Slow Food Freespace, the first Slow Village to be constructed in Sichuan, China. Made in collaboration with Slow Food Movement, speakers Stefano Boeri and Carlo Petrini discussed the project at the event “Across Chinese Cities – The Community.”