Metropolis Magazine

We’re sharing our TOP 15 POSTS OF 2024! These projects and stories captivated our readers the most on social media. If you haven’t checked them out yet, now’s the perfect time! Equipo de Arquitectura Practices Material Sincerity. Read how the Paraguay-based firm integrates material rigor and contextual design into its cultural and residential projects. Founded by Viviana Pozzoli and Horacio Cherniavsky in 2017—operates from Caja de Tierra (Earth Box), an office of their own design. It’s surrounded by verdure that complements its rammed earth exterior, which seemingly bends the natural light to its will, as an example of a design rooted in its humid subtropical climate. The modest-size space embodies the same design principles and loamy tones featured in the studio’s projects throughout the capital city. https://lnkd.in/eP-wJAWM

We’re sharing our TOP 15 POSTS OF 2024! These projects and stories captivated our readers the most on social media. If you haven’t checked them out yet, now’s the perfect time! Format Architecture Office, PLLC, the NYC-based studio, helps clients hone their vision with a focus on the driving forces behind each design decision. Led by principals and cofounders Andrew McGee and Matthew Hettler, NYC-based studio Format balances bold design with a sharp focus on functionality. Before building anything, the team cultivates a deep understanding of how people actually live and move within a space. Their highly collaborative process involves honing a client’s vision according to use, but it begins with uncovering the why of it all. “We like to place clients in the driver’s seat regarding their ideas for a project by asking, ‘What is your vision for this space?’ ” says McGee. “Because the word ‘vision’ implies all the extras—what you really want as opposed to just basic needs. I like to let clients sit in that more expansive space right away.” https://lnkd.in/euMaYYvW

We’re sharing our TOP 15 POSTS OF 2024! These projects and stories captivated our readers the most on social media. If you haven’t checked them out yet, now’s the perfect time! Forest to Frame: Why Portland’s Airport is a New Milestone for Mass Timber by Brian Libby Beneath the nine-acre prefab wood roof and dozens of skylights, the new PDX’s tree-lined terminal designed by ZGF Architects is a marvel of material sourcing and construction. Inspired by farm-to-table cuisine, ZGF and its consultant, Sustainable Northwest Wood Inc, created a “forest to frame” approach. Wood was sourced from landowners and mills within a 300-mile radius of the airport, is either Forest Stewardship Council-certified or traceable to forests or landowners meeting equally forest-friendly practices. The team also prioritized sourcing wood from smaller mills, family forests, non-profits, and tribal nations.  “To me it’s a beautiful love story, of what happens when people and the land come together,” Anne Niblett of the Coquille Indian Tribe, whose forest in southwestern Oregon provided wood for the roof’s glulam beams, said at the terminal’s opening dedication. This is not how the timber market normally works. When ZGF began the project, “You couldn’t answer how much wood came from, say, fire-resilience harvesting, or from small family-run forests doing good forestry,” recalls ZGF associate principal Jacob Dunn. Instead, “Forests get logged. The longs go into piles, go through a mill and they get turned into products. They’re not segregated by forest origin or landowner type. So there’s no way to say that this deck of wood came from this forest. It gets completely blended up. - Brian Libby https://lnkd.in/dC3taHvf

How to Help the Communities Affected by the Los Angeles Wildfires! In the wake of the devastating wildfires that have ravaged Los Angeles, the city’s design community has united to support those affected. From opening up their homes and offices to displaced individuals, to developing fundraisers, auctions, and resource-sharing Google Docs, those in the area are not only mobilizing to rebuild and prepare for future risks—they are experiencing the processing the effects of climate catastrophe in real time. While the future remains uncertain, the response underscores the strength and resilience of Los Angeles design community. Affected by the Wildfires and Need Help? Local architecture and design organizations and associations have acted rapidly to succor community members who have been affected by the fires. If you are a member of LA’s creative community and could use some support, follow link on bio for some resources for you to turn to. https://lnkd.in/e_Eu_ERc

Modular Construction Provides a Solution to the Netherlands’ Housing Crisis. Moos's building system promotes diverse neighborhoods through efficient, environmentally responsible, and socially inclusive construction. Focused on reshaping the future of affordable housing, a Dutch start-up is spearheading a modular, circular building system with sustainability at its core. Moos unites experts who share a vision for positive change through forward-thinking design, construction, and development. In collaboration with the multidisciplinary architecture studio concrete, they’ve introduced a groundbreaking, fully demountable construction model aimed at tackling the housing crisis in the Netherlands. This crisis has reached a concerning peak, with Deloitte’s Living in Europe: Housing Trends and Prices 2024 report indicating that new-build homes now cost 16 times the average Dutch salary, and the waiting list for social housing can extend to almost 20 years in major cities like Amsterdam. https://lnkd.in/ea9633SD

We’re sharing our TOP 15 POSTS OF 2024! These projects and stories captivated our readers the most on social media. If you haven’t checked them out yet, now’s the perfect time! Our Net Zero Top Stories including the Houston Endowment’s new headquarters by PRODUCTORA and kevin daly Architects [kdA] Net Zero architecture is not just about mitigating carbon emissions, but also integrates regenerative principles, community engagement, and forward-thinking design philosophies. The Houston Endowment headquarters by kevin daly Architects [kdA] and PRODUCTORA embodies this approach with its myriad energy-saving and sustainable features. METROPOLIS has tracked the Net Zero movement over the last 14 years, showcasing milestone projects, key perspectives, and the way forward. Now we've gathered all the vital stories in one place, so you can understand all there is to know about navigating the path to Net Zero. https://lnkd.in/guGHty9K

We’re sharing our TOP 15 POSTS OF 2024! These projects and stories captivated our readers the most on social media. If you haven’t checked them out yet, now’s the perfect time! Can architecture wiggle out of the white box? Can cats, dogs, butterflies, and parakeets be clients of architecture? Are there new ways of building sustainably outside of the usual green design clichés? These are among the provocations of Barcelona-based TAKK, a research-led architecture practice founded by Mireia Luzárraga Álvarez and Alejandro Muiño. Beneath the vivid pink structures and avant-garde installations that have become emblematic of the celebrated 14-year-old studio lies an earnest interrogation of the role of architects during fragile times. https://lnkd.in/dqrZJQY4

We’re sharing our TOP 15 POSTS OF 2024! These projects and stories captivated our readers the most on social media. If you haven’t checked them out yet, now’s the perfect time! This 120 Year Old Brooklyn Building is now a Powerhouse for the Arts Herzog & de Meuron and PBDW Architects have transformed the 1904 Central Power Station of Brooklyn into a nonprofit arts fabrication facility. The Central Power Station of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company has sat watching over the Gowanus neighborhood since 1904. In the 1970s it was used for incinerating cardboard, and it fueled Brooklyn’s subways with mountains of coal until the 1950s, before its abandonment and subsequent occupation by a number of artist-squatters in the early 2000s. Now the building has returned in an excellent new incarnation as the nonprofit Powerhouse Arts, Inc. fabrication facility, which has sought to retain traces of the prior eras (sans burning cardboard). https://lnkd.in/gdm2qu-Z

We’re sharing our TOP 15 POSTS OF 2024! These projects and stories captivated our readers the most on social media. If you haven’t checked them out yet, now’s the perfect time! McDonald's Reimagines its Interiors through Radical Circular Design. A pilot program launching in McDonald's France and McDonald's Belgium SA aims to create sustainable interior renovations for the global fast-food brand. The Beurs branch follows in the footsteps of two earlier circular pilot projects in France, designed by Antwerp-based studio WeWantMore helmed by Ruud Belmans and Thomas Vanden Abeele. WeWantMore’s multidisciplinary approach, working both as interior designers and as brand consultants, allowed the team to integrate McDonald’s global identity with cutting-edge sustainability practices developed by the firm’s materials research team. https://lnkd.in/emPZx-NE 

Snøhetta’s ‘La Nube’ Museum Leverages Equity and Accessibility. The playful El Paso Children’s Museum welcomes learners of all ages and abilities with bilingual signage and inclusive thinking. With its cloud-like form, twinkling exterior lighting, and 77,000 square feet of imaginative, inclusive learning space, the El Paso Children’s Museum, known as La Nube, stands as both awe-inspiring and iconic for residents of the border city. Opened in August 2024, the Museum was designed through a collaboration between the global studio Snøhetta, local firm Exigo Architecture, and exhibit design firm Gyroscope Inc. Its playful exhibits span four stories, each addressing themes like sustainability, regional identity, and the concept of “Blue Sky Learning,” which emerged from a yearlong public engagement process, according to Snøhetta Partner and Managing Director Elaine Molinar. La Nube aims to inspire boundless exploration for people of all ages and abilities while fostering cross-cultural connections with the Children’s Museum in neighboring Juarez. “The first thing we did was to visit the site to ensure the design team learned about El Paso and enjoyed experiencing its rich culture as much as I did, growing up there.” – Elaine Molinar, Partner and Managing Director at Snøhetta https://lnkd.in/essadfmg