Let's take a look at some of the latest news and innovations in architecture around the world. 

Sergei Tchoban wins 2018 European Prize for Architecture

Tchoban-Foundation-Museum-Berlin.jpg
The Tchoban Foundation Museum

Russian architect Sergei Tchoban has been awarded the 2018 European Prize for Architecture. He was chosen for his “powerful designs and unique design vision that celebrates the best of modernist buildings that are internationally iconic, complex, enigmatic, provocative, and profoundly artistic.”

“His architecture encompasses an endless variety of forms, surfaces, colours, poetry, using the most contemporary methods of planning and sustainable solutions, in a variety of areas, ranging from cultural facilities to commercial, office, and religious buildings – all with the purposes of achieving the highest intellect and ultimately, a complex cultural content,” says the European Centre for Architecture, Art Design and Urban Studies.

"Moreover, Tchoban is also an extremely skilled draftsman who produces highly charged and emotional renderings that reminisce the high aesthetic of Boullée and Ledoux in their mystical overtones, combined with the energy and revolutionary zeal of the Russian Constructivists. His is a most rare, thought-provoking, and profound approach to architecture, extensions of his life, his philosophy, and his intellect, that fuse the power of imagination into the end product—the building."

UNStudio unveils futuristic Hyperloop station design

hyperloop.jpg

UNStudio has unveiled a prototype design for a hyperloop transfer hub, which could enable rapid connections between major European cities. 

“Within the Hub, a series of tessellating components adapt to a range of contexts: city-centre, edge of city or adjoining an existing infrastructure hub, such as an airport. Existing cities of course have existing parameters, and we envisage a symbiotic, modular relationship with the local environment. 

“Modularity is what makes this system scalable, resilient and adaptable to existing conditions. It blends into the existing built fabric whether above or overground in dense inner city neighbourhoods or in low-rise settings. From platforms to functional spaces and to the roof which extends out over transfer hubs, a modular design framework organizes and connects all parts.” – UNStudio

Kengo Kuma’s unique design for a waterfront Scottish museum

kengo-kuma-vanda-dundee-opens-architecture_dezeen_2364_hero.jpg
Photography by Hufton + Crow

The first images have been released of the completed V&A (Victoria & Albert) Dundee Museum of Design, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.

The site faces the Tau River, which flows south of Dundee City, allowing a new environmentally conscious architecture in which the building and site are united. Precast concrete was layered horizontally on the building’s exterior to create shadows and an ever-changing façade, as well as to express the beauty of the Scottish cliffs.

Kuma designed the building with a large “hole” horizontally penetrating the centre of the building. Through use of this “hole”, he attempted to connect Union Street, the central access of Dundee City, with the nature of Tau River. Other elements include the design of a void-like “living room” for community revitalisation, covered with locally-produced soft-textured wood.