Similar to the 2020 Dubai Expo theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”, Belgium’s urban planning prospects include creating smart mobility systems for the future. The expo will be combining Belgian thinkers and entrepreneurs to display their visions for the year 2050, based on today’s creative innovations of smart, clean, and secure mobility. Its presence at Expo serves as an aspiration to convince international visitors to visit the country and invest in it through collaborations with Belgian institutions and initiatives.

The 500m² exhibition space will offer visitors a gaze into the future of Belgian technologies. Visitors will be guided by narrations of the country’s notable Comics, which play an integral role in the heritage and culture of the European country. In addition, the pavilion will act as a window into “the heart and soul” of Belgium and its citizens through the experience of enjoying good food and good company. Belgian brasseries and kiosks will be installed at the exhibition space and its rooftop so visitors can indulge in the delicacies of the country.

The pavilion is designed by Belgian architects ASSAR ARCHITECTS and Vincent Callebaut Architecturesand is conceptualized by Belgian international contractors BESIX and Vanhout. BelExpo also collaborated with the Belgian Buildings Agency for the structural aspect of the pavilion.

Era is located at 251 West 91st Street, and offers 57 residences with two- to five-bedroom homes, ranging between 1,252 to 3,524 square feet. The building is designed by ODA and developed by Adam America Real Estate and Northlink Capital.

The design proposed by C+S Architects and Citizenstudio creates a system where colour becomes an orientation device, found at the façade level, but also marking the pavement of public squares and community spaces. Two complementary colours signal the two main of the Metrogorodok site: green defines the spaces and buildings in the vicinity of the Losiny Ostro National Park, and red marks the areas along the Otkrytoye Shosse Boulevard, with the areas of interference rendered in neutral shades of light and grey.

In refurbishing the facades, the design carves out loggias, intended as greenhouses, or expands the floor area of the apartments with protruding volumes, depending on the spatial relationship of the building with the forest or the boulevard. The project makes use of fibre-cement panels with ceramic tiles, as well as various brick solutions.

Titled “HELMUT JAHN: LIFE + ARCHITECTURE“, the exhibition is a career retrospective that celebrates his life’s achievements following his death in May. The event will include several scale models of the architect’s innovative ongoing projects and post-modern designs, such as the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago, which is expected to be sold by the State of Illinois without protection for its historic design. The CAC and the Chicago Architectural Club created the James R. Thompson Center Design Competition that challenges architects to imagine a new future for Jahn’s post-modern architecture, and debate on the future of his works. The exhibition will also include personal and professional items loaned by the architect’s family and office.

Helmut Jahn passed away in mid May of this year in a cycling accident. He was struck by two vehicles while riding his bicycle in Campton Hills, in the Chicago suburbs. The German-American architect first came to Chicago in 1966, after starting his architecture degree at the Technical University of Munich. Without formally graduating, he joined CF Murphy Associates, which was renamed Murphy/Jahn in 1981, and then Jahn in 2012. The firm’s global projects include the Sony Centre complex on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin in 2000 and the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. He is labeled as part of the so-called “Chicago Seven”, known over the years for joining modernism and historical references.

Located in a century-old campus, the project inserts a contemporary structure within historic brick-clad Gothic buildings; therefore, the design aims to express a certain monumentality. The main building material, concrete, is left apparent and will be cast in place using formwork made of different essence of wood, creating a vibrant texture. The design team experimented with different casting solutions to obtain a varied concrete surface.

The light-grey textured surface transitions into a softer natural clay plaster at the interior. Within the chapel, reinforcing the connection with the campus, is a glass opening framing the view towards an oak tree. The interior is organized as a series of interconnected circles circumscribed by a larger cylinder. While the chapel will be a Catholic liturgical venue, the Benson Jesuit Center is set to be a community space for people of all faiths.

The chapel is Trahan Architects’ second notable religious building, after the 2004 design of the Holy Rosary Complex, a parish in South Louisiana, which features similar inquiries into cast-in-place concrete and the use of natural light.

The proposed building is situated near the scenic Beidaihe coastline in northeastern China. From a distance, it appears as though the building is a “cloud floating in the forest”. The structure’s polished white-stained glass exterior reflects the sunlight, sky, and landscape, changing light and color with respect to its surroundings. At its entrance, visitors are met with a reflective pool amidst the lush landscape.

The floating effect is supported by a series of structural overhangs, with some reaching 30 meters high. The cloud’s mass is balanced and suspended from the building’s central core, which provides support for the entire structure and its open plan column-free interior. A low circular wall surrounds the building’s exterior, forming a tranquil landscape that “detaches visitors from reality”.

Construction of the Cloud Center began in March 2021, and is expected to be completed and opened in 2022.

Floor-plans, candid photographs, and interactive icons yielding audio snippets give a sense of a lived-in place, where daily routines commingled with astonishing musical feats. The chirp of kids playing outside and the hum of passing cars trickle into the study and living room, just as loud music emanates from the floorboards. Downstairs, in the basement, the sounds of someone grinding weed and rolling a joint rise atop audio reverb and musical false starts.

Featuring the work of 40 artists across multiple disciplines, The Future Happened pays homage to the vast influence Atlanta’s musical culture has had on global trends in design, visual arts, and technology. The exhibition offers an engaging sensorial realm where the past, present, and future coalesce, while highlighting ideas, practices, and possibilities with which art and music can be better cultivated and experienced.

The show’s curatorial team, led by the Grammy Award–winning creative director and author Lawrence Azerrad, reflects these aims. Joining Azerrad are Ruby Savage, a creative director, DJ, and music and culture curator; Floyd Hall, a media strategist, cultural producer, and documentarian from Atlanta; and Marlin Fuentes, a designer, researcher, ethnomusicologist, and entrepreneur working at the nexus of culture, emerging technology, and design.

They have sorted a wide range of musical genres, from Afro-fusion to punk, and mediums, from art installations to augmented reality, into five thematic categories. Rubrics of healing and empowerment, community and technology, converge to form a visually striking collage of sights and sounds. There’s no order or specific route to traverse, as visitors are given the freedom to ping pong across time and modes of craft. One click leads to a spotlight on Volta, an artist-driven VR platform that empowers musicians to create custom performance experiences by converting their music into an interactive world. Another click pulls up the arresting cover art of Peter Saville, best known for his design of Joy Division’s 1979 Unknown Pleasures, and Lemi Ghariokwu, whose dense sociopolitical imaginaries have graced the albums of legendary Nigerian artist and revolutionary Fela Kuti. A simple refresh of the exhibition’s home page rejiggers the orientation of the artists, resulting in an entirely different, novel experience.

This disregard for any type of linear progression jibes with the ethos of The Future Happened, which, perhaps above all else, seeks to make connections where many might not see them. As Azerrad said in a recent interview, “There’s always been groundbreakers in music in our history and now and in our future and we need to pay attention to those innovations to be able to have deeper and more meaningful connections to music, culture, and each other.”

And while the exhibition celebrates technological advancement and its relation to music and art, it also provides a space for critique. In particular, important questions are posed regarding the advent of streaming and digital media that have had a massive impact on the way content is created, consumed, and shared. Though music has never been easier to access, preexisting issues relating to inclusion, diversity, and equity in the music industry persist. The New York–based artist Sajjad Musa, for one, challenges this reality through his work with Grammy award–winning singer and songwriter Burna Boy, who criticized the Coachella Music Festival for minimizing his name in its lineup bill. In creating the artwork for Burna Boy’s 2019 album African Giant, Musa printed the singer’s likeness on banknotes, an act of aggrandizement that re-centered a Black performer in a predominantly white space. Like so many pieces in this exhibition, Musa’s cover highlights the power design has in visualizing important messages in music.

But just as important as critique is care, a theme picked up by the Caribbean-Belgian artist Charlotte Adigry, whose music and visual panache feature in the exhibition. Where the sugary track “High Lights” sounds a playful tone about self-care and identity affirmation, the short film “Yin Yang Self-Meditation” invites visitors into a pensive, psychedelic realm where they might record their anxieties and breathing exercises. Adigry’s design sense swings pendulously between the two, moving from Black ballroom culture to gauzy ’80s club vibes.

The Future Happened: Designing the Future of Music offers an incredibly engaging virtual experience as few others have managed during this time of pandemic. The diverse array of innovative artists expands the idea of what design looks like in music, thus broadening the methods by which it can heal, empower, build community, and foster change. As the show demonstrates, the future doesn’t simply “happen”; rather, it is the result of individual actors coming together, consciously or not, in collectivities. The future is made, and remade, over and over.

Situated on a beautiful and serene riverfront location, the boasts of being expansive and combines generous flowing interiors with large openings, offering views out at every corner. Courtyards, paved pathways and patios, as well as a swimming pool, ensure residents can enjoy a continuous indoor/outdoor lifestyle throughout the year. One of the clients’ primary aims was to have a home that feels modern but also sits in harmony within its setting, and makes the most of the site’s greenery and context.

‘We aimed to create a cohesively designed home in a timeless style, with integrated design disciplines, from the exterior materials, to interior furnishings, to the exterior hardscape and species selections,’ says Strang.

The design of the home, also contains, a strong environmental credentials to support a sustainable architecture. Using technology from smart homes expert Delos, it includes solar panels on the roof for energy storage; a lighting design that works with circadian rhythms and can be programmed in a bespoke way; and a water filtration system used to treat the local water supply.

After all this, what we get is a happy customer. ‘On the last night of the photo shoot we asked the client what his favorite room was,’ Strang recalls. ‘He said he loved every single space in the house and how as a family they are all able to use every single area, which is what he always wanted and envisioned.’

The tower has been named “One Hundred” which will cover a total of 5,20,000 SQFT, which will include 316b units, with retail, amenities and parking. Being Studio Gang’s first project in the city, the project is going to provide views of the park to the west and the Gateway Arch to the East.

”Tiers of four stories will repeat over the height of the building, with the facade’s angles producing outdoor terraces for a fourth of the apartments,” Jeanne Gang said in the first conceptual stage of the project.

According to Jeanne Gang, “the studio took into consideration the site orientation and environmental forces to form the building’s leaflike shape and tiered design which will cut energy use and increase residents’ comfort.”

”Glass walls sloped outward will make the apartments seem larger, said the architect, adding that One Hundred’s design also is intended to show that ‘people live in the building,” added Jeanne Gang, the founder of Studio Gang.

The angled elements of the façade, is going to to create generous outdoor spaces on top of each tier, providing terraces for a quarter of the apartments.

Striking high rises is what Studio Gang is known for, which enhance community’s inclusivity within the building, while providing climatic conditions adapted to the site’s features. MIRA Tower in San Francisco is other key high-rise building of the studio completed in 2020.

The apartment has been designed so that, each unit is is able to connect its owners to the Forst park and the Gateway arch. “Each apartment features its own corner living room with double exposures that, in addition to offering panoramic views, enhance the amount and quality of daylight within the units,” said the studio.

At street level, the studio designed public and retail spaces adjacent to the park and the tower defines a wider, more generous public streetscape, strengthening pedestrian connections between the Central West End district and Forest Park.

Located on the south-west corner of Bryant park, a nine-acre public park in Midtown Manhattan, the building has been named The Bryant.

The 21,200 square meter tower faces the New York library to the north, surrounded by other historic landmarks in its surrounding, it is situated near Beaux-Arts style Knox building to the East.

There are two separate lobbies on the double-height ground floor, one for the hotel and the other for the residences, with retail on both sides of each entrance animating the street front.

Following the traditional tripartite composition of the New York base, middle and crown, the architectural language of the building has been articulated in three separate parts.

The base of the tower occupies the full width of the site and consists of a double-height ground floor as well as the first four levels of the hotel.

“A decreased footprint, together with an increased floor-to-ceiling height for the hotel bar and lounge, mark the start of the central section,” said David Chipperfield Architects.

“This set-back creates an outdoor terrace accessible to both hotel guests and residential tenants while maintaining the elevation pattern of alternating medium and high-rise buildings along 40th Street.”

The crown is moved from the tower’s layout to the top of the tower and is established by double-height spaces, the studio has come up with two marvellous penthouses at the top of the tower.

“The concrete mix contains different aggregates identical to the stone varieties found in the neighbouring buildings’ masonry façades,” added the studio.

“These polished precast concrete slabs and columns follow a tectonic grid composition lending the building a classical appearance and firmly asserting its place within the streetscape.”

“The concrete building structure extends into the interior of the residences, reinforcing a sense of architectural substance and identity,” continued the studio.

Built-In furnishing has been used in the studio, in order to conceal storage spaces and appliances inside. The space has been divided, without any partition walls, thus allowing uninterrupted sight of the whole place.

Floor-to-ceiling windows open on to Juliet balconies on the north and south façades for most of the residences, while the penthouses have double-height, colonnaded terraces with view over the city and park.