.jpg)
From landscaping to photography to urban planning, young architects working in MVRDV are having their moment!
Quentin Aubry is taking part in The Festival International des Jardins in France. The event is very popular, attracting more than 400,000 visitors each year to the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, where they can enjoy first-hand the sensorial experiences of the latest landscaping creations. The project "Le Jardin des Portes", designed by the team of landscape architects Vincent Jannsen and Zeger Dalenberg along with Quentin Aubry as architect and engineer, explores the overall Festival theme “Gardens of Paradise” using the narrative of the Roman god Janus who, in his very essence, is an incarnation of the human fascination and fear in the face of destiny. In this interactive garden the visitors have to make choices: they can decide whether to walk the paths less traveled or go for something certain, being thus the architects of their own fortune. The project therefore becomes not only a garden but a playful symbol of freedom and responsibility.
Philippe Sarfati has won in the Architecture category in the Open competition of the 2019 Sony World Photography Awards, the world's largest photography competition.
With more than 326,000 images submitted, the highest number of submissions ever to date, Philippe had tough competition. His photograph Heatwave is part of his long term project Territories and portrays the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art by SANAA in Kanazawa, Japan. Safarti’s series plays with the notion of contextual portraiture. On one hand, architecture is used as a frame, focusing compositions onto a subject with bold volumes and strong lines. On the other hand, people give meaning and scale to the spaces shown. Their attitude builds our perception of the building’s atmosphere.
Lesia Topolnyk has been awarded the Archiprix Award 2019. Archiprix International is a biennial competition and is an initiative of the Archiprix foundation. With each edition, Archiprix International presents a new generation of the world's best architects, urbanists and landscape architects together with their graduation projects.
Lesia graduated in 2018 as an architect from the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture in 2018. Her research “Un-United Nations Headquarters” is the result of her thesis and explores the “Neutral Ground for Discussing the Morality of Opposing Political Systems”. She examines the new opportunities emerging within the interlocking realms of politics and architecture and explores the role of architecture in absorbing conflict and fostering fruitful connections in a divided society. Her research project transforms the Sevastopol naval base – a main cause of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine because of the growth of the European Union and ambitions of the Russian Federation – into a trade port, positioning Crimea as the gateway to both countries, and an architectural representation of Crimea’s new identity.