ArchDaily, the most widely read architecture website in the world, has published a selection of the 20 young architecture practices (age limit under 40 years old) that are providing innovative approaches, proposals, and solutions to some of the main challenges Humankind is facing right now.
Chosen from over 350 submissions from 72 countries and 215 cities all over the world, the selected firms reflect the sequential changes the architecture has been navigating through over the last twenty years with the rise and latter consolidation of new technologies, tools, formats, topics, scales, and interdisciplinary approaches.
The chosen offices come from Cuba, Brazil, Chile, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Lebanon, Paraguay, Portugal, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and Viet Minh, and all of them understand the magnitude of their interventions: common problems , different challenges and diverse approaches.
As a sign of what the century awaits from architects and designers, we have included an architects-led startup among the selected firms. These offices introduce new ways of practicing, by understanding architecture as both a toolkit and a methodology rather than just a job description. Nevertheless, for the 2021 edition, we look forward to receiving more submissions related to architectural theory, critical writing, media, and technology field.
Meet the selected young practices in alphabetic order:
– Ad Urbis Arquitectos | Cuba
– Atelier Mozh | China
– Azócar Catrón | Chile
– Carl Gerges Architects | Lebanon
– CAUKIN Studio | United Kingdom
– Corpo Atelier | Portugal
– Form Found Design (FFD) | United States
– Mínimo Común Arquitectura | Paraguay
– MoKim | South Korea + Japan
– New Office Works (NOW) | Hong Kong
– Noelia Monteiro | Brazil
– ODDO Architects | Vietnam
- Office Off Course | China
– Salon Alper Derinbogaz | Turkey
- sauermartins | Brazil
- studiolibani | Lebanon
- Taller KEN | United States
- The Urban Conga | United States
- UMWELT | Chile
- Wallmakers | India
- *Honorable Mention: Monograph | United States
More information about Carl Gerges Architects:
“As we look at how we may live in the future, it is important that our solutions as architects and designers respond to our culture, context, and heritage. The world pandemic and the multiple lockdowns reminded us of the importance of having a well equipped and pleasant home; it has also brought us closer to nature. The devaluation of our currency in Lebanon made us realize that we did not develop the market for locally available resources. Instead, we mostly relied on imported construction materials that were used without proper consideration for context and tradition which now became extremely expensive and unaffordable. Finally, the massive explosion in Beirut has further crippled an endangered and shattered old city fabric, leaving it to the mercy of real estate developers. The road to the future runs through adopting a new approach to design and architecture, a more human scale manner of work, whereby each project aims to consider and preserve its relative social, environmental, and historical aspects. The new world doesn’t need just another new building, it needs developments that can be truly sustained”.
More information about studiolibani:
Team members: Dima Rachid, Leah Moukarzel
“Our interventions fall on three core pillars —enhanced quality of space, social inclusion, and ecological performance— while valuing the notion of openness and exchange, with six collaborations across disciplines and geographies completed in only two years’ time. By balancing teaching, design research, critical writing, cartography, and practice, we seek to push forth the agency of landscape architecture and landscape planning in shaping ecologically-sensitive, people-based environments that are resilient to contemporary challenges. Lebanon and MENA region at large face a critical water shortage crisis and lack of open space, exacerbated by climate change and unregulated urban growth; also governed by obsolete approaches to planning and infrastructure. Our visions revolve around water and climate, challenge the idea of a design for drought, pushing for nature-based solutions while enhancing ecological diversity. Through our public project proposals, public installations, and critical publications, we find opportunities to advocate for ecological infrastructure and contribute to pushing forward at the design and policy level”.