As if the Line wasn’t enough, Saudi Arabia is currently busy constructing yet another amazing skyscraper, named the Mukaab. Taking the form of a supertall cube, new information has been released that details the build progress so far and the sheer scale of the project.
The Mukaab will reach a height of 400 m (1,312 ft) in the Saudi capital Riyadh, but more impressively it will also be just as long and wide, making it so large that, according to the Saudi Government’s Public Investment Fund, it could fit 20 Empire State Buildings inside of it. Additionally, Bloomberg says it will actually be the world’s largest building.
Its decorative exterior is inspired by traditional Islamic architecture, while its interior will have a floorspace of around 2 million square meters (0.77 square miles). At its center will be another large twisting tower – think of it like a big box with a large twisting structure inside.
The Mukaab will also feature some kind of holographic system that will be used to depict underwater and strange otherworldly scenes inside the cube structure, which all sounds a little reminiscent of the Sphere’s fancy “4D” immersive cinematic experience, but we’ve no further details yet.
Saudi Arabia’s extraordinarily ambitious cuboid skyscraper, the Mukaab, is expected to be completed by 2030
New Murabba
Excavation work is almost complete and 10 million cubic meters [roughly 350 million cubic ft] of earth has been moved to date. The excavation process has required the daily use of roughly 250 excavators and over 400 pieces of equipment to manage all the soil, with construction workers putting in a total of around 3 million hours of labor so far. Additionally, a bridge is being constructed to allow everything to move smoothly.
“New Murabba will also construct a temporary bridge that will serve as a critical enabler, connecting the construction site by crossing King Khalid Road,” explains developer New Murabba’s press release. “This connection will facilitate ongoing development and pave the way for the initiation of Mukaab piling in the coming months. The bridge is expected to reduce approximately 800,000 truck movements on public roads for earthworks alone, showcasing a positive impact on the surrounding infrastructure. With around 900 workers on-site daily, work is advancing rapidly, bringing the destination closer.”
The latest edition of “Architizer: The World’s Best Architecture” — a stunning, hardbound book celebrating the most inspiring contemporary architecture from around the globe — is now available. Order your copy today.
At Future Fest 2024, renowned photographer Ema Peter and Deepak Gugarii of Studio VDGA shared their experiences working together on The House of Courtyards, a project that landed on the cover of the Architizer: The World’s Best Architecture book this year. Their collaboration exemplifies the importance of architects and photographers working closely together, ensuring that the heart of the design is captured and communicated.
In today’s world, where architecture is often first experienced through photography, how a building is portrayed has never been more important. So hearing directly from Ema on this was especially valuable for architects looking to tell their story through imagery. Throughout her talk, Ema drew on her many years of collaborating with architects, sharing insightful and elegant nuggets of wisdom that ask everyone in the industry to think a little deeper about the term ‘photograph’ — as a verb that can and should be a collaborative endeavor and as a noun, capable of communicating not only a constructed reality but also design philosophies, atmospheric power and more.
“What I learned recently is the moment you forget about your own ego, your own sense of rightfulness, you can really explore the world through the eyes of someone else. For many years I felt that my goal was to capture the light the way I see it, I thought I was always right in my approaches.
“But, in the last little while, I have learned that in my collaboration with architects, I can actually allow myself to see through other people’s eyes. I used to get quite frustrated when someone touched my camera and directed me. I would get really upset when someone touched my camera! Now, I’ve started welcoming it, which is a huge change.”
2. On the thought process of architectural photographers:
“ [When shooting] I want to tell the story but also I see the business side… what is the target market, what publications the project will eventually end up in, what is the best approach to tell the story, how to make impactful images, what can make a good cover.
But, the key is to create impactful image and, most importantly, images that can stop people for a second, because this is what we need at the moment in this visually changing environment where we are bored of the constant flow of images, almost desensitized.”
“I often think about great love stories or collaborations between artists and writers. How much did Fitzgerald learn being around Gertrude Stein or through his close relationship with Hemingway? What was Rodin’s influence on Camille Claudel? How did the presence of Giulietta Masina, the muse of Fellini, change the way he saw the world?
The collaboration I would really want to talk about is Le Corbusier’s and his photographer Lucien Hervé. In 1949, the self-taught photographer went and did 650 photographs in Marseille at Unité d’Habitation, a housing complex by Corbusier and sent them to him. He said, ‘For 40 years I’ve been looking for a photographer able to express architecture.’ He had finally found him in Hervé. The two men worked together for the next 16 years — some of Le Corbusier’s most fruitful — until the architect’s death in 1965.”
4. On photography in the past and taking it slow:
“What I love about those days, when life moved so much slower, is that they couldn’t review the images immediately like we do today. Hervé did contact sheets, narrowed them down, put them in an album and then they sat down and reviewed the album together. It wasn’t just their collaboration and travels together that were interesting, but also their editorial choices.
How did they select an image? Why that image? It really reminded me of the times I had to go through Bresson’s contact sheets to see how he found the decisive moment. It is simple — it’s about choosing the moments in time that speak visually to both the architect and the photographer.”
5. On why architects need to be present during the shoot:
“A good friend and architect I’ve worked with for years, Michael Leckie, told me something that was very impactful for me. He said, ‘The world sees my work through your eyes.’ I want to repeat this because it has a big impact — the world sees the architect’s work through the eyes of the photographer.
This is why collaboration is so important and time has to be spent to understand the direction, the story, the concept and how to capture it in shots. So much of this is lost when we go and photograph on our own, sent by marketing teams, without the chance to communicate with the person who put their life and soul into the project.”
6. On building long-term partnerships:
“One of our most well-known Canadian architects, John Patkau, works with his photographer James Dow for 40 years. They sit and wait for the light together. He told me that sometimes they sit for hours to capture one shot… If you ask me, I would love to grow old with the people I work with and be able to understand their world so well that we do not need to talk. Just with one look, with one movement, we can achieve symbiosis and still find things to challenge each other.”
7. On creative differences and leaving the comfort zone:
“Some of the strongest collaborations I have had are with people that really push me, people that we do not see eye to eye with in the beginning… but they are the people that drive you forward. I feel these are the collaborations that give you knowledge you did not have.”
“Michael Leckie made me realize that I can absolutely photograph no matter how pouring rain it is. Prior to working with him, everyone I worked with in Canada wanted the perfect sky and sunny day, but that’s hardly achievable in Vancouver with 6 months of rain. I absolutely opposed it in the beginning… but the moment when you are driving towards a shoot and wondering, ‘What am I doing?’ is also a pivotal moment. It’s when you realize you have not reached even 1% of your creative potential.”
8. On how photography reveals a building’s true voice:
“Recently, I was sitting on the terrace of this amazing project by Measured Architecture with one of their principals, Clinton Cuddington. We discussed photography, art, music and philosophy after a very long day of shooting.
I asked him about the importance of the collaboration between the photographer and the architect and he told me this: ‘If an architect can surrender to the photographer and allow her (he said her, just saying) to find the space through the lens, then an architect can learn how the building speaks without their voice present.”
9. On books about architectural photography:
“One book that he [Clinton Cuddington] recommended to me was Judith Turner’s Photographing Five Architects. She saw architecture in a completely different way. Her focus on details—shadow and light—makes you question: What is the reality of architecture? What dialogue happens between the observer and the subject? It’s art. I always try to capture reality, but there is room for both, though deadlines today leave less time for this artistic approach.”
10. On finding the key shots:
“At this stage of my career, I’ve gotten to the point where I can clearly see where the key shots of a project could be, and once you find those, it’s important to keep exploring them in different light. For me, architecture speaks in completely divergent ways depending on the light. These are the moments where you need to make sure the architect understands what you’re doing.”
11. On architects, photographers and the public’s eye:
“We create stories, and we follow the light. What people really want is to have the sensation of being there, to feel transported into the space and want to spend time there. This is often a challenge with architects, as they want to show their clean lines and specific architectural elements, but the way architecture speaks to the public is something very different.”
12. On the architect’s role in capturing the soul of their projects:
“Deepak had spent years studying the light and shapes of this house, so he found moments I couldn’t in the short three days I was there. This is, I feel, the level of engagement we need from architects or whoever is representing the team at the shoot — two sets of eyes, two people passionate about capturing the soul of the project in a series of moments. All these moments you see here, we experienced them together.”
13. On why collaboration matters so much:
“If there is anything that I want to take out of this talk, it is that we are all creatives and have our own visions, but we are happier as artists when we collaborate. The true freedom of expression comes from the curiosity of exploring other worlds, the fascinating worlds of our imagination.”
The latest edition of “Architizer: The World’s Best Architecture” — a stunning, hardbound book celebrating the most inspiring contemporary architecture from around the globe — is now available. Order your copy today.
Top image: South Haven Centre for Remembrance by Group 2 Architecture Interior Design, Edmonton, Canada | Photo by Ema Peter Photography
A new review has highlighted how skin tone can affect the safety and effectiveness of some medications and why the current way we run clinical drug trials needs to change to include more historically underrepresented populations.
Clinical trials are essential for evaluating the effectiveness and safety of medications in human subjects. While the overarching goal of biomedical research is to improve the health and well-being of an entire population, participants in clinical trials tend to be far from diverse. An analysis of 32,000 individuals who participated in new drug trials in the US during 2020 found that only 8% were Black, 6% Asian, 11% Hispanic, and 30% were aged 65 and older.
A new review by Simon Groen, an assistant professor of evolutionary systems biology in the Institute of Integrative Genome Biology at the University of California, Riverside, and Sophie Zaaijer, a consultant and researcher affiliated with UC Riverside who specializes in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in clinical trials, investigated how one aspect of race – skin tone – affects how medications work.
“Our review paper concludes that melanin, the pigment responsible for skin color, shows a surprising affinity for certain drug compounds,” said Groen. “Melanin’s implications for drug safety and dosing have been largely overlooked, raising alarming questions about the efficacy of standard dosing since people vary a lot in skin tones.”
The differences in cellular makeup between dark and light skin
Zaaijer & Groen 2024
The key cells in human skin tone are melanocytes, which make melanin-containing melanosomes, and keratinocytes, which store them. The number and characteristics of melanosomes within skin layers determine variations in tone, from light to dark. Dark skin contains a higher proportion of individual large melanosomes, whereas light skin contains higher levels of clusters of mini-melanosomes. In light skin, melanosomes are concentrated in the stratum basale, the deepest skin layer, while in dark skin, they’re distributed more diffusely throughout the layers.
A person’s unique combination of the two primary forms of melanin – pheomelanin and eumelanin – is responsible for skin, hair, and eye color. Eumelanin, more than pheomelanin, plays a significant role in drug interactions due to its chemical structure, which gives it a high affinity for binding with various substances, including basic or neutrally charged drugs and metal ions. Examples of compounds with an affinity for binding with eumelanin include cocaine, nicotine, the analgesic acetaminophen, antibiotics ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, and penicillin G, antidepressants clomipramine and imipramine, and the antipsychotic medications chlorpromazine, clozapine, and haloperidol.
Let’s consider the antipsychotic clozapine: the only FDA-approved medication for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. A 2023 study used a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to examine clozapine metabolism within and between different ancestral backgrounds: European, sub-Saharan African, north African, southwest Asian, and east Asian. It found that, at the same dose, sub-Saharan African ancestry was associated with lower clozapine concentrations in the plasma compared to European ancestry.
Currently, Black, Asian, and Hispanic participants are underrepresented in clinical trials
Despite being the body’s largest organ, the skin has been largely overlooked for its potential interactions between eumelanin and drug pharmacokinetics (what the body does to a drug; how it moves into, through and out of the body) and pharmacodynamics (what a drug does to the body; the biochemical, physiologic, and molecular effects of a drug). Studies have shown that variations in skin eumelanin levels – and therefore skin tone – can influence nicotine use and dependence, which has implications for darker-skinned folks using nicotine skin patches as smoking cessation aids.
“Are we inadvertently shortchanging smokers with darker skin tones if they turn to these patches in their attempts to quit?” asked Groen.
The researchers argue that current guidelines for clinical trials fail to adequately address the impact of skin pigmentation on drug interactions.
“This oversight is particularly concerning given the push for more diverse clinical trials, as outlined in the [FDA]’s Diversity Action Plan,” Zaaijer said. “But current early-stage drug development practices still primarily focus on drug testing in white populations of Northern European descent.”
Under the provisions of the recently enacted Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act (FDORA), the FDA requires sponsors of phase 3 clinical trials or “other pivotal studies of a drug” to submit a Diversity Action Plan designed to increase enrollment of participants from historically underrepresented populations. A ‘sponsor’ is defined as someone – an individual, pharmaceutical company, academic institution, private or other organization – who takes responsibility for and initiates a clinical investigation.
“The FDA published their draft guidelines recently,” Zaaijer said. “Once final in a few months, they will mandate considering patient diversity in clinical trials and preclinical R&D [research and development]. The next step is to provide guidance on what pharmacokinetic variables should be tested in drug R&D pipelines in their pursuit to [sic] equitable drugs.”
The researchers are calling for clinical drug trial sponsors to enrol participants with diverse ancestral backgrounds
It’s a step in the right direction, but change will take some time.
“In terms of risk profile testing, drugs are most often tested on one or a few human cell models that mostly come from donors of Northern European descent,” said Zaaijer. “Drugs are then tested in a rodent model. If these tests are successful, drug companies push the drug through to clinical trials. But are drugs ready to be given to a diverse patient group if they haven’t first been tested, for example, on human cell models of different ancestries? Would you bungee jump off a bridge if you know the ropes have not been tested for your weight category? Unlikely. So why is this currently acceptable with drugs?”
As a fix, Groen and Zaaijer have proposed that pharmaceutical companies use differently pigmented 3D human skin models to assess the binding properties of new drugs across different skin tones.
“Skin pigmentation should be considered as a factor in safety and dosing estimates,” said Zaaijer. “We stand on the brink of a transformative era in the biomedical industry, where embracing inclusivity is not just an option anymore but a necessity.”
The researchers also encourage patients and clinical trial participants to ask questions like, ‘Has this drug been tested to see if it’s safe for people from different ancestral backgrounds, like mine?’
“If different ancestral backgrounds are taken into consideration in the early stages of drug discovery, then diverse groups of people may have more trust in the drug development process and enroll in clinical trials because they will be better informed of any potential associated risks,” said Groen.
The perspective article was published in the journalHuman Genomics.
Don’t let its bright, friendly stripes fool you – the Iveco Daily Switch 4×4 was the meanest-looking camper van at the year’s largest RV Show. By far. The towering RV was also among the show’s most versatile, combining Iveco’s highly configurable van platform, a warehouse worth of airline tie-down track, and a modular equipment set that seamlessly “switches” between hauling supplies to remote forestry and mining sites and hunting down the highest, remotest camping sites the world has to offer.
We were about five photos deep in snapping Volkswagen’s all-new Multivan California, one of the more anticipated highlights of this year’s Düsseldorf Caravan Salon, when the hulking pop-top Iveco Daily Switch 4×4 wrapped its knuckles taut around our gaze and refused to let go, pulling us across the aisle to have a closer look.
Iveco and Hunerkopf show the Daily Switch 4×4 at the 2024 Caravan Salon
CC Weiss/New Atlas
The Daily is an eye-catching van to begin with, sporting a large rounded nose that gives it a unique look as compared to the full-size-van competition. Add in oversized off-road tires, a pop-up roof and forestry graphics, then make the high-riding van even higher by parking its front wheels on a set of logs, and you have a huge hunk of van life you can’t quite look away from.
Iveco has partnered up with leading van upfitters to turn the Daily van into the Daily Switch, an versatile modular van that can serve as an everyday work vehicle – whether for hard, dirty outdoorsy work or climate-controlled e-commuting – and a holiday camping getaway.
The work starts with Iveco’s already versatile Daily van, which offers loads of size and equipment options, including 4×2 and 4×4 powertrain options. Iveco’s main partner in crime on the Daily Switch is Hünerkopf, an RV component specialist with a history of intriguing slide-out and custom work.
The partition/bed keeps the passenger and load areas separate
Iveco/Hunerkopf
Hünerkopf doesn’t focus on fancy bodywork here, instead building out the Daily’s stock cabin into a versatile do-anything van. It all starts with an essential foundation: airline track installed on the floor, walls and ceiling. From there, Hünerkopf specs the van up for camping duties with wall and floor insulation, two sliding RV side windows, a roof hatch, swivel cab seats, diesel heating, and a “Micro” electrical package with 130-Ah AGM battery, 20-A charger, 650-W inverter, 12/230V/USB outlets, and interior lighting. Buyers who want more power can upgrade to the “Large” electrical package with 200-Ah lithium battery and 1,600-W inverter.
To increase versatility further, Hünerkopf and Iveco add the handiest, cleverest van partition we’ve seen … at least this month. The large removable partition keeps driver and passengers isolated and protected from any tools or gear being stored in the load area, but also flips on its side to create a bed platform.
The included partition doubles as a bed platform, just add a mattress
Iveco/Hunerkopf
Throw a foam or inflatable mattress inside, and you already have a voluminous cargo van ready to work hard all day and sleep comfortably at night. But campers looking for more can choose from Hünerkopf’s catalog of rail-attachable modules made from high-pressure laminate (HPL). Offerings include a kitchen module with sink and portable stove, a WC module with slide-out portable toilet and toilet paper holder, a folding multi-leaf table, and various refrigerator options. It also offers motorcycle and bicycle carriers for inside the van.
For buyers who need more than an empty cargo-hauler for the work side of the equation, Iveco and Hünerkopf have partnered with upfitter Sortimo to offer cabinets, toolboxes, worktops and more. They also work with van racking supplier Bott GmbH. Buyers can order the camper and work modules they need and swap them in and out for different trips.
More rugged than the average AWD van, the Iveco Daily 4×4 is built like an off-road truck with a ladder frame, driver-lockable differentials, available winch and more
Iveco
Hünerkopf and Iveco offer the Daily Switch as a 4×2, but the model on show in Düsseldorf featured the 4×4 system that helps make the Daily a more capable off-roader than more common camper base vans like the Mercedes Sprinter AWD or Volkswagen Transporter 4Motion. Unlike those vans’ AWD systems, the Daily offers a proper 4WD with three locking differentials and off-road reduction gearing. It stands atop a hardwearing ladder frame and rides on a set of 265/70 R19 off-road tires. Power comes from Iveco’s 173-hp 3.0-liter engine.
The Iveco Daily Switch 4×2 starts at €76,990 (approx. US$83,925), while the pictured Switch 4×4 with pop-up sleeper roof starts at €138,111 (US$150,550). Camping and work modules are priced individually.
The telecom industry is undergoing its greatest period of disruption since the telegraph, as companies work to open up space as the next frontier for communications. French startup Constellation hopes to take part by repurposing 5G tech to provide a Starlink-like satellite broadband that uses telecoms’ existing assets.
Constellation Technologies and Operations, to call it by its full name, plans to launch a constellation of satellites in very low Earth orbit and work directly with telecom operators to provide high-speed internet access via small (but stationary) user terminals.
The company would do this by repurposing terrestrial 5G spectrum for space-based connectivity — cellular signals can actually reach to and from orbit if handled right. Constellation would provide the capacity and terminals but the customer would pay the telecom company for the service, with that subscription revenue shared.
Constellation founder and CEO Charles Delfieux acknowledged in a recent interview that the space sector is at a turning point: “For the first time in the history of space and telecommunication, we are basically witnessing a convergence between space and terrestrial connectivity in terms of performance and price,” he said. “That convergence is basically making those sought-after, cost-effective solutions to deliver connectivity as something that is completely achievable.”
An engineer by training, Delfieux spent the majority of his career working at the World Bank, where he acted as program manager leading the structuring and financing of large infrastructure projects in emerging countries. He witnessed firsthand how access to reliable internet remains a challenge for millions of people. With the support of a first investor, he resigned from the World Bank and founded Constellation in 2022.
“If you want to really achieve ubiquitous, universal connectivity, the only way to do that is to leverage space technologies,” he said.
He acknowledged that the most successful example to-date is Starlink, whose performance and price is getting closer and closer to what terrestrial solutions provide. But Delfieux said that the Constellation team eventually realized that the most promising business plan is to essentially work with, not against, terrestrial telecom operators. By doing so, he sees massive opportunity to provide universal internet access regardless of location or existing connectivity.
The plan is bolstered by some technological innovations, namely the development of a satellite form factor that will be capable of operating in very low Earth orbit, around 375 kilometers, which Delfieux says will help boost the performance of the system. Constellation also aims to repurpose part of the 5G spectrum allocated to the telecom operators on the ground for its space communications service.
By doing so, Delfieux said the startup will help telecoms to monetize the full extent of their 5G networks – and more meaningfully compete with new entrants like SpaceX and Amazon’s Kuiper.
“Established national, regional, traditional telecom operators, they are seeing these very powerful, very influential players, new entrants in telecommunications sector, that start operating a broadband constellation, that start delivering broadband services from space…they are more and more aiming at taking their own space within the telecommunication sector, in direct competition with established national and regional telecom operators. So it’s a threat. We basically want to be the ones providing a telco-friendly solution for the telecom operator. So tomorrow they can compete with those new entrants.”
By using 5G spectrum, Constellation can also integrate within the design of its user terminals and satellite payloads mass produced, cheap components that are already being produced for terrestrial communication networks in order to drive down costs, he added.
The company has secured a €9.3 million ($10.2 million) seed round to accelerate its plans. The new funding comes from the Expansion Fund, Bpifrance and a previous unnamed investor.
Constellation estimates that its business model will need a constellation of 1,500 satellites to provide global coverage – an ambitious number by any measure – with performance rates of 150 Mbps downlink and 50 Mbps uplink and a latency of less than 30 milliseconds.
The company plans first on launching a hosted payload to orbit by June 2025 to carry out an end-to-end test of the service. From there, it will launch two prototype satellites by the end of 2026 with the aim of deploying production satellites the following year.
Thoughtly co-founder Casey Mackrell had a big week. First, he got married. Then, he went viral.
At his wedding reception, Mackrell needed to quickly give a colleague access to code that could only be unblocked from his laptop. His fellow co-founder Torrey Leonard seized the moment by taking a photo to capture Mackrell wrapping up a pull request, staring at his computer in a ballroom as his friends and family danced in the background, floral arrangements and fairy lights abounding.
Leonard posted the photo of his co-founder on LinkedIn with a reverent caption. The image of a founder coding at his own wedding went viral, sparking both awe and outrage.
But the actual story behind the image isn’t as bad as it seems.
“In this very moment that the picture was taken, Casey needed to push one thing to a server. There was a code on his laptop that a colleague needed to access,” Leonard told TechCrunch. “For 30 seconds, Casey was clicking a button: He logged in, clicked a button, done. And you can see in the picture, too, people are laughing.”
Leonard doesn’t provide the context that Mackrell was on his computer for less than one minute. But that’s what made his post so clicky: The idea of a founder spending hours coding at his own wedding is maddening. What actually happened isn’t as heinous.
Leonard’s post generated so much discussion in the startup community because it’s an extension of the existing discourse around “founder mode,” a concept coined by Paul Graham, a founding partner of Y Combinator. And beyond Silicon Valley, the post made for great rage bait.
“Last year, we would spend time in SF, and I’d be talking to friends at a restaurant or a bar, and there Casey would be on his laptop — and other people as well, because it’s SF, right?” said Leonard. “This founder mode mentality, it’s very inspiring to I think a lot of people in the tech space.”
But beyond the tech bubble, what founders view as dedication can be considered a lack of work-life balance.
According to Graham, you can run a company in one of two ways: in founder mode, or in manager mode. In founder mode, the founder should be hands-on with everything the company does. Founders transition into manager mode when they start delegating, which Graham argues can make a startup less successful.
Both Graham’s essay and Leonard’s LinkedIn post were met with mixed feedback. While some found Mackrell’s embodiment of “founder mode” to be motivational, others were appalled at this lack of work-life balance.
“Publicly, all of the comments that we’ve received are super negative … We were on 4chan, we were on Reddit, and obviously, people who represent communities outside of tech just, frankly, didn’t like it,” Leonard said.
Viral LinkedIn posts, which range from satirical to delusional, usually end up on other platforms, divorced from their context. One particularly successful post, in which a founder declares what proposing to his fiance taught him about b2b sales, was posted as a joke, though the post has blown up into a new meme in its own right.
“Meanwhile, I’ve received at this point thousands of emails, LinkedIn DMs, texts from founders that I know, unicorn founders that I don’t know, Fortune 500 CEOs, and the top investors in the world across Silicon Valley that have said, ‘Let’s go, I’m on your side,’” Leonard said.
Mackrell is now on his honeymoon with his wife, so he couldn’t be reached for comment. But his wife wasn’t bothered by her husband pulling out his laptop at their wedding, according to Leonard. Still, the company should probably figure out how to avoid a situation like this in the future, where only one person in a company of 15 employees can solve a particular problem. Paul Graham would probably disagree, though.
Architizer’s 13th Annual A+Awards are embracing the tradition to celebrate innovation! Calling all architects, landscape architects, interior designers and creative minds from around the world: This is your chance to celebrate your work on the global stage and establish your firm as an innovative thought leader in the AEC industry.
This year, the A+Awards promises to be bigger than ever, with an expanded set of categories and a fresh lineup of renowned jurors, including thought leaders from the worlds of design, construction, technology and media. Once again, Winners will see their projects published in print in the next edition of “The World’s Best Architecture” and secure their place on the iconic A+List, the definitive rundown of top architecture firms worldwide.
We’re offering a special price for Early Entry, with a deadline of October 25th, 2024. To ensure your firm does not miss out this year, hit the button below to get started:
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Celebrating Local Innovation with Global Recognition
For over a decade, Architizer’s A+Awards have leveled the architectural playing field through their mission to democratize recognition. Thanks to a diverse jury of experts from around the world and a global voting public, Architizer has long championed firms from all corners of the globe.
This year, we spotlight the unique talent of architects who expertly balance global challenges with local needs.
In a world where international work and resources are the norm, today’s leading architects stand out by blending global influences with local traditions, materials, and knowledge. The result? Architecture that is both innovative and deeply rooted in its context.
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Have you completed a project that captures the essence of its locale while addressing global concerns? If so, the A+Awards is your platform on which to shine. Enter now for a chance to gain worldwide recognition, have your work featured in print and online, and set a new standard for the built environment.
Local Expertise, Global Reach: New Categories Announced
Reflecting this year’s theme, the 13th A+Awards invites firms to submit a range of timely new categories, emphasizing architecture that balances local innovation with global vision. New and expanded categories include:
Architecture +Localism: Architectural excellence is rooted in understanding and respecting the local context. This category celebrates projects that demonstrate a profound connection to their surroundings, designed in response with the cultural and ecological landscape. Whether through vernacular architecture, critical regionalism, or innovative responses to local traditions and materials, these projects embody a strong sense of place.
Architecture +Detailing: The beauty of architecture often lies in the details, where the precision of craftsmanship comes to the fore. This category honors projects that excel in the fine art of construction detailing. From the elegant intersection of building elements to carefully crafted architectural ‘moments,’ these projects showcase an exceptional level of precision and creativity.
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Throughout the awards season, we’ll delve into the stories behind some remarkable example of highly contextual spaces from last year’s A+Awards, learning how this decade’s architects are harmonizing the global dimensions of practice with on-the-ground local realities.
Best Global Firm: For architecture and/or design firms demonstrating excellence across diverse global geographies. Eligible firms should submit at least 3 projects built within the last 10 years. Projects of all typologies and scales are eligible, showcasing the firm’s ability to design and deliver outstanding work within varied environments and cultural contexts.
Best Local Firm: For architecture and/or design firms demonstrating excellence in their local region. Eligible firms should submit at least 3 projects built within the last 10 years. Projects of all typologies, and scales are eligible, as long as they are all designed and constructed with local and regional emphasis. Firms’ demonstration of local knowledge and expertise will be considered by jurors.
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The Architizer A+Awards remains dedicated to its democratic judging process, offering two chances to win in each category through the Juror’s Choice Awards and Popular Choice Awards. The open, online voting system provides every designer, regardless of firm size, specialization, or location, an equal opportunity to shine.
The A+Awards’ rigorous judging criteria sees projects rewarded for qualities pertaining to form, function and impact, while Firm Award entrants’ portfolios will be assessed on aesthetics, innovation and impact. Projects submitted in the Sustainability Categories must meet additional criteria in three areas: Sustainable Systems, Healthy or Climate Positive Materials, and Ethical Building Practices. For more information on each of the judging criteria, click here.
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Top image: Lakeside Teahouse by Domain Architects, Jiaxing, China
Figuring out what subgroups a group contains is one way to understand its structure. For example, the subgroups of Z6 are {0}, {0, 2, 4} and {0, 3}—the trivial subgroup, the multiples of 2, and the multiples of 3. In the group D6, rotations form a subgroup, but reflections don’t. That’s because two reflections performed in sequence produce a rotation, not a reflection, just as adding two odd numbers results in an even one.
Certain types of subgroups called “normal” subgroups are especially helpful to mathematicians. In a commutative group, all subgroups are normal, but this isn’t always true more generally. These subgroups retain some of the most useful properties of commutativity, without forcing the entire group to be commutative. If a list of normal subgroups can be identified, groups can be broken up into components much the way integers can be broken up into products of primes. Groups that have no normal subgroups are called simple groups and cannot be broken down any further, just as prime numbers can’t be factored. The group Zn is simple only when n is prime—the multiples of 2 and 3, for instance, form normal subgroups in Z6.
However, simple groups are not always so simple. “It’s the biggest misnomer in mathematics,” Hart said. In 1892, the mathematician Otto Hölder proposed that researchers assemble a complete list of all possible finite simple groups. (Infinite groups such as the integers form their own field of study.)
It turns out that almost all finite simple groups either look like Zn (for prime values of n) or fall into one of two other families. And there are 26 exceptions, called sporadic groups. Pinning them down, and showing that there are no other possibilities, took over a century.
The largest sporadic group, aptly called the monster group, was discovered in 1973. It has more than 8 × 1054 elements and represents geometric rotations in a space with nearly 200,000 dimensions. “It’s just crazy that this thing could be found by humans,” Hart said.
By the 1980s, the bulk of the work Hölder had called for appeared to have been completed, but it was tough to show that there were no more sporadic groups lingering out there. The classification was further delayed when, in 1989, the community found gaps in one 800-page proof from the early 1980s. A new proofwas finally published in 2004, finishing off the classification.
Many structures in modern math—rings, fields, and vector spaces, for example—are created when more structure is added to groups. In rings, you can multiply as well as add and subtract; in fields, you can also divide. But underneath all of these more intricate structures is that same original group idea, with its four axioms. “The richness that’s possible within this structure, with these four rules, is mind-blowing,” Hart said.
Original storyreprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent publication of theSimons Foundationwhose mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering research developments and trends in mathematics and the physical and life sciences.
A story that unfolds on death’s doorstep, Oh, Canada is a thoughtful, reflective work from Paul Schrader, if an occasionally rushed one. Whether or not its hurried approach is a defect — it most certainly plays like one, as though there was only so much time to wrap it up before the reaper comes a-calling — it also results in a more intimate embodiment of everything on Schrader’s mind when it was made.
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The tale of a documentary filmmaker on his deathbed who becomes the camera’s subject, the film is based on the 2021 novel Foregone by Russell Banks. (Schrader previously adapted Banks’ novel Affliction in 1997.) The author would sadly pass away in January 2023, a few months before filming began, and shortly after Schrader himself had a brush with death thanks to COVID-19.
This proximity to grief, and to the grave, informs Oh Canada‘s storytelling, which plays like a recollection of regrets. Its structure and narrative POV shift in beguiling ways, as though the movie’s main character — played by two actors at different ages — was rushing to absolve himself of sin. Along the way, he confuses and collapses his many confessions into a single, muddled mythology that constantly shifts through elliptical editing, as if to reflect the character’s disoriented state of mind. The details may be unreliable, but his story pulses with riveting emotional truths, born from lifelong remorse.
What is Oh, Canada about?
Now confined to hospice care, Canadian filmmaker Leonard Fife (Richard Gere) agrees to an interview conducted by his former film students, Malcolm (Michael Imperioli) and Diana (Victoria Hill), during his final weeks of life. Cancer has ravaged his body, and his treatment has left him tired, but as an artist who has always used his camera to unearth people’s truths, he hopes Malcolm and Diana’s lens will do the same for him, and help him unburden himself as his wife, Emma (Uma Thurman), looks on.
Many details of Leonard’s life are publicly known, especially his conscientious Vietnam draft-dodging, after which he left the U.S. for the Great White North as a political asylee. However, just as much of his story remains shrouded in mystery, which he now unpacks as last rite. In flashbacks set in the ’60s and ’70s, Leonard is played by Jacob Elordi (of Priscilla fame), though on occasion, Gere himself strides through scenes where Elordi ought to be, a swap that occurs either through straightforward cuts, or the occasional Texas Switch.
The seamlessness with which the older Leonard replaces his younger self has an eerie effect, as though something in the fabric of his story were deeply amiss. As he reveals some particularly shameful and macabre family secrets, Emma remains in denial over his revelations and insists that Leonard must be confused about the details. He is, in a way, given the overlap between events and characters he recalls, but all of these revelations come from a place of deep pain and repression. Whether or not they’re logistically true, Gere makes their emotional truth feel undeniable via a towering, career-defining performance as a man both afraid and determined to stare at the camera and be seen by it, as he struggles to purge himself of demons that have long been eating at his soul.
Paul Schrader brings a thoughtful filmmaking eye to Oh, Canada.
Credit: Cannes Film Festival
Throughout Oh, Canada, Leonard’s regret is enhanced by Schrader’s interrogative filmmaking, which draws from numerous documentarian techniques. The film for which he provides his personal testimony — about his own life, and his work as anti-war activist after his illegal border-crossing — takes the form of a traditional interview talking head, albeit with an aesthetic twist that yields several haunting close-ups.
In order to pay tribute to Leonard, his students film him with the use of a camera set-up he invented. In reality, this is theInterrotron developed by The Thin Blue Line director Errol Morris; it’s a teleprompter that allows the subject to meet the interviewer’s eye (or rather, a reflection of it) while staring directly down the camera’s lens. By attributing the tool to the fictitious Leonard, Schrader creates a double-edged sword. The technique has long afforded Leonard the comfort of sitting behind a video monitor, rather than meeting his subjects’ gaze directly. But now, as the subject of his own camera, his confession occurs in a darkened, lonely room.
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There are people nearby, like the filmmakers, and Leonard’s wife, Emma, whose reflection theoretically appears in the teleprompter, but we only ever glimpse this briefly. For the most part, Schrader locks us into a trio of close-ups of Leonard from three angles (two profiles, and one directly head-on), which appear on side-by-side video screens for Malcolm and Diana, and whose angles Schrader often cuts between. This triptych framing makes the cameras feel incredibly invasive, and by almost never cutting away from Leonard’s close-ups, Schrader forces us to view his self-reflections the way the aging documentarian sees them. His interviewers’ faces may be visible to him on a screen, but he recognizes his own filmmaking facade, and he knows just how lonely he is, here at the end of his life.
This loneliness takes stirring form during Leonard’s flashbacks, too. In isolated moments, Elordi and Gere’s attention occasionally drifts from the characters to whom they’re speaking, and their gaze falls upon nothing in particular, as though they know they’re trapped in a framing device. People from other points in the story sometimes appear where they shouldn’t, and on occasion, a white light consumes the frame, as though hypoxia (or the embrace of death) had threatened to provide Leonard with respite from his confessions.
The question then remains: Does Leonard want to die without having exposed the worst parts of himself?
Schrader’s shifting narrative makes Oh, Canada a holistic self-reflection.
Like Schrader’s most recent works — especially First Reformed, The Card Counter, and Master Gardener, a similarly confessional trilogy — Oh, Canada makes frequent use of voiceover. But in the aforementioned films, these narrations took the form of diary entries by each protagonist, whereas in the latest, the framing device is not only a camera this time, but one that isn’t in Leonard’s control.
Sometimes, the movie’s voiceover comprises snippets from Leonard’s filmed confession. Other times, it draws from an impassioned inner monologue. And on some occasions, the voiceover is spoken by a different character entirely, revealed to be a person who feels deeply betrayed by Leonard. In a literal sense, this patchwork of perspectives helps unearth Leonard’s story from multiple points of view, as Schrader deconstructs both a man and the mythology around him.
However, this shifting POV also serves a spiritual purpose. In essence, it blends the known and the imagined, and plays as though Leonard were in a desperate grasp at absolutely, slowly stepping outside himself and finding sudden empathy for someone he had deeply — perhaps knowingly — wronged.
Credit: Canne Film Festival
Oh, Canada is a work of deep-seated guilt frothing to the surface, and while its story is largely fictional, Schrader’s presentation takes strikingly personal form. On one hand, the older Leonard is styled to resemble Banks — Schrader’s friend of many years, who requested the filmmaker to adapt Foregone before he died — but from many angles, this man with short, graying hair and an unkempt beard also resembles Schrader himself, who made the film when it seemed like the nearly 80-year-old filmmaker might not win his long battle with COVID and pneumonia. (He was hospitalized, and suffered breathing difficulties in the aftermath.)
But there’s another personal element to the movie, too, one made far less apparent on screen. Around the time of Banks’ death and Schrader’s illness, the director also moved into an assisted living facility with his wife, Mary Beth Hurt, whose Alzheimer’s had been worsening. Oh, Canada is as much a film about death and elusive truths as it is about memory and its fleeting nature, and it’s hard not to read the visual manifestations of Leonard’s confusion as Schrader’s depiction of his wife’s condition.
Moreover, it depicts a filmmaker whose confessions to his wife — a woman who knows him better than anyone, but still doesn’t know his darkest moments — don’t seem to stick, both because of his illness and his inability to properly articulate them. While Schrader’s avatar suffers from distortions of recollection in the film, and is assisted by his wife, the reverse is true in reality. The idea of a man unable to fully give himself over to the woman he loves because of the impermanent nature of memory is the tragic result, regardless. While Oh, Canada talks through (but quickly skips past) many of these central themes — en route to a conclusion that wraps up too quickly, and too neatly — it stands as one of Schrader’s most personal, most moving, and most impactful films.
Oh, Canada is slated to hit theaters this December.
UPDATE: Sep. 25, 2024, 4:44 p.m. EDT Oh, Canada was reviewed on May 30, 2024, out of the Cannes Film Festival. This post has been updated to toast its New York Film Festival premiere.
Foster + Partners have just unveiled designs for a new live-work building in Seoul, South Korea, which aims to redefine business hospitality with a personalized approach. This structure is set to accommodate professionals seeking a mixture of work and leisure in an urban environment. With an emphasis on comfort, functionality, and well-being, the building incorporates spaces designed for hosting and entertaining, along with dedicated meeting and negotiation rooms. It also features state-of-the-art wellness facilities, making it a unique setting for both work and relaxation. The project consists of twelve private units, each occupying an entire floor, providing a unique living experience tailored to individual needs.
The twelve whole-floor units are designed with personalized work and entertaining spaces, along with private areas for relaxation. Each unit includes a personal vault and access to a lounge where owners can display their belongings for guests. These vaults are complemented by private dining rooms, bars, and a wine cellar to create an immersive experience. On the floor below, the wellness level features a spa, pool, and luxurious treatment areas.
Courtesy of Foster + Partners
The 14-story building is situated on a prominent corner along Dosan-daero Road in Seoul. Access is provided through a discreet entrance on a quiet side street, leading to a gated drop-off zone that flows into the ground floor lobby. From there, direct lifts transport visitors to the private units or to an elegant arts lounge and bar on the second floor. Concealed vehicle lifts lead to the basement parking, enhancing the intimate arrival experience through screens and immersive landscaping.
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The comprehensive design meets the highest standards of well-being, featuring naturally ventilated spaces, direct access to sheltered outdoor areas, and exceptional amenities for owners and their guests. This building will serve as a private oasis for business in the heart of the city. — David Summerfield, Head of Studio at Foster + Partners
The arts lounge, bar, vaults, and wellness facilities are arranged into separate spaces to ensure complete privacy for all owners and their guests. A lightwell on the northern side of the building channels natural light into the vaults and pool area, located below ground. The building’s street-facing façade incorporates a series of bay windows alongside private green balconies and winter gardens that foster direct outdoor connections and natural ventilation. Additionally, the penthouse unit includes access to a private roof terrace, designed for relaxation and entertaining, with sweeping views of the city.
Courtesy of Foster + Partners
In other similar news, Foster + Partners will lead the masterplan development for Manchester United’s Old Trafford Stadium District, aiming to create a vibrant mixed-use destination. Additionally, the Transamerica Pyramid Center’s renovation in San Francisco, led by Foster + Partners, has been completed, enhancing the iconic skyline landmark. In Hangzhou, the Euro American Innovation City, designed by Foster + Partners, is progressing toward completion in September 2025, featuring office towers, apartments, and retail spaces.
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