The winners of the 2018 Corobrik SAIA Architectural Awards have been announced.

After creating a shortlist from 61 regional winners, six projects received Awards of Excellence, 24 Awards of Merit and five received commendations. Judges included SAIA President Maryke Cronje, Corobrik Commercial Director Musa Shangase, VISI’s Editor-in-Chief Sumien Brink, academic Professor Paul Kotze and architect, urban designer and Director of DesignSpaceAfrica, Dr Luyanda Mpahlwa.

The six Awards of Excellence winners included the research project publication NZASM Footsteps Along The Tracks, written by Nicholas J Clarke & Roger C Fisher, assisted by Siphiwe Simelane. Below, in no particular order, are the five buildings and structures that received top honours.

New Residence (as featured on page 60 of the latest issue of VISI)

Location: Constantia, Cape Town

Architects: Malan Vorster Architecture

Image credit: Adam Letch

Image credit: Adam Letch

Image credit: Adam Letch

The Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre

Location: Forest Town, Johannesburg

Architects: Lewis Levin Architects

The Lake House

Location: Midlands, KwaZulu-Natal

Architects: Koop Design

SASOL Place

Location: Sandton, Johannesburg

Architects: Paragon Architects

The Delville Wood Memorial

Location: Longueval, France

Architects: The Creative Axis Architects and Mayat Hart Architects

To view 2015/2016’s winners, click here. For more information, visit saia.org.za.

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The clever creatives at NeoMam Studios are back with a series of architectural GIFs, inspired by an appreciation for ancient buildings and structures.

“Inspired by the history and beauty of ruins around the world, we wanted to make them come alive for readers by reconstructing them to show what they looked like back in their day,” shares NeoMam’s Luke Doyle.

The biggest challenge for the team in creating the GIFs was to agree on how they would rebuild the ruins. They chose to work with an architect and did extensive research to ensure that they ended up with an accurate representation of each site.

“We wanted to select sites from a variety of different regions that people would be familiar with,” says Luke. “We chose these seven sites to represent a diverse range of cultures, periods and architectural styles.”

Take a look at two more featured projects created by NeoMam Studios, namely 7 Home Office Designs Inspired by Fonts and what your bedroom would look like if designed by a selection of famous film directors.

(h/t) viewfinder.expedia.com

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Spanish architects Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa of Ensamble Studio, both speaking at the 2018 Design Indaba Conference, are interested in exploring urban and architectural spaces in innovative ways.

The studio’s work includes a house that took a full year to engineer but only seven days to build (Hemeroscopium House) and a portal that makes use of materials found in the natural surrounding landscape (Beartooth).

Below is a selection of 5 buildings and structures created by the studio over the past 10 years.

Name: The Truffle

Location: Costa da Morte

Image credit: Roland Halbe

Image credit: Roland Halbe

Image credit: Roland Halbe

Name: Hemeroscopium House

Location: Madrid, Spain

Name: Cervantes / Telcel Theatre

Location: Mexico City, Mexico

Image credit: Roland Halbe

Image credit: Roland Halbe

Image credit: Roland Halbe

Name: Cyclopean House

Location: Massachusetts, USA

Image credit: Roland Halbe

Image credit: Roland Halbe

Image credit: Roland Halbe

Name: Structures of Landscape (Beartooth Portal)

Location: Montana, USA

Image credit: Iwan Baan

Image credit: Iwan Baan

Image credit: Iwan Baan

View more of Ensamble Studio’s work at ensamble.info.

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The Minima | Maxima By Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY is a four-storey organic 13.1 m structure made from material that’s as thin as a coin. The core material is made up of 2 mm strips of aluminum.

THEVERYMANY is known for innovative fusion of computational design and architecture to build organic self-supporting structures. This new piece was commissioned by World Expo 2017 and it stands in Astana, Kazakhstan.

They incorporated their ‘Structural Stripes’ invention into this piece: A signature material system for building self-supporting curvilinear structures. It’s a step in a direction that offers even more structural potential – multi-ply composite. Three layers of flat stripes — white and white sandwiching pink — are constructed in tandem, supporting one another as they assume curvature and gain height. One layer doesn’t exist independently, but contributes to and benefits from the unified whole as it is built.

The system is also mechanically bonded, allowing for recomposition and corrections during construction.

(h/t) thisiscolossal.com

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Describing its work as a means to “enhance our sense of place, identity and relationship to others and the physical spaces we inhabit, whether feral or human-made,” award-winning Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta often bring the surrounding landscapes into its architectural designs, with how people experience a space a key factor in all their projects.

With the firm presenting at the annual Design Indaba Conference in South Africa, we’ve rounded up, in no particular order, 12 of the VISI team’s favourite Snøhetta designs.

Name: Lillehammer Art Museum Expansion

Location: Lillehammer, Norway

Type of Project: Museum

Completed In: 2016

Image credit: Mark Syke

Name: Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal Worlds)

Location: Wattens, Austria

Type of Project: Mixed use

Completed In: 2015

Image credit: David Schreyer

Name: Bjellandsbu – Åkrafjorden Cabin

Location: Etne, Norway

Type of Project: Cabin/shelter

Completed In: 2013

Image credit: James Silverman

Name: Tverrfjellhytta, Norwegian Wild Reindeer Pavilion

Location: Hjerkinn, Norway

Type of Project: Pavilion

Completed In: 2011

Image credit: Dennis Alekseev

Name: The 7th Room

Location: Harads, Sweden

Type of Project: Hotel cabin

Completed In: 2017

Image credit: Johan Jansson

Name: Kaspar Weyrer Strasse

Location: Innsbruck, Austria

Type of Project: Residential

Completed In: 2015

Name: Norwegian National Opera and Ballet

Location: Oslo, Norway

Type of Project: Opera house

Completed In: 2008

Name: New Tungestølen Tourist Cabin

Location: Luster, Norway

Type of Project: Cabin

Expected Completion Date: 2017

Name: Temple University Library

Location: Philadelphia, USA

Type of Project: Library

Expected Completion Date: 2018

Name: Powerhouse Telemark

Location: Telemark, Norway

Type of Project: Office

Expected Completion Date: 2019

Video via R8 Edge on Vimeo

Name of Project: Busan Opera House

Location: Busan, South Korea

Type of Project: Performance Space

Expected Completion Date: 2020

Name of Project: Lofoten Opera Hotel

Location: Lofoten, Norway

Type Of Project: Residential/hotel

Expected Completion Date: 2020

View more of Snøhetta’s projects and proposals at snohetta.com.

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Dutch design studio Poopy Cat have come up with a clever idea that will make your pet very happy.

Seven architectural landmarks from around the world have been recreated into cardboard playhouses for cats, dogs, bunnies, guinea pigs and other small pets.

From the Sphinx, the Eiffel Tower, the White House, the Kremlin and the Taj Mahal to South Asian pagodas and Mayan temples, these playhouses aim to provide a safe spot for your furry friend to chill out and relax.

Each landmark, which is made using thick recycled cardboard, includes a playful element that your pet can interact with too. “The Eiffel Tower for example has an elevator hanging from a rope on the inside,” explains founder and CEO Thomas Vles. “You can add a cat – or small dog snack – in the top and your pet needs to shake things up in order to get the reward.”

Find out more (and support) this project on Kickstarter or visit poopycat.com for more information. Browse all seven designs in the gallery above.

(h/t) designboom.com

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The WAF 2015 Awards (World Architecture Festival), which runs from 4 – 6 November 2015 in Singapore, has just released the list of this year’s finalists. Finalists were chosen from over 700 entries from 47 countries (including South Africa). Browse the gallery above for a look at 16 stand-out finalists across the Completed Buildings categories.

1. Zhonghe Community Sports Center, New Taipei City, Taiwan

Category: Civic and Community

Lead Architects: Q-LAB

2. Australian Pavilion, Venice, Italy

Category: Culture

Lead Architects: Denton Corker Marshall

3. Cardedeu, Santa Ana, El Salvador

Category: Religion

Lead Architects: Eva Hinds EMC Arquitectura

4. House TU14, Vilnius, Lithuania

Category: House

Lead Architects: Trimonis architeks

5. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Category: Higher Education And Research

Lead Architects: Heatherwick Studio and CPG Consultants

6. MIT Manukau & Transport Interchange, Auckland, New Zealand

Category: Transport

Lead Architects: Warren and Mahoney Architects Ltd

7. Rehabilitation of the Dorm, Shenzhen, China

Category: New and Old

Lead Architects: O-office Architects

8. Hönekulla by, Mölnlycke, Sweden

Category: Housing

Lead Architects: Sweco Architects

9. Zhiyang National Resort, Lintong, Xi’an, China

Category: Mixed Use

Lead Architects: La Cime International

10. Penleigh and Essendon Grammar Middle Girls School, Melbourne, Australia

Category: Schools

Lead Architects: McBride Charles Ryan

11. 102 Rivonia – EY Head Office, Johannesburg

Category: Office

Lead Architects: Boogertman + Partners Architects

12. Sandibe Safari Lodge, Okavango Delta, Botswana (read our full feature on this beautiful spot)

Category: Hotel And Leisure

Lead Architects: Michaelis Boyd Associates

13. Hiroshi Senjyu Museum Karuizawa Cafe&Shop, Karuizawa, Japan

Category: Shopping

Lead Architects: Hideo Yasui

14. London Aquatics Centre, England

Category: Sport

Lead Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects

15. Al-Ghanim Ali Mohammed Thunayan Al-Ghanim Center, Kuwait

Category: Health

Lead Architects: AGi architects

16. Brazilian Pavilion at Expo Milan 2015, Milan, Italy

Category: Display

Lead Architects: Studio Arthur Casas + Atelier Marko Brajovic

For more information, visit worldarchitecturefestival.com.

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The week-long Burning Man Festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert is coming up. We wanted to see what kinds of structures the expected 70 000 festival-goers can expect in August. We also take a look at architect-created awe-inspiring examples from previous years.

This year, three architecture students, namely Jon Leung, Lorna Jackson and Tobias Power, who are part of a collective called We Want to Learn at London’s University of Westminster, have each proposed a structure to be constructed on the festival site.

Lorna’s proposal is a faceted spiral plywood structure, based on her fascination with origami. Called “Reflection,” it is a sort of confessional space, with wooden screens designed to encourage confessions between strangers.

Tobias Power’s proposal is called the “Infinity Tree”. It is a pavilion made out of latticed timber with a series of platforms that festival-goers can easily climb.

The third structure by Jon Leung, the “Bismuth Bivouac,” is inspired by geometric growth patterns of bismuth crystals. The cube-like structure features square spirals on each side, through which festival-goers can climb in and explore the interior.

The group, which has previously built structures for Burning Man have received grants for two of the structures, but are currently trying to raise an additional £15 000 to build the last one, via Kickstarter.

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