Architects and designers from top companies as well as influencers and experts will examine the strengths and weaknesses of current design thinking and practice, and explore issues such as research, technology and health.

Berlin, David Chipperfield, Mies van der Rohe, museum

Mies van der Rohe's Neue Nationalgalerie reopens with Alexander Calder exhibition

The Berlin Museum was closed for renovations by David Chipperfield Architects for six and a half years and reopened on Sunday, August 22.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Starlight Plaza is an ideal community center in an era of social distancing.

Where there used to be cars, now there are people. In the heart of the central square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a municipal parking lot has been transformed into a public square. The intervention, known as the Star Plaza, includes an open-air amphitheater, an outdoor dining courtyard, and an outdoor community center. This is a temporary intervention with a life expectancy of 120 days, but in a pandemic that highlights the disproportionate allocation of space for cars rather than pedestrians in cities, it is also an impressive model of future public space.

Star Plaza is a collaborative project between the Central Plaza Commercial Improvement District, Boyes-Watson Architects and the creative practice Flagg Street Studio. Its boundary is a simple structure consisting of a concrete jersey barrier, CupLock scaffolding and PVC scrims with different perforation levels.

"If you think of Cambridge, no space can really be called a city square," said Mark Boyes-Watson, principal of Boyes-Watson Architects. Starlight is 18 feet high—the average height of two floors—its structure blends with its lower-level neighbors, but provides enough height to give the space a sense of grandeur. At one end of the structure, the scrim is printed with historical photographs of the Central Plaza Theater-an old Art Deco theater on Massachusetts Avenue. By cutting two openings in the facade, the architects created an interesting illusion of entering the starlight through the front of the lost cinema.

"We discussed how much art we should own, and decided to treat the building as a sketch, acknowledging this kind of temporary experimental installation," Boyce-Watson said. Street Theory is a creative agency owned by artists based in Cambridge and Brooklyn that uses street art to activate spaces, alternating between historical photographs, architectural sketches, and works of art. It is a colorful expression of the community that created Starlight.

The day before the governor of Massachusetts declared a state of emergency, a version of Starlight was originally proposed to the city of Cambridge. When the pandemic began, the idea was reimagined to adapt to the scale of the crisis, prompting the city manager to use his administrative power to remove all zoning restrictions and open up space to the cultural, hotel, and education sectors. Over the next four months, this space provided a much-needed enclosure for local community partners, such as the Central Plaza Farmers’ Market or the Dance Center, with plans for 17 nights of performances. "The core of Starlight is what we call a demonstration project," said Matthew Boyes-Watson, co-founder of Flagg Street Studio and son of Mark Boyes-Watson. "People can react to how it feels and what it can hold."

Over time, the square will resume its original function: the area that has been designated as a cultural area since 2012 can accommodate 92 cars. "Cambridge has changed in history. The drive to connect to the bicycle network is great, so we are not greatly hindered from losing parking spaces," said Michael Monestine, executive director of the Central Plaza Business Improvement District. At the beginning of the pandemic, traffic volume and subsequent parking demand dropped significantly, highlighting the untapped potential of these now vacant lots as public spaces. "The vision of the project started a conversation," he added. "Its actual existence makes people think about the future of [Starlight], and we are ready to have a conversation."

You can also appreciate "From the complex present, the city re-uses the park to look into the future"

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