2024 in Review
2024 has seen community-centric architecture prevailing in an era in which abundance seems to be coming to an end and consciousness about our fragility slowly increases.
Europe’s aim to be a global leader in social protection, combatting climate change and being the guardian of free trade and democracy is at risk. The EUmies Awards 2024 have taken place in the context of many social, political, economic, technological and environmental challenges, in an especially turbulent international context. The succession of global crises over recent decades has been compounded by escalating rivalry among major powers and a rise in international conflicts, bringing us to the highest level of active conflicts since World War II. From Gaza to Ukraine, and across Yemen, Sudan, and Ethiopia, the current landscape also exposes the limitations of existing multilateral global governance institutions. These ongoing conflicts, polarisation, and social inequality destabilise society, influencing the economy, politics and thus architecture and its clients who are going for safer choices, known solutions and less experimentation.
Following are some of the moments that have had an impact in the development of architectural thinking and building in 2024:
Perhaps the most pressing challenge in 2024 has involved developing real-world solutions for the climate emergency. One field that has seen significant advances has been the development of carbon capture technologies, such as the microbial solution. Together with new developments in battery storage, renewable energy and electrocaloric cooling, important progress continues to be made.
Generative AI tools reached mass adoption in record time, and reset the course of an entire industry. AI safety treaties have been signed and rejected. Faced with a record year for democracy, much attention has been focused on tackling disinformation campaigns ahead of elections.
Paris hosted the Summer Olympics and Paralympics, spreading across the city and surrounding areas and integrating iconic landmarks and modern facilities. The city aimed to transform, convert and restore heritage buildings, utilising existing stadiums and venues from past sports events and constructing temporary structures.
Notre Dame cathedral in Paris has reopened following the fire during an ongoing construction site in 2019. The international competition launched shortly after the fire, which had ignited the enthusiasm of architects and restorers interested in a critical debate on the subject, was abandoned after just under a year. The present result is a reconstruction interpreting what had existed.
A devastating fire destroyed more than half of Copenhagen’s 1625 Old Stock Exchange. Five months after, workers began the reconstruction to “return it to its former glory”.
The “Coleção Álvaro Siza, Arquivo / C.A.S.A” exhibition showcases Siza’s design process and seminal projects from the last 70 years. Curated by António Choupina, it has been the largest display to date of Siza’s archival work, presented in the new Álvaro Siza Wing of the Serralves Museum in Porto, inaugurated earlier this year.
New EU-Mercosur trade deal to promote joint values such as sustainable development, by strengthening worker’s rights, fight climate change, increase environmental protection, encourage companies to act responsibly, and uphold high food safety standards; increase bilateral trade and investment; and create more stable and predictable rules for trade and investment through better and stronger rules for example in the area of intellectual property rights (including geographical indications), food safety standards, competition and good regulatory practices.
Deadly flash floods ripped across southern and eastern Iberian Peninsula. València saw its heaviest rainfall in 28 years causing over 200 deaths. Other weather events with severe consequences include the Afghanistan–Pakistan floods, Typhoon Yagi in Southeast Asia, Enga landslide in Papua New Guinea, Wayanad landslides in India, Hurricane Helene in Southeastern United States and the floods in Rio Grande do Sul. The most intense rain events are getting heavier and more frequent as the world warms due to fossil fuel pollution. A warmer atmosphere is capable of holding more moisture, which manifests in storms as more torrential rain and examples such as the flooding in the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Periods of drought, which are becoming longer and more intense as the world warms, also dry out vegetation and increase the likelihood of fires igniting and spreading rapidly.
European Parliament election held in the European Union, the tenth parliamentary election and the first after Brexit. 720 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent more than 450 million people from 27 member states. The European People’s Party won the most seats, the pro EU centrist, liberal, social democrat and environmentalist parties suffered losses, and the anti-EU right wing populist parties made gains. Ursula von der Leyen was re-elected President of the European Commission and Glenn Micallef, Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport.
Elections in Georgia and Moldova amid accusations of Russian meddling. A string of protests and legal challenges against the election outcome are taking place in Georgia with an escalation when the government announced that it would postpone the European Union accession process until the end of 2028.
Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States. He is the first convicted person to win the White House and at 78 he is also the oldest person ever elected to the office.
After months of stop-and-go negotiations between Israel and Hamas, there is seemingly no end to the war in sight which has also involved Lebanon and Syria. Together with this war in Palestine, the war in Ukraine also drags on.
Amid the Syrian war that began in 2011, dictator Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia after rebel fighters swept through the country’s major cities and toppled his regime within just a couple of weeks.