| NEWS | | RCA hosts Anglo-Dutch debates
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The School of Architecture & Design at the Royal College of Art is hosting a series of Anglo-Dutch evening debates. Titled Shared Territories, the talks cover contemporary issues in design and architecture. Talks scheduled are Macro/Micro Architecture, ‘Glocal’ Product Design, Inclusive Design, and Design Species. All are free of charge. Participants are a distinguished selection of Dutch- and UK-based (or connected) professionals, and topics will include the challenges their disciplines are facing internationally. Details of times and dates are given in the Events section below.
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| NEWS | | Jubilee Library, Brighton, wins PM’s award
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The Jubilee Library beat 14 other schemes on the shortlist chosen from a record 139 entries.
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| NEWS | | Dresden’s Frauenkirche rises from the rubble
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Tens of thousands of people have taken part in a ceremony marking the formal reconsecration of Dresden’s painstakingly rebuilt Frauenkirche, 60 years after the Baroque masterpiece was destroyed by Allied bombing.
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| NEWS | |
From pipes to hats: another bold Pompidou is on the way
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Shigeru Ban, the award-winning Japanese architect, is heading the design team for a new Pompidou in Metz, due to open in 2008. He drew his inspiration from a conical bamboo hat bought in a clothes shop in Paris.
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| NEWS | |
Heart of V&A transformed
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The garden at the heart of London’s Victoria & Albert Museum has been transformed by Kim Wilkie Associates into a social oasis and hub for the Museum.
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| NEWS | |
New career for indestructible Nazi shelter
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‘A vast Nazi-era air raid shelter too tough to tear down is to be revamped as an art gallery and luxury penthouse.’
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| FEATURE | |
Sublime madness: the new houses of music
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‘In Copenhagen, the Møller family, owners of the Maersk shipping and airline business, just donated the £230m cost of the new opera house. All of it.’
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| FEATURE | |
Canadian Museum for Human Rights
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‘Amidst a thousand cheering supporters in Winnipeg’s Centennial Concert Hall, Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights Inc. announced Antoine Predock as the winner of the International Architectural Design Competition for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.’
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| NEWS | |
‘Outsider’ Thom Mayne takes Pritzker
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‘Architecture is an endurance sport. You put your mind to it, and stay with it for 30 years, and you’re just getting started.’
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| NEWS | |
The greasy spoon celebrated at last
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If you feel angry at the homogenisation of British high streets, at chain-stores bodysnatching every corner of retailing, then you’re not alone. The disaster that this process represents for high street shop front architecture — and interiors, for that matter — is getting recognition. Here is a new and very serious web-site that specialises in traditional British cafés — now very much an endangered species, thanks to McDonald’s and Starbuck’s. (This link is available permanently on the resources page.)
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‘Rarely in the past century have the most memorable buildings resulted from competitions, no matter how promising their rosters of participants.’
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| NEWS | |
New Salvation Army HQ, London
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Modern in design, frugal in operation, evangelical in purpose. These were General John Larson’s trinity of aims for the new international headquarters of the Salvation Army, which he leads. Have they been realised?
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| NEWS | |
Shortlisted designs for Architecture Foundation HQ on show
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When the Architecture Foundation set about building itself a new home, it knew that it had to be seen to be putting its money where its mouth was. Well, not actually its money.
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| NEWS | |
Exhibition highlights problems with Sheffield modernism
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An exhibition at Sheffield’s Cupola Gallery aims to highlight the social and architectural problems of a modernist block. Park Hill was designed and built just outside Sheffield city centre during the 1950s, with Le Corbusier and European post-war housing as its influence. Fifty years on Park Hill is at a crucial time in its history, as it is about to be given over to private investors for redevelopment. It has become a very depressed area through neglect from both local and national governments, and it is in need of attention, both cosmetically and socially. Park Hill has recently been listed as a Grade II* building, which means the Council has to address these problems. Links: Park Hill show at the Cupola Gallery, Gallery main site, English Partnerships (background information on Park Hill), Emporis Buildings: Park Hill Flats, and the Open University: short essay on Park Hill.
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| NEWS | |
Rebuilding begins at Ground Zero
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A 20-ton block of granite was laid as a cornerstone of the Freedom Tower, which is planned to be the tallest building in the world at 541m.
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| NEWS | |
Mystery architectural photographer stars at Courtauld Institute
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Was he really an architectural photographer, or some kind of street spy? Virtually nothing is known about the skilled and affluent photographer who left behind a considerable archive of superb plates when he died in the 1930s. Even his name is a mystery — the Courtauld Institute’s Conway Library, where his images live, know him only as ‘A59 photographer‘.
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| NEWS | |
Westminster approves ultra-modernist ‘Ellipse’ next to Royal Albert Hall
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Architectural conservatives are losing the heritage war over the ‘Ellipse’ building, the proposed extension to the Royal College of Art in London.
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| NEWS | |
Brunel’s iron bridge found buried in brick
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The first iron bridge designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel has been rediscovered hidden inside a much later bridge in London.
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| NEWS | |
Gehry’s concert hall causes glare
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‘The glare from the shimmering stainless steel curves of the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall is so bad, it’s heating up nearby condos.’
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| NEWS | |
Rogers reaches for City skyline
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Rogers’ 700ft wedge-shaped glass tower would be the tallest building in London’s square mile.
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| NEWS | |
Final deal reached on Trade Centre tower
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Months of architectural wrangling over plans for the tallest building at New York’s World Trade Centre site have apparently ended in a 1,776-foot compromise.
Plus Rugs depict terror attack, but New York isn’t ready for 9/11 kitsch.
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| FEATURE | |
Moscow’s new architecture: harmony or cacophony?
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‘Instead of clinics, schools and nursery schools, elite blocks with 700 square metre apartments are being erected, with children’s playgrounds and sports fields being sacrificed to make way for them. Many flats in these elite buildings stay empty because very few people can afford to buy them.’
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| NEWS | |
Gehry asked to work magic on Dundee skyline
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Dundee council wants to recruit Frank Gehry to help to transform the city centre and waterfront in a 30-year project that would cost £1bn.
Plus Frank Gehry’s Rhapsody in Steel: Disney Hall (two stories).
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| FEATURE | |
Chandigarh: An icon of modern architecture
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‘When Chandigarh was conceived it was a cause of celebration for the adherents of modern architecture. The new masters — Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius — were building no-frills, sleek creations in steel and glass or concrete. Decadent, meaningless ornamentation was out.’
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| FEATURE | |
World’s top architects build British cancer care units
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‘The idea has spread across Britain with a rapidity that mocks the disease. Richard Rogers is to design a Maggie’s in London, Daniel Libeskind one for Cambridge.’
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| FEATURE | |
The world’s best garden shed: the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion
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‘This small, soaring structure by the revered 95-year-old Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer looks like a suspension bridge on the outside and feels like a miniature Modernist airport lounge on the inside.’
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| FEATURE | |
Rebuilding, two years later
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‘New York City’s skyline will not be shaped by Libeskind alone. In fact, he may not design any of the individual buildings that will rise from Ground Zero.’
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| INTERVIEW | |
David Childs: The Invisible Architect
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‘David M. Childs, who in conversation gives the impression of a gentlemanly, corporate architect, is remaking the face of New York.’
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| NEWS | |
Liverpool twin towers get go-ahead
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The go-ahead has been given for a £50m scheme that will bring twin towers — and 2000 new jobs — close to Liverpool’s world-famous waterfront.
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| FEATURE | |
Only Gehry can design buildings like this
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‘Brighton and Hove doesn’t need the Bilbao effect. It is already famous. This isn’t a marriage of desperation; Brighton is not desperate to have Frank.’
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| NEWS | |
Gehry wins commission for Hove sea-front
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Frank Gehry has been given the go ahead to build on Brighton seafront the most outrageous set of tower blocks ever conceived for this country.
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| NEWS | |
Paddington roof under threat
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A plan to build a 75-metre-high office block at Paddington station and to demolish one of its grade I listed roof canopies has sparked a heated row.
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| FEATURE | |
Major redevelopment for Broadcasting House
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‘Architects shortlisted for the Music Centre are Foreign Office, Future Systems, MVRDV (from Holland), Ushida Findlay and Zaha Hadid. Any one of these is capable of shaping an “iconic” building. All five have submitted what Smith describes as “thrilling” designs, and all five have been told to have another go because Smith and his team of judges believe they have all gone way over budget.’
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| NEWS | |
‘Innovative’ design for Leamouth Bridge Project
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The bridge — which has a 25-metre high mast at one end, attached to the bridge by a cable — tilts up, in what project managers describe as a ‘theatrical event for passers by’.
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| NEWS | |
Landmark Moskva hotel to be rebuilt
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Despite its renown, the Moskva hotel, which opened in 1935 just off Red Square, had fallen into disrepair. The city decided last year to tear it down and rebuild it rather than try to repair it.
Plus St. Basil’s Cathedral in danger from subsidence.
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| FEATURE | |
Oscar Niemeyer: the man who built Brasilia
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‘The Serpentine pavilion is clearly one of Niemeyer’s immediate and energetic sketches brought to life.’
Plus Official site
Plus Great Buildings entry
Plus Art Images
Plus Pritzker Prize page
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| NEWS | |
Queen’s gallery and theatre share architecture prize
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The high camp of the Queen’s new picture gallery at Buckingham Palace yesterday shared the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust’s Building of the Year Award with a theatre scenery workshop built on a reclaimed mudflat in Plymouth.
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| NEWS | |
60s campuses to join heritage list
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A substantial helping of 1960s university architecture is set to join our Victorian, Georgian and medieval educational heritage shortly as English Heritage conducts a survey of buildings to recommend to government for listing.
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| NEWS | |
London unveils Olympics shortlist
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Six firms and consortia have been shortlisted for the job of writing London’s ‘masterplan’ for the 2012 Olympics.
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| NEWS | |
Revolutionary tower for Birmingham?
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A futuristic skyscraper would grace the skyline of Birmingham if London Eye architect David Marks had his way. His design has a unique twist: a giant wind turbine to provide the tower with electricity.
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| NEWS | |
Libeskind to adjust WTC design
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The spire 540m high at Ground Zero will be topped with television antennas. Daniel Libeskind, the architect who designed it, will spend six months revising his World Trade Centre plans.
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| FEATURE | |
Zaha Hadid: Diva of design
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‘For the better part of two decades, Hadid’s futuristic, idiosyncratic architectural designs won prestigious international competitions, drew fawning comparisons to the pyramids and the Eiffel Tower — but, for reasons ranging from economics and politics to, in her view, sexism and an “inability to believe in the fantastic”, were seldom built.’
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| FEATURE | |
Wright protégé to revisit Graycliff after 67 years
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A 91-year-old architect is to return to the lakeshore summer residence Wright designed in 1926, to see how a $3.2 million restoration undertaken by the volunteer Graycliff Conservancy is shaping up.
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| FEATURE | |
Gehry to work magic on Hove (maybe)
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Councillors at Hove in Sussex are about to take a decision that could put a remarkable — and substantial — Gehry design on their seafront.
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‘Up is where Renzo Piano wants to take London. The Genoa-born, Paris-based architect was invited by one of the city’s flush developers to dream a future for the southern end of London Bridge.’
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| FEATURE | |
A Guggenheim for Rio — but will it work?
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The Guggenheim, along with Mayor Cesar Maia, wants to build a spectacular new museum on a derelict area by Rio’s once bustling, and now run-down, port area. But will the development prove to be an enemy within for the city?
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| FEATURE | |
Emilio Ambasz: the green architect
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‘Ambasz is a man who breaks architectural moulds, designing houses which are nearly invisible under mounds of earth, and high-rise buildings hidden behind screens of greenery.’
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| FEATURE | |
Detroit: From glorious modernism to stagnation
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‘The famous and soon-to-be-famous in Saarinen’s office included Cesar Pelli, Kevin Roche, Gunnar Birkerts and Robert Venturi. Great names like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and R. Buckminster Fuller were working here on projects of their own. Minoru Yamasaki and William Kessler opened offices in Detroit and stayed.’
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Jørn Utzon, the creator of perhaps the world’s most famous 20th-century building — the Sydney Opera House — has won the 2003 Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Plus Archinform, Great Buildings, Amazon.
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| NEWS | |
New heart for Berlin’s national library
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‘Designed by Stuttgart architect H.G. Merz, the unusual thing about this virtually square construction is that it will be built into the former Prussian National Library, 40 per cent. of which was destroyed during the war.’
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| NEWS | |
Nostalgia for U.S. fast food chain
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One of the last remaining Little Taverns is for sale on Ebay. ‘Buyer must move to their own land... All reasonable offers considered.’
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| EXHIBITION | |
Edinburgh: Princes Street will be crowning glory once more
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An ambitious scheme would see the demolition of 13 buildings to make way for four landmark properties, including shopping malls, two new department stores and luxury flats.
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| EXHIBITION | |
The Making of Miami Beach, 1933-1942: The Architecture of Lawrence Murray Dixon
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‘There’s a certain thrilling magic to Dixon’s designs, simultaneously subtle and theatrical.’
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| NEWS | |
Libeskind gets the job
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‘An open pit, the crucible where the fires burned for weeks after 11 September, 2001, and the ground that held most of the bodies of the dead, will stand as the centerpiece of New York City’s effort “to memorialise and rebuild” after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.’
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| FEATURE | |
Message to Daniel Libeskind
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‘New York New Visions (NYNV), a coalition of twenty-one architecture, engineering and planning organisations, congratulates Studio Libeskind, the chosen designer for the World Trade Center site.’
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| FEATURE | |
Wyn Bielaska: The man who designs Tacoma
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‘People say, “But they’re industrial buildings.” You don’t have to say “But”.’
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‘It was ghastly. There was no mirror and you had to pee in a trough and it was absolutely disgusting. It was dark. You had to pee in the dark.’
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‘Amid sites layered with history, new projects are re-envisioning the city while carrying its long legacy forward. It has not been an easy journey.’
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‘David Adjaye is an architect who makes buildings as if they were conceptual artworks. His client list reads like a Who’s Who and he admits he’s a bit of an operator.’
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‘You blink, look again, half-astonished that something so ethereal could be found in such down-at-heel surroundings.’
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| NEWS | |
Rogers is back on the Welsh job
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Richard Rogers Partnership, the architects who were sacked from the project to create the new Welsh Assembly chamber, are part of the consortium set to construct the building.
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| NEWS | |
Gaudí had plans for WTC site
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Decades before the World Trade Center was conceived, a revolutionary architect drew plans for a rocket-like skyscraper to be built on that very site. Now, a movement is growing to include his ideas in the redevelopment. Plus Article, including images, by Paul Laffoley AIA in Paranoia Magazine. Plus American Hotel on Gaudí Central.
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Note that many exhibitions listed on the artsetc Shows page will be of interest. Click the button to get the Shows page in a new window |
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Deutschlandscape: Epicentres at the Periphery (Deutschlandschaft: Epizentren der Peripherie)
‘This exhibition explores the unregulated sprawl of European towns and the architectural talent that has emerged in Germany in response to this uninspiring landscape. It was commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building & Housing for the German Pavilion at the 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale. The curator is Francesca Ferguson, director of the Berlin-based organisation Urban Drift’
where Victoria & Albert Museum Cromwell Road London SW7 2RL England
when 20 September, 2005 – 29 January, 2006
open daily 1000-1745 (1000-2200 Wednesday)
admission free
telephone +44 (0)20 7942 2000
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SAVE Britain’s Heritage 1975-2005: 30 Years of Campaigning
‘An exciting exhibition to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of SAVE, a campaigning body working to save Britain’s architectural heritage’
where Victoria & Albert Museum Cromwell Road London SW7 2RL England
when 3 November, 2005 – 12 February, 2006
open daily 1000-1745 (1000-2200 Wednesday)
telephone +44 (0)20 7942 2000
admission free
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Shared Territories:
Macro/Micro Architecture
‘In response to globalisation and its inherent mobility of capital and labour, two urban development strategies have emerged in force. The first, frequently focussed on an image-based approach, is about rebranding cities; the second goes for broad brush master planning. What are the merits of these approaches, and how does each of these relate to much more strategic micro-design initiatives evident that go hand in hand with educational and information exchange between stakeholders and citizens? Speakers: Professor Nigel Coates, Head of Architecture, RCA; Adriaan Geuze, landscape architect; Rients Dijkstra, architect and urban designer; Sylvie Pierce, Director, Capital and Provident Regeneration, London’
where Lecture Theatre 1 Royal College of Art Kensington Gore London SW7 2EU England
when 19 January, 2006
time 1930
admission free
telephone +44 (0)20 7590 4444
fax +44 (0)20 7590 4500
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Group Theor(ap)y Architecture Debates presents: Muf
‘Group Theor(ap)y Architecture Debates presents: Muf – Chaired by Sean Griffiths with Liza Fior & Katherine Clarke. Since 1996 Muf, the (mostly) female art and architecture collective, has established a reputation for pioneering and innovative projects that address the social, spatial and economic infrastructures of the public realm. Its practice philosophy is to realise the pleasures that can exist where the lived and the built intersect’
where Royal College of Art Kensington Gore London SW7 2EU England
when 24 January, 2006
time 1900
admission free: tickets must be booked in advance: e-mail or ring
telephone +44 (0)20 7590 4567
fax +44 (0)20 7590 4500
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David Adjaye: Making Public Spaces
‘Adjaye is one of Britain’s leading contemporary architects, creating buildings that emphasise the experience as much as the function of architecture’
where Whitechapel Art Gallery 80-82 Whitechapel High Street London E1 7QX
when 24 January – 26 March, 2006
telephone +44 (0)20 7522 7888
open Tuesday-Sunday 1100-1800 (Thursday late till 2100)
admission free
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Bungalow Blitz
‘An exhibition based on self-build bungalows built in Ireland after the publication of a book of house plans in the 1970s, Bungalow Bliss. This exhibition consists of floor to ceiling photographs taken of these dwellings and their owners around Ireland. The centre-piece will be a 1:1 model of one of the bungalows, which will be constructed throughout the duration of the exhibition’
where The Lighthouse 11 Mitchell Lane Glasgow G1 3LX Scotland
when 28 January – 26 March, 2006
open Monday-Friday 1000-1900
telephone +44 (0)141 221 6362
fax +44 (0)141 221 6395
open Monday & Wednesday-Saturday: 1030-1700; Tuesday: 1100-1700; Sunday: 1200-1700
admission £3 / various concs
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Ascribing Value conference
‘Celebrates the coming together of the architectural collections of RIBA and the V&A. Speakers will examine how the creators of such drawings use them as notations and expressions of the acts of looking, thinking and designing; how curators, historians and archivists see drawings as caches of unique information; and how collectors, dealers and patrons respond to the values proposed in such works’
where Victoria & Albert Museum Cromwell Road London SW7 2RL England
when 3 & 4 February, 2006
times 1000-1715
telephone +44 (0)20 7942 2000
admission £51 per day; to book, call +44 (0)20 7942 2211 or e-mail the bottom button
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Architecture Interim Show
‘Work in progress projects and ideas presented by Architecture students’
where Royal College of Art Kensington Gore London SW7 2EU England
when 10-17 February, 2006
admission free: tickets must be booked in advance: e-mail or ring
telephone +44 (0)20 7590 4567
fax +44 (0)20 7590 4500
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Group Theor(ap)y Architecture Debates presents: Newbetter
‘Group Theor(ap)y Architecture Debates presents: Newbetter – Chaired by Liza Fior with Shumon Basar, Joshua Bolchover & Parag Sharma. Newbetter is a collective with expertise in architecture, criticism, curation, design, ergonomics, exhibition-making and research. It believes that such specific expertise can be at its most effective when applied to alien fields of practice. Through its involvement with magazines like Tank and Sexy Machinery, it demonstrates that the page is just as valid a site for architecture as the building plot’
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