Niall served as Senior Editor at ArchDaily.
3XN, working in collaboration with Orbicon and SLA, have won a competition for the design of a new climatorium in Lemvig, Denmark. The scheme seeks to form a modern interpretation of the area’s nature and fishing culture, while also influenced by local climate conditions.
The predominantly timber scheme balances a dual role of a public amenity serving science and the arts and a working laboratory geared towards the mitigation of climate change.
They say that bad publicity is good publicity. Nevertheless, late August is a time for baited breath among UK architects, as the readers of Building Design generate the shortlist for Britain’s "ugliest" building. Beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder and judgment towards these unpopular designs shouldn't necessarily be generalized. However, this competition opens up important dialogues about architectural aesthetics and public reception of new projects.
Continuing the 12-year tradition of what has been called the RIBA Stirling Prize’s less fortunate sibling, the shortlist for the 2018 Carbuncle Cup showcases the six projects which British architecture followers love to hate. Previous winners of the prize include the Cutty Sark by Grimshaw in 2012, and Rafael Viñoly Architects' 20 Fenchurch Street in 2015.
New photographs released by ceramics manufacturer AGROB-BUCHTAL show nature beginning to claim the Oasia Hotel Downtown in Singapore. WOHA Architects’ 30-story scheme was designed to be a “verdant tower of green” in the heart of the city’s financial district.
The tower’s red aluminum mesh cladding has begun to sprout a lush landscaping, consisting of 21 different species of creepers. The colorful flowers and green leaves provide food for birds and insects, while the reaction of the creepers to different light, wind, and shade conditions come together to form a natural mosaic.
In 776 BC, the Olympic Games of antiquity were hosted at the Olympia stadium in Peloponnese, Greece, an arena widely believed to be the world’s oldest stadium. The elongated U-shaped track and stand had a capacity of up to 45,000 people.
Almost 3000 years later, and the typology of the sports stadium continues to act as a gathering place for tens of thousands of eager spectators. As populations, and indeed revenue generated from sporting events continues to increase around the world, the design of sports stadiums is destined to follow suit.
Sceno Light Architecture has released new images of their Ha Long Impression Theater, situated in the idyllic Ha Long Bay in North Vietnam. Drawing inspiration from various mythological and natural features, the soon-to-be-built scheme intends to offer a panoramic backdrop for visitors.
The theater is conceived as a “floating skin” intended to host 2600 people at a time, for two shows per day.
3XN has been commissioned to design a new arena and masterplan for central Bergen, Norway. Responding to the city’s ambition to revitalize the core of its UNESCO World Heritage Site, the scheme will act as an anchor for the development of an entirely new neighborhood connecting the inner city with the waterfront.
The scheme is intended as an “urban arena” serving as a destination for concerts, sports, and cultural events in an underutilized central part of the city. The design of the arena will also incorporate a vibrant public district “offering places to live, play, rest, and work.”
The Panama Canal is to soon celebrate another milestone in its long history, with the imminent completion of the what will be the longest concrete four-lane cable-stayed structure in the world. With a 1750-foot (530-meter) central span, the Atlantic Bridge will connect the banks of the canal’s Atlantic Ocean entrance when it opens in early 2019.
Construction of the bridge began in 2013, in an effort to connect the seaport of Colon to communities west of the Canal. The bride was designed by the China Communication Construction Company consisting of HPDI and Louis Berger Group.
Time Magazine’s list of the World’s Greatest Places 2018 celebrates 100 destinations to visit, stay, eat, and drink from around the world. Chosen by Time’s global team of editors and correspondents, the contenders have been evaluated on quality, originality, innovation, sustainability, and influence.
The list features many architectural delights young and old, designed by famous architects past and present. Ranging from a treehouse in Sweden to a soaring art museum in South Africa, the projects are united by their architectural excellence, worthy of exploration by both architects and the general public.
Sou Fujimoto’s House of Hungarian Music is set to begin construction in an idyllic natural setting beside Városliget Lake in Budapest’s largest park. Having won a competition for the scheme’s design in 2014, the Japanese architect has designed a “modern and extravagant home for music” drawing inspiration from both the natural and musical worlds.
The scheme forms part of the Liget Budapest project, one of Europe’s largest museum developments, which also includes the striated Museum of Ethnography by French firm Vallet de Martinis DIID Architectes and the cuboidal PhotoMuseum Budapest and Museum of Hungarian Architecture by Hungarian firm Középülettervező Zrt.
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Renzo Piano has offered to donate the design of a bridge to replace the one which tragically collapsed in Genoa on 14th August. Piano, who was born in Genoa, said he has been deeply affected by the tragedy which claimed the lives of 43 people.
The project, reported by Reuters, was announced following a discussion between the architect and the governor of Liguria, who accepted Piano’s offer.
Hello Wood has revived its highly-successful POP-UP Park, bringing a touch of vibrancy to an underused square in downtown Budapest. Having built the structures in the summer of 2017, the park has returned one year later to provide “a democratic space for all social groups embedded within the everyday movement of the city.”
Open 24 hours per day, the park acts as a free-to-use space for people from all walks of life. Supported by the Municipality of Budapest, the scheme is situated in a frequented though empty spot beside the Budapest City Hall.
Located in south-east Turkey, the 11,000-year-old Göbekli Tepe is considered to be the world’s oldest temple, greatly surpassing England’s Stonehenge, and the Egyptian pyramids. The ancient site, awarded Unesco World Heritage status in July 2018, predates pottery, writing, and the wheel, leading archaeologists such as its discoverer Klaus Schmidt to ask if Göbekli Tepe may, in fact, be not only the world’s first piece of architecture but a crucial catalyst for the onset of settled societies.
Spread across eight hectares near the city of Sanliurfa, the Göbekli Tepe is an artificial mound hosting a series of sunken circular structures adorned with limestone carvings, believed to have been occupied for thousands of years before their abandonment.
The Barbican, London’s iconic Brutalist estate designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon Architects, has launched a range of jewelry and homeware designed by creative studio Tom Pigeon, paying tribute to the vibrant aesthetic which put the scheme on London’s architectural map.
As reported by Creative Boom, the Surface collection draws inspiration from the geography of the Barbican estate, communicating its color, pattern, and shape in a range including earrings, mugs, and greeting cards.
Photographer Stefanie Zoche of Haubitz-Zoche has captured a series of vibrant images showcasing the “hybrid modernist” movie theaters of Southern India. The images below, also available on the artist’s website, capture the large number of cinemas built in both rural and urban areas of South India in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, all conveying an “unconventional mix of local building styles and Western influences."
As Zoche describes, the colorful facades, “suggestive of theatrical sets, provide a foretaste of the cinematic experience in the hall itself, in which extravagant shapes and ornamentation are continued and put the viewer in the right mood for the cinematic world before the screening itself.”
The New York City Department of Building has created a real-time interactive map detailing every major construction project currently underway in the Big Apple. Covering Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Manhattan, and the Bronx, the map also ranks projects by cost, size, and height.
While most city planning portals are already freely accessible to the public, the new interface of the “NYC Active Major Construction” map presents detailed information in a clean, fast, user-friendly manner, giving architects and residents-alike a deeper insight into construction trends in what Bjarke Ingels refers to as “a capital of the world.”
Oslo councilors have voted to halt the Snøhetta-designed “A House to Die In,” located in the grounds of painter Edward Munch’s former house and workshop in western Oslo. The recent vote, reported by Norwegian newspaper The Local would appear to put an end to the 8-year collaborative process between Snøhetta and Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard.
A House to Die In has become the most controversial building proposal in recent Norwegian history, due to its architectural form and how it honors the legacy of one of Norway’s most famous artists.
The Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences One Dalton Street, Boston’s tallest residential building, has reached its full height of 742 feet, forming a significant presence on the Boston skyline. Designed by Henry N. Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, in collaboration with Cambridge Seven Architects, the 61-story scheme features 160 residences, a five-star hotel, and an adjacent park.
Cobb’s design for One Dalton comes 40 years after he designed another noted Boston landmark, the John Hancock Tower.
The Oakland Athletics baseball team have hired Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), James Corner Field Operations, and Gensler to lead the design process for their new ballpark and surrounding development in California. The new stadium will replace the Oakland A’s existing 51-year-old Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which the A’s share with the Oakland Raiders football team.
It has been reported by the San Francisco Business Times that BIG will lead the masterplan for the privately-financed ballpark, either at Howard Terminal or near the existing stadium, while Gensler will collaborate on the ballpark design. Field Operations will adopt the role of landscape architect for the development.
