Archinect - News

Frank Gehry's 'Ruminations' comes to Madison Avenue

2024-02-23T18:36:00-05:00

The Gagosian Gallery’s Madison Avenue location has recently opened an exhibition of Frank Gehry artworks titled Ruminations.

On view until April 6th, the gallery will be showing recent works Gehry’s team says are in dialog with the architect’s engagements with fluid aquatic animal forms that date to an inspirational early-80s commission with the Formica Corporation.

Frank Gehry, Ruminations, 2024, installation view. Image: © Frank O. Gehry. Photo: Maris Hutchinson. Courtesy Gagosian

Notably, the show features the East Coast debut of Gehry’s "Crocodile Lamp" sculpture besides selected works on paper and other elaborations on the animal theme.

Frank Gehry, Untitled (Black Crocodile New York), 2023. Metal wire, Colorcore formica, and silicone 13 3/8 x 102 3/8 x 51 1/4 inches (34 x 260 x 130 cm). Image: © Frank O. Gehry/Photo: Maris Hutchinson. Courtesy Gagosian

Ruminations follows the 2021 exhibition Spinning Tales, which was staged by the Gagosian in Los Angeles. This is the chance fo...

Berlin's world-record AquaDom fish tank attraction is kaput after apparent accident

2022-12-16T13:01:00-05:00

A giant aquarium containing a million litres of water in the lobby of the Radisson Blu in Berlin has burst, flooding the hotel and nearby streets. A spokesman for Berlin's fire brigade told the BBC the vast majority of the fish had died, and the cold weather had made rescue attempts more difficult. The tank had contained more than 100 different specie. A police source told local media there is no evidence the break was the result of a targeted attack.

The reportedly €12.8 million ($13.85 million USD) feature inside the central Mitte district’s Radisson Blu Hotel is considered to be the largest cylindrical fish tank in the world and was, until the accident, home to 1,500 fish. Only two human injuries were reported.

The current cold snap that’s testing the country’s morbid winter heating concerns is thought to be the culprit. Berlin police were forced to close a busy stretch of Karl-Liebknecht Street as a result of the damage.

There are no indications of a targeted, violent attack on the large aquarium in central Berlin, police say.

The fire brigade added that the giant tank "burst abruptly."

More: https://t.co/y3Ht4q63q9 pic.twitter.com/IJBKqRfMBm
— DW News (@dwnews) December 16, 2022

Snøhetta brings colorful fishing facility to an arctic archipelago in Norway

2018-11-12T15:06:00-05:00

Snøhetta has completed their colorful design of a fishing facility for the shipowner Holmøy Maritime. Located on a Norwegian archipelago, the 6,000 square meter address will allow the company to house all employees and facilities on the same site. With four distinctive buildings and a guest house for mid-shift breaks, the new Holmen Industrial Area is able to combine fish farming and processing functions with the company's corporate headquarters.

The client, Holmøy Maritime, is the country's third-largest trawler operator. In order to ensure the company's high standards of quality are met, Snøhetta carefully considered its daily activities, tracking the fish handling process in order to achieve the best environment possible for employees and for production. While the warm colors of the building help make for a playful facility, the functional materials such as aluminum façade cladding and concrete floors safeguard for durability.

Photography: S. Citrone.

Photography: Ketil Jacobsen....

The Grand Canyon is contaminated with mercury

2015-08-26T21:59:00-04:00

Sadly, even the Grand Canyon, a symbolic landmark of America’s natural environment, unfortunately isn’t immune to the ravages of pollution. Concentrations of mercury and selenium in canyon’s food webs — the interconnected food chains in the environment — regularly exceed levels considered risky for fish and wildlife. Those findings are from a study from the U.S. Geological Survey scientists published in the journal Environmental Toxicity and Chemistry.

It's the kind of news that reads like Anthropocene poetry – both existentially dark and metaphorically potent. This vast fissure in the Earth's crust, which presents us with two billion years of geologic history and basically defines our image of the sublime, has been thoroughly contaminated by a relatively short period of industrial agriculture and other human activities.

More precisely, the selenium likely comes from agriculture and mining (although it also exists in the soil naturally). The mercury is thought to have been brought in by algae from Lake Powell, originating in "distant coal-burning electrical plants."

The researchers explained, "The findings of the present study add to a growing body of evidence showing that remote ecosystems are vulnerable to long-range transport and subsequent bioaccumulation of contaminants."

Researcher studied minnows, invertebrates and fish at six sites along the Colorado River and recorded mercury and selenium levels that exceed toxicity threshol...

3XN-Designed ‘The Blue Planet’ about to Open as Northern Europe’s Largest Aquarium

2013-03-20T14:39:00-04:00

Back in July of 2008, we reported that 3XN had won the international design competition for Denmark's new The Blue Planet aquarium with an exciting whirlpool-shaped proposal right outside of Copenhagen. Now the inauguration day of the completed building has come, and the $127M-aquarium will officially open to the public this Friday, March 22.

From the Blogs: a small side project

2011-07-12T13:19:13-04:00

The fish are part of a small side project the lab is working on in the city of Kesenuma. You probably saw it on the news. It's the city that had a massive boat sitting on a street instead of in the water.

Check out the latest blog entry from the Keio University blog.

"The community asked us to think of something that kids could be involved in and that would be cheap to put together and somehow symbolic and fun. The students in the lab came up with using the laser cutter to make a small school of fish that could be assembled by children to make a simple arch. It's a cute idea. Perfect for Japan."