Archinect - News

Richard Serra, monumental steel sculptor and inspiration to many architects, has died at 85

2024-03-27T11:20:00-04:00

Richard Serra has died. The 85-year-old sculptor who made architecture more or less a permanent condition of his art was known for inventing a process for bending corten steel to create works he explained were about eliciting sensation and intended to display the unseen physical forces of nature.

More than any other contemporary artist (Sarah Sze, Robert Irwin, Richard Estes, etc.) whose work is informed by or makes as its subject architecture, Serra’s use of steel as a means of organizing space and sequencing experience within it is, arguably, the greatest primer for any learner embarking on academic studies in the field.

He began his experimentations first with rubber before advancing to cast lead and then finally steel, a material whose properties and building potential he understood innately thanks to time spent working in steel mills during his early years in California. The opportunity to study art at Yale University changed his life thereafter.

Serra's 'Bend' sculpture at the...

This architect crafts detailed illustrations of the hotel rooms she stays in

2022-04-01T17:22:00-04:00

Architect Kei Endo has a fascinating hobby: While traveling, she measures and sketches her hotel rooms, including the furniture and objects within them, in great detail……draws them up with a Rapidograph……and renders them in watercolor.

Endo, a graduate out of the Tokyo University of the Arts with experience as a practicing architect, currently works at an environmental color planning office. Her work as an illustrator has gained acclaim, though, as she’s produced an array of incredibly detailed drawings of the hotel rooms she visits.

Endo’s work can be viewed on her Twitter and Instagram. She also uploads videos of her illustrating process on her YouTube channel “Draw with KEI”.

Video via Draw with KEI on YouTube

Dan Graham, Conceptual Artist, Dies at 79

2022-02-20T21:29:00-05:00

My passion has never been art. It’s always been architecture, tourism, rock and roll, and rock and roll writing.

Dan Graham, an unclassifiable artist whose sculptures, performances, and conceptual pieces played on viewers’ perception of themselves, the people around them, and their environments, has died at 79. His four galleries—Lisson Gallery, Marian Goodman Gallery, 303 Gallery, and Regen Projects—said in a statement that he passed away this weekend in New York. A cause of death was not announced.

His output was vast and varied. It spanned monumental glass sculptures and small-scaled text pieces, tricky performances about surveillance, and razor-sharp videos about rock ‘n’ roll.

Dan Graham was born in Urbana, Illinois, on March 31, 1942, and brought up in Winfield, New Jersey. (He was an Aries, and often made sure to mention that in interviews.) His mother was an educational psychologist whose field of work instilled an interest in humans’ understanding of space early on. Graham never received a formal education after high school, though he had a tendency to act like a sponge, soaking up theo...

Lawrence Weiner, American conceptual artist, dies at 79

2021-12-02T19:49:00-05:00

Declaration of Intent: The artist may construct the piece. The piece may be fabricated. The piece need not be built. Each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist, the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership.

"Lawrence Weiner, a towering figure in the Conceptual art movement arising in the 1960s and who profoundly altered the landscape of American art, died December 2 at the age of seventy-nine. Known for his text-based installations incorporating evocative or descriptive phrases and sentence fragments, typically presented in bold capital letters accompanied by graphic accents and occupying unusual sites and surfaces, Weiner rose to prominence among a cohort that included Robert Barry, Douglas Huebler, Joseph Kosuth, and Sol LeWitt. A firm believer that an idea alone could constitute an artwork, he established a practice that stood out for its consistent embodiment of his famous 1968 “Declaration of Intent.”

Lawrence Wiener is also known to the architecture world for his townhouse in New York designed by LO-TEK.

Artist Nick Relph is turning New York’s development boom into digital art ‘scans’

2021-11-20T09:00:00-05:00

Relph’s collection might be described as the first post-internet expression of the genre. The images mostly show buildings that are, in one sense, real or in the process of becoming so. But the rendering posters, created by design firms and developers, are also highly fictive, cinematic branding documents created to comply with a city law requiring public images of buildings under construction.

The arch flaneur Nick Relph has been documenting the city’s whirlwind transformation since the Gulliani administration and, for the past seven years, incorporating a VuPoint digital scanner into his work to produce a physical record of the changes that first made its debut in 2015 in MoMA PS1’s Greater New York survey.

Relph’s new book, called Eclipse Body & Soul Syntax, hit the shelves this month from publisher Pre-Echo.

“It was really about just having the scanner with me in my bag when I was walking around,” the 42-year-old Relph told the Times’ Randy Kennedy. “I’m a walker. That’s how I make work, generally speaking. I just couldn’t ignore these posters, these very stark images. I pay attention to images. And the purpose of these is in one sense clearly defined and in another not at all.”

Image courtesy Pre-Echo Press

Artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg's moving Covid memorial opens on the National Mall

2021-09-17T17:49:00-04:00

On one small, white rectangle is the name of a 29-year-old engineer, on another the name of a World War II veteran, and on a third, that of a 15-year-old -- just three of more than 600,000 flags on the National Mall reflecting the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on American lives and the country.

The installation, "In America: Remember," was originally conceived by American artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg at the beginning of the second wave of the pandemic in October last year.

"Taken holistically, this is a physical manifestation of empathy," the artist said at today’s opening ceremony, which was attended by DC Mayor and new Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch. The exhibition is open to the public today and will be on view through October 3rd.

Check out SOM's movement-inspired collaboration with artist Janet Echelman in Munich

2021-09-16T17:32:00-04:00

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has once again come together with American artist Janet Echelman for a site-specific sculptural installation in Munich’s historic Odeonsplatz Square.

Images courtesy of Studio Echelman

The atmospheric sculpture is in constant motion, activating the public space below while changing shape and color with the wind using a 3D data model of the earth’s floor following a powerful 2010 Chilean earthquake from which the ‘1.26’ monicker is taken.

Images courtesy of Studio Echelman

“My artwork reflects an interconnectedness of opposites — flexibility with strength, earth with sky, things we can control with the forces beyond us,” Echelman said.

Images courtesy of Studio Echelman

The sculpture is comprised of more than 361,000 individual knots formed by handmade splices of woven nylon and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene rope fibers. The sculpture weighs 700 pounds and occupies about 3,300 square feet of total area. Its responsiveness and adaptivity represent th...

Hollaway Studio unveils an elaborate new home for artist Mr Doodle

2021-09-13T15:05:00-04:00

A prominent English artist is getting some sweet new digs thanks to a newly-designed studio by Hollaway.

Mr Doodle has been lighting up the art market lately after coming out of relative obscurity in 2019. The 26-year-old’s public image is defined by his signature “spaghetti graffiti” outfits and an elaborate original myth wherein the artist has been working toward building a spaceship that will eventually transport him back to his native Doodeland after a long period of forced exile.

His new mission control will feature an expansion of the neo-Georgian home in which the artist currently resides. Encapsulating a “physical veil of doodles” laser-cut into the metal siding of the studio, the new space has a revealing corner entrance that resembles the lifting of a stage curtain, lounge, and storage area. Sawtoothed roof windows allow for natural light to be dissipated throughout the studio in a way that contours to Mr Doodle’s artistic process.

Image courtesy Hollaway Studio

The Tente...

Into the abyss: An artist has created a deeper shade of black in an ongoing quest for design purity

2021-08-11T13:34:00-04:00

A design world arms race to make the blackest black has intensified this week after an artist revealed his latest creation called Blink.

Stuart Semple created the ink over a period of two years after launching a precursor called Black 3.0 in 2019. The artist had been reacting to the controversy surrounding Anish Kapoor’s being given exclusive rights to Vantablack, the pigment that was initially developed for use on satellites owing to its high absorption rate.

Semple began experimenting with black after a farcical attempt to engineer a purer pink in parody of Kapoor. A more serious effort took shape after the 2019 release and following a beta testing period in which he assembled a team of other artists and designers to provide feedback for the darker and more opaque shade.

“Chemically there are similarities, but the acrylic resin in Black 3.0 is fundamentally different in Blink because we nee...

Ai Weiwei's Tsai Residence sells for almost $5 Million

2021-04-06T19:06:00-04:00

In keeping with Robert Hughes's dictum that architecture is "the art you live in," a remarkable Ai Weiwei-designed house dubbed "living art" by some is reported to have sold this week to an unnamed buyer for the jaw-dropping price of $4.9 Million.

Tsai Residence, with guest house and pool. Image © Michael Bowman Photography

The 15-year-old home, previously available to rent, has been on the market since 2019, when it was initially listed for a slightly higher price of $5.25 Million. The prolific Chinese artist's design for the property includes an in-ground lap pool, an adjacent two-winged guest house completed three years later with a built-in studio, a BOFFI kitchen, and three fireplaces.

Guest house. Image © Michael Bowman Photography

Sitting on a lush 37-acre plot of land in Columbia County, the 3,500-square-foot main house is composed of four interconnected module boxes made of wood and covered in corrugated iron. Its interior features wood-gypsum paneling and three large bathro...

German government offers €50 Billion aid package to artists

2020-03-26T13:50:00-04:00

The German federal government is stepping in with a sweeping aid package for the country’s creative and cultural sectors. The staggering €50 billion ($54 billion) in backing comes less than two weeks since Germany first made its promise of support. The three-part package includes up to €50 billion ($54 billion) in aid for individuals who are self-employed as well as for small businesses. It will come in the form grants designed to help with overhead costs like venue rentals and artist studios.

According to Artnet, the funding will also support media enterprises, including newspapers. "We know the hardships, we know the desperation," said culture minister Monika Grütters in a statement. "The cultural sector in particular is characterized by a high proportion of self-employed people who now have problems with their livelihoods." Grütters expressed the federal governments awareness and recognition of the importance of creative industries, reports Artnet.

Photographer captures a desolate New York City

2019-10-28T12:28:00-04:00

What would a picture of architecture, devoid of people, automobiles, animals, and all of the other urban seasonings we experience each day look like?

'Edge of the West Village'

'Hudson on My Mind'

In his exhibition New York Unseen, on view at ClampArt through mid-November, the artist/photographer Marc Yankus, presents a fantastical response.

'The Met Breuer'

The artist's ethereal portraiture of New York's architecture taps into the hidden qualities we often miss, looking down at our smartphones, or rushing to catch the next bus. This exhibition highlights the elegance and novelty of the city's architecture, encouraging viewers to look upon the structures with a fresh perspective. Through intricate post-production, Yankus has omitted all signs of human life, seeking to home in on what's left behind and leaving a pensive capturing of New York's architecture.

'One Fifth Avenue'

'Flatiron from Above'

'NY Historical Society'

ClampArt writes about the exhibition:

"Marc Yankus’s newest photogr...

Step into a translucent replica of artist Do Ho Suh's NYC home at LACMA, starting next month

2019-10-18T15:45:00-04:00

Drawing from his own experiences of migration, esteemed artist Do Ho Suh is known for his monumental fabric installations that recreate his previous residences around the world, as his way of exploring the concept of home, personal identity, memory, and the architecture of domestic space. Recently, LACMA was recently gifted Suh's “348 West 22nd Street, Apartment A, Unit-2, Staircase” (2011-15). The museum will begin exhibiting the installation at the Resnick Pavilion starting November 10.

Do Ho Suh, Apartment A, Unit 2, Corridor and Staircase, 348 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011, USA (detail), 2011–2014, Polyester fabric and stainless steel tubes, Courtesy of the Artist, Lehmann Maupin New York, Hong Kong and Seoul, and MOCA Cleveland. Installation view, MOCA Cleveland, 2015. Photo: Jerry Birchfield.

Do Ho Suh, Apartment A, Unit 2, Corridor and Staircase, 348 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011, USA (detail), 2011-2014, Polyester fabric and stainless steel tubes, Apartment A, 2...

Art student makes cheese from mold found in rental housing

2019-08-05T17:46:00-04:00

That’s exactly what Avril Corroon, an art student at Goldsmiths, has done for her final project. Taking samples from the most cursed fungal growths she could find in rented accommodation around London, Avril made a selection of artisanal cheeses that look good enough to eat. Except, they’re not; they’re stinky reminders of just how terrible rented accommodation can be in one of the richest cities in the world.

Art student, Avril Corroon has decided to take an unfortunate situation and make a statement through art. "The idea is to juxtapose precarious living standards with that of wealth, gentrification and thinking about where money is invested and where it is disinvested, and how often products are all made from a type of exploitation," the young creative expressed in a VICE article on her project.

She has decided to make cheese from the mold "she could find in rented accommodation around London." And her creations look disturbingly edible, but are actually quite dangerous. "You would hurt yourself," she says in response to an inquiry on eating the fermented mold cheese. The student hopes to shed light on the living conditions in London, and her project undoubtedly provides a bold and creative stance.

Artist Sebastian Errazuriz to project livestream of Earth in 20-foot “blu Marble” installation in Manhattan

2019-03-11T20:27:00-04:00

Known for his interdisciplinary, experimental works, New York-based artist, designer, and activist Sebastian Errazuriz created a 20-foot public artwork called “blu Marble” that will show a livestream of planet Earth from outer space. The installation will be on display at 159 Ludlow Street in Manhattan starting March 13. And for one night only during the launch, blu Marble will be projected onto the New Museum.

Rendering of Sebastian Errazuriz's “blu Marble” at the New Museum. Image courtesy of the artist.

Visible throughout the day and night, the installation features a custom-made LED screen that projects Earth in real time from outer space. To do this, Errazuriz's team created a bot that stitches together live photos of Earth from a NASA satellite.

“Blu Marble is a reminder of our miraculously fragile existence. It places our very existence in perspective at a global level — as a tiny spec in space — beckoning us to live fully with an awareness and mindfulness of our limited time...

Jerry Saltz's 33 Rules on how to be an artist, or at least live creatively

2018-12-04T13:27:00-05:00

There are 33 rules — and they really are all you need to know to make a life for yourself in art. Or 34, if you count “Always be nice, generous, and open with others and take good care of your teeth.” And No. 35: “Fake it till you make it.”

This anonymous L.A. artist is installing new bus-stop benches in the city's Eastside

2018-11-28T15:18:00-05:00

Some of his benches have become part of the fabric of the city — sat on and rained on, captured on Google Street View and even vandalized. Scrawled in tidy handwriting on one bench was, “i love it, thank you,” punctuated by a small heart. His greatest frustration is that whoever is removing them is leaving bus riders with no place to sit. The benches and their removal get at one of the more byzantine corners of transit bureaucracy in Los Angeles.

Realizing he had no place to rest at the bus stop near his Eastside home while recovering from a knee injury, this anonymous Los Angeles artist took matters into his own hands and began installing benches at neglected bus stops around the area, Carolina Miranda writes. Unsurprisingly, some of his benches have been removed, shedding light on L.A.'s frustratingly tedious process to approve the installation of more bus benches and shelters.

Olafur Eliasson links his breakdancing years to spatial thinking in art and architecture

2018-09-17T15:34:00-04:00

“As a teenager I became very interested in street-dance culture and was active on the Scandinavian breakdance scene,” the artist Olafur Eliasson tells his friend and collaborator Anna Engberg-Pedersen in our new book, Olafur Eliasson Experience. This admission is a slight understatement. In 1984, the nascent artist’s three-man troupe, Harlem Gun Crew, actually won the Scandinavian breakdancing championships.

Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson discusses his teenage breakdancing years in relation to how he thinks of architecture and space. Eliasson links the body awareness of moving through an urban landscape in dance to his development in spatial thinking as an artistic practice in design and architecture.

Artists reimagine monuments celebrating the Confederacy

2018-08-17T16:02:00-04:00

After the tragedy, [a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Va.] and another honoring Stonewall Jackson were shrouded, but only temporarily. Around the country, similar monuments have been removed. In some cases, only their pedestals remain. We asked artists to contemplate these markers of our country’s racist and violent history — the space they take up, physically and psychically — and imagine what should happen when they are gone.

Around the US many statues and monuments celebrating racism in our country's history have been removed, either partially or fully. The question currently remains on what we as a culture should do concerning the spaces these historical monuments inhabit[ed]. The New York Times asked artists to reimagine these spaces as possibilities for the future.

Reimagined monument by Studio Ijeoma and Michael Yarinsky Design. Image: Studio Ijeoma/Michael Yarinsky Design.

Studio Ijeoma and Michael Yarinsky Design proposed a spiraling structure around the remaining pedestal where a Robert E. Lee monument in New Orleans once stood. The design includes staining the pedestal with colors corresponding to the years of slavery, segregation, and inequity in US history.

Reimagined monument by Studio Ijeoma and Michael Yarinsky Design. Image: Studio Ijeoma/Michael Yarinsky Design.

Located atop the spiraling stairs is a glass sky room where participants are able to stand where the Confederate general's stat...

Artist hand-cuts paper shapes and assembles them into sacred architecture

2018-08-09T14:06:00-04:00

Mixed media artist Michael Velliquette has been making imaginary architecture models. A prolific artist who favors paper as his medium, his latest is a series of carefully detailed installations. Using hand-cut paper shapes, Velliquette assembles countless pieces of paper into complex forms he describes as both "scared architecture and three-dimensional mandalas." Textured and layered over one another, the Wisconsin-based artist's work takes interest in "ritually driven object making, devotional ornamentation, and our natural human impulse for razzle-dazzle."

Image courtesy of Michael Velliquette.

The home of civil rights activist Rosa Parks is now up for auction

2018-07-27T13:27:00-04:00

In 2016, the Berlin-based US artist Ryan Mendoza and Rhea McCauley, the niece of Rosa Parks, teamed up to save the civil rights activist’s Detroit home from demolition. Now, the structure is heading to another block: the New York auction house Guernsey’s, where it is due to be auctioned tomorrow (26 July) with an estimate of $1m-$3m.

Park's house is part of the 700-lot of African American Historic & Cultural Treasures up for sale at the New York auction house Guernsey’s. McCauley initially bought the house for just $500 back in 2016 reaching out to Mendoza to help preserve the house. In 2017 the structure was safely disassembled and reassembled in Berlin where it was open to the public hosting sound performances inside.

Rosa Parks originally lived in the three-bedroom house with 17 relatives after she left the south in 1957 for Detroit. Mendoza and McCauley have hopes that the house will end up in an institution where it can inspire visitors with Park's life and legacy in civil rights.

A fake Harlem in Sweden and other architecture illusions documented by Gregor Sailer

2018-07-13T16:01:00-04:00

The caption to the photograph reveals that this isn’t New York at all, of course, but Sweden: a life-size replica of Harlem in a forest in the west of the country, near Gothenburg. The asphalt and snow are real enough, but nearly everything else is fake. The streets are void of people and cars; the store fronts are life-size photographs, printed on canvas and hung on steel frames. Welcome to the Potemkin village: a place of clones, impostors, facsimiles, frauds. Maybe don’t plan to stay.

Why is there a life-size replica of Harlem in Sweden? This bizarre space turns out to be a test track for self-driving cars. Why Harlem? Even Austrian artist Gregor Sailer who photographed the space doesn't know. Sailer traveled around the world to capture 25 of these false architectural landscapes for his project titled “The Potemkin Village”.

Check out some of these unreal images below:

Find out more on these imitation spaces captured by Sailer from Andrew Dickson.

...

An empty Beirut skyscraper now transformed by an artist's colorful installation

2018-06-07T14:51:00-04:00

Lebanese artist Jad El Khoury has long been creating interventions in Beirut’s urban landscape to draw attention to these symbolic sites of warfare [...] Khoury has now taken on the imposing Murr Tower for a two-month installation: ‘The Burj El Murr soars from Beirut’s skyline, filled with scars, constantly provoking the city’s residents, whose past is shadowed by war, and present is spent dealing with those harsh memories.’

Artist Jad El Khoury's temporary installation Burj El Hawa (Tower of Air) inhabits a 34-story skyscraper in Beirut, known as Murr Tower or the Beirut Trader Center. Using brightly colored curtains found in a typical Beirut home, Khoury transforms this empty building which was used as a snipers hideout in the Lebanese Civil War in 1975.

A towering presence in the city, the skyscraper now projects the artist's message of hope and vitality to the community rather than one of war and unresolved conflict.

Khoury's installation Burj El Hawa will remain in the skyscraper until July 2018.

An artist creates brutalist cuckoo clocks based on Germany's social housing

2018-06-05T14:55:00-04:00

Artist Guido Zimmermann's Cuckoo Block series present a brutalist take on the traditional cuckoo clock design. Based in Germany, Zimmermann's pieces are largely inspired by local brutalist housing blocks found in Frankfurt and Berlin. He has also ventured out to create clocks based on notable brutalist structures such as as Marcel Breuer’s Hotel Le Flaine, and Ernő Goldfinger's Glenkerry House.

Check out some of these unique creations below:

All images courtesy of Guido Zimmermann.

Olafur Eliasson completes his first building, Fjordenhus, in Denmark

2018-06-01T19:45:00-04:00

Fjordenhus (Fjord House) is the first building designed entirely by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann with Studio Olafur Eliasson. Located in Vejle, Denmark, Fjord House is set to open on June 9th. The structure rises out of Vejle Fjord and can be accessed through Havneøen (The Harbour Island).

Fjordenhus by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann with Studio Olafur Eliasson, located in Vejle, Denmark. Image: Anders Sune Berg.

The building was commissioned by KIRK KAPITAL as the company’s new headquarters and includes site-specific artworks by Eliasson with tailored furniture and lighting.

Fjordenhus by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann with Studio Olafur Eliasson, located in Vejle, Denmark. Image: Anders Sune Berg.

Fjordenhus by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann with Studio Olafur Eliasson, located in Vejle, Denmark. Image: Anders Sune Berg...

Russian artist burns Gothic cathedral made of sticks at Maslenitsa carnival

2018-02-19T18:44:00-05:00

A 30m-tall Gothic cathedral built of branches and twigs that was set alight on Saturday (17 February) causing controversy in Russia. The burning took place at Nikola-Lenivets, a rural artists’ colony 200km south of Moscow, and was the culmination of pre-Lenten carnival festivities known as Maslenitsa. The event is often likened to the US Burning Man festival.

Artist Nikolay Polissky, founder of Nikola-Lenivets, creates impressive land art installations to burn for Russia's Maslenitsa festival each year. This Russian folk tradition is celebrated during the last week before Lent and traditionally ends with the burning of a scarecrow.

This year, the festival's title was Flaming Gothic, which is the literal Russian translation of the ornate architecture style. Although it was in line with the theme of the festival, Polissky's cathedral sparked controversy after the images and videos of it burning went viral. Some claimed it was an attack on Christianity and Russian Orthodoxy, while others asserted this played into Russian nationalist propaganda.

Flaming Gothic installation by Nikolay Polissky at Maslenitsa 2018 festival. Image: Andrei Nikerichev.

Far from his intentions, Polissky explains, “There was nothing of religious worship in my art object, of course there were no crosses, altar or any religious symbols. This is not a copy of any exis...

China's extreme "duplitecture" photographed next to its Paris equivalent

2018-01-11T18:02:00-05:00

Photographer Francois Prost's recent photo series, Paris Syndrome, reveals just how far China's "duplitecture" went in the city of Tianducheng. Pairing images of China's replica city with its Paris equivalent—side by side it can be initially unclear which is the original.

Tianducheng features its own 100m high Eiffel tower, a haussmanian style neighborhood and a Versailles garden inspired park. The Paris copy was built 11 years ago and deemed a ghost town until just last year when the population rose to 30,000. Now Tianducheng is in many ways just another suburb with middle class people going about their daily lives.

Have you spotted which is the real Paris? All images on the left are of Tianducheng and all on the right are of Paris.

This duplitecture goes way further than simply copying a famous structure as an attraction; this is an entire city designed to have real people live in it. Dig further into the oddities and ideas around this phenomena in CityLab's article.

...

Photographer documents where human-imposed grid must bend to Earth

2018-01-04T13:28:00-05:00

Photographer Gerco de Ruijter is widely known for his work focusing on grids and other signs of human-imposed geometry on the landscape. His latest work explores instances in the North American landscape where the Jeffersonian road grid is forced to go awry due to the curvature of the Earth. His film Grid Corrections was made digging through Google Earth imagery of the Thomas Jefferson Grid, a grid built of exact square mile increments that must bend every 24 miles.

Photo: still from “Grid Corrections” by Gerco de Ruijter, courtesy of the Ulrich Museum of Art.

Check out a one minute clip of his film documenting these strange instances of T-intersections and zigzagging turns, where the human grid is forced to account for its natural environment. Read more about the project on Geoff Manaugh's BLDGBLOG.

Backed by Shigeru Ban and others, artist Jae-Eun Choi envisions garden-lined bridge for Korean DMZ

2017-12-28T21:07:00-05:00

At the 2016 Venice Architectural Biennale, Ban and Choi presented a scale model of a 13-kilometer (about eight-mile), garden-lined bamboo walkway meandering between North and South Korea, elevated to protect visitors from ubiquitous DMZ landmines. Along its length would be towers for viewing nature and, every kilometer, open-air “Jung Ja” meditation pavilions designed by different architects and artists, including several reserved for North Koreans.

With support from Shigeru Ban and others, artist Jae-Eun Choi envisioned a garden-lined bridge called "Dreaming of Earth" that would meander through the Korean Demilitarized Zone, which has ironically grown into one of Asia's most significant wildlife sanctuaries. The initial proposal, which Choi and Ban presented at the 2016 Venice Biennale, includes designs by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann, Bijoy Jain, Seung H-sang, Minsuk Cho, and artists like Lee Ufan and Lee Bul, Tadashi Kawamata, and more. Despite the current political climate, Choi is determined to make her peace project a reality.

Artist Joshua Smith builds urban decay miniatures

2017-12-01T13:14:00-05:00

Australia-based artist Joshua Smith expresses his love of decrepit urban spaces by recreating them in 1:20 scale. Building all of his miniatures from scratch, Smith designs every element himself. The artist's work is built on his past experiences as a stencil artist and gallery director. Inspired by street art, graffiti, and old forgotten buildings, Smith is fascinated by the layers and history found within the dirt and grime of city spaces.

Pictured above is a recreation of 23 Temple Street, a building in the Kowloon area of Hong Kong, made by the artist for New York's VOLTA art fair. Smith's process starts with hours of searching on google street view for his next subject. Once his next project is underway, it can take months to finish a piece. The 23 Temple Street miniature took Smith three months of full time work to complete.

Scroll down and check out these mini architectural masterpieces.

'Big Bang Fireworks Company', based on 10 Pell Street in Chinatown NYC, by Joshua Smi...

Archinect - News

Richard Serra, monumental steel sculptor and inspiration to many architects, has died at 85

This architect crafts detailed illustrations of the hotel rooms she stays in

Dan Graham, Conceptual Artist, Dies at 79

Lawrence Weiner, American conceptual artist, dies at 79

Artist Nick Relph is turning New York’s development boom into digital art ‘scans’

Artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg's moving Covid memorial opens on the National Mall

Check out SOM's movement-inspired collaboration with artist Janet Echelman in Munich

Hollaway Studio unveils an elaborate new home for artist Mr Doodle

Into the abyss: An artist has created a deeper shade of black in an ongoing quest for design purity

Ai Weiwei's Tsai Residence sells for almost $5 Million

German government offers €50 Billion aid package to artists

Photographer captures a desolate New York City

Step into a translucent replica of artist Do Ho Suh's NYC home​ at LACMA, starting next month

Art student makes cheese from mold found in rental housing

Artist Sebastian Errazuriz to project livestream of Earth in 20-foot “blu Marble” installation in Manhattan

Jerry Saltz's 33 Rules on how to be an artist, or at least live creatively

This anonymous L.A. artist is installing new bus-stop benches in the city's Eastside

Olafur Eliasson links his breakdancing years to spatial thinking in art and architecture

Artists reimagine monuments celebrating the Confederacy

Artist hand-cuts paper shapes and assembles them into sacred architecture

The home of civil rights activist Rosa Parks is now up for auction

A fake Harlem in Sweden and other architecture illusions documented by Gregor Sailer

An empty Beirut skyscraper now transformed by an artist's colorful installation

An artist creates brutalist cuckoo clocks based on Germany's social housing

Olafur Eliasson completes his first building, Fjordenhus, in Denmark

Russian artist burns Gothic cathedral made of sticks at Maslenitsa carnival

China's extreme "duplitecture" photographed next to its Paris equivalent

Photographer documents where human-imposed grid must bend to Earth

Backed by Shigeru Ban and others, artist Jae-Eun Choi envisions garden-lined bridge for Korean DMZ​

Artist Joshua Smith builds urban decay miniatures

Step into a translucent replica of artist Do Ho Suh's NYC home at LACMA, starting next month

Backed by Shigeru Ban and others, artist Jae-Eun Choi envisions garden-lined bridge for Korean DMZ