Archinect - News

Take a look inside Kengo Kuma's newly-opened Hans Christian Andersen Museum

2022-04-14T15:34:00-04:00

One of Denmark’s most highly publicized cultural projects has now officially begun its public operation after being previously inaugurated in a soft opening last June.

Set amongst a massive new public park that opened earlier in the fall, Kengo Kuma and Associates’ design for the new H.C.Andersen Hus museum in Odense is a “fantasy world” of interconnected circular forms which give shape to the museum’s more than 60,000 square feet of education centers and subterranean exhibition space.

Photo: Rasmus Hjortshøj - COAST

Visitors can experience the physical dualities endemic in the architecture and inspired by classic Andersen tales like The Tinderbox and The Little Mermaid. After entering through an extension of the writer’s adjacent birth home, they begin their journey on the timber-clad upper level and descend into an unraveling underground labyrinth containing a “unique artistic experience” designed by Event Communications dotted with evocative commissi...

A new children's book tells Phil Freelon's story

2020-01-21T13:01:00-05:00

Dream Builder: The Story of Architect Philip Freelon is a new children's book published by Lee & Low Books that highlights the life and work of the late architect Phil Freelon.

Written by Kelly Starling Lyons and illustrated by Laura Freeman, the 40-page picture book "celebrates a contemporary black STEAM role model, a man whose quiet work enabled the creation of an iconic building reflecting America's past and future," according to the publisher's website, by offering insights into Freelon's youth and personal and professional journeys through life.

A spread from inside the book depicting the design for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History with David Adjaye and Phil Freelon shown on the left. Image courtesy of Lee & Low Books.

The book highlights Freelon's upbringing in an arts-saturated Philadelphia home as the son of a socially conscious businessman who attended the 1963 March on Washington and chronicles Freelon's unexpected path toward architecture. In a...

A children's book to gift to your little aspiring architect

2018-12-28T17:03:00-05:00

Through gorgeous illustrations and a relatable story Norman's Architecture Adventure teaches children how having an imagination is the greatest adventure anyone can have. Nothing holds Norman back, he sees what could be and he creates it. He is unrestricted by age, ethnicity, or preconceptions.

Now published and available for purchase online, Norman's Architecture Adventure is a fun children's book written & illustrated by Joshua P. Sanabria. By following the steps of a young African American boy that aspires to be an architect just like his mom, the book not only hopes to foster kids' curiosity and imagination but also to encourage more African Americans to pursue architecture.