Archinect - News

Banksy murals to be digitally preserved as part of new UK art database

2024-02-09T14:28:00-05:00

Art by the famous artist Banksy is to be included in a new initiative to document the UK’s murals. As reported by The Art Newspaper, the project will see more than 5,000 murals from across the UK digitally recorded for access in a free public database.

The project is being overseen by the educational charity Art UK with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The three-year initiative will see public works recorded by a network of volunteer researchers and photographers, alongside documenting the stories behind the pieces.

“The location of murals, the circumstances behind their creation, and the materials used to create them can result in this type of artwork being ephemeral in nature,” Art UK says about the project. “Buildings and housing estates are demolished to make way for new developments meaning that many murals have been lost. We will record the murals as they look now, to provide a record if they are removed, defaced, or suffer environmental damage.”

Related on Arc...

Another Banksy mural destroyed after the building it was painted on was demolished

2023-12-01T17:41:00-05:00

A mural painted by Banksy which first appeared not long after Britain voted to leave the European Union (EU) has been destroyed after the building it was painted on was knocked down. The artwork, said to have been valued at around £1m, first appeared in the coastal town of Dover in 2017, the year after Britain voted to leave the union in a controversial referendum.

The mural, located on the side of the Castle Amusements building, depicted a worker chipping away at one the 12 stars on the EU flag. In 2019, the mural vanished after it was whitewashed. And, now, despite efforts to potentially restore the work, the building it was painted on has been demolished as part of a regeneration project. Prior to the building’s demolition the Dover City Council (DCC) determined that the Banksy could not have been conserved without major costs to local taxpayers.

Previously on Archinect: Banksy's latest mural on abandoned UK farmhouse has been demolished

That being said, the Council has said that its contractor, DDS Demolition, is exploring ways to preserve the artwork in any way. As reported by CNN, the demolition firm has said that pieces of the Banksy have been retrieved and are currently “being assessed.”

MVRDV and Van Boven Architecten complete high school alma mater renovation in the Netherlands

2023-09-29T14:56:00-04:00

MVRDV has announced the completion of their Van Boven Architecten co-designed Gymnasium Beekvliet renovation project in the Netherlands.

The alma mater of both Winy Maas and Theobert van Boven was once the nation’s leading catholic seminary and was later used as an internment camp for political prisoners of the occupying Nazi regime during Worl War II before being modernized into a new grammar school in the early 1970s.

“I went to school at Beekvliet myself, as did one of my children, and my wife is also a teacher there. These connections strongly motivate me to design a unique and special building that does justice to the school’s rich history,” van Boven said in a preview last year.

Image: © Daria Scagliola/MVRDV

Located in the village of Sint-Michielsgestel near Eindhoven, the school now features a unifying new auditorium addition at the center of the school that’s meant to improve circulation. An existing classroom building and plaza area were also renovated. Ian Kirkpatrick, a C...

Banksy's latest mural on abandoned UK farmhouse has been demolished

2023-03-17T14:13:00-04:00

Banksy had just put the finishing touches on his latest artwork on an abandoned farmhouse in in Kent, England, when shortly after completion, a construction crew demolished the building. Entitled Morning is Broken, the work featured a silhouetted cat and a boy with arms outstretched opening two dilapidated sheets of iron, which were shaped like curtains.

News of the demolition spread across media channels and social platforms like Instagram and Twitter. A report from The Guardian explained that the site, owned by Kitewood, was "earmarked for dozens of new homes" as demolition on the site began on Tuesday, March 14. When workers began demolishing the site, one contractor told the local press they felt "gutted" and "sick realizing it was a Banksy."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Banksy (@banksy)

This is the second Banksy piece demolished in Kent after another Valentine’s Day message on domestic violence was taken down and reinstalled at the popular town Dreamland theme park by the town council.

For sale in LA: a building with a Banksy OR a Banksy with a building?

2022-09-05T09:00:00-04:00

In 2010, while in town for the Los Angeles premiere of his documentary “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” the British street artist Banksy left a gift for fans: a mural of a girl on a swing, dangling beneath the five-foot red “A” of the word “PARKING” on a gritty downtown lot. Now that girl — as well as the historic building in the downtown fashion district that serves as her canvas — is for sale to the highest bidder.

The historic 26,000-square-foot Downtown Los Angeles building was purchased for $4 million three years prior to the popular documentary's premiere and underwent a $1.8 million renovation before its then-owners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April this year.

Art dealer Jeffrey Deitch says the 12- by 33-foot mural’s intrinsic value merits a different kind of appraisal. (“This is free public art. It is not meant to have a commercial value and be resold. That’s not the intention of the artist.”) The best estimate from the previous owners was reportedly $16 million without the girl, which Sotheby’s placed at a minimum of $10 million standing alone. A resolution will come when the building goes to auction on October 6th.

Winy Maas transforms his former high school with colorful swooping addition

2022-02-03T13:41:00-05:00

MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas and Theobert van Boven of Van Boven Architecten are leading the transformation of their old high school Gymnasium Beekvliet in the Dutch village of Sint-Michielsgestel.

The main element of this design by the two alumni is a colorful, flowing addition that reaches out into the school’s plaza and improves circulation, creating a new focal point at the heart of the building. In addition, the space exhibits artwork by artist Ian Kirkpatrick throughout.

The initial mission of the project was to renovate the existing school building. The brief also called for a new auditorium, more space for regular school activities, and additional art and culture facilities to provide students with a challenging and stimulating learning environment while offering them more spaces to gather. To meet this demand, the design extends the existing roof structure and lowers it to ground level, closing the building’s circulation routes and forming a distinct entrance.

The sw...

Sir Peter Cook’s mural-like Innovation Studio opens on UK university campus

2021-11-04T14:19:00-04:00

Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) in the United Kingdom is celebrating the opening of a new creative facility designed by Sir Peter Cook. The Innovation Studio is the second building on AUB’s campus designed by Cook, after his undulating Drawing Studio was opened in 2016 by Zaha Hadid. Cook himself graduated from AUB in the 1950s.

Image: Richard Bryant

The new facility will host a range of digital and physical manufacturing technologies, including Large Format Additive Printing, CNC milling, and waterjet cutting, alongside VR/AR technologies such as 3D body scanning and a green screen studio. The university sees the Innovation Studio as a space where students, graduates, university experts, and businesses can collaborate on real-world issues through design.

Image: Richard Bryant

“The space is a rich vessel for creativity and innovation,” said Cook upon the studio’s opening. “Those creating within these walls will almost certainly working towards solutions to some of mankind’s great...

LAA Office transforms Columbus, Indiana street into vibrant public art space

2021-11-01T15:22:00-04:00

LAA Office, a Columbus, Indiana-based multi-disciplinary design studio, has unveiled its transformation of a street in downtown Columbus into a new arts district. Called 6th Street Arts Alley, the project was realized in collaboration with the Columbus Area Arts Council.

This project aimed to both establish greater connectivity between establishments and reinvigorate undervalued spaces between buildings along 6th Street, an area that is home to a burgeoning arts and design scene with several community organizations, creative businesses, and studios.

LAA Office introduced 10,000 square feet of street improvements, with the most notable addition being a vibrant, geometric ground mural made alongside student and community volunteers. Another mural on the south façade of the historic Odd Fellows building by artist Nick Abstract was also added. Additionally, a custom collection of modular furniture designed by LAA Office and moveable planters by Anova Furnishings are featured. Together ...

'Keeping the culture going': Inside the restoration of a heartfelt mural at the Watts Towers in Los Angeles

2021-10-12T15:24:00-04:00

“The mural had fallen into disrepair, its imagery so faded from the sun that some shapes were barely recognizable. On a trip to L.A. in 2017 to restore one of his murals, Davis visited Watts Towers and noted what terrible shape the work was in. It gnawed at him, how fragile the mural was, slowly and quietly deteriorating in plain sight.”

The mural-lined Watts Towers campus is currently at the end of a three-year conservation effort being overseen by LACMA. The largest is artist Alonzo Davis’ tribute to acclaimed visual artist and former Watts Towers Arts Center director John Outterbridge, who died last year. Davis, who founded Leimert Park’s famed Brockman Gallery, executed the painting in 1980 but has since become unable to do the restoration work himself.

In his place, a team of local artists is working to clean the mural in time for next month and very much in the spirit Outterbridge’s vision of intergenerational artist mentorship and community involvement.

“It represents his spirit and sense of community, symbols that reflected my thinking about him,” Davis told the LA Times. “The mural may have faded, but his memory won’t.”

Take a look at this lenticular mural artist Phillip Adams created with EskewDumezRipple in Salt Lake City

2021-05-28T18:59:00-04:00

New Orleans-based firm EskewDumezRipple has collaborated with Philadelphia-based artist Phillip Adams to produce a vivid and detailed lenticular mural for their project in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Adams hand-painted the piece across the facade of EskewDumezRipple’s Mya Living project, a new, modern apartment and condominium complex. The project was spearheaded by real estate development and investment company, Domain Companies, an entity that specializes in sustainable, mixed-use development.

The artwork is inspired by a local Salt Lake City legend.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by EskewDumezRipple (@eskewdumezripple)

"The mural is inspired by the legend and celebrity of the flamingo, Pink Floyd, who escaped from Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City in 1988, and lived in the Great Salt Lake until last seen in 2005," Adams recounts the tale in this Instagram post. "He would return to the Great Salt Lake every winter. This playful homage to him links a unique a...

Picasso murals removed in Oslo despite protest

2020-07-29T14:29:00-04:00

The legal battle over the Picasso-Nesjar murals removed by the Norwegian government from the Y Block administrative building in Oslo earlier this week is escalating. The Fishermen hung on the brutalist façade while The Seagull was located in the lobby of the building, which was designed by the Norwegian architect Erling Viksjø in 1969.

Norway's controversial decision to demolish the 1960s Y-block building that was damaged by a car bomb explosion in the July 22, 2011 terrorist attack — and with it, to remove two murals created by Pablo Picasso and Carl Nesjar specifically for this building — has been generating a heated debate and legal steps for many years now.

According to The Art Newspaper, both murals are being removed this week.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Adrian Bugge (@yblokkfoto.no) on Jul 28, 2020 at 12:58pm PDT

Archinect's Virtual Event Guide for the week of June 22-25th

2020-06-22T14:53:00-04:00

Today's featured virtual event happenings, from Archinect's Virtual Event Guide, address issues from resiliency, mass timber, community engagement, residential design, art, public art, urban design, Palm Springs modernism and bamboo.

Are you hosting a virtual lecture? Presentation? Tour? Interview? Happy Hour? Submit it for consideration by clicking here.

Are you an expert in an arena that's especially important right now? Let us know if you would like to work with Archinect to host an online event.

The Future City: Urban Resilience and the Power of Data
Monday, June 22, 2020 7:30 PM BST
Our societies are surrounded by an abundance of data in both the online and physical world. Has data the power to help us understand better our communities and complex reality? Can data help us create new tools to manage urban risk and design resilient cities?
Click here to attend and/or register

Time to reconnect with nature: Timber offices of the future
Tuesday, June 23, 2020 | 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM BST...

Architect provides downloadable "Black Lives Matter" street mural template amid cities adding the piece to its centers

2020-06-11T12:33:00-04:00

Following the now famous Black Lives Matter street mural in Washington D.C., activists later painted one in Oakland, California. This urban activism has garnered the attention of another city as well, Berkeley, who plans to paint a new street mural on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, in front of Old City Hall.

Berkely architect Yes Duffy was one of many participants who helped paint the Oakland mural and after learning his city was considering a mural, created a template that he sent to Berkeley's mayor and councilmembers, reports Berkelyside.

Carlo Ratti has invented a vertical robotic plotter for your home

2019-09-12T13:30:00-04:00

According to the team's Kickstarter page, Scribit is a write-and-erase robot that allows you to draw any content sourced from the web—and update it in real time.

See the video below for some words from Italian architect Carlo Ratti, the inventor of the new technology:

How can paint dematerialize architecture?

2019-07-12T14:03:00-04:00

While technological sleights of hand grow more and more sophisticated, it is important to remember that sometimes paint, pencil, and sunlight are all that is needed to create transformative works of art.

A good example of the latter approach comes from Italian artist Peeta, a Venice-based muralist who transforms buildings through the application of surrealistic, larger-than-life murals.

Image courtesy of Peeta.

On his website, Peeta states that his approach is geared toward using art to nudge viewers out of their everyday mindset, while still maintaining certain ties to the physical realities of the built environment. He says, "when painting on walls, my aim is always to create a dialogue with the structural and cultural parameters of the surrounding context, either architectural or not."

Image courtesy of Peeta.

Peeta's work is best suited for corners, where the artist is able to render flat planes and deep visual fields of shape and color that trick your eye into forgetting that t...

72U’s Dear Neighbor campaign promotes permanent supportive housing to portray a different narrative to homelessness in LA

2019-05-30T10:41:00-04:00

The housing crisis in large cities, especially in Los Angeles, has been an ongoing issue. Currently, Los Angeles County is home to the second largest population of settled homelessness in the U.S. Local government and organizations aim to create solutions in order to combat the issue with a little over 53,000 people who are homeless and in need of housing. In order to address the homeless housing crisis, the Los Angeles based creative residency 72U promotes the importance of Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) through a different kind of narrative. Through art, design, and empathy, the project initiative Dear Neighbor aims to use murals, written letters, recorded interviews, and eye-catching infographics to bridge communities together through awareness.

Image courtesy of Dear Neighbor LA

According to the Dear Neighbor team, the project is based on "the belief that housing is a human right. We understand that despite their numbers, our homeless neighbo...

Mexico City deploys giant murals to clean its polluted air

2019-05-08T14:18:00-04:00

A colourful mural of a 35m-tall tree in Mexico City is one of three environmentally friendly new public works made using Airlite paint, which purifies polluted air in a process similar to photosynthesis. [...] the mural aims to increase oxygen levels in one of the western hemisphere’s most polluted cities, where ozone concentration levels remain high despite government regulations on fuel and cars.

Image courtesy of Boa Mistura.

"Airlite paint chemically reacts with pollutants in the air, turning them into inert compounds," reports The Art Newspaper. "The roughly 1,000 sq. m mural should neutralise the same amount of pollution created by around 60,000 vehicles a year."

The artists responsible for painting the mural on Reforma Avenue (pictured above) are members of the Spanish art collective Boa Mistura.

Moscow apartment buildings come to life with facade featuring The Great Wave off Kanagawa

2018-12-20T14:15:00-05:00

A series of apartment buildings in Moscow have been covered with iconic Japanese artwork. Part of the Etalon City apartment complex, the architects had the 6 towers placed along the highway painted with a replica of The Great Wave off Kanagawa—Katsushika Hokusai’s famed woodblock print—spanning the 60,000 square meter facade.

Behind, the other buildings making up the complex have been given colorful patterns inspired by other cities including New York, Chicago, Barcelona, and Monaco. Splashes of yellow, blue, orange, and green cover three zigzagged apartment towers, while the public areas and landscape design will also pay homage to various locations.

The massive housing development is located in the south-western region of Moscow, and includes retail, social facilities, and a science park.

5Pointz lawsuit: Judge rules in favor of street artists, awards $6.7 Million

2018-02-13T14:10:00-05:00

[...] a judge has ruled that a New York developer must pay $6.7 million to a group of graffiti artists to compensate for painting over their work without warning in 2013. The decision represents a decisive victory for street artists in a case that pitted their rights against those of a real estate executive. The artists sued the developer, Gerald Wolkoff, for violating their rights after he whitewashed their work at the famous 5Pointz art mecca in Long Island City to make way for condos.

Citing protection of the artists'—historically significant but ultimately destroyed—works at 5Pointz under the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), Judge Frederic Block ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in this closely watched landmark case: "Since 5Pointz was a prominent tourist attraction the public would undoubtedly have thronged to say its goodbyes during those 10 months and gaze at the formidable works of aerosol art for the last time. It would have been a wonderful tribute for the artists that they richly deserved."

5Pointz lawsuit enters next round: Is street art protected under the Visual Artists Rights Act?

2017-12-26T18:09:00-05:00

Was the street art covering 5Pointz, a largely empty warehouse in Long Island City, Queens, significant enough to preserve under US federal law? A federal judge in Brooklyn in currently considering the arguments in a case that tests the limits of the Visual Artists Rights Act (Vara), and could soon decide whether a developer Gerald Wolkoff and his companies violated the act when he tore down the graffiti-covered building to construct residential towers and what, if any, damages they will pay.

Feast your eyes on Pink Intruder's colorful, food-inspired mural in Valencia, Spain

2017-10-26T16:10:00-04:00

David Moreno and Miguel Arraiz of urban intervention art group Pink Intruder created a fruitful splash of color with the MUPFPP Mural in their hometown Valencia in Spain. Inspired by the fruits and vegetables in the city's orchards, Pink Intruder designed the welcoming (and obviously Instagram-friendly) mural at the Valencia Congress Center for the 2017 Annual Gathering and the Mayors’ Summit of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP).

Photo: Noel Arraiz.

Check out more of Pink Intruder's fun installations, like Renaixement at Burning Man 2016 and Ekklesia for Spain's 2015 Fallas Festival.

Graffiti artists sue developer over the whitewashing and demolition of 5 Pointz in Long Island City

2017-10-23T13:18:00-04:00

Wolkoff granted permission to artists to paint on the building in 1993, when Long Island City wasn’t hot property....Fast forward to 2013, New York real estate was exploding. The building’s location was highly desirable.

5 Pointz, located in Long Island City, was an American mural space considered to be the world's premier graffiti mecca. Bought by developer Jerry Wolkoff in 1971, the building's exterior was graffitied over with a myriad of street art when Wolkoff started leasing space as artists' studios in the 90s.

As property values in the area started to rise, Wolkoff made the controversial decision in 2013 to stealthily whitewash the graffiti. The building was demolished shortly thereafter to make room for two luxury high-rises. To make matters worse, the new high-rises were to incorporate street art into the decor, gaining clout from the same history of the site it sought to destroy.

Firing back, a group of 20 New York street artists are in federal court this week fighting Wolkoff and his companies. The muralists are arguing that based on the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, Wolkoff should not have destroyed the structure without permission and proper notice. Due to the international statu...

"Bleeding Rainbow" artist sues Detroit building owner to protect her landmark mural under copyright law

2016-01-05T13:17:00-05:00

For Katherine Craig, the mural is more than a marker of North End’s rising status. The so-called “bleeding rainbow” mural is a cornerstone of her career. And now, since the building’s owner aims to sell or redevelop the property, the artist is taking legal action to protect her work. [...] The federal suit seeks an injunction that would bar the developer from destroying or otherwise altering The Illuminated Mural [...].

Leading street artists weigh in on the gentrification debate

2015-11-16T18:32:00-05:00

Earlier this week, the online street art community was abuzz about an article by Rafael Schacter for The Conversation, From dissident to decorative: why street art sold out and gentrified our cities. [...] Basically, Schacter argues that street art isn’t rebellious anymore. Rather, that it’s most notable form is as a tool used by corporations to spur gentrification. Agree or disagree, the article is a must-read.

Vandalog author RJ Rushmore reached out to some of the influential figures in street art and muralism to get their reactions to Schacter's claim that street art has sold out and become complicit in the corporate gentrification of our cities. He received responses from Buff Monster, Living Walls, 1xRun, Jeffrey Deitch, Libray Street Collective, Tristan Eaton, John Fekner, Gaia, Ganzeer, Carlo McCormick, The Painted Desert Project, Jessie Unterhalter, Vexta, Wall Therapy and shared their views here.

Related news and one exclusive interview with Buff Monster on Archinect:

Muralists and the fragile relationship with the buildings they paint on

2015-07-07T14:50:00-04:00

What rights does a muralist have to the wall she painted on? That's a question that echoes throughout the country right now, as muralists try to lay claim to their artwork under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990. [...] California muralist Kent Twitchell was in a hotel room in Sausalito, Calif., when he got the call — his six-story mural of Ed Ruscha in Los Angeles had been painted over.

Murals — and the accompanying questions of ownership, copyright, vandalism — are an ongoing sujet in the Archinect news:

Detroit issues arrest for "vandal" Shepard Fairey

2015-07-03T12:48:00-04:00

World famous street artist Shepard Fairey - the man whose “Hope” poster massively boosted Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign – has described an attempt to arrest him by Detroit police as “hilarious” after he was commissioned to do a mural in the city. Last night authorities issued an arrest warrant for Fairey, 45, on graffiti charges with Police Sergeant Rebecca McKay issuing a statement warning: “Just because he’s a well-known artist does not take away from the fact that he is also a vandal.”

Detroit's most recent charge against Fairey is for damages amounting to $9,100, caused by nine of Fairey's works. Detroit police are asking that he turn himself in, and say that he'll be arrested should he ever return to Detroit. Fairey doesn't seem to be phased, calling the charges "hilarious". Throughout his career, Fairey has been arrested 17 times.

More accounts of so-called "vandalism", both solicited and not:

Massive tomb complex unearthed in Beijing suburb

2015-05-05T16:34:00-04:00

Archeologists have unearthed a massive tomb complex in a southwest suburb in Beijing, according to the Beijing Institute of Cultural Heritage on Monday. They said the complex is a rare discovery given its size, time span and location. The 70 hectare archeological site consists of 129 tombs built over 1,100 years, spanning from the East Han Dynasty (25-220) to Tang Dynasty (618-907) and Liao (907-1125).

Eileen Gray’s E1027 masterpiece reopens to the public today

2015-05-04T13:28:00-04:00

This modernist villa on the Côte d’Azur, designed by Irish architect Eileen Gray, has witnessed wartime shootings, murder and vandalism by Le Corbusier. Now, at last, it has been brought back to life [...] Le Corbusier visited and, apparently outraged that a woman could have made such a significant work in a style he considered his own, assaulted it with a series of garish and ugly wall paintings, which he chose to execute completely naked.

Detroit's struggle to distinguish between graffiti (boo!) and murals (yay!)

2015-02-20T14:50:00-05:00

But how to draw the distinction between unauthorized graffiti and murals? Late last year, city officials issued thousands of dollars worth of fines before admitting they couldn't tell the difference between vandalism and authorized artwork (they eventually dismissed the fines). To correct this, Castañeda-López says the city is working on the seemingly Herculean task of creating a registry for all Detroit's existing street art.

Josef Albers's Manhattan mural could return to New York

2014-11-25T13:26:00-05:00

Josef Albers’s Manhattan, a mural that enlivened the lobby of New York’s Met Life (previously the Pan Am) Building from 1963 until its controversial removal in 2000, could make a triumphant return to the city. Possible sites include the World Trade Center Transit Hub, The Art Newspaper understands. Finding a suitable home for the work is not the only obstacle: the original mural is in a landfill site in Ohio.