Archinect - News

The once-lost Luna Luna amusement park is back up and running in Los Angeles

2023-12-29T14:55:00-05:00

News on the revival of the once-lost Luna Luna arts amusement park appeared in the Los Angeles Times earlier this month after the attraction was relegated to storage for over thirty years following its 1987 debut in Hamburg, Germany.

The memorable park was re-staged this month in the city thanks to rap impresario Drake’s entertainment venture DreamCrew, which purchased the unassembled lot from the Stephen and Mary Birch Foundation at an undisclosed price.

Image shows Sonia Delaunay's iconic entrance archway and Luna Luna sign. To the left is Salvador Dalí's "Dalídom" and to the right Roy Lichtenstein's Luna Luna Pavilion. Image © Jeff McLane courtesy of Luna Luna.

An arched entryway design from Sonia Delaunay welcomes visitors to the fairgrounds. George Baselitz, Roy Lichtenstein, Günter Brus, and Hubert Arayram are among the artists who created special experience rooms or pavilions for the park. A Ferris wheel designed by Jean-Michel Basquiat joins Kenny Scharf’s painted merry-go-r...

BIG to design hotel tower in the center of a Danish amusement park

2019-06-21T15:12:00-04:00

Copenhagen is the rare city that can have an amusement park at its center, complete with anatopic pagodas, paper mâché mountains and wooden rollercoasters, and still be known as a world class destination for tasteful architecture and design. Tivoli Gardens has seen the city modernize around it since it first opened in 1843, and it is soon about to see a modernization of its own.

Rendering of H.C. Anderson Hotel at night.

Bjarke Ingels, the Danish architect that studied at Copenhagen's Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK) and has since built projects around the globe, revealed this week that his firm will design his second building in Copenhagen in the center of Tivoli Gardens (the first being his waste-to-energy plant). The 18-story H.C. Anderson Hotel is in many ways a playful nod to the unique conditions of the amusement park in the city center.

As Ingels stated, the design "attempted to capture and accentuate the character of the existing castle, creating a new typology inspi...

Chinese Fun: Photographer Stefano Cerio captures the eerie side of empty amusement parks

2015-08-25T18:31:00-04:00

In Stefano Cerio's series “Chinese Fun,” he explores the facades of amusement without an audience’s reaction. The photographer enters areas built for fun and leisure in the off months or closing hours, exploring the absurdity that creeps into the architecture of entertainment when there is no one to enjoy it but a single camera.

Shijingshang Park-Beijing

Shanghai Happy Valley-Shanghai

Water Cube-Beijing. Photo by by Stefano Cerio.

Cover of Stefano Cerio's recently released book, Chinese Fun. Click here to see more of the series.

All photos by Stefano Cerio.

In other recent amusement/bemusement-park news: Banksy about to open "Dismaland" pop-up exhibition in British seaside resort

Banksy about to open "Dismaland" pop-up exhibition in British seaside resort

2015-08-19T15:31:00-04:00

Rumors have been circulating around the internet for a few days, but later this week Banksy is now set to open a new pop-up exhibition entitled "Dismaland" at in Weston-Super-Mare, UK. The venue is called "Tropicana", a 10,200-square-foot site to be transformed into "Dismaland", a probable attack on American entertainment giant Disney. [...] As usual with Banksy, the details are very scarce, but earlier this morning Iain Brimecome and Jon Goff were able to fly their drone above the site [...].

Another aerial view of "Dismaland," expected to open later this week. Photo: Iain Brimecome & Jon Goff, image via streetartnews.net.

Photo via @francisclarke on Twitter.

Banksy in the Archinect news:

Twist! Proposal to turn Catskills into "China City"

2013-12-13T15:09:00-05:00

[The Catskills] could become a lot flashier, thanks to [Sherry Li's] proposal for the area: a multibillion-dollar "China City of America," complete with an amusement park, mansions, a casino, retail centers, a college, and more. [...] The Center for Immigration Studies wrote a comprehensive take-down of "China City," criticizing the project's potential for environmental disruption, dubious promise of job creation, and possible role as a stalking horse for the Chinese government.

AVATAR to Come to Life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

2013-10-18T13:59:00-04:00

Our combined team has taken huge steps forward in “imagineering” Pandora as a real place for our guests to see, hear and touch. At the first-ever D23 Expo in Japan, we shared an early glimpse of the plans for AVATAR at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park and I wanted to share some of these breathtaking images and a short preview of what’s to come with all of you.