Archinect - News

Henning Larsen unveils design for new Jeddah Opera House in Saudi Arabia

2024-04-23T15:53:00-04:00

Henning Larsen has announced a new cultural project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Danish firm's plans for the new Jeddah Opera House entail a 1,500-seat opera, 750-seat theater, and 150-seat Rehearsal Hall to be constructed at a site that forms the new Opera Quarter and is included as part of the larger Jeddah Central master plan.

In concept, the scheme presents a cluster of buildings along a central spine adhering to the Red Sea shoreline. Glowing geometric volumes display an irregular rhythm created in their facade’s coral stone and wood exteriors and enlivened by Mashrabiyas and Roshans, all of which are vernacular elements and responsive to the Al-Balad area's architectural history and character. The listed square footage of the project is 344,400 (or 32,000 square meters).

Image: Vivid Vision courtesy of Henning Larsen

Louis Becker, the Global Design Principal for Henning Larsen, describes the work: "The tradition of theater grew out of public space and everyday life — the casual...

Renzo Piano releases first concept designs for The Center for Arts & Innovation in Boca Raton, Florida

2024-04-19T18:30:00-04:00

Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) has released early concept designs for The Center for Arts & Innovation project in Boca Raton, Florida. The firm was announced as the winner of an international RFP process to imagine the Center in September of last year.

As stated in an announcement today, the new campus aims to foster the convergence of arts, education, business, and community in order to develop a new approach to how the world designs, imagines, programs, utilizes, and embraces cultural infrastructure.

Image: Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW)

The project will consist of a three-story building featuring permeable and luminous multi-use spaces. The eastern side of the scheme will include the “main venue,” a large multi-functional, convertible event, exhibition, and performance space designed to merge seamlessly with the outdoor piazza. The main venue is intended to be highly flexible, allowing for a variety of gatherings, exhibitions, performances, and innovative programming....

Renzo Piano selected to design new Center for Arts & Innovation in Boca Raton, Florida

2023-09-07T13:35:00-04:00

Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) has been announced as the winner of an international RFP process to deliver a new arts and innovation cultural project in Boca Raton, Florida.

The Italian studio beat out Foster + Partners, Ennead, and OMA for the commission of the new Center for Arts & Innovation and will begin the design and development process next month toward an expected 2025 groundbreaking. The Center will be located in the city’s downtown core and offer local K-12 learners facilities equipped for STEAM education while providing much-needed cultural infrastructure. RPBW's proposal also calls for a six-venue program of flexible performance spaces with a capacity for up to 6,000 people.

“We have worked for the last five years to arrive at this milestone moment. The fact that this firm takes two to three commissions at any time in the year just underscores the fact that this project is that enticing to the global market,” the Center’s CEO, Andrea Virgin, indicated via a press ...

Steven Holl’s zinc-clad Ostrava Concert Hall set to begin construction

2023-04-21T11:39:00-04:00

Construction is set to begin on the Steven Holl Architects-designed Ostrava Concert Hall in the Czech Republic. Hall won the competition for the scheme’s design back in 2018 with a proposal that saw the concert hall “encased” in a case of zinc.

Image credit: Steven Holl Architects

The 1,300-seat concert hall was designed in collaboration with Prague-based associate architects Architecture Acts and is being developed in collaboration with the city of Ostrava. The team has previously described the scheme as a “perfect acoustic instrument in its case,” with a smooth facade of zinc covering a vineyard-type concert hall plan made of concrete and maple wood.

Image credit: Steven Holl Architects

“We celebrate the completion of construction drawings and building permit with the hope of realizing this great public work for the joy of future generations,” Hall said as the scheme prepares to begin construction. “Ostrava’s legacy of music, the highest art, shall get a space of perfect acoustics a...

LMN Architects’ 'sweeping' Seattle Aquarium expansion sees significant construction progress

2022-12-14T11:34:00-05:00

Construction has commenced on the $160 million expansion to the Seattle Aquarium. Designed by LMN Architects, the new Ocean Pavilion is expected to open in 2024, and will form part of the campus’ vision of becoming “the world’s first planet-positive aquarium.”

Project construction led by Turner. Video courtesy of Turner Construction.

Along the waterfront, the pavilion’s massing is formed of sweeping geometries that integrate a series of public pathways. The multi-level plazas created by the landscape will become part of a network of open spaces along the waterfront, including the adjacent Overlook Walk designed by James Corner Field Operations, Miller Hull, Jacobs, and the City of Seattle.

Image credit: LMN Architects

Inside, the new waterfront pavilion will include 50,000 square feet of immersive exhibits, theatrical spaces, and support areas, in what LMN call an “engaging human environment linking the city, waterfront, and ocean.” The central exhibit of the pavilion will be the 3...

Construction begins on Foster + Partners' 'floating' extension to Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

2022-11-22T14:35:00-05:00

Construction has commenced on the Foster + Partners-designed Bilbao Fine Arts Museum in Spain. The firm won the commission to remodel and expand the existing museum in 2019, seeing off competition from five other international teams.

The project sees the expansion and remodeling of the existing 20th-century building, with major moves including the creation of a new public atrium space and art galleries in a “floating pavilion.” Outside, a new pathway will connect the original 1945 building, the 1970s extension, and a new visitors center.

Image credit: Foster + Partners

The design team’s approach revolved around the original 1945 building, which the team sought to make the “primary protagonist” of the complex through restoring its original entrance and internal sequence of spaces. 70 percent of the existing building will be upgraded, which, when combined with the new extension, will increase the museum’s usable area by 50 percent.

Image credit: Foster + Partners

The extension volum...

Ennead Architects unveils “eggshell” performance center in Shenzhen

2021-10-12T11:15:00-04:00

Ennead Architects has released images of their competition-winning design for the new International Performance Center in Shenzhen. The company, which is currently hiring a BIM Specialist and Computational Designer on Archinect Jobs, hopes that their scheme will “reimagine the possibilities of immersive performing arts experiences.”

Image courtesy of Ennead Architects. Rendering by Plomp.

Referred to as “The People’s Performing Arts Center,” the scheme is one of three new buildings to be built as part of a cultural masterplan for Shenzhen’s Futian District, alongside the Shenzhen Reform and Opening-Up Exhibition Hall and the Shenzhen Finance Culture Center.

Image courtesy of Ennead Architects. Rendering by Plomp.

Ennead’s scheme adopts the form of two richly-textured, golden egg-like shells to create a façade that changes with the time of day and season. The two elements are both dependent and complimentary of one another, reflecting the relationship between the performer and the a...

Snøhetta's new Düsseldorf opera house design looks to create a cultural hub

2021-10-04T13:54:00-04:00

Snøhetta is set to unveil its latest design for an expanded international opera venue that it hopes will create a new, state-of-the-art cultural hub In the heart of one of Germany’s most artistic cities.

The proposed Duett Düsseldorf will replace the city’s existing 1,300-seat Opernhaus Düsseldorf with an extended program and added mixed-use towers that seamlessly integrate into the historic Hofgarten park below.

Image: © MIR

Emerging from a “forest-like” foyer entrance bifurcated by a transparent glass shell, visitors are welcomed to the horizontal volume by a sculptural wooden core topped off by three cantilevered floors culminating in a fourth-floor café that provides concert-goers with up-close views of the rehearsal spaces for both the orchestra and choir. The volume is completed by a 6,000-square-meter (32,300-square-foot) roof garden that can be adapted to serve as an event space for communal functions and offers the public 360-degree views of the city.

Image: © Plomp

This is ...

China leads in world's cultural construction activity, finds latest Cultural Infrastructure report

2021-07-28T15:42:00-04:00

China is emerging as a global leader in cultural construction amidst a hectic year that saw a marked decline in new museum building according to AEA Consulting’s just released 2020 Cultural Infrastructure Index.

Overall construction is down 30% in the sector compared to last year’s report, though 2020 did see an increase in announced projects (130) and project values ($8.2 billion) for the first time since the index started keeping tabs in 2016.

The report indicated China as a key driver of trends within the industry, doubling its planned projects from last year to 24 and outspending the United States for the first time by about $1.7 billion. Shenzhen in particular was a magnet for infrastructure spending in the cultural sector, placing seven projects on the list of the top thirteen most expensive globally to the tune of $2.5 billion. Recently announced projects in the city include a new science and technology museum designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, a cloud-inspired maritime muse...

MVRDV unveils “Music Mountain” for Eindhoven

2021-05-25T09:29:00-04:00

MVRDV has unveiled their design for Eindhoven’s Heuvel shopping center, creating a cultural green quarter for the Dutch city. The scheme is defined by a “glass mountain” of cultural functions topped by a rooftop park, offering a sustainable solution for both the outdated shopping center and the Muziekgebouw music venue located within it.

Image: MVRDV

Under MVRDV’s vision, the site is transformed into an urban quarter for shopping, culture, and recreation. The existing buildings are expanded and broken open, allowing for a better connection with surrounding public spaces and cultural buildings. The covered passages of the shopping center are replaced with open streets, making the quarter an active part of city life, while the accessible roofscape creates a park that adds to the area’s appeal.

Image: MVRDV

Above the shopping center, the existing Muziekgebouw will form a stacked cultural building under a “glass mountain”. The glass mountain forms an eye-catching landmark, while also ...

Archinect, A+D Museum, and KCRW's DnA present: SHORTLISTED! symposium highlighting the current state of architectural commissions in Los Angeles.

2019-11-11T15:45:00-05:00

The Architecture and Design Museum (A+D), Archinect, and KCRW's DnA: Design and Architecture are coming together for SHORTLISTED!, a day-long symposium focused on highlighting the current state of earning, awarding, and judging architectural commissions in Los Angeles.

The event, drafted in conjunction with The Los Angeles Schools exhibition at A+D, will include headline talks by Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga, head of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, and Christopher Hawthorne, LA’s Chief Design Officer and former architecture critic for The Los Angeles Times.

Crafted amid a period of upheaval surrounding Los Angeles's premier cultural institutions—including the demolition and reconstruction of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) complex, proposals to expand the La Brea Tar Pits, and plans for a new wing of the Natural History Museum, among several high-profile expansions and reorientations taking shape—the event will bring together architects, cultural leaders...