Archinect - News

Kengo Kuma completes Lisbon art center with sweeping canopy

2024-09-25T07:30:00-04:00

Kengo Kuma and Associates has completed an overhaul of the Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM) in Lisbon, marking the acclaimed architect’s first completed project in Portugal. Delivered in collaboration with OODA (Oporto Office for Design and Architecture), the scheme draws inspiration from the Engawa, a sheltered walkway typical of Japanese dwellings.

Image credit: Fernando Guerra, Canon Ambassador

The original CAM center was designed by British architect Sir Leslie Martin and opened in 1983, housing one of the world’s most significant collections of modern and contemporary Portuguese art. The center sits within the wider grounds of Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Foundation, a multi-disciplinary campus of 1960’s buildings in an 18-acre woodland.

Image credit: Fernando Guerra, Canon Ambassador

Kuma’s new iteration of the center is defined by a 330-foot-long sweeping timber canopy. The canopy was in...

Foster + Partners begins construction on Cambodia airport under canopy roof

2024-01-09T10:59:00-05:00

Construction is underway at Foster + Partners’ Techo International Airport in Cambodia. Located 16 miles south of central Phnom Penh, the project seeks to embody “a strong sense of place, drawing inspiration from one of the oldest civilizations on earth, inspired by its vernacular forms, and responsive to the tropical climate.”

The terminal comprises a central mass flanked by two aerofoil-shaped piers on either side. The central mass contains all passenger processing, security and immigration, and retail elements under an overarching roof canopy that stretches from the drop-off to the airside. The roof canopy itself is comprised of a lightweight steel grid shell with a screen to filter daylight into the terminal space.

Image credit: Foster + Partners

Inside, the scheme’s material palette is designed to be “warm and welcoming, evoking the Cambodian vernacular in a contemporary manner.” The interior is further softened by mature trees rising in a central void surrounded by edge planti...

MAD designs Chinese waterfront arts center as a ‘gentle ripple by the lake’

2024-01-04T11:35:00-05:00

MAD Architects has designed a waterfront arts center in China’s Foshan City described as a “gentle ripple by the lake.” When completed in 2029, the Nanhai Art Center will cover an area of 640,000 square feet, housing a grand theater, a museum, and a sports center.

Image credit: MAD Architects

The scheme has been conceived as a “continuous wave of water,” with the three main buildings sitting underneath a floating canopy comprised of a white, translucent ETFE membrane. The resulting blurring of outdoor and indoor spaces seeks to emphasize the prominence of the nearby lake in the scheme, encouraging the local community to embrace the waterfront as a part of the scheme’s cultural function.

Image credit: MAD Architects

“The traditional culture of Nanhai is in the drum beat and boat drift during the dragon festival boat race and in the kung-fu in the lion dance,” MAD founder Ma Yansong about the site’s context. “Watching them, you can feel the dynamic vibrant, and innovative spirit from an...

MU Architecture’s lakeside Quebec residence is an ‘ode to the beauty of nature’

2023-02-15T12:52:00-05:00

Montreal-based MU Architecture has completed a lakeside house in Quebec. Built on the shores of Lake Revdor, the three-level Break Residence was commissioned to fulfill the client’s wish of building a home on the land of his ancestors and is described by the design team as “a place of welcoming and gathering” for the small surrounding community.

Image credit: Ulysse Lemerise Bouchard

The project is located on a challenging site, with a narrow lot and sloping topography. The resulting residence is composed of several interlocking volumes resembling a series of rocks, with two levels visible from the street and a hidden ‘garden level’ on the opposite side opening onto the lake.

Image credit: Ulysse Lemerise Bouchard

On the street side, a sculptural main entrance is defined by a double-story canopy chiseled between the rock-like volumes. In contrast to the solid, secretive nature of the streetside elevation, the lakeside sees the residence exhibit an open and extroverted personality comp...

Look at the process behind Olafur Eliasson's colorful glass canopy in California Wine Country

2022-08-04T12:00:00-04:00

Work has been completed on the Vertical Panorama Pavilion in Sonoma, California. Designed by Studio Other Spaces, a Berlin studio founded by artist Olafur Eliasson and architect Sebastian Behmann, the pavilion will be used as a space for wine tasting by The Donum Estate, one of California’s leading Pinot Noir producers.

Image © The Donum Estate and Studio Other Spaces

The scheme was conceived through a deep reflection on the site’s natural elements, taking what the designers call a “vertical slice” through the site. Such elements include the crunching sound of walking on a gravel path, the fragrances of surrounding soil and flora, the sound of wind, grass, and insects, and the formations of clouds and fog.

Image © The Donum Estate and Studio Other Spaces

The pavilion’s defining architectural feature is its conical canopy with a northern-oriented oculus, clad with 832 colored laminated glas...

Featuring a gigantic solar panel-covered canopy, work begins on BIG’s CityWave bookend in Milan

2021-09-15T20:11:00-04:00

Construction has begun on BIG’s CityWave, the building that will complete Milan’s revitalizing CityLife development after previously being announced as a participant in 2019.

The Danish studio’s contribution to the €2.5 billion ($2.95 billion) development comes in the form of an East-West duo of low-rise office buildings connected by a sloping, solar panel-covered canopy that also gives protection to one of Italy's largest outdoor urban parks.

Image courtesy BIG

The development already showcases a trio of towers by Studio Libeskind, Zaha Hadid Architects, and Arata Isozaki, respectively. It was originally awarded to the group in 2004 and now has the added bonus of another big name in the form of Ingels, who will bring some variety to the site in the form of an uneven horizontally-oriented mass with greenspace and 11,000 square meters (118,000 square feet) of photovoltaics.

Image courtesy BIG

Per the architect: “Like a contemporary interpretation of the massive covered public space of ...

Los Angeles's sad trees have reason to hope

2019-08-06T17:03:00-04:00

For the first time in its history, the City of Los Angeles will have a single individual dedicated to overseeing, managing, and expanding the city's urban forest.

Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetii recently selected Rachel Malarich as the new "city forest officer," a post housed within the city's Board of Public Works that will help to implement the city's aggressive urban forestry goals, according to a press release from Garcetti's office. The vision, part of the mayor's municipal Green New Deal framework, envisions planting 90,000 trees in the city by 2021 to improve the city's pedestrian experience, create shade in under-served areas, and help lessen summer cooling loads on homes and businesses.

In a statement praising Malarich's experience, Garcetti said, "Every tree we plant can help stem the tide of the climate crisis, and when we expand our urban forest, we can sow the seeds of a healthier, more sustainable future for communities across our city.”

The city is well known for its...

Newly released images of MAD Architect's Yiwu Grand Theater proposal showcase beautiful glass sails

2019-07-01T15:56:00-04:00

The Yiwu Grand Theater's larger than life presence along the Dongyang River is not all for show. MAD Architects aims to create a structure that will be a "monument for the city." Envisioned as an immersive public space for inhabitants and visitors alike, the overall design for the theater will function as a beautiful cultural destination intending on "connecting inhabitants to the waterfront from a new perspective," according to MAD's recent press release.

Yiwu Grand Theater model. Image © MAD Architects

The entrancing glass sails are designed to mimic the traditional Chinese junks that filled the waters of the city traditionally known for its trading history. Considered a growing center for international trade and commerce, MAD decided to use the curves from the sails of these ships to express a weightless and transparent design for the theater's canopy.

Image © MAD Architects

According to t...

MoMA releases new videos of Jenny Sabin's Lumen installation, the winner of 2017 Young Architects Program

2017-06-27T13:34:00-04:00

Jenny Sabin's Lumen installation, made up of over a thousand digitally knitted photo luminescent cells that change color in the presence of sunlight, is raised over MoMA's PS1 courtyard and will open today, on June 27. In the recently published videos, the architect explains the development of the 500-pound solar-active canopy and demonstrates its construction and installation process.

Can architecture behave like an organism? | LUMEN (360 VR Video) Part 1 of 4 | AT THE MUSEUM

Digitally knitting a solar-active canopy | LUMEN Part 2 of 4 | AT THE MUSEUM

Raising a solar-active canopy at MoMA PS1 | LUMEN Part 3 of 4 | AT THE MUSEUM

"By night, Lumen is knitted light, bathing visitors in a responsive glow of photo-luminescence; by day, Lumen offers succor from the summer heat, immersing participants in delicious ground clouds of cooling mist. Lumen is a socially and environmentally responsive structure that adapts to the densities of bodies, heat, and sunlight. A lightweight knitted ...

If you have only one day in London go to the British Museum

2016-07-06T11:33:00-04:00

Walking around London it is impossible not to be in awe of the city. Time and time again people have mentioned the energy the city seems to radiate, not just the buildings but the people as well. It is truly my favourite place in the world. The city is steeped in history which can be read through the buildings. You will often find yourself walking down a metropolitan street with tall skyscrapers and glossy storefront windows only to turn into a narrow alleyway with cobblestone pavement and quaint houses. The city is a contradiction of old and new sitting side by side and somehow it works. No place in London showcases this phenomenon more than the British Museum and that’s why it is my favourite place to visit in the city.

Established in 1753 it has been the stage for a number of notable artefacts like, the Rosetta stone, the Lewis Chessmen and the Mummy of Katebet, to name a few. Today, it is still the site of some controversies most notable the Elgin Marbles and where they belong. N...

Zaha Hadid designs sculptural safety canopy over the High Line

2015-08-18T16:16:00-04:00

Whenever one of the millions of buildings under construction flanking the High Line hit a certain height, the developer is required to put up a shed over the park [...] except, it seems, when it's for a building by [...] Zaha Hadid. Then it's not just a shed protecting passersby, it's a 112-foot long sculptural installation—in this case entitled Allongé—designed by Hadid to give a sneak preview of the swooping forms of her building, which has just hit High Line level [...].

Photos of ZHA's Allongé scaffolding/canopy by Scott Lynch. Head over to Curbed NY to see more images.

The initial announcement of Hadid's High Line condo building on Archinect in 2013 was a topic not without much commentary.

Team Ultramoderne's "Chicago Horizon" wins Chicago Lakefront Kiosk competition

2015-08-05T14:38:00-04:00

From mathematical sponges to nature-inspired havens, a sleek spacious canopy by Team Ultramoderne was selected as the overall winning Chicago Lakefront Kiosk design, as revealed by the Chicago Architecture Biennial today. Launched in late 2014, the global competition invited architects to propose kiosk designs inspired by the Windy City and its Lake Michigan waterfront.

The winning proposal — in addition to three commissioned kiosks designed by architects in collaboration with students from local Chicago architecture schools — will be installed at the Biennial starting this October. So far, the plan is that the winning kiosk will stand as a permanent lakefront installation even after the exhibition gates close in January 2016.

Team Ultramoderne, a three-person team comprising of architects Yasmin Vobis and Aaron Forrest of Ultramoderne in collaboration with structural engineer Brett Schneide, scored the top BP Prize (sponsored by oil/gas company BP) with their proposal "Chicago Horizo...

Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA lectures at GSAPP

2014-09-22T16:47:00-04:00

This past Wednesday, Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA addressed an overflowing Wood Auditorium, giving the first GSAPP lecture of the semester. Recently appointed dean Amale Andraos gave a brief introduction of Sejima and returned at the end of the lecture to lead a discussion as well as the Q/A portion of the evening.

Sejima began her lecture by explaining her choice of “Canopy” as her theme, an idea that is central to her, both as a part of SANAA and independently. “I like to make a space like a park, because a park is a place where different kind of people can gather,” stated Sejima, describing her desire to create an architecture that allows diverse groups of people to come together to both share and create their own space. By developing the concept of a canopy, Sejima creates a direct connection with the building and the environment, in a similar way that parks connect people with each other and the environment.

Starting with the Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, Switzerland and conc...

The Urban Algae Canopy shows the power of "algaetecture" for Milan Expo 2015

2014-04-17T19:27:00-04:00

Here's another look at what to expect at the Milan Expo in 2015. As part of the Expo's Future Food District project, the Urban Algae Canopy shows the great potential of micro algae organisms for integrative greener, cleaner bio-digital architecture. London-based ecoLogicStudio designed the pavilion in collaboration with local architect Cesare Griffa.

Full-scale prototypes of the pavilion are currently being previewed at the INTERNI ‘Feeding New Ideas for the City’ exhibition at Cortile d’Onore, University of Milan, Festa del Perdono happening until April 18.

Once it's fully built, the canopy will be able to produce oxygen equivalent to 4 hectares of woodland and up to 150kg of biomass per day -- 60% of which are natural vegetal proteins.

Dig into the project details right below:

"The Urban Algae Canopy, based on ecoLogicStudio’s six years long research on building integrated bio-digital systems, is presented here with a 1:1 scale prototype of the world’s first bio-digital canopy integra...

Bogotá, With Pockets of Hope in Recent Architecture

2012-07-06T14:46:00-04:00

The canopy can look like a lot of architecture for such a small project, but that’s partly its value: to put Cazucá on the map and create a de facto town square beside the school (made of shipping containers, serving a population in which a quarter of the children are malnourished, I was told by the school’s principal). Now children play soccer under the canopy and clean up the square every day, and there’s a vegetable garden with tomatoes and herbs.