Archinect - News

Diller Scofidio + Renfro to design a new hybrid arts and technology center for the University of New Mexico

2023-08-08T16:48:00-04:00

Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) has been announced as the architects of a new $65 million arts and technology facility for the University of New Mexico’s main campus in Albuquerque.

Working alongside local practice ROMA Architecture, the firm expects to break ground next summer on the new Center for Collaborative Arts and Technology (CCAT) in line with the university’s two-year-old UNM College of Fine Arts Framework Plan.

DS+R’s Partner-in-Charge for the project, Benjamin Gilmartin, said it will be a "catalyst for the advancement of the arts in New Mexico." His team's collaborative design will reportedly meet the standards for LEED Silver certification while providing students with exhibition spaces, rehearsal areas, and a large concert hall.

The project will be enacted on a vacant site bordering the city’s Central Avenue, therefore creating a new gateway onto the 769-acre campus similar to several other recent arts-focused higher education projects at UPenn, Williams, and Dartmouth...

New arts initiative by SITU and Design Trust for Public Space builds architectural kit-of-parts for public cultural venues

2022-05-26T16:12:00-04:00

Brooklyn-based architectural design practice SITU and the Design Trust for Public Space have announced the launch of Turnout NYC, a community-oriented initiative that aims to transform underutilized spaces into vibrant and accessible venues for arts and culture, while highlighting underrepresented New York City-based artists.

The venture, supported by a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, sets out to assist small arts organizations produce public programming despite the ongoing impacts of the pandemic. It will establish flexible and semi-permanent outdoor performance venues, one in each borough, in collaboration with cultural partners within each community. Set to launch this summer, Turnout NYC will host 150-200 events, featuring up to 1,500 artists throughout the season.

“Prior to the pandemic, people living in vulnerable areas already had limited access to cultural opportunities. Today, those scarce opportunities are at a higher risk of disappearing,” said Design Trust f...

OMA and Library Street Collective unveil new mixed-use arts space in Detroit

2022-05-05T14:27:00-04:00

Detroit-based contemporary art exhibition space Library Street Collective has announced a partnership with OMA to transform a former 1900s-era commercial bakery and warehouse into a mixed-use arts education and public space.

Led by OMA Partner Jason Long, the adaptive reuse project will see the conversion of the 22,300-square-foot complex at 9301 Kercheval into a headquarters for two local arts nonprofits, Signal-Return and Progressive Arts Studio Collective (PASC). Nicknamed “LANTERN,” it will also feature roughly 5,300 square feet of affordable artist studios, an art gallery, and nearly 4,000 feet of creative retail. This will be centered around a 2,000-square-foot outdoor courtyard that will serve as an accessible community space and activity condenser.

The original vacant bakery and warehouse. Photo: Jason Keen, Courtesy LSC

The proposed revamp. Image Copyright OMA and Luxigon

PASC and Signal-Return will occupy approximately 8,500 square feet of combined space on the building’s ...

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 ...

BIG and Freaks' MÉCA in Bordeaux creates a budding cultural hub

2019-07-05T17:05:00-04:00

The Maison de l'Économie Créative et de la Culture or MÉCA is Bordeaux's newest cultural hub. Costing €60m, the site will house a performing arts center, a creative agency for books, cinema, and audiovisual media as well as housing three prestigious French associations the ALCA, OARA, and FRAC regional art center. When BIG and Paris-based architecture firm FREAKS were chosen for the project in 2012, both studios devised a plan to construct a structure that would connect three art institutions to create the ultimate contemporary hub for multi-disciplinary practice in Bordeaux's Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

MÉCA Cultural Center. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu

MÉCA is a waterfront venue fit for visitors to enjoy a celebration of art, film, and performance. The center embodies a flowing structural loop connecting each institute. According to a recent press release by BIG, "The building is conceived as a single loop of cultural institutions and public sp...

OMA's Dubai-based "Concrete" is pretty transparent

2017-03-16T12:40:00-04:00

By placing a semi-transparent facade onto a series of former industrial warehouses in Dubai, OMA has created an arts-oriented, multi-disclipinary space called "Concrete." The completed version doesn't quite match the firm's optimistic renderings (in part because the concrete ameliorating foliage isn't present in these photos) but one thing is certain: this is the first finished project of OMA's in Dubai, and Rem Koolhaas thinks that the design is very much of its place and time.

“Dubai is one of the cities that has had a deep impact on our work, and I am very happy that this particular building is our first effort here," Rem said. "In Concrete, we are not introducing a new shape but instead were able to infiltrate an existing building with an arts institution. This building is totally produced in Dubai; it is not a foreign ideal, and that I think is significant.”

The 600 square meter building's first art exhibition, "Syria: Into the Light," will be viewable until April 3rd.

...

Inside BIG's twisted, twin-towered Grove at Grand Bay

2016-12-14T13:53:00-05:00

At each elevation from the third through 17th floors, the floor plates in Bjarke Ingels Group's new Grove at Grand Bay rotate three feet, creating a twisting set of luxury residential towers that from the ground resemble the splayed bellows of dueling concrete accordions. Indeed, these 20-story sustainable towers, which are expected to attain LEED Gold status, seem to be designed as much for the entertainment value of sweeping aerial flyover shots as actual inhabitation.

The interiors do possess a kind of upbeat brutalist vibe; slanted concrete pillars face off against vibrant murals and landscape architect Raymond Jungles' gardens in the common areas, while the residences themselves take in views of the arts community in which it is sited, Coconut Grove.

“Coconut Grove is a special place with a well-defined soul, so it was important that Grove at Grand Bay respond to its community through a design that was respectful and distinctive,” Bjarke Ingels is quoted as saying in a press rel...

Cockpit Arts building in Camden may be redeveloped as part of proposed overhaul of Holborn Library

2016-11-15T12:29:00-05:00

As gentrification continues to sweep London, another of the city’s artist studio spaces is facing redevelopment. There are plans to demolish the Cockpit Arts building in Camden, north London, although the local council intends to relocate all artists and designers to a new building on the same site. “Camden is anxious not to lose them as they are big local employers,” says Michael Pountney, the vice-chairman of the Holborn Library Users Group.

Affordable spaces for London's creative industry by Urban Acupuncture

2016-07-08T11:18:00-04:00

The duo asked themselves the question if London will still be the capital of creativity, arts and crafts in 10 years time. Rising rents for residential and work spaces, combined with an increasingly unaffordable education system, are making the city less and less accessible. According to Boano and Prišmontas, London has always been a center for creativity, but the recent financial pressures have turned ‘creativity’ into an industry that can only be joined by people who are able to afford it.

At this unstable time, the capital's creative industry must be entrepreneurial and work together to remain the best, are we up to the challenge? Read more stories of ingenuity in the UK here:

David Chipperfield selects Simon Kretz as his 2016-17 Rolex Arts protégé

2016-05-24T17:20:00-04:00

Swiss architect Simon Kretz is the lucky protégé who will get to work with David Chipperfield in a year-long architecture mentorship from the 2016-17 Rolex Arts Initiative. The prestigious philanthropic program allows rising young artists worldwide to team up with globally esteemed professionals in their respective disciplines in Architecture, Film, Dance, Literature, Visual Arts, Music, and Theatre. Imagine exchanging ideas with figures like Peter Zumthor, Kazuyo Sejima, or Álvaro Siza, who have all been previously appointed as the architecture mentor.

In selecting his protégé, Chipperfield conducted one-on-one interviews with the three finalists, which included Kretz, Luis Callejas of Colombia, and Anna Puigjaner of Spain — who in fact, won the 2016 Wheelwright Prize just last week.

Gaining experience in Zurich-based firms as well as big-name practices like OMA Rotterdam, Kretz co-founded Christina Nater und Simon Kretz Architekten in 2010 and then he became founding partner of Chri...

Brunel’s Thames Tunnel transformed into an underground theatre

2016-04-14T11:00:00-04:00

Called the Grand Entrance Hall, the underground space – opening today – will be run by The Brunel Museum and is set to host plays, operas, concerts and even weddings. Architects Tate Harmer breathed new life into the 1843 Grade II*-listed shaft – originally designed by civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his father Marc – adding a cantilevered staircase to make the 75ft-deep hall accessible.

Discover more UK content here:

How one urban planner is helping revamp a Miami suburb "without gentrification"

2015-11-10T20:20:00-05:00

Germane Barnes wants Opa-Locka to be known for something else...He knows [change] can happen because he lives there, and has seen the work of a group of artists and organizers slowly change the landscape...The city's history intrigued him, not merely because it seemed like a perfect case study for his thesis about revitalizing a community without gentrification, but because it also spoke to his own experiences.

Dominique Perrault presented with the 2015 Praemium Imperiale gold medal for architecture

2015-10-21T18:15:00-04:00

Following last month's announcement, Dominique Perrault was presented with the 2015 Praemium Imperiale Arts Award medal for architecture during a formal ceremony today in Tokyo. Comparable to the Nobel Peace Prize, the prestigious award celebrates extraordinary achievement in the fields of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music and Theatre/Film.

In recent years, the prize was awarded to Steven Holl, David Chipperfield, Henning Larsen, Ricardo Legorreta, Toyo Ito, Zaha Hadid, and Peter Zumthor, to name a few.

Alongside Perrault, the Praemium Imperiale medals were also presented to four notable cultural figures: Japanese-born British pianist Mitsuko Uchida; French ballerina Sylvie Guillem, German sculptor Wolfgang Laib, and graphic designer and artist Tadanori Yokoo. The 2015 Grant for Young Artists award (5 million yen) will go to Myanmar's Yangon Film School (headquartered in Berlin).

In addition to the specially-designed gold medals, the laureates received a testimonial letter f...

Say goodbye to the Sixth Street Viaduct along the L.A. River at ForumFest 2015, Oct. 25

2015-10-15T20:43:00-04:00

The L.A. Forum for Architecture and Urban Design is partying along the Los Angeles River for ForumFest 2015, Bridge. Tunnel. Channel., happening at the Sixth Street Bridge tunnel on Sunday, October 25.

ForumFest highlights the historic Sixth Street Viaduct as a signifier of change in the city. The viaduct will be demolished in the coming weeks and be replaced by a new bridge by Michael Maltzan Architecture.

Enjoy a festive evening of DJs, live music, food and trucks, and artistic and musical surprises — all while supporting the L.A. Forum!

The party will feature temporary installations by architects and designers in the Forum’s 2015 Out There Doing It series: Typical Office (Duygun Inal and Ben Warwas); LA-BOR (Jia Gu and Jonathan Crisman); and PAR (Jennifer Marmon).

Jai & Jai Gallery (Jomjai and Jaitip Srisomburananont) will also present a curated series of video works by Chris Gassaway, Devin Gharakhanian, Nick Korody, Juanito Olivarria, Tomas Koolhaas, Akiko Yamashita, and art by...

Dominique Perrault to receive 2015 Praemium Imperiale Arts Award for architecture

2015-09-10T14:50:00-04:00

Dominique Perrault is the 2015 architecture laureate for the prestigious Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award, as announced by the Japan Art Association today. Bestowed by the Japan Art Association since 1988, the award celebrates the association's 100th anniversary and honors the late Prince Takamatsu, who was a patron for 58 years and had faithful commitment to the arts.

The Praemium Imperiale recognizes lifetime achievement in the arts, and its list of winners include 134 legendary cultural figures of the 20th and 21st centuries. The prize also comes with a cash prize of 15 milion yen (approx. US$122,000). As expected, the list of architecture laureates is of a high caliber, including Steven Holl, David Chipperfield, Henning Larsen, Ricardo Legorreta, Toyo Ito, Zaha Hadid, and Peter Zumthor, to name a few.

Alongside Perrault, the 2015 Praemium Imperiale laureates include four cultural figures: Japanese-born British pianist Mitsuko Uchida; French ballerina Sylvie Guillem, G...

With a little compromise, illegal urban squats like Ljubljana's Metelkova Mesto can do a city good

2015-07-24T19:38:00-04:00

The irony of [Metelkova Mesto's] transformation – from the military arm of a censorious regime to a tolerant artistic community – is what makes the regeneration project of this space so encouraging...Metelkova, in contrast, has built its image firmly on its artistic and cultural credentials. It’s autonomous, but not anarchistic; liberal, but not lawless.

LEGO Architecture launches new student acoustic-design challenge to restore a destroyed music theater

2015-07-22T14:29:00-04:00

Following a successful inaugural event last year, LEGO Architecture is presenting another opportunity for architecture students in the Villa Pennisi in Musica 2015 summer workshop to hone their acoustic-design and LEGO-building skills in the upcoming #FILLTHETHEATRE challenge.

Taking place in August at the Villa Pennisi in Italy, the workshop challenge is part of the 15-day Villa Pennisi in Musica festival that brings together classical music, architecture, and performance design. Attendees get to check out live music performances, exhibitions, lectures, and presentations by major classical musicians and notable practitioners in architecture and sound design.

Using the 1,200-piece monochromatic LEGO Architecture Studio sets, students will build scale models of indoor structures that will amplify the acoustics of the historic Teatro Bellini of Acireale, a baroque theater that was destroyed in a fire in the 1960s. The theater was only partially reconstructed, but is no longer in use due...

Richard Serra engages with the Qatari desert landscape in his new sculptural piece

2015-04-30T18:51:00-04:00

Richard Serra’s new sculpture, 'East-West/West-East,' is a set of four standing steel plates rolled in Germany, shipped via Antwerp, and offloaded, trucked, and craned into place in the middle of the western Qatari desert...the steel is the same that he’s used in his other pieces, and it will oxidize in the same way, albeit more quickly in the hot, salty conditions of the Brouq Nature Reserve. The plates will [ultimately] turn a dark amber—approximately the same color...as the Seagram Building.

Old Royal Naval College aims to restore 40,000 sq.ft of its Painted Hall, plan to be unveiled in NYC next month

2015-04-28T19:44:00-04:00

Arts patrons continue to support the restoration of the Painted Hall at the Christopher Wren-designed Old Royal Naval College at the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London. Over the next three years, the ORNC's three-stage conservation project would clean and restore the remaining 3,700 sq.m. (approx. 40,000 sq.ft) of the Painted Hall, sometimes dubbed "the Sistine Chapel of the U.K." The first phase restored 560 sq.m. of paintings in the Upper Hall back in 2013. The second phase focuses on the Lower Hall, the Vestibule, and the semi-underground King William Undercroft directly beneath the Painted Hall.

Housed inside King William Court, the Painted Hall was originally built as a dining hall for British naval veterans who lived at the Royal Hospital for Seamen. Once the hall was built, English painter James Thornhill began his 19-year endeavor of painting the interior from 1708 to 1727. As instructed, Thornhill's paintings largely pay tribute to the British Navy a...

"Soundscape New York" captures the sounds of NYC's iconic buildings

2015-03-18T14:13:00-04:00

Karen Van Lengen, who created the installation with her husband, James Welty, says to really soak in a building, you need to listen to it. 'If you close your eyes, what you're going to hear are things that you can't hear with your eyes open,' says Van Lengen, an architecture professor at the University of Virginia.

You can also find more about the exhibition on Bustler.

How to depict the rules of attraction, according to the PARADOR film

2014-12-11T18:07:00-05:00

PARADOR is a collaborative project by Paris-based architect David Tajchman and filmmaker Benjamin Seroussi that fuses each of their signature styles and specialties. Starring dancer Olivier Mathieu and model Katya Pushkina, the short film's theme touches on the "complex rules of attraction and repulsion that end up creating energy, shape evolution, and anti-gravity," as mentioned on Tajchman's website.

Seroussi's experience in fashion film and music videos is obvious in PARADOR, which uses strong angles and slow-paced panning techniques seen in high-end fashion ads on TV. Mathieu and Pushkina, in all their conventionally attractive physical features, are decoratively armored in tetrahedral structures as they dance and pose around each other like two birds engaged in a courtship display. The futuristic structures they wear — which Tajchman and the design team created — hint at Tajchman's work methods of using digital tools and handcrafted models.

Watch the film in its entirety right b...

A preview of “The Future Is Not What It Used To Be”, the 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial

2014-10-23T13:58:00-04:00

In the upcoming 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial, "The Future Is Not What It Used To Be" questions the role of design, its relationship to society, and how it can potentially bring change. Curated by Zoë Ryan and spanning all five floors of the Galata Greek Primary School from Nov. 1 to Dec.14, the biennial will showcase a designers' exhibition of over 50 projects that ask who defines the future and how it is defined. But the crucial aspect it explores is whose future could be affected.

In an area of approximately 2,300 square meters at the Galata Greek Primary School, the exhibition will feature more than 50 projects by designers worldwide. The event will also host various creative academic workshops, panels, and film screenings.

N°40 Workoutcomputer by Desireee Heiss and Ines Kaag.

Fruit of the Polish Turkish culinary workshops

Learn more about the event on Bustler!

Maya Lin wins the 21st Annual $300K Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize

2014-10-14T19:05:00-04:00

Iconic artist, designer, and environmentalist Maya Lin was announced as the recipient of the 21st Annual Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize...Established in 1994 through the will of legendary actress Lillian Gish, the award recognizes highly accomplished artists who have pushed the boundaries of their respective art forms, contributed to social change, and are seen as a lasting inspiration for the next generation.

The Gish Prize is regarded as one of the most prestigious honors bestowed to U.S. artists and has one of the largest cash awards, with this year's prize valued at US$300,000.

"Maya Lin has created a powerful and highly influential body of work within both art and architecture that includes large-scale site-specific installations, intimate studio artworks, architectural works and memorials. In her large-scale environmental artworks such as the recent A Fold in the Field (2013), Storm King Wavefield (2009) and the epoch-making Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial, she has consistently explored how we experience and relate to the landscape, setting up a systematic ordering of the land that is tied to history, time and language."

Find out more on Bustler.

MOCA Announces New Performance Festival for Downtown LA

2014-08-28T21:02:00-04:00

This month, audiences will be able to check out the first program to emerge from Vergne's nascent administration: Step and Repeat, a multidisciplinary festival of performing arts, takes place at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA over four Saturday evenings, beginning Sept. 13 [...] Step and Repeat will feature a unique nightly lineup of poetry readings, noise/experimental music, performance art, stand-up comedy, live bands and deejays, all presented side by side.

The news that performance and other public programming will return to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is a sign for some that the new director, Philippe Vergne, is already returning the embattled museum to its former strength. Vergne replaced the former director Jeffrey Deitch, whose stewarding of the institution provoked controversy and ended in his resignation. Some contended that Deitch oriented the museum too much around pop culture and celebrity, with exhibits like "Rebel" featuring the work of James France and "Art in the Streets" about graffiti. When he announced a show about disco, prestigious artists like Ed Ruscha and Barbara Kruger resigned from the museum board.

MOCA has a long history of being an "artist's museum," due to the active and experimental role of artists in its programming. For example, the ongoing MOCAtv showcases the works of artists who have not necessarily fully broken into the mainstream, such as the recent episodes by the Jogging or Ed Fornieles...

A preview of the VIS-Á-VIS performance series at Materials & Applications in Los Angeles

2014-08-06T15:07:00-04:00

Materials & Applications in Los Angeles has some fun social Saturday night events lined up for the entire month of August! The four-part VIS-Á-VIS performance series will include dance, music, a video and sound installations, and a film screening.

Starting August 9, all events will take place in the Materials & Applications space at the La Cage aux Folles, a 346-piece metal pipe temporary playground installation designed by Warren Techentin Architecture.

August 9: LA Fort Presents: Daedelus (DJ set), Lawrence Lindell, Matt McGuire and Will Walden (StaG) - experimental + electronic music performance

August 16: Tracy Abbott Szatan / IN/VISIBLE - video installation and performance

August 23: bel-air / New York Memo - sound recording installation

AND Ear Cleaning Workshop with Greg Ruben, based on the teaching methodology by Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer (spaces limited)

August 30: Eugene Kotlyarenko presents: "Nobody Wants to Play With Me" (Werner Herzog)+rare feature film - a film screening curated by L.A. filmmaker Eugene Kotlyarenko.

Head over to Bustler to learn more about each event.

Aedas wins top honors for Revitalisation Project at the latest HKIA Annual Awards in Hong Kong

2014-06-12T14:22:00-04:00

In the latest Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) Annual Awards, Aedas was no doubt victorious once again with two preservation/renewal projects: "Art Community": Revitalisation Project in Wan Chai, Hong Kong and Center 66 in Wuxi, China. As the highest architectural awards program in Hong Kong, the HKIA Awards recognizes outstanding architecture designed by HKIA members.

Aedas once again won the highest honor, Medal of the Year, in addition to the Special Architectural Award in Heritage + Adaptive Reuse for the Revitalisation Project.

Here's a glimpse of the project, which preserved and revived an early 20th-century shophouse building into a public space for arts and culture:

More info and photos on Bustler.

America’s Top ArtPlaces 2013

2013-01-07T19:52:00-05:00

America’s Top Twelve ArtPlaces is a new annual ArtPlace initiative recognizing neighborhoods in the largest 44 metropolitan areas in the country where the arts are central to creating places where people—residents and visitors—want to be.

America’s Top 12 ArtPlaces for 2013 are:

Brooklyn, NY / The intersection of Downtown, Fort Greene, Gowanus, Park Slope and Prospect Heights
Dallas, TX / The Dallas Arts District, with parts of Deep Ellum and Exposition Park
Los Angeles, CA / Central Hollywood
Miami Beach, FL / South Beach
Milwaukee, WI / East Town and a portion of the Lower East Side
New York, NY / Manhattan Valley
Oakland, CA / Downtown, including Chinatown, Old Oakland and Jack London Square
Philadelphia, PA / Old City
Portland, OR / The Pearl District and a portion of Downtown
San Francisco, CA / The Mission District
Seattle, WA / The Pike-Pine Corridor
Washington, DC / The intersection of Adams Morgan, U Street, and Dupont Circle

New York Times names Michael Kimmelman to be new architecture critic

2011-07-06T00:04:49-04:00

New York Times art critic and "Abroad" columnist Michael Kimmelman will become the paper's new architecture critic, the Times is announcing today.