Archinect - News

Rowan Moore picks his favorite UK projects for 2022

2022-12-30T15:22:00-05:00

Playful, elegant additions to universities and colleges were the class acts to follow, while the newly opened Elizabeth line exceeded all design expectations.

Grimshaw’s long-awaited Elizabeth Line finished second (behind Grafton’s Marshall Building for the LSE). Moore said: “The Elizabeth line, when it finally opened in May, revealed an alternative universe of underground railway travel where everything is bigger, brighter and swisher. This is due to the sheer scale of the stations and to their design – unified and orderly but also curvaceous and a touch baroque.”

Notably absent were any projects by the new Soane Medal winner Peter Barber, any other social housing projects, or the Stirling Prize-winning The New Library, Magdalene College from Niall McLaughlin. The Guardian critic did say he admired Theaster Gates’ community building-inspired Serpentine Pavilion, adding that the all-black design “nicely captured shadow and light and views of surrounding greenery.”

'A bit too slick': What the critics are saying about Theaster Gates' Serpentine Pavilion debut

2022-06-08T15:38:00-04:00

Theaster Gates’ hotly-anticipated debut as the first non-architect to win the Serpentine Pavilion commission has been causing quite a buzz online since premiering for the press yesterday in London’s historic Kensington Gardens.

The installation has thus far been received domestically as a mostly disappointing premiere, garnering two-star reviews in both The Times and Evening Standard, which labeled the effort “simple to the point of simplistic.”

“The vertical spruce planks ringing the exterior feel more like a garden fence than a dado, for instance,” critic Robert Bevan described. “But the strangest decision has been to insert a full-height vertical plank partition, which divides the main space, rendering the circular volume unreadable.”

Previously on Archinect: Theaster Gates' Serpentine Pavilion opens as a shrine to community building and sacred practices

Architects’ Journal editor Rob Wilson picked out the limitations of the design, stating that, in his view, “it feels like the...

Theaster Gates' Serpentine Pavilion opens as a shrine to community building and sacred practices

2022-06-07T13:53:00-04:00

Theaster Gates' Serpentine Pavilion has been revealed in London's Kensington Gardens, showcasing his vision for a Black Chapel that advances the fair's evangelizing mission to be an incubator for community building, civic culture, and public engagement.

In a circular form evoking several architectural traditions and cultures, including traditional African structures and Hungarian round churches, the pavilion is rendered in the same stark-looking black tar color as the suite of 14 new paintings Gates executed for the exhibition, providing an additional reference to the meditative elements present in Houston's Rothko Chapel, which the 48-year-old artist credited as an additional source of design inspiration.

Gates conceives of his pavilion as “a site for contemplation and convening” where gatherers are hailed together artistically in remembrance of lost places of “spiritual communion” that populate urban areas like London and his hometown of Chicago. It was executed with design help...

A first look at the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion designed by Theaster Gates

2022-02-03T10:47:00-05:00

The first details for the design of the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion have been released. Designed by Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates, and titled Black Chapel, the scheme draws inspiration from the industrial kilns of the English midlands, resulting in a cylindrical wooden structure with a punctured dome roof.

Designed in collaboration with Adjaye Associates, the pavilion is intended to be a “place of quietude” in the aftermath of COVID-19, with a programme of concerts and events including a performance by Gates and his band, the Black Monks. Gates describes the pavilion as a “chapel for new music” including ““Gospel, alt-jazz, avant garde sounds, the history of British black music, Gregorian and Benedictine chants – all the things me and my band are into.”

Architecturally, the 36-foo...

Theaster Gates to design the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion

2021-05-18T17:34:00-04:00

Artist and urban planner Theaster Gates has been selected to design the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion. This will be the first time that the Serpentine Gallery has awarded this commission to a non-architect. Gates is currently a professor at the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago. Utilizing his background in urban planning, his work focuses on space theory and land development, sculpture, and performance, integrating sound, motion, Black history, and architectural features.

His most famous work, the ongoing Dorchester Projects, began in 2008 in the wake of the financial crisis when Gates bought a number of rundown properties on Chicago’s South Side, where he grew up and currently lives. In collaboration with architects and designers, he converted these derelict buildings into community centers and cultural institutions. He also repurposed the scrap within these sites as art and injected the money made back into the neighborhood. Projects include the Archive House, for...