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MAD designs culture and arts center in China inspired by mountainous tea fields

2023-09-15T11:55:00-04:00

MAD Architects has unveiled their design for the Anji Culture and Art Center near Shanghai, China. Set in a region containing a United Nations Habitat Award, the project is envisioned as a “transitional connecting space between the natural and built environments of the region,” including a city, river, and mountains.

Image credit: MAD Architects

Covering an area of 1.6 million square feet with a construction area of 1.3 million square feet, the center is composed of six venues: a Grand Theater, Conference Center, Leisure Center, Sports Center, Youth Activity Center, and Art Education Center. The venues are spread out beneath the center’s “bamboo leaves roof” and are surrounded by the region’s unique green tea fields.

Image credit: MAD Architects

MAD describes the center as a “porous meeting space that will be accessible to the public from all directions and at all times of day.” Arranged along an axis, the center’s central corrid...

Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects' latest adaptive reuse project takes center stage at Chapman University

2023-05-08T12:36:00-04:00

A new adaptive reuse academic project from Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA) for Chapman University is getting students' feet moving following the completion of the Sandi Simon Dance Center this January.

The project remade an aging century-old former fruit packing warehouse space operated by the school’s namesake, the orange growing magnate C.C. Chapman, into a 72,000-square-foot educational and performance facility complete with new five dance studios, breakout areas, classrooms, and a lounge.

Photography by Eric Staudenmaier

Acoustic upgrades were paramount to the project, along with a full seismic retrofit and a new circulation strategy that reorganized the structure’s interior into three levels. An influx of natural sunlight is incorporated through a precise cut into the original floor, allowing for the introduction of new volumes that house separate programs and are connected by a multi-story central atrium.

Photography by Eric Staudenmaier

Phot...

See inside DS+R's newly-opened Prior Performing Arts Center at the College of the Holy Cross

2022-09-29T15:15:00-04:00

Diller Scofidio + Renfro has shared new photos of its just-opened Prior Performing Arts Center at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

The three-year, $110 million project culminated in an 84,000-square-foot multipurpose arts facility that houses a 400-seat proscenium theater, 200-seat studio space, and the relocated Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, which has garnered a reputation as one of the leading academic art museums in the country since first being founded in 1983.

Photo: Iwan Baan courtesy of DS+R

“The new Prior Performing Arts Center is an uncommon commons,” DS+R partner-in-charge Charles Renfro describes the project. “The building is uniquely perched on a hill overlooking the campus and Worcester, yet straddles the intersection of multiple cross-campus paths. While its world-class facilities provide a singular new home for Holy Cross's performing arts students, its atrium invites the broader student body to participate in casual and unscripted cr...

New preview photos of Steven Holl Architect's Kennedy Center expansion, The REACH, ahead of September opening

2019-06-03T18:32:00-04:00

New preview photos have been released of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' anticipated expansion project, called the REACH.

The Steven Holl Architects-designed ensemble of three contiguous pavilions broke ground in 2014 and is scheduled to officially open to the public with a 16-day festival from September 7th through the 22nd this year.

Skylight Pavilion and Welcome Pavilion Exterior. Photo: Jonathan Morefield.

Part of the Center's $250m Building the Future capital campaign, the REACH is the D.C. institution's first major expansion project since its opening on September 8, 1971.

Below is a selection of photos of the nearly completed 4.6-acre complex we have received from Steven Holl Architects.

Welcome Pavilion and Skylight Pavilion Exterior. Photo: Jonathan Morefield.

Welcome Pavilion Exterior Windows. Photo: Jonathan Morefield.

Window and Custom Hanging Lights, Skylight Pavilion Detail. Photo: Jonathan Morefield.

Triangle Stairs. Photo: Jonathan Morefield.

White Boa...

The new Qattan Foundation arts center rises as “a beacon of culture” in the West Bank

2018-06-29T18:21:00-04:00

This metallic box is the new $21m home for the AM Qattan Foundation, an arts centre that its founders hope will stand as a “beacon of culture” in the occupied West Bank. “It has been years of fighting to achieve anything close to the standards we wanted. There are defects, but it is the best we could do while building under (Israeli) occupation,” [says achitect Juan Pedro Donaire, whose firm designed the new building]

Steven Holl Architects' Kennedy Center expansion, The REACH, to open in September 2019

2018-06-05T15:06:00-04:00

Construction of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' expansion project in Washington D.C. is still underway. Known as The REACH, the new building is the Center's first expansion in its 47-year history. Breaking ground in 2014, The REACH is currently scheduled to open on September 7, 2019.

Designed by Steven Holl Architects, the 4.6-acre project will add some 72,000 square-feet of much-needed interior space, increasing the Center's public areas by more than 20 percent.

Rendering of The REACH. Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects.

The REACH, View of Skylight Pavilion from Rock Creek Parkway, June 2018. Photo: Field Conditions.

The REACH, Interior of Skylight Pavilion, May 2018. Photo: Field Conditions.

Envisioned as an open, interconnected space, the building will add rehearsal and classroom space to support the Center's new and existing programs, while offering public access. “We imagine an energized, active space where visitors can go behind the scenes, observe an intim...

The Shed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rockwell Group takes shape on the High Line

2018-03-09T19:12:00-05:00

Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group, The Shed will open to the public in spring of 2019 with commissioned programs filling its expansive multi-use hall, galleries, and theater situated along NYC's High Line.

The Shed rendering, by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Image: Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

The Shed is a 200,000-square-foot structure that can physically transform to support ambitious ideas across many disciplines. The eight-level base building includes two expansive, column-free galleries, a 500-seat theater that can be subdivided into even more intimate spaces, event and rehearsal space, and a creative lab.

The Shed extendable shell rendering, by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Image: Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

A movable outer shell can double the building’s footprint when deployed over the adjoining plaza to create a temperature-controlled space named The McCourt. The space will be able to house large-scale performances, installations, and events for a...

Construction begins on Diller Scofidio + Renfro and the Rockwell Group's “shape-shifting“ arts center in Manhattan

2016-11-23T18:17:00-05:00

[Dubbed “The Shed”,] The 18,500 square metre venue has six storeys and can “accommodate the broadest range of performance, visual art, music, and multi-disciplinary work”. A cultural centre will be encased in a 34m-high outer shell that can slide on rails to double the ground space. The building includes two large-scale column-free galleries comprising 2,320 square metres of museum-quality space, a 500-seat theater and event and rehearsal spaces. [Completion is due] in 2019.

For more about New York's Hudson Yards:

BIG-designed "The Spiral" Hudson Yards tower is inching closer to becoming reality

Renderings of Thomas Heatherwick's "Vessel" for New York's Hudson Yard revealed

Welcome to the Hudson Yards, c. 2019: the world's most ambitious "smart city" experiment

OMA releases renderings of event + project space in Dubai

2016-03-16T14:09:00-04:00

Dubai's desire to become a (tasteful) global cultural center is gaining further traction with an OMA-designed events and project space for local art-scene hub Alserkal Avenue. The 1,000 square meter gallery features four movable walls which can either rotate or slide within a flexible floor plan, and a set of transparent sliding entry doors that are designed to erase the boundary between inside and out (and visually connect the space to the exterior, plant-laden public square). A customized concrete spray will cover the exterior walls.

This visual continuity echoes Alserkal Avenue Director Vilma Jurkute's hope that the space will "facilitate a closer dialogue between east and west while strengthening the infrastructure for the arts locally.”

Toshiko Mori designs pro-bono a new artists' residency in Senegal

2015-01-15T15:45:00-05:00

The rural village of Sinthian in southeastern Senegal is home to the THREAD arts center, a new artists' residency and cultural community space set to open this March. The idea for the arts center originated from the long-term efforts of doctor and local Sinthian leader, Magueye Ba, who spearheaded the project with environmental sustainability expert Moussa Sene and The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. The project has already gained deserved recognition with a selection for the 2014 Venice Biennale and an AIANY award.

Designed pro-bono by New York-based Toshiko Mori Architect, the art center's design incorporates local materials and building customs. While local masons and villagers provided their expertise on working with bamboo, brick, and thatch, Mori rendered those materials into a contemporary geometric design that complements its surrounding flat landscape. The structure's most notable feature is its inverted roof that can collect and retain rainwater to provide for 40% of the ...

Steven Holl's Kennedy Center Expansion Project in D.C. breaks ground

2014-12-05T18:42:00-05:00

As the saying goes, history likes to repeat itself. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. broke ground yesterday on the Kennedy Center Expansion Project. The ceremony also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Center's original groundbreaking in 1964.

The event featured remarks from Vice President Joe Biden, Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein, Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter, Kennedy Center Trustee (and John F. Kennedy's granddaughter) Rose Kennedy Schlossberg, as well as Steven Holl. During the ceremony, Rubenstein used the same gold-plated shovel that President Lyndon B. Johnson used to break ground for the Center on December 2, 1964.

Steven Holl and senior partner Chris McVoy designed the expansion with BNIM Architects. The Expansion Project, which was announced in 2013 and is being paid for entirely by private funds, will be built south of the current facility as an interactive space for artists to engage with the community. Th...

Xiamen future arts center, designed by Line and Space, wins AIA Distinguished Building Award

2013-11-06T16:01:00-05:00

The Two, a sales office for a new residential development in the Southern Chinese city of Xiamen has received a Distinguished Building Award from the American Institute of Architects Western Mountain Region. The architects — Tucson, Arizona-based firm Line and Space — designed the building already with its future purpose in mind, allowing it to easily transform into a Community Art Center once development is complete.