Archinect - News

Burning Man reveals first physical temple design post-Covid

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

The annual temple design to feature in this year’s Burning Man festival has been announced: The "Temple of the Heart" concept is designed by Polish-born, San Francisco-based entrepreneur Ela Madej with the help of her co-lead Reed Finlay and will be the festival’s first physical temple since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic three years ago.

In a blog post, Burning Man's creative team said: "Selecting the Temple for Black Rock City is a uniquely challenging decision. We look for a design with a strong visual impact that can serve as a meaningful space to hold the full range of our community’s experiences and offerings. There are both conceptual and practical considerations. Is the Temple creative and beautiful enough to be an artwork in and of itself but simple enough that it doesn’t get in the way or dictate an experience? Will it burn well, and safely? Have the applicants planned for LNT, and considered sustainability in their design and execution?"

A sketch of the temple courtes...

New rendering reveals the temporary ABBA Voyage concert venue in East London

2021-09-07T19:49:00-04:00

As part of a concert series meant to promote the group’s first album release in 40 years, legendary Swedish pop group ABBA is pairing with one British architecture firm for a new 3,000-capacity concert venue nestled into a space originally designed for the 2012 Olympic games.

The band tapped Stufish Entertainment Architects for the design of the new temporary structure, which will be located in East London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The park is already host to the city’s 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium as well as an aquatics center designed by Zaha Hadid.

The newly unveiled plans call for a hexagonal, timber-clad construction that will house a variety of performance functions, including a main stage and box office space in addition to bars and a covered concourse area with food stalls for fans flocking to the interactive experience.

Concertgoers will also have access to private dance booths in a highly technical scheme that will feature the display of avatars who will perform se...

Temporary wooden ferris-wheel hotel proposed for the Seine River

2015-10-30T21:18:00-04:00

French architects [SCAU] are planning to build a 'water wheel hotel' on the banks of the Seine, which resembles the London Eye but with 'room capsules' that would rotate constantly. ...[However,] the wheel hotel is not intended to be a permanent structure. 'It is made of wood and it will only take four days to assemble or dismantle it, so it could be transported by barge and re-erected elsewhere on the river' [said Maxime Barbier of SCAU]

Ibañez Kim Studio wins Folly 2015 with "Torqueing Spheres"

2015-03-18T20:40:00-04:00

The architectural folly is an opportunity for architects to bring out their eccentric side in the design process, which makes it an entertaining approach when creating a (temporary) public installation. In this spirit, the Socrates Sculpture Park and The Architectural League of New York hosts the international Folly competition. Launched in 2012, the competition calls for early-career architects and designers to submit proposals that are described as contemporary interpretations of the architectural folly. The winning entry is then constructed as a temporary public outdoor installation at the Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, New York City.

Cambridge and Philadelphia-based practice Ibañez Kim Studio was announced as the Folly 2015 winner with their design, "Torqueing Spheres". IK Studio's distinctive proposal features a series of connected spherical forms that form a social-interactive space.

More project details below.

"Torqueing Spheres combines a simple concept – a straig...

Register now for the Field Constructs installation competition in Austin, TX

2015-01-30T20:50:00-05:00

The international Field Constructs Design Competition is currently open to all emerging architects, designers, landscape architects, and artists for temporary installation proposals for the Circle Acres Nature Preserve in Austin, Texas. If you haven't registered yet, now's the chance: the early-bird deadline is February 15.

The FCDC jury will select 5-8 proposals to be realized and then publicly exhibited at the nature preserve during a week-long series of creative community events in November. Aside being innovative, proposals should also be engaging minimal-impact outdoor installations that reflect the cultural and natural characteristics unique to the evolving city of Austin.

All submissions are due on April 1, 11:59 p.m. EST.

Winners will be announced on June 1. They'll receive a US$5,000 reimbursable budget to build their proposals. Authors of the winning proposals will be honored during a public reception.

FCDC Jury:

Benjamin Ball, Ball-Nogues Studio, Los Angeles
Eva Franch i Gilabe...

SelgasCano to design 2015 Serpentine Pavilion

2014-12-04T13:28:00-05:00

SelgasCano of Madrid will be designing the fifteenth Serpentine Galleries Pavilion in London's Kensington Gardens. For the past 15 years, the Serpentine Galleries has invited architects like Sou Fujimoto, Jean Nouvel, Herzog & de Meuron with Ai Wei Wei, Peter Zumthor, SANAA, Zaha Hadid, and most recently Smiljan Radic to design the temporary outdoor structure, which continues to be an anticipated summer event every year.

Like every year, the outdoor structure must be a flexible multi-functional social space with a cafe. SelgasCano have yet to submit their design plans.

Here's a glimpse into some of their previous works:

Plasencia Auditorium and Congress Centre, Cáseres, Spain 2005/2013

Factory Mérida, Badajoz, Spain 2006/2011

El ‘B’. Cartagena, Auditorium and Congress Centre, Murcia, Spain 2001/2011

Office in the Woods, Madrid, Spain 2006/2009

MoMA PS1 YAP 2015 finalists are announced

2014-11-13T13:55:00-05:00

Five finalists have been selected for the MoMA PS1 2015 Young Architects Program. The popular yearly program shines the spotlight on emerging architects and invites them to develop an innovative, temporary outdoor urban installation for the MoMA PS1 courtyard in Long Island City, New York for summer 2015.

Andres Jaque / Office for Political Innovation, Madrid/New York
brillhart architecture, Miami
Erin Besler, Los Angeles
The Bittertang Farm, New York
Studio Benjamin Dillenburger, Toront

Finalists will now begin to work on their proposals. Their designs must provide seating, shade, and water, and also follow guidelines that address environmental issues and sustainability. Only one project will be the winner.

Head over to Bustler for more.

Have a seat at the "Urban Reef" installation in downtown Vancouver, Canada

2014-08-12T18:52:00-04:00

Meandering down a section of Robson Street on the iconic 800 block in downtown Vancouver, passers-by can sit, relax, play, and socialize on the "Urban Reef" installation. Designed by Kaz Bremner and Jeremiah Deutscher with local furniture collective Higher Works, Urban Reef won the inaugural VIVA Vancouver: Robson Redux design-build competition out of 78 submissions worldwide.

The competition had entrants create a temporary urban installation to transform the block to a welcoming public plaza from Canada Day (July 1) until Labor Day (September 1).

More details on Bustler.

Check out a timelapse video and the making-of teaser below.

Smiljan Radic unveils egglike 14th Serpentine Pavilion in London's Kensington Gardens

2014-06-24T13:17:00-04:00

Since the announcement this past March, Chilean architect Smiljan Radic has unveiled the 14th Serpentine Pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery's Kensington Gardens in London. For the past 14 years, the Serpentine Gallery has invited famous architects like Sou Fujimoto, Jean Nouvel, SANAA, and Frank Gehry to design the annual temporary structure for the London Festival of Architecture. Their famous designers aside, the pavilions themselves are a story of their own.

An eggshell. A "Stone Age spaceship". A cocoon. A deformed donut -- Radic's design for the 14th Serpentine Pavilion is already receiving plenty of colorful descriptions. Supported by massive quarry stones, Radic's pavilion is a fiberglass, semi-transparent hollow shell that will be used to host a variety of social and cultural events and will also include a cafe inside. The pavilion's flooring also features gray wooden decking to make the structure feel more like a patio than a fully enclosed space.

Playing on the idea of the f...

Smiljan Radic to design 14th Serpentine Galleries Pavilion

2014-03-12T13:36:00-04:00

Chilean architect Smiljan Radic was commissioned by Serpentine Gallery to design the 2014 Serpentine Galleries Pavilion. Designed by big-name architects since 2000, the temporary pavilion has become a major summer attraction in London's Kensington Gardens for the London Festival of Architecture.

Reflective of Radic's past works, his design for the pavilion is a semi-transparent, shell-like "pod" that will serve as a multi-functional public space and venue.

Read on for more details about the project:

"Occupying a footprint of some 350 square metres on the lawn of the Serpentine Gallery, plans depict a semi-translucent, cylindrical structure, designed to resemble a shell, resting on large quarry stones. Radic’s Pavilion has its roots in his earlier work, particularly The Castle of the Selfish Giant, inspired by the Oscar Wilde story, and the Restaurant Mestizo, part of which is supported by large boulders.

Designed as a flexible, multi-purpose social space with a café sited inside, the Pa...

Temporary pavilion by J. MAYER H. as centerpiece for Karlsruhe’s 2015 City Jubilee

2014-03-03T16:03:00-05:00

It's party prep time for the City of Karlsruhe in Germany. Berlin-based architecture firm J. MAYER H. and Rubner Holzbau were recently commissioned by the city to design a temporary pavilion for its 300th anniversary in 2015. The wooden pavilion will be built in Schlosspark and serve as an event venue for the celebration. Construction will begin in March 2015.

Find out more on Bustler.

YAP winner The Living selected to re-design MoMA PS1's courtyard this summer

2014-02-05T15:20:00-05:00

After winning the 2014 Young Architects Program out of five finalists, emerging architect David Benjamin and his firm, The Living will temporarily transform the outdoor courtyard of MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, New York when the summer season rolls in.

YAP projects had to provide seating, shade, and water, and also follow guidelines that address environmental issues and sustainability. The Living's proposal, titled "Hy-Fi", will feature circular organic brick towers made of corn stalk and living root structures. Set to open in late June, the temporary installation will be a memorable summer spectacle.

Here's more detail into the project's design:

"Using biological technologies combined with cutting-edge computation and engineering to create new building materials, The Living will use a new method of bio-design, resulting in a structure that is 100% organic material. The structure temporarily diverts the natural carbon cycle to produce a building that grows out of nothing but earth an...

"Between a womb and a cathedral": Architects of Air's "The Most Beautiful"

2013-12-12T13:31:00-05:00

Reactions to Alan Parkinson's luminaria range from rhapsodic and enlightened, to energized or calmed. These giant inflatable structures, first designed by Parkinson in the 1980s and now touring worldwide under his "Architects of Air" organization, resemble multi-colored bouncy citadels, and create a totally immersive experience of light and color to anyone who walks their winding interiors. Imagine a Verner Panton wormhole opening into a florescent clerestory; a near-psychedelic secular pilgrimage through some giant creature's digestive system.

To celebrate over twenty years of designing, building, and touring the luminaria, Architects of Air has released The Most Beautiful, a photo book with nearly glowing images from inside the structures and a quick look at the luminaria's design history.

Since putting the first luminarium on tour in the early 1990s, Architects of Air has designed over fifteen more structures and inflated them all over the world. Made out of a custom fle...

Hello Wood uses 365 sleighs to build an 11-meter Christmas tree in Budapest

2013-12-11T14:10:00-05:00

The holiday season is in full swing — or sleigh, in this case. Hello Wood, an architecture and design studio, built an 11-meter tall Christmas tree in one week using 365 sleighs in front of the Palace of Arts in Budapest. (Watch the video below.)

After Christmas, the temporary structure will be dismantled and the sleighs will be given to the kids living in the SOS Children’s Village homes in Hungary.

Here are the project details:

"Visitors can step in and have a look at the construction from the inside. The base is made of steel, it weights 4.5 tons, so the construction is perfectly safe from the heavy winds of winter. The four stems of the installation hold 325 kilograms each.

First, the carpenters of Hello Wood made the 10.5 meters tall wooden frame, which was brought to the scene, where it was put together with the help of a crane and the use of welding techniques."

"Then came the alpinists of Hello Wood, who were working on the installation for four consecutive days...

Formlessfinder Pile It On For Art Basel Miami Beach

2013-12-02T14:35:00-05:00

The director of exhibitions at Design Miami heard about the duo's eagerness to move beyond traditional forms and building materials, and asked them to submit a design for the entrance to the annual fair's pavilion at Art Basel Miami Beach 2013. "We got a cold call in late May, and it all happened at a fairly quick pace," says Ricciardi. "We had two weeks to develop a concept, and within a week they let us know that we had been selected."

FABRIC's zoetrope-inspired "Trylletromler" pavilion in King's Garden, Copenhagen

2013-11-04T19:27:00-05:00

The "Trylletromler" pavilion by Dutch firm FABRIC has attracted plenty of public attention in King's Garden, Copenhagen since its public opening this past September. The installation was built after FABRIC won a temporary-pavilion design competition earlier this year. (Check out our previous coverage here on our sister site Bustler)

The concept of Trylletromler comes from the Danish word for the 19th-century zoetrope device, which gives the illusion of movement in a still image. Based on this idea, the pavilion's fence is built as a paradoxically transparent maze that creates the illusion of motion as one walks through it.

Here's a more detailed project description and some recent photos we received from FABRIC:

"...The Renaissance garden design of Rosenborg Castle is the oldest known example of garden design in Denmark. The design draws heavily on principles of Euclidean geometry. This language of absolute space was long regarded as the construction principle of the worl...

Shigeru Ban's Cardboard Cathedral opens in Christchurch

2013-08-07T11:29:00-04:00

The Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand opened its doors to the public for the first time on August 6. Designed by Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban, the cathedral is a temporary replacement of the original Christchurch Cathedral, the city's symbol that was destroyed by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in February 2011. Construction delays prevented the cathedral from opening on its original deadline in February.

Ban's Cardboard Cathedral is nowhere close to the original gothic revival design done by British architect George Gilbert Scott during the later half of the 19th century. The transition structure is in the middle of an ongoing debate whether the new cathedral's permanent design should be a restoration, a modern reinterpretation, or a completely new building.

The Cardboard Cathedral's triangular frame of 98 cardboard-encased LVL beams enclose a multi-functional main hall that can accommodate up to 700 people for church events. In addition to cardboard--a reporte...

Mekene Architecture’s Winning [RIO DE JANEIRO] Symbolic World Cup Structure Entry

2013-08-01T17:37:00-04:00

Earlier this week, we published the winners of the recent [RIO DE JANEIRO] Symbolic World Cup Structure competition which challenged architects to design a freestanding World Cup Structure on Rio de Janeiro's central Lapa Square during the 2014 FIFA Soccer World Cup. Winner of the First Place was the Mekene Architecture-designed entry 'Wing of Glory' which you can find in more detail below.

Previously: Winners of the [RIO DE JANEIRO] Symbolic World Cup Structure Competition

Winners of the [RIO DE JANEIRO] Symbolic World Cup Structure Competition

2013-07-29T20:30:00-04:00

The [RIO DE JANEIRO] Symbolic World Cup Structure competition has announced its winners. Hosted by [AC-CA], the international ideas competition invited architects and students of architecture and engineering to design a freestanding World Cup Structure on Rio de Janeiro's lively Lapa Square during the 2014 FIFA Soccer World Cup.

IKEA designs a better home for refugees

2013-06-26T12:03:00-04:00

The prototype of the shelter is now being tested in a refugee camp in Ethiopia. The refugee families who would be making the shelter their homes will have a direct say in how the product is developed, putting their experience at the heart of this collaborative process.

#occupygezi architecture

2013-06-24T20:52:00-04:00

"The protests in Istanbul indicated one simple thing for architects. We need new definitions for architecture in situations when architecture is removed from architects." -Yelta Köm, the organization founder

Group of architects are documenting the temporary structures that were destroyed by the police in Gezi Park, Istanbul. Take it from the Turks, the original nomads from Central Asia.

Pulse Pavilion in Macau

2013-06-10T15:42:00-04:00

We have received images of Pulse Pavilion, a fascinating temporary structure designed and built by third- and fourth-year undergraduate architecture students at the University of Saint Joseph in Macau. The design team was led by guest professors Kristof Crolla (Laboratory for Explorative Architecture & Design Ltd. / LEAD) and Dannes Kok. Pulse Pavilion was open to the public at Plaza Sai Van, adjacent to Macau Tower, from June 1st until today.

A Summer Program to Nudge South Street Seaport Back to Life

2013-05-24T18:47:00-04:00

This summer at the almost defiantly unhip South Street Seaport, there shall be pop-up boutiques housed in shipping containers. There shall be outdoor film screenings with lounge-chair seating. There shall be SmorgasBar. And, the lords of artificial weather willing, there may be glitter rain.

Jean Nouvel picked for 10th Serpentine pavilion

2010-03-22T20:15:00-04:00

The design for the 2010 Pavilion is a contrast of lightweight materials and dramatic metal cantilevered structures. The entire design is rendered in a vivid red that, in a play of opposites, contrasts with the green of its park setting. In London the colour reflects the iconic British images of traditional telephone boxes, post boxes and London buses.

Serpentine Gallery press release:

Jean Nouvel commissioned to design 10th Serpentine Gallery Pavilion

5 July – 20 October 2010

In its 40th anniversary year, the Serpentine Gallery is delighted to announce that the 10th Serpentine Gallery Pavilion is being designed by world-renowned French architect Jean Nouvel. This year’s Pavilion is the 10th commission in the Gallery’s annual series, the world’s first and most ambitious architectural programme of its kind. It will be the architect’s first completed building in the UK.

The Pavilion commission has become an international site for architectural experimentation and follows a long tradition of Pavilions by some of the world’s greatest architects. The immediacy of the commission – a maximum of six months from invitation to completion – provides a unique model worldwide.

The design for the 2010 Pavilion is a contrast of lightweight materials and dramatic metal cantilevered structures. The entire design is rendered in a vivid red that, in a pl...

SANAA's Serpentine Unveiled

2009-07-08T17:57:00-04:00

This morning, the press viewing took place for this year’s Serpentine Pavilion, the temporary summer cafe and event space commissioned annually by the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, London. AJ

Gehry Reveals his Serpentine

2008-03-25T16:48:00-04:00

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion series, now entering its ninth year, is the world’s first and most ambitious architectural programme of its kind, and is one of the most anticipated events in the international design calendar.

Is April Fool's Day coming early this year? If not, my theory is that UPS dropped the model in transit and tried to fix it themselves.

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2008 will give London the first example of Frank Gehry’s spectacular architecture. The highly articulated structure – designed and engineered in collaboration with Arup – comprises large timber planks and multiple glass planes that soar and swoop at different angles to create a dramatic multi-dimensional space. Part-amphitheatre, part-promenade, these seemingly random elements will make a transformative place for reflection and relaxation by day, and discussion and performance by night.

Frank Gehry said: “The Pavilion is designed as a wooden timber structure that acts as an urban street running from the park to the existing Gallery. Inside the Pavilion, glass canopies are hung from the wooden structure to protect the interior from wind and rain and provide for shade during sunny days. The Pavilion is much like an amphith...

Koolhaas to design 2006 Serpentine Pavillion

2005-12-08T09:23:00-05:00

That's right, breaking news at bdonline.
frm the news > "Previous plans for a grass covered mountain-like pavilion by fellow Dutch architects MVRDV, originally planned for this year, have now been postponed indefinitely because of the œtechnical and financial issues associated with the project, the gallery announced this week. Koolhaas also plans to work on a programme of films, interviews and debates to complement his new pavilion."

Pavilion in Cork

2005-09-11T22:15:00-04:00

Cork, Ireland, is the European Culture Capital 2005 and the 2001 Serpentine Pavilion designed by Daniel Libeskind and Cecil Balmond has apparently found a place to roost there. flickr