Archinect - News

Studio Malka Architecture adds modular vertical extension to French Embassy in Vienna

2021-10-13T14:57:00-04:00

French firm Studio Malka Architecture has announced a new project that will see the addition of a striking collection of curved, modular extensions to the French Embassy in Vienna, Austria.

Built in the early 20th century, the embassy is situated within two buildings that express an Art Nouveau style. The project calls on the refurbishment and vertical extension of the two units that are both modern and informed by the site’s history. The result was the decision to develop a light and modular extension.

As noted by the architects, the curved, shell-like components serve as more than mere ornamentation but as functional pieces, “in the daily use of its architecture.” The system, which Studio Malka Architecture says was created in ancient Egypt, collects, amplifies, and diffuses natural light throughout the entire building, as well as creates natural ventilation.

“More than a century after its creation, the project of the new French Embassy in Vienna reconnects with Art Nouveau’s f...

Gaudí's Casa Vicens is now available to book on Airbnb for $1

2021-06-25T08:30:00-04:00

Have a quick hand? Looking for a European architectural getaway this summer? You might be able to win a chance to stay at Barcelona’s famous Casa Vicens thanks to a newly-announced initiative from Airbnb.

Hyperallergic is reporting that the mansion, which was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005, will be available for a one-in-a-lifetime overnight stay to lucky visitors once booking opens on July 12.

The 136-year-old Neo-Mudéjar building in the city’s Gràcia district was Gaudi’s first private residence and had been converted into a museum following its purchase by an Andorran bank in March of 2014.

A tile fresco during the house's restoration. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Ailina.

Guests can enjoy dinner and a private tour of the restored mansion before retiring to the Casa’s opulent first-floor residence and muqarnas-ceilinged smoking room, where a nightcap will be served courtesy of local Michelin star restaurant Hoffman.

The house is considered to be...

2018 World Interior of the Year awarded to JAC STUDIOS' Yumin Art Nouveau Collection

2018-11-30T19:30:00-05:00

The Yumin Art Nouveau Collection by Danish practice JAC STUDIO was crowned the 2018 World Interior of the Year, marking the end of another INSIDE World Festival of Interiors. The last two days saw this year's nominated designers face off in a live competition at RAI Amsterdam in hopes to be named one of the 10 category winners.

After one final round of presentations by the category winners, the jury awarded the coveted grand prize to the Yumin Art Nouveau Collection for “its crafted sensitivity, to both the building and the Gallé glass to which the museum [is] dedicated”.

Photo credit: Yoonsung Choi, Jeongyoun Hong, Mathias Kromann Rode.

The Yumin Art Nouveau Collection is housed inside the elegant interiors of the Tadao Ando-designed Genius Loci building, which is located on the coastal landscape of Phoenix Jeju in South Korea. The Collection is a permanent exhibition of delicate glass produced during the Art Nouveau movement between the 1870s to 1940s by prominent artists like Émi...

A look back at the iconic Mackintosh style and its radical origins

2018-06-08T15:35:00-04:00

What most caught [German critic Hermann Muthesius's] eye was the work of a young couple, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, who were quietly making wildly original furniture, buildings and interiors. These struck him as utterly “divergent from everything that is familiar”. Fusing the sinuous forms of art nouveau with rugged Scots baronial motifs and exotic Japanese touches, their designs were a startling sight – too much for many British critics to stomach.

Couple Charles Rennie and Margaret Macdonald built their Mackintosh name into the art deco icon it represents today, yet the duo's designs were far ahead of their time. The Mackintosh art nouveau style, originating in Glasgow, would go on to be recognized internationally. Take a deeper look into the history behind these radical designs as the city celebrates the 150th anniversary of Charles Rennie's birth.

From the Historic Massachusetts Cotton Mill, yellow pine timber gets a second life at the Mackintosh Building in Glasgow

2017-08-04T16:37:00-04:00

In May 2014, as students prepared their final-year degree show, the Mackintosh Building that houses The Glasgow School of Art was engulfed by flames and severely damaged. The building, built between 1897-1909, is one of the Scottish city's most famous structures. It is considered the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh's ultimate masterwork and in 2009, was awarded RIBA's "Sterling of Sterlings prize" when chosen, through a nationwide poll, as the best British-designed building of the past 175 years. About 90% of the historic building was spared by the fire but the library, one of the finest examples of art nouveau design, as well as the Japanese-inspired Studio 58 were almost entirely destroyed.

Soon after, a careful restoration plan began headed by the Glasgow-based firm, Page\Park architects. Work on the building has been in constant progress since the summer of 2014, beginning w...

This is a Polish city

2013-11-03T12:43:00-05:00

"I saw churches from the many different denominations that shaped this city’s skyline: a squat Armenian cathedral from the 14th century with a jumble of intersecting roofs; a huge 17th-century Baroque church built by the Jesuits and modeled on the Church of the Gesù in Rome; Ukrainian Orthodox three-dome churches"

Alex Ulam recently traveled to Lviv, Ukraine to reconnect with a family history whose ties were cut in the late 1930's, following the Nazi invasion of Poland. There he discovers a rich and polyglot architectural history, ranging from neo-Renaissance buildings, to Art Nouveau, Renaissance and Baroque-era palaces, Soviet style towers and even Ukrainian Secessionist architecture.