Archinect - News

On the cultural implications of SANAA's latest Art Gallery of New South Wales expansion

2023-01-11T15:09:00-05:00

The Art Gallery of New South Wales, one of Australia’s most important art institutions, faces an especially acute cultural challenge. Museum building in a real-estate obsessed city that Mark Twain called “superbly beautiful” — in the sunny heart of a proud “sporting nation” — often requires overcoming a barrage of negativity. The Sydney Opera House was loathed before it was loved, and the Modern has traveled a rough road already.

The debate around SANAA’s newly-opened $344 million expansion in some ways mirrors the one leading up to the (then $102 million AUS) Sydney Opera House in the late-1960s, which, at the time. centered on a discussion over the value of cultural investments that culminated in philosopher Peter Singer’s groundbreaking text Famine, Affluence, and Morality.

“Most of the rulers and commentators really do believe that ‘culture’ is a nonessential or luxury additive rather than part of the educational, civic, ethical and moral systems whereby a society might govern its core values and activities,” University of Canberra professor Ross Gibson told the Times in summary of that history.

The gallery has reported a total of 120,000 visitors in the first ten days of opening.

Explore SANAA's Art Gallery of New South Wales expansion ahead of its grand opening

2022-11-30T15:35:00-05:00

Sydney's highly anticipated Art Gallery of New South Wales expansion will open its doors on Saturday, December 3, expecting the arrival of 15,000 people who have already registered to visit.

Designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning duo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA, the new project is set to be the city's largest "cultural development since the dramatic opening of its Opera House nearly 50 years ago," as reported on Archinect back in May 2022 when updated project renderings were released.

Image © Iwan Baan/Courtesy of SANAA | The Art Gallery NSW.

Sejima and Nishizawa expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to work on the project. They shared with the press, "It has been a wonderful honor to design such an important public building in Sydney. Working closely with the Art Gallery of New South Wales team, we aimed to design an art museum building that is harmonious with its surroundings, one that breathes with the city, the park, and the harbor. We hope it will be a sp...

SANAA's Art Gallery of New South Wales expansion will deliver the city's largest cultural commission in 50 years

2022-05-05T12:59:00-04:00

SANAA has released renderings and added a new opening date for their expansion of Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW).

Touted as the city’s largest cultural development since the dramatic opening of its Opera House nearly 50 years ago, the Sydney Modern Project entails the creation of two new buildings connected by a public garden and will make its public debut on December 3rd.

Image: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA © Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2021

The expansion will increase the institution’s gallery spaces by almost double from 96,875 to 172,222 square feet, including a new 23,680-square-foot underground gallery which was repurposed from a decommissioned World War II-era oil tank. Overall, 70% of the new gallery is being constructed above existing structures.

Per SANAA, sustainable design initiatives include over 16,000 square feet of photovoltaic cells covering the Entranc...

Featuring a rippling glass facade by SANAA, the fully restored La Samaritaine department store opens in Paris after 16 years

2021-06-24T15:16:00-04:00

The overhauled La Samaritaine department store is now open in Paris after an $894 million restoration that has kept the building closed since 2005.

The new Samaritaine features a rippling glass veiled facade, covered patios, repaired skylights, and an updated 1907 roof that gives the shopping center's restored interior an opulent feel.

The Art Nouveau facade on Rue de la Monnaie. © Pierre-Olivier Deschamps via SANAA.

Japanese firm SANAA worked to restore the Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings for LVHM with help from Canadian studio Yabu Pushelberg. The new Samaritaine Pont-Neuf building will now serve as a luxury shopping destination in a 19th-century retail space itself reconstructed a century ago by architect Frantz Jourdain.

Interior view of La Samaritaine's staircase and skylight features. © Pierre-Olivier Deschamps via SANAA.

The newly restored buildings had once been host to an unprofitable venture and will now feature contrasting retail spaces, with three floors aimed delibera...

SANAA unveils cloud-inspired maritime museum for Shenzhen

2021-05-07T09:44:00-04:00

SANAA has unveiled their design for the Shenzhen Maritime Museum, overlooking the Dapeng Peninsula mountains and Longqi Bay in southern China. The scheme is imagined as a “cloud-like horizontal landmark” says the design team, evoking the imagery of clouds emerging from the sea.

The scheme is organized as a collection of connected hemispheres, made of lattice domes covered by glass and stainless-steel louvres. The form of the roof, designed in collaboration with ARUP, seeks to form organic relationships with its surroundings, cloaked in a semi-transparent material to softly reflect the natural scenery.

Image: SANAA

The flowing roof structure allows visitors free movement throughout the scheme’s 100,000-square-meter open floor plan. Internally, the museum will feature three exhibition areas organized around a central lobby, and interspersed courtyards. While the roof’s lattice structure remains grounded, the system of glass and metal louvres floats above the base, reinforcing the s...

New Budapest mayor blocks construction of SANAA-designed New National Gallery

2019-12-03T18:08:00-05:00

Plans for Hungary’s landmark New National Gallery—conceived as the centrepiece of the rising Liget cultural quarter in Budapest’s City Park—hang in the balance after the city’s new centre-left mayor, Gergely Karácsony, moved to block its construction.

After the international design competition for Budapest's New National Gallery and Ludwig Museum resulted in proposals by Snøhetta and SANAA tied for the first prize in April 2015, the latter team, headed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, ultimately won the commission later that year, beating out a star-studded shortlist that also included entries by Jean Nouvel, David Chipperfield, Mecanoo, Renzo Piano, and Nieto Sobejano.

"Construction on the €250m New National Gallery, designed by Japanese architectural firm Sanaa, was due to begin in early 2020 after two years spent refining the designs," reports The Art Newspaper.

Junya Ishigami: imagining other architectures

2018-04-04T13:52:00-04:00

Freed from the conventions of architecture and construction, what would this world look like? It’s a question Japanese architect Junya Ishigami has been trying to answer for the past decade, dreaming of structures that are as light as a cloud, as vast as the sky, as random as the trees in a forest or the stars in the sky.

Glass Pavilion, Park Groot Vijversburg, NL. Image: junya.ishigami+associates.

The Guardian's architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright, takes a closer at the fascinating work of Junya Ishigami, the bright new star on the Japanese architecture firmament, who is catching more and more mainstream attention with substantial commissions around the world. "[...] it’s tempting to close your eyes and fall under the spell of one of the most original minds in a generation – and be transported to a place where other architectures are possible," Wainwright writes.

Kazuyo Sejima joins Pritzker Prize jury

2018-01-30T14:42:00-05:00

The Hyatt Foundation today announced the appointment of Kazuyo Sejima as the newest member of the Pritzker Architecture Prize jury.

Sejima herself is a Pritzker laureate and received the prestigious recognition in 2010 alongside her SANAA co-founding partner Ryue Nishizawa.

"I am looking forward to working with my colleagues on the jury and supporting the mission of the Pritzker Prize," Sejima commented on the appointment.

Grace Farms “River” building in New Canaan, CT by SANAA. Photo: Iwan Baan.

The Pritzker Prize jury for 2018, the accolade's 40th anniversary, also includes:

Jury Chair Glenn Murcutt, architect and 2002 Pritzker Laureate, Sydney, Australia
Stephen Breyer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Washington, D.C., USA
André Corrêa do Lago, architectural critic, curator, and Brazilian Ambassador to Japan, Tokyo, Japan
The Lord Palumbo, architectural patron, Chairman Emeritus of the Trustees, Serpentine Galleries, London, United Kingdom
Richard Rogers, architect and 2007 Pritzker Laur...

SANAA's Grace Farms raises uncomfortable questions about the role of corporate money in public projects

2017-03-31T11:27:00-04:00

Critic Curt Gambetta brings forward an age old uncomfortable question on corporate public spaces whose main purpose is often curtailed by exemplary architecture that is hard to reject.

His piece titled, "No free gifts," carefully borrowed from the anthropologist Mary Douglas, asks the question of, what would be the return of such corporate gifts. In his article, Mr. Gambetta alludes to large tax breaks and other conservative agendas of corporate cultures. After all, “nothing in life is truly free.”

"Much as ‘radical transparency’ is demanded from senior management at Bridgewater, the openness of Grace Farms to its community feels forced, its agenda delegated from above. When I visited this winter, the library contained an assortment of suggested reading, a series of social justice greatest hits for anxious Northeast liberals to get up to speed on: Bell Hooks, postcolonialism and so on. Next to a series of flyers about the foundation’s involvement with advocacy against sexual slaver...

SANAA's Grace Farms “River” building wins latest MCHAP

2016-10-19T23:00:00-04:00

The verdict is out! SANAA's meandering Grace Farms “River” project has won the second Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, as announced by IIT College of Architecture Dean Wiel Arets and MCHAP Director Dirk Denison during a ceremony tonight at the S.R. Crown Hall in Chicago. First awarded in 2014, the biennial MCHAP is IIT's way of illuminating the most distinguished architectural projects built in the Americas. Projects for the second edition had to be completed between January 2014 and December 2015.

As part of their prize package, SANAA founders Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa will be appointed as MCHAP Chair at IIT Architecture Chicago for the following academic year and will receive up to $50,000 to fund research and a collaborative publication with the school.

SANAA won over an international group of finalists that included Michael Maltzan, Grafton Architects, and Patkau Architects + Kearns Mancini Architects, to name a few (projects pictured in photo gallery below).

The River has co...

Kazuyo Sejima envisions "camouflaged" design for Seibu's new bullet train

2016-03-15T18:20:00-04:00

Working with [Seibu Group's] design team, [Sejima] has proposed a concept for [their] 'Red Arrow' series that would be one with the environment, melding into the background as it travels through city and countryside. The plan represents a sharp deviation from train designs of the past, which have emphasized a bold, striking look through slick lines and bright colors. In contrast, Sejima has chosen keywords like 'friendly' and 'soft' to define her new vision for express trains in Japan.

In Tokyo, Brand-Name Stores by Brand-Name Architects

2016-03-14T01:03:00-04:00

Many local architects complain that these high-end follies are not serious architecture, but gimmicky flash. In many cases they are right. But that’s O.K. Form, as any architect will learn, follows function. In this case it’s selling a name and a mystique.

Sam Lubell visited Tokyo for some "architectural shopping", taking in the works of many architecture stars (including Herzog and De Meuron, Toyo Ito, Sanaa and MVRDV), for global luxury brands. Thus the requisite trips to sites in Omotesando and Ginza.

If you were looking for "spectacular, game of architectural one–upmanship" in Tokyo where would you visit? Over at Google Map Tour Guide Central (an old feature from 2007), Ludwig Abache offered-up a "version of 'ICON's Magazine Architectural Trail' Aoyama and Harakuju."

Watch SANAA's "River" project come to life in this time-lapse

2016-02-03T13:21:00-05:00

SANAA's "River" community center emerges from the grounds of the New Canaan-based Grace Farms in less than a minute and a half in this time-lapse video by Work Cam Zone. The video captures the meandering structure transforming along with its open landscape, starting from September 2013 to October 2015, when it opened to the public with a slew of festive events.

Take a gander at the video right below.

First glimpse: SANAA wins over Snøhetta for Budapest's new National Gallery + Ludwig Museum

2015-12-01T15:21:00-05:00

SANAA ultimately won the commission to design the new National Gallery and Ludwig Museum in Budapest, currently scheduled to open in summer 2019. The redesigned museum building is part of the larger ambitious Liget Budapest Project that will revamp and expand the city's 200-year-old City Park, or 'Vársoliget'.

First announced in 2014, the project — which claims to be the largest project of its kind in Europe — will add five new museum buildings previously reported at a cost of 75 billion HUF (approx. $268.8 million).

Back in April, SANAA and Snøhetta tied for first prize out of a star-studded shortlist that would've made the commission anyone's game. It included Ateliers Jean Nouvel, David Chipperfield, Mecanoo, Renzo Piano, and Nieto Sobejano.

The competition jury then met with SANAA and Snøhetta and further evaluated each proposal based on "contractual conditions, the quality of co-operation with the Hungarian party, technical content, scheduling, costs,...and economy." The renovated...

BIG, SANAA, Lacaton & Vassal pre-qualified to compete in designing new Aarhus School of Architecture

2015-11-17T14:06:00-05:00

The Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark is set on revamping itself with the construction of a brand new school building, and the search to find the architect to design it is underway. According to the School, a total of 42 teams worldwide responded to the first phase of the competition. Along with the Danish Building & Property Agency — the contractor of the project, the School selected three pre-qualified teams from a strong field of candidates. They are:

BIG (Denmark) along with Transform + Rambøll + SLA
SANAA (Japan) along with B+G Ingenieure + Sasaki and Partners
LACATON & VASSAL (France) along with Powerhouse + Kristine Jensens Tegnestue

However, there are still three spots left. When the next phase starts in December, the Danish Building & Property Agency will launch an open international design competition welcoming all architects and architecture students, from which the last three candidates will be chosen.

All six pre-qualified candidates will then advance to the restric...

Editor's Picks #432

2015-10-25T18:43:00-04:00

Amelia Taylor-Hochberg penned an essay on The humanity of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, wherein she argues "the Biennial is more about architects than it is about architecture."

Meanwhile Julia Ingalls reviewed the book Conversations with Architects: In the Age of Celebrity, by former corporate interior designer turned international architectural curator Vladimir Belogolovsky. DTElmore was convinced "this article has helped me to see that now, more than ever, buildings and criticism of buildings are inextricably linked to the characters that design them, possibly to the detriment of architecture."

News

Moscow is on a roll, of post-industrial rehab; with Renzo Piano Building Workshop releasing a redesign - for turning a Moscow power station into an art site for the V-A-C Foundation and Neutelings Riedijk Architects proposing golden glass and steel towers for a defunct Moscow auto plant.

The SANAA designed arts and community center, the River, finally opened its doors to the public...

SANAA's meandering "River" community center opens to the public

2015-10-09T15:15:00-04:00

Within the green open spaces of Grace Farms in New Canaan, Connecticut stands the new arts and community center, the River, which finally opened its doors to the public today. The Grace Farms Foundation selected SANAA to design the building in 2010, not long before Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa won the Pritzker Prize that year. SANAA first revealed their design in 2012.

The new 83,000-square foot structure consists of transparent-walled multi-functional volumes and covered walkways that wind down the park's rolling terrain, hence its River name. Its milky exterior complements the nearby woodlands and meadows at Grace Farms, while the clear glass walls show off the surrounding community gardens, athletic fields, and trails that SANAA designed in collaboration with OLIN. Fifty-five 500-foot-deep geothermal walls heat and cool the building.

The River's scheme boasts a 20,900 sq.ft. indoor amphitheater; a staffed library; a Commons dining and living room that can accommodate up to 300 ...

Exclusive: Graham Foundation announces winners of 2015 Grants to Organizations

2015-08-11T09:01:00-04:00

From Kiev to Los Angeles, from mind-bending artist Dan Graham to stately architect Kevin Roche, the Graham Foundation has announced the 49 international winners of its 2015 Grants to Organizations. Each year, the Foundation gives out two sets of grants: one for individuals including architects, writers, and artists, and one specifically for organizations, such as museums, universities, publishers, and trusts. The grant categories include film, exhibitions, public programs, and publications. This year, $496,500 was awarded to 49 winners from a competitive pool of 200 entries featuring both emerging and established organizations.

In keeping with the Graham Foundation's mission to foster innovative explorations of architecture and art, the winning projects encompass a variety of perceptual and investigative terrain, from the MoMA's exploratory exhibition on Toyo Ito, SANAA and other Japanese architectural firms, to the creation of several new projects for this fall's Chicago Architectur...

SANAA chosen to design NSW Art Gallery expansion

2015-05-27T14:04:00-04:00

Pritzker Prize laureates Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA were revealed today as the winners of an international competition to design the AUD$450 million expansion of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia. As part of the Sydney Modern Project, the expansion will upgrade the existing building into a global cultural landmark that connects the Gallery, the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Domain, the city, and Sydney Harbor.

SANAA scored the commission out of 12 notable shortlisters like Kengo Kuma, David Chipperfield, Herzog & de Meuron, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects, and Renzo Piano Building Workshop, to name a few.

SANAA incorporated the gallery site's surrounding topography and climate in their design, which features cascading platforms of sandstone and glass. The expansion will double the size of the 23,000 sq.m. gallery and will include new educational facilities, spaces for live performances and films, open exhibition spaces, and reintroduce natural day...

Budapest National Gallery/Ludwig Museum competition: Snøhetta and SANAA tied for 1st prize

2015-04-14T21:29:00-04:00

After a not-so-ideal turnout in its first run in 2014, The Museum of Fine Arts Budapest and the Városliget Zrt's Liget Budapest Design Competition 2.0 is a stark contrast! A few months after the architects for three of the development's buildings were announced, Snøhetta and SANAA tied for first prize for Budapest's [...] National Gallery and Ludwig Museum. However, it seems that the ultimate winning proposal is yet to be chosen between the two, after the jury meets with both teams.

Previously:

Hadid and Japanese at loggerheads over ‘turtle-like’ Olympic stadium

2014-12-10T13:59:00-05:00

“They don’t want a foreigner to build in Tokyo for a national stadium. On the other hand, they all have work abroad. Whether it’s Sejima, Toyo Ito, or Maki or Isozaki or Kengo Kuma.” Last month Isozaki, 83, wrote an open letter to the Japan Sports Council, the government body in charge of plans for the 2020 Games, in which he attacked the “distorted” process that has led to “a dull, slow form”.

Previously

Editor's Picks #395

2014-11-28T13:12:00-05:00

Julia Ingalls reviews, the built work and paper architecture of Jimenez Lai. To wit "regardless of the medium...Understanding the role of storytelling within design is fundamental to all of Lai's work".

jla-x commented "The most interesting drawing that he did was a series of plans of a space ship city...really cool how he treated all surfaces as plan (the drawing was in zero gravity...)...A guy like him would be really great at film...I would love to see his drawings animated into short films". tanya enjoyed reading the article and summed up why "Understanding space from a different viewpoint , experiencing a variety of emotions while inhabiting a space , having the luxury to change the vibe of a specifically designed space, a sense of play within architecture, playing around with the art/part of architecture !"

Paul Keskeys, penned A First-Hand View of Gentrification in San Francisco. Arch2133 wasn’t happy "I really don't understand neutral positions like this and it leaves a bad t...

SANAA's Grace Farms River project to open in fall 2015

2014-11-19T19:31:00-05:00

SANAA's River project in the upcoming Grace Farms in New Canaan, CT will finally celebrate its grand opening next fall. The non-profit Grace Farms Foundation developed Grace Farms as an open public park for the local community, whereas the SANAA-designed building will be used for various community programs and recreation.

After an international search, the Foundation selected SANAA in 2010 to design the structure -- not long before the firm won the 2010 Pritzker Prize. SANAA then revealed their design of the River in 2012.

Reminiscent of SANAA's 2009 Serpentine Pavilion, the River building evidently gets its name from the way it meanders through the park's greenery. The 86,000 sq.ft structure is made of glass, concrete, steel, and wood, and is essentially connected by a single roof that appears to float approximately 10-14 feet above the ground. From an aerial view, the roof's water-like appearance allows the project to blend in with the surrounding landscape, which SANAA designed in ...

New competition launched for National Gallery and Ludwig Museum in Budapest

2014-11-05T13:36:00-05:00

The international jury choosing an architect to design a new National Gallery, which will also provide a new home for the Ludwig Museu in the Hungarian capital, has invited seven leading practices to take part in a new competition after a first competition did not produce a winning design. The seven architects invited to compete for the high-profile commission are: Jean Nouvel, David Chipperfield, Mecanoo, Nieto Sobejano, Renzo Piano, Sanaa and Snøhetta.

Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA lectures at GSAPP

2014-09-22T16:47:00-04:00

This past Wednesday, Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA addressed an overflowing Wood Auditorium, giving the first GSAPP lecture of the semester. Recently appointed dean Amale Andraos gave a brief introduction of Sejima and returned at the end of the lecture to lead a discussion as well as the Q/A portion of the evening.

Sejima began her lecture by explaining her choice of “Canopy” as her theme, an idea that is central to her, both as a part of SANAA and independently. “I like to make a space like a park, because a park is a place where different kind of people can gather,” stated Sejima, describing her desire to create an architecture that allows diverse groups of people to come together to both share and create their own space. By developing the concept of a canopy, Sejima creates a direct connection with the building and the environment, in a similar way that parks connect people with each other and the environment.

Starting with the Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, Switzerland and conc...

Vancouver Art Gallery opens up shortlist ring to five international design heavyweights

2014-01-09T21:04:00-05:00

The heat is on in the architectural competition for Vancouver Art Gallery's new downtown home on a site at West Georgia and Cambie Streets. From a pool of 75 applicants, the gallery narrowed down a shortlist of five firms — all of which are no strangers to designing world-class exhibition spaces.

The five finalists are:

Diller Scofidio + Renfro (New York)
Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (New York)
Herzog & de Meuron (Basel)
KPMB Architects (Toronto)
SANAA (Tokyo)

Could this be the welcome redemption time for TWBTA after it was announced just yesterday that DS+R's MoMA expansion will officially raze the much beloved American Folk Art Museum? (*ding ding ding!*)

SANAA wins Taichung City Cultural Center competition

2013-09-11T15:43:00-04:00

The highly popular Taichung City Cultural Center International Competition in Taiwan just announced its much anticipated list of winners, and it's the Pritzker Prize-winning team of Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA with local partner Ricky Liu & Associates to snatch the top honors.

SANAA's winning ensemble of playfully arranged white, translucent boxes beat out designs by the four other recently shortlisted teams including Peter Eisenman Architects, Jean-loup Baldacci, MASS STUDIES and Stücheli Architekten.

Click here to see more News posts about the Taichung City Cultural Center competition.

Junya Ishigami's architecture models go on show at DeSingel, Antwerp

2013-02-26T14:29:00-05:00

Japanese architect Junya Ishigami has built a miniature landscape at DeSingel International Arts Campus in Antwerp. The former SANAA employee - who set up his fast-emerging practice in 2004 - has sited over fifty of his architecture models on a series of long tables inside the Campus, giving visitors a intimate overview of his varied oeuvre.

Louvre-Lens: helping a mining town shed its image

2012-12-05T15:01:00-05:00

The €150m satellite of Paris's Louvre museum shimmers like an apparition on the raised plane of the former coalmine, looking down over streets of pitch-roofed miners' houses, dotted with the occasional chip shop. The building is formed from a series of long, low-slung walls that fade in and out of view as the changing light dances over its surface – or as clouds of drizzle engulf it entirely in the wintry gloom.

SANAA presents their design for the new Bocconi University campus

2012-11-29T19:27:00-05:00

After the success linked to their Rolex Learning Centre, built on the campus of EPFL Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, SANAA again set out to design a non-hierarchal relationship between the elements of a landscape that is human before it is architectural. The campus lies on the former site of Milan's Centrale del Latte (milk-processing plant), whose north side is attached to the university's existing complex.