Archinect - News

Colin Fournier, popular Archigram co-founder and UCL professor, passes away at 79

2024-09-17T12:35:00-04:00

Colin Fournier, the British architect and planner who helped form Archigram with Sir Peter Cook and others in the early 1960s, has passed away at age 79. He was best known for the firm’s 2003 Kunsthaus Graz and work with Bernard Tschumi on the design of Parc de la Villette in Paris.

A commemoration from the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture notes: “In addition to his architectural practice, Colin was a dedicated and well-loved educator. He joined The Bartlett in 1998 and inspired generations of students for almost two decades with his distinctive approach to design. As Professor of Urban Design, he was instrumental in the formation and directorship of the Urban Design MArch and led the successful Unit 18 on the Architecture MArch programme for several years with a number of teaching partners. Colin inspired countless students and colleagues throughout his life, and his absence will be felt profoundly by all who were fortunate enough to know him."

In a statement to the Architects’ ...

New NEOM documentary features Thom Mayne, Peter Cook, Reinier de Graaf, and other architects speaking highly of The Line megacity project

2023-07-28T13:06:00-04:00

A new look behind the process and select architects involved in Saudi Arabia’s controversial The Line megacity for NEOM has been released, answering some questions as to its ideation while leaving many remaining in regard to the project's structural engineering, technical specifics, and design feasibility overall.

Among the torrent of quickly-spliced and placable bromides, the 45-minute "documentary" features Peter Cook stating, "if it's to be a success... parts of it will fail." None of the interviewees, including especially Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, offered an explanation as to how the "top-down, hardcore engineering" OMA partner Reinier de Graaf describes will be carried out in any detail, an element which has been a constant source of criticism since the segment was first announced a year ago.

"Many projects acquire their sanity as they go along, and I think very, very much the case here too — and the jury's out," de Graaf stated before bemoaning a "complete lac...

Sir Peter Cook’s mural-like Innovation Studio opens on UK university campus

2021-11-04T14:19:00-04:00

Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) in the United Kingdom is celebrating the opening of a new creative facility designed by Sir Peter Cook. The Innovation Studio is the second building on AUB’s campus designed by Cook, after his undulating Drawing Studio was opened in 2016 by Zaha Hadid. Cook himself graduated from AUB in the 1950s.

Image: Richard Bryant

The new facility will host a range of digital and physical manufacturing technologies, including Large Format Additive Printing, CNC milling, and waterjet cutting, alongside VR/AR technologies such as 3D body scanning and a green screen studio. The university sees the Innovation Studio as a space where students, graduates, university experts, and businesses can collaborate on real-world issues through design.

Image: Richard Bryant

“The space is a rich vessel for creativity and innovation,” said Cook upon the studio’s opening. “Those creating within these walls will almost certainly working towards solutions to some of mankind’s great...

Sir Peter Cook-designed drawing studio at the Arts University Bournemouth opened today

2016-03-03T13:34:00-05:00

The Art University Bournemouth’s new drawing studio, designed by alumnus Sir Peter Cook, is to be officially today by Zaha Hadid. It is the first purpose-built drawing studio to open in the UK for 100 years and is the renowned architect and founding member of radical collective Archigram’s first building in the country. The curved studio has been designed to emphasise natural light [...] there is a large circular north-light and a rear clerestory, which provides softer light.

Here are a few more images of the delightful little structure (via CRAB studio's website):

Related news and feature stories on Archinect:

Editor's Picks #430

2015-09-29T13:21:00-04:00

Amelia Taylor-Hochberg, Editorial Manager for Archinect, reviewed "Shelter" the debut exhibition at the Architecture and Design Museum’s new location in Los Angeles' Arts District. Despite what you might assume

"Shelter isn’t about designing for the 21st century family, or the millenial, or the homeless, in Los Angeles – it’s about forming new expectations of how housing and the city should interact...housing imagined in Shelter is about merging L.A.’s residential spaces with its civic topography, forming a less privatized residential existence in the city".

The winners of Archinect's Dry Futures competition were selected. In the "Speculative" category "Grassroots Cactivism" by Ali Chen took first place. While "Liquifying Aquifers by Lujac Desautel won first place in the "Pragmatic" category.

Deane Madsen was impressed "A timely and relevant competition with thoughtful responses. Well done, all around!"

News
Dame Zaha Hadid was announced as winner of 2016 Royal Gold Medal. Sir Peter C...

Editor's Picks #270

2012-06-25T00:49:00-04:00

Günther Domenig passed away on June 15, 2012. Wolf D Prix, design principal at Coop Himmelb(l)au, released the following statement "I insist that Günther Domenig was one of the most important Austrian architects. Important in terms of being weighty. Meanwhile our own tammuz felt "his steinhous is an beautiful and seminal poem of architecture"

News
Günther Domenig passed away on June 15, 2012. Wolf D Prix, design principal at Coop Himmelb(l)au, released the following statement "I insist that Günther Domenig was one of the most important Austrian architects. Important in terms of being weighty. In my opinion the former Z-Bank branch in the Favoritenstraße in Vienna was one of his best buildings. Long before the convoluted computer architects started using parametric tools to give their lame design a boost, Domenig had not only designed the first threedimensional facade, but actually built it, too."

Meanwhile our own tammuz felt "his steinhous is an beautiful and seminal poem of architecture" and Dimitri Kim wrote "Finally, an english speaking journal covered the late great Gunther's death. He's work was radical beyond he's time, beyond he's predecessors (Coop Himmelblau, Zaha hadid, EOM, and etc), and clearly beyond mainstream fabric of contemporary architecture."

The NYT Commercial section published a 30-Minute int...

London's Olympic venues challenge architects

2011-11-29T00:10:56-05:00

In London's case the practicality of the architecture is a reaction to the economic rather than the political excesses of the recent past. The 2012 Games are shaping up, in fact, as one of the clearest signs yet that the architectural boom years of the last decade or so in the West have definitively ended.

75 Peters

2011-10-31T16:18:12-04:00

75 PETERS celebrates iconic British Architect (and co-founder of Archigram) SIR PETER COOK's 75th birthday. 75 established and emerging international artists have produced a portrait of Sir Peter to auction for charity Architecture for Humanity.