Archinect - News

AA School of Architecture students construct timber 'Tree and Truss' structure using robotic fabrication

2024-10-29T12:19:00-04:00

A new student-led project from the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA) that combines robotic fabrication processes with new software applications has been shared with Archinect as part of the school's Design + Make 2022-24 cohort.

Image: courtesy Design + Make course Architectural Association/Photographer Rafael Ferres Echavarren

The 'Tree and Truss' project is a mass timber structure made from locally sourced materials and designed to support the columns and trusses of a new lecture hall standing in Hooke Park on the school's Woodland Campus.

Image: courtesy Design + Make course Architectural Association/Photographer Rafael Ferres Echavarren

Together, the students say: "The project explores a hybrid structure that seamlessly transitions from natural geometry to engineered timber and regards the tree as column and the truss as beam as the fundamental points of departure. We design through making and aim to work with the material behavior of timber."

Image: courtesy ...

Columbia GSAPP's floating 'Cloud' installation seeks to unite a fractious campus

2024-10-24T19:08:00-04:00

Columbia GSAPP has shared details of its new student-led, temporary inflatable Cloud structure in Avery Plaza.

The installation culminates a two-semester seminar led by GSAPP faculty members Laurie Hawkinson and Galia Solomonoff.

Photo: Nicholas Knight/Columbia GSAPP

The temporary pavilion structure, which is made out of metallic foam fabricated by a Spanish manufacturer called Àrea Cúbica, "envisions a participatory experience that emphasizes the interconnectedness of peoples’ actions in shared spaces."

Photo: Nicholas Knight/Columbia GSAPP

Inside, seating is anchored by a cascading series of nets. The pavilion is 66 feet wide and suspended by 25 cables, emerging from a fourth-floor classroom window. Columbia says its appearance works to reframe "the relationship between Avery Hall and Avery Plaza, questioning notions of connectivity between interior and exterior spaces" while also "challenging boundaries of conditioned space."

Photo: Nicholas Knight/Columbia GSAPP

Beyond this good ...

10 architectural installations & pavilions that stood out this week

2024-10-05T08:00:00-04:00

In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.

Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Installations.

Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles.

↑ A table elevated in the landscape in Logroño, Spain by Álvaro González Serrano and J-AF Architecture; Photo: Josema Cutillas

↑ Six Sections in Zhangzhou, China by Studio Link-Arc

↑ Colour Palace in London, United Kingdom by Yinka Ilori and Pricegore; Main Contractor/Design Partner: Raskl; Photo: Adam Scott

↑ Qianhai Floating City in Shenzhen, China by People's Architecture Office; Co-Designer: Dongxiying Studio, CCDI; Photo: Zhang Chao, People’s Architecture Office

↑ Blooms in San Jose, CA by Hou de Sousa

↑ RGB by Mike McKay; Photo: Alan Rideout Photography

↑ Gulao Tea Alcove in Heshan, China by Huang Zelin · Aether ...

Inside the creation and demise of the Temple of Together at Burning Man 2024

2024-09-11T07:00:00-04:00

With Burning Man 2024 concluded, organizers have shared imagery depicting the building, use, and ultimate demise of the event’s main temple. Designed by Caroline “Glitter Kitty” Ghosn, the Temple of Together was inspired by Lebanese Khaizaran chairs and the artist’s own decades-long battle with multi-generational trauma and illness.

Image credit: Rand Larson

The design of the temple seeks to portray “the light that emerges when we come together with all parts of ourselves and with the oneness we share with all living things.” The leading motif of the temple is the representation of two hands coming together in prayer, symbolizing a common gesture of unity, humility, and respect to almost all spiritual traditions.

Image credit: Rand Larson

The gesture of unity is depicted literally by the two hands creating the temple’s entrance archway, but also in a more abstract sense through neo-Gothic pointed arches repeated throughout the design, ...

Olalekan Jeyifous' reconstituted 'Unmonument' comes to Brooklyn with the Black Reconstruction Collective

2024-07-30T13:01:00-04:00

Next week, Brooklyn’s Weeksville Heritage Center begins the first of a new imaginative public art installations series from the Black Reconstruction Collective. There, the industrial ‘Unmonument’ will take center stage starting August 8 as the instigator of several other small site activations surrounding it. The aim is to challenge the conventional notions of what the collective says are the most frequently perpetuated ‘myths’ about power, permanence, and the collective experience of the societies that construct them.

As a memorial to the many liberated Black diasporic communities across the country, such as Weeksville, the installation highlights an important narrative within Black history and is augmented by programming from the multidisciplinary oral tradition incubator Black Discourse.

The Crown Heights rendition, reconfigured by Olalekan Jeyifous, precedes Sekou Cooke's Syracuse contribution in September; another from Felecia Davis in Bellefonte, PA, in December; and, next ye...

MAD's bubble installation revitalizes a historic house in the Japanese countryside

2024-07-23T20:01:00-04:00

MAD Architects has unveiled a captivating installation that resembles a bubble being gently blown from a traditional wooden structure.

Called the “Ephemeral Bubble,” the project was created for the 2024 Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, an outdoor art exhibition held every three years in Japan’s Niigata Prefecture. The biomorphic design seeks to open a dialogue with the Japanese countryside, the architects say.

Image: Zhu Yumeng

The installation connects to a century-old house in Murono Village known as the China House Huayuan, which has been a hub for Chinese-Japanese cultural exchange. The bubble adds a temporary, flexible space that mimics the lightness and translucence of air.

Image: Zhu Yumeng

The interior of the bubble is expansive and undefined. The reflection of the surrounding greenery and colors within creates an atmosphere of soft light, which is suitable for performances, ceremonies, gatherings, and other events.

Image: Zhu Yumeng

As noted by the architects: “The Ephemeral Bu...

Jenny Holzer restages 1989 projection piece at the Guggenheim in New York City

2024-05-21T12:42:00-04:00

This month at New York's Guggenheim Museum, artist Jenny Holzer is having her landmark 1989 light projection restaged in the iconic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building’s rotunda. The installation celebrates her innovative text-based art alongside pieces from the early 70s to today that were included in the museum's new Light Line exhibition.

Installation view, Jenny Holzer: Light Line, May 17 – September 29, 2024, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. © 2024 Jenny Holzer, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Ariel Ione Williams © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

"Developed in close collaboration with the artist and her studio, the new sign was the subject of an ambitious research project. Guggenheim conservators reverse-engineered the 1989 LED hardware and computer program, which helped inform the new manifestation. This investigation documents future variability and technology upgrades, and contributes to scholarship and methodologies for the preservation of ...

Artist Mary Miss gains injunction against Des Moines Art Center's planned land art removal

2024-05-06T11:41:00-04:00

The lawsuit filed by artist Mary Miss in federal court in Iowa last month has gained a preliminary injunction over the alleged breach of contract stemming from the Des Moines Art Center’s planned removal of her outdoor sculpture piece Greenwood Pond: Double Site (1996). The news was shared by The Cultural Landscape Foundation last week following the announcement of her legal challenge in April. Miss had been attempting to stop museum officials from removing the piece from its grounds over maintenance concerns and said she was thankful to the court for issuing a temporary restraining order, which, she added, “opens the door to the consultations about the future of the site that were denied me.”

The 19-page ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa says the piece is, in fact, a “work of recognized stature” pursuant to the 1990 Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). Miss and her team now plan on defending its status further in order to establish a definition for ...

BIG creates mirrored installation for Audi at Milan Design Week

2024-04-25T11:46:00-04:00

Bjarke Ingels Group has designed an installation for the car brand Audi, installed at Milan Design Week. Titled ‘Reflaction,’ a play on the words “reflection” and “action,” the installation seeks to convey how “our actions in the world reflect the very essence of our existence,” according to Audi.

Image credit: Audi House of Progress

The installation is configured as a ‘plus’ symbol when viewed from above, dividing the site into four spaces constructed from a minimal selection of materials. The walls of the installation are formed of 33 x 28-foot mirrors, which, according to Audi, “creates an immersive spatial illusion, highlighting the brand's continuous effort to overcome the limits of innovation.”

Image credit: Audi House of Progress

Each space is grounded in a particular theme, namely Community, Knowledge, Performance, and Digital. The Community section features a ‘circular forest’ of Japanese maples to provid...

FreelandBuck's new Washington Metro art installation invites viewers to an engrossing play on perspective

2024-04-23T13:24:00-04:00

FreelandBuck has released images of a recent art installation for the Washington Metro Area Transit Agency (WMATA) in Washington, D.C. Staged as an optical illusion, their new piece titled ‘Tunnel Vision’ works by projecting an image of a metro station over three intersecting aluminum cones that are suspended from the ceiling in the lobby of the organization’s new Alexandria, Virginia, offices.

Image courtesy FreelandBuck and WMATA

The sculpture's grid pattern and convex geometry center a 3D image of an iconic coffered station designed by Harry Weese in the viewer’s vision field, creating the effect of watching a metro train approach while standing on the platform. The firm says, "The piece suggests both realism and familiarity, inciting curiosity for passersby to come take a closer look."

Image courtesy FreelandBuck and WMATA

Brennan Buck, the firm's principal and co-founder, told the Washingtonian magazine recently, "We thought it was just a real...

SO – IL creates 3D knit textile passage for Bruges Triennial 2024

2024-04-22T11:39:00-04:00

SO – IL has completed a passage of 3D knit textiles as part of the 2024 Bruges Triennial in Belgium.

Titled 'Common Thread,' the passage is inspired by the medieval city’s lace-making tradition, using an innovative woven fabric to create what the team calls an “intricate spatial experience in a wave-like tunnel.”

Image credit: Iwan Baan

The installation is set within a passageway that connects the secluded courtyard of a 19th-century monastery with the wider city. In collaboration with a team from TU Delft, the team explored how Common Thread could marry the tradition of the bobbin lace with modern technologies and new geometric possibilities.

Image credit: Iwan Baan

The resulting fabric is knit in varying ratios, with individual threads combining and diverging in ever-changing patterns. The installation’s form and structural framework were further guided by computational simulations and material samples.

Image credit: Iwan Baan

Image cre...

MAD Architects creates Milan Design Week pavilion inspired by mountains

2024-04-18T12:17:00-04:00

MAD Architects has completed its latest installation for Milan Design Week. Titled ‘Amazing Walk.’ the project marks the seventh time MAD has participated in the event.

Image credit: Moreno Maggi

Set within the Cortile della Farmacia courtyard at the University of Milan, the ‘Amazing Walk’ seeks to “blur the boundary between built and natural environments in a surreal way.” Standing 24.6 feet tall, the internal column-free piece is formed of hundreds of triangular elements configured to reflect “the shape of mountains.”

Image credit: Moreno Maggi

The installation is constructed from an aluminum alloy covered in a semi-permeable composite membrane. The resulting finish offers varying visuals under different lighting conditions while, during the night, lights and mist blur the edges of the materials to give the illusion that the pavilion is floating.

Image credit: Moreno Maggi

“This open design invites explorat...

Coachella debuts 2024 art installations, its ‘largest immersive and architectural works yet’

2024-04-16T11:43:00-04:00

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has completed work on the 2024 edition of its on-site art program. The acclaimed event is taking place across two weekends: April 12–14 and 19–21.

The three artistic works are described by the festival as "redefining the boundaries of large-scale art, inviting festival-goers to engage with visionary works that ask viewers to question their definition of self, explore the boundaries between reality and imagination & take part in creating a new future together."

"Monarchs: A House in Six Parts" by HANNAH. Image credit: Lance Gerber

"Monarchs: A House in Six Parts" by HANNAH explores the fusion of 3D printing with traditional craftsmanship, comprising a series of pavilions that “invite interaction and contemplation.” A collaboration between Cornell University professors Leslie Lok and Sasa Zivkovic, the piece reimagines architectural design through the lens of digital fabri...

Artist Mary Miss files suit to stop demolition of outdoor installation at Des Moines Art Center

2024-04-09T17:42:00-04:00

Artist Mary Miss has filed a lawsuit in an ongoing dispute over the planned demolition of her outdoor installation Greenwood Pond: Double Site (1996) at the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa.

A district court subsequently decided to issue a temporary restraining order against the institution’s plans, which were to be enacted on April 8th of this year.

Greenwood Pond-Double Site, Des Moines, IA, 1996. Photo © Mary Miss courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation

Miss, who is considered a leading figure of the Land Art movement, filed the legal challenge after The Cultural Landscape Foundation divulged the Art Center’s “secret plans” to deconstruct and remove the installation from its grounds over the deterioration of its materials and presumed adversity of potential repairs.

Greenwood Pond-Double Site, Des Moines, IA, Dec. 2023. Courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation

Miss is alleging a breach of contract as part of the suit, citing a 1994 agreement and seeking damages through a readi...

In an Ontario plaza, interactive pavements play music ‘as if by magic’

2024-02-28T13:28:00-05:00

Montreal-based studio Daily tous les jours has completed a public space design in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Titled 'River Lines,' the project saw the creation of an interactive stage in an urban plaza for big impromptu musical ensembles.

Video credit: doublespace photography

Part of the studio’s wider Musical Pavement series, the interactive wave-patterned pavement is embedded with 62 sensing light rings that “get people moving through musical collaboration exercises.” The infrastructure is formed of twelve in-house tailored audio tiles that have no visible hardware and blend with the wider pavement pattern, meaning “music emanates from the ground as if by magic.”

Image credit: doublespace photography

Located on the site of a 19th-century foundry, the artwork is “a response to the historical nature of the site” and “an exemplar of how investment in the public realm is essential to reimagine and activate places and encourage collective interacti...

Burning Man unveils first-ever Black Rock City Temple design from female BIPOC lead artist

2024-02-13T12:34:00-05:00

Burning Man’s official 2024 Temple for Black Rock City has been unveiled as an optimistic design rising to a height of 70 feet and shrowded in a woven latticed screen cladding with repeated neo-Gothic archways that carry a metaphor of togetherness amidst a backdrop of global conflict.

The design took its charge from notable past iterations from David Best and will be called 'Temple of Together' as denoted by its repeated motif of hands touching in unison. Burner Caroline “Glitter Kitty” Ghosn was the Lead Artist chosen for her design, which is inspired by Lebanese Khaizaran chairs and her battle with multi-generational trauma and illness.

Temple of Together by Caroline Ghosn. Design rendering by Maissa Sader

Organizers say: “We look for a design that is novel, yet still fits within the Burning Man Temple tradition of being a treasured sanctuary ...

Coachella announces lineup for 2024 installation designers

2024-01-17T11:44:00-05:00

The art and design lineup has been announced for the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The acclaimed event is set to take place across two weekends: April 12–14 and 19–21.

Besides major musical acts, this year’s festival will include installations by HANNAH, Morag Myerscough, Nebbia, Do LaB, NEWSUBSTANCE, Robert Bose, and Raices Cultura.

While HANNAH describes its work as “inherently derived from materiality, digital construction protocols, robotic routines, new technologies, odd construction techniques, and bottom-up design logics,” Morag Myerscough summarizes her mantra as “make happy those who are near and those who are far will come.” Nebbia Works is “fundamentally driven by a curiosity of all the idiosyncrasies, contradictions and undefined boundaries of our world,” while NEWSUBSTANCE, Do LaB, Robert Bose, and Raices Cultura are returning to the festival where they constructed installations in 2023.

Previously featured Coachella installations

Photo by Lance Gerber,...

Janet Echelman completes rippling sculpture in Riyadh informed by earthquake and tsunami data

2024-01-12T13:52:00-05:00

Janet Echelman has completed a sculpture in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as part of the artist’s Earthtime series.

Named Earthtime 1.26 Riyadh, and installed in the city’s Wadi Namar in December 2023 for the Noor Riyadh light art festival, the sculpture “celebrates the interconnection of sky and earth, flexibility and strength, humans and our physical world, bridging opposites with bold colors and soft curves,” according to the artist.

Image credit: Janet Echelman

Image credit: Ahmed Hasan

The sculpture is composed of knotted fibers, and designed so that as a single knot moves in the wind, the location of every other knot in the sculpture’s surface is changed in what the artist describes as “an ever-unfolding dance of human-made creation with the forces of nature beyond our control.” The custom-engineered fibers are fifteen times stronger than steel by weight and were knotted and spliced with the help of centuries-old craft techniques.

Image credit: Janet Echelman

Image credit: Janet Echelma...

A Massachusetts architect is drawing crowds with impressive Halloween installations in his driveway

2023-10-31T17:57:00-04:00

The haunting Halloween decorations created by Tom Saltsman, a CalArts and Harvard GSD graduate and the Principal of Boston-based firm SaltsmanBrenzel, are taking the spotlight once again in the architect's own driveway.

Saltsman says the inspiration for his crowd-pleasing designs stems from a desire to create perspective illusions of the home he and his fellow architect wife own in Marblehead, Massachusetts. He has been harkening his background in fine arts to create designs for trolls, a shipwreck, and other sculptural decor. He also told WBUR it takes the family and their fleet of volunteer builders months to plan and complete. Some have been realized at costs under $200.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Saltsman Brenzel (@saltsmanbrenzel)

Visitors from as far away as China have been flocking to see the annual display, which the Saltsman family started 15 years ago. His high school-aged daughter and their neighbor both plan on studying architecture a...

James Turrell's Roden Crater is hiring a construction manager for the iconic artwork

2023-08-16T10:45:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Project Manager at the Center for Zero Waste Design, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an opportunity on Archinect Jobs for a Construction Manager at the Skystone Foundation.

The role, based in Flagstaff, AZ, will see the successful candidate “work closely with the artist on all phases of the construction of the Roden Crater project, an unprecedented large-scale artwork created within a volcanic cinder cone by light and space artist James Turrell.” Qualifications held by the ideal candidate include a degree in Architecture with the ability to obtain a license in Arizona, and a proficiency in AutoCAD, Revit, Rhino, SketchUp, Navisworks, and Adobe Creative Suite.

James Turrell. Image courtesy: Skystone Foundation

Why the role interests us

Roden Crater is one of the most famous pieces of landscape art in the United States. The site was acquired by Turrell in 1979, who has spent over four decades design...

See photos from Harlem Grown and Jerome Haferd / BRANDT : HAFERD's newly-opened 'Sankofa' installation

2023-07-24T17:53:00-04:00

New York-based artists collective Harlem Grown, in collaboration with Jerome Haferd of BRANDT : HAFERD, has shared photos of the new ‘Sankofa’ installation in Harlem’s historic Marcus Garvey Park just months after the announcement of a two-year community-led commission aimed at creating an artistic public gathering space for residents of the area.

Image courtesy Anna Dave

The installation is part of the Mellon Foundation’s Culture, Creativity, & Care Initiative focused on Marcus Garvey Park and the cultural traditions of the community that it serves.

Image courtesy Anna Dave

Harlem Grown shares: "The project involved planning and collaboration with local artists and makers across various artistic styles and media. Despite its bespoke appearance, the installation is based on a modular system and uses sturdy, reusable materials that can be reconfigured for a number of future uses or sites."

Image courtesy Anna Dave

The design of the circular 32-foot canopied struc...

Photos of MAD Architects' artistic nexus, The City of Time

2023-06-28T17:15:00-04:00

MAD Architects has shared new images of its recently completed temporary The City of Time installation for the Aranya Theater Festival in China.

The project, which ran from June 12th to June 25th in the seaside resort community, brought together 300 artists and 131 group works under one maze-like design that dissolved after standing on the beach for a period of 300 hours.

Image courtesy Aranya Theater Festival

Using verse and meter, the firm described its intentions for the installation as follows:

The City of Time,
Dissolves after 300 hours.
Revolving around an axis perpendicular to the sea,
It offers a spiritual roost for creators.

In real cities,
The need for functionality suffocates spiritual spaces.
Building a fanciful city by the sea,
Allows the substance of theatre and art,
To breathe natural life into this space.

Taking flight and transcending reality,
It is a place dedicated to time, human behavior, and nature,
Inspiring contemplation on our relationships with ourselves and the wor...

Harlem Grown and BRANDT : HAFERD's 'Sankofa' will take over Marcus Garvey Park this summer

2023-06-13T18:47:00-04:00

A new public art installation will kick off the Mellon Foundation-funded Culture, Creativity, & Care Initiative in Harlem this summer with an engaging reflection of the history of Marcus Garvey Park and the cultural craft traditions of the various communities which surround it.

Friday, June 16th, will mark the grand opening of “Sankofa,” a circular 32-foot structure that serves as an art gallery and public gathering space for residents of the neighborhood who will meet underneath its mesh fabric canopy’s complex composition print.

Image courtesy Harlem Grown and Jerome Haferd

The project was initiated by the Black-led artists collective Harlem Grown and Jerome Haferd of BRANDT : HAFERD. The design team describes:

“‘Sankofa’ is the first outdoor hub to be unveiled as part of the initiative. ‘Sankofa’ derives from the Akan African folklore, symbolizing remembrance of things forgotten, and means ‘in order to know our future we must look to...

Three playful installations by Snarkitecture: Your Next Employer?

2023-06-12T13:49:00-04:00

Following last week’s visit to Los Angeles-based Johnston Marklee, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to New York this week to explore the work of Snarkitecture.

The firm operates along an ethos of “not art, not architecture,” with a methodology that challenges conventional approaches to materials and structures. Over recent years, our editorial has reported on several creative outputs from the team, who “thrive on opportunities to create unexpected moments that invite exploration, play, and reflection.”

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring an intern to join their New York office for three months.

For candidates interested in applying for the position, or anybody interested in learning more about the studio, we have rounded up three projects by Snarkitecture that demonstrate their design approach.

BEACH, National Building Museum, Washington D.C.

In 2015, Snarkitecture captured headlines with their BEACH installation in Washington D.C.’s National Buildin...

Snøhetta's Blanton New Grounds redesign opens at the University of Texas at Austin

2023-05-25T12:20:00-04:00

A recently completed project from three alumni Snøhetta staffers at the University of Texas at Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art has delivered an artistic intervention they say stands as a new gateway between the 51,000-student campus and its host city.

Principal and co-founder Craig Dykers, Managing Director Elaine Molinar, and Director John Newman, each School of Architecture graduates from the late-1980s, collaborated to enact a new canopy-like intervention that’s meant as a centerpiece to the museum’s $35 million Blanton New Grounds initiative.

Photo: Sloan Breeden Photography

Their solution involved a series of 40-by-30-foot metallic shade structures formed in the shape of flower petals to create a canopy of the new landscaped garden entrance to the museum while also framing Ellsworth Kelly’s 2018 monumental stone Austin chapel on the Blanton’s Moody Patio.

Photo: Sloan Breeden Photography

The petals double as a rainwat...

Carlo Ratti Associati team creates ‘world’s largest board game’ at Milan Design Week

2023-04-27T10:55:00-04:00

A team comprising Carlo Ratti Associati, Italo Rota, Eni, and Blob Factory Gaming have presented an installation at Milan Design Week which transformed Milan’s Botanical Garden into a 37,000-square-foot interactive game. Titled ‘Walk the Talk,’ the board game saw over 400 energy-harvesting luminescent tiles form multiple pathways and crossroads across the landscape, engaging players in what the team calls “a discourse underlying the future of mobility.”

Image credit: Marco Beck Peccoz

The installation has been structured as a “metaphorical stroll around Milan” featuring the city’s major landmarks. Each of the 400 wooden tiles and 32 types of icons represents either an obstacle or a solution to the game’s theme of urban mobility, from traffic to public transportation and electric car sharing. Working either alone or in groups, players navigate throughout the ‘city’ by finding solutions to challenges such as overcrowded neighborhoods or a lack of pedestrian areas.

Image credit: Marco B...

MAD details new MOMENTUM installation for Milan Design Week 2023

2023-04-17T14:02:00-04:00

The lead-up to this year's Milan Design Week festival will include a new installation from Ma Yansong and Andrea D’Antrassi of MAD Architects as part of the INTERNI Design Re-Evolution exhibition held at the University of Milan.

Titled MOMENTUM, the 8-by-12.5-meter iron cube structure is tilted 45 degrees from its base and is being commissioned by AXA IM Alts for the duration of the fair. During the day, its ETFE polymer surface will reflect its surroundings while at night, the installation becomes more transparent as it yields to the artificial light source before becoming “the moment, a dialogue between thought and evolution that’s both pure and disarming.”

MAD says its presence “represents the moment when a new awareness is born, when the creative process begins.”

Image courtesy MAD Architects

“At a time when everything is immediate, and everything can be replicated digitally, MOMENTUM is, on the one hand, the spark, the original idea; on the other, it is the study, complexity an...

Adjaye announces new rammed earth commission for The Griot Museum of Black History in St. Louis

2022-11-28T12:03:00-05:00

The Griot Museum of Black History will soon be home to a public art installation from the designer of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Architect David Adjaye will design Asaase III, a monument that surrounds the museum. The structure will be built of rammed earth, a process using soil and other natural materials from the St. Louis region to make solid structures.

The rammed earth installation is the new Order of Merit appointee’s second such following his well-profiled commission for Antwaun Sargent’s Social Works show at the Gagosian Gallery in New York. Adjaye had also incorporated earthwork into his commission for the 2019 Venice Biennale and design for the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library and has referred to it beyond materiality as “another creature” that will join 30 other designs in the three-month public art installation COUNTERPUBLIC, which debuts this Spring.

“Since it’s outdoors and it's intended to be a community of public peace, we really wanted it to be reflective of that,” the museum’s founder Lois Conley said of the deeper inspiration behind the project. “Some of the soils will be coming from various areas that had relevantly large African American populations, whether they exist anymore or not. We still wanted to have some of that material.”

‘Temple of Boom’ adorns Parthenon replica with optical illusions and floral motifs

2022-11-25T14:14:00-05:00

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne, Australia has unveiled a new installation that celebrates and explores the role of The Parthenon in global cultures. Titled Temple of Boom, and designed by Melbourne-based architects Adam Newman and Kelvin Tsang, the installation sees a one-third scale replica of the famous Greek site adorned with floral motifs, optical illusions, and other designs.

Photo credit: Sean Fennessy

Situated in the NGV Garden, the scheme will host a gradually-changing set of large-scale artworks and murals painted by local artists in three phases between November 2022 and August 2023. The ever-changing artwork within the installation is intended to invite audiences to “consider the effect of time on all architecture.”

Photo credit: Sean Fennessy

The artwork series will begin with floral motifs and optical illusions by artists Drez, Manda Lane, and David Lee Pereira. Themes within the artwork range from bold murals sitting at the intersection of abstract ...

16,000 plastic bottles used to create Stonehenge-like monument in Milan

2022-11-25T13:01:00-05:00

UK-based studio VATRAA has created a monument in Milan, Italy composed of thousands of plastic water bottles. The installation, titled Plastic Monument, seeks to bring attention to the issue of plastic pollution.

“Some plastics last up to 1000 years in our landfills and oceans while others might never biodegrade,” the studio notes. “We could argue that plastic waste is our legacy to many generations to come.”

Image credit: VATRAA / Alessandro Ariel Terranova

In response, the studio created a monument in the form of a trilithon, drawing similarities with the ancient Stonehenge site in the UK. The installation seeks to create a stark contrast between the single-use, disposable nature of plastic waste and the timeless nature of ancient monuments, reminding visitors that “what we are doing today might stay on Earth forever.”

Image credit: VATRAA / Alessandro Ariel Terranova

To complete the monument, which stands 25 feet tall, 16,000 plastic bottles were pressed together into bales, and...