Archinect - News

Sasaki will design new comprehensive master plan for Taliesin West

2024-03-26T16:54:00-04:00

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation has announced its selection of Sasaki Associates to create a new comprehensive master plan for Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Plans for a new campus will guide the development of any new projects on the 620-acre campus (a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site) in line with the Foundation’s Taliesin West Preservation Plan from 2015. Their aim is to re-establish the site as a cultural destination for "future generations."

The site, which Wright settled with his third wife Olgivanna in the 1930s, had included a school that almost shuttered due to financial difficulties before reversing its decision and relocating to two sites in Paradise Valley at the start of the pandemic.

Photo credit: Andrew Pielage

The firm says: "The comprehensive plan for Taliesin West represents a significant step in ensuring the long-term preservation and vitality of this architectural masterpiece. By engaging with the site’s history and ecology, Sasaki’s plan will guid...

Stefano Boeri reveals master plan for vast sacred Buddhist site in Nepal

2023-12-15T18:15:00-05:00

Stefano Boeri Architetti has unveiled a master plan to enhance the Ramagrama Stupa, one of the most significant places in the Buddhist world.

The site is located in Ramagrama, a municipality within the Parasi district in western Nepal. The archaeological destination dates back to the earliest period of the Buddhist tradition. It is covered by a hill and by the centuries-old Bodhi Tree, a sacred tree in Buddhism characterized by a high level of biodiversity. Under this lies a still intact Stupa of Buddha, which is a dirt burial mound faced with stone that contains portions of the relics of Buddha. Today, the site presents itself as a green mound.

Image: Stefano Boeri Architetti

Various organizations and Buddhist communities have committed themselves to the preservation and sustainable enhancement of the Ramagrama Stupa. The aim has been to conserve this site in accordance with the standards set by UNESCO for World Heritage Sites. Stefano Boeri Architetti has, thus, been entrusted wit...

Bologna unveils plan to reinforce 12th-century leaning tower

2023-12-08T18:30:00-05:00

Work to prevent the collapse of a leaning medieval tower in the heart of the northern Italian city of Bologna will cost €20m ($21.5m) and take 10 years at least, its mayor has said. Last weekend, the city unveiled a €4.3m (£3.7m) project to shore up the Garisenda tower – one of the city’s two towers that look out over central Bologna, providing inspiration over the centuries to painters and poets and a lookout spot during conflicts.

The Garisenda Tower, like the Tower of Pisa, has leaned for centuries as the ground on which it was built gave way soon after its construction. It slants at four degrees compared to 3.9 degrees the Tower of Pisa leans at. Last month, the area around the Garisenda Tower was cordoned off due to increasing concerns about its potential to collapse. Bologna’s mayor, Matteo Lepore, claims that the time to restore the structure will match the 10 years it took to reinforce the Tower of Pisa.

Built in the 12th century, the Garisenda Tower, which stands at approximately 157 feet, sits alongside the taller, and also leaning, Asinelli Tower. As reported by The Guardian, Italy’s civil protection agency has issued a “yellow” alert for the area around the two towers indicating the space is under watch. However, they aren’t believed to pose any immediate risks to people’s safety. The mayor has also urged the government to work to make the towers UNESCO World Heritage sites. Work to reinforce the to...

Sagrada Familia reaches important construction milestone

2023-10-03T18:41:00-04:00

More than 140 years after a Spanish bishop laid the cornerstone of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica, the famously incomplete church is inching toward the finish line, with five of its six central towers now finally fully built as of last week.

The four completed towers symbolize the Evangelist authors of the Bible’s canonical Gospels. The tallest tower, which represents Christ, will follow in 2026. Some doubts remain as to whether or not the construction timeline can stick to its scheduled completion by the end of that year, which will also see Barcelona’s turn as the UIA World Capital of Architecture.

A small contingent of residents who claim the destruction of Gaudí's papers by Anarchists during the Spanish Civil War constitutes grounds for an injunction remains an impediment. Controversial plans for a monumental grand staircase entrance to the Glory facade are also continuing over concerns of displacement that have marred their construction since the late 1970s.

Scaffolding at the site is expected to be removed soon.

UNESCO urges UK not to proceed with Stonehenge tunnels project

2023-09-26T11:34:00-04:00

The A303 redevelopment proposal had originally garnered the attention of preservation advocates beginning in 2017 and eventually yielded a favorable ruling from the UK High Court in 2021, the same year UNESCO first threatened to add the site to its list of World Heritage in Danger.

Adding to the narrative, UNESCO has now openly criticized the UK government's recent decision to proceed with the contentious project. The UK's transport secretary, Mark Harper, sanctioned the scheme earlier this year, setting its initial cost at a staggering £1.7bn. This tunnel, which is proposed to be two miles in length, is alarmingly close to the ancient and revered site of Stonehenge in Wiltshire.

National Highways insists its plan will "conserve and enhance" the area while addressing a notorious traffic bottleneck. UNESCO’s requests center on placing the tunnel entrances at longer intervals so as to not disturb the site’s existing landscape. In a statement, the project manager for the overhaul said...

UNESCO adds 42 new sites to World Heritage list

2023-09-22T13:06:00-04:00

The outcome of the 45th session of the committee has also been notable, however, for the places not approved for protection. On Friday, members voted against the notion that Venice be added to the heritage list. This was despite the recommendation of the World Heritage Centre (WHC), the convention’s permanent secretariat, which argued the city was at risk due to factors including mass tourism and climate change.

A total of 42 new sites were added at the ongoing special session held in Riyadh this month. Three Ukrainian sites, including the 11th-century Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, were also added last week at the start of the 15-day meeting.

The body’s recommendations to add Venice to the list of World Heritage in Danger sites was also denied at the outset, keeping it away from the dubious position despite criticism that city officials — who’ve just adopted a nominal daily entry fee trial — aren’t doing enough to resolve “long-standing but urgent issues” stemming from tourists’ overcrowding and climate change.

Moroccan heritage sites severely impacted by recent earthquake

2023-09-12T17:28:00-04:00

Several Unesco World Heritage sites have been severely damaged by the recent earthquake in Morocco. [...] As the death toll climbs, so too will revelations of damaged heritage sites, as Morocco’s fragile patrimony—especially in less accessible rural areas—bears the brunt of the earthquake alongside the nation.

Following the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Morocco's Marrakesh–Safi region on September 8, the assessment of devastation — both human and cultural — continues.

As The Art Newspaper reports, several significant heritage sites have been severely damaged or almost entirely destroyed, including the 12th-century Great Mosque of Tinmal as well as Marrakesh's historic Kharbouch and Kutubiyya mosques.

Authorities have confirmed over 2,900 deaths, with thousands more injured and without shelter.

Venice to begin seeking €5 daily admission fees from tourists

2023-09-07T12:02:00-04:00

The ability for Venice to charge a nominal €5 ($5.35 USD) daily entrance fee to tourists has been granted to the city, giving officials the final go-ahead for a response they say is ultimately necessary to preserve its architectural heritage from the threats of climate change and overcrowding.

The city council’s decision comes after a protracted debate over its implementation since the idea was first introduced in 2019. CNN has reported the experiment will start first with a 30-day trial period before being formally adopted early next year, limited to only the “peak days” of the busy tourist season. The likely result is for the quality of life of residents to be improved, proponents say while encouraging other popular international destinations to potentially follow suit.

“The message we want to put across is that Venice is open, but visitors must understand that we need proper planning to manage the balance between residence and tourism,” Councilor Michele Zuin said in a statement....

Carlo Ratti Associati blends old and new with the theories of Piranesi for its latest Italian design

2023-07-19T18:57:00-04:00

Carlo Ratti Associati has unveiled design details for its latest hospitality sector collaboration with Italo Rota located at the Monferrato UNESCO World Heritage site in Italy.

The studio’s new Roccia project reimagines a hilltop former monastery site in Piedmont into a new residential complex. The project relies on LIDAR scans to enable a new digitally-fabricated timber skin to be inserted amongst the 400-year-old brick ruins. CRA says this element of their design strategy “suggests a new approach for renovating historical buildings" while resolving a “harmony” between the natural and artificial.

Image render courtesy Carlo Ratti Associati

The team describes: "Roccia – the Italian word for “rock” – is a hilltop monastery-turned-farmhouse in the heart of the Piedmontese countryside. The site has been in decay since a fire broke out in the early 20th century. Decades of neglect have further deteriorated the bricks and invited moss, ivy and saplings to set in. Its current conditions ev...

The toll on heritage sites in Turkey and Syria following the February earthquakes is staggering

2023-02-28T12:28:00-05:00

The catastrophic events have devastated countless heritage structures, archaeological areas and religious sites, many still active places of worship, across an area so vast that it encompasses ten Turkish provinces and impacts more than 13 million people. Though less extensively reported, damage to heritage sites is most significant in the southernmost province of Hatay. The city centre of Antakya [...] has been almost completely flattened.

The World Bank estimates the total physical damage in Turkey to be approximately $34.2 billion. The Gaziantep Castle, a 2nd-century fortress later expanded under Emperor Justinian, and Aleppo's ancient Citadel in neighboring Syria are perhaps the most significant historic sites to be heavily damaged.

All told, there were at least 173,000 structures destroyed or damaged across Turkey as a result of the outmoded building codes and blatant corruption within the construction industry.

For their part, UNESCO says they are “mobilizing [...] experts, in conjunction with its partners such as ICOMOS, to establish a precise inventory of the damage, if there is any, to safeguard these sites with the cooperation of national authorities, while being aware that their priority at this stage is emergency disaster, rescue and relief.”

Malta's chamber of architects lays out guidelines for development near ancient Megalithic temples

2023-02-23T15:25:00-05:00

The chamber of architects has issued guidelines for its members working on projects close to Megalithic temples. “As professionals in the field of architecture and engineering, it is imperative that we approach the design and planning of development projects within the buffer zones of UNESCO World Heritage Sites with the utmost care and sensitivity,” the chamber said.

This is the first time Malta’s chamber of architects and civil engineers, Kamra tal-Periti (KTP) has introduced these types of rules for UNESCO buffer zones, areas around sites with legal and customary restrictions on their use and development to protect them. KTP’s directive lays out the limitations on developments that can be carried out within the buffer zones of Megalithic temples in Malta. It also provides guidance on how to develop in compliance with the guidelines.

KTP has required that only development consistent with the purpose and intent of the buffer zones and the UNESCO World Heritage Convention can be carried out within the buffer zones designated for the Megalithic temples. Development must also be of a scale and design that aligns with the international architectural and cultural heritage value of the temples and their buffer zones. Additionally, all development within Malta’s buffer zones must be in compliance with the relevant international conservation charters, ...

UNESCO adds three heritage sites to its 'in-danger' list

2023-01-26T12:15:00-05:00

The historic center of the Ukrainian port city of Odesa and sites in Yemen and Lebanon were added to the World Heritage List Wednesday by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). All three sites were simultaneously added to UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger. The statement said that the decision would give Ukraine access to “technical and financial international assistance” to protect and rehabilitate the city center.

Both the Yemeni site and, of course, Odesa were placed under the category in response to the ongoing conflicts afflicting both countries. The latter being of constant "grave concern” to the UN’s cultural body since its inception 11 months ago.

The third site, Rachid Karami International Fair in Tripoli, was designed by Oscar Niemeyer prior to the beginning of his exile from Brazil in the early 1960s. It had been left unfinished as a result of the long Lebanese Civil War that began in 1975. UNESCO’s nomination text cites “[an] alarming state of conservation, the lack of financial resources for its maintenance, and the latent risk of development proposals” as the reason for its inscription.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is still straightening things out (a bit)

2023-01-05T12:16:00-05:00

Results from the Leaning Tower of Pisa’s annual checkup are in, as of November 30. After a stabilization project, begun in 1990, reduced the quirky monument’s dangerous lean by a full 15 inches, the tower has straightened itself out by an additional 1.6 inches since 2001. Some Italian officials are taking that optimism further, claiming the Tower could stand all the way straight on its own some day.

This is the second update to the engineering project since 2018. The tower is expected to last at least another 300 years. In a statement to the press, the Italian heritage group Opera Primaziale Pisana said the nearly 850-year-old monument's overall health was "excellent."

Repeated attempts of tourists to correct the lean themselves still appear not to be having any effects.

Ancient Roman mosaic discovered in former rebel hideout in Syria

2022-10-17T13:47:00-04:00

A massive Roman mosaic was unearthed in Syria, marking what some experts said was the most important archaeological discovery in the country in the last 20 years. The mosaic was found in the town of Rastan, outside Homs, Syria’s third largest city. Rastan was an important stronghold of anti-government forces and saw some of the fiercest clashes between the Syrian military and rebels. The region, which is rich in cultural heritage, was retaken by the Syrian government in 2018.

As reported by ARTnews, the mosaic was discovered within a site that dates back to the 4th century CE. Syria’s General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums had been excavating the location. The mosaic spans around 1,300 square feet, with each panel fashioned with small colorful stones that depict a rare portrayal of the Amazon warriors in Roman mythology. Also included are scenes from the Trojan War and a depiction of the Roman god of the sea, Neptune, along with 40 of his mistresses.

This is the first major excavation effort in Rastan since Syria’s civil war began in 2011. With only a section of the mosaic discovered, it’s presumed that it extends far wider and that other heritage sites and artifacts are present in the area. This is a significant finding, especially due to how the country’s armed conflict inundated Syrian heritage sites, many of which have been pillaged or destroyed. Most notable was the ravaging of UNESCO World Heritage Site Palmyra under ISIS control.

...

LA's Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Hollyhock House to reopen on August 18th

2022-08-10T12:58:00-04:00

Los Angeles' historic Hollyhock House will reopen to the public on Aug. 18, city officials announced. LA City Councilman Mitch O'Farrell and the Department of Cultural Affairs will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony that day to celebrate the return of in-person, self-guided tours.

The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home closed its doors at the start of the pandemic in early 2020. During this time, LA's Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) embarked on “significant transformations” at the Hollyhock House and Residence A, a guest house (also designed by Wright) located at the same site. The property saw conservation work on its cast stone, art glass windows, woodwork, and landscape. In addition, the home’s prominent fireplace was restored, and two Wright-designed sofas were reinstalled.

Previously on Archinect: Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House to reopen once again in February

The reopening aligns with the centennial of the iconic home, which was constructed between 1919 and 1921. Wright’s first LA project, it is the city’s first and only UNESCO World Heritage Site .

The Hollyhock House has undergone a significant renewal before: From 2005 to 2015, it was subject to an extensive renovation process, which focused on restoring the home and its details to its origi...

SOM to reimagine visitor experience at Egypt's pyramids and sphinx

2022-07-26T19:02:00-04:00

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and Egyptian practice Raafat Miller Consulting (RMC) have been selected to reimagine the visitor experience for the popular sound and light show attraction at the site of the ancient Pyramids and the Sphinx in Giza, Egypt.

The pair were appointed by OSL for Entertainment Projects, an Orascom Investment Holding Company (OIH). SOM will act as lead designer for the concept, design, and master plan for the project. Existing facilities will be enhanced with contemporary interventions in order to establish a world-class visitor experience while respecting unique environmental and preservation requirements.

“Visiting Giza is a rare, transformative experience that offers a glimpse into centuries of human history. As one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Giza welcomes millions of people every year,” SOM design partner Chris Cooper commented on the commission. “In reimagining the experience, our priority is to honor and preserve its history and create a sus...

This Tel Aviv residential project blends two contemporary buildings with a historic villa

2022-07-26T17:41:00-04:00

Tel Aviv-based Bar Orian Architects has unveiled a new residential project that blends past and present by integrating two contemporary buildings with a historic, early 20th-century villa.

The development, titled Villa Rothschild, sits along Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard. The original structure known as the Beit Awad Villa was designed in 1926 by Russian architect Joseph Berlin. The Eclectic-era building is part of Tel Aviv’s “White City,” which comprises a collection of over 4,000 buildings designed in the Bauhaus style and is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Photo: Amit Geron

The two new building additions in Villa Rothschild each stand seven stories and feature penthouses, a fifth-floor villa, and two garden villas. The pre-existing Beit Awad Villa was marked for preservation under Tel Aviv’s preservation plan and zoning policies, so Bar Orian Architects were restricted from making any changes to the building apart from an addition to the basement floor. In order to...

This glass pavilion atop Greenland UNESCO World Heritage site celebrates Inuit culture and heritage

2022-07-20T14:54:00-04:00

A recent project designed and built by Swedish architect Konstantin Ikonomidis located within a UNESCO World Heritage site in Greenland celebrates Inuit cultural heritage and traditional knowledge of the environment.

Called the Qaammat pavilion, the structure is situated in Sarafannguit, a cultural landscape in West Greenland and a World Heritage site since 2018. It was developed in cooperation with UNESCO, the Qeqqata Municipality, and the Sisimiut Museum.

Image: Julien Lanoo

The pavilion’s location is defined by the two fjords that meet on Sarfannguit’s eastern tip on the hills. This was carefully chosen by the local community, site manager Paninnguaq Fleischer-Lyberth and Ikonomidis. The installation will serve as a landmark and gathering space where the World Heritage site’s surroundings can be experienced by locals and visitors.

Image: Julien Lanoo

As per the architect's project description: “The Qaammat pavilion is designed as a poetic and aesthetic object, but most important...

More damage reported at Hagia Sophia as conversion impacts grow

2022-06-30T16:55:00-04:00

A number of marble tiles on the floor of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, which was turned back into a mosque in 2020 after serving as a historical museum for decades, have reportedly been cracked by heavy machinery used to clean the building last week.

“It’s like a fairground now,” one tour guide reportedly told the Turkish opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet in reference to the change in status that occurred in 2020, when the site was reconverted into a mosque and conferred back into the auspices of the Department of Religious Affairs following an edict from President Recep Erdoğan.

The conversion of one of its original World Heritage Sites has drawn the ire of UNESCO, who says it is “gravely concerned.” In the past, Erdoğan, who is facing a potential unseating in the elections next year, has called the project “a symbol of the re-rising of the sun of our civilization.”

UNESCO releases a new list of damaged cultural sites across Ukraine

2022-06-08T18:26:00-04:00

The UN’s official cultural body UNESCO has issued a new report documenting damage to an alarming amount of historic sites, monuments, and structures since the beginning of the Russian Federation’s criminal invasion of Ukraine began in late February.

The organization has verified that 139 sites have suffered damage since that time, a combined total of 62 religious sites, 12 museums, 26 historic buildings, 17 cultural buildings, 15 monuments, and 7 libraries, including the Babyn Yar Holocaust remembrance site in Kyiv, which have come under Russian bombs and artillery shells as the conflict shifts from a three-pronged invasion to a more targeted offensive focused in the eastern Donbas region.

Somewhat remarkably, none of the country’s sites listed on the organization’s official log of protected cultural property have been impacted or targeted by Russian shelling, the latter act being...

UNESCO's restoration of Iraq's historic Al-Nouri mosque site has been placed on hold

2022-04-18T14:07:00-04:00

The UNESCO-led effort to restore the historic Al-Nouri Mosque in Mosul has come to a halt this week after recent discoveries and feedback from the community have prompted a change of direction from the cultural agency.

The Art Newspaper reports that the restoration was placed on hold after months of highly public criticism leading up to January’s discovery of a 12th-century prayer hall and ritual ablution rooms underneath the mosque’s interior core.

The original plans. Rendering by Salah El Din Samir Hareedy and team

The team of Egyptian architects selected last spring to oversee the overhaul will now redraw its plans for a glass-paneled modern update to the hall. Other major changes are reported to include the scrapping of a car park in favor of a new Institute for Islamic Art and Architecture and the re-installation of original the original brick pattern to form the mosque’s famed “hunchback” minaret. Exterior elements like sun shading will be thrown out as well. The Sunni religio...

Forensic Architecture's latest investigation is a dig at one-sided Israeli archaeological pursuits

2022-04-13T12:14:00-04:00

Fresh off its recent Peabody Award win, London-based Forensic Architecture (FA) has returned to one of its most popular research sites with a new project, called “Living Archaeology in Gaza,” examining the fate of an important archaeological site under assault in the Gaza Strip.

The site in question was tentatively added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in 2012 but has since been closed off to further archaeological research and beset by damaging new construction. The group examined ten years' worth of data collected by the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem between 1995 and 2005 to produce 3D renderings of an ancient city called Anthedon that existed for two millennia until about the High Middle Ages.

Image: Forensic Architecture

What they discovered was that Israeli bombing and consolidation, combined with climate change-caused coastal erosion, has placed a considerable strain on the site, which counts among its ruins examples of building from the Byzant...

3D scanning is helping Ukrainians' risky fight to preserve their cultural heritage

2022-04-12T13:06:00-04:00

People in Ukraine are using 3D modeling tech to preserve cultural heritage sites — before they risk being destroyed by the Russian invasion. The project, called Backup Ukraine, was organized by smartphone camera capture app Polycam, which partnered with The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Vice Media Group, Danish non-profit Blue Shield Danmark, Ukraine’s Heritage Emergency Rescue Initiative, and the National Museum of the History of Ukraine.

Ukrainians’ makeshift efforts to hastily secure and protect vital sites across their country have become increasingly important given Russia’s well-documented pursuit of a Total War concept which has put civilian centers under the crosshairs with damage to residential infrastructure and cultural property becoming a frequent if not inherent result.

Users of the Polycam app can upload their scans to Backup Ukraine's project website, which will host the 3D replicas for a period of at least five years. Photogrammetry has been incorporated previously in conflicts like the Syrian Civil War that featured the deliberate targeting of monuments and other cultural relics. The U.S. Army is one prominent proponent. And it has been used recently in less-lethal disputes and the fight against climate change.

Ukrainian cultural workers are rushing to protect their country’s heritage from Russian military onslaught

2022-03-14T17:45:00-04:00

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine presses on into its fourth week, volunteers and cultural workers, a number of whom are also at arms, are rushing to erect makeshift barriers and other forms of protection against what could be a demoralizing strike against heritage sites across the embattled republic.

Brave residents in places like Odesa and other metropolitan areas have been attempting in earnest to shield several important pieces of cultural infrastructure such as the port city’s monument to Duc de Richelieu and the historically significant St. George's Cathedral in Lviv. Meanwhile, a parallel effort is also underway to secure the country’s fine arts holdings, which are also afforded special protection status under international law.

Location of museum heavily damaged by strikes in Okhtyrka, Ukraine: 50.3046154, 34.8928959

The images below were taken about 12 years apart (March 2010 and March 2022). pic.twitter.com/qqyBHcW9Sb
— Brady Africk (@bradyafr) March 12, 2022

Already there...

UNESCO issues statement over the fate of Ukrainian landmarks

2022-03-04T15:37:00-05:00

Unesco said it is “gravely concerned” about damage caused by Russia’s invasion forces in the cities of Kharkiv and Chernihiv and called for the protection of Ukrainian cultural heritage, including the country’s seven World Heritage sites.

Ukraine currently has seven landmarks on the UN cultural body’s list of World Heritage Sites (not including the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial site that was bombed on March 1st, which they also condemned). Odessa and Kharkiv are also members of the organization’s Creative Cities Network. UNESCO’s Director-General Audrey Azoulay called for their immediate protection, adding that their existence constitutes “a testimony of the past but also as a vector of peace for the future.”

Previously on Archinect: 'Barbarism': Russia appears to have targeted Kyiv’s Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial in a potential war crime

The UNESCO statement also called for the “immediate cessation of attacks on civilian facilities.” Russia has been very aggressive in pursuing a highly illegal kind of Total War in which non-military infrastructure such as apartment blocks have come under increasing air and artillery barrages resulting in the death of at least 2,000 non-combatants thus far.

The organization also said i...

The English city of Bradford develops a digital twin to help inform planning decisions and promote cultural heritage

2022-02-07T19:36:00-05:00

An online space called Virtual Bradford is set to be completed this summer that would provide a high-resolution 3D online “brick-for-brick” digital twin of Bradford, England’s city center.

The project is a collaboration between the University of Bradford and the Bradford Council. It is also partially funded by the European Union SCORE project, which aims to improve public service through smart open-data solutions. It is hoped Virtual Bradford can help how the city deals with planning, air pollution, traffic management, flood risk, noise pollution, along with the creation of green space.

“Virtual Bradford represents a revolution in terms of city planning,” said Professor Chris Gaffney, Chair in Archeological Sciences at the University of Bradford. “It will enable people to look at the built environment in a virtual 3D world, and then see what impact new developments have on things like surface water drainage, noise pollution, clean air and visual impact.”

“One of the biggest issues...

Saudi Arabia plans new hotel development near Diriyah World Heritage site

2021-12-29T09:00:00-05:00

Marriott International has announced plans to open two luxury hotels in Saudi Arabia’s Diriyah. The properties will be located near the Unesco World Heritage site at At-Turaif, offering views of the historic town of Diriyah on the outskirts of Riyadh.

The Saudi crown prince recently reiterated his intentions to finalize the planned 2030 development strategy for Riyadh, which would more than double the population of the country's capital backed by a public-private partnership worth approximately $500 billion at a low estimate.

Marriott says the two hotels will be completed in 2022 and 2025 respectively. The design includes a luxury development and is part of a larger plan that would transform an eleven-square-kilometer swath of the town of Diriyah, 15 minutes outside the capital, in a mixed-use scheme promoted to be reminiscent of the typical Najdi architecture which dots the area first added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in 2010.

Berliners are pushing to add the Berghain techno club to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites

2021-12-27T20:02:00-05:00

The world’s premier techno capital is back under the grip of the pandemic, but that hasn’t stopped its vanguard from seeking a special status for venues like the Berghain from an international cultural organization with a reputation for being as formidable as its famous bouncer.

The Guardian is reporting that a group of club owners, DJ’s, and festival organizers, collectively known as Rave the Planet, is pushing to get the club and several other dance spaces such as Tresor added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites owing to what it says are existential threats caused by gentrification and years of business failures.

The city’s club scene has been hard put by COVID-19 restrictions that have shuttered venues across Berlin and accelerated a trend which had been affecting businesses since well before the lockdown began.

“So many venues have closed in just the seven years I’ve lived here full time. In other cities, it would be the natural club cycle at work, but Berlin is a different...

UNESCO's new World Heritage chief says its time to expand Africa's standing on the list of endangered sites

2021-12-22T15:59:00-05:00

“Despite its vast size, sub-Saharan Africa has never been proportionately represented on Unesco’s world heritage list… Now, the first African to be made head of the world heritage centre has said that needs to change – and fast. Lazare Eloundou Assomo, a Cameroonian who led the reconstruction of the Timbuktu mausoleums after they were badly damaged in 2012 by Islamist fighters allied to al-Qaida, has said it will be a priority of his time in office.”

Africa is currently the least represented continent (behind the Arab nations) in terms of the representation of cultural sites on the U.N. list, though it does account for 30% of all sites the organization considers to be endangered.

Assomo was appointed as Director earlier this month and told The Guardian he plans to pursue an ambitious strategy that will both protect and enhance the status of important sites spread throughout what he called “the cradle of Humankind.”

“The training and capacity-building of heritage experts is an area where we will have to put more emphasis on in the future to help address this imbalance,” he said. “Africa is today on the frontline of the effect of climate change. This is also something which makes us believe that mobilizing our efforts for existing world heritage sites in Africa should be a priority.”

Afghan cultural officials fear worst is yet to come for historic monuments as Taliban resume power in Afghanistan

2021-08-18T17:32:00-04:00

Do leopards change their spots? One only has to look at the command structure of the Taliban and their supporters to feel that there won’t be much of a change from 2001—and it might well be worse. [...] Much of the archaeological landscape has simply gone. Many of the Buddhist monuments were dynamited in 2001, partly in search of portable antiquities to loot.

Some of Afghanistan's museums had reportedly begun preparations months ago, others are at a loss as fear and paranoia grips what remains of civil society after a 20-year occupation. The city of Herat poses a special risk as its educational heritage and historic citadel have led some to the comparison of the ancient Vietnamese imperial city of Hue that was destroyed during the 1968 Tet Offensive.

Several Afghan artists have already shuttered their studios preemptively in fear of the Taliban’s wrath. The Art Newspaper has more on museum responses and their potential cultural impacts here.