Archinect - News

Snøhetta's design for a new French asylum court seeks to offer ‘a place of calm during a time of intense turmoil’

2023-02-17T11:52:00-05:00

Snøhetta has been chosen to design a new National Court of Asylum and Administrative Court in Montreuil, France. The proposed scheme sees the two courts arranged on one site around large green areas, offering what the team calls “a place of calm during what can be a time of intense turmoil.”

Image credit: Aesthetica.Studio for Snøhetta

The court will function as a place where judges hear the cases of individuals who appeal against decisions made by the wing of the French government overseeing refugees and asylum seekers. Hearing thousands of annual cases of people from over 160 countries, the court is considered the final jurisdiction for deciding the future of asylum seekers in France, overseeing residence permit disputes, refusals, and orders to leave the country.

Image credit: Aesthetica.Studio for Snøhetta

Recognizing the positive impact of natural environments on mental and physical health, the scheme seeks to use the natural landscape as an extension of the court, including a 75...

UK court blocks Adjaye’s controversial Holocaust Memorial

2022-04-08T11:44:00-04:00

David Adjaye and Ron Arad’s design for a UK Holocaust Memorial has been halted by the country’s High Court following a legal challenge. As reported by UK outlet Building Design, the £100 million ($130 million) proposal was ruled to have been in breach of a one-hundred-year-old law which protected the site from development.

The case was brought to court by the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust, who appealed a previous decision by the UK government that the project could proceed. Opponents of the scheme included senior religious figures, local community groups, and some Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors.

The scheme was due to be constructed in London’s Victoria Tower Gardens. Those who filed the legal challenge claimed that the plans did not comply with the London County Council (Improvements) Act 1900, which prohibited Victoria Tower Gardens from containing an...

Architect sues client for using work without payment or permission after being dismissed from project

2022-04-05T09:00:00-04:00

A Pennsylvania-based architecture firm has filed a civil lawsuit in the state’s Middle District Court against a former developer client for breach-of-contract and copyright infringement. Murray Associates Architects filed the suit against Pine Ridge Construction Management on March 28th, claiming that Pine Ridge has continued to use Murray’s design, drawings, and renderings for a proposed project after Murray was terminated from the project without payment and without a licensing agreement for Pine Ridge to continue using Murray’s work.

Events began in Spring 2020, when Murray was selected by Pine Ridge to serve as architects for the company’s bid to design and deliver the mixed-use Basin Street Development Project for Lycoming College at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, which would be housing retail, office, and residential uses. Murray delivered conceptual studies, graphics, and Revit/BIM drawings for Pine Ridge’s bid for the project, which was submitted to Lycoming College in June 202...

Indian bar legally evades closure by adding 250-meter long maze entrance

2017-04-18T12:38:00-04:00

Since April 1 a large number of the bars, pubs and liquor shops across India has gone out of business, thanks to a Supreme Court order that the outlets should be at least 500m away from state and national highways...The Aishwarya Bar in North Paravoor, a Kochi suburb has built a 250m-long maze-like walkway to the entrance, theoretically making it more than 500m away from the highway.

In a move that has even delighted the bureaucrats who initially drafted the rule that no bar could be within 500 meters of a highway, an Indian bar has managed to stay in business by virtue of building a 250 meter long maze that, like the snaking lines at an amusement park, greatly expands the literal number of feet one must traverse to get to the bar's actual entrance. While this clever invention may necessitate a designated walker to help steer patrons back out, it ranks among the best architectural interpretations of law we've seen in some time. Cheers!

h/t bldgblog

Construction on Heatherwick's Pier55 halted due to court order

2016-06-30T17:28:00-04:00

An appellate court on Thursday halted construction on Pier55... Crews had just begun work on the $130 million green space... The opponents, led by the City Club of New York, filed suit in state Supreme Court in June 2015, arguing that the Hudson River Park Trust, the entity that manages and operates the park, did not go through the proper channels to launch the project and didn't adequately study the potential environmental impacts of Pier55.

The 2.7 acre, Thomas Heatherwick-designed park, which is funded largely by the Diller-von Furstenberg family, has been controversial for both its design and for the alleged secrecy surrounding it.

"The project is significantly imperiled at this point, and we are very happy about that," Richard Emery, the attorney representing the plaintiff stated. "We think this is a project borne of secrecy and deception, and should not be part of the city landscape without a very different approach to getting public and government approvals."

A spokesperson for Pier55 Inc, on other hand, said, "By continuing its misguided crusade, the City Club is obstructing the will of the local community and undermining a much-needed effort to create new public parks in New York City."

The state appellate court ordered work to be halted until September, when the case will be heard.

For more on Pier55 and other Heatherwick projects, check out these links:

Mumbai high-rise at the center of Adarsh Society scam to be demolished, High Court rules

2016-04-29T15:05:00-04:00

In an order that sends a strong message against corruption, the Bombay High Court on Friday ordered the Union Environment Ministry to demolish 31-storey Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society. [...] The society, originally meant to be a six-storey structure to house Kargil war heroes and war widows, was converted into a 100-metre-tall building with politicians, bureaucrats and army officers allegedly conspiring to get flats allotted to them in the cooperative society at below-market rates.

Click here to learn more about the Adarsh Housing Society scam and corruption scandal.

Legal limbo continues for Christoph Büchel's Venice Biennale Mosque

2015-08-12T14:20:00-04:00

A court in Venice has refused to fast-track a legal claim filed by the Icelandic Art Center (IAC) seeking the reopening of artist Christoph Büchel’s mosque, which launched earlier this year in a disused church in Venice as part of the Biennale. The IAC is the commissioner of the controversial project, which was housed in the former Catholic church [...]. The mosque closed at the end of May after only two weeks when city officials claimed that it breached health and safety regulations.

Previously in the Archinect News: Police Shut Down Mosque Installation at Venice Biennale