Archinect - News

Steven Holl and SKUPINA-designed Terezín Ghetto Museum advances

2024-02-02T15:16:00-05:00

Steven Holl Architects is advancing toward the start of their Terezín Ghetto Museum project in the Czech Republic. The firm was named the winner of an international competition to design an extension of the existing museum in 2022 and will deliver the project on the site, which was first constructed as a citadel in 1780. The Schematic Design phase was completed in March.

Commemorating the lives of an estimated 33,000 Jews that were lost under Nazi occupation in Terezín between 1939 and 1942, the Museum is an important tool in the culture sector’s response to antisemitism and will result in a “hopeful new presence” in a country whose social fabric is seen by some as being strained by hate groups and far-right extremists.

Image courtesy Steven Holl Architects

SKUPINA, the 21-year-old studio founded in Prague by Marcela Steinbachová, is included as the co-architect of the scheme. The pair had previously collaborated on a small renovation project for the interiors of the Franz Kafka Soci...

Dig this: Lipton Plant reimagines a WWII bunker as a holiday home on England's Jurassic Coast

2021-08-27T17:08:00-04:00

A unique restoration is turning an old war relic into an offbeat holiday destination on England’s Jurassic Coast thanks to the work of Lipton Plant Architects.

The London-based firm, which specializes in residential projects, has been granted planning approval for a scheme that would transform a Grade II-listed bunker from the Second World War into a private abode for vacationers with a Paul Virilio-esque palette.

The restoration will entail the conversion of the former RAF radio squadron bunker into a two-bedroom retreat thanks to the installation of a glazed “bomb blast” opening and renovation of its 76-square-meter interior complete with exposed original concrete walls, a terrace patio, and full kitchen.

Concept illustration. Image © Lipton Plant Architects

Per the architects: “We hope to celebrate the significant historic yet redundant structure as a historic ruin. By ‘blasting’ a new opening in the elevation, not only can the space be enjoyed as a holiday home, but views of the...

Nazi bunker to become new hotel in Hamburg

2019-10-22T18:30:00-04:00

"A former Nazi bunker in Hamburg, built by forced laborers to shelter tens of thousands of Germans during Allied air raids in World War II, will soon house hotel guests," reports The New York Times (NYT). Fit with a five-story terraced roof garden, the hotel will house 136 rooms, and is due to open in mid-2021.

The bunker was one of thousands built by the Nazi's during the war. A spokeswoman for NH Hotel Group, the organization designing the new space, told NYT that the group is "aware of the history of the building" and that they "would like to send a positive signal to the city of Hamburg.

Thomas L. Doughton also spoke to NYT, expressing how "part of the concern with some people in Hamburg, as well as in other locations in Europe and elsewhere is that the real significance of some of these sites will become lost."

The hotel will include a 560 square foot exhibition space to commemorate the structure's past, seeking not to "hide the history," but instead "to make it more visible."

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The fate of immovable Nazi bunkers

2019-06-07T11:30:00-04:00

On the 75th anniversary of D-Day, we reflect on the remaining architectural vestiges of World War II, an event that incurred the death of nearly 50,000,000 people and shifted the borders of countries and continents.

In 1975, the theorist Paul Virilio published Bunker Archaeology, a documentation of some of the 1,500 bunkers that were built along the French shores by the German army as a defense against an anticipated invasion from the United Kingdom during World War II. "It all started - it was a discovery in the archeological sense of the term - along the beach south of Saint-Gucnolc during the summer of 1958. I was leaning against a solid mass of concrete, which I had previously used as a cabana." Through dramatic photo documentation, Virilio saw the bunkers as a way to merge the study of their physical attributes with the existential questioning of war and violence.

Facade for heavy artillery. Photo by Paul Virilio.

Observation post on a channel island. Photo by Paul Virilio.

Viri...

Dig into more photos of BIG's “invisible” Tirpitz Museum

2017-07-13T16:19:00-04:00

The BIG-designed Tirpitz Museum in the Danish coastal town of Blåvand recently had its grand opening and already appears to be attracting plenty of visitors to the historic site. Unlike its heftier neighbor, the German WWII Tirpitz bunker, the museum finely cuts into the dune landscape and appears to be hidden.

The project's distinct form has already drawn a quirky comparison to a “freshly sliced hot potato” from Bjarke Ingels himself. On the flip side, the museum is designed to serve as a “portal to the Danish West Coast's treasure trove of hidden stories”, says Claus Kjeld Jensen, the Director of the Varde Museum. The Tirpitz Museum intends to take visitors on a scenic journey through the light and dark chapters of the region's history.

Photo: Mike Bink

Photos: Mike Bink

Photo: Colin John Seymour

The 2,800 m2 museum complex consists of concrete, steel, glass, and wood — four materials and elements that are also found in existing structures and landscape of ...

Bjarke Ingels compares the shape of the just-opened Tirpitz Bunker Museum to a freshly sliced hot potato

2017-07-07T15:20:00-04:00

Due to the surrender of German forces in WWII, the Tirpitz Bunker's construction was never completed leaving the dugout as a dark presence on the sandy coast of Denmark. The 3.5 meter thick concrete fortification is the country's largest bunker and was intended to be part of Hitler's Atlantic Wall defenses. Due to its strategic position near the coast, the bunker would've helped protect the sea route to the Port of Esbjerg, a major intermodal hub for the Nordic region. While the Allies blew up many of the bunkers in the region, the Tirpitz was saved. The site has been used as a small museum since 1991 and has previously held concerts and art shows within the moss-covered bunker walls. In 2012 as part of a 7,500-square foot development, it was decided to expand the museum.

Today, hidden under the dunes, the new Tirpitz Museum, designed by Bjarke Ingels, has finally been transformed with four distinct galleries alongside the original bunker. The museum will explore both the lighter an...

Bjarke Ingels' Tirpitz bunker hill museum in Denmark to open on June 30

2017-06-28T18:33:00-04:00

The elegant new museum [...] is the antithesis of its hefty, imposing neighbour [the Tirpitz, part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall]. A series of incisions appear in the sand dunes, leading to a hidden, airy square from which the exhibition spaces radiate [...] Visitors embark on a “daylight” journey and a “darkened experience” that tell the story of how the tides brought wealth and stability to the area on the one hand, and took lives on the other.

Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, the new Blåvand bunker hill museum in Denmark's West Jutland region will be opening to the public on June 30. Integrated into a historic sand dune next to the Nazi-era Tirpitz bunker, the elegant museum is a “light antithesis to bunker architecture”, BIG describes. The museum will feature three exhibitions designed by Tinker Imagineers that explore both the lighter and darker chapters of the region's history.

A video tour of MVRDV's "The Stairs"

2016-05-26T17:12:00-04:00

It's not exactly a staircase to heaven (more of a "symbolic arising of the city after World War II"), but the intimate rooftop views provided by MVRDV's "The Stairs" of Rotterdam are spectacular. Plus, the gleeful discussion of temporariness by architectural video duo #donotsettle's Wahyu Pratomo and Kris Provoost is worth a watch alone, along with a cameo by MVRDV co-founding director Winy Maas:

MVRDV is building a giant staircase to honor Rotterdam's post-WWII reconstruction

2016-04-08T14:05:00-04:00

As one of the first major structures built during Rotterdam's post-World War II reconstruction efforts, the centrally located Groot Handelsgebouw is a marker of the city's vision for urban development through the end of the 20th century, functioning both as an office complex and monument. Adjacent to the Stationsplein, the square in front of Rotterdam's Central Station where thousands of commuters pass through daily, the Groot Handelsgebouw area is a major hub and vantage point from which to survey the city.

MVRDV's The Stairs, a public staircase installation accessible for one month early this summer, honors all of these elements – providing a public space from which to view the city's development, linger in the square, enjoy the historic Groot Handelsgebouw's rooftop, and refer (through its scaffold-inspired design) to the ongoing construction efforts of post-WWII Rotterdam, the 75-year mark of which is being celebrated this year with the concurrent "Rotterdam celebrates the city!"...

London air raid tunnel shelters re-opened after 70 years

2016-01-14T05:11:00-05:00

One can now find the place where many South Londoners took refuge during World War II. The tunnels at Clapham, now open to the public for the first time, once catered for over 8,000 people. After lying dormant for 70 years, the tunnels and beds left untouched have been reopened.

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