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Herzog & de Meuron's new Royal College of Art Battersea Campus opens to the public

2022-05-23T17:49:00-04:00

Big news today as Herzog & de Meuron’s anticipated expansion of the Royal College of Art has officially opened in the Battersea district of London.

Characterized by a fusion of seven separate facilities into one combined structure, the new £135 million ($169 million) complex entails the creation of new social and educational spaces for the Sculpture, Contemporary Art Practice, and Moving Image departments as well as for the RCA’s School of Design.

Photo: Iwan Baan, image courtesy Royal College of Art

The 15,500-square-meter (167,000-square-foot) campus also sought to aid the shift in the 185-year-old institution's postgraduate offerings towards a more strengthened set of STEAM programs, which is seen in the addition of a new tech-centric eight-story research center, robotics hangar, and a center for enterprise, entrepreneurship, incubation and business support called InnovationRCA.

Photo: Iwan Baan, image courtesy Royal College of Art

Writing in the Guardian today, critic Oliver Wain...

Studio Ma has been selected to lead the design for UNM's College of Fine Arts expansion

2021-07-05T19:44:00-04:00

An art school in New Mexico is banking on an ambitious plan that hopes a leading regional firm’s name power will drive a cultural revival in a state holding a pivotal place in the history of American art.

Studio Ma has been tapped to lead the design for the University of New Mexico’s College of Fine Arts new master plan that will incorporate a five-step holistic process to develop an expanded academic facility in collaboration with Albuquerque-based firm Dekker/Perich/Sabatini.

A university press announcement pointed to the studio’s prominence in the field as a reason for choosing the firm University Architect Amy Cobourn referred to as “talented and engaging.”

Arts Lab. Photo courtesy of the University of New Mexico.

Studio Ma has guided the efforts to Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix campus tower complex, a massive science center at ASU’s original Tempe location, and a graduate dormitory that opened in 2017 at Princeton.

“The University of New Mexico is a locus in the ...

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to inaugurate Glassell School of Art on May 20, completes first phase of redevelopment

2018-05-15T18:48:00-04:00

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will celebrate the inauguration of the Glassell School of Art this Sunday, May 20, marking the completion of the first phase of the museum's 14-acre redevelopment. The first phase also includes the BBVA Compass Roof Garden designed by Steven Holl Architects and The Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza by Deborah Nevins & Associates.

According to recent details from the MFAH, the Steven Holl Architects-designed, L-shaped Glassell School of Art features a 93,000 square-foot interior containing: three dozen studios illuminated with natural light; public gallery spaces for student and alumni exhibitions; a broad-stepped central staircase serving as the school's forum; a 75-seat auditorium; and a public coffee bar. With summer classes scheduled to begin on June 4, the school is the only museum-affiliated art school in the U.S. serving pr...

The architecture of Cuba's revolutionary (and endangered) National Art Schools

2016-09-13T17:43:00-04:00

Designed by three architects, one Cuban and two Italian, the new schools were constructed in flamboyant, sinuous forms deliberately reflecting the local landscape. Built in brick and terracotta as a pragmatic response to the US embargo of imported steel, ... these were a confident repudiation of Western-style International Modernism. But of the five original schools in the complex, only two were completed, as the deepening relationship with the USSR prompted disdain for such exotic forms