Archinect - News

Damien Hirst cancels his Ilfracombe eco-town plans

2017-01-06T13:44:00-05:00

Isn’t Ilfracombe already a town? Yes, but Hirst was deeply involved in the application process for an eco-friendly, 750-home development known as the Southern Extension. That’s a terrible name for a town. Which is probably why the scheme was known as Hirst-on-Sea until recently. Until recently? Hirst, who lives nearby, has now withdrawn from the project. His company, Resign, says it could not find a developer to build houses “in keeping with our vision”.

Looks like Damien Hirst's plan to build 750 eco-friendly homes in the English seaside town of Ilfracombe isn't going to happen after all.

When we first reported about the artist's town-development ambitions back in 2012, the announcement was greeted with skepticism from Archinect readers. Two years later, everything still seemed jolly fine with the North Devon Council approving the plans.

The endeavor even inspired the studio project "Visionary Cities Project" at the University of Illinois at Chicago with students applying urbanist archetypes to Ilfracombe's blank development site.

The Guardian reader Patrick Ryan praises Hirst as a sensible businessman in the comment section and blames "Brexit dark clouds" over the UK's property market as a legitimate reason to pull the plug.

What's your take? Chime in below.

Damien Hirst's surprisingly restrained gallery space opens in London today

2015-10-08T15:30:00-04:00

For an artist who used to chop up cows and ambush people with his foreskin, his new south London HQ is notably subdued. The facade is not encrusted with dead butterflies nor diamond skulls, nor is there the clinical air that his eerie white production facility in Gloucestershire exudes. In fact, it looks a bit like a block of luxury docklands apartments – a couple of old brick warehouses with a polite in-keeping brick extension. Has the 50-year-old prankster finally grown up?

Previously on Archinect:

Opening of Damien Hirst’s new London art space scheduled for October

2015-06-30T15:57:00-04:00

Opening in October, Newport Street Gallery is the realisation of Hirst’s long-term ambition to share his diverse collection – which includes over 3,000 works – with the public. [...] Designed by architects Caruso St John, Newport Street Gallery spans 37,000 square feet, which includes a restaurant and shop. Its construction has involved the conversion of three listed Victorian buildings [...].

Previously: Damien Hirst's gallery development draws closer to completition

"Visionary Cities Project" applies urbanist archetypes to Damien Hirst's blank development site

2015-04-10T14:58:00-04:00

Students in UIC’s “Visionary Cities Project” have pitted a selection of urbanist theories against one another, to see how historical visions of urbanism compare on a common ground. The studio, run by Alexander Eisenschmidt at the University of Illinois at Chicago, takes urbanist models and schemes from the likes of Piranesis, Le Corbusier, and Hilberseimer, and reinterprets them on the blank slate of an upcoming development for the city of Ilfracombe, on the UK’s southern coast. In reality, Ilfracombe’s new district is being developed by the artist Damien Hirst, with a plan for suburban subdivisions. But the UIC studio is interpreting the expansion as a “cultural instigator”; producing a collection of drawings that Eisenschmidt calls “HiDef Cities of Architectural Urbanism.”

Eisenschmidt provided the following "Historical Context" for the studio:

Architectural urbanism has a long history, which only by the mid-20th century was questioned as the urbanisms of modernism were unable to re...

Damien Hirst's gallery development draws closer to completition

2014-12-29T13:39:00-05:00

Damien Hirst’s new art complex in south London, which will house Modern and contemporary works drawn from the artist’s collection as well as natural history objects, will be free of charge when it opens to the public in 2015. After more than a decade in development, the gallery, which runs the length of Newport Street in Vauxhall, is due to open in the summer. [...] design by Caruso St John Architects, which converts and extends three Grade II-listed theatre carpentry workshops, in 2005.

Previously: Damien Hirst's London art space due to open next spring

Weekly News Round-Up for July 28, 2014: Exploding pipelines and contentious museums

2014-08-04T14:58:00-04:00

Friday, August 1

Gas Pipelines Explode in Taiwan City Killing 24: The cause of the propene pipeline explosion is still unknown, but officials noticed irregularities in the pipe's flow hours beforehand, without investigating further.
Jacko's Neverland Ranch is up for sale at $50-75M: Michael Jackson's Disneyland-esque compound in Santa Barbara was handed back to Tom Barrack's Colony Capital in 2008, when Jackson was heavily in debt. With $5M in annual upkeep, Colony Capital is now selling the property.
Plans approved for Damien Hirst's village on the British coast: Hirst will collaborate with Architects Rundell Associates on the 75-home city. Renderings are surprisingly conventional when compared to Hirst's work.

Thursday, July 31

New Renderings of What Will Replace Grafitti Art Mecca 5Pointz Emerge: Unsurprisingly, it's two residential towers: with some mixed-use space on the ground floor, and 20% affordable housing. Designed by HTO Architect, the buildings will have some space set as...

Plans approved for Damien Hirst's village on the British coast

2014-08-01T14:07:00-04:00

Outline plans for the project were approved by the North Devon Council this week. The village will officially be known by the surprisingly prosaic name Southern Extension, and will include shops, a primary school, a sports pitch and woodlands. [...] The project will include 75 affordable homes, and will be built over the next 10 to 15 years. Renderings show an extremely typical suburban town filled with identical houses and strolling pedestrians.

Hirst is collaborating with the Architects Rundell Associates, who have yet to complete such a large scale project. Related news from the world's richest living artist:

Damien Hirst's London art space due to open next spring

2014-07-23T13:27:00-04:00

Damien Hirst’s art complex in south London, which was initially due to open this year, will take a little longer to complete. A spokeswoman for Science Ltd, Hirst’s company, says that it is now due to open “in May or June” next year. The centre, which is designed by Caruso St John architects, runs the length of Newport Street in Vauxhall. The former theatre carpentry and scenery production workshops will become six galleries. Office space and a restaurant are also planned.

Artist Damien Hirst's eco-homes vision to regenerate town is unveiled

2012-02-18T19:45:00-05:00

ARTIST Damien Hirst has unveiled plans to build more than 500 landmark eco-homes in Ilfracombe, which he hopes will regenerate the town and provide a national blueprint for environmental housing. Architects working for Hirst, said to be the richest living artist in the world, hope to submit a planning application for the development at Winsham Farm in six months.