Kicking off our celebration of all the great work that came out of 2016, we have some personal favorites from our writers and editors. We'll take the time to toast the prize-winners later, but for now, these are a few of the projects that we just loved from 2016:
Julia Ingalls
Big idea intangibles can often result in a pass/fail situation for architects; either they create something astonishing, or something astonishingly bad. OMA's attempt to tackle grief in this joint work with an artist provides the right mix of personal interactivity and procedure while simultaneously giving form and a kind of comfort to an experience we invariably all must tackle at some point.
Steven Holl's University of Iowa Visual Arts Building
Steven Holl is one of my all-time favorites because his works usually always enhance qualities already present in the site. His mastery of natural light distinguishes him, and is on prominent display here: the entire building serves as a kind of oversize prism, reflecting and refracting and creating new opportunities for visual delight.
MAD's 'Invisible Border' Salone de Mobile installation
The beauty of this project is not necessarily in its physical execution, but in its political statement. Here we have the idea of impermeable boundaries, of creating a world that could somehow coexist without the need for stringent concrete boundaries. (I know, that's so pre-2016.)
Nicholas Korody
The conservative bent of preservation is increasingly being questioned within the discipline, leading to unexpected and exciting projects. OMA is at the forefront of this experimentation, and I thought the Fondaco dei Tedeschi was a great demonstration of an innovative relationship to history.
Herzog & de Meuron's Schaudepot
I have mixed feelings about a lot of Herzog & De Meuron's recent output, but I found their Schaudepot for the Vitra Campus an austere beauty. It looks like something out of a de Chirico painting!
It's always refreshing to see a compelling kid-oriented design that is both engaging in its own right, and actually fun for kids. I love the eye-catching form of MAD's Clover House, and the slide is any kid's dream.
Amelia Taylor-Hochberg
I mean it in the best possible way when I say that Snøhetta's SFMOMA expansion is totally forgettable. It packs a fair amount of much-needed space into a tight SOMA-streetscape without compromising Mario Botta's distinctively po-mo frontage, with its own "iceberg" look that is distinctive but not imposing. Without shouting about it, it gets its job done beautifully.
COBE and MVRDV's Ragnarock Museum
Maybe it's just because 2016 has been so depressing, but this loud and colorful museum in the festival-famous city of Roskilde is such a breath of fresh air. COBE and MVRDV make a simple yet sassy play on the "glitzy and spectacular” legacy of rock 'n' roll, with a concept that repeats a single geometric element to a satisfying finish.
NLÉ's Serpentine Gallery 'Summer House'
BIG's pavilion might have stolen the spotlight at the Serpentine Gallery this year, but I think NLÉ's Summer House can hold its own anywhere. It's a beautifully sculptural take on the history of the site, while also encouraging a variety of interactions and encounters. I'd like to see it in more public parks.
Justine Testado
This building exemplifies Grafton Architects' distinct knack for designing refined buildings with bold spatial configurations. I would love to explore this building in person.
Aside the house's cozy color palette and pretty furnishings, my favorite part of this house are those walls of shelves (minus the thought of how much cleaning those shelves would require).
Olson Kundig's "Welcome to the 5th Facade"
I can always appreciate a classically pensive sci-fi tale, especially one that is based on an investigation of urban rooftops — and with gorgeous illustrations to boot. If there were more chapters in this short story, I'd read it!
Alexander Walter
The design team around Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa managed to make my heart skip a beat this year when first photographs of the newly completed Grace Farms “River” building surfaced: light, airy, playful, humble, gentle, and curious; like a genuine friend's warm embrace, the structure gently meanders through Grace Farms' New Canaan topography like it's no big fucking deal.
Tadao Ando's 152 Elizabeth Street
Tadao Ando has proven time and time again that he is an unrivaled master of creating enchanting, often sacred, spaces of lasting beauty. While much of his œuvre was allowed to exist in the luxurious vacuum of pristine nature or, if in an urban context, had the privilege to wrap itself with towering concrete walls, I am excited to see him wave his trademark wand of brutalist minimalism at a strictly residential development with all its site- and genre-specific challenges in the heart of New York City. The building won't be finished for a while, but the continuously updated renderings do look promising.
Like a 15-story academic machine, Zaha Hadid's Jockey Club International Tower sits snugly embedded in the tight urban mesh that is Hong Kong. Unusually vertical for a ZHA project, it still bears all the characteristics of the late Dame's dynamic 'darting vector' formal language and sense of materiality that lends the imposing tower the playfulness of a polished beach pebble.
Find more reflections on 2016 here.
10 Comments
Love NLE's Summer House. Sorta PoMo, but restrained.
UTEC also looks super cool; complex, urban.
The thought of cleaning those high shelves makes the Penthouse unlovable to me.
i'm sure the residents of that penthouse don't do much of their own cleaning.
an architect's first question to the client in the design process for luxury residential should always be: "so how much 'help' do you have?"
are these the best you could come up with?
Snohetta's museum looks like they came up with a cool shape designed to taker advantage of a brand new material, found out it wouldn't fit (or they couldn't figure out how to end the thing at the south street side) and cut the model with a hot wire. Easy-peasy. No heavy lifting required. And the street gets an ass-ugly, poorly arranged bullshit facade to boot!
richardmontena, does it state this was to be "The Best", or more precisely, Editor's Favorites? If you have "The Best" please, post them, or get thee to Trump Tower.
obviously, not
precision usually strong
this time not so much
im not a poet
this one isn't about you
december is cold
You walked into the party
Like you were walking on a yacht
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf, it was apricot
You had one eye on the mirror
And watched yourself gavotte
And all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partner
They'd be your partner, and
You're so quondam
You probably think this song is about you
You're so quondam,
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you?
Don't you?
Oh, you had me several years ago
When I was still naive
Well, you said that we made such a pretty pair
And that you would never leave
But you gave away the things you loved
And one of them was me
I had some dreams, they were plans in my coffee
Plans in my coffee, and
You're so quondam
You probably think this song is about you
You're so quondam, you're so quondam
[i cheated]
It's Fifty A-K-A Ferrari F-50
Break it down
I got a lot of living to do before I die
And I ain't got time to waste
Let's make it
You said you a gangster but you never pop nuttin'
We said you a wanksta and you need to stop frontin'
You ain't a friend of mine (yeah)
You ain't no kin of mine (nah)
What makes you think that I won't run up on you with the nine
We do this all the time, right now we on the grind
So hurry up and copy and go selling nicks and dimes
Shorty she so fine, I gotta make her mine
A a** like that gotta be one of a kind
I crush 'em every time, punch 'em with every line
I'm f***ing with they mind
I make 'em press rewind
They know they can't shine if I'm around the rhyme
Been on parole since ninety-four 'cause I commit the crime
I send you my line, I did it three to nine
If D's ran up in my crib, you know who dropping dimes
You said you a gangsta
But you never pop nothing
We said you a wanksta
And you need to stop frontin'
You go to the dealership
But you never cop nuttin'
You been hustling a long time
And you ain't got nothing
You said you a gangsta
But you never pop nothing
We said you a wanksta
And you need to stop frontin'
You go to the dealership
But you never cop nuttin'
You been hustling a long time
And you ain't got nothing
Damn Homie, in high school you was the man, homie
What the f*** happened to you?
I got the sickest vendetta when it come to the chedda
And if you play with my paper, you gotta meet my berretta
Now shorty think I'm a sweat her, sipping on amaretto
I'm living once than deada, I know I can do better
She look good but I know she after my chedda
She tryna get in my pockets, homie and I ain't gonna let her
Be easy, stop the bulls***, you get your whole crew wet
We in the club doin' the same ol' two step
Guerrilla unit cause they say we bugged out
'Cause we don't go nowhere without toast we thugged out
You said you a gangsta
But you never pop nothing
We said you a wanksta
And you need to stop frontin'
You go to the dealership
But you never cop nuttin'
You been hustling a long time
And you ain't got nothing
You said you a gangsta
But you never pop nothing
We said you a wanksta
And you need to stop frontin'
You go to the dealership
But you never cop nuttin'
You been hustling a long time
And you ain't got nothing
Me I'm no mobsta, me I'm no gangsta
Me I'm no hitman, me I'm just me, me
Me I'm no wanksta, me I'm no acta
But it's me you see on your TV
'Cause I hustle baby, this rap s*** is so easy
I'm gettin' what you get for a brick to talk greasy
By any means, partner, I got to eat on these streets
If you play me close, for sure I'm gonna pop my heat
N****s saying they going murd' Fifty, how?
We riding 'round with guns the size of Lil Bow Wow
What you know about A-Ks and are fifteens?
Equipped with night vision, shell catchers and F-bangs, huh
You said you a gangsta
But you never pop nothing
We said you a wanksta
And you need to stop frontin'
You go to the dealership
But you never cop nuttin'
You been hustling a long time
And you ain't got nothing
You said you a gangsta
But you never pop nothing
We said you a wanksta
And you need to stop frontin'
You go to the dealership
But you never cop nuttin'
You been hustling a long time
And you ain't got nothing
[oops i, did it, again]
let's get back to the subject matter please.
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