To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the I.M. Pei-designed Musée du Louvre Pyramid, Airbnb has partnered with the museum to offer the exclusive opportunity of a night inside the iconic glass structure. Courtesy of AirbnbAccording to contest's website, the night begins with a VIP after hours tour... View full entry
Bill Heine, who famously put a 25 foot fiberglass shark by the sculptor John Buckley on top his house, has passed away. A BBC radio broadcaster, Mr. Heine spent a good sum of his time protecting what he saw as a fight for creativity. Placed without planning permission in 1986, the unusual home... View full entry
The artist Christo has announced plans to wrap the Arc de Triomphe in Paris next spring, covering the Champs-Élysées landmark with almost 25,000 sq. m of silvery blue fabric, made of recyclable polypropylene, and 7,000 metres of red rope. The piece, entitled L’Arc de Triomphe Wrapped (Project for Paris, Place de l’Etoile-Charles de Gaulle), which will be on view 6-19 April 2020, will be overseen by officials at the government body the Centre des Monuments Nationaux and the Centre Pompidou. — The Art Newspaper
"Its realization will coincide with a major exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou, from March 18 to June 15, 2020, retracing Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s years in Paris from 1958 to 1964, as well as the story of The Pont-Neuf Wrapped, Project for Paris, 1975-85," explains the artist's... View full entry
The past two years have been particularly costly for insurance companies that are on the hook for billions of dollars in damage done by hurricanes, wildfires, floods and other disasters. As these disasters become more frequent and expensive, in part because of climate change, insurers are investing more in this research facility that studies how to protect homes and businesses from destructive wind, water and embers. — NPR
Opened in 2010, the IBHS Research Center offers full-scale testing of buildings and their materials under the harshest conditions. There, researchers are able to simulate Category 3 hurricanes and replicate wildfires in order to find best practices for mitigating the losses incurred by various... View full entry
David Adjaye's ruby-red art museum in San Antonio, Texas is set to open to the public in October 2019. It is the Ghanian-British architect's first project in Texas. Famous for his behemoth buildings, Ruby City—which is described by Adjaye himself as a "very shy building"—offers a quiet stop in... View full entry
What was once a project designed to add nearly 50,000 square feet of critically needed gallery space committed to showcasing the museum’s impressive and still-growing permanent collection of paintings, sculptures and other global works of art has been turned on its head. Now, rather than enlarge the capacity, the scheme is to reduce the existing gallery square footage by more than 10,000 square feet. — Los Angeles Times
The criticism of Peter Zumthor's newest proposal for the LACMA campus offered by LA Times writer Christopher Knight is simple: it offers 10,000 less square footage than what it will replace! "I couldn’t name another art museum anywhere that has ever raised hundreds of millions of dollars to... View full entry
The controversial Tulip skyscraper in the City was granted planning approval today despite huge concerns about its impact on historic views of London.
The decision by the City of London Corporation’s planning committee paves the way for the 305.3-metre high structure on Bury Street, which will be western Europe’s second tallest building after the Shard.
— Evening Standard
Despite all controversy surrounding the 1,000-foot-tall Tulip Tower, the Foster + Partners-designed project appears to have breezed through the approval process since it was first unveiled last November. Credit: DBOX for Foster + Partners"This building—a lift shaft with a bulge on top—would... View full entry
When built in 1989 by Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei, the glass pyramid was derided as a sacrilegious addition to the historic Louvre Museum. But three decades later, the once-reviled Louvre Pyramid has become a beloved Paris landmark and highly-visited tourist attraction. This weekend, the... View full entry
Since opening in March, Thomas Heatherwick’s Vessel at Hudson Yards has caught headlines for its ostentatious design, its billing as “public art”, its repudiation of the tenants of accessibility, and its overreaching rights to the photos taken by visitors. Also drawing plenty of scrutiny is... View full entry
The much-anticipated Jewel Changi Airport, with more than 280 shops and food and beverage outlets, will open its doors to the world on April 17....The highlights include a five-storey garden with 2,500 trees and 100,000 shrubs, with two walking trails. There is also a 40m-high Rain Vortex - the world's tallest indoor waterfall. — The Straits Times
The spiritual architecture of Swiss architect Mario Botta is the subject of an exhibition at the Ringturm Exhibition Centre in Vienna. Building studies, drawings, and photography are brought side by side to reach an understanding of how Botta conceptualizes and designs religious experiences through the built environment. — Wallpaper
Religious places of worship often prompt a sense of reverence and deep reflection. For some these sacred buildings provide peace, and for others perhaps a bit of anxiety. Nonetheless, Swiss architect Mario Botta has designed and completed 22 religious buildings during his 50-year career as an... View full entry
A project that took a little over six years to design and construct opened its doors this week along Huangpu River in Shanghai's West Bund. The brainchild of famed Chinese collector and businessman Qiao Zhbing, Tank Shanghai consists of five preserved oil tanks which are connected by OPEN... View full entry
[...] the museum site is surrounded by the urban landscape of a modern city, but it still remains under the influence of the desert and the sea, the French architect tells The Art Newspaper in an interview in his Paris studio.
Hence his choice of a design inspired by the desert rose, a flower-like cluster of gypsum crystals, which he sees as the “most powerful symbol of the desert, and the influence of wind, time and water”.
— The Art Newspaper
Interviewed by The Art Newspaper, Jean Nouvel talks about his design process that lead to the creation of the monumental National Museum of Qatar which opened in the capital city of Doha this week. "The place has become a pedestal for images, a sort of transmitter, a tattooed museum," Nouvel... View full entry
“Paris changes! But nothing in my melancholy
Has changed. New palaces, scaffolding, blocks of stone,
Old neighbourhoods, all turn to allegory
And memories weigh more than stone.” - from The Swan by Charles Baudelaire
— Kunstkritikk / Nordic Art Review
A tragicomic cultural and architectural critique of consumer modernities by Will Bradley. "Every architect in Europe (and beyond) is hustling for a piece of the future Oslo. Their visions are wildly, overtly, perhaps clinically at odds with reality." A must read, h/t Ron Linden via Peter... View full entry
For decades, Open Concept, and the togetherness-loving, friend-filled lifestyle it was supposed to bring, has been a home buyers’ religion, the one true way to live. Go to Houzz, the home remodeling site, type in “open concept,” and up come 221,569 photos. Over on HGTV, DeRon Jenkins, costar of the popular “Flip or Flop Nashville,” will tell you, as he recently told the Globe, that an open floor plan “allows the love to flow.” But now, experts say, people are starting to openly yearn for walls. — Boston Globe
Uninterrupted space. This is what real estate agents, interior designers, and almost every host on HGTV have promoted for the past decade. However, design experts are saying that people are beginning to miss walls. Homeowners realize they don't want to live in this "fantasy of uninterrupted... View full entry
