Banksy had just put the finishing touches on his latest artwork on an abandoned farmhouse in in Kent, England, when shortly after completion, a construction crew demolished the building. Entitled Morning is Broken, the work featured a silhouetted cat and a boy with arms outstretched opening two dilapidated sheets of iron, which were shaped like curtains. — Hypebeast
News of the demolition spread across media channels and social platforms like Instagram and Twitter. A report from The Guardian explained that the site, owned by Kitewood, was "earmarked for dozens of new homes" as demolition on the site began on Tuesday, March 14. When workers began demolishing... View full entry
HBO’s The Last of Us has taken the TV world by storm, with its season finale recently airing last Sunday. The show has brought to life the immensely popular and acclaimed video game series, placing viewers into a dire post-apocalyptic, zombie-ridden world. Following the journey of... View full entry
The Australian Naomi Milgrom Foundation has announced former Pritzker winner Tadao Ando will design the 10th MPavilion commission in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens. Ando is now the seventh architect selected for the prestigious five-month-long commission, which began in 2014 and has since... View full entry
Just over one year since Chris Cornelius took up his role as the Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of New Mexico, the architect and educator has spoken to The New York Times on how his career was informed by his upbringing and his Oneida heritage. An enrolled member of the... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced a new partnership with CBS on the second season of America ByDesign it says will help to showcase “the immense value of architecture to a national mainstream audience.” Each architect featured in the six-episode series will be an AIA... View full entry
Notre-Dame Cathedral's spire will be back in place by the end of the year, but a full reopening following the devastating fire of 2019 will not happen before next year's Paris Olympic Games.
The reconstruction is still on track for completion by the end of 2024, the culture ministry told AFP.
But the sharp spire, added by architect Eugene Viollet-Le-Duc during the cathedral's redesign in the 19th century, will be back in place by the end of 2023, the ministry said.
— France 24
This setback constitutes a major blow to French President Emmanuel Macron’s lofty initial promise to have the restoration work completed in time for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games. Spectators had called into question whether or not the goal was feasible or even salutary from the... View full entry
A hidden corridor nine metres (30 feet) long has been discovered close to the main entrance of the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza, and this could lead to further findings, Egyptian antiquities officials said on Thursday. — Reuters
The discovery was made under the Scan Pyramids project, a program launched in 2015 that aims to explore and discover ancient Egyptian Pyramids using non-invasive and non-destructive techniques. The group, which includes Cairo University and the French Heritage Innovation Preservation (HIP)... View full entry
Shigeru Ban Architects is operating in Turkey in response to the devastating earthquake that killed more than 50,000 across the region last month while leaving an estimated 3 million unsheltered in two countries. The firm’s non-profit Voluntary Architects' Network (VAN) released details Thursday... View full entry
The catastrophic events have devastated countless heritage structures, archaeological areas and religious sites, many still active places of worship, across an area so vast that it encompasses ten Turkish provinces and impacts more than 13 million people.
Though less extensively reported, damage to heritage sites is most significant in the southernmost province of Hatay. The city centre of Antakya [...] has been almost completely flattened.
— The Art Newspaper
The World Bank estimates the total physical damage in Turkey to be approximately $34.2 billion. The Gaziantep Castle, a 2nd-century fortress later expanded under Emperor Justinian, and Aleppo's ancient Citadel in neighboring Syria are perhaps the most significant historic sites to be heavily... View full entry
China is pushing forward a draft development plan to construct some 245 new museums in its capital by the year 2035, according to reports coming out of Beijing last weekend. The plan from the Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau calls for there to be a total of 460 museums by the end of the... View full entry
Adjaye Associates has completed their Abrahamic Family House project in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The development is comprised of three religious spaces: a mosque, a synagogue, and a church, all of which sit upon a secular visitor pavilion, with a mission of “nurturing the values of peaceful co-existence... View full entry
The chamber of architects has issued guidelines for its members working on projects close to Megalithic temples. “As professionals in the field of architecture and engineering, it is imperative that we approach the design and planning of development projects within the buffer zones of UNESCO World Heritage Sites with the utmost care and sensitivity,” the chamber said. — maltatoday
This is the first time Malta’s chamber of architects and civil engineers, Kamra tal-Periti (KTP) has introduced these types of rules for UNESCO buffer zones, areas around sites with legal and customary restrictions on their use and development to protect them. KTP’s directive lays out the... View full entry
The 18th Venice Architecture Biennale officially announced its 89-strong slate of participants for this year’s exhibition titled “The Laboratory of the Future,” curated by the Scottish-Ghanaian architect and academic Lesley Lokko. Opening May 20th, the Biennale will run through November 26th... View full entry
Populous has revealed designs for its new 20,000-seat multipurpose soccer stadium in Indianapolis. Their design for the city’s Indy Eleven professional soccer franchise will anchor a larger mixed-use development located at the southwesternmost corner of downtown that includes apartments, a hotel... View full entry
The new Stanley Museum of Art at the University of Iowa has opened fifteen years after historic flooding destroyed the campus’ previous arts destination. Designed by BNIM, the new venue serves as a learning and teaching laboratory for the arts and a hub for the wider campus. Image credit: Nick... View full entry
