Think about the artists who have put out too much work. How many lame Eddie Murphy or Adam Sandler movies must we suffer? What about Eminem’s cringeworthy new album? Or the last couple from U2, Coldplay, and Madonna? When was the last time a James Patterson novel was actually good? — Medium
The central disappointment of these spaces is not that they are so narcissistic, but rather that they seem to have such a low view of the people who visit them. Observing a work of art or climbing a mountain actually invites us to create meaning in our lives. But in these spaces, the idea of “interacting” with the world is made so slickly transactional that our role is hugely diminished. Stalking through the colorful hallways of New York’s “experiences,” I felt like a shell of a person. — The New York Times
In this snarky piece, New York Times critic-at-large Amanda Hess recounts what it was like visiting as many of these hyped-up Instagrammable "museums" that have popped up around the U.S. in recent years. “What began as a kicky story idea became a masochistic march through voids of meaning. I... View full entry
Last week saw the announcement by Elon Musk that Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa would be the first private passenger aboard the Tesla CEO's Big Falcon Rocket. Alongside, it was also suggested that Maezawa would invite a group of artists to come along on his trip to the moon, expected to... View full entry
The $200 million expansion adds 11 rooms constructed of stacked concrete blocks that are connected by a glass-walled passage and surround an 18,000-square-foot water court. [...]
The Glenstone addition also has a strong outdoor component, with 130 acres of meadows, woodlands and streams, designed by Adam Greenspan and Peter Walker of PWP Landscape Architecture. Among the sculptures integrated into the landscape are those by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Ellsworth Kelly and Richard Serra.
— The New York Times
“We considered the landscape as the inspiration,” said Thomas Phifer, architect of the five-year Glenstone expansion project. “The visitor’s arrival is choreographed through the trees and open fields, heightening your experience with the land and revealing the subtle qualities of the site... View full entry
Henry Clay Frick’s venerable Old Master paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and porcelain seem destined for a change of scene.
In an unusual game of musical chairs, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Frick Collection announced today (21 September) that the Met will vacate the Brutalist Breuer building on Madison Avenue in 2020. Its departure will make way for the Frick to move in late that year while its mansion undergoes a renovation and expansion five blocks away.
— The Art Newspaper
Click here to catch up with Archinect's coverage of the not entirely undramatic Frick Collection expansion saga. View full entry
MVRDV has recently completed The Imprint, a new 2-building art and entertainment complex next to Seoul’s Incheon Airport. Featuring a nightclub in one building and indoor theme park in the other, the windowless structures are part of the larger Paradise City complex of 6 buildings next to South... View full entry
As the second installment of the “Prada Invites” series, Kazuyo Sejima, Elizabeth Diller and Cini Boeri all worked with the Italian label to create designs from the classic Prada Nylon. “Prada Invites” is intended to look at the intersectionality of design, leading to conversations and collaborations between different design disciplines. — Hypebeast
What was once a military warehouse that stored mines for the Royal Danish Navy is now the new BIG-designed home of the famous Noma restaurant in Copenhagen. Located between two lakes in the city's Christiania community, Noma 2.0 was envisioned as an “intimate culinary garden village,” BIG... View full entry
The Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) has announced their upcoming exhibition Design for Good: Architecture for Everyone, curated by John Cary. Opening on September 23, the museum will showcase projects featured in Cary's book Design for Good. Women’s Opportunity Center in Kasungu, Rwanda, by... View full entry
Bold and unforgiving, the Brutalist landmarks and modernist housing estates which sprang up across Europe in the wake of the Second World War still dominate cities in the former Eastern bloc. [...]
The Calvert Journal talked to designers and creatives across the New East who are now reclaiming socialist-era Brutalism as a driving force behind their work, changing mindsets, updating old designs for the modern age and making their own statements on gentrification, nostalgia and innovation.
— The Calvert Journal
The Brutalism-inspired design products by (mostly Eastern) European creatives Calvert Journal talked to range from stylish Russian flower vases to nostalgic Slovak pre-fab panelák furniture, German post-war housing cuckoo clocks, a Modernist Belgrade Map, and Polish miniature tower block... View full entry
With flawless blue skies and the latest landmarks of cutting edge design, postcards from across the Soviet Union were miniature propaganda posters for the success of the communist system.
Showcasing brutalist hotels, futurist TV towers, and bold concrete tower blocks, each image is a snapshot of the transformative decades between 1960 and 1990: from the endless optimism of Khrushchev's Thaw, to the closing years of the Cold War.
— calvertjournal.com
These Soviet Union postcards have been collected as part of a book project, Brutal Bloc Postcards, featuring some of the most iconic brutalist landmarks within the Eastern Bloc. Many of these structures are now abandoned, derelict, or completely gone. Take a look at this unique glimpse into the... View full entry
The buildings aren’t the work of celebrated modernist architects such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe or Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. They bear no resemblance to the towering glass and steel monuments to postwar rationalism that you see downtown. They house doctors’ offices and dry cleaners, furniture stores and accounting firms. Some are vacant, their prim hedges and topiary gone to seed. — chicagomag.com
Architectural photographer and critic Lee Bey discovered a group of quirky modernist buildings on a section of Chicago's Peterson Ave. Overlooked and unkempt, these low-rise gems draw from Southern California's modernist vernacular prompting an unexpected, sunny and 60's nostalgia on... View full entry
Elon Musk has revealed Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa as the potential first passenger to be launched to the moon by Musk's private aerospace company, SpaceX. Ranked the 18th richest person in Japan, Mr. Maezawa is the founder of the online fashion retail website Zozotown. He is also known... View full entry
“As a teenager I became very interested in street-dance culture and was active on the Scandinavian breakdance scene,” the artist Olafur Eliasson tells his friend and collaborator Anna Engberg-Pedersen in our new book, Olafur Eliasson Experience.
This admission is a slight understatement. In 1984, the nascent artist’s three-man troupe, Harlem Gun Crew, actually won the Scandinavian breakdancing championships.
— phaidon.com
Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson discusses his teenage breakdancing years in relation to how he thinks of architecture and space. Eliasson links the body awareness of moving through an urban landscape in dance to his development in spatial thinking as an artistic practice in design and... View full entry
The Architectural League of New York is getting ready to host this year's Beaux Arts Ball, a benefit for their programs taking place September 28 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Attendees will enjoy a night of festivities around the site-specific installation, 16 Salt Tarps, Half Red Half White, a... View full entry
