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UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture Ernesto Ottone R, Thomas Vonier, President of the International Union of Architects (UIA), and Verena Vicentini Andreatta, Municipal Secretary of the City of Rio for Urbanism, on Friday 18 January announced that the city of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) will be the World Capital of Architecture for 2020. — UNESCO
The new World Capital of Architecture initiative is part of a recent partnership between UNESCO and the International Union of Architects (UIA) and allows the designated city to host the triennial UIA World Congress. Under the theme "All the worlds. Just one world," Rio de Janeiro is expected... View full entry
From the sinking city of Venice to the mass bleaching of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, climate change is drastically impacting some of the world's most treasured heritage sites. To date, over 1,000 bucket-list locations have earned a spot on UNESCO's World Heritage list on account of their "outstanding universal value" to humanity. But, if the world continues to warm, many of these landmarks may lose some of those "outstanding" values or even cease to exist at all. — CNN
As of 2019, one out of four UNESCO World Heritage Sites is under threat by climate change, each with few protections against their respective worst case scenarios. Increased humidity, rising sea levels and other climatological factors are newly placing increased pressure of century and... View full entry
Made official yesterday at the beginning of the new year, the US has now withdrawn from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Along with Israel, the two countries first announced that they would be leaving the organization in October of 2017, citing anti-Israel... View full entry
A collection of eight Frank Lloyd Wright buildings have been nominated by the United States to the World Heritage List. Submitted by the National Park Service, the nomination will be reviewed by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in July of 2019. Widely considered one of the greatest American... View full entry
The ancient city of Palmyra in Homs, Syria, which was severely damaged by the extremist group Isis, is set to have its artefacts restored and be ready for tourism next summer, Syrian government says.
“The authorities now have a project to repair all the damage caused to Palmyra's Old City,” say the Homs' provincial governor Talal Barazi [...]. “There are also good offers from the world powers to restore the artefacts and historical value of Palmyra. [...]"
— The Art Newspaper
First seized and severely damaged by ISIS militants in the spring of 2015, then briefly retaken under Syrian government control, recaptured again in December 2016 and eventually freed four months later, the ancient architectural treasures of Palmyra, a Unesco World Heritage site, have suffered... View full entry
At around 12,000 years old, Göbekli Tepe in south-east Turkey has been billed as the world’s oldest temple. It is many millennia older than Stonehenge or Egypt’s great pyramids, built in the pre-pottery Neolithic period before writing or the wheel. But should Göbekli Tepe, which became a Unesco World Heritage Site in July, also be regarded as the world’s oldest piece of architecture? — The Art Newspaper
T-shaped limestone pillars. Image: Wikipedia.Archaeological research of the ancient Göbekli Tepe ruin site in present-day Turkey suggests that the impressive monolithic structures, believed to date back to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic era (10th–8th millennium BCE), might in fact be the first... View full entry
India has proposed a ban on plastics, polluting factories and construction around its 17th-century monument to love, the Taj Mahal, a government document showed, in a bid to stave off pollution that is turning the structure yellow and green.
In a draft document submitted to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, authorities in Uttar Pradesh said they would ban all plastics, switch to electric and hydrogen vehicles, and boost the green cover within the precincts of the Taj, to fight pollution.
— Reuters
"The document was submitted after the justices, in a fit of anger during a hearing two weeks ago, demanded that authorities either restore the structure or tear it down," Reuters reports. "One of the seven wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal is flanked by a garbage-strewn river and is often... View full entry
The Taj Mahal in Agra could be closed unless the Indian government steps in and saves the neglected landmark, says India’s Supreme Court. “Either we shut down the Taj or demolish it or you restore it,” the two-judge committee told state officials last week. [...]
The Supreme Court says that it will monitor the situation on a day-to-day basis from 31 July.
— The Art Newspaper
Frustrated with the slow response from officials in charge of restoring the deteriorating Taj Mahal, India's highest court demanded swift action to stop the ongoing discoloration of the iconic Unesco World Heritage site caused by pollution and millions of tiny insects, saying: "We want you to... View full entry
How could an architect who had made the pursuit of lightness the essence of his design aspirations become one of the great form-givers of the aesthetics of weightiness? — Places Journal
In this rich examination of the work of Marcel Breuer, Barry Bergdoll explores the marked shifts between his early European and later American work, and finds a constant in the pursuit of lightness. In his efforts to reconcile vernacular traditions with modern expression and the conditions of... View full entry
The destruction of Syria’s heritage over the past eight years is the subject of a significant show due to open at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in Doha later this year. The exhibition, entitled Syria Matters (opens 23 November), aims to explore the country’s centuries-old “extraordinary cultural heritage” against the backdrop of the raging conflict that has seen the destruction of six Unesco world heritage sites under President Bashar al-Assad. — The Art Newspaper
This week the U.S. announced their intention to withdraw from UNESCO at the end of 2018. President of the AIA, Thomas Vonier, responded in support of the organisation. Full release follows: Washington, D.C. – October 16, 2017 –The American Institute of Architects (AIA) today issued the... View full entry
Detroit was the first North American city to obtain such a designation, which joined it to UNESCO's Creative Cities Network — a group 22 international cities whose aim is "to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development. — Detroit Metro Times
Earlier this week, president Trump announced the U.S's withdrawal from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias and mounting arrears. The decision could affect Detroit's 'City of Design' designation, earlier awarded to the Detroit Creative Corridor, a non-profit initiative to strengthen Detroit's... View full entry
The United States plans to withdraw from UNESCO, citing financial reasons, as well as what it said was anti-Israel bias at the U.N.’s educational, cultural and science organization. — the Washington Post
This morning, the U.S. notified the organization of their intention to withdraw at the end of 2018. Unesco, the United Nations cultural organization, supports a variety of programs promoting education, natural sciences, social/human sciences, culture and information around the world, but is... View full entry
The International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled on 17 August, that an Islamic extremist caused €2.7m in damages when he destroyed shrines in Timbuktu, Mali, in 2012. This is the first time that the ICC has made a ruling solely on cultural destruction, setting an important precedent. [...]
Islamic extremists used pickaxes and bulldozers to destroy nine mausoleums and the centuries-old door of the Sidi Yahya mosque, built during a golden age of Islam [...].
— theartnewspaper.com
By ruling that "the destruction of the protected buildings has caused the suffering of people throughout Mali and the international community," the International Criminal Court in The Hague acknowledged the demolition of cultural heritage as a war crime — potentially treating recent acts of... View full entry
Syrian government troops have retaken Palmyra from Islamic State forces, with help from Russian air support, the Syrian army said in a statement on Thursday. Politicians in Russian welcomed the news as a triumph, as widely reported by the state’s media, but few details have emerged about the condition of the ancient site, where Isil has previously wreaked large-scale destruction. [...]
Isil first took Palmyra in May 2015 and the extremist group destroyed a number of important monuments [...].
— theartnewspaper.com
The Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities & Museums published an initial set of photos of the extent of destruction after ISIS troops had been driven out of Palmyra's archaeological sites on March 2, 2017.↑ Roman Theater↑ Tetrapylon↑ Triumphal Arch (previously on... View full entry