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London’s suggestive skyline already boasts a Gherkin, a Walkie Talkie and a Cheesegrater. Soon they may be joined by the Golf Ball. According to plans seen by the Guardian, a giant glass sphere taller than St Paul’s Cathedral could be built next to the Olympic park in east London. [...]
One design visualisation shows that the lower half of the orb would be fitted with tiered seating, while the upper half would form a spectacular vaulted roof.
— The Guardian
The Guardian has published a rendering of a new proposed concert venue resembling a giant glass sphere that could even dwarf St Paul's Cathedral. In typical London fashion, the project near the Olympic Park has already been dubbed "the Golf Ball," however the design's fate and origins remain... View full entry
Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has defended proposals for a high-rise, mixed-use scheme in London – described as a ‘breakthrough project’ for the practice – following criticism over its size and location. Shortly before Christmas, the firm submitted plans to Lambeth Council [...] The scheme, the practice’s first major mixed-use residential and commercial development in the UK, has been dubbed a ‘two-fingered salute’ by opponents, who claim the proposals are too big for the site. — architectsjournal.co.uk
Zaha Hadid Architects combatted criticism of their proposal for the Vauxhall Cross Island site in London. Critiques of ZHA's plan claim the design overcrowds the area with towers that are too tall overshadowing the surrounding area and creating traffic congestion. ZHA director Jim Heverin... View full entry
Zaha Hadid Architects designed a proposal for the Vauxhall Cross Island site in London. Located adjacent to Vauxhall Station, the proposal focuses on creating a Vauxhall district center by providing a mixed-use space to generate employment opportunities and a new public square to accommodate... View full entry
A major new public art work by Rachel Whiteread modelled on a suburban US house will be unveiled next week at the new US Embassy in Nine Elms, south London. The wall sculpture, titled US Embassy (Flat pack house; 2013-1015), will greet embassy visitors as they enter into the lobby through the consular court. The work was commissioned by Art in Embassies, a US governmental body. — The Art Newspaper
Artist Rachel Whiteread's name has become synonymous with the production of architectural interventions, invention and material playfulness through her large-scale artist sculptures, specifically her casts of the interiors of buildings. Her newest addition, installed in the US Embassy titled, US... View full entry
London’s new US embassy may be just a glass cube with disguised fortifications, but it is also restrained, efficient, green… the antithesis of Donald Trump [...]
It’s a fortress, of course it is. As the embassy of the Great Satan to the Little Satan – as the unlamented Ayatollah Khomeini would have put it – it couldn’t not be a target and defended accordingly. The architects therefore decided to make it as nice a fortress as possible [...].
— The Guardian
The new embassy in Battersea Nine Elms seen from across the river Thames. Image via Wikipedia.Only a few more days until the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in the United Kingdom move into the new digs (designed by KieranTimberlake) in Nine Elms on January 16. Sans Trump. View full entry
The Queen has appointed Tim Knox, 55, the director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, to be the new director of the Royal Collection Trust. He has been the museum’s director since 2013 and is an architectural historian and country house curator. [...]
His early career was spent at the Royal Institution of British Architects. He then served as the head curator of the National Trust (2002-05), from which he went on to be the director of the Sir John Soane’s Museum (2005-13).
— The Art Newspaper
"The Royal Collection is one of the world’s greatest, comprising more than a million objects from all aspects of fine and decorative art," The Art Newspaper writes. "It is not the personal property of The Queen, but is held in trust by Her Majesty for her successors and the nation." View full entry
Confidence in the future prospects of UK architects falls as 2017 comes to a close. RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) released their Future Trends Workload and Staffing Indexes for the end of 2017 and the numbers are not looking good. The Workload numbers dropped dramatically just over... View full entry
Some of the world's biggest architecture firms have been competing for plots in this winter's tastiest property market -- the Gingerbread City.
Recently opened at the Museum of Architecture in London, the miniature metropolis is brimming with contemporary -- and almost entirely edible -- buildings.
Around 50 companies specializing in architecture, engineering and landscaping have baked and built structures for the project.
— CNN Style
Photo: Luke Hayes.If you're in London this week, make sure to get into the holiday spirit the architectural way and stop by the Museum of Architecture's Gingerbread City before it closes this Friday — and nothing but cookie crumbs will remain. Competing gingerbread bridges (gingerbreadges?) by... View full entry
Each year, the NLA (New London Architecture) runs a competition celebrating the best in home extensions and improvements. Now in its seventh year, the 2018 shortlist shows more than ever the value of good design in home improvements, and how architects can work with tight constraints to create... View full entry
Over two years after the groundbreaking, the new Maggie's Centre Barts in Central London finally opened earlier this week. Located throughout the UK, Maggie's Centres offer free practical and emotional support for people who live with cancer and their loved ones. Steven Holl Architects, along... View full entry
At $1 billion, it is the most expensive embassy ever constructed. But its designers say the new American chancery on the Thames River marks a paradigm shift: The U.S. Embassy here will exude openness while hiding all the clever ways it defends itself from attack.
After decades of building American embassies that look brutalist or bland, like obvious fortresses, the soon-to-be-opened chancery in London is a crystalline cube, plopped down in the middle of a public park, without visible walls.
— washingtonpost.com
Image via the U.S. Embassy in London's TwitterThe KieranTimberlake-designed U.S. Embassy in London is preparing for its grand opening on January 16, and the building pleasantly departs from the increasingly common drab 'fortress' chic that American chanceries in cities with heightened risk of... View full entry
Celebrating its upcoming 250th anniversary year, the Royal Academy of Arts will open a new campus to the public in May 2018. The design for the redevelopment is by Sir David Chipperfield CBE RA, and will bring new (and free) collections to the public with 70% more space than the current footprint... View full entry
Out of the 208 households that needed rehousing after the fire, 118 will still be in emergency accommodation or with friends over the holiday period, including 29 families with children. A further 48 households have accepted permanent housing offers, but have not yet moved in and are currently still in temporary homes, [support group] Grenfell United said. Days after the fire the prime minister, Theresa May, promised that families would be rehoused within three weeks. — The Guardian
In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, progress has been painfully slow to permanently rehouse all the families who lived in the west London tower block. “Only 42 families have moved into new permanent homes, leaving 166 households still in temporary housing,” The Guardian reports... View full entry
Hackney's Museum of the Home, Geffrye, has teamed up with Go Compare to offer an interactive tour through over 400 years of English urban homes. The museum, which will close in January 2018 for a two-year refurbishment, is set in an 18th century Grade I listed almshouse and explores home and home... View full entry
This year, the group has expanded aggressively into the City of London, snapping up floor space usually reserved for large corporates over the year to date, including large offices in Moorgate — its largest site globally — and at One Poultry, a Grade II listed building directly opposite the Bank of England. — Financial Times
The start up WeWork has acquired One Poultry, the Grade II post-modern icon designed by James Stirling and completed in 1998. After a heavily contested designation, the building is currently in the process of undergoing an extensive refurbishment headed by Architects BuckleyGreyYeomen and expected... View full entry