German architect Werner Düttmann (1921-1983), a prominent postwar modernist, designed the Brutalist St. Agnes Church in 1967 as the centerpiece of a social housing community of the Kreuzberg area of Berlin, which had been leveled in World War II. After years of neglect and threats of demolition, the church has made a comeback, reopening this May as König Galerie following a three-year restoration. Werner Düttmann served as the West Berlin senate building director in the 1960s. He assigned the St. Agnes project to his own firm, which had significant experience with public works projects. Designed with the strength and functionality
As If It Were Already Here, suspended above Fort Point Channel Park, is comprised of 100 miles worth of rope. Janet Echelman’s massive new installation in downtown Boston hovers 365 feet above the ground at its highest point and weighs 2,000 pounds. Titled As If It Were Already Here, the sculpture, suspended above Fort Point Channel Parks, is comprised of 100 miles worth of rope and exerts 100,000 pounds of force on the Intercontinental Hotel, one of the anchor points for the project, when the wind blows. When dealing with forces of that magnitude, it’s no surprise that Echelman—who was
New Yorkers can take the subway to Coney Island and Angelenos can cool off in Venice or Santa Monica, but Washingtonians are out of luck if they want to hit the beach—the shore is a three-hour drive away. Alex Mustonen and Daniel Arsham, partners of the New York design studio Snarkitecture, thought that Washington, D.C. could use a beach of its own. So they created one inside the National Building Museum, filling a giant pit with almost a million plastic balls that visitors can float on or swim through. The pit, which opened on the Fourth of July, is fronted
Cooper Union today announced that Nader Tehrani will be taking over as the new dean of the college's Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, effective this month.
Swiss furnishings manufacturer Vitra has teamed up with Spanish shoe company and design patron Camper for a pop-up project that reimagines the retail experience. Located inside a futuristic tent construction (once a Detroit car showroom in the mid-‘70s) on the Vitra campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany, the project opened on June 18. The companies commissioned Berlin-based architect Diébédo Francis Kéré, originally from Burkina Faso, to design a space inside the tent: a modular, donut-shaped pavilion made of blockboard. The zig-zag orientation of panels creates seating, LED-illuminated shelving, and display space on both sides of the freestanding walls. Kére, known
“Has ‘The Lighthouse’ Found Support?” boldly queried the Helsinki daily newspaper’s leading headline the morning after the June 23 announcement of the winning entry of the Guggenheim Museum’s year-long, two-phase, open international design competition to produce “a museum for the 21st century” as an extension of its branded franchise operations in the Finnish capital. The competition and its long-awaited result have been aimed at persuasively reinvigorating the Guggenheim’s dogged five-year saga in “the White City of the North,” following the Helsinki City Council’s 2011 rejection of the proposed museum branch and its financing. The headline’s question neatly condensed several aspects
New projects by Sou Fujimoto and Hiroshi Sambuichi add to the cultural attractions on Naoshima Island. Sou Fujimoto's new waterfront pavilion. On Naoshima, the 3.15-square-mile island in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea that Tadao Ando and other architects have turned into a popular station on the art-world pilgrimage route, the projects keep coming. In March, Sou Fujimoto completed a metal-mesh pavilion on the waterfront that lures visitors and local residents to climb inside its faceted form, while Hiroshi Sambuichi has designed a community center that will serve as a venue for Bunraku, a traditional form of Japanese puppetry, when it opens
Each year, the nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation publishes a list of the most endangered historic places in the United States. The 2015 list comprises 11 geographically and culturally diverse buildings, areas, and natural features. More than 250 sites have been recognized since 1988, and the National Trust, along with local preservationists and community partners, has played a role in saving dozens of historical sites through this annual act.Click on the slide show above to view the 2015 list.
Although clouds gathered above MoMA PS1’s courtyard Tuesday, it was evident—despite intermittent showers—nothing would rain on architect Andrés Jaque’s parade. “COSMO is ready to party!” he declared. COSMO, the winning proposal for this year’s Young Architects Program (YAP) pavilion, was designed by Jaque’s Madrid and New York-based firm, Office for Political Innovation and will serve as a colossal canopy for the museum’s Warm Up concert series, as well as a self-contained ecosystem that will filter 3,000 gallons of water. In short, COSMO is the architectural love child of a disco ball and a science project.This is the 16th year of
Photo courtesy Michael Graves Architecture & Design Shortly before he died on March 12, Michael Graves gave his last artwork to the Sir John Soane Museum in London. A longtime advisor to the fabled house museum’s New York-based fundraising foundation, Graves donated the acrylic-on-paper piece, 5.8 by 8.3 inches, as part of an auction to help the Soane digitize its extensive drawings collection. On June 22, Steven Holl found he was the new owner of the unframed work: His bid of $2,500 is being matched by the Leon Levy Foundation in this intensive effort to electronically archive 18,000 items. Holl
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