Japanese architect Shigeru Ban receives the 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize

CHICAGO, IL.- Shigeru Ban will receive the 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Tom Pritzker, Chairman and President of The Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the prize, made the announcement today. Shigeru Ban, a Tokyo-born, 56-year-old architect with offices in Tokyo, Paris and New York, is rare in the field of architecture. He designs elegant, innovative work for private clients, and uses the same inventive and resourceful design approach for his extensive humanitarian efforts. For twenty years Ban has traveled to sites of natural [...]

Most complete exhibition ever devoted to Le Corbusier opens at CaixaForum Barcelona

BARCELONA.- Architect, city planner, painter, interior designer, writer, editor, photographer and amateur film-maker. Le Corbusier was a multidisciplinary artist who amazed the world with his creative power and unconventional ideas. Through 215 objects illustrating the full dimensions of his creative processes, the exhibition Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Modern Landscapes explores the many facets of an artist regarded today as a key figure in 20th-century architecture. The result is a truly extraordinary experience, the most complete exhibition devoted to the architect [...]

Exhibition explores the role that Grup R played in the modern aesthetic in Catalan culture

BARCELONA.- The Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona presents Motor of Modernity. Grup R. Architecture, Art and Design, an exhibition that examines the impact of this group’s activities in the consolidation of modernity in Catalan architecture, art and design after the Civil War. The buildings designed by members of Grup R. have now become valuable examples of the modern architectural heritage, while the exhibitions, competitions and debates that they organised helped to boost and internationalise Catalan culture, aligning it with the main European [...]

Kunsthal in Rotterdam opens exhibition on the astonishing story of women’s shoe design

ROTTERDAM.- The Kunsthal Rotterdam reveals the astonishing story of women’s shoe design from 1900 to the present during the Spring of 2014. “S.H.O.E.S” – Sexy Heels Or Easy Sandals – exhibits more than 500 shoes created by celebrated designers such as André Perugia and Salvatore Ferragamo, international “stars” Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin, as well as contemporary and rising young talent. Shoes as genuine, finely fashioned objets d’art, ranging from Victorian boots to seductive slippers and from high heels to futuristic pieces. [...]

Seven architectural practices from around the world transform the Royal Academy of Arts

LONDON.- Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined will see the Main Galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts transformed by seven architectural practices from around the world. The RA has commissioned the architects to create site-specific installations; the shared brief is to explore the essential elements of architecture. Instead of representations of buildings in the form of models, plans or photographs, the RA is re-defining the traditional architectural exhibition to immerse visitors in a multi-sensory experience. Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined considers architecture from the angle [...]

Exhibition at Design Museum in London celebrates British fashion designer Paul Smith

LONDON.- The Design Museum invites you into the world of fashion designer Paul Smith, a world of creation, inspiration, collaboration, wit and beauty. Looking to the future as well as celebrating his career to date, the exhibition references Paul Smith’s influences and fashion designs, charting the rise of one of the world’s leading fashion brands. Looking at the impressive scale of its global operation today, the exhibition draws on Paul Smith’s personal archive, from the company’s beginnings in Nottingham to its international [...]

New Orleans Museum of Art acquires major work by American artist Will Ryman

NEW ORLEANS, LA.- The New Orleans Museum of Art announced the acquisition of a major work of art, America, by artist Will Ryman. Made in 2013, America provides an in-depth exploration into the history of the United States through a careful selection and arrangement of materials. “We are delighted to have this important work by Will Ryman for NOMA. Once again, Sydney and Walda Besthoff have made a significant acquisition possible,” said Susan M. Taylor, The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director. “Ryman’s work [...]

Architects Museum De Lakenhal announced: International top combined with young talent

LEIDEN.- On Monday 7 October Museum De Lakenhal (Leiden, The Netherlands) announced the combination of architects that will be in charge of the restoration and expansion of the museum. The selection committee unanimously chose for London based restoration architect Julian Harrap Architects (JHA), together with the young and talented team of architects of Rotterdam based HappelCornelisseVerhoeven (HVC) for the new construction. Leiden is Holland’s fourth city of culture, third city of monuments and the Dutch museum city per excellence. It is a city [...]

New house in Brixton wins RIBA Manser Medal for the best new home

LONDON.- Slip House, a remarkable translucent glass house on a terraced street in Brixton, has won the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) prestigious Manser Medal 2013 for the best newly designed private house. The presentation of the award to　the winning architects, Carl Turner Architects, took place at a special event at Central Saint Martins in London. Built on a small patch of land in Brixton, the architects have made a simple and sculptural addition to a street of Victorian terraced houses. [...]

Eritrea’s unique architecture under threat

ASMARA (AFP).- Eritrea’s capital Asmara boasts buildings unlike anywhere else in Africa, a legacy of its Italian colonial past, when architects were given free rein for structures judged too avant-garde back home. Modernist architectural wonders in this highland city include a futurist petrol station mimicking a soaring aircraft and a funky art-deco bowling alley with checkered, coloured glass windows. “The city is a living museum of architecture,” said Medhanie Teklemariam, an urban planner in Asmara’s city administration. Yet while many of the [...]

Last call to see the Biennial of the Americas 2013: Draft Urbanism in Denver

DENVER, CO.- Draft Urbanism, the Biennial of the Americas’ 2013 exhibition, brings together the most engaging discourses in art, architecture, and film from across the Americas. For the seven weeks of the exhibition, four full-scale architecture installations address key urban issues on-site in downtown Denver. Additionally, billboards, posters and other urban signage already part of Denver’s visual context have been appropriated as places for exhibiting art. Dispersed throughout downtown, the public is invited to visit each work by car or on foot [...]

New Zealand quake city opens cardboard cathedral designed by architect Shigeru Ban

WELLINGTON (AFP).- Christchurch’s cardboard cathedral officially opened on Thursday, replacing the neo-Gothic structure destroyed in a 2011 earthquake that killed 185 people in New Zealand’s second largest city. Completion of the innovative structure, designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, marks a major milestone in the city’s recovery from the devastating 6.3-magnitude quake that levelled much of the downtown area, acting dean Lynda Patterson said. “The old cathedral symbolised the city in many ways and we think this cathedral is a symbol that [...]

Superstar architect Rem Koolhaas chosen to design new Miami Beach Convention Center

MIAMI BEACH, FL.- Superstar architect Rem Koolhaas is bringing his talents to Miami Beach. Koolhaas, best known for his “philosophic” design aesthetic and as the founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, was recently chosen by the Miami Beach City Commission to redesign and redevelop the City’s Convention Center along with real estate development company South Beach ACE. This selection continues the tradition of high-profile, globally recognized architects putting their stamp on Miami Beach. Long the center of cutting-edge architecture, Miami [...]

Conrad Shawcross transforms the Roundhouse into a vast timekeeping device this summer

LONDON.- Timepiece is a specially commissioned, large-scale light installation by leading British artist Conrad Shawcross, created in response to theRoundhouse’s iconic Main Space that is on show for the month of August 2013, as part of Bloomberg’s Summer at the Roundhouse. This major new commission uses the unique architecture of the Roundhouse as its source of inspiration, and continues Shawcross’s long- term investigation into the perception and measurement of time. Shawcross has created a vast new suspended mechanical work that fills [...]

World’s second tallest building, designed by United States firm Gensler, tops out in China

SHANGHAI (AFP).- Work on the main structure of the world’s second tallest skyscraper was completed on Saturday, as the final beam was placed on the Shanghai Tower. A crane placed the steel beam 580 meters (1,900 feet) above the ground in Shanghai, China’s commercial hub, as the building formally overtook Taiwan’s 509 meter tall Taipei 101 building to become the highest tower in Asia. Globally it is second only to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which stands at 830 meters. The tower, [...]