Magazine

The Learning Architecture for Learners is a new building at Tokyo Gakugei University that is part of the Explayground Project. It was designed by VUILD, the studio headed by Koki Akiyoshi that specializes in digital fabrication. Here we present a report on the project from Japan-Architects. VUILD, Neoplus Sixten Inc.

Designed and built by master's degree students at the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, The Voxel is a prototype for a quarantine cabin, where an individual can live self-sufficiently for two weeks. It was made entirely from... John Hill

There exists a Niemeyer in Leipzig — not a landmark in the middle of the city center, but a small sphere appended to a former boiler house in the Plagwitz industrial area. Housing a restaurant and bar, it is the last structure Oscar Niemeyer designed before he died in December 2012 just shy of... John Hill, Katinka Corts

Punctuating the entrance of the newest Us&Co co-working location in London is a helical staircase designed by Stamos Yeoh Architects with a bevy of consultants. Here we take a closer look at how this unique stair was built. John Hill

The exhibition spaces of the Bauhaus Museum in Weimar, Germany, sit behind a facade of stacked precast elements, but architect Heike Hanada didn't originally plan it that way. John Hill, Martina Metzner

The fourth configuration of MultiPly, a pavilion made from twelve cross-laminated timber (CLT) modules, was on display in early February as part of the Madrid Design Festival, provoking visitors to reconsider how buildings and cities are constructed. 

On September 29, 2019, Copenhagen's Cityringen (City Circle Line) metro opened to the public. Color is used to aid in wayfinding and to create a distinct identity for each of its seventeen stations. The entrances and platforms of some of the stations are lined in ceramic panels made by... John Hill

A curved bench with the name "The Best Weapon" was recently on display at the entrance to the United Nations in New York City. Coinciding with the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, the bench invited dignitaries to heed Nelson Mandela's advice and "sit down and talk." John Hill

Architect Joan Miquel Seguí's design for the new entrance to the Intermodal Station in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, is appropriately the winner of a 2018 Tile of Spain Award: the ceramic latticework filters sunlight during the day and glows like a beacon at night. John Hill

The North Rhine-Westphalia Textile Academy (Textilakademie NRW), established in 2018, aims to ensure the future of the textile and clothing industry in Germany through education and vocational training. Appropriately, its new home is draped in a textile membrane. John Hill

The Interlock, a new five-story mixed-use building in London's Fitzrovia neighborhood, features a brick facade that was designed by Bureau de Change Architects to appear "of uncertain heritage: simultaneously historic and contemporary, familiar yet foreign." John Hill

The new van Hasselt Centre at Cranleigh School in Surrey, England, was designed by Allies and Morrison with timber facades and a hybrid structure of steel and wood that includes LVL (laminated veneer lumber) floors and roofs by Metsä Wood. John Hill

Michele De Lucchi's L'Anello Mancante ("The Missing Link") is a site-specific installation inside Zaha Hadid's MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome. On display until March 2019, the accessible object made from Solid Surface... John Hill

Like other architecture fairs, the World Architecture Festival (WAF) has its share of manufacturer booths, in this case accompanying the crit rooms where architects presented their projects to juries. A standout was the MaterialDistrict pop-up; here we present a slideshow of it and some material... John Hill

The Staatsoper Unter den Linden (State Opera House) in Berlin traces its origins to 1742, though the building was rebuilt following a fire in the 1840s and bombing in World War II. Although the latest renovation maintains the building's historical architecture, at its heart is an innovative... John Hill, Thomas Geuder

During the London Design Festival in September, the Victoria & Albert Museum's recently redesigned Sackler Courtyard was occupied by "MultiPly," an installation designed by Waugh Thistleton Architects that was made with prefabricated tulipwood modules. John Hill, Thomas Geuder

James Turrell's Skyspace Lech opened to the public on 17 September 2018 near the village of Lech am Arlberg in the high mountains of Austria's Vorarlberg province. The largely underground, oval space is open to the sky and illuminated on the inside with Zumtobel fixtures and... John Hill

The Asplund Pavilion, designed by architects Francesco Magnani and Traudy Pelzel of Italy's MAP studio, is the cornerstone of the first Pavilion of the Holy See at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Covered in ALPI wood surfaces inside and out, the small pavilion was inspired by... John Hill

Facing Gaia, an installation designed by Studio Libeskind, was unveiled in Giardini Marinaressa during the preview of the Venice Architecture Biennale last week. Part of the Time Space Existence exhibition, the rectilinear column punctured by an amorphous aperture was built with... John Hill

Buildings for banks often express their brand rather than anything of architectural interest. An exception is found in Tourcoing in northern France, where architects D’Houndt + Bajart have created a facade whose design was inspired by a material integral to the bankers' core business. John Hill, Thomas Geuder

On February 8th at Empa in Dübendorf, Switzerland, the "Urban Mining & Recycling" residential unit (UMAR) was inaugurated inside NEST. Designed by Werner Sobek with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel, the unit aims "to advance the construction industry's transition to a... John Hill

The real estate mantra of "location, location, location" is particularly important for hotels, which position themselves for the convenience of travelers. The Hotel Tivoli in Aachen is located appropriately on a busy, four-lane thoroughfare, a site that gave CROSS Architecture the... John Hill, Thomas Geuder

The aptly named Brock Commons Tallwood House – currently the world's tallest mass timber tower – opened on the University of British Columbia's Point Grey campus in July 2017. The building, designed by Acton Ostry Architects, delivers on the promise of mass timber and aspires... John Hill

A new restaurant designed by RCR Arquitectes, the recipients of the 2017 Pritzker Archtecture Prize, with Pau Llimona features flooring and other sintered stone surfaces that immerse diners in an "enigmatic" environment derived from a watercolor. John Hill

As part of its renovation of the bathing hall at Obermain Therme in Bad Staffelstein, Germany, Krieger Architekten Ingenieure designed a cave-like space whose form was inspired by salt crystals. Two layers of LUCEM light-emitting concrete panels give the enclosure its colorful glow. John Hill

​Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas worked on the New Convention Center in Rome's EUR district from 1998, when they won a competition for its design, until October 2016, when it officially opened. Most striking is the Cloud suspended within the glass box exterior. The engineers at formTL oversaw... John Hill, Thomas Geuder

The last bit of coal rolled out of the Duhamel mineshaft in June 2012, ending the Saarland region's 250-year history of mining. A lookout designed by Pfeiffer Sachse Architekten that sits atop the mining heap and overlooks the town of Ensdorf honors this tradition. The lighting... John Hill

This year's London Design Festival had a lot to offer for design enthusiasts. A standout project was "The Smile," a 34-meter-long sculpture by Alison Brooks Architects and Arup that was on display at the Chelsea College of Arts. John Hill, Thomas Geuder

At the 2016 AIA Convention in Philadelphia this week, Shildan Group launched Fabrik® by Flexbrick, which consists of a stainless steel mesh woven with materials such as ceramic tiles to create unique screen walls. John Hill

On Friday, May 6th, the Bridge for Laboratory Sciences at Vassar College was dedicated. Designed by Richard Olcott of Ennead Architects as part of the school's Integrated Science Commons, the new building features two types of bird-safe glass that make it a welcome addition to the... John Hill

Twenty-five years after an anonymous water tower in Milan's Porto Garibaldi was covered with a colorful palette of ceramic tiles, the team behind Torre Arcobaleno (Rainbow Tower) returned to refurbish the local landmark. John Hill

The motto of Expo 2015 in Milan, "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life," was translated in the French pavilion into a built landscape designed by Parisian architecture firm XTU, with lighting design by Bonn's Licht Kunst Licht. John Hill, Thomas Geuder

The campus of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) is known best for SANAA's Rolex Learning Center built in 2010. Dominique Perrault has just completed an adjacent building whose facade dissolves through the use of a custom, movable aluminum mesh. John Hill, Thomas Geuder

Strasbourg's Urbane Kultur has renovated one of France's "1,000 Pools" from 40 years ago, a distinctive dome set in the townscape. The dark exterior gives way to a light and bright interior covered partially with HI-MACS® acrylic stone. John Hill

March Studio’s dynamic entry stair and lobby for Hotel Hotel in Canberra, Australia was named the World Interior of the Year at the Inside Festival held recently in Singapore. John Hill

The Centre Pompidou's new "pop-up" museum, which opened in March 2015 in Málaga, Spain (the birthplace of Picasso) includes a 120-seat multipurpose auditorium with retractable seats by Figueras. John Hill