Category Archives: Architecture

A 38 storey wooden skyscraper designed by Studio Marco Vermeulen for Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Two rectangular towers, 130 and 100 metres tall will dominate the centre of the city next to the Dommel river – taller than lofty predecessors HoHo Wein tower in Vienna and the Mjösa Tower in Brumunddal, Norway.

Made from cross laminated timber sourced from sustainably managed forests, the complex will include housing, offices, leisure facilities and a hotel, centred around a winter garden on the lower floors.

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Behold: the spectacular 50,000 book library of the Kadokawa Culture Museum in Tokyo, designed by architect Kengo Kuma.

Opened this year, the functioning collection forms the towering backdrop to a theatre and performance space illuminated by projection-mapping technology that imbues the monolithic shelves with a candy-coloured glow.

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From a 2018/19 MoMa (New York) exhibit exploring the global reach and surprisingly elegant concrete forms of Communist-era Yugoslav architecture. To wit:

Situated between the capitalist West and the socialist East, Yugoslavia’s architects responded to contradictory demands and influences, developing a postwar architecture both in line with and distinct from the design approaches seen elsewhere in Europe and beyond. The architecture that emerged—from International Style skyscrapers to Brutalist “social condensers”—is a manifestation of the radical diversity, hybridity, and idealism that characterized the Yugoslav state itself.

MORE: Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980 (MoMA)

thisisnthappiness

https://vimeo.com/499129301

Behold: a taste of the recently announced €250 million plan to turn the world-famous 1.9km long Champs-Éysées into an ‘extraordinary garden’.

The revamp is scheduled to begin after the 2024 Summer Olympics, halving traffic, creating tunnels of trees and vastly improving the current Périphérique levels of pollution. Designer PCA-stream sez:

…the étoile intersection is reinvented as a public plaza geared towards tourists and Parisians who come to contemplate the Arc de Triomphe. on the avenue, the promenade experience makes a comeback and flâneurs will be able to stroll up and down the historic boulevard in an atmosphere greatly improved by the reduction in motor traffic.

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Behold: the Director House (aka, ‘The Director Will Be Here Shortly’) a design by Egyptian architect Mahmoud Sherif.

Looking like Tony Stark’s Scandi hideaway (or a gigantic PS5), this brutalist concrete abode perches on a cliff edge overlooking Reynisfjara beach (you’ll recall it from Game Of Thrones’) on the rugged southern coast of Iceland.

A sci-fi film location waiting to happen, if it ever gets built, which it really should.

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The digital imaginings of Belgian artist Raphal Vanhomwegen, who renders his paintings at speed to maintain sponteneity. Of his foreboding, vertiginous, stream of consciousness architectural visions – depicted in technicolour, neutral shades and moody greys – he tells Colossal:

I am […] one of those people who think nothing is more beautiful than a sketch. I almost never saw a finished drawing look better than a very good sketch. That’s why I almost never finish my drawings. It feels like adding more notes to a perfect musical piece. It’s just not worth it.

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Behold: the longest glass bottomed bridge in the world, extending for over half a kilometre 200 metres above the Lianjiang River in China’s Huangchuan Three Gorges Scenic Area. Designed by Architectural Design & Research Institute of Zhejiang University, the span comprises three layers of 4.5cm-thick glass lined with steel and suspended from cables.

Capable of supporting 500 people at a time, it’s a lot more stable than the previous record holder.

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a  meditative short film in which Japanese sculptor Etsuro Sotoo talks about how  41 years working as a sculptor culminated in a celebrated attempt to finish Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família basilica in Barcelona. To wit:

In 1978 Etsuro Sotoo arrived in Barcelona. He had just graduated in Fine Arts, he had just one year of experience as an Art teacher. When impressed by the unfinished temple: “It was the most fabulous pile of stones I had ever seen” …He asked for a job as a stonecutter. He wanted to continue the Nativity façade (the only façade that, thanks to his work, would be declared by Unesco World Heritage). He did a test and they gave him the position. Since then, he has completed what Gaudí did not even have time to think about. When he finished with the gaps, he started with the architect’s notes. When the tracks are over, it’s up to him to make decisions (source).

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