Architecture

Architectural highlights at a height of 3,200 meters: Artist Olafur Eliasson and noa* - network of architecture are behind the new projects on the alpine Grawand ridge in North Italy; projects that not only evoke admiration but are also polarizing.

Rotterdam is a field of experimentation for architects and urban planners alike. With the "Rooftop Catalogue" put together by Dutch architecture practice MVRDV together with "Rotterdam Rooftop Days", the objective is now to take possession of the third dimension.

The floating house "Portage Bay Float Home" by Studio DIAA provides a home in an area of around 60 square metres. Although this type of living is traditionally firmly anchored in Seattle, it comes with challenges. In return, the unique view and the feeling of freedom are priceless.

In Berlin, an exhibition about architect and urban planner Werner Düttmann is reaching out from the Brücke Museum, and extending over all of West Berlin and beyond that into the Internet. Not only is this Corona compliant, it also sets new standards in terms of communicating knowledge and information about architecture.

Since 2014 the Chinese architect Xu Tiantian and her studio DnA has implemented more than 20 projects in rural China. Like architectural acupuncture, the small, modest projects are intended to help give villages a future once again. The “Songyang Story” is impressive – and full of hope.

As a team, the gallery owner Johann König and the architect Arno Brandlhuber bring new wind into the discussion about the preservation as well as the further use of the "mice bunker" and the Institute for Hygiene and Microbiology in Berlin Lichterfelde.

With "The Tower", Frank Gehry has created the heart of the new LUMA Arles cultural centre in the south of France and at the same time built the city a landmark that attracts international attention.

"TinyBe" seeks a dialogue between art, science, architecture and business with residential sculptures and offers visitors the option to stay in them temporarily for an individual experience of space.

Petersen Tegl provided the cladding for a new skyscraper in Manhattan with hand-crafted bricks that lend the concrete building an unusual elegance.

With “Carré Belge” ingenhoven architects working in collaboration with Proximus Real Estate AG have created a new quarter in Cologne’s downtown area that should improve the city’s microclimate through densification and urban greening.

Lina Ghotmeh’s Stone Garden is a synthesis of architecture and archaeology, of rocks and flora as well as a highly emotional homage to the inhabitants’ will to survive in the architect’s catastrophe-ridden home town Beirut.

With his new Axel-Springer building Rem Koolhaas has created a landmark in Berlin that thanks to its radically modern architecture stands for the move towards a new way of working. The comprehensive supply and drainage system in the heart of the building is courtesy of Geberit.

On the death of architect Gottfried Böhm.

Italian manufacturer Cleaf seeks to spur the creativity of architects with its "Shaping Surfaces" competition. The prize in the first edition went to Campos Costa Arquitetos whose design for a concept store in Lisbon invites people on a journey of discovery.

The fact that rehearsal rooms need not be drab boxes despite their sound insulation is demonstrated by two pavilions in Berlin. A contributory factor here is the facade made of KME’s “TECU(R) Gold” which transforms the two buildings into glowing sound bodies.

It was meant to be demolished back in 2007 but was saved by the global economic crisis. Now, though, its days are truly numbered: Anyone wanting to take a last look at architect Kisho Kurokawa’s Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo will have to hurry. The 1972 tower, one of the masterpieces of Japanese Metabolism, is just about still standing.

With the new Kunsthaus in Göttingen Atelier ST has finally helped old plans for an even older context to come to fruition.

The "WaterWorks" in Hamburg is an exemplary demonstration by BiwerMau Architekten of how an old building can be put to a new use. Switches and power outlets from the Berker "1930" series also play a role in the conversion.

Together with H Architectos, Christ & Gantenbein are extending the MACBA in Barcelona and providing it with a new exhibition space. This will be accessed through a 15th-century church.

With the kitchen as the programmatic centrepiece of the design, architects Daniel Schütz and Georg Windeck remodelled a Manhattan penthouse. The new floor plan celebrates the architectural heritage, the view and the passion for good food.

Not far from Osaka architect Kohei Yukawa has designed a house for his family in which the traditional doma entry room assumes a key role.

No, not all the buildings that Helmut Jahn built in his long and extremely successful career were high-rises. And yet they are his best-known designs by far and the name Jahn became inextricably linked with that of towers. Helmut Jahn recently died at the age of 81 in his chosen home country, the USA.

The “College of Forestry” at Oregon State University has been expanded. The two new building complexes integrate the teaching ideals in their architectural concept and thus become sustainable places of learning.

In Luxembourg, a new school takes up the surrounding forest in the design of its facade. Its panels were provided by perforated metal specialist RMIG who also acted as a consultant for all aspects of the project.

OOAK architects have designed a holiday home on the island of Karpathos. The building stages the surrounding landscape and with its patios creates complex spatial relationships.

For the Zumtobel Group's current annual report, civil engineer and architect Prof. Werner Sobek formulated 17 theses on the subject of sustainability.

Not a whole: Berlin photographer Andreas Gehrke has explored his home town. His new illustrated book “Berlin” is also a farewell.

Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen has designed an artful footbridge that connects two buildings in Brussel’s government district. Named “Tondo” the structure references the Renaissance.

With diamond-shaped bricks in a hue specially designed for the project, Petersen Tegl is outfitting the extension to the Z33 House for Contemporary Art in Hasselt, Belgium with a façade that is exceptional in every respect.

For the urban development project "Pavilions by the Seaside" in Haikou, China, curator Weng Ling combines architecture and art from a total of 20 international creatives, including famous names such as Bjarke Ingels and Anish Kapoor. The concept she explains to us in an interview.

With the Tofino Beach House on Vancouver Island and other projects, Olson Kundig show how architecture can create a feeling of oneness with nature.

Anne Lacaton and Jean Philippe Vassal have won the Pritzker Prize. And it’s well overdue, as our author sees it, once again casting his gaze over the work and impact of the French architect duo.

Jörg Brüggemann captured the German autobahn with a camera and created a contemporary document that raises questions about both the past and future of Germany’s national concrete structure.

With her office Nickl & Partner, Professor Christine Nickl-Weller builds hospitals, research facilities and nursing homes nationally and internationally. She explains why flexible floor plans are important and what urban planning and hospital construction have in common.

In Bochum, ACMS Architekten have designed a student residence based on the “Variowohnen” flexible housing concept. For the façade, they made use of “öko skin” courtesy of Rieder, a form of cladding comprising slatted wall panels made of fiberglass-reinforced concrete.