Architecture news

Rome’s Colosseum to gain hi-tech arena floor

02-05-2021 18:18 via theguardian.com

Retractable floor will allow visitors to see the ‘majesty of the monument’ from its centre, says culture ministerThe floor of Rome’s Colosseum, where gladiators once fought against each other and wild animals, is set to be restored to its former glory.Milan Ingegneria, a structural engineering and architecture firm, has won an €18.5m (£16m) bid to build and install a retractable arena floor that will allow visitors “to see the majesty of the monument” fro

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Gio Ponti: the real charmer of Italian design

02-05-2021 12:00 via theguardian.com

From the graceful Pirelli tower to his classic super-light chair, the Milanese architect’s life and work are celebrated in a huge new tomeAt the dedication of Taranto Cathedral in 1970, its 79-year-old architect, Gio Ponti, gave a speech. His words are not well remembered, but his family kept a recording of what preceded it: 10 minutes of applause, like “thunder”. This was a figure who, according to some anti-modernist mythologies, was supposed not to exist – a modern arc

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Last-ditch bid to save Derby’s postwar modernist gem from bulldozers

02-05-2021 09:30 via theguardian.com

The Clash and Take That once played there, now the planned demolition of the empty 1970s Assembly Rooms is dividing the cityWhen Derby launched a competition for the redevelopment of its marketplace in 1970, the winning design was said to be “architecturally effective whatever the function” and praised for its “excellence of conception”.Created by the famous architectural duo Hugh Casson and Neville Conder, the Derby Assembly Rooms was at the centre of city life for decad

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Cities are so last century | Letters

02-05-2021 07:00 via theguardian.com

Thanks to the technology revolution, towns are now the best places to provide work and communityThomas Heatherwick, and his vision of the future of the city landscape (“The city will be a new kind of space”, Magazine), fails to address the question: why cities in the first place? From the agricultural revolution around Ur to the Industrial Revolution, cities have been the centre of trade and commerce and provided a magnet to more rural populations. All this has been superseded by the

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