Architecture news

• An everyday archive and a virtual trip to Rembrandt's Amsterdam – the week in art

  19-06-2020 16:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Socially distanced exhibition slots are available for Ella Kruglyanskaya and Jim Dine, while online offerings include Amazonian artist Abel Rodriguez – all in your weekly dispatchUnquiet MomentsIf the slower world of lockdown has led you to contemplate the ordinary more closely, this online exhibition may strike a chord. Curated by Courtauld students, it creates an alternative archive of the everyday featuring artists including Rembrandt, Sunil Gupta and Karl Ohiri.
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• Moment spire collapses at Copenhagen's old stock exchange – video

  16-04-2024 11:34 via theguardian.com
  
  A fire has broken out at Copenhagen’s old stock exchange, one of the Danish capital’s most famous buildings, engulfing its spire, which collapsed on to the roof. There were no reports of injuries. The historic building, whose spire is shaped as the tails of four dragons entwined, had been under renovation when the blaze broke out. The Dutch Renaissance-style building no longer houses the Danish stock exchange but serves as headquarters for the Danish Chamber of CommerceSpire collapse
  
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• Spire collapses after fire breaks out at Copenhagen’s old stock exchange

  16-04-2024 11:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Plumes of black smoke rise as blaze engulfs one of Danish capital’s most famous landmarksEurope live: Copenhagen old stock exchange fire – latest updatesA huge fire has broken out at Copenhagen’s 17th-century former stock exchange, one of the Danish capital’s most famous landmarks, engulfing the historic building’s roof and toppling its distinctive spire.“We are witnessing a terrible spectacle. The Bourse is on fire,” the Chamber of Commerce, which occup
  
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• Has it come to this? We must act now to save Birmingham’s culture from cuts

  14-04-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The austerity-hit council's decision to stop funding the arts is a calamity for a city whose rich contribution to the UK – from the Rep, the Royal Ballet and Tolkien to heavy metal and the Streets – is such a vital source of civic prideThe Birmingham Rep altered the course of Britain’s cultural history. Opened in 1913 by the dramatist Billie Lester, the company’s ambition to champion formally innovative work and new writing attracted the likes of Laurence Olivier, who joi
  
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• End of the Line? Saudi Arabia ‘forced to scale back’ plans for desert megacity

  10-04-2024 19:23 via theguardian.com
  
  Crown prince’s pet project was sold as a 105-mile-long city of the future, but finances may have led to a rethinkIt was billed as a glass-walled city of the future, an ambitious centrepiece of the economic plan backed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to transition Saudi Arabia away from oil dependency.Now, however, plans for the mirror-clad desert metropolis called the Line have been scaled down and the project, which was envisaged to stretch 105 miles (170km) is now expected to reach j
  
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• Nuclear reactor or medieval castle? Brutal Welsh architecture – in pictures

  10-04-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A new title in Simon Phipps’ bestselling brutalist series, this photographic exploration of Wales features over 60 extraordinary buildings, including many lesser-known examples of modernist architecture Continue reading...
  
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• London cab shelter is last of remaining 13 to be listed by Historic England

  09-04-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Wooden structure in St John’s Wood joins 12 other surviving shelters out of the original 60 built between 1875 and 1950The last of 13 surviving green cab shelters providing rest and refreshment to generations of drivers in London has been listed by Historic England in recognition of its architectural and historical significance.The wooden shelters were built by the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund from 1875 onwards, when cabs were horse-drawn. Many had a rail fixed to the exterior so cabbies co
  
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• London cab shelter is last of remaining 13 to be given listed status

  09-04-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Wooden structure in St John’s Wood joins 12 other surviving shelters out of the original 60 built between 1875 and 1950The last of 13 surviving green cab shelters providing rest and refreshment to generations of drivers in London has been listed by the government in recognition of its architectural and historical significance.The wooden shelters were built by the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund from 1875 onwards, when cabs were horse-drawn. Many had a rail fixed to the exterior so cabbies coul
  
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• Let’s move to Disney town! Will life in its 2,000 themed homes be a dream or a nightmare?

  08-04-2024 17:27 via theguardian.com
  
  Starting at $1m, a Disney home offers Disney art classes, Disney dinners, a Disney clubhouse and a Disney lake that never changes colour. We explore the House of Mouse’s plans for curated livingIt seems fitting that, in a Californian desert city named Rancho Mirage, there should be an improbable fantasy world rising from the parched, sandy ground. At the starry intersection of Frank Sinatra Drive and Bob Hope Drive – named after two Hollywood celebrities who used to frequent the area
  
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• ‘Greenest ever Games’: how the Paris Olympics hopes to inspire a new era of global sporting events

  07-04-2024 13:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Organisers say they are setting a precedent by using existing or temporary venues for most events and focusing on low-carbon building for the restBeneath the undulating wooden roof of the Paris Olympics’ new aquatics centre, the architect Laure Mériaud hoped the groundbreaking low carbon building would bring a kind of calm to the intersection of motorways near the Stade de France stadium in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.“It’s not just about technical innovation,”
  
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• George Clarke: ‘I’m 50 soon. I will have lived 24 years longer than my dad, so I live every day to the max’

  06-04-2024 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The presenter on his love of architecture, being too shy for TV, and losing his dad aged seven Born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, in 1974, George Clarke is an architect and television presenter. After gaining a first-class degree from the School of Architecture at Newcastle University and a postgraduate diploma from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, his media career began in 2005 as the host of Channel 5’s Build a New Life in the Country. He has since launched a
  
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• ‘We live in the best house in the world’: five design experts on how to live better in small homes

  05-04-2024 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  From Ikea storage to the benefits of a solidly built table, architects from Paris to Tokyo share their tips and philosophy for living beautifully in smaller spacesAustralia has some of the largest homes in the world. Many who do live small aspire to one day live big. But around the world, limited space is not always seen as a sacrifice.From Sweden, where the average size of an apartment is 68 sq metres, to Hong Kong’s micro flats as small as 18 sq metres, globally architects are used to ge
  
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• Anthony Barnes obituary

  05-04-2024 15:28 via theguardian.com
  
  My friend Anthony Barnes, who has died aged 92, was an executive in the soft drinks and chemicals industry until he changed tack to become director of the Redundant Churches Fund, now the Churches Conservation Trust. Later he joined the Norfolk Churches Trust as its secretary, helping to care for and conserve a number of ecclesiastical buildings across the county.Both with the Trust and later as a volunteer, Anthony rescued a number of Norfolk churches and prevented St Peter Hungate in Norwich f
  
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• Ron’s Place: Birkenhead flat of outsider art granted grade-II listing

  05-04-2024 06:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Victory for campaigners and conservators as elaborately decorated property is honoured with protected statusA ground-floor rented flat in Birkenhead which was crafted over a period of 30 years into an extraordinary palace of outsider art has been given Grade II-listed status.The flat in Wirral, known as Ron’s Place, is thought to be the UK’s only example of outsider art to be nationally listed. Continue reading...
  
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• Perth Museum review – a new-look leveller for the ancient seat of kings

  31-03-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The mythic Stone of Destiny, used in Scottish and British coronations for centuries, is the star attraction of the £27m redeveloped Perth Museum – now brighter, easier to access and as eclectic as everIt’s hard to think of a piece of masonry more charged with history, myth and emotion, per cubic inch, than the Stone of Destiny. This battered suitcase-sized object, on which Scottish and English kings have been inaugurated and crowned for centuries, has been abducted and re-abduc
  
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• Peter Richards obituary

  28-03-2024 17:04 via theguardian.com
  
  The role of the local authority conservation officer is much misunderstood and maligned. My father, Peter Richards, who has died aged 94, did much to place the discipline on a proper professional footing and demonstrate what it could achieve. He headed a multidisciplinary team at Essex county council from 1974 to 1994 and led the restoration of important historic buildings and their gardens for public use, such as the Grade-I medieval barns at Cressing Temple near Witham – one of which is
  
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• Owners of Crooked House pub appeal against order to rebuild

  27-03-2024 20:44 via theguardian.com
  
  ATE Farms had been issued with enforcement notice for unlawful demolition after fire gutted building The owners of the Crooked House pub in Himley have appealed against an order to rebuild the 18th-century building, which was demolished days after a fire last year.The blaze on 5 August, which is being treated by police as arson, and the subsequent demolition of the famously wonky Staffordshire pub prompted a national outcry. Continue reading...
  
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• Yorkshire estate known as world’s first nature reserve gets Grade II listing

  27-03-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Eccentric Victorian owner of Waterton Park, near Wakefield, made pioneering decisions to protect wildlifeA Yorkshire parkland regarded as the world’s first nature reserve – which was created by an eccentric pioneering 19th-century environmentalist – has been given a Grade II listing.Historic England said Waterton Park, near Wakefield, was the earliest known example of a landscape designed specifically to attract and protect native wildlife. Continue reading...
  
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• Lynn Kinnear obituary

  26-03-2024 12:09 via theguardian.com
  
  Landscape architect whose work ranged from urban playgrounds to wetland parks and who was committed to working with local communitiesLynn Kinnear, who has died of cancer aged 64, was one of the outstanding landscape architects of her generation. Her work ranged from urban playgrounds to natural parks such as Walthamstow Wetlands in east London. She collaborated with a number of leading architects and artists, including the Richard Rogers Partnership. Burntwood school in Wandsworth, south London,
  
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• ‘This is our beautiful castle’: the stunning new buildings expressing Māori pride

  25-03-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  From facial tattoos to TV stations, young Māori are enthusiastically embracing tribal cultural identity in Aotearoa New Zealand. Now a new wave of Indigenous architects are making their markA bright red ribbon of metal buckles out of the ground in suburban Auckland, ramping up at a sharp angle before cranking over in a lopsided arc. It frames a big glass wall, folded in a diagonal crease, whose striped surface is covered in a riot of patterns, with abstract motifs of waves, fish and stars s
  
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• Sagrada Familia in Barcelona ‘will be completed in 2026’

  25-03-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  New date for Antoni Gaudí’s basilica announced but enormous, controversial stairway will take another eight yearsBarcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica has a new completion date of 2026, which will come 144 years after the first stone was laid.The president of the organisation tasked with completing Antoni Gaudí’s masterwork announced the date last Wednesday, which coincides with the centenary of the death of the building’s architect. Continue reading...
  
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• Costa’s Barbers: the shop-to-home conversion that’s a cut above

  24-03-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Battersea, London
  An old barber shop redesigned by architects Brisco Loran as their own live-work space is the latest project from developer Duncan Blackmore, a man on a mission to repurpose quirky urban spaces in a positive wayEveryone knows that high streets are under threat, caught in spirals of decline driven by the rise of online shopping. It’s also obvious, or should be, that the government’s big idea for responding to this crisis, which is to make it possible to convert shops
  
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• In the political ethics of eyesores, a lumpen London office block trumps clean energy | Rowan Moore

  23-03-2024 19:56 via theguardian.com
  
  The government believes a solar farm’s ‘visual harm’ outweighs its economic benefits; with the Mitsubishi tower it’s the reverseLast week the government decided to refuse planning permission for a solar farm in Northamptonshire. This is the same government that last month, possibly encouraged by a letter from the developers Mitsubishi to Rishi Sunak, approved 72 Upper Ground, a prominent, lumpen office block on the South Bank in London.In the first case they decided that
  
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• In the political ethics of eyesores a lumpen London office block trumps clean energy | Rowan Moore

  23-03-2024 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The government deems a solar array’s ‘visual harm’ outweighs its economic benefits, with the Mitsubishi tower it’s the reverseLast week the government decided to refuse planning permission for a solar farm in Northamptonshire.This is the same government that last month, possibly encouraged by a letter from the developers Mitsubishi to Rishi Sunak, approved 72 Upper Ground, a prominent, lumpen office block on the South Bank in London. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘We are dealing with fundamentalist rightwingers’: Berlin statues are latest battleground in Germany’s culture wars

  23-03-2024 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Monuments erected on the Stadtschloss are an ‘infiltration’ of the city and its skyline by nationalists, say criticsSilently towering into the grey Berlin sky, the latest addition to the German capital’s skyline is easily missed by passengers passing along the Unter den Linden boulevard below. Eight statues of Old Testament prophets, each more than 3 metres tall and weighing 3 tonnes, were installed last week in a circular formation around the cupola of the palace in the centre
  
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• Theo Matoff obituary

  19-03-2024 20:49 via theguardian.com
  
  My husband, Theo Matoff, who has died aged 92, was a lecturer in architecture who rose to become head of the schools of architecture at two polytechnics – in Plymouth and then Leicester.Theo was born in Vancouver, Canada, to Miriam (nee Lando) and her husband, Conrad, and went to Magee high school in the city. His parents jointly owned a fur company, but when he was 19 they moved to Los Angeles to run a department store and he went with them. Continue reading...
  
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• LA’s graffiti-tagged skyscraper: a work of art – and symbol of city’s wider failings

  17-03-2024 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  After its Chinese backers pulled out, Oceanwide Plaza stands abandoned – could it be turned over to those who need it most?An asparagus patch is how the architect Charles Moore described the lackluster skyline of downtown Los Angeles in the 1980s. “The tallest stalk and the shortest stalk are just alike, except that the tallest has shot father out of the ground.”This sprawling city of bungalows has never been known for the quality of its high-rise buildings, and not much has ch
  
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• The Phoenix, Lewes: a new riverside neighbourhood that sounds almost too good to be true

  17-03-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A dream team of architects has planning permission to convert a former ironworks in the old Sussex market town into a sustainable new community for all, with low-rise flats, courtyard gardens, electric car share and more. If built, it could spearhead a transformation of British housingImagine a new district of an old town, made up of multiple good things. Its blocks of flats, mostly four or five storeys high, would achieve what’s called “gentle density”, which means getting a g
  
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• Architectural adventures in the Alps – in pictures

  16-03-2024 18:00 via theguardian.com
  
  After months of isolation in 2020, the Leipzig photographer Albrecht Voss asked his oldest friend to join him on an adventure through the Alps taking pictures of modern architecture. With just 20 days to capture 28 buildings in Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, the project involved scaling glaciers in the dark and sleeping in empty chapels. “We would aim to be on top of the mountain for golden hour, when the light is very beautiful,” he says. “Then we’d wait unt
  
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• ‘A tipping point for the city’: anger in Birmingham as Electric cinema closes

  10-03-2024 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Campaign to save UK’s oldest working cinema and designate Station Street ‘a historic asset’ launched amid redevelopment plansThere are growing calls to protect a street in Birmingham that was home to the UK’s first purpose-built repertory theatre, a pub that hosted Black Sabbath’s first gig and the country’s oldest working cinema, with two of the three venues now closed down.The closure last week of the Electric cinema on Station Street, 114 years after it ope
  
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