Magazine

Paris's Bruther, the firm of Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot, is the recipient of the seventh biennial Swiss Architectural Award, as announced in early April. Three short films by Daniele Marucci show a trio of the firm's buildings in context and in use. John Hill

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

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has announced that Frank Gehry's renovation, reorganization, and expansion of the museum's 93-year-old landmark building will open to the public on May 7, 2021. John Hill

Following a sixteen-month closure due to restoration work and the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Building Museum in Washington, DC is reopening with two exhibitions on Boston's MASS Design Group: Justice Is Beauty and Gun Violence Memorial Project. John Hill

The University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello have announced that Francis Kéré is the recipient of the 2021 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture. John Hill

"A Meeting with Architects" is a series of short films produced and hosted by Julia Zhu, featuring her interviews with Chinese architects Ma Yansong and Yung Ho Chang, European architects Álvaro Siza and Christian de Portzamparc, and Israeli-Canadian-American architect Moshe Safdie. John Hill

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) has announced that architects Brigitte Shim and A. Howard Sutcliffe are recipients of the 2021 RAIC Gold Medal, "the highest distinction the Institute can bestow in recognition of a significant and lasting contribution to Canadian... John Hill

On March 20, Louis Vuitton opened its transformed Ginza Naminki store in Tokyo, where Jun Aoki has wrapped the building in wavy dichroic glass and Peter Marino has designed the interiors.  John Hill

Es Devlin's Forest of Us, made of mirrored surfaces that echo natural structures, is one of the immersive artworks that visitors will encounter next month when Superblue Miami, a new experiential art center located in a former industrial building in the city's Allapattah neighborhood,... John Hill

Barcelona's Miralles Tagliabue EMBT has been selected to design the Shenzhen Conservatory of Music, one of ten new cultural landmarks being funded by the Shenzhen Municipal Government for sites in and around the Chinese metropolis.  John Hill

Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America opened in late February at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. Curated by MoMA's Sean Anderson and Columbia University's Mabel O. Wilson, the exhibition explores "how people have mobilized Black cultural spaces, forms,... John Hill

The Shenzhen Municipal Planning and Natural Resources Bureau has announced the winners of two international design competitions: for the Shenzhen Opera House and the Shenzhen Maritime Museum, two of ten new cultural attractions in the city. John Hill

Indian architect Bijoy Jain and his office, Studio Mumbai, have won the 14th Alvar Aalto Medal, conferred by the Alvar Aalto Foundation, Museum of Finnish Architecture (MFA), Finnish Architectural Society, Finnish Association of Architects (SAFA), and the City of Helsinki. John Hill

Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal talk about their partnership, the principles behind their buildings, the greenhouses they append to many of their projects, and their early experiences in West Africa, in five short films made on the occasion of being named the John Hill

A Glimpse into the Past is an art installation by Ohel Shovenko that was recently unveiled at the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (BYHMC) in Kyiv. The glass-and-brick monument commemorates the Kurenivka Tragedy, a mudslide caused by a dam burst on March 13, 1961, that killed at... John Hill

French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have been selected as laureates of the 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the award given out by the Hyatt Foundation and widely considered "architecture’s highest honor." John Hill

Construction has begun on "Welcome, feeling at work," the office building in Milan's Parco Lambro district designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates for Europa Risorse. John Hill

Hugh Newell Jacobsen, an architect based in Washington, DC, known for high-end houses organized as pavilions with gabled forms, died at an assisted-living center in Front Royal, Virginia, on March 4 — exactly one week shy of his 92nd birthday. John Hill

In a new short film, Spirit of Space visits the Beloit College Powerhouse designed by Studio Gang Architects. Over footage shot inside the former coal plant, Jeanne Gang explains how the project follows from the firm's efforts in tracking how much carbon goes into each building and how the... John Hill

When Practice Becomes Form: Carpentry Tools from Japan opens at Japan Society on March 11. It is the first exhibition at the New York institution since lockdown measures went into place one year ago. Organized by Japan Society with the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum, the exhibition was... John Hill

La Biennale di Venezia has announced that the famous "Italian architect, designer, scenographer, artist and critic naturalized as a Brazilian citizen" will be given a Special Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in memoriam when the Biennale opens in May. John Hill

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has announced that MARABAR, Elyn Zimmerman's site-specific installation in Washington, DC, has been saved from demolition and will be moved to a new location. John Hill

As part of Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, now on display at MoMA, a sign bearing Philip Johnson's name has been covered by the manifesto of the Black Reconstruction Collective. John Hill

The Underline is a multi-phase transformation of the space beneath Miami’s MetroRail into a park, trail, and art destination. The first phase, a half-mile section in downtown, opened to the public on Friday, February 26. John Hill

Foster + Partners has released a website with immersive tours of the exteriors and interiors of 22 of the firm's UK projects, from the 1966 Creek Vean House to the 2017 headquarters for Bloomberg. John Hill

The latest film from the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art features Marc-Christoph Wagner interviewing German architect Anna Heringer at her studio in Laufen, Germany, in September 2020. John Hill

Metsä Group, Aalto University, and the Finnish Ministry of the Environment have announced the winners of the Urban Adaptation competition, which asked architects and students to design adaptable modular buildings made from wood. John Hill

Constructed of approximately 100,000 black LEGO bricks, artist Ekow Nimako's Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE is an Afrofuturist cityscape that "celebrates the cultures of the African diaspora" and is a new addition to the Aga Khan Museum's permanent collection. John Hill

The 760-page Atlas of Digital Architecture is an ambitious reference book about the myriad ways architects use computers. With contributions by two-dozen experts in the digitization of architecture and hundreds upon hundreds of illustrations, the book is a nearly complete picture of the... John Hill

US President Joe Biden has revoked Executive Order 13967, "Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture," that former President Donald Trump signed on December 18, 2020, one month before the end of his term. John Hill

The Chicago Architecture Biennial and the Danish Arts Foundation (DAF) have announced the winning team for DAF Open Call, a commission for Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood that is part of the fourth Biennial opening in September. John Hill

"A stealthy reimagining of urban public space" is the new TED Talk by architect Elizabeth Diller, partner at New York's Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The ten-minute video, which discusses a few projects in New York and Moscow, is Diller's third TED Talk since 2007. John Hill

Two years after Diller Scofidio + Renfro's competition-winning design was unveiled, the Centre for Music at the Barbican has been cancelled, with the City of London focusing on refurbishing the Barbican Centre instead. John Hill

Longwood Gardens, founded by Pierre S. du Pont more than 100 years ago on 1,100 acres west of Philadelphia, has unveiled Longwood Reimagined: A New Garden Experience, a transformation of its core area of conservatory gardens, with a short film. John Hill

TECLA is a project developed by Mario Cucinella Architects and WASP (World Advanced Saving Project) that addresses the housing crisis through 3D printing. Construction is underway on a prototype near Bologna, Italy. John Hill

A Story for the Future is a new exhibition that sees MAXXI, the contemporary art museum in Rome, looking back at its first decade of existence. Inside Outside, the Dutch firm of Petra Blaisse, designed the immersive exhibition as a response to the curved walls of the museum's Zaha Hadid... John Hill