Magazin

David Chipperfield Architects' refurbishment of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin is complete. The keys were handed over to the client on April 29 in a virtual ceremony, with the physical reopening scheduled for August 2021 with an exhibition of works by Alexander... John Hill

Sergei Tchoban – Lines and Volumes: Encounters with the Architect, Artist, Collector and Museum Founder is a new book of conversations between curator Kristin Feireiss and Russian-German architect Sergei Tchoban, who has practices in both countries but, as the subtitle makes clear, is... John Hill

La Biennale di Venezia has announced that Spanish architect Rafael Moneo is recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, which he will be given on May 22, 2021, at the opening of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition. John Hill

Two Architects is a 1966 documentary by Ron Parks that features James Stirling and James Gowan explaining their iconic, award-winning Leicester University Engineering Building. Digitized by Drawing Matter, the 18-minute film is now available online for anyone to watch. John Hill

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have revealed the ten winning projects for 2021 that meet the committee's "rigorous criteria" and are making "significant achievements in advancing climate action." John Hill

Christian Pagh, director and curator of the Oslo Architecture Triennale, has announced the theme for the 2022 iteration: Mission Neighbourhood – (Re)forming communities "will explore how we form the places we share." John Hill

The team of Basel's Christ & Gantenbein and Barcelona's Harquitectes has won the international competition to extend the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), as decided by a 21-member jury. John Hill

Artist Olafur Eliasson has "carefully and caringly" removed the glass facades of Renzo Piano's Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland, flooding the museum with pools of water dyed bright green. The installation titled Life is on display 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until July... John Hill

As part of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects' (CSLA) 2021 Awards of Excellence, the transformation of a former quarry along the Bow River in Calgary into Dale Hodges Park has been awarded the Jury's Award of Excellence. John Hill

The Fundació Enric Miralles, with the support of Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat of Catalonia, has launched MIRALLES, a series of exhibitions and events celebrating the life of Enric Miralles, the still-influential Catalan architect who died in 2000. John Hill

The new Brooklyn outpost for D.S. & Durga, the perfume house founded by David Seth Moltz (D.S.) and Kavi Ahuja Moltz (Durga), stands out for the striated walls that resemble rammed earth. The walls are actually concrete, though, a product of circumstance and hands-on testing. John Hill

Tianjin Juilliard School was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the same firm that expanded Juilliard's iconic New York home at Lincoln Center twelve years ago. A short film takes viewers inside the new building that welcomed its first students last fall. John Hill

The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts has announced that set designer Mimi Lien will turn the plaza at the heart of its iconic 1960s campus on Manhattan's Upper West Side into "The GREEN," a park-like "site of social infrastructure." John Hill

Niki de Saint Phalle: Structures for Life is a major exhibition at MoMA PS1 in New York City devoted to the self-taught French-American artist known for playful figural sculptures, the large Tarot Garden in Italy, and other architectural works that spark joy, especially in... John Hill

During a virtual press conference on Monday, April 12, Biennale president Roberto Cicutto announced this year's exhibition will indeed open on May 22. Curator Hashim Sarkis also outlined the expanded program that will take place over its six months. John Hill

Opening on April 16 at Garagem Sul / Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon, At Home: Projects for Contemporary Housing follows the exhibition of the same name that opened at MAXXI in Rome back in 2019. The new iteration builds upon the predecessor's pairing of housing projects at a range... John Hill

Genevese architect/landscape architect Georges Descombes is one of three recipients of the Swiss Grand Award for Art / Prix Meret Oppenheim for 2021, alongside curator Esther Eppstein and artist Vivian Suter. John Hill

London's National Gallery has announced the six shortlisted teams vying to work with the museum on "a suite of capital projects," including a reconfiguration of the famous Sainsbury Wing, to mark its bicentenary in 2024. John Hill

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has revealed plans for a major expansion designed by Safdie Architects, the architect of the original museum that opened in Bentonville, Arkansas, in 2011. John Hill

Vienna's Coop Himmelb(l)au has won an international design competition to design the "SCA Arena and Park" in St. Petersburg. Their design follows follows the tradition of Russian Constructivists El Lissitzky and Vladimir Tatlin. John Hill

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