Magazine

Buildings for banks often express their brand rather than anything of architectural interest. An exception is found in Tourcoing in northern France, where architects D’Houndt + Bajart have created a facade whose design was inspired by a material integral to the bankers' core business. John Hill, Thomas Geuder

Historic England has announced that seventeen "bold, playful, brightly coloured Post-Modern buildings of the late 1970s to 1990s" have been listed and are now protected by law. John Hill

The M89 Hotel – the new four-star destination at number 89 of via Mecenate– faces the factory halls that one hundred years ago hosted one of the leading aviation companies and which are now home to Gucci. piuarch

The Costume Institute’s spring 2018 exhibition features Papal robes and accessories from the Sistine Chapel sacristy and fashions from the early twentieth century to the present, shown in The Met's Byzantine and medieval galleries and at The Met Cloisters. DS+R’s approach to this... Diller Scofidio + Renfro

New York architect Toshiko Mori spoke with PLANE—SITE in the ninth video of a series leading up to the GAA Foundation's Time-Space-Existence exhibition, planned as a collateral exhibition of the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. John Hill

The ​Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the winners of the RIBA Awards for International Excellence, twenty buildings that are now in the running for the RIBA International Prize 2018. John Hill

LAN Architecture has delivered the 360˚ View Tower, a panoramic 18-story tower in Nantes, France. This new apartment building is located on the Brossette site, which completes the transformation of the Boulevard Vincent-Gâche, with the largest project built on the Île de Nantes. This... LAN Architecture

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) and the Canada Council for the Arts have announced the recipients of the biennial Governor General’s Medals in Architecture, which "celebrate outstanding design in recently completed projects by Canadian architects." John Hill

New York's Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum has announced the winners of the 2018 National Design Awards, which recognizes design excellence and innovation in ten categories. John Hill

A short film from Coop Himmelb(l)au celebrates the 50th anniversary of the firm started by Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky, and Michael Holzer in Vienna, Austria, in May 1968. John Hill

Brooklyn Bridge Park is a successful waterfront open space with recreational amenities on formerly industrial piers, only one ferry ride from Lower Manhattan. To pay for its annual operations and maintenance budget, the park contains commercial and residential development sites. Marvel Architects... Marvel Architects

The BLOX project, home of the Danish Architecture Center, contains exhibition spaces, offices and co-working spaces, a café, a bookstore, a fitness centre, a restaurant, twenty-two apartments and an underground automated public carpark. It opened to the public on 4 May 2018. OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture

RIBA's Architecture Gallery at 66 Portland Place in London recently opened Disappear Here: On perspective and other kinds of space, where Sam Jacob Studio explores "how perspective drawing has been applied to the art of building for centuries and used as a tool to... John Hill

Japan in Architecture: Genealogy of Its Transformation is on display at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo from 25 April to 17 September 2018. The exhibition is curated by the Mori Art Museum with advisor Terunobu Fujimori. Ulf Meyer visited Japan in Architecture on opening day... Ulf Meyer

Overlooking the Bassin du Roy, the Bassin du Commerce and the heart of the city centre reconstructed by Perret, whilst also being located next to Niemeyer’s Volcan and the city’s historic monuments such as the Town Hall and the Saint-Joseph church, the Videcoq project is a building... Hamonic+Masson & Associés

Landmarks Illinois has released renderings that reimagine Helmut Jahn's James R. Thompson Center in Chicago's Loop as a mixed-use project with a renewed public plaza, an open atrium, and a tower with hotel and apartments. John Hill

Mecanoo’s Social Housing philosophy focuses on the development of affordable living spaces defined by flexibility, the right balance of private and communal spaces, mixed housing types, connection with the environment and identity. Mecanoo

Nestled in the dense forest of Harestua, located 45 kilometers north of Oslo in the municipality of Lunner, Snøhetta has designed a new planetarium and a visitor center for Norway’s largest astronomical facility.  Snøhetta

Ballet Memphis had outgrown its current space and wished to move from a suburban location to a performing-arts district undergoing revitalization in Memphis. With large windows and public courtyards, the building contributes to the already thriving urban district.

Docomomo US has announced the recipients of the 2018 Modernism in America Awards, thirteen projects that "showcase the highest level of expertise and commitment to careful preservation methods while serving as strong testaments to the efficacy of grassroots efforts, and public and private... John Hill

Olafur Eliasson: Reality projector, now on display at the Marciano Art Foundation in Los Angeles, is a colorful abstract display inspired by — and a product of — the architectural space it occupies. John Hill

Houston's Menil Collection has announced that the Menil Drawing Institute, designed by Los Angeles's Johnston Marklee, will open to the public on 3 November 2018 with an exhibition on artist Jasper Johns. John Hill

The new reception building at Saurierpark (Dinosaur Park) in Bautzen, Germany, was designed by Hamburg's rimpf ARCHITEKTUR to resemble mitosis. John Hill

Artist Lawrence Weiner spoke with PLANE—SITE in the eighth video of a series leading up to the GAA Foundation's Time-Space-Existence exhibition, planned as a collateral exhibition of the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. John Hill

The International Living Building Institute’s Living Building Challenge is billed as "the world's most rigorous proven performance standard for buildings." Since its inception in 2006, fewer than twenty buildings have earned the stringent LBC Certification. The seventeenth and... Bruner/Cott

In the midst of typical narrow-walled facades in Berlin, Richter Musikowski has built an exhibition and event building that breaks with this monotony, creates urban spaces through its massing, and stands out from its neighbors through a carefully detailed glass skin. John Hill, Thomas Geuder

The National Museum of Qatar, set to open in December 2018, has released new images of its readymade icon designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel. Iwan Baan's photos capture, from near and afar, the blade-like petals inspired by the desert rose and the new building's relationship to Sheikh... John Hill

The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University is a new, non-collecting contemporary art institution that opened to the public on 21 April 2018. As Richmond’s first arts institution dedicated to contemporary art, the ICA serves as a significant new cultural resource... Steven Holl Architects

Melbourne developer Beulah International has announced the six teams competing to design a $2 billion mixed-use development in Southbank on a site currently occupied by a BMW car dealership. John Hill

Recently a colorful new school building has been delivered in Doorn, The Netherlands. The total scheme of landscape and buildings was designed by Spring Architecten in collaboration with MoederscheimMoonen Architects. The team of architects worked intensively on this comprehensive task which... Spring Architecten & MoederscheimMoonen Architects

Forensic Architecture, the research agency based at University of London that architect Eyal Weizman started in 2011, has been named one of the four finalists for the Tate's prestigious Turner Prize. John Hill

The Equal Justice Initiative's National Memorial for Peace and Justice is opening to the public on Thursday, April 26, in Montgomery, Alabama, accompanied by several days of educational panels and presentations, performances, and concerts. John Hill

Located at the heart of the historic Zuiderpark, the €50m sports campus is an innovative collaboration of alliances between education, sport, sport science and the community, for both the municipality of The Hague and its private partners: the Haagse Hogeschool and ROC Mondriaan. FaulknerBrowns Architects

NOWNESS presents a video directed by Andres Arochi in which Luis Barragan's house and studio in Mexico City "hosts a body-bending dance troupe who twist and move through the geometric building’s colorful spaces and rooms." John Hill

The nave of the neo-Gothic Christuskirche Köln (1894) was demolished in 2014 to make way for a new worship hall flanked by five-story wings containing apartments and commercial space designed by Hollenbeck Architektur and Maier Architekten. Frank Schoepgens Fotografie

A new short film from PLANE—SITE touches upon the primary issues that designers, acousticians and directors are addressing in the design of concert halls today. John Hill