Magazine

The Lightcatcher, designed by architects Francesco Magnani and Traudy Pelzel of Venice's MAP studio, has opened in Melbourne's Queen Victoria Gardens. It is the seventh MPavilion commissioned by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation. John Hill

With Shenzhen’s comfortable year-round climate, outdoor recreational spaces are utilized to their fullest potential. One of the areas the local government had identified to be transformed into a sports and leisure zone was the 1.2 km long rooftop of the southern terminal and depot building of... Crossboundaries

The project designed by architects Fernando Porras-Isla, Lorenzo Fernández-Ordoñez, and Aránzazu La Casta (Porras Guadiana Arquitectos), a major landscape reconfiguration in a key location in the Spanish capital, reopened to the public at the end of November. John Hill, Antonio La Gioia

OPEN Architecture's Chapel of Sound is a semi-outdoor concert hall this sits on the floor of a valley north of Beijing famous for hosting remnants of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall. A short film captures the spatial and acoustical qualities of the recently completed building. John Hill

The new office building at 520 West 20th Street is an adaptive reuse and extension of an old warehouse in West Chelsea, just steps from the High Line and the plethora of residential buildings that have boomed alongside the elevated park. Morris Adjmi Architects answered a few questions about... Morris Adjmi Architects

Curators Ilka and Andreas Ruby have transformed the Barcelona Pavilion into a domestic space — a temporary version of the EU Mies Prize-winning "Transformation of 530 Dwellings in the Grand Parc Bordeaux" by Lacaton & Vassal architectes, Frédéric Druot Architecture, and Christophe Hutin... John Hill

Influential artist and designer Virgil Abloh has died of cancer at just 41. Head of his own Off-White label and artistic director for Louis Vuitton’s menswear, Abloh graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology with a Master of Architecture in 2006. John Hill

Diller Scofidio + Renfro has unveiled their design for Sarofim Hall, which reinterprets Butler Buildings to create a "new hub for cross-disciplinary practice" at Rice University in Houston, Texas. John Hill

Upon the opening of the new Bastian Gallery in Berlin’s Dahlem district on November 13, Ulf Meyer spoke with its architect, John Pawson — the king of British minimalism and a prolific Instagrammer — who revealed some insights behind his architectural designs in and beyond the German capital. Ulf Meyer

Six long years after it was approved by the Parisian city council, Herzog & de Meuron's Tour Triangle proposed for the 15th arrondissement is moving forward following a recent financing deal. John Hill

The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow has unveiled SANAA's design that will revive The Hexagon, a building with six pavilions originally designed by Ivan Zholtovsky. Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa explain their design in a short film. John Hill

The 104-year-old Obama Building in Detroit's Old Redford neighborhood takes its name from a mural that used to grace the building's exterior and depicted Barack and Michelle Obama's "First Dance." The restored mural is now inside the Obama Building, which was renovated by Lorcan O'Herlihy... Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects

Number of single-family homes the United States is short of: 5.24 million René Ammann

The World Monuments Fund (WMF) has announced that John Puttick Associates has been awarded the 2021 WMF/Knoll Modernism Prize for their preservation of the Preston Bus Station in Preston, UK. John Hill

OMA NY: Search Term is the first monograph produced by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) since Content came out in 2004. Focused, as the title indicates, on OMA's New York studio, Search Term uses thousands of images — 5,565 of them, to be precise — to tell... John Hill

For a period of two weeks starting in late September, the Arc de Triomphe was only recognizable by its shape. Schlaich bergermann partner (sbp) implemented the wrapping project of the artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude in Paris. Katinka Corts spoke with Mike Schlaich on the engineering of... Katinka Corts

As part of the two-part exhibition at Wrightwood 659, Romanticism to Ruin: Two Lost Works of Sullivan and Wright, Chicago cultural historian emeritus Tim Samuelson gives short video tours of five demolished Louis Sullivan buildings in the Loop. John Hill

Push the glass curtain door open and observe the unique C-shape bookshelves, with natural walnut color, before your eyes. The seemingly irregular sequence builds intimacy within the space and becomes a highlight in the front hall. X+Living

The Sir John Soane's Museum in London has announced that the recipient of the fourth annual Soane Medal is Marina Tabassum, Bangladeshi architect and pioneer of "‘the architecture of relevance." John Hill

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has revealed the 2021 shortlist for the RIBA International Prize, the biennial award that "celebrates projects that demonstrate design excellence and social impact." John Hill

During an award ceremony held in Venice on November 13, the Holcim Foundation announced the four winners and four commendations in the Global Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction.  John Hill

Originally built as a gatehouse for the Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart, the century-old Schiff House now serves as daycare center for the City College of New York. Stone outside and wood inside, the small building was renovated by Michielli + Wyetzner Architects and opened in 2020.... Michielli + Wyetzner Architects

Price of a salad bowl at Swedish retailer Ikea that served as an inspiration for MVRDV's Depot Boijmans Van... René Ammann

M+ opened to the public on Friday, November 12, in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, in a building designed by Herzog & de Meuron. Billed as Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture, M+ opened with approximately 1,500 works on display. A fifteen-minute film from... John Hill

Luxembourg’s second city, Esch-sur-Alzette (or Esch, for short, population 36,000), is preparing for its role as the European Capital of Culture next year. Ulf Meyer visited Esch to take in different parts of the city and highlight some of the additions being made in the run up to next year’s... Ulf Meyer

One month after reports indicated Norman Foster's Tulip tower planned for the City of London was "likely to happen," the 305-meter-tall tower has been rejected over its "unsustainable concept" and its visual impact on heritage buildings. John Hill

One River North, the third project in the United States and the first in the country east of the Rockies for Ma Yansong's MAD Architects, features a landscaped "canyon" traversing ten of its sixteen floors. John Hill

CROSSROADS: Life in the Resilient City is a short film by Nils Clauss and Neil Dowling that tells five stories in five cities — New York, Seoul, Mumbai, Paris, Nairobi — inspired by this year's Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. John Hill

The Tampa Museum of Art has announced a $65 million expansion that is being designed by New York's WEISS/MANFREDI and will "enliven Tampa’s cultural scene and significantly alter the city skyline." John Hill

The recently completed Babyn Yar Synagogue in Kyiv, Ukraine, commemorates the massacre of approximately 35,000 Jews over two days in September 1941. The building was designed by Manuel Herz Architects to literally open like a book, echoing the congregation's act of coming together to read from... John Hill

Cantilever House is located in Mosha, Damavand, sixty kilometers from Tehran at an elevation of 2,400 meters, where we have very strong winters. The 600 m2 (30x20 m) site has a slope of 20% — we confronted such a difficult circumstance and did our best to meet the client's demands. uc21 architects

The Real Deal is reporting that the 76-story residential tower at 8 Spruce Street in Lower Manhattan designed by Frank Gehry and that goes by the name New York by Gehry is for sale, with an asking price of $850 million.  John Hill

Fourteen residential units and two retail spaces now fill the former Columbia City Abbey, a 1924 building at 39th and Ferdinand in Seattle. Allied8 handled the adaptive reuse, making each apartment unique from the rest. The Seattle studio answered a few questions about the project. Allied8

Share of time Americans stay inside of buildings: 90% René Ammann

As part of PastForward, the National Preservation Conference, held virtually from November 2–5, the United States' National Trust for Historic Preservation announced the recipients of the 2021 National Preservation Awards. John Hill

The Aspen Art Museum has announced that My Dear Mountains, a site-specific artwork by Italian architect and designer Gaetano Pesce, will cover the facade of the museum's Shigeru Ban-designed building next year.