Magazine

Diébédo Francis Kéré has been named the laureate of this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize. Born in Gando and based in Berlin (he is a dual citizen of Burkina Faso and Germany), Kéré is the first architect from Africa to win the prize considered architecture’s highest honor.  Ulf Meyer

The Museum of Resistance and Human Rights in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, got an interesting make-over, courtesy of architect Jim Clemes and designer Nathalie Jacoby. Ulf Meyer visited the reworked museum, sending us his impressions. Ulf Meyer

Construction is now underway on the Kéré Architecture-designed Goethe Institute in Dakar, Senegal, with the new cultural center set to open its doors in the summer of 2023. Ulf Meyer

The magic world of Hans Christian Andersen and his legendary fairy tales is on display in Odense, Denmark, in the House of Fairy Tales designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. Ulf Meyer visited the H.C. Andersen House, sending us his impressions. Ulf Meyer

Boris Iofan's Soviet architecture is rediscovered in a new exhibition, Stalin’s Architect: The Rise and Fall of Boris Iofan, now on display at the Tchoban Foundation – Museum for Architectural Drawing in Berlin.  Ulf Meyer

In August 2014, the Ordrupgaard Museum reopened with a new primarily underground extension designed by Norway's Snøhetta. Ulf Meyer visited Ordrupgaard recently, sending us his impressions of the newly expanded museum. Ulf Meyer

A big Peter Cook retrospective is now on display at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark. Peter Cook – City Landscapes opened on January 21, with the famed architect and founding member of Archigram in attendance. Ulf Meyer filed this report and spoke with Cook. Ulf Meyer

One of Kenji Hirose’s best houses — SH-60, located in Nakano ward of northwestern Tokyo — has been demolished. Ulf Meyer

The Norwegian office of Mad arkitekter, the subject of Mad About Dugnad – Work Together, Build Better, a new exhibition at Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin, has great concepts — and a ways to go. Ulf Meyer

Moscow's newest cultural center opened on Saturday, December 4, in the former second city electric station, or GES-2. The transformation of the building was done by Renzo Piano Building Workshop for the V–A–C Foundation. Ulf Meyer

The House of Hungarian Music in Budapest's City Park will open to the public at the end of January. Sou Fujimoto's design is an undulating canopy above glass walls that is all about blending the new building into its natural setting near the city center. Ulf Meyer

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

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

The International Conference on Architectural Criticism took place online over four days in October, with dozens of academics addressing the theme “On the Duty and Power of Architectural Criticism.” Ulf Meyer watched the proceedings and sent us his impressions. Ulf Meyer

The Torch Tower will dominate Tokyo's skyline when it's completed in 2028. The 63-story tower is the main element in Tokyo Torch, a mixed-use development in the city's historic Tokiwabashi district. Ulf Meyer

Stockholm’s ArkDes portrays the famous Swedish architect Sigurd Lewerentz (1885–1975) as the “Architect of death and life” in a major monographic exhibition that opened on October 1, 2021, and is on display until August 28, 2022. Ulf Meyer toured Sigurd Lewerentz: Architect of Death and... Ulf Meyer

Tenjin Business Center is a new 640,000-square-foot office complex just completed in Fukuoka, Japan. Designed by Shohei Shigematsu, the building is billed as OMA's first ground-up office building in Japan. Ulf Meyer

Expo 2020 opened to the public in Dubai on October 1, 2021, one year behind schedule. Carrying the theme “Connecting Minds and Creating the Future,” Expo 2020 is the first world’s fair to take place in the Middle East. Ulf Meyer visited the Expo ahead of opening day and sent us his impressions... Ulf Meyer

The M9 Museum of the 20th Century in Venice-Mestre is hosting draw love build, a large exhibition on thirty years of the work of Sauerbruch Hutton, the architectural practice that can boast of M9 as one of its flagship designs. Ulf Meyer visited the exhibition after its September 3rd... Ulf Meyer

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, opens to the public on September 30. The project is the renovation of an old department store and the addition of a spherical building. Ulf Meyer

Charles Jenck‘s Cosmic House in London, a manifesto of postmodern architecture, opens to the public on Friday, September 24, two years after the famed architectural historian and landscape designer died. Ulf Meyer

Japanese architect Hiroshi Sambuichi will expand the Cisternerne in Copenhagen, adding a fourth underground chamber for art. The Fourth Chamber displays the architect's interest in traditional Japanese ways of building and his ability to merge art, architecture, and nature. Ulf Meyer

The 15th International Alvar Aalto Symposium took place online on August 12th and 13th with the theme "Future of Industry" approached from perspectives of art, industry, and technology. Ulf Meyer attended the two days of talks to see how the participants responded to the theme, filing this... Ulf Meyer

TCHOBAN VOSS Architects recently completed Ferrum 1, a seven-story office building in Saint Petersburg, Russia, that is highlighted by a sculptural Corten steel facade. Ulf Meyer

The new pedestrian promenade in Bastia, France, is a masterpiece of urban design and engineering. Designed by Dietmar Feichtinger Architectes, the corniche follows the rocky coastline of the Mediterranean Sea below the Corsican city. Ulf Meyer recently visited the path that has become a... Ulf Meyer

Harvard University’s new Science and Engineering Complex in Boston, designed by Behnisch Architekten, has a LEED Platinum certified from the USGBC and a Living Building Challenge Petal certification from the International Living Future Institute, making it one of the healthiest laboratory... Ulf Meyer

For a small town like Arles, not far away from the Cote d’Azur, Frank O. Gehry’s tower is a landmark because of its height and twisted shape; yet even without its shininess, the building at the heart of the new art campus in France would stand out. The 11,000 stainless steel panels that cover... Ulf Meyer

Contested Modernities consists of symposia, an exhibition, and a publication focused on postcolonial architecture in Southeast Asia as part of the long-term program Encounters with Southeast Asian Modernism. Ulf Meyer watched Contested Modernities’ second symposium, “The... Ulf Meyer

In April the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design in Atlanta earned Living Building Challenge certification, making it one of just 28 buildings that can boast of meeting the world's most stringent green building standard. The building by Miller Hull Partnership and Lord Aeck... Ulf Meyer

Although an exact date is not known yet, reports indicate the long-delayed opening of ANOHA — The Children's World of the Jewish Museum Berlin is scheduled to take place in the second half of June. Ulf Meyer

The Urban Environment House is a new nearly net-zero building in Helsinki's former docklands designed by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki architects for the city's Urban Environment Division. Its completion during the pandemic means the building is yet to be occupied by city workers, but hopefully... Ulf Meyer

In their new book, Old Is New: Architectural Works by New Material Research Laboratory, artist Hiroshi Sugimoto and architect Tomoyuki Sakakida reveal the inner workings of the practice they formed in 2008. Although the name New Material Research Laboratory expresses innovation, the duo... Ulf Meyer

New details have been released for the Sydney Modern Project, SANAA’s expansion of the Art Gallery of New South Wales that will be the Japanese architecture firm’s first building in the Southern Hemisphere when it is inaugurated next year. Ulf Meyer

Aldo Rossi: The Architect and the Cities is a major retrospective opening on March 10 at MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome. The exhibition explores the architecture and theories of Italy’s “unusual architect.” Ulf Meyer

Architect Junya Ishigami's design for Restaurant Noel in Yamaguchi, at the western end of Japan’s main island of Honshu, is a series of cave-like spaces seemingly carved into the earth. Construction photos of the project hint at the special qualities that will be on display when the restaurant... Ulf Meyer

In Japan: Nation Building Nature, Joachim Nijs searches for an “alternative interpretation of Japanese architectural history” through a matrix of four ecological phenomena. Ulf Meyer — a fellow European as enthralled with Japan as Nijs is — read the recently published book and sent us... Ulf Meyer