Magazine

A team of Danish architects and landscape architects has completed the European Spallation Source in Lund, Sweden, a campus that aims to “advance material research for science and innovation.” Ulf Meyer

Powerhouse Sydney has announced that Powerhouse Parramatta, billed as “the largest cultural development in Australia to be created since the Sydney Opera House,” will open in early 2025. Ulf Meyer

Jean-Louis Cohen, the French architectural historian and longtime professor of architectural history at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts died unexpectedly on August 7, 2023. Ulf Meyer

Chappe is a new “art house by the sea” that opened earlier this year in Tammisaari, in southern Finland. The small building was designed by JKMM Architects for the Albert de la Chapelle Art Foundation. Ulf Meyer

The Centro de Investigación del Mar de Cortés (Sea of Cortez Research Center) opened in Mazatlán, Mexico, at the end of May. Located in Parque Central Mazatlán, the impressive building was designed by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio. Ulf Meyer

Even though the National Portrait Gallery in St. Martin’s Place boasts the world’s largest collection of portraits, it was sometimes overlooked relative to the other great art museums in London. A new transformation hopes to change that. Ulf Meyer

British architect Michael Hopkins, recipient of the Royal Gold Medal in 1994 with his wife Patty, died on June 17, “peacefully” and “surrounded by his family,” per Hopkins Architects. He was 88. Ulf Meyer

After winning first prize in an architectural design competition, New York's Diller Scofidio + Renfro will design the Pina Bausch Zentrum in Wuppertal, a city in Western Germany. Ulf Meyer

Vienna's AllesWirdGut has completed the Račianska Residential High-Rise Complex (aka GUTHAUS) in nearby Bratislava, Slovakia. Ulf Meyer

A couple months after the Naomi Milgrom Foundation announced Tadao Ando would design the next iteration of the MPavilion, renderings of Ando's design have been revealed. Ulf Meyer

Hungary’s tallest tower houses the headquarters of the country’s biggest company, the MOL Group. The giant oil and gas conglomerate commissioned Lord Norman Foster from London to design their new headquarters, which was inaugurated in December. Ulf Meyer

Turkey’s first museum of modern and contemporary art opens the doors to its new home on Thursday, May 4. Designed by Genoa, Italy's Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW), Istanbul Modern is located on the waterfront in Istanbul’s Karaköy quarter, right where the Bosphorus and Golden Horn meet. Ulf Meyer

Kengo Kuma & Associates has won the international design competition for a visitor center for the Butrint National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Albania’s Ionian coast. Ulf Meyer

The Manchester Museum has become home to the UK’s first permanent gallery for South Asian art, courtesy of an extension designed by Purcell, the firm that boasts “the world’s largest team of heritage experts.” Ulf Meyer

Michael Maltzan Architecture led the two-decade-long transformation of the Hammer Museum on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The newly named Lynda and Stewart Resnick Cultural Center opens to the public on March 26. Ulf Meyer

Combining the the Museum of Central Finland and the Alvar Aalto Museum, the new Aalto2 Museum Centre opens to the public in May, when it will play a major part of the 125th anniversary of Alvar Aalto’s birth. Ulf Meyer

British architect David Chipperfield has been named the laureate of this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize. He is the 52nd recipient of the award that is considered architecture’s highest honor. Ulf Meyer

A team led by David Chipperfield Architects has won the high-profile competition to expand the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. (Originally published on January 12, 2023; updated with additional renderings on February 16.) Ulf Meyer

Despite the efforts of preservationists, the decision has been made that the Kagawa Prefectural Gymnasium, designed by Kenzo Tange in 1964, will be knocked down. Ulf Meyer

The Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) in Bangalore is celebrating its grand opening on February 18, 2023. The museum is housed in a five-story building designed by Mathew & Ghosh Architects. Ulf Meyer

The 2019 Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate was a great master builder as well as an astute thinker and gifted writer. His versatile architecture made him a mediator between Japan and the West. Ulf Meyer

The Sydney Modern expansion of the Art Gallery of New South Wales opens on December 3. It is the first building in the Southern Hemisphere for SANAA, the studio of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. Ulf Meyer

Daniel Libeskind has been selected to boldly transform Boerentoren, the iconic Art Deco skyscraper in Antwerp, Belgium, also known as KBC Tower and now owned by Katoen Natie. Ulf Meyer

At 310 meters to its tip, Varso Tower, designed by Foster + Partners and engineered by Buro Happold, is now the tallest tower in the European Union. Ulf Meyer

Dance House Helsinki was inaugurated in February of this year as the first event venue in Finland dedicated to dance. Ulf Meyer visited the adaptive reuse and extension designed by JKMM Architects. Ulf Meyer

Eleven years after the terrorist attacks on Oslo and Utøya, Norway, Haptic and Nordic have been selected to design the new National Government Quarter in Oslo. Ulf Meyer

The board of trustees of the nonprofit Calder Gardens has unveiled the design for a new building and landscape in Philadelphia for displaying the work of artist Alexander Calder. Ulf Meyer

New aspects of Hotel Iveria, renovated by GRAFT in 2009 as the Radisson SAS Iveria Hotel, are featured in a new exhibition at Architektur Galerie Berlin. Ulf Meyer

Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake — influential in the world of fashion as well as in the world of architecture — died on Friday at the age of 84. Ulf Meyer

The impressive Shilin Night Market is a magnet for locals and tourists in Taipei. Starting this week, the new Taipei Performing Arts Center (TPAC), designed by... Ulf Meyer

Snøhetta designs a tower for Tokyu Corporation in Tokyo that features a terraced roof topped with trees. Ulf Meyer isn’t buying it. [First published on July 28, 2022; updated with renderings on August 5.] Ulf Meyer

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has announced the completion of 800 Fulton Market, a mixed-use office tower in Chicago's booming Fulton Market District. Ulf Meyer finds in it a return to structural expression for SOM. Ulf Meyer

Two new initiatives are aiming to add more modern architecture to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Ulf Meyer reports on a recent symposium focused on the built heritage of Erich Mendelsohn. Ulf Meyer

A team led by the firm of Australian architect Angelo Candalepas was selected by the Victorian Government and the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in a competition to design the NGV Contemporary. Ulf Meyer

Architect Lee Jeong-hoon is building a pavilion on the roof of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Korea in Gwacheon. Ulf Meyer

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