Magazine

The Board of La Biennale di Venezia has announced that Ghanaian–Scottish architectural academic, educator, and novelist Lesley Lokko will curate the next Venice Architecture Biennale, which will take place from May to November, 2023. John Hill

As 2021 — year two of the coronavirus pandemic — draws to a close, World-Architects takes a month-by-month look back at some of the stories that transpired over the last twelve months: awards, competitions, buildings, exhibitions, and passings.  John Hill

Located on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Walter Anderson Museum of Art is dedicated to the preservation and celebration of artist-philosopher Walter Anderson (1903-1965). In May the museum opened the Courtney Blossman Art Cottage, the renovation of a 19th-century house and the first stage in... Tall Architects

Price paid for a plot of virtual land in The Sandbox metaverse: $4.3 million (€3.8m) René Ammann

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced that Angela Brooks and Lawrence Scarpa of California's Brooks + Scarpa Architects are winners of the 2022 Gold Medal, while Boston's MASS Design Group wins the 2022 Architecture Firm Award. John Hill

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced that India's Balkrishna Doshi is the 2022 recipient of the Royal Gold Medal, which recognizes architects "who have had a significant influence on the advancement of architecture." John Hill

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

The Gymnasium of South University of Science and Technology stretches horizontally; the huge roof slides down along the rock mountain, hangs in the air, and stretches out a large eave to the west, providing a shady space under the local hot climate condition.  Urbanus Architecture & Design

Hiroshi Sugimoto's redesign of the Hirshhorn Museum's Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, has been approved by the National Capital Planning Commission, allowing the Hirshhorn to move forward with site development plans that have been years in the making. John Hill

The same week that Barbados removed Queen Elizabeth as head of state and became a republic, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced the creation of the Barbados Heritage District, featuring a slavery memorial designed by Adjaye Associates, which released a short film visualizing the... John Hill

Maison Edouard François has completed the new Le Ray neighborhood in Nice, France, the repurposing of the former Le Ray Stadium. Le Ray is home to a 25,000-m² mixed-use program including 350 apartments and 6,000 m² of commercial floor area. The 1.2-hectare site has Europe’s largest greened... Maison Edouard François

One of the newest buildings on the campus of Georgia Tech located in Midtown Atlanta, the Caddell Building houses the School of Building Construction, part of the university's College of Design. Although it looks like a new building at first glance, it is actually the adaptive reuse of a... BLDGS

Amount British street artist Banksy has offered to buy an empty prison in Reading, England, that features an uninterrupted 500-meter-long paintable surface, proposing to turn it into... René Ammann

Copenhill, also known as Amager Bakke, the waste-to-energy plant topped with a ski slope in Copenhagen, was judged the top prize at the annual World Architecture Festival that was held virtually this year. Here we present some images of the design by BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group and other winners... John Hill

Is idealism economically sensible? Yes, says Katharina Lehmann. In an interview with Swiss-Architects editor Elias Baumgarten she talks about values, what it means to be a female boss, and why coercive measures are not enough to stop climate change. Elias Baumgarten

The recipients of the 32nd annual Piranesi Awards have been announced, following the jury's deliberations on November 26 at Monfort Exhibition Hall in Portorose, Slovenia. John Hill

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