The Architectural Review articles from April 2004

The Architectural Review archives from April 2004

Banking on architecture.(View)(54f architekten/Hamzah & Yeang)(ASP Schweger)(European Central Bank annouced architects as winners)
April 1, 2004... A recent major competition for the new European Central Bank in Frankfurt provided an intriguing snapshot of current architectural preoccupations. In February, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced three architects as the winners of a...

Naked truth.(photographic exhibitions)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... As we await the delayed opening of Bath Spa (AR September 2003)--following an ongoing contractual dispute over defective paint--Bristol's Architecture Centre has recently exhibited a selection of photographs by photographer in residence, Carlo...

Intervening in Europe.(View)
April 1, 2004... 'Intervening in the European City', Architectural Review's conference, 16 March 2004, at the RIBA London. Generously sponsored by Zumtobel Staff. Sutherland Lyall reports. You assemble an all-star cast: Chris Wilkinson, Mecanoo's Francine...

Jim Antoniou.(Brief Article)(Obituary)
April 1, 2004... Jim Antoniou, who died suddenly aged 66 in January, was a valued contributor to The Architectural Review, particularly on urban matters. Born in Athens, he trained as an architect and planner at the London Polytechnic and worked for Lyons...

Sutherland Lyall indefatiguably forages and ferrets for cyber fodder.(Browser)
April 1, 2004... On site at last Pritzker Prize laureate Jorn Utzon has recently lived a quiet, blameless and mainly website-less life, latterly in Majorca. Now with his renewed involvement, admittedly at a distance, with the icon of Australia, there's a...

Singapore modernism.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... SIR: I have read a number of articles (sometimes the same article) in various magazines written by Robert Powell. The most recent being February's one titled 'Tropical Rigour' in the AR where he reviews WOHA Architects' Singapore House. ...

Why the differentiation?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... SIR: I wonder if any of your readers noticed the remarkable similarity between the Graz Art Museum, 'a spunky modern interloper that adds both to the life of the city and to its historic fabric', and the Birmingham Selfridges, 'a blue...

Further blob confusion.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... SIR: I am confused about blobs--and you seem to be too. Why is the AR so keen on the Kunsthaus in Graz by Cook and Fournier (last month), and so opposed to the department store in Birmingham by Future Systems (AR October 2003)? You attack the...

Munich's economic success, popular appeal and an ambitious programme of building continue to fuel its civic rivalry with Berlin.(View from Munich)
April 1, 2004... After German unification in 1990, there was great scepticism as to whether Munich would still continue to boast the title of Germany's 'secret capital'. Would Munich be able to defend its position as one of the top German economic centres...

Light house news: Richard MacCormac explains his approach to creating a new glass building next to a well-loved stone one.(Design Review)
April 1, 2004... The idea for a glass facade emerged from the necessity of replacing the slate roof which formed a mansard on the east side of Broadcasting House [by G. Val Myers, 1931] with a superstructure of equivalent weight, rather than the Portland Stone...

Light and dark; ironically, at a time when light of all kinds is more abundant than ever before and means of manipulating it are ever more sophisticated, there is a general lack of imagination about illuminating buildings.(Comment)
April 1, 2004... Never has humankind had more light. From transparent walls to almost universal provision of electric illumination, we can be bathed in light both day and night, so, because light is essential for life, we should be the happiest people that ever...

Instrument of light: Richard Meier's long awaited church in Rome is a beautifully honed giver and receiver of light.
April 1, 2004... Richard Meier's Rome church is one event originally planned to mark the celebrations of the Jubilee of AD 2000. This was initiated by the Pope in 1994 when he called for a Special Consistory to prepare for the Great Jubilee at the starting...

The art of the possible: a new visitors' centre for the Crystal Cathedral complex not only unifies a set of disparate buildings, but also uses light to evoke a powerful sense of the numinous.
April 1, 2004... Orange County is a featureless suburban wasteland that occupies much of the arid plain between Los Angeles and San Diego. Everything there is themed, from Disneyland to the meanest mall, and developers have fought, with striking success, to...

Luminous paradigm: the Genzyme Center brings transforming imagination to US office design, adding environmental and human dimensions.
April 1, 2004... Seen in passing, the Genzyme Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts does not seem particularly revolutionary. It looks very much like another glass-clad corporate headquarters, even if its profile and massing are slightly unusual, and its cladding...

Beacon of faith: a beacon of faith in South America will glow at night and focus natural light in daytime.
April 1, 2004... When it is finished in 2007, the Baha'i Temple proposed for a site near Santiago in Chile will ensure that the faith will have a Mother Temple on all continents. Hariri Pontarini of Toronto were winners of the 185-entry design competition,...

Eternal life: having established his reputation applying monastic architectural principles to the home and the high street, minimalism comes full circle with John in the Czech Republic.Pawson's design for a new monastery.
April 1, 2004... While the story of a group of monks stumbling, lost, into Calvin Klein's flagship Manhattan store is an intriguing one, it is sadly not entirely true. What is true, however, is that after years of being inspired by the principles of Cistercian...

Northern exposure: a multi-purpose centre brings urbanity and an understanding of nature to Alaskan suburbs.
April 1, 2004... At one of the remotest northern boundaries of the American continent and on the outskirts of a rapidly growing city, this recently completed building in Alaska seeks to create a new physical and social centre. Planned to nurture the communal...

Cabinet of curiosities: its internal layout based around ancient remains, this new Gallo-Roman museum is a lightweight, luminous box that engages with nature and lets antiquity speak for itself.(Interior Design)
April 1, 2004... As witnessed by recent projects such as the Lucerne concert hall (AR October 1998) and Nantes law courts (AR November 2000), the big roof has become something of a Jean Nouvel signature. Here in the French town of Perigeaux it makes another...

Anderson shelter: on an apparently impossible site in the heart of London, with significant constraints, Jamie Fobert Architects have derived a new form of contemporary house.(Ar House)
April 1, 2004... The Anderson House, concealed on an invisible backyard site within a central London Georgian block, is exemplary, not least because there must be hundreds of similar sites awaiting adaptation, dormant beneath the crumbling roofscapes of cities...

Rob Gregory explores the great outdoors.(Exterior Products)
April 1, 2004... 501 STREETLIFE The new Streetlife Butterfly Bridges-designed by npk industrial design-have recently been installed near Amsterdam and in Travemunde, Germany. As a standardized cycle and pedestrian system, the bridge is based on a...

Specifier's information.
April 1, 2004... Barlo Cast Barlo Cast plastic lumina are sheets of cast plastic that can be evenly illuminated, allowing small and low power light sources to be used in street furniture and poster displays. Even illumination is achieved by injecting light...

In search of commitment.(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... NEW COMMITMENT IN ARCHITECTURE, ART AND DESIGN Edited by NAi Publishers. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers. 2003. [euro]25 In a sense, the very appearance of this book is a sign of the futility of its mission. The unnamed editors at NAi have...

When heroic sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen returned to Denmark after a life largely spent in Rome, C. F. Hansen's royal carriage depot in Copenhagen was converted to house his collections.
April 1, 2004... Caption: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When heroic sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen returned to Denmark after a life largely spent in Rome, C. F. Hansen's royal carriage depot in Copenhagen was converted to house his collections. M. G. Bindesboll...

Urban paradigm?(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... EASTERN HARBOUR DISTRICT AMSTERDAM: URBANISM AND ARCHITECTURE By Marlies Buurman, Bernard Hulsman, Hans Ibelings, Allard Jolles, Ed Melet, Ton Schaap. Rotterdam: NAi. 2003. [euro]60 Since the end of the 1980s the Eastern Harbour...

Getting them up.(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... HIGH-RISE MANUAL: TYPOLOGY AND DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND TECHNOLOGY Edited by Johann Eisele and Ellen Kloft. Basel: Birkhauser. 2003. [euro]65 I had always imagined that high-rise buildings were designed and built by people with years...

Centering on the client.(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... DESIGNING BETTER BUILDINGS: QUALITY AND VALUE IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Edited by Sandy Macmillan. London Spon Press. 2003. [pounds sterling]32 If it is true that, 'Architects and engineers are in the process of losing (or have already...

Of writing histories of design, there is no end, but a particularly thoughtful one has been produced by David Raizman.
April 1, 2004... Caption: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Of writing histories of design, there is no end, but a particularly thoughtful one has been produced by David Raizman. He traces design's courses from the royal manufactories of eighteenth-century...

Operatic gardening.(The Garden of Cosmic Speculation)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... THE GARDEN OF COSMIC SPECULATION By Charles Jencks. London: Frances Lincoln Publishing. 2003. [pounds sterling]35 Charles Jencks first revealed his inclination for landscape and garden design in 1984 with a memorable completed project...

Light and dark are magically orchestrated within hadrian's magnificent Pantheon in Rome.(Delight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The Pantheon was made for light. It captures light and even conquers it. It was the prize for which all this concrete was poured. W. L. MacDonald. The Pantheon, USA Harvard University Press. 1976 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION...