Architecture

In the cities of tomorrow high-tech networks are expected to make everyday life a lot easier. But the more complex the systems become, the more error-prone they get. Anthony M. Townsend confronts us with the extremely fragile systems of permanent enhancing efficiency.

In a previous life Michel Rojkind played the drums for “La Gente Normal”, one of Mexico’s hottest rock bands. Luckily for us, he didn’t stay in music but decided to make architecture instead.

The new Jumex Museum in Mexico City by Chipperfield Architects speaks a pleasant, restrained architectural language.

Derek Dellekamp is one of the group of architects who helped rebuild the architectural scene in Mexico following the economic crisis there in the 1980s and 1990s. A portrait of one of the protagonists in Mexican architecture who is still successful today.

Productora – stands for unusual yet pragmatic furniture by four young architects from Argentina, Mexico and Belgium, respectively.

The “La Ciudadela” is an example for a sensible restoration of an historical building, showing the flexibility of its use – and how wonderful it is to be surrounded by books.

Rojkind Architectos’ National Cinematheque in Mexico City offers not only new spaces for the film museum and film archive, the architects also created a new public space for open air film events.

Anyone visiting Mexico City should put aside some time to visit the marvelous buildings erected in the megapolis before 1980. We’ve compiled a hit list of the ten most interesting buildings aged over 40.

The Vasconcelos Library by the architect Alberto Kalach combines a library and a botanical garden – and looks like a version of Cedric Price’s Fun Palace.

Javier Sanchez Arquitectos and Arquitectura 911sc have modernized a building in Mexico City which dates from the 18th century and is now used by the Spanish Cultural Center.

Mexican architecture journal Arquine is hosting a conference for the 15th time. This year it centers on the Mexico City metropolis and is accompanied by a highly diverse festival program.

Almost everything is a challenge in this megalopolis with over 20 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area that includes 40 municipalities of the State of Mexico. Alejandro Hernández Gálvez, chief editor at the mexican architecture magazine Arquine, explains why.

London engages modernity on its own terms: hosting modern architecture without ever really entering into the obligation to modernize as a city.

The exhibition “In Beton gegossen” (Cast in concrete), on show in Stuttgart’s Architekturgalerie am Weissenhof from February 27 to April 6, pays tribute to the oeuvre of Ulrich Müther, whose extraordinary reinforced concrete shell structures were a cut above East German architecture at the time.

A waterfront sullied by Frankfurt Airport’s oil tank farm and a gap in the network of cycling routes that begged to be closed precisely at this spot: Raunheim’s new oil harbor bridge is a structure that self-confidently stands out in what is otherwise a surreal environment.

In the Netherlands the number of days with strong precipitation increased to 85 percent. What to do with all the water in a sealed city like Rotterdam? With their concept for Rotterdam’s Benthemplein square, the architects and planners at De Urbanisten demonstrate how water management can be incorporated into urban square design.

An exhibition in the Frankfurt Museum Angewandte Kunst focusing on the furniture of designer Ferdinand Kramer. But his product designs remain tied to his architectural legacy, which is well worth taking a look at.

“Selfie-ism”, the well-known phenomenon of uploading cell-phone photos onto social media platforms, is now also possible on building façades. Architect Asif Khan has created a façade that portrays three-dimensional faces.

Media façades tend to be viewed with a critical eye – at least by architects. Indeed, many are just a glowing, in the worst case, flashing form of decoration for mediocre architecture. But is everything that flashes instantly bad?

The tower of Goethe University Frankfurt’s Educational Department has been demolished. The building was just 42 years old. An obituary.

The legendary statesman had a penchant for luxurious hotel complexes. These and others are now featuring in the illustrated volume “Holidays after the Fall”: A photographic journey to the architectural legacy of the heyday of tourism in socialist Croatia.

Wildau Technical University of Applied Sciences stands on the grounds of what was once Europe’s largest locomotive factory. The old and new buildings together form a highly attractive campus on Berlin’s doorstep.

The stack’s getting smaller, but the work of remembering what was left lying is not yet at an end. Because quite a lot has accumulated as regards architecture and the museum.

Each time a new year begins, one is beset by a strange sense of disquiet. As though we needed to fight off a virus, we start tidying up. And in so doing, come across piles of books that deserve to be ignored no longer. So, here we go – let’s take a look at what we’ve got.

A mysterious client in Kazakhstan, a well-known architectural firm named OMA and a so-called science campus are the protagonists in "Naukograd" - a piece in seven acts on the experiences of an international architectural firm.

Anyone who thinks winter’s too cold to keep the brain working should simply check out life on the ground in Manhattan.

In Tokyo “urban manufacturing” is not just some post-economic crisis slogan, but lived practice day in day out. In Taitō, one of the oldest districts, furniture, bags, paper lanterns and silver tea-ceremony vessels are being made in tiny workshops – and often by craftsmen seated on the floor in the traditional Japanese style.

It was not so much aesthetic architectural approaches that were called for as temporary solutions with a socio-cultural touch: For the second time Berlin has challenged Europe’s architects to submit entries for the “Urban Intervention Award”. A prize somewhere between “cute” and “best practice”.

On behalf of Stylepark, the Director of Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) takes a close look at DOM Publishers’ new “Architectural Guide to Frankfurt/Main”.

The 2008 crisis resulted in a large number of planning operations being suspended. Will the pre-crisis boom go down in the annals of history as an aberration, or prove only to be a precursor of things to come?