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Bernard Tschumi: The Latest Architecture and News

Bernard Tschumi Architects Designs New Addition for Parc de la Villette

Bernard Tschumi's HyperTent, a hyperbolic paraboloid structure, is the latest addition to the iconic Parc de la Villette. Prompted by the opening of L'Espace Chapiteaux, a space for contemporary circus performances, the new ticket booth located on the podium of Folie L4, originally a music venue, carefully negotiates its presence within the context. The morphology of the project allows for the two structures to coexist without interfering. At the same time, the materiality of the HyperTent makes for an iconic presence in juxtaposition with the adjacent folie.

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121 Definitions of Architecture

There are at least as many definitions of architecture as there are architects or people who comment on the practice of it. While some embrace it as art, others defend architecture’s seminal social responsibility as its most definitive attribute. To begin a sentence with “Architecture is” is a bold step into treacherous territory. And yet, many of us have uttered — or at least thought— “Architecture is…” while we’ve toiled away on an important project, or reflected on why we’ve chosen this professional path.

Most days, architecture is a tough practice; on others, it is wonderfully satisfying. Perhaps, though, most importantly, architecture is accommodating and inherently open to possibility.

This collection of statements illustrates the changing breadth of architecture’s significance; we may define it differently when talking among peers, or adjust our statements for outsiders.

How the Parc de la Villette Kickstarted a New Era for Urban Design

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What does the Parisian park look like? For many, the answer to that question comes in the form of a painting: Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, in which the well-dressed bourgeoisie leisurely enjoy a natural oasis on a verdant island within their industrializing city.

Seeing Red: 4 Times the Color Has Enhanced Architecture and Why

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© Helene Binet

Red is everywhere. From stop signs to bricks and lipstick to wine, our constant use of the color in everyday objects has slowly taken over our subconscious. Red is a color that always blends with the context, telling us how to feel or what to think, but why are we attracted to it? Why did cavemen choose ochre-based paint to draw on their walls? Why do revolutions always seem to use red to stir support? Why do we parade celebrities down red carpets, when green or blue would surely do the same job? While the answers to these questions may be vague and indefinite, red’s use in architecture is almost always meticulously calculated.

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Bernard Tschumi Team Wins Competition for University Research Complex in Paris

Bernard Tschumi Architects has been awarded one of the largest university commissions in France, with the design and build of a €283 million ($350 million) state-of-the-art educations and research center at the Université Paris-Sud in Saclay, just south of the French capital. The “METRO Center” will form part of the biology, pharmacy and chemistry wing of the university, comprising six buildings connected by flying bridges, featuring teaching facilities, research labs, offices, restaurants, and logistics areas.

Having won a competition against teams containing Herzog & De Meuron and MVRDV, Bernard Tschumi will work in collaboration with Bouygues Construction, Groupe-6 and Baumschlager Eberle Architekten for the scheme’s realization and operation.

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Decades After the Rise of CAD, Architecture Is Going “Paperless”—For Real This Time

If you visit an architecture office today, you may sense a slight change. The days of bulky desktops, ergonomic mouse pads and tower-high stacks of drawing sets are slowly giving way to digital pencils, tablets, and tons of architects’ hand-drawings—both physical and digital. Architects across the globe are clearing their desks, literally, and utilizing emerging touchscreen tools and software for designing, sharing and collaborating. It seems possible that, for the first time in years, the architecture profession could revisit Bernard Tschumi’s “paperless” studio which formed a key part of his tenure as dean of Columbia University’s GSAPP in the mid-1990s. However, this time, “paperless” starts with a pencil, instead of a click.

AD Classics: 1988 Deconstructivist Exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

When Philip Johnson curated the Museum of Modern Arts’ (MoMA) 1932 “International Exhibition of Modern Architecture,” he did so with the explicit intention of defining the International Style. As a guest curator at the same institution in 1988 alongside Mark Wigley (now Dean Emeritus of the Columbia GSAPP), Johnson took the opposite approach: rather than present architecture derived from a rigidly uniform set of design principles, he gathered a collection of work by architects whose similar (but not identical) approaches had yielded similar results. The designers he selected—Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Daniel Libeskind, Bernard Tschumi, and the firm Coop Himmelblau (led by Wolf Prix)—would prove to be some of the most influential architects of the late 20th Century to the present day.[1,2]

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“Re-Constructivist Architecture” Exhibition Explores the Lost Art of Architectural Language

Re-Constructivist Architecture,” an exhibition now on show at the Ierimonti Gallery in New York, features the work of thirteen emerging architecture firms alongside the work of Coop Himmelb(l)au, Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumi. The title of the exhibition is a play on words, referring to the De-Constructivist exhibition of 1988 at the Museum of Modern Art that destabilized a certain kind of relationship with design theory.

This reconstruction is primarily of language. The architects draw from archives—mental, digital or printed on paper—distant from the typical parametric and highly schematic rationales that characterized the last thirty years of design in architecture. Within the theoretical system that drives architectural composition, these archives inevitably become homages, references, and quotes.

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Form Follows Fiction: Ole Scheeren’s TED Talk on Why Architecture Should Tell a Story

In his TED Talk filmed at TEDGlobal London in September 2015, Ole Scheeren eschews what he describes as the “detrimental straightjacket” of the modernist mantra “form follows function” in favor a phrase he attributes to Bernard Tschumi, “form follows fiction.” While Tschumi was referencing how cultural artifacts, such as literature, impact architecture, Scheeren reinterprets the phrase, imagining the stories of building users in order to inform the design process. Scheeren recounts, for example, how the daily activities of CCTV employees, the lifestyles of residents of a Singapore housing block, or the traditional tools of Thai fishermen have informed his various designs for OMA and Büro Ole Scheeren.

Of course, this “fiction” that Scheeren describes, these stories, are not really fictions at all, but the real experiences of the people who live or work in his buildings. In that sense, the fiction that drives his forms is really just another type of function, albeit a more human approach to function. Nevertheless, for Scheeren the stories of these designs goes beyond just the users, also encompassing the stories of the hundreds of people it takes to make such buildings a reality, and even how architecture can become a character in the narratives of our own lives.

Monterey Design Conference 2015

MDC 2015 is headlined by an impressive panel of internationally acclaimed architects whose insights will spark your creative energy and rekindle your passion for design. Frank Barkow and Regine Leibinger of Barkow Leibinger, Junya Ishigami of Junya Ishigami + Associates, Carme Pinós of Estudio Carme Pinós and Bernard Tschumi of Bernard Tschumi Architects are set to join you in Monterey alongside renown U.S. architects such as Clive Wilkinson, FAIA of Clive Wilkinson architects and Rand Elliott of Elliott + Associates Architects. Sprinkled among the headliners are imaginative presentations from some of California’s finest emerging talent and an array of continuing education options which will round out the weekend. This conference will inspire participants and remind you of why you got into architecture in the first place.

Video: The Paris Zoological Park / Bernard Tschumi Architectes with Véronique Descharrières


PA#44 - The Paris Zoological Park, Paris 12 por Pavillon-Arsenal

Our friends at the Pavillion de l'Arsenal have shared a collection of videos from their "Paris Architectures" series. Dive into these short films that document remarkable architecture around France's capital city. 

This week we get a glimpse of Bernard Tschumi Architectes' Paris Zoological Park.

Hadid, Gehry, and Others Fight to Save Helmut Richter's Modernist Masterpiece

The Science Secondary School in Kinkplatz, Vienna is the work of late Modernist architect Helmut Richter. Considered to be his most iconic and enduring work, Richter’s school is now faced with partial demolition to make way for a conversion of the building’s use and architects from around the world are making an effort to prevent that demolition from happening. Influential individuals, from Zaha Hadid to Bernard Tschumi, have signed a petition voicing their dissent and demanding that Richter’s legacy be protected. See the details, and sign the petition, after the break.

Bernard Tschumi On His Education, Work and Writings

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In this extended interview between Bernard Tschumi and The Architectural Review's Paul Finch, the pre-eminent Swiss-born architect discusses his education, writing, design and wider critical position. Speaking candidly, Tschumi explains how a visit to Chicago when he was seventeen years old sparked a life-long passion for architectural design - something that had been somewhat repressed due to his father who was, at that time, one of the world's most highly respected architects. His friendship with British architect and theorist Cedric Price led to the start of a career that saw his proposals for Paris's Parc de la Villette foreshadow the age of Deconstructivism. Ending with his take on the future of the profession, Tschumi also offers advice to students and young practices looking to make their mark.

Guangzhou Announces Shortlists for Two Museum Projects

The Guangzhou Bureau of Science and IT has announced the shortlists for two major projects in Guangzhou. The two museum projects - the Guangzhou Museum and the Guangzhou Science Museum, each worth over $160 million - will be the latest in a host of high profile projects in China's third-largest city, a list which includes Zaha Hadid's Guangzhou Opera House, the 600m tall Canton Tower, IFC Guangzhou by Wilkinson Eyre Architects and the Guangzhou Circle, among others.

The Guangzhou Museum will be located to the West of Lingnan Square near the Canton Tower, while the Guangzhou Science museum will be located to the East. Practices making the two lists include Bjark Ingels Group, Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, TFP Farrells, MAD Architects and Steven Holl Architects. Read on after the break for the complete shortlists.

Vive la France: A Round-Up of French AD Classics

In honor of Bastille Day, we've rounded up some of our favorite AD Classics built in France. From Bernard Tschumi's Parc de la Villette to our most popular classic project, Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye, take a moment to revisit these renowned works.

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WHO Launches Competition to Extend Geneva Headquarters

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The original WHO Headquarters building designed by Jean Tschumi. Image © Wikimedia CC User Thorkild Tylleskar

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched an international design competition to redevelop and extend its 1966 headquarters in Geneva. The new facilities, a 25,000 square metre office block and 700-space underground car park will replace a series of smaller additions, hastily constructed in response to various health crises in the years after the main building was completed.

In addition, the new building will facilitate a redevelopment of the original building, housing extra staff while work on the Jean Tschumi-designed building is carried out.

Read on for more details on the competition

ArchDaily Editors Select 20 Amazing 21st Century Museums

In honor of International Museum Day we’ve collected twenty fascinating museums well worth visiting again. In this round up you’ll find classics - such as Bernard Tschumi Architects' New Acropolis Museum and Zaha Hadid Architects' MAXXI Museum - as well as lesser-known gems - such as Medieval Museum, the Natural History Museum of Utah by Ennead, and the Muritzeum by Wingårdhs. See all of our editors' favorites after the break!