The global reference for architecture

The team led by Diller Scofidio + Renfro has been selected as the architects of the £2.5 million Centre for Music London project, beating out a star-studded shortlist consisting of teams led by AL_A, Foster + Partners, Gehry Partners, Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Snøhetta.

Working in collaboration with UK-based firm Sheppard Robson, DS+R will develop plans for a world-class concert hall with supporting training, education and digital spaces, as well as attached commercial areas. When complete, it will serve as the new home of the London Symphony Orchestra and Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Can you even call yourself an architect if you don’t have an old box of LEGO that you can’t bare to throw out stored away in an attic somewhere?

LEGO has become a part of architecture’s collective conscience – an inspiration, a modeling tool, a nostalgic driver, a raison d'être for architects who grew up piecing worlds together and imagining alternative realities. With the completion of BIG’s LEGO House in Billund, LEGO is once again in the spotlight. But, as this short documentary explains, it never really left.

Finally, a brutalist map of New York City, thanks to London-based publisher, Blue Crow Media. The Concrete New York Map marks the tenth map in the architectural guide series, highlighting over fifty of The City’s finest concrete buildings.

Not often thought of as a brutalist capitol, the concrete jungle is filled with remarkable buildings by Breuer, Pei, Rudolph, Saarinen, Wright, alongside lesser-known works, mapped out, photographed, and paired with a description of the building. The map is edited by Allison Meier, and adorned with Jason Woods’ photography and is the perfect pocket guide for any architect or brutalism lover.

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Bloomberg’s new European HQ, which is located in the heart of the City of London, has been rated the world’s most sustainable office building. Designed by Foster + Partners, the office complex has been awarded an Outstanding BREEAM rating, attaining a 98.5% score – the highest design-stage score ever achieved by any major office development.

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David Marks, architect of iconic British structures including the London Eye and the British Airways i360 tower, has passed away at the age of 64 following a long illness.

Co-founder of the London-based practice Marks Barfield Architects with his wife Julia Barfield, Marks was known for his visionary designs for the public realm and entrepreneurial spirit. In proposing both the Eye and the i360 tower, the husband-wife team took considerable financial responsibility for the project’s success. This forward-thinking lead to the replication of the firm’s ideas in cities around the globe.

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New details have been revealed of the €40 million extension of ARoS Art Museum in Aarhus, Denmark. Designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects in collaboration with artist James Turrell, the expansion project includes a new 1,400-square-meter (15,070-square-foot) underground gallery and two site-specific installations by Turrell that represent his largest museum project to date.

Named The Next Level, the project begins on the ground level of the museum, extending downward beneath the adjacent Officerspladsen plaza. The addition has been designed to work naturally with the flow of the existing building, which already serves as a bridge between the Aarhus River and the nearby Aarhus Music Hall. A 120-meter-long hallway will stretch down into the Earth connecting visitors the larger of the two Turrell installations, The Dome.