Architectural Photography: The Latest Architecture and News

This year’s Venice Biennale will kick off on August 29th and run through November 25th and will feature a pavilion from Israel called “Aircraft Carrier”. The collected work confronts the dramatic changes in Israeli architecture since 1973, and the American influences that made them possible. The curators of the exhibit, Erez Ella, Milana Gitzin-Adiram and Dan Handel defined four major architectural phenomena that epitomize these changes: Signals, Emporiums, Allies and Flotillas. The curators invited five leading Israeli and international artists and architectural photographers to reflect on these ideas. Participants include Assaf Evron, Fernando Guerra, Florian Holzherr, Nira Pereg, and Jan Tichy and product designer Tal Erez.

Stop by after the break to see some of the work to be featured as part of “Aircraft Carrier”.

Raimund Abraham (1933-2010), who would have turned 79 today, was far from your typical architect. A striking figure – usually sporting a black fedora, thick moustache, and cigar – Abraham was a radical thinker who believed passionately in the sacred importance of architecture.

For Abraham, architecture existed just as legitimately in the mind as on the ground; as he put it: “I don’t need a building to validate my ideas.” In fact, many of his visionary drawings were exhibited as art, including in the MOMA. Although most of his designs were never actually built, those that were gained critical acclaim.

He was best known for the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York City, a 24-story, “guillotine-like” building curiously squeezed onto a plot only 25 feet wide. Architectural historian Kenneth Frampton called it “the most significant modern piece of architecture to be realized in Manhattan since the Seagram Building and the Guggenheim Musuem of 1959.”

To celebrate this great mind, we present you his final work, Musikerhaus (House for Music or Musician’s House), as photographed by Thomas Mayer. The House, a former NATO missile base turned artists’ residence/exhibition gallery (you can see the latest exhibition “The Reality of the Unbuilt” in the photos below), will be completed next year.

More photos & quotes, after the break…

Like no other style, Art Deco represents a built manifestation of the interwar period’s enthusiasm and splendor. In London, buildings of this era reflect the elegance, progress and assertiveness that describe the modern metropolis age. Even today, these buildings have lost none of their aura and appeal, yet they lack any proper documentation.

Together, Niels Lehmann and Christoph Rauhut have worked tirelessly for the past three years researching and photographing London’s architectural Art Deco heritage. With your help, they will feature over 230 buildings with large-scaled photographs in the soon-to-be published book “Modernism London Style.” Follow this link to become a supporter and learn more.

Continue after the break to view more photos.

Last December, ArchDaily revealed the winners of the Architect’s Eye Photography Competition. Now, in celebration of the 2012 London Festival of Architecture, the winners of the the competition will be exhibited at the Roca London Gallery beginning June 23rd in Chelsea, London as part of a Launch Event, Exhibition and Discussion Panel. International Art Consultants (IAC) hosts the competition in recognition of architects’ passion for photography. Last year’s 19 finalists and winners will be on view to the public at the gallery until July 8th.

More after the break.

Partially cloudy with a high in the mid-seventies, this was weather we couldn’t say no to on the Sunday after the 2012 National Convention. Therefore we took advantage of the Washington D.C. Capital Bikeshare and set off on a self-guided tour of the National Mall. Although the National Mall was packed with graduates and tourists, we managed to weave in and out of pedestrian traffic quick enough to visit many of the historic buildings and memorials before heading off to Eero Saarinen’s beautiful Dulles International Airport. What a perfect way to wrap up an eventful week in the nation’s capital.

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New York-based architectural photographer Paul Clemence has shared with us recent images and his thoughts on Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s new student residence hall that is being constructed in downtown Boston. The 21-story, $61 million building is planned for completion this year.

Boston is not particularly known as a destination for trendy, contemporary architecture; but some new buildings are beginning to change that perception. From Diller Scofidio Renfro’s Institute of Contemporary Art to Norman Foster’s new wing at The Museum of Fine Arts to the recently completed Renzo Piano addition to the beloved Gardner Museum, the city’s urbanscape is getting a much needed updating. And now, a soon to be finished bold new project by the firm ADD Inc is bringing a colorful twist to the mix. They are the designers behind the new MassArt Students Residence Hall.

Continue reading for more.

Pedro E. Guerrero: Photographs of Modern Life at Woodbury University Hollywood Gallery (WUHO) is on view through April 25. The show is the first extensive exhibition on the West Coast of Guerrero’s career as an architectural photographer. Curated by Anthony Fontenot and Emily Bills, JSI director, Pedro E. Guerrero: Photographs of Modern Life will highlight the diversity of Guerrero’s subjects taken over seven decades. During that time, he captured the architecture of Marcel Breuer, Philip Johnson, Edward Durell Stone and Eero Saarinen. His wide ranging work included portraits of architects as well as commercial work for House & Garden, Vogue, the New York Times Magazine and Architectural Record. He is perhaps best known for his close relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright. The exhibition will feature Guerrero’s illuminating portraits of Wright, including twelve photographs of the architect’s hands demonstrating the difference between organic and conventional architecture at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Continue reading for more.

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In memory of those persecuted in the seventeenth-century Finnmark Witchcraft Trials, the Steilneset Memorial rests along the jagged coastline of the Barents Sea in Vardø, Norway. Photographer Andrew Meredith has shared with us his photo series documenting this masterpiece created by a unique collaboration between the world-famous Swiss architect Peter Zumthor (Basel, 1943) and the influential contemporary artist Louise Bourgeois (Paris, 1911-2010).

Zumthor simply describes his collaboration with Bourgeois in an interview with ArtInfo as the following, “I had my idea, I sent it to her, she liked it, and she came up with her idea, reacted to my idea, then I offered to abandon my idea and to do only hers, and she said, ‘No, please stay.’ So, the result is really about two things — there is a line, which is mine, and a dot, which is hers… Louise’s installation is more about the burning and the aggression, and my installation is more about the life and the emotions .”

Continue reading to view the photographs and learn more about the Steilneset Memorial.

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Danica Ocvirk Kus shared with us her photographic work for Oscar Niemeyer‘s Niemeyer Center in Aviles, Spain. Known her work across Europe, her talent is very eloquently represented through these images of this highly admired and appreciated institution for the city. A full gallery of images can be viewed after the break.

French photographer Franck Bohbot has shared with us a series of photographs based on the interiors of historical Parisian theaters. Bohbot strived to capture the cultural life of the architecture with the absence of people, paying homage to the empty theater. Naked, the photographs reveal a sense of grandeur and intimacy. Continue after the break for more images.

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We have some interesting news: A while ago, we got in touch with Rafael C, owner of The Absolution Blog – one of the most popular architecture blogs at Tumblr. Rafael’s taste for architecture keeps him searching for amazing architecture shots from all around the Internet, followed by thousands on this popular micro blogging platform – he should absolutely be on your sources!

So, to bring Rafael’s unique vision to more of you who may not be on Tumblr (and have no plans to), every week he will present us a curated selection of photos from the ArchDaily archives, framing particular characteristics of the buildings we love. He is bound to find some buried treasure in our four-year-old-and-growing, 250,000+ image database :) so don’t miss it!

Since 2006, the International Art Consultants (IAC) has celebrated architects’ passion for photography through the Architect’s Eye Awards. Simon Kennedy won the Architecture and Place category this year with his image of the ‘Heygate Estate’, while Revti Halai’s photo of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion received runner-up. The Architecture and People category was won by Neil Dusheiko’s photograph of ‘Unite d’Habitation’, and Chris Drummond’s ‘Ghosts of the Underground’ received runner-up.

View the four winning photographs after the break.

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UPDATE: The Niemeyer Center has been re-opened.

The Niemeyer Center in Aviles, Spain is soon to be shut down for several months due to disagreement over its finances and irregularities in its spending. The cultural center opened a mere 8-months ago, designed by Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer and has been an admired and appreciated institution for the city. More after the break.

Photographers allow us to see pieces of the world that we normally miss – historic events, fleeting expressions on people’s faces, the urban fabric of the places in which we live. Matt Lambros is a New York City-based photographer who does just that. He captures photographs of spaces that have long been abandoned to distant memories – concealed behind decaying walls and “No Trespassing” signs. The subjects of his lens are the abandoned theaters of a time when, as Lambros describes, theater-going was a celebrated social event.

For the past two years Lambros has been photographing theaters for “After the Final Curtain“, a personal project that is a collection of photographs of abandoned theaters throughout the United States. Thus far he has photographed approximately thirty theaters and has many more scheduled. He shares with us some of his favorites – join us after the break to see more…

We recently received new photographs by FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra of Living Foz. We featured this project back in February, and has been recently award a 2011 Emirates Glass LEAF Award. “The Emirates Glass LEAF Awards honour the architects designing the buildings and solutions that are setting the benchmark for the international architectural community.”

New photographs after the break. Original ArchDaily feature.

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