In Paris’ thirteenth arrondissement, the architecture office Moreau Kusunoki has completed Le Berlier, a 50-meter-tall timber tower housing residential units along with various other amenities. Situated at the intersection of multiple urban flows, networks, and scales, the project aims to find the middle ground between innovation, monumentality, and domesticity. The new residential center expresses its structural system through the grid of the façade, rendered in charred and pre-weathered wood.
Powerhouse Parramata, Sydney’s new largest museum, has been announced to open in early 2025. The museum group overseeing the project sits at the intersection of the arts, design, science, and technology industries. Designed by Moreau Kusunoki in collaboration with local practice Genton, the museum will be located on the south bank of the Parramatta River in Western Sydney, acting as the largest cultural infrastructure project in the Australian capital city since the Sydney Opera House.
Moreau Kusunoki and Genton have won the Powerhouse Parramatta International Design Competition. The project marks the largest investment in arts and culture in NSW since the Sydney Opera House. The Powerhouse Parramatta is designed to transform and renew the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, relocating one of Australia’s oldest and most important cultural institutions.
Six design teams have been shortlisted in the competition for the landmark new Powerhouse Precinct at Parramatta, Sydney. The Powerhouse Precinct is the largest cultural infrastructure project in Australia. The competition is focused on a 24-hour museum that will showcase Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS) collection. The project aims to transform one of Australia’s oldest cultural institutions, setting an international benchmark in cultural precinct design.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is abandoning plans for a museum in the Finnish capital after a proposal for funding was rejected by the Helsinki City Council, 53-32.
“We are disappointed that the Helsinki City Council has decided not to allocate funds for the proposed Guggenheim Helsinki museum, in effect bringing this project to a close,” Richard Armstrong, the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, told the Helsinki Times.
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Two months after the Finnish government vetoed funding for the Guggenheim Helsinki project, following an international competition won by Paris-based practice Moreau Kusunoki, it has been reported that supporters of the scheme have presented an updated proposal for the construction of the museum. According to The New York Times, "of its expected $144 million building costs, the City of Helsinki’s investment would cover a maximum of $89 million."
For a few months spanning from 2014 to last year, the Guggenheim Helsinki museum competition was the hottest topic in architectural media. Even as Moreau Kusunoki's more contextually-driven design was selected as the competition winner, debate raged on over whether the search by yet another city for an iconic building to call their own was ultimately good or bad for architecture as a whole. But now, funding for the project has been rejected by the Finnish government, putting the museum in danger of not being built at all.
