The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) has reached two major milestones in its 12-acre cultural development, the Edith and Peter O'Donnell Jr. Athenaeum: the grand opening of the Crow Museum of Asian Art and the groundbreaking of a new performance hall and music building. Designed by architectural firm Morphosis, the Crow Museum of Asian Art serves as the centerpiece of the university's commitment to expanding its cultural offerings and engaging both the campus and the surrounding North Texas community. Alongside the museum's opening, UT Dallas also broke ground on a new performance hall and music building, set to be completed by fall 2026.
Performance: The Latest Architecture and News
UT Dallas Opens Crow Museum of Asian Art Designed by Morphosis, Begins Construction on Performance Hall
Ostrava Concert Hall by Steven Holl Architects Breaks Ground in Czech Republic
The Ostrava Concert Hall, designed by Steven Holl Architects, has just broken ground in the Czech Republic. Commemorating the start of construction, the concert hall “promises to be an inspiring venue for both locals and internationals who cherish Ostrava’s rich music heritage.” Designed for the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, it creates a dramatic contrast between old and new, aiming to create a cultural landmark.
3XN Wins Competition to Design Chungnam Art Center in South Korea
3XN has just won an international competition, which they were invited to participate in, to design the Chungnam Art Center in Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea. Designed in collaboration with SIAPLAN and MDA, the new art center aims to serve as a key destination for creative expression. Drawing inspiration from the dynamic movements of art, the center seeks to create a space where everyone can both experience and participate in the arts.
Heatherwick Studio Wins Competition to Reimagine Seoul’s Nodeul Island in South Korea
Heatherwick Studio has just won the global competition to transform Seoul’s uninhabited Nodeul Island on the Han River into a lively public park. Titled “Soundscape,” the winning project “creates a trail of dramatic spaces on different levels that can host musical performances and artistic interventions.” Situated within a green and biodiverse landscape, the design echoes Seoul's mountainous terrain and the patterns of sound waves.
The Polish Pavilion at Expo Osaka 2025 to be Designed by Interplay
Interplay has just revealed the design for Poland’s Pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Kansai. Commissioned by the Polish Investment and Trading Agency, the project is responding to the theme of the upcoming Expo, “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.” The Polish Pavilion was born from the studio’s fascination with spirals, specifically the shape’s use in different scales, from “protein molecules to the structure of galaxies.” Serving as a symbol of Polish ingenuity, the geometric-patterned pavilion aims to extend its influence beyond national boundaries.
The Design Process in Production Design: 8 Conversations About Sets, Props, and Locations
"I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore," Dorothy says to her dog in 1939's 'The Wizard of Oz' as she walks around, discovering a fantasy set in which, without realizing it, we find ourselves immersed. From the initial sketch to the construction of the sets, production design for film requires careful detail to truly bring visions to life and transport viewers.
In this combination of creativity, research, and collaboration, various production designers have approached us to share their adventures and design processes. The importance of creating a cohesive visual aspect, understanding language and styles, and translating all of this to the screen come together in the following series of 8 interviews we conducted with Annie Beauchamp, Luca Tranchino, Felicity Abbott, Jacinta Leong, Alexandra Schaller, Ina Mayhew, Amy Lee Wheeler, and Stefan Dechant.
Exploring the Contradictions Between Homes and Real Estate: The Estonian Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Biennale is Curated by Aet Ader, Arvi Anderson, and Mari Möldre
The Estonian Centre for Architecture has chosen the exhibition “Home Stage,” curated by Aet Ader, Arvi Anderson, Mari Möldre of b210 Architects, to represent the Pavilion of Estonia at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Hosted in a rental apartment close to the rear exit of the Arsenale complex, the exhibition explores the contradiction between the living place as a home and as an exchange value. Various Estonian performers will each spend a month in the Venetian rental apartment, which will become both a home and a stage. The exhibition will be open from May 20 to November 26, 2023.
The Urban Art of Social Distancing
Being in confinement has produced unconventional means of exploring architectural spaces and installations. Instead of putting everything on hold until life goes back to normal, designers and curators found inspiration from practices like performance arts and theatre, breaking down the walls between the subject and viewers but from a distance.
Ashley Bigham and Erik Herrmann of Outpost Office reimagined the theme of "mobility" by creating 1:1 scale drawings on the Ragdale campus using GPS-controlled field marking robots. Their unique urban installation, which addressed modern-day concerns such as public spaces, how we are engaging with them, and physicality, won first place in the 2020 Ragdale Ring competition.
An Online Exhibition Connects the Dots Between Performance and Architecture
Six months after the release of the namesake book during the latest installment of the biennial, PERFORMA has launched Bodybuilding, which features thirty-five architecture studios who engage with performativity.
Is architecture a period or a comma? Are built forms hermetic bodies or catalysts for action? PERFORMA curator Charles Aubin and architect Carlos Mínguez Carrascor, published Bodybuilding: Architecture and Performance, during the most recent installment of the PERFORMA 19 biennial in New York City last November. Noticing a lack of a comprehensive, multigenerational survey on the subject, the duo’s interest in investigating the ways architects engage with performance goes as far back as a symposium they co-organized at the Performa 17 Hub in 2017. The book, which features essays by Mabel O. Wilson and Bryony Roberts, Lluís Alexandre Casanovas Blanco, and Victoria Bugge Øye, seeded the fundamental approaches now deeply rooted in the online exhibition: the impact of movement on systematic urbanization, the body’s relationship to buildings and monuments, and architecture’s role in action, be it physical or sociopolitical.
Exploring Architecture through Performance, Photography and Fashion
The purpose of architectural photography is to show a design in the best possible way, with the artform often characterized by perspective correction and atmospheric lighting. However, few architectural photographers have experimented with other artistic disciplines. Miguel de Guzmán, Paul Vu and Jules Couartou are among those who have challenged the limits of this form of photography, generating an interesting crossover between architecture photography, fashion and performances. In their images, the relationship between space and the user is shown through a scene designed to register an effect on the viewer. The results are images which are full of creativity.
Lights, Camera, Architecture!: Where Set Design and Architecture Cross Over
What do Kanye West and Frank Gehry have in common?
As a first impression, not much. However, they have both engaged on stages with striking design details: the use of exaggerated scale and dimensions to manipulate visual perception, bulky concrete walls and slabs to emphasize heavyweight and grandiosity, visible scaffolding to create an industrial, unfinished feel... Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
An Inflatable Antepavilion Theater is Setting Sail Through London's Canals
The 2018 Antepavilion has opened in London, the second in an annual series. Designed and built by Thomas Randall-Page and Benedetta Rogers, the 2018 edition titled “AirDraft” sees an inflatable theater sitting atop a 19th-century barge, creating a floating venue for music and performance in trendy East London.
The scheme was chosen from 132 entries to the competition run by Shiva Ltd and the Architecture Foundation, which asked participants to engage with “the heritage of the Regent’s Canal in innovative ways.”
New Images Show Steven Holl's Expansion of the Kennedy Center Under Construction
The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts has released new photographs as construction continues on the Steven Holl Architects-designed expansion project in Washington DC. Due to open in September 2019, the REACH expansion project aims to “provide artists and visitors new and wide-ranging opportunities to fully interact and engage with the Center.”
The project features 72,000 square feet of interior space across a 4.6-acre site, resulting in a 20% increase in public areas, and a doubling of outdoor space.
AD Classics: Arts United Center / Louis Kahn
In 1961, the architect Louis I. Kahn was commissioned by the Fine Arts Foundation to design and develop a large arts complex in central Fort Wayne, Indiana. The ambitious Fine Art Center, now known as the Arts United Center, would cater to the community of 180,000 by providing space for an orchestra, theatre, school, gallery, and much more. As a Lincoln Center in miniature, the developers had hoped to update and upgrade the city through new civic architecture. However, due to budget constraints, only a fraction of the overall scheme was completed. It is one of Kahn’s lesser-known projects that spanned over a decade, and his only building in the Midwest.
BIG Unveils Bow-Shaped Design for National Theatre of Albania
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has released images of its bow-shaped National Theatre of Albania, responding to a thriving performance art scene in the nation’s capital. Situated in the cultural heart of downtown Tirana, the scheme seeks to create new urban gathering places for a pedestrian-focused district, while casting the theater as a performer in its own right.
Situated on a cultural axis, adjacent to public landmarks such as Skanderbeg Square, the National Opera, and the National Art Gallery, BIG’s scheme will replace the existing theater while adding three new performance spaces, a rooftop amphitheater, and a covered public space underneath the building.