Snøhetta, WCIT, and AECOM have released details of their proposed Neal S. Blaisdell Center Master Plan for Honolulu, Hawaii. Located in the urban heart of O’ahu, the existing 1964 center is home to the state’s premier arts and cultural venues. The aging structure is now set to be transformed by a 22-acre complex for future generations, featuring a performance hall, exhibition hall, sports pavilion, parking structure, and reconceived public space.
Design practices Snøhetta and Blight Rayner Architecture have been selected to design a new theater for what will become Australia's largest performing arts center in Brisbane. Beating out 23 other teams, the winning proposal for the Queensland Performing Arts Center features a $150 million theater, the fifth for the center. The concept aims to bring a new image to the Gibson precinct while respecting the site's history and context.
As the week comes to an end, Milan Design Week wraps up yet another successful year of creativity and innovation. Thousands of design companies displayed their creations to more than 200,000 visitors hailing from different countries, demographics, and career backgrounds. Although the design fair gravitated towards the world of interior design, many renowned architects participated in the week-long exhibition and joined their forces with interior and furniture design experts.
Along with the impressive collaborations that these architects created with lighting companies, take a look at how they used their expertise in forms and structures to develop unique furniture pieces.
Snøhetta has been commissioned for the design of the Shanghai Grand Opera House in Shanghai, China, following an international design competition. Aiming to attract a broad audience for traditional, classical, and experimental performances, Snøhetta has developed the architectural, landscape, interior, and graphic design for the sweeping complex in collaboration with Shanghai-based architects ECADI.
Snøhetta has announced the completion of Europe’s first underwater restaurant. Situated in Lindesness, on the southernmost point of the Norwegian coastline, the “Under” scheme serves as both a restaurant and a research center for marine life. Open to the public on March 20th, the half-sunken scheme forms a 34-meter-long monolithic break in the surface of the water, before resting on the seabed five meters below.
Situated at a point where sea storms from the north and south meet, and where marine species flourish in both briny and brackish waters, the Snøhetta scheme places itself at a unique confluence. Designed to fully integrate its marine environment over time, the scheme’s rough concrete shell will gradually transform into an artificial reef.
Snøhetta has designed a new Museum Quarter for Bolzano, Italy that will be home to Ötzi the Iceman. Sited atop Virgl mountain, the project would overlook the city and connect to the new Bolzano cable car. As an open landmark, the Museum Quarter was made to serve as a terrace for Bolzano. The elevated museum and park will include exhibition and collection space around the iconic 5,300-year old glacier mummy.
Sidewalk Labs has released new renderings from Snøhetta and Heatherwick Studio of the Quayside neighborhood development in Toronto. After announcing plans to create a model smart city, Sidewalk Labs has been working to pioneer a new approach to future urban developments. Plans for Quayside were first revealed last summer, designed to be interconnected smart neighborhood for the city. The latest renderings were released with further documents outlining how the company plans to pay for the ground-up development.
Design practice Snøhetta has created a series of secluded wooden shelters for Norway's largest hospitals. Sited in the forest, the shelters were created on behalf of the Friluftssykehuset Foundation. Designed to make hospitalization easier for patients and their families, the outdoor retreats offer a physical and psychological respite from treatments and the isolation that can follow long-term hospitalization.
Snøhetta has won the competition to create a new neighborhood connected to the Danube River in Budapest. The brief asked for innovative proposals for 12,000 students along with educational, recreational and sports facilities. The South Gate masterplan for the 135-hectare site in the Hungarian capital focuses on urban relations and connects the new city quarter to the water to create a strong identity. Aspiring to create a lively, diverse and colorful new urban quarter, the project aims to create a lively waterfront for the people of Budapest.
Labeled as "vandalism" and "murder" of an icon of postmodernism, Oslo-based firm Snøhetta's redesign proposal for Phillip Johnson and John Burgee's AT&T Headquarters was received with instantaneous backlash across the architectural community last year. Architect Robert A. M. Stern, marched alongside a protest outside 550 Madison Avenue, and even critic Norman Foster, who never claimed to have any sympathy for the postmodern movement, still vocalized his sentiments that "[the building] is an important part of our heritage and should be respected as such."
A rejection of the bland and cold functionality of Midtown's crystal skyscrapers, the AT&T building was intended to encourage a more playful approach architecture in the corporate world; the crazy socks beneath a three-piece suit. It was not without controversy. Upon its completion, the building was derided for its decorative and outsized pediment and occasionally dark interior spaces. Indeed, the building's arched entry spaces were among the only architectural elements to be met with praise from both critics and the public.
Snøhetta has been announced as the winner of a design competition for the renovation of the avant-gardist Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers in Nanterre, France. The renovation seeks to breathe new life into the 1960s theater, known for its high-quality performances and global collaborations.
The renovations will include the addition of a 200-seat theater, and the reconfiguration of the building’s restaurant, bookshop, and atrium space, with an emphasis on flexibility and natural light.
Snøhetta has been selected to design the El Paso Children’s Museum in the city’s Downtown Arts District. The team proposed a vaulted museum lifted of the ground, a design made to preserve public space and an interactive garden below. Snøhetta was one of three finalists alongside Koning Eizenberg Architecture and TEN Arquitectos, each invited to submit concepts for the museum. The Children’s Museum aims to welcome and engage children and families from El Paso, Ciudad Juarez, the American southwest, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora.
Celebrating Paddington Central’s first year as a Design Route at the London Design Festival, the design practice Snøhetta created a rotating book pavilion for British Land. Snøhetta wanted to create a project that would reimagine the traditional principles of a library through a mechanized pavilion that generates varied spatial types. Designed for visitors to immerse themselves into a world of books, the pavilion encourages exploration, interaction and reflection.
Oslo councilors have voted to halt the Snøhetta-designed “A House to Die In,” located in the grounds of painter Edward Munch’s former house and workshop in western Oslo. The recent vote, reported by Norwegian newspaper The Local would appear to put an end to the 8-year collaborative process between Snøhetta and Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard.
A House to Die In has become the most controversial building proposal in recent Norwegian history, due to its architectural form and how it honors the legacy of one of Norway’s most famous artists.
Work on the Snøhetta-designed renovation of 550 Madison Avenue, better known as the AT&T Headquarters, has ground to a halt in New York City. The controversial postmodernist icon, designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgree, has become the youngest building in New York to receive "Individual Landmark" status by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), striking a blow to controversial efforts to renovate the building.
Under major renovation plans designed by Snøhetta, the scheme was set to be transformed at street level with a more transparent base, with the existing stone façade removed. Meanwhile, the signature ground floor element, an enormous arched entry, would be rendered a shadowy profile of its former self behind a fritted glass curtain wall. The plans attracted wide criticism, such as an intervention on film by Robert A M Stern, and grassroots campaigns including docomomo and change.org.
Snøhetta has released images of its proposed sustainable data center concept, named “The Spark.” The project seeks to address the typical high-energy-consuming typology of the data center, transforming it into an “energy-producing resource for communities to generate their own power.”
The proposal is adaptable for a wide range of contexts and can be scaled for any location around the world, fueling connected cities with energy from the center’s excess heat.
Lasting for close to two decades now, the annual Serpentine Gallery Pavilion Exhibition has become one of the most anticipated architectural events in London and for the global architecture community. Each of the previous eighteen pavilions have been thought-provoking, leaving an indelible mark and strong message to the architectural community. And even though each of the past pavilions are removed from the site after their short summer stints to occupy far-flung private estates, they continue to be shared through photographs, and in architectural lectures. With the launch of the 18th Pavilion, we take a look back at all the previous pavilions and their significance to the architecturally-minded public.
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.jpg?1555158250 "ALESSANDRO I-II-III - William Sawaya x Sawaya & Moroni. Image Courtesy of Sawaya & Moroni")
.jpg?1544343835 "Courtesy of LMNB & Snøhetta")
.jpg?1544343847 "Courtesy of LMNB & Snøhetta")
