The Metropolitan Museum released a 360º video of their iconic Great Hall on their Facebook page, allowing user to immerse themselves in the building. Designed by Richard Morris Hunt in 1902, the Met’s Great Hall greets over 6 million visitors to the museum each year with its neo-classical design.
The video was shot with the use of two camera tracks: one from the main entrance to the balustrade above the staircase, and another set at 90º that follows the public up the stairs before lifting to an overhead view.
Following the uses of VR in architectural representation and presentation seen before, the new 360º video of the Met predicts a future of accessibility of architecture for the public with VR. With spectacular buildings readily available to be seen in three-dimensions – as they were intended – understanding buildings and their significance is slowly transitioning into further mainstream acceptance. Previously, platforms like Sketchfab have released monumental VR walkthroughs of famous buildings, and the Met itself has previously shot a 360º video of the Temple of Dendur in Egypt.
New York 2016: in the wake of last month’s New York design week, Dezeen’s US editor Dan Howarth highlights five designers and studios that are set to become an important part of the city’s design scene (+ slideshow). (more…)
Chamberlain Street is a residential project designed by Weststyle Design & Development. It is located in Western Australia, Australia. Chamberlain Street by Weststyle Design & Development: “The concept for this residence was a reinterpretation of the humble beach shack. The design makes various contextual references to its location and showcases a contemporary representation of the materials, textiles and architectural features. The home consists of two individual buildings linked by a..
Over the past few decades, cities all around the world have undergone major changes as a part of global urbanization processes. More than fifty percent of the world’s population currently resides in cities, and by 2030, the world is anticipated to have 41 mega-cities with 10 million inhabitants or more.
With such large population growth, cities have likewise experienced unparalleled changes and development. In order to showcase the dramatic transformations of some of the world’s largest cities, like Paris, Sydney, Dubai, and Hong Kong, RENTCafe has compiled a series of Street View images that superimpose skylines of the past against what they look like today.
Find out how 42 skylines in 16 major cities have changed over time, after the break.
1. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Centro Empresarial Senado
Dezeen promotion: online brand Made.com is inviting budding designers to submit furniture and homeware designs for compact urban dwellings to its annual Emerging Talent Award 2016 competition. (more…)
From the architect. During the nineteenth century Estonia experienced an ‘age of awakening’ with the spread of a national consciousness and the establishment of Estonian language literature, theatre and professional music, as well as the formation of the Estonian national identity. Estonia initially gained its independence from Soviet rule in the 1920’s, only for its parliament to be disbanded in 1938. During World War II, Estonia was occupied and annexed first by the Soviet Union and subsequently by the Third Reich, only to be re-occupied by the Soviet Union in 1944. War losses in Estonia, at around 25% of population, were among the highest in Europe and an estimated 90,000 Estonians died.
Estonia regained its independence on 20 August 1991 and joined the European Union in 2004. It has since embarked on a rapid programme of social and economic reform. The creation of the new Estonian National Museum, to be located in the city of Tartu, is testament to the quest for reawakening a pride in national identity and a unique cultural history. The international competition for the design and execution of the 34 000 m² building, housing a collection of 140 000 objects, was launched in 2005.
DGT’s proposal for this Museum challenged the competition brief. Instead of locating the building on the proposed site, DGT chose to reappropriate a nearby former Soviet military base as the setting for the Museum – a physically present ‘ruin’ of a painful history. They believed that the new Museum should play an essential role in the regeneration of the area and to do so it had to start by dealing with this heavily charged and spatially unique place. With a sensitive implementation on this site, the National Museum becomes a continuation of the airfield – its roof lifting and expanding towards ‘infinite space’ – inviting the visitor to enter into the landscape and into the heart of the museum. DGT’s design creates an open house for public activities – exhibition, performance, learning – a place of gathering and interaction, bringing people together to celebrate a rich, if sometimes painful, history.
There is an enormous intensity of information, knowledge and ideas on display at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, Reporting From the Front. With all the Executive Editors and Editors-in-Chief of ArchDaily’s platforms in English, Spanish and (Brazilian) Portuguese in Venice for the opening of the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale—plus co-founder David Basulto and European Editor-at-Large James Taylor-Foster, who curated this year’s Nordic Pavilion—we’ve pooled together twelve of our initial favourite exhibitions and must-see shows.
Here, presented in no particular order, are some of our top suggestions from across the Biennale sites and beyond – there’s more to come!
Why? NLÉ have refined the design of their highly-praised Makoko Floating School and rebuilt it on the waters outside the Arsenale. Its presence at the Biennale gives us an unmissable opportunity to experience the ingenuity of the design, as well as to see and feel how it has responded to a unique programmatic challenge.
Why? For the introductory room of an exhibition which gathers the work of a large group of internationally operating architects from around the world, Alejandro Aravena reused 100 tons of “waste” material that had been previously used at the 2015 Venice Art Biennale. The recycling of 10,000m2 of plaster board and 14km of metal has set the stage for the process that Aravena, alongside his team from ELEMENTAL, hope to highlight in the exhibition itself: ingenuity and industriousness.
In Therapy in the Nordic Pavilion / David Basulto & James Taylor Foster
Where: Giardini
Why? In both built and conceptual form, this exhibition playfully asks some profound and necessary questions: among them, how architecture can occupy a legacy while still making progress – a matter of particular importance in the Nordic Countries (Finland, Norway and Sweden) at this moment. Plus, it’s curated by two of ArchDaily‘s Content Team!
Venezuelan Pavilion / Miguel Braceli, Rolando Carmona, Marcos Coronel, Alejandro Haiek, José Naza Rodríguez, Maximillian Nowotka, Gabriel Visconti
Where: Giardini
Why? Although it is not a specific request for National Participations this year (unlike Fundamentals in 2014), this Pavilion responds well to Aravena’s call—Reporting From the Front—by showing how a young generation of Latin American architects are basing their architecture on collective work and community management. It also provides the opportunity to revisit the only pavilion designed by Carlo Scarpa, whose building for the Venezuelan Pavilion has for many years been closed for renovations.
Neighborbood: Siza Meets Aldo in the Portuguese Pavilion / Roberto Cremascoli & Nuno Casagrande
Where: Giudeca
Why? The Portuguese contribution to this year’s Biennale is located outside of both the Giardini and the Arsenale – the exhibition begins, therefore, with the journey of arriving to and accessing the Pavilion which can only be done by walking through Alvaro Siza’s Campo di Marte (1985). The curatorial thread ties together Siza’s work on social housing in Porto, Berlin, The Hague, and Venice, with four documentaries and lucid exhibition texts contextualizing his work in today’s social themes: gentrification, community participation, and the integration of “others” (read: immigrants).
Our Amazon Frontline in the Pavilion of Peru / Sandra Barclay & Jean Pierre Crousse
Where? Arsenale
Why? This unexpectedly emotional, educational exhibit presents work that combats poverty hand in hand with the preservation of Amazonian flora. Anyone can participate in the “Plan Selva (Jungle Plan),” a large-scale program for reconstructing schools in hard-to-access regions of Peru’s Amazonía, which allows visitors the uniquely interactive opportunity to develop their own designs and submit the proposals via a QR code.
Australian Pavilion / Amelia Holliday, Isabelle Toland & Michelle Tabet
Where: Giardini
Why? The way in which the artistic directors of Australia’s Pavilion—only its second in its new “black box” home—have chosen to present a culturally significant aspect of urban design creates an immersive, sensory exhibition. From the changing reflections on the wall as you break the surface of the water, to the moving stories and accompanying soundtrack, the Australian Pavilion allows you to escape from the heat of the day and contemplate a faraway world which is, at the same time, oddly familiar.
Why? This Golden Lion-winning structure built from brick and cement appears to defy gravity while amplifing the power and meaning of these deceptively humble materials. With “Breaking the Siege,” Gabinete de Arquitectura (designed by Solano Benítez, Gloria Cabral and Solanito Benítez) presents a singular demonstration of the character of Latin American architecture.
Home Economics in the British Pavilion / Jack Self, Shumi Bose & Finn Williams
Where: Giardini
Why? One of the core conditions of human life—domesticity—is being challenged by the current condition of a globalised society and rapidly-increasing technologies. The curators display a powerful statement of what “Home” is today, presented as a carefully designed and holistic exhibition.
Unfinished in the Spanish Pavilion / Iñaqui Carnicero & Carlos Quintáns [Golden Lion]
Where: Giardini
Why? The Spanish Pavilion took on a strong theme based on how the global economic crisis hit Spain in a very deep way and, perhaps less clearly, in a very lasting way. The installation itself reflects upon this period of crisis, employing simple and carefully designed elements to display architectural projects in which Spanish architects have had to “do more with less.”
Why? The VDNH is one of the most unique places in the world – a must visit if you go to Moscow. It is a performance that has lasted for decades, displaying the evolution and pride of Soviet power. Now that Moscow City government has taken over its administration, their “front” is how they might transform a vast Soviet theme-park into a lasting piece of urban legacy.
Why? In 2000, a libel suit argued before the Royal Courts of Justice in London successfully challenged the false assertion by a revisionist historian and Holocaust denier that there had been no gas chambers in Auschwitz and that, therefore, the Holocaust didn’t happen. Central to the proceedings were the forensic interpretation of the architectural evidence of Auschwitz and the expert witness testimony by Robert Jan van Pelt. This installation consists of life-size replicas and casts of key pieces of architectural evidence from Auschwitz which proved beyond doubt that denial that a Holocaust in Europe happened, is futile.
Vivienda en el Empordà is a residential project designed by Anna Podio Arquitectura in 2015. It is located in Santa Cristina d’Aro, Catalunya, Spain. Vivienda en el Empordà by Anna Podio Arquitectura: “An isolated house located in a small residential area of the coastal road linking Sant Feliu de Guíxols with Tossa de Mar. The project consisted in designing a building that worked as a shelter from the North winds..
