Hotels are a hub for commerce, transportation and culture. Today, interior designers are redefining hospitality spaces to accommodate new forms of travel, communication and rest. From historic renovations to contemporary ground-up hotels, these projects center around leisure and memorable guest experiences. In turn, they express brand identity to rethink what interior design and hospitality will be in the future.
On the 24th of February 2022, Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Set to become Europe’s largest refugee crisis and armed conflict in this century, so far, this war has mobilized people across the world in order to exert pressure on authorities and put a stop to the armed hostilities. Individuals, as well as institutions in the architectural field, have taken part in these acts of solidarity, issuing statements, condemning actions, and even halting their work in Russia. From the UIA to MVRDV to Russian Institutions such as Strelka, the architecture world is denouncing the acts of violence and supporting an immediate cease of fire.
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Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, Tate Modern’s Switch House was Tate Modern’s latest extension in 2016, radical in form and surface, yet intimately relative to the vast building to which it joins, which opened as London’s foremost modern art gallery in 2000. Shot recently by Bahaa Ghoussainy, the building that opened in 2016, is a model for museums in the 21st century.
Over the past year, established practices have continued to champion the transformation of existing structures, with adaptive reuse and renovations increasingly becoming a defining aspect of contemporary architecture From the renovation of landmark structures to the adaptive reuse of obsolete facilities, the idea of giving new life to existing buildings has been embraced as the premise for a more sustainable practice, but also as a means of reinforcing the urban and cultural identity of cities. Discover 8 designs and recently completed projects that showcase a new common practice of reusing existing building stock.
The dawn of the Anthropocene has thrown the idea of adaptive reuse into the limelight: effectively the pinnacle of urban regeneration and revitalization. It utilizes the presence of existing buildings with historic and cultural value and re-purposes them to be functional. Essentially a form of architectural salvage; a sustainable and viable means of rebuilding.
Recent events such as the pandemic has highlighted inequalities in our cityscape, the inadequate segments in a state of disuse and disrepair. Adaptive reuse can replenish these areas and create new cultural hotspots, encouraging activity and creating vibrant and healthy mixed-use environments.
Below is a diverse selection of cultural hotspots using Adaptive Reuse
Last year, a series of new museums, expansions and several museum renovations have opened their doors to the public, adding a new dimension to the cultural landscape around the world. From the long-awaited re-opening of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, to Ryue Nishizawa's Jining Art Museum merging with the landscape, and MVRDV's reflective Art Depot, discover the architecture of the latest venues of art and culture.
After being selected by the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to design the new hospital of its Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights in 2020, Herzog & de Meuron and HDR revealed new images of their design, featuring a 15-storey structure clad with terracotta across a 84,000 sqm plot. The proposed design aims to change the traditional concept of hospitals and provide members of the community with a healing space that puts in place “a holistic healthcare environment that fosters wellness and recovery by combining efficient facilities with human experiences, connected to nature and the community”.
During the last quarter of 2021, Herzog & de Meuron completed the construction of three museums: M+ in Hong Kong, 433 MKM Museum Küppersmühle Extension in Duisburg, and 473 SONGEUN Art Space in Seoul. To celebrate this milestone and highlight the projects' varied approaches to the presentation of art as culturally-enriching platforms, the firm has put together a video compilation of all three projects alongside each other, showcasing the different approaches to their contexts and geographical locations, spatial requirements and materiality, and how all three of them share a collective focus to foster the exchange between people and culture.
Fotografiska Museum has announced its expansion to three new locations in Berlin, Shanghai and Miami, to be housed within existing buildings redesigned by Herzog & De Meuron, Neri&Hu and Rockwell Group. A former department store in Berlin's Jewish Quarter, a 1946 factory building in Miami and a historically significant warehouse complex in Shanghai are the future Fotografiska venues set for completion in 2022 and 2023. Together with the existing locations in Stockholm, Tallin and New York, these will form the world's largest private art museum in terms of size, number of locations, and exhibitions per year.
In this week's reprint by Metropolis, author Mimi Zeiger explores the new M+ Museum in Hong Kong, finally open to the public. "Designed by Herzog & De Meuron, the impressive building asserts the city’s cultural ascendancy while also magnifying the region’s unescapable political tensions".
After more than a decade of financing snags, legal scuffles, and more than a soupçon of backlash, initial work on the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Tour Triangle (Triangle Tower) is set to commence by the end of this year at a site near Parc des Expositions de Porte de Versailles in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. However, last-ditch efforts to block the project are underway.
Responsible use and consumption of natural resources and the impacts of the building industry have been ongoing concerns in the field of architecture and urban planning. In the past, concepts such as clean slates, mass demolitions, and building brand new structures were widely accepted and encouraged. Nowadays, a transformation seems to be taking place, calling for new approaches such as recycling, adaptive reuse, and renovations, taking advantage of what is already there. This article explores a selection of projects and provides a glimpse into interventions by renowned architects in pre-existing buildings.
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Herzog & de Meuron has unveiled the design of the new Memphis Brooks Museum of Art overlooking the Mississippi River. The 10,500 sqm structure will feature expanded galleries, exhibition spaces, and open spaces for community and educational programs with free public access, and is expected to open to the public in 2026.
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Models are useful to architects for all sorts of things, from the earliest parts of the design, all the way to marketing a building after it's built. But, what is it about models that makes them such an important and powerful tool? And, how do different architecture firms incorporate them into their own and unique design process? This video explores these questions by surveying three firms: Morphosis, MVRDV, and Herzog and de Meuron. Often firms have model shops and dedicated model teams who are responsible for everything from early design decisions to critical client presentations and even marketing the building. We hear from the folks who work in these model shops and breakdown how the three case study firms approach models in their own unique way.
After a year-long absence, Milan Design Week has wrapped up yet another year of creativity and innovation. From the 5th to the 10th of September, thousands of design companies displayed their creations to more than 200,000 visitors hailing from different countries, demographics, and industries. And while the design fair gravitated towards the world of interior design, many renowned architects such as Bjarke Ingels, Foster + Partners, and Herzon & de Meuron participated in the week-long exhibition and joined forces with interior and furniture design brands to create signature pieces.
Herzog & de Meuron’s first realized project in Korea is completed and is set to open to the public in September 2021. Situated in the heart of Cheongdam Dong, one of the most commercial areas of Seoul, the ST International HQ and SongEun Art Space will offer non-commercial art spaces, a variety of new exhibition spaces, and offices for ST International both above and below ground, creating an inviting space for the public to engage with contemporary art. The first inaugural exhibition is expected to be on the 28th of September, and will be curated by the Swiss architecture firm in collaboration with SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation.
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Herzog & de Meuron's rehabilitation of Porta Volta took up themes of Milanese urbanism and architecture, which has defined the city's urban fabric throughout the years. The project's design was developed after an intensive historical analysis of the site - a site which dates back to the 16th century and holds remains of when the Romans defined the city's boundaries. Architectural photographer Bahaa Ghoussainy captured Herzog & de Meuron's Lombardian-inspired structure, highlighting its modernized nod to historic architecture.
Construction work began for Herzog & de Meuron’s transformation of a former power plant building in San Fransico into a mixed-use project. Designed in collaboration with California-based practice Adamson Associates, the adaptive reuse of iconic Station A is part of the Portrero Power Station project, the redevelopment of a 29-acre industrial site into an extension of the Dogpatch neighbourhood. Herzog & de Meuron’s design retains and repurposes various features of the industrial building while adding a lightweight, steel-framed structure on top, thus giving new life to one of San Francisco’s landmarks.
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