2009
On the spot
News and observations
• Construction of Budapest’s Metro 4 line once again in full swing (HU)
• Mies’s dream comes true on Berlin’s Spreedreieck (DE)
• Utopian plans for a new government centre in Sofia (BG)
• Update: Vorarlberg (AT)
• Extension of the National Art Gallery of Lithuania,
2009
On the spot
News and observations
• M Fuksas D’s shopping centre in Frankfurt (DE)
• Graz (AT) has its Van Berkel after all
• Partial collapse of Sniezka weather observatory (PL
• Architectural competition for Vilnius’ Lukiskiu Square reveals different approaches to collective memory (LT)
• GiArch:
2009
On the spot
News and observations
• Freeze frame: economic crisis hits Moscow City (RU)
• Belle époque vs modernism in T.O.P. office’s Belle Époque Centre, Blankenberge (BE)
• Twist Tower overpowers Sarajevo’s historical silhouette (BA)
• Update: Young Cyprus
• Reality check: University Library
2009
On the spot
News and observations
• Museum aan de Stroom, Antwerp (BE) by Neutelings Riedijk
• Luigi Bocconi University, an Irish milestone in Milan (IT)
• Hungarian architecture centre KÉK homeless – again’
• Update: Ticino
• A new Guggenheim near Bilbao?
• Splitterwerk’s Frog King, Graz (AT)
•
2008
On the spot
News and observations
• FAT’s Villa Heerlijkheid community centre in Hoogvliet, Rotterdam (NL)
• Dutch architects frustrated by overly „correct“ European tendering of design commissions
• Architecture competition inspired by „Being John Malkovich“
• Aalto houses in three short films
2008
On the spot
News and observations
• Luckenwalde’s EU-funded station library (DE)
• Public opinion clashes with professional architectural judgement in Ireland
• Zagreb’s unfinished Museum of Contemporary Art (HR)
• Rome-based Stalker Group designs a house for Roma community (IT)
• Update: Young
2008
Good intentions
Leo Tolstoy wrote that „all happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way“. Architects want to make people happy: users, clients, passers-by, perhaps even architecture critics. But architects have an even stronger desire to make something that
2008
How European can it be?
Recently I was asked to position French, Portuguese, Croatian and Viennese architecture within a European perspective. I’m still waiting to be honoured with a request to do the same for a neighbourhood or a street. Such requests are, of course, a natural consequence of my involvement
2008
This is Europe
I think it was the American art historian George Kubler who once explained that it was common practice in his discipline to group archeological finds around a notional ideal constructed from the shared characteristics of all unearthed artefacts. In other words, first an ideal amphora
2008
Cultural minority
Generally speaking, architecture magazines are not all that different from car magazines: both devote a disproportionate amount of attention to objects that you rarely if ever see on the street. Who would ever bother to buy an automobile magazine if the contents differed only minimally
2007
A threefold response
That part of building production generally understood as architecture has undisputedly strong roots in European culture and has also been exported to, imposed on, and emulated in other parts of the world. It may be a long time since Europe played a leading role on the world political
2007
On the move
More so than previous enlargements of the EU, the recent increase to twenty-five countries in 2004 and then to twenty-seven in 2007, has really got Europe moving, with manifest economic consequences. The example most frequently cited in the media, from the International Herald Tribune
2007
Optimism
Like many things in this world, architecture magazines tend to fall into one of two categories. Most of them deliver good news. They feature outstanding architecture and draw attention to interesting new developments. A small minority of magazines focus on bad news, berating the profession,
2007
Uniquely European
The celebration in March this year of the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which laid the basis for the EU back in 1957, prompted a flurry of reflection and prognostication. The general tenor of these commentaries was that while European unification is a truly stupendous
2007
Hot spots
The more you know about something, the less inclined you are to hold definite and unequivocal views on that subject. At any rate,
after two-and-a-half years of A10, I find it increasingly difficult to give a categorical reply to the question of where the current hot spot of European architecture
2007
A new European geography
There is no shortage of reasons why Europe is (still) not united, geographically, socially, politically or economically. The continent’s borders are changeable, and its history has unfolded and developed differently in each geographical area, each country, even within some
2006
The Bulgarian example
If Bulgaria is an example of anything, it is of the exception it constitutes within Europe. No other country is so often quoted as exemplary for what it is not, or does not have. With its approaching accession to the EU, the absence of social, economic and administrative transparency
2006
Small town Europe
Most architects and critics have more affinity with big cities than with the countryside. The inappropriate urban entries for village locations in the latest Europan competition are only one illustration of this contention. The motto of architectural insiders seems to be, ëthe bigger
2006
Cure or disease?
Up to what point is architecture a cure and when does it become a disease? This is a question that I, coming from a country that fairly bristles with „architecture“, have been pondering for some time now. But it is a question that is relevant not only to the Dutch context of over-design,
2006
Shrinkage and progress
Travelling by train through Switzerland recently, I happened to pick up „Le Matin Bleu“, one of those free tabloid newspapers that Europe abounds in nowadays. My eye fell on what in newspaper jargon is known as an „infographic“ comparing the birth rate in Switzerland with that
2006
Architectural and economic prosperity
There are obvious connections between architectural and economic prosperity. While an economic boom may not necessarily lead to a flourishing architectural culture, a favourable economic climate would seem to be a sine qua non for vigorous architectural development.
2006
Shelter, comfort and privacy
If local, regional and national traditions make themselves felt anywhere in architecture, it is in the home. Domestic architecture is heavily influenced by specific social and cultural conventions. These, in combination with climate, give rise to considerable architectural
2005
After one year
Like the parents of a new-born baby, we began by counting the life of our new magazine in days and weeks, and then in months. With the passing of the first birthday, we have reached the one-year mark with A10 and now are able to breathe a little easier and start counting in years. The
2005
On the spot
News and observations
• After a Red and a Black Tree Frog, Splitterwerk has now completed a green one: a country cottage in St Josef, Styria (AT)
• Forty architect-designed homes will be built in the idyllic Cotswolds countryside (UK)
• A spectacular blow-up construction in the shape
2005
On the spot
News and observations
• The acoustic barrier-cum-showroom by Kas Oosterhuis / ONL along the A2 motorway between Amsterdam and Utrecht (NL)
• Transsylvanian manga: the conversion of a brick-vaulted basement in Romania into a cool bar space
• Günther Behnisch's new building for the Akademie