GM, architecture aficionados ☕️
new year, same newsletter bringing you whatโs good in architecture and design around the globe 🌎✅
this year, my resolution is to contribute about 5 mins per week to your procrastination so you can hit peak productivity:
youโre welcome.
so, whatโs good? glad you asked:
โ Remembering the Legacy of Arata Isozaki ✊🙏
โ Saudi Arabiaโs 2KM Tower 🗼🔭
โArchitecture Competition in Estonia 🌇🏆
โ Whatโs Coming in 2023 🗓️👀
โ Who Said What!? 🗣️🎙️
โ Drop it Like itโs Hot: Another New Structure of the Week 🔥🥵
LFG
Honoring Isozaki ✊🙏
Japanese architect Arata Isozaki passed away on December 28, 2022, leaving behind a legacy of awards, honors, and of course 100+ buildings designed.
Over at Dezeen, they dropped a stellar list of 11 signature Isozakis. Hereโs what I think are the top 3:
The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma
Palau Sant Jordi, Spain
Ark Nova, Japan (aka the worldโs first inflatable concert hall)
Click the link for all 11 and the story behind each one. Isozaki was a legend and today we pour one out for a real one.
Saudi Arabiaโs 2K Tower 🔭🗼
In 2022, I filled you in on what was going on with Neom and The Line pretty often. In 2023, I am here to inform you that Saudi Arabia is still up to their surreally ambitious plans, Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund is deep into considering a 2km megatall tower— it would be more than double as tall as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and rumor is that it could cost over $5B (yes B, not M) to construct.
Saudi Arabia saw this and said nah, gotta be 2.5 times taller.
Estonian Competition 🗓️🏆
The city of Tartu in Estonia is officially launching a competition for the city’s downtown cultural center. About as central as central gets, if you wanna get in on this, you design an overarching structure for the Library, Museum, an event center, and some other little things as well– they want a park landscape + public space for people to hang, too. It’s a beautiful riverfront locale and a gorgeous historic city. Weโll see who comes through.
Fwd to 2023 👀🗓️
Itโs that time of yearโ all the publications are dropping their lists of whatโs best of whatโs on the horizon. Basically, a lot of buildings are slated to be completed in 2023, and thereโs some good stuff to look forward to. Dezeen and World Architecture both made their calls, and hereโs my top 5: the best of the best.
Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, in New York by Studio Gang (Feb 2023)
Masaryฤka Building, Prague, Czech Republic by Zaha Hadid Architects
Beijing Sub-Center Library, Beijing, China by Snรธhetta
The Pyramid of Tirana, Albania, by MVRDV
Zhuhai Jinwan Civic Art Centre, China, by Zaha Hadid Architects
Who Said What!? 🗣️🎙️
โImpossible to categorise with any single stylistic label, Isozaki was a constant presence in global architectural culture for the second half of the 20th century, after he first came to prominence in the 60s with visionary, almost sci-fi schemes for how Japanese cities might be rebuilt after the second world war.โ
โ Olly Wainwrightโs beautiful and informative obituary for Arata Isozaki is worth a look
โJesus, do tech bros get claustrophobia when they enter rooms smaller than an airport terminal?โ
โ this is from a great Dezeen piece summarizing their best reader comments from 2022โฆ funny stuff
โ just a good ol-fashioned twitter dunk from Philip Oldfieldโฆ Bjarke Ingels has been taking some heat for this galaxy-brained โsecret recipeโ
Drop it Like itโs Hot: New Structure of the Week 🔥🥵
Vincent Callebaut Architecturesโ 21-story carbon-absorbing tower in Taipei has been complete for a couple years now, but has recently been getting some more attention. Worth featuring.
