If you’ve never been to a sculpture park, it’s time to make your first trip. In the UK alone, there are more than 30, and according to The Arts Council of England, art lovers are visiting them in increasing numbers.
When we read about this new Student Hotel in Barcelona it made us wish we were back in uni! It’s one of 11 hotels in cities across Europe including Paris, Amsterdam, Dresden and Rotterdam with more planned for Madrid, Florence, Rome and Bologna and offers a brand new take on student accommodation.
Public engagement with politics has changed dramatically since 2008. This new exhibition at the Design Museum in London – Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18 examines the political graphic design of a turbulent decade.
You simply can’t get much closer to art than this – it’s a CGI animation, created by art studio Prudence Cuming Associates, to take viewers on a journey across the heavily textured surface of Damien Hirst’s Veil of Faith paintings, which made their debut at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles in March. The CGI uses a 4K-resolution camera to capture pull-back photographs of the painting and high-resolution macro shots of each part of the paint to mimic the texture and shape created by Hirst’s paintbrush.
It’s no secret that many great movies – from Metropolis to Blade Runner, see architecture take a starring role. So, check out two great features in arts and cultural magazine Dezeen.com that discuss the influence of architects on two of the biggest movies in the past few months.
If you happen to be in Paris then take time to visit Ocean Memories, the latest exhibition of designer Mathieu Lehanneur, at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in Rue de le Verrerie, in the Marais district.
After seeing the master plan for the vast water droplet–shaped cultural hub Aljada, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, and Kengo Kuma Architects’ amazing vision for Danish seaside culture at its planned Waterfront Culture Centre in Copenhagen, we started thinking about the growth in aquatic leisure developments and how they’ve evolved from the humble swimming pool into complex pieces of architecture now influencing how we participate in water sports.
Almost a third of the world’s land surface is classified as ‘arid’ and this area is expected to increase as climate change brings more frequent, extreme weather events, such as drought. There is a great need for innovative developments in this field.
Architecture and public art are increasingly offering a vision of a future where functionality, aesthetics, and sustainability will be the benchmark.
Last month we told you about The Algae Dome Pavilion – a design that showcases how the Earth’s self-regulating life support system can be integrated into our cities in the form of biomass circulating architecture that absorbs carbon dioxide and converts it to oxygen that is re-released back into the urban environment. This particular one is being used to grow the mineral, protein and vitamin rich micro-algae Spirulina.
