January 2008
division of Archi-Europe


 Editiorial


A builder’s itinerary in his walls

Architectural exhibitions abound throughout the world. The fascinating exhibition currently at the Pompidou Centre in Paris deserves praise for featuring a world-famous architect and winner of the Pritzker Prize 2007 in one of his emblematic works. In the 1970s, the Pompidou Centre gave shape to the high-tech aesthetics of Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano. Many saw in it architecture regaining ground on technological expertise. The distance that Richard Rogers would take from this trend and the diversity of his subsequent buildings prove that he did not retreat into just one vocabulary. Yet, whereas deciphering an architectural creation is already a delicate undertaking, analysing the work of an entire career, where variable geometry underpins joint efforts, is even more so. “Having one project follow another, the place of delivering buildings, the succession of orders and competitions won, this impression of perpetual motion and relentless projection into the future does not make things any easier,” admits Olivier Cinqualbre in a work devoted to Lord Rogers. The setting of the exhibition opens with a thirty-metre chronological fresco, offering the visitor the pleasure of gauging the wealth of more than forty years of reflection and creation. The exhibition showcases some fifty projects, arranged in eight groups of theme units, from the first works carried out with Norman and Wendy Foster, as part of Team 4 in the 1960s, to the current projects of Rogers, Stirk, Harbour and Partners. What is the major interest of this retrospective? Certainly to provide a unique moment for reflection on the urban environment and to discern the vision of Richard Rogers on the key role that architecture can play in the establishment and development of our societies.


Sketch for the Pompidou Centre -  © Piano+Rogers


The Archi-Europe Team!

 
Portrait of the month
Books
Project of the month
Contact
Product of the month        



 Portrait of the month


Oscar Niemeyer
Sculptor of spaces

An emblematic figure if ever there was one, Oscar Niemeyer, who just celebrated his 100th birthday in December, left his mark on the history of 20th Century architecture with his recognisable style. Apart from certain buildings with specific dispositions, the Brazilian architect’s language presents, in each project, one or more recurrent types of a restricted morphology defined as much by the choice of volumes and by their mode of association. All that is needed to prove this permanent trait is to observe one of his most famous projects, the Niteroi Museum of Contemporary Art, near Rio. Conceived as a corolla pitched on a rocky steep slope at the edge of the ocean, it creates a striking contrast between its entrenchment and the fulfilling, sensual volume. The immense mega-structure (more than 300 metres long) of the Supreme Court (Brasilia, 1991-95) juxtaposes the oblique prisms of the courtrooms with the parallelepipeds on piles that house the offices. Reconciling a monumental scale with the need for accessibility by the public, the structures on piles are omnipresent in Brasilia, and as such follow a town plan developed by Lucio Costa. For its part, Niemeyer’s style stems in large measure from the drawing, from rhythm, from dimensions with an averred propensity for very tenuous contacts with the ground or, on the contrary, with the boldest spans. The bold innovations of numerous projects entail daring novel engineering in the use of reinforced concrete, to build the specific, intuitive structures designed by the architect. His architecture is made of dreams and fantasy, generous curves and large free spaces. Oscar Niemeyer is not after technological expressionism, but an original plastic expression. His architecture does not seek meaning in the details of its practical content, but asserts itself from the outset as a morphological and spatial system likely to stimulate a major emotional relation. The reparatory drawings for the various projects reveal a terse style, marked by an elegant sensuality nurtured by the architect’s fascination for the female nude. With more than 600 projects in Brazil, France, Italy and the United States, Oscar Niemeyer became world famous for the main buildings of Brasilia (seat of various ministries, the national theatre, the airport, and especially the Cathedral – image and symbol of the new capital), and still works every day after a career spanning 73 years… His work continues to develop with an unrelenting creative force. Seven projects are under study and another ten are under construction: an auditorium in Ravello, Italy, an AquaPark in Potsdam, Germany, or the Brazilian embassy in Cuba, from drawings by the master. Each of them bears witness, today as in the past, of a singular alliance, of an unwavering commitment to the principles and vitality in giving poetic figures shape.

 

Many works have been devoted to the great master of Brazilian architecture, including:
Mon expérience à Brasilia, Oscar Niemeyer (Editions Forces Vives, 1963)
Oscar Niemeyer, une esthétique de la fluidité, Gilbert Luigi (Editions Parenthèses 1987)
Niemeyer, poète d'architecture, Jean Petit (Sidia Edizioni d'Arte, 1995)
Meu Sosia e eu, Oscar Niemeyer (Editoria Revan, 1992)
As courvas do tempo, memórias, Oscar Niemeyer (Editoria Revan, 1998)
Les courbes du temps, mémoires, Oscar Niemeyer (Editions Gallimard, 1999)
Oscar Niemeyer, Matthieu Salvaing (Editions Assouline, 2002) The Curves of Time, Oscar Niemeyer (Phaidon Press 2007)
Oscar Niemeyer: Permanence et invention, Nicoletta Trasi (Editions du Moniteur 2007)



click to enlarge



1. Oscar Niemeyer


2. Brasilia National Congress (1958-1960)


3. Brasilia Cathedral (1970)


4. The Volcano - Le Havre
Cultural Centre (1972-1982)


5. Headquarters of the Communist Part
in Paris (1965-1980)


6. Supreme Court /
Superior tribunal de Justiça (1991-1995)


7. Niteroi Museum of
Contemporary Art (1991-1996)


8. Oscar Niemeyer Museum in Curitiba (2002)


9. Auditorium of Ibirapueara Park,
São Paulo (1951-2007)



 Project of the month


« Transitions 2007/2008 »

Once in a while does no harm, so we are not broaching an architectural project here, but rather proposals in three dimensions with imaginative possibilities for a new generation of lighting technologies. These different projects are part of a large, travelling exhibition at European level by Royal Philips Electronics N.V. To show the keen interest of Philips Lighting for innovative projects, eight projects by first rate architects and lighting designers help convince us of the role of lighting, and above all, of state-of-the-art systems.


1. Architecture-Studio / Paris, France
A completely dark cube that effaces landmarks is lighted according to the movements on the glass panes. Accompanied by slightly distorted urban noises, a city emerges in fragmentary fashion, and then fades away.



2. BDP Lighting London, United Kingdom
A creative exploration of the links between light, architecture and the human experience, the container places the person at the centre of the design. The elements react to touch to simulate a pulse by means of a blue light.



3. Studio November - Milan, Italy
This real tactile experience – a simple room where visitors approaching the walls, without touching them, can switch on the 30 000 LEDs that cover them – bears witness to the relation between the digital fixture of the LEDs and the freedom of movement of the body in space.



4. Henning Larsen Architects – Copenhagen, Denmark
The portable personal lighting unit offers optimal mobility. Two light sources, individualised, make it possible to look in two parallel universes at the same time. With the portable lamp, no space is absolute any more.



5. Lichtkunstlicht - Berlin, Germany
Light sources placed vertically diffuse light from LEDs on a steel structure reminiscent of an old machine that dominates the interior of the colourless container. The volutes of white light make an intense and strange impression.

 


6. Mansilla + Tuñón Arquitectos - Madrid, Spain
As architecture is both an abstract and a human environment, space is seen as a place for reflection illuminated with light. And it is indeed light and movement that are noticed first, rather than the physical appearance of the objects.

 


7. ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd] – Rotterdam, Netherlands
The brainchild of a visionary conceptual strategy, this project creates an infinite universe of light that fades after three or four reflections. Visitors get the feeling of floating in a universe of light lines moving slowly and clouds of points.

 


8. Treusch Architecture - Vienna, Austria
A coloured space made of light surrounds the visitor, taking him or her to another world. It is composed of immaterial limits acting as a metaphor for real life through the variation of the intensity of colours and the background sound.





 Product of the month

Scrigno Essential, an exclusive patent
Scrigno Essential opens the possibility for new developments in interiors, in line with contemporary living and furnishing trends. Thanks to Scrigno Essential, the external lines of the frames are simpler in design, whilst internally they offer greater technology and improved performance. This results in the finish appearing lighter, thus offering greater continuity of space. Scrigno Essential frees space and the designer’s compositional potential.

The difference between seeming to be and being
Scrigno Essential is a frame for concealed sliding doors that harmonizes with the wall because the design has eliminated all excess external elements, thus reducing the finishing features on the outside of the wall. Both physically and visually, the wall appears and is perceived as being free of any door jambs and other finishes, allowing for maximum continuity and fluidity in the opening between one room and another. Indeed, the door opening seems to be “cut into the wall”. Thanks to the new Scrigno Essential frame the wall is the main feature of both the interior space and the project. It is completely “fused”, disappearing into the wall and appearing only if its presence is considered opportune, thus allowing the full beauty of the materials and design of the wall to be fully appreciated.



Free the wall, free the project
Scrigno Essential is the result of the company’s focus on technological innovation and service and comes thanks to its collaboration with the designer Piero Esposito, whose research has for some time been orientated towards solutions based on essentiality, both in terms of construction applications and in finishes for interiors. Scrigno Essential aims to highlight and enhance the architecture of interiors. Working by means of subtraction, the new project has been created using unfinished extruded aluminium profiles (subsequently to be painted the same colour as the wall) and without additional elements that might interfere with project choices.

The original aluzinc Scrigno frame is housed inside the wall and Scrigno Essential, which comes in two versions - for plaster and plasterboard - is covered by Scrigno’s 12-year guarantee on component parts (capacity of the aluzinc side to withstand corrosion, track, support).

 
Scrigno will be glad to meet you at the following fairs:
Milan - MADE expo:
05-09 February 2008 - Hall 3 Stand E01-G04
Viena - Bauen  & Energie:
21-24 February 2008 - Hall A Stand A0638
Bruxelles - Batibouw:
28 February - 09 March 2008 - Hall 3 Stand 3315

 

 Agenda

- GERMANY -

  • Le Corbusier
    (> 10/02/2008) - Weil am Rhein
    Vitra Design Museum
    The work of Le Corbusier remains highly significant and relevant in today's architectural discourse. Yet during the past two decades, no major museum show has addressed the many aspects that still make Le Corbusier's work such an important point of reference for contemporary architecture and urbanism. To fill this void, the Vitra Design Museum is now joining forces with the Netherlands Architecture Institute and the Royal Institute of British Architects in the production of an international retrospective.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Im Rampenlicht. Baumeister als Bühnenbildner
    (> 10/02/2008) - Stuttgart
    Kunstmuseum
    Willi Baumeister (1889-1955), a painter and typographer who came to be known as one of the most important representatives of abstract painting, designed his first stage set for the »Deutsche Theater Stuttgart« in 1919. The exhibition will show expressive sketches and striking designs for a range of theatre productions. Photos of theater rehearsals and performances, press reviews, and correspondence containing humorous, private sketches will supplement the exhibition material.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Megacity Network
    (> 17/02/2008) - Francfort/Main
    DAM

    This exhibition presents for the first time some architects and architectural practices of South Korea, in order to better understand the architectural movements of this important Asian country. About fifteen offices show some of their projects realized during the last ten years: residential, cultural and office buildings, shopping centres and schools.
     --- Go to the site ---

  • GLASHAUS_06 BRAMD X Franken Architects
    (> 29/02/2008) - Berlin
    Deutsche Architektur Zentrum

    BRAND X is an exhibition by Franken Architects (Frankfurt/Main. The experts for corporate architecture show their work from January 21 until February 29, 2008 at GLASHAUS_06. „Corporate Architecture, translating corporate identity into designed space has become an increasingly important working field for architects within the last years", says DAZ_Director and curator Kristien Ring. „GLASHAUS_06 presents with Franken Architects an architectural office, which is designing tailored and distinguished solutions for this challenging task." In the exhibition BRAND X, the award winning office focusses on the process of creating corporate architecture.
     --- Go to the site ---

  • Baumschlager-Eberle, Lochau, Austria. The Urban Space Inside
    (> 6/03/2008) - Berlin
    Aedes Am Pfefferberg
    The nuanced interaction of architecture and context is exemplified in the exhibition with a multitude of plans, photographs and models. The WHO building in Geneva, the airport extension in Vienna, the e-Science Lab of ETH Zurich and the Hilti Training Center and Office East in Liechtenstein are representative for some of the recently built structures. They all illustrate the degree of determination but also empathy characteristic for the architecture of Baumschlager-Eberle. Their gaze firmly fixed on the future, founding partners Dietmar Eberle and Carlo Baumschlager also engage in didactic challenges: Eberle teaches at ETH Zurich and Baumschlager works for the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, in particular on the refinement of a project-oriented design methodology.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • 7th European Conference Solar Energy in Architecture and Urban Planning “Sun and Sense”
    (11 - 14/03/2008) - Berlin
    The first European Conference Solar Energy in Architecture and Urban Planning, initiated by the European Commission, took place in Munich in 1987. At the five subsequent conferences the concepts and ideas of a direct use of solar energy in buildings and for urban development were constantly enhanced.
     --- Go to the site ---

  • Das Erbe Kalkuttas
    (> 24/03/2008) - Francfort/Main
    DAM
    This exhibition presents photographs of Calcutta at the 19th Century, by more tan 20 students in photography of the higher educational establishment for arts of Bremen under control Peter Bialobrzeski. The villas and palaces today threatened of destruction are the last testimonys of the Indian elite then under British domination.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Araki, Miyamoto, Sugimoto Japanische Fotografie der Gegenwart
    (> 24/03/2008) - Wolfsburg
    Kunstmuseum
    Nobuyoshi Araki, Ryuji Miyamoto and Hiroshi Sugimoto show the Minimalisme effects in Japanese esthetics.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • In the realm of the Arts - Architecture at the Munich Academy 1808 | 2008
    (> 18/05/2008) - Munich
    Pinakothek der Moderne
    To mark the 200th anniversary of the Bavarian Academy of the Fine Arts the Architecture Museum is showing the work of its architects and students. With the aid of plans, photos and models it is presenting the specific form of architecture and architectural studies »In the realm of the Arts«. Among the most famous teachers at the Academy in the 19th century were Carl von Fischer, architect of Munich’s Nationaltheater, Friedrich von Gärtner, whose international acclaim was comparable to that of the Prussian Schinkel school, August von Voit, who built the Glaspalast and the ingenious draughtsman Ludwig Lange. In 1868 the study of architecture was transferred to the newly constructed Technical University and it was not until 1946 that architecture was again taught at the Academy. Its famous names include the teachers Sep Ruf, Paolo Nestler and Otto Steidle.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Living Under the Crescent Moon
    (23/02 - 31/08/2008) - Weil am Rhein
    Vitra Design Museum

    The exhibition demonstrates the diversity of domestic lifestyles between Morocco, Syria and the Arabian Peninsula - from the nomadic tents of the Tuareg or Bedouins to Moroccan casbahs; from the grand courtyard houses in cities such as Marrakech, Damascus or Cairo to buildings by twentieth-century architects like Hassan Fathy, Elie Mouyal or Abdelwahed El-Wakil. Numerous models and reconstructed room environments provide visitors with an opportunity to physically experience various building types, while domestic objects such as ceramics, textiles, tools and architectural elements offer impressions of everyday customs.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • DACH+HOLZ
    (5 - 8/03/2008) - Stuttgart
    International Trade Fair for Timber Construction and Interior Works, Roof and Wall
     --- Go to the site ---

  • SHK
    (5 - 8/03/2008) - Essen
    Sanitation, heating, air conditioning and renewable energies fair
     --- Go to the site ---

  • CeBIT
    (4 - 9/03/2008) - Hannover
    World Business Center Office - Information - Telecommunications
     --- Go to the site ---

  • E-WORLD - ENERGY & WATER
    (19 - 21/03/2008) - Essen
    International trade fair and congress
    --- Go to the site ---

  • FENSTERBAU / FRONTALE
    (2 - 5/04/2008) - Nuremberg
    International Trade Fair Window, Door and Facade
    --- Go to the site ---

  • LIGHT+BUILDING
    (6 - 11/04/2008) - Francfort/Main
    The International Trade Fair - Urban, Architectural and Retail Lighting Solutions
    --- Go to the site ---

- AUSTRIA -

  • Doppelhaushälften
    (27/02 - 02/03/2008) - Graz
    Haus der Architektur
    The pictures of the photographers Andreas Machanek form the starting point for the question about individuality and community in building and living. In their formal precision they insist on the way the inhabitants transfer their settlement houses built in the years 1930 in Cologne into the everyday culture.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Art after 1970. From the Albertina
    (> 16/03/2008) - Vienna
    Albertina
    This exhibition is presenting selected highlights from its collection of international contemporary art. This first show of a new exhibition series includes groups of works and single works by 16 artists who have decisively influenced the last three and a half decades.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • The White City of Tel Aviv
    (21/02 - 19/03/2008) - Vienna
    Architekturzentrum Wien - Old hall
    The "White City's" development is presented in the form of plans and models. Historic and contemporary photographs provide an insight into the architectural language of the time, showing the influence that the European heritage had on what was created there. he diversity of surface quality and colours of different plaster are shown, as are precise analyses of the detail planning (e.g., the different types of balconies). A selection of historic film footage provides an animated image of the development of the city between 1920 and 1958. The presentation video for UNESCO and the current project for the conservation of these buildings are also included in the exhibition.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Esther Stocker
    (> 6/04/2008) - Vienna
    Museum Moderner Kunst

    Born in 1974, Esther Stocker draws upon and at the same time undermines rationality and systematic thought with her reduced, geometric black, white and gray grids and semiotic systems with paintings which work with both images and space. The installation at the MUMOK is made up of identical white rods with a quadratic cross-section mounted in a black room at regular intervals to the floor, walls and ceiling.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Coop Himmelb(l)au. Beyond the Blue
    (> 11/05/2008) - Vienna
    MAK Exhibition Hall
    The exhibition shows the team’s recent and very latest projects. A spectacular space installation has been specially conceived for the MAK Exhibition Hall, the core of which shows the constant development of urban projects. Established in 1968 by Wolf D. Prix and Helmut Swiczinsky are among the most important and innovative architects of our time, who, with their unconventional, cutting-edge work, have laid the foundation stone for the unparalleled global career of the architectural studio. Models, sketches, drawings, projections and animations offer deep insight into older as well as future buildings and projects which trace the development in the architectural vocabulary and its path from experiment to buildings, thereby demonstrating that a vision can ultimately become reality.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • ENERGIESPARMESSE
    (7 - 9/03/2008) - Wels
    International Trade Fair for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy
     --- Go to the site ---

- BELGIUM -

  • Quai des orfèvres
    (> 10/02/2008) - Seneffe
    Château de Seneffe
    Five Belgian designers and personnalities (Franco Dragone, Alain Hubert, Olivier Strelli, François Schuiten et Dimitri Weber) display antique silverware in the lounges of this pretigious 18th Century cassle.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Henry van de Velde Awards & Labels 2007
    (> 2/03/2008) - Brussels
    Design Vlaanderen Galerie
    The Henry van de Velde Awards promote designers and their designs and stimulate companies and the public to use design. They confirm the high level of quality of the realised work. The labels are quality labels that can be attached to the products as long as they remain in production. The winners of the HVDV Labels 2007 have been selected by a jury of experts. They selected 11 winners from around 150 submissions.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Triënnale voor Vormgeving. Schoonheid Enkelvoud - Meervoud
    (> 2/03/2008) - Brussels
    Royal Museum of Art and History

    Design Flanders organises this year the Design Triennial around the central theme of 'beauty' in its unity and diversity. This event places a number of designers in the spotlight.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • "Chants et Paysages" Ettore Sottsass à Sèvres 1993-2006 - Hornu
    (> 9/03/2008) - Grand-Hornu
    In 1994 Ettore Sottsass, one of the most important designers, discovered the technical process of the "Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres". He developped a serie of objects which are still produced nowadays. In 2005 the Manufacture renewed this intersting cooperation with new forms and new materials.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Alechinsky from A to Y
    (> 30/03/2008) - Brussels
     Fine Arts Museum

    In honour of Pierre Alechinsky, a famous Belgian artist now aged 80, the retrospective exhibition shows many important works in close cooperation with the artist: paintings, drawings, engravings and book illustrations selected in national and international collections.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Willy Van der Meeren
    (> 30/03/2008) - Brussels
     Atomium
    The exhibition presents the differents periods of the exceptional professional life of the Belgian architect and designer Willy Van der Meeren (1923-2002).
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Filip Dujardin
    (> 31/03/2008) - Brussels
     Palais des Beaux Arts

    Architecture photographies of the Flemish photographer Filip Dujardin included surprising photo montages.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Detour
    (29/02 - 31/03/2008) - Brussels
     Tour & Taxis
    Experimental architecture and magnificent nature meets in an exhibition showing architectural projects along Norwegian tourist routes. The exhibition is a collaboration between Norwegian Public Roads Administration and Norsk Form.
     --- Go to the site ---

  • Paysages d’architecture - 150 ans de dessins d’architectes belges
    (> 20/04/2008) - Brussels
    Fondation pour l’Architecture
    Since 1986, the collection of architectural drawings and models of the « Archives d’Architecture Moderne “ has become considerably richer. Today there are almost two million documents representing the diversity of Belgian Architecture between the middle of the 19th and the beginning of the 21 st Century.The 200 drawings and models selected for this exhibition are particularly interesting in terms of quality and choice of styles, going from the dynamic Art Nouveau to the garden-cities, from the Art Déco to the stretched structures”style 58” and the contemporary projects.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Nedda El-Asmar. Verleidelijke eenvoud: clair-obscur
    (> 27/04/2008) - Ghent
    Design Museum

    The Belgian designer Nedda El-Asmar awarded "Designer of the Year 2007" works the metal in contemporary views. She tries to transform the everyday life.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • 20 years Theo-design
    (> 27/04/2008) - Ghent
    Design Museum
    “Theo” stands for self-willed design and is here for “positive and cheerful people”, for trendsetters, says in-house designer Patrick Hoet. Theo, by the way, is an anagram for Hoet. The designer from Bruges has been working with the Theo firm from Antwerp for 20 years now. He designs the colourful and eccentric spectacle frames while his business partner Wim Somers takes care of execution and worldwide distribution. Annually, this amounts to about 50 to 60 designs.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Pierre Paulin
    (9/03 - 18/06/2008) - Hornu
    Grand-Hornu
    First big retrospective about one of the most important designers from the second half of the 20th century. Pierre Paulin has always been linked to pop design and the 60s and 70s. His chairs are still produced nowadays and they are know all over the world.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • BATIBOUW
    (28/02 - 29/03/2008) - Brussels
     International buiding, renovation and decoration fair
    --- Go to the site ---

  • SFEER
    (7 - 10/03 + 14 - 16/03/2008) - Ghent
    Flanders Expo
    Event for interior decoration, garden and pool
    --- Go to the site ---

  • BOIS & HABITAT
    (14 - 17/03/2008) - Namur
    Namur Expo
    Wood buildings and alternative energies exhibition
    --- Go to the site ---
- DENMARK -

  • Now that it is time
    (> 14/02/2008) - Copenhagen
    Danish Museum Art & Design

    Three significant personalities in Danish sculpture and architecture, Thomas Bang, Ingvar Cronhammar and Poul Ingemann have especially for this exhibition created works and installations, which exist in a widely expanded territory between the functional object and the sculptural gestalt without function, where the concept of purpose assumes unexpected and new dimensions.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Europan Denmark
    (> 24/02/2008) - Copenhagen
    Dansk Arkitektur Center
    All the competition entries for the Danish building sites in the EUROPAN competition. EUROPAN is a European competition for architects under the age of 40. This year, 20 countries have participated by entering building sites to be developed with new architecture. Denmark has participated for the first time with building sites in the towns of Herning, Vejle and Ørestad.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Cézanne & Giacometti
    (29/02 - 09/06/2008) - Humlebæk
    Louisiana Museum
    For the first time in the world an exhibition is being shown that confronts the works of the two artists Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) and Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) with each other. The exhibition consists of a generous selection of the works of both artists that brings out the retrospective view as well as showing specific points of contact between the works in the two artists’ formidable oeuvres.
    --- Go to the site ---

- SPAIN -

  • Art in the USA: 300 Years of Innovation
    (> 25/04/2008) - Bilbao
    Museum Guggenheim

    This exhibition features a compelling selection of approximately 200 artworks culled from a range of private and public collections in the United States. Six historical periods demonstrate how the art of each era both reflected and contributed to a complex visual narrative of a nation during times of discovery, growth and experimentation.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • The “Musée National Picasso” in Paris collection
    (> 5/05/2008) - Madrid
    Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
    An exceptional exhibition in which around four hundred works (painting, sculpture, ceramic, drawing, prints, notebooks and other documentary material) have been selected from the holdings of the Paris to form the most complete overview ever presented in Spain of Picasso's career. The show will not only be installed in the three temporary exhibition rooms of the museum but will extend into various permanent collection rooms where the Picasso works related to Guernica are displayed, thus complementing this fundamental period of the collection of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Asier Mendizabal
    (> 18/05/2008) - Barcelona
    Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona
    This exhibition presents a monographic vision of Mendizabal’s work, focusing on certain works that explore the tension between urban environments that contain and generate collective consciousness on one hand, and semi-rural landscapes that shape certain kinds of associations (neighbourhoods, sympathies, groups, etc.) that are equally important on the other.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • Jean Tinguely
    (3/03 - 8/06/2008) - Valencia
    IVAM
    Resulting from a cooperation with the Tinguely Museum, this exhibition shows the Works from the swiss sculptor and experimental artist Jean Tinguely (1925-1991) and enables the visitor to view the evolution of his creations and the richness of his extensive production.
    --- Go to the site ---

- FINLAND -
  • Emerging Identities - East!
    (> 17/02/2008) - Helsinki
    Museum of Finnish Architecture
    On display is contemporary built culture from former Socialist countries which have recenty become members of the European Union. This Eastern European journey focusses on the built projects of young architects. They develop projects out of their own initiative and idealism, and their buildings embody strong conceptual thinking and the implementation of the concept. It is not only the new public buildings, but far more the many small interventions that represent current tendencies. There are over 90 participants from 9 countries: Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland.
    --- Go to the site ---
  • Ben af Schultén & the Artek tradition
    (> 24/02/2008) - Jyväskylä
    Alvar Aalto Museum
    The exhibition will be showing a cross-section of the work of the designer Ben af Schultén. On show there will be well-known light fittings and items of furniture designed for Artek, but less well-known pieces, such as prototypes, have been given a place in the exhibition, too. The exhibition will also be showing af Schultén’s interior, exhibition and trade-fair designs, plus some of his practical graphic work. The designer’s personal fondness for art is brought out in the exhibition in various ways including works of art chosen for the exhibition by Ben af Schultén himself.
    --- Go to the site ---
  • Yrjö Kukkapuro designer
    (> 6/04/2008) - Helsinki
    Design Museum

    This exhibition presents the career of designer and interior architect Yrjö Kukkapuro from his early works designed in 1956 to his most recent ones from 2007. Kukkapuro's oeuvre is characterized by a strict command of form and the carefully considered use of details. Throughout the decades his ideal has been the human body and its lawlike regularities. Kukkapuro has been the head designer of the Haimi, Lepokalusto and Avarte companies. He is known for his design of public spaces and as a solid collaborating partner with the architectural profession. This means that all Finns have at some stage of their lives sat in a chair designed by Kukkapuro, for example in a bank, theatre, auditorium or hospital.
    --- Go to the site ---
  • Raili and Reima Pietilä. Challenging Modern Architecture
    (27/02 - 25/05/2008) - Helsinki
    Museum of Finnish Architecture

    One of the great names of Finnish 20th-century architecture, Pietilä rose to international fame when the established principles of modernism began to be questioned in the 1960s and 1970s. Raili (1926–) and Reima (1923–1993) Pietilä emphasize organic form and natural morphology, and their work is markedly distinctive from the mainstream of the latter half of the century. They created signature buildings experimenting with new forms, such as Dipoli in Espoo (1966), Main City Library in Tampere (1986) and the Presidents’s Residence in Helsinki (1993). Reima Pietilä was also an acute architectural theorist actively contributing to the discussion on the future of modernism in Finland as well as abroad.
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- FRANCE -

  • Detour
    (> 21/02/2008) - Paris
    La Galerie d'Architecture

    Experimental architecture and magnificent nature meets in an exhibition showing architectural projects along Norwegian tourist routes. The exhibition is a collaboration between Norwegian Public Roads Administration and Norsk Form.
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  • Habitat précaire, habitat transitoire
    (> 25/02/2008) - Orléans
    FRAC Centre

    Often associated to the people’s precariousness or the builders’short-term views, the theme clarifies the design of mobile architectures, created to be installed on sites without harming the environment, or using materials a priori precarious to build durable architectures.
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  • Henry Moore et la Mythologie
    (> 28/02/2008) - Paris
    Musée Bourdelle
    The exhibition presents many works belonging to the Henry Moore Foundation or coming from public or private collections throughout the world.
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  • Richard Rogers + Architects
    (> 3/03/2008) - Paris
    Centre Pompidou

    The exhibition presents the work of Richard Rogers and his associates: from the first projects completed with Norman and Wendy Foster and Sue Rogers as part of the Team 4 practice in the 1960s to current projects with the firm of Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners. This retrospective is also an occasion to retrace the design of the Centre Pompidou in the 1970s.
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  • Matières à cultiver
    (> 16/03/2008) - Paris
    Galerie VIA

    An exhibition that aims at showing the new possibilities for using renewable materials: timber, multiplies, composite fibres of vegetable origin.

  • Christian Lacroix. Histoires de Mode
    (> 20/04/2008) - Paris
    Musée des Arts Décoratifs
    An atypical exhibition in which Christian Lacroix gives us his own personal vision of the history of fashion. For a few months the garments he selected from a heritage stretching back over several centuries will encounter the haute-couture creations of one of the greatest names of French fashion.
    --- Go to the site ---

  • La peau. Entre texture et ossature
    (> 31/12/2008) - Paris
    Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine - Palais de Chaillot
    The building’s skin has always been a challenge for the architects and the builders. The scenography of this exhibition conceived by the architects Hamonic+Masson presents 14 projects recently realized or under construction in France.
    --- Go to the site ---
- GREAT-BRITAIN -
  • My Sust. House
    (> 17/02/2008) - Glasgow
    The Lighthouse

    The Lighthouse opens the door of its interactive 'eco-house'! This fun, activity packed sustainability den offers a hands on opportunity to learn about cutting edge and traditional approaches to energy saving and renewable energy.
    --- Go to the site ---
  • Co-evolution
    (> 23/02/2008) - Manchester
    CUBE

    The exhibition concerns modern urban planning in China and was exhibited on the Venice Biennale in 2006, where it constituted Denmark's official contribution and won the main prize, the Golden Lion Award. It shows how Danish architects and Chinese professors and students are helping to meet the global challenges following in the wake of China's massive economic growth.
    --- Go to the site ---
  • Jean Prouvé
    (> 25/03/2008) - London
    Design Museum
    The radical, functional and inspiring work of the French designer and engineer Jean Prouvé (1901 - 1984) will be shown in this first comprehensive overview of his work in the UK. With examples of his unique furniture design, architecture, drawings, film and photographs, the exhibition will present the enormous influence of Prouvé within the history of 20th Century design. This exhibition re-designed for the Design Museum was originated by the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany in cooperation with Deutsches Architektur Museum, Frankfurt and Design Museum Akihabara, Japan.
    --- Go to the site ---
  • Juan Muñoz A Retrospective
    (> 27/04/2008) - London
    Tate Modern

    Spanish artist Juan Muñoz (1953-2001) came to international prominence in the mid 1980s with dramatic sculptural installations that placed the human figure in specific architectural environments. His reputation was built on his power to create an intriguing tension between the illusory and the real, the contrasting acts of looking and receiving, and the poignant isolation of the individual amongst a crowd. This exhibition includes well-known sculptures such as Many Times (1999), The Prompter (1988) and Conversation Piece (1996), the “raincoat drawings”, and important pieces with sound, light and mechanical elements.
    --- Go to the site ---
  • China Design Now
    (15/03 - 13/06/2008) - London
    Victoria & Albert Museum Architecture Exhibition Gallery

    The exhibition will explore the recent explosion of new design in China, from the 2008 Olympic stadium to the most interesting fashion and graphics. It will display the work of Chinese and international designers, focussing on architecture, fashion, youth culture and graphics as well as film, photography, product and furniture design and digital media.
    --- Go to the site ---

- GREECE -
  • Stephen Antonakos: retrospective
    (> 9/03/2008) - Athens
    Benaki Museum - Pireos Street Annexe
    The 250 works in the exhibition cover this abstract formalist's creative life from 1954 to the present and will enable viewers to follow the entire course of this important artist who has played a major role in the evolution of light art internationally starting in the 60s and who continues to find new inspiration in neon after 45 years. It will span all phases of the artist's evolution, featuring many of the major neon works, over 85 drawings, models for his Chapels and Meditation Rooms, and some works exhibited here for the first time.
    --- Go to the site ---

- ITALY -
  • 99 icone: da segno a sogno
    (> 24/02/2008) - Bergamo
    Accademia Carrara
    Although this selection of icones belongs to the Olympus of design, they are also live, useful objects present in the homes of everyone, such as the new Fiat 500 (2007).
    --- Go to the site ---
  • Ettore Sottsass.Vorrei sapere perche
    (> 2/03/2008) - Trieste
    Il Salone degli Incanti
    The title “I would like to know why” relates to a question the Master formulated and represents his approach to the things in the world. «Without my knowing what they are, the shapes of stone have a sacred sense, sacred forever. I would like to know why».
    --- Go to the site ---
  • Annisettanta. Il decennio lungo del secolo breve
    (> 30/03/2008) - Milan
    Triennale Bovisa

    The exhibition looks back at the 1970s by means of various installations based on keywords (travel, body, conflict, march, etc) or key Italian figures (Moro, Pasolini) from that decade. At the same time, there are many exhibits devoted to the contamination and hybridisation of language and discourse that occurred at the time, with the focus on what the Seventies produced in the way of cinema, literature, design, music, figurative art, comics, theatre, fashion, mass media, technology, communication, sport and so on.
    --- Go to the site ---
  • Il mito della velocità. Arte, motori e società nell'Italia del ‘900
    (19/02 - 18/05/2008) - Roma
    Palazzo Esposizioni

    Speed is the focal point of this fascinating and scenically spectacular exhibition devised by Contemporanea Progetti, a theme developed in all its forms through a chronological overview of the 20th century that goes on to explore a range of entrancing future scenarios.
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