The Tianjin Binhai Library in Tianjin, China, was designed by the Dutch architectural firm MVRDV to look like a giant eye. “The Eye is the center of the library. It ‘hollows out’ the building and creates, out of bookshelves, an environment to sit, to read, to hang out, to climb and to access, to create an organic social space.” The futuristic library sits within a sheltered gallery, topped with cathedral-like vaulted arches, which winds its way throughout the scheme. It is located on...
The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa is considered to be the world’s tubiest building and is set to become the world’s most important exhibition space for African Art. Located inside a grain silo built on Cape Town's waterfront in the 1920s, which was once the city's tallest building. Heatherwick's team have carved huge sections out of the building's tubular interior to create a complex network of 80 gallery spaces. Designed by Thomas Heatherwick
Charles O. Perry sculpted this piece, titled "Eclipse," for the Hyatt Regency at Embarcadero in San Francisco in 1973. His large scale and monumental sculptures celebrate and question the laws of nature. Believing that sculpture must stand on its own merit without need of explanation, Perry's work has an elegance of form that masks the mathematical and scientific complexity of its genesis.
The "Metropol Parasol“ scheme with its impressive timber structures offers an archaeological museum, a farmers market, an elevated plaza, multiple bars and restaurants underneath and inside the parasols, as well as a panorama terrace on the very top of the parasols. Realized as one of the largest and most innovative bonded timber-constructions with a polyurethane coating, the parasols grow out of the archaeological excavation site into a contemporary landmark, defining a unique relationship...
Gibraltar, the small portion of English land located on a south coast of Spain, is dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar. The local architecture firm Arc Designs has recently built the Skywalk, a panoramic terrace that offers a breathtaking view of the surrounding territories. The terrace is 340 meters above sea level. You get there through a glass elevator or glass stairs. It offers a 360 degree view, both on the European side and on the African one. The study stressed that their project had the...
Considered one of the most beautiful subway stations around Europe, the Toledo station is the 13th Art Station of the Naples Metro system, designed by the Spanish firm of architect Oscar Tusquets Blanca. The Toledo station is one of the deepest in the line at 50 meters, and it is themed around water and light. The art of the station, curated by art critic and former Venice Biennale director, Achille Bonito Oliva, includes two mosaics by the South African artist, William Kentridge, as well as...
The Louis Vuitton Foundation has been designed by architect Frank Gehry, a place dedicated to art. Thirteen years has passed by since the conception of the Louis Vuitton Foundation to its inauguration: in 2001 Bernard Arnault, president and general manager of the LVMH group, Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, met the architect Frank Gehry and gave birth of the idea to create the Louis Vuitton Foundation. Five years later, October 2006, the Foundation was founded. In December of the same year the...
Perched at the north-west edge of a private island, located north of the city of Toronto, Canada, the Grotto Sauna is a sculpted space designed by local studio Partisans that offers a dream-like location for a retreat. When Partisans met on site, they knew that their most prominent challenge was to make a free-standing structure that not only respected, but also matured from the context. Contemplated research was conducted, and through the process a Grotto was set as an inspiration that would...