eye-catcher

Twenty years ago we pu­blis­hed a ma­ga­zine that loo­ked ahead to Lon­don in 2010. Our team of ex­perts fo­resaw fu­tu­ris­tic mo­no­rails, ma­chi­nes to con­trol the rain, and a city riven by class wars. Ins­tead we have the Lon­don Eye, the Gher­k…

The kilometre-high sky­scra­per, the un­der­wa­ter hotel, the cloud on stilts … Steve Rose mourns the eye-popping erec­tions that should never have been commissioned

When Bruce Rat­ner hired Frank Gehry in 2004 to de­sign a wrinkled-looking 76-story re­si­den­tial sky­scra­per in Man­hat­tan near the Brook­lyn Bridge, the mar­ket for eye-popping lu­xury con­do­mi­ni­ums was boo­m­ing, and the world-class architec…

A wel­co­m­ing be­a­con be­fore a shi­ning ex­panse of sea, Ste­ven Holl's LM project will up­date Copenhagen's wa­ter­front with two eye-catching photovoltaic-sheathed sky­scra­pers and a sky bridge stud­ded with wind tur­bi­nes. The ico­nic de­ve­l…

Such ques­ti­ons were ex­haus­tively dis­cus­sed by some fifty na­tio­nal and in­ter­na­tio­nal guests through a num­ber of ‘discussion media’ (round table talks, speed dates, keynote lec­tu­res and a work­shop). But apart from all the tal­king, ther…

In the Royal Bo­ta­nic Gar­dens, Kew, an ele­va­ted walk­way of­fers since May 24, 2008 the op­por­tu­nity to a spe­cial ex­pe­ri­ence of land­scape and trees. The project Xtrata Tree­top Walk­way is part of Kew Gardens’ «Year of the Tree«. Opened on…

On the site of the last battle fought on Bri­tish soil, the new vi­si­tor centre, which opened on 16 April 2008, will house in­ter­pre­ta­tion of the battle, its preh­is­tory and af­ter­math, and will in­clude edu­ca­tio­nal and con­fe­rence fa­ci­li…

In this ar­ti­cle, I try to take se­riously Jencks’s re­mark that cul­ture should find an ico­no­gra­phic lan­guage to con­nect us to the uni­verse. Jencks’s lec­tu­res, an­s­wers and gar­dens seem to re­sem­ble the cosmos when it comes to be­gin­nin…

Author Ste­ven Ja­cobs had a mi­schie­vous twinkle in his eye when he pre­sen­ted 'a mo­no­graph about an non-existing architect' in his opening speech. The book is is­sued by 010 Pu­blis­hers, which ob­viously saw some sub­stance in his vi­sion. It’…

Tuesday Oc­to­ber 17‘Noodles or Ma­gnum?’ What a choice I think half sleepily as I hear the ste­war­dess in the dis­tance. Slur­ping my nood­les, I’m im­pres­sed by the see­mingly end­less cin­na­mon co­lou­red Gobi De­sert down …

Seventeen guest cu­ra­tors from as many co­as­tal re­gi­ons were asked to out­line de­ve­lop­ments along their par­ti­cu­lar co­ast­li­nes and to offer poin­ters for the fu­ture. The point of de­par­ture was a pos­si­ble union bet­ween tou­rist de­ve…

Employment agency Ales­con, ope­ra­ting in six mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ties in the pro­vince of Drente, is at­temp­t­ing to change the pre­vai­ling view of the shel­te­red work­shop as a place to be pi­tied into an ac­tive com­pany that puts people first. The…

'The clues of what we crea­ted du­ring our ca­reer and wrote about ar­chi­tec­ture and ur­ba­nism can be found in Bob's first buil­ding »Mother's House«. From con­tra­dic­tion and com­ple­xity to com­mu­ni­ca­tive ar­chi­tec­ture, and from in­te­rior…

Motel Mozaïque, born du­ring Rot­ter­dam Cul­tu­ral Ca­pi­tal 2001, is or­ga­nised every year by Night­town (pop con­cert hall), the Rot­ter­dam City Thea­tre and TENT. Centre for vi­sual arts. The event com­pri­ses a co­lour­ful pro­gramme…

To house the many ac­tivi­ties that will take place in 2004, the idea was laun­ched to trans­form for­mer fac­to­ries and schools into so cal­led Mai­sons Folie. In 2001 the mu­ni­ci­pal of Lille or­ga­nised a de­sign com­pe­ti­tion for the trans­for…