The Ito-Balmond Serpentine Pavilion is a structure designed by Cecil Balmond and Toyo Ito and originally built for the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion programme in London's Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, in 2002 and now part of a restaurant in southern France. [1] It focuses on modern and contemporary art. Each year the Serpentine Gallery builds a temporary structure for the summer in its grounds, and projects are led by director Julia Peyton-Jones. [2] The Ito-Balmond Serpentine Pavilion has been hailed as one of the most successful temporary pavilions to date. Jonathan Glancey, architecture critic for the UK's The Guardian , called it "one of the most exquisite and revolutionary buildings of recent times." [3] The design is based on an algorithm designed by Balmond. "Although fun to look at, this structure was rooted in complex geometry…the pavilion had no façade and no hidden structural frame behind it… what you saw was 100% pure structure, its holistic beauty like that of a crystal or a snowflake." [3] Balmond was awarded the Gengo Matsui Prize for the pavilion, one of the highest awards for engineering given in Japan. The pavilion now serves as the beach club restaurant of a luxury hotel in Le Beauvallon, across the bay from Saint-Tropez in southern France. [4] Ito and Balmond have since collaborated on the Taichung Opera House in Taiwan. [5]
Peter Zumthor is a Swiss architect whose work is frequently described as uncompromising and minimalist. Though managing a relatively small firm, he is the winner of the 2009 Pritzker Prize and 2013 RIBA Royal Gold Medal.
The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Central London. Comprising the Serpentine Gallery and the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, they are within five minutes' walk of each other, linked by the bridge over the Serpentine Lake from which the galleries get their names. Their exhibitions, architecture, education and public programmes attract up to 1.2 million visitors a year. Admission to both galleries is free.
Jonathan Glancey, is an architectural critic and writer who was the architecture and design editor at The Guardian, a position he held from 1997 to February 2012. He previously held the same post at The Independent. He also has been involved with the architecture magazines Building Design, Architectural Review, The Architect and Blueprint. He is an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, RIBA.
Toyo Ito is a Japanese architect known for creating conceptual architecture, in which he seeks to simultaneously express the physical and virtual worlds. He is a leading exponent of architecture that addresses the contemporary notion of a "simulated" city, and has been called "one of the world's most innovative and influential architects."
The De La Warr Pavilion is a grade I listed building, located on the seafront at Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex, on the south coast of England.
Dame Julia Peyton-Jones is a British curator and gallery director, currently Senior Global Director at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in London, Paris and Salzburg. She formerly worked as Co-Director of the Serpentine Gallery in London.
Cecil Balmond OBE is a Sri Lankan–British designer, artist, and writer. In 1968 Balmond joined Ove Arup & Partners, leading him to become deputy chairman. In 2000 he founded design and research group, the AGU.
Tony Fretton is a British architect known for his residential and public gallery buildings, as well as other British and international design work. He graduated from the Architectural Association (AA) and worked for various practices including Arup, Neyland and Ungless, and Chapman Taylor, before setting up his own firm, Tony Fretton Architects, in 1982. His first major project was the Lisson Gallery in 1990. He is known for designing "location sensitive art spaces" using a combination of vernacular and minimalist approaches balancing new and age-old designs.
MAXXI is a national museum of contemporary art and architecture in the Flaminio neighborhood of Rome, Italy. The museum is managed by a foundation created by the Italian ministry of cultural heritage. The building was designed by Zaha Hadid, and won the Stirling Prize of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2010.
The 8th International Architecture Exhibition at the 2002 Venice Biennale of Architecture, titled Next, was directed by Deyan Sudjic. Held at the Arsenale and Giardini exhibition venues, it took place from September 8 to November 3. The exhibition attracted over 100,000 visitors.
Guangzhou Opera House is a Chinese opera house in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, People's Republic of China. Designed by Zaha Hadid, it opened on the 9th of May in 2010.
The ArcelorMittal Orbit is a 114.5-metre-high sculpture and observation tower in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London. It is Britain's largest piece of public art, and is intended to be a permanent lasting legacy of London's hosting of the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, assisting in the post-Olympics regeneration of the Stratford area. Sited between the Olympic Stadium and the Aquatics Centre, it allows visitors to view the whole Olympic Park from two observation platforms.
Marsyas is a 150-meter-long, ten storey high sculpture designed by Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond. It was on show at Tate Modern gallery, London in 2003 and was commissioned as part of the Unilever Series. Marsyas was the third in a series of commissions for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall and the first to make use of the entire space.
The year 2011 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
The National Taichung Theater is an opera house in the Taichung's 7th Redevelopment Zone in the Situn District of Taichung, Taiwan. The estimated area of the structure is 57,685 square meters (620,920 sq ft). It was designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito in collaboration with Cecil Balmond at Arup AGU. It was contracted on 11 November 2009 with construction planned for 45 months. The venue had a partial opening on 23 November 2014. It was officially opened in 2016.
Sou Fujimoto is a Japanese architect.
The year 2014 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
Smiljan Radic is an internationally recognised Chilean architect of Croatian heritage. Radic graduated in 1989 in architecture at the Catholic University of Chile and established his own office in 1995. Many of his projects are small scale, such as dwellings and installation designs that bridge across various cultural traditions. Radic was selected to design the 2014 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London.
The year 2016 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
The Victoria and Albert Museum Spiral was a proposed extension to the 19th-century London building which houses the Victoria and Albert Museum, the world's largest museum of decorative arts. It was designed by Daniel Libeskind and the designer, artist, and writer, Cecil Balmond. The museum chose the design over seven others in competition in 1996 but, after much controversy and failing three times to attract the necessary funding, the project was abandoned in 2004.