Ushida Findlay Architects is an architectural practice originating in Tokyo but now based in London. They are known for their unusual, non-rectilinear, neo-expressionist buildings, including their Soft and Hairy House in Tsukuba (1994). [1] Their starfish-shaped design for a country house at Grafton Hall Estate in Cheshire (2002) [2] was selected in competition [3] but ultimately went unrealised. [4]
The practice were architects for the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower, the UK's tallest sculpture, providing architectural design to transform it into a functional building. [5] [6] [7]
Ushida Findlay was originated in Japan, set up in 1986 by husband and wife team, Eisaku Ushida and Kathryn Findlay. They came to the UK in 1999, setting up the practice in Edinburgh. [8] However, the couple split-up and the company experienced financial difficulties, filing bankruptcy in 2004. Findlay launched her own separate practice. [8]
The practice is currently working on York Art Gallery. [9]
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer John Merrill. The firm opened its second office, in New York City, in 1937 and has since expanded internationally, with offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., London, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seattle, and Dubai.
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal is an Indian steel magnate, based in the United Kingdom. He is the Executive Chairman of ArcelorMittal, the world's second largest steelmaking company, as well as chairman of stainless steel manufacturer Aperam. Mittal owns 38% of ArcelorMittal and holds a 3% stake in EFL Championship side Queens Park Rangers.
Arup is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London which provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment. The firm employs approximately 16,000 staff in over 90 offices across 35 countries around the world. Arup has participated in projects in over 160 countries.
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a sporting complex and public park in Stratford, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Bow, in east London. It was purpose-built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, situated adjacent to the Stratford City development. It contains the Olympic stadium, now known as the London Stadium, and the Olympic swimming pool together with the athletes' Olympic Village and several other Olympic sporting venues and the London Olympics Media Centre. The park is overlooked by the ArcelorMittal Orbit, an observation tower and Britain's largest piece of public art.
The Omarska camp was a concentration camp run by Bosnian Serb forces in the mining town of Omarska, near Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, set up for Bosniak and Croat men and women during the Prijedor massacre. Functioning in the first months of the Bosnian War in 1992, it was one of 677 alleged detention centers and camps set up throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war. While nominally an "investigation center" or "assembly point" for members of the Bosniak and Croatian population, Human Rights Watch classified Omarska as a concentration camp.
ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourgish-Spanish-French multinational steel manufacturing corporation headquartered in Luxembourg City. It was formed in 2006 from the takeover and merger of Arcelor by Indian-owned Mittal Steel. ArcelorMittal is the second largest steel producer in the world, with an annual crude steel production of 88 million metric tonnes as of 2022. It is ranked 197th in the 2022 Fortune Global 500 ranking of the world's largest corporations. It employs directly and indirectly 200,000 people and its market capital is $25 billion. The total value of company assets is estimated to be around $100 billion.
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.
The ArcelorMittal Orbit is a 114.5-metre (376-foot) 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 year 2012 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
The year 2012 in art involves some significant events.
Kathryn Findlay was a Scottish architect.
The ARBED building is the generally used name for the headquarters of ArcelorMittal and one of its predecessors, the ARBED steel manufacturing company, which was completed in 1922 on the Avenue de la Liberté, opposite the Rose Garden in Luxembourg City. The architect was the Frenchman René Théry, and construction was overseen by Sosthène Weis.
The year 2015 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
The Jane Drew Prize is an architecture award given annually by the Architects' Journal to a person showing innovation, diversity and inclusiveness in architecture. It is named after the English modernist architect Jane Drew.
The year 2020 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
Shelley McNamara is an Irish architect and academic. She attended University College Dublin and graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor of Architecture. She founded Grafton Architects with Yvonne Farrell in 1978. Grafton rose to prominence in the early 2010s, specialising in stark, weighty but spacious buildings for higher education. McNamara has taught architecture at University College Dublin since 1976 and at several other universities.