Latest news with #RoyalGoldMedal
The Herald Scotland
10-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Why this architect swapped drawing tools for watercolours
The Springburn-born architect, who was awarded the Royal Gold Medal in Architecture from the Royal Scottish Academy in 2008, is gearing up to stage the largest exhibition of his artwork next month. Entitled Not Black and White, the exhibition will see Mr Dunlop showcase sketches completed during lecturing and teaching trips to Italy and Spain, trips to Lewis and other watercolours that represent the range of his current interests. Also on display will be a collection of fiery watercolours documenting infernos across the globe, including his triptych of the Glasgow School of Art blaze in 2018, which was shortlisted for an international prize. Alan Dunlop's Mack triptych (Image: Alan Dunlop) He told The Herald on Sunday: "I've always drawn and drawing has been part of the fundamental practice for me not only in my working life but also in my teaching. So everywhere I go, if I've been in Spain or to China or to Italy, I've always taken a sketchbook. I find that is much better as far as what you see and recording what you see than taking a photograph, which is just a kind of snap. "In 2023, I wanted to do something which would commemorate the fifth anniversary of the burning down of the Mackintosh Building. I did some sketches the morning after the fire and felt that I could make them a little bit more dramatic and that I could give a better indication of what it was actually like, so I did paintings of it for the first time for the fifth anniversary. "I was taken back by the attention the paintings received. They got shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival and they were exhibited at Sir John Soane's Museum in London and also at the Royal Academy of Arts. So I thought, 'Well let's pursue this a bit further', and rather than simply doing pencil drawings I thought I'd try and do watercolours." He added: "This will be the largest exhibition I've held of my artwork. There will be 16 to 20 watercolours on show. The Art School fire watercolours have gone on display before but the majority of the rest of them have never been seen before. There's a variety of different kinds of watercolours. Read more: "So although I've drawn all my life and I've taken a sketchbook with me everywhere I've been, actually doing watercolours is a brand-new experience for me. And it's one I think which is developing very interestingly. And people seem interested in it. So that's good." As a now fully fledged aficionado of the painting method, Prof Dunlop expresses frustration as to why it took him so long to pick up a brush. He said: "Quite frankly I don't understand why I didn't start doing it 25 years ago. I'm a relatively new watercolourist and as I'm doing it I'm trying to understand the kind of discipline behind it. "Watercolours are not like doing an oil painting or any other similar medium because you can't overpaint with watercolours. Once you've made the decision to do a watercolour, what you put down is what you put down. So there's an element of discipline in planning how you actually construct a watercolour painting. "As an architect, I enjoy that element of it, although it's very different to the work you produce as an architect. My architectural drawings have to be very, very precise. A client has to know what they are getting. So although they were drawings they had to be done very accurately, especially when you are making planning applications and things like that, so the planners could asses accurately what it is your proposing. "Whereas, with a watercolour, you can be a lot more free-hand in how you approach it." 'Gondola repair yard in Venice' by Alan Dunlop (Image: Alan Dunlop) Swapping architectural drawings for watercolours has also allowed Prof Dunlop to do something he has never had the chance to in his 40 years as an architect – embrace colour. He noted: "I've moved from black and white drawings to drawings that are bursting with colour. That's why I called the exhibition 'It's Not Black and White'. Although it can be bloody difficult to find the right colours and the right tone. I have to hand it to the brilliant watercolourists out there. Of all the artistic disciplines I think painting watercolours is the hardest." Read more: As well as being motivated to continue painting watercolours by the reaction he received to his School of Art triptych, Prof Dunlop, who himself studied architecture at the world-leading institution, said he also uses Charles Rennie Mackintosh's watercolours, which were mainly painted in France in the last years of his life, as a source of inspiration. He said: "The people I find inspirational are people like Mackintosh, who went to the south of France and produced some beautiful watercolour paintings. He wasn't just a great architect, he was also a formidable artist. "I've been looking very seriously at how he tackled things and how we worked and not necessarily replicate it but learn from him. That's been a kind of motivating factor too behind what I've been doing in the last couple of years. There's no better a person really whose footsteps to follow in.' 'Not Black and White' runs from September 15 to October 3 at Il Salotto on Bell Street in Glasgow.
CNA
03-05-2025
- Business
- CNA
SANAA by city: Where to see this award-winning Japanese architecture firm's iconic works
Twenty years ago when I was an architecture student, SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates) started gaining prominence. Helmed by architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishisawa and founded in 1995, the Japanese architecture firm's works were discussed, dissected and used as case studies for their new ways of thinking about spatial design, human interaction and material application. Over the years, SANAA has gained international prominence with projects all over the world. These include Grace Farms in Connecticut, Toledo Museum of Art's Glass Pavilion in Ohio and the New Museum in New York. The firm was also invited to design the 2009 Serpentine Pavilion in London's Kensington Gardens, an annual commission for top architects to showcase their ethos via a temporary structure. In 2012, the duo was awarded the architecture world's highest honour, the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Kazuyo was only the second woman to claim the prize since it started in 1979. In February this year, she and Nishizawa claimed yet another prestigious prize – the Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal for architecture, which recognises a person or group of people who have made significant impact on the advancement of architecture through their lifetimes. His Majesty the King, Charles III presented the award on May 1. Since it started 177 years ago, the RIBA Gold Medal Award has highlighted the works of many luminary architects. Past medallists include Frank Lloyd Wright, Norman Foster, the late-Zaha Hadid, Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi and Oscar Niemeyer. The 2025 RIBA Honours Committee cites the ability of SANAA's works 'to reshape the global design landscape, creating spaces that bring simplicity, light, and elegance to the fore.' They are both bold yet sensitive to their local environments, and have the ability 'to shape a universal language of architecture that resonates with people everywhere.' 'We are delighted and very honoured to receive the Royal Gold Medal. We have always believed that architecture can transform and repair environments, helping us. to relate to our surroundings, nature and each other. Throughout our careers, we have tried to make spaces that bring people together, inviting them to imagine new ways of living and learning collectively,' said Kazuyo and Nishizawa in a press statement upon hearing about the win. Kazuyo was born in Ibaraki prefecture, Japan, in 1956 and studied at Japan Women's University. She worked at reputed architecture firm, Toyo Ito Architect and Associates for six years, which provided ample inspiration for her future work. Kazuyo is a virtuoso in combining materials like glass, aluminium with light and reflectivity, enlivening flat, plain surfaces. Apart from SANAA, she also runs her eponymous firm, Kazuyo Sejima & Associates. At the age of 44, Nishizawa was the youngest recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize when he received it in 2010. Like Kazuyo, he also runs his own firm, Office of Ryue Nishizawa. Some of its experimental projects include the much-photographed Teshima Art Musem on the island of Naoshima and House No.03 for Shishi-Iwa House – a cluster of boutique hotels in Karuizawa designed by several Pritzker Prize architects. Sejima is designing SSH No. 04 that is scheduled to open in Hakone, Japan later this year. The progressive nature of SANAA's celebrated works makes them interesting places to experience. Here we highlight nine cities with a SANAA project that you can easily add to your travel itinerary. TOKYO, JAPAN View this post on Instagram A post shared by 牧童製作所 (@shephotoerd) Tokyo's famous shopping street is known for many iconic boutiques with landmark architecture, such as the Prada flagship by Herzog & de Meuron and Tod's by Toyo Ito. Another one is Dior, with a shell by SANAA and interior by American architect Peter Marino. SANAA's architecture is given a light demeanour with a two-layered facade made of a clean clear glass outer skin and a translucent wavy acrylic inside layer. These are sandwiched between horizontal white bands, reflecting the building's differentiating interior heights. Each level features a different level of translucency, which gives the building a dynamic character, especially at night when it glows like a lantern. KANAZAWA, JAPAN 21st Century Museum of Art Located in Ishikawa Prefecture, Kanazawa is known for its well-preserved Edo-era architecture and art museums. It is also a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art. One of its most popular attractions is the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art that showcases an original way of viewing and enjoying art, one of which is Leandro Erlich's famous 'swimming pool'. Placed in a park, the low-rise building is a 112.5m diameter circular building capped by a thin roof. Within, boxy volumes of various sizes and heights define exhibition halls and other museum functions. The leftover space becomes public areas to meander around in. The unusual layout allows for flexible museum programming while the 360-degree perimeter glass walls intertwine views of the park with the interior. NAOSHIMA, JAPAN Naoshima Port Ferry Terminal View this post on Instagram A post shared by Finding Naoshima (@finding_naoshima) Naoshima is a pilgrimage hotspot for art lovers who come here to experience spaces and works such as Tadao Ando's Chichu Art Museum and Yayoi Kusama's Yellow Pumpkin site-specific sculpture, poised against the sea. SANAA created a small passenger terminal on the Japanese island for passengers waiting to disembark the island, or park their bicycles or motorbikes. The firm designed the giant cluster of white bubbles as a landmark that can be easily spotted by visitors heading to the terminal or approaching the terminal by ship. Modelled on a cumulonimbus cloud, it is made of intersecting, fibre-reinforced plastic spheres and a timber grid structure. TSURUOKA, JAPAN Shogin Tact Tsuruoka Located in Yamagata Prefecture, Tsuruoka is a great destination for visitors to Japan wishing to seek out lesser-known areas. It has both natural and manmade beauty – towering mountains, open farmland, stretches of coastline. The Kamo Aquarium that has the largest aquarium display of jellyfish in the world, as well as historic and modern architecture. Tsuruoka is also Japan's only UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, guaranteeing filled tummies. Tsuruoka is home to the Dewa Sanzan (Three Holy Mountains of Dewa). The roof of the SANAA-designed Shogin Tact Tsuruoka mimics their undulating forms. The building is a community hall promoting cultural and artistic activities in the traditional farming town. Made of sheet metal, plastered concrete and curved steel framing, the multiple pitched shapes lower to a one-storey height along the road to harmonise with the surrounding cityscape and historic structures. The New Museum was founded in 1977 to showcase emerging artists. Its original location was in a SoHo loft but in 2003, SANAA was commissioned to create a new home for the museum to establish a strong visual presence and reach a wider audience. It was the first, purpose-built contemporary art museum in New York City. SANAA's architecture is known as being diagrammatically clear and simple. Hence, the New Museum is a series of 10 stacked, staggered boxes rising up the Bowery neighbourhood. The stacking brings natural light into the galleries through skylights through the differential gaps between each 'box'. The exterior, clad in two layers of industrial aluminium mesh, has a shimmering, textured effect that elevates the commonplace construction material. PARIS, FRANCE La Samaritaine La Samaritaine is a late 19th century "Les Grands Magasin" in Paris' first arrondissement. Among its many programmes is the Cheval Blanc Paris hotel. Started by Ernest Cognacq, the department store grew from a small corner shop in 1870 to a 70,000 sq m block combining Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles. In 2012, SANAA, together with Francois Burgel Architectes Associes, LAGNEAU Architectes and SRA Architects, completed a renovation of the building. SANAA carved an internal passageway through the length of the existing building to connect three full-height courtyards. These function as social cores, surrounded by commercial activity. Outside, a new facade for the Rue de Rivoli building stiches together panels of undulating glass that shimmer in the sunlight and reflect its context in a most nuanced, romantic manner. Louvre-Lens Opened in 2012 and located in Lens, 200km north of France, Louvre-Lens is the Musee du Louvre's sister gallery, designed by SANAA in collaboration with New York studio Imrey Culbert. It aims to make art institutions more accessible to people living outside Paris. Lens is a former mining community devastated by both World Wars and the Nazi occupation, and it was hoped that the museum would bring rebirth to the city. Similar to some of SANAA's other 'transparent' buildings, Louvre-Lens features a thin, barely-there roof. A 360m-long glass facade dissolves boundaries between the internal and their external environments. The building, which also comprises an aluminium structure, showcases a permanent collection, temporary exhibitions and art from the local neighbourhood. LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND Rolex Learning Center Completed in 2010, the Rolex Learning Center is both architecture and landscape. Among its programmes are a learning laboratory, library, cultural spaces and is an international hub for the EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lusanne) where the Center is located. The building is open to the public. Its experimental architecture was conceived as a continuous, undulating structure spread over 22,000 sq m. The architects thought of it as one 'big room'. The rising parts of the wavy form create openings that allow people to walk underneath, harmonising it with the park despite its large mass. Inside, the raised portions are used as study spaces and the restaurant as they offer good views – some of the Alps. The building reinvents the conventional campus building and connects deeply with the surrounding landscape. SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA Sydney Modern Project Completed in 2022, the Sydney Modern Project is SANAA's first work in the continent. The A$344 million (S$286.77 million) project transforms the 151-year-old Art Gallery of the New South Wales into a "museum campus" with and old and a new building connected by an Art Garden. SANAA's contemporary building juxtaposes against the original gallery's 19th century neoclassical facade, and mitigates a potentially massive volume with a series of interlocking pavilions stepping down the sloped land. An environmental case study, this is the first public art museum in Australia to achieve the country's highest environmental standard for design, a 6-star Green Star design rating by the Green Building Council of Australia. Some highlights include a gallery dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in the modern extension, as well as an impressive underground exhibition space converted form a World War 2 naval fuel bunker called the Tank used for large-scale, site-specific commissions.
Bloomberg
09-02-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
New Orleans' Superdome Was Built to Last Another 50 Years
Hello and welcome to Bloomberg's weekly design digest. I'm Kriston Capps, staff writer for Bloomberg CityLab and your guide to the world of architecture and the people who build things. This week Japanese architecture firm Sanaa won the Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal. Sign up to keep up: Subscribe to get the Design Edition newsletter every Sunday.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Japanese firm famed for ‘sustainable' design receives top architecture honour
A Japanese architecture firm which has pioneered 'sustainable, user-centred design' has been awarded one of the world's highest honours for architecture. The Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) has announced that SANAA, a collaborative practice of Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, has received the 2025 Royal Gold Medal for architecture. The award, which is presented on behalf of the King, recognises their work which the Riba Honours Committee praised for shaping 'a universal language of architecture that resonates with people everywhere'. The architects said they were 'delighted and very honoured' to receive the honour, describing it as a 'very happy moment' for the firm. 'We have always believed that architecture can transform and repair environments, helping us to relate to our surroundings, nature and each other,' they added. 'Throughout our careers we have tried to make spaces that bring people together, inviting them to imagine new ways of living and learning collectively. 'Architecture is always teamwork, and we are very grateful to everyone that has given us opportunities to develop these ideas over the years, and to all those people that have worked tirelessly with us to realise them.' Their architectural projects have sprung up across the world from the New Museum in New York, distinctive for its stacked, cubic design, to the Rolex Learning Centre that 'flows' alongside the shores of Lake Geneva in Lausanne, Switzerland. The firm also created the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London, which features floating aluminium that is meant to drift 'freely between the trees like smoke'. Other notable works over the course of their nearly three-decade career include Dior Omotesando Store in Japan, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, the Zollverein School of Design in Germany, the Louvre-Lens in France and Sydney Modern Museum in Australia. Riba president and chairman of the 2025 Riba Honours Committee, Muyiwa Oki, said: 'Exemplifying an unassuming yet impactful leadership in the evolving practice and theory of architecture, SANAA's designs demonstrate that architecture can balance functionality with profound elegance. 'True pioneers in the field, their unwavering commitment to sustainable, user-centred design has quietly blazed a trail for others, setting an inspiring standard for the future of our built environment. 'Showing remarkable clarity and consistency over the decades, their work serves as a lasting testament to the transformative power of architecture – to inspire joy, create a sense of belonging, and connect us to the environments we inhabit.' A public celebration will take place for SANAA in London on May 1.
Euronews
06-02-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Japanese studio SANAA honoured with RIBA Gold Medal for their ethereal, gravity-defying architecture
Japanese architectural firm SANAA, led by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, has been awarded the prestigious RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. Renowned for their ethereal, lightweight designs, SANAA (founded in 1995) has spent the past three decades redefining the boundaries of space and structure, creating buildings that appear to defy gravity. Their projects are recognised for their extraordinary delicacy and minimalist approach - walls as thin as 16mm, steel beams as slender as 12mm, and concrete canopies that look like they could float away. RIBA's Gold Medal award, regarded as one of the most prestigious in the architectural field, adds to SANAA's impressive list of honours, including the 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the 2022 Praemium Imperiale for architecture, and the 2025 Le Prix Charlotte Perriand. "Exemplifying an unassuming yet impactful leadership in the evolving practice and theory of architecture, SANAA's designs demonstrate that architecture can balance functionality with profound elegance," says RIBA President, Muyiwa Oki. He adds: "True pioneers in the field, their unwavering commitment to sustainable, user-centred design has quietly blazed a trail for others, setting an inspiring standard for the future of our built environment." SANAA's body of work includes the extraordinary Louvre Lens in northern France, a 360-metre-long, steel and glass art museum that shimmers on the horizon like a mirage, as well as the Rolex Learning Centre, located on the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology's campus. Other notable works over the course of their career include the Dior Omotesando Store in Japan (2003), featuring a transparent glass façade; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan (2004), the Zollverein School of Design in Germany (2006), the 2009 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London, Grace Farms in the USA (2015), and Sydney Modern in Australia (2022). Sejima (68) completed her master's degree in architecture in 1981 at Japan Women's University. After honing her skills under the mentorship of architect Toyo Ito, she set up her own firm, Kazuyo Sejima and Associates in 1987. Nishizawa (58), a talented young architect who had also worked with Ito, was among her earliest hires. The firm quickly gained traction, with Sejima earning the prestigious Young Architect of the Year award from the Japanese Institute of Architects in 1992. In 1995 the two architects joined forces to create SANAA, based in Tokyo. "We are delighted and very honoured to receive the Royal Gold Medal. We have always believed that architecture can transform and repair environments, helping us to relate to our surroundings, nature and each other," says Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. "Throughout our careers we have tried to make spaces that bring people together, inviting them to imagine new ways of living and learning collectively. Architecture is always teamwork and we are very grateful to everyone that has given us opportunities to develop these ideas over the years." Sejima and Nishizawa will receive the award in a ceremony taking place in London on 1 May 2025.
