Continuing our review of the year, Semi Han picks out the top 10 museums and galleries that welcomed their first visitors in 2019.
National Museum of Qatar, Doha, Qatar, by Atelier Jean Nouvel
Atelier Jean Nouvel used colliding white discs to create the distinct exterior of National Museum of Qatar. After almost 10 years in the making, the landmark building opened in March.
The museum surrounds an early 20th-century palace, which is also part of the visitor experience. Inside, a mile-long elliptical path follows the chronological history of Qatar, from its prehistoric beginnings to the present day.
Read more about National Museum of Qatar ›
The Twist, Kistefos, Norway, by BIG
Bjarke Ingels designed this art gallery, which doubles as a bridge, using staggered aluminium panels to clad its name-sake twisting form.
The Twist's sculptural aesthetic is meant to reflect the uneven river-bank topography and the artworks of the Kistefos sculpture park next door.
Visitors enter the gallery through the windowless south entrance and walk over the river to the spaces that are glazed from floor to ceiling.
Odunpazari Modern Museum, Eskisehir, Turkey, by Kengo Kuma and Associates
Interlocking, cross-laminated timber beams on the exterior of the Odunpazari Modern Museum allude to the town's history of timber trading. A skylight atrium runs through all three storeys at the point where the four volumes of the building meet.
The museum, which opened in September, houses items from Tabanca's 1,000-piece collection of modern art and hosts temporary exhibitions.
Read more about Odunpazari Modern Museum ›
Aranya Art Center, Qinhuangdao, China, by Neri&Hu
Neri&Hu designed the Aranya Art Center for the Gold Coast seaside resort in China. A patterned exterior is formed from modular faceted concrete blocks, some of which have openings to let light inside.
This material features throughout the interiors, including in the five gallery spaces that centre around a conical void finished in smooth concrete.
Read more about Aranya Art Center ›
Bauhaus Museum Dessau, Dessau, Germany, by Addenda Architects
2019 marked 100 years since the Bauhaus school of architecture was founded. This museum its at the centre of Dessau, where the influential school was based between 1925-1932.
Addenda Architects designed an open plan main exhibition place on the ground floor. A black, enclosed space is elevated above the space, where inside visitors can see more delicate items from the movement.
Another museum for the Bauhaus opened in Weimar this year.
Read more about Bauhaus Museum Dessau ›
The Shed, New York, USA, by Diller Scofidio + Renfro
The Shed is an eight-storey museum in New York's Hudson Yards development. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the museum's translucent polymer-clad roof is can be moved to shelter a space that almost doubles the building's size.
A sled drive pushes the U-shaped steel frame along a pair of 80-metre-long rails, so the venue can transform depending on the requirements of different artists using the space.
Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, Zhejiang, China, by David Chipperfield Architects
The monolithic red exhibition halls of Zhejiang Museum of National History in the Anji county opened earlier this year. Designed by David Chipperfield Architects, the eight single-storey pavilions are built into the landscape and coloured in ochre to match the local clay.
The project's monumentality, said the studio, signifies the large number of visitors and grand scale of exhibitions to come.
Read more about Zhejiang Museum of Natural History ›
Jishou Art Museum, Jishou, China, by Atelier FCJZ
As with the The Twist earlier on our list, Jishou Art Museum in China is a bridge that is also an art gallery. Spanning the Wanrong river, Atelier FCJZ designed the museum to provide an accessible pedestrian route through central parts of the city.
Two bridge structures are stacked atop each other to create the building. Visitors walk through the upper level of exhibition space to cross the bridge, as they browse the artworks whilst passing through.
Read more about Jishou Art Museum ›
Windermere Jetty museum, the Lake District, England, by Carmody Groarke
A display of significant motorboats, steam boats and yachts are displayed inside a cluster of gabled hangers clad in dark copper on the shore of Windermere lake in the UK.
Carmody Groake designed the museum to be as close to the water as possible, and included a huge dry dock that allows boats to be sailed up and in to the museum for display.
Read more about the Windermere Jetty museum ›
Ruby City, Texas, USA, by Adjaye Associates
Another red museum is David Adjaye's Ruby City, a contemporary art centre that gets its monochromatic exterior from crimson-coloured concrete panels. Specks of glass and mica were mixed into the concrete, so that Ruby City glistens when it catches the light.
The museum houses over 800 artworks for US-charity Linda Pace Foundation across two storeys, including pieces by Olafur Eliasson and Antony Gormley.
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Construction experts discuss the ways that the building industry can move towards having zero carbon emissions in this panel discussion filmed by Dezeen for Kingspan at the Building Centre in London.
Called Accelerating the Pathway to Net Zero Carbon Buildings, the event was hosted by architectural facade specialist Kingspan and independent research forum New London Architecture.
Moderated by AECOM's Tom Lelyveld, the panel of five speakers drew on academic research and industry experience to discuss how the UK could achieve its target of net-zero emissions by 2050.
A range of arguments were made on the subject, including how retrofitting existing buildings is not as sustainable as people have been led to believe and that timber is not always the solution to decarbonising the built environment.
Panellist Michael Stacey, who is a teaching fellow at the Bartlett School of Architecture, argued that sometimes demolition can be more carbon efficient than retrofitting a building.
Stacey explained that refurbishing a building often means that less than half carbon is retained, with levels sometimes much lower.
"Demolition is sometimes the best option," he stated. "In most cases, reusing existing buildings saves between four and 46 per cent of the carbon."
In some situations it may use less carbon to demolish a building and replace it with an entirely new structure that has had sustainability considered from the outset.
"If you convert a warehouse into a multi-occupancy residential building it uses 17 per cent more carbon that a new build."
In contrast to the advice given by speakers at the Architecture of Emergency climate summit in September, Stacey also argued that timber is not always the most sustainable material to use.
The academic believes that people may be misusing timber due to a difficulty in obtaining and interpreting life cycle analysis reports that detail the full environmental impact of a product.
"There are reputable books that say this: if you can't understand the mathematics of life cycle analysis, specify wood. I'm afraid that it's not correct," he stated.
"Timber inside buildings is great because you are looking after the CO2 for as long as the life of the building, but what is not recycled is typically burnt," he added.
In addition to emitting CO2 when it is burned at the end of its life, timber that is used on the outside of a building – especially in the case of windows – must be repainted every eight years to prevent it from rotting and releasing the carbon it has locked up, according to Stacey.
To prevent the misuse of materials, Stacey suggested that life cycle analysis reports should be made more freely available.
The panel also featured Allies and Morrison director Mark Taylor, Kingspan's global head of sustainability Bianca Wong, Sean Butler of metal facade supplier Schüco, and Billy Field from Dane Architectural.
In addition to making the science behind carbon emissions more transparent, the panel also advised that the introduction of legislation and government-backed financial incentives would contribute significantly to attaining the UK's aim of net zero carbon.
Taylor is the director of architecture practice Allies and Morrison. The London-based firm is one of the signatories of Architects Declare – a campaign signed by more than 700 architecture practices across the UK declaring a biodiversity and climate emergency.
Wong is the global head of sustainability at Kingspan and is leading the specialist building facade company in attaining its goal to become a net zero carbon business by 2020.
Butler is the commercial director of Schüco, an international building facade supplier that aims to facilitate harmony between buildings, their users and nature.
Field is the director of Dane Architectural, a facade specialist that has provided the exterior components of buildings by Grimshaw Architects and Steven Holl Architects.
The talk is the latest example of built environment professionals addressing their own carbon emissions in order to combat climate change. Last month, Dezeen hosted a conference in which environmental designer Sophie Thomas conducted an analysis of the carbon emitted by the event, while Stirling Prize-winning architect Mikhail Riches pledged to work on zero-carbon projects.
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All photographs © Greg Lotus
There’s a traffic jam on Miami Beach thanks to Leandro Erlich (previously). Erlich’s installation, titled “Order of Importance,” is an effort to put conversations surrounding climate change front and center. Commissioned by the city of Miami Beach and curated by Ximena Caminos and Brandi Reddick, the installation features 66 life-sized cars and trucks erected on the beach at Lincoln Road. Made of sand, the vehicles blend in with the surrounding beach and highlight the temporary nature of their construction. They will be allowed to deteriorate until the exhibition closes December 15.
“The climate crisis has become an objective problem that requires immediate solutions,” Erlich says. “As an artist, I am in a constant struggle to make people aware of this reality, in particular, the idea that we cannot shrink away from our responsibilities to protect the planet.”
Caminos added that the exhibit, “like an image from a contemporary Pompeii or a future relic, also alludes to our fragile position in the large universal canvas. It interacts with the climate crisis facing the world, particularly the rising sea level.”
Erlich, who resides in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, is known for combining architecture, sculpture, and theater to create surreal works that alter traditional conceptions of natural environments. “Order of Importance” is his largest installation to date. You can find more of his work on Instagram and his site.
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