David Chipperfield adds limestone-clad extension to Kunsthaus Zurich

Jura limestone wraps around the concrete interiors of David Chipperfield Architects' long-awaited extension for the Kunsthaus Zurich museum in Switzerland.

Located in Heimplatz square in the old town of Zurich, the extension provides more gallery space for Kunsthaus Zurich – making it the largest art museum in the country.

The Kunsthaus Zurich art museum is wrapped by Jura limestone fins

The new building was designed by David Chipperfield Architects' Berlin studio to resemble a freestanding structure, but it is directly connected to the museum's main Moser building via an underground passage.

Its monolithic form takes its cues from the city's 19th-century cantonal school at the north of the site and is intended to provide the square with a "clear urban edge".

Limestone mimic traditional stone buildings in the area

"The project for the extension of Kunsthaus Zurich brings together the fundamental concerns of museum design with the responsibilities created by both the urban context and the relationship with the existing museum," explained studio founder David Chipperfield.

"We hope that the quality of the architecture, its spatial, formal and material resolution will guarantee that the extension, like Karl Moser's original building, becomes an integral part of the physical, social and cultural infrastructure of the city of Zurich."

The entrance extends the length of the building

David Chipperfield Architects first revealed the design for the Kunsthaus Zurich extension in 2009, having won a competition to design it in 2008.

It will open to the public in 2021, joining the museum's 1958 Pfister building, the 1976 Müller building and the original Moser building to which it is connected.

The building's concrete structure is exposed throughout

Jura limestone was chosen for the extension's facade to echo traditional stone public buildings in the area – including the Moser building.

The stone is arranged in vertical fins placed in regular intervals around the building, disrupted only around the window areas where the slats are made from cast stone – a type of precast concrete designed to resemble natural-cut stone.

A large staircase forms the centrepiece of the extension

Inside, visitors are welcomed by a large foyer on the ground floor that spans the full length of the building and is accessible from three entrances.

Its length forms a link between the Heimplatz to the south-west of the site with a new park-like area to the north, named the Garden of Art, which doubles as an outdoor exhibition space.

The art galleries are all designed with different finishes

Around the edges of the entrance area are all of the extension's public functions, such as its cafe and bar, an events hall, shop and education services.

There is also a large open staircase, which David Chipperfield Architects designed as the focal point of the building. This provides access to the galleries on the two upper floors and is hoped to help orientate visitors.

The permeable layout of the ground floor helps to embed the museum within its site and establishes it as an accessible facility within the city.

"Our vision for the new Kunsthaus Zurich was to create an accessible and social place to enjoy art, rather than an exclusive temple for art – a place to go for everyone," said project architect Jan Parth.

Concrete is teamed with brass and wood detailing

The galleries that occupy the upper floors of the Kunsthaus Zurich extension have all been developed with a unique size, materiality, orientation and lighting conditions to provide them with different atmospheres.

However, they are unified by a backdrop of the reinforced concrete that was used to construct the extension and has been exposed throughout.

Some galleries feature white walls

Approximately 90 per cent of the concrete used for the structure was made from a recycled concrete that uses low-carbon cement to help reduce the extension's environmental impact.

An understated material palette of wood, brass and marble detailing has then been used to "dress the exposed concrete rather than cover it up".

"The way we have selected and used materials follows the primary idea of exposing the load-bearing structure of the building, making it both visible and tangible," explained partner and design director Christoph Felger.

Lighting conditions also vary throughout the spaces

Concrete also forms the backdrop to many spaces inside the Würth art gallery, which David Chipperfield Architects recently completed in southern Germany. The museum was built alongside a partially subterranean concert hall that the studio designed in 2017.

Other recent projects by the studio include the West Bund Museum in Shanghai and the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History in China.

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Out Of Office is a Mad Men-inspired drinks bar in Guangzhou

The TV show Mad Men informed the retro feel of this bar in Guangzhou, China, which designer Vinki Li has finished with wood-panelled walls, marble floors and plush mid-century furniture.

Li – who is based in Hong Kong – had been told to make the interiors of Out Of Office unlike any other bar in Guangzhou, so she looked to foreign films and television shows for aesthetic inspiration.

Her main point of reference ended up being Mad Men – a TV series which follows the life and times of Don Draper, a creative director working at an advertising agency on New York's Madison Avenue during the 1960s.

The bar is entered via a lobby that looks like a secretary's office

Not only is Li a fan of the show, but she liked that its 1960s setting would give her the opportunity to showcase mid-century furnishings inside Out Of Office.

"I have always been a big fan of mid-century architecture and designs, I considered it very timeless, well-designed...it still feels fresh today," she told Dezeen.

A typewriter and old-school telephone top the desk in the lobby

Li named the bar after season one, episode 13 of Mad Men, in which protagonist Draper leaves the office for the evening and remaining staff members throw a revelrous, alcohol-fuelled party in anticipation of presidential election results.

"I wanted to create a similar atmosphere when guests come to unwind after working during the day, a feeling of the boss not being here," added Li.

The main bar features wood-lined walls and marble floors

Guests enter Out Of Office via a grey tiled lobby that's been styled to resemble a secretary's office, complete with shuttered window blinds.

At the centre of the space is a glass-topped desk scattered with paraphernalia that would have appeared in workplaces of the 1960s, such as a typewriter and a rotary dial telephone.

The desk backs onto a tall shelving unit featuring artsy ornaments, leather-bound books and a globe. In the corner of the lobby there's also a coat rack, off which a suit jacket, tie and fedora hat have been hung.

Vintage advertisements have been mounted on the walls

A door leads through to the main bar, where Li has used a palette of rich, dark materials that she felt evoked the "machismo of executive boardrooms".

While the floor boasts a mix of murky-green Kesariyaji marble and white Statuario marble, walls have been lined with cherry wood.

Vintage advertisements have been mounted as decoration.

High-gloss steel and velvet was used to make the drinks counter

The base of the drinks counter is crafted from high-gloss stainless steel and inlaid with strips of caramel-coloured velvet. In front runs a row of stool seats upholstered in chocolate-brown leather.

Alternatively, guests can choose to sit in one of the heavy mid-century armchairs that have been placed at the centre of the bar.

Seating has been arranged in desk-style set ups

Extra clusters of seating run down the side of the room and are hidden by walnut and brass partitions – much like how desk cubicles were screened-off in 1960s offices.

A select few are able to enjoy their drinks in Out Of Office's VIP room. It boasts deep-red sofas and a gridded cabinet that displays special whiskies inside illuminated box shelves.

Out Of Office includes a VIP room for select guests

The world of television and film offers a wealth of inspiration to designers and architects.

Earlier this year, Spanish studio Masquespacio created a co-working space in Valencia that draws on a scene from the 1960s film Playtime. British architect Adam Richards also modelled the layout of his home in Petworth, England around the story of post-apocalyptic flick Stalker.

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IKEA releases flat-pack Gingerbread Höme furniture kit

IKEA has developed instructions for how to assemble the Billy bookcase and some of its other seminal furniture designs using gingerbread and icing instead of screws and MDF.

The Gingerbread Höme assembly kits, which can be downloaded and printed out at home, resemble the company's traditional instruction manuals, including everything from the inventory to the step-by-step illustrations.

The Gingerbread Höme kit allows users to create miniature gingerbread versions of iconic IKEA furniture

But they also come with a full page of templates, showing each of the different elements that make up a furniture piece.

From the swooping armrests of the Strandmon chair to the simple, geometric forms of the Malm bedframe, these can be placed on sheets of rolled-out gingerbread dough and traced around to cut out the shapes.

Templates can be cut out from the instruction manual and traced on rolled-out dough

Once baked, they can then be combined into complete, miniature furniture items using the accompanying guide.

"In true IKEA fashion, each furniture cookie is designed to be easy to assemble," the company said. "The best part about it is there's no Allen key needed."

The resulting pieces are designed to make traditional, sparsely furnished gingerbread houses feel like a real gingerbread home.

"Every year many gingerbread houses are created but we know there's always something missing," IKEA said.

"The Gingerbread Höme will transform your existing gingerbread house with all the delicious home furnishings it needs to take it to the next level."

For those who want to continue the tradition year after year, IKEA has also designed gingerbread furniture kit 3D files that can be downloaded and 3D-printed to make reusable cookie cutters.

The kit is formatted like IKEA's classic assembly manuals

Earlier this year, IKEA released another set of assembly manuals detailing how to build forts using its furniture and homeware pieces, in order to keep kids entertained during coronavirus lockdown.

American software engineer Akiva Leffert has also used the company's hallmark instructional infographics to illustrate a Tarot deck, with the Lovers card visualised by a couple that is about to assemble a piece of furniture.

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AIA bans design of execution facilities and solitary confinement spaces

The American Institute of Architects has banned members from designing spaces for the US justice system used for execution, torture or confinement of imprisoned people, as part of a commitment to "dismantle racial injustice".

The new code of ethics forbids AIA members from designing any places for torture or execution. The ban also includes spaces intended for detaining people for longer than 22 hours a day with no meaningful human contact for more than 15 consecutive days.

Torture and confinement against public welfare

"This decision emphasises AIA's commitment to making a difference on this issue and upholding human rights for our society,” said AIA president Jane Frederick.

"Specifically, AIA members are required to uphold the health, safety and welfare of the public," she added. "Spaces for execution, torture and prolonged solitary confinement contradict those values."

According to the AIA, the code was drawn up to "meaningfully address structural racism in the built environment" in the US. Black people are currently imprisoned at five times the rate of their white counterparts, and Hispanic people are incarcerated at twice the rate of white people, as reported by the Pew Research Center.

"We are committed to promoting the design of a more equitable and just built world that dismantles racial injustice and upholds human rights," Frederick added.

AIA responds to systematic racism

The update comes in the wake of a wider call to address systemic racism in the architecture industry, after the killing of African American George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis this year triggered anti-racist protests across the US.

In the wake of these events, architectural designer Michael Ford called on architects to stop designing prisons and jails in an interview with Dezeen, describing them as representations of systemic racism in the US.

In another interview, the founder of Designing Justice + Design Spaces Deanna van Buren said prisons "were built to hurt people" and architects should lead the way in creating new typologies of justice.

AIA to set up a task force to define restorative justice design

The AIA has also promised to set up a task force with the goal of defining what designing for restorative justice – where the harm caused by crimes is addressed at a community level – would mean for America's architects. This task force will also identify best practices and develop educational resources on the subject.

In the meantime, AIA members were encouraged to "promote criminal justice reform and rehabilitation" to their clients.

The US has the world's highest number of incarcerated people, with over two million people detained in prisons and jails. Despite making up only 12 per cent of the adult population of the USA, 33 per cent of the country's prison population is black according to the Pew Research Center.

80,000 people held in solitary confinement every day in America

According to the Prison Policy Initiative, in some US states Indigenous Americans are seven times more likely to be imprisoned than white people.

The American Civil Liberties Organisation (ACLU) estimates that 80,000 people are being held in solitary confinement every day in America.

Experts now conclude solitary confinement can be as distressing as physical torture. In America, this treatment is facilitated architecturally by supermax units specifically designed to keep prisoners in single-occupancy cells, some without windows, for up to 24 hours a day.

Main image is by Pavlofox from Pixabay.

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Theatre in China is "a structural tour de force" says commenter

In this week's comments update, readers are discussing a theatre in Guangzhou, China, and sharing their views on other top stories.

Steven Chilton Architects has designed the Sunac Guangzhou Grand Theatre in China to reflect the city's historical connection to silk. It is also imprinted with patterns that represent Guangzhou's current tattoo culture. 

The building will host performances from visiting production companies and forms part of a group of entertainment venues being built in the city's Huadu District.

"Stunning, just stunning"

Readers are in awe. "Stunning," said Alison White. "Just stunning."

Giles B agreed: "This is brimming with originality in its shape and silky skin and the kitsch colour scheme contrasts wonderfully with the grey surrounding buildings. Wonderful work."

"Effervescent, daring, fabulous, a structural tour de force," continued Will Dorling. "Exquisitely wrapped, hi-octane fire ball of a building, this is haute couture architecture on crack and a joy to behold!"

Benny shared the sentiment: "Wow! The graphic and formal qualities of this building are so complimentary. It's an event building that is an event unto itself. It's a joyful riot to all the surrounding tower blocks."

Are you equally amazed by the Sunac Guangzhou Grand Theatre? Join the discussion ›

Philip Johnson's first building renamed amid protest over architect's "white supremacist views"

"This is a small but important step" says commenter

Readers are debating news that Harvard Graduate School of Design has removed Philip Johnson's name from a house he built while studying at the institution. The house has been renamed due to the architect's support for the Nazis' regime.

"This is a small but important step," said Conway Pedron. "I am proud of the GSD for being first to respond in such a thoughtful way. We can't undo what has been done in the past, but we can contextualise it, warts and all."

"It is important to put his name in context, but erasing his name is, in my opinion, the wrong way to do so," replied Floooo. "How about putting a plaque next to his important works? That way people can learn from and think about his past."

Alfred Hitchcock agreed: "Time to rewrite history again? Wake up and smell the..."

Should Philip Johnson Thesis House have been renamed? Join the discussion ›

Natalie Dionne raises Forest House I on three-metre stilts for better light and views

"A beautiful tree house" says reader

Commenters are discussing a forest retreat in southeastern Quebec, which architect Natalie Dionne raised on stilts to meet the level of the rocky landscape.

"A beautiful tree house," said Aigoual48. "I love the plan and the minimalist interior which blends harmoniously with the outside."

Apsco Radiales agreed: "It's really a very nice place. Like the plan as well as ceiling changes."

"Beautiful home in a beautiful setting, but I don't think it blends into the landscape," replied Leo. "Building on stilts in Quebec is not an energy-efficient strategy."

Are you impressed by Forest House? Join the discussion ›

Aptera unveils three-wheeled solar electric car that "requires no charging"

"I would never buy this" says commenter

Readers are critiquing a solar and electric vehicle with a range of up to 1,000 miles on a full battery. It was designed by US startup Aptera.

"There is no market for three-wheeled cars," said Stefanos S. "I would never buy this. One little crush will send you tumbling."

Ivan was less critical: "This could be good as long as it's affordable to a majority of the population."

"Love it," concluded Jonathan HB. "It's like a big covered bicycle with an extra wheel. Where do the TV and washing machine fit?"

What do you think of the Aptera car? Join the discussion ›

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