Located southeast of Bratislava’s city center, connected by tram and bus networks, Sky Park is expected to redevelop an industrial area of the Slovakian capital. This design by Zaha Hadid Architects converts an abandoned site into a thriving center with a new 20,000 square meter public park, three residential buildings containing over 700 apartments, as well as office and retail space.
At the core of the new park is the decommissioned heating plant designed by architect Dušan Jurkovič, whose aesthetic combined folk art with modernist trends. The heating plant dates from 1941; it was slated to be demolished before being purchased by Penta. The plant is now listed as a national monument; its façades will be restored as part of the Sky Park development.
The design, selected by the jury in 2010, opens the site to the public. The park includes playgrounds, an amphitheater, picnic sites, running tracks, a sports field, a dedicated zone for dogs, and an orchard. “Sky Park is an important link between Bratislava’s contemporary culture, emerging nature and history,” said Patrik Schumacher, principal of Zaha Hadid Architects.
Almost 60% of the apartments within Sky Park have sold since becoming available earlier this month. Two office buildings will be constructed in the second phase of the project, the first of which has already received planning permission. A ceremony to lay the foundational stone of Sky Park marked the start of its construction. The project’s preparatory works began earlier this year. The first phase is anticipated to reach completion in late 2019.
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia, occupying both banks of the River Danube and the left bank of the River Morava, bordering Austria and Hungary. The cityscape is characterized by medieval towers, grand 20th-century buildings, and baroque palaces (including the Grassalkovich Palace, built around 1760, now the residence of the president).
Much of the city’s existing housing has been ‘paneláks,’ rapidly constructed during the postwar housing shortage. However, in the early 21st century, new edifices have transformed the traditional cityscape, and a construction boom has spawned new public structures.
Miami Beach‘s contemporary art museum, The Bass, is set to reopen on October 8 after a $12 million restructuring (“and a snappy rebranding that has removed ‘Museum of Art‘ from its name,” noted The Art Newspaper). Chief curator Silvia Karman Cubiñá described the change to The Art Newspaper as “less of a quiet churchlike space, more of a dynamic experience.”
The construction, which launched in 2015 and faced a slew of delays, roughly doubles the museum’s usable square footage, adding 4,100 square feet to the museum’s existing 8,700 square feet. The facelift was overseen by architect David Gauld, who also consulted on the design team for the museum’s previous expansion in 2001, which added 16,000 square feet in the form of a new wing and second level to the museum’s existing Art Deco building dating from 1934.
The museum was founded in 1964 by the City of Miami Beach after the donation of the private collection by John and Johanna Bass. The museum opened in what was formerly the Miami Beach Public Library and Art Center, a building designed by Russell Pancoast, which was the first public exhibition space for art in South Florida.
The Bass collaborated with Project-Space in New York to re-design the interior aesthetic of the museum, and New York-based design team Project Projects for the museum’s new logo, website and on-site signage.
Sylvie Fleury, Eternity Now
The museum has previously organized solo museum exhibitions in the United States of international artists such as Erwin Wurm, El Anatsui, Isaac Julien, Eve Sussman, and Piotr Uklański.
For the opening season, solo exhibitions will be dedicated to the artists Pascale Marthine Tayou, from Belgium, and Mika Rottenberg, from Argentina. In addition, the entire second floor will feature the work of Swiss-born, New York-based artist Ugo Rondinone; he has been working with the Bass on the show for about two years. Beforehand, Rondinone’s “Miami Mountain” (2016) was acquired by the Bass last year as part of the museum’s ten-year acquisition initiative, which the institution launched in September 2016. “Miami Mountain” consists of five stacked Nevada-sourced limestone boulders, painted in a fluorescent palette, now installed on the southeastern corner of Collins Park. (A second acquisition brought in Swiss artist Sylvie Fleury’s site-specific neon work “Eternity Now.”) The Bass’ new collections committee will acquire a major work of contemporary art every year to be presented to the public each fall. The selections will champion established and mid-career international contemporary artists.
A diamond ring bought for next to nothing in a London junk sale is expected to fetch up to £350,000 ($455,000, 405,000 euros), said Sotheby’s auction house. The owner bought the 26-carat, white diamond ring for £10 in the 1980s and wore it while doing shopping and chores, thinking it was costume jewellery, Sotheby’s said.
“The owner would wear it out shopping, wear it day-to-day. It’s a good-looking ring,” said Jessica Wyndham, head of Sotheby’s London jewellery department. “No one had any idea it had any intrinsic value at all. The majority of us can’t even begin to dream of owning a diamond that large.”
The diamond is thought to have been cut in the 19th century, when the style was to cut to conserve the weight rather than to make it as sparkly as possible, hence its relatively dull brilliance. “It could trick people into thinking it’s not a genuine stone,” said Wyndham. She said the owner, who does not want to be named, brought the ring in after a jeweller told them it could be worth something. She said the owner was “incredibly excited. Anyone would be in this position: it’s a life-changing amount of money. “This is a one-off windfall, an amazing find.”
The ring will be auctioned on June 7 and is expected to fetch between £250,000 and £350,000. Sotheby’s said the owner came forward in the past few months seeking a valuation. “Much to the owner’s surprise, the ring turned out to be a genuine cushion-shaped diamond weighing 26.27 carats with an attractive colour grade of I and impressive clarity grade of VVS2,” the auctioneers said.
The clarity grade “Very, very slightly included 2” is the fourth-highest out of 11, while a colour grading of I means it is near colourless, on the scale from D to Z.
A bird’s nest, a boot, a pair of trousers — some of China’s most infamous contemporary buildings resemble everyday objects more than edifices. And together, they have embodied China’s desire, throughout the latest building boom, to assert its superpower status through an extraordinary built environment.
But this flamboyant approach to design is poised to change. The Communist Party recently announced offensives against “bizarre” architecture and Beijing has unveiled rules making it harder for “strange” buildings to be given planning permission. Included in the new guidelines, released in a statement from China’s State Council last year, is a ban on buildings devoid of character or cultural heritage. Instead, the directive calls for buildings that are “economic, green and beautiful”.
The announcement made waves in the architecture and design worlds and was widely reported in the international media. But for many Chinese architecture firms the decree was far from revolutionary: for years, local studios have been quietly designing restrained buildings that are sensitive to their historical and urban contexts.
Beijing’s Haiting Villa townhouse by Arch Studio balances layering of wood with spare interiors.
Yung Ho Chang, an early pioneer of contemporary Chinese architecture established China’s first private architecture firm, Atelier FCJZ in 1993 and has long emphasised the need for architectural vernacular that is rooted in China. “Today, we have too many buildings in China that may look fashionable on the outside… and not at all connected with their locales”, the architect told me in 2012.
Chang’s most famous residence is the Split House. Unveiled at the 2002 Venice Biennial as part of Pan Shi Yi’s Commune by the Great Wall, it was one of the first projects of its scale that relied on Asian designers rather than Western “starchitects”. Poised on a steep slope, it is literally split in half, with a short glass bridge joining its two sides and forming a V-shaped plan that opens to the hillside. In many respects, the house is Chang’s take on the traditional Chinese courtyard dwelling. “When you see it from the outside, the house seems withdrawn, like any other courtyard house”, Chang describes, “But inside, you realise that it, in fact, is totally open to nature”.
Wang Shu, another pioneer of contemporary Chinese design, set up his Hangzhou studio, Amateur Architecture, with his wife Lu Wenyu in 1997 with the express aim of returning to traditional techniques of craftsmanship. The architect, who was later awarded the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, spent nearly a decade travelling to the countryside to remote villages to learn about traditional building techniques and he incorporated traditional motifs and materials such as bamboo, wood and recycled bricks into his own designs.
META-project’s Courtyard by the Sea adapts a traditional dwelling to modern lifestyles
One of his early residential projects, the Vertical Courtyard, also references historic lane and courtyard homes. Wang contemporized the traditional building typology by turning the quadrangle on its side and creating double-height courtyards on every floor. “Every family has a courtyard and a roof”, Wang says of the project. “And even though the building is 100m tall, it still maintains the feeling of living only two floors high”.
This detail is important to Wang, who believes that much of modern architecture is too concerned with the building and not its inhabitants and how they actually live and feel. Building at a human scale remains crucial given China’s rapid rate of urbanisation and its ballooning megacities. And, following in the footsteps of the early pioneers, a number of design studios are addressing this and other challenges by drawing from the Chinese vernacular.
ZAO/standardarchitecture which is based in Beijing, recently completed the Micro Yuan’er project, an adaptive reuse initiative that introduces a series of micro spaces, a children’s library, an art space, dance studio and craft studio, into the darshilar neighbourhood and thereby attempts to preserve the many layers of traditional hutong (a lane or alley in a traditional residential area of a Chinese city, especially Beijing) life.
The attitude toward Beijing’s courtyard dwellings has typically swung between total eradication and a kind of static preservation. With this project, Zhang Ke, founder of standard architecture aimed instead to recognise the unique topography of courtyard living that developed in Beijing over the past 60 years and he considers the project a statement about how China should treat its urban history. “Altogether [the many components] keep, maintain and conserve the special quality of this big messy courtyard”, he says. “It becomes a place people feel used to, but they clearly realise something contemporary is going on”.
The Niyang River Visitor Center in Tibet, by ZAO/standardarchitecture
Zhang believes that re-imagining the courtyard, which is at the centre of traditional Chinese culture, could help to propel China’s new phase of building. “I think it could generate a new revolution in urban renewal in China if we start with courtyards—the traditional dwelling units—which is a biological study where you do genetic research of cells then new forms of life can be created”.
When it comes to luxury residences, local design studios are also eschewing American-style suburban mansions and instead re-interpreting traditional Chinese dwellings for contemporary lifestyles. Beijing-based studio META-Project recently completed a renovation of Courtyard near West Sea for a client who wanted the building to accommodate a variety of programs, including a teahouse, dining and party space, office and living areas. The firm’s solution was a design that moves between the traditional, introverted qualities of a courtyard house, and contemporary, extroverted areas that encourage social interaction. “Intervention in the hutongs needs to be based on the true understanding of life and culture…instead of rigid protection to its physical appearance”, the studio says.
Even China’s industrial architecture is taking reference from history. Beijing’s Arch Studio is perhaps best known for the Haitang Villa, an elegant townhouse that blends indoor and outdoor spaces and balances layering of wood with spare interiors. But the firm also recently completed a 60,000 square foot organic farmhouse in Tangshan that is influenced by traditional courtyard buildings.
The firm’s idea was to create a magnified version of a courtyard house with a self-contained and flexible workspace that formed a harmonious connection with the surrounding flat fields. The resulting structure is made up of material storage, a mill, an oil-pressing workshop and a packing area. There is an external corridor at the boundary of the building that connects the four areas and an inner courtyard that spans out randomly around the building and lets in light and air. The structure also sits in a 60cm cement base, a method of moisture-proofing the wood, which makes the farm look as if it is softly floating above the fields.
“I think the current status quo of China, with more reflection and possibilities, is even more exciting than the previous period of wild development”, says Zhang Ke. Subtle architecture may not grab headlines, but it does tend to outlast the more garish designs. And with the Chinese government backing projects that exhibit restraint and cultural specificity, the next phase of construction may end up producing more long-lasting structures that improve the lives of those who inhabit and interact with them.
This summer, Italy’s fine jeweler and luxury goods retailer is adding a new scent to its flourishing perfume empire. The Bvlgari Goldea Roman Night is an olfactory ode to the mysterious evenings in the Eternal City. The sensual chypre-floral musk, set with mulberry and black peony top notes, which reveal a patchouli heart, studded with jasmine and tuberose—hits beauty counters worldwide at the end of August.
Perfume lovers in France and Mexico, and other countries will have to wait until September before they can get their hands on Bulgari‘s jewel of black musk.
“I was captivated by the idea of a mysterious goddess of the night, in the eternal city of Rome … charismatic, fascinating and seductive, she unleashes her irresistible aura through a golden elixir of white flowers, as they exude her powerful scent at nightfall,” explained Master perfumer Alberto Morillas.
The fragrance comes in a black eclipse-inspired bottle, offering a sleeker, more contemporary design than that of its sibling Goldea perfume. Bulgari’s high-fashion following will lap up the news of the appointment of ‘it girl’ Bella Hadid’s appointment as face of the new fragrance.
In Bulgari’s opinion Bella embodies the queen of the night, “capturing glamour itself in her supermodel gaze.” Film director Glen Luchford shot the official Goldea Roman Night campaign, which depicts Bella adventurously hopping across Italian rooftops in the moonlight.
Earlier this week, the supermodel took a detour from the Cannes red carpet to make the exclusive perfume launch party in Rome. Dressed in vintage Galliano and bedecked with Bulgari diamonds, Bella beguiled the crowd as she gracefully descended Rome’s famous Spanish Steps during the outdoor launch event, before partying the Roman Night away at Palazzo Nunez Torlonia. The Goldea Roman Night ambassador instagrammed photos of the experience, which she summed up as “truly the most special night of my life!”
Tunisia plans to seek UNESCO World Heritage status for the island of Djerba, site of Africa‘s oldest synagogue and an annual Jewish pilgrimage, its culture minister said on Sunday. Speaking on the last day of the pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue, Mohamed Zine El-Abidine said the island was important for its “cultural and religious uniqueness”.
He said the application to add Djerba to the World Heritage List would highlight the rich religious heritage of the island, which is home to centuries-old mosques, churches and synagogues. He did not give a specific time frame for the application.
The cultural agency of the United Nations already lists eight sites in the North African country, including the old cities of Tunis and Sousse and the city of Carthage, once the capital of the Mediterranean-wide Phoenician empire.
Some 3,000 pilgrims attended this year’s Jewish pilgrimage to the island, which ended Sunday under tight security following a string of jihadist attacks in Tunisia. “There has been a real increase compared to the past two years,” Tourism Minister Selma Elloumi said. “It is an important sign for the start of the tourist season,” she added.
The number of pilgrims visiting the synagogue has fallen sharply since a suicide bombing claimed by Al-Qaeda struck Ghriba just before the 2002 pilgrimage, killing 21 people. Before then, the event attracted as many as 8,000 pilgrims a year.
Believed to have been founded in 586 BC by Jews fleeing the destruction of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, the Ghriba synagogue has long been a destination for pilgrims, especially for Jews of Tunisian descent. Around 1,500 Jews live in Tunisia today, down from an estimated 100,000 before the country won independence from France in 1956. Many of today’s pilgrims came from Europe, the United States and Israel.
Prime Minister Youssef Chahed was in Ghriba on Sunday to deliver what he called “a double message”. “Firstly… Tunisia is a country several thousand years old, with a deep-rooted history of openness to all religions,” he told AFP.
Secondly, he said, “security has come back to Tunisia”. Rocked by instability since the fall in 2011 of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia was hit by a series of jihadist attacks in 2015 and 2016 that left dozens dead, including 59 tourists. The country’s key tourism sector, devastated by the attacks, has since registered a rise in visitor numbers. According to Elloumi, there has been a 34 percent rise in tourist arrivals from Europe over the past year.
