In his role as president of Fundación RIA David Chipperfield met with Galician Minister for Infrastructure and Mobility Ethel Vázquez on the 18 January to sign an official agreement of collaboration. It commits an investment of €212,000 towards the foundation’s ongoing work on the AC-305 regional road that cuts through towns of the Barbanza region. The project aims to give back priority to pedestrians and urban identity impacted by the effects of traffic planning, and to be part of a larger reconsideration of mobility and sustainable development for the dispersed settlements of the region.

David Chipperfield is one of 35 signatories of an open letter, published in The Times on 16 January, calling on the UK Government to adopt the recommendations of the Architects’ Journal’s RetroFirst campaign and facilitate the re-use of existing buildings. As host for the United Nation’s climate change conference later this year, the UK should set an example and urgently address policy change to promote a circular economy in the construction industry, such as cutting VAT on refurbishments, changing planning and building regulations as well as favouring re-use solutions for all public projects. The industry is currently responsible for 45% of the the nation’s carbon emissions and it is estimated that over 50,000 buildings are demolished each year in the UK.

The Queen has ordered the appointment of David Chipperfield to be a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for his services to architecture, as announced in the 2021 New Year Honours list. The order was founded in 1917 and contains a maximum of 65 members at any time, including the Sovereign. Members include those who have made a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine and government. David was knighted for services to architecture in the UK and Germany in 2010. Continue reading

The November issue of Domus completes David Chipperfield’s 2020 guest editorship of the Italian architecture and design magazine. Through the ten issues he has sought to focus attention on architects’ professional position in a dramatically changing world, highlighting the need for architects to work together to redefine their role in the face of critical social and environmental challenges.

David now hands over to Tadao Ando who will become the fourth guest editor of Domus’ 10x10x10 project, where ten architects edit ten monthly issues in the ten years leading to the magazine’s 100th anniversary in 2028.

After twelve years of planning and construction, the extension to the Kunsthaus Zürich is now complete. On 11 December 2020, the keys to the new building were handed over to the client in a virtual ceremony. Designed by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin, the new freestanding museum building faces the original Kunsthaus across Heimplatz. Together the two buildings define this urban square and are connected by an underground passageway. A central hall spans the full length of the extension building, creating a link between Heimplatz and a new Garden of Art to the north.

With this extension, the institution now stands as the largest art museum in Switzerland. It will open to the public in October 2021.
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Image © Noshe

With the roof and façade of the Neue Nationalgalerie now revealed for the first time in several years, an important step on the way to the museum’s re-opening has been reached. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the key handover ceremony for the Neue Nationalgalerie has recently had to be postponed to April 2021. Its re-opening to the public is planned for August 2021.

Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie is one of the icons of twentieth-century architecture. Inaugurated 15 September 1968, David Chipperfield Architects Berlin was appointed to refurbish the building in 2012.

Image © BBR / Thomas Bruns

The Neues Museum on Berlin’s Museum Island was designed by Friedrich August Stüler and built between 1841 and 1859. Extensive bombing during the Second World War left the building in ruins, with entire sections missing completely and others severely damaged. Few attempts at repair were made after the war, and the structure was left exposed to nature.In 1997, David Chipperfield Architects won the international competition for the rebuilding of the Neues Museum in collaboration with Julian Harrap.

Founded in 1768, the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is the oldest arts institution in Britain. Since 1868 the Royal Academy has been based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, in central London. In 2001 the RA acquired 6 Burlington Gardens, an Italianate building of comparable size located immediately to the north of Burlington House and oriented in the opposite direction. Originally designed in the 1860s as the Senate House for the University of London, 6 Burlington Gardens had been modified over the years.

This publication is the outcome of an 18-month dialogue between David Chipperfield and Simon Kretz as part of the Rolex Mentor & Protégé programme.

The collaboration led to a theoretical exercise examining the forces that influence the shape of cities, using the Bishopsgate goods yard site in East London as a case study. Exploring this further with teams at ETH Zurich, they highlighted conditions under which an ideal urban development project could flourish.

Publications

Texts by Deborah Berke, Luis Fernández-Galiano, Richard Ingersoll, Sebastian Redecke, Flora Samuel and Deyan Sudjic. This survey features an examination of 36 works by David Chipperfield Architects.

Publisher: Arquitectura Viva SL, Madrid, Spain
Date: 2019

Publications