The Mayor of London has appointed David Chipperfield as one of 42 new Design Advocates – independent experts whose role is to ensure quality buildings and public spaces that benefit all Londoners. The new cohort will support the updated Good Growth by Design programme, reflecting the importance of an inclusive recovery from a pandemic that has highlighted inequalities in the capital and the need to counter racism and other forms of prejudice in the built environment. The Design Advocates will work on three main objectives: quality, recovery and representation.

Following an international design competition, the Canadian Ministry of Public Services and Procurement has announced that the scheme designed by David Chipperfield Architects and Zeidler for Block 2 of Canada’s Parliamentary Precinct in Ottawa has been selected as the competition Laureate.

The urban block – which encompasses eleven buildings – will be redeveloped to provide office space for the Senate and the House of Commons and allow for the future consolidation of parliamentary accommodations, including space for the Library of Parliament. As a site of national importance, the project carries an additional responsibility to represent the values of a nation and a vision for its future. Continue reading

The Bötzow Brewery project in Berlin is the subject of a building study in the latest issue of the Architects’ Journal. Architecture editor Rob Wilson spoke to Thomas Benk, associate at David Chipperfield Architects Berlin, about the practice’s ‘do less, add less’ approach to the restoration and conversion of the seven historic buildings, the last three of which have recently been completed. He writes that “what appears at first sight as a light-touch aesthetic is indicative rather of an increasingly sophisticated and forensic approach to retrofit at the core of DCA’s practice.” Continue reading

Treviso City Council has unanimously approved the building application for Palazzo Benetton which is now entering its final design and construction phase directed by David Chipperfield Architects Milan in collaboration with TA Architettura. Palazzo Benetton is conceived as a contemporary counterpoint to the historic Palazzo Ancilotto in the Borgo Cavour district of the city. It is positioned to the rear of the older building, from which it derives its dimensions and proportions. Continue reading

David Chipperfield Architects Berlin has won the competition for the development of a mixed-use complex in the heart of Munich. On Friday 4 February the jury, chaired by Professor Ludwig Wappner, selected the office’s design, which was developed in collaboration with the landscape architects Atelier Loidl Landschaftsarchitekten, from a total of 11 entries from international architecture practices. Continue reading

Mies van der Rohe’s refurbished Neue Nationalgalerie, a project led by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin between 2012 and 2021, has been shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2022. The project follows the idea of the ‘invisible architect’ where any updates or modifications were subservient to Mies’ original vision. Continue reading

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

This residential project, won in competition, is located at the south-west corner of the Colville Estate, a housing development in Hackney, east London, built in the 1950s. It forms part of Hackney Council’s programme of redevelopment across the borough that calls for around 2,500 new homes to be built over the coming years. Karakusevic Carson Architects was originally commissioned to develop a comprehensive masterplan, which was adopted in 2011. The two residential towers, 16 and 20 storeys respectively, form part of this masterplan and are intended for private sale to co-fund the larger redevelopment of the estate.

The 136-page publication is arranged by season through the work of photographer Risaku Suzuki who visited the cemetery over the course of a year. Suzuki’s images interleaf the texts which include an essay by Japanese author Toshiyuki Horie; a conversation between the photographer Thomas Struth, David Chipperfield and Hideyuki Osawa, Director of the Boenfukyukai Foundation; and reflections by Hideyuki Osawa and David Chipperfield on the ambitions and collaborative process of conceiving, designing and building the project. The book is designed by John Morgan studio and produced by the Boenfukyukai Foundation in collaboration with David Chipperfield Architects.

Inagawa Cemetery is located on a steep site in the Hokusetsu mountain range of Hyogo prefecture, approximately 40 kilometres north of Osaka. The cemetery is laid out across terraces and bisected by a monumental flight of steps leading up to a shrine at the highest point – an axis that orients the whole project.