Façade construction on Rockbund 6, the final component of the Rockbund Project, has completed and the scaffolding has been removed. It reveals the three-storey listed façade of the former Andrews & George Building (1887) that has been carefully cleaned, repaired and restored, as well as the new the eleven-storey extension. This red brick, stacked tower forms a strong marker at the edge of the Rockbund development, blending the historic urban fabric with the new, high-rise city beyond. The interiors of the building, which will be used as offices, will finish later this year marking the completion of the entire Rockbund Project and ending 15 years of work by David Chipperfield Architects on the collection of eleven historic buildings.

Image © Fangfang Tian

Lah Contemporary, a new art museum set in the scenic landscape of Bled, Slovenia, has received its construction permit. The museum will house a private collection featuring a wide range of art by major Slovenian and international artists. Its design is shaped by both the surrounding topography and the size and specifications of the individual artworks. Work will start on site later this spring, with completion due in 2022.

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.
View project
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 later in the year.

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

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.

On behalf of the London office, David Chipperfield has signed up to the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge. The campaign has been developed by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to help architects act against the global climate crisis. The construction industry today accounts for 38% of global emissions of carbon dioxide. Signatories will aim to reduce carbon emissions from their buildings to net zero by 2030 with incremental targets to gradually reduce the impact on the planet. It is an ambitious aim but an enormous opportunity for design, requiring focus on the quality of processes rather than a fixed idea of what architecture should look like.

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.

As a continuation of Friedrich August Stüler’s forum architecture, the James-Simon-Galerie serves as the new entrance building for Museum Island, completing the ensemble between the Kupfergraben canal and Neues Museum. Together with the ‘Archaeological Promenade’, it forms the backbone of the master plan that was developed in 1999 and adopted as the basis for all further planning on Museum Island. The building is sited on a narrow strip of land where Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s ‘Neuer Packhof’ administration building stood until 1938.

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