The Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin will re-open in an official ceremony on 21 August, organised by the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Berlin State Museums). From 22 August, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's iconic gallery will be open to the public once again.

Originally completed in 1968, the listed building required a comprehensive refurbishment after almost fifty years of intensive use. Appointed in 2012, David Chipperfield Architects Berlin worked on restoring the existing building fabric and upgrading it to current technical standards with a minimum of visual compromise to the building’s original appearance. After five years of construction, dismantling, restoring and reinstalling 35,000 original building components, the project completed in April 2021.

The refurbished Neue Nationalgalerie was awarded the inaugural Docomomo Rehabilitation Award in the category of Enhanced Masterpieces at the 16th International Docomomo Conference in Tokyo on 1 September. The awards “recognize and disseminate the best efforts to preserve modern architecture while adapting it to contemporary standards and inspire a conscious reflection on Modernity as living heritage.” David Chipperfield Architects Berlin restored and upgraded Mies van der Rohe’s modern masterpiece without compromising the building’s original appearance. The museum re-opened to the public in August 2021. Continue reading

The Royal Academy of Arts has received a RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) London Award and was also honoured with the RIBA London Conservation Award 2021. The jury offered the following citation: “From the initial masterplan approach to the minutest nosing details, and from sympathetic conservation to the judicious insertion of crisp new elements, the architect’s attention to detail and subtlety of interventions is an exemplar for the refurbishment and repurposing of historic buildings.”

Image © Simon Menges

The James-Simon-Galerie in Berlin and the Amorepacific headquarters in Seoul are two of 16 projects around the world to receive a RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) International Award for Excellence 2021. The awards are open to any qualified architect for spaces and buildings outside of the UK and winning projects must “exemplify design excellence and architectural ambition and deliver meaningful social impact”. An overall winner will be chosen by an expert jury chaired by French architect Odile Decq and announced in November.

The latest issue of the El Pais supplement Icon Design features an interview with David Chipperfield. Daniel García López travelled to Corrubedo in Galicia to discuss the role of architects in addressing critical issues of planning, community and environmental sustainability at a local and global level, focusing on the significance of process. Through the work of Fundación RIA and the research conducted with Simon Kretz supported by the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Initiative, the practice hopes to expand the positive role of architecture in the built and natural environment.

The Fundación RIA is a private, non-profit, cultural entity founded by David Chipperfield in 2017. Its main objective is the analysis, debate, development and promotion of ideas to support the development and protection of the local economy, as well as the architectural, urban, natural and cultural values of the Atlantic estuaries of Galicia in north-west Spain. The foundation seeks to reconcile and strengthen the efforts of individuals and public or private institutions related to these areas, and, where appropriate, operate as an instrument for coordination of these institutions. Read more

The design, submitted by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin, was selected from 12 entries in a two-stage competition. Situated in central Hamburg, the new office complex will be partially constructed using materials recovered from the existing buildings on site. It will provide a new headquarters for the Signal Iduna Group, one of Germany’s largest insurance companies, as well as lettable office space and a public ground-floor. The complex integrates into the heterogeneous environment with several free-standing buildings of different dimensions forming a permeable end to the urban block. Continue reading

Following an international design competition, the Federal Government of Germany has appointed David Chipperfield Architects to convert the former headquarters of the Goethe Institute in New York into a new centre for transatlantic dialogue. The existing Fifth Avenue-building, a six-storey townhouse from 1906, will be restored and renovated, adding sensitive interventions within the original building fabric to accommodate the new social and cultural programme. The project, 1014 – An open house, was designed as an open meeting place while preserving the domestic character of the building. It is expected to complete in late 2025.

Image © Sebastian Kaempf, KARO Architects

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.