Will Alsop: Chipperfield, You’re Bringing Me Down
Will Alsop in front of his design for Reem Island in Dubai. (Courtesy ALL Design / Montage by AN)
On the other side of the pond, Building Design reports that Will Alsop didn’t hold back in a recent public conversation at the V&A with perennial pot-stirrer Stephen Bayley. “Society has decided in this age of austerity that what we need is more David Chipperfield. We don’t need that. It’s depressing,” bemoaned Alsop, known for his irreverent approach to the mother of the arts. “We need more fun, wit, and humor. It’s part of the human condition, and if you don’t have it, you are left with David Chipperfield and a number of others. He is a very good architect, and there’s plenty of room for him, but not everywhere, and not poor imitations.” Sounds like Alsop could use a long weekend in Vegas.
Finding Common Ground at the Venice Biennale: Practice What You Preach, Mr. Prix
Wolf Prix. (Elfie Semotan)
“Venice Architecture Biennale ‘cannot get any worse’ says Wolf D. Prix,” read the headline on Dezeen’s August 30 wire post. In a press release titled “The Banal,” Prix declared that that architects participating in the biennale are “playing” while the profession is “sinking into powerlessness and irrelevance” at the hands of politicians, bureaucrats, and investors.
The broadside caused a stir in Venice during he opening and in the blogosphere but now it appears that Prix was never in Venice for the biennale in the first place and thus had not seen the exhibition he denounced. His office claims that Prix has been misunderstood and “the critique addressed the theme of the exhibition, not the show or its execution,” according to a spokesperson for the firm.
On the Ground in Venice, An Update on the 13th Biennale of Architecture
Former AN Associate Editor Jaffer Kolb in Venice.
In the cafe of the wonderfully elegant Palazzo Cà Giustinian on Venice‘s Grand Canal I had a chance to catch up with former AN associate editor Jaffer Kolb. Kolb has gone on to bigger and better projects and is currently the man on the ground in Venice for David Chipperfield as they prepare for the 13th Biennale of Architecture.
Chipperfield to Revamp Mies’ Neue Nationalgalerie
Ciro Miguel/flickr
Stirling Prize winner David Chipperfield will renovate of Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, beating out more than 20 competing proposals. The museum, which houses the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation’s modern art collection, has not undergone any major renovation since it was completed in 1968.
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