Jonathan Morrison
Ten of the coolest new buildings to gawp at this year
From a water facility in Canada to a library in Cambridge, this is the best architecture to go up in 2021, says Jonathan Morrison
Of all the arts, architecture is comfortably the longest in gestation. Many of the buildings we can expect to see completed over the next year and beyond will have been conceived long before the pandemic upended our lives. Many will have been delayed by the global upheaval, even if construction sites here and abroad have mostly remained open throughout the various lockdowns; some may never be finished. And many will struggle to fulfil their intended purposes now that the means and methods of working and socialising have changed.
Yet architecture, in essence, is a discipline that embraces the future. For that reason alone it should be a source of optimism. There is solace to be had in culture, and comfort to be found in beauty, idealism and endeavour: good buildings lift the spirits as surely as good music or good writing do, and so we need to savour them more than ever. While these selected projects predate the present crisis, they give a flavour of what promise the coming years may hold.
1. Guangzhou Grand Theatre, China, by Steven Chilton
In a nutshell: Painting the town red
This joyous, shimmering 2,000-seat auditorium is inspired by the flowing silk that once made the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou such an important trading hub. Designed by a London-based architect with a track record for completing original cultural landmarks in the Middle Kingdom — not least the Wuxi Taihu Show Theatre in the east, which closely resembles a nearby bamboo forest — this study in scarlet proves what can be achieved when there are no limits to imagination. With elegant gold stencilling across its pleated, perforated anodised aluminium shell, the lantern-like structure will provide a suitably dynamic home for visiting companies, but is a showstopper in its own right, especially when contrasted with its humdrum surroundings.
The Wormhole Library on Hainan island, China
2. Wormhole Library, Haikou, China, by Mad
In a nutshell: Hole kit and caboodle
Mad, the Beijing studio founded by the nation’s pre-eminent “starchitect”, Ma Yansong, continues to go from strength to strength, drawing on organic forms but always giving them a futuristic twist. By the end of this year alone the firm will have completed the huge Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Centre, a residential district that resembles a series of karst peaks; a sports centre based on volcanoes in Quzhou; and the Train Station in the Forest in Jiaxing, which features tree-filled sunken courtyards and subterranean waiting rooms.
By far the strangest project, though, is Mad’s Wormhole Library on the coast of Hainan island. Apparently intended to be “a wormhole that transcends time and space”, it comprises a seamless, sinuous concrete shell punctured with huge oculi to let the daylight storm in. Inside the unique twisting structure are facilities for users of the surrounding parkland, including a café, showers, bike-parking and a large reading area with 10,000 books.
Bee’ah Headquarters, United Arab Emirates (ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS)
3. Bee’ah Headquarters, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, by Zaha Hadid Architects
In a nutshell: Sleight of sand
This headquarters for a waste management company has been much delayed but promises to be no less exciting for it when it is finally opened this year. One of the last designs by Zaha Hadid, the great Anglo-Iraqi architect who died in 2016, the sweeping structure is based on the intersection of two barchans (the crescent-shaped dunes that fill the surrounding desert) and is intended to capture the prevailing shamal winds to provide natural ventilation while reflecting the intense rays of the Gulf sun. Much of the shell and framework are, fittingly, built from recycled construction materials processed by the plant next door.
Storm Water Quality Facility, Canada (GH3)
4. Storm Water Quality Facility, Toronto, Canada, by Gh3
In a nutshell: Liquid courage
Again proving that waste treatment need not be entirely without glamour, this monolithic installation marries devout ecological purpose — stopping pollutants from entering Lake Ontario — with dystopian good looks, proving that even the compact, humble or functional can be elevated with a bit of flair, and should be. In this respect it reminds one of that quintessential postmodern icon, the ebullient Isle of Dogs Pumping Station by John Outram, which resembles an Egyptian temple. This, though, is probably cooler.
Bourse de Commerce, France (PATRICK TOURNEBOEUF)
5. Bourse de Commerce, Paris, France, by Tadao Ando
In a nutshell: Ringing the changes
Taking the sumptuously decorated former commodities and stock exchange in Paris and installing a vast concrete cylinder inside its rotunda was always going to be a gutsy move, even by the uncompromising Japanese master’s standards. Yet the intervention, to house part of the billionaire businessman Francois Pinault’s art collection, has proved entirely successful. It may even be better than Tadao Ando’s earlier project with Pinault, at the Punta della Dogana in Venice, which similarly married an ornate historical building with a minimalist interior.
Neue Nationalgalerie, Germany (BBR/THOMAS BRUNS)
6. Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany, by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, restored by David Chipperfield
In a nutshell: State of the art
The only building built in Germany by Mies van der Rohe, the last director of the Bauhaus, after he had fled Nazi persecution and taken up residence in the US, this arch-modernist pavilion dating from 1968 had been in dire need of refurbishment and modernisation for some time. Up stepped Germany’s favourite British architect, David Chipperfield, fresh from adding a colonnaded gallery to Berlin’s Museum Island, and over five years the Neue Nationalgalerie has been meticulously updated, with the interiors stripped back and improved and almost the entire shell deconstructed and repaired. No small job, but the restoration should be complete in time for a new exhibition of works by the American sculptor Alexander Calder in August.
York Castle visitor facilities, UK (HUGH BROUGHTON ARCHITECTS)
7. York Castle visitor facilities, UK, by Hugh Broughton
In a nutshell: Back to the wall
Hugh Broughton may be the go-to designer for cutting-edge Antarctic bases such as Britain’s Halley VI, which can be jacked up on hydraulic legs above accumulating snow and even moved around on giant skis, but he will be showing an altogether more tactful side when his work at Clifford’s Tower is completed this year.
An earlier scheme to transform the grade I listed 13th-century fortress gained planning permission, but fell foul of local residents, mostly because it proposed boring a large shop and visitor centre into the motte raised by William the Conqueror in 1068. So Broughton and English Heritage, the owners, came up with a clever scheme to install a stand-alone wooden viewing platform and amphitheatre inside the medieval walls, conserve the historic fabric, improve access up the steep stairs and turn the visitor centre into a three-wheel tuk-tuk, or autorickshaw, selling tickets and guidebooks during the day, but gone by sundown.
Library at Magdalene College, UK
8. Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, UK, by Niall McLaughlin
In a nutshell: Balanced books
Niall McLaughlin’s new library in one of the university’s oldest colleges promises that most elusive of elements in recent Oxbridge edifices: respect for its surroundings. While the exterior elevations reflect the gabled brick buildings near by, the interior embraces cross-laminated timber and hardwood to create a welcoming yet modern environment for serious study, and is lit by carefully considered windows that ensure an even level of light but preserve the privacy of the Master’s Garden. A typically accomplished and balanced work from one of the country’s top talents.
F51, UK
9. F51, Folkestone, UK, by Holloway Studio
In a nutshell: Board silly
Billed as the world’s first multistorey skate park, this structure replaces a bingo hall at the centre of the Kent seaside town. It will comprise three floors of concrete ledges and ramps, which will be wrapped in a metal mesh and no doubt freezing in winter; a rooftop terrace with views over the Channel, which will also no doubt be freezing in winter; and a glazed ground floor with a boxing ring, offices, a café and a presumably very busy first aid station. It is hoped the unusual project will encourage young people to stay in the area.
Riverside Stand, Craven Cottage, UK
10. Riverside Stand, Craven Cottage, London, UK, by Populous
In a nutshell: Crowd-pleaser
After their return to the Premier League, Fulham are to get a new football stand that will vastly increasing the capacity of their historic ground. While the need for a rooftop pool is at best questionable, the bars and restaurants along a new riverside walkway may come in useful for fans of the perpetually relegation-threatened club to drown their sorrows in after another drubbing. If everything has reopened by the summer, that is. Fingers crossed?
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