#26 Mar/Apr 2009

News and observations

• Freeze frame: economic crisis hits Moscow City (RU)
• Belle époque vs modernism in T.O.P. office's Belle Époque Centre, Blankenberge (BE)
• Twist Tower overpowers Sarajevo's historical silhouette (BA)
• Update: Young Cyprus
• Reality check: University Library Split (HR)
• Cultural Capital of Europe 2009: Linz (AT)
• and more…

New projects

• Air traffic control centre, Brnik (SI) by Sadar Vuga
• Chapel, Helsinki (FI) by K2S
• City extension, El Prat de Llobregat (ES) by Claus en Kaan Architecten and Jaume Carné
• Office complex, Klagenfurt (AT) by Bevk Perovic
• University building, Bucharest (RO) by ADN BA

Roger Boltshauser: Calibrated space

In his work, Roger Boltshauser is the opposite of hip and trendy. He explains to Axel Simon why he prefers what others might consider unfashionable or anachronistic values in architecture. 'Mastering a simple block is already quite a lot.'

New buildings

• Office building, Vilnius (LT) by Kestutis Lupeikis
• Flower market, Barcelona (ES) by Willy Müller
• Pastoral centre, Rijeka (HR) by Randic-Turato Architects
• Music school, Lisbon (PT) by João Luís Carrilho da Graça
• Leisure and youth centre, Dublin (IE) by McGarry Ní Éanaigh Architects
• Cultural centre, Hammerfest (NO) by a-lab
• Sports centre, Bratislava (SK) by AK2
• Arts centre, Cherbourg (FR) by Éric Lapierre
• Villa, Comporta (PT) by Luis Pereira Miguel
• Two warehouse conversions, Tallinn (EE) by HG Arhitektuur and KOKO Architects
• Museum, Opole (PL) by db2
• Science park, Granada (ES) by Carlos Ferrater and Jiménez Brasa Arquitectos

Comfort zone

Just as mobile phones have brought the intimacy of private conversation into the public realm, so the public interior has been invaded by the private. The quasi domestic comfort offered by more and more airport lounges, railway waiting rooms and office building lobbies is testimony to this. If you compare what train stations, airports of banks looked like twenty years ago, with their uninviting furniture and bland lighting, with what the average shopping mall nowadays provides in the way of bright and cheerful places to sit and relax for a while, you can only conclude that there has been a tremendous increase in public realm comfort – just as there has been a considerable increase in comfort in Europe's affluent societies.

Focusing on European countries, cities and regions

• The Mies van der Rohe Award 2009 offers a balanced cross-section of architecture in Europe
• An architectural tour of France's 'TGV cities' Marseilles, Bordeaux and Nantes
• Office: Corea Morán Arquitectura's workspaces in two industrial halls, Barcelona (ES)

Buildings from the margins of modern history

Ivan Vitic's 1957 Pavilion no. 40 remains one of the most impressive buildings of the Zagreb Trade Fair. Currently in use as a skating rink, this hall is one of the few works of Vitic that could be considered 'iconic', according to Krunoslav Ivanisin.