contemporary architecture

Sou Fujimoto is one of the most prominent young Japanese architects. Born in Hokkadio, after finishing his studies at the faculty of engineering at Tokyo University, he founded his own practice, Sou Fujimoto Architects in 2000. He received numerous awards, including three Architectural Review Awards and the 2009 Wallpaper* Design Award.

Mr Fujimoto arrived to Budapest on the invitation of KÉK – Contemporary Architecture Center, and spoke about his architectural philosophy on a full-house lecture as part of the event-series of KÉK: ‘Bubbles from Japan’. We met him before the event, on a snowy evening in the crowded Gerbeaud Confectionary, with some really loud Italian tourists in the background.

A major investment is about to begin in the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts (in Hungarian: Szépművészeti Múzeum), or more precisely, under and in front of the Museum. The building that hosts one of the most important art collections of Central-Europe will be enlarged with two underground levels. The extension will be accompanied by the restructuring of the space in front of the Museum. Some of the plans were published earlier, but by now, the final plans for the underground-entrance are ready, which were made by Hungarian architects Tamás Karácsony and his team.

No major changes are to be expected on the surface. Practically there will be only one new, characteristic building on the corner of the Museum, the entrance, the plans of which were recently completed. The sculpture-like structure contains an elevator and staircases. Its composition does not mimic Neo-Classicism, merely follows its logic – emphasises Tamás Karácsony.

The Rolex Learning Center is above all a library and learning space devoted to the cultivation of knowledge by an array of different methods. It has one of the largest collections of scientific literature in Europe, with over 500,000 volumes. In addition, an exciting range of new pedagogical technologies in the building, as well as the layout itself, are innovations to the public's approach to texts and learning.

Opening on 22 February 2010 and designed by the Japanese architectural practice SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa), the Rolex Learning Center is a radical and highly experimental building, designed for new ways of study and interaction in the 21th Century.

Yesterday UNStudio and Grigorjev & Partners LLC signed the contract with the client, Petersburg City LLC, for the new Dance Palace in the historic centre of St. Petersburg, following the success of the design competition in July last year. The project is a 24,000 m2 dance theatre, housing The Eifman Ballet, headed by the prolific choreographer Boris Eifman. The Dance Palace forms part of the European Embankment city quarter master plan for a new urban square in St. Petersburg.

The President of the Biennale di Venezia, Paolo Baratta, accompanied by the Director of the 12th International Architecture Exhibition, Kazuyo Sejima, met today at Cà Giustinian with the representatives of the 54 Countries participating in the 12th Exhibition, which will be held from August 29 to November 21 2010 at the Giardini and at the Arsenale (preview August 26, 27 and 28 2010), and in various other venues in Venice.

After a series of Biennale Exhibitions directed by eminent critics or historians, this Sector has once again been entrusted to an architect, Kazuyo Sejima, to bring the important theme of quality in architecture back to the forefront, with a personality who makes quality her own personal vocation. The title chosen by Kazuyo Sejima for the 12th International Architecture Exhibition is: People meet in architecture.

One of the world’s leading architectural magazines, the Japan based Architecture and Urbanism (A+U) has published his latest 09:01 issue under the title of Photography / Inspiration - Readings of Architectural Inspiration Through Photographs.