The new UCCA Clay Museum advances the millennia-old tradition of artisanal ceramics the Chinese metropolis Yixing is renowned for. An armour of red clay tile encloses the exhibition spaces and the open timber roof constructions above them – an expressive space for the presentation of modern ceramic art.
The design of the museum began with a largely cleared site, yet without an operator. Yutaka Terasaki and Bao Mengxian report on how Kengo Kuma & Associates planned the building without needing a detailed briefing.
Trainees are often housed in dreary rooms or anonymous flats. A new hall of residence by Dorte Mandrup shows how things can be done better, for it aims to be much more than just a temporary home.
One of Switzerland's largest reuse projects is currently under construction in the southeast of Basel. Commissioned by the cantonal property management authority, the architectural practice Parabase is planning around 150 flats using the concrete elements from a demolished multi-storey car park.
More than 800 bespoke panels form the pleated wall of the Feng Chia University auditorium in Taiwan. Kengo Kuma & Associates and Kvadrat Acoustics developed them using project-specific 3D models.
In 1980, Jean Nouvel's Collège Anne Frank in the south of Paris reduced the state-mandated model for industrialised school buildings to the level of farce. Mars Architectes has now renovated the dilapidated building and helped to give new relevance to this architectural provocation.