After long months of paralysis of an entire sector, architecture finally breathed again this year, at least partially, between the resumption of construction sites and important inaugurations. In 2021, in fact, important new cultural institutions were finally opened to the public, many of them signed by internationally renowned architectural firms.
Architectural practice thus returns – after the period of global emergency – to its concreteness, between plastic volumes and specific materiality. We have therefore selected for you projects from all over the world, from Indonesia to China and the nearest European capitals.
Best 10 architecture projects of 2021
A selection of buildings and interventions published this year: from the inauguration of important cultural centers, to more daring spatial experiments.
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- Romina Totaro
- 16 December 2021
David Chipperfield completes the refurbishment of Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, Berlin, Germany, 2012-2021
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, site plan
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, ground floor plan
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, lower ground floor plan
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, east elevation
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, north elevation
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, south elevation
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, west elevation
David Chipperfield Architects, Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment, section
It was perhaps inevitable that David Chipperfield would be the one who takes on the refurbishment of Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie. The most “modern” of contemporary designers, who through his works has been reaffirming for decades the relevance of the architectural modernity's cultural project, has now the occasion to operate firsthand on a major realization by the 20th century master. Read the full article here.
This space is a metaphor for Paris’ urbanity
© Studio Anne Holtrop
© Studio Anne Holtrop
© Studio Anne Holtrop
© Studio Anne Holtrop
© Studio Anne Holtrop
© Studio Anne Holtrop
© Studio Anne Holtrop
© Studio Anne Holtrop
© Studio Anne Holtrop
© Studio Anne Holtrop
© Studio Anne Holtrop
© Studio Anne Holtrop
© Studio Anne Holtrop
© Studio Anne Holtrop
© Studio Anne Holtrop
Architecture can create intimate relationships with its context and a unique dialogue with art and craftsmanship. This is the case with 35 Green Corner Building, designed by Anne Holtrop in Muharraq, Bahrain, which serves as a warehouse and archive for an art collection. The building features structural concrete blocks, made by directly moulding the soil of the site, which thus becomes the generator of the building. Read the full article here.
This space is a metaphor for Paris’ urbanity
The new concrete wall, the coupole and the frescoed vaults. Photo: Patrick Tourneboeuf
Interior view. Photo: Patrick Tourneboeuf
Interior view of the new concrete structure
The passage between new and existing structure. Photo: Maxime Tétard
The passage between new and existing structure. Photo: Patrick Tourneboeuf
The passage between new and existing structure. Photo: Patrick Tourneboeuf
Interior view.
Exhibition gallery view.
Exhibition gallery view.
Staircase view.
Exterior view. Photo: Studio Bouroullec
Aerial view. Photo Guignard
Born in 18th century as the Halle aux Blés, a grain and commodity exchange originally conceived by Nicolas Le Camus de Mézières, to then survive through the decades right in the middle of the “belly of Paris”, the ever-changing area of Les Halles, the Bourse de Commerce has finally reopened as the home to François Pinault’s art collection. The result of a 5-year long process, the project has the foundations of its simplicity rooted into a great depth of elaboration, and mostly into a close relationship between Tadao Ando and the city of Paris. Read the full article here.
A gym under impressive bamboo arches in Bali
At the Green School in Bali, in the middle of the Ayung River Valley, the tension and balance of the arch creates a spectacular bamboo structure. The architecture was founded and built in 2008 by a Canandian couple in collaboration with master craftsmen, architects, permaculturists and philosophers, with the idea of creating a school with a holistic approach able to convey an ecological education through learning in the middle of nature. Read the full article here.
Herzog & de Meuron complete Küppersmühle Museum extension
Photo © MKM Duisburg / Herzog & de Meuron
© Simon Menges
Staircase, detail.
Photo © MKM Duisburg / Herzog & de Meuron
© Simon Menges
Staircase.
Photo © MKM Duisburg / Herzog & de Meuron
© Simon Menges
Photo © MKM Duisburg / Herzog & de Meuron
© Simon Menges
Silos view.
Photo © MKM Duisburg / Herzog & de Meuron
© Simon Menges
Installation view. Brigitte and Martin Matschinsky-Denninghoff (sculpture)
(r.) David Schnell
MKM Duisburg / Herzog & de Meuron
© für die Arbeit von David Schnell: Der Künstler und VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2021
© Photo Simon Menges
The German Museum of Modern Art reopens to the public with 36 new exhibition rooms and 300 works from the Ströher Collection: the annex block takes its cue from the existing building, a 1999 project by the Basel studio. After four years of construction, the extension to the Küppersmühle Museum in Duisburg, Germany, has been completed: the annex, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, takes its cue from the existing building – a historic grain mill converted into a museum in 1999 by the same Basel-based firm. Leggi l’articolo completo.
MVRDV’s Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen opens in Rotterdam
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021. Photo © Aad Hoogendoorn
MVRDV, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2021. Photo © Aad Hoogendoorn
Rotterdam’s Museumpark, a legendary late post-modern public space design realized by Yves Brunier and OMA between the 1980s and the 1990s, hosts the new Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen by MVRDV. The namesake museum, located on the park’s threshold, is extended through a massive and just as simplified architecture: a single isolated bowl-like volume, entirely clad in mirrored glass panels. Read the full article here.
A music school that reconnects the city
Wunderkammer is the name of the Music School of Bressanone designed by the Architecture Studio Carlana Mezzalira Pentimalli from Treviso. The studio took care of the roound project from its planning and construction phases to the design of the furnishings and signage. With a compact volume that develops on three floors above ground and an enclosure that surrounds it, the architecture of the school has the merit of modulating different degrees of intimacy with the city, acting as a space of relation and connection. Leggi l’articolo completo.
Elephant Museum in Thailand: the revenge of Ganesh
In the rural village of the ethnic Kui in the northeastern province of Surin, which has the highest number of domesticated elephants in the country, destructive land-use policies have reduced the forest to a wasteland where the Kui and the animals have suffered drought and famine, having to migrate to the cities for an often impossible redemption as pitiful tourist attractions. Bangkok Project Studio’s museum restores the dignity of a rural village’s cultural heritage and its pride in living in harmony with its land and nature. Read the full article here.
Building or pavilion? A tribute to Memphis by Pig Design
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
Pig Design, Ya Space!, Hangzhou, China, 2020
“A playful ‘art museum’ that saves the boring city with anti-rational humor”: through these words Li Wenqiang, the founder of Pig Design, sums up the wit of Ya Space!. Located in the Chinese metropolis of Hangzhou, the showroom is an ironic architecture, that intentionally emphasizes the ambiguity between container and content: intended to display a selection of Memphis objects, it installs them in an interior which is designed exactly like a Memphis object. Read the full article here.
MAD completes a remarkable experiment of land architecture in China
MAD Architects, Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center, Yabuli, China, 2020. Photo © Agovision
MAD Architects, Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center, Yabuli, China, 2020. Photo © Agovision
MAD Architects, Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center, Yabuli, China, 2020. Photo © ArchExist
MAD Architects, Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center, Yabuli, China, 2020. Photo © ArchExist
MAD Architects, Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center, Yabuli, China, 2020. Photo © ArchExist
MAD Architects, Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center, Yabuli, China, 2020. Photo © ArchExist
MAD Architects, Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center, Yabuli, China, 2020. Photo © ArchExist
MAD Architects, Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center, Yabuli, China, 2020. Photo © ArchExist
MAD Architects, Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center, Yabuli, China, 2020. Photo © ArchExist
MAD Architects, Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center, Yabuli, China, 2020. Photo © Agovision
MAD Architects, Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center, Yabuli, China, 2020. Photo © Agovision
MAD Architects, Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center, Yabuli, China, 2020. Photo © Agovision
The brand new Yabuli Entrepreneurs’ Congress Center by MAD Architects, commissioned by the Yabuli China Entrepreneurs’ Forum for its annual meetings and inaugurated at the very end of 2020, is undeniably one of the most spectacular pieces of land architecture that we have seen in recent years. The building is skillfully modeled in order to blend in with the hill where it stands, as its artificial top, separated from the rest by a deep, seemingly tectonic fracture. Read the full article here.