Behind the Striking Facade of a World-Class Gallery

The Exterior of This Art Gallery Building Design Hints at the Inside

“It’s like a pair of arms welcoming you,” KPMB founding partner Shirley Blumberg says. Inside the gallery, soft-gray concrete floor­ing, white walls, and double-height volumes were conceived as a backdrop for art-viewing and conversation alike.

David Hotson Architect Honors Victims of the Armenian Genocide in This Church Facade

2022 Best of Year Winner for Facade

The victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide are remembered in the highly detailed, printed porcelain rain screen panels by Fiandre that clad the entry to this new church in Carrollton, Texas. Perspective unfolds the story. From a distance, a large Armenian cross can be glimpsed; drawing nearer, the cross is revealed to be composed of smaller traditional botanical motifs. Viewed closer still, the image dissolves into a grid of circular icons, 1 centimeter in diameter, each unique and representing one of the 1.5 million individuals killed over a century ago. David Hotson and team wrote a computer script to generate the differing icon patterns and distribute them by density to form the multilayered design, which powerfully conveys the scale of loss.

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David Hotson Architect: David Hotson; Stepan Terzyan; Mike Konow; Ani Sahakyan; Benjamin Elmer; Cesar Elias Quintero, Cheuk Kei Hui, Rome Cao.

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LASSA Architects Creates a Curvaceous Concrete Structure in Methoni, Greece

LASSA Architects leverages a lightweight, low-cost, and reusable foam formwork to create a curvaceous concrete structure for a private residence with public gallery in Methoni, Greece. Take a look at the making of this eye-catching build below.

LASSA conceived a structure with an aerodynamic X-shape massing that creates a series of protected courtyards—one in each wing. To execute the organically curved form in concrete, the architects hatched a fabrication strategy at once elaborate yet efficient.

Theo Sarantoglou Lalis and Dora Sweijd, co-founding principals of the London- and Brussels-based firm, ideated a digitally designed polystyrene-foam formwork that could be partially pre-assembled in sections, in just a handful of days, at a local warehouse. Prior to transporting the formwork to the site, they labeled each piece and included a positive or negative notch on either side.

After excavating the building footprint, four team members installed—in just half a day—a laser-cut-MDF shelf to guide placement of the foam formwork.

Once delivered on-site, the lightweight formwork sections were placed atop the shelf, assembled like a Byzantine puzzle with plastic screws, and anchored by a support structure made of locally sourced wood—a system flexible enough to achieve the serpentine shape.

Concrete was poured in stages over the formwork to create the continuous, rippled facade, which extends some 400 linear feet.

After fabrication was complete, the foam formwork was reused as the house’s insulation. An aerial view reveals how the completed structure anchors into the gently sloping olive grove.

Matte-white powder-coated steel steps lead from the kitchen’s gravel courtyard to the rooftop terrace; X- and Y-shape concrete legs support the marble bench seats.

Futuristic yet grounded, the dwelling’s undulating white facade, as viewed from the southeast, engages with its agrarian surroundings—as does the 344-square-foot pool offering panoramic views.

The south terrace is accessible via a 17-by-9-foot sliding glass door, constructed of three panels that recede into the wall, resulting in a boundless, indoor-outdoor volume.

Accessed through a powder-coated laser-cut steel screen door, the gallery features satin-finish terrazzo floors and marble skirting that uphold the blanched aesthetic. In lieu of conventional lighting fixtures, a perimeter trench containing a flexible LED strip was cast into the roof slab.

Zone of Utopia, Mathieu Forest Architecte, and WUZ Design Envision the Xinxiang Cultural Tourism Center as an Ice Palace

China’s coastal cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong are popular destinations for international travelers. But it’s the landlocked province of Henan that holds the distinction of being the birthplace of Chinese culture; its 3,200-year history includes Buddhist temples from the 1st century and several UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Yet it’s a 21st-century building, the Xinxiang Cultural Tourism Center, that anchors a new winter sports district in one of the region’s most ancient and important cities.

The firms responsible for the 304,000-square-foot complex—Paris-based architecture studios Zone of Utopia and Mathieu Forest Architecte, along with the more local WUZ Design—drew inspiration from a smash-hit animated feature film beloved worldwide and especially in China, Frozen. Comprising a stack of 10 steel-and-glass cubes, each 55 feet square, the center looks like a massive sculpture made from blocks of ice.

The effect starts with the facades’ glass panels: Suspended by stainless-steel cables, they’re digitally printed with a light-diffusing tangle of ice crystals, giving the structure a frosted look during the day. At night, an internal and external lighting system by PROL casts a slowly changing nimbus of brilliant blues, whites, and purples—colors found in the movie—turning the building into a glowing, fairytale castle. Adding to the magic, a water terrace on the plaza features rows of splashing fountains that create a rising mist while also suggesting that the cubes may be melting.

Pig Design Offers a Play on Words for the Facade of Ya Space in Hangzhou, China

2021 Best of Year winner for International Facade

In the design world, the 1980s are perhaps best remembered for their definitive rejection of modernism’s austerity in favor of excess. In Milan, a group of mostly European designers led by Italian architect Ettore Sottsass took a deep dive into experimentation with postmodernism. They eventually resurfaced as the Memphis Group. Though only officially together until 1987, the collective’s joyous output of furniture, lighting, textiles, and ceramics was marked by euclidean geometric forms juxtaposing fanciful patterns.

Fast forward four decades. The Italian company Memphis Milano continues to produce original designs today that are purchased by collectors worldwide. The reach has even extended to China, where the gallery-esque showroom Ya Space in Hangzhou is the official dealer of Memphis—and a total embodiment of the group’s aesthetic. The two-story project is by Pig Design, a local architecture studio cheekily named after founder and chief designer Wenqiang Li’s especially tubby cat. Ya Space has an equally playful derivation: The Chinese nickname of Memphis, Tennessee, is Cliff City, and cliff is pronounced like ya in Chinese. That theme carries over to a section of the structure’s facade, which is composed of corrugated stainless-steel triangles that make up three-dimensional tetrahedrons, pyramids, and other pointed shapes. Entry is through a yellow circular aperture. It’s an introduction to the unusual silhouettes that define the 4,800-square-foot showroom, both inside and out.

PIG Design: Wenqiang Li; Shijie Tan; Liang Cheng; Yiyun Zhu; Yunyun Chen; Ruonan Liu; Keke Wang