18.12.2024

New sculpture by Anish Kapoor in New York City

Building design

Anish Kapoor's first permanent public artwork in New York City. Photo: ©Iwan Baan

On January 31, 2023, the first permanent work of art by Anish Kapoor opened in New York City. The bean-shaped structure has garnered both praise and criticism. Read more about the project and the adjacent Jenga Tower here.

On January 31, 2023, the first permanent work of art by Anish Kapoor opened in New York City. The bean-shaped structure has garnered both praise and criticism. Read more about Anish Kapoor’s project and the adjacent Jenga Tower here.

The British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor has created his first permanent public artwork in New York City. The work, whose title has not yet been determined, is located at 56 Leonard Street in Tribeca. It is 14 meters long, almost six meters high and weighs 40 tons. Its appearance is similar to the famous Cloud Gate or “The Bean” in Chicago, the artist’s best-known work (2006). The ArcelorMittal Orbit in London’s Olympic Park (2012) and the Sky Mirror in New York City (2006) are further examples of Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor’s art. The artist was born in Mumbai in 1954.

The sculpture, which will be unveiled on January 31, 2023, is partially located under the Jenga Tower residential building designed by Herzog & de Meuron. It stands on the sidewalk at the foot of the tower, giving the impression that it has been squeezed under one of the cantilevered apartments. This interaction with the building gives the sculpture the character of a work of art. According to the clients, Anish Kapoor has created an “unprecedented collaboration between sculpture and architecture”.

The project was commissioned 15 years ago, but a combination of economic downturn, pandemic and technical difficulties delayed construction. Now, however, Anish Kapoor’s sculpture is finally open to the public. It has already become a popular selfie spot for the many art lovers in the Tribeca gallery district. One of its nicknames is “Mini-Bean” because it is around 3.6 meters shorter than The Bean in Chicago.

Anish Kapoor has commented on his new work as follows: “The city can feel frenetic, fast and hard, with imposing architecture, concrete and noise. My work at 56 Leonard Street proposes a form that is stainless steel but also soft and ephemeral. Mirrors make us pause, be absorbed and drawn in a way that interrupts time, perhaps slows it down; it’s a material that creates a new kind of immaterial space.”

With his sculpture, the artist contributes to the identity of the city and Tribeca in particular. The bean-shaped artwork is one of many works in recent years that engage with the public outside of museums. Ai Weiwei and other sculptors, for example, have brought artworks into public spaces in a similar way.

To understand Anish Kapoor’s new sculpture, you have to take a closer look at the Jenga Tower building at 56 Leonard Street. Studios Herzog & de Meuron and Hill West Architects present a tower of individual residential units stacked on top of each other, which quickly earned the nickname “Jenga Tower”. The building consists of shifting floor slabs that form cantilevers and balconies. This results in a multiplied space for the residents.

Despite its size, the variation in shapes gives the tower an individual and almost intimate character. The base of the building responds to the identity of Tribeca by having different sized units that reflect the different scales of the neighborhood. The top of the balanced tower has an undulating shape that merges with the sky. With a total of 57 floors, the skyscraper rises 250 meters into the air, making it the 35th tallest building in New York City.

By the way: you can read more about the world’s most expensive skyscrapers here.

The Jenga Tower is designed from the inside out, giving each of the 145 apartments its own identity. This is because the appearance of the Jenga Tower varies greatly depending on the angle and perspective. As one of many luxury residential towers in the city, 56 Leonard Street also offers beautiful views of the city. The artwork by Anish Kapoor makes the building more accessible and perceptible to the public passing by at ground level.

The shiny, bulbous “Bean” sculpture in Tribeca has already attracted a lot of criticism. At a cost of between USD 8 and 10 million, it is one of the most expensive sculptures in New York City. Observers cannot help but compare it with the “Cloud Gate” or “Bean” sculpture from 2006 in Chicago. However, the Chicago bean is freestanding, while the Tribeca bean appears to be wedged under the canopy of the Jenga Tower. The real estate company behind the Jenga Tower is the Alexico Group, which also commissioned Kapoor’s sculpture. In 2016, the artist himself bought a condominium in the building at 56 Leonard Street for USD 13.6 million.

For many years, Kapoor’s Tribeca Bean was only partially completed and surrounded by scaffolding. Large sections of the mirrored shell were missing, earning it the nickname “half a bean”. The technical complexity slowed down the process and affected both assembly and installation.

While The Cloud in Chicago is free-standing with a single large support frame, the sculpture on Leonard Street has a complex suspension system. Each individual slice of the sculpture has its own support frame. The support frames for the lower parts are bolted to the square, while the panes themselves are suspended from cables. Spring elements allow the Mini-Bean to move easily in the event of wind, snow load or temperature fluctuations.

While the “Cloud Gate” bean in Chicago is popular with locals and tourists alike, the “legume squashed by a luxury building” has yet to prove itself in New York City. ARTnews, for example, called the Mini Bean “ugly” and criticized its association with a private luxury tower. The Bean had always been part of the construction plan. But while 56 Leonard Street was completed over five years ago, it took much longer for the technically sophisticated sculpture to open. Despite this long delay, observers have noted that this Mini Bean is less elegant than Kapoor’s earlier works.

There is now another practical challenge for the Mini-Bean: renderings of the sculpture show a shiny, flawless surface. In reality, the steel plates are already covered in water stains. The workers are still working out how best to keep the sculpture clean.

At the same time, Anish Kapoor’s Mini Bean also has an effect on visitors. The stretched, distorted images give the impression that the sidewalk is buckling under the weight. And the many visitors show that, despite being part of a luxury skyscraper, Kapoor has indeed created public art. Whether visitors actually want to admire the Mini-Bean or mainly want to see themselves reflected in it is up to interpretation.

Even more art in NYC: until July 29, 2023, the “Architecture Now” exhibition at MoMA is showing 12 current architecture projects in New York.

06.12.2024

Academy

Academy Challenge: Discover Vienna by bike

Building design

Baumeister Academy winner Theresa explores Vienna by bike

Our new Baumeister Academy winner Theresa Wunder has just arrived in Vienna and started her internship at Querkraft Architekten. To find her way around the new city, she first went for a bike ride through Vienna. Theresa presents the architectural highlights she discovered here.






 


 


Baumeister sets the Academy winners a task every month. First orientation in the new city: Discover Vienna by bike.






 


 


The flak tower was built between October 1943 and July 1944 and used as a fire control tower until the end of the war. 






 


 


The Hofburg.  






 


 


The Majolica House.






 


 


St. Stephen's Cathedral.

First day in the new city. A (still) sunny Sunday morning. Someone in the Sixth is selling his old bike online. The ad says it’s “rusty in places”, but it rides and comes with a free lock. The subway takes me to meet my future wire lipizzaner. I open the heavy front door, brief small talk, get on once, it’s fine. I pump up the flat tires and the exploratory tour begins. I don’t have to drive far before I discover the first sight. I stop for a moment with my bike and marvel at the House of the Sea, which is located in a flak tower from the Second World War.

I cycle on, turn off twice and suddenly come across the Majolika House, probably Austria’s most important architect. And suddenly I see Otto Wagner everywhere. I drive past the green Wagner city railings that are so typical of Vienna. These originally light beige railings were only given their color – incorrectly referred to as “Otto Wagner green” – during the restoration after the Second World War. A few more meters and I find myself in front of the Wagner Stadtbahn station Karlsplatz. I push my bike on and happily greet my neighbors: the Karlskirche, the building of the Faculty of Architecture of the Vienna University of Technology, and the Secession building on the opposite side of the street. I cycle on to the Ring, which surrounds the first district. Here there is a tree-lined path especially for pedestrians and cyclists. I turn off at the State Opera House and suddenly find myself in front of the escalator that leads to the entrance of the Albertina. In this art museum in the first district, you can see the best of art history. I am amazed at how short the distances are in this city and continue on my way.

The scandalous Nackte

Horse-drawn carriages come towards me. I’m just before the Hofburg. Before I reach my destination, St. Stephen’s Cathedral in the heart of the city, I kneel – like any good architecture student – in front of Adolf Loos’ house on Michaelerplatz. This house, scandalously naked for 1909, directly opposite the imperial Hofburg, was a thorn in the side of the emperor and a great achievement of Viennese Modernism. It starts to rain. Fortunately, it’s not far from Michaelerplatz to the cathedral. I pedal briefly and the Gothic church appears before me. From here I cycle to my apartment in the third district. Soaked, but happy with my experience, I park my bike and look forward to cycling to the office tomorrow.

27.12.2024

Event

Urban Future Conference Stuttgart 2023

Building design

Sustainable mobility, heat resilience, resource-conserving consumption, climate-neutral energy and social participation: Stuttgart wants to make itself fit for the future. Although these aspects are important for liveable cities, it is not easy to get there. The Urban Future Conference in Stuttgart from June 21 to 23 will show that it is all the more worthwhile and how it can be achieved.

The Urban Future Conference is Europe’s largest conference for sustainable cities. What makes it special? It is a conference with a festival character: the focus here is on exchange, participation and fun. The conference originated in 2014 at a workshop on urban mobility in Graz. The event now has a community of over 50,000 people and more than 210 partners, consisting of international companies and organizations. The Urban Future Conference is held in a different European city every year. This year in Stuttgart.

The state capital has set itself the goal of being climate-neutral by 2035 and is increasingly committed to the sustainability goals of the UN agenda. These relate to a wide range of topics such as poverty, health, education, energy and international partnership. We are working towards a world in which everyone acts in an economically effective, socially fair and environmentally friendly manner.

Good ideas and sensible solutions are needed to achieve these goals and to ensure that cities remain liveable in the future. Under the question “How can we make our cities more liveable?”, around 2,000 participants from all over the world will come together in Stuttgart’s Haus der Wirtschaft from June 21 to 23. In addition to experts, decision-makers and innovators, citizens are also invited to join in the discussion and present their own ideas for sustainable cities.

“Stuttgart is a city of inventiveness and innovation,” says Lord Mayor Dr. Frank Nopper. “People live here who are facing up to the challenges that the future will bring. That’s why Stuttgart is exactly the right place for an Urban Future Conference.”

The supporting programme of the Urban Future Conference is diverse: visitors can look forward to more than 60 sessions on topics such as sustainable mobility, revitalization of urban districts and citizen participation. Over 250 speakers from four continents will make the conference even bigger than in previous years. In addition to lectures, discussions and workshops, there will also be over 35 excursions in the city of Stuttgart, some with exclusive insights. The aim is for visitors to get to know the city itself as a cosmopolitan and economically strong metropolis.

Other interesting events as part of the Urban Future Conference include the international “Cities for Mobility” congress (June 20), the “Urban Future Week” (June 19-23) and the Stuttgart Climate Action Day (June 24), where citizens can find out about and exchange ideas on climate-related topics in a creative way.

Another special highlight is the “FuckUp Night”, where the biggest failures will be discussed – and how we can learn from them.

Speaking of the urban future: in Stuttgart, the Swiss start-up Urb-x wants to build a five-metre-high high-speed cycle path for the city of Stuttgart. Read all about the project here.