Save the Foyer Maurice Ravel

Docomomo International would like to draw your attention to the alarming situation of the Foyer Maurice Ravel, Nanterre, France, and express its full support to all the initiatives conducted in order to preserve this building. A remarkable place, located between Nanterre and La Defense, which since 1979 has welcomed hundreds of student-musicians from around the world, enrolled in the most prestigious music schools and conservatories in Ile de France. Its Auditorium was not only a work and rehearsal space for residents, but it also hosted many music festivals between 1979 and 1990 where great musicians played. Design by Jacques Kalisz,…

Pavillon of Berta Rahm threatened

Docomomo France shared with Docomomo International the opened letter concerning the pavilion of Berta Rahm (1958). “Dear Sir or Madam, At the beginning of February this year, the research team of the new SNSF project (National Fund Switzerland) on the Saffa 1958 (Swiss Exhibition on Women’s Work) at the Haute École des Sciences Applées from Zurich (ZHAW) learned of the existence of a pavilion from the Saffa 1958. A sensational discovery for us and the scientific community. The pavilion of Berta Rahm, an unknown and unfortunately forgotten architect, is not only a jewel architecture of the 1950s. She is also…

Plečnik Stadium

Docomomo International became aware of one of Ljubljana Modern’s masterpieces, the Plečnik Stadium, to be under immediate and serious threat of negligence due to the yet unrealized project of a new modern sport complex, the Bežigrad Sports Park (BSP) including a large-scale construction of skyscrapers, office buildings and underground storeys, ultimately leaving the heritage site in an extreme risk situation. The Bežigrad Stadium (today better known as Plečnik Stadium) was constructed in 1935 according to the ideas and plans of architect Jože Plečnik (1872 – 1957), who is considered the builder of modern Ljubljana and also the most influential Slovenian…

Save Mont-Saint-Aignan Campus !

Mont-Saint-Aignan Campus is now under immediate and serious threat of demolition since its classification process by the municipality of Mont-Saint-Aignan had not been successfully retained, ultimately discharging the case leaving it in an extreme risk situation. At the end of January 2020, a demolition permit was issued by the Prefecture of Seine-Maritime for the Building of Sciences of the University of Rouen. In this iconic example of tabula rasa, the library of Letters and Human Sciences is also threatened in the long term because of the lack of rehabilitation and modernisation works that could help it to be saved. Instead,…

Under threat: Saint Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex

Docomomo International would like to draw your attention to the alarming situation of the Saint Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex, Russia, better known as SKK, and express its full support to all the initiatives conducted in order to preserve this building. It is one of the biggest sport complex structures in the country, built in 1980 and designed by the architects I.M. Chaiko, N.V. Baranov, F.N. Yakovlev and the engineer L.V. Yakhontov. “The master plan of this sports complex is an important urban development element of the Moscovsky District. The arena is located opposite the hotel “Russia” on the main…

Article: The Value of “Negative” Space – the Modernist Public Space of Oscar Niemeyer’s International Fairgrounds Complex

What is the role of unbuilt space in a modernist urban project? The studies surrounding Oscar Niemeyer’s International Fairgrounds Complex in Tripoli, Lebanon, have often overlooked this important question. A recent academic study,[1] which was aiming at a heritage value assessment in order to establish groundwork for a potential heritage listing process of the unfinished fair complex, did succeed in shedding light on Niemeyer’s socially oriented design approach for the fair complex in Tripoli. The study asserted that the open public space and landscape of the fair complex, which were planned as a “Modern Urban Core”[2] for the ancient city,…

Outrage: Zonnestraal at risk

  Outrage: Zonnestraal at risk Dutch minister removes world famous sanatorium and aftercare colony created by Duiker, Bijvoet and Wiebenga from the UNESCO Tentative List The recent decision of the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science to remove Zonnestraal from the provisional list of nominations for UNESCO World Heritage has filled many with disbelief and incomprehension. Zonnestraal has been on this Tentative List since 1995. Logical, because the modern architecture of Duiker, Bijvoet and Wiebenga and the construction of the complex form a unique layered materialization of the underlying social ideals, the aesthetic principles of the Modern Movement and…

New developments: Maison du Peuple of Clichy

The Maison du Peuple of Clichy (1935-1939), Eugène Beaudoin and Marcel Lods architects (with the participation of André Sive from 1937) assisted by the engineer Vladimir Bodiansky and the builder Jean Prouvé, combines a market on the ground floor and an auditorium on the first floor. The spectacular machine of Clichy (1), one of the monuments of modern architecture of the 1930s, expresses and announces the versatility, flexibility and mobility of architecture after the Second World War. It is included in all the history books of architecture and is considered to be a first-class work of the 20th century. As…

Under Threat: Garden-City of La Butte Rouge

Docomomo International has been notified by Docomomo France about the demolition threat the Garden-City of La Butte Rouge, in Châtenay-Malabry, is currently facing. Therefore, Docomomo International would like to raise awareness for this case and express its concerns. The Garden-City of La Butte Rouge is under threat by an intended demolition of 8 buildings. This unique and outstanding achievement of 4.000 flats on a 70-hectare ground is a paradigm of the successful combination of social reform and architectural innovation. It was designed by architects Joseph Bassompierre, Paul de Rutté, Paul Sirvin, André Arfvidson and the landscape designer André Riousse and…

Nakagin Capsule Tower

Docomomo International wishes to draw your attention to the alarming future of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, in Shimbashi, Tokyo, Japan, a symbol of cultural revival and optimism for post-war Japan. Built in 1972, the tower was designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa and it was conceived to serve as a mixed-use residential and office building, with the intention to host traveling executives. The Nakagin Capsule Tower was the world´s first precedent of capsule architecture built for permanent and practical use. The tower is made of detachable modular-steel capsules, which are connected to two concrete cores that contain stairs and elevators….