2008 in architecture

The year 2008 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.

Events

• February 10–11 – 2008 Namdaemun fire: The wooden superstructure of the 550-year-old Namdaemun gate in Seoul (South Korea) is destroyed by arson.
• June 20 – The Architects (Recognition of European Qualifications etc and Saving and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2008 comes into force in the UK.
• July 8 – The first in Francesco da Mosto's television series Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage is broadcast.
• October 2 – The William L. Slayton House, designed by I. M. Pei in 1958, is listed in the United States National Register of Historic Places.^[1]
• October – The inaugural World Architecture Festival is held in Barcelona.

Buildings opened

Beijing National Stadium

• January 1 – China Central Television Headquarters building in Beijing, by Rem Koolhaas and OMA, officially opens.
• January 12 – New Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station officially inaugurated.
• January – Fuglsang Art Museum in Denmark, designed by Tony Fretton, inaugurated.
• March 26 – Terminal 3 of the Beijing Capital International Airport opens, designed by Foster + Partners.
• March 27 – London Heathrow Terminal 5, designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership, opens.
• April 12 – New National Opera House in Oslo opens.
• April – Maggie's Centre in London, a drop-in cancer care centre designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, opens (Stirling Prize 2009).
• June – Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, designed by Daniel Libeskind, opened.
• June 25 – Chords Bridge ("Bridge of Strings") in Jerusalem, designed by Santiago Calatrava, inaugurated.
• June 28 – Beijing National Stadium designed by Herzog & de Meuron (known as the "Bird's Nest"), opened for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
• August 1 – Beijing South Railway Station, designed by Terry Farrell, opened.
• September
  • A. P. Møller School, Schleswig, Germany, designed by C. F. Møller Architects.
  • Darwin Centre II, Natural History Museum, London, designed by C. F. Møller Architects.^[2]
• September 11 – Ponte della Costituzione in Venice, designed by Santiago Calatrava, inaugurated.
• September 27 – California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, designed by Renzo Piano.

Curve

• October 16 — Weill Hall, Cornell University, designed by Richard Meier^[3]
• November – New Ahus, Akershus University Hospital, Oslo, Norway, designed by C. F. Møller Architects, opened.^[4]
• November 11 – Curve (theatre) in Leicester, England, designed by Rafael Viñoly, is opened.
• November 20 – Peter B. Lewis Library at Princeton University, by Frank Gehry, officially dedicated.
• November 22 – Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, in Qatar, designed by I. M. Pei, is officially opened.^[5]
• The Public, West Bromwich, England, designed by Will Alsop, opens first stages to public.

Buildings completed

• January 28 – Beijing National Aquatics Center, known as the "Water Cube", in readiness for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
• August 28 – Shanghai World Financial Center in Pudong, Shanghai, China, designed by William Pedersen.
• November – Transformation AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) renovation by Frank Gehry.
• December – Assut de l'Or Bridge in Valencia, Spain, designed by Santiago Calatrava.

Assut de l'Or

• date unknown
  • Mountain Dwellings, Copenhagen, Denmark, designed by Bjarke Ingels.
  • Linked Hybrid, a nine-tower high-rise housing project by Steven Holl Architects, in Beijing, China.
  • 459 West 18th Street, Manhattan, a high-rise condominium designed by Della Valle + Bernheimer.
  • Living Shangri-La in Vancouver, Canada
  • Torre Caja Madrid (Caja Madrid Tower), Spain, designed by Foster and Partners.
  • Westside shopping and leisure complex, Bern, Switzerland, designed by Daniel Libeskind.
  • Olnik Spanu House, Garrison, New York, United States, designed by Alberto Campo Baeza.
  • Moliner House, Zaragoza, Spain, designed by Alberto Campo Baeza.

Awards

• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal – Richard Meier
• AIA Gold Medal – Renzo Piano (Italy).
• Architecture Firm Award – KieranTimberlake Associates.
• Driehaus Architecture Prize – Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk.
• Emporis Skyscraper Award – Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
• Grand Prix de l'urbanisme – David Mangin.
• Lawrence Israel Prize – AvroKO
• LEAF Award, Grand Prix – schmidt hammer lassen for Performers House
• Praemium Imperiale Architecture Award – Peter Zumthor.
• Pritzker Prize – Jean Nouvel.
• Rome Prize for architecture - Frederick B. Fisher
• RAIA Gold Medal – Richard Johnson.
• Royal Gold Medal – Edward Cullinan.
• Stirling Prize – Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios & Alison Brooks Architects & Maccreanor Lavington.
• Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture – Gro Harlem Brundtland.
• Twenty-five Year Award – The Atheneum.
• UIA Gold Medal – Teodoro Gonzalez de Leon.
• Vincent Scully Prize – Robert A. M. Stern.

Births

Deaths

• January 1 – Harald Deilmann, German architect (born 1920)
• January 30 – Fernando Higueras, Spanish architect (born 1930)
• March 5 – Nader Khalili, Iranian architect, writer, and humanitarian (born 1936)
• March 24 – Victor Christ-Janer, American modernist architect (born 1915)
• March 29 – Ralph Rapson, American architect (born 1914)
• March 31 – David Todd, American architect (born 1915)
• May 30 – Rodney Gordon, English architect (born 1933)
• June 15 – Walter Netsch, American architect (born 1920)
• July 6 – George Tibbits, Australian composer and architect (born 1933)
• September 18 – Abdur Rahman Hye, Pakistani architect (born 1919)
• November 14 – Sir Bernard Feilden, English conservation architect (born 1919)
• November 29 – Jørn Utzon, Danish architect (born 1918)

References