The project for the renovation of the Royale Belge in Brussels has now completed. An opening event was held on 28th June, hosted by Mix – a new venue encompassing a hotel, restaurant, gym and co-working space. The food hall and terrace on the ground floor has also opened, creating a new destination for the Watermaal-Bosvoorde area of Brussels. The project’s diverse functions are brought together by the new hall and staircase which creates a new centrepiece for the iconic building.
Published by Mack Books, The Triple Folly presents an account of the collaboration between Thomas Demand, Caruso St John, and textile manufacturers Kvadrat, which led to the construction of the new pavilion at Kvadrat's headquarters in Ebeltoft, Denmark.
This year Unit 12, led by Peter St John, investigated the theme of Second Life, in the context of the design of buildings. Based on the belief that almost everything can have a second life, the project intends to address London's pressing need for more housing and the complex solutions for the shortage of land. The proposals for the reuse and densification of existing post-war housing stock in South London show how this can be a better solution than redevelopment.
The Swiss Life Arena is featured in Casabella 944. Federico Tranfa introduces the project and discusses its key references – the ruins of an ancient mosque in Syria and the 18th century Guards Tent in the gardens of the summer palace at Drottingholm in Stockholm.
Project review
Building in Hamburg
In a talk for the Architecture Foundation, Associate Ben Speltz presents Caruso St John's work in Hamburg over the past decade, focusing on the practice's approach to working within the urban fabric of the city centre and introducing two recently completed projects, the Gortz Palais and Grosser Burstah Office Building.
Caruso St John has submitted a planning application for the conversion of a 19th century fertilizer factory at a former industrial site in Uetikon am See on the banks of Lake Zurich.
The Swiss Life Arena is reviewed in the March edition of Werk, Bauen Wohnen. Benjamin Muschg takes in the atmosphere at a sold-out game, as the ZSC Lions triumph over HC Davos, and describes the building's unconventional organisation and approach to minimizing energy consumption in use.
Marco Biagi explores the approach of international practices to decommissioned industrial buildings. Citing a range of recently completed projects, including Caruso St John's Veemgebouw, he discusses the rise of adaptive reuse. Biagi explains through our urgent environmental crisis, the reuse of industrial plants and depots is more necessary than ever, offering a new challenging creative outlet for contemporary architects.
Planning application
Twentieth Century Theatre
Caruso St John have submitted a planning application for a new venue for classical music in west London. The project is to revive the Twentieth Century Theatre, a Grade II listed former music hall on Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill.
Caruso St John has received the building permit for the AXA Office building, located on Stampfenbachstrasse in central Zurich. The building, for multinational insurance company AXA, houses around 4,000 square meters of office space over seven floors.
Construction is scheduled to begin in spring 2023, with a façade mock-up already completed for quality control of the materials and joints.
Profile
Der Standard
A visit to the pioneers of adaptation in Zurich
Vienna, Austria
17th December 2022
Maik Novotny visits Caruso St John's Zurich office to discuss the new arena for the ZSC Lions ice-hockey team and, despite the scale of its most recently completed project, discovers the practice's long-term interest and growing commitment to projects that prioritise renovation and adaptive re-use over new construction.
Casabella issue 940 features a review Caruso St John's Complete Works, Volume I, published by Mack Books. Federico Tranfa commends the book's thematic collation of projects, found texts and commentaries, stating it is a 'courageous way to come to terms with the past, because it is not analysed a posteriori, but instead with the cultural context of the epoch of pertinence'.
Edmund Fowles, director of Feilden Fowles Architects, reviews Caruso St John's monograph published by Mack books. Discussing the books openness, he praises the presentation of projects and references alongside commentaries, a 'constellation of culture, memory, construction and emotion'.
Caruso St John's newly opened Swiss Life Arena is reviewed in Hochparterre. Deborah Fehlmann explores the project's materiality and composition, touching on its fabric inspired façade and efficient internal organisation.
Sofie De Caigny, director of the Flanders Architecture Institute, reviewed Caruso St John's Collected Works: Volume I for Drawing Matter. She discusses the book's choice to submerge the reader into the cultural sphere of the end of the 20th century, through contemporary texts, lectures and references.
The first volume of Caruso St John's Collected Works is published this month by Mack Books. The publication covers the first fifteen years of Adam Caruso and Peter St John's partnership, following a thematic course shaped around key phases and aspects of their thinking, and offering a detailed reflection on the practice’s activities between 1990 and 2005. Through a chorus of voices including critics, clients, and artists, it narrates Caruso St John's early emergence and development through to the international recognition which came with projects such as Nottingham Contemporary, the New Art Gallery Walsall, and the Brick House.
The Zurich Lions Ice Hockey team will play their inaugural match tonight at the newly opened Swiss Life Arena. Located in Altstetten, at the north-western edge of the city, the 12,000 seat, 70,000m² arena is Caruso St John's largest building to date.
Caruso St John designed the exhibition stand for Karma International Gallery at the Paris+ art fair. The Zurich based gallery showed a series of sculptures by Hans Josephsohn, among other works, at the first edition of the fair, the French version of Art Basel.
Peter St John's London Met Unit will investigate the theme of Second Life. The term comes from the artist and social activist Theaster Gates, who states that almost everything can be reused. This is evident in his work which has involved collating discarded objects and materials, as well as salvaging and refurbishing whole buildings.
Students will look at the question of how to renew buildings; how construction can be less energy-demanding and creating systems where buildings are indivisible components in a regenerating ecological system.
The pavilion at Kvadrat Headquarters is complete. The building, set in the coastal dunes surrounding the textile company’s headquarters in Ebeltoft, on the east coast of Denmark, is a design collaboration with the artist Thomas Demand.
Director Rod Heyes and Project Architect Paula Schilliger present the practice’s masterplan for Hospitalfield House in Arbroath, Scotland, as part of the Architecture Foundation's series of talks exploring the typology of the artist's studio.
Caruso St John is celebrating the 10th Anniversary of its Zurich office. Established in 2011 by directors Michael Schneider and Florian Zierer as a site office for the practice's mixed-use building on Europaallee, the office has gone on to undertake projects including the Bremer Landesbank Headquarters, the new chancel at St Gallen Cathedral and the headquarters for the St Jakob Foundation, as well as the practice's largest project to date, the Swiss Life Arena.
Caruso St John's Veemgebouw building is reviewed in the Architects Journal's Climate Crisis issue. Rob Wilson explores the project's respectful and flexible retrofit of the listed 1940s warehouse, part of the former Philips factory complex. The building now provides a mix of housing above a range of public and commercial spaces.
Construction has completed on Caruso St John's redevelopment of the Veemgebouw, a former Philips factory building on Strijp S in Eindhoven. The monumental industrial site in the Brainport region of the city is now the centre of a lively urban environment.
The design repurposed the existing floors to create a varied mixed-use structure; including workspaces on the upper floors, a car-park and a food-hall on the ground floor. The project also included the addition of 38 rooftop studios and maisonettes.