This week on Dezeen, we investigated how architecture studios working on the Neom mega project are maintaining their silence over human rights concerns.
Dezeen’s editor Tom Ravenscroft spoke to human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and ALQST, which said that architecture studios “can’t ignore” abuses connected to Neom anymore and must “urgently reflect” on their involvement in the project.
In an interview ALQST’s head of monitoring and advocacy Lina Alhathloul said Neom is “is built on the blood of Saudis, and migrant workers, for the benefit of western and international companies”.
We also listed 23 architecture studios that are believed to be working on Neom, including Morphosis, BIG, Zaha Hadid Architects, OMA and UNStudio and revealed what they are saying about the project.
In another interview this week, US editor Ben Dreith spoke to the architects of Legends Tower, a skyscraper that gained approval to have an unlimited height and is now set to reach 581 metres.
“We knew it would be a landmark for the city,” Bruce Greenfield of architecture studio AO said of the Oklahoma City tower. “You’re gonna see it from all over the city. We didn’t want it to be crazy or gaudy.”
Adjaye Associates New York CEO Pascale Sablan spoke out about the impact that sexual misconduct allegations levelled against founder David Adjaye have had on the studio, saying they were a surprise.
“I did my personal due diligence prior to joining the team, and so when those allegations were published, they were a big surprise to me,” Sablan told US publication Architects’ Newspaper.
In design news, we looked at six “not so unusual” furniture designs by American artist Donald Judd. These included Fifth-Floor Bed, his first piece of furniture, as well as the La Mansana table, perhaps his best-known piece.
The table was recently the subject of a dispute that saw the Donald Judd Foundation suing Kim Kardashian for “false endorsement” of “knockoff” tables.
Also this week, we interviewed Grafton Architects founders Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara about their 46 years in practice and how they stay motivated.
“Making buildings was so stressful, so painful and so terrifying in many ways, that there had to be a way of making something that had an emotional quality,” said McNamara.
British architecture studio John Outram Associates Sphinx Hill was in the news this week as it became the youngest listed building in the UK.
Completed in 1999, the home in Oxfordshire was built for a couple with a shared interest in ancient Egyptian culture and has been described as “a tour-de-force of domestic post-modernism”. It is now Grade II-listed.
The latest stop on our North American Design 2024 series, which has previously looked at Mexico City, Detroit, Portland, Guadalajara, Montreal and Los Angeles, was San Francisco.
US reporter Ellen Eberhardt explored 10 independent design studios within the city, creating projects ranging from a boom box made with mycelium to a teeter-totter that reaches across the US-Mexico border.
Popular projects on Dezeen this week included a Big Sur house overlooking the Californian coastline, an Indian house with multi-level courtyards, and a London house that is a “sanctuary for wellbeing”.
Our latest lookbooks featured dining rooms dominated by dark-wood furniture and bathroom design ideas.
This week on Dezeen
This week on Dezeen is our regular roundup of the week’s top news stories. Subscribe to our newsletters to be sure you don’t miss anything.
