10 incredible new (or newly restored) buildings opening in 2024
Build it and we will come. Man-made structures make their mark – not just on a landscape but on us. From the brand-new to the newly restored, these boundary-pushing buildings should be on every architecture buff’s radar in 2024.
Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris
Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris’ restoration is due for completion in 2024.Credit: Getty Images
She won’t be finished internally in time for the Paris Olympics in July, but “Our Lady of Paris” will have her face back on, five years after the devastating fires in April 2019. The $1.4 billion (€833 million) restoration, led by architect Philippe Villeneuve, will rebuild the 860-year-old Gothic cathedral to look identical to its pre-fire state (to paraphrase Villeneuve, “Would you mess with the Mona Lisa?“) Located on the Ile de la Cite, the cathedral was the most visited national monument in one of the world’s most visited cities. It is due to reopen on December 8, 2024, but Belgian team Bas Smets’ landscaping and forecourt redevelopment won’t be finished until 2027. See notredamedeparis.fr
Robot & Artificial Intelligence Museum, Seoul
Robots will also help run the museum once open.
Like a giant metal egg, fracture lines running across its surface, the first exhibition of the Robot & AI Museum (RAIM) has occurred even before its opening, as robots build their own museum, assembling the metal panels of the exterior and 3D printing the concrete components of the museum. Turkish firm Melike Altinisik Architects chose a fluid, organic “non-directional sphere” for the four-storey building, which is cut internally by a vertical tunnel designed to set visitors on a journey into science, technology and innovation. The museum’s subjects will also help run the attraction when it opens in the second half of 2024. See visitkorea.or.kr
The Pyramid of Tirana, Albania
Modern-day pyramid.Credit: Ossip van Duivenbode
Communist dictator Enver Hoxha’s daughter commissioned this pyramid in Albania’s capital in 1988 as homage to her brutal father. A poster child of upcycled architecture, it’s since been a nightclub, a radio station and a NATO base during the Kosovo War before its decline into a place for Tirana’s youth to skateboard, slide down and daub with graffiti. Dutch architecture firm MVRDV has transformed it into a cultural hub – the sliding slopes now have stairs so you can safely climb the pyramid for city views, and a series of brightly coloured cubes inside and out house studios and workshops, cafes and technology classrooms for free community education. See albania.al
Saddle Lookout, Port Campbell, Vic
A new viewing platform for the iconic Twelve Apostles.
It’s always high drama on the coastline along the Great Ocean Road, with crashing waves and views of dramatic sunsets and a dozen-or-so Apostles. Connected to the Port Campbell visitor centre, the $9.2 million Saddle Lookout promises to be as dramatic. Melbourne firm Denton Corker Marshall has designed two “clapsticks”, long rectangular walkways that hang over the cliffs, looking out to sea.
One is white, the other black and red, the colours of the Eastern Marr peoples’ two main totemic birds, the Ngayook (sulphur crested cockatoo) and Ponponpoorramook (red-tailed black cockatoo). The lookout opens in time for the summer crowds, and in late 2024 will be complemented by a new lookout at the Loch Ard Gorge blowhole. See parks.vic.gov.au
KAFD metro station, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
The metro station took inspiration from the wind-swept sand dunes.
The signature, sinuous curves of a Zaha Hadid design elevate even metro stations into high art. Riyadh’s population has doubled in the past 30 years, and the challenge is to stop this car-loving boom town from becoming one giant, sweltering traffic jam.The new Riyadh Metro, to be complete by 2030, will comprise 85 stations including the this interchange (due for completion early in 2024) at the new King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD).
Sweeping grids emulate mashrabiya, ornate lattice featured in Arabian architecture.
The facade took inspiration from the waves of sand dunes moulded by desert winds, and the sweeping grids emulate mashrabiya, ornate lattice featured in Arabian architecture. It is also a temperature regulator; fitting as the Kingdom imposes renewable energy requirements on new architecture as it looks to life after petroleum. See visitsaudi.com
Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland
Described by the architect as “a white cloud drifting over the city”.
Lovers of minimalist white have a new hero building in the Polish capital. With its white planes and hard edges, the Museum of Modern Art is the new next-door neighbour to Warsaw’s Soviet-era skyscraper, the Palace of Culture and Science. New York City architect Thomas Phifer describes his Rationalist architecture as “a white cloud drifting over the city”, not the first time he’s used a cloud metaphor for his white, cuboid architecture.
The MOMA is a hot talking point in Poland.
Where the so-called “Cold War Cathedral″ shoots vertically, the MOMA sprawls horizontally. It might not be the most beautiful building in the country, but it’s already a talking point ahead of its opening in late 2024. See artmuseum.pl
New Sydney Fish Market, Sydney, NSW
An artist's impression of the eastern entrance of the new Sydney Fish Market to be built on Bridge Road, Blackwattle Bay.
Who doesn’t love visiting the fishing docks in waterside cities? Sydney is no exception, but its new harbourside fish market, part of the renewal of Blackwattle Bay, plays a slick game. Danish architects 3XN – of the much-awarded Quay Quarter Tower – and Sydney firms BVN and Aspect Studios stay true to its roots as a loading dock for fishing boats, adding restaurants and the working retail and wholesale markets. All is layered beneath undulating waves of roofing, topped by a scaled roof (see what they did there?) With views to the Anzac Bridge and walkways to connect with the city, the new fish market is on track for an October 2024 opening. See sydneyfishmarket.com.au
Pier 97, Hudson River Park, New York, US
New York Pier 97.
New Yorkers have paid $US51 million ($80 million) for about a hectare of waterfront real estate in southern Manhattan with the development of the most northerly pier on the Hudson River, Pier 97. It is now part of the six-kilometre-long Hudson River Park project, which saw its first public beach, Gansevoort Peninsula, open last month. Built in 1921, Pier 97 was a major arrival point for Scandinavian migrants, and starred in the opening of Taxi Driver. This spring, New Yorkers will get parklands, bike and walking trails and a playground with sun lawns, a water play area and solar-powered loos, designed by New York urban design firm !melk. See hudsonriverpark.org
Chengdu Science Fiction Museum, Chengdu, China
The futuristic museum is designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.
Better known for its pandas, Chengdu’s other passion – science fiction – has been thrown on the international stage with the opening of this new museum by Zaha Hadid Architects. Described as a “star cloud dispersing energy fields”, the spaceship-like museum hovers above the shores of the Jingrong Lake. Yet the building is still grounded in its natural environment, with vast, curved light wells and great glass windows looking out over the Xiling Mountain. As well as natural ventilation, it has solar power to earn the highest of China’s green building standards. See zaha-hadid.com
Norwich Castle, Norfolk, UK
Set to reopen mid-2024, with improved accessibility.Credit: iStock
One of the key palaces of the Norman kings, the £15 million ($28.5 million) redevelopment of Norwich Castle will make accessible all five layers of this early medieval castle, from the basement to the battlements. First built as a timber keep by William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, then set in French limestone in the following century, the Norman castle’s latest restoration returns to the original 12th-century design in the castle keep. Around 200 tonnes of new steel has been set beneath the floors as archaeologists and architects unpick renovation works – including one past life as a prison, used until 1800s. It reopens in mid-2024. See museums.norfolk.gov.uk, visitbritain.com
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