2008 in architecture
The year 2008 in architecture involves some significant events.
Buildings
- January 1 - China Central Television Headquarters building, by Rem Koolhaas and OMA, officially opens in Beijing
- January 12 - New Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station officially inaugurated.
- January 28 - Beijing National Aquatics Center, known as the "Water Cube", completed for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
- March 26 - Terminal 3 of the Beijing Capital International Airport opens, designed by Foster + Partners.
- March 27 - London Heathrow Terminal 5 opens, by the Richard Rogers Partnership, now Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.
- April 12 - New National Opera House opens in Oslo.
- April - Maggie's Centre in London, a drop-in cancer care centre designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, opens (Stirling Prize 2009).
- June 28 - Beijing National Stadium designed by Herzog & de Meuron (known as the "Bird's Nest"), opened for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
- August 1 - Opening of the Beijing South Railway Station designed by Terry Farrell.
- August 28 - Shanghai World Financial Center completed in Pudong, Shanghai, China, designed by William Pedersen.
- November - Transformation AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) renovation by Frank Gehry is completed.
- November 20 - Peter B. Lewis Library at Princeton University, by Frank Gehry, officially dedicated.
- November 22 - Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, in Qatar is completed, by architect I.M. Pei.
- Mountain Dwellings, designed by Bjarke Ingels, is completed in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Linked Hybrid, a nine-tower high-rise housing project by Steven Holl Architects, is completed in Beijing, China.
- Torre Caja Madrid (Caja Madrid Tower) completed in Spain, designed by Foster and Partners.
Events
- 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, is listed in the US National Register of Historic Places.
- 23 Marina complex is a residential skyscraper currently under construction in Dubai. The tower is set to have 89 floors and will rise to 395 m (1,296 feet). When this supertall building is complete in 2008, it will bring back the title of the world's tallest residential tower back to Dubai, taking the title from the Q1 Tower in Gold Coast, Queensland. However, its reign as the world's tallest residential tower will not last for long, as Princess Tower, another building in the same city, is scheduled to take the title in 2009.
Awards
Births
Deaths
- January 1 - Harald Deilmann, German architect (b. 1920)
- January 30 - Fernando Higueras, Spanish architect (b. 1930)
- March 5 - Nader Khalili, Iranian architect, writer, and humanitarian (b. 1936)
- March 24 - Victor Christ-Janer, American modernist architect (b. 1915)
- March 29 - Ralph Rapson, American architect (b. 1914)
- March 31 - David Todd, American architect (b. 1915)
- June 15 - Walter Netsch, American architect (b. 1920)
- July 6 - George Tibbits, Australian composer and architect (b. 1933)
- September 18 - Abdur Rahman Hye, Pakistani architect (b. 1919)
- November 14 - Sir Bernard Feilden, conservation architect (b. 1919)