MAD Architects has revealed new renderings of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art that’s just broke ground in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park this week. Founded by “Star Wars” creator George Lucas, the museum will take on a fittingly futuristic spaceship-like appearance crafted in MAD Architects’ iconic curvaceous style. The US$ 1.5 billion museum is expected to be complete and open to the public by the second half of 2021. Since winning the International Competition of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in 2014, MAD Architects has developed three unique designs for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, each of which respond to the three proposed project locations in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The non-profit museum’s confirmed home in Los Angeles sits on approximately 44.5 thousand square meters of land in Exposition Park. The building’s interior has been designed as an expansive, open cave, flooded with natural light from skylights above. At least US$ 400 million worth of art will be housed in the museum, including over 10,000 paintings, illustrations and movie memorabilia. Skylights allow sunlight to flood the interior space, and guide visitors through the museum’s various programs. The first floor and roof of the building are expansive public areas that can be enjoyed by everyone. People can exercise here, relax, talk to the surrounding natural environment, and directly experience nature in the urban environment.”

Dutch firm MVRDV has built a public library that looks like a huge eye, as part of a new cultural district in Tianjin, China. The atrium of the Tianjin Binhai Public Library is deliberately designed to look like a 3D eyeball, staring out through the building's glazed façade, reported the Dezeen. The five-storey-high space is framed by floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, which are staggered at different levels to form the shape of an eye socket, while a spherical mirrored auditorium at the centre forms the pupil. The curving lines of the shelves provide areas where visitors can sit and read, and observe others doing the same. They also continue out across the glass facade, forming louvers that deflect the glare of the sun. MVRDV first revealed its designs for the Tianjin Binhai Public Library in June 2016, when construction was already well underway. It is one of five buildings commissioned by the Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute to form a new cultural centre for the Binhai district of the coastal city. The master plan for the area was set by German firm GMP – and MVRDV found it a struggle to fit the entire program into the allotted space. It was this that led the team to create the spherical auditorium at the centre. The 33,700-square-metre building is the Dutch firm's fastest project completion to date – with a period of just three years between the first sketch and the opening ceremony. Fast-tracking the process caused a few design headaches. The upper shelves directly above the atrium are currently unreachable, after planned access rooms were dropped – a decision MVRDV said was taken by the local team against their advice. As a result, these shelves are covered in perforated aluminum plates that printed to look like books. They are cleaned using a system of moveable scaffolding and ropes. The library also houses education facilities, which are located around the periphery of the interior and accessed via the main hall. Subterranean rooms hold a large archive and provide extra book storage. Reading areas for children and the elderly are located on the ground floor, with reading rooms and lounge areas on the first and second floors. The upper floors contain meeting rooms, offices, computer rooms and two rooftop terraces. Tianjin Binhai Public Library sits alongside building a new exhibition center by GMP, as well as other cultural buildings by Bernard Tschumi Architects, Bing Thom Architects and HH Design. All five are connected by a public corridor sheltered beneath a glass canopy.