David Chipperfield Architects has had a busy year so far. The Anchorage Museum is the firm's second museum re-opening in the space of a month - see Berlin's Neues Museum in icon 070.

The extension is based on five elongated volumes of different length and height, connected lengthways to the existing museum building. The five new "boxes" form a new front to the museum and will house a new entrance as well as additional exhibition and education spaces. It is covered in 600 mirrored glass panels reflecting its surroundings and creating an obvious link to the city.

We have yet to see images of the interior of the museum but are told it is making the concrete structure part of the character of the internal spaces. The main public areas, such as the entrance lobby, circulation atrium and cafe, are decorated using different colours and materials to give each its own identity.

Meanwhile, over in Barcelona, Chipperfield is completing his largest project to date, the City of Justice. Look out for it in icon 074, out in July.

image Christian Richters