News: the Museum of Modern Art in New York is to reconsider its decision to demolish the former American Folk Art Museum next door following an outcry from architects, conservationists and critics.

In a board meeting yesterday, the museum's directors heard that design studio Diller Scofidio & Renfro had been selected to oversee MoMA's expansion and explore the option of integrating the former American Folk Art Museum into the plans.

Glenn D. Lowry, MoMA's director, told trustees and staff that the architects wanted to consider "the entirety of the site, including the former American Folk Art Museum building, in devising an architectural solution to the inherent challenges of the project."

Diller Scofidio & Renfro said the institution's directors had given the design team "the time and flexibility to explore a full range of programmatic, spatial and urban options."

"These possibilities include, but are not limited to, integrating the former American Folk Art Museum building, designed by our friends and admired colleagues, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien," the studio said in a statement.

MoMA had planned to demolish the neighbouring building and replace it with a glass-fronted structure linking the art museum's existing space on West 53rd Street with a planned 82-storey tower designed by French architect Jean Nouvel.

In its initial announcement last month, museum officials said the bronze-clad building had to be pulled down because its facade did not match MoMA’s glass aesthetic and its floors would not line up with MoMA’s.

Designed by US architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, the American Folk Art Museum opened its doors just 12 years ago but was sold to MoMA in 2011 to pay off a $32 million loan.

The museum's collection of paintings, sculptures and crafts by self-taught and outsider artists now resides at a smaller site on Lincoln Square, further north in Manhattan.

MoMA's initial decision to tear down the building was met with disappointment by Tsien, who told the New York Times it was "a loss for architecture".

Later this year MoMA will host a major retrospective of the work of modernist architect Le Corbusier – see all news about MoMA and see more architecture in New York.

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News: Italian architects Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas have won a competition to transform the central railway area of Bari, a city in southern Italy, with a proposal to build a three-kilometre-long elevated park over the track.

The winning design, a collaboration between Fuksas and architect Jordi Henrich I Monràs, stretches over an area of 78 hectares and is centred around a large park that will pass over the railway and offer promenade views over the city and the sea.

The project will also provide Bari with a new cultural centre spread across the former Rossani barracks. Existing buildings will be restored and turned into a public library, an exhibition space, municipal offices and workshops for artists, actors and academics.

A new elliptical building with a wood facade will house a 1000-capacity auditorium adaptable to concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and exhibitions, while underground parking will be provided on the northern edge of the park near the railway station.

In the south-west corner of the park, alongside Bari's existing Auditorium Nino Rota, the architects propose to enlarge the city's music conservatory with a new auditorium and teaching rooms as well as an area for outdoor concerts.

Last month the Fuksas duo won a competition for the Moscow Polytechnic Museum and Educational Centre with a design consisting of four copper-clad elements, while in January they completed a new building for the National Archives of France – see all architecture by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas.

In 2011, a two-and-a-half mile-long elevated park called The High Line opened on abandoned railway along 22 blocks of downtown Manhattan, while last year Danish architects BIG completed a project to place a 750-metre-long carpet of grass and rubber through Copenhagen – see all parks and gardens.

Here's some more information from the architects:

International competition for the "Baricentrale railway area", Italy, won by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas + Jordi Henrich I Monràs

Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas along with Jordi Henrich I Monràs have won the international competition for the design of the railway area "Baricentrale".

The international competition launched by the Municipality of Bari, aimed to promote the transformation of the city, using the reorganisation of the railway area which has long acted as a rift that cuts through the city, as the starting point for its transformation. The site of the project stretches over an area of 78 hectares which is divided into 7 segments.

The decision of the jury in choosing the winning design team came about on the basis of the following main reasons: the ability to fully respond with consistency and quality to the primal need of the city, that of reconnecting the two “sides” of the railway area which have been split apart for so long; the integration of buildings situated on the two sides, through the realisation of a large elevated park; the introduction of an increase of the current building density, balanced and well distributed between the different compartments; the proposal having a high level of environmental sustainability as its main characteristic.

The project signed by Studio Fuksas desires to solve the issue of the fracture of the city of Bari in a radical way through the design of a large city park with promenade views of the city and the sea, which acts as the connective tissue of the entire project. Without burying the rail track, the project aims at the rebirth of a strongly degraded area and pass through a large elevated park, 3 km long with an east-west bike path. A big lung which will double the amount of green for inhabitants, from the current 2.7 m to 5.1 m ab / ab.

The sub-sector of the barrack Rossani, composed of 5 buildings has been assigned an important role. It will become the cultural centre of the city of Bari with spaces for social gatherings in a green area. Existing buildings will be restored without altering the architectural shape. Their function will be related to culture and arts. The building positioned at the center of the park (1400 square meters) will host the municipal offices. The building D will host workshops for artists and fellows of the Academy of Fine Arts in Bari; the building E (2930 sqm) will become the city's public library with specialized sections devoted to the visual arts, theater, music and architecture, the building F (2,184 sqm) is transformed into a huge exhibition space for temporary exhibitions and will support the educational activities of the Academy of Fine Arts. The building H (2890 square meters) will host residencies for artists, actors, contract professors, scholars and students of the academy linked to European programs of cultural exchange. The ground floor will also house a café open to the public and immersed in the park. It will include the construction of an underground parking with 800 seats, located in the northern edge of the Park Rossani near the new Central Station.

At the centre of the regular structure of the barrack will arise the auditorium / performance centre with a capacity of about 1,000 seats. The architectural shape of the elliptical performance center generates a volume from soft geometries that deliberately contrasts with the rigidity of existing buildings. A multi-purpose building that can accommodate a variety of events and activities such as concerts, theater, conferences, exhibitions and film screenings. Common areas, the cafeteria and the foyer are fully glazed in order to create a relationship of continuity between inside and outside. The wood will be the outer skin of the structure of the facade of the building in order to be in harmony with the park and vegetation.

The city of music will be built at the south-west of the park. The function is already defined by the presence of the Auditorium Nino Rota. The existing structure also plays a supporting role at the Conservatory Niccolo Piccinni. The project proposes to shape a genuine city of music providing for the enlargement of about 2000 square meters of the conservatory with a new building that will house a 400-seat auditorium and music school. Furthermore it is also planned to build an area for outdoor concerts with 400 seats. The park of music because of the new structure planned by the master plan is easily accessible from the city centre.

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News: Herzog & de Meuron has been chosen to design the new National Library of Israel in Jerusalem after the initial competition winner was dismissed over a copyright dispute.

The Swiss firm won out against international architects Frank Gehry and Renzo Piano along with three Israeli architects – Kolker Kolker Epstein, Kimmel Eshkolot and Dina Amar and Avraham Korial.

Entrants to the relaunched competition were not asked to submit detailed plans for the building but instead underwent an interview with the competition jury. No images of the winning project are available yet.

Herzog & de Meuron's appointment comes just four months after Israeli architect Rafi Segal was ousted from the job when one of his former colleagues at the Harvard School of Design challenged his ownership of the winning design.

Bing Wang said she and her company, HyperBina, had worked on Segal's entry and should have been credited for their role when the announcement of the winner was made in September 2012.

Segal, who has has launched a legal challenge against the project backers' decision in the the hope of being reinstated, said he had intended to name the full design team as soon as he had permission to publicise his win. A Jerusalem court is due to consider Segal's claim on 8 May.

Construction recently started on two Herzog & de Meuron-designed projects in Europe – a football stadium in Bordeaux, France, and an outdoor bathing lake in Riehen, Switzerland. See all architecture by Herzog & de Meuron.

Other libraries we've reported on lately include Snøhetta's completed a library at North Carolina State University featuring a robotic book retrieval system and a 3D printing workshop, while a library dedicated to design has recently opened in Seoul, South Korea. See all libraries.

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News: planning permission has been granted for Daniel Libeskind's proposed peace centre on the site of the notorious former Maze prison in Belfast.

Northern Ireland's environment minister Alex Attwood announced yesterday that the new Peace building and Conflict Resolution Centre (PbCRC) has been given the green light, along with the conservation of surrounding buildings.

A collaboration between Studio Daniel Libeskind and Belfast architects McAdam Design, the centre will support the work of peace building organisations in the region.

Used to house paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles, the Maze prison, also known as Long Kesh, became notorious for the hunger strikes of 1981, in which ten prisoners died. The prison was closed in 2000.

"It is truly meaningful to build a hope-filled common ground, to tell individual stories and to do so at Maze Long Kesh," said Libeskind.

The redevelopment is set to cost £300 million, with the peace centre itself wholly funded through an £18 million grant from the European Union's PEACE III Programme.

Plans to redevelop part of the site as a showground were approved back in January, with the aim of relocating the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society's annual show from its current Belfast location.

Libeskind's work includes a number of other monuments to conflict, such as the Imperial War Museum North in Salford, England, and the Institute for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, due to be built at the University of Essex in England – see all architecture by Daniel Libeskind.

Other Belfast projects we've featured include a performing arts centre with a volcanic stone facade and a maritime museum dedicated to the RMS Titanic.

Images are by Studio Daniel Libeskind.

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News: the Museum of Modern Art in New York is to raze the former American Folk Art Museum next door just 12 years after its completion by US architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.

The bronze-clad museum, which opened its doors in December 2001, will be demolished and replaced with a glass-fronted building linking MoMA's existing space on West 53rd Street with a planned 82-storey tower designed by French architect Jean Nouvel.

The American Folk Art Museum, which holds a collection of paintings, sculptures and crafts by self-taught and outsider artists, was sold to MoMA in 2011 to pay off a $32 million loan. It currently exists at a smaller site on Lincoln Square, further north in Manhattan.

While the MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry said the demolition was not a comment on the architectural quality of the building, the news was met with disappointment by Tsien, who told the New York Times she saw the building as a "beloved small child".

"It's a kind of loss for architecture," she said, "because it's a special building, a kind of small building that's crafted, that's particular and thoughtful at a time when so many buildings are about bigness."

The expansion across both the folk art museum site and the Nouvel building will provide MoMA with approximately 4600 square metres of additional floor space.

When Nouvel's tower is complete in 2017 or 2018, its second, fourth and fifth floors will line up with the same levels in MoMA's existing building over the road, but the art museum is still deciding what to put at ground level on the site of Williams and Tsien's building.

In January this year, the architects' Barnes Foundation art gallery in Philadelphia won an Institute Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects.

A major retrospective of the work of modernist architect Le Corbusier opens at MoMA this June – see all news about MoMA and see more architecture in New York.

Photograph by Dan Nguyen.

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