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Today's News - Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Greer calls for a "rational housing policy" that builds upwards, not outwards. -- Indian architects feeling the pinch as developers demand international standards of design. -- Goldberger on newsrooms in the 21st century: NYT's "unadventurous space" vs. Bloomberg's "dazzling work environment." -- KPF takes on WTC5 criticism. -- Could glamorous arts palaces and board rooms be the death knell for some exotic woods? -- Australia's Architects Without Frontiers building sustainable futures. -- A Mississauga hospital brings nature indoors. -- American cities move to minimize McMansions (a.k.a. "plywood palazzos" - that's a new one to us). -- A Twitchell-Rudolph house taken apart; "moving some of it is better than losing all of it." -- Corbu's design for never-built Governor's Palace in Chandigarh to be re-designed as Museum of Knowledge. -- Q&A with Dengle: "Architecture is the only art which demands wanderings through space for us to appreciate it." -- Hopes are high that two-year old USC Architecture Graduate School in the Philippines could produce "long-awaited visionaries." -- Ouroussoff on Adjaye exhibit: "his unusual level of sensitivity makes his future seem promising." -- Global Cities "shows architects have lost their 'utopian drive.'" -- Pugin biography is the new must-read. -- We couldn't resist: a Welsh fantasy village fantasy village of "stage-set tricks and juxtapositions and abiding weirdness."

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The only way is up: Forget the high-rise slums of the past. Building upwards not outwards is the way ahead...Towers supply the most prestigious accommodation in the world...Add the word "block" to the word "tower" and you get squalor...In a rational housing policy, higher density should mean better facilities... By Germaine Greer- Guardian (UK)

Global designs on India: ...developers are signing on architects with a global imprint and Indian architects are feeling just that little bit unsettled....With the Indian real estate market getting exposed to global best practices and international standards of designing...only those architects who rise to the occasion will profit... -- Edifice Architects; Buchan Group; Benoy; EDAW; KTGY- Rediff India

Towers of Babble: What should a newsroom look like in the twenty-first century? If the Times newsroom is an unadventurous space hidden within an architecturally important building, Bloomberg is the opposite: a dazzling work environment tucked inside a refined but conventional skyscraper... By Paul Goldberger -- Renzo Piano/FXFowle; Gensler; Cesar Pelli; Studios Architecture; Pentagram- The New Yorker

Kohn Responds to WTC5 Criticisms: ...confirmed that his team is designing a new headquarters for JPMorgan Chase...and stresses that despite an early PR setback, his design will satisfy project stakeholders as well as the public. -- Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) [images]- Architectural Record

Requiem for the rain forests? Arts palaces, such as Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, are using exotic wood from trees that some consider at risk of becoming extinct...makoré wood's elegance is not debated. But there's a spectrum of opinions on just about everything else...- Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Architects of change target child poverty: For the AIDS orphans of a Malawi border town, local clay and sand are the building blocks of a sustainable future...project is one of 12 being developed in 10 countries by Architects Without Frontiers. -- Sam Crawford- Sydney Morning Herald

Designing healthy hospitals: Bringing elements of nature – sunlight, living trees, timber from British Columbia – and creating a sense of ease and relaxation...to diminish the sense of disorientation and anxiety commonly associated with hospitals. -- Farrow Partnership Architects- Toronto Star

Planners move to close the window on American mansions: Concern for communities and climate may halt zeal for big homes on tiny plots...legislators in cities across the US, alarmed at the spread of "McMansions", are trying to contain the size of American homes.- Guardian (UK)

Historic Sarasota Home Had To Be Destroyed To Be Saved: ...taking the 1941 Twitchell-Rudolph house apart and moving some of it is better than losing all of it.- The Ledger (Florida)

Architects zero in on Chandigarh Governor’s Palace design for Museum of Knowledge: ...would acquire the shape of the building that was originally designed as the Governor’s Palace by the city’s architect Le Corbusier.- Express India

Poetry in architecture: Veteran architect and conservationist Narendra Dengle on the ongoing evolution of architecture..."the only art which demands wanderings through space for us to appreciate it." [images]- The Hindu (India)

Enriching the Professional Psyche: ...University of San Carlos (USC) Architecture Graduate School continues to draw breath...And who knows, these architects could be the long-awaited visionaries for a more livable, properly-zoned and sustainable (less-flyovers and skywalks perhaps) metropolis. By Arch’t. Karl A.E.F. Cabilao, UAP- SunStar (Philippines)

Pursuing Public Space in a Time of Private Interest: “David Adjaye: Making Public Buildings,” at the Studio Museum in Harlem...he seems painfully attuned to the damage that architecture can do. While his unusual level of sensitivity makes his future seem promising, we await the imaginative turn that will make his work wholly his. By Nicolai Ouroussoff [slide show]- New York Times

Reducing cities to a statistical sprawl: The Global Cities exhibition at Tate Modern – all warnings about overpopulation and eco-doom – shows architects have lost their "utopian drive." By Austin Williams- Spiked (UK)

Book review: "God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain" by Rosemary Hill: This magnificent biography contrasts Pugin's small beginnings with his prodigious achievement- The Times (UK)

Book review: Architect, smuggler, madman, genius: "God's Architect: Pugin and the building of Romantic Britain" by Rosemary Hill...beautifully constructed, with due attention paid to every nut and bolt of its subject's "extreme medievalism"- Telegraph (UK)

Where heaven meets Habitat: Rosemary Hill's "God's Architect" shows the huge influence Pugin has had on British design...a superb study of this true romantic and tragic original. By Stephen Bayley- Observer (UK)

A Man’s Whim on the Welsh Coast: Portmeirion, a resort where no one has ever lived, is a fantasy village of stage-set tricks and juxtapositions designed by a self-taught Welsh architect...no renovation has yet tamped down the abiding weirdness... -- Clough Williams-Ellis (1920s); Terence Conran [slide show]- New York Times

-- MAD Ai Weiwei: Hong Luo Club, Beijing, China
-- Exhibition: Sophie Calle: Exquisite Pain (Douleur Exquise), Luxembourg Cultural Capital 2007

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