Today’s News - Monday, December 20, 2010
• ArcSpace brings us an eyeful of Gehry's "Treehouse" about to take route on the UTS campus in Sydney.
• Gehry gets the Playboy treatment (all in good taste) with a candid, thoughtful (and often amusing) Q&A.
• Moore takes a tour of Masdar City with Foster and really likes what he sees (though he does find "something spooky in the controls it employs in the name of the environment - a touch of eco-Orwell"); on the other hand, the Zayed National Museum "looks a bit daft. How can this be?"
• Puglisi pits Hadid's MAXXII against Decq's MACRO in Rome: one is a "work of elevated architectural poetry"; the other, "an architectural landscape of such contagious beauty" (but there can be only one winner).
• The new Ottawa Convention Centre is "bold, innovative, audacious," and might help the city "shed its reputation for bland," but "can one building, no matter how spectacular, transform a city and change its psyche?"
• Architects weigh in on the convention center: A tulip? A barge? Maybe a bustier? No matter what, it is "unusual for Ottawa" and "marks a new era for architecture here."
• King cheers Berkeley's Ed Roberts Campus: universal design, not flashy architecture, creates "an egalitarian oasis that, with luck, will send ripples into the mainstream."
• Recycled and repurposed material brings out the creative side of architects and builders: "There's not yet a container city in New York - but there will be."
• A sneak-peek at the High Line's next phase: the "new section feels more like a walk on the wild side" (we can't wait!).
• Salant queries Cisneros re: how to help home buyers, and gets a surprising response: "his focus was on construction quality" - not financial factors.
• Nigerian architects "decry illicit foreign incursion" by improperly registered overseas talent - plenty of good local talent could/should be hired.
• Goldberger's Top 10 architectural events of 2010: if Gehry "has really found a way to make adventuresome architecture economically viable for commercial developers, who knows what may happen" (and parks! and subways! and meaningful exhibitions - oh my!).
• Hawthorne's annual review is sandwiched between the Burj Khalifa and a musical about Atlantic Yards: "two cautionary tales about Brobdignagian urban dreams."
• Lewis's pet peeves about D.C. and its architecture: "A number of these plaints appeared in my first pet peeve column, written in the 1980s. Some things never change."
• Campbell cheers MoMA's "Small Scale/Big Change": "proof that the ideal of a healing profession hasn't disappeared from architecture."
• McDonald cheers "Redrawing Dublin"; written by a senior city planner and an architect, it "challenges policy-makers and citizens to confront its contradictions."
• An eyeful of the Total Housing: Apartments competition winners.
• Call for entries/nominations: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum 12th annual National Design Awards + International Design Awards for Architecture, Interior, Fashion, Graphic and Product Design.
• We couldn't resist ('tis the season, after all): Abu Dhabi hotel "regrets" its $11 million Christmas tree: was it "innocent good cheer or unfortunate bad taste"?
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Gehry Partners: Dr. Chau Chak Wing Building, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia |
Frank Gehry: Playboy Interview: A candid conversation about why people love good design, why they fear it and how The Simpsons got it wrong..."Globalized no taste"..."computers allow architects to remain parental instead of being marginalized by the contractors and managers."- Playboy magazine |
Masdar City: the gulf between wisdom and folly: Norman Foster shows Rowan Moore how his developments in Abu Dhabi aim to marry modern innovations and centuries-old Islamic building practices...Sustainability...shapes architecture and town planning for the better and is not just a series of technical fixes...although there is something spooky in the controls it employs in the name of the environment – a touch of eco-Orwell or at least eco-Huxley. -- Foster + Partners- Observer (UK) |
Modern Rome: MAXXI vs. MACRO: An Italian critic weighs in on Rome's latest museums by Zaha Hadid and Odile Decq...because both works are designed by women architects, both with extraordinary personalities, united by a subtle relationship of rivalry...Who won? The question is perhaps banal and out of place because both structures are optimum. By Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
A city-changing building: With the new Ottawa Convention Centre, the capital prepares to shed its reputation for bland. But...can one building, no matter how spectacular, transform a city and change its psyche?...[it] is everything Ottawa is not. Bold and innovative, audacious and somewhat in your face, the crystalline building stands out as a significant civic achievement...could transform the city economically, but whether it would inspire great design is another matter. -- Brisbin Brook Beynon Architects- Ottawa Citizen (Canada) |
Landmark design or Bytown bustier? Architects have their say on the new Ottawa Convention Centre...Is it a tulip? A barge? ...unusual for Ottawa, which has been fond of new buildings designed with heritage in mind...marks a new era for architecture here. -- Brisbin Brook Beynon Architects- Ottawa Citizen (Canada) |
Berkeley's Ed Roberts Campus has access for all: The result isn't flashy architecture. Instead, the 82,000-square-foot building...excels as a different sort of showcase..."The more I did this project, the more I realized that good architecture is a social justice issue"...The existence of this campus does more than honor a pioneer. It is an egalitarian oasis that, with luck, will send ripples into the mainstream. John King -- William Leddy/Leddy Maytum Stacy [images]- San Francisco Chronicle |
Junkyard Architecture: The economic downturn and a shift to recycled and repurposed material have brought out the creative side of architects and builders...“There’s not yet a container city in New York — but there will be" -- Young Woo & Associates; LOT-EK; Ole Sondresen Architect- New York Times |
High Line’s Next Phase: Less Glitz, More Intimacy: Rare views and creative uses of the ever-changing urban context await visitors on the next section...due to open in the spring. Take a peek...new section feels more like a walk on the wild side. -- Diller Scofido + Renfro; James Corner Field Operations [images]- New York Times |
Former HUD secretary Cisneros weighs in on how to help home buyers: In a marked departure from other housing experts, he did not discuss mortgages, foreclosures, adjustable-rate mortgages or any other financial factors. Instead, his focus was on construction quality...Enacting construction standards at the local level could bring some relief, but this will be a slow and arduous process... By Katherine Salant- Washington Post |
Indigenous architects decry illicit foreign incursion: ...blamed the Federal Government for the illegal activities of foreign architects in Nigeria by allowing them to operate whereas, by law, they are not permitted to practice in the country without being registered. -- Roti Delano/Association of Consulting Architects Nigeria (ACAN)- Vanguard (Nigeria) |
New York Architecture: Ten architectural events in 2010 that will have a meaningful effect on 2011 (and beyond). By Paul Goldberger -- Michael Van Valkenburgh; I.M. Pei; Diller Scofidio + Renfro; “Small Scale, Big Change"/Museum of Modern Art; “Sukkah City"/Reboot; “The Lindsay Years"/Museum of the City of New York; Frank Gehry; FDR Memorial/Louis Kahn; Henry Cobb/Pei Cobb Freed [slide show essay]- New Yorker |
Notes on a Year: The Burj Khalifa and "In the Footprint," odd as it might sound, were...two sides of the same coin, two cautionary tales about Brobdignagian urban dreams unique to the architecture of the last decade. By Christopher Hawthorne -- Adrian Smith; Frank Gehry; SHoP; Kazuyo Sejima/Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA; Venturi Scott Brown; Anthony Vidler; James Stirling; Barry Bergdoll; Henry Urbach; HKS [slide show]- Los Angeles Times |
Roger K. Lewis's pet peeves about the District and its architecture: Peeves vary in scale, but all are attributable to faulty design, questionable construction standards, misunderstood human needs and behavior, and sometimes poor maintenance.- Washington Post |
Design in another dimension: morality: "Small Scale/Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement" at at the Museum of Modern Art showcases buildings that meet needs of the underprivileged...proof that the ideal of a healing profession hasn’t disappeared from architecture...works are modest. All were very inexpensive. But they do more than merely perform a social service. They are also distinguished purely as works of architecture. By Robert Campbell -- Hashim Sarkis; Anna Beringer; Teddy Cruz- Boston Globe |
Champions of city living: It’s Dublin, but not as it’s usually portrayed. A senior city planner and an architect have taken a fresh, provocative look at the city and redefined it..."Redrawing Dublin" by Paul Kearns and Motti Ruimy...challenges policy-makers and citizens to confront its contradictions... By Frank McDonald- Irish Times |
Total Housing: Apartments Winners Announced: Five firms receive exhibition, publication, cash prize -- H20 architectes; Nabito Arquitectura; Tiago Barros; J. Matthew Thomas; Pratt Institute [images]- Actar / Architizer.com / Storefront for Art & Architecture |
Call for entries/nominations: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum 12th annual National Design Awards; deadline: January 10, 2011- Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum |
Call for entries: International Design Awards for Architecture, Interior, Fashion, Graphic and Product Designers; deadline: January 15, 2011- International Design Awards (IDA) |
Too much seasonal spirit: Abu Dhabi hotel 'regrets' £7m [$11m] Christmas tree: Emirates Palace hotel has second thoughts over decision to 'overload' tree with diamonds, rubies and other gems...after questions arose about whether the opulent tree was innocent good cheer or unfortunate bad taste.- Guardian (UK) |
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