Today’s News - Monday, February 7, 2011
• ArcSpace brings us eyefuls of Morphosis's giant HQ in Shanghai.
• Davidson gets the inside scoop on Bjarke Ingels plan to reinvent the NYC apartment building: "It looks wild, but it's born of logic; true originality is the inevitable endpoint of rigorous thought" (looks pretty cool to us, so far).
• Moore spends some quality time with Chipperfield and finds out "why he values substance above spectacle" (architecture "has found itself either as a freakshow, where you're not sure if it's good or bad but at least it's interesting, or at the behest of forces of commerce" - ouch!).
• Lubell digs deep into the "soil-meets-steel trend," the blurring of boundaries between architects and landscape architects, and how "earth-itecture" is taking off.
• A 40-year-old Seattle firm "inspired by the power-to-the-people activism of the Vietnam era" offers its own inspiration by focusing "almost exclusively on projects for the poorest among us."
• Culvahouse explores the "once common, often humble and convivial" New Orleans corner stores that "were the byproduct of design ingenuity and local experience" that designers working to rebuild the city should consider.
• Mays cheers Clewes's "urbane modernism" and his towering plans for "a lost piece" of Toronto's Bloor Street: it "reaches a new level of monumentality - and audacity" (in a good way).
• Litt has high hopes that Cleveland's casino plan will treat a "beloved" Art Deco building "with a light hand" and "pump noticeable vitality into the grand but somewhat tattered heart of the city."
• A Scottish architect scores another big win with a big project near the Great Wall of China.
• Bernstein finds out from Burden what makes NYC's new handbook that demystifies zoning almost revolutionary: "It turns out that boring old zoning, when used creatively...could help activists and residents shape their neighborhoods (oh - it's also "entertaining" and "fun to read" too - hopefully other cities will follow?).
• LeBlanc laments the probable loss of a 1950s Montreal Trend House: "Canadian Trend House houses are 'equally important' as their American Case Study counterparts" (so start paying some attention!).
• Triangle Modernist Houses.com launches "Pioneering Black Architects in North Carolina," an online archive that focuses on black design professionals before 1970.
• Some "farmer-engineers" are "bringing high-tech savvy to the age-old pastoral dream" - so "move over, Mad Max!"
• One we couldn't resist: "World's Coolest Public Urinal, and How It Was Invented."
• Call for entries: DawnTown 2011: The Floating Stage international architecture ideas competition for Hilario Candela's historic Miami Marine Stadium + Street Furniture 2011 to revitalize a vacant site (not limited to benches).
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Morphosis: Giant Interactive Group, Headquarters, Shanghai, China -- SWA Group; TOPO Design Group |
Pyramid Scheme: Bjarke Ingels reinvents the New York apartment building...It looks wild, but it’s born of logic; true originality is the inevitable endpoint of rigorous thought. By Justin Davidson -- Bjarke Ingels Group/BIG [image]- New York Magazine |
David Chipperfield: A master of permanence comes home: After decades of success abroad, [he] is at last winning recognition at home. With two major galleries opening this spring – his first public works in Britain – he tells Rowan Moore why he values substance above spectacle..."Architecture...has found itself either as a freakshow, where you're not sure if it's good or bad but at least it's interesting..." [slide show]- Observer (UK) |
Budding Relationship: The merger of landscape and architecture is creating fertile new approaches to building...soil-meets-steel trend...Building green and stretching creative boundaries are just two reasons that “earth-itecture” is taking off. By Sam Lubell -- Michael Maltzan; James Burnett; Fentress Architects; Renzo Piano; Belzberg Architects; Morphosis; SWA; Interstice Architects; NBBJ; Freeland Buck; LMN; Kevin deFreitas [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Seattle's Environmental Works builds for the least of us: Inspired by the power-to-the-people activism of the Vietnam era, a group of young architecture-school grads at the University of Washington started Environmental Works on the very first Earth Day in April 1970. Forty years later, the firm...focuses almost exclusively on projects for the poorest among us.- Seattle Times |
The New Orleans Corner Store: ...a once common type...These often humble and convivial places were the byproduct of design ingenuity and local experience...worth the consideration of designers working on the rehabilitation of the city. By Tim Culvahouse [images]- Places Journal |
Plans for a lost piece of Bloor East: With this proposal, Peter Clewes’ urbane modernism...reaches a new level of monumentality – and audacity. “I am hoping for architectural debate"...He will likely get his wish, when this attractive scheme emerges from the shadows of city bureaucracy and comes under public scrutiny, as is due to happen shortly. By John Bentley Mays -- architectsAlliance [images]- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
Casino won't dramatically alter Cleveland's beloved Higbee building [1931]: ...won’t be drastically altered by putting a casino in the basement and on the first three floors...plans to treat the building with a light hand...could pump noticeable vitality into Public Square, the grand but somewhat tattered heart of the city. By Steven Litt -- KA Architecture; Robert P. Madison International [images]- Cleveland Plain Dealer |
Architect’s £75m China commission: Scottish architect Keppie is to consolidate its already strong foothold in China, with a commission for a series of 30 "corporate clubhouses" for a site near the Great Wall of China.- The Herald (Scotland) |
A New City Handbook Demystifies Zoning: “It turns out that boring old zoning, when used creatively, can be used to solve a whole lot of problems...is entertaining — it’s fun to read"...could help activists and residents shape their neighborhoods... By Fred A. Bernstein -- Amanda Burden [images, links]- New York Times |
A model of 1950s design, but time is up: We don’t celebrate our own...that would mean we regard architecture as something that transcends generations, or a teaching tool, or as our collective dreams made real from bricks and mortar. But we don’t, and that’s why we’re on the verge of losing the Montreal Trend House...Canadian Trend House houses are “equally important” as their American Case Study counterparts... By Dave LeBlanc -- Michael Goodfellow; Philip F. Goodfellow [images]- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
Triangle Modernist Houses.com has launched a new online archive entitled “Pioneering Black Architects in North Carolina.” The series is a sequel to last year’s popular “Pioneering Women in North Carolina Architecture"...focuses on black design professionals before 1970... -- Phil Freelon/The Freelon Group; Harvey Gantt/Gantt Huberman Architects; Robert Robinson Taylor; Gaston Alonzo Edwards; William Alfred Streat, Jr.; Clinton Eugene Gravely; Joseph Henry Yongue; Arthur John Clement- dBusiness News |
A "Life-Sized Lego Set" for Creating Towns That Sustain Themselves: The Global Village Construction Set is a set of 40 tools upon which to build a sustainable small civilization. Move over Mad Max! The farmer-engineers of Open Source Ecology are bringing high-tech savvy to the age-old pastoral dream. [images, video]- Fast Company |
World's Coolest Public Urinal, and How It Was Invented: Form follows bodily function to create the perfect pissoir, designed for Victoria by Matthew Soules...worked hard to fuse history, economy, utility and aesthetics into one cohesive, low-tech, ad-free, perfect design. By Adele Weder [slide show]- The Tyee (Vancouver) |
Call for entries: DawnTown 2011: The Floating Stage - international architecture ideas competition for a floating stage that will compliment Hilario Candela's historic Miami Marine Stadium; cash prizes; registration deadline: April 11- DawnTown (Miami) |
Call for entries: Street Furniture 2011: Design one or more pieces of ‘street furniture’ that can revitalize a vacant site (not limited to benches); winning designers will have at least one piece built; deadline: February 25- Architecture for Humanity Chicago |
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