Today’s News - Monday, November 19, 2012
• ArcSpace brings us Casanova + Hernandez's Ceramic Museum and Mosaic Garden in Jinzhou, China, and Maltzan's Playa Vista Park in California.
• AIArchitect's special issue on "design for the common good" is packed with information and inspiration (and well worth bookmarking and spending time with).
• Fairs offers a most interesting Q&A with Neri and Hu: "Architects in China are lost" and "need to develop their own design manifesto to stem the tide of 'half-assed' building projects in the country" + link to Chen: "China needs to slow down."
• Rural treats taking over city streets in Britain: meadows next to tower blocks and lots of farmers' markets - "cities can't seem to get enough of the countryside."
• Hume cheers plans for Toronto's Queens Quay makeover from "a messy and dysfunctional downtown thoroughfare" into an "elegant" boulevard: "There won't be less traffic, but it will be friendlier."
• An international shortlist of 5 vie to bring Lexington, Kentucky's now-buried Town Branch Creek to the surface with visions for a two-mile stretch of green space through downtown.
• Saffron cheers 4 teams' visions to revive Philly's "comatose boulevard" (South Broad Street) with "quickie, low-cost improvements," though "the problem now is that there is a real danger in overestimating the healing power of parks" + 2 of the 4 tied for first place.
• A landscape architect has big plans to transform swaths of scrubgrass brownfield around a massive affordable housing development in Brooklyn.
• Heathcote is practically head-over-heels with what some architects, artists - and scientists - are doing with concrete: "the delight is in seeing something delicate or traditionally crafted made from a material as clunky as concrete" (microbes included).
• Metcalfe muses on Hadid's Tokyo National Stadium that "looks like a xenomorphic dreadnaught flown in from Nebulon 7" - it's also "magnificent but slightly fear-breeding" (with pix to prove it).
• Cox careens around Hadid's Broad Museum at MSU: "As a work of architecture, it is delightfully bad at being Midwestern"; it is "also challenging as a place to view art. Like Hadid herself, the interior can't help but steal the limelight" (also with pix to prove it).
• Architect and former RIBA president George Ferguson (of red-trouser fame) overcomes 5-to-1 odds to be elected mayor of Bristol, U.K.
• With only a few days left, Menking and Chan weigh in on Cooper Union's Scolari exhibition: "His theoretical and historical musings about architecture and the modern city could not appear at a more appropriate time."
• Litt lauds Speck's "Walkable City": a "refreshing, lively and engaging new book" that "isn't a harangue, it's a fun, readable and persuasive call to arms."
• Call for entries (registration or submission deadlines loom!): BMW Guggenheim Lab International Design Competition: redesign one of Mumbai's busiest transportation hubs + 2013 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence + 2012 Western Red Cedar Architectural Design Awards + RFP: Design and the Learning Environment proposals to complete an environmental scan and literature review of current research.
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-- Under construction: Casanova + Hernandez architects: Ceramic Museum and Mosaic Garden, Jinzhou, China
-- Michael Maltzan Architecture: Playa Vista Park, Playa Vista, California |
Form, Function, Force Multiplier: Design for the Common Good: AIA Responds to Hurricane Sandy + Public Interest Design Institute Asks, "Who do Architects Work For?" + Adapting Detroit for the Creative-Class Economy + Urban Oasis: How Via Verde Provides Healthy Living to the South Bronx; etc. -- Robert Ivy; Bryan Bell/Design Corps; Architecture for Humanity; Design for the Other 90%; Samuel Mockbee/RuralStudio; Public Architecture; The 1%; Jamie Blosser/Atkin Olshin Schade Architects; Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship; SEED (Social Economic Environmental Design); Michael Murphy/Alan Ricks/MASS Design Group; Christian Unverzagt/M1/DTW; Grimshaw/Dattner Architects; AIA R/UDAT; etc.- AIArchitect |
“Architects in China are lost”: Chinese architects need to develop their own design manifesto to stem the tide of “half-assed” building projects in the country, according to Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu of Shanghai studio Neri&Hu - Q&A with Marcus Fairs + “China needs to slow down” – Beijing Design Week creative director Aric Chen- Dezeen |
The new ruralism: how the pastoral idyll is taking over our cities: Meadows nestling beside tower blocks, children cavorting in rustic playgrounds, not to mention all those farmers' markets...cities can't seem to get enough of the countryside...In architecture...the big move is "the return of windows that open" – which sounds worryingly as if someone has found a way to sell us fresh air.- Guardian (UK) |
A boulevard runs through it: the Queens Quay remake: ...we have to thank Waterfront Toronto...What’s now a messy and dysfunctional downtown thoroughfare will become an elegant street shared equally by cars, public transit, pedestrians, cyclists — and trees..."There won’t be less traffic, but it will be friendlier." By Christopher Hume -- Adriaan Geuze/West 8- Toronto Star |
5 firms vying to design Town Branch Commons: ...bringing Town Branch Creek to the surface for the first time in more than 100 years...a process often called daylighting — has been around for years...envisioned as a two-mile stretch of green space through downtown... -- Gary Bates/Space Group; Civitas; Coen+Partners; Inside Outside; JDS/Julien De Smedt Architects; SCAPE/Landscape Architecture- Lexington Herald-Leader (Kentucky) |
The road ahead for South Broad St.? ...we are coming up on the 20th anniversary of the effort to revive that comatose boulevard by renaming it the Avenue of the Arts...held a kind of speed-dating exercise...to generate ideas for quickie, low-cost improvements...none succeed in articulating a comprehensive vision...The problem now is that there is a real danger in overestimating the healing power of parks. By Inga Saffron -- Bohlin Cywinski Jackson; Studio Bryan Hanes; LRSLAstudio; Cairone & Kaupp; Jonathan Alderson Landscape Architects [images]- Philadelphia Inquirer |
The Avenue of the Arts, Inc. Announces Phase II of New Vision for South Broad Street Project: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and Jonathan Alderson Landscape Architects to Participate in Phase II of “New Vision for South Broad Street” RFP Project...will present refined proposals in early 2013 and a winner will be selected. -- Cairone & Kaupp; LRSLA Studio- PR Web |
Carte Blanche: Nancy Owens Studio designing a park in a massive affordable housing development in East New York...the first of three in-fill projects...Gateway Park will replace swaths of scrubgrass brownfield that surround Gateway Estates housing development.- The Architect's Newspaper |
The stuff of modernity cements its reputation: ...despite those dystopian associations, no material has been so consistently revived, recycled reimagined and reinvented...there has been a move away from concrete’s more obvious applications...the delight is in seeing something delicate or traditionally crafted made from a material as clunky as concrete. By Edwin Heathcote -- Aron Losonczi; Thorsten Kloster/Heike Klussmann; Studio Molen- Financial Times (UK) |
Zaha Hadid Designs an Alien Mothership for Tokyo: Did a UFO abduct Zaha Hadid? Because her vision for this Tokyo National Stadium looks like a xenomorphic dreadnaught flown in from Nebulon 7...now must prepare this magnificent but slightly fear-breeding stadium in time for the 2019 Rugby World Cup... By John Metcalfe [images]- The Atlantic Cities |
Crit> The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University: As a work of architecture, [it] is delightfully bad at being Midwestern. Sharp, flashy, and screaming for attention...At its worst, the metal siding pieces can look like a gargantuan cheese grater. But the form...provides a much-needed challenge to its surroundings...also challenging as a place to view art. Like Hadid herself, the interior can’t help but steal the limelight... By Sarah F. Cox -- Hamilton Anderson Architecture + Landscape Architecture [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Mayor talks to the AJ: 'This is the biggest job any architect can have': Bristol’s new mayor, architect George Ferguson...plans to learn from Manchester, create the city’s own star architects and make Bristol the ‘first stop’ outside London for visitors to the UK + Reactions (link). By Richard Waite -- Ferguson Mann Architects- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Architectural Enigma: William Menking reviews Cooper Union's "Massimo Scolari: The Representation of Architecture": His theoretical and historical musings about architecture and the modern city could not appear at a more appropriate time given...the economic crises that has forced many young architects out of work, giving them time to think and dream not about building, but about the future of their profession, culture, and society. [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
The Critical Surrealism of Massimo Scolari Reimagines the Architectural Drawing: “Massimo Scolari: The Representation of Architecture"...in its final week at the Cooper Union...reinvigorates an important dialogue, challenging the dogmas that gird visual culture now more than ever. By Kelly Chan [images]- Artinfo |
Jeff Speck's "Walkable City" is good primer on improving public realm for people, not cars: ...refreshing, lively and engaging new book...takes the sensible approach...the humble sidewalk is more important to urbanity, the economy and the environment than the most spectacular architectural masterpiece by Frank Gehry...isn’t a harangue, it’s a fun, readable and persuasive call to arms. By Steven Litt- Cleveland Plain Dealer |
Call for entries: BMW Guggenheim Lab International Design Competition: “Rethinking Kala Nagar Traffic Junction" - redesign one of Mumbai’s busiest transportation hubs; cash prizes; registration deadline: December 3, 2012; submission deadline: January 3, 2013- BMW Guggenheim Lab Mumbai / Mumbai Environmental Social Network (MESN) |
Deadline reminder: Call for entries: 2013 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence: projects must be a real places located in the continental U.S.; one $50,000 Gold Medal winner, four Silver Medals - $10,000 each; deadline: December 10- Bruner Foundation |
Call for entries: 2012 Western Red Cedar Architectural Design Awards; no fee; deadline: December 15- Western Red Cedar Lumber Association (WRCLA) |
Call for entries: Request for Proposals/RFP: Design and the Learning Environment: requesting proposals to complete an environmental scan and literature review of current research on the relationship between teaching and learning and the learning environment; deadline: December 14- American Architectural Foundation (AAF) /AIA Committee on Architecture for Education (CAE) |
Book Review: The Pesky Persistence of Psychological Encounters with Home Design: Edwin Heathcote elegantly meditates on the symbols and myths infusing domestic design in "The Meaning of Home." By Norman Weinstein- ArchNewsNow |
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