Today’s News - Wednesday, August 27, 2014
• ANN Feature: Forte explains how to avoid "greenwash," and poses questions to ask, and resources for answers, to help select products that will best meet green projects' - and the planet's - sustainability needs.
• Our apologies for leading yesterday's news with ArcSpace's "7 must-read architectural manifestos" - today you can actually find out what they are.
• Must-reads re: the Hadid/Filler/NYRB kerfuffle:
• Russell: a "retraction should not have been hard to get; a suit simply extends the damage to her reputation - principally done by her own flippancy."
• Pedersen: his first response is to question: "who the hell is giving Zaha Hadid career advice these days?
• Kats: Hadid's legal actions are "serving as a counterattack against the architect's many critics, not an answer to their very legitimate concerns. Filler's mistake was factual, not a lapse in critical judgment."
• Davies calls into question the Global Livability Index: it "has little relevance for permanent residents of a city or for urban policy-makers."
• Hume ponders Toronto landing on Forbes's list of most influential cities in the world: "we're too stressed to enjoy that distinction. It will cost money to become the city the world thinks we are."
• Flint finds lessons for the future of St. Louis - and Ferguson - in the long-gone Pruitt-Igoe public housing projects: "How much can land-use planning really make things better anyway, given the roiling and deep-seated tensions, mistrust, and unemployment."
• Marshall muses on whether there's a future for Jacobs's "sidewalk ballets" when more city residents live in air-conditioned "elevator apartments" and "don't participate in the life of the streets" - never mind the growing dearth of mom-and-pop shops where one used to be able to leave one's keys (but there are some signs of change).
• Grabar gives a most interesting take on how air conditioning "remade modern America: "Vernacular architecture was rendered obsolete," and "public space, whose importance and vibrancy bloomed in the heat, suffered from the competition."
• Litman basically lambasts the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: "there are good reasons to question their analysis methods, starting with their definition of "house.'"
• DePillis examines the high cost of building cities for kids (i.e., families): "over the long run they justify the cost. That's why, at the same time that it was building a playground for millennials, D.C.'s government poured money into education."
• Patsarika reports on a new study that looks at what architects and landscape architects "can learn from designing with children about how to break down their own creative barriers."
• Wainwright minces no words about the façadism trend: "What do you get when you force developers to build around historic façades? A match made in hell" (with pix to prove it - yikes!).
• Johannesburg has big plans to "re-stitch" urban communities back together with its "Corridors of Freedom" plan, starting with "a stylish pedestrian bridge," but "getting communities to live side by side with each other will be no easy task."
• Litt places his bet on who will win in the competition to design a lakefront pedestrian bridge to (finally) link Cleveland to its waterfront (looks good to us).
• Kimmelman looks at how, "left to corporate specialists who churn out too many heartless buildings, hospitals are a critical frontier for design," which also poses "a larger, fundamental question about the role of architects, and to what extent they can or should be held responsible for how buildings work."
• Dana Goodyear does a "part deux" re: Ban and the "limits of virtuous architecture": "Just as the environmental movement spawned greenwashing, the altruistic bent of the under-35 generation has given rise to goodwashing."
• Birnbaum uncovers a smoking gun from 1977 that proves the Frick Collection's "temporary" Page-designed "verdant oasis" was designed as "a permanent garden" - which could throw a spanner in the works for its expansion plans.
• Stratigakos offers a thoughtful take on how women architects in the past and today have and "are challenging and changing the status quo" in the still male-dominated profession.
| |
|
|
|
To subscribe to the free daily newsletter
click here
|
ANN Feature: Avoiding the Greenwash: Don't be swayed by eco-friendly claims. Questions to ask, and resources for answers, to help select products that will best meet green projects' - and the planet's - sustainability needs. By Cameron Forte- ArchNewsNow |
Zaha Hadid Wins Defamation Battle, Loses Reputation War: ...her assessment is probably legally accurate, if distasteful...Why did she ever file it? The retraction should not have been hard to get; a suit simply extends the damage to her reputation...principally done by her own flippancy, abetted by the Internet’s facility in sating our lust for “how the mighty have fallen” stories...Architects should not be singled out as moral enforcers in a world of labor horrors, but they are not powerless... By James S. Russell -- New York Review of Books/NYRB; Martin Filler; AECOM- jamessrussell.net |
What Can Hadid Gain from Her Lawsuit against the NYRB? For the moment, let’s put aside the human rights issue and concentrate instead on the merits of Hadid’s suit. My first response to it is a question: who the hell is giving Zaha Hadid career advice these days? ...does make me wonder, though, about the particular dynamics of the Hadid office, and why there wasn’t at least one person there willing to say: Zaha, maybe this isn’t such a good idea. By Martin C. Pedersen -- New York Review of Books/NYRB; Martin Filler- Metropolis Magazine |
Zaha Hadid's Trials and Tribulations: ...legal actions...appear to be a disturbing, if not absurdly comical, measure of her social consciousness...serving as a counterattack against the architect's many critics, not an answer to their very legitimate concerns...Instead of pursuing initiatives that would ensure worker safety and drastically distinguish her construction site from prevalent working conditions for laborers in Qatar, she pillories the press. Filler’s mistake was factual, not a lapse in critical judgment. By Anna Kats -- Martin Filler; New York Review of Books/NYRB- Artinfo |
Does the gong for ‘world’s most liveable city’ mean anything? Five Australasian cities and three Canadian cities once again dominate the annual Global Liveability Index, but it doesn’t tell us much about cities as places to live, or the differences between them...has little relevance for permanent residents of a city or for urban policy-makers. By Alan Davies- Crikey (Australia) |
Toronto has a growing global influence, which we likely can’t maintain: Forbes says Toronto is the 10th most influential city in the world...but we’re too stressed to enjoy that distinction...It will cost money to become the city the world thinks we are. By Christopher Hume- Toronto Star |
A Failed Public-Housing Project Could Be a Key to St. Louis' Future: The Pruitt-Igoe projects were razed in 1972, but their influence on Ferguson's social and financial divides echo today...NorthSide is squarely in the “make no little plans” category...Another, more incremental approach can be found...in the renovated turn-of-the-century garment buildings...a bit more Jane Jacobs-like...How much can land-use planning really make things better anyway, given the roiling and deep-seated tensions, mistrust, and unemployment... By Anthony Flint -- Minoru Yamasaki- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
The Death or Life of a Sidewalk Ballet: Are Jane Jacobs’ lively streets disappearing for good? Kids and adults are holed up inside air-conditioned apartments...There are fewer of Jacobs’ famous eyes on the street...So why the change? Part of what’s happened...Jacobs identified, with clear disapproval, the emergence of small, high-priced “elevator apartments,” whose residents slip in, disappear and don’t participate in the life of the streets...there are fewer corner delis, neighborhood candy stores... By Alex Marshall- Governing Magazine |
How air conditioning remade modern America: The most striking, immediate impact of air conditioning on America was architectural...Vernacular architecture...was rendered obsolete. Through the contemporary invention of the mall, windowless walls...became the dominant style of the American-built environment...Public space, whose importance and vibrancy bloomed in the heat, suffered from the competition. By Henry Grabar- Salon |
What is a 'House'? Critiquing the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: ...widely used to compare cities and evaluate urban development policies, but there are good reasons to question their analysis methods, starting with their definition of "house"...main conclusion is that smart growth policies that encourage compact development are the main constraint on housing affordability. By Todd Litman- PLANetizen |
It’s hard to build cities for kids. But do they really need them? It’s hard to put a number on it, but over the long run they justify the cost..."if there are no families, then you may take away a lot of future potential workers and earnings.” That’s why, at the same time that it was building a playground for millennials, D.C.’s government poured money into education. By Lydia DePillis- Washington Post |
What architects can learn from designing with children: Gradually, more architects and landscape designers are bringing young people into the design process. Now a new study has looked at what architects learn from children about how to break down their own creative barriers...children can: “bring an energy, an imagination, an honesty, a moodiness sometimes which I quite like.” By Maria Patsarika/University of Sheffield School of Architecture- The Conversation |
Some front: the bad developments making a joke of historic buildings: What do you get when you force developers to build around historic facades? A match made in hell: “Facadism was condemned as the bastard child of conservation when it first emerged, but it clearly hasn’t gone away.” By Oliver Wainwright [images]- Guardian (UK) |
South African cities: Still worlds apart: Urban communities remain divided along racial lines. Can that be changed? City planners have embarked on an ambitious project to “restitch” Johannesburg...The flagship project...is a stylish pedestrian bridge [Alexandra/Sandton walkway]...“Corridors of Freedom” plan also includes a major expansion of the city’s bus network and dedicated walking and cycling paths, linking areas slated for “mixed-use” development.- The Economist (UK) |
Team of Miguel Rosales and Parsons Brinckerhoff ranked top choice to design lakefront pedestrian bridge: ...will shape the quarter-mile-long bike and pedestrian walkway that will link the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum to the city's new convention center and convention hotel...considered a critically important way to address a longstanding liability in Cleveland - the city's poor connectivity to the Lake Erie waterfront. By Steven Litt -- Michael Baker/Bridgescape; DLZ/EndreStudio; Sasaki & Associates/Osborn Engineering; Thornton Tomasetti/LMN/Van Auken Akins; URS/Touchstone Architecture [images]- Cleveland Plain Dealer |
In Redesigned Room, Hospital Patients May Feel Better Already: Often ignored by front-rank architects, left to corporate specialists who churn out too many heartless buildings, hospitals are a critical frontier for design...this is the central argument in architecture today, with a new generation more attuned to issues of social responsibility and public welfare. The discussion has posed a larger, fundamental question about the role of architects, and to what extent they can or should be held responsible for how buildings work. By Michael Kimmelman -- João Filgueiras Lima (Lelé ); MASS Design Group; Christopher Korsh/HOK [images]- New York Times |
The Limits of Virtuous Architecture: Shigeru Ban...has consistently rejected the label of “green architect"...Just as the environmental movement spawned greenwashing, the altruistic bent of the under-35 generation has given rise to...goodwashing...The irony that Ban...has erected his first large-scale, public U.S. commission in Aspen, a town full of billionaires, is hard to escape...Let’s hope that the building...act as a goad, encouraging individuals and corporations to do more to address global problems, rather than a balm... By Dana Goodyear- New Yorker |
That 'Temporary' Frick Garden - It Was Created to Be Permanent: In a bit of revisionist history, the garden at the Frick Collection designed by...Russell Page...has been downgraded by museum officials to nothing more than an interim land use...There's only one problem - the Frick created this verdant oasis as "a permanent garden" - at least that's what the museum's own February 4, 1977 press release about it states. By Charles A. Birnbaum/The Cultural Landscape Foundation- Huffington Post |
Women architects: Building change: Architecture is still a male-dominated profession but women architects are challenging and changing the status quo. By Despina Stratigakos -- Mary Gannon; Alice Hands; Emilie Winkelmann; Julia Morgan; Perin Jamshedji Mistri; FATALE; ArchiteXX; Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation; Archiparlour; Brinda Somaya/Somaya & Kalappa [links]- Al Jazeera |
ANN Feature: Nuts + Bolts #9: The 80/20 Architect: How to Spend Wisely by Investing in Your Clients: Focusing on your top clients can increase your confidence, stability, and profitability. By Steve Whitehorn- ArchNewsNow |
|
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window.
External news links are not endorsed by ArchNewsNow.com.
Free registration may be required on some sites.
Some pages may expire after a few days.
© 2014 ArchNewsNow.com