Today’s News - Thursday, March 10, 2016
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days. We'll be back Tuesday, March 15.
• ANN feature: Q+A with Rob Rogers re: the challenges and rewards of public projects, the value of competitions, and cross-disciplinary team work.
• Graham has issues with architecture and urban design being "in the throes of a green fever dream - designing a perfect green building or eco-city isn't enough to save the world."
• Schwab delves into China's new ban on "weird" architecture and, most interesting, why it started "gravitating toward idiosyncratic architecture in the first place - the weird buildings themselves will remain, persisting as peculiar monuments to the imagination."
• Lyman parses the Hungarian prime minister's "edifice complex" and why his big building plans have "some in Budapest rattled" (starchitecture included).
• Betsky is more than a bit ambivalent about Lautner's Sheats House being bequeathed to LACMA: good news that it will be open to the public, but "there is one reality to houses serving as museums that disturbs me: they are dead."
• The WMF joins with the Shukhov Tower Foundation, DOCOMOMO Russia, and others in a two-day Shukov Tower Watch Day in Moscow next week to celebrate its 94th anniversary, and launch of a petition drive to save the modern icon from demolition.
• Sadik-Khan x 2 excerpts from her and Solomonow's "Streetfight" (both fab reads!): she talks "asphalt, Staten Island, and the adrenaline of infrastructure" (and why "the tabloids got it right. I am wacko").
• Her take on NYC's bike wars: "the bikes won," but only after "the bitterest public fight over transportation since Jane Jacobs held the line against Robert Moses."
• Moore x 2 excerpts from his new tome, "Slow Burn City" (more great reads! Bevan's review below): his manifesto "declares that if London is to grow to 10 million, it desperately needs an intervention" (and better public housing and city planning).
• His part deux "looks at London as a wonderland for all tastes - where the pleasure industry is a driver of the city's prosperity" (racy content included).
• Eyefuls of the competition-winning design for a pre-school that "doubles as an urban farm" - it's not just in a corner of a playground, but a "new model especially useful in cities, where students are more likely to be isolated from nature."
• Cottrell & Vermeulen wins BD's Architect of the Year and Education Architect Awards, and Feilden Fowles is named Young Architect of the Year.
• Eyefuls of some amazing proposals that won the Jacques Rougerie Foundation's 6th International Future Architecture competition that include "deep-sea zoos, towns made from space junk and drifting 'iceberg' homes."
• Weekend diversions:
• MoMA's "A Japanese Constellation: Toyo Ito, SANAA, and Beyond" surveys Japanese architecture since 2000, including responses to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster "that demonstrate both a commitment to users' emotional needs and a sensitivity to practical constraints."
• Snarkitecture takes over SCAD with "The Future Was Then" that explores "how people manipulate their surroundings."
• Bevan considers Moore "one of the world's best architecture critics," so "it feels wrong to critique a critic who gets so much right, but 'Slow Burn City' simply doesn't deliver. He only really gets his dander up with a section on housing."
• Kolson Hurley cheers Hopkins' "From the Shadows: The Architecture and Afterlife of Nicholas Hawksmoor," and explains why "Hawksmoor's revival matters."
• Darley definitely added cheer to our day with her "trawl through the funniest architecture in literature - let's celebrate a sense of the wry."
• Hawthorne parses the film "Knight of Cups" and what it "says about L.A. and its architecture - art and architecture buffs will find pleasure naming the specific floats in Malick's parade."
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Q+A with Rob Rogers, Rogers Partners Architects+Urban Designers: The New York City-based architect talks about the challenges and rewards of public projects, the value of competitions, and cross-disciplinary team work.- ArchNewsNow.com |
Op-Ed: Are we greening our cities, or just greenwashing them? Architecture and urban design are in the throes of a green fever dream...too often about bringing a technologically controlled version of nature into the city and declaring the problem solved...Apple's “spaceship” campus...is a good example of the shortcomings of the green dream...it will be just another appendage of suburban sprawl...designing a perfect green building or eco-city isn't enough to save the world. By Wade Graham -- BIG - Bjarke Ingels Goup; Jean Nouvel; Norman Foster; Paolo Soleri; Alejandro Aravena- Los Angeles Times |
The End of China’s ‘Weird’ Architecture: The government is cutting down on the country’s more bizarre buildings...But how and why did China start gravitating toward such idiosyncratic architecture in the first place? ...the creativity came at a cost...despite the new policy favoring function and sustainability at the expense of originality, the weird buildings themselves will remain...persisting as peculiar monuments to the imagination. By Katharine Schwab -- Steven Holl; Rem Koolhaus/Ole Sheeren/OMA; Herzog & de Meuron; Zaha Hadid; Paul Andreu; Joseph di Pasquale; Charlie Q.L. Xue [images]- The Atlantic |
Hungarian Leader’s ‘Edifice Complex’ Has Some in Budapest Rattled: Viktor Orban is backing two big projects, for both economic and political reasons, to restore key buildings to their pre-World War II glory: ...intends to change the face of Budapest...removing as many vestiges of Communist rule... By Rick Lyman -- Zaha Hadid; Rem Koolhaas/OMA; Kazuyo Sejima/Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA- New York Times |
The Future of John Lautner's Sheats House: The news that [it] will be bequeathed to LACMA raises questions about the value of houses, meant for living, that are uninhabited: ...fills me with ambivalence...will be open to the public in even some limited fashion is good news. Yet there is one reality to houses serving as museums that disturbs me: they are dead. By Aaron Betsky [images]- Architect Magazine |
Shukov Tower Watch Day To Be Held On March 19 and 20 In Moscow: ...to celebrate [its] 94th anniversary and the launch of a petition to save the modern icon, which currently faces the threat of demolition.- World Monuments Fund/WMF |
Janette Sadik-Khan on Asphalt, Staten Island and the Adrenaline of Infrastructure: An excerpt from "Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution" by Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow: I love watching a crew transform a street in a few hours from a lunar landscape to a flawless mat as black as squid ink. In this regard, the tabloids got it right. I am wacko...- Next City (formerly Next American City) |
The Bike Wars Are Over, and the Bikes Won: Politicians learned the lesson: Bikes were bad politics...I saw no reason why New York couldn’t become one of the world’s great biking cities - or why it wouldn’t want to. But the act of actually achieving it launched the bitterest public fight over transportation...since Jane Jacobs held the line against Robert Moses...the backlash began...The battle was won by the projects and by New Yorkers themselves. [excerpt from "Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution" by Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow]- New York Magazine |
A manifesto for London at 10 million: Give its citizens the freedom to live well: A city will struggle if it can no longer house the people who teach, clean, nurse, cook, police, drive and entertain...extract from "Slow Burn City," Rowan Moore declares...that if London is to grow to 10 million, it desperately needs an intervention...if London is so brilliant, why not apply that brilliance more widely, such that it can boast to the world of its public housing and city planning...- Observer (UK) |
London, city of pleasure: Our capital, for better or worse, has become the pre-eminent global city...our pleasure industry is a driver of that prosperity. In this extract from his new book, "Slow Burn City," Rowan Moore looks at London as a wonderland for all tastes, if not all pockets.- Observer (UK) |
This Preschool Doubles As An Urban Farm: Kids learn among the plants and animals in this design for a radically different education environment: Instead of a small plot on the corner of a playground, the entire school is a farm...won AWR International Ideas Competition ["Nursery Fields Forever"]...the new model...especially useful in cities, where students are more likely to be isolated from nature. By Adele Peters -- Edoardo Capuzzo Dolcetta/aut- -aut [images]- Fast Company / Co.Exist |
Cottrell & Vermeulen is crowned BD's Architect of the Year: ...presented with the prestigious Schueco Gold Award...also named Education Architect of the Year...The Young Architect of the Year Award was won by Feilden Fowles...- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Deep-sea zoos, towns made from space junk and drifting 'iceberg' homes: Futuristic designs reveal how climate change could cause us to live in the oceans or in orbit: ...Future Architecture competition, entrants have been asked to imagine life where the oceans and space would be populated with extraordinary buildings and towns.- Daily Mail (UK) |
Japanese Architecture Gets a Major Survey at MoMA: ..."A Japanese Constellation: Toyo Ito, SANAA, and Beyond," a survey of Japanese architectural creations since 2000...also addresses Japanese architecture’s response to the disaster, which has produced unusually beautiful buildings that demonstrate both a commitment to users’ emotional needs and a sensitivity to practical constraints.- Artinfo |
Snarkitecture Co-Founder Daniel Arsham’s “The Future Was Then” Installation on View at SCAD: The experimental artist created a series of voids within the Savannah, Ga. art institution’s walls to demonstrate how people manipulate their surroundings. [images]- Architect Magazine |
"Slow Burn City: London in the Twenty-First Century" by Rowan Moore: A capital built on more than money: Moore is one of the world’s best architecture critics. His columns...are take-no-prisoners exercises in incisiveness and witty putdowns. His judgment is usually spot on...It feels wrong then to critique a critic who gets so much right but this book simply doesn’t deliver...He only really gets his dander up with a central section on housing. By Robert Bevan- Evening Standard (UK) |
Why Nicholas Hawksmoor's Revival Matters: The British architect who collaborated with Christopher Wren and designed some of London's grandest churches finally gets his due..."From the Shadows: The Architecture and Afterlife of Nicholas Hawksmoor" by Owen Hopkins...combines an engaging survey of [his] buildings with a thoughtful assessment of his critical fortunes. By Amanda Kolson Hurley [images]- Architect Magazine |
You've got to laugh or you'd cry: Gillian Darley aims to cheer with her trawl through the funniest architecture in literature: ...let’s celebrate a sense of the wry...Harry Bulkeley Creswell’s "The Honeywood File: An Adventure in Building" [1929] is one of the greatest evocations of frustration, bureaucracy, social nuance and block-headedness ever written...Evelyn Waugh’s 1928 "Decline and Fall"...Will Wiles’ "The Way Inn"...Ian Martin’s crowd-funded collection of essays...- BD/Building Design (UK) |
What Terrence Malick's "Knight of Cups" says about L.A. and its architecture: ...art and architecture buffs will find pleasure naming the specific floats in Malick’s parade...It's most impressive as an extended, wallowing visual riff on a line Carey McWilliams once used...the metropolitan region is "a paradox: a desert that faces an ocean." By Christopher Hawthorne- Los Angeles Times |
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Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos/Barbes Lopes Arquitectos: Teatro Thalia, Lisbon, Portugal: Known for its wild parties and luxurious interiors...enjoyed a short life before falling victim to fire in 1862. The remains stood for over 150 years...writing the next chapter in [its] history was no easy feat...the architect must develop a toolkit equal parts archaeologist and plastic surgeon. By Henry Stephens [images] |
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