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Mathias Agbo, Jr.: Tale of Two Cities: Unravelling the Brutal Backstory Behind Africa’s Emerging Megacities: Huge new developments are being preceded by a ruthless campaign of forced evictions. Tragically, this new narrative depicts just a small piece of a much bigger and more disturbing picture...If the global design community stayed away from these kinds of blood-tainted briefs, it would...compel [authorities] to act more humanely in dealing with victims of forced demolitions.- Common Edge

Thomas Vonier: Aboard the New Urban Agenda: A dispatch from Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum, reveals the urgency - and the promise - of Habitat III: This city (also home to the U.N.-Habitat headquarters) is probably what many delegates...had in mind when they adopted “The New Urban Agenda” last year- AIArchitect

David Hatch: Report highlights case studies to guide Africa’s urban future: As Africa urbanizes, policymakers need to better coordinate their economic strategies with plans for city planning...But how? "Urbanization and Industrialization for Africa’s Transformation," published in March by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, offers some ideas. [link to report]- Citiscope.org

Santiago Calatrava: Controversial and colourful...He talks to Kim Megson about the merging of art and technology, building for the public and his £1bn vision for London: For all his passionate words and evident delight in building in London, some people won’t be prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. Given the controversies of the past, that’s hardly surprising...he remains philosophical..."I am still learning."- CLAD (Community of Leisure Architects & Designers)

Inside Apple's Insanely Great (Or Just Insane) New Mothership: Flawless curves. Milled aluminum. Endless glass. Walled garfdem. Sounds like an Apple product: How can anyone justify this spectacular effort? Is Apple Park the arcadia outlined by Jobs...or is it an anal-retentive nightmare of indulgence gone wild? It’s probably more accurate to say that Apple Park is the architectural avatar of the man who envisioned it... -- Norman Foster/Stefan Behling/Foster + Partners [images]- Wired

Zaha Hadid Architects unveil bold Sky Park masterplan to reinvent Bratislava's derelict industrial zone: ...in the Slovakian capital....will integrate the facades of the existing Jurkovicova Teplarne heating plant; a decommissioned factory designed by architect Dusan Jurkovic in the 1940s... [images]- CLAD (Community of Leisure Architects & Designers)

Gold Coast super tower will be the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere: A 108-storey [Imperial Square Stage 3 Tower] planned for Southport...will function as a community-in-miniature...set to house its own university, 2,200 apartments, a 200-room hotel, and 200 student accommodation rooms. -- Kris Kowalski Architects [images]- Architecture & Design (Australia)

Grass on Concrete: The Growth of Urban Oases: ...like all city spaces, urban oases are inherently architectural...intended to serve social roles in addition to biological or environmental ones...Each project serves to reimagine not only the architecture of our cities, but the very narrative of modern urbanization and development. -- Denise and Claudia Ampuero; X-Scape; Adam Kalinowski; Husum Lindholm Architects; Steffen Impgaard; compagnie des rues; SO - IL [images]- Architizer

National Trust announces Clandon Park International Design Competition Shortlist: ...six multi-disciplinary teams shortlisted to restore and reimagine...Grade l listed, 18th-century Palladian house,...a new life through new uses...widely considered to be a masterwork, suffered a major fire in 2015. -- AL_A/Giles Quarme & Associates; Allies and Morrison/Feilden+Mawson; Donald Insall Associates/Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Purcell/Sam Jacob Studio; Selldorf Architects/Cowie Montgomery Architects; Sergison Bates Architects/AOC Architecture- Malcolm Reading Consultants / National Trust

Adele Peters: This Super-Efficient Renovation Is A Model For Lowering A House’s Energy Footprint: The HouseZero project’s renovation of this nearly 100-year-old house...now the headquarters of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities. -- Snøhetta [images]- Fast Company

With Very Many Shingles: TheVeryMany plants a zippy green theater in a Maryland park: Amid a park in the Baltimore suburbs lies a new outdoor theater...Chrysalis Amphitheater, a sinuous shingled pavilion whose form follows its name...7,700 shingles...painted four different shades of electric green. -- Marc Fornes; Arup [images]- The Architect's Newspaper

Katharine Schwab: The Lord Of The Rings’ Weapons Designer Invented This Cool New Material: Kaynemail...Kayne Horsham isn’t making chainmail for movies. He’s making it for architects. The material is incredibly light, only uses 20% of the energy needed to produce steel, and is 100% recyclable...has some remarkable qualities as an architectural material. When used as a facade, it dramatically reduces the solar energy entering a building by 80%. [images]- Fast Company / Co.Design

Stephen Ramos/LS3P: Stop the Madness: 5 Reasons Architects Should Not Work Overtime: It can become the norm; It is bad for the industry; Life will pass you by...If architecture is just a job for you, then do not work overtime. You should be spending the time doing the things that you love.- Architizer

Graham Foundation Awards over $560,000 in Grants to Individuals in 2017: ...to support 72 innovative projects engaging original ideas in architecture...by 99 grantees representing 20 countries...- Graham Foundation (Chicago)

Loeb Fellowship's Incoming Class of 2017-18: The Harvard Graduate School of Design has announced nine mid-career professionals who will receive the school's annual grant to study how to make the world a better place. -- Andrew Freear/Auburn University Rural Studio; Matthew Mazzotta; Shaney Peña-Gómez/Quisqueya Binational Economic Council; Surella Segu/Infonavit; James Shen/People's Architecture Office; Tau Tavengwa/Cityscapes magazine; etc.- Architect Magazine

Call for entries: IE Architecture + Design Prize for young architects and designers who graduated between 2014 and 2017; scholarships toward tuition; no fee; registration deadline: August 3 (submissions due August 20)- Arquideas / IE School of Architecture & Design (Spain)

ANN feature: Vladimir Belogolovsky: One-on-One: "I wanted to be in the middle of things": Interview with Vito Acconci: In this never-before published Q&A from 2015, the late Acconci revealed his highly personal way of imagining his architecture as a pursuit of creating a total work of art that is at once poetry and architecture.- ArchNewsNow.com

Christine Bjerke: Hyper Home: The digitalization of domesticity is changing and challenging the physical framework of the home... Constant flows of data and information being introduced into the private sphere questions how we navigate within our homes as well as the spaces beyond the private realm. -- The FX Beauties Club