Today’s News - Wednesday, October 25, 2017

●  Bernstein talks to some California architects now assessing the damage in the wake of catastrophic wildfires, and considering "how new buildings in the area can better withstand fire. That may mean a lot of steel and concrete houses where there had been wood."

●  Hume heads a handful of housing stories, cheering "a radical concept in Toronto" - a project that "may mark a turning point in the way condo developments fit into the city" and "designed for residents not investors" (balconies big enough to grow your own food; local, not chain retailers - radical, indeed!).

●  Rybczynski hails Studio Ma's student housing at Princeton University that is "a sylvan retreat" rather than "a hardheaded housing project" by grappling "with the age-old challenge of mass housing: how to personalize the impersonal, how to contextualize what risks being anonymous."

●  Moore has much to say about Moussavi's two apartment blocks in Paris's La Défense that "show that affordable housing can be inspirational and stand up to grander neighbors - charismatic and intriguing, animate and a touch moody" (why can't housing like this happen everywhere?).

●  Waite brings us eyefuls of the Grimshaw/SAM Architects-designed prototype for "rapid-build printed modular homes that can be built and be ready to occupy in just three weeks" in a "highly adaptable zero-carbon housing system."

●  Florida dives into a "remarkable" and "disturbing" new study showing "the clustering of high-tech innovation has made American metros more divided. Finding ways to mitigate innovation-spurred economic segregation is a crucial project of our times."

●  Dittmar uses the Oxford-Cambridge corridor competition as a jumping-off point to ponder what makes such design competitions meaningless: While the shortlist has some interesting concepts, "I fear this competition is mostly vaporware. There is a tendency to use these kind of design competitions to generate enthusiasm, without connecting them to implementation."

●  Lange delves into some fascinating documentation of Weese's Washington Metro: "Americans have an impoverished and immature conception of design. At a time when public opinion of East Coast subways has reached a low, it is worth revisiting this high."

●  Leigh Hester highlights a team of architects and planners that "has set out to prove that heaps of waste aren't an immutable part of a city's topography," and resulting in "Zero Waste Design Guidelines."

●  Wainwright is not wow'd by Foster's "chubby, almost cartoonish" Bloomberg HQ: despite its "environmental cunning" - with a "touch of Bloombergian razzmatazz," it "looks like a regional department store."

●  Speaking of department stores: WeWork buys Lord & Taylor 5th Avenue flagship to serve as its new world headquarters (L&T will lease the bottom floors - but it will never be the same).

●  Speaking of workspace: "Don't get too comfortable at that desk": cubicles and open floor plans are morphing into a "'palette of places' - partly a backlash against the one-size-fits-all mind-set, not to mention the corporate penny-pinching."

●  Kamali Dehghan reports on Fluid Motion's modern mosque without minarets that is stirring controversy in Tehran, where Iranian hardliners "are refusing to recognize it as a place of worship" - now, "its fate remains in doubt."

●  Showley parses a series of events kicking off today that, in part, will explore (with high hopes) whether San Diego will be declared a "Design World Capital" by 2028.

●  Dickinson considers "the challenge and terror of making payroll as an architect - a recurring Groundhog Day of anxiety and pressure," and "how technology will transform that bi-weekly terror."

●  de Monchaux uses the Citicorp building as the poster child in his plea to "not destroy New York City's Brutalist masterpieces. When we destroy these works, we lose something of a moment when many were trying to communicate to our culture something about itself."

●  Budds cheers "Concrete New York," a new map of NYC's "bold, inventive, and sometimes hideous" concrete architecture.

●  Zara cheers Grimley, Kubo, and Pasnik's "Brutalist Boston Map," the perfect "travel companion for concrete-architecture enthusiasts."

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To subscribe to the free daily newsletter click here Fred A. Bernstein: California Architects Begin to Assess the Catastrophic Wildfire Damage - and Look to the Future: Leaders in the building industry turn to history for a faint silver lining and an informed game plan: Jorgensen has enlisted a number of prominent area architects for an exhibition and symposium...on how new buildings in the area can better withstand fire. That may mean a lot of steel and concrete houses where there had been wood. -- David Wilson/WA Design; Ace Architects; Stanley Saitowitz; Brandon Jorgensen/Atelier Jorgensen; Vivian Lee/Edmonds + Lee Architects- Architectural Digest Christopher Hume: A radical concept in Toronto - a condo designed for residents: The Plant...may mark a turning point in the way condo developments fit into the city: ...stands out from the competition in a number of important ways...it's critical we learn how to make vertical living more humane, more fulfilling. Having handed housing over to the corporate sector, the city is not in a strong position to make demands. But it isn't powerless. The time for intervention is long overdue...the industry has already started to do what the city won't. -- Kohn Shnier architects; +tongtong; SMV architects [image]- Toronto Star Witold Rybczynski: The Past (and Future) of Housing: Studio Ma's Lakeside project at Princeton University recalls an early modernist ethos: The organic plan is almost Olmstedian...It’s hard to overstate the effect of this landscape, which turns Lakeside Graduate Student Community from a hardheaded housing project into a sylvan retreat...Then there is the architecture...chooses to grapple with the age-old challenge of mass housing: how to personalize the impersonal, how to contextualize what risks being anonymous... -- Hoehn Landscape Architecture [images]- Architect Magazine Rowan Moore: Farshid Moussavi: La Folie Divine, Montpellier; Îlot 19 La Défense: Two apartment blocks in France...show that affordable housing can be inspirational and stand up to grander neighbours: It’s a curious place for a housing block...the block is charismatic and intriguing...suggestive of life and inhabitation inside. It is animate and a touch moody...made distinctive by their layers of inside and out...There is no reason, in principle, why housing like this couldn’t happen [in the U.K.]. [images]- Observer (UK) Richard Waite: Grimshaw unwraps prototype for rapid-build printed modular homes: ...can be built and be ready to occupy in just three weeks: ...shell of the [Atelio] house is made from recycled materials...dynamic digital control of production from the BIM model means it will take just five hours to ‘print’ the average house and then only four days to erect the shell...highly adaptable zero-carbon housing system... -- SAM Architects [images]- The Architects' Journal (UK) Richard Florida: How Innovation Leads to Economic Segregation: A new study finds that the clustering of high-tech innovation has made American metros more divided: ...baseline finding is as remarkable as it is disturbing...Finding ways to mitigate innovation-spurred economic segregation is a crucial project of our times.- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) Hank Dittmar: Must design competitions be meaningless? Unless the government underpins the Oxford-Cambridge corridor with a strong implementing framework, all the good ideas will come to naught: ...four-strong shortlist for the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford Corridor design competition...While there are some interesting concepts presented, I fear this competition is mostly vapourware...There is a tendency to use these kind of design competitions to generate enthusiasm, without connecting them to implementation. -- Tibbalds; Barton Willmore; Mae; Fletcher Priest Architects- BD/Building Design (UK) Alexandra Lange: Eavesdropping on the design icons who made Washington’s Metro: Harry Weese and the Brutalist Metro System: Americans...have an impoverished and immature conception of design, which focuses both on the latest and on the singular...an Instagram and a backdrop, static and photogenic, rather than as a system of moving parts and people....we have to see transit design as Weese did...Stanley N. Allen's compendium is a fascinating document of how you do it right...At a time when public opinion of East Coast subways has reached a low, it is worth revisiting this high.- Curbed Jessica Leigh Hester: Is Garbage a Product of Bad Design? A team of architects and planners has set out to prove that heaps of waste aren’t an immutable part of a city’s topography: The "Zero Waste Design Guidelines"...are the fruits of this messy labor...backed by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Center for Architecture...First, conceptualize projects with waste in mind...guidelines include a waste calculator, which architects can use to gauge what the waste burden might be, based on a building’s density. -- Clare Miflin/Kiss + Cathcart Architects; Juliette Spertus/Closed Loops- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) Oliver Wainwright: Bloomberg HQ: a £1bn building that looks like a regional department store: Bloomberg’s new European headquarters may be the most sustainable office building in the world, but Norman Foster’s design is chubby and prosaic: ...the 1 million sq ft hulk does its best to be a demure neighbour...Everything looks a bit too chubby, almost cartoonish, as if it was designed at a smaller scale and blown up to fit the site. -- Foster + Partners [images]- Guardian (UK) WeWork buys Lord & Taylor flagship for $850M for new world headquarters: ...purchasing the 676,000-square-foot landmark building for WeWork’s new global headquarters...Lord & Taylor will lease the bottom floors of the building, taking less than a quarter of its current space.- The Real Deal (NYC) Don’t Get Too Comfortable at That Desk: First there were individual offices. Then cubicles and open floor plans. Now, there is a “palette of places"...It’s partly a backlash against the one-size-fits-all mind-set, not to mention the corporate penny-pinching...the new concept is called “activity-based workplace design"...companies can also save money, by using a little less space than conventional offices do. -- Steelcase; Gensler [images]- New York Times Saeed Kamali Dehghan: A modern mosque without minarets stirs controversy in Tehran: Iranian hardliners are refusing to recognise the new Vali-e-Asr mosque next to the City theatre as a place of worship...was due to be officially inaugurated this summer, nearly 10 years after...Fluid Motion was commissioned to design it. The building is almost finished, but controversy has led to its funding being cut, meaning that the interior design has not been completed. Its fate remains in doubt. -- Reza Daneshmir/Catherine Spiridonoff/Fluid Motion [images]- Guardian (UK) Roger Showley: Is San Diego a 'Design World Capital'? Design - in all its forms - will be at the forefront of...civic conversation this week with advocates hoping San Diego will be declared a “Design World Capital” by 2028...Urban design, architectural design and design thinking will be the focus at three sets of events starting Wednesday. -- Design Forward Alliance; Design Forward Summit; San Diego Architectural Foundation; AIA San Diego; World Design Organization (formerly International Council of Societies of Industrial Design/Icsid)- San Diego Union-Tribune Duo Dickinson: The Challenge and Terror of Making Payroll as an Architect: How technology will transform that bi-weekly terror: It’s a recurring Groundhog Day of anxiety and pressure...More architects may simply opt to practice solo by upping their reliance on technology...The new and expanding cottage industry of freelance BIM...and every other consultant imaginable - will make even more sense, as specs and details can now be seamlessly outsourced to vendors.- Common Edge Thomas de Monchaux: Let’s Not Destroy New York City’s Brutalist Masterpieces: There is something about the half century that creates a blind spot: too recent for reverence, too distant for love - or even understanding: When we destroy these works, we lose something of a moment when many who were trying to communicate to our culture something about itself - in the limited medium of the urban landscape - were less concerned with entertainment than with truth. -- Hugh Stubbins, Jr.; Edward Larrabee Barnes; Hideo Sasaki (1977); Gensler- New Yorker Diana Budds: Bold, Inventive, And Sometimes Hideous: NYC’s Love Affair With Concrete: Think you know New York’s best concrete buildings? This map will prove you wrong: "Concrete New York" covers not only the hulking edifices associated with Brutalism, but also unexpected expressions of concrete architecture dating from the 1800s ’til today. -- Blue Crow Media- Fast Company / Co.Design Janelle Zara: Exploring Brutalist Architecture in Boston: A new pocket guide serves as a travel companion for concrete-architecture enthusiasts: "Brutalist Boston Map" by Chris Grimley, Michael Kubo and Mark Pasnik...Brutalism is now regarded less as an eyesore and once again as a stroke of genius...after decades of neglect, local governments are now reconsidering their preservation and reuse, giving them some much-needed TLC. [images]- Architectural Digest ANN Feature: "rise in the city" UPDATE: Top 10 Artists Announced for the Inaugural Fundraiser in New York City on October 25: Lesotho, Africa, comes to NYC through art created and donated by architects, designers, artists, and sponsors from around the world. [images]- ArchNewsNow.com   Obituary: Kent Martinussen: Vale/In memory of Kirsten Kiser – founder of arcspace: a great Dane, an architecture entrepreneur...ever engaged and tireless front-runner of modern communication, exposure and dissemination of contemporary international architects and their works... it was with her deep insight into architecture and a lovable, sweet, and hyper generous personality that she really won the hearts and confidence of so many great international architects...

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