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Today’s News - Thursday, May 17, 2018

EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days. We'll be back Tuesday, May 22.

● Mairs parses the latest Grenfell Tower fire report that blames "siloed thinking": "Ignorance, indifference and inadequate regulation led to the disaster, not the cladding alone" - the report "does not recommend a ban on the combustible building materials" (huh?!!?).

● Talbot's great Q&A with Lucy Bullivant re: "new community-led models for planning and architecture emerging around the world" that are helping solve the housing crisis: "These models involve a lot of engaged, inventive people."

● TCLF's Birnbaum takes issue with those who find the lawsuit against Obama Center in Chicago's Jackson Park "puzzling": "Rather than 'beating up on the Obama Center's locale,' why don't we stop beating up on Jackson Park itself?"

● Ahuja eloquently describes the history and future of hospice design: "Hospice - as both space and practice - explicitly negates the institutional paradigm," but "the anti-institutional stance has become its own sort of convention. Were palliative design ever to become truly standardized, its ubiquity would be every bit as depressing as the mid-century mega-hospital."

● Anderton and guests on "deconstructing Kanye": His Yeezy Home "would hire tens of architects and industrial designers," but "is that good news for a profession?" CityLab's Mock thinks getting into real estate "would be as ill-advised as his sweatsuits ('hideous')" - and his "dictatorial tendencies might infuse his approach to city-making."

● We cheer and wish all good things for our friend Paul Makovsky, who, after 18 years at Metropolis magazine, is taking the helm at Contract Magazine as editor-in-chief.

Winners all:

● A look at the 6 candidates vying for the 2018 CTBUH Urban Habitat Award.

● A look at the 4 winners in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design's design competition that offer "innovative and fully practical housing solutions that embrace the local challenges, culture, value, and vision of Northwest Arkansas."

Deadlines:

● Call for entries: Euro Velo Stops competition to design rest stop cabins along Europe's large-scale EuroVelo cycle path network ("winning designs will be considered for construction as a part of the Bright Blueprint initiative").

● Call for entries: IsArch Awards for Architecture Students - 9th Edition: open to students of architecture and young architects who have graduated within the last 3 years.

Weekend diversions:

● A good reason to head to Copenhagen, the Danish Design Centre, and beyond: the Danish Design Festival celebrates diversity in design and craft in the city and elsewhere.

● Tomas Koolhaas interviews his father about the film "REM" and much more (including Kanye West sharing the title "provocateur"); our favorite quote: "I don't dare to be so obnoxious that I refuse selfies."

● A good reason to be in New York City for the next while: NYCxDESIGN celebrates the world of design across the city's five boroughs.

● Not to be missed: 2018 Design Pavilion NYC returns to Times Square (but only through Sunday).

● While you're in town, don't miss "Elegance in the Sky: The Architecture of Rosario Candela" at the Museum of the City of New York; Boehlert talks to Albrecht, Pennoyer, Stern, and others about the architect's "extraordinary legacy."

● Sisson cheers "NatureStructure," opening today at BSA Space in Boston, which "features more than 30 projects from around the globe that demonstrate the potential of collaborating with, instead of overpowering, nature."

● Moore x 2: He brings us "a rare interview" with John Outram, "a young-looking 83, who can expect star billing" in "The Return of the Past: Postmodernism in British Architecture" in London: "His buildings reach out and grab you. Once seen, they are not forgotten. They move you and engage you. Which is not something you can say of most new buildings."

● His take on the V&A's "The Future Starts Here": The "interactive look at the future of design is refreshingly hopeful. There is spookiness - but also wonder - intelligent, well-presented and quietly provocative exhibition shows these possibilities without drawing bogus conclusions."

● Bucknell walks through a blast from the past found in Vitra Design Museum's "Night Fever" that presents the designers who "answered the call of the night" and "made disco" - it "begs us to stay out a little later because who knows what the world will look like the morning after. (Fear not, wall flowers: Dancing is optional.)"

● In "Hong Kong's Disappearing Tong Lau," British photographer Stefan Irvine's "spectacular panoramas capture the city's disappearing architecture" at the Affordable Art Fair, Hong Kong, May 18-20.

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Jessica Mairs: "Siloed thinking" not cladding to blame for Grenfell Tower fire claims report: Ignorance, indifference and inadequate regulation led to the...disaster, not its cladding alone, claims ["Building a Safer Future"], which does not recommend a ban on the combustable building materials blamed for the fire...RIBA calls report a "missed opportunity"..."This review should have been a defining moment...to bring real and meaningful change to the complexity and confusion surrounding core building regulations guidance"...- Dezeen

Deborah Talbot: How Do We Solve The Housing Crisis? New Community-Led Models For Planning and Architecture: Q&A with Lucy Bullivant: The housing crisis has become a byword for everything wrong with UK planning. But what are the alternatives? "A human-scale, self-managed neighborhood based on social commitment is an alternative way cities can make the most of existing resources. These models involve a lot of engaged, inventive people." -- Urbanista.org- Forbes

Charles A. Birnbaum: There’s nothing ‘puzzling’ about lawsuit against Obama Center in Jackson Park: To say that this lawsuit is “last- minute” and “11th-hour” misses several points...First, the issue of confiscating public space...Next, this “late-to-the-game” characterization presupposes that the approvals process is in its final stages, when in fact federal-level reviews are in their infancy...rather than “beating up on the Obama Center’s locale,” why don’t we stop beating up on Jackson Park itself? The confiscation of parkland, especially for a private enterprise...sets a bad precedent for land use and urban planning. It effectively signals that parks are de facto potential building sites rather than shared public assets. -- The Cultural Landscape Foundation/TCLF- Chicago Sun Times

Nitin Ahuja: End Stages: As hospice design becomes more formally ambitious - and standardized - we should remember there is no universal model for "dying well": Hospice - as both space and practice...explicitly negates the institutional paradigm...the anti-institutional stance has become its own sort of convention...Were palliative design ever to become truly standardized, its ubiquity would be every bit as depressing as the mid-century mega-hospital...the most comforting hearths are those that feel serendipitously constructed, their warmth actively reclaimed. -- Stan Neuhof; McConnel Smith & Johnson; Albert Kahn; Alvar Aalto; Maggie’s Centres; Maggie Keswick Jencks; Charles Jencks; OMA/Koolhaas; Frank Gehry; Zaha Hadid; Kisho Kurokawa; Page/Park Architects [images]- Places Journal

DnA/Frances Anderton: Deconstructing Kanye: Kanye West loves architecture. Is that good news for a profession little understood by the general public, and long lacking in diversity? Or do his recent provocations about slavery and President Trump complicate his interest in the built environment? Brentin Mock/CityLab: real estate development by Kanye West would be as ill-advised as his sweatsuits (“hideous")...West has dictatorial tendencies that might infuse his approach to city-making; KCRW DJ Aaron Byrd; SCI-Arc student Aminatou Fall- KCRW (Los Angeles)

Paul Makovsky Named Editor in Chief of Contract Magazine: ...spent the last 18 years at Metropolis magazine, where he had several senior editorial roles,..most recently was vice president of design, overseeing the launch of a new supplement on multi-housing, and ...the publication of the sixth edition of the official guide to NYCxDESIGN.- Contract magazine

CTBUH Urban Habitat Award for skyscrapers and urban context: Architecture’s impact on its context...goes farther than the footprint of the building itself...annual awards for tall buildings that have a positive impact on their surroundings...a look at the candidates for the 2018 awards: Barangaroo South/International Towers, Sydney; Greatwall Complex, Wuhan; Oasia Hotel Downtown, Singapore; SOHO Fuxing Plaza, Shanghai; SkyPark, Hong Kong; World Trade Center Master Plan, New York City. -- Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat; Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; 10 DESIGN; WOHA Architects; Palmer & Turner; von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects (gmp); Studio Libeskind- Floornature

Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design hosts design competition for attainable housing schemes: ...tasked design professionals to present housing solutions that embrace the local challenges, culture, value, and vision of Northwest Arkansas...given seven weeks to design an innovative and fully practical proposal for building attainable housing - four firms emerged as victors. -- Digsau; Kevin Daly Architecture; Merge Architects; 5468796 Architecture [images]- Archinect

Call for entries: Euro Velo Stops architecture competition (international): design rest stop cabins for travelers along Europe’s large-scale EuroVelo cycle path network; cash prizes; winning designs will be considered for construction as a part of the Bright Blueprint initiative; early registration deadline (save money!): June 15 (submission due Novembe 12)- Bee Breeders (formerly HMMD/Homemade Dessert) / Bright Blueprint Development

Call for entries: IsArch Awards for Architecture Students - 9th Edition: open to students of architecture and young architects who have graduated within the last 3 years; cash prizes; early registration deadline (save money!): June 30 (sumissions due October 15)- ISARCH

Danish Design Festival celebrates diversity in design and craft through exhibitions, experiences, talks, conferences and awards. The City of Copenhagen and the Danish Design Centre will kick-start the festival... May 23-30- Danish Design Festival

Rem Koolhaas, the star architect behind Prada’s sets, opens up to his son Tomas: Tomas Koolhaas interviews his father about the film "REM" and the impact of looking back: You and Kanye West...have both been labeled as provocateurs. Do you think certain segments of society use that term negatively to try and force conformity? "I don’t know if 'provocateur' is such a negative term...I see it more as a badge of honor, and I’m not bothered by it." -- OMA/Office for Metropolitan Architecture- Interview Magazine

NYCxDESIGN, New York City’s annual celebration of design...celebrates a world of design and showcases over a dozen design disciplines through events taking place across the city’s five boroughs. thru May 23- NYCxDESIGN

2018 Design Pavilion NYC returns to New York City’s Times Square in celebration of the city’s official design week NYCxDESIGN, inviting public engagement with design and innovation...presenting a series of curated installations and daily programs, and themed for 2018 From This Day Forward. thru May 20- Design Pavilion NYC

Bart Boehlert: Rosario Candela, the Man Behind New York City’s Most Desirable Addresses: In conjunction with a new exhibition, architects and designers explain [his] extraordinary legacy: In the 1920s and '30s, [the architect] designed many sophisticated apartment buildings in New York that are still some of the most desirable addresses in the city...“Elegance in the Sky: The Architecture of Rosario Candela” at the Museum of the City of New York is the first exhibition devoted to the masterful designer...He died largely unacknowledged in 1953. Buthis reputation has been revived... thru October 28 -- Donald Albrecht; Peter Pennoyer Architects; Paul Goldberger; Robert A.M. Stern; Paul Whalen/Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Bunny Williams [images]- Architectural Digest

Patrick Sisson: How green, flexible infrastructure can make cities resilient: "NatureStructure" looks at how engineers and architects can work with, rather than against, the natural world: ...exploration of new...projects with a more organic, natural bent suggests that urban planners, architects, and designers are beginning to embrace a different narrative, one of collaboration instead of suppression...features more than 30 projects from around the globe that demonstrate the potential of collaborating with, instead of overpowering, nature... BSA Space, Boston, thru September 23 -- Scott Burnham- Curbed

Rowan Moore: John Outram: the definition of British postmodern architecture: A rare interview with the celebrated architect who can expect star billing at a celebration of postmodernism ["The Return of the Past: Postmodernism in British Architecture"] in London: He knows how to alchemise building materials, to play with the colours and casting of concrete...until it looks animate, or geological, or edible, or any combination of the three...his buildings...reach out and grab you. Once seen, they are not forgotten. They move you and engage you. Which is not something you can say of most new buildings. Sir John Soane’s museum, thru August 27- Observer (UK)

Rowan Moore: "The Future Starts Here: 100 projects shaping the world of tomorrow" – an engaging vision: An interactive look at the future of design is refreshingly hopeful, despite fears about privacy and the global reach of internet giants such as Facebook: The [installation] design invites you to enter rooms, sit down, lie down and touch things...There is spookiness...but also wonder, and the possibility that design can find responses to the crises of the modern world...intelligent, well-presented and quietly provocative exhibition shows these possibilities without drawing bogus conclusions. Victoria & Albert Museum, London, thru November 4 -- Andrés Jaque/Office for Political Innovation- Observer (UK)

Alice Bucknell: The Designers Who Made Disco: The nightclub has always been a fiercely creative and radical architectural typology, "Night Fever" at the Vitra Design Museum argues: ...extends its gaze across cities and continents to examine how architects and designers from New York to Paris answered the call of the night...doesn’t skimp on entertainment...(Fear not, wall flowers: Dancing is optional.)...Perpetually teetering on the edge of extinction, it is a fiercely resilient and radical typology. [The show] begs us to stay out a little later, to soak up these excesses...because who knows what the world will look like the morning after. Weil am Rhein, Germany, thru September 9 [images]- Metropolis Magazine

Spectacular panoramas capture Hong Kong's disappearing architecture: ...old tenement buildings - or "tong lau" - are microcosms of life in the city...built from the end of the 19th century until the 1960s...many have since been demolished...However, they remain hives of social and commercial activity...Hoping to document this disappearing way of life, British photographer Stefan Irvine spent almost four years capturing tong lau...[he worked] with...Jörg Dietrich to stitch composite images (up to 25 photos together) into single, striking panoramas..."Hong Kong's Disappearing Tong Lau," offers an unusually complete glimpse of a distinct architectural form. Blue Lotus Gallery, Affordable Art Fair, Hong Kong, May 18-20 [images]- CNN Style

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