Today’s News - Wednesday, August 15, 2018
● Moore considers "sweltering cities, and how air conditioning created the modern city" and "a new kind of architecture. But has the time come to turn it off?"
● A look at some of the best "big Ideas" for urban transformation that "often begins on a local scale, as these inspiring initiatives prove," from Wroclaw, Poland, to Richmond, Virginia.
● Eyefuls of the six shortlisted proposals by six impressive teams in Melbourne's Southbank by Beulah.
● Quinton parses how, "instead of razing buildings, some cities want to reuse their bones" via deconstruction rather than demolition, and selling reclaimed materials - it's "a way to create entry-level construction jobs and reduce demolition waste. But the push has had mixed success."
● Nemo takes us on a tour of Chicago's Wild Mile "fake riverbanks" floating along the edges of the city's manmade (and polluted) North Branch Canal - "80 coconut-fiber 'islands'" that host wildlife, filter the water, and soon to sport public walkways and kayak access points.
● Schwab takes a look at San Francisco's "sensational new elevated park," the Salesforce Transit Center Park by PWP, which has "opened in a part of the city desperate for green space - and even helped change local zoning regulations" that now allow gray water to irrigate the entire park.
● McGuigan's great Q&A with PWP's Adam Greenspan, who "is just completing two remarkable - and vastly different - projects. It's hard to imagine two more different landscape designs than Glenstone in rural Maryland and the transit center park in the heart of San Francisco."
● Wainwright x 2: He's quite taken by Feilden Fowles' Oasis Farm Waterloo and "the architects who put animals on the team - their HQ is also a farm. The power of coming across this unlikely oasis is made all the more poignant by its imminent destruction."
● He offers his verdict on the £15bn Crossrail, "the line that ate London": It is "a momentous architectural achievement - impressively slick and precise, but the urge to banish clutter makes the platforms rather monotonous, sterile places" ("a coughed hymn to value engineering").
● Dyer Brown's Dunn comes to the "defense of open-plan offices," and why the recent Harvard study "had an essential flaw: The extreme open-plan offices they studied - a designer well-versed in workplace strategy would never suggest such" environments for clients.
● McKeough talks to architects who "are innovating the college dorm - the residence hall is no longer just a residence - 'It's a village.'"
● Larsson looks into the Bureau for Art and Urban Research project that "aims to document and preserve" the Brutalist architecture of Eastern Europe - it believes that much of it "has been left out of the history books" (fab photos!).
● You have only 'til Saturday to catch the festival tour of this year's Antepavilion - the AirDraft, an inflatable yellow theater and arts venue barge on an East London canal.
● One we couldn't resist: "Why people walking past walls is an Instagram hit" - #peoplewalkingpastwalls "has been used on more than 90,000 photos" (really fab photos!).
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Rowan Moore: Sweltering cities: An inversion of nature: how air conditioning created the modern city: The shopping mall, the office block, suburbs, museums, Hollywood, the Gulf cities - air conditioning powered them all. But has the time come to turn it off? Its effects...have been social, cultural and geopolitical...With air conditioning goes a new kind of architecture, one in which traditional hot-climate devices...have given way to sealed boxes...The most significant architectural effect of air conditioning, however, is in the social spaces it creates...it is easy to overlook its achievements... -- Hassan Fathy; Kunlé Adeyemi; Foster + Partners- Guardian Cities |
Big Ideas: Urban transformation often begins on a local scale, as these inspiring initiatives prove: ...even incremental changes, whether they’re driven by a top-down plan, a bottom-up approach or a combination of the two can act as a catalyst for bigger things...smart projects, large and small, have the power to transform cities for the better. We take a look at some of the best...[from Wroclaw, Poland, to Richmond, Virginia] -- NO Studio; Veksø; Mary Mattingly/Swale; Tim and Jan Edler/Flussbad- Monocle magazine |
Shortlist for Southbank by Beulah Competition Announced: Presentations of the six finalists' concept proposals were showcased in a pop-up pavilion in Melbourne, Australia: ...competition, which called for the design of a $2 billion mixed-use tower on a former BMW dealership site... -- UNStudio; Coop Himmelb(l)au; Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA); BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group; MAD Architects; Cox Architecture; Woods Bagot; Architectus; Conrad Gargett; Fender Katsalidis Architects; Elenberg Fraser [images]- Architect Magazine |
Sophie Quinton: Instead of Razing Buildings, Some Cities Want to Reuse Their Bones: ...two Baltimore enterprises...Details Deconstruction takes apart blighted buildings and salvages or recycles materials that are still valuable...Brick and Board processes and sells reclaimed materials, saving them from the landfill...City leaders in Baltimore and across the country want to promote deconstruction as a way to create entry-level construction jobs and reduce demolition waste. But the push has had mixed success... -- Building Materials Reuse Association; Humanim- Stateline.org / Pew Center on the States |
Leslie Nemo: Fake Riverbanks Turn a Chicago Canal ‘Wild’: Chicago’s manmade North Branch Canal is polluted and lacks natural habitat. Enter 80 coconut-fiber “islands” that host wildlife and filter the water: ...the beginnings of the Wild Mile. The initiative, led by Urban Rivers, aims to transform the steel-walled [canal] of the Chicago River into a lush wildlife haven. Work...will continue through 2020, when the area is planned to have forests, wetlands, and public walkways and kayak access points. [images]- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
Katharine Schwab: A first look at San Francisco’s sensational new elevated park: Designed by PWP Landscape Architects, the designers behind the 9/11 Memorial, the Salesforce Transit Center Park opened in a part of the city desperate for green space - and even helped change local zoning regulations. -- Adam Greenspan; Pelli Clarke Pelli [images]- Fast Company / Co.Design |
Cathleen McGuigan: Interview with Adam Greenspan: Keep your eye on...design partner at the Berkeley-based PWP Landscape Architecture, founded by the esteemed Peter Walker. Greenspan is just completing two remarkable - and vastly different - projects in which landscape and architecture are inextricably intertwined: It’s hard to imagine two more different landscape designs than Glenstone in rural Maryland and the transit center park in the heart of San Francisco. -- Thomas Phifer and Partners; Pelli Clark Pelli [images]- Architectural Record |
Oliver Wainwright: Meet me in the pig palace! The architects who put animals on the team: Feilden Fowles is scooping up all the best work. Is this because their HQ is also a farm? ...it would be hard for any prospective client to...not be seduced by the pastoral utopia...a radical realisation of “mixed use”...Oasis Farm Waterloo...The power of coming across this unlikely oasis...is made all the more poignant by its imminent destruction...[lease] expires in January... it would be a tragedy if the farm was razed and the site became a fenced-off dump for years, waiting for the developers to arrive. [images]- Guardian (UK) |
Oliver Wainwright: The line that ate London: ...verdict on the £15bn Crossrail colossus: With its cavernous passageways, 200-metre trains and district-engulfing stations, Crossrail is a momentous architectural achievement. But will passengers just see a blur of beige? ...it is hard not to feel awed by the sheer size of it all... the raw logic of the engineering has provided the aesthetic steer...impressively slick and precise, but the urge to banish clutter makes the platforms rather monotonous, sterile places...the stations all feel a bit meek...a coughed hymn to value engineering. -- Hawkins\Brown; Aedas; Weston Williamson; Grimshaw Architects/Atkins; Will Alsop; John McAslan; BDP; Norman Foster; Adamson Associates; Fereday Pollard; Bennetts Associates [images]- Guardian (UK) |
Ashley L. Dunn/Dyer Brown: An architect’s defense of open-plan offices: A recent Harvard study of how employees communicate in open-plan offices seemed to be the final nail in the coffin of this popular workplace design. But the study had an essential flaw: The extreme open-plan offices they studied...work areas without the choice of meeting rooms, breakout spaces, or telephone booths...a designer well-versed in workplace strategy would never suggest such an environment for a client...There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all office design.- Fast Company / Co.Design |
Tim McKeough: How Architects Are Innovating the College Dorm: A different approach to campus residences is designed to appeal to a new generation of students for whom work-life balance is top of mind: “The vision is to develop the coolest, hippest, most compelling destination"...better-designed housing provides a more attractive lifestyle for prospective students while encouraging existing students to live on campus longer - which can benefit the college in the long term, as well...“These places are becoming living-and-learning communities, where the public spaces have a lot more to give"...the residence hall is no longer just a residence...“It’s a village.” -- Elizabeth Lowrey/Elkus Manfredi Architects; Gensler; Studio Gang; Jim Curtin/SCB [images]- Architectural Digest |
Naomi Larsson: Socialist modernism: remembering the architecture of the eastern bloc: Much of the brutalist architecture of eastern Europe is decrepit, but now a project aims to document and preserve it: ...the Bureau for Art and Urban Research believes...the architecture from the former eastern bloc erected between 1955-91 - has been left out of the history books....Bacu started an initiative in 2014 to document and preserve the structures and their heritage. [images]- Guardian Cities |
Inflatable yellow theatre barge pops-up on east London canal: This year's Antepavilion is an inflatable arts venue on a barge...created by architects Thomas Randall-Page and Benedetta Rogers...AirDraft, the floating theatre boasts a balloon-like construction that means it can deflate in five minutes, allowing it to manoeuvre easily under bridges along London's waterways...festival tour, mooring at different cultural venues and spaces along the way to host arts events. thru August 18 -- Ellis Woodman/The Architecture Foundation. [images]- Dezeen |
Side effect: why people walking past walls is an Instagram hit: Since Amanda Taylor started the #peoplewalkingpastwalls hashtag five years ago, it has been used on more than 90,000 photos. [images]- Guardian Cities (UK) |
ANN feature: The Pop-up Phenomenon, Made in America: To meet a growing demand, Hofmann Architecture's Living Vehicle is an architectural platform offering mobile, easily deployable business and housing options. By Shirley Styles [images]- ArchNewsNow.com |
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