Today’s News - Wednesday, August 22, 2018
● ASLA launches a new guide for sustainable regional, urban, neighborhood, and street transportation systems (research, studies, articles, and projects welcome!).
● In July, a Harvard study could "be the final nail in the coffin" for open-plan offices; now, a University of Arizona study finds open-plan offices "more active" and "less stressed."
● Kamin x 2: He finds Ross Barney's Chicago McDonald's to be "architecturally adventurous," giving it "an 'A' for effort and a 'B' for execution. There are lots of good ideas bubbling here, but they're not fully cooked."
● As the man who wrote the book on Harvard's gates, he's less impressed with DePaul University's new gate that "grates - decked out with an LED screen that belongs at a used-car dealership" - Antunovich's "handsome, if unadventurous" performance center is "a better gateway to the campus than the gate."
● Bernstein is quite taken by an apartment building "that dances" in Zurich - "it is unlikely that even Le Corbusier envisioned a place as machinelike - a lighthearted ode to the Rube Goldberg tradition" ("It has a sense of humor," sayeth architect Herz).
● Schwab parses Nord Architects' "series of centers for patients with Alzheimer's and dementia that feel more like villages or cities, rather than bleak institutions."
● Badger delves into bipartisan NIMBYism arising from the U.S. housing secretary wanting "to encourage mixed-income, multifamily development as a way of making housing more affordable," but "the federal government can do little about the bipartisan will of homeowners."
● It was worth it for Diamond Schmitt to go back to the drawing board - its redesigned student residence tower at University of Toronto gets the city's blessing.
● Not so blessed is Snøhetta's "A House to Die In": "'bad-boy' artist Melgaard's battle to build his 'death house' near the site of Edvard Munch's Oslo studio has come to an end."
● Kwun profiles "16 women breaking new ground in architecture - and the ways they're leading the charge in moving the architecture field forward" (we cheer them all!).
● Dobbins delves into the "sweeping influence" of Eliel and Eero Saarinen and "who in the pantheon of architects has built upon the legacy they left behind."
● Hodkinson hails the history of Suuronen's flying saucer-like Futuro House and how it "turned out to be an impractical curio - but its atomic-age aesthetics are still alluring - while many have been destroyed or vandalized, others have found new lives" (VIP lounge in a strip club, for one!).
● It's a long shortlist of 42 vying for Dezeen Awards 2018 (including Groupwork + Amin Taha's 15 Clerkenwell Close, nominated for a Carbuncle Cup - click Yesterday's News for Rowan Moore's poetic take).
Tourism good! Tourism bad! Musical "hostile architecture." A park né tunnel. A park unites.
● Ten cities in the running for European Capital of Smart Tourism 2019 to "receive communication and branding support for a year, a promotional video, and a purpose-built sculpture for their city centers."
● Meanwhile, move over Venice - Amsterdam is seeking to save itself from tourists, trying a variety of experiments, and "could play a kind of pioneering role" for other overrun tourist centers ("the city cannot become a whore like Venice").
● In Berlin, music joins the "hostile architecture" tool kit as a train station experiments with "anxiety-inducing music in bid" to drive "away loiterers without upsetting passengers" (but "listening to atonal music can raise blood pressure, and increase agitation and anxiety" - oh joy).
● Green reports on how Greenville, South Carolina's new Unity Park "will not only bridge communities but also actually merge two once-segregated parks" - and lead to equitable development (and a river released from its current concrete confines).
● Cole parses The Miller Hull Partnership's proposal to turn a defunct Seattle tunnel (a relic of the Alaskan Way Viaduct) into a "landscaped canyon" - complete with a creek with a salmon run (all it needs now is political will).
● Toronto's Park People announces winners of the 2018 Public Space Incubator program that "funds creative, innovative, and radical ideas to reimagine how we inhabit and enliven public spaces."
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Jared Green: ASLA Launches New Guide to Transportation: ...with in-depth sections on how to plan and design more sustainable regional, urban, neighborhood, and street transportation systems...This guide is a living resource, so we invite you to submit research, studies, articles, and projects you’d like to see included.- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
Workers in open-plan offices 'more active': ...less stressed than those with desks in cubicles or private offices, research suggests. This could be because they make the effort to find privacy to talk away from their desk...The U.S. study used chest sensors to track movement and heart rate in hundreds of people in different buildings over three days...The University of Arizona study...claims to be the first to measure activity and stress in office workers, rather than asking them in a survey.- BBC News |
Blair Kamin: McDonald’s new River North restaurant: Not ketchup-red or mustard-yellow, but green - and not quite cooked: This temple of the Big Mac is billed as a model of energy-saving architecture - sustainability! It’s supposed to bring people together - community! The building...is architecturally adventurous - a big improvement on the supersized, backward-looking store it replaced...I give [it]...an “A” for effort and a “B” for execution. There are lots of good ideas bubbling here, but they’re not (excuse the restaurant metaphor) fully cooked. -- Carol Ross Barney; Landini Associates [images]- Chicago Tribune |
Blair Kamin: At DePaul, a gate grates, but a music center delivers a solid performance: If you can see past its screeching front gate - no easy thing because the portal is decked out with an LED screen that belongs at a used-car dealership - the redesigned east side of DePaul University’s Lincoln Park campus is pretty good...The gate...at least beckons you in. So does a handsome, if unadventurous...Holtschneider Performance Center...It's big but not a monster. It’s a better gateway to the campus than the gate. -- Antunovich Associates; Dirk Lohan; Kirkegaard Associates [images]- Chicago Tribune |
Fred A. Bernstein: In Zurich, a Building That Dances: An architect takes the concept of a mechanized, movable structure in a colorful new direction: ...it is unlikely that even Le Corbusier envisioned a place as machinelike as the Zurich apartment building...Dubbed Ballet Mécanique...covered entirely by aluminum and steel panels that open and close hydraulically, like massive petals...a lighthearted ode to the Rube Goldberg tradition...“It has a sense of humor.” -- Manuel Herz [images]- New York Times T Magazine |
Katharine Schwab: This “city” for people with dementia is the future of memory care: “It’s going back to how we did it before we institutionalized our way of treating elderly,” says one of the architects: Copenhagen-based firm Nord Architects is building a series of centers for patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia that feel more like villages or cities, rather than bleak institutions. -- Morten Gregersen [images]- Fast Company / Co.Design |
Emily Badger: The Bipartisan Cry of ‘Not in My Backyard’: The housing secretary wants to encourage mixed-income, multifamily development as a way of making housing more affordable...a notion homeowners of all political leanings tend to oppose: Ben Carson is probably right. But the kind of housing he describes is impractical, illegal or too costly to build...Nimbyism knows no party limits...messages, from officials in both parties, have been overpowered by the reality that the federal government can do little about fundamentally local laws, and by the bipartisan will of homeowners. The instinct to protect property values may be too deeply ingrained in America to change.- New York Times |
City approval advances Diamond Schmitt Architects’ redesigned U of T residence: The first new student residence to rise at University of Toronto’s downtown St. George campus in a decade has reached a development milestone...addresses an urgent need for more student accommodation while providing community amenities as part of the design. A three-storey heritage building will also be incorporated into the façade and a public green space will be added to the site, signalling an evolution from earlier plans, which called for the demolition of the older building. [images]- Canadian Architect |
Oslo Council blocks bad-boy artist's 'death house': Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard’s battle to build his ‘death house’ near the site of Edvard Munch’s Oslo studio has come to an end...Snøhetta's design for A House to Die In has been likened to a UFO.- The Local Norway |
Aileen Kwun: 16 Women Breaking New Ground in Architecture: ...#MeToo movement has ignited a wave of activism...Here, we highlight 16 women across generations and borders, and the ways they’re leading the charge in moving the architecture field forward. -- Elizabeth Diller/Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Frida Escobedo; Marwa al-Sabouni/co-founder, arch-news.net, Homs, Syria; Eva Franch i Gilabert/Architectural Association; Amale Andraos/WORKac/Dean, Columbia GSAPP; Kazuyo Sejima/Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates/SANAA; Mabel O. Wilson/Columbia GSAPP/Studio And; Odile Decq; Tatiana Bilbao; Deborah Berke/Dean, Yale School of Architecture; Jeanne Gang/Studio Gang Architects; Beverly Willis; Sandra Barclay/Barclay & Crousse; Neri Oxman; Peggy Deamer/The Architecture Lobby; Denise Scott Brown/Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates/VSBA- Artsy magazine |
Tom Dobbins: Eliel and Eero Saarinen: The Sweeping Influence of Architecture's Greatest Father-Son Duo: ...the Finnish-American architects whose combined portfolio tells of the development of modernist architectural thought in the United States...produced a matchless body of work...who in the pantheon of architects has built upon the legacy they left behind. -- Cranbrook Academy of Art; Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates; Zaha Hadid; Santiago Calatrava; ALA Architects; PES-Architects [images]- ArchDaily |
Mark Hodkinson: Back to the Futuro: the spaceship house that landed in Yorkshire: Dreamed up in Finland and shaped like a flying saucer, Matti Suuronen’s ‘house of the future’ turned out to be an impractical curio - but its atomic-age aesthetics are still alluring: Nicknamed the Flying Saucer and the UFO House, it was symbolic of the ambitious space-race era...While many of the 100 or so Futuros made have been destroyed or vandalised, others have found new lives... [images]- Guardian (UK) |
Dezeen Awards 2018 architecture shortlist reveals the world's best new buildings: ...featuring a rammed-earth cricket pavilion in Rwanda, a structure made out of kites in Taiwan and a wooden house in a Norwegian forest. There are 42 projects across eight categories...scoring them according to whether they were beautiful, innovative, and beneficial to people and planet. [images]- Dezeen |
10 finalists announced for EU European Capital of Smart Tourism 2019: ...two winning cities will receive communication and branding support for a year, a promotional video, a purpose-built sculpture for their city centers and other promotional help. Four others will be recognized for their achievements in the four categories of the competition: sustainability, accessibility, digitalization and cultural heritage and creativity.- Smart Cities Dive |
A City Tries To Save Itself: Amsterdam Seeks To Rein in Tourists: ...[the] city of 850,000 is unable to cope with the 18 million tourists who visit each year. City planners are experimenting with ways of limiting their numbers: "Amsterdam needs to make itself scarce, the city cannot become a whore like Venice"...municipal government could play a kind of pioneering role for other tourist centers...by developing concepts to combat the over-commodification of the city, or at least taking a stab at it..."Enjoy and Respect," an unprecedented campaign aimed at scaring people into better behavior.- Der Spiegel (Germany) |
Berlin's Hermannstrasse station to trial anxiety-inducing music in bid to reduce crime: Deutsche Bahn plans to experiment with playing music at different volumes...to judge its effectiveness at driving away loiterers without upsetting passengers. "Few people find it beautiful - many people perceive it as something to run away from"...non-expert listeners, listening to atonal music can raise blood pressure, and increase agitation and anxiety. The railway hopes that this will discourage people from lingering.- Dezeen |
Jared Green: Unity Park Anchors Equitable Development in Greenville, South Carolina: it will not only bridge communities but also actually merge two once-segregated parks...together in the new 60-acre park while still maintaining their distinct histories and identities...A ring of new affordable housing will be built around the park, in an attempt to prevent [it] from inadvertently becoming a gentrifying force that displaces the existing community...also about re-connecting the community to a lost river ecosystem...Reedy River that runs through the park will be taken out of its concrete channel and become a showpiece of ecological restoration. -- Darren Meyer/MKSK Studios [images]- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
David Cole: The Miller Hull Partnership Proposes Turning a Defunct Seattle Tunnel Into a Landscaped Canyon: ...part of a wider proposal to create a new greenbelt for the city's downtown that would connect its parks and waterfront: The Battery Street Tunnel...proposes removing the tunnel’s roof and creating an artificial canyon...[former] road bed, would be...converted into a creek with a salmon run...structural beams salvaged and used to support elevated pedestrian walkways...The project’s biggest challenges aren’t technical, but political; it needs public leadership with the vision... [images]- Metropolis Magazine |
Park People announces 2018 Public Space Incubator recipients: ...program that funds creative, innovative, and radical ideas to reimagine how we inhabit and enliven public spaces in Toronto...The five winning projects take place in parks, laneways, parking lots, and vacant lots, transforming these spaces into people-focused places... -- Native Women’s Resource Centre/Lisa Rochon/Larissa Roque/Tiffany Creyke; Brendan Stewart/Daniel Rotsztain/Karen Landman/Wexford Heights BIA; The Laneway Project/St. Lawrence Market BIA; Thorncliffe Park Women’s Committee/Alexandra Park Neighbourhood Learning Centre; stackt/Earth Day Canada/Children’s Discovery Centre- Canadian Architect |
ANN feature: Norman Weinstein: Welcome New Books Reveal the Heart of the Matter in Architectural Design: Kenneth Frampton's new edition of Kengo Kuma's works, along with Kate Franklin and Caroline Till's global survey of novel thinking about sustainable materials, offer new slants on how materials matter. [images]- ArchNewsNow.com |
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