Today’s News - Tuesday, February 12, 2019
● (Mostly) good news for cities: "The world's poorest communities have an unexpected ally. Thanks to a band of extraordinary innovators and businesses, it seems as though their lives could get a tiny bit better."
● A look at how Barcelona and other cities are using technology "to gather citizens' input on municipal projects," but getting it "to work effectively can be challenging for governments and citizens alike."
● Keskeys ponders how "urban sprawl and flawed high-rise designs have ravaged cities for decades" - and "how architects can fix them. Should we build up or build out? I say neither - we simply need to build smarter."
● A video of Forlales' tiny bamboo home: Is CUBO "the answer to the Philippines' housing shortage - and could his idea go global?" (winner of the 2018 RICS Cities for our Future competition - and £50,000).
● Adjaye responds to the "deluge of objections" to his UK Holocaust Memorial in a small park in London: "Disrupting the pleasure of being in a park is key to its thinking" (huh?!!? - check out the comments, too).
● Moore x 2: He doesn't blame the "dream team" behind the UK Holocaust Memorial - they "are at the mercy of a bad brief - no amount of ingenuity could hide the £50m of construction that would be shoveled into this sensitive site."
● He cheers the idea of a Gehry-designed Wimbledon concert hall - what the project needs now is funding and the Merton city council allowing its parking garage to be demolished. "The council's caution with public assets is understandable but the hall would be a major coup for the borough."
● Seems it's not a good day for parking garages: "London's Brutalist Welbeck Street car park will definitely be demolished - to be replaced by a luxury hotel, despite campaigns to save its unique façade," and despite Sam Jacob calling it "one of the most important unsung buildings in the capital," and its façade being turned into a wallpaper pattern.
● Barone considers the Opéra Bastille in Paris (possibly the "ugliest" in Europe), which "was a laughingstock before it was even built - a comically embarrassing origin story" that "begins with a mistake" (the theater has "all the charm of a hotel convention center" - ouch!).
● Svigals + Partners is tapped again to deal with gun violence, this time, a Memorial Garden in honor of child victims of gun violence in New Haven, Connecticut - the "site will challenge the community to confront all that's been lost to guns."
● Dickinson tackles God and Christopher Alexander: "Despite my profession's canon of human control" - Alexander "challenges other architects' work with the simple fact that beauty is real and it comes from somewhere, but not from the recesses of a starchitect's mind."
● Good reason to head to California this week: Moruzzi of the Palm Springs Modern Committee offers highlights of Modernism Week, launching this Thursday.
● Thorpe shows us Palm Springs Modernism Week through the eyes of photographers Blachford and Ballis: "Here's their hit-list of places to visit while in town, plus some tips on how to capture its palm-fringed beauty."
It's a Green New Deal kind of day:
● Pacheco asks industry pros for "their wish lists for what a potential Green New Deal might include."
● Baca outlines the Green New Deal's "huge flaw - a Tesla in every driveway" and "ultra-LEED-certified parking garages just won't cut it."
● Biron raises similar issues: "Land-use is key ingredient missing from US Green New Deal, experts say. 'We need to drive less, and the only way to do that is to make things closer together,'" sayeth one.
Winners all!
● A great presentation of the winners of the 2019 Progressive Architecture Awards (now in its 66th year!).
● Great profiles of the 8 "dynamic young firms" from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico that won the Architectural League's 2019 Emerging Voices award.
● Profiles of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, winner of the 2019 Royal Academy Architecture Prize, and the "four up-and-coming architects" shortlisted for the £10,000 Royal Academy Dorfman Award.
● A "joint effort by emerging practices Compendium, Studio Yu and tomos.design" wins the competition "to transform an underused plaza" in Thornton Heath "into an area for community events and locally inspired art."
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Tackling slums by making them better places to live: ...the world’s poorest communities have an unexpected ally: entrepreneurs determined to turn slums into safe places to live: In places where wages are low, people have no choice - slums are the only affordable option. But thanks to a band of extraordinary innovators and businesses, it seems as though their lives could get a tiny bit better.- BBC Future |
Who knows best? Cities consult citizens for fresh ideas: Barcelona often uses inclusive processes to gather citizens’ input on municipal projects - a trend that is growing worldwide at city and national levels: Participatory processes are gradually emerging...as digital technology makes them simpler and faster for local authorities to implement...Getting them to work effectively, however, can be challenging for governments and citizens alike...- Place / Thomson Reuters Foundation |
Paul Keskeys: Our Cities Are Broken. Here’s How Architects Can Fix Them: Urban sprawl and flawed high-rise designs have ravaged cities for decades. What’s the solution? ...the natural desires of people encompass elements present within both urban sprawl and super-tall tower...architects and urban planners are attempting to find that magic balance, and many have arrived at the same conclusion: that low-rise, high-density designs offer the best solution...Should we build up or build out? I say neither - we simply need to build smarter. -- Smart Growth America; LSE Cities; William Baker/SOM; Ken Lewis/SOM; Perkins+Will; Atelier 5; BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group: Feilden Clegg Bradley; Alison Brooks Architects; Maccreanor Lavington- Architizer |
The tiny home that can be built in four hours: The Philippines faces a massive housing crunch. So one young entrepreneur is using local bamboo to build affordable homes in mere hours: Earl Forlales, a young engineer and entrepreneur...[has] come up with a way to turn bamboo into compact but functional pre-fabricated homes [CUBO]...Does he have the answer to the Philippines’ housing shortage - and could his idea go global? [video]- BBC |
David Adjaye says ‘disrupting’ the park is key to his Holocaust memorial thinking: ...has infuriated opponents of his controversial Holocaust Memorial...has faced criticism from local residents because it will involve building on Victoria Tower Gardens...attracted a deluge of objections over fears the memorial and subterranean learning centre will involve the removal of mature plane trees and destroy the borough’s ‘green lung’..."Disrupting the pleasure of being in a park is key"... -- Adjaye Associates; Ron Arad Architects- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Rowan Moore: UK Holocaust memorial - time for a rethink: The dream team, led by David Adjaye...are at the mercy of a bad brief: The nub of the matter is the combination of two factors: the nature of the proposed memorial and its location...would be half-buried to minimise its impact, but no amount of ingenuity could hide the £50m of construction that would be shovelled into this sensitive site...With this flawed brief the apparent dream team of designers can only do so much...As it stands, the proposal is a work of muddled thinking, of too little of the reflection that a memorial is meant to encourage. -- Ron Arad; Gustafson Porter + Bowman [images]- Observer (UK) |
Rowan Moore: Will Frank Gehry’s Wimbledon concert hall outshine £300m City rival? Weeks after the Centre for Music was announced at the Barbican, another world-class venue is being discussed in London: ...could be “a win-win for both”...What the project now needs...is fundraising...and a commitment from the council that its car park can be used in this way...It’s hard to realise pledges without a site and Merton is reluctant to commit the site without pledges. The council’s caution with public assets is understandable but the hall would be a major coup for the borough. -- Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Yasuhisa Toyota- Observer (UK) |
London's Brutalist Welbeck Street car park will definitely be demolished: ...to be...replaced by a luxury hotel, despite campaigns to save its unique facade...Sam Jacob named it one of the most important unsung buildings in the capital, while a design company has turned its facade into a wallpaper pattern. However, its status as a car park in an increasingly pedestrianised part of London, where land is valued at a premium, made it a target for developers. -- Michael Blampied and Partners (1971); Eric Parry Architects; EPR Architects; JAA- Dezeen |
Joshua Barone: Does Paris Still Have the Ugliest Opera House in Europe? The Opéra Bastille, which turns 30 this year, has been mocked for virtually all of its existence: [It] was a laughingstock before it was even built...And its comically embarrassing origin story...begins with a mistake...chose a design they thought was by Richard Meier...It wasn’t. The name that was unveiled was Carlos Ott, a relatively unknown Uruguayan-Canadian architect...The theater itself...is devoid of warmth: Its stone walls and fixtures have all the charm of a hotel convention center. [images]- New York Times |
Svigals + Partners to design a Memorial Garden in honor of victims of gun violence: ...concerned mothers in New Haven, Connecticut, have spent the past several years advocating for a place to honor those lost to gun violence through the beauty of nature...Working with Urban Resources Initiative - a non-profit that helps to rejuvenate and renovate urban environments - the Lost Generation Memorial Garden...site will challenge the community to confront all that's been lost to guns. [images]- Archinect |
Duo Dickinson: God and the Architect: Christopher Alexander’s words, in a place of desperate secularization, have the ring of obvious truth, despite my profession’s canon of human control: The 80-plus years of his life have led him to a place of understanding that challenges other architects’ work with the simple fact that beauty is real and it comes from somewhere, but not from the recesses of a starchitect’s mind. -- "A Pattern Language"; Building Beauty Program, Sant’Anna Institute, Sorrento, Italy- The Living Church |
Peter Moruzzi: Midcentury modern architectural preservation has driven Palm Springs' renaissance: There were celebratory articles by the press in the early 2000s...several documentaries and numerous books published on Desert Modernism...and the opening of the influential Architecture and Design Center...Perhaps the most influential champion of Palm Springs’ modern heritage has been Modernism Week...This year...the Palm Springs Modern Committee presents a stunning full-scale, furnished replica of architect Paul Rudolph’s iconic 1952 Walker Guest House. -- Albert Frey; E. Stewart Williams; Richard Neutra; Hugh Kaptur; Sarasota Architectural Foundation- The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA) |
Harriet Thorpe: Palm Springs Modernism Week according to photographers Tom Blachford and Kate Ballis: Both have created popular photographic series focusing on the desert town - Blachford is behind "Midnight Modern" while Ballis created "Infra Realism"...Here’s their hit-list of places to visit while in town, plus some tips on how to capture its palm-fringed beauty. Palm Springs Modernism Week 2019, February 14-24- Wallpaper* |
Antonio Pacheco: What do architects want from a Green New Deal? AN asked designers from around the country to share their wish lists for what a potential GND might include. The responses span a range of issues that touch on the built environment, project financing, building codes, and environmental regulation, among other topics. -- Karin Liljegren/Omgivning; Vishaan Chakrabarti/PAU; Anica Landreneau/HOK; Claire Weisz/ WXY; David Baker/David Baker Architects; Peggy Deamer/The Architecture Lobby; Kimberly Dowdell/National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA)- The Architect's Newspaper |
Alex Baca: The Green New Deal’s Huge Flaw: It completely ignores the most crucial environmental, economic, and racial-justice issue of all: where we live: That America’s most famous progressive city [Berkeley, California]...spent $40 million to renovate a parking garage one block from a subway station...encapsulates the liberal delusion on climate change: that technology and spending can spare us the hard work of reform...transportation is the elephant in the room...A Tesla in every driveway just won’t cut it...building housing near jobs, transit, and other housing - rather than ultra-LEED-certified parking garages - is merely a political choice. No innovation required.- Slate |
Carey L. Biron: Land use is key ingredient missing from US 'Green New Deal', experts say: ...some are warning that a major gap exists around urban land policy...includes a focus on electrifying vehicle fleets, but it doesn't talk about how to get Americans to drive less in the long term..."we need to drive less, and the only way to do that is to make things closer together"...referring to the proximity between housing, jobs and services. -- Jenny Schuetz/Brookings Institution; Greg Carlock/Data for Progress; Ian Klaus- Place / Thomson Reuters Foundation |
Katie Gerfen: The Winners of the 66th Annual Progressive Architecture Awards: The jury selected 10 winners that showcase how thoughtful design risks can yield progressive and unexpected environments: ...innovative design from established heavyweights and fresh new perspectives. -- Johnston Marklee; Young & Ayata/Michan Architecture; Actual Architecture + FACT; Kevin Daly Architects; Open Architecture; Morphosis Architects; MALL; Paul Preissner Architects; WOJR; Jon Lott/Para Project [images]- Architect Magazine |
Announcing the Architectural League’s 2019 Emerging Voices: ...recognizes eight dynamic young firms...We profile this year’s winners... -- Bernardo Quinzaños Oria/Ignacio Urquiza Seoane/Centro de Colaboración Arquitectónica (CCA), Mexico City; Bryan C. Lee, Jr./Sue Mobley/Colloqate, New Orleans; Trattie Davies/Jonathan Toews/Davies Toews, New York City; Brennan Buck/David Freeland/FreelandBuck, Los Angeles & New York City; Phu Hoang/Rachely Rotem/MODU, Brooklyn; Troy Schaum/Rosalyne Shieh/SCHAUM/SHIEH, Houston & New York City; Irene Gardpoit/Eiri Ota/UUfie, Toronto; Ben Waechter/Waechter Architecture, Portland, Oregon- The Architect's Newspaper |
Diller Scofidio + Renfro wins 2019 Royal Academy Architecture Prize: Projects include New York’s High Line and a proposed London’s Centre for Music: RA named four up-and-coming architects shortlisted for its annual £10,000 Royal Academy Dorfman Award... -- RA Architecture Prize; Elizabeth Diller & Ricardo Scofidio; Fernanda Canales (Mexico); Alice Casey/Cian Deegan/TAKA Architects (Dublin); Mariam Kamara/Atelier Masomi (Niger); Boonserm Premthada/Bangkok Project Studio- Financial Times (UK) |
Trio wins £75k Thornton Heath community space contest: A joint effort by emerging practices Compendium, Studio Yu and tomos.design...The contest sought ‘innovative’ proposals to transform an underused plaza outside the Ambassador House office complex opposite Thornton Heath train station into an area for community events and locally inspired art...team did not submit a finalised design because they want the idea to emerge through engaging with the community...part of larger long-term plans to upgrade civic spaces and promote business within the suburban town centre. -- CR7 Square- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
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