Today’s News - Thursday, February 14, 2019

EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days - we'll be back Tuesday, February 19. In the meantime, we'll be breaking out a bottle of bubbly on Monday, February 18, in celebration of ArchNewsNow's 17th(!) ANNiversary! And Happy Valentine's Day (see "one we couldn't resist below)!

●  Wainwright parses Ishigami's design for the 2019 Serpentine Pavilion: "He promises to conjure one of the strangest forms the park has ever seen" with "a mysterious cloud of grey slate" - if all goes as planned, "we will be treated to a touch of magic this summer."

●  Fox parses "why America's new apartment buildings all look the same - cheap stick framing appears to have become the default construction method" for "blocky, forgettable mid-rises. Whether it's the right formula is something we'll have to wait to find out."

●  Welton x 2: He profiles "game changer" Zena Howard of P+W, who "has spearheaded an effort to address decades of community marginalization, posing design as a collaborative tool for change - her work reimagines a city's future."

●  He parses ODA's tower atop a 1930s post office in Rotterdam that has stood empty for the past 12 years, and is "about to become the harbinger of a thriving inner city."

●  Eyefuls of REX's "radical vision" for Brown University's new adaptable Performing Arts Center "that features a transformative interior production space" - and a striking façade.

●  The Getty Foundation gives four (generous!) grants "to support digital mapping of important cultural heritage sites" in Pompeii, Florence, Çatalhöyük, Turkey, and Rio de Janeiro, as part of its Digital Art History initiative.

●  One we couldn't resist: 85 Valentine's Day cards "for architects and (architecture) lovers" (some are pretty wild!).

Deadlines:

●  Call for entries: Radical Innovation Awards: "A challenge to designers, architects, hoteliers, and students to pioneer compelling ideas in travel and hospitality."

●  Call for entries: LAGI 2019 Abu Dhabi: Return to the Source: create an iconic work of art for a landmark site within Foster + Partners' Masdar City using renewable energy technology (big cash prizes!).

●  Call for entries: Gauja National Park Footbridge to serve as a symbolic entrance to the park in Latvia.

●  Call for entries: Call for Nominations: The Cultural Landscape Foundation's Landslide 2019: Living in Nature - Cultural Landscapes Threatened by Climate Change.

●  Call for entries: Applications for the Architects Foundation/McAslan Fellowship, funding undergraduate seniors and graduate students for a summer of travel and study (open to U.S. citizens).

Weekend diversions:

●  Wainwright x 2: "Making It Happen: New Community Architecture" proves that "community architecture doesn't have to mean bits from a skip. It can be elegant and beautiful," as well as "socially worthy, environmentally conscious, and people-centered - small shoots of hope breaking through the ruins of austerity" (in the 1970s, "49% of all architects worked in the public sector; today, that figure is just 0.7%").

●  He's not quite as impressed by "Is This Tomorrow?": "I've seen the future and it's porn, pollution and penthouses" - and "alarmingly bleak."

●  Kafka says "David Adjaye: Making Memory" offers a "promising start, an interrogation of how we build memory," but "collapses into 'just' a retrospective - a forgettable one at that."

●  Block, on the other hand, offers an interesting Q&A with Adjaye, who says "architecture can combat fake news - recording what has been lost, or what humanity has destroyed, is a vital part of the conversation on conservation and climate change."

●  Okamoto offers eyefuls of MoMA's "The Value of Good Design": MoMA "was a central player in the Good Design movement" (1930s-50s), and this show "occupies a strange niche - somewhere between self-criticism and self-promotion. The mixture of commerce and culture is the point" (great pix!).

●  Also in NYC, "Candida Höfer - In Mexico" showcases the German-based photographer's "breathtaking" photos that capture "moments within empty social spaces and vacant public interiors - she focuses on exposing and highlighting 'the social psychology of architecture'" (gorgeous pix!).

●  King enjoyed SFMOMA's "rewarding, a multidimensional" Sea Ranch exhibition, but is disappointed that the museum "use the show to explore a much broader set of issues - less 1960s-infused place-making nostalgia than a thoughtful look at the difficulty of matching noble architectural visions with economic and cultural realities."

●  Eyefuls of what's on view in "The Bauhaus and Harvard" that "highlights a range of less-recognized but prodigiously talented creators, designers, and instructors - many of them women."

●  Mun-Delsalle gives us a reason to head to the south of France, where the "the art and architecture Eden" Château La Coste offers "Jean Prouvé, l'Âme du Métal" in the Renzo Piano-designed pavilion.

Page-turners:

●  Rybczynski offers a riveting review of the "impassioned bomb-throwing jeremiad," "Making Dystopia," and what Stevens Curl "gets wrong (and right)" - his "language may be immoderate, but he is not wrong"; though the book "is seriously flawed; it's too long and comes across as gossipy. Yet it contains underlying truths."

●  Holland hails "Archigram: The Book," the "luxurious new book" about the "rule-breaking rock stars of architecture" (that is "heavier than most of the buildings they designed").

●  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' "Engineering with Nature: An Atlas" presents 50 pilot projects that used "a range of strategies for designing infrastructure with ecological, social, and cultural benefits at multiple scales" (available to download).

Tweet

To subscribe to the free daily newsletter click here Oliver Wainwright: Junya Ishigami to design 2019 Serpentine pavilion: Japanese architect announces plan to create a mysterious cloud of grey slate: ...will hover above the lawn of Kensington Gardens...as the pavilion commission takes on a dark, mysterious air...he promises to conjure one of the strangest forms the park has ever seen...More than any other practising architect today, he is a magician of materials, an architectural alchemist who seems able to bend the laws of physics with his surreal, poetic work...we will be treated to a touch of magic this summer. [images]- Guardian (UK) Justin Fox: Why America’s New Apartment Buildings All Look the Same: Cheap stick framing has led to a proliferation of blocky, forgettable mid-rises - and more than a few construction fires: These structures’ proliferation is one of the most dramatic changes to the country’s built environment in decades...stick framing appears to have become the default construction method for apartment complexes....There’s lots to like about stumpy buildings that provide new housing in places where it’s sorely needed and enliven neighborhoods in the process...Wood’s green credentials have helped spur a recent worldwide push for more construction with “mass timber”...Some parts of the country need lots of new housing, and builders of bulky mid-rise wood-frame apartment buildings have found an economic formula that provides it. Whether it’s the right formula...is something we’ll have to wait to find out. -- Tim Smith/Togawa Smith Martin- Bloomberg/BusinessWeek J. Michael Welton: Game Changers: Architect Zena Howard Is Using Design as Urban Healing: The head of Perkins+Will’s cultural practice in North Carolina, Howard is bringing change to historically African-American neighborhoods from Miami to Vancouver and Los Angeles: ...has spearheaded an effort to address decades of community marginalization, posing design as a collaborative tool for change...“Remembrance Projects”...her work also reimagines a city’s future... -- Phil Freelon/The Freelon Group; Adjaye Associates [images]- Metropolis Magazine J. Michael Welton: In Rotterdam, a Tower atop a 1930s Post Office: ...post office...is nothing if not a survivor. And now it’s about to become the harbinger of a thriving inner city...Eran Chen [of ODA] has been commuting to Rotterdam from New York twice a month for two years in pursuit of that post office. And his firm just won a competition - triumphing over BIG and Daniel Libeskind - to build a 150-meter tower atop the building that’s stood empty for the past 12 years. [images]- Architects and Artisans REX reveals Brown University’s new adaptable Performing Arts Center: ...a 94,500-square-foot boxy building designed with a “radical vision” for the school that features a transformative interior production space...The concept echoes the flexible interior of the Wyly Theatre, one of REX’s earliest projects...The metallic exterior is sure to stand out among the slew of historic buildings on Brown’s urban campus [in Providence, Rhode Island]. -- Joshua Prince-Ramus [images]- The Architect's Newspaper Getty Foundation announces grants to support digital mapping of important cultural heritage sites: As part of its Digital Art History initiative, the Foundation will support projects that are currently exploring the ancient sites of Pompeii in Italy and Çatalhöyük in Turkey, the social and urban evolution of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the flourishing years of Florence during the Italian Renaissance.- ArtDaily.org 85 Valentines for Architects and (Architecture) Lovers: With over 450 submissions (including a card called ARCHItinder that shows what Mies' and FLW's tinder would look like today), we present to you the best architecture-themed Valentine's Day cards.- ArchDaily Call for entries: Radical Innovation Awards: A challenge to designers, architects, hoteliers and students to pioneer compelling ideas in travel and hospitality. New in 2019, the competition will distinguish between built and unbuilt projects, and honoring an individual with the Innovator Award; no entry fee for students; cash prizes deadline: April 3- John Hardy Group / Dezeen Call for entries: LAGI 2019 Abu Dhabi: Return to the Source: create an iconic work of art for a landmark site within [Foster + Partners'] Masdar City using renewable energy technology as a medium of creative expression and provide on-site energy production; 1st prize: $40,000, runner-up, $10,000 deadline: May 12- Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) / Masdar City / 24th World Energy Congress Call for entries: Gauja National Park Footbridge, Latvia: design a footbridge to serve as a symbolic entrance to the park in honor of its 45th anniversary; cash prizes; earlybird registration deadline (save money!): February 22; last-minute registration deadline: April 26 (submsiions due June 11)- Bee Breeders (formerly HMMD/Homemade Dessert) / Nature Conservation Agency of Latvia Call for entries: Call for Nominations: The Cultural Landscape Foundation's Landslide 2019: Living in Nature - Cultural Landscapes Threatened by Climate Change: TCLF’s annual Landslide report will bring national attention to diverse sites that collectively demonstrate the wide-ranging impact of climate change; deadline: June 30- The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) Call for entries: Applications for the Architects Foundation / McAslan Fellowship: a traveling and study scholarship, funding undergraduate seniors and graduate students for a summer of travel and study; open to U.S. citizens; deadline: March 20- Architects Foundation / McAslan+ Partners Oliver Wainwright: "Making It Happen: New Community Architecture" - from a jewel-like cabin to a poignant pier: Community architecture doesn’t have to mean bits from a skip. It can be elegant and beautiful, as this exhibition proves: ...shows it is possible to be socially worthy, environmentally conscious, people-centred and also be interested in the beauty of things and how they are made...four projects...small shoots of hope breaking through the ruins of austerity. RIBA, London, thru April 27 -- Nicholas Lobo Brennan/Apparata; Angus Ritchie/Daniel Tyler; Takeshi Hayatsu; dRMM- Guardian (UK) Oliver Wainwright: I've seen the future and it's porn, pollution and penthouses - "Is This Tomorrow?" Whitechapel Gallery, London: Inspired by a seminal 1956 show ["This Is Tomorrow"], artists and architects were paired off, given £10,000 and told to predict the future. The result is alarmingly bleak: The flipping of the title implies that all is not well: this is a show of speculation and trepidation, not emphatic proclamations about what’s coming next...The result is the ragbag you might expect, with some provocative things in the mix, but a general sense of incoherence...Just as you might be about to give up, a piece comes along that makes the exhibition worth visiting. thru May 12 -- 6a architects; Adjaye Associates; Andrés Jaque/Office for Political Innovation; APPARATA; Rachel Armstrong; Tatiana Bilbao; David Kohn Architects; mono office; Farshid Moussavi Architecture; Marina Tabassum Architects; etc.- Guardian (UK) George Kafka: With a New Design Museum Exhibition, David Adjaye Focuses on Monuments and Memorialization: While it offers some engaging installations and artifacts, "David Adjaye: Making Memory" struggles to broaden its scope beyond Adjaye's work and interrogate memorialization in today's culture...The promising start, an interrogation of how we build memory, collapses into ‘just’ a retrospective - a forgettable one at that. -- Adjaye Associates; Dejan Sudjic [images]- Metropolis Magazine India Block: Architecture can combat fake news, says David Adjaye: ...museums, monuments and memorials should be sites of resistance against those "propagating fictions" about climate change, civil rights or the holocaust...He believes that recording what has been lost, or what humanity has destroyed, is a vital part of the conversation on conservation and climate change. "Making Memory" at the Design Museum, London, thru May 5 -- Ron Arad Associates; Adjaye Associates- Dezeen Katie Okamoto: As MoMA Prepares For Its Makeover, an Exhibition Asks, “What Is Good Design?”: "The Value of Good Design"...explores a MoMA-catalyzed movement that ran from the 1930s-50s: MoMA was a central player in the Good Design movement...[show] occupies a strange niche - somewhere between self-criticism...and self-promotion...The mixture of commerce and culture is, the curators argue, the point. thru June 15 [images]- Metropolis Magazine 600 years of Mexican architecture through the eyes of Candida Höfer: German-based photographer Höfer has a long list of mesmerizing photographs and accolades...capturing moments within empty social spaces and vacant public interiors...she focuses on exposing and highlighting "the social psychology of architecture"...breathtaking large-format photos...[her] blend of photographic technicality and artistry are apparent in "Candida Höfer - In Mexico"; Sean Kelly Gallery, NYC, thru March 16 [images]- Archinect John King: SFMOMA’s Sea Ranch exhibition dwells on an idealized past: In and of itself, the exhibition...is rewarding, a multidimensional look at Sonoma County’s beloved fusion of buildings and nature...Or you can view “The Sea Ranch: Architecture, Environment and Idealism”...as the embodiment of how SFMOMA no longer has much interest in the intersection of architecture with our contemporary world and the concerns that cloud our lives...[it] could have used [the show] to explore a much broader set of issues - less 1960s-infused place-making nostalgia than a thoughtful look at the difficulty of matching noble architectural visions with economic and cultural realities. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, thru April 28 -- Al Boeke; Lawrence Halprin; Joseph Esherick; Moore, Lyndon, Turnbull, Whitaker; Charles Moore; Donlyn Lyndon- San Francisco Chronicle Harvard: America’s Bauhaus home: A hundred years later, the Bauhaus is everywhere...Walter Gropius taught for many years at Harvard, ensuring that the University would have...one of the most comprehensive Bauhaus collections in the world...Visitors to the Harvard Art Museums...will find a trove of Bauhaus productions...as part of “The Bauhaus and Harvard"...features nearly 200 works drawn almost entirely from the Busch-Reisinger’s extensive Bauhaus holdings...also highlights a range of less-recognized but prodigiously talented creators, designers, and instructors...many of them women.- Harvard Gazette Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle: Château La Coste Presents An Exhibition Dedicated To French Designer And Architect Jean Prouvé: "Jean Prouvé, l’Âme du Métal"...in the exhibition pavilion designed by Renzo Piano at the art and architecture Eden known as Château La Coste near Aix-en-Provence...showcases 60 pieces...[and] two 1940’s Prouve´ wooden houses...6x6 Demountable House...transformed in 2015 by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners...now a Villa La Coste hotel suite. thru March 5 -- Galerie Patrick Seguin [images]- Metropolis Magazine Witold Rybczynski: Modernism and the Making of Dystopia: ...architectural PTSD and what James Stevens Curl gets wrong (and right) in his controversial new book: Before the 1930s, the buildings are pretty good; after that, not so much. What happened? The answer to that question...was “architectural barbarism"...He does not mince words...Curl’s language may be immoderate, but he is not wrong..."Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism" is really two books. One is an encyclopedic study...the other is an impassioned bomb-throwing jeremiad, the work of an 81-year-old traditionalist who has seen his world overturned by...a malevolent force. The two genres are an awkward fit...[It] is seriously flawed; it’s too long and...comes across as gossipy. Yet it contains underlying truths.- Architect Magazine Charles Holland: Archigram - the band that still plays on: The rule-breaking rock stars of architecture keep their influence burning as brightly as ever: In proper rock group fashion, each member had a readily discernible character..."Archigram: The Book"...luxurious new book...includes an introduction by Michael Sorkin and reproduces essays by Martin Pawley, Reyner Banham and Peter Cook...It didn’t do any bad building because it didn’t really do any buildings at all...Which isn’t to say their work didn’t touch reality or get built in other ways...An obsession with the expendable, the lightweight and the impermanent has resulted in a book heavier than most of the buildings they designed. -- Peter Cook; Ron Herron; David Greene; Michael Webb; Dennis Crompton; Warren Chalk- RIBA Journal (UK) The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Turns to Nature: "Engineering with Nature: An Atlas," a new book by the USACE...pilot projects that prove the viability of engineering large-scale infrastructure in partnership with natural systems...documents more than 50 engineering projects...that exemplify the EWN approach...also includes projects that retrofit conventional infrastructure to provide ecological benefits...presenting a range of strategies for designing infrastructure with ecological, social, and cultural benefits at multiple scales.- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window.
External news links are not endorsed by ArchNewsNow.com.
Free registration may be required on some sites.
Some pages may expire after a few days.

Yesterday's News

© 2019 ArchNewsNow.com