Today’s News - Tuesday, June 9, 2020

●  Josh Stephens' (wonderful!) tribute to Christo and "what he [and Jeanne-Claude] taught us about land use policy - he committed himself to the mundane business of public policy - because, in addition to clearly loving the sport of it, he knew that the result would be worthwhile - everyone who works in and with the public realm can learn from him."

●  Moore makes the case for why the U.K.'s "ban on constructing with timber is one of the more misguided responses to Grenfell - it will impede one of the most promising recent innovations in building. Britain's main contribution has been through its architects and engineers. The ban has cut short these architects' contributions" - and CLT's "potential for economic and environmental good."

●  Holland talks to Chinese architecture experts re: China's guidelines for a "'new era' for architecture - according to the experts, some of the less eye-catching suggestions may signal a subtler evolution in the way China's cities are planned" (a new "credit system - and, conversely, a blacklist - for architects" included).

●  Heathcote re: the "terminal decline" in "the romance and excitement formerly encapsulated in land, sea and air terminals," and becoming "homogenized, a ritual of anonymous processing - the point, to transform travelers into docile units. Welcome to the global city of tomorrow" (great read! free registration).

●  Stinson cheers Rogers Partners' new, light-filled Boys & Girls Club in Harlem (no "monolithic façades" here). "Working within a tight budget, the space is designed to highlight activities, not advance an aesthetic."

●  Hopkirk reports that Lubetkin's 1966 Sivill House will be listed because residents protested proposed changes to "its ingenious 'double arrow-head' plan-form, and its unique architectural expression" that "mark it out for its dramatic contrast to typical residential tower blocks of the period."

●  Now, for a moment of (serious) levity: Fior & Clarke offer "some tips from MUF on how not to be a starchitect" - among them: "Produce feasibility studies where the recommendation is, you don't need a building," and "Be aware of what 'working with a community' means: they are not a material, they are people, if they work, pay them."

Deadlines + Winners all:

●  Finch has a few issues with Schumacher's Liberland "utopia design contest for a new 'nation' based on anarcho-capitalist ideas where anything goes" - but "the prompting of ideas is a good thing, so I look forward to whatever the competition may generate."

●  Call for entries: Liberland Design Competition for "a futuristic society, a utopian vision" with the motto, "To Live and Let Live" (i.e. "no zoning regulations or municipal restrictions" - prizes in cryptocurrency).

●  Daniel Fernández Pascual, the "Spanish-born, London-based architect, urban designer, educator, and researcher," awarded Harvard GSD's 2020 Wheelwright Prize - $100,000 to research and "envision a paradigm shift in coastal ecology and architecture" around the world.

●  Winners of the 2019 Europe 40 Under 40 Award for Best Emerging Young Architects & Designers in Europe come from Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom (the list).

●  Europe 40 Under 40 2019 winners' profiles and eyefuls of selected projects.

Of protests, racism, and urban issues - the industry responds:

●  Brasuell sees the "violence against Black Americans" as "a moment of reckoning for the planning profession - it is the duty of the profession to consider its role in perpetuating institutional racism - despite good intentions" (with links to articles "to boost awareness").

●  Practitioner and educator Cory Henry re: how, "in education and practice, architecture fails to hear Black voices - the profession's willful ignorance - this negligence - is why the hackneyed demands for change are so insulting - another reminder of the privilege that these institutions and people have and are unwilling to relinquish."

●  NOMA's Kimberly Dowdell tackles how "racism and the coronavirus pandemic are two health crises that disproportionately impact black Americans. Architects, who take an oath to protect the 'health, safety, and welfare' of the public, must be part of the solution. Here's how."

COVID-19 news continues:

●  The USGBC releases new LEED guidance "to support buildings with reopening strategies" that "outline sustainable best practices to "rebuild people's trust."

●  Professor of Urban Geography Colin McFarlane delves into how "the pandemic has generated a whole set of anxieties about the post-coronavirus risks of living in dense urban areas. The problem is with the imbalance between good quality urban provisions - housing, services and infrastructure - and the population density of an area" that "is not the natural order of things - we need a new conversation about city density."

●  King parses how the "pandemic casts a shadow on the future of San Francisco's would-be high-rise Hub residential district - opponents paint a grim scenario of public parks shadowed by too-tall shafts. Some commissioners questioned whether the plan takes sufficient note of how the coronavirus might alter urban life" in light of "viruses yet unknown."

●  Morgan mulls what "our domestic landscapes" might look like in a post-pandemic world: "It is time to close the era of the grossly over-inflated developers' McMansion. Do I really see a burgeoning Little House on the Prairie aesthetic in American domestic architecture? Of course, not. But..."

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To subscribe to the free daily newsletter click here Josh Stephens: What Christo Taught Us About Land Use Policy: ...he and...Jeanne-Claude...invented and, across decades and continents, continually reinvented their own genre of landscape art...It was in cities, though, where Christo’s whimsy reached its full force...His pieces are no mere “public art"...they don’t just occupy those places...They use and transform them, and then they give them back...[he] committed himself to the mundane business of public policy...convinced [cities] that whimsy can comport with the public interest...He did so because, in addition to clearly loving the sport of it, he knew that the result would be worthwhile...everyone who works in and with the public realm can learn from him.- California Planning & Development Report Rowan Moore: Do you want beautiful, sustainable and safe tall buildings? Use wood: A ban on constructing with timber is one of the more misguided responses to Grenfell: ...there’s a cost to this caution, which is that it will impede one of the most promising recent innovations in building...the engineering of timber so that it can act as an alternative to steel and concrete...Britain’s main contribution has been through its architects and engineers...The 2018 ban has cut short these architects’ contributions...it is reasonable to ban timber cladding on buildings of more than a few storeys high. But one of the beauties of engineered timber is that it...does the hard work of holding a building up...What matters most is its potential for economic and environmental good. -- dRMM; Waugh Thistleton- Observer (UK) Oscar Holland: No taller than 500 meters (1,640 feet), no plagiarism: China signals 'new era' for architecture: ...the guidelines appear to formalize changes that were already underway...according to Chinese architecture experts, some of the less eye-catching suggestions...may signal a subtler evolution in the way China's cities are planned...the tide against soaring skyscrapers has been turning for some time...document also proposes a credit system - and, conversely, a blacklist - for architects, to encourage compliance with planning laws and regulations...proposes something entirely new in China: chief architects for each city. -- Li Shiqiao; Fei Chen- CNN Style Edwin Heathcote: Terminal decline: building the international nexus: The romance and excitement formerly encapsulated in land, sea and air terminals has become homogenised, a ritual of anonymous processing, reverting to type and renouncing style and context: ...the point, to transform travellers into docile units...something very different from the idea of travel...between the middle of the 19th and the middle of the 20th centuries. I recently visited the revitalised TWA Terminal at JFK Airport...a thing of absolute wonder...the grand railway terminus...with architects called in to tart up the frontage...railways appear to have retreated into an architecture of engineering...The airport is fake public space...Its architecture and its furniture is meticulously designed to instill exactly the right paradoxical cocktail of function, fear, comfort, discomfort and ennui. Welcome to the global city of tomorrow. -- Eero Saarinen; Lewis Cubitt; Santiago Calatrava; Foreign Office; Foster; RSHP- Architectural Review (UK) Liz Stinson: Rogers Partners Builds a Boys & Girls Club for the Modern Age: Pinkerton Clubhouse was designed as a "vertical playscape" and has become a bright anchor for the neighborhood: North Harlem: Abutting a viaduct carrying an automobile thoroughfare, [it] offers afterschool and extracurricular activities to the roughly 16,000 kids who live within walking distance...Clubhouses of the past were designed to keep the outside world out and the kids inside safe...monolithic facades were an architectural expression of how people used to think about safety...the thinking around what makes a building safe and secure has changed...Working within a tight budget...the space is designed to highlight activities, not advance an aesthetic. -- Elizabeth Stoel- Metropolis Magazine Elizabeth Hopkirk: Berthold Lubetkin’s Sivill House listed after residents’ campaign: Architect’s only freestanding tower saved from damaging alterations: The decision was hailed by John Allan, former director of Avanti Architects and Lubetkin’s biographer...Sivill House was named one of London’s best-loved buildings by Time Out in 2018...its ingenious ”double arrow-head” plan-form, and in its unique architectural expression; attributes which also mark it out for its dramatic contrast to typical residential tower blocks of the period. -- Skinner, Bailey and Lubetkin (1966)- BD/Building Design (UK) Liza Fior & Katherine Clarke: Some Tips from MUF on How Not to be a Starchitect: Produce projects which are deliberately ambiguous as to where they stop and start; Produce feasibility studies where the recommendation is, you don't need a building; Give equal status to processes and objects; Be aware of what “working with a community” means: they are not a material, they are people, if they work, pay them.- Reading Design.org Paul Finch: Patrik Schumacher’s utopia design contest won’t be about architecture: The tough stuff about who owns (or controls) the land...seem as mysterious as the actual ownership of the disputed site where Liberland would be created: The Liberland Design Competition 2020...to draw up ‘radically creative, yet mature’ proposals for a new ‘nation’ based on anarcho-capitalist ideas where anything goes...proposals being ‘radically creative yet mature’ rather gives the game away. How can something untried be simultaneously mature? This has been the eternal problem with ideas about utopias...the prompting of ideas is a good thing, so I look forward to whatever the competition may generate. Unfortunately, the least interesting ideas will probably concern the architecture for this new Eden. -- Zaha Hadid Architects- The Architects' Journal (UK) Call for entries: Liberland Design Competition 2020: ...the world’s newest micronation, an incubator and role model for a society founded on the ideology of liberty and principles of anarcho-capitalism...a futuristic society, a utopian vision...motto, “To Live and Let Live”, is expressed in its aspirations towards individual and collective freedom...seeks radically creative, yet mature proposals for a fertile, high-density city-nation; prizes in cryptocurrency; registration deadline: August 16 (submissions due October 16)- ArchAgenda Matt Hickman: Daniel Fernández Pascual awarded 2020 Wheelwright Prize: ...Spanish-born, London-based architect, urban designer, educator, and researcher [awarded] research travel-based grant of $100,000..."'Being Shellfish: The Architecture of Intertidal Cohabitation' is an invitation to envision a paradigm shift in coastal ecology and architecture...[he] will approach his research in two separate phases...remotely with each proposed case study. At a later point, he will commence his travels to coastal communities...in Denmark, New Zealand, Chile, Zanzibar, China, Taiwan, Turkey, and Japan. -- Alon Schwabe; Cooking Sections- The Architect's Newspaper Winners of the 2019 Europe 40 Under 40 Award: Announcing the Best Emerging Young Architects & Designers in Europe: ... come from Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom.- European Centre for Architecture / Chicago Athenaeum Europe 40 Under 40 2019 Winners' Bios and Selected Projects- European Centre for Architecture / Chicago Athenaeum James Brasuell: Violence Against Black Americans a Moment of Reckoning for the Planning Profession: ...it is the duty of the profession to consider its role in perpetuating institutional racism: ...planners and urbanists focused on equity are broadcasting a clear message...Many of the planning innovations claimed by progressives as victories of social and environmental justice...are perpetuating institutional racism...Planning and urbanism have not achieved some apolitical or post-racial transcendence, despite good intentions...the field of planning is faced with an opportunity to enter a new era: one that centers racial, social, and environmental justice in every act...[with links to articles] "to boost awareness"...- PLANetizen Cory Henry: In Education and Practice, Architecture Fails to Hear Black Voices: ...the profession’s “willful ignorance” of the mechanisms of inequity: ...we have seen messages from various institutions about the need to properly address the racial inequalities that exist in this country...Unfortunately, I, and many other Black people...view these as prosaic statements...Most architecture schools have very few Black faces...Many design schools do not look past the walls of their ivory towers until there is a crisis. The problem here is that we, Black people, face a form of crisis every single day, yet our voices remain unheard by society - and by the architecture profession...This willful ignorance - this negligence - is why the...hackneyed demands for change, are so insulting...Performative outrage is another reminder of the privilege that these institutions and people have and are unwilling to relinquish.- Architectural Record Kimberly Dowdell: Racism is built into U.S. cities. Here’s how architects can fight back: Police brutality and the coronavirus pandemic are two health crises that disproportionately impact black Americans. Architects, who take an oath to protect the “health, safety, and welfare” of the public, must be part of the solution: When it comes to addressing how to safeguard all communities from future health crises, architects bring a myriad of skills to the table. Here are just a few...We must pledge ourselves to truly design for life. -- National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA)- Fast Company USGBC Releases New LEED Guidance to Address COVID-19 and Support Buildings with Reopening Strategies: ...outlines sustainable best practices for cleaning, workplace re-occupancy, HVAC and plumbing...four new Safety First Pilot Credits...With much of the country entering into an initial reopening phase, businesses and government must rebuild people’s trust...- U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Colin McFarlane: The urban poor have been hit hard by coronavirus. We must ask who cities are designed to serve: The pandemic has generated a whole set of anxieties about the post-coronavirus risks of living in dense urban areas. It is a huge oversimplification to blame population density alone for the transmission of the virus...The problem is not with high population density per se, but with the imbalance between good quality urban provisions - including housing, services and infrastructure - and the population density of an area. This imbalance is not the natural order of things...we need a new conversation about city density.- The Conversation John King: Pandemic casts a shadow on future of San Francisco’s would-be high-rise Hub: Uncertainty has always clouded the urbane visions of an emerging high-rise residential district at Market Street and Van Ness Avenue...opponents...paint a grim scenario of public parks shadowed by too-tall shafts - affluent compounds...would exacerbate displacement pressures on the lower-income residents...Some commissioners questioned whether the plan takes sufficient note of how the coronavirus might alter urban life. Will Muni be able to handle an influx of new passengers...Will extra shadows on existing parks erode the quality of outdoor spaces should strict shelter-in-place requirements be imposed in response to viruses yet unknown? The Hub may someday reach its potential - but it won’t happen overnight.- San Francisco Chronicle William Morgan: What Will Our Houses Look Like? When the pandemic has passed, what might we have learned about what our house really is to us? So much about our lives have been dramatically changed by the coronavirus lockdown, not least of all our domestic landscapes...It is time to close the era of the grossly over-inflated developers' McMansion...Do I really see a burgeoning Little House on the Prairie aesthetic in American domestic architecture? Of course, not. But...lessons that we have learned during the coronavirus times...hardly new ideas...principles of smart building...our home will, in turn, reward us with the inherent joys of still being home.- GoLocalProv.com (Providence, Rhode Island)

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