Archinect - News

Rotterdam icon becomes 24-hour city

2013-05-24T20:28:00-04:00

Architecture Day Friday 21 and Saturday 22 June 2013
One of the most iconic buildings in Rotterdam, the Hofpoort on the Hofplein, will be transformed into a 24-hour city on Friday 21 June and Saturday 22 June. All are welcome to come and eat, drink, dance, relax, breakfast, discover, meet, skate, create, shop and much more. For a full 24 hours the Hofpoort will be the epicentre of Architecture Day in Rotterdam.

The Hofplein area used to be regarded as the pulsing heart of Rotterdam. AIR, the Rotterdam architecture centre, ZUS – De Dépendance centre for urban culture and Rotterdam ArchiGuides are joining forces to bring it back to life again on Architecture Day. For 24 hours they will combine to transform the Hofpoort into a vertical city where there is something new to experience every hour.

The Hofpoort, better known as the Shell building, was built in 1976 and has 24 floors. Most of these floors have been vacant for some years. The abandoned office floors will be fil...

Help fund "Women in Architecture"

2013-05-24T19:03:00-04:00

How would the design of the built environment, the process and practice of architecture change if women were leading and equally represented?

Nina Freedman and Lori Brown are seeking funding for "Women in Architecture", an initiative to transform leadership for women in architecture by bridging academy and practice.

L.A. artists, architects' effect on each other at MAK Center exhibit

2013-05-24T18:49:00-04:00

The exhibition at the MAK Center in West Hollywood, curated by UCLA architectural historian and critic Sylvia Lavin, is a wry study of the ways Los Angeles artists and architects worked with, leaned on, stole from and influenced one another in the 1970s. In a larger sense, it charts the way Southern California architects threw off the influence of establishmen Modernism and helped remake the profession in that decade.

Packed with mostly small-scale work by artists Judy Chicago, Billy Al Bengston, Robert Smithson, Ed Moses and architects Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Charles Moore, Cesar Pelli and Frank Gehry, among many others, it is easily the most surprising and opinionated of the exhibitions to open as part of the Getty L.A. architecture series "Pacific Standard Time Presents."

A Summer Program to Nudge South Street Seaport Back to Life

2013-05-24T18:47:00-04:00

This summer at the almost defiantly unhip South Street Seaport, there shall be pop-up boutiques housed in shipping containers. There shall be outdoor film screenings with lounge-chair seating. There shall be SmorgasBar. And, the lords of artificial weather willing, there may be glitter rain.

Unused water tower in Chelsea converted into a one-time exclusive party venue

2013-05-24T16:35:00-04:00

The Heron’s architect was N. D. Austin, a 31-year-old artist known for what he calls “trespass theater.” “It’s about making the invisible visible,” he said of his philosophy. Mr. Austin located a suitable water tower by scouring Buildings Department records for violations with egregious scaffold fines. That can indicate a neglectful landlord, he said, which meant it might be a vacant building ripe for adopting as one’s own.

One Saturday night last month, 12 guests squeezed through the trap door into the space. “The great thing about the upright bass is how it got up here,” said Dirby Luongo, one of Mr. Austin’s collaborators who played the doorman. “It’s like a ship in a bottle.”

Sears to convert defunct department stores into data centers

2013-05-24T14:51:00-04:00

Sears Holdings, the 120-year old retailer (which now includes Kmart), plans to start converting its struggling and defunct department stores into data centers, Data Center Knowledge reported today. A new unit of the company, Ubiquity Critical Environments, will lead the charge. Thanks to Walmart, specialty shops, an economic downturn and—the sweet irony—online shopping, department stores are heading toward extinction, and Sears is feeling the pain particularly hard.

Director of Hirshhorn Museum resigns over Bubble's uncertainty

2013-05-24T14:49:00-04:00

Richard Koshalek, the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, said on Thursday that he was resigning after the board of trustees failed to reach a consensus on the future of a long-planned project to cover the museum’s interior courtyard with a temporary inflatable bubble.

Istanbul saves its silhouette

2013-05-24T13:38:00-04:00

Three skyscrapers are to be demolished in Istanbul's Zeytinburnu district for interfering with city's historical silhouette. Decision reached by the 4th. Administrative Court of Istanbul and the use licences of the buildings were revoked. H ü rriyet

Jorge Pardo & Oscar Tuazon, in conversation

2013-05-23T18:22:00-04:00

Though indebted to conventional artistic methodologies, the vibrant, playful works of Jorge Prado lack traditional notions of artistic autonomy, with multiple uses straddling sculpture, furniture and architecture. Over espresso and a cigarette in the kitchen of his Los Angeles home, Pardo shares with Oscar Tuazon his processes of transforming built environments into functionally fluid sites designed to facilitate a diversity of experience.

"Sky City" gets approval, to be tallest building in the world, with contruction schedule now estimated at 7 months

2013-05-23T17:13:00-04:00

Last week, Broad Group announced it has received approval from the Chinese government and will break ground on the project next month, though according to Quartz's Lily Kuo, Broad Sustainable Building has pushed the building's schedule to a more modest seven months.

China Builds Museums, But Filling Them Is Another Story

2013-05-23T17:12:00-04:00

Jeffrey Johnson, an architect who runs the China Megacities Lab at Columbia, is among a number of scholars who study China's rapid urbanization. He says local governments are building museums to create a cultural life and competitive identity for their cities. But China lost a lot of art because of its civil war in the 1940s, as well as the Cultural Revolution, looting and overseas sales. Johnson says many museums are going up faster than curators can fill them with works and audiences.

Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski brings an architectural perspective to the end of the world

2013-05-23T13:36:00-04:00

Not every director studied the greats at film school. Joseph Kosinski spent more time with Wren than Welles. "I went to graduate school in New York to get a degree in architecture… but never got my licence." Instead Kosinski, 38, has applied his skills to virtual worlds such as "the Grid" -- the digital setting of Tron: Legacy. Now, in Oblivion, he gets to imagine Earth 60 years after an apocalyptic war.

Colon, Panama: A Once-Vibrant, and beautiful, City Struggles

2013-05-23T12:56:00-04:00

Civil society has to get things done here - Kurt Dillon, architect, Urbio

"In recognition of its historic role in the development of modern international trade and transportation, as well as its cultural and environmental value, the Historic Center of Colon was declared a historic monument in 2002. Despite its protected status, the center continues to suffer the effect of more than 30 years of neglect and abuse. This short, Spanish-language documentary offers criteria for a democratic project of urban conservation and economic revitalization that begins with the dispelling of stereotypes and the valorization of Colon's exceptional cultural heritage."

The Historic Center of the City of Colon: A project for its conservation, revitalization and sustainable management.

The too-smart city

2013-05-22T20:01:00-04:00

We’re already building the metropolis of the future—green, wired, even helpful. Now critics are starting to ask whether we’ll really want to live there.

"Unconscious Perception" and 99 other urban trends in BMW Guggenheim Lab's glossary of ideas

2013-05-22T17:47:00-04:00

Unconscious perception represents the automated processes the body goes through to take in the surrounding environment and its metaphysical status. While our five senses help us perceive the physical world, unconscious perception connects us to the realm of intuition. To shed light on how we are influenced by this dimension of our minds, artist Dan Graham spoke about his practice, which challenges our perceptions of space through performance, installations, video, sculpture, and writing.

Fast Company's "Most Creative People 2013" includes four architects

2013-05-22T15:15:00-04:00

The 2013 global leaders in technology, design, media, music, movies, marketing, television, sports, and more.

Each year Fast Company puts together a list of the 100 most creative people in business. This year the list includes the following faces familiar to readers of Archinect...

3. Diana Balmori

12. Liz Muller

16. Ai Weiwei

60. Peter Marino

For the full list go here...

Donate to Architecture for Humanity to help rebuild Moore, Oklahoma

2013-05-22T13:52:00-04:00

Architecture for Humanity is working with local and regional construction professionals to begin assessments and support rebuilding work after an F-4 tornado ripped through the heart of Moore, OK and surrounding communities.

Architecture for Humanity focuses on helping communities beyond the relief phase of disaster. The agency is currently working on rebuilding efforts post Superstorm Sandy and rebuilt in communities affected by Hurricane Katrina. Architecture for Humanity is mobilizing to assist in long term-reconstruction to help rebuild Moore and the surrounding communities. The agency works to incorporate resiliency and disaster mitigation strategies, leaving communities safer and stronger than before.

“After the Haiti earthquake students from Moore West Junior High raised funds for the organization to help rebuild schools for displaced students. Our thoughts are with the entire community of Moore, OK and those affected,” said Cameron Sinclair, Co-founder, Architecture for Humanity.

Ai Weiwei’s Music Video, Recreating His Detention

2013-05-22T11:48:00-04:00

Now Mr. Ai is answering the guards’ request in a different key. He is presenting them, and the world, with his first heavy-metal music video, one with detailed re-creations of scenes from his 81 days of detention. He also portrays fantasies he imagines flitting through the guards’ minds. Mr. Ai posted the video on a Web site, aiweiwei.com, on Wednesday morning, Beijing time.

Help The Draftery on Kickstarter

2013-05-22T11:06:00-04:00

The Draftery is a curated drawing archive with multiple platforms. We promote graphic works by lesser known architects, artists, students, and other practitioners.

Along with our web-based Archive, we also publish Figures, our printed biannual. It is the only journal that we know of that continuously places contemporary architectural representation at the forefront of discourse. Each issue of Figures showcases a selection of thematically-related architectural drawings.

We are currently working on producing the third issue of Figures, but we need help raising funds to cover production costs. We have launched a Kickstarter campaign that can be found here: http://kck.st/10FAFfE

We've worked hard to keep the conversation alive. With our third issue, our goal is to broaden the journal's audience base as well as offering it at a higher quality. We hope that members of this community will join us in producing this issue by sharing this news to their networks, and if able, pledgin...

NBBJ designs biospheres for Amazon's Seattle headquarters

2013-05-21T18:44:00-04:00

Reminiscent of a greenhouse or conservatory, the three intersecting biodomes replace an earlier plan for a six-story office building and would establish a visual focus and “heart” for the three-block project, according to plans filed with the city. The spheres will offer “a plant-rich environment” filled with species from mountainous ecologies around the globe, chosen for their “ability to coexist in a microclimate that also suits people,” according to the plans.

Houston court awards home design firm $1.3 million in architectural copyright case

2013-05-21T17:11:00-04:00

The jury in the United States District Court in Houston found that Frontier committed copyright infringement by constructing and marketing nineteen houses that infringed Hewlett’s copyrighted designs. Frontier’s owner, Ronald Wayne Bopp, was also held personally liable for Frontier’s activities. The amount of the judgment was based on the amount of profits Frontier earned from the sales of houses that infringed Hewlett’s copyrights.

Coming this June: James Turrell Reimagines FLW’s Guggenheim Rotunda

2013-05-20T17:45:00-04:00

In his first solo exhibition in a New York museum since 1980, American artist James Turrell sets out to reimagine the iconic rotunda of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in a dramatic transformation. The luminous and immersive site-specific work, Aten Reign, will be part of the upcoming exhibition James Turrell at NYC's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum which opens on June 21, 2013.

Why Is China Stealing Cities, Towns, and Buildings?

2013-05-20T17:37:00-04:00

A lot of Chinese people look up to the West as an ideal, so the construction of these towns could be seen as a way of accelerating their progress; a quick way of achieving through emulation.

POST+CAPITALIST CITY 4#Move - Winning Projects

2013-05-20T14:30:00-04:00

The international ideas competition series POST+CAPITALIST CITY has announced the winners of its last quarter, 4#Move. Previous installments focused on the issues of 1#Shop, 2#Work, and 3#Live.

Previously:

Security trumps urban planning at WTC site

2013-05-17T13:56:00-04:00

With the blank slate offered by a catastrophic attack, planners, soon joined by the mayor himself, saw a chance to re-establish a great crossroads: Fulton and Greenwich Streets, tying the second World Trade Center into New York — north, south, east and west. Now, however, they see that vision slipping away, as security concerns trump urban planning.

What is the future of the library?

2013-05-16T18:36:00-04:00

For the first time since Henri Labrouste (1801-1875), currently the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, formulated the conception of the new, democratic library, the central library is fighting for survival. The relevance of these gloriously inflated book boxes is being questioned in an age that looks to the Internet for its intellectual resources.

Life-size Barbie Dreamhouse opens in Berlin

2013-05-16T18:27:00-04:00

The first life-size Barbie Dreamhouse opened in Berlin on Thursday and is being guarded by police after feminist groups and left-wing activists said they would picket the plastic villa.

Previously on Archinect:

Hirshhorn ‘Bubble’ risks operating at a loss, internal Smithsonian report says

2013-05-16T13:13:00-04:00

The Hirshhorn Museum’s proposed Seasonal Inflatable Structure, also known as “the Bubble,” a project announced in 2009 and intended as an architecturally and culturally transformative space on the Mall, would operate at a loss in each of three scenarios examined in an assessment done by the Smithsonian.

“We’ve said from the beginning, and the secretary [G. Wayne Clough] has said it, this is a bold project,” said Richard Kurin, the Smithsonian’s undersecretary for history, art and culture. “We’ve encouraged this, but it has to be raised by private money. In terms of doing that, we’re still trying to raise money for construction of the Inflatable Structure. We’ve been at this for some years. We hope its time has come now, but if not, we look forward to a better time.”

She may favor Brutalist forms...

2013-05-15T11:37:00-04:00

the 40-year-old architect has emerged as one of the country’s major creative voices, building an eclectic portfolio of work that includes a 10,000-square-foot neo-Brutalist palazzo, the master plan for an art-filled botanical garden and a spiritual refuge in the Jalisco Mountains. The projects vary wildly in attitude and style

Nicolai Ouroussoff profiled the Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao, for the NYT, T Magazine "Hot Summer" travel edition.

NEW CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR MONU #19 - GREATER URBANISM

2013-05-15T11:36:00-04:00

Are cities becoming "greater" these days? (Bernd Upmeyer, Editor-in-Chief, May 2013)

Are cities becoming "greater" these days? When two years ago, in our 14th issue of MONU Magazine entitled "Editing Urbanism", we claimed that in the Western world, the need for new buildings and city districts was decreasing or even ceasing to exist altogether due to demographic changes and financially difficult times, we did not believe in all those new, big-scale, and long-term urban development strategies for the metropolitan areas of certain European cities that were being proposed at the time. The growth numbers that plans such as "Greater Helsinki" envisioned for the year 2050, trying to brand the city as one of the most dynamic metropolises in Europe, predicting a population growth from 1.3 million to 2 million, were too exuberant and too vast. However, other European cities, such as Paris, seem to be changing substantially within their metropolitan areas, their "greater" areas. Paris needs to build 70.000 new housing units per year. Mainly because of such requirements, but...