Archinect - News

Bogotá, With Pockets of Hope in Recent Architecture

2012-07-06T14:46:00-04:00

The canopy can look like a lot of architecture for such a small project, but that’s partly its value: to put Cazucá on the map and create a de facto town square beside the school (made of shipping containers, serving a population in which a quarter of the children are malnourished, I was told by the school’s principal). Now children play soccer under the canopy and clean up the square every day, and there’s a vegetable garden with tomatoes and herbs.

Demedicalize Architecture

2012-03-06T12:51:00-05:00

Contemporary architecture and urban planning seem to address uncritically the conditions and context in which this discourse on health is developing. In most cases, the design disciplines rely on an abstract, scientific notion of health, and very literally adopt concepts such as “population,” “community,” “citizen,” “nature,” “green,” “development,” “city” and “body” into a professionalized, disciplinary discourse that simply echoes the ambiguities characteristic of current debate.

In its latest exhibition and book, Imperfect Health, the Canadian Centre for Architecture critiques what curators Mirko Zardini and Giovanna Borasi call a “new moralistic philosophy: healthism.” Zardini and Borasi trace the long relationship of environmental design to shifting social and political concepts of well-being, from 19th-century urban parks to 20th-century sanatoria to the "healthy buildings" of today. And they ask: would it be possible to “demedicalize” architecture — to replace the prescriptive solutions of “cure” with the more expansive goals of “care”?

URBANlab at California College of the Arts

2012-01-19T17:47:00-05:00

Academic institutions have a mandate to contribute to public knowledge, but the structures that support the transfer and dissemination of research, and the application of research within urban design practice, are often weak. There is a widening gap between what happens within the academy and what happens on the ground in cities — often a retrograde, generic and ad hoc agglomeration of politically or financially motivated initiatives.

Places interviews Ila Berman, director of architecture at the California College of the Arts, and Mona El Khafif, project coordinator of URBANlab, about research + design initiatives at the lab. The feature includes a slideshow of faculty and student work, including design proposals for projects in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jerusalem, and Tianjin.

This is the second installment in an ongoing series of profiles of university-based design centers. Previously: Stephen Luoni and the University of Arkansas Community Design Center.

Audi and BIG Show introduce Urban Future illuminated road of the future pavilion at Art Basel

2011-12-05T17:34:05-05:00

Audi and BIG showed up at Art Basel Miami last week with what could be mistaken as the latest dance floor design, a huge LED surface which illuminates and tracks humans. The floor act as a large scale demonstration of “Urban Future,” . The concept is based on integrating driveless electric cars into advanced roadways that guide the vehicles, eliminating curbs, traffic lights and other types of space-gobbling infrastructure to hand the city back to pedestrians.

An interesting video of how BIG + Kollision + Schmidhuber & Partner's smart LED road will work in the real world.

Finalists Selected for Portal to the Point Design Ideas Exploration

2011-08-15T14:40:48-04:00

Portal to the Point Project Advisor Paul Rosenblatt AIA, Principal of SPRINGBOARD Design, is pleased to announce the selection of five finalists for the Portal to the Point Design Ideas Exploration sponsored by Colcom Foundation. The finalists are: Marlon Blackwell Architect, MAYA Design, SCAPE Landscape Architecture, Weiss/Manfredi, and wHY Architecture.

Project Teams Selected for Portal to the Point: A Design Ideas Exploration
Portal to the Point: A Design Ideas Exploration is an ‘Idea Generation Project’ funded by Colcom Foundation.

Five multi-disciplinary teams have been selected to focus on public art and design in Point State Park.

“The history of the United States, in fact, and of other parts of the world, was changed by events that occurred at or near the forks of the Ohio in the years 1749–1758.” Robert Alberts, The Shaping of the Point

Point State Park has a long, celebrated and, at times, contentious history. The most visible landmark in Pittsburgh, it is the subject of countless photographs of the city. It is a place of paramount importance to the history of the United States, once a significant historical crossing and battleground, a symbol of resistance and independence. Today, it is the city’s focal point for recreation, celebration and enjoyment, the site of festivals, concerts and regattas. What will th...

A First Look at Section 2 of New York's High Line Park

2011-06-07T16:11:28-04:00

The High Line, New York City’s most exciting and innovative linear park, just opened its second section to the public – and Inhabitat was on the scene to bring you exclusive photos of the new extension! We finally experienced the Falcone Flyover, Viewing Spur, Chelsea Thicket and other exciting new features, and we descended from the experienced with our heads still in the clouds – read on for our exclusive first look at The High Line, Section 2.

Inhabitat has exclusive photos of the opening day of New York's high line park - hit the jump to see the new park in its entirety - from the Chelsea Thicket to the Falcone Flyover and beyond.

Film: A Plea For Modernism

2011-05-26T20:17:12-04:00

The Phillis Wheatley Elementary School has served the historic New Orleans African-American neighborhood of Tremé since it opened in 1955. Celebrated worldwide for its innovative, regionally-expressive modern design – the structure sustained moderate damage during the storms and levee breach of 2005. Although it is scheduled for demolition in Summer 2011, DOCOMOMO Louisiana is advocating for its restoration via adaptive reuse. "A Plea For Modernism" is narrated by actor Wendell Pierce (“The Wire”, “Treme”). View on Vimeo