Archinect - News

New 'Zillow Gone Wild' HGTV show to launch inspired by popular Instagram account

2024-05-02T12:00:00-04:00

Friday, May 3rd, will see the launch of a new show on HGTV inspired by the popular Instagram account Zillow Gone Wild. The show, which bears the same name as the social media account, will offer insights into “exceptionally weird, wacky, and wild properties that sellers put on the market every day.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zillow Gone Wild (@zillowgonewild)

Hosted by actor and comedian Jack McBrayer, the series will feature characters from non-traditional homes with distinctive decor and imaginative architecture. The history of each will be explored, alongside backstories from buyers and sellers. Among the homes set to be featured are a house in Berkeley, California, designed by a jazz musician, and a home in New Orleans with an eclectic parlor lounge.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zillow Gone Wild (@zillowgonewild)

The run of nine weekly episodes will conclude with HGTV awarding one home the accolade of “wild...

Archinect's best fun culture news of 2022

2022-12-23T08:00:00-05:00

And just like that, 2022 is coming to an end. As quickly as it went by, this year was equally prolonged by many of the same issues that have plagued the world over the last couple of years. In addition to the ongoing pandemic, which society is still adjusting to, we have been witness to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its economic repercussions, a surge in inflation, increased climate change-related disasters, and more regressive politics.

While this does not paint a pleasant image of 2022, this year's events weren't all doom and gloom, and Archinect's coverage reflects that. So, we wanted to compile a selection of our favorite pieces that put smiles on our faces and injected joy into the editorial.

Check them out below.

Image: Pixabay.

Lumber shortage hits the metaverse, leads to construction delays

Though this is meant to be a compilation of fun, lighthearted articles, this news couldn't go unsaid. Lumber supplies hit unprecedented lows this year, which has been felt in places no on...

Airbnb reveals $10 million OMG! Fund design contest winners

2022-10-17T15:29:00-04:00

Airbnb has named the 100 winners of its recently-launched OMG! Fund design contest celebrating the “craziest and most unique” buildings submitted to the short-term rental giant from more than 20 countries across the world.

The contest awards $100,000 to each design as judged by a four-person panel that included design tastemaker Iris Apfel, Airbnb Superhost Kristie Wolfe, architect Koichi Takada, and the company’s VP of Experiential Bruce Vaughn.

"Giant Flower Pot on a Farm in Small Town Idaho" by Whitney H., United States

"Giant Pig in Meadow at Pig Sanctuary" by Tracey S., United States

“What an incredible journey it has been to be a part of the OMG! Fund judging process. There were so many inspiring stories and destinations that I had never heard of before that I’m now eager to visit,” Wolfe said at the announcement. “As a builder myself, I can’t wait to watch these ideas come to life. These are more than just places to spend the night — each one offers an entire experience!”

"Mod...

Tulsa's unique 'Jetsons House' flew off the market faster than Elroy could blink

2022-07-13T14:46:00-04:00

Tulsa hosts a building that looks a lot like George and Jane Jetsons’ home in the cartoon, or perhaps a squat version of Seattle’s Space Needle – shaped like a wheel on its side perched on a stick. The house recently hit the market, with an asking price of $415,000. But unfortunately for any time travelers, it has already been snapped up.

The brainchild of local duo Joe Damer and Jeremy Perkins (who is a licensed architect) has only been on the market since the last week of June and was reportedly purchased by someone looking to convert the 17-year-old home into what promises to be one of Airbnb’s many unique short-term rentals.

Interior image via the realtor listing, courtesy Chinowth & Cohen Realtors.

The 1,386-square-foot Googie design features a 44-foot lift and contributes to the eccentric architecture of the otherwise Art Deco-rich region, which includes other unique designs like the Cave House and BOK Tower, in addition to figures like late University of Oklahoma professor Bruce Goff, who now has his own dedicated annual festival.

Airbnb launches $10 million OMG! Fund design contest to 'build the craziest places on earth'

2022-06-23T12:21:00-04:00

Airbnb is making a new $10 million investment in design with a new project called the OMG! Fund that will commission “100 of the craziest and most unique property ideas” in a design contest open to architects, designers, and the public across the globe.

The contest’s brief’s sole stipulation is that the final product be listed exclusively on Airbnb for at least a year. This is an expansion of the short-term rental company’s $1 million Unique Airbnb Fund, which was slated to award the same $100,000 grant to a group of 10 projects before Covid-19 brought an end to the endeavor. In a press release, the company said its new initiative is “shaped in part by the growing trend of flexible living that has emerged in the past two years.”

Architect Koichi Takada is one of the contest’s judges, joined by superhost Kirstie Wolfe, the designer of Boise's famed Potato Hotel, fashion and interio...

China is once again cracking down on vanity architecture

2021-10-27T16:20:00-04:00

Without special approval, cities with populations of less than 3 million must not build skyscrapers taller than 150 metres (492.13 ft), and cities with larger populations must not construct buildings higher than 250 metres, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said on Tuesday.

China had previously imposed a ban on “oversized, xenocentric, and weird" architecture, including many copycat-type structure’s like the faux Eiffel Tower in the suburbs of Hangzhou. The previous ban set a limit of 500 meters. Violators of the rule “will be held accountable for life” according to the state’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Settlement reached in the strange case of California's famous Flintstone House

2021-06-28T17:44:00-04:00

A settlement has been reached in the strange case of a homeowner who fought her California town to keep a famous Flintstones motif installed. The curious legal dispute has kept the Bay Area suburb in the headlines for the past two and a half years.

Florence Fang will receive $125,000 from the town of Hillsborough after it apparently chose to settle her countersuit brought against their original public nuisance claim challenging her legal right to display giant mushrooms and other ephemera on her 2,700 square foot home that has been deemed “a highly visible eyesore.”

The Flintstone House in 2007. Photo: Wikimedia User Sergei.

The so-called Flintstone House sits atop a hillside overlooking Interstate 280 and was built using spray-on concrete as well as aeronautical balloons for a Silicon Valley family by the architect William Nicholson in 1976.

The home had been “revitalized” with new signage and giant metal dinosaur sculptures when Fang purchased it in 2017 for a highly under-market ...

'Hobbit Revival' Enclave dormitory in Berkeley now completed

2020-09-15T18:11:00-04:00

Even with everything else going on right now, the crazed excess of the newest building on Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue is guaranteed to stop you in your tracks.

The Chronicle’s urban design critic, John King, reviews the now-completed and very much style-agnostic Enclave dormitory in Downtown Berkeley. "It's as if Harry Potter and Fred Flintstone decided to build a McMansion. On acid."

Image courtesy of LCA Architects.

"The design mimics a Moorish palace and is inspired by numerous other
muses such as Tibetan forts, Italian hill towns, and the rock-cut
façades of Petra," states the project description from LCA Architects, the architect of record.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by LCA ARCHITECTS (@lca.architects) on Aug 12, 2020 at 5:07pm PDT

The seven-story student housing project, designed by Kirk E. Peterson & Associates, first appeared on Archinect last summer.

No more Duplitecture: China cracks down on copycat architecture and supertall skyscrapers

2020-05-15T18:13:00-04:00

A government statement says "plagiarising, imitating, and copycatting" designs is prohibited in new public facilities. The statement says buildings "reveal a city's culture" - and that "large, foreign, and weird" designs should be limited. The guidelines also clamp down on new skyscrapers - limiting them, in general, to a maximum of 500 metres.

A new government directive released jointly by China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and National Development and Reform Commission seeks to halt the further spread of Western-inspired copycat architecture, a common appearance in many Chinese cities.

Duplitecture definition from Archinect's Lexicon

Construction of new tall buildings, especially skyscrapers over 500 meters, will also be significantly limited.

The announcement follows a prominent 2016 directive that hoped to ban "oversized, xenocentric, weird" architecture and President Xi Jinping’s criticism of "weird architecture" in 2014.

Previously:

Hobbit Revival dormitory headed to Berkeley

2019-08-09T06:09:00-04:00

A proposed dormitory block headed to Downtown Berkeley has a few people scratching their heads.

The beguiling, 254-bed student housing project, known as the Enclave and designed by Kirk E. Peterson & Associates, will bring 55 dormitory units to a site located just across from Berkeley's People's Park.

Mission Revival on top, cave dwelling on the bottom. Image courtesy of LCA Architects.

If you look only at the top three or four floors of the peculiar seven-story complex, it might be hard to notice anything out-of-hand. A series of Mission Revival-inspired faux bell towers, for example, punctuate the project's upper levels, where handsome red tile roof and blue-green tile accents round out an otherwise stucco-and-brick apartment tower.

Aerial view of Enclave. Image courtesy of LCA Architects.

The building's lower levels, however, are something else entirely. Renderings for the project depict the five-over-two-style podium building's three lower levels wrapped in what the project ...

'Flintstone House' owner sued by neighbors. Eyesore or Yabba-dabba-doo?

2019-03-19T14:30:00-04:00

The “Flintstones” home in northern California appears to take its architectural cues from the town of Bedrock. The experimental house was built in the 1970s using a technique that involved spraying concrete to create curved walls. The result is a building where Fred and Wilma would feel at home, and it has become a landmark for drivers passing on I-280.

Neighbors of the quirky home in the affluent town of Hillsborough in Northern California aren't exactly fans of the prehistoric-looking architecture, nor the collection of large metal dinosaur and woolly mammoth sculptures on the property, and have sued the current owner, businesswoman Florence Fang, for permit violations and creating "a highly visible eyesore" that is "out of keeping with community standards." The colorful "YABBA-DABBA-DOO" letters along the driveway did not seem to have much of an appeasing effect either.

According to the home's Wikipedia entry, the structure at 45 Berryessa Way was originally designed by architect William Nicholson and built in 1976 "as one of several experimental domed buildings using new materials." The facade got its deep orange hue in 2000, and the house sold to Florence Fang in 2017 for $2.8 million.

Check out some impressions from the realtor's website for the property (all images via flintstonehouse280.com).

What is "Weird Architecture" today? China knows and doesn't want it.

2017-12-08T11:50:00-05:00

China’s State Council announced that “weird architecture that is not economical, functional, aesthetically pleasing or environmentally friendly will be forbidden.” Many architects and members of the public understood the frustration and bewilderment, even if they questioned the subjective nature of the official instruction.

That was a close call, thankfully 'Weird Architecture' that is economical, functional, aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly is still completely accepted and encouraged. China may be forcing itself into a semantically and conceptually charge subjectivism that could potentially bring about some interesting project framings and abstracts.

To win recognition, China's smaller cities bet on starchitecture

2017-03-20T14:38:00-04:00

From egg-shaped concert halls to skyscrapers reminiscent of big pairs of pants, China’s top cities are famously full of curious monuments to architectural ambition. But as land prices in the main metropolises have shot into the stratosphere, developers have been scrambling to buy up plots in the country’s second and third-tier cities, spawning a new generation of delirious plans in the provinces.

"From Harbin “City of Music” to Dezhou “Solar Valley”, provincial capitals are branding themselves as themed enclaves of culture and industry to attract inward investment, and commissioning scores of bold buildings to match."

Despite ban on "weird architecture", a building that looks an awful lot like a toilet was built in Henan Province

2016-07-12T17:23:00-04:00

Back in February, the Chinese central government demanded an end to all mainland construction of buildings that are “oversized”, “xenocentric” or “weird” and a move toward architecture that is “pleasing to the eye”. Fast forward five months, and a 12-story toilet has been built in Henan province.

Ironically enough, the building is home to the North China Water Conservancy and Electric Power company.

For more on the state of architecture in China, check out these links:

The politics behind China's ban on "weird" architecture

2016-03-01T19:38:00-05:00

...eye-catching edifices began as China’s way of announcing its arrival as a powerful player on the world stage. Now, however, the Chinese government has changed course: It has officially declared this to be “weird” architecture that must be stopped. Chinese leaders have turned their backs on these structures, a shift that underscores China’s new conception of itself and its ambitions for the future [...]

"But the government’s mandate explicitly addresses both the function and form of new buildings, and the planning imperative seems designed to go beyond improving the quality of life. The end of “weird” architecture ties in to the government’s recent efforts to champion frugality, revive traditional values, and keep foreign ideas at bay—priorities that have assumed even greater importance in the midst of China’s ongoing corruption crackdown and fears of an economic slowdown."

For more on China's turbulent relationship with contemporary architecture, check out these links:

China says no to "weird" architecture

2016-02-22T13:56:00-05:00

A directive issued on Sunday by the State Council, China’s cabinet, and the Communist Party’s Central Committee says no to architecture that is “oversized, xenocentric, weird” and devoid of cultural tradition. Instead, buildings should be “suitable, economic, green and pleasing to the eye.” The directive also calls for an end to gated communities. The guidelines come two months after a high-level meeting to address some of the problems that have arisen as a result of China’s rapid urbanization.

The New York Times notes that this will most likely result in "stricter design standards for public buildings":

Wang Kai, vice president of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, under the Ministry of Construction, said that functionality should take precedence in public buildings. “We shouldn’t go overboard in pursuit of appearances,” he said.

Orhan posted a very prescient piece on this back in 2014, when China's President Xi Jinping denounced buildings like the CCTV tower, aka "Big Pants", and the "formerly penis-shaped" People's Daily building (below), for not being "morally inspiring art".