Archinect - News

Wealthier communities are cracking down on the size of megamansions

2024-08-12T19:37:00-04:00

The fight to curtail so-called megamansions was picked up recently by Realtor.com. They say the colloquial square footage "horse" has "already left the barn," adding the caveat that the typical American home size has increased by 150% between 1980 and 2018.

Some other choice takeaways include Paul Goldberger telling a Hamptons community meeting in May: "We want to be East Hampton, not Levittown-By-the-Sea." (The growth of estates there began back in the Gilded Age, however.) Zoning regulations in wealthy enclaves such as this tend to focus on a design's aesthetic features and proportions relative to its lot size. The phenomenon of "Iceberg Houses," e.g., where much of the home expands below grade, is another area of scrutiny as more scrupulous planning ordinances begin to take hold.

Aspen's new building codes are some of the strictest in Colorado

2023-01-31T11:14:00-05:00

The new building codes make 49 amendments to the International Building Code...will be the first time Aspen has set energy limits for every building in the city...The new regulations are not about affordable housing...Axelman does not expect the new regs will reduce the rumbling thrum of construction that is the soundtrack to Aspen.

Jason Blevins covers the recent news out Aspen regarding passing of Ordinance NO .01 (Series of 2023), pitched as key to achieving the city’s Climate Action Plan.

A new "center for studies" at the Aspen Institute

2022-09-12T12:30:00-04:00

aiming for it to be an active community hub and an engine for new ideas about art and design and the many interests of Herbert Bayer. Not, then, just another white cube museum honoring another dead white man...a destination for local school groups as well as global scholars working in modern and contemporary art and design

Andrew Travers goes inside the 8,000-square-foot museum, designed by Jeffrey Berkus Architects and Rowland + Broughton, chats with the executive director about the guiding vision, and reviews its year-long opening exhibition, ‘Herbert Bayer: An Introduction.’

A video tour of Shigeru Ban's Aspen Art Museum

2016-06-09T14:15:00-04:00

In this video that blends time lapse and slow-motion techniques to fully showcase the visual splendor of the building, director Heidi Zuckerman of the The Aspen Art Museum speaks about how the "modesty" of Shigeru Ban's signature preferred materials perfectly suited the Colorado-based institution, while Shigeru Ban explains, among other things, how he carefully designed the visitor entrance to feature a mountain view.

Here's the full video (with requisite plinky yet inspirational soundtrack):

Judge Punishes Colorado's Aspen Art Museum Climbers

2014-10-03T17:16:00-04:00

Of course, the Aspen Art Museum is far more inviting than most edifices when it comes to climbing. The museum exterior is built from Prodema, a composite made of wood and paper pulp, bound by resin, and coated in a wood veneer. The long woven strips that encase the building are placed at regular intervals, creating a ladder-like structure that almost calls out to be scaled.

Is Shigeru Ban "Goodwashing" in Aspen?

2014-09-02T17:12:00-04:00

[Shigeru] Ban in Aspen represents a high-culture culmination of this goodwashing force. His museum, a beautiful structure faced with a woven screen and featuring a timber truss, uses his signature paper tubes non-structurally, as decoration in the corporate board room and the gift shop—all the style of his humanitarian work with none of the substance. -Dana Goodyear

A glimpse at the new Aspen Art Museum by Shigeru Ban

2014-08-04T21:19:00-04:00

In the heart of downtown Aspen, Colorado, the new Aspen Art Museum already has a busy itinerary of festivities — from an award ceremony to the official ribbon-cutting this past weekend -- even before its public opening this Saturday, August 9. Surrounded by Aspen's mountainous landscape, the new 33,000 sq.ft building designed by Pritzker Prize laureate Shigeru Ban includes a rooftop sculpture garden and 17,500 square feet of new exhibition space.

Check out some recent photos of the new building:

Plenty more details on Bustler.

Paper Palaces: The architect of the dispossessed meets the one per cent.

2014-08-04T13:22:00-04:00

“I’m not the architect to make a shape,” he told me firmly. “My designs are always problem solving.” Rafael Viñoly, who worked on a team with Ban in 2002 to propose a design for the new World Trade Center—they made it to the final round—says, “This is a guy that still thinks architecture is about building, the mechanical part of building and what the building does. Architecture is not writing or talking, it’s building buildings.”

Previously: Shigeru Ban-designed Aspen Art Museum ready for grand opening next week

Shigeru Ban-designed Aspen Art Museum ready for grand opening next week

2014-08-01T13:38:00-04:00

Next Saturday at 5 p.m., after a week of member previews, the 35-year-old Aspen Art Museum in Colorado will open the doors of its new building to the public and then keep them open for a 24-hour celebration. There is much to celebrate. The four-story building is the first American museum designed by the innovative Japanese architect Shigeru Ban.