Archinect - News

Frank Gehry + Santiago Calatrava rumored to be designing Hudson Yards buildings

2018-02-19T15:04:00-05:00

WSJ reports that “a person familiar with the matter” claims that Santiago Calatrava and Frank Gehry have been tapped to design buildings for the megaproject’s second phase, due to rise over the west side rail yards [...] There’s little information beyond that, but 2018 is the year that co-developers Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group are due to start work on the platform that will cover the west side yards

According to the Wall Street Journal, Frank Gehry and Santiago Calatrava may be joining the star-studded lineup of designers working on the Hudson Yards development, which — so far — includes SOM, Foster + Partners, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Rockwell Group, and Thomas Heatherwick, to name a few.

Alissa Walker imagines a "utopian" Los Angeles in 2056

2016-07-06T15:12:00-04:00

Sorry, I’m not able to send this directly through SnapFace since your iPhone 6 doesn’t support neural chat. Old-fashioned text pixels will have to do. Remember the movie “Her”? That’s what Los Angeles is like in 2056. L.A. is the densest city in the U.S., with a population that’s about a third larger than it was in 2016. Taller buildings are everywhere, including New DTLA — a corridor of super-talls that runs the length of Wilshire all the way to Santa Monica.

The speculative fiction details a "utopian" city primarily characterized by efficient, far-reaching public transport and fewer cars. There's no longer a drought, and buildings are wrapped in "solar skins" designed by Elon Musk.

For more speculative visions of a future California, check out these links from last summer's Dry Futures competition:

Bank of England proposes new limits for "buy-to-let" landlords

2016-03-29T13:00:00-04:00

Buy-to-let landlords should face new limits on the amount they can borrow, the Bank of England has proposed. It suggested that lenders should be much stricter when deciding whether or not to grant landlords a mortgage. Instead of just taking their rental income into account, the Bank wants lenders to look at their wider financial situation as well. If adopted, the new rules could reduce lending to landlords by up to 20% over the next three years.

According to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the newly-proposed standards should "curtail inappropriate lending, and the potential for excessive credit losses."

The new strictures would take into account the costs a landlord accrues in order to rent a property, tax liabilities associated with the property, a landlord's "personal tax liabilities, 'essential expenditure' and living costs," and, in cases where it supports the loan, a landlord's extra income.

For more on the real estate landscape of the UK, check out some past Archinect coverage:

Editor's Picks #308

2013-03-26T16:23:00-04:00

Archinect published work from Beyond Prototype, an advanced digital fabrication seminar developed at Columbia University...Nicholas Cecchi was impressed but also offered some criticism "This is amazing student work...However, I would like architecture schools to stop pushing students to contextualize this kind of research-based exploration. Showing these as enclosures (or the one as a gondola) only undermines the amazing generative capacity of this kind of design"

For the latest edition of the Student Works feature, Archinect published work from Beyond Prototype, an advanced digital fabrication seminar developed at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation by Jason Ivaliotis and Nicholas Kothari. In the course "Students develop parametrically controlled tessellations and transform them into building component systems that can be built using conventional sheet stock materials. These tessellated systems are extracted from the digital realm and built at full scale".

Nicholas Cecchi was impressed but also offered some criticism "This is amazing student work. The craft and quality is great, and the theory behind it is impressive. However, I would like architecture schools to stop pushing students to contextualize this kind of research-based exploration. Showing these as enclosures (or the one as a gondola) only undermines the amazing generative capacity of this kind of design. These should not be taken liter...

Drone City - An Architectural Defense From Drones

2013-01-31T13:20:00-05:00

The idea for my final project, an architectural defense against drone warfare, came from the realization that law had no response to drone warfare. My own understanding of the ongoing [War on Terror pseudonym] as a civil rights issue is irrelevant, we only learn civil rights as a historical happening, not a current struggle. But architecture has a proud anti-legal tradition. Architecture is a way to protect people when law chooses not to.

Architecture speculation pushes boundaries

2012-05-31T15:10:00-04:00

The word "speculation" is altered by the context in which it appears. Stockbrokers use it in a certain way, workplace gossips in another. There's also an architectural dimension that kicks in as designers pursue visions that have no realistic chance of ever being built. There are different motivations: to plant seeds, question norms or nudge the public debate.