Archinect - News

Take a look at photos of Michael Heizer's 'City' ahead of its debut

2022-08-26T17:51:00-04:00

The long-awaited public opening of land artist Michael Heizer’s monumental earthwork City is just around the corner, and the Triple Aught Foundation, the group which manages its remote Lincoln County, Nevada site, has shared some amazing new photos that offer a sense of the scale and stasis of the massive sculpture which has taken 52 years and another $40 million to finish.

City © Michael Heizer. Courtesy Triple Aught Foundation. Photo: Joe Rome

Complex One and Complex Two, City. © Michael Heizer. Courtesy Triple Aught Foundation. Photo: Joe Rome

Complex Two, City. © Michael Heizer. Courtesy Triple Aught Foundation. Photo: Joe Rome

Critic Dave Hickey recently described it as "a gracious intervention in the desert...composed and complete."

LACMA Director Michael Govan reflected on its realization, stating: "Over the years I would sometimes compare Michael Heizer's City project to some of the most important ancient monuments and cities. But now I only compare it to itself. It's an artwor...

Encircling the Burj Khalifa high up in the sky, Dubai architects propose a massive 'gated community' megastructure

2022-08-19T12:03:00-04:00

Downtown Circle is made up of five levels and would sit on five points, or pillars, embedded into the ground. The massive span of the circle itself would be composed of two main rings held together by a continuous green belt named the Skypark which vertically connects the floors with each other creating a connected three-dimensional urban green eco-system.

The National mentions that the (supposedly) self-sustaining 550-meter-tall (1,804-foot) structure would include a tram system and incredible landscaped features such as swamps and a waterfall in and around its three-kilometer (1.86-mile) long tract. ZNera Space, the Dubai-based firm behind the proposal, mentioned it in terms of the NEOM project’s recently-announced 'The Line' megastructure, stating that its concept differs within an urban context, but that the radical design, which was thought up during the pandemic, "raises the discussion of what we can do better" in terms of agricultural production and social division.

"Our roles as architects is to come up with these ideas," co-founder Najmus Chowdry said. "We want people to comment on it, criticise it, to see how we can think about building topographies."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by ZNera (@znera.space)

This digital architecture scale could solve all of your conversion issues

2018-04-18T19:04:00-04:00

The Smart Scale Ruler was created by Joanne Swisterski, an Interior Designer looking to solve scale and unit issues once and for all. This digital ruler can be customized for Architects, Designers, and Builders. Solving the common problems of out of scale drawings and differing units, this innovative new tool makes conversions simple for everyone.

Smart Scale Ruler by Joanne Swisterski.

The Smart Scale Ruler uses a long screen to display a custom ruler created by the user. This is done by inputting a physical reference of distance and the desired distance. The screen regenerates to create a ruler based on these parameters. Whatever is displayed can be converted to metric or imperial with one button. It can similarly be used to divide spaces equally for 2D drawings, and with a ratio applied for perspective drawings.

Check out how it all works:

The Smart Scale Ruler Kickstarter campaign is currently live with $40,283 pledged of their $51,722 goal. If this is a tool you would like t...

See downtown Los Angeles in Legos

2016-10-04T13:15:00-04:00

Take away the conceptual heft of Chris Burden's Metropolis II and substitute in a grade-school love for pre-fabricated plastic building blocks and you'd have something like Jorge Parra Jr.'s eight-years-in-the-making Lego model of Los Angeles, which portrays a detailed swath of the city's downtown. Here's a video tour, including scale-model billboards, a working Metro train, and a faithful representation of its latest skyscraper:

Humans and other things that nest

2016-05-30T12:42:00-04:00

When I talk about small spaces, I’m not talking about photogenic shelters constructed from found materials by Silicon Valley billionaires. I am not talking about cabin porn. I am talking about the universal human instinct to burrow, regardless of your personal dimensions.

Molly Young penned a Letter of Recommendation: for Tiny Spaces. She opens by noting that many of the homes she grew up in, shared a commonality - "smallness".

On a related note, earlier this year Orhan Ayyüce pointed out The Tiny House Fantasy.

Protests pay off as Hadid alters Tokyo stadium

2014-07-08T13:17:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has admitted it has made changes to its design for the stadium that will be the centrepiece of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. The firm has faced hostility in Japan with critics complaining that the proposed 80,000-seat stadium is too big, too costly and clashes with Tokyo’s urban planning. At the weekend, 500 protestors marched around the existing National Stadium to demonstrate over plans to replace it with Hadid’s proposal [...].

Hadid’s stadium for 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games ‘to be scaled back’

2013-10-25T20:11:00-04:00

Six months after the Japanese government approved Hadid’s proposals, the country’s parliament has signalled a reverse in its support. Hakubun Shimomura, the minister in charge of education, sports and science, said that the New National Stadium would cost 300 billion yen (£1.8 billion) to build and that was “too massive a budget”. The design of the 80,000-seat stadium will be preserved but Mr Shimomura said: “We need to rethink this and scale it down.”