August 2015

↑ Let Jürgen Mayer H. help plan your next trip to Berlin with his own travel tips

Archinect kicks off its new series of city travel tips for the architecturally inclined traveler put together by architects that call each featured city home. For the inaugural list of must-see destinations, we’re excited to have famed German architect Jürgen Mayer H. share his favorite spots in Berlin.

↑ Start 'em young: teenaged son picks architect for family's house

Next time you build a home for your family, make sure your kids get to look over the architect’s shoulder. And keep an eye on that budget, will ya?

↑ Coating the LA reservoir in "shade balls" will save 300M gallons of water

The sustained historic drought in California was on everyone's mind in August, and the LA reservoir "shade balls" would have made an excellent entry to Archinect's Dry Futures competition.

↑ Introducing Liberland, an aspirational libertarian micro-nation along the Danube

One of August’s hottest posts was the announcement of the aspirational libertarian microstate of Liberland, its connection to self-described libertarian and Director of Zaha Hadid Architects, Patrik Schumacher, and its larger implications on the world of architecture.

↑ Herzog & de Meuron named 2015 RIBA Jencks Award winners

Jaques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron are certainly no strangers to accolades of the highest international profile, but when RIBA president Stephen Hodder came knocking to bestow the Jencks Award for “major contributions to both the theory and practice of architecture," they probably didn’t say non.

↑ ISIS beheads leading archaeologist in Palmyra

Amid the tremendous human and cultural loss of the ongoing Syrian conflict, the news of ‘Islamic State’ militants capturing and beheading the leading archaeologist Khaled Al-Asaad while trying to defend the ancient Roman city of Palmyra sparked especially heated international outcry.

↑ Banksy about to open "Dismaland" pop-up exhibition in British seaside resort

Love him or hate him, Banksy manages to elevate the sleepy seaside resort of Weston-Super-Mare to international art Mecca overnight with a massive anti-PR PR stunt.

↑ We're suckers for any architecture that looks like us

You didn’t think that putting the claim “when we look at buildings that suggest a face, we feel a kinship” in front of the critical Archinect audience would go uncommented, did you?

↑ Oklahoma University Architecture Dean apologizes for wearing clothing "associated with Islam"

Oh no, he di’nt… But seriously, what’s the fuzz about again?

August 2015

↑ Looking to "Frank Gehry", after Paris but before Los Angeles

Amelia Taylor-Hochberg takes a closer look at the first exhibition coming to Los Angeles exclusively on Gehry's retrospective. (“And lest we forget, Gehry has been on The Simpsons.”)

↑ Architecture at the limits of instability: an interview with Smiljan Radić

Nicholas Korody, while touring South America, sits down with Chilean architect Smiljan Radić: “Perhaps like all others in Radić’s profession, the platonic ideal of “the Architect” hovers like a ghost over his shoulder. Although, in the case of Radić, it is met with a great deal of criticality, self-deprecation, and humor. You might even say he moves in opposition to it.”

↑ Greening Piano’s roof: a conversation with ecologist Paul Kephart

Most great works of architecture are the result of symbiotic collaborations between architects and professionals from other disciplines. Julia Ingalls portraits the involvement of ecologist Paul Kephart in the highly successful Renzo Piano-designed California Academy of Sciences project.