July 2015

↑ New satellite images show progress in China's island-building project

New satellite images were revealed in July that showed the extensive project China is making with its island-building project in the “South China Sea.” An important shipping route, the disputed waterway has increasingly become the focal point for geopolitical tension in the region and internationally.

↑ Architecture in crisis: reports from Greece

Last summer, Greece faced historic protests and elections oriented around its continuing debt crisis and precarious position within the EU – eventually resulting in the election of the Alexis Tsipras-led Syriza party. In the immediate aftermath of a national referendum over accepting harsh bailout conditions (the results of which were ultimately not honored), Archinect reached out to some Greek members, inquiring about how recent political events and the economic crisis has affected the profession.

↑ Zaha's Tokyo Olympic Stadium cancelled – Abe calls for a redesign from scratch

July 2015 may go down in the architectural annals as the climactic moment for the Zaha Hadid Olympic Stadium saga. Endless assurances, price hikes, fluctuations in public opinion, and official statements (from ZHA, Olympic officials, Tadao Ando, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe) orbited the designs, which were ultimately given the final ax in mid-July. Just a few days ago, it was announced that the stadium will be designed by Kengo Kuma instead.  

↑ Paris approves its first skyscraper of the 21st century

Paris has a contentious history with its skyscrapers. When the Eiffel Tower was first erected, it was notoriously despised. Same goes for the Tour Montparnasse, which actually led directly to the imposition of height restrictions. These restrictions will finally be lifted so that a new Herzog & de Meuron pyramidal building can touch down in the 15th arrondissement and become the city’s first skyscraper of the 21st century.

↑ Heizer's "City" now part of national monument, thanks to POTUS

President Obama used his authority under the Antiquities Act to declare a 704,000 acre site in central Nevada (alongside smaller ones in California and Texas) as a national monument. Included in this, Michael Heizer’s “City” project, a major earthen sculpture that has taken nearly 50 years to construct (with work ongoing), had an integral role in the designation.

↑ The Vanna Venturi House is for sale

The Vanna Venturi House, one of Robert Venturi’s first built works and a classic of the postmodern tradition, went on sale in July. Essentially a manifesto for the ideas Venturi would later develop and expand upon in collaboration with his partner Denise Scott-Brown, the building generates about as much love as it does hate. On Archinect, the news launched an active conversation over the merits of the home that Venturi built for his mother, as well as postmodernism more generally. 

↑ Archinect launches "Dry Futures" competition in response to California's historic drought

In July 2015, Archinect launched its “Dry Futures” ideas competition, seeking out imaginative, pragmatic, idealist or perhaps even dystopic design proposals to address California’s historic drought. The competition generated incredible results and the winning entries can be re-visited here. 

↑ Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena named architecture director of 2016 Venice Biennale

Chilean architect Alejandra Aravena was named the architecture director for the 2016 Venice Biennale, which he will orient around socially-focused practices. Directly moving away from the research-based approach of his predecessor Rem Koolhaas, Aravena seeks to exhibit  “success stories worth to be told and exemplary cases worth to be shared where architecture did, is and will make a difference in those battles and frontiers.”

↑ ClickHole's magnificent spoof on starchitects' unbuilt buildings

The satirical click-bait website ClickHole took on architecture and its firmament of stars with a hilarious listicle detailing major architects’ “unbuilt work,” the buildings they would make if they could. “…a barbershop, a beautiful barbershop formed by curves of alabaster stone. It would resemble an albino slug that’s eating a pile of white towels. Instead of sitting on swivel chairs during your haircut, you’d rest on a big egg that rises out of an indoor reflecting pool,” Zaha Hadid is purported to have stated. 

July 2015

↑ A Studio of 4,500: Inside Gensler's Culture

In this iteration of Julia Ingalls’ “Employed” series, she takes a look at Gensler, trying to figure out what makes this massive firm tick. “But how does a firm with such a thrust manage to keep a cohesive design sensibility, and not break off into dozens of empowered yet vacillating aesthetic branches? In other words, from a designer’s perspective, how fulfilling is it to work at Gensler?”

↑ Upstarts: Design, Bitches

Design, Bitches is a Los Angeles-based firm founded by Catherine Johnson and Rebecca Rudolph. In this interview, they discuss some of their restaurant projects and their design ethos, more generally.