In a speech made at the Conservative Party conference today, UK Prime Minister Theresa May pledged an extra £2 billion to be spent on affordable housing. This is in addition to the government's existing £7 billion affordable housing fund, which awards grants to local governments, housing... View full entry
Puerto Rico’s electricity grid was completely knocked out when Hurricane Maria slammed into the island Sept. 20, and repairs are expected to take months. That’s generating interest in microgrids, small-scale systems that combine solar panels and batteries that can be installed quickly to restore power to a few buildings at a time. — Bloomberg
German company Sonnen GmbH will provide 15 solar powered energy storage systems to Puerto Rico's emergency relief centers. Most of the Island is still without power after Hurricane Maria. View full entry
Vishaan Chakrabarti‘s Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) has revealed a new set of renderings for the refinery building at the three million-square-foot Domino Sugar Factory mega-development in Williamsburg. The new plans are brighter and better connected than those previously... View full entry
This post is brought to you by University of Virginia's School of Architecture For students and faculty at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture the future of cities is now. The School’s Dean Ila Berman recently announced her intention to launch the NEXT CITIES INSTITUTE, an... View full entry
At the heart of Trinity Square in Hull, England, 16 perforated steel columns stand in a symmetrical grid directly in front of the historic Hull Minster church. Chile-based Pezo von Ellrichshausen and Swiss optical-illusion artist Felice Varini realized the... View full entry
Back in 2014, the International Olympic Committee selected Danish 3XN Architects to design its new IOC Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. The winning entry beat out eleven other shortlisted proposals by international heavyweights like OMA, Toyo Ito, Diller Scofidio... View full entry
LEGO fans of all ages are flocking to the BIG-designed LEGO House since it opened last week in the heart of Billund, Denmark. The 130,000 square-foot building offers visitors plenty to explore: LEGO art galleries, color-coded experience zones, and the public LEGO Square — which includes... View full entry
Officials at the Louvre have been accused of censorship after withdrawing a work from its Tuileries Gardens in Paris for being sexually explicit. The work by the Dutch art and design collective Atelier Van Lieshout, entitled the Domestikator, was due to go on show later this month as part of the Hors les Murs public art programme organised by representatives of the Fiac contemporary art fair (19-22 October). — The Art Newspaper
The Art Newspaper explains: "[...] the erotic nature of the large-scale architectural structure, the outline of which depicts a couple having sex, prompted the Louvre’s decision to bar the work from the gardens which are overseen by the museum." Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez tried to defend... View full entry
While most of Apple's new Cupertino campus is still under construction, a small crown jewel, the Foster + Partners-designed Steve Jobs Theater, already attracted the world's attention when it hosted the unveiling of the latest iPhone models last month. Now we've received new, fascinating... View full entry
In 1826, the first photograph ever was taken by Nicephore Niepce who chose to capture the view of neighboring buildings from an upstairs window. As a static object, buildings presented themselves early on as a still, and easy, focus for initial iterations of the camera... View full entry
Guy Nordenson will be presented with the 2017 Richard Neutra Award for Professional Excellence from the Cal Poly Pomona Department of Architecture on October 9. Established in honor of Richard Neutra's architectural legacy, the medal recognizes individuals for their dedication... View full entry
The Obama Presidential Center will be transformative, just as it will be truly urban, only up to a point. It’s bound to disappoint anybody who forgets that Obama’s political strategy, as distinct from his larger role in the culture, has always been unshakably centrist. Because (among other reasons) his race continues to make him a lightning rod, a magnet for unhinged opinion, he has preferred the middle to the edge. — Los Angeles Times
Residents of the South Side in Chicago raise concerns about the location of the new center and complain that the Obama Foundation refuses to sign a Community Benefits Agreement guaranteeing construction jobs and other patronage to members of the South Side community. View full entry
Now, decades after the original hardcover edition sold out, the MIT Press is publishing a facsimile edition of the original large-format Cooper-designed edition of Learning from Las Vegas, complete with translucent glassine wrap. This edition also features a spirited preface by Denise Scott Brown, looking back on the creation of the book and explaining her and Robert Venturi’s reservations about the original design. — MIT Press
45 years after its first publication, the groundbreaking book, Learning from Las Vegas, is still read, purchased and studied by architecture and urban planning students, thinkers and practitioners around the world. Last year Archinect spoke with Denise Scott Brown about the Learning from Las... View full entry
This post is brought to you by Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). Since its founding in 1972 as an independent school of architecture, SCI-Arc has developed a series of idiosyncrasies that have anecdotally permeated the broader architecture community. Prominent among these... View full entry
Want to brush up on the emerging talent from British architecture? Archinect readers now have a chance to win a copy of the latest volume of “New Architects: Britain's Best Emerging Practices”, thanks to Merrell Publishers. Cover of “New Architects 3”Since The Architecture Foundation began... View full entry