A pair of USB ports on a console on the front of the bench provides juice from the solar panel mounted at lap level between the seats. Who wouldn’t want to hang out at a bench like this? It certainly catches the eye of passersby. What these kids might not realize, however, is that this bench is watching them back. — Landscape Architecture Magazine
"Smart" benches are spreading—recently a series of them, manufactured by Soofa, was installed in a tiny neighborhood park next to I-77 on the north end of Charlotte, North Carolina with the intent of the neighborhood's analysis and redevelopment. Soofa, founded in 2014 by three graduates of... View full entry
Barrett's Grove by Amin Taha + Groupwork is a slender, cross-laminated timber housing structure built along a Victorian Street in London. Evidently, the architects paid particular attention to material choice and meticulous detailing, resulting in a distinct structure... View full entry
There's still about a month left to register and submit to the 2017 Burnham Prize Competition: Under the Dome. In response to the upcoming Chicago Architecture Biennial's “Make New History” theme, the 2017 Burnham Prize is inviting architects worldwide to send their most... View full entry
SOM has won (yet another) major commission: the master plan for Colombo Port City in Sri Lanka. Covering a 269 hectare site, the master plan is for a new city development that will extend the existing Colombo Central Business District. The project, which is designed in collaboration with Grant... View full entry
This post is brought to you by PPI. PPI is proud to sponsor this week’s Archinect giveaway. One lucky winner will walk away with an architecture bundle that includes: PPI’s ARE 5 Flashcards that include 400 cards categorized by exam division and section to aid you in recalling key... View full entry
But it’s the tattoo that holds him. It runs from her wrist up her right arm, covering it wholly, and disappears into the shoulder of the dress, a complicated design in fresh, bright colors he cannot make out in a single glance. — Numéro Cinq
"Portland" is a short story about an architect, and an odd one. While set in Portland, Boullée's Cenotaph for Sir Isaac Newton is visited, along with an elaborate tattoo. Another excerpt: He is—or was—an architect for a large firm with a reputation in San Jose that has had several scores... View full entry
Capable of holding more than 20,000 residents, Prora was meant to comfort the weary German worker who toiled away in a factory without respite. According to historian and tour guide Roger Moorhouse, it was also meant to serve as the carrot to the stick of the Gestapo — a pacifying gesture to get the German people on Hitler's side. But then World War II began, and Prora's construction stalled — until now. — Business Insider
Named Prora and located on a beachfront of Rügen island, the structure was commissioned by Adolf Hitler as the world's largest tourist resort three years before Germany invaded Poland in 1939. In those three years over 9,000 workers were involved in the construction of the 2.7-mile-long... View full entry
Associate Professor Heather Roberge has been appointed to the position of chair of the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design effective July 1, 2017. She will take over for interim chair, Professor Neil Denari, alongside whom she has served as interim vice chair during this past academic... View full entry
Today, the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform—a multi-disciplinary group of experts convened by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito—released Justice In Design, a report that envisions an alternative to a single, centralized jail. It details how community-based jails, dubbed “Justice Hubs,” might function in an urban context to replace Rikers. — co.design
The Rikers Island Correctional Facility, a complex of 10 jails and about 10,000 detainees located northeast of LaGuardia Airport, has been one of NYC's most debated problems for decades—widely criticized for corruption, brutal mistreatment of detainees, and inhumane conditions. Independent... View full entry
Architecture students and recent grads put their presentation skills to the test in “Elevate Your Pitch”. Co-launched by the American Institute of Architecture Students and the Schindler Elevator Corporation, the competition had entrants submit a video clip of themselves... View full entry
As government officials in Moscow earmark Constructivist buildings for demolition in a massive project to relocate up to 1.6 million of the city’s residents, a non-profit museum dedicated to preserving Russia’s avant-garde architecture has opened in the Shabolovka neighbourhood. — The Art Newspaper
The new Avant-Garde Museum is located in Na Shabolovke Gallery, which is a part of Khavsko-Shabolovsky housing complex built in the late 1920s by the rationalist Asnova (Association of New Architects). It is part of a district with a rich heritage of early Soviet architecture and design... View full entry
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles. (Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles!)... View full entry
Shortly after MVRDV unveiled their “improvising” high-rise development in Rotterdam, the practice announced their winning scheme for a mixed-use redevelopment called Nieuw Bergen, around Deken van Someren Street in Eindhoven. Designed for client SDK Vastgoed (VolkerWessels), the scheme is... View full entry
Gluckman Tang Architects designed the De Maria Pavilion as part of an informal art walk on an 11-acre estate in the small town of Bridgehampton, New York. Named after artist Walter De Maria, the sleek light-filled structure houses... View full entry
Joseph Grima (40) is a graduate of the AA and the founder of Space Caviar (Genova, Italy), a design research studio operating at the intersection of architecture, technology, politics and the public realm. He has extensive international experience as curator, editor and writer in the fields of... View full entry