The best thing about Chase Center, the new $1.6 billion home of the Golden State Warriors, is the main attraction — that raucous enclosed oval where upward of 18,000 people can gather to watch the action.
It’s a pure immersion in the moment, both lively and comfortable enough to atone for the confusing, though often satisfying, jumble of spaces elsewhere within the silvery orb
— The San Francisco Chronicle
Can a sports stadium be at once populist and high-end? The San Francisco Chronicle's urban design critic John King finds a sort of balance at the new Chase Center, designed by Manica Architecture on an 11-acre site that includes design contributions from SHoP, Perkins and Will (Pfau Long)... View full entry
A Berlin-based artist who put up billboards advertising fake real estate projects in protest against runaway property development received more than 200 calls from would-be investors who didn’t get the joke. [...]
At a distance, the adverts look plausible but closer inspection of the images visualising what the new properties would look like reveals odd details.
— The Guardian
Treptown Visions, billboard in public space, Treptow, Berlin, 2019 by Dorothea Nold. Image: Dorothea Nold/aussenwelt "Citizens are not being asked for their permission when investors make such drastic changes in their city, that’s why I thought it is okay to put them without permission up to... View full entry
The Australian company promoting the brick- and block-laying robot Hadrian X has entered a series of agreements with housebuilders in Australia and Mexico with a view to getting demonstration homes built.
Fastbrick Australia, a joint venture between Hadrian X inventor Fastbrick Robotics (FBR Ltd) and Australian building supplies company Brickworks Building Products, hopes the agreements will get traction for its “Wall-as-a-Service” concept in the two countries’ sizeable home-building markets.
— Global Construction Review
FBR's Hadrian X robots can build multi-room structures from 3D CAD models with no human intervention. In addition to new contracts with Australian and Mexican entities, the company has also inked deals with builders and fabricators in Saudi Arabia and Austria, among others. A recent... View full entry
Architecture's influence in video game design has reached new heights over the years, providing architects and video game designers the ability to blend digital computation, mesmerizing graphics, and unforgettable worlds gamers can explore and get lost within. Manifold Garden is one such example... View full entry
The San Diego Association of Governments’ ambitious rail plan includes laying hundreds of miles of track throughout the county to connect residential areas to these job centers. Agency experts are analyzing the region’s commuter patterns in an attempt to design rail service that lures commuters off the most congested highway corridors.
The lines, many of which are planned as subways, will go through existing residential areas with the added aim of encouraging dense development along the routes.
— San Diego Union-Tribune
The ambitious plan could be funded by a series of sales tax increases, which would have to be approved by local voters. SANDAG Executive Director Hasan Ikhrata told The San Diego Union-Tribune, “I think this region is more suited to follow-up with transit-oriented development than any... View full entry
Refuge, one of Houston's leading developers, in conjunction with architecture firms Brett Zamore Design and Gibson Design, Inc., have created the mini-development of one- and two-bedroom homes, each between about 600 and 800 square feet, packed with amenities for modern living. — Culture Map Houston
According to Culture Map, the homes feature open floor plans, plenty of patio space and are "far from being crammed or crowded." One of the homes is currently valued at $249,900, Culture Map reports. View full entry
At a community meeting last week, four developers pitched plans for a Metro-owned property above the under-construction 1st/Central subway station in Little Tokyo...Though the station site is 1.2 acres, the property only offers a 14,500-square-foot building pad due to the diagonal orientation of the 1st/Central station box. — Urbanize LA
"Metro released a request for qualifications to prospective developers in August 2018, and received eight responses by January 2019," reports Urbanize. Of those eight, four have moved forward: Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), who has teamed up with FSY Architects; Centre Urban Real Estate... View full entry
The possibilities of 3D printing and fabrication have propelled design by pushing the limitations of digital computation and construction. Earlier this month, the University of Maine's Advanced Structures and Composites Center used the world's largest 3D-printer to break a whopping three... View full entry
Plans for a skinny skyscraper with a clever diamond-paned exoskeleton has won rave reviews from city planning commissioners, who predict it might be beautiful enough to earn a spot as one of LA’s most iconic buildings. [...]
If it’s ever built, that is.
— Curbed LA
The proposal for Olympic Tower, a showy 57-story skyscraper near the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles, has been inching through the planning process for some time now, and as Curbed LA reports, has recently managed to wow the city's planning commission. Designed by Nardi Associates, the... View full entry
500 years after being banned by Spanish conquerers, the ancient pan-Mesoamerican ball game of ulama is making a comeback in Mexico City, where a new community center focused on reinvigorating indigenous cultural traditions is taking root. Los equipos Texcoxo y Cemayan Nepanolli dan una... View full entry
Google's recently released filing shows plans to build an 80-acre development that will encompass up to 7.3 million square feet of office space and 5,900 units of new housing in San Jose, California, reports CNBC. This exceeds the initial proposal of 6.3 million square feet of office space... View full entry
We are entering the home stretch of Archtober 2019, New York City’s annual Architecture and Design Month, and there's still so much to do! Archinect & Bustler have partnered with Archtober for the ninth year in a row and present you our weekly highlights from a packed calendar. Below are our... View full entry
Small talk is a dreaded practice for many professionals. It's often forced, and the parties involved participate out of obligation as opposed to genuine interest. Naturally, there are those of us who don't mind it, we actually enjoy it. Instead of hysterically pressing the close door button in the... View full entry
To survive the summer heat, Qatar not only air-conditions its soccer stadiums, but also the outdoors — in markets, along sidewalks, even at outdoor malls so people can window shop with a cool breeze. “If you turn off air conditioners, it will be unbearable. You cannot function effectively,” says Yousef al-Horr, founder of the Gulf Organization for Research and Development. — The Washington Post
Want to see the future of climate change? Take a look at Qatar, where average temperatures have already risen by more than 2-degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial times. View of the Al Wakrah Sports Club, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. Image courtesy of Hufton + Crow. The... View full entry
In Central Park, about a mile from land that was once home to Seneca Village, a mostly black community forced out by the park’s creation in the 1850s, the city is planning a privately funded monument to a revered black family from that time.
The new addition to New York’s landscape, honoring the Lyons family, is part of the de Blasio administration’s push to diversify the city’s public art and recognize overlooked figures from its history.
— The New York Times
The privately funded plaque, paid for by the Ford, JPB, and Andrew W. Mellon Foundations and the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, will become the second monument to Seneca Village in the park, following a public plaque erected in recent years. At its height, the village stretched from 82nd to... View full entry