On a plot of land rented from a rural village on the Malaysian side of the island of Borneo, the group has proved it at small scale. Every six to 12 months, a farmer shaves off one foot of growth from these nickel-hyper-accumulating plants and either burns or squeezes the metal out. After a short purification, farmers could hold in their hands roughly 500 pounds of nickel citrate, potentially worth thousands of dollars on international markets. — The New York Times
A thought-provoking report from Ian Morse of The New York Times highlights a burgeoning approach for harvesting necessary (and toxic) metals like nickel from soil through "hyper-accumulating" plants. Morse checks in researchers from the University of Melbourne who are farming... View full entry
A 360-year-old passageway once used by British monarchs has been rediscovered inside Parliament, revealing a piece of history that was thought to have been permanently covered up after World War II.
[...] access to the passage had remained hidden in plain sight for about 70 years.
— The New York Times
As the Houses of Parliament in the United Kingdom undergo a $5 billion renovation and restoration project by architecture studio BDP, an archival team has rediscovered a hidden passageway once used by British monarchs, members of Parliament, and dignitaries like Benjamin Franklin that dates to the... View full entry
Since 2012, Hill has surveyed hundreds of structures that she believes once served as a home to enslaved African Americans. More often than not, the buildings bear no visible trace of their past; many have been converted into garages, offices, or sometimes—unnervingly—bed-and-breakfasts. In some cases the structures have fallen into ruin or vanished entirely, leaving behind a depression in the ground. — Atlas Obscura
Writing in Atlas Obscura, writer Sabrina Imbler takes an in-depth look at the work of Jobie Hill, the Iowa City architect who started Saving Slave Houses, a project that aims to catalog, document, and ultimately preserve the remaining "living and working environments of enslaved people" in... View full entry
The architecture world has been abuzz lately over the recent public opening of Countryside, The Future, the new exhibition taking place at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). Let's take a look at some of the... View full entry
In the early 1930s, White became the first African-American to earn a degree from the University of Michigan's School of Architecture. He went on to become the first licensed black architect in the state. — Michigan Radio
Michigan Radio's Doug Tribou met with Karen Burton, co-founder of Noir Design PArti, a group that celebrates the work of African American architects in Detroit, at Rightway Baptist Church. The church as designed by architect Donald White, who was Michigan's first licensed black architect. "If we... View full entry
It's been billed as the underground High Line: a park, not above the street but below ground, in an abandoned trolley terminal on the Lower East Side.
But after more than a decade of planning, one of the founders of the proposed Lowline says the project is now on hold because there isn't enough money to build it.
— Spectrum News NY1
It's been a while since we've heard from the ambitious — and in 2016 even city-approved — Lowline underground park proposal inside an abandoned trolley terminal on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The Lowline Lab served as a prototype for the greater initiative from October... View full entry
The Museum of Modern Art collects and prizes the sculpture and designs of Isamu Noguchi, a towering figure in 20th-century American art. But just across West 53rd Street, the developer of 666 Fifth Avenue, Brookfield Properties, is planning the opposite: dismantling one of Noguchi’s largest sculptural installations, one that he called “a landscape of clouds” that he designed in 1957 in the skyscraper’s twin lobbies. — The New York Times
Writing in The New York Times, Joseph Giovannini looks into the uncertain fate facing a "landscape of clouds" designed by noted sculptor Isamu Noguchi for the lobby of a 41-story skyscraper that is undergoing a renovation from Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. Preservation groups, including... View full entry
The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) has launched the next phase of its ongoing SAH Data Project, a two-year study aimed at assessing the "status of the field of architectural history in higher education." The latest phase of the project, which is led by postdoctoral researcher Sarah M... View full entry
As the impacts of the Coronavirus outbreak spread across the globe, large-scale gatherings and conferences planned for this spring are weighing whether to proceed as planned. Italy, where the annual Salone del Mobile Milan and the Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia are set to... View full entry
The Dallas Theater Center (DTC) has announced that New York City-based architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro have been selected to renovate the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Kalita Humphreys Theater in Dallas, Texas. According to a press release unveiled by the DTC, the “renovation efforts... View full entry
Demand for routine bridge inspections is expected to rise four times its current level to reach a market valuation of $6.3 billion by the end of 2029, according to research firm Fact.MR. A push for infrastructure modernization in the Asia-Pacific region the largest share of the market at 35%. — Construction Dive
According to Construction Dive, the need for more bridge inspections will be driven by a combination of aging infrastructure, exposure to damaging environmental conditions, and an increase in traffic volume, all of which speed up the deterioration of bridges. This is expected to raise... View full entry
Welcome to “Countryside, the Future”: This is what you might get if you asked a celebrated European philosopher-architect to reinvent the Iowa State Fair. No mess, no smells, just acres of color printouts, cryptic homilies about nature, and a couple of pesticide-spraying drones. Did you know that agriculture is increasingly computerized? — New York Magazine
New York Magazine's architecture critic, Justin Davidson, takes a no-holds-barred look at the Countryside, The Future exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The exhibition, developed by a research and exhibition team led by OMA/AMO and Rem... View full entry
The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF) and the Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles (A+D) have announced the latest iteration of the Built by Women exhibition, a program designed to celebrate "the breadth of achievement by women at the building industry’s highest... View full entry
Losing sleep can be a drag. Especially, since we know sleep deprivation drastically impacts the cognitive functions so crucial to work in architecture. Things like judgment, critical thinking, problem solving, planning, and organization, are but a few of the influenced aspects of our mental... View full entry
The Voxel consists of four core components: a seat, backrest/armrest, a pillow, and ottoman. The components can be configured in a number of ways, allowing users the freedom and flexibility to customize their optimum layout. According to Fast Company, BIG says the Voxel is inspired by... View full entry