The last year has seen a dramatic political shift to the right in the Western world (and elsewhere), marked in particular by Brexit and the election of Donald J. Trump. Alongside the former, the Tories secured a firm grip on the UK, with Prime Minister Theresa May stepping in to fill the void left... View full entry
In the summer of 2014, Anthony McGinty and Michelle Sosa were hired by Los Angeles World Airports to lead a unique, new classified intelligence unit on the West Coast. After only two years, their global scope and analytic capabilities promise to rival the agencies of a small nation-state. Their roles suggest an intriguing new direction for infrastructure protection in an era when threats are as internationally networked as they are hard to predict. — The Atlantic
Being the world's fifth-busiest airport (74,937,004 travelers passed through LAX in 2015) makes this infrastructure megaproject one of the top-ranked terrorist and aviation targets in the country. With billions of dollars spent on the usual airport expansion and modernization projects in recent... View full entry
Never one to bore, Karim Rashid has announced that he’s formed a new vertically-integrated firm that will incorporate architecture, investment, and development of new projects across New York City. Rashid has teamed up with his namesake firm’s director of interior design, Alex Loyer Hughes, to form Kurv Architecture D.P.C. [...]
Although there’s overlap between Rashid’s namesake firm and Kurv at the moment, Kurv will focus more on ground-up production rather than design alone.
— Curbed New York
"We are foremost, a design-development firm, specializing in the increased return of tangible added value through the implementation of unique award winning design," the mission statement on Kurv's website reads. "The word design is used in the broadest sense to describe the full scope of the... View full entry
Building industry professionals are taking note. Since the National Association of Home Builders started to offer a Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist program in 2002, nearly 7,000 contractors, architects, interior designers and occupational therapists have become credentialed by attending a three-day course, according to Elizabeth Thompson, a spokeswoman for the association. — NYT
Kaya Laterman examines designing for an aging population. Renovations focused on age-in-place fixes, along with rise of NORCs (Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities) in NYC, are creating new market opportunities. See also re: AARP’s livability index, multi-generational architectures... View full entry
Antarctic stations have become the equivalent of embassies on the ice.."They are showcases for a nation's interests in Antarctica - status symbols" says Prof Anne-Marie Brady, editor-in-chief of the Polar Journal and author of China as a Polar Great Power. — BBC News
Matthew Teller reviews some of the latest designs for Antarctic research bases. At first, they were simple wooden huts, then later, "a few wooden huts inside giant steel tubes." The aerodynamic triple-arm design of South Korea's Jang Bogo station. Image: EPA View full entry
Its architecture is painfully lost in its own time and its updates only confuse by neither integrating well into the original structure or standing out as truly contemporary. The pink kiosks, orange tiles, teal chairs and green paneled rooms, the purple plush seating in the JC Penny dressing room, and the bright blue tiered entryways are, along with other decor flourishes, seemingly random, with no coherent pattern. — NewCo Shift
Declaring that "the dying mall narrative" already peaked a few years ago, Tag Hartman-Simkins decides to photographically zero in on the details of an old mall in Galesburg, Illinois that is about to be torn down and replaced with an updated, outdoor mixed-use space. His careful observations of... View full entry
Depending on the level of surreality you favor in your coloring book exercises, The Brutalist Colouring Book from Belgian graphic designer Marc Thomasset allows you to create wildly imaginative or strictly literal renderings of various famous brutalist landmarks, including works by William Pereira... View full entry
This week Donna, Ken, and Paul discuss Exhibit Columbus's Miller Prize announcement, gender equality in lecture school lineups, and the recent illumination of Detroit.This episode was sponsored by PPI - use code ARC17 for 15% off your purchase.Listen to episode 94 of Archinect Sessions, "It's... View full entry
As brand-new collaborations go, the Shenzhen Design Society's choice to feature London's V&A gallery as part of its cultural hub opening this October isn't too shocking, unless you consider that galleries of Chinese art and photography aren't necessarily a common feature of the global art... View full entry
After months of antici.............pation, Herzog & de Meuron's Elbphilharmonie has finally opened, and a slew of luminaries, including Angela Merkel and the architects themselves, were in attendance to celebrate the inaugural concert. The event featured the debut of “Zum Raum wird hier die... View full entry
Nicholas Korody talked with Michael Rotondi, a man of deeply-held spiritual convictions, about his spiritual practice and how it affects his architectural and educational practices.To wit;"What you learn from the Buddhists, the Tibetan Buddhists in particular, is that you work on yourself first... View full entry
The imaginative possibilities of miniature things lie not in their being shrunken versions of a larger thing. The world of the miniature opens to reveal a secret life. — Places Journal
Sometimes you encounter a thing that is not “properly” architectural, but which yet has something profound to say about the discipline. In her latest article for Places, columnist Naomi Stead is drawn by a cartoon from The New Yorker to consider the relationships between the miniature, the... View full entry
It’s a privilege to be welcoming some 600 international professionals from the Society of Architectural Historians to Glasgow this summer. It’s also a milestone meeting as it marks the first time the SAH has held its annual congress outside North America in more than 40 years and it comes during our national Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology—so it’s altogether fitting that it has chosen Glasgow for its first-ever visit to Scotland. — Aileen Crawford, Head of Conventions at Glasgow City Marketing Bureau
The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) will hold its 70th Annual International Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, from June 7–11, 2017, marking the first time SAH has met outside North America since 1973. An estimated 600 historians, architects, preservationists, and museum professionals... View full entry
Don't pay your national AIA dues if you don't agree with the direction of the association. At least, that's what Mette Aamodt is doing this year. According to a press release issued by the firm, Aamodt explains that she: is calling on architects to join her in refusing to work for... View full entry
Madrid's mayor, Manuela Carmena, is serious about kicking personal cars off the road in the city center.
On a November 5 show on Spanish radio networkCadena Ser, she confirmed that Madrid's main avenue, the Gran Vía, will only allow access to bikes, buses, and taxis before she leaves office in May 2019, as noted by CityLab.
— Independent.co.uk
Are people in love with not having to drive to dense urban locales? (Answer: for the most part, yes.) Following the lead of numerous cities that are seeking either to reduce car traffic or obliterate it altogether, Madrid's mayor actually outlawed personal vehicles from the city's main... View full entry
