Using some of the same design techniques used for responsive air chambers in submarines, Carlo Ratti Associati has designed a floating plaza/mixed retail center that will float on and adapt to the water level depending on how many people are currently walking on it. The plaza, which is linked to... View full entry
the developer, Townscape Partners, agreed to reduce its tallest tower to 178 feet and add more affordable housing and more parking spaces. It will also provide $2 million to ease traffic congestion.
The project will have 229 residential units, including 38 for low-income families. There will be 65,000 square feet of commercial space and a pedestrian plaza.
— latimes.com
When Gehry's Sunset Strip development was approved by the L.A. City Planning Commission last August, the plan called for 28 affordable housing units (15% of the total stock)—a number that some at the Commission meeting were concerned set a "low bar" for a development of its size, stature and... View full entry
A Government minister has declared war on “brutalist” architecture, arguing that it is “aesthetically worthless” and embodies a “cult of ugliness”.
John Hayes, a transport minister, said in a speech that the Government would be the “vanguard of a renaissance” in architecture by rebuilding a Doric arch that stood outside London’s Euston station before it was demolished in 1962.
— The Independent
"Politicians speak a lot and sometimes they speak sense," the British Minister for Transport John Hayes states at the beginning of a speech that makes a case for a return to "beauty" in public architecture. Specifically, he takes aim at brutalist transit stations and promises to rebuild the... View full entry
There is a misleading myth that “architecture is just architecture”, that assumes that architecture is a form of knowledge that neither research definitions, nor processes applied in other disciplines, can be applied to architecture research. It is a myth that has been used enduringly as an... View full entry
The ARE 5.0 is finally here, and it's eight hours and one division shorter than its predecessor. Additionally, new testing methods, including the soothing sounding drag-and-place, have been added to the exam. As a press release pithily explains: "ARE 5.0 features the latest graphic testing... View full entry
The number of migrants sleeping rough on the streets of Paris has risen by at least a third since the start of the week when the "Jungle" shanty town in Calais was evacuated.
Along the bustling boulevards and a canal in a northeastern corner of Paris, hundreds of tents have been pitched by asylum seekers - mostly Africans who say they are from Sudan - with cardboard on the ground to try and insulate them from the cold.
— Al Jazeera
While their presence is not new, it has grown substantially this week, said Colombe Brossel, Paris deputy mayor in charge of security issues.According to the article, there are up to a thousand more people living on the streets of Paris—amounting to around 2,500 in total—following the closure... View full entry
Located on the eastern edge of the body of water commonly referred to in English as the South China Sea, the Philippines is among the countries that dispute China’s claim to the area and its islands. Earlier this year, a Hague-based tribunal, constituted under the United Nations Convention on... View full entry
For this One-to-One, Paul and Amelia are joined in-studio with RotoLab co-founders Michael Rotondi, M A Greenstein and Nels Long. Among a variety of ventures, RotoLab has ambitions to create uniquely VR-environments for architectural education and practice, and in the process, completely upend how... View full entry
Work-life balance is always a question within our building, and within the industry at large. In a lot of ways, [architecture] really favors the young and childless. I'm recently married, and I don't have any kids yet. It’s really interesting to see people who eat, sleep, and breathe their work, but who then have kids (or something else about their life changes), and they have to draw back a little bit. — – architectural designer Julie Engstrom – theatlantic.com
More on work-life balance:Archinect & The Architecture Lobby wants to know how satisfied you are with your jobStruggles persist for women in the architectural workforceWork-life balance: how one architect collaborates with his teenage son View full entry
The clocks have gone back, we’ve had Halloween, it is well and truly ‘coat weather’, and Bonfire Night is coming fast; it’s time to start enjoying winter traditions! This week, go for a first skate in the middle of Canary Wharf on a glowing rink, or watch fireworks over some of the most... View full entry
Towns and villages in central Italy have been hit by an earthquake for the fourth time in three months.
The 6.6-magnitude quake - Italy's strongest in decades - struck close to the region where nearly 300 people were killed by a quake in August.
This time no-one appears to have died, but about 20 people were injured.
The medieval basilica of St Benedict in Norcia, the town closest to the epicentre, was among buildings destroyed.
— BBC
The earthquake is the most recent in a series that has rocked the region for several months. Last August, an earthquake in Amatrice killed about 300 people and, in 2009, an earthquake destroyed most of the town of L'Aquila. Related:How Architects Can Help Nepal (And Learn From Past Disastrous... View full entry
"The importance to Zaha was the layering, setting a new structure over the old one” that would both read at a distance and liberate ground for public space. And Patrik wanted the new structure to overshoot the fire station and land on a single point." — NYT
On the occasion of the opening of Zaha Hadid Architects, Port House in Antwerp, Joseph Giovannini reflects on the afterlife of Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid, DBE. Further images of the “floating” Port House in Antwerp were published previously, here. Additionally, earlier this year... View full entry
Car and Driver caught up with Foxx in Pittsburgh. The DOT chief, previously mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, reflected on the promise of autonomous and connected cars, the recent Smart City Challenge, the massive increase in traffic deaths, the potential of the shared vehicles unfolding right outside the window, and more. What follows is a transcript of our conversation, lightly edited for grammar and brevity. — blog.caranddriver.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:U.S. Transportation Secretary Foxx on the troubled relationship between infrastructure and race: "We ought to do it better than we did it the last time"Uber lets you hail its self-driving cars in Pittsburgh later this monthColumbus, Ohio wins DOT's $50M Smart... View full entry
Fittingly, Zaha Hadid Architects' 15-storey, 15,000 square meter Jockey Club International Tower has raced ahead of all other structural competition, winning RIBA's award for International Excellence. Here, the ever observant Iwan Baan shows us why:And for good measure, here's a video tour: View full entry
He calls critics “dismissive” and “disdainful.” He accuses architects of “misguided political correctness,” and says they are guilty of “confusing architecture and art.”
Schumacher has turned his criticism on his own practice, rolling out plans for what he calls “Parametricism 2.0,” to better address the human factors like productivity, social interaction, culture, and well-being that detractors used to say Hadid ignored. “I have to step up,” Schumacher says. “I will build my own star power.”
— wired.com
More from Schumacher the Parametricist:Patrik Schumacher on the parametric future he plans for ZHAZHA after Zaha: Patrik Schumacher on Zaha and what's next for the firm, on Archinect Sessions #61Brexit: a chance to roll back the interventionist state and unleash entrepreneurial creativity –... View full entry
