The times—specifically, the sea levels—are a changin'. Luckily, Harvard's Graduate School of Design has just launched a new initiative, the Office for Urbanization, to start amassing design research for new urban realities for cities around the world. The Office is described as being "a venue... View full entry
space and building costs are just as much of guiding principles in designing real prisons as they are in Prison Architect. [...]
"Prisoners themselves are generally not included in the conversation where the prison construction budget is allocated to different priorities, so their needs come last and cell size is generally set at the legal minimum," Sperry said. "The legal standard only bars 'cruel or unusual punishment'—a cell can be punitively small as long as it doesn't cross that limit."
— motherboard.vice.com
More on the discussion around prison architecture:How one California prison is betting on architecture to decrease recidivism ratesArchitecture of correction: Rikers IslandThe NYT on prison architecture and ethicsHow Prison Architecture Can Transform Inmates' LivesADPSP and the Architecture of... View full entry
Foster + Partners has won a competition to redesign the area around the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) headquarters in Cairo’s Maspero area, according to an announcement made yesterday by the Egyptian Ministry of State for Urban Renewal and Informal Settlements (MURIS).“On the... View full entry
But some designers are toying with another idea—that there’s a different way to build that exploits randomness rather than avoids it. This kind of building will rely on new kinds of granular materials that when tipped into place, bind together in ways that provide structural stability. [...] Sean Keller at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and Heinrich Jaeger at the University of Chicago explain how this kind of “aleatory architecture” is finally becoming possible. — technologyreview.com
That will have a profound effect on the process of design. “As a result, preplanning is freed from considering the local structural detail,” say Keller and Jaeger. “Instead, the main task now becomes generating the proper particle shapes as well as the overall boundary and processing... View full entry
Bio City -Terreform ONE’s Mitchell Joachim pushes the boundaries of architecture with experimental materials such as living trees and engineered animal tissue — to design future cities that merge with nature. — POLITICO Magazine
Mini documentary on the biologically based architecture and urban design work of the nonprofit group Terreform ONE at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in NY. View full entry
Germane Barnes wants Opa-Locka to be known for something else...He knows [change] can happen because he lives there, and has seen the work of a group of artists and organizers slowly change the landscape...The city's history intrigued him, not merely because it seemed like a perfect case study for his thesis about revitalizing a community without gentrification, but because it also spoke to his own experiences. — Curbed
More on Archinect:In Chicago, forming economically integrated suburbs is more complex than it looksWelcome to Evanston, Illinois: the carless suburbiaBerliners are getting their hopes up for transformed Kulturforum arts districtWith a little compromise, illegal urban squats like Ljubljana's... View full entry
Season two of Archinect Sessions premiered last week – featuring a discussion on the Chicago Architecture Biennial with Log director (and co-curator of the US Pavilion for the 2016 Venice Biennale) Cynthia Davidson – and to finish out our coverage of CAB, we're posting the "Next... View full entry
For the first time since the early 1970s, a highly venomous sea snake has turned up on a southern California beach—the latest in a string of unusual wildlife sightings, including hammerhead sharks and red-footed boobies.
Though a bite from this yellow-bellied snake can theoretically be lethal, shutting down all nerve signals to the respiratory system, “Jaws” this is not: the snake attacks only when provoked, and no one has ever documented a human fatality from Pelamis platura.
— the Economist
According to the Economist, the sea snakes and other unusual sea creatures popping up along the coast of Southern California are a symptom of the emergence of a mass of warm water, which may likely lead up to one of the most intense El Niño's in memory."This snake, which typically lives in... View full entry
[On Thursday, November 5], the Commission on Chicago Landmarks unanimously voted to recommend Chicago Landmark status to the Marina City complex. [...]
A resolution will be drafted and will head to the Chicago City Council in December for a final vote.
— chicago.curbed.com
This seems like a done deal. As quoted in Loop North News, Commission on Chicago Landmarks chairman, Rafael Leon: "everybody recognizes those buildings around the world, that the moment that they see it, they see Chicago. I’m so glad that we have gotten to the point of designating these... View full entry
Looking back at the Season 1 finale of Archinect Sessions this past summer — featuring Thom Mayne and Eui-Sung Yi, our listeners had the chance to win a copy of "Haiti Now". The book is a visual almanac of the "Haiti Now" project from the NOW Institute. Founded by Thom Mayne, the Now Institute... View full entry
With their sustainable growth slowing down, things didn't look good at all for the future of Turkey's malls. [...]
With interest in city conservation growing, a popular opposition against gentrification projects rising, and a newborn curiosity for the country's Ottoman-era buildings being threatened by construction companies, talking positively about shopping malls came to be considered sacrilegious from 2013 on.
— psmag.com
More on Istanbul's architecture:Istanbul’s introverted megaspacesIstanbul's 'illegal' towers to be demolished after landmark court rulingAn urbanist's guide to Istanbul: ‘We live in a giant construction site’Gezi Park: Architecture and the Aestheticization of Politics View full entry
Our new podcast, Archinect Sessions: One-to-One is an interview show, straight-up. Each episode features a single interview with a notable figure in contemporary architecture – it's that simple. Usually, One-to-One will be led by me or Paul Petrunia, while occasionally others will serve as... View full entry
Cairo is an unruly urban sprawl that has spun out of control. Now, officials want to build a new capital in the desert -- a potent symbol of President Sisi's regime. But will it ever happen? [...]
The old Cairo is an ugly city, an affront to the senses. [...] a city of contradictions, created from the bottom up, even though that had never been the intention. It has been growing wildly since the 1960s -- from 3.5 million back then to 18 million now -- against the will of the country's rulers.
— spiegel.de
Previously in the Archinect News: A New "Capital" for Cairo?Egypt's urban growth threatens Nile farmlandPhotographer documents Egypt's monumental housing developments in the desert View full entry
Besides the thing itself, architecture concerns itself with two kinds of sign about it: iconic signs and symbols. Iconic signs resemble the thing itself. They are the plans and elevations and isometrics. The more symbolic architecture is that of language, the word, the logo and so forth. The postmodern turn shifted the emphasis from the iconic to the symbolic.
I think [Eyal] Weizman has created an architecture about a whole other kind of sign – the index.
— Public Seminar
"Indexical signs are traces of events: where there is smoke there is fire. The smoke does not resemble the fire. It is not an icon. Nor does it have a code like a symbolic sign system. Forensics is a matter of working backwards from the index to the event of which it is the sign, like in a... View full entry
Until an earthquake in 226 BCE knocked it down, the Colossus of Rhodes, a 98-foot-high iron and bronze statue of the Greek god Helios, sat near the harbor of Rhodes, Greece, for 54 years.
Now a plan put forth by a small team of scientists seeks to rebuild the ancient statue and boost tourism and local jobs in the process. [...]
The proposal also includes an interior library, museum, cultural center, exhibition hall, and, of course, a crowning lighthouse
— uk.businessinsider.com
Learn more about the initiative on the Colossus of Rhodes project site:The idea of building a contemporary Colossus of Rhodes begun to arise in the ideas of some young professionals, after the break out of the economic crisis in Greece. As unemployment rose and destroyed dreams and ambitions of a... View full entry
