While the current drought is likely linked to larger issues like climate change, California has always had cycles of dry and wet seasons, as well as regular drought periods. But, for thousands of years, the inhabitants of the region were (for the most part) able to survive times of water scarcity... View full entry
Long abandoned to the shadows of architectural thinking, the proverbial "throne" of the house – the toilet – is beginning to make a bit of a comeback, taking a central role in last year's Venice Biennial, and making an occasional appearance in Archinect features. While it may upset our... View full entry
Amelia Taylor-Hochberg, Editorial Manager for Archinect, reviewed "Shelter" the debut exhibition at the Architecture and Design Museum’s new location in Los Angeles' Arts District. Despite what you might assume "Shelter isn’t about designing for the 21st century family, or the millenial, or... View full entry
One of the great ironies of the California drought crisis – or at least one that's repeatedly mentioned – is that the thirsty state borders the theoretically-endless water reserves of the Pacific Ocean. But, of course, closer examination reveals that a) desalination is no simple task and b)... View full entry
Part and parcel to the image of Orange County in the popular imagination, the suburban tract home is a ubiquitous, popular, and oft-derided element of the Southern California architecture vernacular. The Freshly Squeezed: Survival on the Fringes Honorable Mention proposal crafts an extended... View full entry
Flood risk in New York City has increased in recent decades due to human-caused sea level rise and the related storm surge that occurs during cyclones, according to a new study.
Climate change threatens to exacerbate the risk storms pose to the largest city in the United States. [...]
“This is going from something you probably won’t see in your lifetime to something you may see several times in your lifetime,” said Andra Reed, a researcher at Penn State University.
— time.com
According to a report published in the journal PNAS that looked at sediment at different point of the New Jersey shore, before 1800, a flood that rose 7.4 ft above sea level would occur about once every 500 years.Now – or, more precisely, since 1970 – we can expect a storm like that to hit... View full entry
“It took multiple spacecraft over several years to solve this mystery, and now we know there is liquid water on the surface of this cold, desert planet,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.
“It seems that the more we study Mars, the more we learn how life could be supported and where there are resources to support life in the future.”
— NASA
In an announcement made this morning, NASA stated that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has detected "the strongest evidence yet" of liquid water on the fourth planet from the Sun. The new evidence emerged from data collected by an imaging spectrometer mounted on the spacecraft, which was... View full entry
Coping with California's drought and ensuing water restrictions have been stressful for everyone in the state, but some bear that stress more heavily than others. In Apart, We Are Together, the state's most affluent members will manage to detach the water infrastructure from everyone else to... View full entry
This post is brought to you by PPI. A 2014 Survey of Architectural Registration Boards reported the highest number of aspiring architects to date. More than 37,000 aspiring architects were testing and/or reporting hours. The 3,543 candidates who completed the Intern Development Program (IDP) are... View full entry
Used in some of the world's driest places, fog-catchers can turn atmospheric moisture into potable water, effective on scales small and large – it's used by the South African Namib Desert beetle as an evolutionary trick to stay hydrated, and by a Chilean brewery to make beer... View full entry
Elizabeth II is the first major British monarch who will not have an architectural style named after her [...]
The present Elizabethan era includes as many as a dozen architectural highlights and at least two broad architectural styles. “I cannot imagine a term or an argument that would tie all of this together,” says Stanford Anderson, a professor emeritus of history and architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “'New Elizabethan architecture’ just ducks the question.”
— economist.com
On September 27th, the MASS Design Group will officially present their idea for a Bauhaus-type school for Sub-Saharan Africa at the United Nations Solutions Summit. The proposed program would be based in Kigali, Rwanda and would purposefully "incubate local innovation towards tackling the biggest... View full entry
While Thomas Heatherwick's proposed Garden Bridge hasn't attracted universal acclaim, it has spurred an unusual competition. A purposefully free-to-enter satirical contest known as "A Folly for London" encouraged anyone and everyone to submit "absurd, illogical, egotistic and obtrusive designs... View full entry
While it's just as important to have serious discussions about the future of architecture, so is taking a hard, honest look at its present state. And if the letters from the recently concluded "Dear Architecture" competition indicate anything about how individual architects perceive the field... View full entry
Mia Lehrer, a Los Angeles landscape architect who helped prepare a master plan for the river in 2007, said Mr. Gehry’s involvement had distressed people wary of top-down directives, and raised fears that he would derail the plan by the Army Corps of Engineers just as it was gaining momentum.
Still, she said Mr. Gehry was welcome to join the fray. “He’s a creative dude,” Ms. Lehrer said. “So the answer is, ‘Why not?’”
— The New York Times
Perhaps to escape the local ire which his involvement with the L.A. River redevelopment has drawn, Frank Gehry talked to The New York Times about his hopes for the project and for his relationship with the community. "I’m doing something that’s going to be good and trying to be inclusive, and... View full entry
