Many people view GPS and similar emerging interior-wayfnding technologies as a way to 'solve the blind wayfnding challenge.'...Architects still need to be better multisensory placemakers to design and create effective environments for the blind and visually impaired. — Dwell
Chris Downey, whose story as a blind practicing architect was recently documented in the AIA's "Look Up" campaign this past May, dishes in on his own experiences with embossing printers, wayfinding devices, and graphic input tools, and other emerging technologies that have the potential to vastly... View full entry
The dust is yet to settle in Greece, as the pronounced “No!” of yesterday’s referendum reverberates across Europe. The vote marked a clear rejection by the Greek people of enforced austerity as the price for staying in the Eurozone. It also signaled continued confidence in Alexis Tsipras and... View full entry
Nicholas Korody interviewed Andrés Jacque (of the Office for Political Innovation) about COSMO, the winning entry of this year’s MoMA PS1 Young Architect’s Program competition. Therein he argued "I believe that the architect’s role nowadays can also be providing alternatives, and... View full entry
The politicians know what they’re doing: Gaza is a liability, not a vote-winner. It’s much easier to keep the Strip under closure and blame Hamas, who certainly shoulder a large portion of the blame. As do the Egyptian, the Palestinian Authority and the international community. — Haaretz
A Year Since GazaOne year after Operation Protective Edge, Haaretz sends its top writers to examine what has changed since the 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas, and to ask whether – or when – the next war will erupt.It's been one year since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in... View full entry
World famous street artist Shepard Fairey - the man whose “Hope” poster massively boosted Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign – has described an attempt to arrest him by Detroit police as “hilarious” after he was commissioned to do a mural in the city.
Last night authorities issued an arrest warrant for Fairey, 45, on graffiti charges with Police Sergeant Rebecca McKay issuing a statement warning: “Just because he’s a well-known artist does not take away from the fact that he is also a vandal.”
— independent.co.uk
Detroit's most recent charge against Fairey is for damages amounting to $9,100, caused by nine of Fairey's works. Detroit police are asking that he turn himself in, and say that he'll be arrested should he ever return to Detroit. Fairey doesn't seem to be phased, calling the charges... View full entry
This week, we dip into the swamp of whether so-called "poor doors" (separate entrances for affordable and market-rate housing tenants) are discriminatory, highlighting discussion points made in the wake of New York's decision to make them illegal. We also follow up on the investigation into a... View full entry
Since the capping and closure of Fresh Kills’ five mounds, this 2,200-acre expanse of wetlands, marshlands, dry lowlands, forests, and grasslands has evolved into an unusual combination of natural and engineered beauty. — urbanomnibus.net
Originally a patch of creeks and marshland on the western shore of Staten Island, the area now known as Fresh Kills became a major landfill for New York City in 1948, once Robert Moses bought the land for housing development. His plan was to solidify the marshland with waste for a few years, and... View full entry
Adjaye is overseeing the newest installment of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s “Selects” series, which spotlights the little-known West African textiles in the museum’s permanent collection. [...] It also offers the celebrated architect a chance to explore the surprising connections between textile making and building design.
“What’s interesting to me is this idea of fabric and weaving as a kind of abstraction of making places that people come together in,” he says.
— Smithsonian.com
Related: First Look at the Museum of African American History and Culture View full entry
In the five-and-a-half years since an earthquake killed more than 220,000 people here and displaced 1.5 million more, most of headlines from Haiti’s capital have been about dysfunctional projects, mismanagement and the overall slow pace of reconstruction.
Yet some innovative urban development work is going on here, often under the radar.
— citiscope.org
Previously:Four years and half a billion dollars later, the Red Cross has built six houses in HaitiMASS Design Group's new Open-Air Clinics in Haiti, reviewed by Michael KimmelmanRebuilding Haiti: Houses for Haiti's homelessHaiti Simbi Hubs Wins AA School and Foster + Partners Sustainability and... View full entry
New satellite imagery of remote islands in the South China Sea shows several Chinese island-building projects are finished. In five of seven island projects, attention has turned to the next phase: building bases with potential military uses on the islands. — washingtonpost.com
Taking a cue from the Gulf states, China has been engaged in a massive island-building project in the South China Sea. New images from the Washington Post show the staggering progress that is being made, with the first buildings cropping up. While relatively small, the South China Sea is one of... View full entry
A new exhibition on the work of New York-based Richard Meier & Partners Architects is set to open at the Ulm Stadthaus Exhibition and Assembly Building in Ulm, Germany on 8 July. — Wallpaper Magazine
During the tempestuous postwar years, Berlin was a city divided. Occupied by Soviet powers in the East and western Allies in the West, the city was split into separate states, and in 1961, the Berlin Wall was built between the two. Nearly thirty years later, Berlin's reunification process began... View full entry
“We can now get back to doing the public’s business and return a functioning Government Center to Goshen,” the Orange County executive, Steven M. Neuhaus, said in a statement. “It is my hope that this delay will not impact the bid prices.” — artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com
As of this past April, the fate of New York's Orange County Government Center, a boxy brutalist designed by Paul Rudolph, was pretty much sealed. Preservationist had previously fought to restore the structure in the face of much-needed updates to the Center, but their proposals were dismissed... View full entry
The separate entrances for the rich and poor came about due to a loophole in the Inclusionary Housing program enacted in 2009 that allowed developers to get subsidies if they provided affordable housing either on or off-site. — theguardian.com
Last year, a luxury NYC high-rise had its request for separate entrances – one for its affordable housing-unit tenants, another for its market-rate tenants – approved, fanning the fires of discriminatory design debates here on Archinect. Now, the loophole in a NY-rent stabilization law that... View full entry
North Korea's propaganda machine has spent days promoting a new airport in Pyongyang, showcasing the building's sleek glass walls and espresso stations. But the images, which feature Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, fail to mention that the building's principal designer was likely executed last year because Kim was unhappy with the design. — ibtimes.com
While the starving population of North Korea will likely never going to enjoy the airport's amenities (under the current circumstances), it has shown more direct feedback to other key-interest projects of the supreme despot, like the 46-story Taedong River Apartment Towers which remain... View full entry
