We call it “destructoporn” (since 2007, according to Urban Dictionary) and it comes, unbidden, via digital media. Where did I see that Tod Williams and Billie Tsien’s Folk Art Museum, just thirteen years old, was down to steel and rubble? The art critic Jerry Saltz’s Instagram. [...]

The dailiness, even hourliness, of social media makes it a perfect vehicle for documenting each thump of the wrecking ball, each crunch of the backhoe. Its visual slant is ideal for activism wrapped up in pictures. — newyorker.com

Headed by the continued strength in the multi-family residential market and the emerging growth for institutional projects, demand for design services continues to be healthy [...] The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the October ABI score was 53.7, down from a mark of 55.2 in September. This score reflects an increase in design activity (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 62.7, following a mark of 64.8 the previous month. — calculatedriskblog.com

The architect today is no ‘fountainhead.’ It is rather sad to watch today’s ‘starchitects’, designing their weird-looking signature buildings. These seem now always to be either museums or condos for billionaires. The brand-name architect just build useless luxury housing for the 1% and their trinkets. The actual design of the world is now in the hands of other people. — Public Seminar Commons

Dubbed “Dementia Village” by CNN, Hogewey is a cutting-edge elderly-care facility—roughly the size of 10 football fields—where residents are given the chance to live seemingly normal lives. With only 152 inhabitants, it’s run like a more benevolent version of The Truman Show [...]

Last year, CNN reported that residents at Hogewey require fewer medications, eat better, live longer, and appear more joyful than those in standard elderly-care facilities. — citylab.com

How did we come to live in an insular tribal sphere where unwritten rules and rigid moralities — about whom to like and dislike, what is permissible to say and what must remain unsaid — are strictly enforced via social media and online disapproval, much of it anonymous? When did this band of gypsies and relentless radicals get so conservative? — vulture

A community of tiny houses for the homeless opened this weekend in downtown Madison, Wisconsin — built by a coalition of homeless individuals and members of Occupy Madison...
Four people, including one couple, will move into the first set of three finished homes on privately owned land this week. The next phase of the project will see six homes, another bathroom, and community room complete with a kitchen and laundry facility built in the spring. — Al Jazeera

Rotterdam has been crowned as the best city in Europe at today’s Urbanism Awards. The post-industrial city in the Netherlands beat off strong competition from Aarhus in Denmark and Turin in Italy.

The award is one of five given out annually by the Academy to recognise the best, most enduring or most improved urban environments. Voted on by Academicians, each award covers a number of social, economic and environmental factors, including good governance and commercial success. — Academy of Urbanism

The number of homeless children in the United States has surged in recent years to an all-time high, amounting to one child out of every 30, according to a comprehensive state-by-state report. Titled "America's Youngest Outcasts," the report being issued Monday by the National Center on Family Homelessness (NCFH) calculates that nearly 2.5 million American children were homeless at some point in 2013. — Al Jazeera

"394,000 US$!! This is the budget of homes in America that are 1/10th of this quality. Perhaps it's for two people, who are empty nesters, and entertain for a large extended family. The simplicity of materials and form, is exceedingly elegant". - b3tadine[sutures]

Smithsonian officials are planning a $2 billion futuristic reimagining of the institute’s southern campus that will create clear entrances, expand visitor services and upgrade mechanical systems to the historic Castle and the six buildings surrounding it.

Architect Bjarke Ingels, partner at BIG in Manhattan, unveiled the proposal Thursday in the Smithsonian Institution Building, known as the Castle. — washingtonpost.com

Erecting such a building “without authority of the General Assembly will diminish or impair the beneficial interest of plaintiffs and other Illinois citizens” [...]

such a designation conflicts with the trust, which calls for preserving property as “a natural resource and as a free and open space not occupied by a giant building.” [...]

by acting without the approval of state lawmakers, the city and park district would have excessive power over the property “for which they have no authority.” — chicagobusiness.com