Designed by three architects, one Cuban and two Italian, the new schools were constructed in flamboyant, sinuous forms deliberately reflecting the local landscape. Built in brick and terracotta as a pragmatic response to the US embargo of imported steel, ... these were a confident repudiation of Western-style International Modernism. But of the five original schools in the complex, only two were completed, as the deepening relationship with the USSR prompted disdain for such exotic forms — theartnewspaper.com
More on Archinect:Unfinished Spaces premieres tomorrow night on PBS; Archinect talks to the filmmakerHow Havana tries to come out of its crumbling shell without betraying Cuba's revolutionary rootsSelling Cuba (Gehry's already there)The promises and problems of a Cuban architecture marketRicardo... View full entry
A glass-bottomed bridge in China that was heralded as a record-breaker when it opened just 13 days ago has closed.
Officials said the government was planning urgent maintenance work in the area and the bridge closed on Friday, with a re-opening time to be announced. [...]
He said there had been no accidents and the bridge was not cracked or broken. [...]
The bridge can accommodate 8,000 visitors a day but the spokesman told CNN that 10 times as many people wanted access daily.
— bbc.com
Yibada reports that the bridge upgrades were going as scheduled and that the attraction was set to re-open to the public this week.Previously in the Archinect news:World's longest and highest glass bridge opens in ChinaChina announces world's longest and highest glass bridge View full entry
Unsurprisingly, the majority of the U.S.' job growth over the past five years has been centered in large metro areas like Los Angeles and New York. What might be surprising is how the majority of those newly created jobs are either "mid-wage" or "low-wage" jobs, here defined as those that pay... View full entry
Tokyo-based Dynamic Map Planning will undertake the task of mapping out roadways in the highest detail to date (featuring such useful insights as curb location, lane height, and limits on turning), intended to be 20 times as precise as current maps [...]
The company will also lead the effort to equip Tokyo with digital infrastructure that will allow self-driving vehicles to pick up on factors that can change or appear in their surroundings as often as every few minutes or even seconds
— forbes.com
More autonomous driving news from around the world:Airbus promises autonomous flying taxis in the (very) near futureTesla Model S driver suffers fatal crash while using autopilot, in first known death involving an autonomous vehicleWould self-driving cars be useful to people living outside urban... View full entry
Despite introducing what seemed like excellent legislation to help increase the number of affordable housing units in developer-backed housing projects, California governor Jerry Brown's proposal caused so much multi-faceted angst it became political poison, primarily because it gently... View full entry
The $12 million project, managed by Tishman Construction Corporation, came about in May 2014 when an ornamental plaster rosette fell 52 feet from the Reading Room’s ceiling. In addition to recreating and replacing this piece, all 900 rosettes in both rooms were reinforced with steel cables. Other work included the recreation of a 27′ x 33′ James Wall Finn mural on the ceiling of the Catalog Room and the restoration of the chandeliers. — 6sqft
After a two-year restoration, the New York Public Library's historic Rose Main Reading Room and Bill Blass Public Catalog Room will reopen to the public ahead of schedule on Wednesday, October 5th. To mark the occasion, the NYPL has released a series of incredible before-and-after photos. View full entry
This post is brought to you by 2017 Skyscraper Competition. eVolo Magazine is pleased to invite architects, students, engineers, designers, and artists from around the globe to take part in the 2017 Skyscraper Competition. Established in 2006, the annual Skyscraper Competition is one of the... View full entry
For nearly 30 years, Michael Arbib taught computer science, neuroscience, engineering, psychology, and mathematics at the University of Southern California, and is known for his prolific work on brains and computers: essentially, what the mechanisms of one can teach us about how the other works... View full entry
“I have an issue with architects and designers who think about how is the space going to look when it's on an architecture website, rather than how it’s going to feel for the people who either live there, work there or patronise it,” [...]
“I had a couple of nights in Madrid staying in a hotel room that Zaha Hadid Architects had designed. It looked amazing, but was the least comfortable space I’ve ever inhabited... Literally sleeping in a dumpster would have been more comfortable.”
— cladglobal.com
More design forays by the rich and famous:Pharrell Williams Will Give the AIA 2014 National Convention Keynote AddressMoby: Dancing About ArchitectureA Famous Person’s 5-Step Guide to Becoming an ArchitectOh, Moby...Paris Hilton "designs" a beach club in the Philippines View full entry
[Schumacher] sees parametricism as the architectural style of capitalism, to which he is a relatively recent convert. “My early heroes were Marx, Lenin and Trotsky, people who wanted to make an impact”, but he now believes that free enterprise is the best means of the “human development of prosperity and freedom”. The innate logic of parametricism means that, in a truly free market, with “freer utilisation of land”, it would eventually triumph. — theguardian.com
Patrik Schumacher sits down with Rowan Moore, and share his plans to assert a parametricist future as Zaha Hadid's successor at ZHA. Moore isn't exactly convinced.More on Zaha and Patrik:The Salerno maritime terminal: Zaha Hadid's first posthumous project inaugurated in ItalyZHA after Zaha: Patrik... View full entry
This post is brought to you by PPI. As the release date for ARE 5.0 draws near, knowing what to expect on the new test is becoming more pertinent for ARE candidates. Exciting breakthroughs in graphic testing methods and a desire to move away from the outdated CAD software system were just a... View full entry
This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice. Providing great architectural services and running a financially successful firm are not mutually exclusive. It’s quite the contrary. If you are as good an architect as you think, you’ll be successful and it won’t be because of your design... View full entry
The RIBA Future Trends Survey predicts that UK architects’ workloads are expected to decrease for the first time since 2012.The fall in positivity occurred in the month after the UK referendum on EU membership, with the confidence of practices falling, anticipating negatives consequences if the... View full entry
The effort aims to facilitate diversity among design and planning professionals and students, and foster innovation in teaching and research on race, gender and inequality in American cities.
Partially funded by the university’s Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, the initiative will ensure that the School of Architecture is on the leading edge of scholarship and practice regarding these important issues.
— news.utexas.edu
More on race and gender in architecture: Gentrification and the Persistence of Poor Minority NeighborhoodsA profession almost as white as the walls.Separate and unequal: The neighborhood gap for Blacks, Hispanics and Asians in metropolitan AmericaMore women joined the profession in 2015 than ever... View full entry
Researchers from the Urban Displacement project, a joint UCLA and UC Berkeley effort, recently released a gentrification map of Los Angeles.
They examined the city from 1990 to 2000 and up to 2015, focusing on neighborhoods near transit stops. The goal was to see if these areas saw higher rents and more displacement than other areas.
The answer? Yes — with some exceptions.
— scpr.org
Some of the UCLA researchers' key findings for Los Angeles Country (via the project's website, urbandisplacement.org):Our analysis found that areas around transit stations are changing and that many of the changes are in direction of neighborhood upscaling and gentrification.Examining the changes... View full entry
