On behalf of the shareholders of Battersea Power Station, Battersea Power Station Development Company announces that Gehry Partners and Foster + Partners, two of the world’s most innovative and renowned architectural practices have been chosen to design Phase 3 at Battersea Power Station. This will be architect Frank Gehry’s first building in London. — batterseapowerstation.co.uk
Phase 3 will be one of the most exciting areas of the Battersea Power Station development, otherwise known as the High Street. Being a retail pedestrian street it is the gateway to the entire development and the new Northern Line extension. Phase 3 will comprise two residential development zones... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the September ABI score was 54.3, up from a mark of 53.8 in August. This score reflects an increase in design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 58.6, down from the reading of 63.0 the previous month. — aia.org
In the past few weeks, the Buckminster Fuller Institute has been introducing numerous finalist entries for the sixth annual Buckminster Fuller Challenge [...].
Today now, the BFI announced the overall challenge winner: Ecovative, a Green Island, NY-based materials science company that has developed a new class of home-compostable bio-plastics based on living organisms, mushroom mycelia — a high-performing, environmentally responsible alternative to traditional plastic materials.
— bustler.net
The 'mushroom material' inventors, Eben Bayer, Gavin McIntyre, and the Ecovative Team, will be awarded the $100,000 cash prize at a ceremony at Cooper Union in New York City on November 18, 2013. Previously: Announcing the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Finalists View full entry
In a recent international call for ideas to regenerate the Aurifícia block in Oporto, Portugal, architects Pedro Bandeira and Pedro Nuno Rumalho figuratively and literally made a monumental statement in their proposal to dismantle and relocate the decommissioned D. Maria Pia Bridge into... View full entry
Superpedestrian, a start-up in Boston, announced on Monday that it has received $2.1 million in financing to help build a wheel that transforms some standard bicycles into hybrid e-bikes.
The product, the Copenhagen Wheel, is a design from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology SENSEable City Laboratory. The original goal of the wheel was to entice more people to more bicycles in large cities in lieu of cars by giving them help from a motor.
— New York Times
Initially presented at the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change in 2009, SENSEeable City Lab's Copenhagen Wheel will soon be produced through Boston start-up Superpedestrian. Rather than buying a whole new bike or installing a cumbersome motor, the Copenhagen Wheel can be... View full entry
Michael Abrahamson currently a doctoral student in Architecture History and Theory at the University of Michigan provided a review of "Air Rights" – an exhibition by the Drone Research Lab (DRL) at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning...Responding either to the author or to projects found in the exhibition (perhaps both?), Darkman criticized "The BLDGBLOG type inquiry walks a fine line between futurism and self-indulgance"
For the latest edition of the In Focus series, dedicated to profiling the photographers who help make the work of architects look that much better, Archinect spoke with Stockholm-based English photographer Robin Hayes. Plus, Michael Abrahamson currently a doctoral student in... View full entry
We typically see photovoltaic panels up on roofs, as they're broad, open surfaces that receive a lot of sunlight. You know what else spends a lot of time in the scorching sun, though? Sidewalks. With that in mind, a team at Washington DC's The George Washington University has created what is claimed to be "the first walkable solar-paneled pathway in the world." — Gizmag
But can my car drive on it? Built by Studio39 Landscape Architecture, the solar-sidewalk is installed on GWU's Virginia Science and Technology Campus. View full entry
Despite concerns about the sustainability of the glass-walled condo and the monotony they have brought to the Toronto skyline, these are not issues that concern city planners. That’s someone else’s department.
For planners, the main thing is to ensure that everything fits in — in other words, that nothing stands out. As long as a building isn’t too tall, too dense, or too good, the department is happy to give its approval.
— thestar.com
Photo by Sam Javanrouh, via. View full entry
Though the riot-prevention narrative is widely known, every architectural historian or critical source that I consulted viewed it as extremely dubious. For one thing, the claim is somewhat anachronistic. Many campus Brutalist projects were planned (if not totally completed) before the student movements of the late '60s and early '70s really took off, so crafty administrators would have to have been very prescient to foresee the countercultural-quashing usefulness of any particular style. — slate.com
After winning first prize in a 2009 international competition, Henning Larsen Architects' Kolding Campus building for the University of Southern Denmark is full of sustainable features. One in particular is the recent construction of its facade, which is built with a solar shading system that maintains climate control throughout the day — and plus, the triangular shape of the solar shutters add a nifty-looking pattern for the structure. — bustler.net
Erasmus University Rotterdam has opened the new public heart of its Woudestein campus. The project can be seen as a benchmark for the way grim and gloomy '60s and '70s institutional areas can be sparked to life. A new semi-sunken garage has been integrated with a new public space design and pond... View full entry
Choosing the areas to monitor within a building can be “an art,” said Paul Gottsegen, the president of the Halstead Management Company. “You want information that is important to the security of the building"... — NYT
Joanne Kaufman digs into the growth of New York residences with surveillance cameras. Whether it be the newest luxury condominium looking to attract celebrity clients, a building beginning renovations (with subsequent rise in nonresidents coming into the building) or because of changes in the... View full entry
"Vu'òn - The Garden" by Swiss firm Bureau A is a temporary installation for the Tadioto, a gallery/bar/cafe/event space that Duc Nguyen Qui — a Vietnamese American journalist, writer, and artist — created for the blossoming creative community in Hanoi, Vietnam. The Tadioto is located in a section of a former penicillin factory from the Soviet era. — bustler.net
The round tables at Starbucks were the result of asking the question how do we want people to feel before considering what do we want them to do...Form follows feeling. — Medium
Christine Outram (currently the Senior Inventionist at Deutsch LA.) penned an essay regarding what architects can learn from Starbucks, when it comes to human centered design. Specifically, in terms of user research, ethnography etc. View full entry
Our combined team has taken huge steps forward in “imagineering” Pandora as a real place for our guests to see, hear and touch. At the first-ever D23 Expo in Japan, we shared an early glimpse of the plans for AVATAR at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park and I wanted to share some of these breathtaking images and a short preview of what’s to come with all of you. — disneyparks.disney.go.com