More than ten years at the center of the Chinese architectural avant-garde, the role of standardarchitecture as an architectural paradigm solidifies more and more on international ground. Not interested in defining the new Chinese, nor to perpetuate the role of the status quo of the architecture... View full entry
Labelling the festival an ‘expensive dance of death’, the Coop Himmelb(l)au-founder went on to claim a ‘great’ biennale would have featured forums and themes looking ‘behind the scenes’ at decision-making ‘instead of boring exhibitions’. — The Architects' Journal
Better source at Building Design, but their need for registration denies access to many. View full entry
The National Building Museum presents its fourteenth Vincent Scully Prize to Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger, for his lifetime work of encouraging thoughtful discourse and debate about the importance of design. — nbm.org
What's the biggest myth about architects?
That we're all individualistic fundamentalists. Actually architecture is a very collaborative discipline. On a big project, there can be a cast of thousands: the job of the architect is not only to create, but to get everybody on board. In that sense, it's very consensual.
— guardian.co.uk
THE HYPE OF THE SCHOOL IS WAY DEEPER THAN WHAT I BRIEFLY EXPERIENCED LAST SEPTEMBER.
WHAT I AM ABOUT TO SAY I HAVE MENTIONED TO ERIC, BUT NOT IN DETAIL. ERIC SHOWED NO INTEREST IN ME ELABORATING.
— Small @ Large
Another take on Sci Arc. This time from the horse's mouth... Glen Small was one of the original and visionary founders of the school. Particularly interesting first person up close and personal storytelling in which Eric Moss referred as "ILLUSIONIST". Excuse some of the name spellings. View full entry
Innovation and research are the themes that define the work of the seven teams and the seven installations that articulate SPAINLAB, the exhibition at the Spanish Venice Biennale Pavilion curated by the architects Anton Garcia-Abril and Débora Mesa of Ensamble Estudio. — bustler.net
Click here to see more Archinect News posts related to the 13th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. View full entry
What About It? Part 2 is now available online on the digital publishing platform ISSUU. The second issue of the graphic narrative in magazine format created, designed, edited, and written by WAI Architecture Think Tank includes essays, Manifestoes, Projects, Collages and a series of... View full entry
One of the longest bridges in northern China collapsed on Friday, just nine months after it opened, setting off a storm of criticism from Chinese Internet users and underscoring questions about the quality of construction in the country’s rapid expansion of its infrastructure. — nytimes.com
Just one month ago: Beijing Infrastructure Not Fit for Torrential Rains View full entry
“Mark said he wanted to be in the same room with all his engineers,” Gehry said. “I told him we could put the building up on stilts, park cars underneath and create a room as large as he wanted.”
This is not a Gehry project of shiny fronds of fluttering reflective metal. To support his vision of anti-hierarchy, free- form collaborative work, Zuckerberg tapped the Gehry who has built furniture out of cardboard and covered his own house in chain-link fencing.
— bloomberg.com
For an architect, in the instant that he has undivided attention of a patron with the power to realize his designs, literally nothing else matters; not a fire alarm, not even an earthquake; there is nothing else to talk about but architecture. -Dejan Sudjic, The Edifice Complex The fully... View full entry
The architecture billings index rose 2.8 points to 48.7 last month, the highest since March, the American Institute of Architects said on Wednesday. The billings index, which measures demand for architects' services, helps predict construction activity nine to 12 months ahead. Any measure below 50 indicates a decline in billings. — reuters.com
Architecture related to hip-hop is about built ideas inspired of music and dance, drawing in part from artistic ideas like sampling and rapping. Even more to the point, it’s mainly an urban form, one meant to be highly inventive while also addressing issues like poverty and blight — but also the material desires we associate with aspiring DJs and emcees. — smartplanet.com
It’s hard to know whether you regard this as nightmare or opportunity, I tell him. “That has been my entire life story,” Koolhaas said, “Running against the current and running with the current. Sometimes running with the current is underestimated. The acceptance of certain realities doesn’t preclude idealism. It can lead to certain breakthroughs. — Smithsonian magazine, September 2012
Some classic Nicolai Ouroussoff-piece - so expect an up-and-too-close-personal portrait, explicit hints of retro-active admiration, generic and gullible phrasing, all-over-the-place platitudes and creepy catchphrases - on Rem Koolhaas. Worth a read, but only for the quotes. For those that do not... View full entry
A remarkable Frank Lloyd Wright house in Phoenix is under threat of demolition. Wright designed the house for his son David and it is unique among all his residential designs. Your support is needed to urge the City of Phoenix to approve historic preservation designation for the house thereby extending its temporary protection from demolition. — change.org
Via Kevin W. in the Forum View full entry
While the park began as a grass-roots endeavor — albeit a well-heeled one — it quickly became a tool for the Bloomberg administration’s creation of a new, upscale, corporatized stretch along the West Side. — NYT
Jeremiah Moss ( the pen name of the author of the blog Vanishing New York) penned an editorial on the High Line. Therein he argues the High Line "has become a tourist-clogged catwalk and a catalyst for some of the most rapid gentrification in the city’s history". View full entry