This week, we devote the majority of our show to a discussion with Patrik Schumacher, about celebrity and the insularity of critical discourse in architecture. The idea of the "starchitect" is onerous to pretty much everybody in architecture, but that hasn't stopped us from using it. It's a... View full entry
Completely stable on the water, the base of the island is built to last for far over 100 years and will create a new underwater habitat for sea life, the company states, adding, it is building similar islands in Maldives and in Miami in the US. — emirates247.com
Dubai's "The World", a man-made archipelago of islands arranged like a world map, is now spawning private floating homes. The "luxury floating private islands" will be designed to specific client wishes, and reportedly will all come with a pool. Developed by Amillarah Private Islands, these aren't... View full entry
Taken out of its high-profile context, the BIG design for Two World Trade Center initially appears to be a graduate school placeholder: here are the initial seven blocks of program, with a light dusting of foliage on the exposed step-backs. The internet's critical reaction to the renderings... View full entry
The United States Embassy in Grosvenor Square, a Modernist concrete building in the heart of Mayfair, London’s most exclusive neighborhood, has been a potential terrorist target for years, creating anxiety for both employees and neighbors...So a new embassy [by KieranTimberlake] is under construction for a move by 2017, and the residents of Mayfair are relieved. But this being Britain, the new embassy has become the object of debate and, in some quarters, ridicule. — The New York Times
Related:KieranTimberlake’s U.S. Embassy in London celebrates groundbreaking View full entry
Green roofs are nice, but rooftop farms are better.
They’re the future of living architecture, say international green roof advocates who gathered in Toronto last week. [...]
“We have a handful of agricultural green roofs and all of them are community projects,” like Eastdale Collegiate, Ryerson’s Engineering building and the Carrot Common, said Peck. “But we don’t have any commercial-scale agriculture on roofs — that’s the next thing.”
— thestar.com
So will Apple’s version of street-based imagery simply be a direct copy of Street View? Possibly not. A patent filed back in 2013 mentions “3D Position Tracking for Panoramic Imagery Navigation,” and the filing is disparaging of existing imaging software, calling it a “tedious experience,” though it doesn’t mention Google Street View by name. — venturebeat.com
A diverse alliance of communities — including Los Angeles County's third-largest city — is fighting California's long-planned bullet train route into the heart of the San Fernando Valley, saying it would bring irreparable harm... The coalition of communities is demanding that only routes that are predominantly underground should be considered.
The growing resistance is coming in part from urban, working-class neighborhoods that are portraying the surface route as an environmental injustice.
— LA Times
In short, the bullet train faces opposition from basically every direction. One proposed route, which would include several above-ground stretches, worries residents of the town of San Fernando – because it would basically cleave the city in two, wiping out a significant chunk of the downtown... View full entry
Each year, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) bestows its Walter Gellhorn Innovation Award to a federal agency with the best model practice that can be adopted government-wide. Today, ACUS announced that the 2015 Walter Gellhorn Innovation Award is being presented to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Rebuild by Design Competition. — US Department of Housing and Development
There's something of a mise-en-abyme quality to a competition winning an award, but it's a good occasion to remember the Rebuild by Design was, after all, not quite your regular competition. Organized in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and funded primarily by the US Department of Housing and... View full entry
Different policy debates come into play throughout the game and the player is tasked with making choices that will affect the final rent – for instance build in high-cost neighborhoods, pay workers prevailing wages, expend public money to subsidize the building, or to give in and accept higher rents than desired. — chpcny.org
The rent is too damn high, but so are a lot of other development costs. In this simulation game by NYC's Citizens Housing Planning Council, players go through the steps of planning a NYC rental in the current economic climate – complete with housing shortage and gentrifying neighborhoods.After... View full entry
“The architecture becomes a solution to an almost unsolvable puzzle,” Ingels told me one recent morning. — WIRED Magazine
Last week Archinect broke the news that Bjarke Ingels' BIG had taken over the design of Two World Trade Center from Foster + Partners, and today BIG has released its first renderings of its proposed new design. Foster's slanted quadruple diamond crown has been nixed in favor of a stepped-back... View full entry
The plan was to create a new type of city that answered the needs of Moscow’s creative middle classes. But did the exit of Sergei Kapkov, the culture minister who ushered in these changes, also signal the end of the city’s urban revival? [...]
“Kapkov’s reforms provided a whole generation of young creative types with a sense – perhaps somewhat illusory – that they could do things on a small scale; that there was a real fabric of life in a public city,” said Tsentsiper.
— theguardian.com
Related: The Calvert Journal asks experts: How to fix Moscow? View full entry
The EPA's draft assessment was conducted at the request of Congress. "It is the most complete compilation of scientific data to date," says Burke, "including over 950 sources of information, published papers, numerous technical reports, information from stakeholders and peer-reviewed EPA scientific reports." [...]
The EPA study does identify some potential vulnerabilities to drinking water.
— npr.org
At this stage, the study is the "most complete compilation of scientific data to date," says Tom Burke, deputy assistant administrator of the EPA's Office of Research and Development. But as a "draft assessment", the study still needs to be reviewed by the Science Advisory Board, and be made open... View full entry
Today Williston—which sits atop the oil-rich Bakken shale formation—is enjoying a second life as a key player in the state's booming economy. Following several years of record population growth and real estate development, the town will soon boast one more draw: a $500 million retail mecca complete with shopping, a hotel and indoor water park. Not bad for a town of just 32,000 people. [...]
"The U.S. isn't overretailed, it's under-idea-ed"
— cnbc.com
We discuss the decline and (perhaps inevitable) death of the American shopping mall on episode #32 of Archinect Sessions, "For in that death of malls, what dreams may come?"More info and recent news on dead malls:Dead Malls and Shopping DinosaursDead-malls and the return of Main StreetDebating the... View full entry
The Hotel Okura, built in 1962 in time for the 1964 Olympics, is slated to be torn down in September to make way for a bigger, fancier Okura, in time for the 2020 Olympics. (The less-good, less-famous southern wing of the old Okura, added in 1973, will be allowed to stay.) [...]
There will never be this particular hush again in the middle of Tokyo. You will have to have been there to know what you will soon miss.
— nytimes.com
Previously: Farewell to the Old Okura View full entry
while the idea of a fully plumbed potty zooming up and down the sides of a Tokyo skyscraper may seem like Japanese technical ingenuity taken a step too far, in reality this idea is born of reasonable and sensible practical concerns. [...]
it remains likely that people will end up trapped in elevators if a large earthquake comes. [...]
Japan's elevator industry is among the most advanced in the world ... Its toilet industry also leads the world in technical advancements.
— washingtonpost.com
The below video (available in Japanese and English versions) shows off a version of a elevator-specific toilet:More elevator news:Installation of UltraRope elevators begins at Kingdom TowerIn case of fire, use elevatorsUp and Down, Side to Side; ThyssenKrupp's cable-free MULTI elevator to begin... View full entry
