The Royal Institute of British Architects has announced the winners of the 2014 RIBA National Awards. With 44 buildings in the UK and 12 buildings elsewhere in the European Union, the selected projects will now have the chance to make the shortlist for the coveted RIBA Stirling Prize, awarded annually to the architects of the building that has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year. — bustler.net
Here's a small image selection of 2014 Award Winners:London: TNG Youth and Community Centre by RCKa. Photo: Jakob SpriestersbachLondon: London Bridge Tower (The Shard) by Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Photo: Michel DenanceWest Midlands: Library of Birmingham by Mecanoo. Photo: MecanooLondon... View full entry
As militant Sunni fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) continue their assault on Iraq, following their recent take-over of Baquba, President Barack Obama has ordered the deployment of 275 combat-ready troops to help defend Baghdad and, in particular, the new and expensive... View full entry
The Make It Right foundation has unveiled its new home designs for the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes of Fort Peck, Montana. Following LEED Platinum certification and Cradle to Cradle practices, the foundation is known for building sustainable homes for people in need. For the Ft. Peck project, Make... View full entry
From this unlikely office, Contractor is helping to create the face of 21st-century India — a nation of flourishing wealth and entrenched poverty that looks, according to the economists Amartya Sen and Jean Drèze, “more and more like islands of California in a sea of sub-Saharan Africa.” [...]
Inside the high-rises, several million dollars buys not only granite countertops and Arabian Sea views but also electricity that never goes out and water that always runs.
— nytimes.com
"What's interesting is that when you go back a long time, they share a lot of architectural typologies. They are not so different...This is about going back to the origins when these three faiths were close and shared a lot architecturally". Kuehn says. — BBC News
Stephen Evans digs into the House of One, a planned synagogue, church and mosque under one roof. View full entry
Using images provided by cultural organizations worldwide, some of which were captured with Google’s Street View camera technology, [the Google Cultural Institute's Street Art Project] includes street art from around the globe, including work that no longer exists [...]
Google is the latest organization to wade into debates about how or whether to institutionalize, let alone commercialize, art that is ephemeral and often willfully created subversively.
— nytimes.com
Oita, a medium-sized manufacturing city in the southwest of Japan, hopes to make its mark next summer as the host of the first Toilennale—an arts festival celebrating toilets. [...]
Tourism is the main focus of the art exhibit, but the Toilennale also promises to improve city services by renovating and beautifying bathrooms throughout downtown, beyond the 12 being turned into installations.
— qz.com
Is it too late for Koolhaas to include the Toilennale in the "toilets" Fundamentals tome?Get up to date on Venice Biennale news (toilet and non-toilet):Terri Peters' coverageRound-up of critical reactions from architectural publications View full entry
In partnership with 3D Systems, Arup used 3-D printers capable of fusing powdered steel to replace the clunky, welded assemblage of plates that made up the original design. The result is a streamlined part: 15-percent lighter than its conventionally fabricated forebear and 1,000 times cooler-looking. — wired.com
A team of researchers from Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia are working on another solution: A swarm of tiny robots that could cover the construction site of the future, quickly and cheaply building greener buildings of any size. [...]
"The robots can work simultaneously while performing different tasks, and having a fixed size they can create objects of virtually any scale, as far as material properties permit”
— fastcoexist.com
Check out the Minibuilders in action below: View full entry
"...just as planning for response to an industrial accident doesn’t make an industrial accident more likely, so too planning for relocations should not make them more likely... It is .... likely that the slow-onset effects of climate change will lead many to voluntarily migrate in anticipation that conditions will worsen. Those who are left behind – and who will need government assistance to relocate – thus may be particularly vulnerable." — Brookings Institute
The pressure to start preparing for inevitable relocations due to global warming and the resultant rise in sea levels is growing for many communities around the world. For some, the time for preparation is already running out and the time for action is now. In the United States, the first "climate... View full entry
This year's Venice Biennale of Architecture, curated by Rem Koolhaas, officially opened on June 7, under the theme "Fundamentals". The deluge of criticism and reporting coming out of the Biennale will surely continue until it closes November 23, but so far reactions from the architectural... View full entry
"I got to say Chicago I think this is on you. Did you not think Donald Trump was going to put his name on the building you let him build? It's what he does. Have you been to New York? Or, as you'd think it would be called from the buildings, 'New Trump City'" — Daily Show
Last night, John Stewart weighed in on the clash between Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Donald Trump. View full entry
Amelia Taylor-Hochberg Editorial Manager for Archinect, talked with director Kelly Anderson about her documentary "My Brooklyn" and the “incredible, derogatory, racialized way people talk about the space". The film will air multiple times as part of PBS World's America ReFramed series... View full entry
Though many scholars focusing on penitentiaries suspect that staff-prisoner relations are molded by institutional architecture, little empirical work has been completed on the topic. Now, a new study led by Beijersbergen and published in Crime & Delinquency has concluded that building styles, floor plans, and other design features do indeed have a significant impact on the way Dutch prisoners perceive their relationships with prison staff. — psmag.com
Due to plummeting enrollment and a troubled district, vacant school buildings—heck, just vacant buildings—are none too rare in Detroit. After 19 years of abandonment, the Nellie Leland School, however, is no longer vacant—it, as abandoned urban buildings are want to do, is back in session as condos. [...]
Today, the school is known as Leland Lofts, a set of expansive condos in the Lafayette Park neighborhood near downtown Detroit, where a 1,465-square-foot, one-bedroom loft goes for $175K.
— curbed.com
