The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) have co-published a new guide for architects on deep energy retrofits. But this is not just a technical design guide; instead, the report explains why deep retrofits offer architects a good business opportunity and outlines the financial arguments and incentive programs needed to sell retrofit designs to clients. — greensource.construction.com
The Gold Dome building based on Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome will be preserved. TEEMCO, an Oklahoma-based environmental professional engineering firm has purchased the architecturally historic Gold Dome building located on legendary Route 66. As one of the first geodesic domes in the world, the Gold Dome is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. — todaysfacilitymanager.com
It was a dome of many firsts: the first dome to have a gold-anodized aluminum roof, the first above-ground geodesic dome, and the first Kaiser Aluminum dome used as a bank. Due to these forward thinking attributes, the building was billed as the “Bank of Tomorrow.” View full entry
As for what she wants visitors to get out of the exhibit, Koumoundouros just hopes it will help them think about -- even question -- how much our economy is based on the housing market.
'Ownership and consumption are linked to how much our economy is consumed based," she argues. "[This view of housing] is so specifically American. And I love digging that out, and I think questioning it is part of maybe a shift.'
— Marketplace.org
The phrase "a place to call home" rings loud and clear in the "Dream House Resource Center" exhibit by artist Olga Koumoundouros currently at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles until August 18. Her exhibit focuses on the commodification of the home in America through the context of America's... View full entry
Randell Makinson, a forceful advocate for preservation of the rambling Greene & Greene bungalows that came to be seen as graceful emblems of early 20th century California, has died. He was 81. — LA times
Randell Makinson is an important force of the architectural preservation community not only for Los Angeles but for California in general before there was LA Conservancy and preservation boards. An authority of Greene & Greene Architecture who has written 5 books on their work and also... View full entry
Young Frank sees creative possibilities everywhere, and likes to use anything he can get his hands on—macaroni, old boxes, spoons, and sometimes even his dog, Eddie—to create things like chairs out of toilet paper rolls and twisting skyscrapers made up of his grandfather’s books. But Old Frank is skeptical; he doesn’t think that’s how REAL architects make things. — Inside/Out
MoMA's new children's book, Young Frank, Architect tells the story of a budding architect living with his architect grandfather in modern-day New York City. Hoping to give a lesson in design professionalism, Old Frank takes Young Frank on a trip to MoMA, where they find inspiration in... View full entry
For the past six years, professor Zhang Lin has been moving rocks and rubble to construct his dream mountain home in the Renji Mountain area of Beijing, China. The catch? It's actually on the roof of a 26-story apartment building. And according to the South China Morning Post, the structure is completely illegal, as he never received the necessary planning permission for this extreme dwelling. — huffingtonpost.com
In a post yesterday, we already featured one of the ten submissions which emerged as Stage One Nominees in the Rebuild by Design competition. Here's now also the complete list of the shortlisted design teams as recently announced by the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. — bustler.net
Office of Metropolitan Architecture with Royal Haskoning DHV; Balmori Associaties; R/GA; and HR&A Advisors. Bjarke Ingels Group with One Architecture; Starr Whitehouse; James Lima Planning & Development; Green Shield Ecology; Buro Happold; AEA Consulting; and Project Projects. Sasaki... View full entry
In the latest edition of the Working out of the Box series Archinect interviewed Brooklyn-based designer & artist Doug Johnston. His current profession is creating "objects by stitching rope together" and he explains "I guess sometime early on, I realized that my design work wouldn't be... View full entry
Officials from the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the start of the aptly named "Park Over the Highway" plan in St. Louis, Missouri earlier this month. The plan's objective is to connect the iconic Gateway Arch grounds and Downtown St. Louis by building a... View full entry
'In the end, Museum is about the back story,” [...] “It’s about human beings whose interests go outside the norms, to a point where they value things that society and people in general ignore.' — The New York Times
It is a matchbox size museum with matches on display. Recent discourse in which museums are excoriated for their corporatist tendencies has perhaps opened a unique market for exhibiting what might be seen as banality. A relatively new museum founded by Josh Safdie, Alex Kalman and Benny Safdie... View full entry
As a society slowly urbanizes over time, its psychology and culture change, too... If American culture and psychology grew more individualistic as the country urbanized, wouldn't that transformation be clear in the words from American books (and the concepts that lie behind them)? — The Atlantic Cities
Urban and rural environments impact personal psychology differently, according to research published by UCLA psychologist Patricia Greenfield in Psychological Science. While observational evidence may draw a clear line between current city- and country-mindsets, Greenfield's source material... View full entry
Los Angeles is a vast city with countless significant buildings working their way into native architects' psyche often without their acknowledgement. It is not unusual one of those buildings would show up head on, often seen while driving and only to go back to their reclusive place in mind... View full entry
"The Poetics of Boxes" is the first monographic exhibit in Europe of the work of Mathias Klotz, currently one of Chile's most acclaimed international architects. The exhibit opens on Sept. 13 at Aedes Berlin. The upcoming exhibit will reveal the design approaches and methods of Klotz's... View full entry
The New York-Netherlands team, WXY + West 8, was shortlisted to advance to the Analysis and Design stages for the "Rebuild by Design" competition on August 9. Rebuild by Design is a four-stage regional competition to find locally contextual and resilient solutions to rebuild the Eastern Seaboard communities affected by Hurricane Sandy. — bustler.net
The nine other world-class teams shortlisted are: OMA, BIG, Sasaki, PennDesign/OLIN, HR&A, Interboro Partners, MIT/CAU + Dutch Delta Collective, SCAPE, and unabridged. UPDATE: Rebuild by Design - The Ten Stage One Finalist Teams View full entry
The Brooklyn Tech Triangle could become the next Silicon Valley -- if the strategic plan to bolster the emerging tech hub comes to full fruition. The plan was developed over a six-month period by a multidisciplinary team led by WXY Architecture + Urban Design and the Brooklyn Tech Triangle... View full entry
