A safe, clean, on-time ride. That's all most of us expect from the Chicago Transit Authority. But why not ask for something more? Station architecture that puts zing in the journey and elevates the city around it. That's what we get at the crisply modern new Morgan "L" station on Chicago's Near West Side. — chicagotribune.com
In Still Ugly After All These Years: A Close Reading of Peter Eisenman’s Wexner Center, Alexander Maymind argued the center's "grid-based diagrams instantiate disestablishment effects[2]...hinge on a particular aesthetic reading of architectural ugliness." 18x32 responded "I like where you've gone with the 'Ugly' here, but I don't think this building offers the best example. Nothing about Wexner is viscerally repellant, abhorrent or disgusting."
Alexander Maymind shared his essay Still Ugly After All These Years: A Close Reading of Peter Eisenman’s Wexner Center, recently published in One: Twelve Issue 4, April 2012. Therein he begins by suggesting how the center's "grid-based diagrams instantiate... View full entry
The Chinese winner of architecture’s most prestigious award has criticised the wanton demolition that has left many of the nation’s cities fragmented and almost unrecognisable to their citizens.
The comments from Wang Shu, who will on Friday receive the 2012 Pritzker prize in a ceremony in Beijing, highlight widespread complaints in China about urban planning amid a process of urbanisation that saw more than 20m rural dwellers move to cities last year alone.
— ft.com
The architect who created the £269 million aquatics centre has criticised “rude” Games bosses for not inviting her to a single event.
Zaha Hadid claimed she was not asked to the opening or closing ceremonies of the Games, or to any of the diving and swimming heats at her acclaimed building in the Olympic Park.
— thisislondon.co.uk
I remember Poly Styrene, the singer from X-Ray Spex, and all her prophetic songs from the late 70s: "I Am A Poser," "Germ-Free Adolescents," "Prefabricated Icon," "Genetic Engineering." Take a look at architecture and people today and you realize that it all came true. — Vice Magazine
A candid conversation on the horrendous state of new construction in New York, with the crankiest of architecture critics, Ivana Force-Majeure, and Vice Magazine's Bob Nickas. View full entry
Philip Kennicott interviewed Frank Gehry and analyzed the current proposal for the Eisenhower Memorial and what has gone wrong to date with the process. Donna Sink, felt it "was an excellent article. The slideshow is the first time I've really understood the urban context of this memorial, and OMG I love it completely now!..."
For the latest Working out of the Box feature Archinect interviewed Prutha Raithatha. Raithatha is actually a full-time architect but also an experimental fashion blogger, stylist and writer. She writes a personal blog called Don’t Shoe Me that captures New York City’s... View full entry
Campus 2, as it is currently called, will not replace the 1 Infinite Loop campus. Instead, it will provide “research facility” office space for an additional 13,000 employees, which is more than 3,000 than 1 Infinite Loop. There is also 300,000 feet of expansion space for future growth. — 9to5mac.com
The original rationale for the open-plan office, aside from saving space and money, was to foster communication among workers, the better to coax them to collaborate and innovate. But it turned out that too much communication sometimes had the opposite effect: a loss of privacy, plus the urgent desire to throttle one’s neighbor. — New York Times
As we mention more and more that 21st century will be the century of rising sea levels, depletion of energy resources and century of urban nature, we still think the solution to these problems are once again will be produced by our far superior technological society as if we know these things better.
We don't.
— architects for peace
SEEDocs launches with the story of the restoration and revitalization of the Owe’neh Bupingeh pueblo in Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico. — SEEDocs
Team: Atkins Olshin Schade Architects, The Ohkay Owingeh Housing Authority Location: Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico Issues Addressed: Cultural Heritage, Historic Preservation, Education, Affordable Housing, Job Training, Community Building, Local Identity Project Description: ... View full entry
This laboratory, as Mr. Hill calls it, for small-space, sustainable and — it must be stressed — high-end living is the first tangible product from his fledgling company, LifeEdited. It comes with an awkward manifesto that nonetheless manages to gather an armful of social and economic trends and philosophies, including happiness research, the booming field of collaborative consumption and data on the proven efficiencies of cities. — nytimes.com
Around the world, followers of architecture with a capital A have focused so much of their attention on formal experiments, as if aesthetics and social activism, twin Modernist concerns, were mutually exclusive. But Medellín is proof that they’re not, and shouldn’t be. Architecture, here and elsewhere, acts as part of a larger social and economic ecology, or else it elects to be a luxury, meaningless except to itself — NYT
Michael Kimmelman visits Medellín, Colombia and explores how architects and urban planners have used the power of public architecture and public space to remake the fortunes of a city. However, he suggests that it isn't just design but also more mundane changes such... View full entry
New changes to the contentious design for the Eisenhower Memorial were publicly unveiled on Tuesday at a session in Washington. Architect Frank Gehry made the adjustments following complaints by members of the Eisenhower family that the design put too much emphasis on the former president's upbringing in Kansas and not enough on his accomplishments as a military and political leader. — latimes.com
After five months of positive readings, the Architecture Billings Index slipped back into negative territory during April, an indication that demand for design services declined.
The score for April was 48.4, compared with 50.4 in March.
— online.wsj.com
The term ‘building science’ is used quite often now in sustainable building circles, but much of what we understand of it can be traced back to the work of Dr. Joe Lstiburek, founder of Building Science Corporation. Many of the building standards today have his finger prints all over them, and his tough love criticism of building design is undercut with his wry humor and encyclopedic knowledge of building construction. — Inhabitat
Leave your preconceived ideas at the door. View full entry
