New studies are showing that Chinese cities are slowly sinking as a result of rapid development and excess groundwater use. According to reports, as many as 50 cities across the country are affected by soil subsidence, including the country’s largest - Shanghai. Apparently, Shanghai has been slowly sinking for at least 90 years. — inhabitat.com
London-based photographer Peter Guenzel explores the sparse and calming atmosphere of former limestone refinery turned eco hotel, Fabriken Furillen... the minimalist retreat is set amid the area’s untrammeled natural beauty featuring rocky coastline, wind-swept pines and glistening sea... founder Johan Hellström preserved its original infrastructure and recycled local materials such as concrete, limestone and hardwood to build the hotel's 17 rooms. — nowness.com
But like so many landmarks, from the Parthenon to Penn Station, few endure. Starting today, Mr. Goldberger will board the notorious Condé Nast elevator, but instead of getting off on the 20th floor, he will report to work two floors up, where Graydon Carter has finally poached Mr. Goldberger for Vanity Fair. — New York Observer
Paul Goldberger leaves The New Yorker, partly to have more time to work on a biography of Frank Gehry, partly because he was not given enough chances to write for the magazine anymore. At Vanity Fair, he won't just be writing on architecture, but also "design-related" stories, too. View full entry
Platescrapers navigates itinerant fare, comestible politics, and gastro-ritual to purvey stories about social issues and exaggerated realities; each story illustrates food as a monument to galvanize the public. — SOILED
SOILED is an architectural periodical based in Chicago. It investigates latent issues in the built environment and the politics of space. SOILED's latest issue, entitled Platescrapers, is out! With three issues to date, SOILED is available in both a print edition and a free downloadable PDF... View full entry
Being a successful collector or dealer does not qualify one to make substantial decisions towards our collective cultural patrimony. — art&education
art&education publishes an excellent paper by Nizan Shaked. As the title suggests, it discusses and exposes the forces and conditions behind this billion dollar industry that created by power brokers and billionaire businessman and their art advisers, museum directors and... View full entry
Back in 2009 SOM's City Design Practice took a comprehensive look at the the entire Great Lakes Lakes and the St. Lawrence, ecosystem and proposed The Great Lakes Century, a pro bono initiative - to begin a broad-based, bi-national dialogue. Reed Webster wrote that his "masters project was dealing with some of the same issues." His project waterWORKS was designed as a piece of a larger green-infrastructure plan for Traverse City, Michigan.
NewsNewly released numbers from the Census Bureau say Angelenos are living in the nation's most densely-populated urban area. New York still has the highest population, but at 7,000 people per square mile, the Los Angeles/Anaheim/Long Beach area takes the density prize. In light of these new... View full entry
... the ABI is a pretty good leading indicator of non-residential construction levels a year or so down the track. It’s often not a bad indicator of broader economic conditions either. For example, the index’s low of late 2008 came a little before U.S. stocks’ post-crisis nadir in March 2009. It’s been on a general uptrend ever since. As have stocks. There’s a crumb of good news, here, then, because the ABI has now been rising for four straight months. — blogs.wsj.com
The WSJ's "The Source" discusses how the Architecture Billing Index can be used as a fairly accurate economic indicator, comparable to the oft-used Baltic Dry Index. View full entry
One winner and one Finalist have recently been announced at Tap City, a competition around a drinking fountain. The contest asked undergraduate and graduate students to create a structure, installation, or experience around a forgotten fountain, the Duncan Dunbar Memorial Fountain in Greenwich Village, NYC, to devise a radically innovative proposal for the most particular of urban design sites. — bustler.net
The Great Lakes Century is a pro bono initiative of SOM's City Design Practice.
We found dozens of important efforts to clean and protect the Lakes and the St. Lawrence, but no comprehensive vision for their entire ecosystem. So we did what we do: took a comprehensive look at the natural setting, how unenlightened human hands had messed it up, and then created a set of strategic principles – to begin a broad-based, bi-national dialogue (which we had never done before).
— thegreatlakescenturyblog.som.com
Grand plans for Seattle Center evoke hovering "Jelly Beans," "dematerialized urbanism," and "catalyzing atmospheres." That's just what Seattle needs: more gobbledygook. — crosscut.com
Knute Berger, of Seattle-based Crosscut, opines on the long-pondered use of "gobbledygook" in archispeak, in reference to the architect's project descriptions from the recently announced results in the Urban Intervention Design Ideas Competition. View full entry
Here he discusses his work with architectural historians Robert McCarter, the Sam Fox School's Ruth and Norman Moore Professor of Architecture, and Seng Kuan, assistant professor of architecture. The talk takes place in the university's Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, designed by Pritzker laureate, and former WUSTL professor, Fumihiko Maki. — youtube.com
With all the news of Wang Shu, since he was announced as this year's Pritzker laureate, there has not been very much coverage from Shu, himself, speaking about his work. View full entry
What About ideal cities, and counter revolutionary master plans? Avant-Garde The avant-garde is a paradoxical state. In order to exist, it relies on its incongruous condition of being both fundamentally contemporary and ahead of its time. A conceptual palimpsest, the avant-garde requires writing... View full entry
For all its Brutalist charm and rigid adherence to the now-outmoded ‘streets in the sky’ concept, Robin Hood Gardens was an easy target for those who call architects hypocrites eager to champion crumbling estates they wouldn’t dare live in themselves. Many of the current residents can’t wait to be rid of it: a consultation in 2008 found that over 75% supported its demolition. — londonist.com
Sometimes I think, as architects, we talk so little about buildings. That’s part of my issue with the profession — and part of why so many people leave it for other things. Architects don’t know how to define themselves. It makes us unnecessarily modest, as if we shouldn’t think of architecture as this big world-changing thing when we talk with other people. If you don’t find your niche, something that’s easy to explain, you feel engulfed in the “architect” stereotype. — Meera Deean, via architects.org
Young designers discuss their professional horizons and architecture’s future. It's so great to see young architects discussing important issues like these. We need more of this! It's especially great to see this moderated by Archinect blogger Nicole Fichera and starring Lian Chikako Chang... View full entry
"Last month more than 25 staff failed to turn up for work one day in an organised protest at missing wages.
...Staff in New York are owed up to two-and-a-half month’s wages and the email sets out the company’s response to those either not turning up for work or asking to be put on unpaid leave."
— bdonline.uk
this is just a bit too much. View full entry
