Life has become significantly more political in the new millennium, especially in the aftermath of worldwide financial crisis. Art is both driving and documenting this upheaval. Increasingly, new visual concepts and commentaries are being used to represent and communicate emotionally charged topics, thereby bringing them onto local political and social agendas in a way far more powerful than words alone. — Gestalten
In the light of politically active artists facing more and more opposition and oppression (Ai Weiwei remains under Chinese arrest), the just released book Art & Agenda is an important documentation of current urban interventions, installations, performances, sculptures, and paintings and also... View full entry
CRCA Exchange #8 - The Art of Data Spatialization Featuring CRCA/Calit2 researchers Todd Margolis, Joachim Gossmann, and Rick Snow Friday April 29, 5pm - 7pm CRCA Spatialization Lab Room 1604. Atkinson Hall UCSD Voigt Drive, La Jolla Presentations are followed by refreshments and are open... View full entry
"It is interesting here in the frontier: Who were they trying to impress?" — Timothy Brumm via Green Bay Press-Gazette
Warren Gerds, of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, shares with us a building that might otherwise be relatively insignificant if it was elsewhere in America. The Fort Howard Hospital is a Late-Federal-styled building in Allouez, Green Bay, Wisconsin. The story is what makes the building particularly... View full entry
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has decided to spend $1 million in federal grants — money that had been avidly sought by residents of Skid Row — to instead help out San Francisco–based Gensler, a 2,800-employee giant that enjoyed $463 million in revenue last year. — laweekly.com
NewsPlease join Archinect for drinks and socializing next Friday, April 29th, in New York City, at the Samsung Experience space in the Time Warner Building, for a celebration of the launch of Archinect v3.0, and a very special announcement of an exciting new alliance formed byArchinect, Designer... View full entry
Please join us for drinks and socializing next Friday, April 29th, in New York City, at the Samsung Experience space in the Time Warner Building, for a celebration of the launch of Archinect v3.0, and a very special announcement of an exciting new alliance formed by Archinect, Designer Pages... View full entry
"It's a bug," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, "that cars were invented before computers." So Ingels reimagines city streets and highways crowded with tight-packed, auto-piloted cars, taking up one-quarter of the road space and allowing for precision guidance alongside people and other vehicles -- all of which would together reboot the city's streets as vibrant public spaces. A smart transport grid, in essence, in parallel with the rise of smart energy grids. — Chris Turner, Mother Nature Network
In BIG's competition, entry for Audi's AUDI Urban Future Award, they call for a future city where driverless cars give the streets more plasticity by removing the need for barriers and other concrete-like features by utilizing the relatively new concept of swarm theory. Objects, from people to... View full entry
We're so excited to finally launch the third generation of Archinect.com! This new site reflects over four years of countless design iterations, concept evolutions and infrastructural redevelopments. Since we started redesigning Archinect in 2007 we've also grown our in-house team. We're honored... View full entry
We're sending out the first of the new & improved Archinect Weekly newsletter tomorrow morning! Click here to sign up. Receive the greatest hits from each week on Archinect, including highlights from all the new sections we've introduced. View full entry
... one of the big problems in Britain – a country infamous for its visual illiteracy, or so say outsiders – is that architecture isn't taught to children, not much in the home, and much less at school. What an all-embracing discipline it is, though, for teachers and pupils alike: a fusion of art, maths, geometry, geography, physics, technology, politics, economics and environmental concerns. — guardian.co.uk
The Guardian's Jonathan Glancey discusses the architectural education, or lack thereof, in the British early childhood education system. View full entry
One of Spain's most famous landmarks, the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, has been reopened after a suspected arson attack on Tuesday. — bbc.co.uk
Read more on Hyperallergic View full entry
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the March ABI score was 50.5, a negligible decrease from a reading of 50.6 the previous month. This score reflects a modest increase in demand for design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 58.7, up significantly from a mark of 56.4 in February. — AIA
AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, said that architecture firms are in a place when demand isn't falling back into negative territory but also not seeing the same growth that was seen in late 2010. "The catalyst for a more robust recovery is likely financing, with stronger growth occurring only... View full entry
Most buildings in New York will undergo renovation over the next twenty years. A number will also get demolished. As well, many building enclosures will soon need replacement, particularly post-WW2 curtain wall buildings. Gut renovations of office spaces take place on a regular basis. There is great opportunity to re-imagine and reduce energy consumption in all these buildings. — huffingtonpost.com
Our friend Jacob Slevin talks to Ed Mazria, sustainable architecture activist and founder of Architecture 2030, about changes he envisions for NYC and beyond. View full entry
Architect Hopes to Revitalize Norwegian City with Oil Platform — spiegel.de
Via @bldgblog (of course!) View full entry
On Thursday, the City Planning Commission will be asked to give its final approval to both the environmental impact report for the project and the development itself, with a final hearing before the Board of Supervisors looming. — sfgate.com
Chronicle writer John King is starting to sound more luke-warm on this plan, now that several of the more "sustainable" features have been trimmed: "may include" green energy; housing units added (but ferry terminal was moved); redevelopment money off the table... I don't quite get what the Board... View full entry
