The Swiss architect Peter Zumthor has built ‘a gliding swan’ of a house in Devon that strikes a perfect balance between inside and out, whichever way you look — The Guardian
Peter Zumthor recently completed a meticulously crafted concrete house in the gently sloping English countryside of Devon—the Swiss architect's first permanent building in the UK after designing the Serpentine Gallery's 2011 summer pavilion in London. Photo: Jack Hobhouse/Living... View full entry
The Wilshire Boulevard Temple's high-profile expansion will break ground next month, according to Urbanize.LA. Designed by OMA New York, the new Audrey Irmas Pavilion will include a main event space, a smaller multi-purpose room, and a sunken garden designed by LA-based Mia Lehrer, with whom OMA... View full entry
Barcelona-based architect Mónica Rivera has been named chair of graduate architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Rivera, who also serves as professor of practice, joined the Sam Fox School’s College of Architecture and Graduate... View full entry
As of today, Moshen Mostafavi announces his decision to step down as Dean of Harvard Graduate School of Design. Having served as dean since 2008, Mostafavi shares that he will conclude his position at the end of the 2018-2019 academic year. I am proud of what we have accomplished together over... View full entry
Nancy J. Uscher, dean of UNLV’s College of Fine Arts, is pleased to welcome architectural designer, educator, researcher, and writer Steffen Lehmann as director of the School of Architecture and professor of architecture. Previously, he served as a professor for sustainable architecture as well as director of the Cluster for Sustainable Cities at the University of Portsmouth. — University of Nevada, Las Vegas
German-born Steffen Lehmann studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and the Technical University of Berlin, has taught at universities in Australia, the UK, and other countries, was influential as founder of Steffen Lehmann Architekten Berlin in the urban... View full entry
Portman was a pioneer of the devices with which somber modernism was given glitz: mirror-glass, wall-climbing glass lifts, sky bridges, swooping curves. He described some gaudy candelabra he put around a piano stage in the Atlanta Marriott Marquis as a “homage to Liberace”. His buildings became known for their “Jesus moments”, those times when, emerging from a deliberately understated entry into some architectural emulation of the Grand Canyon, a visitor would reliably exclaim, “Jesus!” — The Guardian
Rowan Moore pens a piece on the lasting impact of the late John Portman's other-worldly buildings in Atlanta, which were known for eliciting “Jesus moments” from surprised visitors and also described as “Disneyland for adults” by less-impressed critics. View full entry
Norman Foster has temporarily stepped back from his role on the board overseeing the planning of a $500 billion mega-city in Saudi Arabia as questions mount over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
The international community is demanding answers over what happened to the Washington Post writer following his recent disappearance inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul.
— Architects' Journal
Norman Foster is one of several 'global experts' who were announced as members on the global advisory board for the planned $500-billion NEOM mega-city project in the Saudi Arabian desert earlier this month but have distanced themselves from the appointment since the reported death of WaPo... View full entry
Amid today’s polarizing political noise, Wrightwood 659 offers a comparable oasis.
The building greets the visitor with a refurbished facade adorned with arches, festoons and other Beaux-Arts details. But the decorous facade turns out to be a mask. [...]
Upstairs are clean-lined, contemplative galleries —“white boxes with a twist,” you might call them — filled with a trove of material about Corbusier and Ando.
— Chicago Tribune
Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin shares his impressions from the opening night at Tadao Ando's new Wrightwood 659 art venue in Chicago as well as its inaugural exhibition Ando and Le Corbusier: Masters of Architecture—and the review is full of praise: "The space is so good that it compels... View full entry
Los Angeles based architect Dan Brunn assembles a team of innovative energy efficient manufacturers to create a vision for contemporary net zero housing. The Bridge House LA, whose construction is soon to be completed in January 2019, is a project teeming with building systems manufactured product... View full entry
[...] the 2016 Unzipped pavilion by the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels was acquired by a wealthy collector: the Canadian developer Ian Gillespie, whose company Westbank was a sponsor of the London presentation. Last month, the shape-shifting 14-metre-high, 27-metre-long installation made the move to inner city Toronto, where it was unveiled on the site of the architect’s next commission for Westbank, a massively ambitious housing complex on King Street West. — The Art Newspaper
Another member of the growing family of the Serpentine Galleries' annual summer pavilions has found a new home: the Bjarke Ingels-designed Unzipped pavilion — famously praised by The Guardian's architecture critic Oliver Wainwright as "possibly the Serpentine’s most... View full entry
The A+D Museum has announced Gallery X, a branch of the A+D dedicated to curating public spaces and bringing the making and implementation of art to a wider more diverse audience. Gallery X aims to reach beyond the walls of the institution and produce local engagement through facilitate... View full entry
Located in the busy city of Shanghai is a tranquil villa that transports you into a lucid state of living. Kos Architects in collaboration with Atelier Zerebecky, have recently completed construction of Cloud Villa. The blissfully serene three-story home exudes a peacefully private... View full entry
In the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, architects Kagan Taylor and Justin Rice of knowhow shop have designed and built a new office for their design studio in their backyard. Named ‘Lighthouse’, the project is a micro-building that is a place for work and also a physical example of the studio’s thinking and practice — Wallpaper
Diverting from traditional construction processes, the founders of knowhow shop, focus on the possibility of constructing an office testing their skills as craftsmen while challenging their understanding of spatial perception. Image © Stephen SchauerThe office's unique shape and construction... View full entry
To create a better general culture of understanding around architecture, urban design and urban development issues, we need to use all of the narrative tools that we have at our disposal, claims Cassim Shepard in the interview we did with him entitled "Understanding Urban Narratives: What Cannot be Measured" for this new issue of MONU, "Narrative Urbanism". — http://www.monu-magazine.com/news.htm
“To create a better general culture of understanding around architecture, urban design and urban development issues, we need to use all of the narrative tools that we have at our disposal, claimsCassim Shepardin the interview we did with him entitled“Understanding Urban Narratives: What Cannot... View full entry
Instead of the traditional beige- or gray-painted stucco cladding of the local vernacular, the exterior of the three-story apartment building is covered entirely by aluminum and steel panels that open and close hydraulically, like massive petals. — T Magazine
Fred A. Bernstein writes about Ballet Mécanique, designed by the Basel-based architect Manuel Herz. View full entry
