From the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona to the Sydney Opera House, the world's most recognizable landmarks display the character of the people who created them, but can individuality in architecture stand up to increasing pressure from developers to deliver universally popular designs?
...Daniel Libeskind warns that his profession is currently battling against commoditization and a "design by committee" approach that devalues the architect's role.
— CNN
CNN Style has made Daniel Libeskind a guest editor for a series of articles around the theme, "Architecture and Emotion." In this article, Alyn Griffiths takes a look at "individuality" in architecture, with a general presumption that it's under attack.While beginning with the caveat that every... View full entry
The elements of the Broad that have been most closely scrutinized or most often reworked, in fact, are the most uneven. It is only in the relative shadows — in the peripheral or easily overlooked spaces, or in the rooms added or enlarged late in the design process — that the architecture of the museum really comes to life. — latimes.com
More on The Broad on Archinect:What makes an artless museum?So what's new at the Broad?DS+R's Broad Museum set to open on Sept. 20, with a Feb. 15 previewIs The Broad Museum's newly unveiled facade living up to its renderings? View full entry
It soon became apparent that the alley was not a great place to be: Further down the way was a cardboard box used as a makeshift toilet. Once, he saw a pool of blood and the apparent weapon, a pointy umbrella...
Vogel asked an architect friend what he should do. “She said the answer was simple: All I needed to do was put people in it [the alley],” said Vogel.
— Yes Magazine
Although the traditional civic approach to dangerous alley behavior (violence, drug use, impromptu toilets) is to block off public access and turn them into garbage-only collection points, director of the International Sustainability Institute in Seattle Todd Vogel decided on the opposite... View full entry
Nicholas Korody interviewed Smiljan Radić. They discussed Architecture at the limits of instability. Therein Radić explains "In Chile, it’s better to do it really brut rather than try to do it perfectly...And here to do something brut it's cheap, but in Europe it's really expensive." ... View full entry
Initial renderings of the $300 million development depict a cluster of five architecturally distinct buildings distributed across the 2.6- acre site around a central plaza. In total, the project will comprise 333,600 square feet, and have 249 residential units. One of the architects’ primary goals was to make the site as approachable as possible to invite the surrounding community in to shop, dine, or simply relax in the plaza. — Architectural Record
Renderings and model photos were released today of Frank Gehry's proposed design for the 8150 Sunset Boulevard project. Positioned at the so-called Gateway to the Sunset Strip at the curving intersection of Crescent Heights Boulevard, Havenhurst Drive and Sunset Boulevard, Gehry's mixed-use... View full entry
In an architectural "hail Mary" move, Zaha Hadid Architects put out a 23-minute video stating their case for Japan to keep their embroiled design for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Stadium. When Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe announced approximately five weeks ago that ZHA's design was being dropped... View full entry
Our world is now ideas driven and our environment needs to be energetic, inspiring and even provocative. Employers also want people to stay longer at work and making the space awesome certainly helps. — The Daily Telegraph
Many architects are designing home/work boundary-eroding office designs, which purposefully mimic the comforts of home to encourage creative employees to stay later. These designs have been embraced by a who's who of movers and shakers including Google, Facebook, and Disney. But is this shift... View full entry
For nearly two decades, the Young Architect's Program (YAP) has brought both young and established talent to MoMA PS1's courtyard to form a welcome space for overheated crowds that often interact with the work during the institution's popular Warm Up series [...]
So what happens to the pavilions and their creators once the DJs pack up their gear, the throngs of people leave, and the summer is over?
— artnet news
Artnet news looked at the afterlife of some of YAP pavilions that have graced the MoMA PS1 courtyard in Queens. Here's a quick summary of some of the featured anecdotes: SHoP Architects "Dunescape," 2000SHoP Architects, the firm behind the recently-inaugurated Barclays Center in Brooklyn... View full entry
New York has seen twenty-first-century buildings in early-twentieth-century drag before, but 30 Park Place stands out, both for its size [...] and for its location—cheek-by-jowl with some of the most ambitious buildings to emerge from the current high-rise boom [...]
“We’re transposing a nineteen-thirties language to lower Manhattan, which has gotten overrun with glass and abstraction,” the architect said in a recent interview. “People want to look at buildings and make connections.”
— newyorker.com
Robert A.M. Stern Architects in the Archinect news: Robert A.M. Stern to step down as Dean of Yale School of ArchitectureThis $250M mega penthouse might become New York's priciest homeNYC’s Most Expensive Condo to Be Listed at $130 Million"Unfashionably Fashionable" - Justin Davidson on Robert... View full entry
"Drawing from Practice, Architects and the Meaning of Freehand" by architectural writer J. Michael Welton is a practitioner's handy reference for freehand-drawing inspiration and an adept resource to anyone who's curious about the creative processes behind some of today's most influential... View full entry
With the US median wage at $5,000 a year, New Yorkers spent 1/10 of their salaries on rent [in the 1950s]...These days a depressing number of young New Yorkers spend over half their income on housing. Rent hikes have transformed a once-democratic city into a playground for the privileged. — The Los Angeles Review of Books
Don't adjust for inflation: it will just depress you. This article in The Los Angeles Review of Books historically traces the drastic rise of housing costs for renters from the middle of the 20th century to the present day through a series of inflation adjustments, edgy banking moves, and the... View full entry
Founded five years ago, Assemble forged their reputation using otherwise valueless materials (demolition waste, reconstituted foam) and places (the abandoned gas station, the nook beneath a highway overpass) to develop ingenious temporary venues [...]
Their practical vision has more to do with how buildings are used than with their grandeur; and it is often the users, as much as the architects, who steer the projects.
— T Magazine
Assemble has been gaining a lot of attention recently for the inventive, recession-friendly approach to architecture. From converting an abandoned gas station into a cinema to placing a folly under a highway overpass, they're discovering new and unexpected modes (and locations) for architecture... View full entry
Herzog & de Meuron have the widest approach to architecture varying their style for each job. In this sense they epitomise the global search for an architecture of pluralism, one flexible enough for very different cultures...The high quality of the work is as notable as the wit; the amount of production as much as its personality. -RIBA President Stephen Hodder — architecture.com
Herzog & de Meuron, whose works include the recently approved yet controversial Tour Triangle in Paris and the redevelopment of Berlin's Tacheles cultural center, received the 2015 RIBA Jencks Award for being a practice "that has recently made a major contribution internationally to... View full entry
Whenever one of the millions of buildings under construction flanking the High Line hit a certain height, the developer is required to put up a shed over the park [...] except, it seems, when it's for a building by [...] Zaha Hadid. Then it's not just a shed protecting passersby, it's a 112-foot long sculptural installation—in this case entitled Allongé—designed by Hadid to give a sneak preview of the swooping forms of her building, which has just hit High Line level [...]. — ny.curbed.com
Photos of ZHA's Allongé scaffolding/canopy by Scott Lynch. Head over to Curbed NY to see more images.The initial announcement of Hadid's High Line condo building on Archinect in 2013 was a topic not without much commentary. View full entry
Next week, the concrete pour will begin on Zaha Hadid Architect's new residential tower overlooking downtown Miami's Museum Park. The 62-floor tower, located at 1000 Biscayne Blvd., includes "museum-quality" town homes and three degrees of penthouses: half-floor, full-floor and single duplex. The... View full entry
