After a careful international recruitment process, the Executive Board has appointed Peter Russell as dean of TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment effective 1 May 2015.
Peter Russell is currently Professor of Computer Supported Planning in Architecture (CAAD) at the RWTH Aachen University. He also serves as Rector's Emissary for Alumni Affairs at the RWTH where he has been Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and chaired the Dean's Council.
— tudelft.nl
German architect Frei Otto has been named the 2015 Pritzker Prize Laureate. Otto was known for his technologically progressive and sustainable work with lightweight, adaptable structures that accomplished remarkable engineering feats – a noteworthy instance being his canopy for the 1972 Olympic... View full entry
Google’s choice of BIG and Heatherwick Studios to design their Mountain View campus expansion is true to form: big, brash, debatably realistic, with a dash of techno-utopianism. The critical response to the proposal – a series of webbed glass shells covering reconfigurable utility spaces... View full entry
Leading scholars from around the world will convene in Chicago, April 15–19, to present new research on the history of the built environment at the 68th Annual International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians. But the conference isn’t just for academics. SAH aims to engage... View full entry
thresholds 44: workspaceeditors: christianna bonin | nisa ariCALL FOR SUBMISSIONSWhen an employee at Google’s Mexico City office takes a post-lunch plunge into the on-site ball pit, is she working or playing? And when an employee in one of Foxconn’s factory sites in China leaps from his... View full entry
That unattractive strip mall on the corner of Sunset and Crescent Heights boulevards ... will be razed in favor of a Frank Gehry-designed mixed-use development [...]
The state last year deemed the project to be L.A. County's first California Environmental Leadership Development Project.
To qualify developments must see at least $100 million in investment, achieve LEED Silver certification or better, and emit zero net greenhouse gases.
— laweekly.com
There aren’t many architects you would believe could hold back seas and save the world from being drowned by Biblical floods. But when you meet Bjarke Ingels, anything seems eminently possible. [...]
If New York has to build 10 miles of flood defences to protect the city from another Hurricane Sandy, why not conceive the barrier as a brand new waterfront park? Climate security as leisure amenity. You can almost hear the standing ovation and all-American whooping in the background.
— theguardian.com
Previously: A closer look into “The BIG U”, BIG’s winning proposal for Rebuild By Design View full entry
Zaha, you have said that architecture is not for people who want an easy life. Is this not the case for anyone who wants to excel in his or her job?
There are other professions that are very difficult, but architecture is particularly difficult because your career is reliant on the people you work with, and that's the first hurdle. The second hurdle is the people you work with as a client. You have no control over the developer or the economics.
— huffingtonpost.com
The rest of the buildings came naturally, if gradually. The idea of having a slew of small houses for different activities, moods and seasons, complemented by decorative 'follies,' was Johnson’s conception for the site from early on. He called it a 'diary of an eccentric architect," but it was also a sketchbook, an homage to architects past and present — NYT - T Magazine
Alexandra Lange explores the 49 acre grounds and architectural neighbors of Glass House. Ranging from; the "bunkerlike Brick House" and "postmodern Library" to the more historic structures of Calluna Farms and Grainger. View full entry
Excellent news for all fans of FALSE SOLUTION, the latest architecture-inspired play by Oren Safdie (yes, son of Moshe Safdie): the piece not only just came out in publication but re-orders are only $6.99 this week.Find some more detailed information we've received from Oren below, and also listen... View full entry
This week Amelia, Paul, Donna and Ken discuss the somewhat controversial Google Headquarters design by BIG and Heatherwick. On a completely different note, we also discuss the new, and the nation's first, slavery museum, Whitney Plantation, in Louisiana. As always, you can send us your... View full entry
Ralph Stern, the dean of the faculty of architecture at the University of Manitoba in Canada, announced he will not seek reappointment following the publication of a damning report by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). Accused of contributing to the creation of a “culture... View full entry
Los Angeles is a place that is “conducive to making ideas and forms at the same time,” asserted Michael Maltzan during a talk yesterday at the A+D Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles. Part of the museum’s ongoing lecture series inCOLLABORATION, Maltzan’s talk focused on the... View full entry
The HY-Bol Pavilion, designed and built in the summer of 2014 by students of the Spitzer school of Architecture at City College New York, was the culmination of a series of courses devoted to the expression of complex geometric curvature. Contemporary architecture theory has witnessed an new... View full entry
This week, [Google] is expected to propose new headquarters — a series of canopylike buildings from Heatherwick Studio, a London design firm known for works like the fiery caldron at the 2012 Olympics, and Bjarke Ingels [...]
The project in Mountain View, which Google has not made public but has discussed with members of the City Council, is likely to aggravate an increasingly testy relationship between the company and community leaders who fear the company is overrunning their small city.
— nytimes.com
Both Heatherwick Studio and BIG have gained global success working on an impressive variety of scales, from the infrastructural to the sculptural, and also happen to both have relatively young founders (Heatherwick is 45, Ingels is 40). While details aren't expected until later this week, it feels... View full entry
