As the guiding principals of British-born Max Gordon, a contemporary architect who designed the first Saatchi Gallery and constructed apartments for Richard Serra and Elizabeth Murray, he adhered to a notion of simplicity. — blogs.wsj.com
WSJ blog "Speakeasy" discusses the late minimalist architect Max Gordon, and the recently published book on his work by his brother. View full entry
But it is no longer a work of Gaudí. It cannot overcome the central paradox, which is that Gaudí's architecture was organic, living and responsive, whereas posthumous simulation of his ideas makes them fixed and lifeless. The fusion, the melting, the integration of structure and ornament and the demented frenzy that drove Gaudí to do strange things with comatose turkeys and dead babies cannot be replicated. — Guardian
Rowan Moore asks, now that the 130-year labour of love that is Barcelona's Sagrada Família could soon be at an end, does it truly reflect Gaudí's intentions, or vision? View full entry
MONU - magazine on urbanism has released its new call for submissions for MONU #15 on the topic of Post-Ideological Urbanism — MONU
Today we find ourselves in a jealous mood, yet at the same time disillusioned, looking back to the times when revolutionary urban ideologies were not only conceived but actually, unlike today, also truly believed in. Just think about the passionate ideas of the Situationist International, who... View full entry
News Orhan Ayyüce visited the semi private Central Park at Playa Vista by Michael Maltzan Architects. In the latest Working out of the Box: we interview Logan Amont who at one point worked in Ahmedabad as an assistant to Balkrishna Doshi, but now works with a master gardener named... View full entry
Eisenman characterized one home as “a dumb little apartment” in New York City with “a kitchen that’s not comfortable for two people to be in at the same time.” He characterized the other as a “wonderful old New England house, made of stone, brick and tile,” which was an 18th-century mill and is built over a waterfall. “No architect has ever worked on it,” he said. “You couldn’t design like this. It happens over time,” as successive owners altered it to meet their needs. — Katherine Salant, Washington Post
Remember the rumor circulating around that Rem Koolhaas lives in a prim-and-proper 19th-century home? Eisenman is apparently no different. He sat down with Katherine Salant of the Washington Post to talk about his home life. Why does Eisenman choose such banal and vernacular digs? Because... View full entry
"To complement the minimal styling of the Kohler Numi toilet, Marmol Radziner created an urban, sleek environment to convey the brand image of Numi as one that reinforces the leadership position of Kohler in the luxury living space.
Marmol Radziner designed a modular prefab gallery to showcase a series of Numi display models, utilizing a dark color palette of gray lacquer, ipe decking and gray carpeting to capture a mood of mystique and desire"
— Ron Radziner, design principal, Marmol Radziner
Architecture can help sell a $6,400 Kohler Numi advanced toilet. Visit kohler.com/numi Moments in the day of the life of a young, successful couple are captured cinematically in Kohler' Co's latest marketing campaign stateside, for the company's new and most advanced toilet, Numi. The premium... View full entry
“The traditional model of the Western international practice has been to have a shop window in developing countries but with the work executed back at home,” Declan O’Carroll was quoted as saying. “We are looking at a much more fluid, unorthodox model.” — C.J. Hughes, Architectural Record
Despite dropping from an all time high of 10,000 employees in 2008— losing 330 in 2009 and 670 employees this past winter— Arup has announced that they have three new offices, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, in China. Each new office employs 12 architects and 15 engineers with... View full entry
News just broke that FOA partners Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera-Polo decided to pursue separate ventures. The London-based practice will cease to exist from tomorrow, April 28. Following is the press release we received: London 27 April 2011 Dear Friend of FOA, We are... View full entry
Troon Golf, Waterstudio.NL and Dutch Docklands have announced plans to build a floating golf course in the Maldives islands, in the Indian Ocean, with holes connected by underwater tunnels. — wired.co.uk
Wired tells us about plans to build a zero-footprint, super-ambitious, golf course project. At least we'll have golf when the sea levels rise. View full entry
When the Vancouver Convention Centre was first completed we were totally blown away by its gorgeous (and huge!) green roof as well as its many green features. So we weren't surprised when the convention centre was recently recognized by the AIA landing its place among the Committee On The Environment's (COTE) Top Ten Green Projects. — Inhabitat
The gorgeous green-roofed Vancouver Convention Centre was just recognized by the AIA as being one of this year's Top 10 Green Projects. View full entry
While the project is clearly a feat of engineering, architects couldn’t help but comment that it lacked a certain architectural flair. — bdonline.co.uk
An Iowa-based philanthropist and architecture aficionado has offered a $300 million reward to any city anywhere in the world that dares to hire someone other than Frank Gehry to design its gleaming new art museum. — WSJ
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
Davis incorporated aerodynamic designs into his whimsical midcentury coffee shops, including the original Norms on La Cienega Boulevard in L.A. and Pann's near Westchester, to attract passing motorists. — latimes.com
Googie pioneer, Eldon Davis, has died at the age of 94. View full entry
But like other architects of his generation, especially those who formed many of their ideas working in Los Angeles’s sprawling suburban maze, Mr. Denari is less interested in perpetuating the myth of the open road than in mining it for new ideas. His work has more to do with exploring adolescent fantasies than with celebrating personal freedom. It suggests a longing for a world — free, open, upwardly mobile — that began to break down more than 30 years ago. — nytimes.com
Last week was Christopher Hawthorne's turn. This week the NY Times' Nicolai Ouroussoff reviews Neil Denari's HL23. View full entry