Five hundred steps, 25 stories, and 100 meters of height make up the Dubai Steps, as well as what appears to be a steely reflective outer casing with circular perforations. An aesthetic cross between the spinal column of a terminator and the euphoric ascendance of MVRDV's Rotterdam stair... View full entry
Peter Marino, the leather-clad architect best known for his collaborations with fashion labels, was sued last year for racial discrimination by a former employee. Now, he's accusing the employee of making homophobic slurs, according to a report by the New York Post.Deirdre O'Brien worked for... View full entry
Magid agrees with those who argue that the Barragán archive should be open to the public and returned to Mexico, but she insists that this is not her focus. “If that’s what my intentions were, I don’t think I’d make art,” she told me. “I’ve always called the archive her lover. To marry one man, she negotiated owning another man, whom she’s devoted her life to. It’s a weird love triangle, and I’m the other woman.” — The New Yorker
“‘It intrigued me as a gothic love story,’ [Magid] said, ‘with a copyright-and-intellectual-property-rights subplot.’” A fascinating story about “architectural preservation” that focuses on an artist's elaborate negotiation to open Luis Barragán's tightly controlled archive to... View full entry
MVRDV settled into their new office headquarters inside the remodeled Het Industriegebouw, nestled in the heart of Rotterdam. Now dubbed by the firm as the MVRDV House, the building was originally designed by iconic Dutch architect Hugh Maaskant in 1952. The new 2,400 square-meter interior is... View full entry
Howe Dell Primary in Hatfield could well be the UK’s most eco-friendly school. It has toilets that flush using rainwater, sedum roofs made of plants and vegetation, and classroom sink-tops made from recycled yoghurt pots. But the school’s design doesn’t just help protect the environment, it also uses nature to improve children’s academic performance and behaviour. — The Guardian
Howe Dell Primary’s £10 million, eco-friendly design is used by teachers to promote sustainability to a new generation of pupils. Capita Architects were given free reign to push the limits of sustainable design in the project, which was funded by the council, and that was exactly what they did... View full entry
Proving that he can hold his own against 8 to 14-year old contenders, Bjarke Ingels demonstrates some model-building basics by participating in the "Build Your Own Pavilion" challenge, whose participants are usually still in grade school. Admittedly, Bjarke's nimble paper crinkling is integrated... View full entry
In this New York Times interview with Ginia Bellafante, Jeanne Gang discusses the importance and challenges of designing work that isn't simply aesthetically pleasing, but that influences positive changes in social behavior and policy. In addition to her work on waterways, she discusses her idea... View full entry
Mayor Eric Garcetti's office released a statement yesterday announcing that Gruen Associates, Mia Lehrer + Associates, Oyler Wu Collaborative, and civil and structural engineering firm Psomas will design the final 12 miles of the San Fernando Valley portion of the Los Angeles River Greenway. The... View full entry
In 1959, Edward Durell Stone had envisioned a pedestrian walkway connecting his unbuilt design for the Kennedy Center to the Potomac River, but it was not until this year that Steven Holl Architects gained approval for the bridge, which is part of the firm's larger expansion design for the... View full entry
Details are scant, there's only one rendering, and yet according to on-the-nose-named developer PortLiving, Shigeru Ban has designed the world's tallest timber hybrid apartment complex. Called Terrace House, the sloping glass-encased, timber-framed, concrete and steel-cored building will... View full entry
Heathrow Airport has chosen Grimshaw to draw up concepts for a ’hub airport of the future’ as part of its ambitious £16 billion growth plans
The practice, which saw off Zaha Hadid Architects, Benoy and HOK, was praised for ’pushing the boundary of what an airport could and should be’ and for showing ’how Heathrow could be expanded in a sustainable but affordable way’.
— Architect's Journal
Grimshaw has been chosen to design a new terminal for London's Heathrow Airport. However, it remains up in the air wether the plans for a third runway will be given permission by the UK government. Many critics of Heathrow's expansion have been given top posts in Teresa May's new Cabinet... View full entry
The UN's cultural organisation has listed 17 works by pioneering Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier as world heritage sites.
Le Corbusier spearheaded the modern movement after World War One, using iron, concrete and glass in a new focus on bold lines and functionality that did not appeal to everyone.
The sites are in seven countries.
— BBC News
17 of Le Corbusier's buildings, including Unité d’habitation in Marseille and the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo were announced as new UN world heritage sites. The 17 buildings meet three of the selection criteria for World Heritage status:(i) A masterpiece of human creative... View full entry
The renovated lumberyard, or ADI/Lumberyard — which will include a black-box theater, studios and housing — will join a growing list of upstate satellites to the New York City dance world. — NYT
Siobhan Burke reports on the planned new home, for American Dance Institute in Catskill, NYC. With the new space, ADI hopes to grow it's incubator/residency program.See also for an earlier announcement with a few details. View full entry
Daniel Libeskind is making his mark — in all its signature jagged, geometric wonder — throughout the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. In addition to the Modern Art Centre of Vilnius and the Vilnius Beacon sports and wellness center at the Liepkalnis ski resort, Studio Libeskind won the competition to design a new mixed-use building complex on Konstitucijos Avenue 18B. Libeskind's winning scheme is a progression of glassy volumes — with the tallest tower reaching 18-stories — Bustler
Get a glimpse of their winning scheme on Bustler.More on Archinect:Daniel Libeskind turns 70; designs Musical Labyrinth for Frankfurt Opera"Architecture is a field of repression": Daniel Libeskind on childhood memories, trauma, and architecture View full entry
What do you do with a sad, funky, abandoned trolley terminus? Well, if it's the former Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal under Delancey Street in New York City, you make the world's first underground park by virtue of adding some mirrors, skylights, and vegetation. One acre in size, the freshly... View full entry
