For the better part of two years, Graves checked into hospitals and rehabilitation centers as a business traveler checks into hotels. [...]
While receiving his medical care, Graves was struck by the poor designs of hospitals, health care facilities and the chairs, tables and other devices used by patients. "If it's going to be this bad for everybody else in health care," he said, "I should do something about it."
— money.usnews.com
Previously: Architecture for Recovery: IDEO and Michael Graves Design a Home for Disabled Military Veterans View full entry
1 World Trade Center, the iconic Ground Zero skyscraper formerly known as the Freedom Tower, this summer became the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere by some measures. It’s not, however, the building that Daniel Libeskind, the site’s master planner, conceived of over a decade ago. [...]
But as the opening of 1 World Trade Center approaches, a curious thing has happened. Libeskind has quietly transformed into one of the site’s most ardent boosters.
— newyorker.com
Previously: 1 World Trade Center Will Not Be 1,776 Feet After All View full entry
[It] is the same technology as we use in Holland. It’s made up of concrete caisson, boxes, a shoebox of concrete. We fill them with styrofoam. So with [these] you get unthinkable floating foundations [...]
The house itself is the same as a normal house, the same material. Then you want to figure out how to get water and electricity and remove sewage and use the same technology as cruise ships."
- Koen Olthuis
— The Atlantic Cities
Dutch architect Koen Olthuis sees the future of architecture floating out to sea -- quite literally. Responding to undeniable ecological shifts of rising sea levels and seasonal flooding, Olthuis has proposed floatable-projects all along the social spectrum, designing prefabricated multi-use... View full entry
Over the last decade, avant-garde European architects have helped reshape Beijing's skyline. [...] But now, a Chinese architect is reversing the trend. Rising star Ma Yansong has won a string of European architectural contests that will bring his experimental designs, which meld cutting-edge technology with an animist's awe of nature, to capitals on the Continent. — spiegel.de
Ma Yansong has been on Archinect's radar for quite some time—click here to read our 2006 UpStarts interview with him and his Beijing-based firm MAD office. View full entry
In the latest edition of the Student Works feature, Building Soft takes on the L.A. River's infrastructure, students from SWA’s Summer Student Program presented projects such as; Topo-Infrastructure for Health, Stairway to the Hill, or Performative Punk Playground. NewsJustine Testado... View full entry
That the Antinori family embraced a more ambitious project, allowed Archea to design everything down to the furniture and fittings, then paid the bills after the budget more than doubled from its original $45 million, and also endured years of delays because of construction problems, shows how much fine, successful architecture depends on the right client. — New York Times
A day camp sponsored in part by the University of Georgia is introducing middle school students to architecture, landscape architecture, and planning [...]
Over the course of a week, the children take field trips, practice using design tools and techniques, and discuss issues related to planning and design. In addition, they have the opportunity to meet and interview design professionals, including some CED faculty.
— American Planning Association
Instead of having parks, the whole city is a park...Like aluminum extrusions the whole building is extruded and then it is cut by laser beams, then inserted into a structure by machine. - Jacque Fresco — BBC News
Paul Kerley explores the 97-year old architect's vision of the future. For the Venus Project, the goal is a radically different society. One replete with monorails and retro-Modernist architecture à la Disney's Epcot, where everything from nations to jobs are no longer... View full entry
Need some inspiration as you sketch out that dream summer house? Maybe Tham & Videgård's Summerhouse project in Lagnö, Sweden could spark some ideas...Project description from Bolle Tham and Martin Videgård: Summerhouse Lagnö "The setting is the Stockholm archipelago... View full entry
The National Building Museum has awarded Joshua David and Robert Hammond the fifteenth Vincent Scully Prize for their New York City urban revitalization project, High Line. After the first section of the High Line opened in 2009, it became a catalyst for the renewal and investment of Manhattan's West Side. The project is viewed as an inspirational model for other repurpose projects and community activism worldwide. — bustler.net
Click here to see more High Line news on Archinect. View full entry
You learn with experience the things that are not worth doing. Most architects think, no matter what, they can make something out of any commission. For example, I don’t do prisons or hospitals, or restoration work. I do know, by now, who I am. And by now at least clients come to us with their eyes open. They don’t expect something we don’t do. — Architectural Record
The leggy damsel with raven hair and Doc Martens to match is unequivocal. ''No,'' she tells the small, freckled boy. ''You can't climb here. Go in there where it's safe.'' [...]
But the boy - not recognising her livery - can be forgiven his mistake. To him, the large, gridded edifice that she guards promises infinite climbability. [...]
The climbing frame in question is in fact art. It is this summer's Serpentine Pavilion, by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto.
— smh.com.au
What role should interactivity play in art? Should public opinion decide what is and isn't art? Can good art also have utility? These are a few polemics posed in the Sydney Morning Herald by columnist Elizabeth Farrelly, reacting to Sou Fujimoto's Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, featured... View full entry
The success of a public work of art is measured not merely by aesthetics, but rather, by its magnetic qualities that inspire interaction. The art is a reflection of the City, the art becomes a part of the City, the art is instrumental in making the City. — Spirit of Space
Acting as poetic translators between cities and their citizens, the creative agency Spirit of Space uses digital media to showcase humanity's built environment, consequently enhancing the citizen's self-awareness and appreciation of architectural space. Their film for Skidmore, Owings... View full entry
The pre-fabricated, flatpack homes of Pritzker laureate Richard Rogers are a centerpiece for his 50-year retrospective, “Richard Rogers: Inside Out”, currently at London's Royal Academy of Arts until Oct. 13. The homes, which are an adaptation of his 2007 Oxley Woods housing... View full entry
Amelia Taylor-Hochberg penned the review A Panel Discussion for A+D Museum's "Never Built: Los Angeles". Attempting to answer the question "What's Next?" for LA, she suggested "The immediate goal is then to push urban design and architecture into daily conversations -- through political... View full entry