Ai Weiwei: No. Beijing's greatest problem is that it never belongs to its people. Though it's a city of more than 10 million, people living here are like people living in a hotel. — Foreign Policy
Beijing's best-known dissident, architect, and creative provocateur tells Jonathan Landreth what's wrong with China's frenetic capital. View full entry
Alan Balfour, dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture since 2008, has announced his intention not to seek reappointment to that position. Balfour will return to the Georgia Tech faculty as a professor in the School of Architecture upon concluding his tenure as dean, effective June 30, 2013. — gatech.edu
“We want to copy Manhattan,” he said over lunch near his studio. “I love Manhattan. It’s a very interesting place. But if you want to copy something that was accomplished in 200 years, it’s very difficult. New York was not designed by architects, it was designed by time.” — NYT
Jane Perlez profiles Wang Shu and his wife, Lu Wenyu of Amateur Architecture Studio. Their conversation touched on the architects' concerns regarding China’s rush to urbanization along Western models. They also discussed how the two split off duties in the firm. View full entry
A new illustrated biography, Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography, by John Comazzi at the University of Minnesota School of Architecture tells the story of Balthazar Korab, one of the mid-twentieth century's most celebrated architecture photographers. It's the first book dedicated solely to... View full entry
“I always thought that shorts were inappropriate for a federal courthouse,” Ms. Leal said. “But it’s either wearing it, or melting away.” — NYT
Fernanda Santos recently conducted an informal post-occupancy study for the Sandra Day O’Connor Federal Courthouse designed by Richard Meier & Partners Architects. Located in Phoenix, Arizona the project opened in 2000 and employs "a process known as adiabatic cooling to regulate... View full entry
Bustler.net posted a list of the 2012 Recipients of the AIA Small Project Awards. Reacting to the Saint Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church; Springdale, AR by Marlon Blackwell Architect Orhan Ayyüce posted an image of Fire Station No. 4, Columbus, Indiana, 1967, by Venturi and Rauch asking "Do you think so too? As a student FS 4 was a big deal for me and still is."
News Janelle Zara wrote about The New Architectural Wisdom of Airports: Ikea, iPads, And Ice Skating Rinks for Art Info. aml pointed us to her "more skeptical take on contemporary airports" and airport urbanism over at her blog. Therein she argued "my main point is that airports are and... View full entry
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Provost Alan Cramb announced today the appointment of Wiel Arets as the new dean of the IIT College of Architecture. Born in the Netherlands, Arets, an internationally acclaimed architect, educator, industrial designer, theorist, and urbanist, is known for... View full entry
If “action painting” is produced by the dynamics of dripping, smearing, and sweeping brushstrokes of paint to reveal the complex character of abstract art, then “action drawing” would be something like juxtaposing lines, planes, volumes, typographical elements, photographs, and paper... View full entry
News broke about a collaboration between OMA and American luxury retailer Coach. With OMA partner-in-charge Shohei Shigematsu leading the design work, two new Coach flagship stores are scheduled to open in New York and Tokyo in the next few months and unveil the new concept. Coach Omotesando... View full entry
But I'm not sure if I want all critical writing to be "solid" however. I'm also interested in more experimental, imaginative approaches to writing that take risks with form and language. — the Atlantic
Steven Heller recently had a chance to talk with Alice Twemlow, co-founder of the MFA Design Criticism program at the School of Visual Arts. They touched on the benefits that come from learning to write critically about design and her belief that there is a need more and better writing by experts... View full entry
He is one of the experts commissioned by the government to produce a "master plan" to overhaul the city's infrastructure. Singapore is his role model, and he favours big projects to clear slums and build bridges, roads and out-of-town settlements. — BBC News Magazine
Joe Boyle visited Dar es Salaam, Tanzania one of the world's fastest growing cities. The dramatic influx has pushed the city's population up from roughly two million two decades ago to four million today, which has led to a huge growth in "informal settlements". As well as economic division... View full entry
Orhan Ayyüce featured recent efforts towards preservation, by new owner Michael Chapman who commissioned Barry Milofsky of M2A Architects to design the restoration, to The Lukens House, in Soriano's Glen Lukens House: Back to Life and Happy. Therein he asserted "It is important to... View full entry
The institute will begin operating on 1 January 2013, after the merger of three official industry institutes: the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi); Premsela, the Netherlands Institute for Design and Fashion; and Virtueel Platform, knowledge institute for e-culture. Beumer is expected to begin work this autumn. — en.nai.nl
Mr. Pichler was a sculptor and illustrator whose ... architectural drawings were not just plans; they were also works of art in and of themselves. Other images — “dream drawings,” as he called them — were dark and psychologically loaded. His figures were often skeletal or robotic. — New York Times
Los Angeles architect Frank Gehry and Chicago architect Jeanne Gang are among more than 60 prominent architects, educators and historic preservationists who on Wednesday urged Mayor Rahm Emanuel to save architect Bertrand Goldberg's old Prentice Women's Hospital and grant city landmark status to the threatened structure. — featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com
