Our way of life is still based in twentieth-century ideas, specifically a modernist philosophy that assumes we can use science and technology to conquer nature. So we try to isolate ourselves from nature; our cities are completely segregated from the environment. [...] That kind of modernist thinking has reached its limit. — artforum.com
“It is amazing to realize you could walk around the site not knowing if there is a body underneath you,” Nelson said. “How do you commemorate that?” — The Seattle Times
Of the approximately 200 people buried at Saar Pioneer Cemetery, there are 89 unmarked graves, each unable to inform visitors of their presence and the role they played in Kent history. Collaborative artists Frances Nelson and Bradly Gunn seek to mark the unmarked by creating a series... View full entry
President Barack Obama is appointing a known critic of the planned Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial design to serve on the federal commission that oversees the project.
The White House announced Obama’s intent to appoint former National Endowment for the Humanities chairman Bruce Cole last month, but it drew little attention while Congress was in recess. Cole led the humanities endowment under former President George W. Bush.
— washingtonpost.com
I think the development of design and planning ideas over the past three decades is where feminism has actually been most effective but least acknowledged...Architecture and planning have been reshaped by these feminist agendas in many areas...but I don’t believe academic culture acknowledges explicitly the influence of feminist ideas on the architectural and urban design practices and projects of the past three decades. - Torre — The Architectural League
The Architectural League has published some of the content (the introductory essay) of Susan Torres's 1977 exhibition/book Women in American Architecture. They also released an interview with Susana Torre conducted earlier this year, by Rosalie Genevro and Anne Rieselbach. h/t @amlblog here View full entry
"Homes of Tomorrow", a new radio program from London's "radical alternative" radio station, Resonance 104.4 fm, will explore the atmosphere and legacy of modernist architect Ernö Goldfinger’s utopian visions. Broadcasting Wednesdays at 10pm (BST) through September, the program features... View full entry
Renzo Piano, the award-winning architect who gave London the Shard and Paris the Pompidou centre, has been granted one of his country's highest honours, being named a senator for life by the Italian president.
Giorgio Napolitano said the 75-year-old was among four distinguished Italians whose achievements in the cultural and scientific fields would allow them to contribute to the nation's parliament "in absolute independence of any party political considerations".
— theguardian.com
Donna Sink offered up her memories "I spent a summer living in that building. It's very lovely and graceful, though I like ‘suavely-curved’ much better as a descriptor! The views are unmatched, IMO, still. Breathtaking...Back then its only drawback was that it was very removed from the activity of the city
News Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune architecture critic tweeted "George Schipporeit, co-architect of Chicago's suavely-curving Lake Point Tower, once the world's tallest all-residential building, has died". Donna Sink offered up her memories "I spent a summer living in that building. ... View full entry
In 2012, filmmaker Leon Gerskovic chronicled the journey of 16 design/buildLAB students as they conceived and realized the Masonic Amphitheatre. The project consisted of the complete redevelopment of a post-industrial brownfield into a public park and performance space. Reality Check is their inspirational story. — Reality Check Film
"Reality Check" by Leon Gerskovic and including time-lapse photography from Jeff Goldberg has been selected for inclusion in the Arquiteturas Film Festival Lisboa and will make its European Premiere on Friday September 27th at 6PM in the Cinema City Alvalade. The screening will be followed by a... View full entry
Architects Alice Kimm, FAIA; John Mutlow, FAIA; Lorcan O’Herihy, FAIA; Warren Techentin, AIA; Patrick Tighe, FAIA; and Ed Woll, Ph.D. will present housing projects in development and discuss the potential of micro-housing units, transit oriented development and changing lifestyles to create livable density in LA. — USC Architecture
This past Wednesday, I attended a panel discussion of architects at the University of Southern California about the future of housing in Los Angeles -- an exciting and highly debatable topic nowadays, as transit networks expand and neighborhoods densify. Presented in conjunction with two... View full entry
George Schipporeit, co-architect of Chicago's suavely-curving Lake Point Tower, once the world's tallest all-residential building, has died. — Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune architecture critic
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