Andrew Ferren traveled to Turkey on an architectural pilgrimage, to learn more about the work of a 16th-century architect and engineer named Sinan. VanillaBrice commented "The Sokollu Pasha Mosque is an incredible study of fitting an impressive religious building in a neighborhood setting. The scale and way he controlled the sloping site display his mastery."
News Andrew Ferren traveled to Turkey on an architectural pilgrimage, to learn more about the work of a 16th-century architect and engineer named Sinan. VanillaBrice commented "The Sokollu Pasha Mosque is an incredible study of fitting an impressive religious building in a neighborhood setting... View full entry
Zaha Hadid emerged this week as the favourite to buy the Design Museum in London after impressing with her plans to turn it into an architecture museum. — bdonline.co.uk
Energetic duo Andreas G. Gjertsen and Yashar Hanstad, partners of TYIN tegnestue Architects from Norway live by Finnish architect and writer Juhani Pallasmaa’s saying, “Architecture is about the understanding of the world and turning it into a more meaningful and humane place.“ — nst.com.my
It has transformed the London skyline, but the giant Shard faced hostility all the way. Its Italian architect Renzo Piano meets Steve Rose on the eighth floor – and answers his critics — guardian.co.uk
The Marcel Breuer Digital Archive represents a collaborative effort headed by Syracuse University Library to digitize over 30,000 drawings, photographs, letters and other materials related to the career of Marcel Breuer, one of the most influential architects and furniture designers of the twentieth century. — breuer.syr.edu
“What we’re going for is a building that fits in and reflects the general character of the historic district, that expresses the period of the American Revolution but in a fresh new way for the 21st century,” Mr. Stern said. — NYT
The design for the $150 million building, proposed by Robert A. M. Stern, is expected to open in 2015. Originally, the museum was to be carved into a hillside in the Valley Forge National Historical Park, however after numerous changes and negotiations, the center reached an... View full entry
We are interested in connecting architecture with the social — The Architectural League
Confronted with the complexity and political uncertainty of Mexico City, Jose Castillo and Saidee Springall of arquitectura911sc strive for a “dual commitment to an architecture that connects the physical with the social, and architecture that is grounded and informed by the city.&rdquo... View full entry
News Last week the Buckminster Fuller Challenge announced that the Living Building Challenge, founded by Jason McLennan, was the official winner of this year's competition. The LBC sets the world’s highest ecological standard for building thoughtful, sustainable buildings, but it's much more... View full entry
Almost twenty-five years to the day after Dominique de Menil and architect Renzo Piano celebrated the opening of the central museum building of the Menil Collection, Director Josef Helfenstein announced that the Board of Trustees has unanimously chosen the Los Angeles -based architecture firm Johnston Marklee to design the Menil Drawing Institute, the first major building project to be initiated under an ambitious plan for the institution’s future. — yourhoustonnews.com
UPDATE: Review: Menil design by L.A.'s Johnston Marklee is deceptively simple View full entry
To create symmetry, he placed doors in the center of those colonnades. But inside the mosque, the doors meant worshipers now came and went from the middle of the room rather than from the back. “A sacred space meant for prayer and contemplation became a passageway,” Sinan the guide explained. “It was a mistake he would never repeat.” — NYT
Andrew Ferren traveled to Turkey on an architectural pilgrimage, to learn more about the work of a 16th-century architect and engineer named Sinan. Sinan (circa 1490-1588) was chief architect and civil engineer of the Ottoman Empire at its apogee and Mr. Ferren arranged the trip through... View full entry
Sinan was “the Euclid of his day,” said Dogan Kuban, author of more than 70 books on Islamic architecture. “At St. Peter’s in Rome, your eye is drawn to the dome itself,” he said in a recent conversation. “Sinan’s shallow domes, however, with their abstract painted decoration, seem to magically float overhead. Instead of the structure, you contemplate the space.” — NYT
Andrew Ferren of NYT pens a delightful overview on one of Anatolia's greatest architects, Sinan whose 300 plus structures span across Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Not a bad tract record for someone who started to build in his forties. View full entry
The embattled Eisenhower Memorial in Washington has drawn the interest of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who will be reviewing the designs by architect Frank Gehry. The request could result in yet another delay for the project, which has already been plagued by a number of disagreements. — latimes.com
Beating out shortlisted competition including John Friedman Alice Kimm and Brooks+Scarpa, Italian firm Studio Fuksas has been awarded the commission to revamp the Beverly Center, the legendary (not to mention, ahem, aesthetically challenging) high end shopping mall in Beverly Hills. — blog.archpaper.com
In 2008, while conducting research on the work of celebrated modernist Kevin Roche (b. 1922), Yale School of Architecture associate professor Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen conducted a series of interviews with the architect in his Hamden, Connecticut, home. She included selections from the interviews in Kevin Roche: Architecture as Environment (Yale University Press, 2011), the monograph published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name. — nbm.org
“If you go into the hardcore urban or the hardcore rural, it is quite simple to define it, but that is not so relevant. It is more significant to talk about the condition in between. And this condition is extremely difficult to define.” – Urban planner Kees Christiaanse in conversation with Bernd Upmeyer and Beatriz Ramo on behalf of MONU Magazine — Free Association Design
MONU’s call for submissions for its latest issue (#16, Non Urbanism) asked its participants to “investigate how non-urbanism may be defined and identified today, and how non-urban areas interact with and relate to urban areas.“ Fortunately for readers, the printed... View full entry