India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday faulted the country’s archaeological conservation body for failing to protect the Taj Mahal from discoloration, dirty feet and green slime emitted by millions of mosquito-like insects.
Since 2015, the body, the Archaeological Survey of India, has overseen a restoration project at the Taj Mahal, with workers scaling scaffolding to remove grime from the 17th-century tomb [...].
— The New York Times
After decades of slowly turning dull and yellowish from smog and pollution, the Taj Mahal's formerly white facade has now taken on an unattractive green discoloration. Archaeological experts suspect swarms of tiny bugs to be the perpetrators, but India's highest court isn't pleased with the slow... View full entry
Homelessness in America has reached crisis levels and I am determined to do everything in my power to fix the problem as long as it doesn’t involve changing zoning laws or my ability to drive alone to work or, well, changing anything, really. I’m more than happy to give a hungry man a sandwich once a year and then brag to my friends about it as long as he doesn’t sit down anywhere in my line of sight to eat it. Same goes for hungry women because I’m also a feminist. — mcsweeneys.net
A superb piece satirizing the homelessness and housing crises by McSweeney's writer Homa Mojtabai. From a privileged and entitled point of view, Mojtabai highlights extreme issues on how problems are being "solved". This is of course an exaggeration—but by how much? View full entry
the facade of the recently opened Blue Mountain School is impossible to miss. The six-level brick townhouse, on the corner of Redchurch and Chance Streets, has been painted in a sleek and surprising silver. Inside, the multipurpose space defies easy categorization. — T Magazine
Natalia Rachlin highlights the Blue Mountain School. The latest project by James Brown and his partner, Christie Fels, with architecting from 6a Architects, this corner of Shoreditch is a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk! h/t AD, The Telegraph and Wallpaper View full entry
First renderings were unveiled today of Dajiang Innovation HQ, the slick new Shenzhen headquarters of drone maker and robotics company DJI.Designed by Foster + Partners, the ensemble of two mirrored towers connected via a not so undramatic sky bridge is currently under construction. Foster +... View full entry
Giuseppe Gallo, a PhD candidate in Architecture at the University of Palermo, has created a series of posters inspired by 9 Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) projects. Gallo is the creative director of Mirabilia, a communication design studio based in Palermo, with a background in graphic design. ... View full entry
What if buying a house were more like buying a car? Could the process of choosing between a Ford, Volkswagen or Nissan ever translate into picking between an Adjaye, Rogers or Assemble? Beyond the dream of ever being able to buy a house, the prospect of commissioning an architect-designed home is an impossibly remote prospect for most of us, a luxury confined to the glossy pages of Sunday supplements and Grand Designs. — The Guardian
The founders of Cube Haus have commissioned well known architects such as Adjaye Associates, Skene Catling de la Peña, and Carl Turner Architects to design modular homes at affordable prices. Targeting infill and backland sites in the London area, Cube Haus is looking to fill a small housing... View full entry
Architecture studio KieranTimberlake used passive strategies to cool their new Philadelphia office building and installed 300 sensors to record data on how it was performing. Along with their network of sensors, the firm also developed an app called Roast for their employees to rate how they... View full entry
The 16,000 people who work in and visit Willis Tower each day could soon be spending less time on their elevator rides in Chicago's tallest building.
A five-year project to upgrade the tower's 83 elevator shafts -- and replace 97 passenger cabs, as some shafts have two-level elevators -- will start in June, according to the building's owner, Blackstone Group's Equity Office, and elevator firm Otis.
— Chicago Tribune
This major upgrade is expected to significantly reduce trip times as well as energy consumption (by as much as 30-35%), according to Equity Office and Otis. The 110-story Willis Tower—once ranked as the world's tallest building for nearly 25 years—hasn't undergone such an enormous overhaul... View full entry
Through a plethora of over-designed shelters, interventions, and temporary housing prototypes, professional architecture has attempted to pick up on issues of global mass displacement. Despite the endless stream of projects of this nature, little has changed and cots in gymnasiums remain the... View full entry
The State of Illinois is celebrating its 200th birthday this year, and architects from all corners of the Windy State have contributed noteworthy examples of the built environment in honor of the Bicentennial. An AIA Illinois selection committee picked the final list of 200 Great Places, all of... View full entry
Neumann says that in 2018, that will mean WeWork will build more buildings, some that reimagine what’s already there, like the Lord & Taylor project, and others that WeWork and Ingels will design in their entirety. Then, in 2019, the company plans to start creating “campuses”–essentially, WeWork on a neighborhood scale. That could look like a several-block radius where there’s a coworking space, coliving residence, and a school all clustered together, all operating under the WeWork umbrella. — FastCo
BIG has shared with Archinect the following press release: WeWork announces Bjarke Ingels as Chief Architect to advise and develop the firm’s design vision and language for buildings, campuses and neighborhoods globally. Bjarke will maintain his role as Founding Partner and Creative Director at... View full entry
A new housing project in Paris was recently redeveloped by the Brussels-based firm BOB361. The apartment complex, Orteaux, is part of a larger revitalization project for a Parisian neighborhood located near the Père Lachaise cemetery. Orteaux by BOB361, located in Paris. Image: BOB361. As... View full entry
Next fall, Indiana University announced Monday, the building will house the university’s new master of architecture program, serving as an outpost of the flagship Bloomington campus 36 miles to the west. But this will be no ordinary outpost.
Columbus, a small-town architectural mecca, boasts buildings by such renowned architects as Eliel and Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei and Chicago’s Harry Weese.
— Chicago Tribune
Blair Kamin tells the story of the former The Republic newspaper building—a modernist gem designed by SOM partner Myron Goldsmith and opened in 1971—which will soon find a second life as Indiana University's new architecture graduate program studio in Columbus, Indiana. View full entry
Hot-market cities grappling with a dearth of housing, like those along the coast of California, are increasingly looking at accessory dwelling units (ADUs)—commonly known as "granny flats—to help abate the statewide shortage. In 2016, California passed three laws aimed at facilitating in-law... View full entry
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles. (Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles!)... View full entry