If architecture is the ultimate fourth dimensional experience, then “Architectural Guide China” by Evan Chakroff, Addison Godel and Jacqueline Gargus is a remarkable fourth dimensional tour guide. It encapsulates not only the physical attributes and detailed locations of architecture in China... View full entry
“The project is being transformed from being non-figurative architecture to an overscale figurative photo-frame. That is, from being a modern, public monument to a postmodern pastiche,” [competition-winning architect Fernando] Donis wrote in an open letter. — Design Mena
Described by an internet commenter as "the St. Louis Arch minus the beauty or finesse," the Dubai Frame project is scheduled to open this month to the public. The somewhat controversial monument, which has not only attracted a scathing load of public commentary but an objecting open letter from... View full entry
After a decade of outlandish proposals for the City, Parry has come up with a refreshingly blunt stick of a building for the centrepiece of the district’s “cluster” of office blocks. [...]
“The thing that’s most interesting in all this is urban design,” says Parry, deflecting the discussion away from the fact that he is penning the City’s tallest totem. He’s more concerned with fixing the human experience at street level: “The project is really all about public space.”
— theguardian.com
Soon to join the "great dinner party in the sky," between Rogers Strik Harbour + Partners' Cheesegrater and Foster + Partners' Gherkin, 1 Undershaft will be as tall as The Shard (the maximum height limit for the city). According to The Guardian, the building was also designed to have a triangular... View full entry
The developers of the 450-meter high Zifeng Tower in Nanjing have been found guilty of robbing the surrounding neighborhood of precious sunshine, and will have to compensate residents accordingly. [...]
The 89-story Zifeng Tower was designed by American architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. It is the tallest building in Nanjing, fourth tallest in China and 12 tallest in the world.
— shanghaiist.com
Related news on Archinect:Crowded skies: Sunlight as the new amenity for the super richAs Manhattan grows supertaller, its shadows are getting superlongerWelcome to the permanent dusk: Sunlight in cities is an endangered species View full entry
Building upon imagery of flight and aviation, the sleek form resembles a bird with its wings extended as it hovers above the public plaza, framing and ascending the acclaimed tents of the Jeppesen Terminal — Westword
A new Gensler designed Westin Hotel at Denver International Airport opened last month. While some (like Mayor Hancock) are talking how a quality hotel and Transit Center (opening in 2016) with train connection to downtown, will help the airport and city compete "on an international... View full entry
The first permanent publicly-viewable artwork by Refik Anadol, a media artist known for his immersive, site-specific light installations, was recently unveiled in San Francisco. Virtual Depictions: San Francisco, a series of "data sculptures" based on a publicly-available dataset, occupies a... View full entry
Architectural photography is supposed to be different from the airbrushed images of nude women that are about to disappear from the centerfold of Playboy magazine. But what if an edited photograph of a building doesn't just crop out visual clutter like street lights but alters the contours of the building itself? What should we think about an architectural award that was bestowed on the basis of such a doctored image? — Blair Kamin | Chicago Tribune
In his column, Kamin scrutinizes the recent awarding of an honor award to El Centro, a building designed by Juan Moreno, by the Chicago branch of the AIA. Apparently, the architects provided the jurors with a photoshopped image of the building, notably erasing the clunky air circulation machines... 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... View full entry
But overall the Broad is a disappointment, and the ways in which it fails are more than a little concerning. Its incoherence, its poor urbanism and its unoriginality suggest that the transition from critics to makers may have DS + R stumped...The Broad’s failures of urban design are its biggest and most disappointing surprise. — Art in America
Sarah Williams Goldhagen pens a critique of Diller Scofidio + Renfro's The Broad. View full entry
The digital production studio Visualhouse has released film and renderings of how SL Green’s One Vanderbilt will meet the street, and also remind us just how gargantuan the tower will be. According to the tower’s architects Kohn Pedersen Fox, the tower will rise 1,501 feet to its spire, making it the third tallest building in the city upon completion. — 6sqft.com
A new housing complex planned in Astana, Kazakhstan's capital, is set to include a 1,000ft ski slope, running from the roof to the ground.
The proposed project was devised by a group of architects, led by Shokhan Mataibekov, who were inspired by Kazakhstan's exceedingly long, cold winter. [...]
Enter House Slalom, a multi-purpose, 21-storey building comprised of shops on the ground floor, 421 flats on the upper floors, and an outdoor ski slope running alongside the building.
— telegraph.co.uk
The idea looks strangely familiar... View full entry
SANAA ultimately won the commission to design the new National Gallery and Ludwig Museum in Budapest, currently scheduled to open in summer 2019. The redesigned museum building is part of the larger ambitious Liget Budapest Project that will revamp and expand the city's 200-year-old City Park, or... View full entry
The new museum won’t be defined by architectural glamour or by a market-vetted collection, though it may have these. Structurally porous and perpetually in progress...where walls are dissolvable, access is open, and art is invited to tell us who we are as an arrogant, exclusionary but possibly teachable culture — is still awaited — NYT
15 years into the new millennium, Holland Cotter outlines the need for a new version, for the 21st century, museum. She begins by criticizing the Bilbao era, and the entities resulting from a "love of gigantism in architecture and art". Then goes on to outline the possibilities of... View full entry
Rem Koolhaas/OMA will design The Factory, the proposed £110 million (approx. US$166.3 million) Manchester Arts Centre in England. Koolhaas won the commission ... over fellow starchitects including Zaha Hadid, Mecanoo, Grimshaw Architects, Rafael Viñoly, DS+R, and Haworth Tompkins. [...]
Named after the Manchester-based record label, The Factory is described as a cutting-edge, flexible cultural institution that ... will also be a major component in the cultural redevelopment of the city.
— bustler.net
The developer behind the Kingdom Tower, set to become the world’s tallest building, has secured new funding to complete its construction. [...]
The company said that 26 of the planned 252 floors of the tower had been completed by contractor Saudi Binladin Group (SBL).
The tower would overtake the 828-metre Burj Khalifa in Dubai as the world’s tallest building when it is expected to be completed in 2018.
— thenational.ae
Related news on Archinect:Work to start next month on 1km Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi ArabiaAS+GG Designs Kingdom Tower, to Be the World’s Tallest BuildingSaudi Arabia's uneasy relationship with its cultural heritage of Mecca and Medina View full entry