For the latest edition of Student Works: Justine Testado spoke with project architect, Duncan Baker-Brown, about The Waste House, designed/built by faculty and students from the Faculty of Arts and City College Brighton & Hove. Olaf Design Ninja_ did some quick math "The numbers tell... View full entry
City of Darkness Revisited is a photo book and cultural history of Kowloon Walled City, a largely ungoverned, densely populated enclave within Hong Kong.[...]
It was like nothing else in Hong Kong: a mass of interconnected 12- and 14-story buildings forming a single huge structure, its facade glowing from the light of hundreds of apartments and shops. Clearly there was no administrative oversight. It was too dense, too ad-hoc, too unrestrained. All this was clear before even entering the place.
— Kickstarter
A recent Kickstarter campaign helped photographers Greg Girard and Ian Lambot fund and complete the new edition of their book, City of Darkness Revisited, about life in Hong Kong's legendary Kowloon Walled City. View full entry
Regardless, there are two paths forward. One is to scrap the project and start over with an open public competition, which would cost around $17 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The other is to push forward with the existing plan to finalize the memorial design and begin breaking ground.
We favor the latter. [...] And the current design is nowhere near a “monstrosity,” as some have called it; it is a novel take on memorialization [...].
— washingtonpost.com
Previously View full entry
As the latest addition to Florida's State University System, the new Florida Polytechnic University will formally open to the public on August 16 in Lakeland, Florida and welcome its first students when classes begin on August 25. Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava designed the 170-acre campus... View full entry
It has been the setting for music videos, TV commercials and scenes from the '80s movie "Less Than Zero." Now, the unusual Los Angeles home by influential architect John Lautner is slated to go on the market for $7.5 million.
Known as Silvertop, the house has a striking design: It is made up of a series of interlocking half-circles, with a massive, arched concrete roof over the living room.
— online.wsj.com
Can't get enough of that good Lautner stuff? Read Orhan Ayyüce's tale of the Concannon Residence. View full entry
The Brooklyn-based artist couple Adam Frezza and Terri Chiao have constructed a bed & breakfast cabin inside their own house that they rent out on Airbnb. The idea for a A Cabin in a Loft was based on the house-in-a-house concept.
[...] Both micro-houses have a bed, a storage space and a semi-private garden space. The space between the structures contains a kitchen and a table for dining and working, and is further used as a combined living room by the hosts and the guests together.
— popupcity.net
The march of London's skyscrapers looks set to continue unchecked after the UN watchdog charged with protecting sites of international importance delayed a move to place parliament – which is being obscured by a rash of new towers – on its endangered heritage list.
Unesco was due to put Westminster on its List of World Heritage in Danger when it met recently in Doha, Qatar.
— theguardian.com
It was billed as a chance to transform Greece's image abroad and boost growth but 10 years after the country hosted the world's greatest sporting extravaganza there is little to celebrate at the birthplace of the modern Olympic Games. [...]
For Greeks who swelled with pride at the time, the Games are now a source of anger as the country struggles through a six-year depression, record unemployment, homelessness and poverty.
Greece has struggled to generate revenue from the venues.
— uk.reuters.com
“People are more comfortable...with something that feels authentic." - Toby Moskovits, president of Heritage Equity Partners — NYT
Earlier this summer, C. J. Hughes took note of a trend in NYC real-estate, the conversion of unusual buildings into apartments and condos. But, it isn't only your typical post-industrial loft, the conversions include; phone company buildings (like 140 West Street designed by Ralph Walker, a... 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
Curators at the Harvard Art Museums are spending the summer installing works in the new Renzo Piano-designed building, which has significantly boosted the university’s ability to display its wide-ranging collections. They’re working toward November 16, the date when Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum, closed six years ago for renovation and expansion, reopens as part of a new entity uniting three previously separate university museums. — ArtNews
Archaeologists are working with other firefighters to protect several historical guard stations using, what's essentially a protective foil wrap.
Crews rushed this weekend to cover five historical cabins at the Placer Guard Station. "We ordered this wrap," said archaeologist Ward Stanley. "It looks like tin foil.
"It's pretty simple, you just wrap the house in a shingle-type fashion so it's overlapping going down so the stuff that goes down doesn't get into the cracks," Stanley said.
— abc30.com
h/t BLDGBLOG View full entry
A new parking garage in Nordhavn, Denmark by JAJA Architects will combine form, functionality, and fun. Draped in greenery and topped with a public playground, the aptly named Park and Play reimagines a garage as an active social space rather than simply a storage place for cars. [...]
The garage is being built as part of the first phase of Nordhavn’s almost 500-acre master plan to be developed over the next 40 to 50 years.
— buildabetterburb.org
While security is seen as the obvious initial use for Jr., Roambotics has broader plans for the future. Telepresence is one, but the self-directed robot could also be used to spontaneously document social gatherings, or to keep an eye on sick or elderly relatives.
There's also the possibility of using Jr. as a 3D mapping system, effectively turning it into a Google Project Tango camera on wheels.
— slashgear.com
The government has now promised €200m (£160m) worth of "important renovation work" on the south side of the [Grande Arche de la Défense] to begin in October and last for two years. The Grande Arche was designed by Danish architect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen, who won an international competition to design a 20th century Arc de Triomphe but who was later forced through illness to transfer responsibility for the construction to French architect Paul Andreu. — the Guardian