Rather elegant," intoned the white-haired figure at the podium. He was speaking of Adolf Hitler's Reich Chancellery, designed in 1938 by Albert Speer. Up next on the screen was the Nuremberg Party Rally Grounds where brown-shirted Nazis paraded en masse. "I think it is really great architecture," said the lecturer. "You take off the swastikas, and you can admire it without feeling guilty." — Wall Street Journal
As you might expect, "Audience members shifted awkwardly in their seats, and a few walked out to protest the remarks by Léon Krier, opening a conference on Berlin at the Yale School of Architecture in February." Anyone manage to actually be there for this, or have any follow-up? View full entry
It's easier to conceive of creating such schemes for an un-built structure on a computer screen. But as we try to re-purpose an aging building stock in our cities – not just treasured cathedrals, but also old offices and unremarkable apartments – we're going to need new ways of documenting and thinking about the buildings we already have. Historically, this has been a tedious process, but technology (albeit currently costly) means that we might be able to appraise an old building in hours. — theatlanticcities.com
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. Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Wood. ↑ 'Markthuis' M in Belgium by... View full entry
The mosque, which is a Unesco world heritage site, has been in rebel hands since earlier this year but the area around it is still contested. — BBC News
Both the state news agency and footage uploaded on YouTube show the 'disappearance' of Aleppo's Umayyad Mosque. The mosque is a Unesco world heritage site but has been at the heart of bitter fighting for several months as rebels try to oust President Bashar al-Assad. In photos published by AP... View full entry
In order to trim 300,000 square feet of construction costs from its budget, Apple has pushed the entire Tantau Development to Phase 2, which means it will be completed after the main campus is built.
Apple's revised campus plan includes the addition of an expanded section detailing bicycle access improvements, which comes with an included visualization of what bike pathways and sidewalks might look like on the campus.
— macrumors.com
Download all the revised plans from Cupertino.org View full entry
A new apartment complex in Hamburg, Germany, intends to generate heat, as well as revenue, from growing the micro-organism. The five-story Bio Intelligent Quotient (B.I.Q.) building, which was expected to become fully operational on Wednesday, has a high-tech facade that looks like a cross between a Mondrian painting and a terrarium but is actually a vertical algae farm. — nytimes.com
The submission "MirrorMirror" by Buffalo-based architecture practice Davidson Rafailidis has been selected by Storefront for Art and Architecture and the New Museum as the winning entry of the 2013 IDEAS CITY StreetFest Tenting Competition. — bustler.net
the Neutra Office (and Neutra's son Dion, a partner) has teamed up with the California Architecture Conservancy to offer the architect's plans for license. According to a press release, "For the price of what one would customarily pay for an architect to design and render supervising architectural services, you can build one of the mid-century modernist master's works of art and have Dion Neutra and the Neutra Office supervise the construction." — la.curbed.com
Press release from The Agency... Richard Neutra’s Architectural Plans Available For First Time; Now Possible To Build Your Own “Neutra” No longer are the architectural plans of mid-century master Richard Neutra merely curatorial elements of an architectural exhibition. Now... View full entry
Here's another impressive entry to the highly popular Central Mosque of Prishtina architecture competition sent to us by Tehran, Iran-based firm TARH O AMAYESH Consultant Architects & Town Planners. — bustler.net
Previously: No Clear Winner (yet) in Kosovo’s Central Mosque of Prishtina Competition View full entry
Swiss/American practice APTUM has shared with us MI’RAJ, its design entry to the Central Mosque of Prishtina architecture competition whose jury recently failed to agree on a clear first prize winner (previously on Bustler).
APTUM partner and Assistant Professor at Syracuse University, Julie Larsen, suggests: "Since the competition couldn't pick a winner, maybe there should be a second vote online with the better designs because the jury clearly got it wrong from what we are seeing."
— bustler.net
Previously: No Clear Winner (yet) in Kosovo’s Central Mosque of Prishtina Competition View full entry
Stern's architecture is always steeped in strategic references to past landmarks; there is no doubt he knows how to send, and shape, an architectural message. And the message the front entrance to the Bush Library delivers is clear: This is a building meant to honor a particularly blunt and plain-spoken kind of political power. — latimes.com
Yesterday, on Earth Day, Seattle's latest green building celebrated its grand opening: The Bullitt Center, a super-efficient office space at 1501 East Madison Street, was designed to become the world’s largest functioning, commercial Living Building, using an estimated 83 percent less energy than a typical Seattle office building and achieving Net Zero Energy and Net Zero Water. — bustler.net
Last week, we had published the finalists of the international architecture competition to design the Central Mosque of Prishtina in Kosovo. One of the very few local firms among the international ones that participated in this competition was Prishtina-based architecture practice Maden Group whose entry is featured here. — bustler.net
Previously: No Clear Winner (yet) in Kosovo’s Central Mosque of Prishtina Competition View full entry
The top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions have been selected by the American Institute of Architects and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) today. The COTE Top Ten Green Projects program, now in its 17th year, celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems, and technology. — bustler.net
The Architectural League calls on the Museum of Modern Art to reconsider its decision to demolish the American Folk Art Museum. The Museum of Modern Art—the first museum with a permanent curatorial department of architecture and design—should provide more information about why it... View full entry