The design proposal by Populous and Ateliers 2/3/4/ for the new Grand Stade Rugby Stadium in Paris has emerged victoriously over two competing entries. The announcement was made by the Steering Committee of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) after several months of discussions and reviews. — bustler.net
London’s Serpentine Gallery has selected Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto to design the 2013 Serpentine Pavilion, a temporary structure open for four months starting in June. Fujimoto’s proposal for the Kensington Gardens site continues the architect’s exploration of transparent and organically generated forms with a cloud-like structure composed of 20-mm steel poles that intersect and form a delicate linear latticework to shelter a cafe and events space below. — blogs.artinfo.com
Another way to phrase it is that hard decisions need to be made to cope with rising waters and severe weather. Notwithstanding the obvious difference between a group of farmers on a Dutch polder and communities in the Rockaways or Coney Island, good government makes those decisions while giving affected residents adequate knowledge and agency: the ability to make choices, and the responsibility to live by them. — New York Times
The long, rancorous debate over the fate of the Orange County Government Center ended abruptly Wednesday, as a group of Republican lawmakers sided with Democrats to pass a proposal to renovate the 43-year-old complex. — recordonline.com
The Three Grand Prize winners and thirteen Special Mentions were released for d3's Unbuilt Visions 2012 competition. The program promotes critical debate about architecture and design by acknowledging excellence in unbuilt projects. The Grand Prize: went to The Emperor's Castle, designed by Thomas Hillier, UK. In response homme_du_jura applauded "I'm very glad to see Thomas Hillier's work recognized...A beautiful piece!"
For the latest Student Works: feature, Archinect published New Horizons Iceland Expedition, which was a compendium of results from a trip The Bartlett School of Architecture Unit 3, wherein "Twelve 2nd and 3rd year students designed, built and tested a series of shelter/surveying devices (they... View full entry
In its most far-reaching aspects, container urbanism proposes to take the fundamental organic/architectural condition of containment further by exploring how a boundary might be better coordinated, even merged with the flow of material/ideas. Can containment equate more closely with transmission and, in so doing, position architecture and urbanism more in line with societal mobility and change? — Places Journal
The repurposed shipping container has become a fixture of urban architecture — part of a movement, as Mitchell Schwarzer argues, toward an "urban design as flexible, responsive and electric as the currents that feed it." On Places, Schwarzer examines the rise of container urbanism from the... View full entry
Results have recently been unveiled in the international design ideas competition LIVE·MAKE Industrial Arts Center Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in partnership with the Over-the-Rhine Brewery District Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation had launched this competition as a call for architectural proposals of a membership-based facility that will [...] help shape a new economic opportunity for the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. — bustler.net
Treasured for its storied collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, esplanades and soaring fountain, Florida Southern College is making room for six more structures inspired by the famed architect.
These new structures will be small — only about 5 feet high and 3 feet wide. Unlike other Wright designs, they are not meant for humans.
Rather, the six domiciles built mostly of custom-made concrete blocks will provide shelter for almost 100 feral cats living on the Lakeland campus.
— theledger.com
Nestled in the flatlands of rural Bangladesh near the River Brahma-Jamuna, coursing down from Tibet, flush with the silts and melted snows of the Himalayas, the Friendship Centre is one of those new buildings which feels as though it may have been there for a very long time. Whilst the simple, graphic forms of its brick construction present a slightly archaic aspect, its enclosure by a bund or embankment lends the whole site an inward-looking inverted feel, almost like an excavation. T — uncubemagazine.com
Online publication, uncube, interviews Bangladeshi architect Kashef Chowdhury, discussing his recent project, the Friendship Centre, in Gaibandha. View full entry
“I’ve seen Kelly Ripa there. Two little kids were playing with Legos on the treadmill next to her, and there was nobody else.” — NYT
If you thought China or Dubai are the only places where you enter a multi million dollar condominium just purchased for that unruly son / daughter or a mistress, or laundering money.., hold on... Why is that all sold out prime luxury condo building in New York only... View full entry
"The changes to the plans...were not enough to assuage the doubts the Commission had the first time around (although most of the commissioners did agree that significant improvements had been made). The alternations to the plans included stretching the double hung windows vertically in order to give the building less of a squat look, raising the base by six feet...and moving the tower forward slightly." — Curbed NY
New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission met to discuss a proposed Annabelle Selldorf building at 42 Crosby Street for the second time, and sent Selldorf away for the second time. View full entry
The global engineering firm envisions a "smart" building that will plug into "smart" urban infrastructure and cater to an increasingly dense and technology-savvy urban population. — planetizen.com
Download Arup's January 2013 issue of Foresight [PDF] View full entry
Thom Mayne of the Los Angeles firm Morphosis Architects wants to inspire curiosity about science, the natural world and technology. And he succeeds. The Perot’s architecture evokes wonder, the way ancient ruins, animal skeletons or petroglyphs do.
A lot of people wish wilfully spectacular architecture like the Perot’s would die off. Mayne, who recently received the American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal, shows us what it can do at its best.
— bloomberg.com
The new Cathedral of the Northern Lights, situated in the Norwegian town of Alta over 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle, has just been inaugurated by the Crown Princess of Norway, Mette-Marit. The 154-foot-high cathedral, designed by Link Arkitektur in collaboration with schmidt hammer lassen architects and Haldde Arkitekter Inc., is perceived as a symbol and an architectural landmark for the entire area. — bustler.net
Designed by the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1955 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, the Gerald B. and Beverley Tonkens House was listed for the first time ever this week, with an asking price of $1.788M. — curbed.com