The €150m satellite of Paris's Louvre museum shimmers like an apparition on the raised plane of the former coalmine, looking down over streets of pitch-roofed miners' houses, dotted with the occasional chip shop. The building is formed from a series of long, low-slung walls that fade in and out of view as the changing light dances over its surface – or as clouds of drizzle engulf it entirely in the wintry gloom. — guardian.co.uk
The mayor's office in Yvrac said Wednesday that workers who were hired to renovate the grand 13,000-square-meter (140,000-square-foot) manor and raze a small building on the same estate in southwest France mixed them up.
"The Chateau de Bellevue was Yvrac's pride and joy," said former owner Juliette Marmie. "The whole village is in shock. How can this construction firm make such a mistake?"
— npr.org
Via rfuller in the Forum: Chateau de Bellevue destroyed by idiots. View full entry
The design is based on the universal notion that you need to sacrifice something in order to make something new. Every product is a compound of different pieces of nature, whether it is a cell phone, a car, a stone floor or a wood board; they have all been harvested in one way or another. Our project is about trying to harvest something as gently as possible so that the source of what we harvest is displayed in a pure, pedagogic and respectful way... — Visiondivision website
Chop Stick has hit the internets today! Chop Stick is a concession stand, playground, and sculpture-building for the Indianapolis Museum of Art's 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park. I was very fortunate to be local architect-of-record for this innovative... View full entry
Warming Huts: An Art + Architecture Competition on Ice has unveiled the five winning projects of its 2013 edition. Like in previous winters, the selected huts will be built in early January on site and placed on the Assiniboine Credit Union River Trail in Winnipeg, Canada - the longest naturally frozen skating trail in the world. — bustler.net
After several years of planning, design and construction, a team of students from The New School and Stevens Institute of Technology who participated in the 2011 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon celebrated the completion of Empowerhouse, an innovative model for affordable, energy efficient green housing located in the Deanwood neighborhood of Washington. — The New School
Developed in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C. (DC Habitat), and the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), the project marks the first time in the Solar Decathlon's history that a team partnered from the outset with civic and government agencies to... View full entry
The building is alluring but unsettling. Is the museum’s 10-story concrete cube splitting apart or being pieced together? Is it being held intact by an enormous brace — a transparent protrusion on the cube’s side containing a 54-foot-long escalator — or is that a destabilizing gash that pierces the building’s body? — NYT
Edward Rothstein visited the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and while his review focuses on the contents of the building, he also touches on it's architecture. Rothstein argues that the museum is an example of a not so recent trend wherein... View full entry
The Rotterdam-based Bureau of Architecture, Research, and Design (BOARD) won the Second Prize with its entry entitled “Het hergebruikte appartement” (“The Recycled Apartment”) in the open competition for “Sustainable Krajicek Playgrounds”. — http://b-o-a-r-d.nl
We took the wish of the competition’s organizers, the Richard Krajicek Foundation (RKF) – to involve the surrounding buildings as closely as possible in the design of the playground - literally and picked a typical apartment from a building in the neighborhood, enlarged it five times... View full entry
A 10-story building in India made headlines this week after it was reported to have been successfully constructed in only two days.
According to NDTV, the construction of the building, located in an industrial area in the city of Mohali, began on Thursday afternoon at 4.30 p.m. local time. It was reportedly completed on Saturday, also at 4.30 p.m.
— huffingtonpost.com
WAI Architecture Think Tank has released the video narrative “Généalogie d'un collage”. The video displays the creation of the collage ‘Cities of the Avant-Garde’ as well as one of the poems that were developed with the iconic image. Music: Asap Rocky... View full entry
The initial responses of some local architects to the arena drawings were underwhelming.
While cautioning that the renderings are preliminary, Seattle architect and critic Mark Hinshaw said some of the views of the proposed arena seem like "boxes with a tight lid" that could be any number of public buildings.
"One thing that seems missing is any kind of dramatic roof expression that we have seen with a number of landmark buildings — particularly ones that involve large audiences.
— seattletimes.com
As part of our mini series of Stage 1 proposals submitted to the Helsinki Central Library competition, here is the entry by Belgian collaboration OYO + office9 + Ingenium. — bustler.net
It is an unusual soul, however, who proceeds to build 7 houses, 10 ponds, a hermit’s hut, a 17-foot-tall maple-wood Jesus and a yoga studio whose sculptured pink doorway resembles (with frank anatomical accuracy) the female genitalia.
The lord of this manor is a 60-year-old barefoot maverick named SunRay Kelley. And his fantastical hand-hewn compound lies at the end of a dirt road that bears his grandfather’s name, in the foothills of the Cascade Range, north of Seattle.
— nytimes.com
I like this quote: A recent Saturday morning found Mr. Kelley rambling in the garden while smoking an herbal palliative the size of a cigar. He self-medicates in this fashion at certain times of the day, like when he is awake and doesn’t have food in his mouth. View full entry
Modern retailers go to extremes to make their mark and compete within an increasingly competitive market. This often goes beyond out the box design ideals such as virtual retail or smartphone-based shopping processes. — DesignBuild Source
While becoming the tallest in architectural terms will always garner attention, taller building often harbour some of the lengthiest development periods.
With a rise in the prominence of prefabrication, however, large is no longer necessarily equated with lengthy.
— DesignBuild Source
Related: Sky City: World’s tallest building, to be built in 90 days View full entry
McLain Clutter, Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Kyle Reynolds, Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning, along with a team of students from the University of Michigan, have... View full entry