It’s true that micro-units are not family-friendly, but it’s less true that a small apartment is inherently inhabitable. While the debate rages on about how much space is too little, there is little talk of how much is too much.
Different constituencies may have their reasons for opposing these tiny units, but however varied they may be, all seem to reflect a distinctly American perception of what qualifies as “enough” space.
— opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com
The narrowest building in Poland, and possibly the narrowest in Europe, is the brainchild of Israeli writer Edgar Keret. It was conceived as a memorial to his parents' family, who died in Warsaw during the World War II Holocaust.
The house was actually squeezed in-between two existing central Warsaw residential buildings on the edge of the former Warsaw Ghetto.
Polish architect Jakub Szczesny designed the weird construction, which is still a real house with all the necessary facilities.
— rt.com
Previously: Polish architect building world's narrowest house between Warsaw tower blocks View full entry
The latest Archinect ShowCase featured Cassia Co-op Training Centre by TYIN tegnestue Architects. The project is located in Sungai Penuh, Sumatra, Indonesia. NewsThe New York Observer reported on Cornell’s plans (unveiled this week) for a brand new 12.5-acre tech campus on Roosevelt Island... View full entry
Like the meeting of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, there’s a compelling confluence of urban activists standing next to each other on the sidewalk of Portage Avenue in downtown Winnipeg. To my right is a group of First Nations flood evacuees protesting (politely) against cuts to their daily living allowance. To my left, below the gleaming, mirror-polished aluminum balconies of the Avenue on Portage mixed-use development... — theglobeandmail.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 Concrete. ↑ Casa La Punta in Mexico... View full entry
[...] Two more outstanding projects received national RIBA honors that night: the 2012 Manser Medal for the best newly designed private house went to Maison L by Christian Pottgiesser - architecturespossibles, and the Stephen Lawrence Prize 2012 in recognition of fresh talent and smaller construction budgets went to a private house in Kings Grove, London by Duggan Morris Architects. — bustler.net
Garage Center for Contemporary Culture will be unveiling its new, temporary pavilion designed by Shigeru Ban in Moscow’s Gorky Park tomorrow. The structure, located near the park's Pionersky Pond, uses locally produced paper tubes to create an oval wall that will be 7.5 meters high. The... View full entry
A 1,070-foot tower that will become the largest skyscraper on the West Coast received its final approvals from the Planning Commission on Thursday. — sfexaminer.com
Clarke also showed the Planning Commission the actual metal and glass that will be used on the exterior of the building. He explained that the skin of the building has been augmented to add metalwork that will grow deeper and denser at the bottom of the tower. Clarke said adding the metal to the... View full entry
Decades ago, Erica Stoller accompanied her father, the architectural photographer Ezra Stoller, on a shoot of the Chase Manhattan Bank Plaza in New York. It was cavernous and dark, but Ezra insisted that a shaft of light would burst through in 15 minutes. “The plaza was full of sun,” she remembers. “It did just what he told it to do.” — nytimes.com
Within the station, the proposal creates wider concourses, with new and improved entrances. Externally, streets will be reconfigured as shared vehicle/pedestrian routes, and Vanderbilt Avenue fully pedestrianised. The proposal also creates new civic spaces that will provide Grand Central with an appropriate urban setting for the next 100 years. — fosterandpartners.com
Perhaps to palliate our worst Kafka-esque architectural nightmares, the city invited three renowned architecture firms, WXY Architecture + Urban Design, Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), and Foster + Partners, to imagine “the next 100 years” of Grand Central Station (which is fast approaching its 100th birthday) and the surrounding Midtown cityscape. — blogs.artinfo.com
“The authorities would have us believe this is urban planning when we are in the middle of a war” — France 24 International News
Journalist Sarra Grira alerts us to the latest turn of events in the ongoing Syrian crisis. The government of Bashar al-Assad has begun selective implementation of Law Number 66. While the law’s official goal is demolition of buildings built in southern Damascus without state approval, for... View full entry
A few days ago, Bustler published jaja architects' high-scoring proposal for the new Gosan Public Library in South Korea. Today we're excited to share one of the competition's honorable mentions, designed by Harvard GSD student Sunggi Park who currently works as a design assistant at BIG, Bjarke Ingels Group in Copenhagen. — bustler.net
The building’s exact design is not final, but Craig Dykers of Snøhetta said it would be a lozenge-shaped building constructed with a façade primarily consisting of semi-opaque glass with a whitish frit, or dotted, pattern. The exterior is meant to make the building translucent and light-colored but also environmentally friendly by limiting some of the direct sunlight streaming in, he said. — sfexaminer.com
Greek firm Point Supreme Architects has shared with us their latest project, Faliro Pier Athens. The proposal has recently emerged as the winning entry in a competition in conjunction with Athen's ambitious Stavros Niarchos Cultural Park project which started construction a few days ago. — bustler.net