Konrad Frey was a pioneer who designed and built solar houses based on data and scientific insights. Yet Frey and his work are largely unknown. A project by the architectural theoretician Anselm Wagner aims to change that. — Phys org
"The architectural designs of Konrad Frey are characterized by the fact that their form is a consequence of function. Had he worked in Vienna, had his activities started in the urban context, his architecture would have become a topic of research long ago," says art historian and architectural... View full entry
Ten years after a Dundee V&A museum was first considered, the finishing touches are being applied to the exterior of the £80.1m building ahead of its opening next summer. [...]
No amount of artist's impressions and computer-generated fly-throughs could have prepared the city for the true size and scale of the imposing design of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, who will inspect the building on Wednesday.
— BBC
Kengo Kuma was in Scotland today to inspect construction progress on the impressive V&A Museum of Design Dundee he designed. Video via V&A Dundee on YouTube He seemed very pleased, stating: "As an architect, seeing a completed building can be stressful, as some times the quality isn’t... View full entry
While Apple opens the doors to their new campus, and Amazon looks for a location for its second, Microsoft has gone in a different direction, building Wi-Fi tree houses so staff can connect with nature. Microsoft's campus is comprised of 120 buildings spread across Redmond, Washington—a suburb... View full entry
A bitcoin vault doesn’t store actual bitcoin units. Technically, what’s being stored are private, cryptographic keys. It’s odd to think of a virtual currency needing physical storage, but just like your most precious photos, even a cryptocurrency needs some kind of material container. — Quartz
The company Xapo is using a decommissioned military bunker to safeguard its customers bitcoins. In this article from Quartz, Joon lan Wong describes his way into the vault storing millions of dollars worth of bitcoins and the numerous portals and gates he had to cross. View full entry
The concrete, t-shaped residential tower designed by starchitect, Bjarke Ingels and his firm BIG, topped out over the weekend, adding diversity to Upper Manhattan’s usual upright architecture. The East Harlem project at 158 East 126th Street, known as E126, uniquely slopes inward as it rises... View full entry
Two acclaimed design firms – Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP and James Corner Field Operations – are coming together to transform a 5.5-acre site along Sunset Boulevard into a mixed-use project focused on innovative design, open space and community. The project site is located on the northwest edge of Downtown Los Angeles, within a mile of Bunker Hill, Dodger Stadium and Echo Park Lake. — 1111sunsetblvd.com
Located at 1111 West Sunset Boulevard, right on the edge of Downtown Los Angeles and Echo Park, the two-building complex designed by William Pereira is best known as the former headquarters of the Metropolitan Water District and has most recently served as a church. The project's developer... View full entry
Toronto's skyline will soon see the addition of five new buildings, all united in one massive development spanning two city blocks. Designed by Toronto firm Hariri Pontarini Architects in collaboration with Vancouver-based Pinnacle International, the project, dubbed One Yonge, will reportedly... View full entry
The company argues that organic waste would ameliorate rising levels of waste and shortfalls of raw material, as well as providing industry with cheap, low carbon materials. — Global Construction Review
Beyond being delicious, peanuts, rice, bananas, potatoes and mushrooms have something else in common—they are all being proposed by Arup group as potential building materials in their new report titled "The Urban Bio-Loop." THE BIOLOOP Nature becomes an endless source of feedstock for... View full entry
New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission declared the Citicorp complex a protected landmark on December 6, 2016, but between that designation and its earlier “calendaring” (the scheduling of a public hearing and the first formal step in the designation process) in May of last year, approvals for demolition and new construction were secured. — The New Yorker
Despite being named a city landmark in 2016, the brutalist sunken plaza of 601 Lexington Avenue, formally known as the Citicorp Center, was demolished over the summer. "The finest part of the new urban composition was a sunken plaza, a dozen feet below sidewalk level. Entered from the... View full entry
The monument conservation group, World Monuments Fund, has announced 25 of the world's at-risk sites on its biennial watch list. Threatened by human conflict, climate change, disasters and/or urbanization, the newly listed historical gems span more than 30 countries and territories dating from... View full entry
So why is it that, as the United States has engaged in a contentious process of dismantling monuments to its Confederate past, and France has rid itself of all streets named after the Nazi collaborationist leader Marshall Pétain, Italy has allowed its Fascist monuments to survive unquestioned? — The New Yorker
Many monuments and buildings constructed in the late nineteen-thirties, as Benito Mussolini was preparing to host the 1942 World's fair, are still standing in Rome. "In Germany, a law enacted in 1949 against Nazi apologism, which banned Hitler salutes and other public rituals, facilitated the... View full entry
The Bund Finance Center, designed by Foster + Partners and Heatherwick Studio, is a major new mixed-use project on in Shanghai’s waterfront. The 420,000-square meter masterplan, composed of eight buildings, links the old town to the financial district. © Foster + Partners© Lauratian... 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 profiles!)... View full entry
After the Louvre demurred, an art installation many consider to be sexually explicit will instead be displayed outside the Pompidou Center in Paris. — The New York Times
The Louvre might not want it, but the Pompidou will take it! The 40-foot-tall, semi-building, semi-sculpture, "Domestikator," by the Dutch art and design collective Atelier Van Lieshout, was intended to be shown in the Tuileries Gardens, next to the Louvre. But the Museum cancelled the project... View full entry
The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened on September 24th, 2016. In celebration of recently reaching their one year anniversary, the U.S. Postal Service is commemorating the occasion with the museum's very own "forever stamp." Announced on Septemeber 26th, the... View full entry
